The Best American Poetry 2006


Billy Collins - 1990
    The result is a celebration of the pleasures of poetry. In his charming and candid introduction Collins explains how he chose seventy-five poems from among the thousands he considered. With insightful comments from the poets illuminating their work, and series editor David Lehman's thought-provoking foreword, The Best American Poetry 2006 is a brilliant addition to a series that links the most noteworthy verse and prose poems of our time to a readership as discerning as it is devoted to the art of poetry.

Keep Mars Weird


Neal Pollack - 2015
    Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes, with future episodes delivered at no additional cost. This serial currently contains one episode out of an estimated six total episodes, and new episodes will be delivered every week. Several hundred years in the future, a depopulated Earth has become a tolerant, progressive paradise. What could be better—or duller? Meanwhile, Mars is home to New Austin, a freewheeling human colony fabled to make Las Vegas look like a meditation retreat. After breaking the polite laws of Earth, earnest schoolteacher Jordan Kincaid finds himself forced to relocate. It’s either life on Mars or life behind bars.But what promised to be Xanadu is more like Blade Runner . . . only with more waiting in line. Trend-chasing hipsters and obnoxious tourists have swarmed into New Austin at the expense of poverty-stricken locals, all overseen by a greedy megamogul bent on transforming the city into a gentrified nightmare. When a sexy but sinister heiress seduces Jordan, he finds himself on the wrong side of a literal real-estate rebellion, as the filthy rich and dirt poor battle for control of the next hot neighborhood. Forget about keeping it weird, someone’s got to keep Mars from becoming a hell off Earth.Episode ListAn additional episode will be delivered every week until the book is complete. New episodes will be added to the same book on your Kindle, keeping your place and retaining your notes and highlights. You'll be notified via email when a new episode has been delivered.Episode 1: October 27, 2015. : In the future, when life on Earth is nearly perfect—and perfectly boring—twenty-six-year-old Jordan Kincaid’s crime of passion gets him ebxiled to Mars…where life will never be the same.Episode 2: November 3, 2015. : The rocky voyage to Mars takes a turn for the better when a beautiful billionaire makes Jordan a VIP member of the several-million-miles-high club.Episode 3: November 10, 2015.: When the rich take on the rest in a Martian real-estate battle royal, Jordan and his buddy Leonard realize even best friends can end up at odds.Episode 4: November 17, 2015.: As the wealthy elite rendezvous to revel on a Martian mountain, the Resistance sets its sights on sabotage.Episode 5: November 24, 2015. The Mars by Mars Festival goes south in a New Austin minute when the Resistance crashes the party—and the real-estate war gets fatally real.Episode 6: December 1, 2015. As the battle for power, property, and the future of Mars heats up, Jordan and Leonard face off against each other…and face down their destinies.

Three Plays: The Late Henry Moss / Eyes for Consuela / When the World Was Green


Sam Shepard - 2002
    In Eyes for Consuela, based on Octavio Paz’s classic story “The Blue Bouquet,” a vacationing American encounters a knife-toting Mexican bandit on a gruesome quest. And in When the World Was Green, cowritten with Joseph Chaikin, a journalist in search of her father interviews an old man who resolved a generations-old vendetta by murdering the wrong man. Together, these plays form a powerful trio from an enduring force in American theater.

A Steady Rain


Keith Huff - 2010
    But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a difficult journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlifes.A dark duologue filled with sharp storytelling and biting repartee, A Steady Rain explores the complexities of a lifelong bond tainted by domestic affairs, violence, and the rough streets of Chicago.

Anatomy of Gray


Jim Leonard - 2006
    At first, the new doctor cures anything

A Classical Primer: Ancient Knowledge for Modern Minds


Dan Crompton - 2012
    

Granta 122: Betrayal


John Freeman - 2013
    The massage therapist who struggles to help a veteran who's biggest regret is tattooed in living detail across his back. The retired CIA operative, now a mother of two, who is still packing heat for the just-in-case scenario that has her trigger finger itching...With award-winning reportage, memoir, fiction and photography, Granta has illuminated the most complex issues of modern life through the refractory light of literature. Feel the sting of betrayal via new writing by Ben Marcus, Janine di Giovanni, Karen Russell, Samantha Harvey, Colin Robinson, Jennifer Vanderbes, Callan Wink, John Burnside and a host of others, including debut author Lauren Wilkinson, whose heroine moves through decades with the forward lean of Richard Yates and the grace of Garcia Marquez.

The Financial Lives of the Poets


Jess Walter - 2009
    Walter tells the story of Matt Prior, who’s losing his job, his wife, his house, and his mind—until, all of a sudden, he discovers a way that he might just possibly be able to save it all . . . and have a pretty damn great time doing it.

Then We Came to the End


Joshua Ferris - 2007
    The characters in Then We Came To The End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."

Words


Robert Zimmermann - 2014
    The poem started out as a simple observation of the snow in moonlight, and turned into a poem with more to offer. I'm offering it free to my readers. I've had it on my blog, where it's gotten much response, and wanted to give everyone another way to access it.

