For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.Roxane Gay’s Graceful Burdens is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    Though her friends and family remain baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn't beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man—wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage—the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems. Witty and compelling, Aidoo's novel, "inaugurates a new realist style in African literature."

    Only two survive: a black man whose world has been one of poverty and hard work, and a white woman who knows only leisure and privilege. If humanity is to have a future, the two must build a new world from the wreckage of the old.

    A must never get too attached, must never be noticed, must never interfere.  The novel Every Day starts on Day 5994 of A’s life. In this digital-only collection Six Earlier Days, Levithan gives readers a glimpse at a handful of the other 5993 stories yet to be told that inform how A navigates the complexities of a life lived anew each day.  In Every Day, readers discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day. In Six Earlier Days, readers will discover a little bit more about how A became that someone. Fans of Levithan’s books such as Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, co-written with Rachel Cohn, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-written with John Green, will not want to miss A’s adventures in Every Day and Six Earlier Days.

    Camry is a woman who knows too much. Down on her luck, she asks for Knighthorse’s protection from her biker ex-boyfriend, Steel Eye, whom she says has murdered someone. She’s a witness on the run and she also has problems of her own making. She wants to leave the biker gang, but no one ever leaves this one alive. The investigation turns dangerous as Jim digs for the truth about what really happened that night. There is action and danger as the witness spills her secrets and Jim spills some blood. And not necessarily his own.

    One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers. Both have recently been widowed. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility which they prune with a zeal that belies the fact that they are both over eighty.But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. And gradually the bickering and sniping softens into lively debate, and from there into memories shared. But could these sparks of connection ever transform into friendship? Or is it too late to expect these two to change?

    With Christmas right around the corner, Sophie’s sister is organizing a Swan Lake flash mob for a tech mogul’s elaborate holiday marriage proposal. But when the prima ballerina turns up dead, Sophie and her sister become prime suspects in the murder, not to mention suspects in the theft of a massive diamond ring. Now Sophie has just twenty-four hours to find out who really killed the Swan Princess or risk losing her sister, her life...or maybe both.

    In the magnificent opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam--and what seems at first a satire of turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate test. In "Meeting Elise," an aging New York painter mourns his body's decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees, where a young woman's bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision. Brilliant, daring, and demonstrating a jaw-dropping versatility of voice and point of view, "The Boat" is an extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart of what it means to be human, and announces a writer of astonishing gifts.

    In each of her stories, Danielle Evans explores the non-white American experience with honesty, wisdom, and humor. They are striking in their emotional immediacy, based in a world where inequality is a reality, but the insecurities of young adulthood and tensions within family are often the more complicating factors. One of the most lauded debuts of the year, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self announces a major new talent in Danielle Evans.

    Quick and stimulating to read, but slowly burning in the memory, they offer a different, more transcendent way of looking at our extreme, gritty world.

    Quite simply, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen; I was mesmerized.I’d made a fool of myself, though, and to make matters worse, my girlfriend was standing right there when it all happened.Jade went back to New York, and we didn’t cross paths again for a year—until one night when a Facebook notification lit up my screen, setting off a chain of events that would change my life forever.***This is a bonus standalone story of 16,000 words...figure about 1-2 hours reading time...and it's available for *newsletter subscribers* to download ABSOLUTELY FREE at the end of Mister Moneybags.

    Finding a way to get a ticket for the seat next to her, he then invites her to a drink at the interval. By the end of the play, Michael asks her to accompany him to dinner. But what will her answer be?What follows are four different endings . . . choose just one, or – if choosing to read all four – they can be read in the following order: Rare, Burnt, Overdone, and À Point . . .Be sure to look out for more from The Year of Short Stories collection, including The Endgame and No Room at the Inn.

