O'Leary to Barack Obama. "Flexing impressive literary chops, the beer vendor/creative-writing professor captures both the tough, defensive exterior and the vulnerable, often-broken heart of his city."— Timeout Chicago"Chicago, a page at a time. Michael Czyzniejewski gets right to the point in telling the city's stories." — Chicago Tribune"...Michael Czyzniejewski’s “Chicago Stories,” forty fictional monologues riffing on the common culture of the Windy City’s shared history, projected forward into a possible future. Not quite historical fiction—more like historical jazz." — Newcity Lit"In 'Chicago Stories,' Michael Czyzniejewski summons all of Chicago — its ghosts, living and dead, its heroes and fools, sinners and saints, its people and places and all of its occasions — and in these pages they have gathered, strange and unlikely bedfellows, to sing a new song for Chicago. It will twist your arm behind your back, this song. It will break your fingers."— Billy Lombardo, author of The Man With Two Arms and The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories

    A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children’s game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear. With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires—for intimacy, atonement, comfort—bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed—and so do her readers. The Souvenir Museum showcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.

    Subtle horror unexpected is many times more chilling and terrifying than horror that smacks you in the face.

    “As soon as you complete a description of what a good story must be, a new example flutters through an open window, lands on your sleeve, and proves your description wrong,” writes Anthony Doerr about the task of selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019. The year’s best stories are a diverse, addictive group exploring everything from America’s rich rural culture to its online teen culture to the fragile nature of the therapist-client relationship. This astonishing collection brings together the realistic and dystopic, humor and terror. For Doerr, “with every new artist, we simultaneously refine and expand our understanding of what the form can be.”  The Best American Short Stories 2019 includes Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Jamel Brinkley, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ursula K. Le Guin, Manuel Muñoz, Sigrid Nunez, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Jim Shepherd, Weike Wang, and others.

    Two grown sisters struggle with old assumptions about each other as they stumble to build a new relationship in A Map of Modern Palm Springs. Rome is the setting of Puttanesca, as two young widows move tentatively forward, still surrounded by ghosts and disappointments from the past.These twelve stories, filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language that are sure to become Straub’s hallmarks, announce the arrival of a major new talent.

    M. Homes as one of the most provocative and daring writers of her generation. Here you'll find the cult classic A Real Doll, the tale of a teenage boy's erotic obsession with his sister's favorite doll; Adults Alone, which first introduced Paul and Elaine, the crack-smoking yuppie couple whose marriage careens out of control in Homes's novel Music for Torching; and Looking for Johnny, in which a kidnapped boy, having failed his abductor's expectations, is returned home. Brilliantly conceived, sharply etched, and exceptionally satisfying, these stories explore the American dream in ways you're not likely soon to forget. Working in Kodacolor hues, Homes offers an uncanny picture of a surreal suburbia-outrageous and utterly believable.

     When Cressi Harris got dumped by her husband Huxley for a woman half her age, she changed everything. She left New York City for Seascape Cove, a tiny village almost a hundred miles north of San Francisco. She stopped ghost writing Huxley’s very successful mystery series and started expressing her creativity in the kitchen of her new restaurant, The Dockside Cafe. Cressi made the transition painlessly. So did Jacko, her lively black spaniel. Both of them preferred fresh ocean breezes to the traffic fumes of New York City. She never even thought of New York, except when Huxley phoned, which he did too often because he wasn’t a very good writer without Cressi’s help. Cressi was smart and good at what she did. The Dockside Cafe flourished, even in the winter, and so did her growing friendship with good looking Police Chief, Trent Marlow and crusty retired banker Kevin Rodgers. Life was pretty darned good... ...Until her troubles started. Somebody had it in for Cressi, but who? She hadn’t been in town long enough to upset anybody, had she? Apparently she had... because somebody really had it in for her. Trent Marlow wasn’t about to let anybody get away with destroying the new life and business Cressi was building. He was determined to discover who was trying to destroy her business, and why. Welcome to Seascape Cove is Book One of The Seascape Cove Cozy Mystery Series. If you like strong women who take charge of their lives and handle whatever life throws at them, you’ll love Cressi Harris and the friends and family who support her. Download the book now and welcome Cressi to your Library. I know you’ll like her.

    Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sweaty. And Sasha agrees to have a drink with her married lover’s wife and then immediately regrets it. These are the women of Single, Carefree, Mellow, and in these eleven sublime stories they are grappling with unwelcome houseguests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and all manner of love, secrets, and betrayal. In “Cranberry Relish” Josie’s ex—a man she met on Facebook—has a new girlfriend he found on Twitter. In “Blue Heron Bridge” Nina is more worried that the Presbyterian minister living in her garage will hear her kids swearing than about his finding out that she’s sleeping with her running partner. And in “The Rhett Butlers” a teenager loses her virginity to her history teacher and then outgrows him. In snappy, glittering prose that is both utterly hilarious and achingly poignant, Katherine Heiny chronicles the ways in which we are unfaithful to each other, both willfully and unwittingly. Maya, who appears in the title story and again in various states of love, forms the spine of this linked collection, and shows us through her moments of pleasure, loss, deceit, and kindness just how fickle the human heart can be.

     Whether we are following WB through a grim future where human meat is on the market, or trailing slowly behind while she introduces us to Marie Laveua's daughter, you can be certain of one thing: you will be surprised. The best and the most brutal of WB's works has been brought together in this all-too-believable collection. Includes a total of eighteen tales. Stories include: - Her - Undo - Slipping - Siren - Alone in the House - Antics - House Arrest - Mall Food - Meat Aisle - The Water Stain - Heart Problems - Laveau - The Birth - The Look - Love/Death - Beneath the Surface - Nighttime Terror - Girl in the Pink Coat

    But when she starts working for the sexy and mysterious Noah Cutler, Charlotte can’t help but dream about the gorgeous billionaire, even though she knows it’s just a fantasy. Men like Noah – gorgeous, dark, and driven-- usually aren’t interested in women like her. Noah Cutler is a man who doesn’t take no for an answer. His drive to go after exactly what he wants has made him one of the most powerful men in the city. And while he could have his pick of any woman, his sights are set on Charlotte. And he won’t stop until he’s taken control of every inch of her deliciously curvy body… HIS TWISTED GAME (BOOKS 1-4) One family with devastating secrets… Avery Buchanan has always hated her older stepbrother, Cole. With his piercing blue eyes and ripped body, Cole has gotten everything handed to him, floating through school and life effortlessly. One girl who will never forget… But when Cole leaves Avery and their dysfunctional family behind and heads to New York City to create Buchanan Enterprises, one of the most successful tech firms in the world, Avery vows never to forgive him. One man who won’t take no for an answer… After getting kicked out of the house by her mentally ill mother, Avery has no choice but to ask her stepbrother for help. Cole agrees to let her stay with him, under one condition – that she follow his rules, whatever they are, no questions asked. Cole is used to getting what he wants – and what he wants is Avery, no matter how wrong it is.... OBSESSED WITH HIM (BOOKS 1-3) Some promises are meant to be broken… Twenty-year-old Olivia Reilly has promised herself to one man and one man only – her best friend and soulmate, Declan Keene. And she’s kept that promise, through countless foster homes and moves across state. She’s never even kissed a boy – all because of a vow she made to Declan years ago. There’s only one problem. She doesn’t know where Declan is. Enter Colt Cannon. When Olivia starts working for the sexy and dangerous bad boy, she asks him to help her find Declan. Surely someone with Colt’s money and power will be able to track him down. Colt agrees, but he also demands something of Olivia in return. Something dark, sexual, and dangerous that will test her will and push her self-control to its limits...

    Told through the eyes of a young man who yearns to find excitement, truth, and a deeper family bond in his life, Weaver's approachable and revealing stories, lists, fragments, and memories delve into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling world of a midwest kid finding his own path."Thank god you can come across a writer like Troy James Weaver. In the future people will just say these stories are like Troy James Weaver stories and you'll know exactly what they mean." --Scott McClanahan "There are moments, reading Witchita Stories, where everything dropped away, and I was speechless, or at least whatever the equivalent of speechless is when you're not talking in the first place. There is a deep sadness to these stories, and humor, but most importantly, honesty. This feels real and heavy and it's just about the best thing I've read in a long time." --J. David Osborne

    His fragile world falls to pieces upon the arrival of a young girl, who possesses a special and familiar talent that threatens to drive Louis over the edge.

    The first collection of fifteen short stories by the popular tri-media personality.

    

     Featuring eleven brand new, never before seen urban fantasy stories from bestselling, award-winning authors, Urban Magic will take you on a series of exciting adventures in worlds full of magic. All proceeds from sales of this anthology will go to the American Library Association Disaster Relief Fund, which helps libraries recover after natural disasters.