Book picks similar to
Safely Gathered In by Sarah Schofield
short-stories
2023
sci-fi
womxn
World Glimpses: Parasite
Sara King - 2014
In Planetside and Opening Night at the Naturals Preserve, you get to look into her upcoming new world of After Earth. In Parasite, for which this edition is titled, you have the chance to read into some of the background and history of one of the brilliant characters from Sara's Millennium Potion series, of which you can find the first novel, Wings of Retribution, right here on Amazon!
Scorch Atlas
Blake Butler - 2009
Entire neighborhoods drown in mud, glass rains from the sky, birds speak gibberish, and parents of young children disappear. Millions starve while others grow coats of mold. But a few are able to survive and find a light in the aftermath, illuminating what we’ve become. In "The Disappeared", a father is arrested for missing free throws, leaving his son to search alone for his lost mother. A boy swells to fill his parents’ ransacked attic in "The Ruined Child". Rendered in a variety of narrative forms, from a psychedelic fable to a skewed insurance claim questionnaire, Blake Butler’s full-length fiction debut paints a gorgeously grotesque version of America, bringing to mind both Kelly Link and William H. Gass, yet imbued with Butler's own vision of the apocalyptic and bizarre.
The Fall
K.M. Fawkes - 2021
Trying to live the straight life as a journalist, a relapse to her former hacker lifestyle uncovers some harrowing news; an international death cult is planning to release a nerve gas worldwide, killing the entire population. And they’re going to do it soon.When you know you’re right, and everyone else is wrong.With the government, security services and media all unwilling to believe a lone, female computer hacker with a record, Michelle doesn’t know who else to turn to. Forlorn, she decides to find shelter. Her uncle, a doomsday prepper, seems to have the perfect solution: Michelle should join him and some select friends underground, and wait out the apocalypse…When the only way to survive is to bunker down.As the world comes to a shuddering death rattle above ground, tensions fray below ground, and Michelle’s unstable uncle seems to be losing the plot. Prepared for the worst, but unable to handle the reality, a series of violent escalations means Michelle has to risk it all; she has to go above ground.When the time comes to climb above the surface, and survive…
The Only Fish in the Sea
Elizabeth Gannon - 2014
The son of Neptune and a mortal woman, he’s spent millennia as an outcast of both worlds. As king of the ocean, all Julian wants to do is protect the denizens deep and drown the humans for their crimes against sea creatures. He doesn’t care about the Consortium of Chaos’s new jobs as “heroes.” He still hates everyone, which is kinda unfortunate since he’s just become the one person responsible for keeping the world safe. He’d probably just ignore the human’s plight and go for a swim, except the beautiful woman he’s been searching for for years has shown up to help fix his “image problems.” Which means Julian might have to actually pretend to be a hero, after all. Bridget: Bridget is a public relations specialist. Kind of. She’s not exactly at the top of her field, but she’s giving it her best shot. The curvy, average, dateless human is going to help Julian and his bizarre group of semi-insane, super-powered friends reach their full potential as heroes. And not JUST because he’s the handsomest man she’s ever seen. Years ago, Julian saved her life. In an age where good guys and bad guys seem way too much alike, Julian is the only person she’s ever seen act heroically. He can do anything. He just needs to believe that. …And stop telling all the humans that he’s going to conquer the planet. …And maybe not worry so much about seafood restaurants murdering his underwater subjects. …And actually pay attention to all the people trying to take over the city. New enemies are rising and nearly everyone else in the Consortium is MIA. Now, it’s up to Julian and the Consortium members who are too old, weird, evil, or headless to be invited on the REAL missions to save the city. Except they suck at it. Humans are whining about the death-toll, the Consortiums screw-ups are all over the news, and their evil garage sale isn’t helping to pay the bills. Bridget’s going to fix all that. She’s determined to make the world see them for the heroes they are. Julian’s certainly willing to go along with her ideas, no matter how many public appearances he has to make at elementary schools and shopping malls. He knows he’s a villain and he couldn’t care less about what the rest of humanity thinks, but he sure loves the idea of being a hero to Bridget.
Stories: All-New Tales
Neil GaimanDiana Wynne Jones - 2010
. . ." The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal. Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world—from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult—the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and "master anthologist" (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this "new literature of the imagination" is high. "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all." Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man's descent into evil in "Devil on the Staircase." In "Catch and Release," Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in "Unwell." Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in "Wildfire in Manhattan." Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams's "The Knife." Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in "The Therapist." A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains." As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume—sure to become a classic—will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction.
Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country And Other Stories
Chavisa Woods - 2017
Not stories of triumph over adversity, but something completely other. Described in language that is brilliantly sardonic, Woods's characters return repeatedly to places where they don't belong—often the places where they were born. In "Zombie," a coming-of-age story like no other, two young girls find friendship with a mysterious woman in the local cemetery. "Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street" describes a lesbian couple trying to repair their relationship by dropping acid at a Mensa party. In "A New Mohawk," a man in romantic pursuit of a female political activist becomes inadvertently much more familiar with the Palestine/Israel conflict than anyone would have thought possible. And in the title story, Woods brings us into the mind of a queer goth teenager who faces ostracism from her small-town evangelical church.In the background are the endless American wars and occupations and too many early deaths of friends and family. This is fiction that is fresh and of the moment, even as it is timeless.