Free-Range Chickens


Simon Rich - 2008
    Now this former editor of The Harvard Lampoon and current writer for Saturday Night Live has returned to mine more comedy from our hopelessly terrifying world.In the nostalgic opening chapter, Rich recalls his fear of the Tooth Fairy (“Is there a face fairy?â€) and his initial reaction to the “Got-your-nose†game (“Please just kill me. Better to die than to live the rest of my life as a monsterâ€). He goes on to present Count Dracula’s desperate Match.com profile (“I am normal human looking for human woman to come to castle. I am normal, regular humanâ€). Later, he gets inside the heads of two firehouse Dalmatians who can’t understand their masters’ compulsion to drive off to horrible fires every day. And in the final chapter, he tackles some of life’s biggest questions: Does God really have a plan for us? Yes, it turns out. Now if only He could remember what it was. . . . Praise for Simon Rich’s Ant Farm “Ant Farm has an imaginative power that can trigger snort-fests. . . . Ferociously creative, this book is for readers craving both smart humor and belly laughs.â€â€“People (four stars)“Savagely funny.â€â€“The New York Times“Hilarious. Open this book anywhere, begin reading, and you will laugh.â€â€“Jon Stewart“Ant Farm is what all humor books should be: full of brief, high-concept musings that you wish you’d thought of yourself.â€â€“Time Out New York“A satirical salmagundi that bites back . . . Imaginative premises abound. . . . As unpredictable as YouTube, as in your face as MySpace.â€â€“Publishers Weekly

The Gum Thief


Douglas Coupland - 2007
    In Douglas Coupland's ingenious new novel--sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--we meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged aisles associate at Staples, condemned to restocking reams of 20-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And Roger's co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase, who is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6.One day, Bethany discovers Roger's notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she discovers that this old guy she's never considered as quite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her: and, spookily, he is getting her right.These two retail workers then strike up an extraordinary epistolary relationship. Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger's work-in-progress, the oddly titled Glove Pond, a Cheever-era novella gone horribly, horribly wrong. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief reveals the comedy, loneliness, and strange comforts of contemporary life.Coupland electrifies us on every page of this witty, wise, and unforgettable novel. Love, death and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them ...and even after tragedy seems to have wiped your human slate clean, stories can slowly rebuild you.

The Warrior and the Biologist


Susan Gourley - 2014
    The raynids prey on humans as a food source, swarming through the universe like locusts from a nightmare. A small band of survivors of the distant planet of Gaviron hunt the monsters but they’re slowly losing the war. Biron, highly-trained and gifted warrior of Gaviron, reluctantly agrees to a last desperate strategy. The goal isn’t to defeat the raynids but to make sure a few small pockets of humanity survive. To do his part, Biron takes on the role of protector on the small Earthling colony of Blithe. In exchange, the people of Blithe must offer up one of their women as Biron’s bride so that a small piece of Gaviron will live on. Heartbroken by the years of fighting the raynids and losing everyone he’s loved, Biron doesn’t care who he marries. Esta Brunner, intelligent, brave and attractive, makes as good a choice as anyone. Esta agrees to the terms of their Gaviron saviors. And as she and Biron fight against their common foe, her alien husband’s easy charm and physical beauty ease the discomfort of the forced marriage. Their fledging relationship comforts them both until another danger intrudes on the planet. Once the fragile trust between them is broken, Esta realizes how much she’s come to care for her lonely husband. It will take Esta’s clever mind and Biron’s knowledge and skills together to defeat the raynids. Before they can trust each other again, Esta must accept the depth of her love for her husband and Biron must learn what love is. Other titles available by Susan Kelley through New Concepts Publishing: Recon Marines I: The Marine's Queen Recon Marines II: The Marine's Heiress Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor The Greater Good The Lesser Evil A Ruthless Good One Good Woman Book I: To Tame a Tiger Book II:Tiger's Mate Book III :A Tiger's Courage The Warrior and the Biologist Coming Soon to Amazon: The Warrior and the Governor (Now Available for Pre-Order) If you enjoyed this book, be sure to check out these other exciting titles available from New Concepts Publishing: The Men of Anderas I: Jardan, the King by C.J. Johnson The Men of Anderas II: Dak the Protector by C.J. Johnson The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin by C.J. Johnson Watchers by Kaitlyn O'Connor Dragons of the Dawn by Kaitlyn O'Connor Centaur Chronicles: Unbridled by Raven Willow-Wood The Forgotten Realms: Primal Instincts by Raven Willow-Wood Love's Captive by Myra Nour

The Crazy Years


Spider Robinson - 2004
    Written by Spider Robinson, 'The Crazy Years' takes its name from Robert A Heinlein's designation of the last years of the 20th century and contains essays from Robinson's tenure as op-ed columnist for 'The Globe and Mail' and from 'Galaxy Online'. Environmentalists that place the survival of earth before the survival of humanity, the idiocy of computer designs, and the downsides of the Internet are among the subjects Robinson uses to take the world to task.

The Seer


Ali Smith - 2006
    They dress both themselves and their home immaculately; their lives are ordered to the point of sterility. Into their lives bursts Kirsty, Iona's anarchic sister, who manages to turn the whole evening into a topsy turvy treat.