Knickerbocker's History of New York


Washington Irving - 1809
    They were unaware that Washington Irving had invented the man entirely and placed the ads himself. Knickerbocker's purported manuscript, A History of New York, was Irving's own. Told from Knickerbocker's point of view, A History of New York is a chronicle of New York's fifty years under Dutch rule in the 1600s that plays fast and loose with the facts, to uproarious effect. A History of New York propelled Irving to the heights of literary stardom.

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders


Neil Gaiman - 2006
    By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.Contents:• A Study in Emerald • (2003) • novelette• The Fairy Reel • (2004) • poem (variant of The Faery Reel)• October in the Chair • (2002) • shortstory• The Hidden Chamber • (2005) • poem• Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire • (2004) • shortstory (variant of Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire)• The Flints of Memory Lane • (1997) • essay• Closing Time • (2003) • shortstory• Going Wodwo • (2002) • poem• Bitter Grounds • (2003) • novelette• Other People • (2001) • shortstory• Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story • (1999) • shortstory• Good Boys Deserve Favours • (1995) • shortstory• The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch • (1998) • shortstory• Strange Little Girls • (2001) • shortstory• Harlequin Valentine • (1999) • shortstory• Locks • (1999) • poem• The Problem of Susan • (2004) • shortstory• Instructions • (2000) • poem• How Do You Think It Feels? • (1998) • shortstory• My Life • (2002) • poem• Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot • (1998) • shortstory• Feeders and Eaters • (2002) • shortstory• Diseasemaker's Croup • (2003) • shortstory• In the End • (1996) • shortstory• Goliath • (1998) • shortstory• Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky • (2002) • shortstory• How to Talk to Girls at Parties • (2006) • shortstory• The Day the Saucers Came • (2006) • poem• Sunbird • (2005) • novelette• Inventing Aladdin • (2003) • poem• The Monarch of the Glen • [American Gods] • (2003) • novelette

Queen of the Universe


Geralyn Corcillo - 2015
    But then Arlen Black walks into her office and he is PERFECT for the part. One problem, though. He's not an actor there to audition. Nope. He's the handyman Lola hired to renovate her historic Hollywood house.No problem. Lola gleefully offers him the dream job of a lifetime. No dice--the stoic recluse in a tool belt wants nothing to do with Lola and her show. But Lola doesn't give up. She goes after Arlen using every trick she can think of, but her Hollywood machinations just bounce right off him.Why can't she get a bead on this guy?A scrambling Lola is about to get the ax when Arlen surprises her socks off and signs on to play Sam. She has no idea why he changed his mind, but she doesn't have time to stop and think about it. Not when she has to get him camera-ready, suppress her totally unprofessional attraction to him, and hide from the studio exec, her million-dollar leading lady, and the world at large that her ace-in-the-hole leading man is really just her sexy handyman.The stellar pilot garners media accolades, causing Hollywood gossip to sink its claws into Arlen. When one paparazzi photo threatens to destroy everything he holds dear, Lola finally understands why he upended his life to do the show and save her career. Now she's got to move heaven and Earth not to save the show ... but to save Arlen.

Johnny Got His Gun


Dalton Trumbo - 1939
    This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives... This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war. Winner of the National Book Award.

Happy Doomsday


David Sosnowski - 2018
    One minute, people are going about their lives, and the next—not. In the wake of the inexplicable purge, only a handful of young misfits remains.When it all went down, “Wizard of Odd” Dev Brinkman was seeking shelter from the taunts of his classmates. Goth girl Lucy Abernathy had lost her best friend and had no clue where to turn. And Twinkie-loving quarterback “Marcus” Haddad was learning why you never discuss politics and religion in polite company—or online.As if life when you’re sixteen isn’t confusing enough, throw in the challenges of postapocalyptic subsistence, a case of survivor’s guilt turned up to seven billion, and the small task of rebuilding humankind…No one said doomsday would be a breeze. But for Dev, Lucy, and Marcus, the greatest hope—and greatest threat—will come when they find each other.

