In a small fictional town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there's an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it's thinking. . . It's the tale of a town, written in a distinct and lyrical voice, and readers will close the book more than a little sad to leave the village of Neawanaka, on the wet coast of Oregon, beneath the hills that used to boast the biggest trees in the history of the world.

    These bewitching poems and stories unwind a fevered world of magic and longing and young women who chance the uncanny and gain wisdom beyond their years.

    Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world--no matter how out of place they feel. Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew--a reclusive, real-life gentle giant--she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes--which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past? Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

    Instead, as a born member of the Yellow Dragon Clan, he is on a quest even he does not understand. Jay's journey takes him to Santo del Vado Viejo in the Arizona desert, a town overrun by gangs, haunted by members of other animal clans, perfumed by delicious food, and set to the beat of Malo Malo, a barrio rock band whose female lead guitarist captures Jay's heart. He must face a series of dangerous, otherworldly-and very human-challenges not just to survive, but to prove his worth to the clan.

    The plants taste like chocolate, jewels appear in the soil, bugs talk to her, and her best friend is a rhubarb plant named Harry. But the most magical thing is that every single Monday, at exactly 1:00, it rains. Until the Monday when the rain just stops. Now it's up to Polly to figure out why, and whether her brother's mysterious illness and her glamorous aunt Edith's sudden desire to sell the farm have anything to do with it. Most of all, Polly has to make it start raining again before it's too late. Her brother's life, the plants' survival, and her family's future all depend on it. Kathleen Van Cleve has woven an unforgettable coming-of-age tale with all the heart and wonder of a Roald Dahl novel.

    In Chicago's Ukrainian Village, Nadya Lysenko has built her life on a foundation of secrets.When Nadya was sixteen, she snuck out of her house in Western Ukraine to meet a fortuneteller in the woods. Ignoring the threat of Nazis and Russians, Nadya was driven by love and a desire to learn the unknown. She never expected it to be the last time she would see her family.Years later, Nadya continues to be haunted by the death of her parents and sisters. She clings to her traditions and stories from Ukraine, the only parts of her past that she can share with her family. The myths and magic of Nadya's childhood are still a part of her reality: house spirits misplace keys and glasses, dreams unite friends across time and space, and a fortuneteller's cards predict the future.Her beloved dead also insist on being heard, through dreams and whispers in the night. They want the truth to come out. Nadya needs to face her past and confront the secrets she buried within-THE SILENCE OF TREES.

    "My advice: those who are to read Sasha Fletcher's delightful enjoinder WHEN ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED should go into an empty house of an afternoon, shut themselves in a backroom closet on a low shelf, and read straight through without stopping"--Jesse Ball. "Sasha Fletcher, with his dream catastrophes and immense loves, can wand us into a new world. Here is a story that glistens"--Deb Olin Unferth.

    Through his lonely lens we peer into the mind of an art student grappling with ennui, ethics and empathy as she comes to terms with her own beliefs in a godless world. We telescope out to the story of idiot extraterrestrials struggling to pilot a complicated spaceship. We follow a retired mercenary as he tries to save his marriage and questions his life abroad. Mind-bending and cracklingly new, Somerville’s broadly appealing and uniquely imaginative constructions probe the outer reaches of sympathy, death, and love in a world seen from the inside out.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, 1q84, Dance Dance Dance, Pinball, 1973, After Dark, Sputnik Sweetheart, a Wild Sheep Chase, Hear the Wind Sing, South of the Border, West of the Sun. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Norwegian Wood Noruwei no Mori) is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The novel is a nostalgic story of loss and sexuality. The story's protagonist and narrator is Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a freshman university student living in Tokyo. Through Toru's reminiscences we see him develop relationships with two very different women the beautiful yet emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing, lively Midori. The novel is set in Tokyo during the late 1960s, a time when Japanese students, like those of many other nations, were protesting against the established order. While it serves as the backdrop against which the events of the novel unfold, Murakami (through the eyes of Toru and Midori) portrays the student movement as largely weak-willed and hypocritical. Part of the novel was later published in the collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman under the title Firefly. Norwegian Wood was hugely popular with Japanese youth and made Murakami somewhat of a superstar in his native country (apparently much to his dismay at the time). Despite its mainstream popularity in Japan, Murakami's established readership saw Norwegian Wood as an unwelcome departure from his by-then established style of energetic prose flavoured with the unexpected and supernatural (as exemplified by Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, released two years earlier); as translator Jay Rubin observes in the translator's note...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=117388

    Valente has been sending stories out into the wild. Every month, for twenty-four months, a new tale has appeared in mailboxes all over the world.Here, for the first time, these stories have been brought together in a single anthology. Two years of detectives, fairy tales, frost giants, lost moon colonies, furies and minotaurs.Two years of magic.Accompanied by fantastical illustrations created by the subscribers of the project, these hitherto unpublished stories paint a landscape of fiction, family, and a new kind of connection between author and reader.Open the book and become part of a secret world.

