This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    No doubt that it is about the sea, storm and adventurous men; but most of all it is the story that probe deep in to the human minds molded by Indian, British, Philippine and Indonesian cultures. It is the drama of these four cultures conflicting, clashing, but living together to fight their destiny, which makes ‘M. T. Aiwa Maru’ the only novel of its kind in the world literature. Many known directors from Indian film industry have an ambition to create a movie based on this novel.

    Benedict's last short story collection was the critically acclaimed The Wrecking Yard, published in 1992 by Nan A. Talese. That collection was followed by the Steinbeck Award-winning crime novel Dogs of God, also from Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, in 1994, which Marilyn Stasio said was written "in a vein of rare, wild beauty .... with the lyrical exactitude of Henry Thoreau on a metaphysical field trip to hell." Miracle Boy and Other Stories is a collection of fourteen stories. many of which earned appearances in The O.Henry Awards, New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, The Pushcart Prize: The Best of Small Presses, The Best of Tin House, and Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Elizabeth Strout, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kittridge, says, "These are amazing stories. They contain the exquisite beauty of poetry and the dense muscularity of a language that takes the reader to breathtaking heights. Never complaining, or flinching, Pinckney Benedict presses us right against the variety of human experience in ways I've never seen before. There is not a story here that is not the real thing."

    Dewy, a foul-mouthed realist, happily takes Gunnar under his wing and tries to teach him how to maneuver safely through the dangers of the Columbus, Ohio, streets. Together they devise increasingly ingenious ways to reclaim properly from their most recalicitrant customers. They become fixated in particular on a woman who will not respond to any of their attempts to repossess her furniture. Both Dewy and the customer refuse to give in. And thus the stage is set for a series of events that send Gunnar's life spiraling out of control.

    The stories are retold so as to lose none of the strength and character of the originals.

    Church, school then a little more church was her life. She wasn’t the girl to get asked on dates or even have a lot of friends. She mainly kept to herself until she was noticed by the one guy she had been dreaming about since she hit puberty. Deon was a force that Jess had no choice but to allow to come in and sweep her away. He was too charming, too handsome, and too tempting. He didn’t have rules and he didn’t let Jess’ young age stop him from getting what he wanted, which was her. Jess fought him off for as long as she could but finally gave in. Her life seemed to change overnight. She became confident. She was able to get the clothes that she wanted and be the girl that other guys liked and females wanted to befriend. Deon was her king and she just wanted to make him happy. She went against her parents’ wishes and everything she believed in to be with him and she would have taken on the world for him if she had to. He gave her everything she ever wanted and she found herself so wrapped up in him that she could see nothing else. Her fairytale soon turned into a nightmare once she learned she wasn’t the only girl he was loving. Next were the fights and the drama. Trying to leave Deon became a war that she wasn’t prepared to fight. What do you do when someone you love so much hurts you? How can you leave them when you can’t even go a day without them? Love is many things but it should never hurt. For Jessenia her life was nice until it wasn’t. She fell in love with a man that really didn’t love her at all and the battle to get back to herself wasn’t going to be an easy one. He said he loved her and she believed him. His type of love was pain most of the time and she started to bleed his love right out of her until one day she noticed the love was gone. To leave Deon, Jess has to find herself and find her strength. Will she succeed or will she forever be wrapped up in a man that really loves no one but himself? Heart of Stone by Mz. Lady P Heart of Stone is a short story that digs into the mind frame of Stone Williams. A heartless, ruthless, and abusive womanizer.K'Yonnah Kyles is his much younger girlfriend who thought she had met her Knight in Shining Armor, but in reality she was dancing with the devil and sleeping with the enemy.Not being able to take it anymore, K'Yonnah decides to do what's best for her. In the process, she'll find out secrets that Stone has been keeping from her. She will have to come to grips and face the fact that Stone never had any good intentions for her or her heart. Will she be able to get out of his clutches or is it too late for her to save her life from the heartless nigga known as Stone.Love Don't Have to Hurt by Lucinda John Aimee's dreams of a professional dancer had to be placed on hold when her father died of cancer. Living paycheck to paycheck, Aimee works to help her mother pay off her debts, take care of her brother, and attend a few classes at a community college. When Aimee's best friend, Shanice presents her with the idea of dancing at a strip club for extra money, she meets Lucas. A punch, slap, and a few kicks is how Aimee can explain her abusive relationship with Lucas. The guy that is suppose to be her safe haven, is the one that is causing her the most pain; physically and emotionally. Aimee feels obligated to stay with Lucas because of how he changed her and her family's lives, but when things turn fatal, will Aimee learns that love is not suppose to hurt? Or will it be too late?Fatal Attraction: The Love I Once RememberedHave you ever been deeply in love? Enduring so much because you thought things would get better? Or because you felt your good days, outweighed your bad? Well here's a story about a young lady dealing

    A thousand miles and days of riding yield nothing. But then, about to turn home, Rand encounters a man living with crippling memories of a father he wishes he’d never known. The confrontation erupting between the two of them gives Rand the answer to a lifelong question and leaves the stranger at peace for the first time.

    As they take turns driving south together through hundreds of miles of new territory, their old lives fall away and their hopes for a bright future are born. Where will they end up? Who will they be when they get there? Will they become lifelong friends or simply fellow travelers thrown together a few days by fate? If you love characters who grow through adversity to discover strength, passion, and joy, ride along with Meg and Sully to Someplace Warm. Annie Katz, after many transformational road trips of her own, is now happily staying home in Maui. Please see her first novel, Lila Blue, a heartwarming coming of age story set on the Oregon Coast, and follow her current news on www.anniekatz.com.

