Best of
Short-Stories

1986

James Herriot's Dog Stories


James Herriot - 1986
    The warm and joyful memoirs of his life as a country vet in Yorkshire have endeared him to countless readers around the world, and many of his most memorable tales featured man's best friend.Here are the complete dog stories from his much-beloved memoirs: a handsome collection of tales, available for the first time in trade paperback, that will warm the hearts of dog lovers around the world. Featuring a special introduction by the author and his own accompanying notes to each specially illustrated story, this tribute from man to dog is a volume no Herriot fan will want to be without.

The Suitcase


Sergei Dovlatov - 1986
    These seemingly undistinguished possessions, stuffed into a worn-out suitcase, take on a riotously funny life of their own as Dovlatov inventories the circumstances under which he acquired them, occasioning a brilliant series of interconnected tales: A poplin shirt evokes the bittersweet story of a courtship and marriage, while a pair of boots (of the kind only the Nomenklatura can afford) calls up the hilarious conclusion to an official banquet. Some driving gloves—remnants of Dovlatov’s short-lived acting career—share space with neon-green crepe socks, reminders of a failed black-market scam. And in curious juxtaposition, the belt from a prison guard’s uniform lies next to a stained jacket that once belonged to Fernand Léger.Imbued with a comic nostalgia overlaid with Dovlatov’s characteristically dry wit, The Suitcase is an intensely human, delightfully ironic novel from “the finest Soviet satirist to appear in English since Vladimir Voinovich.”

Homemade Love


J. California Cooper - 1986
    California Cooper tells exuberant tales full of wonder at the mystery of life and the hardness of fate. Awed, bedeviled, bemused, all of Cooper's characters are borne up by the sheer power of life itself.

The Roald Dahl Omnibus: Perfect Bedtime Stories for Sleepless Nights


Roald Dahl - 1986
    Bawdy, funny, touching, and downright outrageous, there's simply no one else like Roald Dahl.This volume is a diabolical collection of 28 of Dahl's best stories. Shiver to classics like The Man From the South, Taste, Royal Jelly and The Great Switcheroo and hard-to-find gems like Poison, The Wish and Neck. It's the perfect remedy for a sleepless night. From Someone Like YouTasteLamb to the SlaughterMan from the SouthThe SoldierDip in the PoolGalloping FoxleySkinPoisonWishNeckSound MachineNunc DimittisGreat Automatic GrammatizatorClaud's DogRatcatcherRumminsMr HoddyMr FeaseyFrom Kiss KissLandladyWilliam and MaryThe Way Up to HeavenRoyal JellyGeorgy PorgyGenesis and CatastropheEdward the ConquerorPigChampion of the WorldFrom Switch BitchGreat SwitcherooLast ActBitch

Robot Dreams


Isaac Asimov - 1986
    Robot Dreams collects 21 of Isaac Asimov's short stories spanning the body of his fiction from the 1940s to the 1980s----exploring not only the future of technology, but the future of humanity's maturity and growth.

James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories


James Herriot - 1986
    But no animal was dearer to his heart, and no animal provided him with more heartwarming and wonderful tales. With over a million copies sold, James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories has inspired dog lovers the world over. After being out of print for many years, it is now again available in an affordable, beautifully repackaged hardcover edition, filled with original watercolors that illustrate Herriot's charming and wholesome tales. This classic heartwarming collection of ten stories about dogs - from border collies and sheepdogs to the exploits of Tricki Woo, the unforgettable Pekinese - by the late author of All Creatures Great and Small is prefaced by a moving introduction from Herriot himself - the very last piece of writing the beloved author ever completed. So, follow the master veterinarian as he journeys through Yorkshire, caring for big dogs and small with his characteristic gentleness and peace, profound observation, and deep, loving humor.A warm and joyful collection of James Herriot’s loving tales of our furry friends. From delightful old favorites like Tricki Woo to heartwarming stories of Brandy, Hermann, Jock, and more. James Herriot’s Favorite Dog Stories is a must-have for any dog lover.Contains:“Tricki Woo Goes Crackerdog” * “Prince and the Card Above the Bed” * “Jock Top Dog” * Tricki Woo “A Triumph of Surgery” * “Jake Rides into Town”* Gyp “Only One Woof” * Roy “From Rags to Riches” * Tricki Woo “A Judge of Form” * Hermann “A Happy Ending” * Brandy “The Dustbin Dog”

Completely Unexpected Tales


Roald Dahl - 1986
    Botibol◦ Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat◦ My Lady Love, My Dove◦ Neck ◦ Nunc Dimittis◦ Parson's Pleasure◦ Poison◦ Royal Jelly◦ Skin◦ Taste◦ The Butler◦ The Hitchhiker◦ The Landlady◦ The Sound Machine◦ The Umbrella Man◦ The Way Up to Heaven◦ Vengeance is Mine Inc.◦ William and MaryTake a pinch of unease. Stir it into a large dollop of the macabre, add a generous helping of dark and stylish wit, garnish with the bizarre and what do you have? Roald Dahl at his brilliant, hypnotizing best, cooking up some of the most unusual stories ever told. Here in one volume are Tales of the Unexpected and More Tales of the Unexpected, making this a superb compendium of vengeance, surprise and dark delight.

