Showing titles in Short Stories

This could be the most important mission of Nameless’s life. Because it’s putting him on a collision course with his own past and the nation’s future. The target: a fortified redoubt in the golden hills of California, the hub of a new world order that’s unthinkably close at hand. The time has come for Nameless to face its designer: the nihilist mastermind behind the One Solution. It’s also time for Nameless to discover who he is and was, and what brought him to this fateful endgame. But will the truth be a breaking point? Or a turning point?

Andrew Sachs reads these four classic stories of suspense - "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens, "The Haunted Doll's House" by M. R. James, "The Room in the Tower" by E. F. Benson, and "The Bus-Conductor" by E. F. Benson. These spine-tingling tales, from the golden age of the ghost story, are sure to leave you with a creeping sense of dread.

Notes from the author: The following is a short story I wrote in the Elantris world back in January of 2006. There were always a few holes in Elantris where I decided not to include viewpoints or sections of explanation in the name of streamlining, particularly at the end. In the back of my mind, I knew what happened. This story talks about one of those holes; it is meant to be heard after you’ve finished the novel and takes place during the events of the climax.

Ender’s Tribe is special compilation of eight stories from the Ender Universe, including the original short story “Ender’s Game” that would later become the bestselling novel. Each story contains a thread from the multi-series franchise. With focuses on Mazer Rackham, Bonito, Han Tzu, Peter Wiggin, Sel Menach, Dabeet Ochoa, and of course Ender Wiggin himself, these tales are essential for longtime and new fans of the beloved Ender books.

Five haunting tales from Benedict Ashforth, the best-selling author of Abbot's Keep.

There is a gift so simple that it requires no ribbons for wrapping yet which is so miraculous, it has the power to transform our lives. This is The Gift of Story, a tale of love and wisdom from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, eminent psychoanalyst and author. When an old woman flees to a hut in a lonely forest, begins Dr. Estés, she seeks safety from the savage war that has devastated her village. What sustains her is the greatest of all gifts: a story. One healing tale leads to another, creating stories that each speak eloquently to the question, "What is enough?"

Random Acts of Romance is an anthology of subtle love stories. Simple, thoughtful, modest, and deeply human, the collection is meant as much for the sensible reader as for the romantic. The stories touch upon the lives of an artist, a wanderlust, a start-up entrepreneur, an old crush, tweens in a food festival, another with a spare movie ticket, a couple entrusted to end an alliance, an erstwhile rejected marriage alliance, someone lost in the corporate rat race, and a dedicated single parent.

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and...no qualms about a little murder. Ever since her darling father's untimely death when she was only 18, Maud has lived in the family's spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late 80s, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father's ancient armchair. It's a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.

Charles Dickens: The Short Stories Collection contains all of Charles Dickens' major published works of short fiction - written between 1836 and 1841. Narrated by award-winning readers David Timson, Nicholas Boulton, and Matt Addis, these stories take us from the hilarious to the heartbreaking, and give a deeper insight into Dickens' life and London in the mid-1800s.

I've been a lone wolf in this broken, desolate world for four years. Until one fateful night with Cal exposes our secret desires, forging an unexpected bond despite our age difference. But he ran afterwards. And even when he returns, the lingering pain continues to haunt me. So I keep him at arm's length. When old friends arrive, their presence breathes new life into our home, easing the tension between Cal and I.

J. R. R. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor best known as the author of fantasy works like "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings." Listen as Tolkien reads "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," "The Hoard," "Perry-The-Winkle," and "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon." Also included is a reading of "A Elbereth Gilthoniel" in Elvish and "The Road Goes Ever on," sung by William Elvin with music by Donald Swann.

Penniless and downtrodden at the loss of his wife and one of his daughters, Samuel Clemens turned to writing. The short stories and essays in Letters from the Earth find Clemens—under the pseudonym of Mark Twain—at perhaps his most quizzical and questioning state ever. Written as diary entries, Twain penned a series of letters from the point of view of a dejected angel on Earth who observes the many curious natures of man. These pieces, gathered by Twain's literary executor, feature sharp takes on the inconsistencies of Christianity and farcical criticisms of American life.

Acclaimed author of The Adults Alison Espach’s short story "In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People" is an at-once hilarious and heart-breaking portrait of a dead woman’s marriage and the Volvo that stood in the middle of it all.

Quiver is 12 interlinked short stories the explore lust and human sexuality in all their sensual manifestations. In her first collection of erotic writing Tobsha Learner transports us into a world of love, power and obsession, often blurring the line between reality and fantasy, bringing us face-to-face with delicately observed passion and pain. Experience the angry fearlessness of youth, the pleasure of the new, sexual friction at its most primal, and the lingering fingers of a past that refuses to let go.

All three volumes of It’s Scary Story Time, bundled into one massive, bone-chilling collection. These 65 tales, woven in a gripping true-story style, will haunt your nights and stalk your dreams!

Abby Westwood barely escaped an attack at her apartment, and now she’s on the run. Her only refuge? Misty Mountain, a remote and wild place tied to secrets of her brother’s death. Desperate for answers, she seeks out one man who might hold them, Travis Holt. Once a Navy SEAL, now a recluse hidden deep in the Rockies, Travis has spent years burying his demons beneath the snow-covered silence of Misty Mountain. But when Abby arrives, his world fractures. She’s the sister of the man he swore to protect. And she’s being hunted.

In the interlocking Tales of the Dying Earth Vance explores the world at the end of time when sun is guttering. Light itself is different and Vance’s landscapes —described in language that is lyrical, seductive, and partly self-invented —are wild and surreal, full of opportunity and danger. On the Dying Earth, the rules of physics as we know them have been amended and replaced by magic. The laws of evolution have spun out creatures that are humanoid, hybrid, and often terrifying.

Kurt Vonnegut is a master of contemporary American Literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Siren's of Titan in 1959 and established him as ""a true artist""* with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He is, as Graham Greene has declared...

These two classic coming-of-age stories by Voltaire parody the romanticism of his day with the ruthless wit that has made him the undisputed master of social commentary.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter...