It's never too late to change as the characters in this poignant collection of stories demonstrate. These stories introduce us to a wide range of people young and old as they face up to change and challenge in their lives. Wheather it's learning to ride a bike for the first time in middle age, facing up to demons from the past, dealing with loss and bereavement, or embarking on a life-changing journey, their humanity shines through. They will make you laugh and make you cry but above all they stand as testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. Christine is an English writer married and living in Gloucestershire, her favourite form is the short story and in most of her work we meet characters young and old, male and female who in one way or another are struggling against challenges. She follows their journeys as they deal with their difficulties with grit, determination and sometimes humour.

Things happen in Beaumont Street, but what? To Whom? What really goes on behind the elegant facades of the Ashmolean Museum and the Randolph Hotel? You'd be surprised. Could that really happen in the Playhouse? In this book, it does. A group of Oxford writers have let their imaginations roam through the past, present and even the future to produce a collection of short stories, all based in Beaumont Street. The result is an entertaining read, just as enjoyable to those who know Oxford well as it will be to its many visitors. But be warned: once you have read this book you'll never see Beaumont Street the same way again. All profits from the publications of this book are being donated to the Ashmolean Museum

In a thrilling interconnected narrative, You're in the Wrong Place presents characters reaching for transcendence from a place they cannot escape. Charles Baxter stated that "Joseph Harris has a particular feeling for the Detroit suburbs and the slightly stunted lives of the young people there....You're in the Wrong Place isn't uniformly downbeat-there are all sorts of rays of hope that gleam toward the end". The book, composed of twelve stories, begins in the fall of 2008 with the shuttering of Dynamic Fabricating-a fictional industrial shop located in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. Over the next seven years, the shop's former employees - as well as their friends and families-struggle to find money, purpose, and levity in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love. In "Would You Rather", a young couple brought together by Dynamic Fabricating shares a blissful weekend in Northern Michigan, unaware of the catastrophe that awaits them upon their return home. In "Acolytes", a devout Catholic clings to her faith as her brothers descend into cultish soccer violence. In "Memorial", an ex-Dynamic worker scrapes money together for a tribute to his best friend, lost to the war in Afghanistan. In "Was It Good for You?" a cam girl deconstructs materialism with her ageng great aunt, a luxury sales associate, and an anxious, faceless client. And in the title story, simmering tensions come to a boil on a hot summer day for a hardscrabble landscaping crew, hired by the local bank to maintain the lawns of foreclosures In turns elegiac and harrowing, You're in the Wrong Place blends lyric intensity with philosophical eroticism to create a singular, powerful vision of contemporary American life. Readers of contemporary fiction grounded in place need to take up this collection.

Alaa Al Aswany has won resounding critical acclaim for his deft and moving portrayals of the lives of contemporary Egyptians who constantly examine their relationship with Egypt's history, religion, class, and gender distinctions. In Friendly Fire he once again demonstrates an extraordinary empathy for lost and searching souls as he focuses on the exquisite emotions of everyday life.

In "The Kitchen Boy" and "Dearest Sister Makarim," Al Aswany explores the hypocrisy of the class divide. The brief and tender "Izzat Amin Iskandar" is a heartrending view of youthful hope. And in the unforgettable novella "The Isam Abd el-Ati Papers," the narrator carries us along a troubling journey through his painful relationships with his artist father and his self-centered mother, en route to a devastating collision of temptation and morality.

Here are stories of generational conflict, love, repression, and the clash of Western and Arab ideals, all beautifully rendered by a true modern master.

Cats. Our oldest companions. They have befriended us, consoled us and given us many memories. No cat lover can doubt there is nothing quite as satisfying as the loyalty of a feline friend. But sometimes, it can go a little too far. Something that Dr Richard Cooper, recently widowed, is about to find out. The hard way. On a reminiscent fly fishing trip, Mr Gregory Rose is hunting the rainbow trout. But out on the loneliness of the lake, he discovers, to his dismay, that there is more than just fish that lurk in the depths. Sometimes ita s our own past that we cana t help but bring up to the surface.

The best entries in an Oxford-based short story competition are published in this collection. Each story reveals the joys, anxieties and complex private lives of people travelling on the No 13 bus between Oxford Station and the John Radcliffe Hospital. This is a book to dip into; it is a sequel to the successful Lucky 13 and will bring just as much pleasure to anyone who enjoys a good read. Funds raised through the sale of Double-Decker are being donated to the hospital's charity, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Charitable Funds (registered charity 1057295), helping to provide the best medical equipment, research and facilities for patients and staff across our hospitals.

Twenty tales of adventure, fraud, horror, intrigue, justice, magic, murder, mystery and the supernatural, all with a twist in the tale.

These five stories follow young women living far from home, coping with new and often unfamiliar rules, as they confront the compelling circumstances of adult love. The rich, unforgettable tales in this collection, set in Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent, showcase a writer of exceptional talent, one of today's most gifted and exciting young voices.

In the twenty-fourth volume of this distinguished anthology, Madison Smartt Bell chooses twenty-one distinctive pieces of short fiction to tell the story of the South as it is now. This is a South that is still recognizable but no longer predictable. As he says, "to the traditional black and white recipe (ever a tricky and volatile mixture) have been added new shades and strains from Asia and Central and South America and just about everywhere else on the shrinking globe." Just as Katrina brought out into the open all the voices of New Orleans, so the South is now many things, both a distinctive region and a place of rootlessness. It's these contradictions that Madison Smartt Bell has captured in this provocative and moving collection of stories.
Here you'll find the well-known-Wendell Berry, Elizabeth Spencer, Jill McCorkle-alongside those writers just making their debuts, in stories that show the South we always thought we knew, making itself over, and over.