The Progress of Love


Alice Munro - 1986
    The accidental near-drowning of a child exposes the fragility of the trust between children and parents. A young man, remembering a terrifying childhood incident, wrestles with the responsibility he has always felt for his younger brother. In these and other stories Alice Munro proves once again a sensitive and compassionate chronicler of our times. Drawing us into the most intimate corners of ordinary lives, she reveals much about ourselves, our choices, and our experiences of love.

Burning Chrome


William Gibson - 1986
    Johnny Mnemonic (1981)The Gernsback Continuum (1981)Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)The Belonging Kind (1981) with John ShirleyHinterlands (1981)Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce SterlingNew Rose Hotel (1984)The Winter Market (1985)Dogfight (1985) with Michael SwanwickBurning Chrome (1982)

The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership


Wendell Berry - 1986
    Now in paperback for the first time, Berry's popular collection of six interconnected stories traces his Port William characters through the Depression up to the 1950s.

Best Short Stories of Jack London


Jack London - 1986
    Poetic, swift with violence and action.- To the Man on the Trail- The Law of Life- The Wit of Porportuk- To Build a Fire- The Heathen- A Piece of Steak- Love of Life- Lost Face- Pearls of Parlay (from A Son of the Sun)- An Odyssey of the North

Favorite Folktales from Around the World


Jane Yolen - 1986
    Over 150 tales are compiled from Iceland to Syria, Cuba to Papua.Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

Songs of a Dead Dreamer


Thomas Ligotti - 1986
    When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris’s Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters. Writing in the Washington Post, the celebrated science fiction and fantasy author Michael Swanwick extolled: “Put this volume on the shelf right between H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Where it belongs.”The revisions in the present volume of Songs of a Dead Dreamer have been calculated to make its stories into enhanced incarnations of the originals. This edition is and will remain definitive.For those already familiar with the stories in Songs of a Dead Dreamer, an invitation is extended to return to them in their ultimate state. For those new to the collection, it is submitted to engage them with some of the most extraordinary tales of their kind. In either case, this publication of Songs of a Dead Dreamer offers evidence for why Ligotti has been judged to be among the most important authors in the history of supernatural horror.

Blue Champagne


John Varley - 1986
    John Varley's unique blend of startling technology and genuinely human characters has won him every major science fiction award several times over for both his novels and his short fiction.Blue Champagne collects eight thought-provoking stories from one of the genre's undisputed masters, including the Hugo Award-winner "The Pusher," and the Hugo and Nebula award-winner "Press Enter."

Borderland


Terri Windling - 1986
    The land between the normal human world and Fairy is called "The Border," a place where one can easily become lost—or found. In the rements of evacuated cities from this rebirth the two worlds come together in Bordertown, where magic and technology don't always work. The town is teeming with the outcasts, runaways and dreamers of both Fairy and Earth children.NOTE: all the "Bellamy Bach" stories in the Borderland series were written by the editor/Borderland founder, Terri Windling.

As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories


Alistair MacLeod - 1986
    In a voice at once elegiac and life-affirming, MacLeod describes a vital present inhabited by the unquiet spirits of a Highland past, invoking memory and myth to celebrate the continuity of the generations even in the midst of unremitting change.His second collection, As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories confirms MacLeod’s international reputation as a storyteller of rare talent and inspiration.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Another Marvelous Thing


Laurie Colwin - 1986
    These spare and unsentimental stories display how two very different people -- a tough-minded and tenderhearted woman and an urbane, old-fashioned older man -- fall in love despite their differences, get married, and give birth to a child.8 stories: Frank and Billy French Movie A Little Something Another Marvelous Thing A Country Wedding A Couple of Old Flames [originally titled Old Flames] Swan Song My Mistress

About Time: 12 Short Stories


Jack Finney - 1986
    The protagonists of these twelve stories are well-meaning but at odds with their surroundings and their lives. The time to which they escape—through time travel—doesn't always fulfill their expectations in the way they had hoped, but sometimes, they can still find their dreams.

In the Land of Time: And Other Fantasy Tales


Lord Dunsany - 1986
    Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft A pioneer in the realm of imaginative literature, Lord Dunsany has gained a cult following for his influence on modern fantasy literature, including such authors as J.R.R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. This unique collection of short stories ranges over five decades of work. Liberal selections of earlier tales—including the entire Gods of Pegana as well as such notable works as "Idle Days of the Yann" and "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth"—are followed by memorable later tales, including several about the garrulous traveler Joseph Jorkens and the outrageous murder tale "The Two Bottles of Relish." Throughout, the stories are united by Dunsany's cosmic vision, his impeccable and mellifluous prose, and his distinctively Irish sense of whimsy.Here published for the first time by Penguin Classics, this edition is the only annotated version of Dunsany's short stories. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Black Cat and Other Stories


David Wharry - 1986
    [Penguin Readers Level 3]

Stories For Children


Oscar Wilde - 1986
    Contents:- The Selfish Giant- The Nightingale and the Rose- The Devoted Friend- The Happy Prince- The Remarkable Rocket- The Young King

Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England


Jack D. Zipes - 1986
    It demonstrates how recent writers have changed the aesthetic constructs and social content of fairy tales to reflect cultural change since the 1960s in area of gender roles, socialization and education. It includes selected works from such writers as Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood and Jay Williams, and critical essays from Marcia Lieberman and Sandra Gilbert.

The Fencepost Chronicles


W.P. Kinsella - 1986
    In The Fencepost Chronicles, Kinsella recounts 13 more wonderful stories featuring the delightfully crazy Frank Fencepost and his friend Silas Ermineskin -- as they cause a riot on a nude beach in Vancouver, chit-chat with the Queen (in her bedroom!) and manage a bankrupt baseball team.Throughout it all, Frank and Silas remain undaunted though not always unbloodied, as they and their fellow Cree pit themselves against travel agents, bureaucrats, used-car dealers, the RCMP and other denizens of the the white-man's world.

Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life


Alice Childress - 1986
    They create a vibrant picture of the life of a black working woman in New York in the 1950s. Rippling with satire and humor, Mildred’s outspoken accounts capture vividly her white employers’ complacency and condescension—and startled reactions to a maid who speaks her mind. As Mildred declares to a patronizing employer that she is not just like one of the family, or explains to Marge how a tricky employer has created a system of “half days off” to cheat her help, we gain a glimpse not only of one woman’s day-to-day struggle, but of her previous ache of racial oppression. A domestic who refuses to exchange dignity for pay, Mildred is an inspiring conversationalist, a dragon slayer in a segregated world. The conversations in the book were first published in Freedom, the newspaper edited by Paul Robeson, and later in the Baltimore Afro-American. The book was originally published in the 1950s by in Brooklyn–based Independence Press, and Beacon Press brought out a new edition of it in 1986 with an introduction by the literary and cultural critic Trudier Harris.

Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology


Bruce SterlingJames Patrick Kelly - 1986
    Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.Contents:The Gernsback Continuum (1981) by William GibsonSnake-Eyes (1986) by Tom MaddoxRock On (1984) by Pat CadiganTales of Houdini (1981) by Rudy Rucker400 Boys (1983) by Marc LaidlawSolstice (1985) by James Patrick KellyPetra (1982) by Greg BearTill Human Voices Wake Us (1984) by Lewis ShinerFreezone (1985) by John ShirleyStone Lives (1985) by Paul Di FilippoRed Star, Winter Orbit (1983) by William Gibson and Bruce SterlingMozart in Mirrorshades (1984) by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner

The Compleat Crow


Brian Lumley - 1986
    Now his hair had greyed a little and his eyes, though they were still very bright and observant, bore the imprint of many a year spent exploring – and often, I guessed, discovering – along rarely trodden paths of mysterious and obscure learning.’Mysterious, obscure learning...To many thousands of readers all over the world Titus Crow is the occult investigator, psychic sleuth and cosmic voyager of Brian Lumley’s novels of the Cthulhu Mythos from The Burrowers Beneath to Elysia.But before the Burrowers and Crow’s Transition, his exploits were chronicled in a series of short stories and novellas previously uncollected in a British edition. Now these stories can be told. From ‘Inception’, which tells of his origins, to ‘The Black Recalled’, a tale of vengeance from beyond the grave, here in one volume, from the bestselling author of the epic Necroscope series, is THE COMPLEAT CROW.

Sword and Sorceress III


Marion Zimmer BradleyAnodea Judith - 1986
    OverstreetValley of the Shadow · Jennifer RobersonThe Song and the Flute [Cynthia] · Dorothy J. HeydtJourneytime · Dana Kramer-RollsOrpheus · Mary Frances ZambrenoScarlet Eyes · Millea KeninThe River of Tears · Anodea JudithFresh Blood · Polly B. JohnsonThe Mist on the Moor · Diana L. PaxsonBargains · Elizabeth MoonA Woman’s Privilege · Elisabeth WatersTalla · J. Edwin AndrewsTupilak · Terry TafoyaSword Sworn [Vows and Honor] · Mercedes LackeyA Tale from Hendry’s Mill · Melissa CarpenterS.A.R. · Patricia B. CironeMore’s the Pity · L.D. WoeltjenMarwe’s Forest · Charles R. SaundersThe Hunters · Mavis J. Andrews

Damballah


John Edgar Wideman - 1986
    With stunning lyricism, Wideman sings of "dead children in garbage cans, of gospel and basketball, of lost gods and dead fathers" (John Leonard). It is a celebration of people who, in the face of crisis, uphold one another--with grace, courage, and dignity.

