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books tagged “short fiction”
books tagged “short fiction”
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All Aunt Hagar's Childrenby Edward P. JonesISBN 0060557575 (0-06-055757-5)
Softcover, Amistad Pr
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Am I Blue?by Marion Dane BauerISBN 0060242531 (0-06-024253-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Am I Blue?'Book summary:Sixteen respected authors, including Jane Yolen, William Sleator, and Lois Lowry, offer a story collection, told in a variety of styles and tones, that explores aspects of growing up gay and lesbian, or with gay or lesbian parents or friends. [via]
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The Angel on the Roofby Russell BanksISBN 0060173963 (0-06-017396-3)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Angel on the Roof'Book summary:Russell Banks (The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction) started out as a poet, and nowhere is this more evident than in his 37 years' worth of exquisite short stories, collected here in one hefty volume for the first time. In a mournfully lyrical phrase, he can evoke his characteristic landscape, the icy northeastern U.S.: "The air was crystalline, almost absent. The fields lay like aged plates of bone--dry, scoured by the cold until barren of possibility, incapable even of decomposition." Though his stories venture to Jamaica and Africa, Banks keeps coming back to New Hampshire and the themes of divorce, poverty, violence, and what he calls "the old father-and-son thing." He's not slumming in his trailer-park tales: his own drunken prole father beat him brutally, and Banks knows how grief and guilt shatter and unite families and small towns.
Characters often crop up in more than one story, giving the setting novelistic depth, drawing us into each life. In "Queen for a Day," we meet the young children of the Painter clan of New Hampshire as their dad is abandoning their mom, who then loses her job. "They run to her and wrap her in their arms... the three of them wind around each other like snakes moving in and out of one another's coils." In "Firewood," Painter's grown children rebuff his offer of fuel for their hearth, repaying his indifference, and Banks gives us a bad-guy's-eye view of their shared loneliness. In "The Fisherman," a $50,000 lottery is won by an old ice fisherman who stashes it in a cigar box, eliciting character-revealing reactions from the trailer-park denizens. "Dis Bwoy, Him Gwan" further reveals why the local pothead Bruce Severance so urgently needs the fisherman's money. The stories resonate and illuminate each other, the dialogue is pitch-perfect, and the collection has the cohesiveness of a 500-page novel. Banks's prose has the stark grace of classical tragedy. He's a poet after all. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Animal Farm With Connectionsby George OrwellISBN 0030554349 (0-03-055434-9)
Hardcover, Harcourt School
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Animal Farm With Connections'Book summary:Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --Joyce Thompson [via]
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Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Worksby Arthur Rimbaud, Paul SchmidtISBN 0060138343 (0-06-013834-3)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Babylon Revisited and Other Storiesby F. Scott FitzgeraldISBN 0020199805 (0-02-019980-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Babylon Revisited and Other Stories'Book summary:Written between 1920 and 1937, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at the height of his creative powers, these ten lyric tales represent some of the author's finest fiction. In them, Fitzgerald creates vivid, timeless characters -- a dissatisfied southern belle seeking adventure in the north; the tragic hero of the title story who lost more than money in the stock market; giddy and dissipated young men and women of the interwar period. From the lazy town of Tarleton, Georgia, to the glittering cosmopolitan centers of New York and Paris, Fitzgerald brings the society of the "Lost Generation" to life in these masterfully crafted gems, showcasing the many gifts of one of our most popular writers. [via]
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Bad Moon Risingby Thomas M. DischISBN 0060110465 (0-06-011046-5)
Hardcover, Harper & Row
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Beastly Tales from Here and Thereby Vikram Seth, Ravi ShankarISBN 0060171154 (0-06-017115-4)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beastly Tales from Here and There'Book summary:An attractively packaged gift book offers ten charming, elegant fables in verse from India, China, Greece, Ukraine, and the fantastic Land of Gup. By the author of A Suitable Boy. [via]
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Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Storiesby Doris BettsISBN 0060103213 (0-06-010321-3)
Hardcover, Harper & Row
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories'Book summary:Back in print at last, the nine beautifully crafted tales in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories display Doris Betts at the top of her form: compassionate, witty, and unforgettable.
"The Ugliest Pilgrim" takes you into the adventures and into the heart of a disfigured young woman who has run away from her life in search of a better one. This award-winning story is the basis for the musical Violet, which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. In "Hitchhiker," a wary secretary hitches a ride in a boat with a man hell-bent on saving fish; instead he saves her from the river -- and herself. And in the title story, Betts brilliantly captures the inner life of a teacher and writer struggling to control her classroom, her household, and her life. [via]
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The Best American Erotica 1993by Susie BrightISBN 002079262X (0-02-079262-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Book of Lost Talesby J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher TolkienISBN 0048232386 (0-04-823238-6)
Hardcover, Allen & Unwin
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Come to Meby Amy BloomISBN 0060182369 (0-06-018236-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Compass Roseby Ursula K. Le GuinISBN 0060149884 (0-06-014988-4)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Compass Rose'Book summary:North to Orsinia and the boundaries between reality and madness ... South to discover Antarctica with nine South American women ... West to find an enchanted harp and the borderland between life and death ... and onward to all points on and off the compass. Twenty astonishing stories from acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin carry us to worlds of wonder and horror, desire and destiny, enchantment and doom.
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The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behindby David GutersonISBN 0060160977 (0-06-016097-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Crimes for a Summer Christmasby Stephen KnightISBN 0044422806 (0-04-442280-6)
Softcover, Allen & Unwin
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The Cubs and Other Storiesby Mario Vargas LlosaISBN 0060144912 (0-06-014491-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cubs and Other Stories'Book summary:[via]The Cubs and Other Stories is Mario Vargas Llosas only volume of short fiction available in English. Vargas Llosas domain is the Peru of male youth and machismo, where lifes dramas play themselves out on the soccer field, the dance floor, and on street corners.
The title story, The Cubs, tells the story of the carefree boyhood of P.P. Cuellar and his friends, and of P.P.s bizarre accident and tragic coming of age. Innovative in style and technique, it is a work of both physical and psychic loss.
In a candid and perceptive forward to this collection of early writing, Vargas llosa provides background to the volume and a unique glimpse into the mind of the Nobel Prize-winning artist.More editions of The Cubs and Other Stories:
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The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfishby Neil Gaiman, Dave McKeanISBN 0060587032 (0-06-058703-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish'Book summary:One day Nathan comes over with two goldfish named Sawney and Beaney. "I'll swap you them," says the little boy of the house. "What for?" asks Nathan. As it turns out, Nathan doesn't want anything that the boy and his little sister suggest for trading... not an old spaceship or even Clownie the clown. Finally, the boy has an idea, the kind of idea (like discovering "electricity or fire or outer space or something") that changes the whole world. He decides to swap his dad (the silent guy behind the newspaper) for two goldfish. After all, the boy brags, his dad is as big as 100 goldfish and he swims better than a goldfish ("Liar," says his little sister.) But Nathan agrees to take their dad anyway. When their mother gets home, she is very mad, and sends her kids over to Nathan's to get their dad back. Sadly, Nathan has already traded their dad for an electric guitar. Page upon hilarious page goes by, as the father is traded again and again. When they finally track him down, he is still reading the newspaper! (Mom makes them promise never to swap their dad for anything ever again, and they promise.) Comic masters Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean have created a wonderful graphic short story for all ages. The artwork is magnificent, funny, multi-textured, and scritchy--the perfect visual accompaniment to this hip, kid-friendly exploration of the perils of bartering family members. --Karin Snelson [via]
More editions of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish:
- The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish: ISBN 0060587016 (0-06-058701-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books - The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish: ISBN 0060587024 (0-06-058702-4)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish: ISBN 0060587032 (0-06-058703-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
- The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish: ISBN 0060587016 (0-06-058701-6)
The Daydreamerby Ian McEwan, Anthony BrowneISBN 0060244267 (0-06-024426-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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Death in Veniceby Thomas Mann, Michael CunninghamISBN 0060576170 (0-06-057617-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death in Venice'Book summary:The world-famous masterpiece by Nobel laureate Thomas Mann -- here in a new translation by Michael Henry Heim
Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tells the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.
In the decaying city, besieged by an unnamed epidemic, he becomes obsessed with an exquisite Polish boy, Tadzio. "It is a story of the voluptuousness of doom," Mann wrote. "But the problem I had especially in mind was that of the artist's dignity." [via]
Dirty Havana Trilogyby Pedro Juan Gutierrez, Natasha WimmerISBN 0060006897 (0-06-000689-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Dorothy L. Sayersby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0060084618 (0-06-008461-8)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dorothy L. Sayers'Book summary:Gathered here for the first time in one volume are all the short stories by the legendary mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers. In this beguiling collection, Sayers conveys in her incomparable way the gruesome, the grotesque, and the bewitching.
