Short Essays

Blistering and deeply personal, I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son records Russell's quest to understand, through his journalistic subjects, his own appetites and urges, his persistent alienation, and, above all, his knotty, volatile, vital relationship with his father.

"In almost any culture, at any time, you can find food writing,” writes guest editor Mark Bittman in his introduction. “Food means growing and hardship, and health and medicine, and work and holiday. In its abundance it is a gift and a joy, and in its absence a curse and a tragedy. If a culture has writing, that culture has food writing.” The stories in this year’s Best American Food Writing are brilliant, eye-opening windows into the heart of our country’s culture.

Novelist, cultural observer, and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us.

More than 60 stories, poems, and essays are included in this wide-ranging collection by the extravagantly versatile Raymond Carver. Two of the stories - later revised for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - are particularly notable in that between the first and the final versions, we see clearly the astounding process of Carver's literary development.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, renowned marine biologist and co-founder of the All We Can Save climate initiative, compiles the best science and nature writing of the year.

Culinary creator, writer and community advocate, Sohla El-Waylly selects the best twenty articles published in 2021 that celebrate the many innovative, comforting, mouthwatering, and culturally rich culinary offerings of our country.

Showcasing the work of literary giants like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and authors whom listeners may be surprised to learn were "in the life", Black Like Us is the most comprehensive collection of fiction by African American lesbian, gay, and bisexual writers ever published.

Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live. In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced.

In 1956, Caedmon had the great fortune to record Eudora Welty reading some of her finest stories. In her sweetly vibrant Mississippi drawl, Ms. Welty deftly draws the listener in to the uproariously multilayered "Why I Live at the P.O.", the spontaneous "Powerhouse", and the insightful voice of women's truths in "Petrified Man". Ms. Welty's reading brings immediacy and resonance to these wonderful tales.

Mohsin Hamid's brilliant, moving, and extraordinarily clever novels have not only made him an international best seller, they have earned him a reputation as a "master critic of the modern global condition" ( Foreign Policy). His stories are at once timeless and of-the-moment, and his themes are universal: love, language, ambition, power, corruption, religion, family, identity. Here, he explores this terrain from a different angle in essays that deftly counterpoise the personal and the political.

When Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, he described it as a “comic weekly.” And although it has become much more than that, it has remained true in its irreverent heart to the founder’s description, publishing the most illustrious literary humorists of the modern era. This anthology gathers together, for the first time, the funniest work of more than seventy New Yorker contributors.

Short stories include biographical, humorous and imaginative fiction. Poetry is sprinkled throughout the book. Stories, essays and poetry cover both serious topics and fun insights. This book includes uplifting, positive and thought-provoking insights. Also, several Christmas stories. Audio version is done in three parts.

Shenequa Golding doesn’t aim to speak for all Black women. We’re too vast, too vibrant, and too complicated. As an adult, Golding begins to own her boldness, but growing up, she found herself “kind of in the middle,” fluctuating between not being the fly kid or the overachiever. Her debut collection of essays, A Black Girl in the Middle taps into life’s wins and losses, representing the middle ground for Black girls and women.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Compass and learn to improve your communication skills.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Full Circle: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills by Toastmaster Arman N. Chowdhury to learn about how to improve your social and communication skills.

Stories include How to Remember Names Better, Too Smart for Your Own Good?, How to Write Every Day, FOREVER, How to Get Rid of a Nasal Voice, Why Do Authors Use Tension in a Story?, Why Study History As An Adult?, and more. Listen today!

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Concepts and learn about the definition of woke.

Brilliance is a collection of 101 short stories, essays, and insights to improve your soft skills. A trait of a brilliant person is someone with high levels of self-awareness. The higher the self-awareness, the better this individual can navigate the world. The stories in Brilliance will spark inspiration to help you improve your self-awareness. Now you can be smarter and sharper in context to your life.

Linguist is a collection of 101 short stories, essays, and insights to improve your communication skills. A linguist is someone who is highly skilled with words. The stories in this book will teach you how to effectively use words to create opportunities in your life.

Epic is a collection of 101 short stories, essays, and insights to improve your communication skills. What is the engine of communication? Creativity. The creative person sees the bigger picture and uses that vision to create tools, insights, and processes that will benefit others.