Short Family

In her people-smart way, Kimberly Willis Holt introduces us to a Louisiana family: touching, lyrical, and always intriguing, their stories reveal the powerful connections between four generations. The journey begins in 1939 with Rose, who moves with her mother and siblings from rural Texas to live with their estranged grandfather in the Louisiana bayou.

One of the earliest creative approaches to feminist literature, this sinister horror story tells of a woman's mental anguish and unconscious struggle with conformity in a society that generally viewed women as weak and hysterical creatures unable to think for themselves. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), a prominent American feminist, paved the way for other authors like Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker. She suffered mental illness during her life and ultimately committed suicide.

"What's Happened to Me?": Sarah finds herself in a strange place, and she can recall only one thing - her name. A young man, Heath de Charon, explains to Sarah that he found her unconscious on the grounds of his family's estate and has been caring for her. "When the Clock Chimes": Drake Iverson lands a summer job on Sandstone Mountain. There are no computers; he has to do all the work by hand in a large leather-bound book. He doesn't mind, as long as he can be near Gina, who is pretty and kind. "The Mysteries of Chance": Dylan Sorenson offers his help to a girl who seems to be in distress.

Children's author, A. Daniels, introduces you to Anna. Anna is an 8-year-old girl who spends every weekend with her father. The narrator invites you to come along and see how Anna spends time with her dad. There are questions and answers at the end of this story. This will allow the child to test their knowledge.

The stories in Thomas Pierce’s Hall of Small Mammals take place at the confluence of the commonplace and the cosmic, the intimate and the infinite. A fossil-hunter, a comedian, a hot- air balloon pilot, parents and children, believers and nonbelievers, the people in these stories are struggling to understand the absurdity and the magnitude of what it means to exist in a family, to exist in the world.

Zauberhaft und geheimnisvoll ist Astrid Lindgrens Märchenwelt. Petra und Peter, zwei Kinder so groß wie Puppen, tauchen plötzlich in der Schule auf...

A galactic trade union uses a laboratory-created disease on an alien race - causing the creatures to produce a rare xenon gas when close to death. A charity run by a ghoul is preying on children for financial gain, and more. And the dead must face an inner truth about the living before moving on. This short story collection spans from dark fantasy to science fiction. One character discovers an evil disguised as a promise of hope. Another wishes to remain in the mortal world for perhaps the wrong reason. And a criminal’s past finally catches up to him. Together, the stories form a complete thematic arc.

Take treasure in a magic holiday. Rediscover the best things life has to offer. Prepare to enjoy a story that is really about you and those most precious to you. This is part of the original Jack the Dog: And His Boy, which tells the entire saga from beginning to end. Many of the stories have touched audiences for years; now available in audiobook form.

Every family has issues. In Filipino families sometimes those issues stretch across oceans and involve multiple generations. Small Packages is a short story detailing how decisions made in one generation, affect those in the next. Sometimes those decisions are tragic. But like many, we hope they are positive and filled with love.

In this moving collection of short stories, James Lee Burke elegantly marries his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style and complex, fascinating character portraits. The backdrop of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast proves to be a versatile setting for Burke's stories, which cover the scope of the human experience, from love and sex to domestic abuse, to war and death and friendship.

Eleanor is in such a rush to move away from her parents that she allows an imperious realtor to rush her to close on the too-good-to-be-true home without an inspection. Shortly after the house becomes legally hers - with every cent and all of her pride and future tied up in the property - the giant rats show themselves. In the yard, in the kitchen, on her daughter's bed.

A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have.

The recipient of the Journey Prize and Edna Staebler Award, Heather Birrell made a splash in the literary world with her first collection, I Know You Are But What Am I? In Mad Hope, Birrell employs her keen insight into the human condition to present tales featuring a complex array of characters, including a gay man caring for a friend and a science teacher faced with a shocking request.

A neighbour is taken ill in the middle of the night; the folk who live on Bevans Road turn out to find out what will happen to Charlie. Jenny, unable to sleep, joins her mother outside and listens to the conversations taking place around them.

Russo's characters in these four expansive stories bear little similarity to the blue-collar citizens we're familiar with from many of his novels. In "Horseman", a professor confronts a young plagiarist as well as her own weaknesses as the Thanksgiving holiday looms closer and closer: "And after that, who knew?" In "Intervention", a realtor facing an ominous medical prognosis finds himself in his father's shadow while he presses forward - or not.

After the violent, shadowy events surrounding his father's disappearance and his siblings' disbandment, Martín flees Mexico City with his wife, newborn son, and dog. Isolated and homesick in Madrid, Martín awakes one sticky, hot morning, quietly overwhelmed by the circumstances - his growing aversion to his son, the dog's sudden illness, and the vague unresolved danger from his abandoned homeland.

Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the importance of honest hard work, of caring for the less fortunate, and of having the courage to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. In these nine stories, Aranka Siegal paints a tender portrait of the love between a grandmother and granddaughter, inspired by her own experiences with her grandmother.

From the author of Slow Foreplay On a Fast Bus comes All The Heart's Fault. There is a knock on the door. It is the silence of the night. You come awake slowly. The knock won't go away. You realize it is time again. Death is at the door once more. Also by the same author, The Killing of Train-Man Brown and Send Me a Friend and many, many more short stories.

This feel-good story will restore your faith in "Happily Ever After". If you believe that love really can conquer all - even real life - then Love in a Garden: What Happens After Happily Ever After is for you! This is a quick story you can listen to at lunchtime.

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.