American Short

Hot Ghetto Mess is and exciting read, about a set of friends from the hood and their relationships, money, love, lust, lies, drugs, and friendship. Come on this bumpy ride and find out what it means to have a friend who has your back no matter what, a true ride or die. Shanique and Amy are best friends who have seen more than their share of heartache. Shanique became a mother in high school with her first baby a son by Ricky, the school star football player. Ricky took to a life in the streets he dropped out of school and sold drugs on the corner with his best friend, J-Rock. Ten years ...

Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver's mature writing and give his devoted fans a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver's writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have already entered the canon of modern literature.

Book 1: Introduces 23 year old, newly divorced young woman named Layla. Before her divorce, Layla was married to her middle school sweetheart, Darren. Aside from holding down a full time job, being a student AND a mother, Layla stayed loyal to Darren until he cheated on her. Layla's best friend, Michelle convinces her that the single life isn't so bad, especially when she meets the super sexy, smooth talking Marcus; who not only gives her great conversation, but the best sex in her life. She thought she could handle a "friends with benefits" situation, but she couldn't have been more wrong....

Do you like true stories of the Wild West? You should love these tales of outlaws, gunslingers and adventurers then. Of course you will have heard of most of them as many have become legends. Their escapades were exciting, daring and reckless and many paid the ultimate price in the end. These tales romp along with plenty of action and recreate the atmosphere of this exciting and dangerous era in America's history using the vernacular of the times. PLEASE NOTE - Whilst the events that took place are primarily true, (as far as we know), the author has used a certain amount of creative license...

Is it really just a question of faith? In the wake of a devastating fire that claims her husband and shatters her dreams, Abbilene faces the harsh scrutiny of her small mill town. Reeling from her loss, she discovers her late husband's betrayals and a shocking stipulation in his will: to adopt his son, a child from a secret affair, now in a San Francisco orphanage. Tucker Manning, the town's Sheriff and Abbilene's lifelong friend, is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the deadly explosion. Amidst the rubble and whispers, Tucker stands as Abbilene's loyal ally, even as doubt shadows his...

“Imparting some piece of yourself—any part—is arduous and warrants some kind of commendation,” writes guest editor Wesley Morris in his introduction. Both personal and personable, the essayists in this volume use their own vulnerability to guide listeners on excursions that unfold on uncomfortable edges. From contemplating the nuances of memory to exploring the complexities of family, romance, gender identity, illness, and death, Morris’s selection of essays presents a roundup of the thinkers who masterfully grapple with the issues of our time.

Caleb has one Rule.. No more Straight Men; No More Jocks Ever since Caleb caught his ex Bradley cheating with a female, he vowed that he would never be friends with or date jocks or anything resembling a straight man again. He considers them rude, insecure and has no interest in closet cases. There is only one problem. He finds them irresistible. All that changed when Marcus, the hunky new curly-haired football player, transferred to Julius High. He’s kind, thoughtful, and friendly toward the LBGT community and needs a tutor that will help him pass English. He asked Caleb to tutor him ...

For better or worse - be it militarily, politically, economically, technologically, or culturally - Americans have had a profound role in shaping the wider world beyond them. The United States has been a savior to some, a curse to others, but either way such views are often based on a caricature of American actions and intentions. American foreign relations, then, is a subject of immense global importance that provokes strong emotions and much debate, but often based on deep misunderstanding.

Louis L'Amour's world is built on those dramatic moments when men and women cast their fears, doubts, and pasts behind them and plunge into the unknown. Nowhere is that more evident than in this latest collection of stories set on the American frontier. These selections include "The Nester and the Piute"; "Big Man"; "Waltz Him Around Again"; "Shadow"; "Barney Takes a Hand"; "When a Texan Takes Over"; and "No Trouble for the Cactus Kid".

Anthony Bourdain chases the fumigation truck in Bergen County, New Jersey. Dave Eggers tells it straight: Illinois is Number 1. Louise Erdrich loses her bikini top in North Dakota. Jonathan Franzen gets waylaid by New York's publicist...and personal attorney...and historian...and geologist. John Hodgman explains why there is no such thing as a "Massachusettsean."

In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past.

Michelle Carter is ready for a new stage in her life. She is a resident at a prestigious Miami hospital, and her path to becoming a doctor has required many sacrifices, including a failed relationship. Though to be honest, her ex was a jerk, and now Michelle isn't looking for a new guy anyway. She's concentrating on fulfilling her dream of being a doctor, and nothing else matters. Except somehow, bad luck follows her, and she manages to get into huge trouble at the new job. Lex Makarov is a painfully handsome local billionaire, a son of a Russian oligarch and his only heir. He isn't used to...

Do you like true crime stories? You should love these tales then Originally authentic police files, True American Crime Stories are from the 1920s through to the 1950s - the era of gangster, molls and prohibition. Almost (but not quite), lost in the mists of time, these tales romp along with plenty of action and recreate the atmosphere of this exciting and dangerous era using the vernacular of the times. You may not have heard much about some of these bad guys, but they were real, ruthless hoodlums and all had their "15 minutes of fame", leaving trails of death and mayhem behind them. Most ...

Football Erotica by Erotica Reid is a steamy short story that sizzles with tension, temptation, and fantasy. When Angie’s beautiful best friend, Christine, lands NFL superstar Devon Lassiter, Angie smiles on the outside—but inside, she’s burning with envy. Instead of letting jealousy win, Angie dives deep into her own sensual imagination… and finds a fantasy that’s hotter than any football game. 💦 Fast, fierce, and full of desire—this short read will leave you breathless. #erotica, #shortstory, #footballfantasy, #sportsromance, #blackromance, #urbanerotica, #spicyreads, #...

In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is “a special skill that combines brevity with wit and cleverness and the hint of the existential malaise that imbues crime fiction with its gravitas.” The stories in this collection overflow with gravitas in the most unexpected ways: a cryptic note left on a windshield, a murder for hire meets a game of Mouse Trap, a swipe right on a dating app goes horribly wrong.

Ricky Barnes waited patiently for the right moment, the right woman, and the right time to make a move in life. All three converged one sunny Tuesday Morning when Consuela Carter blew through a four-way stop, going fifteen miles over the speed limit in a school zone. Luckily, school was out, but everything about Consuela drew him in. Consuela Carter felt the chemistry immediately when Officer Handsome walked up to her driver’s side window. The traffic stop was only the start of a courtship that included thrifting, home renovation projects, and an odd road trip. Ricky and Consuela soon ...

New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous, collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society - and offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu’s remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.

In Enigma Variations, Aciman maps the most inscrutable corners of passion, proving to be an unsparing reader of the human psyche and a master stylist. With language at once lyrical, bare-knuckled, and unabashedly candid, he casts a sensuous, shimmering light over each facet of desire to probe how we ache, want, and waver, and ultimately how we sometimes falter and let go of those who may want to offer only what we crave from them.

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

One of them was going to have to get married. The McLain brothers agreed on that much. Running the Bar-M-Bar ranch took just about every minute of the day – from can see to can’t see. They didn’t have time for beating dust out of carpets and chasing cobwebs from the ceiling. They’d tried hiring a housekeeper but that hadn’t worked out so well and, two housekeepers later, neither of them was enthused about trying to find housekeeper number three. Besides, there was more to consider than just dirty floors and greasy kitchens. Though they were still in the prime of life, it wasn’t ...