These are the scenarios of just some of the stories in this generous new collection by Can Xue. Although rooted in the folk traditions of Chinese literature and the real conflicts of contemporary Chinese life, Can Xue's stories exist in a separate space and time where dreams and reality coalesce: tenderness quickly turns to violence, strange diseases are caught, and quaint landscapes become phantasmagorical.

Maui's rich history and culture are the foundation of these new, original short stories by Maui's award-winning author/playwright. Under Maui Skies, and Other Stories presents seven Maui tales in different genres set in a variety of Maui locales ranging in time from pre-contact Hawai`i to the 1960s. In The Cave of Whispering Spirits, a couple and family face the wrath of the goddess of fire, Pele, in the last eruption of Haleakala. That legend is followed by The Cruel Sun, the true story of a love affair in Old Lahaina and the demons that haunt them - alcoholism and missionaries. Under Maui Skies, the title story, is a western set in 1908 Kula and Kama`ole where an ordinary ranchworker is enlisted by the local sheriff to trail and report on the activities of an opium dealer called Albert Devil. The action changes in Aloha `Oe, E Ku`uipo (Goodbye, Sweetheart) when a money-strapped Wailuku detective takes on the case of a femme fatale. A rainbow of multiracial usual suspects is under the microscope in this island style homage to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. A soldier in 1942 Pa`ia and Kihei previews, in a Twilight Zone world, the horrors of World War II at Guadalcanal in Aunty Becky's Tavern. Hawaiian culture and science fiction blend in An Island Beyond Hokule`a. A diaspora from a war-ravaged planet use the universal porthole of Haleakala in search of someone who will take a philosophy of aloha to their new home at the edge of the galaxy. The final story, Climbing Woman, a ghost story, tells the sad legend of a young woman who spirals into depression and eventually death - later sighted as the legendary White Lady who haunts `Iao Valley. Moniz's fresh voice and cadence captures the flavor of the islands and their history, using these traditional storytelling genres.

Stanley Waters retired from his job as a TV weatherman to open a bed and breakfast in his Vriginia hometown. Now a guest's death has spoiled the inn's grand opening.

Commander Berkley Levine is content with her life as a Top Gun instructor in Fallon, Nevada, flying F-18s for the Navy and trying to get over the death of her sister. A change of government and a new equality initiative places Captain Aidan Sullivan at the helm of the Navy's newest carrier, the USS Jefferson. Her first mission could have serious international consequences if she fails. Aidan's orders are to destroy two sites housing the nuclear program of an unfriendly nation, and she can think of only one person she trusts enough to get the job done: her old lover Berkley. Blue Skies will take you from Fallon, Nevada, to the Sea of Japan and beyond, as Berkley leads an elite group of pilots over enemy territory. As they embark on this adventure, Berkley and Aidan try to rediscover what they gave up for family, duty, and country.

The white shape silhouetted against a blue background changes on every page.Is it a rabbit, a bird, or just spilt milk? Children are kept guessing until the surprise ending -- and will be encouraged to improvise similar games of their own.

From the USA Today bestselling author of When We Were Strangers and Swimming in the Moon comes a lush, exquisitely drawn novel set against the turmoil of the Great War, as a young German-American woman explores the secrets of her past. A shopkeeper’s daughter, Hazel Renner lives in the shadows of the Pittsburgh steel mills. She dreams of adventure, even as her immigrant parents push her toward a staid career. But in 1914, war seizes Europe and all their ambitions crumble. German-Americans are suddenly the enemy, “the Huns.” Hazel herself is an outsider in her own home when she learns the truth of her birth. Desperate for escape, Hazel takes a teaching job in a seemingly tranquil farming community. But the idyll is cracked when she acquires a mysterious healing power—a gift that becomes a curse as the locals’ relentless demand for “miracles” leads to tragedy. Hazel, determined to find answers, traces her own history back to a modern-day castle that could hold the truth about her past. There Hazel befriends the exiled, enigmatic German baron and forges a bond with the young gardener, Tom. But as America is shattered by war and Tom returns battered by shell-shock, Hazel’s healing talents alone will not be enough to protect those close to her, or to safeguard her dreams of love and belonging. She must reach inside to discover that sometimes the truth is not so far away, that the simplest of things can lead to the extraordinary. Filled with rich historical details and intriguing, fully realized characters, Under the Same Blue Sky is the captivating story of one woman’s emergence into adulthood amid the tumult of war.

For fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Louisiana’s Way Home, this heartwarming novel tells the story of ten-year-old Glory Bea as she prepares for a miracle of her very own—her father’s return home. Glory Bea Bennett knows that miracles happen in Gladiola, Texas, population 3,421. After all, her grandmother—the best matchmaker in the whole county—is responsible for thirty-nine of them. Now, Glory Bea needs a miracle of her own. The war ended three years ago, but Glory Bea’s father never returned home from the front in France. Glory Bea understands what Mama and Grams and Grandpa say—that Daddy died a hero on Omaha Beach—yet deep down in her heart, she believes Daddy is still out there. When the Gladiola Gazette reports that one of the boxcars from the Merci Train (the “thank you” train)—a train filled with gifts of gratitude from the people of France—will be stopping in Gladiola, she just knows daddy will be its surprise cargo. But miracles, like people, are always changing, until at last they find their way home.

It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse. Suspected as a spy, Tomi's father is taken away. The rest of the Itano family is sent to an internment camp in Colorado. Many other Japanese American families face a similar fate. Tomi becomes bitter, wondering how her country could treat her and her family like the enemy. What does she need to do to prove she is an honorable American? Sandra Dallas shines a light on a dark period of American history in this story of a young Japanese American girl caught up in the prejudices and World War II.

A boy’s nomadic life in Mongolia is under threat in a novel that “captures the mountains, valleys and steppes in all their surpassing beauty and brutality” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). In the high Altai Mountains of northern Mongolia, a young shepherd boy comes of age, tending his family’s flocks on the mountain steppes and knowing little of the world beyond the surrounding peaks. But his nomadic way of life is increasingly disrupted by modernity. This confrontation comes in stages. First, his older siblings leave the family yurt to attend a distant boarding school. Then the boy’s grandmother dies, and with her his connection to the old ways. But perhaps the greatest tragedy strikes when his dog, Arsylang—“all that was left to me”—ingests poison set out by the boy’s father to protect his herd from wolves. “Why is it so?” Dshurukawaa cries out in despair to the Heavenly Blue Sky, to be answered only by the wind. Rooted in the oral traditions of the Tuvan people, The Blue Sky weaves the timeless story of a boy poised on the cusp of manhood with the story of a people on the threshold. “Thrilling. . . . Tschinag makes it easy for his readers to fall into the beautiful rhythms of the Tuvans’ daily life.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “In this pristine and concentrated tale of miraculous survival and anguished loss, Tschinag evokes the nurturing warmth of a family within the circular embrace of a yurt as an ancient way of life lived in harmony with nature becomes endangered.” —Booklist