In these unforgettable stories, the acclaimed author of Imagine Me Gone explores lives that appear shuttered by loss and discovers entire worlds hidden inside them. The impact is at once harrowing and thrilling. An elderly inventor, burning with manic creativity, tries to reconcile with his estranged gay son. A bereaved boy draws a thuggish classmate into a relationship of escalating guilt and violence. A genteel middle-aged woman, a long-time resident of a psychiatric hospital, becomes the confidante of a lovelorn teenaged volunteer. Told with Chekhovian restraint and compassion, and conveying both the sorrow of life and the courage with which people rise to meet it, You Are Not a Stranger Here is a triumph of storytelling.

Jen Larsen always thought that if she could only lose some weight, she would be unstoppable. She was convinced that once she found a way to not be fat any more, she would have the perfect existence she’d always dreamed of. When diet after diet failed, she decided to try bariatric surgery, and it worked better than she ever could have dreamed: she lost 180 pounds. As the weight fell away, though, Larsen realized that getting skinny was not the magical cure she thought it would be—and suddenly, she wasn’t sure who she was anymore. Stranger Here is the brutally honest, surprisingly hilarious story of one woman’s journey from one extreme of the weight spectrum to the other, and of the unexpected emotional chaos it created. Insightful and unsparing in her self-examination, Larsen depicts the exhilarating highs and devastating lows she experienced as a result of her weight loss—the incredible joy of finally beginning to look like the image of herself she’s always carried inside her head, and the crushing pain and confusion of feeling like a stranger in her own body after losing the weight that has always defined her.

Sing to me of the resourceful man, O Muse, who wandered far after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy. He saw the cities of many men and he learned their minds. He suffered many pains on the sea in his spirit, seeking to save his life and the homecoming of his companions. Odysseus--soldier, sailor, trickster, and everyman--is one of the most recognizable characters in world literature. His arduous, ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, the subject of Homer's Odyssey, is the most accessible tale to survive from ancient Greece, and its impact is still felt today across many different cultures. This lively free verse translation, from one of today's leading Homeric scholars, preserves the clarity and simplicity of the original while conveying Odysseus' adventures in a modern style. By avoiding the technical formality of earlier translations, and the colloquial and sometimes exaggerated effects of recent attempts, Barry B. Powell's translation deftly captures the most essential truths of this vital text. Due to his thorough familiarity with the world of Homer and Homeric language, Powell's introduction provides rich historical and literary perspectives on the poem. This volume also includes illustrations from classical artwork, detailed maps, explanatory notes, a timeline, and a glossary. Modern and pleasing to the ear while accurately reflecting the meaning of the original, this Odyssey is a superlative translation for twenty-first-century readers.

George Alfred Henty was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent best known for his historical adventure stories. A contemporaries described him as a man of strong will, reasonable ambitions and a hard, steady worker. Henty wrote about eighty books for boys. A young man who worked as his secretary for two years said that Henty used to walkup and down his study smoking his clay pipe and reeling off stories just as fast as the secretary could take them down. Best known for adventure stories such as The Young Bugler, Under Drake's Flag, With Clive in India, When London Burned: Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire, Moore at Corunna, At Aboukir and Acre, A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt, With Buller in Natal, With Roberts to Pretoria and With Kitchener in the Soudan, In Freedom's Cause, Under Drake's Flag, In Times of Peril, The Lion of the North and In the Reign of Terror.

The G.A. Henty Megapack collects 20 classic adventure novels -- more than 4,500 pages! -- by the great Victorian author. Included in this volume are: THE GOLDEN CANYON AMONG MALAY PIRATES BEARS AND DACOITS A TALE OF THE GHAUTS THE PATERNOSTERS A PIPE OF MYSTERY WHITE FACED DICK: A STORY OF PINE TREE GULCH A BRUSH WITH THE CHINESE AT ABOUKIR AND ACRE AT AGINCOURT AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET BERIC THE BRITON BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE BOTH SIDES THE BORDER THE BOY KNIGHT THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE BY SHEER PLUCK CONDEMNED AS A NIHILIST COLONEL THORNDYKE'S SECRET A CHAPTER OF ADVENTURES THE DRAGON AND THE RAVEN And don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" (or just "Megapack" if "Wildside Megapack" doesn't work) to see more entries in Wildside Press's Megapack series, ranging from science fiction and fantasy to westerns, mysteries, ghost stories, author collections -- and much, much more!