American Short

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this Century of profound change for women our Atlantic neighbours produced authors of extraordinary ability that dazzled us all with a range of ideas, characters and stories of such magnificence that literature would never be the same again. Genius is written in their names.

This collection is a short-story lover's dream. Included are 17 classic works, representing the finest American writers in the genre. Included are "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, "The One Million Pound Bank Note" by Mark Twain, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum's castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last—disaster to upend a museum in the United States. The Museum explores the concepts of "crisis" as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty.

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.

Kyle Kanter wanted to know who the greatest boxer of all times was, and he had just the way to do it. In a world where Mike Tyson in his prime, could slug it out with Jack Johnson, and Cassius Clay could fight Muhammad Ali, ALL boxers, separated by decades upon decades could meet and be matched. Young boxing phenom Damian Harrison, was determined to prove that HE was the one who deserved that title, but as he pursued the title, he was confronted with something far bigger! This TENTH installment in the Keepin' it a BUCK series - stories from the Paradigm VOID, is a time bending tale of hope ...

"When trust shatters, can your heart handle the truth—or will it destroy you first?" A Westbrook High Series Short Book #6 Amber has always craved the kind of love that sees her—really sees her—but every time, it slips through her fingers. Now, she finds herself caught between two suitors, but her heart is already lost to someone unexpected… someone who isn’t Quincy or Roman. The choice should be easy, but love rarely is. Meanwhile, Cam’s world is flipped upside down when a shocking secret detonates right in his face. His mind is set on leaving Monicha behind for good, but she ...

The stories in Five-Carat Soul - none of them ever published before - spring from the place where identity, humanity, and history converge. They’re funny and poignant, insightful and unpredictable, imaginative and authentic - all told with McBride’s unrivaled storytelling skill and meticulous eye for character and detail. McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens.

From the award-winning author of Chemistry comes a sharp and poignant short story that follows a young medical student working in clinical research and grappling with the realities of a future in her chosen field.

In the vein of Denis Johnson, Raymond Carver, Jack Kerouac and Ottessa Moshfegh, Michael Mohr offers 21 gritty, raw, honest stories covering his drinking years (mostly) in the form of (mostly) autobiographical fiction which cover everything from hitchhiking across America to a clash with Hell’s Angels to being kidnapped during an alcoholic blackout in Mexico to shooting guns while high on LSD. Always searching for the deeper meaning in these sordid adventures, Mohr keeps you entertained, astonished and, often, shocked.

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on first through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”

In the third installment of his acclaimed anthology series, master of crime fiction Lawrence Block has gathered together the best talent from popular fiction to produce an anthology of short stories based on masterpieces of American art. Among the star-studded lineup of writers you'll find Jerome Charyn, Jane Hamilton, Christa Faust, John Sandford, Sara Paretsky, Walter Mosley, Charles Ardai, Barry Malzberg, and Janice Eidus.

The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.

What happens when everything around you seems perfect - your family, your health, your social status, your overall life - but all of a sudden something threatens to tear it all apart and rob you of what you've always known? This type of thing happens to many people, every day, from all walks of life. Some are able to get over it and go on with their lives. But others are not so fortunate. They find themselves stuck in their own meltdown of loss, hurt, and pain. Such is the situation in Marita L. Kinney's latest novel.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.

The stories in this collection are drawn mainly from those tribes which lived in the northern and central areas of North America. These represent the linguistic groups gerneally referred to as Algonquian, Iroquois, and Sioux. A final chapter covers the tales of the northwest Pacific Coast.

This Very Short Introduction recounts the history of American culture and its creation by diverse social and ethnic groups. In doing so, it emphasizes the historic role of culture in relation to broader social, political, and economic developments. Across the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as language, region, and religion, diverse Americans have forged a national culture with a global reach, inventing stories that have shaped a national identity and an American way of life.

My Shot is a BWWM Friends to Lovers Hockey Romance Brie: I was the assistant. The friend in the background. The girl who made sure Joshua Winters had everything he needed—except the one thing I never had the courage to give him: my heart. He was a star. And I was invisible. But the night he kissed me, everything I’d kept buried deep inside started to come to the surface. Joshua: I’d slept with more puck bunnies than I could count, but not one of them ever stayed in my head the way she did. Brie saw me—the real me—long before the fame, the noise, the walls I built to protect myself...

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".

Erotic Paranormal Quickie A short but sexy story in the heart of the Midwest. Paisley Page, a simple librarian trapped in a dull and lonely life, yearns for excitement. Then, one dark and dreary night, a mysterious stranger appears. He offers her a chance at forbidden pleasures… but at a cost. Won Ju harbors a dangerous secret – he is something else. Will she take the risk and accept his invitation into the unknown? The choice hangs in the air, thick with mystery, as Paisley contemplates a journey from the mundane to the promise of passion.

Headlined by New York Times best-seller Carl Weber, three authors bring listeners tales of power, greed, and ambition set in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods.