A collection of stories intended to be told, drawn from a variety of traditions including European, African, and contemporary American. Includes tips on such aspects of storytelling as voice patterns, body expression, and audience participation.
An anthology of the greatest stories by modern Japanese masters (including previously overlooked women writers)! Fourteen distinct voices are assembled in this one-of-a-kind anthology tracing a nation's changing social landscapes. Internationally renowned writers like Yasunari Kawabata, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Junichi Watanabe are joined by three notable women writers whose works have not yet received sufficient attention--Kanoko Okamoto, Fumiko Hayashi and Yumiko Kurahashi. Highlights of this anthology include: Kafu Nagai's bittersweet portrait of a privileged family's expiring existence in "The Fox" Ango Sakaguchi's heartening celebration of postwar chaos in "One Woman and the War" Fumiko Hayashi's unabashed exploration of female sexuality in "Borneo Diamond" Junichi Watanabe's chilling assessment of alienation and social dislocation in "Invitation to Suicide" Gishu Nakayama's look at an out-of-place prostitute recovering at a hot-spring resort in "Autumn Wind" Through brilliant, highly-praised translations by Lane Dunlop, The Best Japanese Short Stories offers fascinating glimpses of a society embracing change while holding tenaciously onto the past. A new foreword by Alan Tansman provides insightful back stories about the authors and the literary backdrop against which they created these great works of modern world literature.
The New York Times bestseller “The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice) “One gorgeous read.” —Stephen King Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
Three sisters, daughters of newspaper tycoon Keagan Hayes, follow very different paths in life with Cameron, the oldest, taking a job with a rival newspaper in 1941 and heading off on assignment to Russia; Blair giving her all to become a Hollywood star; and college student Jackie trying to hold to her Christian ideals by befriending a Japanese American boy.
"Messengers of the Wind goes beyond the autobiographies of everyday women. These are women who have long been an invisible part of American culture. Their stories are haunting, frightening, encouraging, and courageous. . . . Katz is a faithful guide." --The Minnesota Daily In Messengers of the Wind, Native American women, old and young, from a variety of tribal groups, speak with eloquence and passion about their experience on the land and in urban areas; about their work as artists, activists, and healers; as grandmothers, mothers, and daughters; as modern women with a link to the past. And as each woman, renowned and obscure, tells her remarkable personal story, it is clear that each has tapped into the power that comes from within and has reached back into a history that brings with it courage and hope. " 'Giving energy to Mother Earth' -- Yes. That is our duty as women, as Natives, and as human beings. Messengers of the Wind is a way of doing just that. It is not a dance, feet patting our mother, but it is an offering, the voices of the women sent to comfort her. Thank-you, Jane Katz, for your offering. It is a special and much-needed gift." --Paula Gunn Allen Author of Voice of the Turtle "COMPELLING. . . INTIMATE." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer "A RICH COLLECTION OF PERSONAL STORIES. . .REWARDING. . . These are powerful women with important stories to tell." --Kirkus Reviews
Abdul loves telling stories but thinks his messy handwriting and spelling mistakes will keep him from becoming an author, until Mr. Muhammad visits and encourages him to persist.
Book Two in Lauraine Snelling's Exciting Wild West Wind Series After fleeing North Dakota and the now defunct Wild West Show, Cassie Lockwood and her companions have finally found the hidden valley in South Dakota where her father had dreamed of putting down roots. But to her dismay, she discovers a ranch already built on her land. Cassie's arrival surprises Mavis Engstrom and forces her to reveal secrets she's kept hidden for years. Her son Ransom is suspicious of Cassie and questions the validity of her claim to the valley. But Lucas Engstrom decides from the start that he is in love with her and wants to marry her. Will Cassie be able to build a home on the Bar E Ranch and fulfill her father's dream of raising horses, or will she be forced to return to the itinerant life of her past?
A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Bram Stoker Award "One of the best collections of the 21st century." — Stephen King A chilling collection of psychological suspense and literary horror from the multiple award-winning author of the national bestseller The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts. A masterful anthology featuring nineteen pieces of short fiction, Growing Things is an exciting glimpse into Paul Tremblay’s fantastically fertile imagination. In “The Teacher,” a Bram Stoker Award nominee for best short story, a student is forced to watch a disturbing video that will haunt and torment her and her classmates’ lives. Four men rob a pawn shop at gunpoint only to vanish, one-by-one, as they speed away from the crime scene in “The Getaway.” In “Swim Wants to Know If It’s as Bad as Swim Thinks,” a meth addict kidnaps her daughter from her estranged mother as their town is terrorized by a giant monster . . . or not. Joining these haunting works are stories linked to Tremblay’s previous novels. The tour de force metafictional novella “Notes from the Dog Walkers” deconstructs horror and publishing, possibly bringing in a character from A Head Full of Ghosts, all while serving as a prequel to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. “The Thirteenth Temple” follows another character from A Head Full of Ghosts—Merry, who has published a tell-all memoir written years after the events of the novel. And the title story, “Growing Things,” a shivery tale loosely shared between the sisters in A Head Full of Ghosts, is told here in full. From global catastrophe to the demons inside our heads, Tremblay illuminates our primal fears and darkest dreams in startlingly original fiction that leaves us unmoored. As he lowers the sky and yanks the ground from beneath our feet, we are compelled to contemplate the darkness inside our own hearts and minds.
An elusive killer . . . a deadly obsession . . . and a woman who must destroy him—or become his next victim. Some would kill to know what Caitlin Vasaro knows. For the secrets she’s kept hidden all her life are the kind that the rich and the powerful will do anything to possess. But not even Caitlin knows how much danger she is in—or how far someone will go to hunt her down. But she is about to find out when she enters a business deal with the mysterious and charismatic Alex Karazov and joins the hunt for one of the world’s most coveted treasures, the Wind Dancer, an ancient statue of legendary beauty and power. But Kazarov is a dangerous man who has an even more dangerous enemy and suddenly Caitlin is thrust into a shadow world of intrigue and deception, unable to trust anyone, not even the one man who can help. Now she must outsmart the cleverest of killers, a psychopath obsessed with the Wind Dancer whose ruthless plan spans continents and whose lethal rampage won’t stop at one death . . . or two . . . or even three—not until he finally gets what he wants: the secret Caitlin will die to keep.