Book picks similar to
A Piece of Steak by Jack London


short-stories
fiction
american-literature
classics

Emerald City


Jennifer Egan - 1993
    In the extraordinary "Why China?" a man drags his family to the Xi'an province in a desperate attempt to reclaim his lost integrity, only to find himself more remote and mysterious than the place where his journey led. In settings as exotic as Kenya and Bora Bora, as glamorous as downtown Manhattan, or as familiar as suburban Illinois, Egan's characters—models, housewives, schoolgirls—seek transformation of the body and spirit, and transcendence of the borders of desire.

Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories


Tobias Wolff - 2008
    In the years since, he’s written a third collection, The Night in Question, as well as a pair of genre-defining memoirs (This Boy’s Life and In Pharaoh’s Army), the novella The Barracks Thief, and, most recently, a novel, Old School.Now he returns with fresh revelations—about biding one’s time, or experiencing first love, or burying one’s mother—that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary: a retired Marine enrolled in college while her son trains for Iraq, a lawyer taking a difficult deposition, an American in Rome indulging the Gypsy who’s picked his pocket. In these stories, as with his earlier, much-anthologized work, he once again proves himself, according to the Los Angeles Times, “a writer of the highest order: part storyteller, part philosopher, someone deeply engaged in asking hard questions that take a lifetime to resolve.”

Einstein's Dreams


Alan Lightman - 1992
    As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

The Man Without A Country


Edward Everett Hale - 1863
    It is the story of an American Army Lieutenant Philip Nolan, who gets entangled with Aaron Burr in 1807, and renounces his country during his trial for treason, saying he never wanted to hear about the United States again. The Judge asks him to recant but Nolan doesn't. So the Judge granted his request and the rest of his life Nolan spent on Navy ships around the world. The officers and crew were not allowed to mention the United States.This story came out during the height of the Civil War and served to help the Union recruit soldiers and people to their cause. It is noteworthy that Edward Everett Hale's Uncle, Edward Everett, than man he was named after, gave the two hour featured address at Gettysburg just before Lincoln's speech of 209 words and two minutes, that became the best acknowledged speech in American life. Everett, like Hale, was a total patriot and honest man, and immediately congratulated Lincoln on his fine accomplishment, "You have done far better in your two minutes than I did in my 2 hours.""The Man without a Country" is still considered a major American work and read widely in American schools.. A quiet calm read letting the story speak for itself.

Legends of the Fall


Jim Harrison - 1979
    This magnificent trilogy also contains two other superb short novels. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered. Nordstrom, in The Man Who Gave up his Name, is unable to relinquish his consuming obsessions with women, dancing and food.'

The Barnhouse Effect


Pat Cook - 1950
    It originally appeared in 1950 in Collier's Weekly. It is also the subject of an Alexisonfire song. The protagonist, Professor Arthur Barnhouse, develops the ability to affect physical objects & events thru the force of his mind. He calls his power 'dynamo-psychism'. He makes the mistake of telling the government about his power. When they try to turn him into a weapon, Barnhouse decides that he is the first weapon with a conscience, & goes into hiding. While in this reclusive state the Professor uses his 'dynamo-psychic' powers to destroy large quantities of weapons, & other things used in states of war. He realizes tho, that he will die eventually & decides to pass down his "powers" to an ex-student. The story is told as a report by this ex-student, hence the title.