Short Family

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few listeners will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord.

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.

People come to Kiss County to fall in love. But who has time for that? I'm juggling two jobs to save my family’s inn. Falling in love? Not on my to-do list. But then Carter Cartwright, a handsome bachelor, rolls into Small Town and books a room. Suddenly, I'm feeling things I didn’t plan for. I don’t have time for love. But Carter is determined to make time for me. His advances are hard to resist, but I’m not about to open up to a man just passing through on his way to Big City dreams. Welcome to Kiss County, where saving my family’s inn might just mean losing my heart. The Hot ...

From "one of the funniest writers in America" comes a collection of stories culled from the front lines of the millennial culture wars. Rife with failing rock bands, student loans, and participation trophies,

Spoiled Brats is about a generation of narcissists - and the well-meaning boomers who made them that way.

Are you a parent? So your child's education is a priority. Most of the times this importance overshadows several other factors that build a child's personality in an impressive manner. Being one of those parents, if you are the one then this audiobook perfectly belongs to you...In my book, messages about values are integrated. The messages are related to what any parent wants to embellish their child.

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose. Twisting and winding in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable—these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the art of short fiction.

I was pretty happy with my life until the hot shot, all-state baller from my teen years moved back in next door. (I babysat him, yes, but I never changed his diapers. Just wanted to be clear about that.) Guess who’s now the assistant b-ball coach? Logic would say me–especially since I coached my entire first year holding the playbook upside down (it turned out to be an old football playbook from the ‘80s, so it’s not like it mattered which way I held it) but the accurate answer is Trey Haywood, my all-star neighbor.

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.

Unity, Texas — May 1887. A grieving daughter. A hopeful journey. A love tested by secrets. Can love survive secrets, ambition, and the wild brutality of the frontier? After the sudden death of her father in the spring of 1887, Clary Wilson is left with little more than two battered stagecoaches—and the care of her younger sister. With no prospects back home, she answers a mail-order bride advertisement and heads west to Unity, Texas, hoping for a second chance at life and love. Thomas Forster, the man she’s been corresponding with, is even more handsome and kind than Clary dared ...

Two classic stories of finding love where you least expect it! Marriage Wanted: As far as Nash Davenport's concerned, marriage isn't shelter from the storm - it is the storm. He's a divorce attorney, himself divorced, who believes no married couple can live up to their wedding vows. My Hero: Would-be romance writer Bailey York has already failed twice at love. She thinks men are wonderful to read and write about, but that's it. Which is probably why she has such difficulty creating a hero for her novel. What she needs is a real-life example.

When Ava Barnes’s boyfriend, Justin, proposes after a whirlwind romance, the young couple embarks on a quest that will test their love. For generations, engaged couples in Ava’s family have traveled into the Everglades to retrieve the egg of the magnificent frigate bird in order to bake it into a marriage cake. Those who succeed live happily ever after, while those who fail are destined for heartbreak. With Ava’s beloved grandmother gravely ill, never has the marriage tradition meant so much.

After graduating from college, Skylar Hobbs couldn’t find a job. When a friend suggested writing erotic stories for cash, she jumped at the chance. Using past experiences and fantasies to come up with stories. Even using her own former stepbrother for inspiration. When Holden Baxter moved back to town he was looking for way to be with his ex-stepsister, Skylar. Too bad Skylar doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Looking for something, anything to connect with her, he is shocked when he finds Skylar's stories on her laptop. With this new knowledge in hand, Holden decides to make...

It’s a Whisker Wonderland! A steamy mountain man holiday novella with a HEA epilogue! What began as a genealogy research trip for Miami attorney Snow Wyatt becomes so much more when she arrives in Alaska and encounters a living, breathing mountain man. And why do the townspeople say he's a real-life Santa Claus? When she finds herself stuck in his mountain cabin with him, their forced proximity heats things up and makes her wonder what her priorities in life truly are. Can Snow stop herself from falling for a man so very different from herself? And more importantly, does she really want ...

Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s been months since her death and her children and grandchildren she leaves behind continue to grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. For some of them it is about far more than adjusting to her absence in their lives. Trisha Andersen doesn’t do anything without careful deliberation. She can’t remember the last time she made plans involving a man that had her questioning her own judgment. Maybe it’s the simple fact that she’s never made plans with a man ...

Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes listeners into the innermost lives of everyday people. From a family saved from ruin by a mysterious benefactor to a downtrodden boxer who shows unexpected kindness to a mugger, these tales reveal not only the precarious balance maintained between grief and happiness in our lives but also how the echoes of personal tragedy can shape us for the better.

Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery is best known for her series of coming-of-age novels featuring the feisty orphan, Anne Shirley. However, Montgomery was also a prolific producer of short stories, which are notable for their wholesome presentations of romance and family life. This collection includes 27 stories that were published between 1909 and 1922.

In Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Kevin Wilson’s first story collection in nearly a decade, Wilson combines his signature quirkiness with his keen eye for emotional complexity to explore the fraught relationship between parents and children. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine”, the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways, showcasing Wilson’s crackling wit and big heart.

So if your child, nephew, family-friend or anyone you know can't get enough of WWII, this audiobook is perfect for them to not only discover some brand new history; but they'll also learn important morals of kindness, friendship, bravery, and doing the right thing.

It was a night she’d never forget...two strangers coming together in a moment of intense desire. But now, sheltered Hannah Raymond is expecting the child of a rugged naval seaman she thought she’d never see again. Riley Murdock has been searching for Hannah for months - ever since that soul-shaking night of passion. Now, fate has reunited them. Determined to give his child the chance he never had, Riley marries Hannah. They’ve created the miracle of life together, but is that enough to spark love?

Bea's parents think she can accomplish absolutely anything—and she's determined to prove them right. But at the end of seventh grade, on the same day she makes a gutsy play to send her softball team to the league championships and Xander, the boy she likes, makes it clear that he likes her too, a scandal shakes up her world. Bea's dad made a big mistake, taking money that belonged to a client. He's now suspended from practicing law, and another lawyer spread the news online. To make matters worse, that other lawyer is Xander's dad.