Tongues of Flame


Mary Ward Brown - 1986
    With Tongues of Flame, her first collection of short stories, Brown bares the awkward, sometimes hopeful, and often tragic suffering of people caught in changing times within a timeless setting.Here we meet such memorable characters as a dying black woman who seeks the advice of a now-alcoholic white doctor whom she knew in better years; a young woman, jilted at the altar, driven crazy by an illuminated cross erected by the church opposite her house; and a 95-year-old woman buying a tombstone for her long-deceased husband only to discover that he had been adulterous throughout their marriage. Brown constructs her characters in a disarmingly plain style while breathing life into them with compassion and honesty as they confront the large moments of their lives.First published by E. P. Dutton in 1986 to immediate critical acclaim, Tongues of Flame won the 1987 PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award. The judges commended Brown for "seeing life whole, without prejudice, without sentimentality, without histrionics. Her voice may be quiet-sometimes she speaks in a whisper-but her words are, nevertheless, always forceful, clear, and ultimately lasting." With this new publication of Tongues of Flame and its inclusion in the University of Alabama Press's Deep South Books series, a whole new generation of readers may once more discover Mary Ward Brown's profound stories of pain, loss, and hope.

The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories, 1945-1985


Daniel Halpern - 1986
    Eighty-one masterpieces by the world's best writers a surprising, irresistible collection of short stories from around the world."

The Best Mysteries Of Isaac Asimov


Isaac Asimov - 1986
    This collection contains 31 short pieces that are among his personal favorites. Two sections contain his series stories, the ``Black Widower'' and the ``Union Club'' mysteries. Brief introductions to each section and story will serve to acquaint readers with the general background of the series. A third section contains miscellaneous mysteries. All are clear and entertaining. This is a book to be read on ``a little here, a little there'' basis. The stories are short, and prolonged reading results in a series of mental stops and starts that are wearying. Also, the stories are written according to a set formula. However, read on the installment plan, the book is worth the effort. If the recent spate of series in juvenile publishing is any guide, this collection should please adolescents, including reluctant readers. - School Library Journal

Howard Who?


Howard Waldrop - 1986
    R. Martin The first paperback (and twentieth anniversary) edition of a landmark debut collection. Howard Waldrop's encyclopedic knowledge of superheroes, baseball players, world wars, long-dead film stars, Mexican wrestlers, pulp serials, fairy tales, and extinct species is put to good use in these sophisticated re-combinations of our pop-culture dreams.Contents:The Ugly Chickens (1980)Der Untergang des Abendlandesmenschen (1976)Ike at the Mike (1982)Dr. Hudson's Secret Gorilla (1977)"...The World as We Know't." (1982)Green Brother (1982)Mary Margaret Road-Grader (1976)Save a Place in the Lifeboat for Me (1976)Horror, We Got (1979)Man-Mountain Gentian (1983)God's Hooks! (1982)Heirs of the Perisphere (1985)

Tales of Suspense


Edgar Allan Poe - 1986
    Valdemar --Hop-frog --The tell-tale heart --The imp of the perverse --Metzengerstein --The black cat --The masque of the red death.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1


Bert Coules - 1986
    These four stories, written by the main dramatist on the complete BBC Radio 4 Sherlock Holmes canon, imaginatively flesh out the cases behind those references to wonderful effect. As in the complete dramatised canon, Clive Merrison plays the great sleuth. Andrew Sachs plays the role of Doctor Watson, while the star cast includes Tom Baker, Eleanor Bron, Jane Asher, Tim West and Toyah Willcox. The stories are: 'The Madness of Colonel Warburton'; ‘The Star of the Adelphi'; 'The Saviour of Cripplegate Square' and 'The Singular Inheritance of Miss Gloria Watson'.4 CDs. 2 hrs 55 mins.

Anagrams


Lorrie Moore - 1986
    Disillusioned and loveless, a chain-smoking art history professor who spends her spare time singing in nightclubs and tending to her young daughter finds herself pursued by an erratic, would-be librettist.

Last Worthless Evening: Four Novellas and Two Stories


Andre Dubus - 1986
    As novelist Richard Ford has said, "Dubus is a patient, resourceful and profound writer who never gives in to convention--although his situations are our situations, and imminently recognizable. The great, addictive pleasure of reading him arises from our anticipation that he is always going to say something interesting."

Best Detective Stories of Agatha Christie


Agatha Christie - 1986
    - The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge- The Million Dollar Bond Robbery - The Adventure of the Clapham Cook- Accident - The Lernean Hydra - The Stymphalean Birds- Tape-Measure Murder

Cascade Point and Other Stories


Timothy Zahn - 1986
    Contents:The Giftie Gie Us (1981)The Dreamsender (1980)The Energy Crisis of 2215 (1981)Return to the Fold (1984)The Shadows of Evening (1983)Not Always to the Strong (1987)The Challenge (1987)The Cassandra (1983)Dragon Pax (1987)Job Inaction (1981)Teamwork (1984)The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment (1983)Cascade Point (1983)

Submerged Valley & Other Stories


Manoj Das - 1986
    Seventeen Stories from one of modern India's best-loved writers, recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Only The Little Bone


David Huddle - 1986
    Set in rural Virginia in the 1950s, this collection of six stories and a novella focuses on the life of Reed Bryant through various stages of bewilderment and resolve from early childhood to middle age and his relationships with family members.

