Best Short Stories & Anthologies

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family. Frequently finding themselves in Cambridge, Mass., or similar but unnamed Eastern seaboard university towns, Lahiri's characters suffer on an intimate level the dislocation and disruption brought on by India's tumultuous political history. The two things that sustain her, as the little boy she looks after every afternoon notices, are aerograms from homeAwritten by family members who so deeply misunderstand the nature of her life that they envy herAand the fresh fish she buys to remind her of Calcutta. Delusions of grandeur and lament for what she's lostA"such comforts you cannot even dream them"Agive her an odd, Chekhovian charm but ultimately do not convince her bourgeois audience that she is a desirable fixture in their up-and-coming property.

These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They move in period, location and manner, but all demonstrate a joy in writing, a pleasure in communicating an intensely American sense of atmosphere, friendship, life and family that is every bit as smart, engaging and humane as the man himself. Tom Hanks sees inside people – a wary divorcee, a billionaire trading desire for disaster, a boy witnessing his father’s infidelity, a motley crew shooting for the moon – with such acute empathy and good humour we’d follow him anywhere. Only one of the stories in Hanks' debut features an actor: it's a sharp satire with priceless insider details about a handsome dope on a press junket in Europe. — you will enjoy Uncommon Type .”. —AM New York. “In Uncommon Type , Hanks proves his bona fides as a serious scribe, producing a collection of 17 short stories so accomplished and delightful he can rest assured he has a great fallback plan should that acting thing, you know, not work out… Terrific, Tom.”. —USA Today. “There is often a powerful sense of other lives imagined at a level that goes deeper than writerly research.”. —The Guardian. “Enjoyable..."The Past Is Important to Us” employs a sharp, unexpected conclusion to elevate a story of time travel and romance at the 1939 World’s Fair." These pieces, some of which feature recurring characters and many of which explore the classic American short story territory of small-town life, have the authentic, worn-in feel of a favourite pair of jeans.”. —Metro. “The great strengths of this collection are decency and sentimentality.”. —Sunday Times. “Playful, perceptive and rewarding.”. —Sunday Express. “An entertaining collection.”. —Mail on Sunday. “impressive.”. —The Sun. “There always comes a slight wariness when we discover that someone who is generally renowned for one thing turns out to be very good at something else... —Daily Telegraph. “Tom Hanks is a natural born storyteller… He Belongs to a tradition of American storytellers that includes Mark Twain or O Henry although there is a range of work in Uncommon Type that defies such a catch-all definition.”. —The Herald.

One of Dashiell Hammett's most memorable characters, the Continental Op made his debut in Black Mask magazine on October 1, 1923, narrating the first of twenty-eight stories and two novels that would change forever the face of detective fiction. At the time of this writing, the first Op story is ninety-four years old and the last is seventy-nine, not including “Three Dimes,” an undated draft fragment conserved in Hammett’s archives, first published in 2016. Although Hammett worked for Pinkerton’s for a scant five years—before and after his service in the U.S. Army during World War I—the job inspired both his writing career and his worldview. Hammett said his cases largely involved forgeries, bank swindles, and safe burglaries, a solid factual basis for the Op’s fictional adventures, albeit considerably enlivened. While his salary was a mere $21 a week (roughly $500 in 2017 dollars), the training was invaluable, even in what Hammett called the “easiest thing a sleuth has to do”: shadowing. Despite being more than six feet tall, Hammett was reportedly an excellent shadow man, knowing to hang back, keep his cool, and catalog all available clues. Close observation of “tricks of carriage, ways of wearing clothes, general outline, individual mannerisms—all as seen from the rear—are much more important to the shadow than faces,” Hammett wrote in a letter to Black Mask magazine in 1924. It’s easy to imagine the Op’s vivid narratives as extended versions of what his reports to the Continental would have been: physical detail in wry tone, succinct, but with enough specifics to allow colleagues to identify shared quarry and continue the chase. Hammett’s case reports for Pinkerton’s are lost to history (or fire), but it’s safe to say that his experience as a shadow man was stellar preparation for his new class of scrupulously observed crime fiction. He is willing to destroy evidence to protect a friend; to convict a real crook on a false charge; to fudge his reports to deflect culpability, sometimes his own. The Op introduced moral ambiguities that complicated conventional good versus bad binaries of detective fiction and, importantly, laid ground for Sam Spade. “A less spectacular workman at times (but only at times), he is equally brutal and efficient as a manhunter.” The body of work collected in this volume made Sam Spade possible and has helped to pave the way for modern literary crime fiction, creating a bridge between the raw brawls-and-bullets thrillers common to post-WWI pulp magazines and the realistic, morally complex crime literature so enormously popular among twenty-first century readers. All but two were featured in Black Mask , the leading light of pulp magazines—a favorite among working-class readers, crime-fiction aficionados, and anyone who longed for a coin’s worth of well-crafted thrills. It wasn’t long before the Continental Op’s worka-day exploits were overshadowed by the deeper, darker, and splashier successes of Sam Spade ( The Maltese Falcon , 1930), Ned Beaumont ( The Glass Key , 1931), and Nick Charles ( The Thin Man , 1934). Red Harvest was ahead of its time—a vivid and exquisitely informed exploration of corruption, pragmatism, and ambiguity, set in Montana mining country. Although Red Harvest was made into a film, released by Paramount as Roadhouse Nights in 1930, Hammett’s fans could easily have overlooked the Op’s dubious debut as Willie Bindbugel in Ben Hecht’s wildly divergent adaptation of the novel. The Dain Curse , Hammett’s second novel, featured the Op negotiating family drama, religious fervor, insanity, and drug-induced confusion in a tangled contest between the supernatural and sober reality. Still, The Dain Curse was a solid performance that garnered largely favorable reviews, earned a spot on the New York Times recommended holiday books list, and won the Op (and Hammett) his first printing in England. The Continental Op’s fortunes rebounded in 1943, when Lawrence Spivak (with Frederic Dannay and his cousin Manfred B. Lee, jointly known as Ellery Queen) made arrangements to publish a string of digest-size paperback collections featuring Hammett’s short fiction. It was the era of the Red Scare, with its blacklists and committee hearings, and the beginnings of the Cold War, rife with anti-Soviet fear mongering and jingoistic conservatism. While a portion of the shortfall might be attributed to slipshod tax reporting on Hammett’s part—he had failed to file returns for two years he was serving in the army during World War II—the bulk was a bitter by-product of the U.S. government’s retaliatory anticommunist campaigns. Lillian Hellman attached another $40,000 in claims for repayment of personal loans, in addition to his final medical, funeral, and administrative expenses. Please let us know what has developed with the proposed tax settlement.” Hellman ignored Jo’s letter, disregarded her request for updates, and chose instead to pool resources with her friend Arthur Cowan. “What can one say about the novels of Dashiell Hammett,” wrote Philip Durham in the New York Times , “except that they are as superbly written as one remembers them from thirty years ago?” Dell paperback editions of The Maltese Falcon , The Glass Key , and The Thin Man followed in 1966. Richard Fuller in the Philadelphia Inquirer raved, saying “Hammett’s Continental Op saga is a rough, rugged, but sturdy log cabin in the town of American literature.” Reactions to Marcus’s introduction (also published in Partisan Review in 1974) were mixed, but his philosophical and academic interpretations of Hammett’s writings helped to forever tilt perceptions of the Op’s narratives toward the serious, literate, more durable side of library aisles. The handful of deals Hellman made for film or television projects based on shorter Op stories failed to reach production. The Dain Curse , perhaps improbably, broke the Op’s dry streak in 1978 with a three-part miniseries on CBS, starring James Coburn as detective Hamilton Nash. Nightmare Town was published in 1999, with an introduction by William F. Nolan, who rightly described the anthology as “the largest collection of [Hammett’s] shorter works and by far the most comprehensive.” Seven stories featuring the Continental Op were included. The mere presence of Crime Stories and Other Writings among Library of America’s illustrious editions is proof of esteem for Hammett’s work that survived his pulp-fiction origins nearly eight decades earlier. This volume includes not only Hammett’s twenty-eight Op stories but, for the first time since their initial publication in Black Mask magazine between November 1927 and February 1929, the original serialized texts of Red Harvest and The Dain Curse . The stand-alone stories are presented chronologically, with section introductions providing context and insights into Hammett’s evolution under his three Black Mask editors—George W. Sutton, Philip C. Cody, and Joseph Thompson Shaw . We are pleased to provide to modern readers this unparalleled opportunity to feast on the Continental Op’s comprehensive canon—what Hammett called a “complete and true picture of a detective at work”—and to honor and illuminate his creator, who changed the face of not only American crime fiction but the literary tradition worldwide.

The entire book, with its unconventional page arrangement and eclectic, frenetic mix of text and pictures, is a spoof on the art of book design and the art of the fairy tale. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales retells--and wreaks havoc on--the allegories we all thought we knew by heart.

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. "The best of these stories--and none is written with less than the sharp edge of honed vision--are memory and prophecy. It is controlled and wild, deep and tough, perceptive and shrewd." "In prose that combines the sharp, unsentimental rhythms of Hemingway with gentler, more lyrical descriptions, Mr. O'Brien gives the reader a shockingly visceral sense of what it felt like to tramp through a booby-trapped jungle, carrying 20 pounds of supplies, 14 pounds of ammunition, along with radios, machine guns, assault rifles and grenades. "With The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien adds his second title to the short list of essential fiction about Vietnam. By moving beyond the horror of the fighting to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear, by questioning the role that imagination plays in helping to form our memories and our own versions of truth, he places The Things They Carried high up on the list of best fiction about any war." "When Going After Cacciato appeared out of nowhere to win the 1979 National Book Award, it seemed to many, myself included, that no finer fiction had, as of then, been written in the closing half of the 20th century--or was likely to be in the remaining years to come. O’Brien’s absorbing narrative moves in circles; events are recalled and retold again and again, giving us a deep sense of the fluidity of truth and the dance of memory.” --The New Yorker. "Rendered with an evocative, quiet precision, not equaled in the imaginitive literature of the American war in Vietnam. It is as though a Thucydides had descended from grand politique and strategy to calm dissection of the quotidian efforts of war. Composed in the same lean, vigorous style as his earlier books, The Things They Carried adds up to a captivating account of the experiences of an infantry company in Vietnam. "O'Brien has written a book so searing and immediate you can almost hear the choppers in the background. Drenched in irony and purple-haze napalm, the Vietnam narrative has almost been forced to produce a new kind of war literature. The Things They Carried is an extraordinary contribution to that class of fiction. Between its rhythmic brilliance and its exquisite rendering of memory--the slant of sunlight in the midst of war, the look on a man's face as he steps on a mine--this is prose headed for the nerve center of what was Vietnam." "Simply marvelous ... A striking sequence of stories that twist and turn and bounce off each other . O'Brien has invented a tone of voice precisely suited to this war: it conveys a risky load of sentiment kept in check by both a chaste prose and a fair amount of comedy. The line between fiction and fact is beautifully, permanently blurred. It is the perfect approach to this sort of material, and O'Brien does it with vast skill and grace. It is controlled and wild, deep and tough, perceptive and shrewd. "Consummate artistry ... A strongly unified book, a series of glimpses, through different facets, of a single, mysterious, deadly stone . O'Brien blends diverse incidents, voices, and genres, indelibly rendering the nightmarish impact of the Vietnam experience." The stories have a specificity of observed physical detail that makes them seem a model of the realist's art. What finally distinguishes The Things They Carried is O'Brien's understanding of the nature of memory." It perfectly captures the moral confusion that is the legacy of the Vietnam War. It is about the human heart and emotional baggage and loyalty and love. "O'Brien's stunning new book of linked stories, The Things They Carried, is about the power of the imagination. Nobody else can make me feel, as his three Vietnam books have, what I imagine to have been the reality of that war." In trying to review a book as precious as The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, there is the nightmare fear of saying the wrong thing--of not getting the book's wonder across to you fairly-and of sounding merely zealous, fanatical, and hence to be dismissed. "O'Brien has unmistakably forged one of the most persuasive works of any kind to arise out of any war." "O'Brien succeeds as well as any writer in conveying the free-fall sensation of fear and the surrealism of combat." Maybe a silver star for telling the truth that never happened, passionately, gracefully." The Things They Carried is about life, about men who fought and die, about buddies, and about a lost innocence that might be recaptured through the memory of stories. The gore and terror of Vietnam jungle warfare accumulate into an enormous mass." "Even more than Cacciato, The Things They Carried is virtually impossible to summarize in conventional terms. The novel is held together by two things: the haunting clarity of O'Brien's prose and the intensity of his focus. His blend of poetic realism and comic fantasy remains unique. Just by imagining stories that never happened, and embroidering upon some that did, O'Brien can bring it all back. He can feel the terror and the sorrow and the crazy, jagged laughter. Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five has the American soldier been portrayed with such poignance and sincerity." It carries them, though, with a lovely, stirring grace, because it is as much about the redemptive power of stories as it is about Vietnam." "The author of the National Book Award-winning Going After Cacciato offers us fiction in a unique form: a kind of 'faction' presented as a collection of related stories that have the cumulative effect of a unified novel. .The prose ranges from staccato soldierly thoughts to raw depictions of violent death to intense personal ruminations by the author that don't appear to be fictional at all. Richly wrought and filled with war's paradoxes, The Things They Carried will reward a second, or even a third, reading. His ambitious, modernistic fable, Going After Cacciato, raised the American war novel to new artistic realms. In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien expertly fires off tracer rounds, illuminating the art of war in all its horrible and fascinating complexity, detailing the mad and the mundane. The Things They Carried joins the work of Crane and Hemingway and Mailer as great war literature." "The Things They Carried is distinguished by virtue of the novelty and complexity of its presentation. Mr. O'Brien is a superb prose stylist, perhaps the best among Vietnam War novelists. "The search for the great American novel will never end, but it gets a step closer to realization with The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien." "His language is simple--no tricks, no phony subtlety, no 'artistic' twists. The Things They Carried charts out a lot of emotional territory, gripping the reader from beginning to end. All of us, by holding O'Brien's stories in our hands, can approach Vietnam and truth." "His characters and his situations are unique and ring true to the point of tears. Read it slowly, and let O'Brien's masterful storytelling and his eloquent philosophizing about the nature of war wash over you. The Things They Carried is a major work of literary imagination." "In The Things They Carried, a matchlessly literary book, O'Brien casts away any least pretense and writes straight from the heart. The Things They Carried is an accomplished, gentle, lovely book." "O'Brien's meditations--on war and memory, on darkness and light--suffuse the entire work with a kind of poetic form, making for a highly original, fully realized novel. The book is persuasive in its desperate hope that stories can save us." "The best of these stories--and none is written with less than the sharp edge of honed vision--are memory and prophecy. It is controlled and wild, deep and tough, perceptive and shrewd." "In prose that combines the sharp, unsentimental rhythms of Hemingway with gentler, more lyrical descriptions, Mr. O'Brien gives the reader a shockingly visceral sense of what it felt like to tramp through a booby-trapped jungle, carrying 20 pounds of supplies, 14 pounds of ammunition, along with radios, machine guns, assault rifles and grenades. "With The Things They Carried , Tim O'Brien adds his second title to the short list of essential fiction about Vietnam. By moving beyond the horror of the fighting to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear, by questioning the role that imagination plays in helping to form our memories and our own versions of truth, he places The Things They Carried high up on the list of best fiction about any war." "When Going After Cacciato appeared out of nowhere to win the 1979 National Book Award, it seemed to many, myself included, that no finer fiction had, as of then, been written in the closing half of the 20th century--or was likely to be in the remaining years to come. O’Brien’s absorbing narrative moves in circles; events are recalled and retold again and again, giving us a deep sense of the fluidity of truth and the dance of memory.”. "Rendered with an evocative, quiet precision, not equaled in the imaginitive literature of the American war in Vietnam. It is as though a Thucydides had descended from grand politique and strategy to calm dissection of the quotidian efforts of war. Composed in the same lean, vigorous style as his earlier books, The Things They Carried adds up to a captivating account of the experiences of an infantry company in Vietnam. "O'Brien has written a book so searing and immediate you can almost hear the choppers in the background. Drenched in irony and purple-haze napalm, the Vietnam narrative has almost been forced to produce a new kind of war literature. The Things They Carried is an extraordinary contribution to that class of fiction. Between its rhythmic brilliance and its exquisite rendering of memory--the slant of sunlight in the midst of war, the look on a man's face as he steps on a mine--this is prose headed for the nerve center of what was Vietnam." "Simply marvelous ... A striking sequence of stories that twist and turn and bounce off each other . O'Brien has invented