Book picks similar to
Coffee House Lies: 100 Cups of Flash fiction by Carly Berg
short-stories
flash-fiction
fiction
first-read
Scars Do Heal
Shilpa Menon - 2015
She fights a paradoxical battle between her responsibilities at work and her only family there - her mother. And caught in between these is a story of Sonal's past - a terrible event that got her to flee India. Scars from her troubled past continues to manifest in multitude of ways, reminding her constantly about that horrific event. Serendipity happens when Dr. Ryan Percy enters her life and Sonal is challenged in ways she had never imagined. Ryan turns out as everything from Sonal's quintessential definition of the man of her dreams - BUT, Ryan too comes to the party with his own baggage from the past. A pivotal piece in the jigsaw of their lives appears to be missing. Could their puzzling lives be ever completed by each other? Do they complete or destroy each other?
Colorful Notions: The RoadTrippers 1.0
Mohit Goyal - 2016
As they recount their adventures, I crave to live their journey all the more. They look at each other with a glint in their eyes, as if refurbishing those memories, as they narrate their spooky time at Bhangarh Fort, strange escapades at Wagah Border and Sundarbans, car breakdowns, wild animals, near-death experiences and highway robbers! It's nothing less than crazy.I doubted if I'd ever have the gumption to create such experiences. So I did the next best thing - I penned a book about them, and their roadtrip.Colorful Notions is a journey of three young hearts on the Indian terrain and into the inner recesses of their souls, giving a new perspective to relationships, love and life.
Uncommon Type
Tom Hanks - 2017
A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!
The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill
Bradford M. Smith - 2016
That is what troubles animal-phobic, robotics engineer Smith who just got married. He learns that his bride’s dream is to have a farm where there are lots of animals and she can rescue ex-race horses to retrain and find them new homes. But according to a Meyers-Briggs Personality Test that they took for fun, their marriage is doomed. There is only one problem: the newlyweds took the test after the wedding. Whether Smith is chasing a cow named Pork Chop through the woods with a rope, getting locked in a tack room by the family pony, being snubbed by his wife’s dog, or unsuccessfully trying to modernize their barn using the latest technology, the odds are stacked against him. It seems like everything with four legs is out to get him. Will the animals win, forcing Smith to admit defeat, or will he fight to keep his family and the farm together? Enjoy the true, warm, and frequently hilarious stories of Smith’s journey along the bumpy road from his urban robotics lab to a new life on a rural Virginia farm.
It's. Nice. Outside.
Jim Kokoris - 2015
He's fifty-something years old, an ex-basketball player, ex-author, ex-philanderer, ex-husband, ex-high school English teacher. And he's the father of three: two overachieving adult daughters and 19-year-old Ethan, who will never be an adult. John's older daughter is getting married, and as the family members travel to the celebration, John is secretly preparing for a life change that will alter his family's hearts forever.The five Nichols' are held together by love and humor, as well as the spiky parts of sisterly competition and a difficult baby brother. Parents John and Mary have devoted themselves to caregiving, and John especially finds himself caught in the tension between being a parent and being true to himself. So when a new challenge comes their way in the wake of a road trip and wedding plans, the family bonds are stretched and tested. Funny, heartbreaking, and generous, IT'S. NICE. OUTSIDE. asks: What happens when you have to let go of the person who has been holding you up?
Six Word Wonder
Doug Weller - 2020
Some stories are funny, some poetic, some vulgar, and some are a little disturbing. Each story has been lovingly crafted to amuse and entertain you in six words.Six Word Wonder is a social media sensation, with over 10,000 followers on Instagram @sixwordwonderNow, for the first time, Doug brings his best tiny stories together in one collection. Unlocking the cage, she stepped out.Cupid. Tomorrow, aim for his head.Home alone, but toilet just flushed.Baby loves whining. Mother loves wine.…reader. I’m a very gifted mind…I poured two glasses… then remembered.Take a moment out of your hectic schedule to enjoy a Six Word Wonder.
No Rest for the Witches
MaryJanice Davidson - 2007
Will there be any room left for love? Lori Handeland "Voodoo Moon"For Devil's Fork-based FBI Agent Dana Duran, the only way to fight a supernatural serial killer just may be to embrace life. But little did she know that voodoo could be so viciously sexy… Cheyenne McCray "Breath of Magic" San Francisco's witches are in an epic battle. But even if Sydney can use her sultry ways and ancient Druid powers to save the world, can she risk losing her heart to handsome warrior Conlan? Christine Warren"Any Witch Way She Can"A desperately lonely witch decides to take matters of love into her own hands when she casts a cosmic personal ad…only to find that the perfect formula for love is a strange brew indeed.
Seal of Confession
Michele Pace - 2021
A young priest on the other side of the screen is shaken by what he learns. A former college athlete with an MBA from a prestigious university, Father Joe Russo is not your typical man of God. Nine years earlier, his own life took a tragic turn and he gave everything up, committing his life to the church. Now his peaceful existence is being tested, and he finds himself questioning the God he serves, the vows he made, and someone he left behind.In this gripping thriller, a priest and an FBI agent work to uncover secrets and expose hidden crimes, but when it seems they have it all figured out, everything they think they know will be questioned.