Tales of Terror: 58 Short Stories Chosen by the Master of Suspense


Alfred HitchcockJack Ritchie - 1986
    These suspenseful stories all appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and in the words of Hitch himself, they "are guaranteed to chill and unnerve." Bill Pronzini contributes "The Arrowmont Prison Riddle," Margaret B. Maron has "A Very Special Talent," Barry M. Malzberg offers "A Home Away from Home," and Patricia Matthews chronicles "The Fall of Dr. Scourby." Meet a girl who stalks Jack the Ripper, a clairvoyant writer of newspaper obituaries, a homicidal partygoer in a sanatorium, and a police detective who lives vicariously through the exploits of one of his most notorious suspects: they all populate these frightening pages. Caution: not recommended for late-night reading--except for the very brave CONTENTSKilled by Kindness ..... Nedra TyreJust a Minor Offense ..... John F. SuterA Home Away From Home ..... Robert BlochDeath of a Derelict ..... Joseph Payne BrennanThe Arrowmont Prison Riddle ..... Bill PronziniThe Dettweiler Solution ..... Lawrence BlockThe Whitechapel Wantons ..... Vincent McConnorCora's Raid ..... Isak RomunLife or Breath ..... Nelson deMilleA Private Little War ..... William BrittainHave You Ever Seen This Woman? ..... John LutzJoe Cutter's Game ..... Brian GarfieldA Cabin in the Woods ..... John CoyneThe Long Arm of El Jefe ..... Edward WellenKid Cardula ..... Jack RitchieCareer Man ..... James HoldingThe Perfidy of Professor Blake ..... Libby MacCallSea Change ..... Henry SlesarThe Blue Tambourine ..... Donald OlsonGraveyard Shift ..... William P. McGivernA Bottle of Wine ..... Borden DealMan Bites Dog ..... Donald HonigNever Trust an Ancestor ..... Michael ZuroyAnother War ..... Edward D. HochSparrow on a String ..... Alice Scanlan ReachThe Missing Tattoo ..... Clayton MatthewsThe Fall of Dr. Scourby ..... Patricia MatthewsThe Loose End ..... Stephen WasylykThat So-called Laugh ..... Frank SiskA Very Special Talent ..... Margaret B. MaronThe Joker ..... Betty Ren WrightThe Very Hard Sell ..... Helen NielsenThe Tin Ear ..... Ron GoulartThe Time Before the Crime ..... Charlotte EdwardsAfter the Unfortunate Accident ..... Barry N. MalzbergThe Grateful Thief ..... Patrick O'KeeffeThe Inspiration ..... Talmage PowellDeath is a Lonely Lover ..... Robert ColbyThe Witness was a Lady ..... Fletcher FloraScheme for Destruction ..... Pauline C. SmithTo the Manner Born ..... Mary BraundBlack Disaster ..... Richard O. LewisThe Marrow of Justice ..... Hal EllsonInnocent Witness ..... Irving SchifferWe're Really Not That Kind of People ..... Samuel W. TaylorPocket Evidence ..... Harold Q. MasurThe Death Desk ..... S.S. RaffertyA Left-handed Profession ..... Al NussbaumSecond Spring ..... Theodore MathiesonBank Night ..... Arthur PorgesThe Contagious Killer ..... Bryce WaltonBad Actor ..... Gary BrandnerFree Advice, Incorporated ..... Michael BrettThe Real Criminal ..... James M. GilmoreThe Hard Sell ..... William DolanThe Prosperous Judds ..... Bob BristowThe Dead Indian ..... Robert W. AlexanderThe China Cottage ..... August Derleth

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisGeorge R.R. Martin - 1986
    R. Martin441 • Flying Saucer Rock & Roll • (1985) • novelette by Howard Waldrop459 • A Spanish Lesson • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard486 • Roadside Rescue • (1985) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan494 • Paper Dragons • (1985) • novelette by James P. Blaylock510 • Magazine Section • (1985) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty522 • The War at Home • (1985) • shortstory by Lewis Shiner526 • Rockabye Baby • (1985) • novelette by S. C. Sykes551 • Green Mars • (1985) • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson620 • Honorable Mentions: 1985 • essay by Gardner Dozois

Short Stories and Poems


Edgar Allan Poe - 1986
    -- Booklist Includes The Tell-Tale Heart; The Cask of Amontillado; The Masque of the Red Death; Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar; The Black Cat; The Raven; Annabel Lee; Ulalume; and The Bells.

The Best American Short Stories 1986


Raymond Carver - 1986
    Short Stories by Ann Beattie, Ethan Canin, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Alice Munro, Thomas McGuane, Lord Tweedsmuir, Donald Barthelme, Raymond Carver, and many others.

Pack of Cards


Penelope Lively - 1986
    Whether she writes about a widow on a visit to Russia, a small boy's consignment to boarding school, or an agoraphobic housewife, Penelope Lively takes the reader past the closed curtains, through the locked door, into a world that seems at first mundane and then at second glance, proves to be uniquely memorable.