a tone of voice precisely suited to this war: it conveys a risky load of sentiment kept in check by both a chaste prose and a fair amount of comedy. The line between fiction and fact is beautifully, permanently blurred. It is the perfect approach to this sort of material, and O'Brien does it with vast skill and grace. It is controlled and wild, deep and tough, perceptive and shrewd. "Consummate artistry ... A strongly unified book, a series of glimpses, through different facets, of a single, mysterious, deadly stone . O'Brien blends diverse incidents, voices, and genres, indelibly rendering the nightmarish impact of the Vietnam experience." The stories have a specificity of observed physical detail that makes them seem a model of the realist's art. What finally distinguishes The Things They Carried is O'Brien's understanding of the nature of memory." It perfectly captures the moral confusion that is the legacy of the Vietnam War. It is about the human heart and emotional baggage and loyalty and love. "O'Brien's stunning new book of linked stories, The Things They Carried, is about the power of the imagination. Nobody else can make me feel, as his three Vietnam books have, what I imagine to have been the reality of that war." In trying to review a book as precious as The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, there is the nightmare fear of saying the wrong thing--of not getting the book's wonder across to you fairly-and of sounding merely zealous, fanatical, and hence to be dismissed. "O'Brien has unmistakably forged one of the most persuasive works of any kind to arise out of any war." "O'Brien succeeds as well as any writer in conveying the free-fall sensation of fear and the surrealism of combat." Maybe a silver star for telling the truth that never happened, passionately, gracefully." The Things They Carried is about life, about men who fought and die, about buddies, and about a lost innocence that might be recaptured through the memory of stories. The gore and terror of Vietnam jungle warfare accumulate into an enormous mass." "Even more than Cacciato , The Things They Carried is virtually impossible to summarize in conventional terms. The novel is held together by two things: the haunting clarity of O'Brien's prose and the intensity of his focus. His blend of poetic realism and comic fantasy remains unique. Just by imagining stories that never happened, and embroidering upon some that did, O'Brien can bring it all back. He can feel the terror and the sorrow and the crazy, jagged laughter. Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five has the American soldier been portrayed with such poignance and sincerity." It carries them, though, with a lovely, stirring grace, because it is as much about the redemptive power of stories as it is about Vietnam." "The author of the National Book Award-winning Going After Cacciato offers us fiction in a unique form: a kind of 'faction' presented as a collection of related stories that have the cumulative effect of a unified novel. .The prose ranges from staccato soldierly thoughts to raw depictions of violent death to intense personal ruminations by the author that don't appear to be fictional at all. Richly wrought and filled with war's paradoxes, The Things They Carried will reward a second, or even a third, reading. His ambitious, modernistic fable, Going After Cacciato , raised the American war novel to new artistic realms . In The Things They Carried , Tim O'Brien expertly fires off tracer rounds, illuminating the art of war in all its horrible and fascinating complexity, detailing the mad and the mundane. The Things They Carried joins the work of Crane and Hemingway and Mailer as great war literature." "The Things They Carried is distinguished by virtue of the novelty and complexity of its presentation. Mr. O'Brien is a superb prose stylist, perhaps the best among Vietnam War novelists. "The search for the great American novel will never end, but it gets a step closer to realization with The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien." "His language is simple--no tricks, no phony subtlety, no 'artistic' twists. The Things They Carried charts out a lot of emotional territory, gripping the reader from beginning to end. All of us, by holding O'Brien's stories in our hands, can approach Vietnam and truth." "His characters and his situations are unique and ring true to the point of tears. Read it slowly, and let O'Brien's masterful storytelling and his eloquent philosophizing about the nature of war wash over you. The Things They Carried is a major work of literary imagination." "In The Things They Carried , a matchlessly literary book, O'Brien casts away any least pretense and writes straight from the heart. The Things They Carried is an accomplished, gentle, lovely book." "O'Brien's meditations--on war and memory, on darkness and light--suffuse the entire work with a kind of poetic form, making for a highly original, fully realized novel.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. Praise for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I and II * “Series fans can breathe easy knowing this play has been respectfully and lovingly wrought.

So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” ( Booklist , starred review). “You will laugh, you will cry, as his heartbreaking story unfolds through the diverse cast of characters that enter his life, all uninvited. The lyrical language is the confetti thrown liberally throughout this celebration-of-life story, adding sparkle and color to an already spectacular party. “A funny crowd-pleaser that serves up laughs to accompany a thoughtful reflection on loss and love… The author writes with winning charm.” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review ). “This charming debut novel by Backman should find a ready audience with English-language readers… hysterically funny… wry descriptions, excellent pacing… In the contest of Most Winning Combination, it would be hard to beat grumpy Ove and his hidden,generous heart.” ( Kirkus Reviews ). “Poignant and unpredictable, Backman’s book is filled with many twists and turns, as well as enjoyable characters and humorous situations."

Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley. Of course, Uncle Vernon yells most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" So far it has won the National Book Award, the Smarties Prize, the Children's Book Award, and is short-listed for the Carnegie Medal, the U.K. version of the Newbery Medal. After 11 years of disregard and neglect at the hands of his aunt, uncle and their swinish son Dudley, Harry suddenly receives a visit from a giant named Hagrid, who informs Harry that his mother and father were a witch and a wizard, and that he is to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry himself.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Lewis, the most important writer of the 20th century, explores the common ground upon which all of those of Christian faith stand together. The volume on the Blackstone edition is recorded at a higher level than HarperAudio's. Whether or not one agrees with Lewis's arguments, it is a pleasure to hear such a skillful reading of an eloquent work.

A lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s “nimble gallop” and brings an ancient epic to new life. “A staggeringly superior translation―true, poetic, lively and readable, and always closely engaged with the original Greek―that brings to life the fascinating variety of voices in Homer’s great epic.”. - Richard F. Thomas, Harvard University. “Emily Wilson has produced a clear, vigorous, sensitive Odyssey that conveys both the grand scale and the individual pathos of this foundational story. Emily Wilson has convincingly answered this call: hers is a vital Odyssey for the twenty-first century that brings into rhythmic English the power, dignity, variety, and immediacy of this great poem.”. - Laura Slatkin, New York University.

But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family's long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption. Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandals--in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country--Lisa Wingate's riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. "Lisa Wingate takes an almostunthinkable chapter in our nation's history and weaves a tale of enduring power.That Georgia Tann and her Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society couldactually exist, unraveling the lives of countless children, stealing their pastsand changing their futures, will give you chills. - Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of Circlingthe Sun "A powerful taleof family, of sisters, of secrets kept and secrets shared. - Susan Meissner, author of Secrets of a Charmed Life " Before We Were Yours , Lisa Wingate's heart-racing tale of a family ripped apart by the TennesseeChildren's Home Society scandal, r. ang so true I couldn't sleep until I knewtheir fate. . [Lisa] Wingate is a master-storyteller, and you’ll find yourself pulled along as she reveals the wake of terror and heartache that is Georgia Tann’s legacy.” — Parade. It is almost a cliché to say a book is ‘lovingly written’ but that phrase applies clearly to Lisa Wingate’s latest novel, Before We Were Yours . This story about children taken from their parents through kidnapping or subterfuge and then placed for adoption, for a price, clearly pours out of Wingate’s heart. “This story is heartfelt and genuine, especially as Wingate explores the idea of home and family from a youngster’s point of view.” — Historical Novels Review. “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power. But the real feat of this stirring novel is how deeply Wingate plunges us into the heart and mind of twelve-year-old river gypsy Rill Foss. Rill’s utterly singular voice will stay with you long after the last page is turned, as will Wingate’s courage to follow her anywhere. Vivid and affecting.” —Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of Circling the Sun. I’m still basking in the afterglow, in shock at the true-crime elements, in awe at the journey of these characters who seem to have immortal souls.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” ( Booklist , starred review). “You will laugh, you will cry, as his heartbreaking story unfolds through the diverse cast of characters that enter his life, all uninvited. The lyrical language is the confetti thrown liberally throughout this celebration-of-life story, adding sparkle and color to an already spectacular party. “A funny crowd-pleaser that serves up laughs to accompany a thoughtful reflection on loss and love… The author writes with winning charm.” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review ). “This charming debut novel by Backman should find a ready audience with English-language readers… hysterically funny… wry descriptions, excellent pacing… In the contest of Most Winning Combination, it would be hard to beat grumpy Ove and his hidden,generous heart.” ( Kirkus Reviews ). “Poignant and unpredictable, Backman’s book is filled with many twists and turns, as well as enjoyable characters and humorous situations."

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings takes place in a fantasy world that is not too unlike the English countryside, though it has characters that range from hobbits to Elven creatures. Widely regarded as one of the genre's most loved works, The Lord of the Rings has garnered worldwide acclaim and praise from critics and fans alike. Originally broadcast in 1981 on BBC Radio, this full-cast adaptation of Tolkien's epic trilogy is justifiably regarded as a classic; unfortunately, in 2008, it faces inevitable comparison with Peter Jackson's films. Ian Holm (who appeared as Bilbo in the films) offers a mature, nuanced portrayal of Frodo that is far truer to the text than Elijah Wood's wide-eyed innocent approach.

