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Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyoku stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it.

Twenty years ago, student Daisy Harrington went out for the evening and never came home. Her body was found a week later. The killer was caught. Case closed. Now, on what would have been her fortieth birthday, her five university housemates are invited to a weekend gathering. None of them want to go. But none of them can refuse—the invitation makes it clear that if they don’t attend, the past they’ve spent two decades hiding will finally come to light.

A gifted art forger, Truyan Saigas has the unique ability to paint the future. But when her father is lost at sea, not even magic can heal her family, or save her two younger sisters from the dangerous consequences of her mother's gambling debts. Then Elang, a mysterious dragon lord, offers her a deal: in exchange for a fresh start for her mother and sisters, Tru must enter a marriage contract and join him in his desolate undersea palace.

Philia's family has produced saints for generations. It's no surprise that she's known as the greatest saint of all time--and set to marry the second prince, Julius. What no one expects is for Julius to call off the engagement, claiming that Philia's perfection makes her charmless and unlikable. To add insult to injury, Philia is packed off to a neighboring country in exchange for gold and resources, forcing her to leave her homeland!

Leave your preconceived notions at home as you embark on a mind-bending journey with six of today’s most visionary authors. Brimming with humor and heartache, this collection of short stories maps the roads we took to get here and the paths that lie ahead. The present may be a gift, but the future and the past both come with a price.

Nobody likes being on agricultural rotation, and with this heat wave, it’s almost more than Ester can take. She’s itching for something she can’t put words to—something she has no memory of wanting. But then, she can’t remember much beyond the past couple of years. She’s sent to the husband archive for a cure, but the man she checks out comes with baggage: stacks and stacks of paper he calls “books.” What they teach each other may prove hard to forget.

Channi was not born a monster. But when her own father offers her in sacrifice to the Demon Witch, she is forever changed. Cursed with a serpent's face, Channi is the exact opposite of her beautiful sister, Vanna - the only person in the village who looks at Channi and doesn't see a monster. The only person she loves and trusts. Now seventeen, Vanna is to be married off in a vulgar contest that will enrich the coffers of the village leaders. Only Channi, who's had to rely on her strength and cunning all these years, can defend her sister against the cruelest of the suitors.

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother's legacy. I am yours to command. Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn't know that pelesits have a dark side - and when Pink's shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive...before they are both lost to the darkness.

The Kellys are messy, loud, loving Australians. The Lees are sophisticated, aloof, buttoned-up Americans. They have nothing in common…except for the fact that their daughters are married. When a nearby volcano erupts during their short vacation to a remote tropical island off the coast of Queensland, the two families find themselves stranded together for six weeks. With only two island employees making up the rest of their party, everyone is forced to question what—or who—they really want.

What’s the difference between mentorship and sponsorship? Mentorship involves helping a mentee change their behavior, while sponsorship involves changing how other people see a protégé. Sponsorship is as important, if not more, than mentorship in determining who gets ahead, making it a more effective way to promote social equality and inclusion in the workplace. Chow shows us that a paradigmatic shift to sponsorship need not be scary. Most of us already engage in sponsorship in our personal and professional networks; we just haven’t had a name for what we are doing.

Seventh-grader Viv never looks forward to picture day. It’s just another day where she wears a boring braid and no one notices her. (Her two best friends, Milo and Al, don’t count, of course.) But enough is enough. This year, she’s taking matters into her own hands. Literally. Viv grabs a pair of scissors, her phone for live-streaming, and, well, bye-bye braid. Suddenly Viv is an over-night influencer at Brinkley Middle School. Everyone wants her help planning their next big moment—from haircuts, to dance proposals, activist rallies and mathlete championships.

When a supposedly cursed traditional Japanese instrument arrives at the British School of Kyoto, strange things start to happen. A phantom geisha haunts the halls, a star student vanishes, and cryptic symbols appear across the campus.

High-school student Akari has only one passion in her life: her oshi, her idol. His name is Masaki Ueno, best known as one-fifth of Japanese pop group Maza Maza. Akari's dedication to her oshi consumes her days completely. She keeps a blog entirely devoted to him, religiously chronicling and analysing all his events. He is the spine of her life; she cannot survive without him. When Masaki is rumoured to have assaulted a female fan, facing waves of social media backlash, Akari's world falls apart.

When Colleen Kinder put out a call for authors to write a letter to a stranger about an unforgettable encounter, she opened the floodgates. The responses—intimate and addictive, all written in the second person—began pouring in. These short, insightful essays by a remarkable cast of writers guide us both across the globe and through the mysteries of human connection. Moving and unforgettable, Letter to a Stranger is an irresistible listen for the literary traveler and the perfect gift for anyone who is haunted by a person they met once and will remember forever.

Your AI Roadmap is not just an advice book, it's a modern blueprint for your career and income. One part modern careers and one part wealth building, this book is your guide to securing financial success. With humor and data-driven examples, serial entrepreneur, investor, and AI influencer Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek provides fresh and tactical career advice as well as ways to expand your income and get your finances in order in a world where artificial intelligence layoffs are announced daily.

Astrid Johansen swore she would never return to Heron Bay, Washington. In that idyllic coastal town, her little sister, Nina, drowned in a reflecting pool under Astrid’s watch seventeen years ago. Though guilt has kept her away, Astrid can’t ignore her aunt Maude’s urgent plea to come back. Maude claims to have found a letter that will change everything about the past.

Alexandra, also known as Al, has been playing baseball with her older brothers for as long as she can remember. But when she ages out of Little League, it seems like it’s the end of the road for Al and the sport she loves. Until, that is, her friend Sammy suggests that Al try out for the middle school team—a team that has always been boys-only. Al is prepared to fight for her right to try out, but to her surprise, the coach is delighted by her interest.

“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.

“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.

For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed.