Short Family

It was a night she’d never forget...two strangers coming together in a moment of intense desire. But now, sheltered Hannah Raymond is expecting the child of a rugged naval seaman she thought she’d never see again. Riley Murdock has been searching for Hannah for months - ever since that soul-shaking night of passion. Now, fate has reunited them. Determined to give his child the chance he never had, Riley marries Hannah. They’ve created the miracle of life together, but is that enough to spark love?

Sean Ferro is my addiction. I can't tell him no, no matter what he asks for, and I know there are so many dark questions behind those blue eyes, so many things he wants me to do with him. When I watch him go down on one knee, with his sexy body covered in sand, and hold up a glittering ring, I can barely stand. It looks like he's going to propose, and I know exactly what I'm going to say.

In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. What must have it like to be them? We share the lives of three sisters, brought up in Penang. We hear of what happened to them, and to their Chinese neighbours caught in the tides of war. We see a group of small boys in a Glasgow slum, their young lives stunted by poverty, and hear how life worked out in contrasting ways for them. We follow a young woman's search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities.

When Avery realizes that her latest client wasn't Sean she doesn't know what to do. This person has invaded her life on a personal level and to make matters worse she doesn't even know who he is. The only good thing that came from it has been seeing Sean again, but now that he's in front of her, she doesn't want to let him go. However, it's time for Avery to stop pretending and move on with her life, and she knows that Sean Ferro will not be part of it.

Margaret Atwood is acknowledged as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Moral Disorder, she has created a series of interconnected stories that trace the course of a life and also the lives intertwined with it, those of parents, of siblings, of children, of friends, of enemies, of teachers, and even of animals. As in a photograph album, time is measured in sharp, clearly observed moments.

When it happens to you, you will be surprised. That thing they say about how you knew all the time, but just weren't facing it? That might be the case, but nevertheless, there you will be. Molly Ringwald mines the complexities of modern relationships in this gripping and nuanced collection of interlinked stories. Writing with a deep compassion for human imperfection, Ringwald follows a Los Angeles family and their friends and neighbors while they negotiate the hazardous terrain of everyday life - revealing the deceptions, heartbreak, and vulnerability familiar to us all.

I’m Stephen Lund, confirmed bachelor…and son of a successful billionaire whose sins I can’t forget - or forgive. Though he insisted I get over his transgressions, I can’t. So I put space between us with a temporary getaway to Maui. My rental’s sexy caretaker, Skye Ingram, is a beautiful distraction. Yeah, it’s a terrible time to start a fling, but I can’t help wanting to give her every bit of pleasure she’s willing to take. When Skye needs a date to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding, I’m game to play her pretend fiancé.

A man recalls his father's advice on how to save a drowning person, but struggles when the time comes to use it. A wife’s good deed leaves a couple vulnerable at the moment when they’re most in need of security—the birth of their first child. Newly in love, a man preoccupied by accounts of freak accidents is befallen by one himself. In stories about love and fear, idealisms and illusions, failures of muscle and mind and all the ways we try to care for one another, Steven Heighton’s Instructions for the Drowning is an indelible last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

This is the audio program to play at home over Christmas or during the car journey to see relatives. Dylan Thomas, "The Little Match Girl," and "The Nutcracker" are read by Jenny Agutter with accompanying Tchaikovsky's music - this is a must for Christmas. It contains new recordings as well as some of the finest tracks from the Naxos AudioBooks catalogue.

When his parents return from Kenya with a cute little green lizard on his eighth birthday (he's two times two times two), Jacob Two-Two is thrilled. But it isn't long before Jacob realizes that his new pet, Dippy, isn't a lizard after all. And as months pass, it is apparent Dippy isn't so little either. Soon Dippy is attracting all sorts of unwanted attention, and before he knows it, Jacob is on the run from the Canadian government with a full-grown dinosaur to hide.

Stories and "True Facts" about growing up Southern in the good old days. More than a dozen southern authors contribute warm, nostalgic stories and fun trivia about "the era before shopping malls, Disney, and Wal-Mart." Includes the authors' favorite nostalgic recipes.

I am wildly successful in my career. Everyone knows Graham Frazier, soccer club owner, is a winner. In my love life? Decidedly less so. But just because I'm divorced doesn't mean I can't throw my best friend the wedding party of the year. Even if marriage is a mistake. I hadn't expected the long hours with Lori to make me wonder. Wedding planning is Lori Connor's favorite thing, a vicarious escape from her life as a single mom. I doubt she's ever had a client fluster her like I seem to.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his acclaimed novel about North Korea, The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson is one of America’s most provocative and powerful authors. Critics have compared him to Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, and George Saunders, but Johnson’s new book will only further his reputation as one of our most original writers. Subtly surreal, darkly comic, both hilarious and heartbreaking, Fortune Smiles is a major collection of stories that gives voice to the perspectives we don’t often hear, while offering something rare in fiction: a new way of looking at the world.

Landon Connor is a man of many talents - all business magazines agree on that. My family calls me a workaholic, but being driven and career-focused is what turned me into a hotshot CEO. I have good reasons for keeping my personal life on hold. Then Maddie Jennings walks into my life and makes me question all my choices. Maddie says she hasn't met anyone like me before, and hopes she never will again. Good. I can't stand the thought of anyone else getting the reactions I do out of her when I boss her around, when I stand just a little too close.

In Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Kevin Wilson’s first story collection in nearly a decade, Wilson combines his signature quirkiness with his keen eye for emotional complexity to explore the fraught relationship between parents and children. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine”, the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways, showcasing Wilson’s crackling wit and big heart.

How quickly the ground shifts beneath our feet. We make choices—in the face of love, or violence, or necessity—and the effects ripple outward. In these moving short stories, acclaimed authors examine the foundations of the past, uncovering the irreversible decisions and life-changing encounters that mark the turning point between before and after.

Have you ever tried to imagine what it was really like for Mary? Do you think she automatically understood all that was happening? Can you use your imagination to fill in parts of her story that the Bible has not recorded? The author has attempted to do just that. Not to be authoritative about what Mary was thinking, but to stimulate your imagination and allow the lives of Mary and Joseph to become more real in your own awareness of what it might have been like for them.

Thirteen lives. One garden. Set in Cleveland, Newbery-Award-winning author Paul Fleischman's poignant book is a large lesson in connectedness and community for all. When a derelict vacant lot is gradually transformed into a community garden in inner city Cleveland, the people of this community find their differences are less apparent and their isolation dissolved. Performed by thirteen multicuturally and age-authentic voices, this audiobook is designed for listeners of all ages.

From her many well-loved novels, Hilma Wolitzer - now 91 years old and at the top of her game - has gained a reputation as one of our best fiction writers. These collected short stories - most of them originally published in magazines including Esquire and the Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s and 1970s, along with a new story that brings her early characters into the present - are evocative of an era that still resonates deeply today.

It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and 15-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women, presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church - a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter, until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.