Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Literature & Fiction

Elliott Gould, Burt Reynolds, Meryl Streep, and a host of other celebrities read over 100 poems by four of America's greatest poets. Walt Whitman celebrates the brash and rugged individualism of his country in exuberant language. The spare, precise language of Emily Dickinson conveys her penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths.

This collection of classic horror tales is as remarkable for its literary value as for its scream factor. You'll hear stories by the masters of the genre, past and present.

The Canterbury Tales & Paradise Lost are two epic works that have been entertaining—and sometimes exasperating—readers for centuries. In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two iconic works of British literature. Geoffrey Chaucer's merry charm and John Milton's high seriousness become relatable to modern minds when explored by Dr. McNamer. Chaucer's lively, lusty, and never boring Pilgrims have tales to tell that for six centuries have delighted the hearts of readers and listeners.

The Illiad & The Odyssey are two epic poems by Greek author Homer, works that have been entertaining—and perhaps exasperating—readers for centuries. In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two iconic works. McNamer first discusses how The Iliad portrays love, jealousy, pride, and the courage men and women display in war. McNamer then focuses on and The Odyssey in which the hero Odysseus endures strange adventures en route home to his faithful wife.

More of the Greatest Mysteries of All Time is the second in a series featuring the finest short story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present. From Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, Jack London, Vincent Starrett and everyone in between, this unique collection, edited by multi-award winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, is a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Legendary Western writer Max Evans takes you into the heart of Hi Lo Country to spend a little time with cowboys who work hard, play hard, live hard—and have a great time being cowboys in this collection of all three of Evans' classic novels.

In novels such as Mars, Moonbase, and The Rock Rats, Ben Bova told stories about rivalries and wars, of outsized individuals, public crusades, and the private passions that drive us as we expand into the solar system and make use of its vast resources. Bova wrote short fiction about some of the same characters and events—Sam Gunn, Martin Humphries, Klaus Fuchs, Dan Randolph, and the Asteroid Wars—featured in those works, and those stories are collected in Tales of the Grand Tour, a landmark of modern science fiction. The stories in this collection are:

The lure of the American West is in the spirit of adventure, in the majestic expanse of unconquered wilderness and in rugged individuals on a quest for identity and sometimes for survival. Owen Wister's unsmiling Virginian... Dorothy M. Johnson's, "A Man Called Horse": These are a few of the colorful, even legendary characters who populate The American West in Fiction, a collection of stories edited by Jon Tuska.

Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk are doctors who once worked together to research a horrifying virus outbreak in the Congo. Now Pearse heads the Bureau of Disease Control, and Maryk runs the clandestine special pathogens section of the disease detectives—making the two scientists bitter enemies. But when the disease from the Congo re-emerges in America, they must set aside their differences in order to stop a potential worldwide epidemic. Using the blood of one woman who is immune to the disease, they create a serum that might work—if the disturbingly cunning virus doesn't have plans of its own.

Although most famous for her bestselling fiction, including Fear of Flying and Any Woman's Blues, Erica Jong started her publishing career as a poet. The celebrated author enjoys an international reputation for her verse. An essential collection of poetry, Becoming Light includes early poems previously uncollected in book form, selections from her previous books, and many new poems. Erica Jong's poetry exhibits her rare gifts for inventiveness, wit, vigor, honesty, and accessibility. Critics have generously praised Jong's unique poetic voice.

This is the story of Bronx-born David Kokolovitz and his hilarious experiences with sex, Shakespeare, and the South Pacific. We follow David on his journey away from his Bronx home in search of an acting career. In a comedy of opposites, New Yorker David ends up living in the Deep South where he lands his first acting job at a southern Shakespeare repertory company. Just as the hazards of too-tight tights and too-long soliloquies become too much for him, World War II conveniently breaks out and he moves on to entertain the troops.

At the age of 48, film critic David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to re-experience the core humanities courses he had taken as a freshman 30 years before. Facing the question of what he really knows, Denby re-examines the besieged Western classics, ranging from Homer, Sappho, and Sophocles to Dante, Nietzsche, and Woolf. What relevance do the writers and thinkers of the past have to our current life? The answer surprised Denby and will surprise and enlighten his listeners.

Combining short stories in the alternate military-history genre with speculative history, this entertaining book invites listeners to consider what didn't happen to gain a richer understanding of what did. Acclaimed fiction writers John Mina, Kim Stanley Robinson, William Sanders, and Harry Turtledove pose intriguing "What if?" questions about Napoleon, the U.S. Civil War, the American South, and World War II, such as "What if Napoleon had become emperor of the United States?" and "Could one faulty screw have altered America's atomic-bomb policy?"

An entertaining collection by seven renowned American mystery writers— including Mary Higgins Clark and Whitley Strieber— this anthology offers a delightful mix of mystery, suspense, and murder.

This collection of the finest short story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present features Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Burke, Harry Kemelman, and everyone in between. Edited by multi-award-winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, it offers a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Learn the truth behind the mask of Hollywood in these 10 bizarre tales of dreams and dream weavers, movies and movie-makers, by some of the most respected fantasy writers of our time.

The hardworking single mother of young daughter, Joanna Brady still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brady is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield.

Lela lives in a fantasy world. It is the only place she can go to escape the horrendous legacy of her father's sexual abuse and his brutal murder of mother. When she joins a loving adoptive family, she buries all the memories of her former life - even her last memory of her sister, Jolene, pledging in a courtroom that she would come back for Lela some day. Then, one day , a strange man walks into Lela's life, bringing with him a neglected child who needs her love.

Tori Nunn went to Buenos Aires to forget—to forget her former life and to forget the death of her astronaut brother Greg, who died in a tragic space accident. But when handsome Ariel Solares alerts her to Japanese cocaine dealers shipping nuclear material from Columbia, she won't let go. Soon Tori is back in the world of spies and counterspies searching for the links between the Japanese killers, Russian dissidents with a new generation of nuclear weapons, and her own shadowy boss. Facing her deadliest enemies, she is aided only by her chief rival—the man with whom she is falling in love.

A sizzling novel set against the backdrop of the Detroit car world. Champion Motors, one of Detroit's biggest auto manufacturers, is shutting down plants and laying off its workers. Tensions are mounting and violence is erupting. The lack of overtime to go around and a fatal attraction between employees at the plant ends in murder. Rife with scandal, drama, and passion—between and beyond the sheets—Blue Collar Blues is an explosive novel with piercing insight and humor.