Download or read book The Privilege of the Happy Ending written by Kij Johnson and published by Small Beer Press. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising and exciting new collection of speculative and experimental stories that explore animal intelligences, gender, and the nature of stories. The Privilege of the Happy Ending collects award-winning writer Kij Johnson’s speculative fiction from the last decade. The stories explore gender, animals, and the nature of stories, and range in form from classically told tales to deeply experimental works. The collection includes the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” and “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe,” as well as two never-before published works.
Download or read book The Other Half of Happy written by Rebecca Balcárcel and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quijana is a girl in pieces. One-half Guatemalan, one-half American: When Quijana's Guatemalan cousins move to town, her dad seems ashamed that she doesn't know more about her family's heritage. One-half crush, one-half buddy: When Quijana meets Zuri and Jayden, she knows she's found true friends. But she can't help the growing feelings she has for Jayden. One-half kid, one-half grown-up: Quijana spends her nights Skyping with her ailing grandma and trying to figure out what's going on with her increasingly hard-to-reach brother. In the course of this immersive and beautifully written novel, Quijana must figure out which parts of herself are most important, and which pieces come together to make her whole. This lyrical debut from Rebecca Balcárcel is a heartfelt poetic portrayal of a girl growing up, fitting in, and learning what it means to belong.
Download or read book Death and Other Happy Endings written by Melanie Cantor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's nothing like being told that in three months you'll be dead to make you think about what you really want in life "A novel about self-discovery, with plenty of surprises and a snappy, Bridget-Jones-gets-a-terminal-diagnosis vibe." -Booklist Jennifer Cole has just been told that she has a terminal blood disorder and has just three months to live--ninety days to say goodbye to friends and family, and to put her affairs in order. Ninety days to come to terms with a diagnosis that is unfair, unexpected, and completely unpronounceable. Focusing on the positives (she won't have to go on in a world without Bowie or Maya Angelou; she won't get Alzheimer's or Parkinson's like her parents, or have teeth that flop out at the mere mention of the word apple), Jennifer realizes she only has one real regret: the relationships she's lost. Rather than running off to complete a frantic bucket list, Jennifer chooses to stay put and write a letter to the three most significant people in her life, to say the things she wished she'd said before but never dared: her overbearing, selfish sister, her jelly-spined, cheating ex-husband, and her charming, unreliable ex-boyfriend--and finally tell them the truth. At first, Jennifer feels cleansed by her catharsis. Liberated, even. Her ex-boyfriend rushes to her side and she even starts to build bridges with her sister Isabelle (that is, once Isabelle's confirmed that Jennifer's condition isn't genetic). But once you start telling the truth, it's hard to stop. And as Jennifer soon discovers, the truth isn't always as straightforward as it seems, and death has a way of surprising you....
Download or read book Fudoki written by Kij Johnson and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2004-10-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her skillful debut novel, Kij Johnson took the classic Japanese myth of the fox who dared to become a woman to win true love and created The Fox Woman, a luminous, lyrical tale of love, desire, joy, and the nature of the soul. Set in the same universe as The Fox Woman, this time Kij Johnson takes on another animal totem and enters the world of the creature who comes to be known as Kagaya-hime, a sometime woman warrior, occasional philosopher, and reluctant confidante to noblemen. And who may or may not be the figment of the imagination of an aging empress who is embarking on the last journey of her life, setting aside the trappings of court life and reminiscing as she follows the paths that are leading her to the nunnery and death. Fudoki is the tale of a being who starts her journey on the kami, or spirit road, as a humble-if ever a being such as a Cat can be humble-small tortoiseshell feline. She has seen her family destroyed by a fire that decimated most of the Imperial city. This loss renders her taleless, the only one left alive to pass on such stories as The Cat Born the Year the Star Fell, the Cat with a Litter of Ten, the Fire-Tailed Cat. Without her fudoki-self and soul and home and shrine-she cannot keep the power of her clan together. And she cannot join another fudoki because, although she might be able to win a place within another clan, to do so would mean that she would cease to be herself. So a small cat begins an extraordinary journey. Along the way she will attract the attention of old and ancient powers, including gods who are curious about this creature newly come to Japan's shores, and who choose to give the tortoiseshell a human shape. And who set her on a new kami road, where Kagaya-hime will have to choose a way to find what happiness she can. Weaving a haunting story of one being's transformation and journey of discovery with the telling of another's long life set against the backdrop of the courtly rituals of Imperial power, Kij Johnson has written a powerful novel about the nature of freedom and the redemptive power of transformation--if only one is brave enough to risk it all. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Privilege of the Sword written by Ellen Kushner and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Swordspoint comes a witty, wicked coming-of-age story that is both edgy and timeless. . . . Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power and prestige in the city’s labyrinth of streets and ballrooms, theatres and brothels, boudoirs and salons. Into this alluring and alarming world walks a bright young woman ready to take it on and make her fortune. A well-bred country girl, Katherine knows all the rules of conventional society. Her biggest mistake is thinking they apply. Katherine’s host and uncle, Alec Campion, the capricious and decadent Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here—and to him, rules are made to be broken. When he decides it would be far more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to ballroom and husband, her world changes forever. And there’s no going back. Blade in hand, it’s up to Katherine to find her own way through a maze of secrets and betrayals, nobles and scoundrels—and to gain the power, respect, and self-discovery that come to those who master. . . . “Unholy fun, and wholly fun . . . an elegant riposte, dazzlingly executed.”—Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked
Download or read book The Visiting Privilege written by Joy Williams and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive story collection “by one of the most celebrated American short-story writers…. Powerful, important, compassionate, and full of dark humor. This is a book that will be reread with admiration and love many times over” (Vanity Fair). Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing as a given from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. At long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: thirty-three stories drawn from three much-lauded collections, and another thirteen appearing here for the first time in book form. Forty-six stories in all, far and away the most comprehensive volume in her long career, showcasing her crisp, elegant prose, her dark wit, and her uncanny ability to illuminate our world through characters and situations that feel at once peculiar and foreign and disturbingly familiar. Virtually all American writers have their favorite Joy Williams stories, as do many readers of all ages, and each one of them is available here.
Download or read book The Happy Ending written by Mandy Zundel and published by Covenant Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2023-12-26 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four fairy tales. One broken spell. And a secret that threatens everyone. After his farm fails and his cow goes dry, Jack is certain the Happy Ending will intervene. He isn't prepared for how lost he feels when it doesn't. Heartbroken, he determines to save his family himself. Hepsibah resents being cast by the Happy Ending as the villain in the cursed princess story. Ignoring tradition, the aged fairy tries to give a true gift to the babe rather than a curse. She doesn't know that nothing she does will turn out as expected. Ella dreams of one night of happiness, away from the harsh reality of her life. She's crushed when the evening doesn't go as planned. After the ball ends, Ella's dreary existence becomes even more difficult for her to bear. Adalia can't decide what she wants lately. She worries about her family and the threat to her kingdom. She hates not knowing whether the midnight dances are the answer to her problem or the cause of it. Hepsibah is terrified her magic is out of control. Jack races to warn about a secret that has been hidden for millennia. Ella flees, hoping it's not too late to escape. And Adalia fights against the spell that holds her hostage. All of them are about to discover just how dangerous their world can be.
Download or read book Happy Ending written by Louise Imogen Guiney and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Crunk Feminist Collection written by Brittney C. Cooper and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on hip-hop feminism featuring relevant, real conversations about how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events. For the Crunk Feminist Collective, their academic day jobs were lacking in conversations they actually wanted. To address this void, they started a blog that turned into a widespread movement. The Collective’s writings foster dialogue about activist methods, intersectionality, and sisterhood. And the writers’ personal identities—as black women; as sisters, daughters, and lovers; and as television watchers, sports fans, and music lovers—are never far from the discussion at hand. These essays explore “Sex and Power in the Black Church,” discuss how “Clair Huxtable is Dead,” list “Five Ways Talib Kweli Can Become a Better Ally to Women in Hip Hop,” and dwell on “Dating with a Doctorate (She Got a Big Ego?).” Self-described as “critical homegirls,” the authors tackle life stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture while hating patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism. “Refreshing and timely.” —Bitch Magazine “Our favorite sister bloggers.” —Elle “By centering a Black Feminist lens, The Collection provides readers with a more nuanced perspective on everything from gender to race to sexuality to class to movement-building, packaged neatly in easy-to-read pieces that take on weighty and thorny ideas willingly and enthusiastically in pursuit of a more just world.” —Autostraddle “Much like a good mix-tape, the book has an intro, outro, and different layers of based sound in the activist, scholar, feminist, women of color, media representation, sisterhood, trans, queer and questioning landscape.” —Lambda Literary Review
Download or read book The Fox Woman written by Kij Johnson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-02-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a novel set in medieval Japan, a young fox kit becomes enamored with a Japanese nobleman and will stop at nothing, even magic and sorcery, to win his heart.
