*"The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century." --Caryl Phillips, The Observer *Chinua Achebe's award-winning poems are marked by a subtle richness and the political acuity and moral vision that are a signature of all of his work. Focused and powerful, and suffused with wisdom and compassion, Collected Poems is further evidence of this great writer's sublime gifts and it is an essential part of the oeuvre of a giant of world literature. **

Description from the inside sleeve: This scintillating, disturbing, and altogether outrageous collection of stories introduces to these shores a young writer already being called "the Scottish Celine of the 1990s" (Guardian) and "a mad postmodern Roald Dahl" (Weekend Scotsman). Using a range of approaches from bitter realism to demented fantasy, Irvine Welsh is able to evoke the essential humanity, well hidden as it is, of his generally depraved, lazy, manipulative, and vicious characters. He specializes particularly in cosmic reversals--God turns a hapless footballer into a fly; an acid head and a newborn infant exchange consciousnesses with sardonically unexpected results--always displaying a corrosive wit and a telling accuracy of language and detail. Irvine Welsh is one hilariously dangerous writer and he is bound to create a sensation. Includes the following stories: "The Shooter" "Eurotrash" "Stoke Newington Blues" "Vat '96" "A Soft Touch" "The Last Resort on the Adriatic" "Sexual Disaster Quartet" "Snuff" "A Blockage in the System" "Wayne Foster" "Where the Debris Meets the Sea" "Granny's Old Junk" "The House of John Deaf" "Across the Hall" "Lisa's Mum Meets the Queen Mum" "The Two Philosophers" "Disnae Matter" "The Granton Star Cause" "Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel" "Sport for All" "The Acid House" A Smart Cunt: a novella

Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation. Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe.

The red Cadillac pulled down Main Street and sat by the tavern for hours, unnoticed. Then Ralph Bird of the Men's Store recognized the driver as Jack Burdette and bolted to the sheriff's office. The prodigal son of Holt, Colorado, had returned--and he was far from welcome. In Where You Once Belonged, acclaimed novelist Kent Haruf tells of a small-town hero who is dealt an enviable hand--and cheats with all of the cards. In prose as lean and supple as a spring switch, Haruf describes a high school football star who wins the heart of the loveliest girl in the county and the admiration of men twice his age. Fun-loving, independent, Burdette engages in the occasional prank. But when he turns into a man, his high jinks turn into crimes--with unspeakable consequences. Now, eight years later, Burdette has returned to commit his greatest trespass of all. And the  people of Holt may not be able to stop him. Deftly plotted, defiantly honest, Where You Once Belonged sings the song of a wounded prairie community in a narrative with the earmarks of a modern American classic.

Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee’s most provocative, daring, and controversial play since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Goat won every major award for best new play of the year: the Tony, New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In the play, Martin—a hugely successful architect who has just turned fifty—leads an ostensibly ideal life with his loving wife and gay teenage son. But when he confides to his best friend that he is also in love with a goat (named Sylvia), he sets in motion events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters. The playwright himself describes it this way: “Every civilization sets quite arbitrary limits to its tolerances. The play is about a family that is deeply rocked by an unimaginable event and how they solve that problem. It is my hope that people will think afresh about whether or not all the values they hold are valid."

Originally published as part of the USA Today bestselling anthology Eye Candy, The Pumpkin was Stuffed is another hilarious installment in USA Today bestselling author Tara Sivec’s outrageous series! The Holiday family is together one last time for Halloween! As Sam and Noel prepare for their upcoming life with a new baby, their crazy family and friends pull out all the tricks and treats and jack-o’-lanterns to make sure this ghostly holiday is one to remember…or, like the last few holidays they’ve celebrated together, one they’d rather forget.