The Heart of a Peacock


Emily Carr - 1986
    Together, they underline Carr's place as a writer with the sharp yet tender eye of an artist, with a deep feeling for the tragedies of life and with a rich sense of the comic. The book is enhanced by seven of Carr's line drawings of scenes from nature. The Heart of a Peacock is the fourth of the seven books by Emily Carr to be published by Douglas & McIntyre in a completely redesigned edition, each with an introduction by a noted Canadian writer or an authority on Emily Carr and her work.

The Conscience of a Hacker


The Mentor - 1986
    

Love Is The Crooked Thing


Lee K. Abbott - 1986
    

Summer Lightning and Other Stories


Olive Senior - 1986
    Summer Lightning is her first collection of short stories. Her setting is rural Jamaica; her heroes are the naïve and the vulnerable, who bring to life with power and realism issues such as snobbery, ambition, jealousy, faith and love.Written in vivid, colourful detail, these rich compelling stories recreate with sensitivity and wit a whole range of emotions, from childhood hope to brooding melancholy. Each is told with an affectionate and poignant perception of you and I at our best and worst. Gently we are led, laughing, crying, but always enjoying.

Arab Folktales


Inea Bushnaq - 1986
    Out of alleys of Cairo and Bedouin tents, from the Moroccan laborers and Syrian peasants, this collection of 130 tales comes from Arab worlds from North Africa to the Holy Land.

First Contact and Exploration Team


Murray Leinster - 1986
    "First Contact" is one of the most frequently reprinted stories in all of science fiction... Leinster's classic stories are well worth hearing even today." - AudioFile"First Contact" won the 1996 Retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette of 1945."Exploration Team" won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette of 1956.

Science Fiction Masterpieces


Isaac Asimov - 1986
    Paxson; In the Country of the Blind No One Can See by Melisa Michaels; Keepersmith by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron; A Delicate Shade of Kipney by Nancy Kress; Born Again by Sharon N. Farber; Good-Bye Robinson Crusoe by John Varley; A Bait of Dreams by Jo Clayton; Dance Band on the Titanic by Jack Chalker; Bystander by Alan Dean Foster; Time and Hagakure by Steven Utley; Ghosts by Keith Minnion; A Simple Outside Job by Robert Lee Hawkins; The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny; Lost and Found by Michael A. Banks and George Wagner; Hellhole by David Gerrold; The Man Who Took the Fifth by Michael Schimmel; The Adventure of the Global Traveler by Anne Lear; Backspace by F. M. Busby; On the Q167 File by John M. Ford; Horseless Carriage by Michael A. Banks; Piece de Resistance by Jesse Bone; Lipidleggin' by F. Paul Wilson; Omit Flowers by Dean McLaughlin; One Rejection Too Many by Patricia Nurse; But Do They Ride Dolphins? by Frederick S. Lord; When There's No Man Around by Stephen Goldin; Guilt by James Gunn; Proud Rider by Barry B. Longyear; Lorelie at Storyville West by Sherwood Springer; On the Way by Conway Conley; Darkside by Gary D. McClellan; No Room in the Stable by A. Bertram Chandler; African Blues by Paula Smith; Coming of Age in Henson's Tube by William Jon Watkins; Star Train by Drew Mendelson; Softly Touch the Stranger's Mind by E. Amalia Andujar; Joelle by Poul Anderson; Quarantine by Arthur C. Clarke; Cautionary Tales by Larry Niven; Air Raid by Herb Boehm; A Many Splendored Thing by Linda Isaacs; Boarder Incident by Ted Reynolds; Low Grade Ore by Kevin O'Donnell; Heal the Sick Raise the Dead by Jesse Peel; A Time for Terror by Frederick Longbeard; Perchance to Dream by Sally A. Sellers; The Small Stones to Tu Fu by Brian W. Aldiss; To Sin Against Systems by Garry R. Osgood; Louisville Slugger by Jack C. Haldeman II; and Good Taste by Isaac Asimov.

Collected Works of Alphonse Daudet


Alphonse Daudet - 1986
    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Collected Stories of Jessamyn West


Jessamyn West - 1986
    Her first novel, the ever-popular The Friendly Persuasion, was conceived as short stories. Among her nineteen books, Love, Death, and the Ladies’ Drill Team and Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell were collections of her independent stories. They, with the addition of eight others never before assembled, make up the thirty-six stories in this vibrant, compelling volume.The variety is breathtaking: a tale of suspense, a romantic idyll, a touch of the supernatural, a young man’s pursuit of a lost love, a glorious awakening in the wilderness, a chilling portrait of sexual torment, the joys and agonies of the young—these are the merest clues to the content. Comedy mingles with tragedy, tenderness with irony. The most ordinary human being is seen as remarkable. And daily existence is touched with magic.Jessamyn West rings changes in time, presents a startling sweep of personalities and moods. Her themes span a breadth of experience from the bite of misery to the balm of delight. Her achievement, taken totally, is a spectrum of living, a haunting, rewarding experience that attests to her consummate skill and extraordinary vision of the worlds before us and within us.

