The Beirutus and Other Stories chronicles, in fiction form, some major themes and highlights of life as it is lived in the turbulent Middle East.A The author's take on life in Beirut is excellent as an expatriate's view of the diversity and danger in the Lebanon. Other stories are reflective of a full life that Clemons has lead as an automobile salesman, as an observer of small town life in Beaver Valley, of a jaundiced suburbanite of America and England, and of a dangerous tour of duty in Korea...her generations' first war.A Clemons writes like Hemingway, who critics describe as her predecessor in character and development.

In this compilation of short stories and poetry centered on rivers, mountains, and wild locations of great natural beauty, novelist and avid outdoorsman Alan Pilkington shares the memories of the unforgettable times he spent as a young man on the banks of a mountain river outside of Melbourne, Australia.

Pilkington was born into a family where the men went to the mountains and fished for trout in the tumbling streams of the southern parts of Australia's Great Dividing Range. Cultivating a lifelong love affair with the outdoors through his many stays in cabins built by successive family generations, he learned about the bush and its creatures while gaining a deep appreciation for the value of wilderness. Pilkington shares the journal entries, stories, and poems he composed while on fly-fishing and hunting adventures in Australia, New Zealand, England, the United States, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania-some serious, some lighthearted-all with a focus on rivers and how they provide inner-peace to all who seek it through them.

Rivers of My Memory will touch anyone with a passion for the wilderness and who have rivers happily entwined in their memories.

This 1891 collection includes such works as "Euphemia," "The Rudder Grangers in England," "The Water-Devil," and more.

Translation of Chana Blankshteyn's stories depicting the tumultuous interwar years in Europe. Fear and Other Stories is a translation from Yiddish to English of the collected stories of Chana Blankshteyn (1860?-1939), a woman who may be almost entirely forgotten now but was widely admired during her long and productive life. The mere existence of these stories is itself a remarkable feat as the collection was published in July 1939, just before the Nazis invaded Poland and two weeks before Blankshteyn's death. Anita Norich's introduction argues that antisemitism is palpable, as is the threat of war and its aftermath. What could it have felt like to live under these conditions? How might a woman who was a feminist, a Jew, and an activist understand the recent past of war and revolution through which she had lived and also confront the horror that was beginning to unfold? The nine stories in this volume take place primarily in Vilna, as well as various parts of Europe. As if presaging what was to come, World War I and Russian civil wars are the backdrops to these stories, as Jews and non-Jews find themselves under German occupation or caught up in the revolutionary fervor that promised them much and took away almost everything. The young women in Blankshteyn's stories insist on their independence, on equality with their lovers, and on meaningful work. Like the men in the stories, they study, work, and yearn for love. The situations in which these characters find themselves may be unfamiliar to a contemporary reader, but their reactions to the turmoil, the frighteningly changing times, and the desire for love and self-expression are deeply resonant with today's audience. The history may be specific, but the emotions are universal. Blankshteyn's stories are both a view of the final gasp of Eastern European Jewish culture and a compelling modern perspective on the broader world. Students and scholars of history and culture, women's literature, and translation studies will wonder how they've gone this long without reading Blankshteyn's work.

Stop. Look over your shoulder. See the faces. Sure, there are a few happy people, rejoicing in their sunshine, but also, there are those hurting souls who are hiding behind their feigned smiles, lost in a fog of pain, woe and confusion. They are the Faces in the Fog. Nineteen short stories - action, romance, sci-fi, drama, humor, horror and suspense. Edgy, thrilling and heartwarming - a literary journey sure to delight every part of your psyche.

The stories in The Vanishing Point are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form.

While his restless wife watches, the chemist snores contentedly, smiling at his dream -- that the whole village has a cough and are buying his curative syrup!

Then she hears outside two shadowed figures, a doctor and an officer, talking between themselves . . . about the chemist with the oversized jaw of an ass, and his ever-so-contrasting, so-fetching wife! Then the doorbell rings. Soon the chemist's wife finds herself hosting a small midnight party, gazing upon their ruddy faces and listening to their chatter -- and soon she, too, grows quite lively. Oh, she feels so gay! The dead weight pressing her down on this heavy summer night lifts completely . . .

Chekhov's unerring insight into the turbulent emotions that stir men and women, in "The Chemist's Wife" and the others to be found within "The Duel and Other Stories," instills his gemlike fiction with a still-undiminished power.

You began to read these words. What can it bring you? Have you ever driven for half an hour-from home to work or between any two points-and not remembered much of what you saw? Many of us go through most of our lives like that. But others actually see, perceive, understand, and then share life's joys or sorrows with others. Life can be so touching, so serious, but it can also be so funny and full of joy. What is our existence in this world? For most of us, it is a struggle for survival in a fragile way of life. Then arise the desires for wealth, importance in society, and entertainment. But does the life given to us not expect mental growth and personality development, the caring for others or public service, also stewardship of nature-and can we not enjoy all the beauty in art, culture, and nature around us? The following stories are offered to you, the reader, to let you pause and perceive, to touch your human sensitivity and understanding-and also to bring you joy, to simply entertain you. So, please, proceed Select titles from the table of contents and begin reading these stories. When you are done, hopefully you will feel enriched-and, maybe, you will begin to perceive more stories in your own life. A clear vision of reality renders the stories colorful and lively-but deep empathy renders them personally meaningful. Primarily based on human sensibility, the stories are variously romantic, funny, or serious and are written at times with a smiling, at times with a crying face.

From the celebrated author of Who I Was Supposed to Be, Susan Perabo's collection of twelve "ingenious and lovable stories [that] crack open the world" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and illuminate the everyday truths of people facing challenging situations...often of their own making. In Why They Run the Way They Do, critically acclaimed author Susan Perabo illustrates the triumphs and tragedies of daily life. Perfectly distilled into moments of sharp humor and poignancy, this collection features ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary circumstances. Two young students try their hand at blackmail upon learning an illicit secret; a woman grapples with feelings of betrayal after discovering her spinster sister's pregnancy test; the ghost of a couple's past comes back to haunt them in the form of their toddler's stuffed toy. Weaving the banal and bizarre together, "Perabo's clear, wry sentences meld a prose style that's reminiscent of Raymond Carver's with a sensibility that's informed by People" (The New York Times). Here, this "literary talent" (The Boston Globe) captures the human condition through struggles that are quiet and grand; dark and provocative. Brilliantly crafted, Why They Run the Way They Do is ultimately an homage to the philosophy that life without humor is no life at all.