Other books that might interest you

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  Northanger Abbey

  Jane Austen

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  Jane Austen's first novel—published posthumously in 1818—tells the story of Catherine Morland and her dangerously sweet nature, innocence, and sometime self-delusion. Though Austen's fallible heroine is repeatedly drawn into scrapes while vacationing at Bath and during her subsequent visit to Northanger Abbey, Catherine eventually triumphs, blossoming into a discerning woman who learns truths about love, life, and the heady power of literature. The satirical novel pokes fun at the gothic novel while earnestly emphasizing caution to the female sex.

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  The Collected Short Fiction of...

  Bruce Jay Friedman

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  An “irresistible” collection of short fiction by an author who “has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen” (The New York Times Book Review).   Hailed by Newsweek as “a bona fide literary event,” The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman brings together dozens of the New York Times–bestselling author’s greatest stories, which originally appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, and other magazines.   “Readers who feel short stories are too high-flown—too literary, arcane, and serious—will find counterbalance in Friedman, whose stories have uncomplicated structures, obvious gists, intelligible metaphors, and unambiguous endings and come wrapped in humor. This compilation of his output in the short story form between 1953 and 1995 has a thematic arrangement, with categories such as ‘Mother,’ ‘Crazed Youth,’ and ‘Sex.’ Some of the more outstanding pieces are ‘The Subversive,’ about the narrator’s air force buddy whom the narrator believed to be the most all-American guy he ever met until his friend commits a crazed act; ‘The Gent,’ concerning a man who succumbs to a seduction by his best friend’s daughter; and ‘The Night Boxing Ended,’ in which ringside heckling goes way out of bounds.” —Booklist   “From poignant bildungsroman to sly satire, from wicked comedy to surrealistic farce, this virtuosic collection covers more than four decades’ worth of short stories . . . Friedman explores themes such as loneliness, aging, fear, parenthood and ethnicity, spinning tales in an expertly modulated voice.” —Publishers Weekly   “Friedman [is] more interesting than most of Malamud, Roth, and Bellow . . . What makes him more important is that he writes out of the viscera instead of the cerebrum.”  —Nelson Algren, The Nation   “Pure delight.” —Newsday

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  The Heart of the Fire

  W. F. Harvey

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  William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the mystery and horror genres.Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, and took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted much of his recuperation to writing short stories. "The Heart of the Fire" is a queer tale. On the fireplace in the old coaching inn, The Moorcock, there is carved an old mysterious prophecy which casts an odd burden on the family... in that they dare not ever let the fire go out. One night a stranger appears at the door. He does not stay long and appears afraid of staying in the house after he has sat by the fire for a while. He mentions that he always sees his future in the embers. He sets off into the night, but after a few hours returns, injured, having been thrown from his horse. As the landlord sits with him by the fire, the stranger nods off to sleep. The landlord seems to hear a strange voice calling him from the flames and urging him to commit a terrible...awful... unconscionable crime. His action determines the events of the next seventy years.

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  Sailing the Seven Sustainable Seas

  Martin Chambers

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  "What I like about sailing is that it is sustainable. You set the sails and the wind propels and you can go to the end of the world with little extra thought. You don't need too many clothes and certainly you are not a slave to fashion or the need to dress in the latest style. Some locally sourced food and off you go." 
  These entertaining stories of sailing life began when Martin and his wife Kerryn departed from Adelaide on thier run-down yacht. They were headed for Fremantle but they forgot to turn right at Kangeroo Island and arrived in Hobart. It was an easy navigational error to make. 
  Once in Hobart, in order to avoid an almost global pandemic they remained in Tasmania. After all, Tasmania is at the end of the world and even a virus wouldn't want to go there. It was a strategy as successful as their navigation, but here you will hear no sotries of lockdowns or vaccinations. Instead, seven stories about wildlife, onboard catering, waste and power managment. Stories inspired by the reality of sustainable sailing in the same way the desire to sail home to Fremantle resulted in a trip to Tasmania.

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  Time and the Gods

  Lord Dunsany

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  Lord Dunsany (24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957) was a London-born Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist notable for his work in fantasy. He was influenced by Algernon Swinburne, who wrote the line "Time and the Gods are at strife" in his 1866 poem "Hymn to Proserpine", as well as by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. In turn, Dunsany's influence was felt by H. P. Lovecraft and Ursula K. Le Guin. Arthur C. Clarke corresponded with Dunsany between 1944 and 1956. Those letters are collected in the book Arthur C. Clarke & Lord Dunsany: A Correspondence. Time and the Gods, a series of short stories written in a myth-like style, was first published in 1906. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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  The Boatman and Other Stories -...

  Billy O'Callaghan

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  “I know of no writer on either side of the Atlantic who is better at exploring the human spirit under assault than Billy O’Callaghan.”—Robert Olen Butler 
  The prizewinning Irish short-story writer and author of the highly praised novel, My Coney Island Baby, delivers his most accomplished book of short fiction to date—a poignant story collection that “grips from the opening page” (Bernard MacLaverty).  
  These are twelve poignant, quietly dazzling, and carefully crafted stories that explore the resiliency of the human heart and its ability to keep beating in the wake of bereavement, violence, lost love, and incomparable trauma and grief. 
  Spanning a century and two continents, from the muddy fields of Ireland to a hotel room in Paris, a dingy bar in Segovia to an airplane bound for Taipei, The Boatman and Other Stories follows an unforgettable cast of characters. Three gunshots on the Irish border define the course of a young man’s life; a writer clings fast to a star-crossed affair with a woman who has never been fully within his reach; a fisherman accustomed to hard labor rolls up his sleeves to dig a grave for his child; and a pair of newlyweds embark on their first adventure, living wild on the deserted Beginish Island. 
   
  Ranging from the elegiac to the brutally confrontational, these densely layered tales reveal the quiet heroism and gentle dignity of ordinary life. Billy O’Callaghan is a master celebrant of the smallness of the human flame against the dark: its strength and its steady brightness.

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