In his second short-story installment Matthew Farrington again tackles issues of family, abuse, madness and the inherent competing human desires of surrender and survival. Part of the bulk of a larger work, The Rest of Me showcases Farrington’s shrewd talent for breaking through traditional barriers in fiction writing, concisely displaying the raw emotion of his subject in brief and moving prose.Book 1 of 5 in the Bubby Anthology.Robert, a social outcast all of his life, suddenly receives the powers of Bubby. In a flash, his life is completely turned around. In other words, the ladies dig him! When the world is threatened by an evil force, will the inexperienced Bubby be able to summon the strength to save it, and make it back in time for his many dates?ReviewOur introduction to the hero named Bubby is a funny, albeit short, one. Originally written in 1995, by then high school student, B. P. Draper, the jokes have aged well. While the characters are not as well-developed as I would have liked, I still empathize with the title character's desire to fit in. If I had to describe Bubby I in a sentence, I would say it is like a train wreck that you can't look away from because it is a hilarious, hilarious train wreck. Overall, Bubby I is an enjoyable satire of the superhero world. --Braden Erp Views: 526
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature—and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books."If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. Views: 525
Remarkable, hilarious and unsettling re-imaginations of reality by "a dynamic writer of extraordinary talent " (Jenifer Levin, New York Times Book Review).
Girl with Curious Hair is replete with David Foster Wallace's remarkable and unsettling reimaginations of reality. From the eerily "real," almost holographic evocations of historical figures like Lyndon Johnson and overtelevised game-show hosts and late-night comedians to the title story, where terminal punk nihilism meets Young Republicanism, Wallace renders the incredible comprehensible, the bizarre normal, the absurd hilarious, and the familiar strange.
This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN: 0393313964/9780393313963 Views: 525
The is the first short story I have ever written. In general I only write poetry, but the tittle "1,000 Miles of Hope" just popped into my mind and I felt it belonged to a short story instead of a poem. This story is about a young woman who has broken-up with her boyfriend for his own good, but has regretted the decision.Everything was good. I was senior and I was dating the guy I'd been crazy about for, well, forever basically. Things were right on track and going just the way I wanted them too. We'd go off to college and get degrees and killer careers and get married and have 2.5 children and live out a suburban fairy tale.One night changed all that...along with everything I ever thought I knew.I know they say you can't go home again. I'm not really sure who 'they' are, but they're wrong. Like, wrong to the power of infinity. The thing of it is though, I thought I was home. As it turns out, I was also wrong to the power of infinity. I mean, imagine my surprise when an overly dramatic moment results in me falling through the worm hole, or a black hole, or a bunny hole...well, suffice it to say I fell into some kind of hole and ended up somewhere I never expected. I mean a wholly different place, and not metaphorically. Literally, another place. This would all be really awesome except that some...things...are after me. And there is this guy. Okay, there are two guys and I'm not sure which way is up anymore. One is perfect for me, everything you'd want in a guy.So why is it that I feel like someone is pulling me by a rope toward the other one?Only one thing is for sure. Everything I was ever certain of just went up in smoke. Views: 524
If you love quirky and dark short stories but have become discouraged over the lack of originality these days then "Weirder Than Weird" will renew your faith! "Weirder Than Weird" is chock full of dark and creepy tales that will leave you wanting more and also wondering about the authors sanity."Weirder Than Weird" is chock full of the most unusual tales that you will ever read. Imagine if you will... a woman who holds the deepest and darkest of secrets. She seeks relief from her ignominious shame but her psychologist knows her secret all too well and she ends up paying for her indiscretions with her very soul. Or consider Keith Tuttle, a young man who unwittingly becomes entrenched in a horrifying tale that leads him into bondage but in the end someone close to him unexpectedly benefits from his damnation. Another story called "Arrival Time" will allow you to peer into the life of a solitary man traveling through space and what he has come to rely upon in order to keep his sanity. Will he lose it? Stand by....These are just a few of the weird tales that await you. Can you hear the whistle blowing? The train is about to leave the station. Next stop: Scares-ville, Terror-town and Humor-heights. The only question now is...will you be on board? Views: 524
The Madness is Back!The third annual "Days of Madness" short story anthology is back with twenty new short-short tales that explore the extremes of the human condition, and beyond!Features new stories from the pens of: Richard Godwin, Benjamin Sobieck, Anthony Cowin, Angel Zapata, J.J. Steinfeld, L.W. Salinas, Matthew Wilson, Jack Horne, Donald J. Uitvlugt, and Chris Allinotte.The Madness is Back!The third annual "Days of Madness" short story anthology is back with twenty new short-short tales that explore the extremes of the human condition, and beyond!Ride shotgun with a distraught father as he floors it down the highway in pursuit of justice.Answer the "Babysitters wanted" ad in your local paper, but be ready for the game of your life.When frogs scream like crickets and mermaids become reality, you've in for a wild ride through ten days of madness.Features new stories from the pens of: Richard Godwin, Benjamin Sobieck, Anthony Cowin, Angel Zapata, J.J. Steinfeld, L.W. Salinas, Matthew Wilson, Jack Horne, Donald J. Uitvlugt, and Chris Allinotte. Views: 523
It's late one night at the Spanish port of Algeciras and two fading Irish gangsters are waiting on the boat from Tangier. A lover has been lost, a daughter has gone missing, their world has come asunder - can it be put together again? Night Boat to Tangier is a novel drenched in sex and death and narcotics, in sudden violence and old magic, but it is obsessed, above all, with the mysteries of love. A tragicomic masterwork from a multi-award-winning writer, Night Boat to Tangier is both mordant and hilarious, lyrical yet laden with menace. Views: 522
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and the New York Times best-selling Last Hundred Years Trilogy, a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals—and a young boy—whose lives intersect in ParisParas is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. At dusk, one afternoon she pushes open the door of her stall—she's a curious filly—and, after traveling through the night, arrives by chance in the City of Light. She's dazzled, and often mystified, by the sights, sounds and smells around her, but she isn't afraid. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthair pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city's lush green spaces, nourished by Frida's strategic trips to the bakery and the butchershop. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks, and an opinionated raven. But then... Views: 522
England, 1307. . .Templar Knight Galeren de Massard is sent to investigate an incident where a nun claims to have been attacked by "a man who became a wolf." When Galeren meets Catherine, he instinctively knows that her attacker was Esquin de Floyran and that his return is dangerous for the increasingly unpopular Templar Order. A supernatural tale revolving around the fall of the Templars.England, 1307 . . .Templar Knight Galeren de Massard is sent to investigate an incident where a nun claims to have been attacked by "a man who became a wolf." When Galeren meets Catherine, he instinctively knows that her attacker was Esquin de Floyran, an old foe, and that his return is dangerous for the increasingly unpopular Templar Order. Out for revenge, De Floyran has betrayed his brotherhood's secret to the French King who has long sought to discredit the Templars. When he discovers the truth of their nature, he vows to destroy the Order and have the Knights burned to the last. When hundreds of Templars are arrested in France and Catherine is taken by De Floyran, Galeren resolves to rescue her and save as many of his brethren as he can. Alone, he journeys to France and into the heart of danger to face his enemy and risk everything to save his race from destruction. Views: 522
"Doon the wynds an' up the streets,
Where revenants sought souls tae eat,
The Butcher called for twitching meat
An' Burke an' Hare did answer."