Poetry is by its nature very personal and often reveals more about the poet than any other medium can. Unlike prose, it is not so closely bound to the rules of language and grammar and can take wings and fly where the muse takes it. My poetry is largely of an autobiographical nature which includes events, people, places in fact anything that has impinged upon my life. My short stories on the other hand can be read as straightforward fiction although mostly they have a basis in fact. As for any wise sayings - some are mine - others come from my father and other wise people. Jokes, however, are few and depend largely on your sense of humour.

Nataniel is weer op sy stukke. 41 magiese nuwe stories in Afrikaans en Engels, uit sy mees onlangse verhoogproduksies landswyd. Tegelyk absurd en tog so herkenbaar Suid-Afrikaans. Soos in Nicky & Lou, en sy jongste blitsverkoper 150 stories, is die verhale in Zip! spitsvondig en baie snaaks, en tog ook so wys. Hoe skryf hy op een plek: “As mense na jou staar of jou nie aanvaar nie, is dit heeltemal in die haak. Solank hulle vir jou hande klap.” 27 stories is in Afrikaans, en 14 in Engels.

In this sparkling collection, award-winning writer Rishi Reddi weaves a multigenerational tapestry of interconnected lives, depicting members of an Indian American community struggling to balance the demands of tradition with the allure of Western life.

In "Lord Krishna," a teenager is offended when his evangelical history teacher likens the Hindu deity to Satan, but ultimately forgives the teacher against his father's wishes. In the title story, "Karma," an unemployed professor rescues birds in downtown Boston after his wealthy brother kicks him out of his home. In "Justice Shiva Ram Murthy," which appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2005, an irascible retired judge reconnects with a childhood friend while adjusting to a new life with his daughter and her American husband. In "Devadasi," a beautiful young woman raised in the United States travels back to India and challenges the sexual confines of her culture. And in "Bangles," a widow decides to return to her native village to flee her son's off-putting American ways.

Set mostly in the Boston area, with side trips to an isolated immigrant community in Wichita, Kansas, and the characters' hometown of Hyderabad, India, Karma and Other Stories introduces a luminous new voice.

Renowned for her poetry, Sylvia Plath was also a brilliant writer of prose. This collection of short stories, essays, and diary excerpts highlights her fierce concentration on craft, the vitality of her intelligence, and the yearnings of her imagination. Featuring an introduction by Plath's husband, the late British poet Ted Hughes, these writings also reflect themes and images she would fully realize in her poetry. "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" truly showcases the talent and genius of Sylvia Plath.

This little collection of poems, stories, outbursts and musings is put forward as an homage to Jerome K. Jerome. His book, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, published in 1886, is like mine, a series of humorous articles on various subjects.

Come take a walk through Roy's mind. A collection of short stories and poems - some funny, some sad, some true, and some not so true. But you decide. Read some ghost stories and funny ghost stories or quickly change your mood, flick through a page or two and read about Leprechauns or even the shadow people or try to free the lost souls from Blackthorn Cottage if you dare. There's a bit of something for every one when you venture in to Roy's thoughts

A woman granted a superpower discovers it's more trouble than it's worth. A neighbourhood forum becomes the setting for a bizarre ghost story. A children's entertainer wrestles with problems that are nothing to joke about. A harassed dad attempts to meet the challenge of the primary school cake competition. By turns tender and satirical, witty and bizarre, the stories in this debut collection cast a fresh eye on first-world problems. Funny and humane, they zoom in on the absurdities and poignancies in work, family, love and loss in our frenetic modern lives.

The private lives of strangers can be fascinating, as these tales reveal. In them, the strangers are all passengers on the No 13 bus leaving Oxford Station at 1.15pm on a summer's day, arriving some 40 minutes later at the John Radcliffe Hospital. During their journey more passengers get on and others get off and they rarely interact. But behind each inscrutable facade are the joys and fears of complex private worlds and private thoughts. This is a book to dip into. It will, of course, help pass the time on a bus journey or even in hospital but it is intended to give pleasure to anyone who enjoys reading about other people and lives which may be exciting, sad or just plain different. All proceeds from the book's sale are being donated to the Hidden Heroes Fund of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Charitable Funds which supports staff recognition, development and training across all the Trust's hospitals.

A collection of macabre mysteries, including the superlative story Witness for the Prosecution... Twelve unexplained phenomena with no apparent earthly explanation... A dog-shaped gunpowder mark; an omen from 'the other side'; a haunted house; a chilling seance; a case of split personalities; a recurring nightmare; an eerie wireless message; an elderly lady's hold over a young man; a disembodied cry of 'murder'; a young man's sudden amnesia; a levitation experience; a mysterious SOS. To discover the answers, delve into the supernatural storytelling of Agatha Christie.

These twenty four short stories are ideal for advent reading or whenever you can fit them into the busy month of December. These festive snapshots into other people's lives aim to enliven and entertain. A handful of the stories are set in the recent past, because Christmas is a great time for nostalgia. There are stories about anticipation, hope and that tingling feeling you get when waiting for something pleasant to happen. There is a cast of characters of all ages and not all of them are human. There are themes of time and counting, dark and light, change and renewal. The book is two dozen slices of Christmas, waiting to bring cheer at the dark time of the year.

Readers familiar with David Means' electrifying work in the Los Angeles Times Book Prize -- winning Assorted Fire Eventswill recognize his extraordinary vision in The Secret Goldfish. A trio of erotically charged kids goes on a crime spree in Michigan; a goldfish bears witness to the demise of a Connecticut marriage; and an extremely unlucky man is stalked by lightning. This dazzling new collection reveals Means' rare talent for the short story and establishes his place among the American masters.