    Even worse, Jonah can’t seem to find a good cup of coffee anywhere, and the language barrier makes his wisecracks fall even flatter than usual.It all starts innocently enough, with a big tip to an undeserving waitress. Their kindness inadvertently draws them into a tragic situation involving a missing girl, and they are not aware of how they have been deceived, until it is too late.Stranded without their passports, Jonah and Leyla don’t know who to trust. Borden must rely on his wits, his martial arts skills and a new friend of dubious reputation. Featuring a cast of unique, memorable characters, including Jonah Borden, Superior Getaway is part of the Lake Superior Mystery series. This is the fourth, though none of the books have to be read in order. Tom Hilpert writes character-driven mysteries with humor and flair. He loves cats, as well as dogs, and is kind to little children.

    However, he remains single, childless, and subsists in cramped apartments. She harbors guilt for her supposed failure until she discovers a sketch-book he’d made of his life, which prompts her own journey to live authentically.While this textured story combines serious issues such as alcoholism, death, and family conflict, it’s balanced with wit and humor and is filled with endearing, unforgettable characters. The story spans decades, beginning in 1970 and ending in the present. Readers will be immersed in this tale as it poses an intriguing question: “What pictures will you have of yourself by the end of your life?”“hugely moving, beautifully rendered, and brilliant,” Lidia Yucknavitch

    If she’s not careful, Maggie’s old junk may wreck her new life. "Hutchins’ Maggie is an irresistible train wreck—you can’t help but turn the page to see what trouble she’ll get herself into next." Robert Dugoni, #1 Amazon Best-selling Author of My Sister's Grave Live Wire (Maggie #1): Washed-up alt-country-rocker-turned-junker Maggie Killian is pulled to Wyoming by an irresistible force . . . former bull rider Hank Sibley, the man who broke her heart fifteen years before. When she unexpectedly meets his Sunday school-teaching girlfriend at a saloon, Maggie seeks liquor-fueled oblivion between the sheets of a younger man’s bed. But after her beloved vintage truck breaks down and leaves her stranded in the Cowboy State, she learns her hook-up died minutes after leaving their rendezvous. Suddenly surrounded by men with questionable motives, Maggie searches for the murderer while fighting the electricity between herself and her old beau and her new penchant for local whiskey.Sick Puppy (Maggie #2): Junker and former alt-country-rocker Maggie Killian tucks tail back to Texas with Louise, the mutt her bull-riding ex foisted on her in Wyoming after he gave another woman his heart. Maggie runs straight to Gary Fuller—her long time best friend-with-benefits and the biggest Texas country music star since George Strait—but arrives too late to save him from dying in a fire. She just wants to lick her wounds in her own bed with nothing save a bottle for comfort, but Maggie’s short term renter refuses to budge from her home. Soon her small town sanctuary is overrun with Nashville bigwigs, Gary’s trailer park family, and grief-crazed fans feeding the fires of media speculation about the bodies in her wake.Dead Pile (Maggie #3): After Maggie Killian’s junker business goes into the shitter in Texas, the former alt-country-rocker packs up her vintage truck and rescue mutt for Wyoming and a sexy reunion with her ex, Hank Sibley. When she discovers Hank’s foreman unceremoniously dumped on the ranch’s dead pile—the repository for deceased livestock—deputies look no further than the ranch for suspects, especially the young Amish hand, Andy, who received a battlefield promotion of sorts. Because the two have bonded over his guitar lessons, Maggie worries about Andy, even as she is struggling to resolve her suddenly resurrecting musical past, the demolished business in her present, and the complexity of a future with a lover who has suffered from traumatic brain injury since his bull riding days, his disapproving sister, and his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother. ˃˃˃ See why Pamela wins contests and makes best seller lists. USA Today Best Seller #1 Amazon Best Seller Top 50 Amazon Romantic Suspense and Mystery Author Silver Falchion for Best Adult Mystery USA Best Book Awards Cross-Genre Fiction Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Romance, Quarter-finalist ˃˃˃ Once Upon A Romance calls Hutchins an "up-and-coming powerhouse writer." If you like Sandra Brown or Janet Evanovich, you're going to love Pamela Fagan Hutchins. A former attorney and native Texan, Pamela splits her time between Nowheresville, Texas and the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. ˃˃˃ The Maggie reviews are in, and they're good. Very, very good.

    He eventually finds himself in the heart of southeast Asia and is quickly drawn into the underground Muay Thai boxing rings in Bangkok, Thailand. There, while trying to find out who and what he's really made of, Sal is introduced to a very new and very real kind of evil. With his superhuman abilities, he has been rising fast as a potential new champion, but when he meets a young girl who was forced as a child into sexual slavery he decides that it's up to him to save her. Under the pretense of accepting her as a gift, he begins trying to find the innocent child she still has buried deep inside. She responds slowly, but finally comes to love him as a father-figure and is thrilled when he makes efforts to purchase her from the pimp that owns her. But pimps are criminals, and when Precious is stolen away and held for ransom, Sal will stop at nothing to get her back. No matter what it costs him.

    •Practice exercises are given at the end of chapter included conceptual questions & multiple choice questions with hints, answer & solutions. •Multiple choice questions with single correct and more the one correct answers, Comprehension based questions, Assertion-Reason, Matching Type questions, etc. •Objective answers are provided at the end of every chapter. •Solutions & Explanations are given at the end of every chapter for clear the concepts. •More than 3000 Subjective/Numerical practice exercise with incisive solutions.

    Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:Share everything.Play fair.Don't hit people.Put things back where you found them.Clean up your own mess.Don't take things that aren't yours.Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.Wash your hands before you eat.Flush.Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.Live a balanced life.Take a nap every afternoon.When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    But their attempts to ostracise him merely show up some very ugly shortcomings of their own . . .Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection Ford County.