For fans of HBO’s Girls, Abigail Ulman’s heartbreakingly tender and often darkly funny fiction is a fresh take on the experiences of contemporary young women. “A familiar yet highly inventive collection of short fiction which hits virtually all my buttons: dark humor, complex female characters, and a strong summer camp storyline.”—Lena Dunham, Lenny Claire is magnetic. On the cusp of adulthood and letting go of her adolescence one miserable responsibility at a time, she’s moved from London to San Francisco to work toward her PhD and minor in cheap whiskey, pour-over coffee, and guys who can’t be bothered to shower. When she finds out she’s pregnant by a heartsick ex-boyfriend, the solution seems clear, if only to her. Kira is a talented thirteen-year-old Russian gymnast who leaves her traditional family to travel to America. Elise and Jenni, two Australian high school students, seek asylum from the hooking up and heavy drinking they’ve been doing for years by reenrolling in their childhood sleepaway camp. Over the course of nine loosely connected stories, Hot Little Hands introduces us to young women, at once clever and naïve, who struggle to navigate the chronic uncertainty and very real dangers that come with being impatient for the future and reluctant to leave childhood behind. Abigail Ulman’s voice feels of the moment—sharp and powerful—as she deftly explores ageless themes of sex and maturity among girls who are both confident and frighteningly exposed. Praise for Hot Little Hands “In this sardonic, smart, and thoroughly modern debut collection, Ulman presents nine stories about young women on the verge of adulthood, motherhood, and more who make momentous decisions while delirious with desire.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[Ulman] excels at dialogue and narrative. The more you get to know her characters, the funnier it is to witness their verbal code-switching as they navigate between nosy parents, fumbling love interests, and trusted friends. That none of these stories is constrained by any need for tidy endings makes them all the more believable.”—The Atlantic “Deftly written with a fresh and realistic style . . . Each female protagonist is wonderfully complicated and charming in her own way.”—Bookreporter “The captivating women in this collection leave a lasting impression.”—Publishers Weekly “Genuinely insightful . . . Hot Little Hands is the rare collection that portrays how life pivots around mundane moments as readily as earth-shaking events.”—Shelf Awareness “It is rare for a collection to so adeptly capture the way life can be at once facile and intense. Ulman’s details are lifelike and droll, her style lucid and engaging, and the overall effect stirring.”—Kirkus Reviews “A noteworthy debut. . . . Ulman writes without judgment, and this is what gives her characters life. They are multifaceted, flawed beings—sometimes victims of others, but often victims of their own actions—in whom readers will recognize flashes of themselves.”—Booklist “The stories are beautifully paced, the dialogue perfect. There is a lovely comedy underpinning the cool tone. Often this becomes hilarious, but it is also controlled and well-judged. Abigail Ulman knows how to write a story, manage a buildup, hold your attention, suggest that somehow nothing much is happening while, in fact, everything is going on.”—Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn

The perfect tool for writers who seek to eliminate stale, trite language. The entries in this reference are conveniently arranged to allow writers to quickly find the offending phrase and a sharp alternative.

With her parents on a trial separation, the last thing fifteen-year-old Juliana wants is to be dragged by her mother to an artists' colony in England. Halfway across the world, Juliana misses her father terribly. But soon she has bigger worries when the sleepy town of Blackthorn is set on its heels by the murder of one of its own. Juliana feels compelled to solve the crime, but she is shocked and frightened when she uncovers clues that have chilling parallels to her own mysterious past. Can she figure out who the murderer is before anyone else--herself included--gets hurt?

The time is the Middle Ages, a time of clashing arms, valiant knights, and intriguing castles. Join Robert Fitz Hasseltine, a young nobleman of unchallenged character and the heir to his uncles vast earldom. Valiant, yet merciful, Roberts steadfast determination to aid the weak brings him face to face with several individuals who urgently need his protective careindividuals who must throw themselves upon his compassion and rely on his strength to overcome their pasts and lead successful lives. Yet the days are volatile, and danger lurks on the horizon. There are dangerous enemies who hate Roberts steadfast character and ever-present mercyenemies who would do anything to vanquish his compassion and shower their malice upon his cause. A thrilling adventure commences, coupling victory, peril, friendship, and rivalry. During his eventful journey from squire to knight to earl, Roberts courage is strongly tested and his strength challenged. Will he be able to overcome the enemies that beset him and proclaim himself the undisputed lord of his shire? And, above all, will he abide true to his resolve and prove to be a kind, considerate master? Join Robert and his steadfast friends, Brandon, Strephon, Nathaniel, and Narcissa, in their long journey of friendship and adventure, and experience the thrilling perils of life at Birmingham Castle! A novel of adventure, suspense, friendship, and courage, as a young man embarks on a perilous journey to overcome tyranny and reform chivalry in medieval England.

"I was born a boy, raised as a girl. . . . One may raise a healthy boy in as womanish a manner as one wishes, and a female creature in as mannish; never will this cause their senses to remain forever reversed." So writes the pseudonymous N. O. Body, born in 1884 with ambiguous genitalia and assigned a female identity in early infancy. Brought up as a girl, "she" nevertheless asserted stereotypical male behavior from early on. In the end, it was a passionate love affair with a married woman that brought matters to a head. Desperately confused, suicidally depressed, and in consultation with Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the most eminent and controversial sexologists of the day, "she" decided to become "he." Originally published in 1907 and now available for the first time in English, Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years describes a childhood and youth in Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany that is shaped by bourgeois attitudes and stifled by convention. It is, at the same time, a book startlingly charged with sexuality. Yet, however frank the memoirist may be about matters physical or emotional, Hermann Simon reveals in his afterword the full extent of the lengths to which N. O. Body went to hide not just his true name but a second secret, his Jewish identity. And here, Sander L. Gilman suggests in his brilliant preface, may lie the crucial hint to solving the real riddle of the ambiguously gendered N. O. Body.