Here is the inimitable aristocrat, Lord Peter Wimsey, one of fiction's most popular detectives of all time, up to his usual exploits as he solves tantalizing puzzles, as only he can. And then there's the clever working-class salesman-sleuth, Montague Egg, who uses his everyday smarts to solve the cases that baffle the professionals.
A sumptuous feast of criminal doings and undoings, Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories is a mystery lover's treasure trove of the amusing and appalling things that happen on the way to the gallows.
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Dust to Dustby Timothy FindleyISBN 0006480551 (0-00-648055-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins Canada
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Ethan Fromeby Edith WhartonISBN 0020264801 (0-02-026480-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ethan Frome'Book summary:Set against the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome is the story of a poor farmer, lonely and downtrodden, his wife Zeena, and her cousin, the enchanting Mattie Silver. In the playing out of this short novel's powerful and engrossing drama, Edith Wharton constructed her least characteristic and most celebrated book. In her Introduction, the distinguished critic Elaine Showalter discusses the background to the novel's composition and the reasons for its enduring success.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. [via]More editions of Ethan Frome:
The Experience of Literature.by Lionel TrillingISBN 0030627753 (0-03-062775-3)
Softcover, Holt Rinehart & Winston
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The Eye of the Heronby Ursula K. Le GuinISBN 0060150866 (0-06-015086-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Eye of the Heron'Book summary:The savage, lawless prison world is called Victoria. The arriving exiles, sworn to nonviolence, are called the People of the Peace. Brutalized and dominated by the City criminals, the People would have broken vows and shed blood if not for one bold young woman. Her name is Luz, and she leaves her City father to lead the People on a perilous quest to discover a world of hope within this world of chaos...a place they will call Heron. [via]
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Fairy Folk Tales of Irelandby W. B. YeatsISBN 0020556403 (0-02-055640-3)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fairy Folk Tales of Ireland'Book summary:THE CLASSIC ONE-VOLUME INTRODUCTION TO IRELAND'S RICH FOLKLORE: WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS'S MAGICAL SELECTION OF TRADITIONAL IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES
Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland combines two books of Irish folklore collected and edited by William Butler Yeats -- Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, first published in 1888, and Irish Fairy Tales, published in 1892. In this delightful gathering of legend and song, the familiar characters of Irish myth come to life: the mercurial trooping fairies, as ready to make mischief as to do good; the solitary and industrious Lepracaun and his dissipated cousin, the Cluricaun; the fearsome Pooka, who lives among ruins and has "grown monstrous with much solitude"; and the Banshee, whose eerie wailing warns of death. More than an ambitious and successful effort to preserve the rich heritage of his native land, this volume confirms Yeats's conviction that imagination is the source of both life and art. As Benedict Kiely observes in his foreword, Yeats was seeking "not for the meaning of any mystery but for what he had already determined to find...a world of the imagination...a world that fed on dreaming and not on the painted toy of grey truth." [via]
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Feverby Michele SlungISBN 0060170387 (0-06-017038-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterfliesby John MurrayISBN 0060509295 (0-06-050929-5)
Softcover, Perennial
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies'Book summary:John Murray trained as a doctor, and his debut collection of stories, A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, reveals its author's background. Not all of his characters are physicians, but they tend to share a doctor's ability to concentrate on details and compartmentalize emotions. In "The Hill Station," the American-born daughter of Indian parents returns to India, where she speaks at a conference on infectious diseases. She is charged with new, ungovernable feelings when she finally meets actual patients with the disease she specializes in; heretofore, she had only known cholera under a microscope. Murray bumps his heroine into a new, looser way of living as she travels deeper into dirty, disease-ridden India. In the title story, a doctor mourns the loss of his sister and comes to terms with his family history, all the while examining butterflies. In "Blue," a climber ascends a Himalayan peak under dire circumstances and encounters ghostly memories of his father. These stories of frustrated, intelligent achievers can recall Mark Helprin, and Murray has, too, some of Helprin's ambitious scope. These stories aren't as crystalline as Helprin's, but that's a small complaint to lodge about an elegant first collection. --Claire Dederer [via]
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Fiction 100by James H. PickeringISBN 0023954507 (0-02-395450-7)
Softcover, Macmillan
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fiction 100'Book summary:A collection of carefully chosen, interesting stories, the best-selling Fiction 100 ignites readers' curiosity, imagination, and intelligence. This outstanding selection of 130 stories is presented in an attractive format, and is available for an excellent price. These selections represent a wide variety of subject matter, theme, literary technique, and style. International in scope, it contains fiction from the early 19th century to the present day, and features 130 traditional and contemporary works. This collection is suitable for any reader who enjoys short works of fiction with literary merit. [via]