The books of Anastasia Novykh are phenomenous for the fact that every person sees as if in the mirror something of his or her own, purely personal. This book discloses the inner world of a sixteen-year-old girl, who suddenly encounters death face to face. This pushes her to reconsideration of her own life and search of answers to the everlasting questions: “What is the sense of life?"This is a short story. It is not a full length book or novella. William Hampton, Viscount Worthe, prefers the remote stability and predictability of the stars to the perplexing changeability of people. An astronomer, he’s fashioned for himself a focused, industrious, simple life. He leaves his quiet retreat, however, when his mathematical computations, included in an article on orbital variations, are questioned. Miss Jane Tillney is volunteering at Half Moon House when Lord Worthe finds her. The Viscount is handsome and charming, but unfortunately his entire outlook is miscalculated, not just his astronomical equations. Lord Worthe is intrigued by Jane, her generous spirit and her unusual freckles, but can he find a way to open his heart and let her shine her light on his life?

Holidays with the Hancocks: too many presents, too much booze, a lot of tears. Youngest son Carson, now a filmmaker, explores the history of Christmas by filming holiday visits to his family. Along the way he finds the dying cult of Mithras, Yulegoats in Rio, anarchists and squatters, evangelocalism, a costume solstice party, sleighs of reindeer bones, lapsed monks and their secular monastery.Holidays with the Hancocks of Beverly Hills: too many presents, too much booze, a lot of tears. Youngest son Carson, now a documentary filmmaker, recalls those times with survivor's fascination, curiosity and some obsession: what is it with Christmas? The result: a documentary on the history and the current state of Christmas, by way of visits to his surviving family members. When his film goes nowhere, it's up to a friend to not only describe but retell the film frame by frame. "The Holly King" is truly the book of the movie, and a sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes satirical look not only at the holiday season, but also at the emblems and excesses of our culture today and its place in history.What starts out as a jackass mockumentary, "Why Do You Hate Christmas?" becomes a wildly sprawling exploration of the Christmas holiday itself, how it's celebrated today and how his mother, his sister and his brother are living out theeevents and choices in their lives. After an animated segment on the the early church and its holidays, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam and Michael Moore, Carson visits his mother Dianne, once a successful caterer to the stars, now retired to the gated community Hosanna Hills, a wealthy Southern Californian enclave built and developed according to the next wave in evangelical mega-church luxury, evangelocalism, a cross between DIY craftmaking, Shaker communities and Whole Foods.The next year, it's on to a visit to his sister, Shannon, the one time rrriot girl and soft porn photographic muse once known as Tillie Harm. Having retired from a life of wasted glamor, Shannon now lives on a rural farm, making cheese and holding costumed solstice parties with her Neo-Iron Age earth-sculptor husband Ken. This years party intends to unveil Ken's latest eco-installment, the Solstice Alidade, a North American Stonehenge. Never mind the overcast weather: tractor lights will work.Finally, a trip to see his brother, Humphrey, the oldest. A runaway when Carson was younger, Humphrey lived on the streets in Seattle among anarchists and squatters, angry and revolutionary. When a tragedy strikes in the squatters camp, he goes to Peter, the innovative priest who ministered to the street kids. When Peter dies, however, Humphrey has no place to go with his grief but the neo-monastic order, Mashipan. Founded by the radical Father Archibald Solano as a sanctuary for lapsing priests, Humphrey is invited not as a believer but as the true non-believer, the questioner of faith, the holly king. His affect on the brothers – and sisters – of Mashipan leads to the complete reawakening of the monastery and its mission of engagement with the world. Carson's visit with his brother is a step-by-step retelling of his brother's remarkable journey.The Holly King is not the usual Christmas story. It is a surprisimg, funny, unexpected tale that covers a lot of ground: the dying cult of Mithras, the TV Christmas special of reality show/Jersey Shore-like star Pootie, the hallucinatory Wilde Jagd, Yule goats in Rio, Monty Python-like animated sequences, anarchists and squatters, gated Christian communities, Neo-Iron Age earth-sculptures, sleighs made of reindeer bones, Industrial Revolution couture, theorboes, devotional art lend-lease programs with the Vatican, lapsed monks and their secular monastery. In the satiric vein of Catch 22, David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Leyner, "The Holly King" asks the question, Why is there Christmas?

Josh and Madison are the perfect couple, but even true love can change like the seasons. A shattered dream causes their marriage to take an unexpected plunge toward a silent grave. Can they manage to pull it back from the precipice? Find out in this tale of love, heartache and miracles.Sometimes when hope is lost, it is hard to get it back... but even in our darkest hour, there is always a chance that it will shine its light back into our hearts...Josh and Madison are the perfect couple, but even true love can change like the seasons. A shattered dream causes their marriage to take an unexpected plunge toward a silent grave. Can they manage to pull it back from the precipice? Find out in this tale of love, heartache and miracles.

A short story about somewhat misfit 8th grader, her father, a summer reading assignment to read the Diary of Anne Frank, and the events of 9/11Joan becomes involved in a war that will change her life forever. She discovers that the world holds many secrets, even magic beyond her wildest dreams. The existence of immortality drove humanity to the edge. Humans are hunting Joan's kind to extinction. Circumstances force her to act. She wishes to put an end to the slaughter of innocent Tainted Beings. Only she has the courage to step up. How far can a hero fall before they became a villain? The road of revenge is a dangerous and slippery path. That doesn't stop Joan from making the ultimate decision of becoming an assassin. Her true test is to prevail and not become consumed by darkness. Will she succeed or will she turn into the monster she was trying to destroy?

A short guide to the works in The Ostraka Plays collection. Here you will find some thoughts and observations behind the plays.The following Companion outlines in some detail the works collected together as The Ostraka Plays, together with some observations behind the writing process and a larger overview of the theatre these plays occupy. Each play is discussed in some detail and all are grouped together under the rubric of the ostracised: those people and characters who are ejected or abandoned from the social body.

All Eva wants is to disappear into the busy day to day of the circus she ran away to--but a dangerous mask falls into her hands and drives her into death defying acts.In The Hanged Man's Ghost, Fynn met the ghost of a circus performer named Eva. The Girl with Two Faces tells the story of fourteen-year-old Eva's encounter with a cursed mask that drives her to seek fame with more and more dangerous feats of tightrope walking.Eva will have to find the strength to break free of the mask's influence and make peace with the father she's hated her whole life.Prequel to The Hanged Man's Ghost.

Danald has been lost but now, at last, Rhia has found him...or has she? And what of Omron, the evil wizard who hates them both? Who of the three will live to see the morning?James Spicer is a 12 year old boy in his first year of secondary school. Everyone thinks James is weird, even his parents worry because he draws and paints such dark pictures. James has a fertile imagination and loves to create paintings of werewolves, vampires, dragons, witches, and all kinds of unbelievable creatures. At school James is bullied and labelled as one of the weirdo kids. The only person who doesn’t think James is weird is his grandpa and he died two years earlier.James is desperate to fit in but his incredible imagination involving dark creatures is not easily accepted by anyone. Daily he faces bullying at school. After one particularly dreadful day James catches his shadow stealing the light from behind his eyes. James is pulled through his bathroom mirror into an incredible fantasy underworld. There James’ journey takes him through fantastical realms of strange creatures, culminating in his meeting the King of Shadows. James’ quest is successful and he returns with a new found confidence and readiness to face life’s challenges. However once again he comes face to face by the bullies. This time, however, James is equipped with his newly honed skills to deal with his problems.

A collection of mostly free verse poems written throughout the author’s adolescence and young adulthood. This is the familiar story of striving for progression, while continuously digressing. It is an attempt to show the struggle that we all face in growing: we move on, but not always forward, and not always in a straight line.A collection of mostly free verse poems written throughout the author’s adolescence and young adulthood. This is the familiar story of striving for progression, while continuously digressing. It is an attempt to show the struggle that we all face in growing: we move on, but not always forward, and not always in a straight line. In these pages are stories of unrequited love and sadness, as well as hopefulness, found truly only in One Source.~~“A nice book of no-nonsense poetry. Some of it was really quite emotional. I liked this collection!”– 4 stars “Nice poetry book” by BookLover