A prim young lady needs a favor: help her father beat a bum drug rap. But when Dad’s boat detonates outside Miami Harbor, Matt discovers that young Amy isn’t as innocent as she looks. Lured to the Bahamas, he will discover an unlikely pack of fanatics hatching an explosive plan, and that daddy’s little girl is surprisingly deadly.

This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Contents: Introduction The Last American Frontier – History of the 'Far West', of the Pioneers & Trailblazers Story of the Cowboy Story of the Outlaw Novels & Stories Riders of the Purple Sage Saga (Zane Grey) Ohio River Trilogy Dan Barry Series (Max Brand) The Virginian (Owen Wister) Lin McLean Leatherstocking Series (James F. Cooper) Flying U Series (B. M. Bower) Cabin Fever Rimrock Trail (J. Allan Dunn) Bucky O'Connor (William M. Raine) Breckinridge Elkins Series (Robert E. Howard) In a Hollow of the Hills (Bret Harte) Wolf Hunters (James Oliver Curwood) Gold Hunters Last of the Plainsmen Border Legion Smoke Bellew Country Beyond Lone Star Ranger Ronicky Doone Trilogy Riders of the Silences Three Partners Man of the Forest Lure of the Dim Trails Tennessee's Partner Covered Wagon (Emerson Hough) Luck of Roaring Camp Rustlers of Pecos County Pike Bearfield Series Hopalong Cassidy (Clarence E. Mulford) O Pioneers! (Willa Cather) My Ántonia Roughing It (Mark Twain) Outcasts of Poker Flat Call of the Wild (Jack London) Heart of the West (O. Henry) White Fang Log of a Cowboy (Andy Adams) Two-Gun Man (Charles Alden Seltzer) Short Cut (Jackson Gregory) Astoria (Washington Irving) Ungava (R.M. Ballantyne) Valley of Silent Men Black Jack Bull Hunter "Drag" Harlan (Charles Alden Seltzer) Wyoming: A Story of the Outdoor West Sheriff's Son Whispering Smith (Frank H. Spearman) A Texas Cow Boy (Charles Siringo) Boss of the Lazy Y Trail Horde Rider of Golden Bar (William P. White) Buck Peters, Ranchman Tangled Trail Golden Dream (Ballantyne) Gun-Brand (James B. Hendryx) Blue Hotel (Stephen Crane) Long Shadow Girl from Montana (Grace Livingston Hill) Hidden Children (Robert W. Chambers) Where the Trail Divides Iron Trail (Rex Beach) Desert Trail (Dane Coolidge)...

There is a certain malady of the mind induced by too much of one thing. Just as the body fed too long upon meat becomes a prey to that horrid disease called scurvy, so the mind fed too long upon monotony succumbs to the insidious mental ailment which the West calls "cabin fever." True, it parades under different names, according to circumstances and caste. You may be afflicted in a palace and call it ennui, and it may drive you to commit peccadillos and indiscretions of various sorts. You may be attacked in a middle-class apartment house, and call it various names, and it may drive you to cafe life and affinities and alimony. You may have it wherever you are shunted into a backwater of life, and lose the sense of being borne along in the full current of progress. Be sure that it will make you abnormally sensitive to little things; irritable where once you were amiable; glum where once you went whistling about your work and your play. It is the crystallizer of character, the acid test of friendship, the final seal set upon enmity. It will betray your little, hidden weaknesses, cut and polish your undiscovered virtues, reveal you in all your glory or your vileness to your companions in exile--if so be you have any.

Julie Miller's dramatic short stories are designed to pull children into the wonderful world of the imagination. They are ideal for reading aloud. Some are new interpretations of well-known stories from the Bible, fairy tales and folklore from around the world. Some are completely new. Julie's inspiration has come from such writers as Aesop, Hans Christian Andersen and Robert Browning as well as drawing from her own experiences and memories of her father’s words of wisdom. There are also stories taken from history and from the lives of inspirational people, including the Dalai Lama, Helen Keller, Louise Braille, Mahatma Gandhi and the Burgers of Calais.

The rainbow nation of South Africa, is teetering on the brink of the new Millennium accompanied by the sound of outraged toyi-toyi-ing protesting over unemployment, lack of housing, taxi violence, police handlers and their dogs. So, visibly all is as usual, but under the surface something fearful is brewing, seemingly unnoticed except by Mr. Torrington, head of Intelligence. He is alerted and alarmed by a series of strange events. He has a preposterous theory, which he relates to David Soames, a nuclear scientist. Soames doesn't believe the outlandish nonsense, but two men are Dead; two more, both eminent scientists, have vanished. Unwillingly he agrees to investigate. When Joella Martin, the love of David's life, becomes involved, drawn into a dangerous situation Torrington knows in his gut that time is running out. Within each person exists courage and resourcefulness never guessed at until needed. As the action moves from South Africa to Israel and on to Egypt, David and Joella find both, when separately they face death until Torrington finds the last fiendish filament, which completes the brilliant web which has been years in the spinning… This is a light hearted, romantic thriller, which looks at an all too possible, dire threat to the whole world.