Twice 22: The Golden Apples of the Sun / A Medicine for Melancholy


Ray Bradbury - 1948
    CONTENTSTHE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUNThe Fog HornThe PedestrianThe April WitchThe WildernessThe Fruit at the Bottom of the BowlInvisible BoyThe Flying MachineThe MurdererThe Golden Kite, The Silver WindI See You NeverEmbroideryThe Big Black And White GameA Sound Of ThunderThe Great Wide World Over TherePowerhouseEn La NocheSun And ShadowThe MeadowThe Garbage CollectorThe Great FireHail And FarewellThe Golden Apples Of The SunA MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLYIn The Season Of Calm WeatherThe DragonA Medicine For MelancholyThe End Of The BeginningThe Wonderful Ice Cream SuitFever DreamThe Marriage MenderThe Town Where No One Got OffA Scent of SarsaparillaIcarus Montgolfier WrightThe HeadpieceDark They Were, And Golden-EyedThe SmileThe First Night of LentThe Time Of Going AwayAll Summer In A DayThe GiftThe Great Collision of Monday LastThe Little MiceThe Shoreline At SunsetThe Strawberry WindowThe Day It Rained Forever

Freddy and Fredericka


Mark Helprin - 2005
    Freddy and Fredericka—a brilliantly refashioned fairy tale and a magnificently funny farce—only seems like a radical departure of form, for behind the laughter, Helprin speaks of leaps of faith and second chances, courage and the primacy of love. Helprin’s latest work, an extraordinarily funny allegory about a most peculiar British royal family, is immensely mocking of contemporary monarchy and yet deeply sympathetic to the individuals caught in its lonely absurdities.

Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete


Emily Dickinson - 1890
    Including Epigrams, Letters to Susan Gilbert, and her Black Cake Recipe. Edited by Robert John Mestre

Fatal Reaction: The Beginning


M.A. Hollstein - 2016
    People are trying to escape the unknown sickness, but there is nowhere to run… nowhere to hide… The only chance for the survival of the human race is to stay and fight. However, they're unaware of what they're fighting. What they're up against is much greater than anything they could ever imagine. This is just the beginning... Could this be the end of humanity?

Double Feature


Owen King - 2013
    Filmmaker Sam Dolan has a difficult relationship with his father, B-movie actor Booth Dolan—a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic. Allie, Sam’s dearly departed mother, was a woman whose only fault, in Sam’s eyes, was her eternal affection for his father. Also included in the cast of indelible characters: a precocious, frequently violent half-sister; a conspiracy-theorist second wife; an Internet-famous roommate; a family friend and contractor who can’t stop expanding his house; a happy-go-lucky college girlfriend and her husband, a retired Yankees catcher; the morose producer of a true crime show; and a slouching indie film legend. Not to mention a tragic sex monster.Praise for Double Feature: “[Double Feature]… is epic, ambitious, and dedicated to the uncontainable… [King] has a captivating energy, a precision and a fondness for people that are rare…” – David Thomson, The New York Times Book Review 4/7/13“What a kinetic, joyful, gonzo ride – Double Feature made me laugh so loudly on a plane that I had to describe the plot of Sam’s Spruce Moose of a debut film (it stars a satyr) to my seatmate by way of explanation. Booth and Sam are an unforgettable Oedipal duo. A book that delivers walloping pleasures to its lucky readers.” – Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!“The literary and the popular can coexist. Double Feature makes this point, and proves it too.” — Brian Gresko, The Rumpus 7/2/13"I liked [Double Feature] so much that it sort of pisses me off – the fact that Owen King, who is something like 142 years younger than I am, is such a skilled, imaginative and complete writer. This is a well-wrought and thoroughly satisfying novel, which manages, at the same time, to be both moving and – this is what pisses me off the most – very funny." - Dave Barry, author of Insane City“… [A] darkly humorous and often heartfelt work that’s part ode to low-budget movies, part family drama and part screwball comedy with a slew of oddball characters…” — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 3/22/13

