In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas. The stories within these pages were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining.

    It is a simple tale of a father’s love for his daughter and the transfer of that love to another little girl. It is a love that transcends the borders of race, religion and language.Kabuliwala which literally means “The Kabuli Man” (better known in English as “The Fruitseller from Kabul”), is a story about the ancient and romantic friendship between India and Kabul city.

    P. Lovecraft, and of course, Neil Gaiman.A Study in Emerald draws listeners in through carefully revealed details as a consulting detective and his narrator friend solve the mystery of a murdered German noble. But with its subtle allusions and surprise ending, this mystery hints that the real fun in solving this case lies in imagining all the details that Gaiman doesn't reveal, and challenges listeners to be detectives themselves.

    'The Fall of the House of Usher' describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In 'Tell-Tale Heart', a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and 'The Cask of Amontillado' explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate. These works display Poe's startling ability to build suspense with almost nightmarish intensity.David Galloway's introduction re-examines the myths surrounding Poe's life and reputation. This edition includes a new chronology and suggestions for further reading.PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS SELECTED WRITINGSChronologyIntroductionFurther ReadingA Note on the TextPOEMSStanzasSonnet — To ScienceA/ AaraafRomanceTO HelenIsrafelThe City in the SeaThe SleeperLenoreThe Valley of UnrestThe RavenUlalumeFor AnnieA ValentineAnnabel LeeThe BellsEldoradoTALESMS. Found in a BottleLigeiaThe Man that was Used UpThe Fall of the House of UsherWilliam WilsonThe Man of the CrowdThe Murders in the Rue MorgueA Descent into the MaelströmEleonoraThe Oval PortraitThe Masque of the Red DeathThe Pit and the PendulumThe Tell-Tale HeartThe Gold-BugThe Black CatThe Purloined LetterThe Facts in the Case of M. ValdemarThe Cask of AmontilladoHop-FrogESSÄYS AND REVIEWSLetter to B—Georgia ScenesThe Drake—Halleck Review (excerpts)Watkins TottleThe Philosophy of FurnitureWyandottéMusicTime and SpaceTwice-Told TalesThe American Drama (excerpts)HazlittThe Philosophy of CompositionSong-WritingOn ImaginationThe Veil of the SoulThe Poetic Principle (excerpts)Notes

    Though he met with phenomenal success in every genre he tried, the form that put him on the map was the short story. Now this great writer--The Wall Street Journal recently compared with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson--will receive his due as a great storyteller. This volume kicks off a series that will, when complete, anthologize all of L'Amour's short fiction, volume by handsome volume.Here, in Volume One, is a treasure-trove of 35 frontier tales for his millions of fans and for those who have yet to discover L'Amour's thrilling prose--and his vital role in capturing the spirit of the Old West for generations to come.

    This book contains seven of his most entertaining adventures, competently translated. At each reading, one can only marvel at the writer's genius.

    Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholarsBiographies of the authorsChronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural eventsFootnotes and endnotesSelective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the workComments by other famous authorsStudy questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectationsBibliographies for further readingIndices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Often considered a prologue to Dostoevsky’s brilliant novels, the story “Notes from Underground” introduces one of the great anti-heroes in literature: the underground man, who lives on the fringes of society. In an impassioned, manic monologue this character—plagued by shame, guilt, and alienation—argues that reason is merely a flimsy construction built upon humanity’s essentially irrational core. Internal conflict is also explored in “The Double,” a surreal tale of a government clerk who meets a more unpleasant version of himself and is changed as a result. In addition to these two existential classics, this collection also includes the psychologically probing stories “The Meek One,” “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,” and “White Nights.”Deborah A. Martinsen is Assistant to the Director of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature. She is the author of Surprised by Shame: Dostoevsky's Liars and Narrative Exposure.

    Saadat Hasan Manto's stories are vivid, dangerous and troubling and they slice into the everyday world to reveal its sombre, dark heart. These stories were written from the mid 30s on, many under the shadow of Partition. No Indian writer since has quite managed to capture the underbelly of Indian life with as much sympathy and colour. In a new translation that for the first time captures the richness of Manto's prose and its combination of high emotion and taut narrative, this is a classic collection from the master of the Indian short story.

    There follows tales of life away from home, student days, early marriage and young families, and finally Updike's experimental stories on 'The Single Life'. Here, then, is a rich and satisfying feast of Updike - his wit, his easy mastery of language, his genius for recalling the subtleties of ordinary life and the excitements, and perils, of the pursuit of happiness.

    P. Lovecraft’s shocking, terrifying, and eerily prescient Cthulhu Mythos. In twenty-one dark visions, a host of outstanding contemporary writers tap into our innermost fears, with tales set in a misbegotten new world that could have been spawned only by the master of the macabre himself, H. P. Lovecraft. Inside you’ll find:DETAILS by China Miéville: A curious boy discovers that within the splinters of cracked wood or the tangle of tree branches, the devil is in the details.VISITATION by James Robert Smith: When Edgar Allan Poe arrives, a callow man finally gets what he always wanted—and what he may eternally despise. MEET ME ON THE OTHER SIDE by Yvonne Navarro: A couple in love with terror travels beyond their wildest dreams—and into their nightmares.A FATAL EXCEPTION HAS OCCURRED AT . . . by Alan Dean Foster: Internet terrorism extends far beyond transmitting threats of evil.AND SEVENTEEN MORE HARROWING TALESFrom the Trade Paperback edition.vii • Introduction: The Call of Lovecraft • essay by Benjamin Adams and John Pelan1 • Details • short story by China Miéville21 • Visitation • short story by James Robert Smith33 • The Invisible Empire • novelette by James Van Pelt57 • A Victorian Pot Dresser • novelette by L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims85 • The Cabin in the Woods • novelette by Richard Laymon109 • The Stuff of the Stars, Leaking • short story by Tim Lebbon125 • Sour Places • short story by Mark Chadbourn141 • Meet Me on the Other Side • short story by Yvonne Navarro161 • That's the Story of My Life • short story by Benjamin Adams and John Pelan181 • Long Meg and Her Daughters • novella by Paul Finch243 • A Fatal Exception Has Occurred At ... • short story by Alan Dean Foster261 • Dark of the Moon • short story by James S. Dorr275 • Red Clay • short story by Michael Reaves [as by J. Michael Reaves]291 • Principles and Parameters • novelette by Meredith L. Patterson325 • Are You Loathsome Tonight? • (1998) • short story by Poppy Z. Brite331 • The Serenade of Starlight • short story by W. H. Pugmire (variant of Serenade of Starlight) [as by W. H. Pugmire, Esq.]345 • Outside • short story by Steve Rasnic Tem355 • Nor the Demons Down Under the Sea • [Dandridge Cycle] • short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan371 • A Spectacle of a Man • short story by Weston Ochse389 • The Firebrand Symphony • (2001) • novelette by Brian Hodge437 • Teeth • novelette by Matt Cardin463 • Notes on the Contributors (Children of Cthulhu: Chilling New Tales Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft) • essay by Benjamin Adams and John Pelan

    In 'The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above', an intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of dozens of white women all around her, to the bewilderment of her only child. In 'Do You Know Where I Am?' two college sweethearts rescue a lost cat - a simple act that has profound moral consequences for the rest of their lives together. In 'What You Pawn I Will Redeem', a homeless Indian man must raise $1,000 in twenty-four hours to buy back the fancy dance outfit stolen from his grandmother fifty years earlier.Even as they often make us laugh, Sherman Alexie's stories are driven by a haunting lyricism and naked candour that cut to the heart of the human experience.

