The Best American Essays 2000


Robert Atwan - 2000
    He has chosen a diverse, very personal collection that celebrates the essay as an independent genre unlike any other. This year’s pieces embrace stylistic freedom and strong opinions and afford the reader a fascinating view of the writer’s mind as it struggles with truth, memory, and experience. Featured writers include Jamaica Kincaid, Edward Hoagland, Cynthia Ozick, Mary Gordon, Edwidge Danticat, and others.

The Best of Clifford D. Simak


Clifford D. Simak - 1975
    It also includes a six-page introduction by Simak, and a three-page bibliography of his science fiction books. The book is edited by Angus Wells.Contents:1. A Death in the House2. Day of Truce 3. Final Gentleman4. Madness from Mars5. Shotgun Cure6. Small Deer7. Sunspot Purge8. The Autumn Land9. The Sitters10. The Thing in the Stone

Collected Plays 2 {The Lion and the Jewel; Kongi's Harvest; The Trials of Brother Jero; Jero's Metamorphosis; Madmen and Specialists}


Wole Soyinka - 1975
    This second volume of Wole Soyinka's plays traces the ironic development and consequences of 'progress'.

The Nuclear Age


Tim O'Brien - 1985
    The year is 1995, and William Cowling has finally found the courage to meet his fears head-on. Cowling's courage takes the form of a hole that he begins digging in his backyard in an effort to "bury" all thoughts of the apocalypse. Cowling's wife, however, is ready to leave him; his daughter has taken to calling him "nutto"; and Cowling's own checkered past seems to be rising out of the crater taking shape on his lawn, besieging him with flashbacks and memories of a life that's had more than its share of turmoil. Brilliantly interweaving his masterful storytelling powers with dark, surreal humor and empathy for characters caught in circumstances beyond their control, Tim O'Brien brings us his most entertaining novel to date. At once wildly comic and sneakily profound, The Nuclear Age is also utterly unforgettable.

The Best of Robert Silverberg


Robert Silverberg - 1976
    Malzberg · in · Road to Nightfall · nv Fantastic Universe Jul ’58 · Warm Man · ss F&SF May ’57 · To See the Invisible Man · ss Worlds of Tomorrow Apr ’63 · The Sixth Palace · ss Galaxy Feb ’65 · Flies · ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967 · Hawksbill Station · na Galaxy Aug ’67 · Passengers · ss Orbit 4, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1968 · Nightwings [Watcher] · na Galaxy Sep ’68 · Sundance · ss F&SF Jun ’69 · Good News from the Vatican · ss Universe 1, ed. Terry Carr, Ace, 1971

Jews Without Money


Michael Gold - 1930
    Beginning in the 1920s his was a powerful journalistic voice for social change and human rights, and Jews Without Money--the author's only novel--is a passionate record of the times. First published in 1930, this fictionalized autobiography offered an unusually candid look at the thieves, gangsters, and ordinary citizens who struggled against brutal odds in lower East Side Manhattan. Like Henry Roth's Call It Sleep and Abraham Cahan's The Rise and Fall of David Levinsky, Jews Without Money is a literary landmark of the Jewish experience. Michael Gold (1893–1967) was born in New York City, where later he wrote for radical journals and newspapers such as New Masses and The Liberator. Jews Without Money has been translated in more than fourteen countries, including Germany, where the novel was employed against Nazi propaganda.

Manhattan Transfer


John Dos Passos - 1925
    From Fourteenth Street to the Bowery, Delmonico's to the underbelly of the city waterfront, Dos Passos chronicles the lives of characters struggling to become a part of modernity before they are destroyed by it.More than seventy-five years after its first publication, Manhattan Transfer still stands as "a novel of the very first importance" (Sinclair Lewis). It is a masterpiece of modern fiction and a lasting tribute to the dual-edged nature of the American dream.

Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge


Peter Orner - 2013
    A woman's husband dies before their divorce is finalized; a man runs for governor and loses much more than the election; two brothers play beneath the infamous bridge at Chappaquiddick; a father and daughter outrun a hurricane--all are vivid and memorable occasions as seen through Orner's eyes. Last Car Over The Sagamore Bridge is also a return to the form Orner loves best. As he has written, "The difference between a short story and a novel is the difference between a pang in your heart and the tragedy of your whole life. Read a great story and there it is--right now--in your gut."

The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash


Ogden Nash - 1931
    Delightfully nonsensical, they in fact make the best of sense, accomplishing what only real poetry can -- allowing the reader to discover what he didn't know he already knew or felt.