Download or read book At the Mouth of the River of Bees written by Kij Johnson and published by Small Beer Press. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sparkling debut collection from one of the hottest writers in science fiction: her stories have received the Nebula Award the last two years running. These stories feature cats, bees, wolves, dogs, and even that most capricious of animals, humans, and have been reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and The Secret History of Fantasy. At the Mouth of the River of Bees 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss The Horse Raiders Spar Fox Magic Names for Water Schrodinger’s Cathouse My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire Chenting, in the Land of the Dead The Bitey Cat The Empress Jingu Fishes Wolf Trapping The Man Who Bridged the Mist Ponies The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change Kij Johnson's stories have won the Sturgeon and World Fantasy awards. She has taught writing; worked at Tor, Dark Horse, and Microsoft; worked as a radio announcer; run bookstores; and waitressed in a strip bar.
Download or read book So Much For My Happy Ending written by Kyra Davis and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2006-11-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When her boyfriend of three months, Tad Showers, proposes, twenty-six-year-old April thinks that everything in her life is finally falling into place. Between her flaky, tree-hugging mother and her she-devil boss, marriage seems like the place she'll find love and security. Tad's exactly the kind of man April wants: smart, ambitious and wildly romantic. But soon after they're married, the honeymoon ends. Tad's crazy, extravagant gestures are starting to look less romantic and more…well, just plain crazy. Is it normal for her husband to never mention his family, rack up secret credit card debt and get less sleep than your average insomniac? Are you still supposed to stand by your man, even if it turns out he isn't who you thought he was? When she promised "for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health," this isn't what she pictured. But sometimes you don't get the life you imagined. And sometimes you have to figure out how to write your own happy ending.
Download or read book Lovecraft Country written by Matt Ruff and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now an HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out) The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours. At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb—which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan’s—destruction. A chimerical blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism—the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.
Download or read book The Burning White written by Brent Weeks and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 1269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this stunning conclusion to the epic New York Times bestselling Lightbringer series, kingdoms clash as Kip struggles to escape his family's shadow in order to protect the land and people he loves. Gavin Guile, once the most powerful man the world had ever seen, has been laid low. He's lost his magic, and now he is on a suicide mission. Failure will condemn the woman he loves. Success will condemn his entire empire. As the White King springs his great traps and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile must gather his forces, rally his allies, and scramble to return for one impossible final stand. The long-awaited epic conclusion of Brent Weeks's New York Times bestselling Lightbringer series. Lightbringer The Black Prism The Blinding Knife The Broken Eye The Blood MirrorThe Burning White For more from Brent Weeks, check out: Night Angel The Way of Shadows Shadow's Edge Beyond the Shadows The Night Angel Trilogy: 10th Anniversary EditionNight Angel: The Complete Trilogy (omnibus)Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel
Download or read book Trouble written by Gary D. Schmidt and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2010-04-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Henry Smith’s father told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you.” But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in the form of a pickup truck that strikes Henry’s older brother, Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian from Franklin’s preparatory school, and the accident sparks racial tensions in the school—and in the well-established town where Henry’s family has lived for generations. Caught between anger and grief, Henry sets out to do the only thing he can think of: climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, which he and Franklin were going to climb together. Along with Black Dog, whom Henry has rescued from drowning, and a friend, Henry leaves without his parents’ knowledge. The journey, both exhilarating and dangerous, turns into an odyssey of discovery about himself, his older sister, Louisa, his ancestry, and why one can never escape from Trouble.
Download or read book The Sense of an Ending written by Julian Barnes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-10-05 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
Download or read book The Selfless Act of Breathing written by JJ Bola and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Black teacher searches for himself across the United States in this “emotive, brave” (Daily Mail, London) story for all of us who have fantasized about escaping our daily lives and starting over. Michael Kabongo is a British Congolese teacher living in London and living the dream: he’s beloved by his students, popular with his coworkers, and adored by his proud mother who emigrated from the Congo to the UK in search of a better life. But when he suffers a devastating loss, his life is thrown into a tailspin. As he struggles to find a way forward, memories of his fathers’ violent death, the weight of refugeehood, and an increasing sense of dread threaten everything he’s worked so hard to achieve. Longing to start over, Michael decides to spontaneously pack up and go to America, the mythical “land of the free,” where he imagines everything will be better and easier. On this transformative journey, Michael travels everywhere from New York City to San Francisco, partying with new friends, sparking fleeting romances, and splurging on big adventures, with the intention of living the life of his dreams until the money in his bank account runs out. “Narrated with haunting lyricism, The Selfless Act of Breathing is an intimate journey through the darkest of human impulses to the gleaming flickers of love and radical hope” (Susan Abulhawa, author of Against the Loveless World).