    LovecraftNew Tales of Terror!What would happen if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his allies were to find themselves faced with Lovecraftian mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but beyond sanity itself. In this collection of original tales, twenty of today's cutting-edge writers provide answers to that burning question.Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Bright, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry, and Caitlin R. Kierman. These and other masters of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction spin dark tales within a terrifyingly surreal universe.Includes the Hugo Award-winning story A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman.Cover design: David StevensonCover Illustration: John Jude Palencar

    In this generous gathering from collections no longer available, longtime fans and new readers alike can savor the development of a master of idiosyncrasy.Properly celebrated for his range, Carlson offers us a rural sheriff who's wary of UFOs ("Phenomena"), a lawyer on a mission in remote Alaska ("Blazo"), a baseball player turned killer-by-accident ("Zanduce at Second"), and a nineteen-year-old who experiences an unsettling sexual awakening during an Arizona summer ("Oxygen"). Here also is a man accusing Bigfoot of stealing his wife, followed by Bigfoot's incomparable response. Not least of the treasures is "The H Street Sledding Record," a story perfect for family holiday reading, in which a young father creates the magic of Santa by throwing manure on his roof on Christmas Eve.This book proves Carlson's axiom that "a short story is not a single thing done a single way," and it offers us—finally—a full view of his remarkable talents.

    A 2004 PEN/Malamud Award winner, this collection celebrates the work of American artist Richard Bausch -- a writer the New York Times calls "a master of the short story." By turns tender, raw, heartbreaking, and riotously funny, the many voices of this definitive forty-two-story collection (seven of which appear here for the first time) defy expectation, attest to Bausch's remarkable range and versatility, and affirm his place alongside such acclaimed story writers as John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, and Grace Paley.

    More than 1,000 pages, including nine novellas, unpublished teleplays, rare, never before collected short stories, and a small volume's worth of introductions and commentary.Each of the more than 30 stories will feature a full-page black and white illustration commissioned especially for this volume by Tim Truman, Mark A. Nelson, Janet Aulisio, Ron Brown and other fine artistsGRRM will be available only from Subterranean Press, in three editions:Trade: fully cloth bound sewn hardcover
Limited: 400 signed numbered hardcover copies housed in a handcrafted slipcase
Lettered: 52 signed leatherbound copies, housed in a handcrafted traycase, with original art not in the Limited or Trade editionsContents:ONE: A FOUR-COLOR FANBOY • Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark • The Fortress • And Death His LegacyTWO: BREAKING THROUGH • The Hero • The Exit to San Breta • The Second Kind of Loneliness • With Morning Comes MistfallTHREE: THE LIGHT OF DISTANT STARS • A Song for Lya • This Tower of Ashes • And Seven Times Never Kill Man • The Stone City • Bitterblooms • The Way of Cross and DragonFOUR: SWORDS OF TURTLE CASTLE • The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr • The Ice Dragon • In the Lost LandsFIVE: HYBRIDS AND HORRORS • Meathouse Man • Remembering Melody • Sandkings • Nightflyers • The Monkey Treatment • The Pear-Shaped ManFIVE: A TASTE OF TUF • A Beast for Norn (original version) • GuardiansSIX: HURRAH FOR HOLLYWOOD • The Road Less Travelled (Twilight Zone teleplay) • DOORWAYS pilot/ first draft (unproduced teleplay)SEVEN: WILD CARDS • Shell Games • The Journal of Xavier DesmondEIGHT: THE HEART IN CONFLICT • Bat Durston, the Bard, and Me (speech) • Under Siege • The Skin Trade • Unsound Variations • The Glass Flower • The Hedge Knight • Portraits of His Children

    My Uncle Oswald is a hilarious novel that follows the erotic exploits of the "the greatest fornicator of all time," Oasald Hendryks Cornelius, first introduced in Switch Bitch. Lust, triumph, the galling deflation of defeat: Dahl captures them all in these superbly taut black comedies of human weakness and unexpected reversal.

    To commemorate the anniversary, a breathtakingly diverse and illuminating anthology has been assembled. The greatest writers here write and speak upon the greatest subjects of our time:*Lorrie Moore and Raymond Carver on "Heartbreak"*Vladimir Nabokov on SEX*Kurt Vonnegut and Susan Sontag on "War"*Jonathan Franzen on "Betrayal"*Jeffrey Eugenides and Norman Mailer on "Death"*Philip Roth on "God"Inspiring a dizzying range of thought and emotion, the collection holds a mirror to the world we live in and to the reader's own hopes, dreams, fears, and joy.

    United, they comprise the story of Perry Katzek and his widening, endearing clan. Through these streets walk butchers, hitmen, mothers and factory workers, boys turned men and men turned to urban myth. I Sailed With Magellan solidifies Dybek's standing as one of our finest chroniclers of urban America.

    P. LOVECRAFTWelcome to the world of H. P. Lovecraft, the undisputed master of terror. His work has inspired countless nightmares, and this collection of some of his most chilling stories is likely to inspire even more.Cool Air–An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.The Case of Charles Dexter Ward–Ward delves into the black arts and resurrects the darkest evil from beyond the grave.The Terrible Old Man–The intruders seek a fortune but find only death. Herbert West–Reanimator–Mad experiments yield hideous results in this bloodcurdling tale, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.The Shadow Over Innsmouth–A small fishing town’s population is obscenely corrupted by a race of fiendish undersea creatures.The Lurking Fear–An upstate New York clan degenerates into thunder-crazed mole like creatures with a taste for human flesh.PLUS TEN OTHER SPINE-TINGLING TALES

    A mother feels her daughter's first kick during pregnancy, labors to bring her daughter into the world and

    In Munro’s hands, the people she writes about–women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children–become as vivid as our own neighbors. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own. (back cover)RunawayChanceSoonSilencePassionTrespassesTricksPowers

    MORE TOMORROW & OTHER STORIES features 30 of the author's best stories, plus an introduction by award-winning editor Stephen Jones and an afterword by Michael Marshall Smith.More TomorrowBeing Right*Hell Hath Enlarged HerselfSave As...The HandoverWhat You Make It*Maybe Next TimeThe Book of Irrational NumbersWhen God Lived in Kentish TownThe Man Who Drew CatsA Place To StayThe Dark LandTo See The SeaTwo ShotLast Glance Back They Also ServeDear AlisonTo Receive Is BetterThe Munchies*AlwaysNot WavingEverybody GoesDyingCharmsOpen Doors*LaterMore Bitter Than DeathA Long Walk, For The Last TimeThe VaccinatorEnough Pizza

    With a true geek's unflinching honesty, Wil examines life, love, the web, and the absurdities of Hollywood in these compelling autobiographical narratives. Based on pieces first published in Wil's hugely popular blog, www.wilwheaton.net, the stories in Dancing Barefoot is a vivid account of one man's version of that universal story, the search for self. If you've ever fallen in love, wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Star Trek convention, or thought hard about the meaning of life, you'll find a kindred soul in the pages of Dancing Barefoot. In the process of uncovering his true geeky self, Wil Wheaton speaks to the inner geek in all of us.

    and Thomas F. Monteleone have reapeatedly transformed teh landscape of the modern horror story with their acclaimed Borderlands anthologies. Now in an indispensable new collection, they present twenty-five all-original tales of terror by today's acclaimed masters and the best new voices in horror fiction, including: Stephen KingWhitley StrieberJohn FarrisTom PiccirilliDavid J. SchowBentley Little...and many others.Shocking and cutting edge, these tales of doom, depravity, and menace will chill your blood and haunt your soul. From fantastic supernatural terrors to the very real horrors waiting outside your own front door, these stories expand the boundaries of fear and madness...--back coverContents:Rami temporalis / Gary Braunbeck --All hands / John R. Platt --Faith will make you free / Holly Newstein --N0072-JKI / Adam Corbin Fusco --Time for me / Barry Hoffman --The growth of Alan Ashley / Bill Gauthier --The goat / Whitt Pond --Prisoner 392 / Jon F. Merz --The food processor / Michael Canfield --Story time with the BlueField strangler / John Farris --Answering the call / Brian Freeman --Smooth operator / Dominick Cancilla --Father Bob and Bobby / Whitley Strieber --A thing / Barbara Malenky --The planting / Bentley Little --Infliction / John McIlveen --Dysfunction / Darren O. Godfrey --The thing too hideous to describe / David J. Schow --Slipknot / Brett Alexander Savory --Magic numbers / Gene O. Neill --Head music / Lon Prater --Around it still the sumac grows / Tom Piccirilli --Annabell / L. Lynn Young --One of those weeks / Bev Vincent --Stationary bike / Stephen King.

