Short Family

The best-selling and "perennially hilarious" mother-daughter team is back with a new collection of stories from their real lives, guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Join Lisa and Francesca as they regret drunk shopping online, try smell dating, and explore the freedom of a hiatus from men - a guyatus. They offer a fresh and funny take on the triumphs and facepalm moments of modern life, showing that when it comes to navigating the crazy world we live in, you're always your own best lifeguard.

This Christmas, celebrate the joys of the season with a trio of exquisitely crafted, richly romantic tales by three of the brightest stars in contemporary fiction. Filled with passion, drama, and a touch of magic, this festive gathering of classic stories, available for the first time in 10 years, tells about the lives and loves of one unforgettable family and the enchanted heirloom that links one generation to the next.

Some stories are all about the crime. These stories are about the maelstrom of what happens afterward. A hard-bitten crew of professional thieves pull of the score of their lives, coming away with millions in cash, enough to change their lives, make new identities, start fresh. But that's when the real trouble begins. In this linked anthology, we follow each member of the crew of culprits after the heist and watch as this perfect score ends up a perfect nightmare.

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.

Gary has heard some interesting tales about members of his family, so he decides to try and record some of them for posterity's sake. He interviews his great grandmother who has told him the story many times about how she survived the sinking of the Titanic, a distant uncle who may have witnessed the second coming, and, finally, a very rich uncle who maybe got that way thanks to time travel.

In the Connecticut suburbs, a motherless young man suddenly becomes the beneficiary of a wealthy older couple, whose generosity has unsuspected motives and a sinister price. On an island in Australia’s Torres Strait, an enigmatic castaway throws kinks into the local culture and sexual politics. And in the jungles of Vietnam, four American soldiers undertake a mystical search for a man-eating tiger.

In Raised by Unicorns: Stories from People with LGBTQ+ Parents, Frank Lowe has carefully edited an anthology that reflects on the upbringing of children in many different forms of LGBTQ+ families. From Baby Boomers to Generation Z, it features diverse stories that express the distinctiveness of this shared journey and of each particular family. It's visceral, raw, and not always pretty, but love is always the common thread.

Set in the author’s native Belfast, the ten stories in Sweet Home lay bare the heartbreak and quiet tragedies that run under the surface of everyday lives. A lonely woman is fascinated by her niqab-wearing neighbours; a middle-aged teacher becomes obsessed with a young Gaelic football player; and an employer covers for his two employees caught having sex in a public toilet.

This collection of short fiction from Elizabeth Harrower features a number of previously unpublished works and 'Alice', which was published for the first time in The New Yorker in 2015. Internationally acclaimed for her five brilliant novels, Elizabeth Harrower is also the author of a small body of short fiction. A Few Days in the Country & Other Stories brings together for the first time her stories published in Australian journals in the 1960s and 1970s along with those from her archives.

Come sit on the porch a spell. Let's talk about times gone by and folks we remember, about slow summer evenings and lightning bugs in a jar. Listen to the music of a creaky swing and hand-cranked ice cream and cicadas chorusing in the sultry night air. Let's talk about how things used to be in the South - and for some of us, they way they still are. Welcome to the world of Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, where award winning authors Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis, Debra Dixon, Donna Ball and Nancy Knight come together for the first time to create this poignant, humorous collection of nostalgic tales.

Twelve stories of wayward travelers. Twelve stamps on the passport of the soul. Bonds of Love & Blood is a poignant collection of prize-winning stories featuring life’s unexpected arrivals and departures. If you like intimate accounts of lives at the crossroads, vibrant portrayals of global locales, and elegantly-crafted prose, then you’ll love Marylee MacDonald’s compelling tales of travel.

It's the summer after graduation, and Bayleigh just asked Becca to be her maid of honor. Determined to give her best friend the greatest wedding ever, Becca has a lot on her plate. When she thinks she's finally got everything under control, a certain member of the groom's bridal party can't keep his eyes off her. Becca's not sure how to handle all the attention but she is sure of one thing: This will be a summer to remember.

All four novellas of the Summer Unplugged series in one book. Summer Unplugged: Bayleigh is addicted to her cell phone and her mom has had enough. After catching her sending a less than lady-like photo to a boy who barely knows her, Bayleigh's mom sends her away to her grandparent's house for the summer - sans cell phone, laptop and iPod. Bayleigh thinks the summer will be torture without social media - that is until she meets the boy next door.

A trio of family favourites, abridged especially for young listeners. Hours of audio fun to keep children entertained while on the move! Introduce your children to three classic stories. Adapted especially for children and filled with sound effects and fun, these stories will become firm favourites in your family.

The Foster family is stuck in their home with a strange young girl...but when a mad man shows up looking for her she's not where they left her. He just wants his victim and they just want him gone.

In this hilarious short story, two parents encourage their little girl to grow up, and immediately wonder about the repercussions of their decision, while juggling potty training, theme park visits, and the thought of life without her one day. You will see yourself in this story 100 times over. The Short Years is a series of beautiful vignettes folded into a weekend trip and a look into the future. (Contains selected passages from the book The Long Cutie)

In 16 short stories and a novella, Anne Leigh Parrish explores the magic of life, love, and the soft boundary between fact and fantasy. The wife of an artist disappears under mysterious circumstances, a woman has the gift of taking away sorrow, another finds inner strength through writing poetry, and a great-grandmother spends the day sitting on a folding chair in a grocery store parking lot, contemplating the nature of the human heart. What Nell Dreams is Parrish's eighth book of fiction.

From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them. New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different kind of first time - a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely unlike our own.

Steven is a writer, by all accounts of self-proclamation. But no artist can be expected to work under serious pressure, especially not when the pressure consists of his own mother indenting his tender skull with the muzzle of the pistol held in her hand. Suddenly, it's write or die for Steven. He better tap away on that typewriter or expect to be extracted from the land of the living before he's had the opportunity to finish anything he's ever written. Not to mention that his recently departed father lying on the floor beside him should supply enough motivation.

Polly’s fourth-grade daughter has been spending a lot of time with her classmate Sylvie—maybe too much. Sylvie’s clothes are a little…flashy…and her phone (a ten-year-old with a phone!) doesn’t seem to have any parental controls. It seems that Sylvie’s mother, with her vape pens and her too-high heels, may not be making good choices. As Polly tries to exert a positive influence, she discovers just how little anyone can tell about a family from the outside.