-anon.
1827. A year after the Cadaver Riots tore the heart from Edinburgh. Fear still chokes the Old Town, for though the revenants were driven back with shot and steel, they still lurk in the city's shadowed closes. When night falls, they strike.
In dissecting rooms anatomists slice twitching flesh as they dream of cures and glory. For the greatest among them, Robert Knox, there is no price that cannot be met in the quest for knowledge. Behind closed doors he trades in walking death, dealing with devils to keep the flesh market supplied...
Set between the slums of 19th Century Edinburgh and the ivory towers of its academia, The Flesh Market is an almost true story of murder, mad science, obsession, and the restless dead. Views: 521
One of the most influential works of modern American fiction is available for the first time as an eBook, featuring a new Author’s Note, as well as an Introduction by Joshua Ferris.
Since its publication in 1996, George Saunders’s debut collection has grown in estimation from a cherished cult classic to a masterpiece of the form and inspired an entire generation of writers. In six stories (“CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” “Isabelle,” “The Wavemaker Falters,” “The 400-Pound CEO,” “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz,” “Downtrodden Mary’s Failed Campaign of Terror”) and a novella (“Bounty”), Saunders introduces readers to an unforgettable cast of characters struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world. With original commentary from Joshua Ferris and Saunders himself, this eBook edition is the perfect occasion to discover or revisit a virtuosic, uniquely American voice.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from George Saunders's Tenth of December.
Praise for George Saunders and *CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
“There is no author I recommend to people more often—for ten years I’ve urged George Saunders onto everyone and everyone. You want funny? Saunders is your man. You want emotional heft? Saunders again. You want stories that are actually about something—stories that again and again get to the meat of matters of life and death and justice and country? Saunders. There is no one better, no one more essential to our national sense of self and sanity.”—Dave Eggers
“The debut of an exciting new voice in fiction . . . Saunders’s satiric vision of America is dark and demented; it’s also ferocious and very funny.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith
“George Saunders makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We’re lucky to have him.”—Jonathan Franzen
“An astoundingly tuned voice—graceful, dark, authentic, and funny—telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times.”—Thomas Pynchon
“In CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, George Saunders is improvising around a single scary note. Few writers have sounded it with such clarity, boldness, and wit.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Subversive, hilarious, and emotionally piercing. Few writers can encompass that range of adjectives, but Saunders is a true original—restlessly inventive, yet deeply humane.”—Jennifer Egan
“This book is a rare event: a brilliant new satirist bursting out of the gate in full stride, wildly funny, pure, generous—all that a great humorist should be.”—Garrison Keillor
“[Saunders has] shades of both Denis Johnson and Raymond Chandler. . . . By turns he’s ferocious, witty, and uproarious, but what makes his fiction memorable is the gravitas of its dark portraiture of America.”—The Boston Globe* Views: 520
Nine brave, wise, and spellbinding stories make up this award-winning debut. In "When She is Old and I Am Famous" a young woman confronts the inscrutable power of her cousin's beauty. In "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" a band of popular girls exert their social power over an awkward outcast. In "Isabel Fish" fourteen-year-old Maddy learns to scuba dive in order to mend her family after a terrible accident. Alive with the victories, humiliations, and tragedies of youth, How to Breathe Underwater illuminates this powerful territory with striking grace and intelligence.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 520
Poems that explore the interstice between light and dark, day and night, perhaps even good and evil.Tina Storm has never been a normal teenager. She’s a demon hunter with the gift of a lightning vanquish – an inherited power from a long line of Storm demon hunters and researchers.Blessed with a natural gift for finding – and fighting – dangerous demons, and keeping the human populace safe and unaware, Tina also struggles with her daily life:~Keeping an after-school job: check.~Participation in the school play: check.~Getting a date with the cute loner boy from art class: check.All the while, Tina keeps her city safe by fighting a German water demon stalking her boyfriend, facing off with a vampire, and tracking a serial killer murdering her classmates.Storm Front is the prequel to Storm of Blood and consists of five urban fantasy ultra-short stories (under 5k) that trace Tina’s adventures as she moves to a new town and starts a new school. Views: 520