    For years, Tim has collected stories of the old folks, weaving traditional lore with stories from everyday life. Walking the Choctaw Road is a mixture of myth stories, historical accounts passed from generation to generation, and stories of Choctaw people living their lives in the here and now.

    Within these pages the reader will be transported to foreign and extraordinary worlds, become transfixed by visions of the past, present, and future and be left humbled and inspired by one of most absorbing and engaging writers of this century, and the last.This is the second of two volumes offering the very best of his short stories including 'The Garbage Collector', ‘The Machineries of Joy’ and ‘The Toynbee Convector’.

    Martin is a giant in the field of fantasy literature and one of the most exciting storytellers of our time. Now he delivers a rare treat for readers: a compendium of his shorter works, collected into two stunning volumes, that offer fascinating insight into his journey from young writer to award-winning master.Gathered here in Volume I are the very best of George R.R. Martin's early works, including never-before-published fan pieces, his Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Award-winning stories plus the original novella The Ice Dragon, from which Martin's New York Times bestselling children's book of the same title originated. A dazzling array that features extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume I, is the perfect collection for both Martin devotees and a new generation of fans.Contents:- Introduction by Gardner Dozois One: A Four-Color Fanboy (2003)- Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark (1967)- The Fortress (2003)- And Death His Legacy (2003)Two: The Filthy Pro (2003)- The Hero (1971)- The Exit to San Breta (1972)- The Second Kind of Loneliness (1972)- With Morning Comes Mistfall (1973)Three: The Light of Distant Stars (2003)- A Song for Lya (1974)- The Stone City (1977)- This Tower of Ashes (1976)- And Seven Times Never Kill Man (1975)- Bitterblooms (1977)- The Way of Cross and Dragon (1979)Four: The Heirs of Turtle Castle (2003)- The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr (1976)- The Ice Dragon (1980)- In the Lost Lands (1982)Five: Hybrids and Horrors (2003)- Meathouse Man (1976)- Remembering Melody (1981)- Sandkings (1979)- Nightflyers (1980)- The Monkey Treatment (1983)- The Pear-Shaped Man (1987)

    The book is a last in its series started from Vanvas.

    In Venice an architecture student commits a crime of passion. A white southern airport loader tries to do a favor for a black northern child. The ordinary stuff of ordinary fiction--but with a difference! These tales take place twenty-five, fifty, a hundred-fifty years from now, when men and women have been given gills to labor under the sea. Huge repair stations patrol the cables carrying power to the ends of the earth. Telepathic and precocious children so passionately yearn to visit distant galaxies that they'll kill to go. Brilliantly crafted, beautifully written, these are Samuel Delany's award-winning stories, like no others before or since.

    For some, it's a place for reflection or romance. For others, it's the thrill of watching surf crash against a sandy white beach or studying the kaleidoscope of life among a tropical coral reef. This ability of the ocean to change our lives, to inspire us and to fascinate us is what led us to create Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul, a collection of stories from around the world that celebrate the magic of our ocean planet. The sea, from the beginning of time, has inspired great art and amazing stories. Our relationship with the ocean lies deep within our consciousness and, in fact, is in each of us. Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul has captured some of these great stories to warm your heart and touch your soul. This book has amazing stories of swimming eye to eye with great whales, sharks and manatees, as well as legends of dolphins saving man. So get ready to dive in with Jack, Mark and Wyland, the world's most acclaimed marine-life artist, as they guide you on a journey of discovery and stories that will lift your spirit and awaken your senses like the healing sea itself. At last, a Chicken Soup for the Soul book for ocean lovers like you!

    In "When She is Old and I Am Famous" a young woman confronts the inscrutable power of her cousin's beauty. In "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" a band of popular girls exerts its social power over an awkward outcast. In "Isabel Fish" fourteen-year-old Maddy learns to scuba dive in order to mend her family after a terrible accident. Alive with the victories, humiliations, and tragedies of youth, How to Breathe Underwater illuminates this powerful territory with striking grace and intelligence.

    Neither is quite what they seem to be. In the audio edition, the actors are Alan Bennett and Judi Dench.

    She had been given the stolen black eyes of an Indian girl. Pigment drugs drained color from her skin. Then surgeries and cell knitters completed her transformation into a performance artist for the rich. This story is part of the publisher's Great Science Fiction Stories audio series. It's on 1 CD approximately 62 minutes in length. The author was recently awarded the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction.

    A homeless man recognizing in a pawn shop window the fancy-dance regalia that was stolen fifty years earlier from his late grandmother.

    Foreword: Reggie OliverIntroduction: Christopher Barker**'Beside The Shrill Sea''Feng Shui''In Arcadia''The Evil Eye''Miss Marchant’s Cause''Tiger In The Snow''Gardens Gods''The Black Cathedral''The Boy in Green Velvet''The Golden Basilica''Death Mask''A Warning To The Antiquary''The Seventeenth Sister''The Copper Wig''The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini'

    M. D. Plunkett (1878–1957), the eighteenth Baron Dunsany, was one of English literature's most original talents. The author of many of the best fantastic tales in the language, he was also a great influence on other writers of the genre. American novelist H. P. Lovecraft wrote: "[Dunsany's] rich language, his cosmic point of view, his remote dream-worlds, and his exquisite sense of the fantastic, all appeal to me more than anything else in modern literature."These 33 tales by one of the grand masters of fantasy contain all of the stories from two of Dunsany's finest  collections — The Book of Wonder and Tales of Wonder — including the famous "The Three Sailors' Gambit," possibly the best chess story ever written; "The House of the Sphinx," "The Wonderful Window," "The Bad Old Woman in Black," "The Watch-Tower," "The Three Infernal Jokes," "The Secret of the Sea," and 26 other literary gems.

    The themes that thread through these nine accomplished stories are drawn from the great tradition of the twentieth-century weird tale, and they are suffused with a distinctly cosmopolitan, European feel. Mark Samuels writes about the fundamental fears of modern life, especially the effects of isolation and the dislocation that city dwellers can experience in their inhospitable, man-made environment. H.P. Lovecraft wrote about entities beyond human comprehension that might be summoned from beyond the stars, but did he ever consider that they would feel quite at home in the sodium glare of some run-down inner-city? When one of Samuels’s characters stands alone looking up at the vast, illimitable darkness of space, the reader is forced to wonder if there is much difference between the hopeless emptiness of eternity and the bleak interstices between the concrete and steel of their daily life?

    Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of foe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block. Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work.Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in "The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'" Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in "The Thief," Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas ... or maybe he just thought of them first.Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.--back cover

    Here you will meet the men and women who fought and won World War II and truly made the world safe for democracy, in thrilling stories of war as it was really fought.An exciting sequel to Stephen Coonts’s bestselling Combat, Victory brings together today’s greatest military, espionage, and technothriller writers in all-original thrilling tales of World War II—great short novels that range from the home front to the battlefields of Europe to the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Join Stephen Coonts, Ralph Peters, Harold Coyle, Harold Robbins, R. J. Pineiro, David Hagberg, Jim DeFelice, James Cobb, Barrett Tillman, and Dean Ing in a book filled with nonstop action and adventure.Stephen Coonts asks what happens when you load a Catalina flying boat with five tons of bombs, a half-dozen machine guns, and a crew that walks a fine line between valor and suicide. In the Pacific theater of war, the Japanese Navy is about to discover the answer to that question.Ralph Peters follows a German officer in the starving days after World War II as he makes his way on foot back home, where a defeat more terrible than the Allied victory awaits him.Harold Coyle takes us to the fierce fighting in the Pacific where the Japanese and the Americans clash over a strategic airfield on the island of Guadalcanal. Their battlefield will earn the nickname Bloody Ridge for both sides . . . Harold Robbins goes back to a time before the war was fought—when a doctor is brought in to diagnose a very special patient, one whose survival could cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of others. Now caught between his ethics and his humanity, he must make a choice with the fate of the world at stake.R. J. Pineiro brings the Eastern Front to light as a young American pilot is ordered to train Russian pilots in the new American made P-39D Aircobras during the final months of the brutal battle of in during the winter of 1942.David Hagberg sends the OSS and MI6 behind enemy lines in Germany to stop the one weapon that can win the war for Hitler and Nazi Germany, an electromechanical guidance system that can launch missiles not only across countries, but across the ocean and hit the United States.Jim DeFelice takes us to the height of the war when information was bought dearly on both sides. When an American pilot parachutes into Germany to gather information, he lands right in the middle of the viper’s nest—a place more deadly than anything he could have found in the skies above.James Cobb sends a special detail of PBY Catalina flying boats hunting for a hidden enemy radar station that provides the Japanese Navy with an edge in the war for the Pacific.Barrett Tillman brings us into a gruesome fight as a Marine Corps flamethrower unit fights Japanese defenders on Tarawa Atoll in November 1943.Dean Ing takes into the world of espionage as the Army Air Force becomes convinced that a Nazi superweapon can reach New York and Washington. As an interceptor is rush developed, a plane-crazy young Texan begins to suspect that someone on the team has an agenda all his own. . . . Here they are: ten bestselling military, espionage, and technothriller authors paying tribute to the Greatest Generation of Americans.

    It gathers together sixteen original stories by some of today's finest writers of fantasy and science fiction. Together, they have won virtually every major prize -- from the National Book Award to the World Fantasy Award to the Newbery Medal -- and have made best-seller lists worldwide. These authors, including Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain), Diana Wynne Jones (The Merlin Conspiracy), Garth Nix (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Patricia A. McKillip (Ombria in Shadow), Meredith Ann Pierce (The Darkangel Trilogy), and Nancy Farmer (The House of the Scorpion), each with his or her own inimitable style, tell stories that will entertain, provoke, startle, amuse, and resonate long after the last page has been turned.The writers featured in Firebirds all share a connection to Firebird Books, an imprint that is dedicated to publishing the best fantasy and science fiction for teenage and adult readers.

    Banks.Over the last thirty years, M. John Harrison has been inspiring readers and writers alike across the world. His return to science fiction in 2002 with the magnificent space opera LIGHT was a monumental triumph, shortlisted for every major award in the genre. He combines brilliant storytelling with complex plots and evocative, mesmerising writing.THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPEN is M. John Harrison's definitive collection of short fiction, twenty-four dazzling stories of science fiction and fantasy; the perfect introduction to one of Britain's most brilliant writers.Contents:Settling the World (1975)Running Down (1975)The Incalling (1978)The Ice Monkey (1980)Egnaro (1981)Old Women (1984)The New Rays (1982)The Quarry (1983)A Young Man's Journey to London (1985)Small Heirlooms (1987)The Great God Pan (1988)The Gift (1988)The Horse of Iron and How We Can Know It and Be Changed by It Forever (1989)Gifco (1992)Anima (1992)Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring (1994)Empty (1995)Seven Guesses of the Heart (1996)I Did It (1996)The East (1996)Suicide Coast (1999)The Neon Heart Murders (2000)Black Houses (1998)Science & The Arts (1999)

    Now you can join China in ten puzzling cases——and get a taste of her world...This delightful collection also serves to please with loads of wonderful herbal tidbits on everything from rosemary to feverfew to catnip. You'll find such to-die-for dishes as a Deadly Chocolate Valentine, Ruby's Applesauce-Mint Bread, China's Five-Spice Chicken and Veggie Stir-Fry, and McQuaid's Tex-Mex——and a host of creative ideas for your garden and home. It's a one-of-a-kind collection featuring a one-of-a-kind sleuth——who's worth spending some "quality thyme" with!

    This year's volume includes Ian R. MacLeod, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Maureen F. McHugh, Robert Reed, Paul McAuley, Michael Swanwick, Robert Silverberg, Charles Stross, John Kessel, Gregory Benford and many other talented authors of SF, as well as thorough summations of the year and a recommended reading list.Contents xi • Summation: 2002 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Breathmoss • (2002) • novella by Ian R. MacLeod52 • The Most Famous Little Girl in the World • (2002) • novelette by Nancy Kress71 • The Passenger • (2002) • novelette by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley ]95 • The Political Officer • (2002) • novella by Charles Coleman Finlay135 • Lambing Season • (2002) • shortstory by Molly Gloss145 • Coelacanths • (2002) • novelette by Robert Reed164 • Presence • (2002) • novelette by Maureen F. McHugh184 • Halo • [Macx Family] • (2002) • novelette by Charles Stross212 • In Paradise • (2002) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling221 • The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars • (2002) • novelette by Ian McDonald243 • Stories for Men • (2002) • novella by John Kessel302 • To Become a Warrior • (2002) • shortstory by Chris Beckett313 • The Clear Blue Seas of Luna • (2002) • novelette by Gregory Benford339 • V.A.O. • (2002) • novella by Geoff Ryman367 • Winters Are Hard • (2002) • novelette by Steven Popkes390 • At the Money • (2002) • novelette by Richard Wadholm417 • Agent Provocateur • (2002) • shortstory by Alexander C. Irvine [as by Alexander Irvine ]427 • Singleton • (2002) • novella by Greg Egan467 • Slow Life • (2002) • novelette by Michael Swanwick486 • A Flock of Birds • (2002) • shortstory by James Van Pelt501 • The Potter of Bones • (2002) • novella by Eleanor Arnason538 • The Whisper of Disks • (2002) • novelette by John Meaney (aka The Whisper of Discs)567 • The Hotel at Harlan's Landing • [Company] • (2002) • shortstory by Kage Baker578 • The Millennium Party • (2002) • shortfiction by Walter Jon Williams581 • Turquoise Days • [Revelation Space] • (2002) • novella by Alastair Reynolds641 • Honorable Mentions: 2002 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    Within these pages you will encounter a train to the underworld, a feral bicycle, a thief with peculiar eating habits, an amnesiac superhero, a haunted zoot suit, star-crossed monsters, fallen angels on vacation and other wonders. From fast-paced sorcerer-punk to weird Westerns, from the loss of childhood innocence to the heat death of the universe, these stories will delight, surprise and move you.

    A deathtrap that takes a week to kill its victims. Haunted parks and airplanes held in the sky by the power of belief. These are just a few of the stories by Otsuichi, Japan's master of dark fantasy.

    Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&RNew introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholarsBiographies of the authorsChronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural eventsFootnotes and endnotesSelective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the workComments by other famous authorsStudy questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectationsBibliographies for further readingIndices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RChief among &&LB&&RTolstoy&&L/B&&R’s shorter works is &&LI&&RThe Death of Ivan Ilych&&L/I&&R, a masterful meditation on the act of dying. The first major fictional work published by Tolstoy after a mid-life psychological crisis, this novella reflects the author’s struggle to find meaning in life, a challenge Tolstoy resolved by developing a religious philosophy based on brotherly love, mutual support, and charity. These guiding principles are the dominant moral themes in &&LI&&RThe Death of Ivan Ilych&&L/I&&R, an account of the spiritual conversion of a judge—an ordinary, unthinking, vulgar man—in the face of his terrible fear about death. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&RAlso included in this volume are &&LI&&RFamily Happiness&&L/I&&R, an early work that traces the arc of a marriage; &&LI&&RThe Kreutzer Sonata&&L/I&&R, a frank tale of sexual love that shocked readers when it first appeared; and &&LI&&RHadji Murád&&L/I&&R, Tolstoy’s final masterpiece about power politics, intrigue, and colonial conquest. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&R&&LB&&RDavid Goldfarb&&L/B&&R teaches Polish, Russian, and Comparative Literature at Barnard College and Columbia University. He has written about Witold Gombrowicz, Bruno Schulz, Zbigniew Herbert, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Mikhail Lermontov, and Nikolai Gogol. &&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R

    Although the stories explore the myths and legends of personal magic, the subject matter ranges widely from African warriors in the holds of slave ships to abused children plotting revenge to drag queens to the undead living in affluent closed communities. In Neil Gaiman's "Bitter Grounds," an anthropology professor is on his way to a conference in New Orleans to present a paper on the legend of the Haitian coffee girls, undead children who allegedly went door-to-door selling a chicory coffee mixture just before the dawn. When his car breaks down on a backwoods road, he runs into a mysterious Samaritan who comes into his life for a very definite reason. The introduction by Luisah Teish, a popular spiritualist and author of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, says it all: "Reader, Be Aware! There's a conjuring going on. You are being lured, with the turning of each page, into the myth and mystery of our DeepBlack magical heritage." Unlike many anthologies, this collection of 19 original stories has no weak spots. Every tale is strong, unique, and noteworthy in its own right. Fans of Nalo Hopkinson works like Brown Girl in the Ring and the short story collection Skin Folk will cherish this brilliant collection. Paul Goat Allen

    In eight vivid tales of real life in the west, Harty reminds us that life's greatest challenge may be to find the fine balance between desire and obligation.A high school football player must make a choice between family and friends when his older brother commits an act of senseless violence. A middle-aged man must fly to Las Vegas to settle his dead sister's estate, only to discover that he must first confront his guilt over his sister's death. A young teacher tries to help a homeless girl, but, as their lives intertwine, he begins to understand that his generosity is motivated by his own relenting sense of lonliness. Well-intentioned but ultimately human, the characters in these stories often fall short of achieving grace. But the possibility of redemption, like the Sonoran Desert at the edge of Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona's suburban landscapes, is never far off. Harty's characters are as complicated as the people we know, and his vision of life in the west is as hopeful as it is strikingly real.

    They fall in love, Carolyn becomes pregnant, and they request to exit the facility.... Josh squeezed through the little gap between the…

    Literally.From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempt a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more.So don't be a weenie! Read these stories!

    Howard was one of the greatest adventure writers of the 20th century.

    Standard procedure. You pick it up the first time a white friend leads you across a room just to stand you up by another Indian, arrange you like furniture, like you should have something to say to each other. As one character after another tells it in these stories, much that happens to them does so because "I'm an Indian." And, as Stephen Graham Jones tells it in one remarkable story after another, the life of an Indian in modern America is as rich in irony as it is in tradition. A noted Blackfeet writer, Jones offers a nuanced and often biting look at the lives of Native peoples from the inside. A young Indian mans journey to discover America results in an unsettling understanding of relations between whites and Natives in the twenty-first century, a relationship still fueled by mistrust, stereotypes, and almost casual violence. A character waterproofs his boots with transmission fluid; another steals into Glacier National Park to hunt. One man uses watermelon to draw flies off poached deer; another, in a modern twist on the captivity narrative, kidnaps a white girl in a pickup truck; and a son bleeds into the father carrying him home. Rife with arresting and poignant images, fleeting and daring in presentation, weighty and provocative in their messages, these stories demonstrate the power of one of the most compelling writers in Native North America today.

    Critics have hailed these stories as "witty and elegant," "luminous, touching, and splendid."The publication of this collection affirms David Leavitt's mastery of the form, and reminds us why The New York Times has called him "one of his generation's most gifted writers."

    From the Deep South to the simmering streets of Harlem, his characters embark on surreal and mythic quests armed only with wit, words, and wisdom. Championed by Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, and Quincy Troupe, -Dumas’s books have long been out of print. All of his short fiction is collected here, for the first time, and includes several previously unpublished stories. Henry Dumas was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, moved to Harlem, joined the Air Force, attended Rutgers, worked for IBM, and taught at Hiram College in Ohio and Southern Illinois University. In 1968, at the age of thirty-three, he was shot and killed by a New York Transit Authority -policeman.

    The unexpected twists of their lives—rendered with expert humor and pathos in Knight’s dark-light style—test the limits of the personalities they have known as their own.In “Birdland,” published in The New Yorker, a beautiful Northerner visits a small Alabama town to research the bizarre migration habits of a flock of African parrots from Rhode Island. “Feeling Lucky” finds a desperate man kidnapping his own daughter. In the most daring and haunting of these stories, “Killing Stonewall Jackson,” which was published in Story, a hardened band of Confederate soldiers resorts to surprising measures to survive on the battlefield. “The End of Everything,” published in GQ, weaves together a tender love story and an edge-of-your-seat urban legend, while “The Mesmerist,” published in Esquire, is an eerie fairy tale about a man who hypnotizes a stranger and makes her his wife. In “Keeper of Secrets, Teller of Lies,” published in Virginia Quarterly Review, a man causes more havoc the harder he tries to help a young mother and her son. In “Mitchell’s Girls,” a stay-at-home dad battles the disrespect of youth and a paralyzing bad back. “Ellen’s Book” hilariously describes the yearning a man feels for his estranged wife. In “Blackout,” a suburban neighborhood’s pent-up jealousies and fears explode under the cover of darkness.Knight’s sensibility is potent and unique, stirring tenderness in equal parts with violence. While the settings, chronologies, and characters vary widely throughout the collection, they remain bound by Knight’s simple, elegant prose, his graceful sense of humor, and an unfailing empathy with the self-destructed.

    This collection gathers together three sinister tales that fully exhibit Dahl's mastery of suspense and his unsurpassed ability to tease the reader until the very last sentence.- Taste- The Way Up to Heaven- The Landlady.

    The bestselling Sword and Sorceress series continues with this exciting 20th edition of all-new stories. It's all here: hard-hitting action, spellbinding magic, butt-kicking heroines... and some of the most popular names in fantasy today.

    They’ve had a profound influence on us as healers and spiritual guides, and also as co-workers, helping to guide, hunt, herd, search, and rescue. Our bond with dogs is deep and unbreakable, and there’s no better source a reader can turn to for a richer understanding of that complex and wonderful relationship than The Bark. The Bark began as a newsletter in Berkeley, California, that advocated for an off-leash area where dogs could cavort and play. Within a few years it had become a full-fledged, award-winning glossy magazine that published work by some of the best writers in America today. And as it grew, the magazine embraced a much larger canvas: to cover the emerging phenomenon of “dog culture” that has been developing over the past decade, as dogs have moved out of the backyard and into our homes, communities, and, indeed, the very center of our lives. As editor Claudia Kawczynska writes, “The implications of integrating another species into society’s daily fabric go well beyond how we nurture our dogs. It calls for a revamping of the standard etiquette—respecting the concerns and interests of society at large. This new relationship, along with an appreciation for our rich and unbounded future, comprises what we call dog culture. This is what The Bark set out to chronicle.” Dog Is My Co-Pilot is an anthology of essays, short stories, and expert commentaries that explores every aspect of our life with dogs. Fifty percent of the material here has never been published before. The book is divided into four sections: Beginnings explores that first meeting, “the initial murmurings when a dog-human relationship is formed.” Pack investigates the theme of “togetherness” and pays tribute to the dynamic of multiple personalities in the canine-human relationship. Lessons examines what dogs teach us, from love to enlightenment. The final section, Passages, reflects on the themes of true friendship, transformation, and loss. Included are pieces by Lynda Barry, Rick Bass, Maeve Brennan, Margaret Cho, Carolyn Chute, Alice Elliott Dark, Lama Surya Das, Pam Houston, Erica Jong, Tom Junod, Caroline Knapp, Donald McCaig, Nasdijj, Ann Patchett, Michael Paterniti, Charles Siebert, Alexandra Styron, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and Alice Walker. In selections that are humorous, poignant, truthful, sometimes surprising, and frequently uplifting, Dog Is My Co-Pilot embraces the full experience of the world’s oldest friendship. For people who love great writing and, yes, great dogs, it’s a book to be both shared and treasured.