    What secrets does this old ball have to tell? Her mom certainly isn't sharing anyespecially when it comes to Izzy's father, who died before Izzy was born. But when she spends the summer in her Nana's remote New Mexico village, Izzy discovers long-buried secrets that come alive in an enchanted landscape of watermelon mountains, whispering winds, and tortilla suns. Infused with the flavor of the southwest and sprinkled with just a pinch of magic, this heartfelt middle grade debut is as rich and satisfying as Nana's homemade enchiladas.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, the Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother, the Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, Big Mama's Funeral. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (Spanish: ) is a fictional short story by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez written in 1968. It falls within the genre of magic realism, and is one of the short stories included in the book Leaf Storm. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" begins with a husband and wife, Pelayo and Elisenda, who find a very old man in their courtyard one stormy afternoon. Amazed, they gaze at the enormous wings attached to the body of the old man as he struggles to get up from the mud. The couple attempts to communicate with the old man, but are unable to because he speaks a different language (which is never identified.) A neighbor comes by and lets them know that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child. Unsure of what to do, Pelayo decides to lock the angel in a chicken coop overnight. Early the next morning the local priest, Father Gonzaga, comes to the home, followed by the rest of the community, to test the old man and determine whether or not he truly is an angel. Ultimately, Father Gonzaga finds many reasons why the man cannot be an angel, such as the fact that the old man cannot understand Latin, and also because he has too many mortal characteristics. Elisenda, tired of having so many people at her house, decides to charge an entrance fee to see the angel. The family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money they have collected. The crowd soon loses interest in the angel because another freak has risen to fame. The new attraction is a woman who disobeyed her...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=738814

    An apartment is filled with water as an act of gravity-defying devotion to an acrobat. At turns blissful, absurd, sexy, and devastating, Marisa Matarazzo’s stories don’t just push the boundaries of love—they show how very boundless it is. These interconnected shorts take love to a new level—another world, where a sex fever can sweep a town and where sex acts are performed tied to the raised mast of a sailboat. Falling into love, swimming, and drowning in it, the characters often exist in places where land and water collide and morph. A girl without hands is rescued from the sea by an oil-rig worker. A boy transplants a fish into the body of a menacing neighbor. A woman on the rebound has an unexpected encounter with an otherworldly water engineer. Fusing magical realism and fantasy with the heart of the here and now, Matarazzo has established a singular style. As she shifts effortlessly among startling plotlines and peculiar characters, she celebrates the fluid sorcery of love—in its ardor, its ugliness, all of its uncanny and magnificent manifestations, proclaiming love the most wondrous magic of all.

    A fading horror movie star crafts his replacement. Two thieves wait for rescue at the end of the world. Human monsters are put to their final tests. Time stands still in fairy circles, loops in on itself for a runaway child, and can be rewritten in the pages of a book. Fifteen unforgettable stories to be read in the dark from dark urban fantasy author Michael Montoure. " ... Montoure's spare, striking prose outlines characters in deliciously twisted predicaments .... " -- Seattle Weekly Stories include: COLD SEASON - His mother had always been a hypochondriac, but now a city has fallen ill with her ONE LAST SUNSET - She wanted a vampire to promise her immortality, but it's nothing like it seems REMAKE - A horror movie idol confronts the man who will play his most famous role REST AREAS - A deadline, a suitcase full of cash, a stolen car -- and something in the trunk DADDY'S GIRLS - Children will come when the time is right, and not before LIFE STORY - When the pages of your life are laid out before you, what changes can you make? ONLY MONSTERS - A young boy, an old woman, and tales of the most frightening monster of all LULLABY FOR TWO VOICES - Her perfect child, or his dark twin -- one will be reclaimed ORPHEUS - The worst part of Hell is not knowing you're there WATCH THE COIN - A secret pact, a successful heist, and a fairy circle LOST BOY - A young boy runs away to a fairytale woods, only to find he's not alone PUPPETS - The man who bought the doll from him will ruin his career, if he can't find it before it kills again THE THIRTEENTH BOY - All the papers say the man behind the serial murders is a monster, but the monsters think otherwise COUNTERCLOCKWISE - An imaginary time machine, a tragic childhood secret; a man who can see into "dead time" sees a chance to make things right

    In his third collection, you'll find stories about a ghoul with an identity crisis; a girl who can be anyone she wants except herself; a woman from heaven and a man very much from earth; gardening tips from hell; ten aspects of a goddess all searching for one wayward husband, and many other thrilling wonders. With his light touch and imaginative storytelling, Parks takes readers into the past as well as the future, to lands foreign as well as nearby, and from matters sublime to ones familiar (but never trivial or predictable). One of the most versatile fantasists of his generation, for Parks it is never style over the substance (or the other way around) -- it is always a seamless melding of both.

    There are people to save... and for that, there are three people who need to die.

    "Tyler is asking, through his stories: What is it to see the words that cover a thing instead of seeing the thing itself? Why do we have to name a thing in order to see it? Why do we constantly obliterate what s there in front of us in order to resurrect it in our imaginations as something altogether different? He asks these questions in a good way, a way that continues to quest, rather than seeking to obliterate the questions with answers." --Ken Sparling, author of Book and Dad Says He Saw You At the Mall

    There’s a fearlessness to this prose, a melody of life and magic and loss. This Collector’s Edition contains three previously uncollected stories.