Short Family

Few winter stories are more affecting than Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Written in 1848, and strictly speaking a New Year's Eve story, it showed so clearly then, as it does now, that the Christmas holidays do not represent fireside, food, and presents for all. This story never fails to move, yet it somehow avoids serious sentimentality.

These twelve short stories dive deep into imaginary worlds where everyday life is marked and marred by war. They speak of wounded love, captured women, confinement, talismans, borders, wolves. They give expression to the voices of Afghan women who would like to change the fate of people like Nâzboo, Khorshid, Hamid and so many others. Originally published by Éditions Le Soupirail in 2019, this collection was the first volume of short stories by Afghan women to appear in France.

Starting in the proper East Coast city of Dover, Delaware, then at age seven being thrust onto Fox Island, a small secluded island in southern Puget Sound, Daniel relays his humorously clumsy adventures in this wonderful autobiography. Although he wrote this book for his children and grandchildren, it is a roller-coaster ride that you will enjoy and never want to leave.

Blessed with three wonderful children and a life full of material comforts, Rick and Ellen have always had a happy, if increasingly busy, marriage. But when Rick announces that he's been offered a promotion that will require the family to pick up and move across the country for a fourth time, Ellen is dismayed. What will he do when she tells him that she doesn't want to start all over again?

Here is the preface to 12 magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates - with unequaled grace and tenderness - the deepest feelings we have.

You can always rely on your father to protect you. Who do you turn to when you need protecting from him?

Henry “Digger” Diller has never been anyone’s MVP - he’s the guy who gets called up from jayvee soccer when the star player gets hurt and who volunteers to take his crush’s best friend to the prom. But Digger is pretty happy with life in the middle of Warfield High’s pecking order. Then, he strikes up a friendship with Carlos, a new student from Honduras, who faces his own set of difficulties beyond the drama of adolescent life.

The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through this collection of short stories: Parents lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Love pangs, a favorite subject of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets, and deaths of distant friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.

Vladimir has always been the oddball among the Frazier kids. With his love for reptiles, gothic appearance, and devil-may-care attitude, he can be easily separated from the rest of the Frazier bunch. At 22, he is standing on solid ground and trying to create a life of his own. However, it does get lonely sometimes. He is young, but knows his days of partying and sleeping around cannot last forever. He is slowly running out of options when it comes to the female population of Tyler, Texas. Until Carrisa Abbott walks into the pet store where Vladimir works.

Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes listeners into the innermost lives of everyday people. From a family saved from ruin by a mysterious benefactor to a downtrodden boxer who shows unexpected kindness to a mugger, these tales reveal not only the precarious balance maintained between grief and happiness in our lives but also how the echoes of personal tragedy can shape us for the better.

Viciria is an actual person who lived. She is real and her son, Marcus Nonius Balbus, actually became the first citizen of Herculaneum. Before this wealthy resort city was buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, she was known as The Witch. At title well-earned for sure. But why? What could happen in her life that could change such a gentle creature? Find out in the accompanying short story to Threatened Loyalties also by J F Ridgley.

With their wedding less than a week away, Jeremy and Tiffy discover they’re not on the same page when it comes to raising their son and dealing with the challenges that come their way. In true Friessen fashion, when Jeremy tries to establish ground rules, he soon learns that Tiffy isn’t the kind of woman anyone can tell what to do, and his strong personality could have her calling off the wedding and walking the other way.

Girl meets boy on the worst night of her life, when she's decided to take a drastic step that there is no going back from. Girl is used to sitting by, letting fate deal cruel hand after cruel hand to good people with soft hearts, and she's had enough. Girl thinks it's time to fight back against fate and against men who aren't careful with all the precious things a woman in love has to give him. Fate shows girl who's boss and turns her world and plans upside down without breaking a sweat.

Eugeena Patterson is marrying her neighbor and companion Amos Jones. Her family and friends are happy to finally see the couple walk down the aisle. But there’s something missing. Since his wife’s death, Amos has been estranged from his two daughters. Eugeena encourages Amos to reach out to his daughters by inviting them to spend Christmas with him.

Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.

Many writers used Christmas as a backdrop for their stories: among them none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This delightful Sherlock Holmes story is one of the first that he authored, appearing in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It is, fittingly, a wild goose chase through London!

This collection is an entertaining and heart-warming journey into the lives of ordinary people. The stories touch on the details of relationships among family members and between friends and lovers. It offers an opportunity -- sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant -- to see ourselves through the desires and decisions made by others. Each story is a quick listen with a significant message.

Eso tiene la fotografía: fija la memoria. Un álbum de familia no está compuesto por fotos de estudio, ni por retratos encargados. Las imágenes que albergan sus páginas difícilmente son registradas por el mismo fotógrafo. Todas poseen esa cualidad espectral de lo que ya no existe. Un álbum no es un objeto estático, circula de mano en mano. Se convierte en un caleidoscopio de miradas, invita a una narración colectiva, conjuga recuerdos, matiza olvidos.

Jem Carstairs and Tessa Gray are finally united after waiting over a century to be together, but they become aware a dark threat is looming over a child of the Shadow Market: a lost Herondale, from a line of Herondales who have used the Market to hide from their fellow Nephilim. Now is the time for the lost Herondale to be discovered. Jem and Tessa have to find him before his enemies can.

Tiny and helpless, the abandoned newborn that venture capitalist Marcus Warren finds during a morning run takes him by surprise. So does the sudden longing for his capable assistant, Liberty Reese, who reveals her tender side with the baby.