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Sing a song of tuna fish: a memoir of my fifth-grade year
By Esmé Raji Codell, LeUyen Pham. 2006
The author has pulled events from her own fifth-grade diaries to give the reader a taste of what it was…
like growing up in Chicago in 1978 as a member of a free-spirited family. For grades 5-8 and older readersTalking to the enemy: stories
By Avner Mandelman. 2005
Nine stories about the Israeli experience. In "Terror" a father beats the son who fails to stand up for his…
five-year-old brother, thus instilling the precept that, right or wrong, family comes first, even before justice or fear. Strong language and some violence. Sophie Brody Medal. 2005The Education of a Poker Player
By James Mcmanus. 2015
"In writing about poker Jim McManus has managed to write about everything, and it's glorious."--David SedarisNew York Times-bestselling author James…
McManus offers up a collection of seven stories narrated by Vincent Killeen, an Irish Catholic altar boy, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Persuaded at age eight by his grandmother that entering the priesthood will guarantee salvation for every member of his family, Vince eagerly commits to attending a Jesuit seminary for high school. As the meaning of a vow of celibacy becomes clearer to him, however, and he is exposed to the irresistible temptations of poker and girls, life as a seminarian begins to seem less appealing. These autobiographical stories are enlightening and evocative, providing keen, often humorous insight into Catholicism, faith, celibacy and its opposite, as well as America's--and increasingly the world's--favorite card game.James McManus has been called "poker's Shakespeare." He is the New York Times-bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, among others. He has been the poker columnist for the New York Times and currently writes the history column for CardPlayer. His work has also appeared in Harper's, The Believer, Paris Review, Esquire, and in Best American anthologies for poetry, sports writing, science and nature, and magazine writing. He has spoken about poker at Yale, Harvard, Google, Goldman Sachs, and on numerous media outlets, and is the recipient of the Peter Lisagor Award for Sports Journalism and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, among other awards. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.An Aesthetic Underground
By John Metcalf. 2014
"John Metcalf has written some of the very best stories ever published in this country."--Alice MunroThe Argus-eyed editor; the magisterial…
prose stylist; the waggish, inflammatory cultural critic; the mentor and iconoclast. John Metcalf is a literary legend whose memoir maps the underground he labored tirelessly to establish.The Walls of Delhi
By Jason Grunebaum, Uday Prakash. 2012
A street sweeper discovers a cache of black market money and escapes to see the Taj Mahal with his underage…
mistress; an Untouchable races to reclaim his life that's been stolen by an upper-caste identity thief; a slum baby's head gets bigger and bigger as he gets smarter and smarter, while his family tries to find a cure. One of India's most original and audacious writers, Uday Prakash, weaves three tales of living and surviving in today's globalized India. In his stories, Prakash portrays realities about caste and class with an authenticity absent in most English-language fiction about South Asia. Sharply political but free of heavy handedness.My town, my people
By Cristiano Parafioriti, Louise Rabour. 2015
Galati Mamertino is a small mountain town nestled in the Nebrodi national park, oozing with history from its very walls:…
and a small part of that history will come to life in "my country, my people". Through twenty short stories, rich with vivid characters, intoxicating smells and ancient flavors, the author paints a picture of his youth, cleverly moving between fact and fiction. Reading these pages we hear the fragile voice of the South, a voice suffocated by the numbness born of resignation and sadness, but which at the same time speaks of a love of times gone by, of a poor but sanguine land, exhausted and wounded from the plague of poverty, injustice and emigration but still very much alive in the minds and memories of those who left. And those memories lodge in the mind and settle in the heart as an emotional reservoir overflowing with words, thoughts and images of a moment, a day, an era once lived and still able to touch us deeply.Still Life and Other Stories
By Wayne P. Lammers, Junzo Shono. 1992
"Shono conveys both intimacy and distance, tranquility and tension, as he explores the shifting relations between husband and wife, father…
