Entwhistle may look like your sweet, old granny...but things happen to her: she's caught up in the witness protection program, stuck in an elevator with an assortment of strangers, her house is burglarized and her dog is kidnapped. But Mrs. Entwhistle is dauntless; she didn't get to be a fesity seventy-eight by wimping out. Come join her on her porch swing, meet her best friend, Maxine, and her dog, Roger. Maxine will probably offer you a bowl of her homemade soup. Sit a while. Come back when you can.

    They strive to become an emotional or intellectual cargo that might accompany us wherever, or however, we go. . . . If we are made by what we read, if language truly builds people into what they are, how they think, the depth with which they feel, then these stories are, to me, premium material for that construction project. You could build a civilization with them.” —Ben Marcus, from the IntroductionAward-winning author of Notable American Women Ben Marcus brings us this engaging and comprehensive collection of short stories that explore the stylistic variety of the medium in America today.Sea Oak by George SaundersEverything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells TowerDo Not Disturb by A.M. HomesThe Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee BenderThe Caretaker by Anthony DoerrThe Old Dictionary by Lydia DavisThe Father’s Blessing by Mary CaponegroThe Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders by Aleksandar HemonPeople Shouldn’t Have to be the Ones to Tell You by Gary LutzHistories of the Undead by Kate BravermanWhen Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine by Jhumpa LahiriDown the Road by Stephen DixonX Number of Possibilities by Joanna ScottTiny, Smiling Daddy by Mary GaitskillBrief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster WallaceThe Sound Gun by Matthew DerbyShort Talks by Anne CarsonField Events by Rick BassScarliotti and the Sinkhole by Padgett Powell

    Here is a collection of his short fiction, with dozens of tales spanning his career and ranging from the moving to the macabre, the humorous to the haunting. From the penetrating 'Memories of Youghal' to the bittersweet 'Bodily Secrets' and the elegiac 'Two More Gallants', here are masterpieces of insight, depth, drama and humanity, acutely rendered by a modern master.'A textbook for anyone who ever wanted to write a story, and a treasure for anyone who loves to read them' Madison Smartt Bell'Extraordinary... Mr. Trevor's sheer intensity of entry into the lives of his people...proceeds to uncover new layers of yearning and pain, new angles of vision and credible thought' The New York Times Book Review

    A wave of sinkholes appears on the anniversary of a rural tragedy, and local residents begin to hear the voices of the dead. A woman encounters a predator from her youth—and a chance to turn the tables. A child’s inner beast takes on a sinister life of its own. An undetectable serial killer raises tensions on a college campus. Experimental physics reveals another world, and it might mean the end of ours. Shrouded in darkness, lurking in the shadows, NIGHT TERRORS III awaits you. The third installment of the chilling Night Terrors anthology series includes stories from Jack Ketchum, Steve Rasnic Tem, Dennis Etchison, Taylor Grant, Eric J. Guignard, Aric Sundquist, Jennifer Brozek, John McNee, Simon McCaffery, Patty Templeton, and many more!

    1) is a print anthology of 17 short stories previously published via BattleCorps, and an 18th, previously unpublished story (Destiny's Challenge) that continues the story of one of the others.It also includes a Foreword by the editor, Loren L. Coleman, how BattleCorps came into being; an "About the authors" section at the end; and a collection of BattleMech illustrations in the back. StoriesA Race to the End (Loren L. Coleman)Damage Control (Ilsa J. Bick)Eight Nine Three (Steven Mohan Jr.)Isolation's Weight (Randall N. Bills)Destiny's Call (Loren L. Coleman)Poison (Jason M. Hardy)The Immortal Warrior at the Battle of Vorhaven (Kevin Killiany)Ghost of Christmas Present (Michael A. Stackpole)Zeroing In (Robert Thurston)For Want of a Nail (Dan C. Duval)Art of the Deal (Loren L. Coleman)McKenna Station (Kevin Killiany)Echoes in the Void (Randall N. Bills)The Longest Road (Blaine Lee Pardoe)The Back Road (Louisa M. Swann)Commerce Is All (Steven Mohan, Jr.)En Passant (Phaedra M. Weldon)Destiny's Challenge (Loren L. Coleman)

     "A story with laugh out loud moments, heart-rending events and a nice easy flowing style." --Trip Fiction "Anyone who likes their romance with a touch of realism and not too much syrup will adore this book." --Read Reviewed WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR WIFE ORGANIZED A THREESOME FOR YOU ON YOUR HONEYMOON? Scott is shocked by his wife Hannah's suggestion, but hesitantly agrees to go along with it. Back home, both feel a little guilty about their encounter with a Thai woman called Marilyn, but soon put it behind them when they discover Hannah is pregnant. Then Marilyn turns up on their doorstep, six months pregnant, and Scott comes to realize that in life there is often a price to pay for indiscretion. Squeezed is a story about family, and how sometimes we don't appreciate what we've got until it's gone. Perfect for fans of Graeme Simsion, Tracy Bloom, Sue Moorcroft, Jojo Moyes and Cecelia Ahern ALSO BY DAVID ATKINSON LOVE BYTE