Selected Stories


Arkady Gaydar - 1986
    

A Nest of Nightmares


Lisa Tuttle - 1986
    Sylvia would take long walks in the country; Pam would have tea ready by the fire for when she returned. Nice fantasies...The house had that kind of effect on people. It felt cosy, lived-in, though it had been empty for many years. Oddly, there was rubbish everywhere, but there was no other sign of a squatter's brief inhabitation.And though the windows were unbroken. the doors securely locked, Pam could never entirely rid herself of the thought that she and her sister might not be alone in the house...One of 13 terrifying tales of terror...

Slender Is the Thread: Tales from a Country Law Office


Harry M. Caudill - 1986
    He denounced scoundrels of high and low station, praised courage and justice wherever he found it, and celebrated the ridiculous frailty of the human condition.

Tales Of Mystery And Imagination


Edgar Allan Poe - 1986
    The Fall of the House of Usher The murders in the Rue Morgue The Pit and the Pendulum The gold bug The mystery of Marie Roget The oblong box

The Complete Short Stories of Raffles--The Amateur Cracksman


E.W. Hornung - 1986
    

New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 1986


Shannon Ravenel - 1986
    

The Complete Short Novels


D.H. Lawrence - 1986
    The four novellas that followed, including "The Virgin and The Gypsy" and "The Princess", achieve a far greater beauty and vitality, and in "St Mawr", set in New Mexico, and "The Escaped Cock" an extraordinary reworking of the story of Christ's resurrection, Lawrence brings to the short novel the richness and resonance of myth.

Life in Windy Weather: Short Stories


Andrei Bitov - 1986
    

The Downhill Crocodile Whizz and Other Stories


Margaret Mahy - 1986
    Children's Short Stories

The Barracks Thief and Selected Stories


Tobias Wolff - 1986
    Offers a collection of short stories that combines, in mostly domestic settings, intense feeling with wild imagination and familiar situations with extraordinary events.

Agatha Christie Mysteries: Philomel Cottage, the Red Signal, the Mystery of the Spanish Shawl


Agatha Christie - 1986
    Contains "Philomel Cottage," "The Red Signal," and "The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl." 2 cassettes.

Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship


Maya Angelou - 1986
    Flowers, a cultured and gentle Black woman, Marguerite develops self-esteem and an appreciation for great literature.

The Fox and the Forest/the Happiness Machine


Ray Bradbury - 1986
    

Selected Writings: Robert Musil: Young Torless, Three Women, The Perfecting of a Love, and other writings


Robert Musil - 1986
    Writings: Young Torless, Three Women, The Perfecting of a Love and other Writings

A Treasury of Civil War Stories


Martin H. GreenbergShelby Foote - 1986
    Includes William Faulkner, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shelby Foote, and others.

The Game of the Pink Pagoda


Roger Moss - 1986
    Here, twenty-six tales, or "model games," evoke twenty-six different literary styles, from the Victorian novel to vintage mystery, Greek myth to science fiction, medieval romance to adventure story, each revolving around a pink pagoda in the English countryside. Here find stories of love, of friendship, of the supernatural, of legend...stories of adventure, murder and kidnapping...stories with a philosophical flavor--of good versus evil, of greed, of life itself. The Game of the Pink Pagoda is more than a book...Think of it as a small town, seen through the eyes of the different inhabitants, each with his or her own interpretation. Think of it as a game, where each time you sit down to play, the goals shift, the players change places, the opportunities are disguised. Think of it as a literary marvel, a collection of stories with an eclectic style all its own, as varied and different and unique as ourselves. Think of it as a quest, for truth, for riches for answers to questions that have always been asked. Think of it as an experience, a myriad tapestry that will change the way you look at your world forever. Think of the Pink Pagoda, and you'll begin to understand the Game--andwhy you are playing....

And Venus Is Blue


Mary Hood - 1986
    The stories cover the terrain of transition between old and new, history and the present, holding on and letting go. In "Finding the Chain," Cliffie struggles to overcome her ties to the past and forge a beginning with her newly formed family. "Moths" shows how one man's fortitude, friends, and love of nature help him see his life of poverty in a new light. In the title novella, Delia struggles to overcome her fears of separation and abandonment in the face of her father's suicide. With characters, situations, and settings that capture the turmoil of lives--and of a region--caught in transition between the past and present, the stories of And Venus Is Blue portray both the uncompromising harshness of life and the power of human tenacity.

Plays For Today


Dennis Scott - 1986
    The Longman Caribbean Writers Series comprises of many classic novels, short stories and plays by the best known Caribbean authors, together with works of the highest quality from new writers.

