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  Benediction - From their pens to...

  F Scott itzgerald

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  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
  His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
  In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
  He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
  Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
  The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack.

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  The Street That Wasn't There

  Clifford D. Simak

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  What if reality suddenly changed around you, and no one else noticed? In Clifford D. Simak's eerie and thought-provoking short story The Street That Wasn't There, an elderly man steps outside one morning only to discover that a familiar street has vanished—without a trace. As he struggles to make sense of this bizarre occurrence, he begins to question the nature of existence itself. A masterful blend of mystery, psychological tension, and science fiction, this tale challenges perceptions of reality in Simak's signature style. A must-listen for fans of mind-bending, classic sci-fi storytelling.

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  Company - Stories

  Shannon Sanders

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  A richly detailed, brilliantly woven debut collection about the lives and lore of one Black family 
   
  Shannon Sanders’s sparkling debut brings us into the company of the Collins family and their acquaintances as they meet, bicker, compete, celebrate, worry, keep and reveal secrets, build lives and careers, and endure. Moving from Atlantic City to New York to DC, from the 1960s to the 2000s, from law students to drag performers to violinists to matriarchs, Company tells a multifaceted, multigenerational saga in thirteen stories. 
   
  Each piece includes a moment when a guest arrives at someone’s home. In “The Good, Good Men,” two brothers reunite to oust a “deadbeat” boyfriend from their mother’s house. In “The Everest Society,” the brothers’ sister anxiously prepares for a home visit from a social worker before adopting a child. In “Birds of Paradise,” their aunt, newly promoted to university provost, navigates a minefield of microaggressions at her own welcome party. And in the haunting title story, the provost’s sister finds her solitary life disrupted when her late sister’s daughter comes calling. 
   
  These are stories about intimacy, societal and familial obligations, and the ways inheritances shape our fates. Buoyant, somber, sharp, and affectionate, this collection announces a remarkable new voice in fiction.

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  I'm Not Hungry But I Could Eat

  Christopher Gonzalez

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  Long nights, empty stomachs, and impulsive cravings haunt these stories. A college grad reunites with a high-school crush when invited to his bachelor party, a lonely cat-sitter wreaks havoc on his friends' apartment, happy-hour french fries leave more than grease on lips and fingers, and, squeezed into a diner booth, one man eats past his limit for the sake of friendship. Exploring the lives of bisexual and gay Puerto Rican men, these fifteen stories show a vulnerable, intimate world of yearning and desire. The stars of these narratives linger between living their truest selves and remaining in the wings, embarking on a journey of self-discovery to satisfy their hunger for companionship and belonging.

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  About Us

  Reda Gaudiamo

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  Now's not the time to think. Now's the time to feel.
  A taxi ride, a train trip, a family photo: in About Us, seemingly unremarkable journeys and mundane objects ripple with the repercussions of past decisions. All is not what it seems at a family wedding, a regretful father risks estranging his daughter, and a young woman is tormented by the cries of a baby that her partner cannot hear.
  Reda Gaudiamo's characters charm, chafe and confound in a series of intimate snapshots of domestic relationships. With twists shifting from the comically mischievous to the abruptly chilling, this collection is a bold slice of contemporary Indonesian literature.

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  The Red Room

  H. G. Wells

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  A lone man holding a candelabrum stands in the center of a cold, stone-walled chamber known as the Red Room. Flickering candlelight casts ominous shadows along the walls, and antique furniture looms in the corners. His eyes are wide with tension, and he looks over his shoulder at something unseen. The atmosphere is eerie, dark, and steeped in gothic suspense. 
  The Red Room by H.G. Wells is a masterfully written tale of psychological horror, suspense, and atmosphere. First published in 1896, this gothic short story explores the fine line between fear and imagination through the experience of a skeptic who agrees to spend the night alone in a room said to be haunted. 
  The protagonist enters the notorious Red Room with confidence, determined to debunk the legends surrounding it. But as the night wears on, flickering shadows, silence, and mounting dread take a toll on his mind. Is the room truly haunted, or is the most terrifying specter the fear that lives within us all? 
  This full audiobook brings Wells' vivid descriptions and rising tension to life, drawing listeners deep into a chilling exploration of the psychology of fear, where darkness is both literal and symbolic. 
  If you love classic horror, atmospheric fiction, and tales that challenge the boundary between reality and perception, The Red Room is a must-listen.

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