“The kids at school were not as bad as the teachers when it came to treating me differently.”At the age of eight, Shari Moss lived in a single motel unit in the middle of the desert with her three siblings. Isolated from her peers and too poor for toys, she would spend hours flipping through the pages of the motel’s Sears catalog, imagining the home she so desperately wanted.Her journey crosses multiple cities in two countries as she finds love, goes through hell and back, ...

From haunting ghost stories to classic fairy tales, Going Public … In Shorts! is a collection of forty classic and lesser-known works by history's greatest writers.Among the stories included are "The Death of a Government Clerk," Anton Chekhov's defining vignette; "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Mark Twain's comedic story that earned him national fame; "The Gift of the Magi," O. Henry's masterful Christmastime tale about love and sacrifice; and "The Stor...

Kate Chopin is a widely considered the forerunner to the feminist authors of the twentieth century. Focusing on themes of race and gender, her short stories largely center on life in rural Louisiana. In "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard has just learned that her husband is dead—believed to have died during a train accident. Her family fears that the news will kill Louise, who suffers from a weak heart.Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative lit...

Renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California's wine country. Seeking a romantic respite with her boyfriend, Vail ventures to Napa Valley. After arriving, Vail learns a serial killer is crushing his victims' windpipes and leaving their bodies in caves. When the Crush Killer learns that an FBI profiler has joined the Major Crimes Task Force, the newfound attention emboldens him, and he sets in motion a plan that wreaks havoc on the ...

A collection of fifteen stories, eleven of which have never been previously published, from the early career of bestselling American master Elmore Leonard.Over his long and illustrious career, Elmore Leonard was recognized as one of the greatest crime writers of all time, the author of dozens of bestselling books—many adapted for the big screen—as well as a master of short fiction. A superb stylist whose crisp, tight prose crackled with trademark wit and sharp dialogue, Leonard rem...

Available for the first time and collected in one volume, the letters of one of America’s most beloved authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder—a treasure trove that offers new and unexpected understanding of her life and work.The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a vibrant, deeply personal portrait of this revered American author, illuminating her thoughts, travels, philosophies, writing career, and dealings with family, friends, and fans as never before.This is a ...

Edgar Allan Poe is a master of short horror stories, and “The Cask of Amontillado” is among his finest. This woeful tale comes from a mysterious narrator seeking revenge against an acquaintance, the ironically ill-fortuned Fortunato. The narrator lures him into his family’s crypt with the promise of fine Amontillado wine, but though two go down only one returns. The ending lines will leave readers with a chill running down their spine and a thirst for more Poe.

“Wonderful…razor-sharp.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review“Excellent….A plot and a chase as good as anything he has ever written.”—Bergan RecordIn Elmore Leonard’s The Hunted, “crime fiction’s greatest living practitioner” (Washington Post) carries the action far from his usual Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles milieus, all the way to the Middle East. There no lack of excitement and suspense—and the trademark Leonard dialogue—in t...

“A little beauty of a story….A hot, fast read with pungent characters.”—Los Angeles Times“A slam-bang, no-bull action thriller…and nobody but nobody writes better dialogue.”—New York Daily NewsIt’s an established fact: Elmore Leonard is “the uncontested master of the crime thriller” (Washington Post ) who “does crime fiction better than anyone” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the pages of

“Lean, mean, darkly funny.”—Boston Globe“A zingy thriller by the master of hard-boiled suspense.”—Dallas Morning News“Elmore Leonard may be the greatest crime novelist in the world,” declares the Seattle Times, and truer words have never been written. Just follow the Grand Master of mystery and suspense to Florida’s Gold Coast and you’ll quickly discover that it’s so. In this classic Elmore Leonard thriller, a beautiful mafi...

A character so outrageous he could only have come from the ingenious imagination of Elmore Leonard, lewd, lecherous, law-bending Florida jurist Judge Robert “Maximum Bob” Gibbs has been judged guilty by a grudge-bearing malefactor and sentenced to death—by alligator, if necessary. Maximum Bob is a delightfully dark classic thriller from “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review), and any reader who loved getting gleefully lost in cr...

“Cat Chaser is just what one would expect from Elmore Leonard—quirky, peopled with oddball characters…and more twists and turns than a roller coaster.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer“A superior example of gritty writing and violent action.”—New York TimesThere are numerous reasons why Grand Master Elmore Leonard is considered “the coolest, hottest thriller writer in America” (Chicago Tribune) and “the greatest crime writer of our ti...