A History of Yesterday- diary entry wherein Tolstoy records his


Leo Tolstoy - 1986
    

Napoleon Crazy and Other Stories


Takashi Atoda - 1986
    

Fools and Other Stories


Njabulo S. Ndebele - 1986
    He has gone on to become one of the most powerful voices for cultural freedom on the whole of the African continent today. Ndebele evokes township life with humor and subtlety, rejecting the image of black South Africans as victims and focusing on the complexity and fierce energy of their lives. "Our literature," says Ndebele, "ought to seek to move away from an easy preoccupation with demonstrating the obvious existence of oppression. It exists. The task is to explore how and why people can survive under such harsh conditions." About Njabulo Ndebele: now Chancellor of Witwatersrand University in South Africa. Ndebele began publishing these stories from exile in Lesotho during the 1980s. Ndebele is now recognised as a major voice in South Africa's cultural life. This is his only fiction collection available in Europe or North America. Ndebele's stories first began appearing in Staffrider magazine, an innovative publishing venture linked to the Soweto branch of South African PEN. Founded after the bloody Soweto riots of the mid-1970s, the magazine took as its symbol the staffriders, un-ticketed commuters from the black townships who every day clung onto or balanced on top of buses and trains to get into the cities to work. Staffrider magazine, and in particular Ndebele's stories, helped define a new tone in black South African literature that went beyond and finally overcame apartheid.

Grits


Kathryn Tucker Windham - 1986
    The author calls them recollections of a happy Southern childhood, but her avid admirers would tell you they are much more than that. Combing her vivid characterization, her affection for the South and its people, her well-seasoned humor, and her distinctive diction, these stories capture something of Southern culture that is in danger of extinction. By listening to Ms. ....

The Tale of an Empty House and Other Ghost Stories


E.F. Benson - 1986
    

Chuck Berry


Hal Leonard Corporation - 1986
    * Johnny B. Goode * Little Queenie * Maybellene * Roll Over Beethoven * Sweet Little Rock and Roller * and more.

A Celebration of Babies


Sally Emerson - 1986
    An anthology of poetry and prose.

One Way or Another


Peter Cameron - 1986
    Families, homes, lovers, marriages -- the safe havens they have been taught to depend on no longer guarantee shelter or stability.ONE WAY OR ANOTHER introduces Peter Cameron as an extraordinary writer, one distinguished not only by his prose, which is always abundantly witty and pitch-perfect, but also by a rare generosity of heart.Included in this book are two stories that were selected for the O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES: "Homework," first published in The New Yorker, and "Excerpts from Swan Lake," first published in The Kenyon Review.

The All-Girl Football Team (Vintage Contemporaries)


Lewis Nordan - 1986
    Daddy keeps a black suit with the words "Rock 'n' Roll Music" spelled out in sequins on the back hidden in his closet. Sugar searches for a way to grow up with dignity, and finds resources he never knew he had. While fishing for chickens in the yard, he lands a rooser on his head instead: "My parents were proud of me. They believed that a man who has worn a chicken on his head would never be a fool to geography or marriage or alcohol."Lewis Nordan's magical, often sidesplittingly funny tales are triumphs of Southern storytelling.

Listen Children


Dorothy S. Strickland - 1986
    Listen Children is an introduction to the world of black literature for all young people who are learning about values and  feelings.- Poems by Lucille Clifton,  Eloise Greenfield, and Langston Hughes- A full-length play by Alice Childress- Stories by Virginia Hamilton and Kristin Hunter- Recollections by Wilma Rudolph and Stevie Wonder- Martin  Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech- 22 pieces in all, to be read with a group or enjoyed aloneListen  Children celebrates the joy and struggles of being young, the pride in being black, and above all the love we feel for others as we discover ourselves.

The Year's Best Mystery And Suspense Stories 1986


Edward D. Hoch - 1986
    

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1986 (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #425)


Edward L. Ferman - 1986
    

Gore Shriek #1


Stephen R. Bissette - 1986
    Bissette, who also contributed stories to each issue. Besides Bissette, other Gore Shriek creators of note included Greg Capullo, Bruce Spaulding Fuller, Eric Stanway and Gurchain Singh. Gore Shriek volume I ran for three years (1986 - '89), and is still fondly remembered by horror fans as one of the top comics in that genre.

Isaac Asimov's Stories from the science fiction magazine


Isaac Asimov - 1986
    

Rope Dancer


M.J. Fitzgerald - 1986
    A collection of stories that question conventional notions of time and perception and reveal the ways in which ordinary occurrences can haunt the mind and grow to frightening proportions.

Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories


Opal Palmer Adisa - 1986
    Not the ones seen in TV travel ads, but women who must struggle to maintain their integrity, as much as their physical survival, in a society plagued for centuries by slavery, colonialism and poverty. These women are descendants of African slaves, and the reality of their lives has been camouflaged by the perennial image the Caribbean evokes for outsiders—an image that merges, paradoxically, paradise and servitude. In writing about her sisters who still live in the Jamaican countryside, Adisa gives voice to their pleasures, conflicts and feelings as few Jamaican writers before her have done. Her stories are about a plantation worker, a domestic, a village wife, and a fisherman's wife, women who constitute the majority of Jamaican women but who seldom appear as central in even their countrymen's works.

Taking the World in for Repairs


Richard Selzer - 1986
    Richard Selzer retired as a surgeon in 1984 to write about his profession. His books include Letters to a Young Doctor, Confessions of a Knife, Mortal Lessons, Rituals of Surgery, and most recent, Raising the Dead.