How Spanish Short Stories for Beginners works: Each story will involve an important lesson of the tools in the Spanish language (Verbs, Adjectives, Past Tense, Giving Directions, and more), involving an interesting and entertaining story with realistic dialogues and day-to-day situations. The summaries follow: a synopsis in Spanish and in English of what you just read, both to review the lesson and for you to see if you understood what the tale was about. At the end of those summaries, you’ll be provided with a list of the most relevant vocabulary involved in the lesson, as well as slang and sayings that you may not have understood at first glance! Finally, you’ll be provided with a set of tricky questions in Spanish, providing you with the chance to prove that you learned something in the story. Don’t worry if you don’t know the answer to any — we will provide them immediately after, but no cheating! We want you to feel comfortable while learning the tongue; after all, no language should be a barrier for you to travel around the world and expand your social circles!So look no further! Pick up your copy of Spanish Short Stories for Beginners and improve your Spanish right now!

    You’ll listen as an old man twisted by fate and a lost love shares his life’s journey . . . marvel at a young girl playing on the ocean shore as she becomes entangled in nets of a mercurial god . . . witness a divorced man become mired in troubles after he's coerced into taking a singles cruise . . . follow a Hollywood actor in a television drama who’s always typecast as the bad boy . . . struggle along with a child kept awake by night terrors, and, most shockingly, observe a woman who hides her secretive personality from everyone on the beach one sunny day. The genuine voices of the characters, mixed with a clear-eyed tonal directness, make this a series with mesmerizing psychological interaction. Sandcastle and Other Stories spans a broad depth of human understanding and builds a bridge between the deepest chasms of human frailty, and, by the last tale, the highest portal of redemption. Read and stand witness to unspeakable hate sitting with cozy wile, right beside unconditional love—a provocative and compelling mirror on the human condition. “Bog has a keen eye for what makes people tick, especially when their clockwork is decidedly rusty and the urges it drives are less than ideal. These stories take a microscopic view at the ordinary that, in turn, molds it into something uncanny. The underlying darkness takes different forms with each one, but never is it absent, and never does it feel anything less than utterly natural.”—Josh Black, horror novel reviews

    Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business.In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, Bissinger chronicles one of the Panthers' dramatic seasons and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires-and sometimes shatters-the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms. Includes Reader's Group Guide inside. Now a major motion picture starring Billy Bob Thorton.

    In what will likely become the introduction to the history of the Spanish language, David Pharies clearly and concisely charts the evolution of Spanish from its Indo-European roots to its present form. An internationally recognized expert on the history and development of this language, Pharies brings to his subject a precise sense of what students of Spanish linguistics need to know.After introductory chapters on what it means to study the history of a language, the concept of linguistic change, and the nature of language families, Pharies traces the development of Spanish from its Latin roots, all with the minimum amount of technical language possible.  In the core sections of the book, readers are treated to an engaging and remarkably succinct presentation of the genealogy and development of the language, including accounts of the structures and peculiarities of Latin, the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of the language, the nature of Medieval Spanish, the language myths that have become attached to Spanish, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Americas. Focusing on the most important facets of the language’s evolution, this compact work makes the history of Spanish accessible to anyone with a knowledge of Spanish and a readiness to grasp basic linguistic concepts.Available in both English and Spanish editions, A Brief History of the Spanish Language provides a truly outstanding introduction to the exciting story of one of the world’s great languages.

    But Gracedoesn’t appreciate that tactic. . . . The problem is, in life’s messymixed signals of friends and liesand sex and status, true love canbe hard to find. And the real thingdoesn’t always come in the most obviouspackage, either. Is it possible that the personyou never thought of that way is the onewho will ultimately touch yourheart? This compelling exploration of feelings,expectations, and attraction offers acontemporary and candid look at loveand sexuality while moving readers withits gentle portrayal of a very special firstrelationship.

    The absurdity of both life and death are on full display; in "Zombies," the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators. In "Knock, Knock," a son hopes to tell one last off-color joke to a father in his final moments, while in "Tunnel of Love," a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing 'relief' to dying clients. And in "Expedition," fans will be thrilled to find to see a side of Tyler Durden never seen before in a precursor story to Fight Club.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant; these stories represent everything readers have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk. They have all the impact of a sharp blow to the solar plexus, with considerable collateral damage to the funny bone.

    Each title features: - Critical essays reflecting a variety of schools of criticism- Notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index- An introductory essay by Harold Bloom.

    Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.

    Illustrated with six color plates by Fredrik Söderberg.English poet-magician Aleister Crowley published White Stains in 1898, an era of intense creativity for the budding magus-to-be.The original edition of a mere 100 copies was printed in Amsterdam with the help of Leonard Smithers (publisher of Beardsley, Wilde, Burton, et al).Part of the editions was later "appropriated" and destroyed by English Customs officers, due to the erotic nature of the poems. In a Victorian Zeitgeist that found Oscar Wilde intensely shocking, Aleister Crowley of course took everything one step further.The virile sexual force stemming from Crowley's pen is but one of his trademark traits here. In this early collection, we also find examples of his remarkable wit, a thorough understanding of psycho-sexual dynamics, bombastic expressions of lyrical love, as well as his beloved Swinburnean structures of classical poetry. White Stains really is Crowley at his youthful best.Crowley used the pseudonym of George Archibald Bishop (a Neuropath of the Second Empire) as a veil, though the name was taken by Crowley from his mother whose maiden name was Bishop.A Fine Cloth Edition in dust jacket. Four color printing. Small Octavo.

    Through an examination of three clearly defined genocides — the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, and the European Holocaust — Coloroso deconstructs the causes and consequences, both to its immediate victims and to the fabric of the world at large, and proposes the conditions that must exist in order to eradicate this evil from the world. Coloroso is well known for her best-selling books that explore why children bully. In Extraordinary Evil she builds upon that research to explain why the impulse to bully is mirrored by the act of genocide. By linking the psychology of the bully to the motivation that leads a community to murder, Coloroso provides devastating and vital insight into why people kill their neighbors. Based on the author's 15 years of research and extensive travel, Extraordinary Evil is an urgently needed work in an age when acts of genocide seem to occur more frequently and are in the public's consciousness more than ever before.

    While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: "there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree." Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won't, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.

    She soon escapes her fate for the loving arms of a wealthy young man, but misadventure and fate conspire to keep her from domestic bliss. Instead, Fanny discovers that sex need not be just for love; that it can be had for pleasure. She then sets out to explore those pleasures in as wide a variety as she can. With old men and young, and women as well; in positions of power, and situations where she has none; either watching or participating, Fanny's journey through the realms of sexual pleasure is a literary tour-de-force.

    With only the most basic laws to protect her, she will submit to his depraved demands and, in the process, dive deep into her own desires. And though Damien is cold and cruel, he satisfies her in ways she never knew she needed.If she can make it to the end of her sentence, will she ever want to leave?

    Horrified onlookers are astonished and the world is stunned by what happens next. Suddenly, miraculously, Joseph Turner is granted a rematch with life. Only this time, with a beautiful, unusual power. An astonishing adventure, a romance of tenderness and passion, a spiritual thriller that spans time and the world.

    These stories explore the domestic and professional adventures of people in over their heads, while leavening their struggles with humor.Jacob M. Appel is the author of more than two hundred published short stories and is a past winner of the Boston Review Short Fiction Competition.