Short Marriage

When Ava Barnes’s boyfriend, Justin, proposes after a whirlwind romance, the young couple embarks on a quest that will test their love. For generations, engaged couples in Ava’s family have traveled into the Everglades to retrieve the egg of the magnificent frigate bird in order to bake it into a marriage cake. Those who succeed live happily ever after, while those who fail are destined for heartbreak. With Ava’s beloved grandmother gravely ill, never has the marriage tradition meant so much.

Including the brilliantly frightening short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, this collection from the author of Rebecca is a classic work of alienation and horror. The chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's dominance over the natural...

David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favoritesas the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ("Us and Them"); the...

A Short Guide to a Happy Marriage, 2nd Edition is a concise explanation of the essentials for a long-lasting marriage. Marriage should be thought of as a creative work in progress. Just as the artist or writer has times when his or her work flows and all is going well, so does a marriage...

Ten classic short stories offering a feminine perspective on marriage written from 1891 to 1917 from such classic authors as Edith Wharton, O. Henry, Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, and others. These works present an early and poignant perspective on the institution of marriage, its role in society, and the personal beauty and pain that can be found within its bonds.