and son, brother and sister." -Publishers Weekly"These stories are so artful... they seem like the artless productions of life itself." -Kenyon College Book Review -- Kenyon College Book Review"This collection should be sipped and savored like warm sake." -Small PressWinner of the Pen Center West Award, this delicate collection of thirteen linked tales reveals the flow of daily life in the modern Japanese family. Junzo Shono's artful layering of commonplace events, images, and conversations has been compared to haiku poetry crossed with an Ozu film.Min by på Sicilien
By Bodil Bergh, Cristiano Parafioriti. 2014
I en serie noveller berättar Cristiano Parafioriti på ett levande sätt om sin uppväxt i en liten by på Sicilien.…
Ljuden från sparkade fotbollar och grälande kvinnor blandas med doften av mulåsnor och pinjeträd. Alla berättelserna genomsyras av genuin kärlek till familjen, vännerna, hembygden och även till hans katolska tro.Det var min hjemstavn
By Cristiano Parafioriti. 2018
Gjennom tjue fortellinger gir forfatteren liv til personligheter, berusende lukter og tradisjonsrike smaksopplevelser i en tegning av sin oppvekst på…
Sicilia. Det sydliges dempede stemme siver ut av disse sidene, kvalt av reignasjon og tristhet. Men også med en kjærlighet til en fortid og en jord, fattig og blodfarget, utmattet og såret av armot, urett og fraflytting, men for alltid levende i minnet til dem som har forlatt den. Og dette minnet fester seg i sjelen og fyller hjertet. Det former en emosjonell rest som det flyter over med i form av ord, tanker og bilder fra en tid, en dag eller et øyeblikk som har vært levd og som fortsatt gir emosjoner.LES RACINES LOINTAINES
By Cristiano Parafioriti. 2018
À travers ces vingt récits, l'auteur nous dévoile des personnages passionnés, des parfums subtils et des goûts d'autre temps en…
sillonant ses mémoires d'enfance tracés en Sicile. C'est la voix fragile du Sud qui s'élève de ces pages, suffoquée par la torpeur de la résignation et de la mélancolie, ainsi que par l'amour d'un temps qui n'existe plus, pour une terre pauvre et au sang chaud, épuisée et blessée par les plaies de la pauvreté, de l'injustice et de l'émigration mais qui demeure toujours vive dans les souvenirs de celui qui l'a quittée. Et ce souvenir reste figé dans la mémoire et se pose dans le cœur pour former un résidu émotif qui déborde et se déverse sous forme de mots, de pensées et d'images d'un passé, d'un jour ou d'un instant vécu e qui continue à faire vivre mille émotions.The Education of a Poker Player
By James McManus. 2015
"In writing about poker Jim McManus has managed to write about everything, and it's glorious."—David SedarisNew York Times-bestselling author James…
McManus offers up a collection of seven stories narrated by Vincent Killeen, an Irish Catholic altar boy, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Persuaded at age eight by his grandmother that entering the priesthood will guarantee salvation for every member of his family, Vince eagerly commits to attending a Jesuit seminary for high school. As the meaning of a vow of celibacy becomes clearer to him, however, and he is exposed to the irresistible temptations of poker and girls, life as a seminarian begins to seem less appealing. These autobiographical stories are enlightening and evocative, providing keen, often humorous insight into Catholicism, faith, celibacy and its opposite, as well as America's—and increasingly the world's—favorite card game.James McManus has been called "poker's Shakespeare." He is the New York Times-bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, among others. He has been the poker columnist for the New York Times and currently writes the history column for CardPlayer. His work has also appeared in Harper's, The Believer, Paris Review, Esquire, and in Best American anthologies for poetry, sports writing, science and nature, and magazine writing. He has spoken about poker at Yale, Harvard, Google, Goldman Sachs, and on numerous media outlets, and is the recipient of the Peter Lisagor Award for Sports Journalism and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, among other awards. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction
By Chuck Klosterman. 2019
Microdoses of the straight dope, stories so true they had to be wrapped in fiction for our own protection, from…