    I knew the first two verses when I began it, and the conclusion was there when I reached it. This is why I love writing."Harlequin Valentine "was originally written as a short story. Lisa Snellings made a Ferris Wheel with strange creatures in each car, and writers wrote stories, one for each character. I was given the showman, a little Harlequin who took people’s tickets."Boys and Girls Together "was written in a hotel room in Boston. It rained outside, and I was certain I was telling the world something very important."The Wedding Present "is a story hidden in my book of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors. Some people who have copies of Smoke and Mirrors have skipped past it, and do not know that it was there. Do not tell them."The End "is the kind of thing I find on my hard disk from time to time – small, gentle apocalypses that I do not quite remember writing."

    Coraghessan Boyle, DOUBLETAKES: PAIRS OF CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES gives readers the opportunity to enjoy the works of today's literary lights through close reading and analysis.

    The novel’s frank portrayal of a woman’s emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening shocked the sensibilities of the time and destroyed the author’s reputation and career. Many years passed before this short, pioneering work was recognized as a major achievement in American literature.Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, determined to control her own life, flouts convention by moving out of her husband’s house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist.Beautifully written, with sensuous imagery and vivid local descriptions, The Awakening has lost none of its power to provoke and inspire. Additionally, this edition includes thirteen of Kate Chopin’s magnificent short stories.--back coverStories Included in the Volume:The AwakeningEmancipation: A Life FableA Shameful AffairAt the ‘Cadian BallDésirée’s BabyA Gentleman of Bayou TêcheA Respectable WomanThe Story of an HourAthénaïseA Pair of Silk StockingsElizabeth Stock’s One StoryThe StormThe GodmotherA Little Country Girl

    These events include burglary, sex, conversation, reading, humiliation, child raising, and porn. Gluck's previous books include MARGERY KEMPE and JACK THE MODERNIST, both newly available from SPD. "Flaubert says in a letter to Louise Colet that good prose should be stuffed with things. This is good prose indeed, filled with shells and duck meat and sunlight and flesh and gardening tools and sperm..."--Samuel R. Delany.

    The title story, 'The Resurrection Man's Legacy', has been optioned for a movie. In it, a young orphan must live with an elderly aunt who proves unable to supply all that the boy requires and purchases a robotic, surrogate father for him. In 'The Anencephalic Fields', another coming-of-age story, a boy is isolated with his mother on a farm where humanlike plants are grown. 'Sheep's Clothing' is a near-future science fiction tale of an assassin planning to kill a politician by assuming control of his daughter's body and using it to commit the murder. The ending novella, 'In Green's Dominion', is the story of a spinster professor reflecting on her life as it nears its conclusion, settling her affairs and remembering the magic moments in her life. Other stories blend fantasy with reality, with the dead arising to vote, the painful burial of a firstborn child, a lost southern town where slavery still rears its ugly head, and other horrific, thought-provoking, terrible, and wonderful tales of life.

    Harlan Wilson deconditions the boundaries of reality with the same offbeat methodology that energized his first book The Kafka Effekt. Stranger on the Loose is an absurdist account of urban and suburban social dynamics, and of the effects that contemporary image-culture has on the (in)human condition. These stories operate on a plane of existence that resists, and in many cases breaks, the laws of causality.Parrots teach college courses. Flaneurs impersonate bowling pins. Bodybuilders sneak into people's homes and strike poses at their leisure. Passive-aggressive glaciers and miniature elephant-humans antagonize the seedy streets of Suburbia. Apes disguised as scientists reincarnate Walt Disney, who discovers that he is a Chinese box full of disguised Walt Disneys . . . Wilson's imagination is a rare specimen. The acorns of his fiction are planted in the soil of normalcy, but what grows out of that soil is a dark, witty, otherworldly jungle.

    Set in Le Guin's beloved Earthsea universe. In the story, a profound relationship develops between apprentice Silence and his wizard teacher, Dulse. In Silence's thoughts, Dulse discovers more about himself. Readers hungry for tales of great wizards and the return of Le Guin's characters will find satisfaction in this work. [This work is part of a print collection.

    Collection of 35 stories defining Tom Chapin's exhilarating and harrowing 29-year career as a Minnesota Game Warden

    He is the author of seven collections of stories and five novels. His first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle, won the 1958 National Book Award. In 1965 he received the Howells Medal for Fiction from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1978 The Stories of John Cheever won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Shortly before his death, in 1982, he was awarded the National Medal for Literature from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.Benjamin Cheever is the author of The Plagiarist, The Parisian and Famous after Death.The Enormous Radio read by Meryl StreepThe Five-Forty-Eight read by Edward HerrmannO City of Broken Dreams read by Blythe DannerChristmas is a Sad Season for the Poor read by George PlimptonThe Season of Divorce read by Edward HerrmannThe Brigadier and the Golf Widow read by Peter GallagherThe Sorrows of Gin read by Meryl StreepO Youth and Beauty! read by Peter GallagherThe Chaste Clarissa read by Blythe DannerThe Jewels of the Cabots read by George PlimptonThe Death of Justina read by John CheeverThe Swimmer read by John Cheever

    Brite has spent the past year exploring the lives of the Stubbs family, a clan whose roots are sunk deep in the traditional culture of New Orleans. These characters appear in her forthcoming novels The Value of X and Liquor as well as several of the stories in her forthcoming collection The Devil You Know. "The Feast of St. Rosalie" is another such story, published exclusively by Subterranean Press as a deluxe two-color chapbook.This story follows one of the older Stubb's children, during her teenage years as she struggles against a centralized haunting that borders on possession.

    Written by Laurie S. Kahn, a former advertising executive (who overcame her disappointment at not being color war captain only when she was named director of radio and television production at Young & Rubicam in New York), Sleepaway collects a hundred years of camp lore, plus vintage photographs, letters, songs, badges, postcards, and autographed pillowcases. Here are stories that instantly evoke memories of a first bunk (remember the smell of damp towels piled up on a rainy day?), of swimming tests and socials (a chance for a first kiss!), of rowdy singalongs, joyous mealtimes, mail call, and the hilarity of a short-sheeted bed. There's a recipe for bug juice; instructions for playing jacks, folding the perfect hospital corner, and making a lanyard; camp packing lists; Best Make-Out Songs by Decade; and--at last!--the complete lyrics to John Jacob Jingelheimer Schmidt. A perfect gift for every woman who wishes she still had name tags in her clothes.

    Anderson has cleared away the dross and shown us the golden roots of fantasy before it became a genre.”–Michael Moorcock, author of The Eternal ChampionMany of today’s top names in fantasy acknowledge J.R.R. Tolkien as the author whose work inspired them to create their own epics. But which writers influenced Tolkien himself? In a collection destined to become a classic in its own right, internationally recognized Tolkien expert Douglas A. Anderson, editor of The Annotated Hobbit, has gathered the fiction of the many gifted authors who sparked Tolkien’s imagination. Included are Andrew Lang’s romantic swashbuckler “The Story of Sigurd,” which features magic rings and a ferocious dragon; an excerpt from E. A. Wyke-Smith’s The Marvelous Land of Snergs, about creatures who were precursors to Tolkien’s hobbits; and a never-before-published gem by David Lindsay, author of A Voyage to Arcturus, a novel that Tolkien praised highly both as a thriller and as a work of philosophy, religion, and morality.In stories packed with magical journeys, conflicted heroes, and terrible beasts, this extraordinary volume is one that no fan of fantasy or Tolkien should be without. These tales just might inspire a new generation of creative writers.

