Back-Story: First Time Tales by the Stranger Next Door is a collection of non-fiction short stories that spans an inspiring scope of first-time experiences. From stand-up comedy in a Boston night club to death in Asia, life in unfamiliar countries, trials of burgeoning adulthood, and discovery of Olympian strengths, these stories illuminate the stories in all of us; tales that make us who we are today. Everyone has a story, even the stranger next door.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. But for the last fifty years, the novel’s celebrated author, Harper Lee, has said almost nothing on the record. Journalists have trekked to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee, known to her friends as Nelle, has lived with her sister, Alice, for decades, trying and failing to get an interview with the author. But in 2001, the Lee sisters opened their door to Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversation—and a great friendship. In 2004, with the Lees’ blessing, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, sharing coffee at McDonalds and trips to the Laundromat with Nelle, feeding the ducks and going out for catfish supper with the sisters, and exploring all over lower Alabama with the Lees’ inner circle of friends. Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story—and the South—right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family. The Mockingbird Next Door is the story of Mills’s friendship with the Lee sisters. It is a testament to the great intelligence, sharp wit, and tremendous storytelling power of these two women, especially that of Nelle. Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle Harper Lee, to be part of the Lees’ life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, how To Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and why Nelle Harper Lee chose to never write another novel.

The Balkans have been so troubled by violence and misunderstanding that we have the verb “balkanize,” meaning to break up into smaller, warring components. While some of the region’s artists and thinkers have invariably fallen into nationalistic tendencies, the twenty-two prominent authors represented here, from the erstwhile Yugoslavia and its neighbors Albania and Bulgaria, have chosen to attempt to bridge these divides. The essays, biographical sketches, and stories in The Stranger Next Door form a project of understanding that picks up where politics fail. The English-language translation joins editions of the book that appeared concurrently in all of the participating countries.

Reproduction of the original: Blazed Trail Stories by Steward Edward White

This book contains 350 short stories from 50 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. Wisely chosen by the literary critic August Nemo for the book series 7 Best Short Stories, this omnibus contains the stories of the following writers: - Mary Shelley - D. H. Lawrence - Ellis Parker Butler - Anthony Trollope - Zona Gale - Emma Orczy - Don Marquis - Charles W. Chesnutt - Kathleen Norris - Stanley G. Weinbaum - Honoré de Balzac - M. R. James - Banjo Paterson - Bret Harte - Henry Lawson - W. W. Jacobs - Charlotte M. Yonge - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - L. Frank Baum - O. Henry - William Dean Howells - T. S. Arthur - Sherwood Anderson - Robert Barr - Lafcadio Hearn - Giovanni Verga - Hamlin Garland - Émile Zola - Stewart Edward White - Sarah Orne Jewett - Willa Cather - George Ade - Robert W. Chambers - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - Ruth McEnery Stuart - Lord Dunsany - George Gissing - Théophile Gautier - Paul Heyse - Selma Lagerlöf - Thomas Burke - Edith Nesbit - Arthur Morrison - Stacy Aumonier - John Galsworthy - E. W. Hornung - Ernest Bramah

This volume captures 20 of the best short stories from 13 American Catholic writers over the past 75 years. Spanning most of the 20th century, the stories in this collection deal with many of the issues brought into the spotlight with Vatican II.

Stewart Edward White's books were popular at a time when America was losing its vanishing wilderness. He was a keen observer of the beauties of nature and human nature, yet could render them in a plain-spoken style. I have salted in humor and sympathy for colorful characters such as canny Indian guides and "greenhorn" campers who carried too much gear. In the film The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, the Coen brothers, there is an adaptation of the short story The Gal Who Got Rattled that is included in this book. Join us in these seven short stories chosen by the critic August Nemo and have a good reading! - The Girl Who Got Rattled - Billy's Tenderfoot - The River-Boss - The Saving Grace - The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes - The Girl in Red - The Fifth Way

This book contains 70 short stories from 10 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. The stories were carefully selected by the critic August Nemo, in a collection that will please the literature lovers. For more exciting titles, be sure to check out our 7 Best Short Stories and Essential Novelists collections. This book contains: Émile Zola: Captain Burle The Miller's Daughter Jean Gourdon's Four Days The Fete At Coqueville The Flood Death of Olivier Becaille Nana Stewart Edward White: The Girl Who Got Rattled Billy's Tenderfoot The River-Boss The Saving Grace The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes The Girl in Red The Fifth Way Sarah Orne Jewett: A Winter Courtship Going to Shrewsbury The White Rose Road The Town Poor A Native of Winby Looking Back on Girlhood The Passing of Sister Barsett Willa Cather A Burglar's Christmas A Wagner Matinee On the Gull's Road Paul's Case The Enchanted Bluff The Namesake The Garden Lodge George Ade The Fable of the Preacher Who Flew His Kite, But Not Because He Wished to Do So The Fable of the Two Mandolin Players and His Willing Performer The Fable of the Parents Who Tinkered with the Offspring The Fable of the Man Who Didn't Care for Storybooks The Fable of the Kid Who Shifted His Ideal The Fable of How Uncle Brewster was Too Shifty for the Tempter The Fable of Lutie, the False Alarm, and How She Finished about the Time that She Started Robert W. Chambers: The Messenger The Repairer of Reputations The Purple Emperor Passeur The Key to Grief A Matter of Interest Pompe Funèbre George Gissing The House Of Cobwebs A Capitalist Christopherson Humplebee The Scrupulous Father A Poor Gentleman Miss Rodney's Leisure Lord Dunsany: Chu-Bu and Sheemish The Hoard of the Gibbelins The Quest of the Queen's Tears How One Came, As Was Foretold, To The City Of Never The Wonderful Window The Bride Of The Man Horse The House Of The Sphinx Ruth McEnery Stuart: Sonny's Christenin' Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets The Two Tims Old Easter Saint Idyl's Light Little Mother Quackalina Blink Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: The Railroad and the Churchyard The Father The Bridal March One Day Mother's Hands Thrond Absalom's Hair

A whirlwind personal history of modern Asia, as told through his Malaysian and Chinese heritage