More editions of Fiction 100:
- Fiction 100: ISBN 0023954612 (0-02-395461-2)
Softcover, Prentice Hall - Fiction 100: ISBN 0023954922 (0-02-395492-2)
Softcover, Prentice Hall - Fiction 100: ISBN 0023955392 (0-02-395539-2)
Softcover, Macmillan - Fiction 100: ISBN 0023955414 (0-02-395541-4)
Softcover, Macmillan - Fiction 100:an Anthology of Short Stories: ISBN 0023952903 (0-02-395290-3)
Hardcover, Macmillan - Fiction 100: ISBN 0023953306 (0-02-395330-6)
Hardcover, Macmillan - Fiction 100: ISBN 0023954507 (0-02-395450-7)
Softcover, Macmillan
- Fiction 100: ISBN 0023954612 (0-02-395461-2)
Fiction One Hundredby James H. PickeringISBN 0023955406 (0-02-395540-6)
Softcover, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
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The Fire Next Timeby James BaldwinISBN 003055442X (0-03-055442-X)
Hardcover, Holt Rinehart & Winston
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fire Next Time'Book summary:It's shocking how little has changed between the races in this country since 1963, when James Baldwin published this coolly impassioned plea to "end the racial nightmare." The Fire Next Time--even the title is beautiful, resonant, and incendiary. "Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?" Baldwin demands, flicking aside the central race issue of his day and calling instead for full and shared acceptance of the fact that America is and always has been a multiracial society. Without this acceptance, he argues, the nation dooms itself to "sterility and decay" and to eventual destruction at the hands of the oppressed: "The Negroes of this country may never be able to rise to power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American dream."
Baldwin's seething insights and directives, so disturbing to the white liberals and black moderates of his day, have become the starting point for discussions of American race relations: that debasement and oppression of one people by another is "a recipe for murder"; that "color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality"; that whites can only truly liberate themselves when they liberate blacks, indeed when they "become black" symbolically and spiritually; that blacks and whites "deeply need each other here" in order for America to realize its identity as a nation.
Yet despite its edgy tone and the strong undercurrent of violence, The Fire Next Time is ultimately a hopeful and healing essay. Baldwin ranges far in these hundred pages--from a memoir of his abortive teenage religious awakening in Harlem (an interesting commentary on his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain) to a disturbing encounter with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. But what binds it all together is the eloquence, intimacy, and controlled urgency of the voice. Baldwin clearly paid in sweat and shame for every word in this text. What's incredible is that he managed to keep his cool. --David Laskin [via]
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Fireworksby Angela CarterISBN 0060148527 (0-06-014852-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fireworks'Book summary:Fireworks: Nine Stories in Various Disguises, by Carter, Angela. [via]
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The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydainby Lloyd Alexander, Margot ZemachISBN 0030074312 (0-03-007431-2)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain'Book summary:Six short stories dealing with events that preceded the birth of Taran, a key figure in the author's five works on the Kingdom of Prydain. [via]
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Girls' Night Inby Fiona Walker, Jessica Adams, Chris ManbyISBN 0006514855 (0-00-651485-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Goldby Isaac AsimovISBN 0060556528 (0-06-055652-8)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gold'Book summary:Gold is the final and crowning achievement of the fifty-year career of science fiction's transcendent genius, the world-famous author who defined the field of science fiction for its practitioners, its millions of readers, and the world at large.
The first section contains stories that range from the humorous to the profound, at the heart of which is the title story, "Gold," a moving and revealing drama about a writer who gambles everything on a chance at immortality: a gamble Asimov himself made -- and won. The second section contains the grand master's ruminations on the SF genre itself. And the final section is comprised of Asimov's thoughts on the craft and writing of science fiction.
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Great Short Works of Herman Melvilleby Herman Melville, Warner BerthoffISBN 0060586540 (0-06-058654-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Short Works of Herman Melville'Book summary:Billy Budd, Sailor and Bartleby, the Scrivener are two of the most revered shorter works of fiction in history. Here, they are collected along with 19 other stories in a beautifully redesigned collection that represents the best short work of an American master.As Warner Berthoff writes in his introduction to this volume, "It is hard to think of a major novelist or storyteller who is not also a first-rate entertainer ... a master, according to choice, of high comedy, of one or another robust species of expressive humour, or of some special variety of the preposterous, the grotesque, the absurd. And Melville, certainly, is no exception. A kind of vigorous supervisory humour is his natural idiom as a writer, and one particular attraction of his shorter work is the fresh further display it offers of this prime element in his literary character."
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Heart Songs and Other Storiesby Annie ProulxISBN 0020360754 (0-02-036075-4)
Softcover, Scribner
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Heart Songs and Other Stories'Book summary:Before she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx was already producing some of the finest short fiction in the country. Here are her collected stories, including two new works never before anthologized.
These stories reverberate with rural tradition, the rites of nature, and the rituals of small-town life. The country is blue-collar New England; the characters are native families and the dispossessed working class, whose heritage is challenged by the neorural bourgeoisie from the city; and the themes are as elemental as the landscape: revenge, malice, greed, passion. Told with skill and profundity and crafted by a master storyteller, these are lean, tough tales of an extraordinary place and its people. [via]
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Hemingway Readerby Ernest HemingwayISBN 0023534001 (0-02-353400-1)
Softcover, Prentice Hall
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I Am No One You Know: Storiesby Joyce Carol OatesISBN 0060592893 (0-06-059289-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'I Am No One You Know: Stories'Book summary:I Am No One You Know contains nineteen startling stories that bear witness to the remarkably varied lives of Americans of our time. In "Fire," a troubled young wife discovers a rare, radiant happiness in an adulterous relationship. In "Curly Red," a girl makes a decision to reveal a family secret, and changes her life irrevocably. In "The Girl with the Blackened Eye," selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2001, a girl pushed to an even greater extreme of courage and desperation manages to survive her abduction by a serial killer. And in "Three Girls," two adventuresome NYU undergraduates seal their secret love by following, and protecting, Marilyn Monroe in disguise at Strand Used Books on a snowy evening in 1956.
These vividly rendered portraits of women, men, and children testify to Oates's compassion for the mysterious and luminous resources of the human spirit. [via]
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I Got Somebody in Stauntonby William Henry LewisISBN 0060536667 (0-06-053666-7)
Softcover, Amistad Pr
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Just So Storiesby Rudyard Kipling, David FramptonISBN 0060232943 (0-06-023294-3)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Just So Stories'Book summary:A collection of the well-known stories, including "How the Whale Got His Throat," "The Elephant's Child," and "The Butterfly that Stamped." [via]
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Leaf Storm, and Other Storiesby Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory RabassaISBN 0060127791 (0-06-012779-1)
Hardcover, Harper & Row
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Legends from the End of Timeby Michael MoorcockISBN 0060130016 (0-06-013001-6)
Hardcover, Harper & Row
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Legends from the End of Time'Book summary:Milleniums, publishing of this fantasy brought solid repeat sales and delighted reviews, as well as a new generation of readers. Now we are in the midst of publishing the series, one omnibus every two months, in excellent value for money paperbacks. [via]
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Let Me Be the Oneby Elisabeth HarvorISBN 000224554X (0-00-224554-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Letters from the Earthby Mark Twain, Bernard Augustine De VotoISBN 0060518650 (0-06-051865-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters from the Earth'Book summary:If you're already familiar with Finn and Sawyer, perhaps this collection of fragments, short stories, and essays--assembled posthumously some few decades ago now, but still fresh--will enhance your sense of Twain's true range. A particular favorite: his essay "The Damned Human Race," wherein he proves, rather convincingly, that an anaconda snake is a higher form of life than an English Earl. [via]
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The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasyby Charles N. Brown, Jonathan StrahanISBN 0060594268 (0-06-059426-8)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Lucky Girlsby Nell FreudenbergerISBN 006008880X (0-06-008880-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lucky Girls'Book summary:Nell Freudenberger knows from lucky girls. She has had a lot of luck herself in her short writing career: Her debut story was featured in The New Yorker, with a glossy full-color author photo alongside; a quick book contract ensued, on the strength of that one published story; and now comes a debut collection full of stories that are actually good. The Lucky Girls collected here are far-flung Americans, young women trying to figure out where they belong in the world. In "The Tutor," teenage Julia and her businessman father are living in Bombay; her mother has returned to the United States. Julia crams for the SATs with her tutor Zubin, smokes cigarettes, and goes to nightclubs; her father hovers at home. Freudenberger gets just right the moments when Julia and her father find themselves alone together, trying to be a family: "It was just the two of them at the table then; even with the leaves taken out and stored against the wall in the coat closet, they had to half-stand in order to pass the soup." Too, she knows the upper-class world of which she writes. In "The Orphan," Mandy's parents and brother come to visit her in Thailand, where she is working with "AIDS babies." Mandy's brother Josh appears, and Freudenberger skewers his type, neatly, in a sentence: "Josh looks like someone coming out of trench warfare in the Balkans, rather than college in Maine." But Freudenberger isn't telling easy rich-kid stories. She's forever pushing her narration. In "The Tutor," we hear from Zubin, an overeducated Indian, as well as from Julia. "The Orphan," in turn, is told by Mandy's mom, a woman bewildered by yet proud of her daughter's choice to remain in Thailand. Freudenberger's stories are cosmopolitan, expansive, and richly detailed, a beguiling combination of qualities. --Claire Dederer [via]