The Secret Keeper


Brea Brown - 2013
    But Peyton is keeping a secret of her own. And it’s a doozy.Pastor Brice Northam is used to hearing secrets. After all, it’s part of his job description. But he’s about to hear one that’s going to challenge him almost as much as his feelings for the person confessing.Peyton needs some serious help from Brice, but how much does she dare tell him? And what, exactly, is Brice hiding from Peyton—and himself? Clearly they both have some serious soul-searching to do. But maybe, just maybe, the answer to secrets isn’t silence. Or more secrets. Maybe it’s love.

Die You Doughnut Bastards


Cameron Pierce - 2012
    Burroughs on crack!" - Thomas F. Monteleone, New York Times bestselling authorThe bacon storm is rolling in. We hear the grease and sugar beat against the roof and windows. The doughnut people are attacking. We press close together, forgetting for a moment that we hate each other. In Die You Doughnut Bastards, amputees, lonely young people, and talking animals struggle for survival against the freakish whims of nature. A typewriter made of fetuses is the source of woe for an expecting couple. A girl with a glass jaw hides an otherworldly secret. A demonic loner goes to a birthday party in Hell. You'll encounter a killer in a marsupial mask, a prison for anorexics, haunted pancakes, and a songwriter with a cult following.Surreal prose poems give way to personal accounts of alienation and modern love. Vegetarian narwhals are sold at the supermarket. And in a city that might be your own, zombie doughnuts are rising up. Kill yourself before they kill you. Or just kill yourself.Featuring original illustrations in the style of Daniel Johnston, Die You Doughnut Bastards is the latest way to drown, brought to you by Wonderland Book Award-winning author Cameron Pierce.

The Monsters We Forgot: Volume 1


R.C. BowmanLeah Velez - 2019
     Within these pages, you’ll find a treasure trove of myths, legends, folktales, urban legends, historical accounts, and stories about horrors, both ancient and modern, that have been hidden, ignored, or forgotten entirely. “The Monsters We Forgot” is a massive anthology of horror stories by an international team of authors ranging from award-winners and bestsellers to visionary newcomers. These stories draw inspiration from the folklore traditions of countries including Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Ireland, Wales, England, Norway, Nigeria, Greece, Poland, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Canada, and the United States, the tales in this three-volume collection range from original folktales and chilling myths to information-age monsters and modern urban legends, and everything in between. Turn on the lights, check the locks, and settle in. You’re about to remember The Monsters We Forgot.

Museum of the Weird


Amelia Gray - 2010
    Your landlord cheats you out of first place in the annual Christmas decorating contest. You need to learn how to love and care for your mate—a paring knife. These situations and more reveal the wondrous play and surreal humor that make up the stories in Amelia Gray’s stunning collection of stories: Museum of the Weird.Acerbic wit and luminous prose mark these shorts, while sickness and death lurk amidst the humor. Characters find their footing in these bizarre scenarios and manage to fall into redemption and rebirth. Museum of the Weirdinvites you into its hallways, then beguiles, bewitches, and reveals a writer who has discovered a manner of storytelling all her own.

Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight


Cat Rambo - 2009
    EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you'll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity. Cat Rambo doesn't simply amaze and delight, she restores wonder to her readers with every page. You won't simply believe that pigs can fly, you'll question why you ever doubted the premise at all.Contents:Eight Letters of Wonder • essay by Michael LivingstonHer Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and MoonlightThe AccordionI'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore SaidHeart in a BoxIn the Lesser Southern IslesUp the ChimneyThe Silent FamiliarEvents at Fort PlentitudeThe Dew Drop Coffee LoungeNarrative of a Beast's LifeEagle-Haunted Lake SammammishSugarA Key Decides Its DestinyThe Towering Monarch of His Mighty RaceIn Order to ConserveRare Pears and GreengagesA Twine of FlameThe Dead Girl's Wedding MarchWorm WithinMagnificent Pigs