The twenty stories included here range from a bizarre quest to find a dead rockstar's limb (Jim Morrison's Leg) to a memorable warning about the hidden dangers of building sites (the acclaimed Shooting Jelly With A Shotgun). Effortlessly fusing pop culture, gunplay, and simians, Dial M For Monkey contains a vibrant mixture of short stories - and short-short stories - most never published before. This unmissable collection represents another shot in the arm for the resurgent form of the short story. As featured in Tonto Short Stories and Dave Eggers' McSweeney's.

    Then got out of bed and had a brisk rub down with the pumice stone. I opened the curtains and saw that the sun was shining brightly. (A suspicion is growing in my mind that the BBC is not to be trusted.)Margaret Hilda Roberts is a rather ambitious 14 � year old grocer's daughter from Grantham. She can't abide laziness, finds four hours of chemistry homework delightful and believes she is of royal birth - or at least destined for great things. But Margaret knows that good things never come to those who wait . . .These are the secret diary entries of a girl born into an ordinary life, yet who might just go on to become something really rather extraordinary, and she is brilliantly brought vividly to life by bestselling author Sue Townsend, Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday TimesSue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55�), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

    Not everyone can. Who decides? Desperate to save his daughter from a mysterious sickness, Daniel applies for the Methuselah Treatment. If she gets it, his daughter won’t just recover, she’ll live forever. But the drug is tightly controlled, and only the special, the talented, and the truly deserving ever receive it. There is nothing special about Daniel’s destitute ten- year-old girl—or is there?

     A tale of intrigue, kidnap and the price of fish… When a mysterious carved wooden fish turns up in the morning seafood delivery, bearing a desperate—albeit badly spelt—plea for help, Chef Maurice, proprietor of Le Cochon Rouge in the Cotswold village of Beakley, has only one response: if he can’t steam it, grill it or fry it, he’s not interested. Unfortunately, friend and food critic Arthur Wordington-Smythe is more than willing to get the pair embroiled—or should that be broiled?—in what could turn out to be some seriously fishy business. Time then for a trip to the Cornish seaside in search of the fish’s owner, a parking space, and a jolly good plate of haddock and chips, not necessarily in that order...

    Frederick Barthelme creates an unforgettably wistful cast of characters, ordinary people moving carefully and curiously through a gently painful world.

    Gus Conrad is called to consult by the U.S. army for its growing epidemic of suicides and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, his problems begin.Accused of murdering one of his own patients, a soldier with PTSD, Conrad learns from the mother that the answer to who is the real killer resides in England, where her family holds a long-hidden secret.Now Conrad must find the real killer as he slips out of the country to uncover to his horror the practice over the past century of British and U.S. armies both secretly killing their own soldiers who claimed psychological problems following combat, deeming them cowards, making their deaths look like suicides.The current head of the American death squad has apparently killed Conrad’s patient, and is now targeting Conrad himself for death.  Following the clues in England, Conrad is shocked at what he discovers. Will Conrad and Warburton be able get back to the U.S. to expose the practice of armies killing their own soldiers they deem cowards? Can they stop the rogue leader of the American death squad before they themselves are killed?

    SHORT STORY ~ Carrie runs away from her wedding before saying "I do." She refuses to marry Andrew, but doesn't know what she will do as she tries to straighten out the disaster her life has become. She runs to Emerald Isle, NC where happier memories call to her and she hopes she can reclaim what she's lost.

    With ashare of proceeds going to assist the literacynonprofit 826Michigan, this unforgettable collection of short fiction from manyof contemporary literature’s most powerful authors limns the diverse meanings of work in American culture today, even as itlooks to the future of the American workforce and its capacity to succeedcreatively tomorrow.

     Deena's vacation went so haywire, this book includes TWO stories! FAMILY Deena needs a change of pace and takes a trip to the North Carolina mountains to blow off some steam. A secluded rental cabin in Shady Springs and her dog, Zip, is all she needs for her great escape. That is, until a body is discovered behind the cabin and Deena discovers there's more going on in the small mountain town than meets the eye. She'll need to get to the bottom of it before her new friend takes the fall. DOG HOUSE Deena and her dog, Zip, have been enjoying some time off in the North Carolina mountains. Things have finally settled down and all is serene. That is, until someone ends up in the dog house.

    Tate seems both awed and bemused by small town life, with its legends, flights of fancy, heightened emotions, tragedies and small ruptures in the fabric of ordinary existence.

    There is also a story about insects that is more human than most D.H. Lawrence. Leidner's fiction is deeply-infused with poetry but never turns purple.

    Aimed for readers age five to ten, Bookata’s books allow the users (parents and children alike) to change in a few minutes the whole content, from illustrations to text.

    Having spent the summer working in LA, she’s back home in New York, and missing the three key elements in a girl’s life – a roommate, a job and a boyfriend. Jenny formulates a plan; surely someone must need a roommate and surely someone must need a girlfriend?By the end of the day, she has arranged a viewing for a potential roommate, the gay blond aka the Sex God,secured two dates, and work looking after a top supermodel. Things look like they are back on track; everything is going to work out great. If only life was so easy…

    Retirement's not what Robert expected. His wife feeds him twigs and is afraid of mailbox bombs. If that's not enough a fruitcake shows up on his doorstep. Fruitcakes may be a Southern tradition, but it's one Robert can do without. Find out how he deals with the holiday classic.

    Do you love a good laugh? Enjoy clean rural humor from a farmer's daughter! What happens when a farmer who’s been wishing for a boy ends up with a girlie-girl?Come along on the humorous and sometimes agonizing adventures from a childhood spent on a farm in the Eastern Oregon desert where one family raised hay, wheat, cattle, and a farm girl.