American Short

After gracefully enduring marriage to a king who never loved her for his mourning of his first wife, and providing him two heirs, Queen Serenity is now free. Her husband, King Timothy is dead. As are her two stepsons from his first marriage. Whom she loved as her own. Now her own son is king. And she is free to love and be loved for the first time by a man who has carried a flame for her for years, or is she?

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.

To Chinese American teenager Chuntao, New Lake is a beautiful haven where she can hunt for treasures once swallowed up by a big flood. But when she’s caught scavenging by her biology teacher, a woman whose own past has been swept away, Chuntao is faced with an imponderable question: Which world was better - the ideal one she never knew or the destroyed one that now belongs to her?

From the bustling streets of America to the quiet mountain towns in rural China, this captivating collection of short stories spans continents and cultures, weaving a tapestry of universal human experiences. Each tale offers a unique glimpse into lives shaped by love, betrayal, and the search for identity. These stories, by turns humorous and poignant, explore the intricate threads that connect us all—the joy of friendship, the pain of betrayal, the challenges of coming of age, and the bittersweet realities of leaving one's homeland. With its rich diversity of settings and emotions, this ...

In this heart-warming short story, meet wife and mother Eugeena Patterson. Eugeena has always been the glue keeping her fragmented family together. When her teenage daughter is rushed to the hospital, Eugeena’s usual attempts to maintain peace in her family reach a breaking point. Will her troubled teenage daughter rip the family apart?

“If her mother ever finds out what I want to do to her daughter, she’s going to kill me. Crazy Religious Mom from Carrie style.” I have a can’t say no problem. I can’t say no to a beautiful face, a banging body and a pretty smile. And when that body is attached to a girl like Neisha? Resisting temptation is damn near impossible. Neisha is the full package: Thick, beautiful, young… 18… And ready to learn. She and her mom stay right next door to me. Her mom is an over the top religious zealous bigot who is on the main line with Jesus DAILY. The last thing I need to be thinking ...

My Confession: “Just the thought of him makes me WET my bed every night.” My name is Pastor Fleming and I’m a straight man. I’m a man of faith and live by a strict moral code. Recently, my morals were put to the test when my church hired a young, handsome, and muscular assistant pastor by the name of David to help assist me with our growing ministry. That’s when the same-sex attraction that I thought I’d hidden so well, reared its ugly head again. It made my HARD job even HARDER than before. Things took an interesting turn for the worst when I began having vivid wet dreams about...

There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Well Lyric, Juicy, and Precious are all from around the way. They all live in Crown Heights, one of the most notorious sections of Brooklyn, but to them it's just a place they call home. Around the Way Girls 2 is a fast-paced look at the life of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

Forbidden to marry Heath, the one man she truly loves, Lydia Catherine Hayden, an American heiress from Boston, boards a train and heads west to become a mail-order bride when matchmaker, Milly Crenshaw, introduces her to Wyatt from Iowa. Five years have gone by, and she isn’t interested in any of the society gentlemen of whom her father would approve. Her love for Heath has turned to a mild hate since hearing he married someone else. When the Wild Whitman Gang involved in an Iowa train robbery use orphans traveling west as human shields to make their escape, they converge on Lydia’s ...

What would Christmas be without a little Seduction? Two complete strangers enter a whirlwind of mind-blowing sex leading up to Christmas. Hot, steamy, and all so sensual is what you will get as these two strangers ignite a burning flame within. What happens when a gift neither of them expects arise? Will they make the best of the situation or will one of them run scared from what could be the best Christmas gift ever?

"I would love to go down on your wife." I am convinced. My husband, is nuts. How else could you explain him fixing his lips to encourage me to have sex with a woman, who is also a stranger... ON OUR ANNIVERSARY? What kind of woman does he think I am? I’ve never been interested in being with a woman and I never will be… I don't care how much he begs me. I don't care how much SHE begs me... Still, there's something about this breathtakingly gorgeous, mysterious woman that is intriguing. As much as I want to tell her to go to hell and reject her... As much as I want to deny my husband his ...

As a 41-year-old man confronts his own mortality in this collection's title story, he recalls his Spokane Indian father's chilling death from alcoholism and diabetes. Another tale features an eccentric salesman pursuing a married woman from airport to airport. And then there's the film editor who sees nothing wrong with altering footage to fit preconceived views - until he becomes the target of media distortion.

Zachary Taylor or “Old Rough and Ready” as his men called him, came up through the ranks in the U.S. army with the culmination of his career occurring at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. His military exploits brought him national notoriety and propelled him to the office of the president in the election of 1848. A bit of an enigma, he was a southern slaveholder who vehemently opposed the expansion of slavery into the new western territories that had been won in the war with Mexico. The political arena was a new domain for Taylor, having never held a political ...

Though the Constitution was ratified in 1788, its impact on our lives is as recent as today's news. Informed by the latest scholarship and exploring the major themes that have shaped American constitutional history: federalism, the balance of powers, property, representation, equality, rights, and security, this book places constitutional history within the context of American political and social history. As our nation's circumstances have changed, so has our Constitution.

Kirkus Reviews writes: "Two richly textured, captivating tales of inappropriate romance. Young's two tales explore families, school groups, and small towns beset by buried secrets and unspoken desires." Joseph and Mary: A Family Romance is set in Phoenix in 1978 and Rec Park: A Small-Town Romance in a coastal community outside of Los Angeles in the early years of the twenty-first century. These two short novels are by the author of the highly praised Blue and Other Stories.

From the remarkable Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award for his celebrated novel Waiting, comes this collection of comical and deeply moving tales of contemporary China that are as warm and human as they are surprising, disturbing, and delightful. In the title story, the head of security at a factory is shocked, first when the handsomest worker on the floor proposes marriage to his homely adopted daughter, and again when his new son-in-law is arrested for the "crime" of homosexuality.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

A love match or a marriage of convenience? Margaret MacDonald craves finding a love match when she is presented to New York’s high society in 1814. After weeks of attending balls, recitals, and the theater, Margaret begins to lose hope that she will ever find her kindred soul. Until two likely candidates emerge. Robert Granger, a budding diplomat in international affairs who sweeps Margaret off her feet. Horace Tanner, an entrepreneur investing in railroads and other ventures, and is a smooth dancer she enjoys spending time with. Who will win her heart? The ultimate decision is, of course...

The heralded Queen of Hip-Hop Lit presents an addictive collection of celebrated urban authors with their fingers on the pulse of the streets. Street lit’s finest female voices—Keisha Starr, Tysha, LaKesa Cox, and Monique S. Hall—deliver searing stories about women who make hard sacrifices to stay on top of their hustle and seize the power, money, and fame they can’t live without.

Based upon legal training and over a decade of service dog husbandry including mulitple lawsuits to uphold the rights of service dog access, this must-have book offers a unique perspective on two critical aspects of service dog ownership: training and legal compliance for public access. Dry legal concepts come to life through vivid dramatizations and real llife epidsodes. It provides a window into real-world successful case studies in upholding service dog rights through owner-training and negotiating techniques to stand up for the rights of service dog access to public spaces. Contrary to ...