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  These Foolish Things & Other...

  Yeo Wei Wei

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  This debut collection by Yeo Wei Wei explores the realms between private selves, past and present, through vivid and haunting motifs—a singing bird, a lost soul in a yellow umbrella, an ivory carving, the diary of an ex-boyfriend's father. Revealing the regrets, obsessions, loss and sorrow of events in everyday life, These Foolish Things &Other Stories is a compelling piece of work ready to haunt, delight and touch its readers. 
   
  A wife returns home to find that her husband has remarried ... 
  An old woman in a nursing home is visited by a mynah that sings a Beatles song ... 
  An artist remembers the time he was harangued by rambutans, magoes and other fruits in his studio ... 
   
  “No word is out of place in Yeo Wei Wei’s exacting prose. The reader’s expectations and positions of empathy are put to the test in ways that both delight and shatter the heart.” 
  -Cyril Wong, author of Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light and The Dictator's Eyebrow 
   
  “Yeo Wei Wei weaves a purgatorial web of men and women caught between guilt, loss and unbearable longing. Her stories are intelligent, haunting, carefully composed yet deeply felt.” 
  -Clarissa Oon, arts editor, The Straits Times 
   
  “Yeo Wei Wei is set on uncovering whole realms between private past and present and between private selves; in the process, she justifies the incidence of art. Let each tale here walk your mind as though it were a painting 
  -Gwee Li Sui, literary critic, graphic artist and author of One Thousand and One Nights: Love Poems

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  After Twenty years - From their...

  O Henry

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  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing. 
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910.<

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  Worst Date Ever

  Dan Kopcow

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  This book is about romantic dates gone horribly wrong. We’ve all experienced dates brimming with horror, comedy, drama, tension, and lunacy. Sometimes in the same evening. This fiction short story collection captures the vulnerability, desperation, and bravery of putting yourself out there. The characters in these stories are undergoing the worst date of their lives. And wouldn’t you rather experience that thrill vicariously? It certainly seems a sound investment to plunk down a nominal fee for this book rather than go through the worst date ever yourself. And who knows, maybe you’ll learn some meaningful life lessons along the way. Or at the very least, you can shimmy this book under the table leg and finally fix that annoying wobble. You have to admit, this book is an ideal thickness for such repairs. Wait, where were we… Whether on a first date, a weekend getaway with a significant other, or the target of an intricate revenge scheme, these characters reflect the spectrum of emotions and reactions when we decide to lower our guard and let somebody in. And then it all goes spectacularly Hindenburg. Reading these stories should make you a more cautious dater. Or an expert wobbly-table-fixer. Either way: Best. Purchase. Ever.

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  Herman Melville - Chapter &...

  Herman Melville

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  Literature is a world of words and wonder, able to take us on almost unimaginable journeys from the wild and fantastic to the grind and minutiae of life. 
   
  An author’s ideas are his building blocks, his architecture of the mind, building a structure on which all else will rest; the narrative, the characters, the words - those few words that begin the adventure. 
   
  In this series we look at some of our leading classic authors across two genres: the short story and the poem.  In this modern world there is an insatiable need to categorise and pigeon-hole everyone and everything.  But ideas, these grains and saplings of the brain, need to roam, to explore and find their perfect literary use vehicle.  Our authors are masters of many literary forms, perhaps known for one but themselves favouring another. 
   
  Story. Poems. Story.  Within these boundaries come all manner of invention and cast of characters.  And, of course, each author has their own way of revealing their own chapter and verse.    
   
  1 - Chapter & Verse - Herman Melville - An Introduction 
  2 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville 
  3 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville 
  4 - Billy in the Darbies by Herman Melville 
  5 - The Eagle of the Blue by Herman Melville 
  6 - John Marr and Other Sailors by Herman Melville 
  7 - A Dirge for McPherson by Herman Melville 
  8 - Gettysburg by Herman Melville 
  9 - The March into Virginia by Herman Melville 
  10 - The Released Rebel Prisoner by Herman Melville 
  11 - The Martyr by Herman Melville 
  12 - Monody by Herman Melville 
  13 - Immolated by Herman Melville 
  14 - The Fiddler by Herman Melville

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  The Stalled Ox

  Saki Saki

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  The story revolves around Theophil Eshley, a painter known for his idyllic depictions of cattle, who finds himself unexpectedly embroiled in a comical crisis. Living in a picturesque neighborhood, Eshley's tranquil life is disrupted when his neighbor, Adela Pingsford, bursts into his studio seeking help to remove an ox that has wandered into her meticulously arranged garden.

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  The Winter Wife - Small-Town...

  Becky Doughty

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  ♥ Welcome to Pemberton Manor: A place where misfits fit in, where normal is overrated, and where hope - and love - spring eternal. ♥ 
  Book 6: The Winter Wife 
  Sally Bishop thought her happily ever after would be all sunshine and roses. She fell in love with a flower farmer from sunny Southern California—how could it be anything else? But when a devastating diagnosis brings storm clouds and gray skies, Sally can’t help but feel like she’s come face to face with the barren landscape and hostile environment of the worst winter of her life. She’s never felt quite so isolated and lonely. 
  The apartment complex where the Bishops have taken temporary refuge, however, is full of other residents who know what it’s like to feel abandoned, rejected, or simply forgotten. And they’re not about to let Sally and Jason traverse this difficult season alone. Besides, spring is just around the corner… bringing new beginnings, silver linings, and above all, hope. 
  Pemberton Manor is as out of place in Southern California as its residents seem to be. But if home is where the heart is, then this English estate planted amidst orange groves and palm trees, deserts and beaches, and converted into ten charming apartments, is the perfect place to hang a hat. Fall in love with the quirky bunch of characters who call Pemberton Manor home. But be warned. Once you set foot inside these doors, you may never want to leave. 
  Pemberton Manor: The Winter Wife is a clean and wholesome novella in a series about family life, sweet romance, second chances, and HOPE-fully ever afters. If you enjoyed Becky Doughty's Elderberry Croft Collection, you'll feel right at home with the folks at Pemberton Manor.

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