the best-selling author of But What if We're Wrong?A man flying first class discovers a puma in the lavatory. A new coach of a small-town Oklahoma high school football team installs an offense comprised of only one, very special, play. A man explains to the police why he told the employee of his local bodega that his colleague looked like the lead singer of Depeche Mode, a statement that may or may not have led in some way to a violent crime. A college professor discusses with his friend his difficulties with the new generation of students. An obscure power pop band wrestles with its new-found fame when its song "Blizzard of Summer" becomes an anthem for white supremacists. A couple considers getting a medical procedure that will transfer the pain of childbirth from the woman to her husband. A woman interviews a hit man about killing her husband but is shocked by the method he proposes. A man is recruited to join a secret government research team investigating why coin flips are no longer exactly 50/50. A man sees a whale struck by lightning, and knows that everything about his life has to change. A lawyer grapples with the unintended side effects of a veterinarian's rabies vaccination. Fair warning: Raised in Captivity does not slot into a smooth preexisting groove. If Saul Steinberg and Italo Calvino had adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage and raised him on Gary Larsen and Thomas Bernhard, he would still be nothing like Chuck Klosterman. They might be good company, though. Funny, wise and weird in equal measure, Raised in Captivity bids fair to be one of the most original and exciting story collections in recent memory, a fever graph of our deepest unvoiced hopes, fears and preoccupations. Ceaselessly inventive, hostile to corniness in all its forms, and mean only to the things that really deserve it, it marks a cosmic leap forward for one of our most consistently interesting writers.The Taste of Apples (Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan)
By Huang Huang Chun-ming. 2001
From the preeminent writer of Taiwanese nativist fiction and the leading translator of Chinese literature come these poignant accounts of…
everyday life in rural and small-town Taiwan. Huang is frequently cited as one of the most original and gifted storytellers in the Chinese language, and these selections reveal his genius. In "The Two Sign Painters," TV reporters ambush two young workers from the country taking a break atop a twenty-four-story building. "His Son's Big Doll" introduces the tortured soul inside a walking advertisement, and in "Xiaoqi's Cap" a dissatisfied pressure-cooker salesman is fascinated by a young schoolgirl.Huang's characters—generally the uneducated and disadvantaged who must cope with assaults on their traditionalism, hostility from their urban brethren and, of course, the debilitating effects of poverty—come to life in all their human uniqueness, free from idealization.Talking to the Enemy: Stories
By Avner Mandelman. 2005
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shaped the consciousness of a generation, but never before has it been brought to life in…
such vivid and telling prose. Part Tim O'Brien and part Bernard Malamud, Avner Mandelman's Talking to the Enemy ranges from boisterously entertaining tales of domestic squabbles to dark narratives from disillusioned soldiers. Awarded the Jewish Book Award when it was published in Canada and supplemented with recent stories, Talking to the Enemy is the powerful American debut of an international favorite."Pity" draws the reader through the descending layers of horror of an Israeli soldier who is party to an assassination attempt gone terribly wrong. In "Terror" a man recalls a traumatic childhood incident that taught him family comes first--before justice, before fear. On a lighter note, "Mish-Mash" is a comical tornado set off when a winning lottery ticket is discovered in a less-than-conventional family, best described as "Sholem Aleichem writes Peyton Place on speed" (Montreal Gazette). Underneath their often brash exteriors Mandelman's characters search for reconciliation and fulfillment in a land where conflict is a part of everyday life. Mandelman ensnares readers in intense plot-driven narratives that are pierced through with unexpected and ingenious twists. Beneath the surface of the often sparse prose lies evocative, unanswered questions about humanity. Every story delivers a thoroughly engrossing read with an unforgettable ending.Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different
By Ben Brooks. 2018
WINNER OF THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2018 & THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER 1…
BESTSELLER___________'This book can save lives. This book can change lives. This book can help to bring forth another generation of boys who dare to be different.' Benjamin Zephaniah___________Daniel Radcliffe, Galileo Galilei, Nelson Mandela, Louis Armstrong, Grayson Perry, Louis Braille, Lionel Messi, King George VI, Jamie Oliver... all dared to be different.Prince charming, dragon slayer, mischievous prankster... More often than not, these are the role-models boys encounter in the books they read at home and at school. As a boy, there is an assumption that you will conform to a stereotypical idea of masculinity.But what if you're the introvert kind? What if you prefer to pick up a book rather than a sword? What if you want to cry when you're feeling sad or angry? What if you like the idea of wearing a dress?There is an ongoing crisis with regards to young men and mental health, with unhelpful gender stereotypes contributing to this malaise. Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different offers a welcome alternative narrative. It is an extraordinary compilation of 100 stories of famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule-breaker and innovator in his own way, and all going on to achieve amazing things. Entries include Frank Ocean, Salvador Dalí, Rimbaud, Beethoven, Barack Obama, Stormzy, Ai Weiwei and Jesse Owens - different sorts of heroes from all walks of life and from all over the world.A beautiful and transporting book packed with stories of adventure and wonderment, it will appeal to those who need the courage to reject peer pressure and go against the grain. It is the must-have book for all those boys who worry about stuff and all those parents who worry about their boys who worry about stuff. It will educate and entertain, while also encourage and inspire.*For tales of even more brilliant men who have dared to be different, STORIES FOR BOYS WHO DARE TO BE DIFFERENT 2 is out now!*Eight Dogs, or "Hakkenden": Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest
By Kyokutei Bakin. 2021
Kyokutei Bakin's Nansō Satomi hakkenden is one of the monuments of Japanese literature. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of…
the most popular and influential books of the nineteenth century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics. An Ill-Considered Jest, the first part of Hakkenden, tells the story of the Satomi clan patriarch Yoshizane and his daughter Princess Fuse. An ill-advised comment forces Yoshizane to betroth his daughter to the family dog, creating a supernatural union that ultimately produces the Eight Dog Warriors. Princess Fuse's heroic and tragic sacrifice, and her strength, intelligence, and self-determination throughout, render her an immortal character within Japanese fiction.Eight Dogs is the culmination of centuries of premodern Japanese tale-telling, combining aspects of historical romance, fantasy, Tokugawa-era popular fiction, and Chinese vernacular stories. Glynne Walley's lively translation conveys the witty and colorful prose of the original, producing a faithful and entertaining edition of this important literary classic.Wide Eyed
By Dennis Cooper, Trinie Dalton. 2005
"Trinie Dalton's voice is so charming in these stories and they fly right by, so it takes a little time…
to realize how deftly she is talking about death and sex and fear and love and fur and slumber parties, how lightly she touches upon heaviness, making an imprint so gentle you don't know it's there until later, when the story floats back up in your memory, light as a butterfly or a blood-oil lilypad in the bath." --Aimee Bender"Trinie Dalton is as radically original a young writer as I've ever come across: a post-punk, post-apocalyptic, post-everything sensibility, casting spells of willed innocence against the powers of darkness she knows terrifyingly well." --David Gates"These charming stories vibrate with innocence and awe. Trinie Dalton is an effortless purveyor of wonder, strangeness, and love. She is a writer of high spirits and unguarded vision, and this debut collection is an absolute pleasure to read." --Ben Marcus"In Wide Eyed, a wonderfully eccentric and vibrant collection, Trinie Dalton showcases her ability to put a fresh spin on the world, leading the reader into places never explored--sometimes dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish, always riveting. Her vision is wholly unique and memorable." --Jill McCorkleIn Trinie Dalton's tweaked vision of reality, psychic communications between herself and Mick Jagger, The Flaming Lips, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed, and Pavement are daily occurrences. Animals also populate this book; beavers, hamsters, salamanders, black widows, owls, llamas, bats, and many more are characters who befriend the narrator. This collection of stories is told by a woman compelled to divulge her secrets, fantasies, and obsessions with native Californian animals, glam rock icons, and horror movies, among other things. With a setting rooted in urban Los Angeles but colored by mythic tales of beauty borrowed from medieval times, Shakespeare, and Grimm's fairy tales, Wide Eyed makes the difficulties of surviving in a contemporary American city more palatable by showing the reader that magic and escape is always possible.Stories include, "Hummingbird Moonshine," in which the narrator's frustrated hunt for authentic religion in botanicas and science books culminates in a spiritual connection made with a hummingbird. In "Oceanic," she resolves to marry a manatee after a drunken pre-party for her best friend's wedding. In "Tiles," four vignettes about bloody accidents in tiled bathrooms intermingle with scenes from Dalton's favorite scary movies.Featuring oddball prose in the traditions of Dalton's literary heroes--Denton Welch, Robert Walser, and Jane Bowles--these stories have a dreamy, imaginative quality that reveal a peculiar state of mental ecstasy. To be inside the mind of Trinie Dalton is to be escorted into bliss.Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays
By Brendan Burford. 2009
The stories in Syncopated challenge convention, provide perspective, and search out secret truths–all in the inviting, accessible form of comics.…
Syncopated will give you a daringly different view of the past–from the history of vintage postcards to the glory days of old Coney Island. It will immerse you in fascinating subcultures, from the secret world of graffiti artists to the chess champs of Greenwich Village. And it will open your eyes to pieces of forgotten history–for example, the Tulsa race riots of 1921–and to new perspectives on critical current events, such as the interrogation of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. These &“picto-essays&” encompass memoir, history, journalism, and biography in varied visual styles–each handpicked by Brendan Burford, one of America&’s top editors.Including:How and Why to Bale Hay by Nick Bertozzi Penny Sentiments by Rina Piccolo Boris Rose: Prisoner of Jazz by Brendan Burford and Jim Campbell Portfolio by Tricia Van den Bergh Father Figures by Josh Neufeld West Side Improvements by Alex Holden The Evening Hatch by Richard and Brian Haimes What We So Quietly Saw by Greg Cook &“Like Hell I Will&” by Nate Powell Welcome Home, Brave by Dave Kiersh The Sound of Jade by Sarah Glidden Subway Buskers by Victor Marchand Kerlow Erik Erikson by Paul Karasik Dvorak by Alec Longstreth A Coney Island Rumination by Paul Hoppe An Encounter with Richard Peterson by Brendan BurfordRunning Mother and Other Stories (Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan)
By Songfen Guo. 2009
Guo Songfen's short stories are masterful psychological portraits that play with the echoes of history and the nature of identity.…
One of the few modernists to truly capture the fallout from such events as the February 28th Incident and the White Terror, Guo Songfen illuminates the quiet core of his characters through a spare and immediate style that is at once a symptom and an allegory of the trauma in which they live.In "Running Mother," a man is torn between his fear of abandonment and his guilt over leaving his family, and therefore his symbolic home, behind. "Moon Seal" follows a woman caught between traditional and modern worlds. In "Wailing Moon," a wife learns a shocking secret after her husband's death, realizing he was never the man she thought him to be. Set in the United States and Taiwan, "Snow Blind" is a multigenerational triptych that portrays the consequences of spiritual malaise, and in "Brightly Shines the Stars Tonight," a general wrestles with issues of memory and self-perception in the final moments before his execution. Guo Songfen's stories play with the hazards of miscommunication, the malevolence of human will, the arbitrary nature of fate, and the burden of historical circumstance. As the general discovers, life is a game of chess, the outcome of which is never certain though it might be logically designed. Showcasing the best of Taiwan's modernist style, these stories are not only an indictment of the human condition but also a powerful comment on the experience of postretrocession Taiwan.Abstract City
By Christoph Niemann. 2012
This anthology of the illustrator’s New York Times blog features a chapter of all-new material: “a masterpiece of sophisticated humor”…
(Library Journal, starred review).In July 2008, illustrator and designer Christoph Niemann began Abstract City, a visual blog for the New York Times. His posts were inspired by the desire to re-create simple and everyday observations and stories from his own life that everyone could relate to. In Niemann’s hands, mundane experiences such as riding the subway or trying to get a good night’s sleep were transformed into delightful flights of visual fancy. In Abstract City, the struggle to keep up with housework becomes a battle against adorable but crafty goblins, and nostalgia about New York manifests in simple but strikingly spot-on LEGO creations. This brilliantly illustrated collection of reflections on modern life includes all sixteen of the original blog posts as well as a new chapter created exclusively for the book.