    In “The View from Castle Rock,” the short story master Alice Munro imagines a fictional account of her Scottish ancestors’ emigration to Canada in 1818. Nathan Englander’s cast of young characters in “How We Avenged the Blums” confronts a bully dubbed “The Anti-Semite” to both comic and tragic ends. In “Refresh, Refresh,” Benjamin Percy gives a forceful, heart-wrenching look at a young man’s choices when his father -- along with most of the men in his small town -- is deployed to Iraq. Yiyun Li’s “After a Life” reveals secrets, hidden shame, and cultural change in modern China. And in “Tatooizm,” Kevin Moffett weaves a story full of humor and humanity about a young couple’s relationship that has run its course.Ann Patchett “brought unprecedented enthusiasm and judiciousness [to The Best American Short Stories 2006],” writes Katrina Kenison in her foreword, “and she is, surely, every story writer’s ideal reader, eager to love, slow to fault, exquisitely attentive to the text and all that lies beneath it.”

    Inspired by friends telling stories on a porch, The Moth was born in small-town Georgia, garnered a cult following in New York City, and then rose to national acclaim with the wildly popular podcast and Peabody Award-winning weekly public radio show The Moth Radio Hour. Stories include: writer Malcolm Gladwell's wedding toast gone horribly awry; legendary rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels' obsession with a Sarah McLachlan song; poker champion Annie Duke's two-million-dollar hand; and A. E. Hotchner's death-defying stint in a bullring . . . with his friend Ernest Hemingway. Read about the panic of former Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart when he misses Air Force One after a hard night of drinking in Moscow, and Dr. George Lombardi's fight to save Mother Teresa's life. This will be a beloved read for existing Moth enthusiasts, fans of the featured storytellers, and all who savor well-told, hilarious, and heartbreaking stories.

    A man is booted out of his home after his wife discovers that the print of a bare foot on the inside of his windshield doesn’t match her own. Teenage cousins, drugged by summer, meet with a reckoning in the woods. A boy runs off to the carnival after his stepfather bites him in a brawl.In the stories of Wells Tower, families fall apart and messily try to reassemble themselves. His version of America is touched with the seamy splendor of the dropout, the misfit: failed inventors, boozy dreamers, hapless fathers, wayward sons. Combining electric prose with savage wit, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is a major debut, announcing a voice we have not heard before.

    Lovecraft's classic stories, among them some of the greatest works of horror fiction ever written, including:

    Powers Unlocked. An Alliance is Born.Ten thousand years ago, the Furies nearly exterminated all life in the universe before being defeated by a coalition of worlds led by the Olympians.Or so everyone thought.Now they're back, and a new reign of terror has begun.

    While some of these narratives are loosely based in fact, they are written with a large dollop of literary license. The characters are not "politically correct" in today's parlance and speak in the vernacular of their time and culture. Some of them you will like ...others you may not. No disrespect or offense is intended in the telling. These are their stories.The lead story "Fat of The Land" was a past runner-up in the national Raymond Carver short story awards.

    The big foyer at the Bell House has been decorated for the holidays and Polly's family has been hard at work decorating the rest of the house. She's ready for anything. The managers of the Sycamore Bed and Breakfast, Reuben and Judy Greene, have moved into town. While the old farmhouse is in the middle of its restoration, they plan to renovate a storefront down the street from Sweet Beans. They found something incredible in the upstairs apartment, bringing old and new together for a heartwarming moment. Moments like that prevail in this story. Last year, Polly and Henry brought two new little boys into their lives on Christmas Eve. This Christmas Eve, Noah and Elijah help the family create a beautiful new tradition. Like always, there are a few surprises. Your job is to hold them close so others can enjoy the fun. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year in Bellingwood.

    The wind tries first, but however hard it blows it fails to make any progress because the traveller simply buttons his coat even tighter than before. Only when the sun shines brightly does he finally remove it, and the wind roars away in a bad temper.

    As A.S. Byatt renders this relationship with a powerful combination of erudition and passion, she makes the interaction of the natural and the supernatural seem not only convincing, but inevitable.The companion stories in this collection each display different facets of Byatt's remarkable gift for enchantment. They range from fables of sexual obsession to allegories of political tragedy; they draw us into narratives that are as mesmerizing as dreams and as bracing as philosophical meditations; and they all us to inhabit an imaginative universe astonishing in the precision of its detail, its intellectual consistency, and its splendor.