Congratulations to Ariel Peckel and Vine Leaves Press on the release of Bertram’s Emporium of Things People Say, a place where satire meets the macabre, humorously dissecting modern culture wars.
★★★★★ “Zany and off-the-wall imaginative." ~Ian M. Rogers, author of MFA Thesis Novel
Bertram’s Emporium of Things People Say
NEW RELEASE: November 5, 2024Genre: Satire
Paperback: $17.99
Ebook: From $4.99
Step into the twisted corridors of Bertram’s Emporium, where the mundane meets the macabre in a carnival of unrestrained wit and biting satire.
In the madness of contemporary culture wars, the Emporium serves no ideology. It serves up iconoclasm. From hillbilly erotic philosophy to a cancel rag that declares the Sun triggering, from The Pronoun Simulator to The Abortion Avatar, from neocon unicorn princess to Antifa blackshirt, no extreme of the ideological spectrum is too self-absurd to spare. On one end, the far-right’s demands for freedom from sweeping government powers evaporate the moment their own sacred cows of religious education and fetuses are at stake. On the other, militant gender identity ideology undermines the rights of the very people it patronizingly claims to protect, with dangerous implications for women, trans people, and detransitioners. On the whole, the absurdity of those ideologies is on plain display to those residing between the extremes who long for a more reasoned approach. Bertram’s Emporium delivers one in the guise of humorist social commentary vignettes. It also delivers purely comedic pieces at a time when everybody can use a laugh.
Welcome to the Emporium.
Praise for Bertram's Emporium
★★★★★ “Brilliant!” ~Alycia Vreeland, author of Baby Darlin'
★★★★★ “We all need to see ourselves in the mirror, so we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Get up-to-speed with this comment on our times—and for a good laugh.” ~Rusty Allen, author of Ella's War
★★★★★ “A wild philosophical ride that is as funny as it is timely and as mind expanding as it is mind bending.” ~Daria Sommers, award-winning director, writer and producer
★★★★★ “Fast-paced jabs at the excesses of 21st century cancel culture, militant ideology, and alternative facts, with plenty of plain ol’ fun thrown in for good measure.” ~Ian M. Rogers, author of MFA Thesis Novel
About the Author
From Colombia to Israel to Canada, and in the process, from Judaism to apostasy via philosophy, Ariel Peckel is of no fixed identity. He obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto in philosophy of religion with a focus on the Enlightenment and on modern naturalism and atheism, writing a dissertation on Hume, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. He has published an award-winning article in the journal Hume Studies (2024), and divides his time between academic writing and satirical social commentary, aspiring to refine the art of tipping sacred cows in both domains. Learn more at ArielPeckel.com.
About the Publisher
Vine Leaves Press likes to blur the line between commercial and experimental works. They publish book-length vignette collections, writing reference books, short story collections, memoir/autobiography, and character-driven novels with a literary bent. Subscribe to the Vine Leaves Press newsletter to receive FREE advanced review copies of upcoming new releases, news about their authors and subscribers, and/or to read the monthly opinion column, SPILL IT! or a daily dose of 50-word stories. Learn more at VineLeavesPress.com.