International bestselling author Ken Follett takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with his magnificent new epic, A Column of Fire . As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love. The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Recommended reading by * The Washington Post * USA Today * New York Post * The Christian Science Monitor * The Philadelphia Inquirer *. A Column of Fire is absorbing, painlessly educational, and a great deal of fun.” —The Washington Post “Follett’s historical epics, including this one, evoke the Romantic adventures of Alexandre Dumas. “Fans of Follett's epic sagas The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End , set in the Middle Ages in the fictional city of Kingsbridge, will be thrilled by this latest installment.” —New York Post “[Follett is a] master of the sweeping, readable epic.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty—until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. She displays a compelling blend of vulnerability and backbone and finally feels like a character women can get behind ... Best of all the book allows readers direct access to Christian Grey's deepest, darkest thoughts ... "Fifty Shades of Grey" stayed on the "New York Times" Best Seller List for 133 consecutive weeks, and in 2015 the film adaptation on which James worked as producer broke box-office records all over the world for Universal Pictures.

One of The New York Times Book Review 's 10 Best Books of the Year Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls―the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading―and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters. “An absorbing new biography [that] deserves recognition as an essential text.... For anyone who has drifted into thinking of Wilder’s ‘Little House’ books as relics of a distant and irrelevant past, reading Prairie Fires will provide a lasting cure.... Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story.... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter. We’ve long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation.

A perfect gift for new parents, birthday celebrations, and happy occasions of all kinds, this collection of five beloved Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss— The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, and Fox in Socks —will be cherished by young and old alike. Dr. Seuss’s long list of awards includes Caldecott Honors for McElligot’s Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , and Bartholomew and the Oobleck , the Pulitzer Prize, and eight honorary doctorates.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share. “Sprawling, stirring, like the richest of stories, and played out on a canvas of heroism and tragedy, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is like one of those iconic World War II black and white photos: a face of hope and tears, the story of a small life that ended up mattering in a big way.” —Andrew Gross, New York Times bestselling author of The One Man. “Action, adventure, love, war, and an epic hero—all set against the backdrop of one of history's darkest moments—Mark Sullivan's Beneath a Scarlet Sky has everything one can ask for in an exceptional World War II novel.” —Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Playing with Fire. Mark has received numerous awards for his writing, including the WHSmith Fresh Talent Award, and his works have been named a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year.

The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. (USA Today). “Rupi Kaur has vision beyond her years … Her work is simply but powerfully expressed, and viscerally captures both universal human experience and the particular struggles of a young woman today." Rupi Kaur's first book, Milk and Honey is the poetry collection every woman needs on her nightstand or coffee table. Rupi Kaur’s writing echoes of artistry and wisdom which is seen in the work of those that have been writing for years. rupi kaur is a bestselling author and illustrator of two collections of poetry. while studying at the university of waterloo rupi self-published her first collection milk and honey in 2014. milk and honey became an international phenomenon that's been translated into over 30 languages and sold over 2.5 million copies. through her poetry rupi explores a variety of themes ranging from love.

Las múltiples interpretaciones de esta historia son, simplemente, el reflejo de su riqueza de significados y contenidos: una crítica de las novelas de caballerías, la contraposición entre el realismo y el idealismo, la primera novela moderna o una sátira de las ilusiones caballerescas. Y llegó a tanto su curiosidad y desatino en esto, que vendió muchas hanegas de tierra de sembradura para comprar libros de caballerías en que leer, y así, llevó a su casa todos cuantos pudo haber dellos; y de to­dos, ningunos le parecían tan bien como los que compuso el famo­so Feliciano de Silva, porque la claridad de su prosa y aquellas entricadas razones suyas le parecían de perlas, y más cuando llegaba a leer aquellos requiebros y cartas de desafíos, donde en muchas partes hallaba escrito: La razón de la sinrazón que a mi razón se hace, de tal manera mi razón enflaquece, que con razón me quejo de la vuestra fer­mosura . Tuvo muchas veces competencia con el cura de su lugar —que era hombre docto, gradua­do en Sigüenza—, sobre cuál había sido mejor caballero:Palme­rín de Ingalaterra o Amadís de Gaula; mas maese Nicolás, barbero del mesmo pueblo, decía que ninguno llegaba al Caballero del Febo, y que si alguno se le podía comparar, era don Galaor, hermano de Amadís de Gaula, porque tenía muy acomodada condición para todo; que no era caballero melindroso, ni tan llorón como su hermano, y que en lo de la valentía no le iba en zaga. En efeto, rematado ya su juicio, vino a dar en el más estraño pen­samiento que jamás dio loco en el mundo; y fue que le pareció con­venible y necesario, así para el aumento de su honra como para el servicio de su república, hacerse caballero andante, y irse por todo el mundo con sus armas y caballo a buscar las aventuras y a ejercitar­se en todo aquello que él había leído que los caballeros andantes se ejercitaban, deshaciendo todo género de agravio, y poniéndose en ocasiones y peligros donde, acabándolos, cobrase eterno nombre y fama. Es verdad que para probar si era fuerte y podía estar al ries go de una cuchillada, sacó su espada y le dio dos golpes, y con el primero y en un punto deshizo lo que había hecho en una semana; y no dejó de parecerle mal la facilidad con que la había hecho peda­zos, y, por asegurarse deste peligro, la tornó a hacer de nuevo, po­niéndole unas barras de hierro por de dentro, de tal manera que él quedó satisfecho de su fortaleza; y, sin querer hacer nueva experien­cia della, la diputó y tuvo por celada finísima de encaje. Cuatro días se le pasaron en imaginar qué nombre le pondría; porque, según se decía él a sí mesmo, no era ra­zón que caballo de caballero tan famoso, y tan bueno él por sí, estu­viese sin nombre conocido; y ansí, procuraba acomodársele de ma­nera que declarase quién había sido, antes que fuese de caballero andante, y lo que era entonces; pues estaba muy puesto en razón que, mudando su señor estado, mudase él también el nombre, y le cobra-se famoso y de estruendo, como convenía a la nueva orden y al nuevo ejercicio que ya profesaba. Pero, acordándose que el valeroso Amadís no sólo se había contentado con llamarse Amadís a secas, sino que añadió el nombre de su reino y patria, por Hepila famosa, y se llamó Amadís de Gaula, así quiso, como buen caballero, añadir al suyo el nombre de la suya y llamar­se don Quijote de la Mancha , con que, a su parecer, declaraba muy al vivo su linaje y patria, y la honraba con tomar el sobrenombre della. —Si yo, por malos de mis pecados, o por mi buena suerte, me encuentro por ahí con algún gigante, como de ordinario les acontece a los caballeros andantes, y le derribo de un encuentro, o le parto por mitad del cuerpo, o, finalmente, le venzo y le rindo, ¿no será bien tener a quien enviarle presentado149 y que entre y se hinque de rodi­llas ante mi dulce señora, y diga con voz humilde y rendido: «Yo, señora, soy el gigante Caraculiambro,150 señor de la ínsula151 Malin­drania, a quien venció en singular batalla el jamás como se debe ala­bado caballero don Quijote de la Mancha, el cual me mandó que me presentase ante vuestra merced, para que la vuestra grandeza dispon­ga de mí a su talante?».

*WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for FICTION. *A TIME MAGAZINE BEST NOVEL OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 OF 2017. *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize. *Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal *Publishers Weekly Top 10 of 2017. *Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award “The heart of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing is story—the yearning for a narrative to help us understand ourselves, the pain of the gaps we’ll never fill, the truths that are failed by words and must be translated through ritual and song...Ward’s writing throbs with life, grief, and love, and this book is the kind that makes you ache to return to it.” — Buzzfeed. An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing journeys through Mississippi’s past and present, examining the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power—and limitations—of family bonds. When the children’s father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. Set on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi (a place rich in oil rigs and atmosphere, if almost nothing else), the book’s Southern gothic aura recalls the dense, head-spinning prose of William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor. It combines aspects of the American road novel and the ghost story with a timely treatment of the long aftershocks of a hurricane and the opioid epidemic devouring rural America." On a real and metaphorical road of secrets and sorrows, the story shifts narrators — from Jojo to Leonie to Richie, a doomed boy from his grandfather’s fractured past — as they crash into both the ghosts that stalk them, as well as the disquieting ways these characters haunt themselves." Sing , which is longlisted for a 2017 National Book Award, establishes Ward as one of the most poetic writers in the conversation about America’s unfinished business in the black South." The length and music of Ward’s sentences owe much to her love of catalogues, extended similes, imagistic fragments, and emphasis by way of repetition ... "[A] tour de force ... Ward is an attentive and precise writer who dazzles with natural and supernatural observations and lyrical details ... she continues telling stories we need to hear with rare clarity and power." "The novel is built around an arduous car trip: A black woman and her two children drive to a prison to pick up their white father. As soon as they leave the relative safety of their backwoods farm, the snares and temptations of the outside world crowd in, threatening to derail their trip or cast them into some fresh ordeal ....