    In this series of perfectly rendered vignettes, written just as he was starting to find his comic voice, Kurt Vonnegut paints a warm, wise, and often funny portrait of life in post—World War II America–a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. Vonnegut explores the relationship between science’s pursuit of truth and the state’s need to control it in “The Petrified Ants,” a darkly whimsical story about two Soviet researchers who stumble upon an amazing discovery, only to learn that natural history is also written by the hand that wields the power. “The Petrified Ants” and the thirteen other never-before-published pieces that comprise Look at the Birdie serve as an unexpected gift for devoted readers who thought that Kurt Vonnegut’s unique voice had been stilled forever–and provide a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.Other stories from Look at the Birdie available as single-story e-books:On sale August 25, 2009"Hello, Red"On sale October 20, 2009:"Confido""FUBAR""Shout About It from the Housetops""Ed Luby's Key Club""A Song for Selma""Hall of Mirrors""The Nice Little People""Little Drops of Water""The Honor of a Newsboy""Look at the Birdie" (Short Story)"King and Queen of the Universe""The Good Explainer"

    While their lonely upbringing made Killian a cynic, it isn’t in Autumn’s nature to be anything but warm and open. However, after a series of relationship disasters and the unsettling realization that she’s drifting aimlessly through life, Autumn wonders if she’s left herself too vulnerable to the world. Deciding some distance from the security blanket of her brother and an unmotivated life in Glasgow is exactly what she needs to find herself, Autumn takes up her friend’s offer to stay at a ski resort in the snowy hills of Montana. Some guy-free alone time on Whitetail Mountain sounds just the thing to get to know herself better. However, she wasn’t counting on colliding into sexy Grayson King on the slopes. Autumn has never met anyone like Gray. Confident, smart, with a wicked sense of humor, he makes the men she dated seem like boys. Her attraction to him immediately puts her on the defense because being open-hearted in the past has only gotten it broken. Yet it becomes increasingly difficult to resist a man who is not only determined to seduce her, but adamant about helping her find her purpose in life and embrace the person she is. Autumn knows she shouldn’t fall for Gray. It can only end badly. After all their lives are divided by an ocean and their inevitable separation is just another heart break away… The Kristen Proby Crossover Collection features a new novel by Kristen Proby and six by some of her favorite writers: Kristen Proby – Soaring with Fallon Sawyer Bennett – Wicked Force K.L. Grayson – Crazy Imperfect Love Laura Kaye – Worth Fighting For Monica Murphy – Nothing Without You Rachel Van Dyken – All Stars Fall Samantha Young – Hold On

    Dupin he invented the detective story; and tales such as 'MS. Found in a Bottle' and 'Von Kempelen and His Discovery' pioneered modern science-fiction.As readers will discover, Poe possessed an unrivalled capacity to create atmosphere and suspense, and to probe the dark depths of the human psyche. All the stories in this volume push back the boundaries, making the improbable possible, the familiar terrifying and strange.Contents:9 • Introduction (Selected Tales) • essay by John Curtis19 • The Duc de L'Omelette • [Tales of the Folio Club] • (1832) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of The Duke de L'Omelette)23 • MS. Found in a Bottle • [Tales of the Folio Club] • (1833) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe35 • The Assignation • [Tales of the Folio Club] • (1834) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of The Visionary)48 • Ligeia • (1838) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe65 • How to Write a Blackwood Article • (1838) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of The Psyche Zenobia)76 • The Fall of the House of Usher • (1839) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe96 • William Wilson • (1839) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of William Wilson: A Tale)118 • The Murders in the Rue Morgue • [Chevalier Dupin] • (1841) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe154 • A Descent into the Maelström • (1841) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe172 • The Island of the Fay • (1841) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe178 • The Colloquy of Monos and Una • (1841) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe188 • The Oval Portrait • (1842) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe192 • The Masque of the Red Death • (1842) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of The Mask of the Red Death)199 • The Mystery of Marie Rogêt • [Chevalier Dupin] • (1842) • novella by Edgar Allan Poe251 • The Pit and the Pendulum • (1842) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe267 • The Tell-Tale Heart • (1843) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe273 • The Gold-Bug • (1843) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe311 • The Black Cat • (1843) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe322 • The Premature Burial • (1844) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe337 • The Purloined Letter • [Chevalier Dupin] • (1844) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe357 • The Imp of the Perverse • (1845) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe364 • The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar • (1845) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe374 • The Cask of Amontillado • [Fortunado] • (1846) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe382 • The Domain of Arnheim • (1842) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of The Landscape-Garden)399 • Von Kempelen and His Discovery • (1849) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe