Other books that might interest you

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  The Decameron Volume I

  Giovanni Boccaccio

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  "The Decameron" is a collection of novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, written between 1348 and 1353. It is a masterpiece of Italian literature and a significant work of early Renaissance literature. The frame narrative of "The Decameron" revolves around ten individuals who flee plague-ridden Florence and take refuge in a villa in the countryside. To pass the time, they tell one another stories—100 in total—over the course of ten days. These stories encompass a wide range of themes, from love and morality to wit and humor, and they offer a vivid portrayal of Italian society in the 14th century.

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  Gabriel-Ernest - From their pens...

  Saki Saki

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  Hector Hugh Munro, more familiarly known by his pen-name ‘Saki’ was born in what was then Akyab in British Burma on 18th December 1870. His father was an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police, and his mother the daughter of a Rear Admiral. 
  When he was 2 his mother died and he and his siblings were sent back to England to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts in a strict, puritanical household near Barnstaple, Devon. Educated by governesses Saki used many of these women as character models for his later writing. 
  At 17 his father retried and returned to England and then embarked on a series of European travels with Saki and his siblings. 
  After a short stint working in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police Saki decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Initially he wrote as a journalist for a number of newspapers and magazines before attempting an historical study, ‘The Rise of the Russian Empire’, whose real value lay in directing him to writing short stories instead, the first of which, ‘Dogged’, he published in 1899. 
  From here it was a short stab of the pen to writing political satire before in 1902 he became the foreign correspondent for The Morning Post, first in the Balkans, then Russia, Paris and back to London in 1908, where 'the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him.'  
  Collections of his short stories full of witty, mischievous and often macabre stories that satirized Edwardian society and two novels now appeared in the years up to the Great War.  At its’ outbreak he was 43 but managed to join as an ordinary trooper. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured.  
  On 14th November 1916 Hector Hugh Munro was sheltering in crater during the Battle of the Ancre, when he was shot and killed by a German sniper. According to several sources, his last words were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"

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  Assorted Malignancies

  Dale W Glaser

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  If you sit a spell, and look just so, you might catch a glimpse into another world, or several. Some seem no different from the world you call home, give or take a monster waiting in the shadows, or an avenging angel hidden in plain sight, or an inhuman forest spirit better left undisturbed.   
  Other worlds may be unrecognizably strange, from storybook kingdoms to ash-strewn apocalypse. Familiar or far-flung, all these worlds have certain things in common - plentiful supplies of fear, and a scarcity of happy endings. Come along and lose yourself among their ASSORTED MALIGNANCIES ....

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  Stephen Leacock - A Short Story...

  Stephen Leacock

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  Stephen P H Butler Leacock FRSC was born on 30th December 1869 in Swanmore, near Southampton, England, the third of eleven children. 
  The family emigrated to Canada in 1876, settling on a 100-acre farm in Sutton, Ontario.  There he was home-schooled until, funded by his grandfather, he was enrolled into the elite Upper Canada College in Toronto.  Academically he was very strong and thence proceeded on to the University of Toronto to study languages and literature.  After completing two years of study in only one, he was obliged to leave because his alcoholic father had abandoned the family and finances could not stretch to cover his education.  Leacock now enrolled in a 3 month course to become a qualified high school teacher and thereby gain a regular income.  For the next decade he worked at Upper Canada College.  
  His passion was economics and political theory and in 1899 he became a postgraduate student at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD.  In 1906, he wrote ‘Elements of Political Science’, quickly adopted as a standard academic textbook for the next two decades and his most profitable book.   
  Although he had already published several humorous pieces it was only in 1910 that these works were collected and published and turned him into a commercially successful writer.  Volume after volume now appeared almost annually and it was often said that more people had heard of him than of Canada. 
  Politically he was a social conservative.  He opposed women’s right to vote and was a champion of Empire but also an advocate of social welfare legislation and wealth redistribution, but often caused friction with his racist views. 
  Stephen Leacock died on 28th March 1944 of throat cancer in Toronto, Canada.  He was 74.

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  The Relive Box and Other Stories

  T.C. Boyle

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  While T.C. Boyle is known as one of our greatest American novelists, he is also an acknowledged master of the short story and is perhaps at his funniest, his most moving, and his most surprising in the short form. In The Relive Box, Boyle's sharp wit and rich imagination combine with a penetrating social consciousness to produce raucous, poignant, and expansive short stories defined by an inimitable voice. 
  From the collection's title story, featuring a Halcom X1520 Relive Box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past to ""The Five-Pound Burrito,"" the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the twelve stories in this collection speak to the humor, the pathos, and the struggle that is part of being human while relishing the whimsy of wordplay and the power of a story well told. In stories that span a variety of styles and genres, Boyle addresses the enduring concerns of the human mind and heart while taking on timely social concerns. The Relive Box is an exuberant, linguistically dazzling effort from a ""vibrant sensibility fully engaged with American society."" (The New York Times)

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  Audio Bundle An: The World's...

  Steve Moss, John Daniels

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  The World's Shortest Stories 
   
  · Publishers Weekly 'Listen Up' Award 
  · ForeWord Magazine Audiobook of the Year - Silver Finalist 
   
  Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All this and much more in the most amazing short stories ever written--each one just 55 words long!Consider for a moment 55 words. It's an absurdly tiny number. No, it's an impossible tiny number. It's what O. Henry might have conjured up if he'd only had the back of a business card to write upon. You'll find murder and suspense, horror and intrigue, love and betrayal, plus distant worlds and inner demons. All in a measly 55 words! Billboard magazine had this to say about The World’s Shortest Stories Vol. 1, “What is most impressive in this collection of great stories is the sheer variety. Let’s hope a second volume of these tiny gems will not be long in coming!” 
   
  Well, here it is! The World's Shortest Stories of Love and death, and all of the horror in between. A second helping of the most amazing short stories ever written—each one just 55 words long! Imagine O. Henry's tales if he'd only had the back of a business card to write upon. Includes stories from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, Barnaby Conrad, Neil Steinberg, Herbert Gold, Norman Lear, Larry Niven and more…

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