Jar of Pickles: A Short Story

An ordinary trip to the grocery store for pickles turns out to be anything but ordinary.A collection of short stories: Mystery, SciFi, Romance, Children's, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, etc. etc.I keep adding as I generate enthusiasm :^)P.S It looks best in pdf and rtf formats.(I don't spend a lot of time massaging the various formats.)
Views: 623

Marta Oulie: A Novel of Betrayal

“I have been unfaithful to my husband.” Marta Oulie’s opening line scandalized Norwegian readers in 1907. And yet, Sigrid Undset had a gift for depicting modern women “sympathetically but with merciless truthfulness,” as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. At the time she was one of the youngest recipients and only the third woman so honored. It was Undset’s honest story of a young woman’s love life—“the immoral kind,” as she herself bluntly put it—that made her first novel an instant sensation in Norway. Marta Oulie, written in the form of a diary, intimately documents the inner life of a young woman disappointed and constrained by the conventions of marriage as she longs for an all-consuming passion. Set in Kristiania (now Oslo) at the beginning of the twentieth century, Undset’s book is an incomparable psychological portrait of a woman whose destiny is defined by the changing mores of her day—as she descends, inevitably, into an ever-darker reckoning. Remarkably, though Undset’s other works have attracted generations of readers, Marta Oulie has never before appeared in English translation. Tiina Nunnally, whose award-winning translation of Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter captured the author’s beautifully clear style, conveys the voice of Marta Oulie with all the stark poignancy of the original Norwegian.
Views: 622

Wildcat

Wildcat is a book that has been banned by the United Auto Workers International Union: General Motors and the United Auto Workers lock horns in this tale of a go-for-broke wildcat strike. Wildcat is set in Vietnam-era, 1970 Ohio at a General Motors stamping plant--lots of laughs and labor history, and a not-nostalgic look at what Vietnam cost us all.Sweet Historical Western Novelette/Short Story/Rachel Hendricks moves to Cactus Gap, Texas, to reclaim her young brothers whom she sent out West on the Orphan Train after their parents died. She plans to reunite her family and make a home for them so they can start a new life together. Reese Cooper takes the Hendricks boys under his temporary guardianship and provides room and board in exchange for good honest work. Even though he still mourns the death of his wife, the two boys inch their way into his battered heart. When their sister comes to claim them, Reese discovers the healing power of love.
Views: 621

Mariana

From the winner of the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize, this mesmerizing, suspenseful, and richly atmospheric tale of time travel draws us into the heart of a heroine we won't soon forget... The first time Julia Beckett saw Greywethers she was only five, but she knew that it was her house. And now that she’s at last become its owner, she suspects that she was drawn there for a reason. As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, she finds herself transported into seventeenth-century England, becoming Mariana, a young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love. Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past...until she realizes Mariana’s life is threatening to eclipse her own, and she must find a way to lay the past to rest or lose the chance for happiness in her own time.
Views: 620

A Winter's Night

Enter if you dare... A man driving through a remote part of Denmark is forced to take shelter from a snowstorm in a lonely castle. Inside, he encounters the Count who lives there, a strange old man who begins to talk. And as the Count does, the visitor learns of an ancient legend, of the noble family's mysterious secret, and of the curse that overshadows them... **
Views: 620

Dream Sequence

Henry Banks, star of the UK's most popular television series, has higher aspirations, ones befitting of his talent: a serious film career, beginning with a role in a brilliant Spanish director's next movie. To make the jump to the big screen, he'll have to remake himself in more than one way. But as he runs his morning miles and scrutinizes his changing physique in the mirror, he doesn't know that he's not alone in his obsession—Kristin, an unstable American fan, has her own lofty ambitions. From the author of Man-Booker shortlisted The Quickening Maze, Dream Sequence is a moving depiction of psychological damage and the unsettling consequences of fame.
Views: 619