    Usually depicted as the lush and green world of rural quiet and tranquility, the Valley becomes the backdrop for the difficulties these characters confront as they try to maintain hope and independence in the face of isolation. In the title story, a teenage boy learns the consequences of succumbing to the lure of a town outsider; in "Campo," a young farm worker frantically attempts to hide his supervision of a huddle of children from the town police, only to have another young man come to his unexpected rescue; in "The Unimportant Lila Parr," a father must expose his own secrets after his son is found murdered in a highway motel. From conflicts of family and sexuality to the pain of loss and memory, the characters in Zigzagger seek to reconcile themselves with the rural towns of their upbringing—a place that, by nature, is bordered by loneliness.

    Howard came into the fiction magazine scene virtually on Dashell Hammett's heels. By that time Howard was a full-fledged professional writer; he was willing to try any marketplace to make a living. Despite an aversion to the detective formula, he wrote the tales in Graveyard Rats during the same years he chronicled the adventures of Conan. This collection features a new introduction by scholar Don Herron, editor of "The Dark Barbarian," the definitive look at the life and work of Robert E. Howard.

    Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time his award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense -- stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination. A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have been a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffery Deaver's most beloved character, criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance. Diverse, provocative, eerie and inspired, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best stories exhibits the amazing range and signature plot twists that have earned him the title "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People). With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe, these beautifully crafted pieces, never before compiled in one volume, pulse with subtle intrigue and Deaver's incomparable imagination.

    A special Introduction discusses the elements of tone, point of view, character, etc. and ideas such as realism and postmodernism.Key Topics: The over 50 stories featured in Nguyen and Shreve's anthology range in style from the traditional narrative to experimental forms. Classic stories are juxtaposed with newer, emerging voices. The stories featured are thematically diverse as well, addressing issues of family and culture, love and loss, ethnicity and gender.Market: Anyone interested in the rich array of contemporary American short stories.

    'One Horse Town' breathes fresh life into an ancient tale, combining elements from the sack of Troy, Homer's early days, the last day in the life of a Trojan warrior, and the archaeological dig at Troy. In 'Custer's Last Jump!' the legendary Crazy Horse uses Confederate monoplanes in his famous battle against General Custer. 'A Voice and Bitter Weeping' paints a grim post-nuclear age where Israeli mercenaries fight Texans in a never-ending, hopeless war. Mystery, intrigue, and treachery abound in the Heian Japan setting of 'The Latter Days of the Law', where a clever man must find a lost prince.

    Twelve powerful works of fiction, including Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades," Gogol's "The Overcoat," Turgenev's "The District Doctor," Dostoyevsky's "White Nights," Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?," plus "The Clothes Mender" by Leskov, "The Lady with the Toy Dog" by Chekhov, "Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" by Gorky, "Lazarus" by Andreyev, and more.

    "Blow the Chinks Down!" and "Dark Shanghai" are being presented here in English for the first time since their original pulp appearances.

    "Dancing Men" depicts one of the creepiest rites of passage in recent memory, when a boy visits his deranged grandfather in the New Mexico desert. In "Mr. Dark's Carnival," a college professor confronts his own dark places in the form of a mysterious haunted house steeped in the folklore of grisly badlands justice. "Struwwelpeter" introduces us to a brilliant, treacherous adolescent whose violent tendencies and reckless mischief reach a sinister pinnacle as Halloween descends on a rundown, Pacific Northwest fishing village. Tormented by his guilty conscience, a young man plumbs the depths of atonement as he and his favorite cousin commune with the almighty Hawaiian surf in "Shipwreck Beach." With The Two Sams author Glen Hirshberg uses his remarkable gift for capturing mood and atmosphere to suggest the possibility that the most troubling ghosts of all are not the ones that hover above us and walk through walls, but those that linger in our memories and haunt our souls.

    Liebling, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton, Wallace Stegner, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck.

    These stories show that brains trump brawn every time. Renowned storyteller Jane Yolen has created an exciting companion book to her Book Sense 76 Pick Not One Damsel in Distress. An inspired collection of dramatic tales, Mightier Than the Sword will inspire boys and girls alike.

    KEY TOPICS: The works collected here represent a rich, while often overlooked, tradition of stories that seem to break the rules of short fiction. These stories, by well-known writers as well as by refreshingly new voices, demonstrate a wide-range of stylistic and narrative diversity. They expand our perceptions of what constitutes a well-written short story and underscore the unlimited techniques writers use to achieve a desired effect. The Introduction provides an historic and cultural overview of the "non-traditional" short story, and author headnotes provide further insight into the aesthetic and craft choices that the authors featured in this text employ in their stories. MARKET: Anyone interested in short fiction or creative writing.

    They are sly, demanding and wise--stories about language, desire and love (in a very dark place). The humor veers from the wry and sardonic to the salacious, mordant and playful. And always there are moments of such stark emotional intimacy that the reader slides, almost without noticing, from laughter to lament.

    The Skeleton Key • (1993) • novella Objects of Desire • (1998) • shortstory Unleashed • (1991) • shortstory Mint Condition • (2001) • novelette Night Life • (2000) • shortstory Entertaining Possibilities • (2003) • shortstory Toobychubbies • (1999) • shortstory Haunted Humans • (1994) • novella Egg Shells • (2000) • shortstory

    Bringing together ten incomparable stories from six different collections, No Love Lost confirms her pre-eminent status. Focusing on the many paths of falling in love, each of these stories of ordinary people reveals new truths about people as real – and as extraordinary – as ourselves.In selecting this unique gathering of stories, Jane Urquhart noted the brilliance of Munro’s fiction, suggesting that Munro's genius guides us “through love’s labyrinth, insisting all the while that we keep our eyes wide open to its complicated foliage, its shadows, its piercing blasts of light.”Contents:Bardon Bus (from The Moons of Jupiter)Carried Away (from Open Secrets)Mischief (from Who Do You Think You Are?)The Love of a Good Woman (from The Love of a Good Woman)Simon’s Luck (from Who Do You Think You Are?), Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)The Bear Came Over the Mountain (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)The Albanian Virgin (from Open Secrets) Meneseteung (from Friend of My Youth)The Children Stay (from The Love of a Good Woman)Selected and with an afterword by Jane Urquhart.