Souls Set Free
Kimmie Easley - 2012
Actually, she’s not loving at all. Unable to move on from a tormented childhood of abuse she’s now at risk of losing her own family. Hopeless, she goes to bed every night secretly longing to not wake up the next morning. That all changes the day her mother is murdered while living on the streets. Emma must now face all of the pain she has spent years trying to numb with pills and alcohol when she is forced to travel back to her hometown to identify her mother’s body. If only it were that easy…Will reliving the abuse all over again help Emma forgive her mother or send her spiraling back into a world she fought so hard to survive?
Marked
Everly Drummond - 2011
After stumbling upon a fight between two men in the dark alleyways of New York, a brutal attack by one of the men has left her marked. Pryse has claimed her intoxicating blood for himself. It is against vampire law that a human be unwilling marked, and Gedeon finds himself, not only wanting to protect the fragile human, but doing anything within his power to break the mark that Pryse has placed on her, so that he may claim her for himself. Until now Gedeon believed that vampires could only feel two emotions, lust and hunger, but Sara has him second guessing everything he had ever thought to be true. In Sara's arms, Gedeon finds something that he never knew existed, and Sara finds more than she could ever hope for. Can Gedeon break Pryse's mark and claim Sara for himself before it's too late?
On Dragonfly Wings: A Skeptic's Journey to Mediumship
Daniela I. Norris - 2014
It aims to give hope to those who have lost a loved one and to those who are about to pass beyond hope that this is not an end. Written for lay people, rather than experienced spiritualists or mediums, and for anyone who is curious about exploring further, it provides practical tools to help readers find their own spiritual truth and path."
3 a.m.
Nick Pirog - 2013
Henry Bins is awake for one. He wakes up each day at 3 a.m. then falls asleep at 4 a.m. Life is simple. Until he hears the woman scream. And sees the man leave the house across the street. But not just any man. The President of the United States.
Phoenix
Chuck Palahniuk - 2013
Palahniuk channels both Stephen King and John Cheever in this singularly sinister and hilarious short story, straight from the passive-aggressive front lines of modern marriage, where a wife's frustration, along with the family cat, become weapons of mass destruction.Rachel married Ted because he was uncomplicated and loyal. But he was also devoted to his wretched house (done up in black granite, black appliances, even black dishware) and his first love, an old, flatulent cat named Belinda Carlisle. Once Rachel becomes pregnant, Ted reluctantly agrees to move and give up the cat. But the house doesn't sell, and Belinda Carlisle still haunts their home: every day the creature becomes fatter and more malodorous. When the house burns to the ground in a freak conflagration and the couple's daughter, April, is born blind soon thereafter, the marriage is never the same again. Only on a business trip three years later does Rachel begin to reckon with the damage.In an Orlando motel room far from Ted and April, Rachel wonders: Is her simple-minded husband more vindictive and manipulative than even Rachel could have imagined? How far will she go to keep the upper hand—a bit of emotional and physical torture, perhaps? Will she win the battle, only to lose so much else?If all is fair in love and war, there are few contemporary writers better equipped than Palahniuk to travel the extremes, right to the chilling intersection of "I do" and "I'm damned."
Strange Flesh
Michael Olson - 2012
"The only clue we have to our brother's whereabouts is this place that doesn't really exist."Ten years ago, Blythe Randall broke James Pryce's heart. Now she needs his help. Her enigmatic appeal lures the elite hacker into his most tantalizing, and most personal, assignment yet.A Harvard dropout employed by Manhattan-based RedRook Security, James makes a living finding people who don't want to be found, pursuing their digital tracks around the globe, flushing out criminals, and exacting creative high-tech revenge on behalf of his clients. But this time he's following his target (billionaire multimedia artist Billy Randall) into an exotic and treacherous world: a virtual one.Capping off an erratic, increasingly violent series of stunts meant to plague his family's media empire, black sheep Billy sends a video of his own suicide to his older siblings, aristocratic twins Blythe and Blake. In it, Billy jacks out, reanimating onscreen as an avatar in a decadent online world called NOD. The performance is pure Billy: he has always been obsessed with the Bleed: the moment when real and virtual selves intersect, where actions in one life breed consequences in another.Blythe uses her influence to install James at GAME, a downtown media collective and one of Billy's recent haunts. Posing as a documentarian, James gains access to a small band of artists and programmers, contemporaries, and in some cases enemies, of Billy Randall, whose top secret project represents the holy grail of virtual reality. Meanwhile, James learns that as part of his most recent scheme, Billy himself has designed a lavish alternate reality game, an escalating, high-stakes virtual landscape of strange flesh.In order to find him, James must play along.
Forgotten Bones
Vivian Barz - 2019
But when it comes to murder, Officer Susan Marlan never trusts a simple explanation, so she's just getting started.Meanwhile, college professor Eric Evans hallucinates a young boy in overalls: a symptom of his schizophrenia - or so he thinks. But when more bodies turn up, Eric has more visions, and they mirror details of the murder case. As the investigation continues, the police stick with their original conclusion, but Susan's instincts tell her something is off. The higher-ups keep stonewalling her, and the FBI's closing in.Desperate for answers, Susan goes rogue and turns to Eric for help. Together they take an unorthodox approach to the case as the evidence keeps getting stranger. With Eric's hallucinations intensifying and the body count rising, can the pair separate truth from illusion long enough to catch a monster?