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The Maid of the Northby Ethel J. PhelpsISBN 0030568935 (0-03-056893-5)
Hardcover, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Maid of the North'Book summary:The Maid of the North weaves together tales about a woman's right to freedom of will and choice. In this collection of mostly nineteenth-century folk and fairy tales, Ethel Johnston Phelps's heroines successfully portray women as being spirited, courageous and smart. This type of heroine is not easily found in most collections; in most traditional folk and fairy tales we encounter women are portrayed as being good, obedient, submissive, and, of course, beautiful. These womenand girlsare resourceful; they take action to solve a problem and use cleverness or shrewd common sense to solve the dilemmas they face.[via]
The tales themselves are part of an oral tradition that document a generation according to the values of the time. Phelps has given these older tales a fresh, contemporary retelling for a new generation of readers, young and old. She shapes each storyadding or omitting detailsto reflect her sense of a feminist folk or fairy tale.
The twenty-one tales collected represent a wide variety of countries; approximately seventeen ethnic cultures from North America to Europe to Asia tell a story in which women play a leading or crucial role in the story.More editions of The Maid of the North:
A Night at the Moviesby Robert CooverISBN 0020191200 (0-02-019120-0)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Nightmare Hourby R. L. StineISBN 0060286881 (0-06-028688-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nightmare Hour'Book summary:The wind whispered through the vines, making them quiver and bend. The scarecrows creaked, shaking their arms as if waving us away. A large pumpkin came bouncing down a hill. Thud thud thud!
A child loses his head inside a pumpkin. A skin-crawling spider spell is cast on a sorcerer's apprentice. A visit to the hospital for a tonsillectomy takes a ghoulish turn. These things don't happen--do they? In Nightmare Hour they do. The fiendishly prolific R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series, offers 10 scary tales to keep you up late, quivering beneath the covers. Each heart-pounding, fast-paced story features lively writing and young characters who come into contact with the tricks and illusions on life's darker side. Curious readers will love the author's introduction to each story, where he explains how the idea for it came to him. From "Alien Candy" to "Make Me a Witch," the stories also feature a spooky illustration by artists from Edward Koren to Bleu Turrell. While not gory, some of the book's situations, such as the hospital visit gone wrong, are not for the faint-hearted reader. For the rest, these are tales you'll be too scared to put down. (Ages 10 and older) --Maria Dolan [via]
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Politically Correct Bedtime Storiesby James Finn GarnerISBN 002542730X (0-02-542730-X)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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The Real Mother Gooseby Blanche Fisher WrightISBN 0026890380 (0-02-689038-0)
Hardcover, Checkerboard Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Real Mother Goose'Book summary:This is a board-book edition of the classic nursery rhyme collection, and it's a fine choice for a first nursery-rhyme book. The old-fashioned, rather Edwardian-looking illustrations may appeal more to nostalgic parents than to babies and toddlers, but the bright colors and simple lines are easy on small eyes, too. Each double-page spread has a one-verse rhyme on the left with an illustration on the right, and the 15 selections include Humpty Dumpty; Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater; The Cat and the Fiddle; Pease Porridge Hot; and Wee Willie Winkie. (Baby to 3) --Richard Farr [via]
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Roman Fever and Other Storiesby Edith WhartonISBN 0020264852 (0-02-026485-2)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Roman Fever and Other Stories'Book summary:A collection of beautifully-crafted short stories. They are set in Italy, France and America and are powerful portraits of women who live in 'the world of propriety' at the turn of the century. They tell of the emotions women feel: in love, in jealousy, when they long for children or seek independence - and when their passions lead them to overstep the bounds laid down by exacting conventions. We see too what happens to those strong enough to break the rules but rarely strong enough to live forever beyond the pale of the society that has banished them. [via]
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The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retoldby Francesca Lia BlockISBN 0060281294 (0-06-028129-4)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rose and the Beast : Fairy Tales Retold'Book summary:Francesca Lia Block, whose Weetzie Bat novels have often been called pop fairy tales, here turns to the real thing for some very different imaginings of Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and other tales. Block's stories are more resonance than retelling, fevered dreams behind which the outlines of the traditional tales move fitfully like figures glimpsed now and then through a summer fog. Veiled references to Block's own Los Angeles appear in the twisty house of the seven dwarfs built into a canyon like Laurel or Topanga, the redwood forest on a seaside cliff through which Beauty travels to her Beast, the tree-darkened canyon houses with French doors that open onto exuberant neglected gardens lush with irises and roses. In these evocations Bluebeard becomes an aging blue-haired producer, Sleeping Beauty pricks her arm with a heroin needle, Red Riding Hood's wolf is a lecherous stepfather, and the Snow Queen is a sex goddess who lives in a marble mansion with her boy toy, possibly in Beverly Hills. Sensuous images enrich these languid and darkly ironic visions: jasmine-scented night gardens, leopard couches with velvet pillows, luscious food flavored with mint, coconut milk, or pomegranate sauce, cool candlelit baths. As always, Block's poetic allegories of adolescence are strikingly original and a bit dangerous, a feast for connoisseurs of YA fiction and savvy older teens. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell [via]
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The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingwayby Ernest HemingwayISBN 0020518609 (0-02-051860-9)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Slow Handby Michele SlungISBN 0060165987 (0-06-016598-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Stories of Breece D'J Pancakeby Breece D'J PancakeISBN 0030706238 (0-03-070623-8)
Softcover, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
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Stories of F. Scott Fitzgeraldby F. Scott Fitzgerald, Malcolm CowleyISBN 0020199406 (0-02-019940-6)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald'Book summary:What we know of that unique period in American history labeled the Jazz Age has been defined by F. Scott Fitzgerald's piercing fiction.
His short stories brilliantly realize an era both exploding with opportunity and seething with decadence. His prose captures the melancholy lacquered over with merriment, the corruption interlaced with the glamour, all refracted through a spectrum of human lives.
Here, Caedmon has assembled an extraordinary cast of stage and screen stars to bring Fitzgerald's early work to resonant life. His characters (some passionate, some comic, some tragic) take on an extra dimension when interpreted aloud by these fine actors.
This collection both honors and enhances Fitzgerald's already irreplaceable position in American letters. Each return listening will bring even more emotional impact to each story.
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The Stories of Richard Bauschby Richard BauschISBN 0060196491 (0-06-019649-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Stories of Richard Bausch'Book summary:Few writers of the past quarter-century have so consistently surprised, startled, and delighted their readers as has the masterful Richard Bausch, whom the Washington Post Book World calls "a virtuoso of language and literary grace." His nine critically acclaimed novels have established him as one of the most important fiction writers of his generation, a visionary stylist with an acute eye for the minute detail that illuminates the deepest wells of human experience. Yet it is for his award-winning short fiction that Bausch is perhaps most admired.
The Stories of Richard Bausch celebrates the work of a great American artist, a writer the New York Times calls "a master of the short story." By turns tender, raw, heartbreaking, and riotously funny, the many voices of this definitive forty-two-story collection (seven of which appear here for the first time) defy expectation, attest to Bausch's remarkable range and versatility, and affirm his place alongside such acclaimed story writers as John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, and Grace Paley.
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The Story of General Dann And Mara's Daughter, Griot And the Snow Dogby Doris LessingISBN 0060530138 (0-06-053013-8)
Softcover, Perennial
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The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot, and the Snow Dogby Doris May LessingISBN 0007152809 (0-00-715280-9)
Hardcover, Fourth Estate
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The Tale of the Four Dervishes and Other Sufi Talesby Amina ShahISBN 0060672560 (0-06-067256-0)
Softcover, Harper & Row
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They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?by Patrick F. McManusISBN 0030586461 (0-03-058646-1)
Hardcover, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
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Things You Should Knowby A. M. HomesISBN 0060520132 (0-06-052013-2)
Softcover, Perennial
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Throwing Shadowsby E. L. KonigsburgISBN 0020441401 (0-02-044140-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster Merchandise &
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Tigers Are Better-Looking: With a Selection from The Left Bank Storiesby Jean RhysISBN 0060135611 (0-06-013561-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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To Cut a Long Story Shortby Jeffrey ArcherISBN 006018552X (0-06-018552-X)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'To Cut a Long Story Short'Book summary:To Cut a Long Story Short reads like a series of modern fairy tales. In each story, Jeffrey Archer presents a moral problem, and a character finds himself tested in a dark hour. Evil manifests itself in the form of selfish relatives, corrupt cops, racist men. Good arrives in the form of unselfish minor characters who suddenly emerge as the real center of the story, or lost souls who come out the other side of corruption and renounce their old ways.
In "The Endgame" Cornelius Barrington decides to fake a bankruptcy. As one of the richest men in his small town, he hopes his sudden plunge into poverty will reveal the true character of his friends and relatives. He calls in debts, asks to borrow money from those he has lent to in the past, only to be turned away time and again.
After lunch Cornelius took a bus into town--a novel experience. It was some time before he located a bus stop, and then he discovered that the conductor didn't have change for a twenty pound note. His first call after he had been dropped off in the town centre was to the local estate agent, who didn't seem surprised to see him. Cornelius was delighted to find how quickly the rumour of his financial demise must be spreading.
"The Endgame" is a complex tale with a clear message. Not all the stories in To Cut a Long Story Short attempt such weightiness. "The Expert Witness" is a delightful parody of the legal system, a portrait of two pub mates--a lawyer and an expert witness--who often find themselves facing off in the courtroom, pretending not to know each other. Certain pieces (glimpses, vignettes) last a mere two pages, but whatever the length or weight of the story, throughout this collection Archer has a light touch, a quick wit, and a thorough understanding of the mechanics of suspense. --Emily White [via]More editions of To Cut a Long Story Short:
The Torturer's Apprenticeby John BiguenetISBN 0060007451 (0-06-000745-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Tree and Leafby J. R. R. TolkienISBN 0048240141 (0-04-824014-1)
Softcover, Allen & Unwin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tree and Leaf'Book summary:Repackaged to feature Tolkien's own painting of the Tree of Amalion, this collection includes his famous essay, 'On Fairy-stories' and the story that exemplifies this, 'Leaf by Niggle', together with the poem 'Mythopoeia' and the verse drama, 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth', which tells of the events following the disastrous Battle of Maldon. Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre from those who would relegate it to juvenilia. The haunting short story, Leaf by Niggle, recounts the story of the artist, Niggle, who has 'a long journey to make' and is seen as an allegory of Tolkien's life. The poem Mythopoeia relates an argument between two unforgettable characters as they discuss the making of myths. Lastly, and published for the very first time, we are treated to the translation of Tolkien's account of the Battle of Maldon, known as The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. Tree and Leaf is an eclectic, amusing, provocative and entertaining collection of works which reveals the diversity of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, the depth of his knowledge of English history, and the breadth of his talent as a creator of fantastic fiction. [via]
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Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Sonby J. R. R. TolkienISBN 0048200158 (0-04-820015-8)
Hardcover, Unwin Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son'Book summary:Repackaged to feature Tolkien's own painting of the Tree of Amalion, this collection includes his famous essay, 'On Fairy-stories' and the story that exemplifies this, 'Leaf by Niggle', together with the poem 'Mythopoeia' and the verse drama, 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth', which tells of the events following the disastrous Battle of Maldon. Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre from those who would relegate it to juvenilia. The haunting short story, Leaf by Niggle, recounts the story of the artist, Niggle, who has 'a long journey to make' and is seen as an allegory of Tolkien's life. The poem Mythopoeia relates an argument between two unforgettable characters as they discuss the making of myths. Lastly, and published for the very first time, we are treated to the translation of Tolkien's account of the Battle of Maldon, known as The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. Tree and Leaf is an eclectic, amusing, provocative and entertaining collection of works which reveals the diversity of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, the depth of his knowledge of English history, and the breadth of his talent as a creator of fantastic fiction. [via]
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Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earthby J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher TolkienISBN 0048231797 (0-04-823179-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Vacuum Diagramsby Stephen BaxterISBN 0002254255 (0-00-225425-5)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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We So Seldom Look on Loveby Barbara GowdyISBN 006017031X (0-06-017031-X)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Winter in Julyby Doris May LessingISBN 0006545262 (0-00-654526-2)
Hardcover, Flamingo
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The Wolves in the Wallsby Neil Gaiman, Dave McKeanISBN 0060530871 (0-06-053087-1)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wolves in the Walls'Book summary:Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say: "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.
Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty in The City of Lost Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit garden, where they ponder their future. Her brother suggests they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles". Lucy wants to live in her own house...and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind.
Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal...until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze". Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware. The book is recommended for ages nine and above. --Karin Snelson, Amazon.com [via]
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Year's Best Fantasyby David Hartwell, Kathryn CramerISBN 0060521821 (0-06-052182-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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