    For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Lending a fresh perspective to a perennial favorite, Walter Mosley has chosen unforgettable short stories by both renowned writers and exciting newcomers. The Best American Short Stories 2003 features poignant tales that explore the nuances of family life and love, birth and death. Here are stories that will, as Mosley writes in his introduction, "live with the reader long after the words have been translated into ideas and dreams. That's because a good short story crosses the borders of our nations and our prejudices and our beliefs."Dorothy Allison Edwidge Danticat E. L. Doctorow Louise Erdrich Adam Haslett ZZ Packer Mona Simpson Mary Yukari Waters

    He remains a nineteenth-century Russian literary giant whose prose continues to offer moral insight and to resonate with readers across the world. Chekhov experienced no conflict between art and science or art and medicine. He believed that knowledge of one complemented the other. Chekhov brought medical knowledge and sensitivity to his creative writing--he had an intimate knowledge of the world of medicine and the skills of doctoring, and he utilized this information in his approach to his characters. His sensibility as a medical insider gave special poignancy to his physician characters. The doctors in his engaging tales demonstrate a wide spectrum of behavior, personality, and character. At their best, they demonstrate courage, altruism, and tenderness, qualities that lie at the heart of good medical practice. At their worst, they display insensitivity and incompetency. The stories in Chekhov's Doctors are powerful portraits of doctors in their everyday lives, struggling with their own personal problems as well as trying to serve their patients. The fifth volume in the acclaimed Literature and Medicine Series, Chekhov's Doctors will serve as a rich text for professional health care educators as well as for general readers.1 Intrigues (1883) 2 Malingerers (1885) 3 Excellent People (1886) 4 Anyuta (1886) 5 The Doctor (1886) 6 Darkness (1887) 7 Enemies (1887) 8 The Examining Magistrate (1887) 9 An Awkward Business (1888) 10 The Princess (1889) 11 A Nervous Breakdown (1889) 12 Ward No. 6 (1892) 13 The Grasshopper (1892) 14 The Head Gardener's Story (1894) 15 Ionitch (1898) 16 A Doctor's Visit (1898)

    The result is a collection of 95 pairs of then-and-now photographs that reveal the consequences of Western settlers' efforts to tame the wild landscape, as well as Mother Nature's ability to reclaim her own. Essays that chronicle Stone's rephotograph efforts and the history of the scene accompany the photo pairs.

    "Right Off the Bat" is a monologue by a 12-year old girl whose lesbian mothers have been gay-bashed. "Eggs McMenopause" tells the story of how a sleep-deprived butch finds a unique solution to the trials and tribulations of menopause. In "The Babka Sisters," a women's studies student interviews a nursing home resident and hears a tale the woman has never told anyone: the story of the girl she fell in love with in high school. And in "Mothers of Invention," a couple tests their relationship when one woman decides she wants to have a baby and the other woman does not. Newman's stories covers a dazzling array of themes pertaining to contem-porary lesbian life, including long-term relationships, one-night stands, family-of-origin angst, motherhood, friendships with gay men, AIDS, breast cancer, aging, loss and bisexuality. Many of these stories explore Jewish identity as well. Each story in this collection is told with Newman's trademark wit, honesty, talent and compassion.LeslA(c)a Newman's literary awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the -Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Six of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. A native New Yorker, she currently lives in western Massachusetts.

    Written in the author's characteristic poetic prose and rich with the details of traumatic lives that are luminously transformed, is a worthy addition to an outstanding career. "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" (2002) and "Cleopatra Brimstone" (2001) won International Horror Guild Awards, and appeared on Locus Magazine's Year's Best lists.Contents: Introduction (Bibliomancy) • essay by Lucius Shepard Cleopatra Brimstone (2001) • novella by Elizabeth Hand Pavane for a Prince of the Air (2002) • novelette by Elizabeth Hand Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol (2000) • novella by Elizabeth Hand The Least Trumps (2002) • novella by Elizabeth Hand Story Notes (Bibliomancy) • essay by Elizabeth Hand.

    Highlights: - Includes magical folktales of familiar trees such as Cherry Blossom and Chesnut and also the more exotic Kapok and Pomegranate- Ideal gift book for the whole family, and for anyone with an interest in their natural surroundings and environmental issues- Each story has an introduction giving informative notes about each species- Introduces Rina Singh, a new author from Toronto, Canada

    Like the voices that splinter from Marguerite Duras's work, these characters are neurotic, taking refuge in comics, food, music, sex, 'locking' and lies. Violence is everywhere: within, without, in every emotion, in every word. But often hidden emotions rise to the surface, where self-consciousness, shame, and rage, to name a few, are permitted, voiced, and, eventually, set free. Throughout The End of Free Love Steinberg creates a hybrid text, blending poetry and fiction in writing as much about its form as its content. This is fiction that offers itself up for our delight, while remaining as elusive and unpredictable as language itself.

    This topical, not-for-profit publication provides a rare glimpse into the world of refugees who have fled war and persecution in their own countries, only to be detained in Australia's desert camps. Featuring an introduction by human rights activist and QC Julian Burnside; this moving anthology presents edited extracts from letters written by asylum seekers in response to a letter-writing campaign by Australian citizens opposing the Australian government's hard-line stance on asylum seekers. These letters give a human face and voice to one of the most controversial issues affecting the world today. All profits will be donated to asylum seeker organisations.

    The Rooster Trapped in the Reptile Room gathers generous portions of all thirteen novels and novellas, as well as first-person essays, generous helpings of poetry, journalism, and a new interview with the author. The broad contours of an episodic output emerge—a full-length view of the freaks and freakish incidents that populate Gifford’s unique human comedy. A world, as Lula, the author’s favorite of all his characters, reflects, "wild at heart and weird on top."The Rooster Trapped in the Reptile Room provides essential reading for anyone after the soul of American writing.

    They are populated by lawyers, professors, scrap-iron dealers, dry cleaners, all men of a certain age who feel themselves adrift in the radically changed values of the day. Epstein's richly drawn characters are at various crossroads and turning points in their lives: bitter Seymour Hefferman, who anonymously sends scathing postcards to writers until he gets caught; Moe Bernstein, who, inspired by his grandson, decides to attend to his own health after long delay; divorcé Artie Glick, who wants to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Fabulous Small Jews is a marvelous collection from a master of the short form.

    Some daydreaming adventures with, not surprisingly, Mr Daydream!

    His mind is full of soul music and girls and the lyric novel he is writing. But his roommate is brutally attacked by soldiers; his first love is forced to marry a wealthy old man; and his neighbors on Poverty Street are planning a demonstration that is bound to incite riot and arrests. Lomba can no longer bury his head in the sand.Helon Habila's vivid, exciting, and heart-wrenching debut opens a window onto a world in some ways familiar-with its sensuously depicted streets, student life, and vibrant local characters-yet ruled by one of the world's most corrupt and oppressive regimes, a scandal that ultimately drives Lomba to take a risk in the name of something greater than himself. Habila captures the energy, sensitivity, despair, and stubborn hope of a new African generation with a combination of gritty realism and poetic beauty. Winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing 2001. Reading group guide included.

    The story of the mongoose combatting the cobras in the garden and the story of Toomai, an Indian boy who rode elephants.

    Over uncounted generations the Tlingits and Haidas of Southeast Alaska developed a spoken literature as robust and distinctive as their unique graphic art style, and passed it from the old to the young to ensure the continuity of their culture.  Even today when the people gather, now under lamplight rather than the flickering glow from the central fire pit, the ancient myths and legends are told and retold, and they still reinforce the unity of the lineage, and clan and the culture.  Mary Beck has selected nine of the ancient myths and legends from the oral literature that are authentic for one group or another from this region.

    

    CRICKET?s editor-in-chief, Marianne Carus, launched the magazine in 1973 with literary critic Clifton Fadiman as senior editor and Trina Schart Hyman as art director. During the early years of the magazine, the board of directors included such luminary figures in children?s literature as Lloyd Alexander, Newbery and National Book Award Winner; Eleanor Cameron, National Book Award Winner; Sheila Egoff, Professor of children?s literature; Virginia Haviland, head of children?s literature at the Library of Congress; Paul Heins, Editor of the Horn Book Magazine; and Nobel Prize Winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. The book is illustrated throughout in black white and contains 24 pages of color reproductions of CRICKET cover art.TABLE OF CONTENTSLet?s Celebrate Cricket Marianne CarusLetter Isaac Bashevis SingerMeet Your Author Isaac Bashevis SingerThe Fools of Chelm an the Stupid Carp Isaac Bashevis SingerGenesis (poem) Lee Bennett HopkinsClifton Fadiman and the Beginnings of Cricket Anne FadimanThe Birth of Cricket Eleanor CameronOld Cricket?s Family Album Lloyd AlexanderA Hungry Reader Lloyd AlexanderA Gift from Gertrude Stein Lloyd AlexanderI?m Not