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong
F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1920
After serial publication in Spirou the complete story was published, along with the Marsupilami short story Touchez pas aux rouges-gorges, in a hardcover album in 1957.
The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories
Mahvesh MuradJames Smythe - 2017
Eavesdropping and exploring; savaging our bodies, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends. Some have called them genies: these are the Djinn. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them.They are the Djinn. They are among us.With stories from: Nnedi Okorafor, Neil Gaiman, Helene Wecker, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine King, Claire North, E.J. Swift, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Saad Hossein, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.
Summer Frost
Blake Crouch - 2019
Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?Blake Crouch’s Summer Frost is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
Maybe Not
Colleen Hoover - 2014
It could be an exciting change.Or maybe not.Especially when that roommate is the cold and seemingly calculating Bridgette. Tensions run high and tempers flare as the two can hardly stand to be in the same room together. But Warren has a theory about Bridgette: anyone who can hate with that much passion should also have the capability to love with that much passion. And he wants to be the one to test this theory.Will Bridgette find it in herself to warm her heart to Warren and finally learn to love?Maybe.Maybe not.
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1999
In God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, Vonnegut skips back and forth between life and the Afterlife as if the difference between them were rather slight. In thirty odd "interviews," Vonnegut trips down "the blue tunnel to the pearly gates" in the guise of a roving reporter for public radio, conducting interviews: with Salvatore Biagini, a retired construction worker who died of a heart attack while rescuing his schnauzer from a pit bull, with John Brown, still smoldering 140 years after his death by hanging, with William Shakespeare, who rubs Vonnegut the wrong way, and with socialist and labor leader Eugene Victor Debs, one of Vonnegut's personal heroes.What began as a series of ninety-second radio interludes for WNYC, New York City's public radio station, evolved into this provocative collection of musings about who and what we live for, and how much it all matters in the end. From the original portrait by his friend Jules Feiffer that graces the cover, to a final entry from Kilgore Trout, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian remains a joy.
Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories
Kelly Barnhill - 2018
When Mrs. Sorensen’s husband dies, she rekindles a long-dormant love with an unsuitable mate in “Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch.” In “Open the Door and the Light Pours Through,” a young man wrestles with grief and his sexuality in an exchange of letters with his faraway beloved. “Dreadful Young Ladies” demonstrates the strength and power—known and unknown—of the imagination. In “Notes on the Untimely Death of Ronia Drake,” a witch is haunted by the deadly repercussions of a spell. “The Insect and the Astronomer” upends expectations about good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, love and longing. The World Fantasy Award–winning novella The Unlicensed Magician introduces the secret magical life of an invisible girl once left for dead—with thematic echoes of Barnhill’s Newbery Medal–winning novel, The Girl Who Drank the Moon.
Lust at First Sight: A Collection of Sexy Shorts
Té Russ - 2021
Lust at First Sight: A collection of sexy short stories…*A man meets an incredibly intriguing woman in a lingerie store.*Book lovers connect at a lock and key party.*Two strangers get trapped together on an elevator.*A usually rational woman lets fortune cookies guide her actions with a sexy stranger.
Breaking Bones
Robert White - 2018
A ruthless criminal gang. A law unto themselves. Detective Jim Hacker has watched The Dogs grow from thuggish youths to psychotic criminals and seems to be the only cop in town with the determination to see justice done. Meanwhile Jamie Strange, a young Royal Marine, finds himself embroiled in the lives of the gang when his girlfriend, Laurie Holland, cuts off their engagement... to be with the most dangerous of The Dogs: Frankie Verdi. Strange knows right from wrong, but when Verdi begins to target Jamie's family, he makes an enemy of a man, more dangerous than even he could imagine. Crisp, slick and often terrifyingly violent, this 1980's crime thriller will appeal to the readers of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Stephen Leather.
A Trail of Fire
Diana Gabaldon - 2012
In
The Space Between
Jamie Fraser's step-daughter Joan is on her way to an abbey in Paris to become a nun - but when she meets the Comte St Germain, a wealthy French aristocrat rumoured to to deal in the occult - she discovers her destiny lies on a quite different path.In
The Custom of the Army
Lord John Grey is summoned as a witness in a court martial in the wilds of Acadia, only to find himself playing a crucial role in the Battle of Quebec. In
A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
a WW2 Spitfire pilot called Jerry MacKenzie crashes near a stone circle and wakes up in the eighteenth century. Can the strange man he meets - who impossibly seems to know him - help him return to his wife and baby son before a terrible fate overtakes them?