At first, Willy was stoic when the doctor told him that he had pancreatic cancer and only six months left to live. But Willy rebelled against his own mind and philosophy, and he made a decision; With the time left to him he would do what he had spent a lifetime denying – he would have some fun! With that thought in his mind Willy's Bucket List was created.William J. Demeter received the news of his death with the same stoicism that he demonstrated in all areas of his life. When the doctor told him that he had pancreatic cancer he accepted it with stoic resolve, and when the doctor told him he had only six months left to live he accepted that news the same way. It was only after rereading Voltaire's Candide that doubts started to creep in. The question hadn't crossed his mind in many years, in fact it had laid long buried in his subconscious for most of his adult life, but the genie had been re-released and could not be put back into the bottle with any success - “if God is both All-powerful and Good, why is there evil in the world? As Voltaire had railed against Pope's “Clear truth that what is, is right” and Leibnitz’s belief that “this was the best of all possible worlds” Willy now rebelled against his own mind and philosophy, and he made a decision.With the time left to him he would do what he had spent a lifetime denying – he would have some fun! With that thought in his mind Willy's Bucket List was created. “If I am going to die soon then what is the point of denying myself anything that would make that time more pleasant?”

From a rat’s eye view of the London blitz to a cadaver with a complaint about the size of her coffin, this collection of short stories brings us into a comically surreal world that will leave you questioning your ability to tell up from down.From a rat’s eye view of the London blitz to a cadaver with a complaint about the size of her coffin, this collection of short stories brings us into a comically surreal world that will leave you questioning your ability to tell up from down.What the characters in these stories have in common is their passage through a moment of crisis: the teacher who must face down an aggressive student in the award winning Interactive Classroom; Shep, the sheep-turned sheep dog, who wants to turn back the clock and become a sheep again; or the paranoid David Vincent, who is convinced the office he works in is being infiltrated by alien imposters who are now coming for him. In terms of genre, the stories range from the post-modernist science fiction of 6 Hits from the Safe Zone, The Mission and Debt, Death and Deletion to the more macabre dark humour of Guest in the Attic and The Undertaker’s Complaint. Historical fiction is also included, with an alcoholic Churchill burping his way to greatness. Some works place comedy to the fore, such as The Interactive Sexual Attraction Device.If we tire of fiction, travel writing brings us back to the real world, in which the author offers his unique perspective on China, India and Lebanon. The Boots anthology finishes with samples from the author’s novels, converted into short stories.All the pieces in this collection have been published in various locations and are now brought together in one collection. Take your psyche for a walk with Boots.

It's no ordinary Thursday for Marvin Redpost and his class... It's "hole day," and even Mrs. North and Principal McCabe are wearing their very worst clothes. It seemed like a fun idea that morning, but now they're expecting company. The president -- of the United States! -- is on his way. And there's no time to change! Marvin must do math on the blackboard with television cameras pointed at him. And the day is just beginning!

When a down-on-her-luck divorcee meets a determined-to-dominate detective, they find out that falling in love can be murder... Nell Dysart's in trouble. Weighed down by an inexplicable divorce and a loss of appetite for everything, Nell is sleepwalking through life until her best friend finagles a job for her with a shabby little detective agency that has lots of potential and a boss who looks easy to manage. Gabe McKenna isn't doing too well, either. His detective agency is wasting time on a blackmail case, his partner has decided he hates watching cheating spouses for money, and his ex-wife has just dumped him...again. The only thing that's going his way is that his new secretary looks efficient, boring, and biddable. But looks can be deceiving and soon Nell and Gabe are squaring off over embezzlement, business cards, vandalism, dog-napping, blackmail, Chinese food, unprofessional sex, and really ugly office furniture, all of which turn out to be the least of their problems. Because soon, somebody starts killing people. And shortly after that, they start falling in love...

So! You think only humans have adventures? Have you never watched "Milo and Otis" or "Homeward Bound?" Bah! Meet Bruno the Newf, and share his consternation as he struggles with the baffling Humans, most of whom need minders that few of them possess. In this installment, our hero must deal incisively with a fractured marriage, a late-night intrusion...and a knife.Summary: An awful mistake begins a summer-long crazy, great, and tragic adventure to search for clues to solve a mystery, and pure optimism in spirit and song maintains hope for forgiveness and success.Chisel’s whole summer will turn out to be one perilous adventure after another, in places like the jungles of Volcano Island, The Haunted Woods, Look Around Mountain, and The Cave of the Tooth.Chisel will have to develop plans of escape including disguises #1, 2, and 3, use his flying skateboard hot-air-trash-bag-balloon-plane, and create the worst stink bomb recipe in the world to subdue his pursuers. He must overcome his own fear, and despair, always looking on the bright side of life by singing his songs of optimism. Then when all seems lost he must decide whether to follow mysterious images that appear to him.Each day follow Chisel on the Master Map, listen to the songs he sings, and enjoy the pure “hootbalootin” fun, adventure, and optimism. Then journey with Chisel as he builds the world’s largest tree house (to shoot tomatoes at the Flying Squirrels with his giant sling shot), discover with him how to make gum with amazing flavors like buttered popcorn and pepperoni pizza, and see if he can find the treasure of Pootan’s Forest.Then envision Chisel saying, “Hope is free, and hope is mine, today I grab it and will not let go! And if anyone has lost it, come see me. I have plenty you can borrow.”You’ll find all this and more in Chisel Hedgehog’s tragic, but amazing, Crazy Great Summer!Show More Show Less

"Mr. Jacobson sniffs little girls' bicycle seats," Benjamin Carter announced cavalierly as though the topic made for polite dinner conversation.The family had just sat down to the evening meal. Grace Carter poured some gravy on her mash potatoes, cleared her throat and asked, "Where exactly did you learn this?"Adrian is still mourning his wife, whom had chose the life of her future son to hers. A son who is innocently unaware of the way he was brought into this world. A son he has to love completely, although he is constantly reminded of his departed wife, because of their resemblance, and their ability to love unconditionally, without question. This is a story about breaking barriers between father and son.