A Matter Of Trust

Stanford University is out of reach for most Colorado teens in 1939. The opportunity to gain an education there is beyond nineteen-year-old Dena Caulter’s wildest dreams. Struggling to find balance in a life moving faster than one of Mr. Hughes’ airplanes, she must hold on to the Christian values especially when the bright future of her friends and family begins to dim under the threat of war.Stanford University is out of reach for most Colorado teens in 1939. The opportunity to gain an education there is beyond nineteen-year-old Dena Caulter’s wildest dreams. Yet Uncle Walter, a professor at the prestigious university, as well as the Howard Hughes Aeronautics program offers and Dena is more than willing. Talk of war also breaks up the previously pleasant conversations and laughter that once provided the soundtrack for gatherings between Dena and friends. With opinions voiced, she worries that the boy she secretly crush on—Clay—will be whisked away before she gets the chance to truly know him. Studying blueprints no longer offers the intriguing escape for Dena. Struggling to find balance in a life moving faster than one of Mr. Hughes’ airplanes, she must hold on to the Christian values especially when the bright future of her friends and family begins to dim under the threat of war and A Matter of Trust.
Views: 618

The Heiress's Convenient Husband

Grace-by-the-Sea: Where romance and adventure come home.The magistrate over a little Regency coastal village, James Howland, takes pride in protecting Grace-by-the-Sea from ne'er-do-wells, including his distant cousin, the Earl of Howland. So, when he discovers a young lady hiding in the family's castle, his heart cannot decide which comes first—her rescue or his duty.Outspoken Eva Faraday has been exiled to the castle for refusing to marry the man the earl picked for her. Her late father appointed the earl trustee over her considerable inheritance, which she cannot access until she turns twenty-five or marries. And if she marries, her husband controls the money. She's not about to trust any Howland, but James seems ripe for rebellion. To thwart the earl's power, the two agree to a marriage of convenience, only to discover there are others intent on using the earl's castle for nefarious purposes. Eva and James must work together to solve the mystery and stop...
Views: 616

The Silent Ones

Father Anselm faces the most difficult and troubling case of his life in this newest addition to the ingenious and gripping series.Monk-turned-lawyer-turned-novelist William Brodrick has proven with each new installment of his Father Anselm series that he's the "writer of choice for those who prefer a cerebral challenge with a moral and social message" (Crime Review). In The Silent Ones, Brodrick tackles head-on the topical and sensitive social issue that's become the modern scourge of the Church to create an intricate thriller that's as devastating as it is impactful.Father Anselm is enlisted to trace the missing Father Livermore, an American priest with a troubled past. His disappearance is undoubtedly connected to allegations made against him by the family of eleven-year-old Harry Brandwell, but a mysterious visitor to the Priory urges Father Anselm to find out why Harry is prepared to blame an innocent man. Father Anselm finds himself on the trail of an...
Views: 616

Dogs

Ever wanted to know MORE about dogs? Do normal books not tell you enough? Use big words with no explanations? Well, this book is just right for you! In 10 pages it explains facts, breeds and puppies in simple yet clever facts!Ropo is a Nigerian living in North Yorkshire; he has just been covered in toxic waste and become a super hero. Unfortunately for him he is a lizard and it has all come as rather a shock!In this comic short story hear about the birth of a new super hero, even though he is not quite sure exactly what that entails.The story was written to help promote National Short Story Week in a secondary school in England.
Views: 615

The Splendour Falls

Chinon-chateau of legend, steeped in the history of France and England. It is to Chinon that Emily goes on a long-awaited holiday, to meet her charming but unreliable cousin, Harry. Harry wanted to explore the old town and the castle, where Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, had withstood the siege of Chinon many centuries ago, and where, according to legend, she hid her casket of jewels. But when Emily arrives at her hotel she finds that Harry has disappeared, and as she tries to find him she becomes involved with some of the other guests and learns of a mystery dating from the German occupation during the Second World War. Another Isabelle, a chambermaid at the hotel, fell in love with a German soldier, with tragic results. Emily becomes increasingly aware of strange tensions, old enmities and new loves; as she explores the city, with its labyrinthine dungeons and tunnels and its ancient secrets, she comes ever closer to the mystery of what happened to both the Isabelles of Chinon's history.
Views: 615