Showing results by narrator "Katharine Chin" in All Categories

Ruby Chen has always played the part of the dutiful eldest daughter: excelling in school; excelling in piano lessons; excelling at keeping her younger sister, Tina, focused on extracurriculars meant to impress college admissions officers. But when a ghost from the spirit world attacks Ruby in the middle of Vancouver’s Chinatown neighborhood, her life is plunged into a darkness that no amount of duty can free her from. Overnight, Ruby’s sister seems to change.

Following a disastrous relationship, successful divorce attorney Wynne Olsen is ready to put her past firmly behind her and start fresh in sunny California. But first she'll need to help plan her sister's wedding and quit her new position as Angel Point's city attorney. A local hero's Nordic good looks are a distraction she doesn't need at any time, much less when she's tying up loose ends on her way to a better future.

Annalie and Margaret are sisters who agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Annalie is 17: sweet, content and looking forward to a summer of flirting with the most popular boy in school. Margaret is 19: ambitious, a warrior for social justice and desperate to forget her ex-boyfriend in New York City. When their family is the victim of a racial attack, Annalie tries to pretend it never happened—but Margaret wants to fight back. Suddenly their relationship—and all the ones around them—are hanging by a thread.

Pearl Li is ready to spend the summer before seventh grade hanging out with her two best friends, crocheting the cutest amigurumi dolls, and visiting her favorite tea shop, Boba Time. Its quirky owner, Auntie Cha, is the only adult Pearl can confide in about her art—if only her tech-obsessed family would understand her love of crafts! After Pearl learns of Boba Time’s financial troubles, she decides to sell her amigurumi to raise money for the shop.

A boy who hates bugs starts to see them everywhere. A basketball player’s skin starts to almost drip off his hands—but no one else can see it. Three friends find a hole in the ground that just gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger... And each story is introduced by Stine himself, providing a personal touch sure to delight fans. Laced with Stine’s signature humor and a hefty dose of nightmarish fun, Stinetinglers is perfect for fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Stine’s own Goosebumps books.

US Marshal-turned-Sheriff Taylor James can trace her family back to the original thirteen marshals appointed by George Washington. She's good at her job, but once they find out she's the local law, she can't get even one of her dates to stay past the appetizers. Her plan? Convince good friend and hot neighbor Dr. Gabriel Adams to give her dating lessons since his dance card is always full.

From New York Times bestselling author R.L. Stine, the master of horror for young audiences, comes 10 new stories that are sure to leave you shivering. Stine also reads the introduction to each story! Two kids embark on a field trip to the zoo...and stumble upon a creature they never expected to meet. A boy makes a machine that puts kids in charge...but at what cost? A child is sure his new house is haunted...but is it just in his head? And each story comes with a personal introduction from Stine himself.

Lost Origins is an enthralling space odyssey set in a distant future where Earth is a lost legend. In this riveting tale, Maddy, a skilled smuggler, embarks on a perilous mission carrying vital medicine and a cryptic data crystal. Her journey plunges her into a universe brimming with danger, from space pirates to complex political intrigue. Maddy's character is a blend of strength and vulnerability, making her a compelling protagonist. Her journey is not just about the physical travel through space, but also an exploration of her own morals and choices.

Summoned to Angel Point for her sister's bridal shower, U.S. Marshal Dakota James's plan is to make sure her sister doesn't make the same mistake their parents did. But her quick in-and-out mission gets derailed when Taylor won't listen and instead tries to introduce Dakota to every member of the single male population in Angel Point. One former marine in particular sets off life-changing fireworks that tempt her to reconsider her single status.

From R.L. Stine, the master of horror for young listeners, comes ten brand new stories that are sure to have you keeping the light on at bedtime tonight. A boy thinks that a dream factory will help him make his slumber more fun...but what's the line between dream and nightmare? Two kids find an abandoned shack on the side of the road and are determined to make it their new treehouse... but is it as abandoned as it seems? A boy wants to impress a birthday party with this amateur magician skills...but how far will he go to wow the crowd?

In Kisia's conquered north, former empress Miko Ts'ai is more determined than ever to save her empire. Yet, as her hunt for allies grows increasingly desperate, she may learn too late that power lies not in names but in people. Dishiva e'Jaroven is fiercely loyal to the new Levanti emperor. Only he can lead them, but his next choice will challenge everything she wants to believe about her people's future. Abandoned by his Second Swords, Rah e'Torin must learn to survive without a herd. But honor dictates he bring his warriors home....

Commander Lisa Chao works in the US Navy's Strategic Planning Center in Pearl Harbor. When tensions rise with China over Taiwan, she has to unravel exactly what's happening in the Pacific and why. What she uncovers leads America to war—but not with China. Bullets and bombs are no match for an extraterrestrial warship that can fly between stars, but perhaps the answer to the coming war lies not in the present but in the past. Could Sun Tzu's The Art of War provide humanity with a fighting chance against a technologically superior alien enemy?

A contemporary collection of original short stories by Anica Mrose Rissi that is sure to elicit chills, laughs, and screams, even from the most devoted fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! A game of hide-and-seek goes on far too long. A lookalike doll makes itself right at home. A school talent-show act leaves the audience aghast. And a summer at camp takes a turn for the braaaains.

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises.

In her introduction to this year’s The Best American Essays, guest editor Vivian Gornick states that her selections “contribute materially to the long and honorable history of the personal essay by way of the value they place on lived experience.” Provocative, daring, and honest at a time when many writers are deliberately silencing themselves in the face of authoritarian and populist censorship movements, the twenty-one essays collected here reflect their authors’ unapologetic observations of the world around them.

Evie Mei Huang has literally been to hell and back alongside her friend Kevin. And while the trip to Dìyù, the Chinese underworld, was a grueling journey filled with endless horrors, nothing compares to the fact that she was unable to bring her mother back. She now has the great responsibility to assume the role her mother once held: head of the Weavers Guild. Spinning people’s fates sure seemed easier said than done, and now Evie finds herself buried in Guild duties while trying to maintain a strained relationship with her best friend.

“Without stories, we cannot live well,” shares guest editor Min Jin Lee, describing how storytelling affects and nurtures readers. The Best American Short Stories 2023 features twenty pieces of short fiction that reflect a world full of fractured relationships, but also wondrous hope. A lifelong friendship may become a casualty of the Russia-Ukraine war. Rejected by his lover, a man seeks to reconcile with his family. Twitter users miraculously muster enough empathy to help a lost cat find a forever home.

The most influential book of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement—a heartbreaking account of sexual violence and a remarkable reinvention of the trauma plot, turning the traditional Lolita narrative upside down as it explores women’s vulnerability, victimization, and the lengths they will go to survive.

“What's most compelling about a scientific story is the way it challenges us to think about the concepts we take for granted,” writes guest editor Carl Zimmer in his introduction. The essays in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing probe at the ordinary and urge us to think more deeply about our place in the world around us.

In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom. Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.