A love-starved young woman slips away every night to adventure with dragons, mermaids and even aliens but then she wakes up.A love-starved young woman slips away every night to adventure with dragons, mermaids and even aliens but then she wakes up. In this unusual, Christian sci fi fantasy novel, Cara Peirce wants to help people. She wants love but making connections in real life just isn't something she's good at. Through an unsettling turn of events, Cara finds herself a mostly-willing participant in a bizarre life in which she only feels truly alive in her dreams. Her surreal adventures in other realms seem important, somehow. And, almost every night, she dreams of the same guy - Blaze Saxon. In the end, only whispers remain. But the end is only the beginning. This is the story of a faded dreamer.

In this adventurous installment of James Patterson's bestselling Middle School series, everyone's favorite underdog hero Rafe Khatchadorian is headed to the dangerous wilds of Australia! Rafe isn't exactly considered a winner in Hills Village Middle School to say the least, but everything's about to change: he's won a school-wide art competition, and the fabulous prize is getting to jet off to Australia for a whirlwind adventure! But Rafe soon finds that living in the Land Down Under is harder than he could've ever imagined: his host-siblings are anything but welcoming, the burning temperatures are torturous, and poisonous critters are ready to sting or eat him at every step. So with the help of some new misfit friends, Rafe sets out to show everyone what he does best: create utter mayhem!

This unreasonably clean and sometimes edgy book of limericks takes a not quite nonsense view of the people, situations, institutions and attitudes which populate our world.For a drunk named Holiday the End of the World might just be the worst hangover he's ever had. Or, the beginning of one last post-apocalyptic binge. The end of the civilization is only the beginning as an odd band of survivors pull together to construct a modern-day castle amid the burning ruins of suburbia lost. As undead hordes and strange otherworldly monsters ravage what’s left of civilization, things begin to go from worse to weird as each survivor’s dark past unfolds, revealing that reality might be more than anyone ever thought, and that an ancient force from the outer dark has finally arrived to conquer. Stephen King’s The Stand meets Lost in an epic confrontation between good and evil that spans history, time, and space.

A comedy.Some of the neighbors believe Mrs. McGillicotty is a little addlepated.Mrs. Elva McGillocotty and her sister are finding dead men in their boarding house and for the life of them they can't figure out why.They are determined to dispose of these bodies before the Constable finds out. But who is the killer?Let's just say you may love the boarders.PG-13.When I went to Wanda's house as I usually did before going to work, I found her despondent. We had had a confrontation the night before and she declared she intended to kill herself because I had treated her so badly. While I watched, puzzled, she took a handful of pills and washed them down with amaretto. I called 911 and she was taken to the hospital. This story tells what happened after that.

Sunitha Bhaskar is a bureaucrat by profession. This is her first book. In this book, the author is sharing some real moments in life which she found lovely. The stories in this book are inspired from small incidences in real life which reflected children’s innocence, wisdom, and love. The readers are very much likely to correlate the stories with incidences in their lives.Sunitha Bhaskar is a bureaucrat by profession. This is her first book. In this book, the author is sharing some real moments in life which she found lovely. All the parents treasure the sweet moments with their children, especially watching the kids growing up. The stories in this book are inspired from small incidences in real life which reflected children’s innocence, wisdom, and love. The stories here may remind the readers of some sweet moments and they are very much likely to correlate the stories with incidences in their lives.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lonesome Dove comes the novel that became the basis for the film Hud, starring Paul Newman. In classic Western style Larry McMurtry illustrates the timeless conflict between the modernity and the Old West through the eyes of Texas cattlemen. Horseman, Pass By tells the story of Homer Bannon, an old-time cattleman who epitomizes the frontier values of honesty and decency, and Hud, his unscrupulous stepson. Caught in the middle is the narrator, Homer's young grandson Lonnie, who is as much drawn to his grandfather’s strength of character as he is to Hud's hedonism and materialism. When first published in 1961, Horseman, Pass By caused a sensation in Texas literary circles for its stark, realistic portrayal of the struggles of a changing West in the years following World War II. Never before had a writer managed to encapsulate its environment with such unsentimental realism. Today, memorable characters, powerful themes, and illuminating detail make Horseman, Pass By vintage McMurtry.

Sam and Elsie have overcome some of the fears and awkwardness of carving out a new life for themselves. How could either of their homes, the places they shared with their former spouses, allow for something new and untethered to the past? The painful decision to break from the familiar to allow the new is hard to make.What is a home? It is a familiar base that protects you, provides for you, while making great demands on you as time goes on. The servant slowly becomes more of a master. Letting go of the past is a frightening thing, which is as it should be. That keeps us from racing into uncertainty with too much risk. But too much reliance upon a past home prevents a new one from having a chance to form. We push our children out of their nest as part of our parental duties. Who, then, will push us out when we are the only one in the nest?

In this fast, funny tale, a thirteen–year–old boy in the Wonder Years era searches for cool. Can he live up to his big brother's rep? Tastes a little like Stand By Me, A Christmas Story, and The Wonder Years. Previously published in The Write Side Up.In this fast, funny tale, a thirteen–year–old boy in the Wonder Years era searches for cool. Can he live up to his big brother's rep? Tastes a little like Stand By Me, A Christmas Story, and The Wonder Years. Previously published in The Write Side Up.

"It was before the Idiot's marriage, and in the days when he was nothing more than a plain boarder in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog's High-class Home for Single Gentlemen, that he put what the School-master termed his "alleged mind" on plans for the amelioration of the condition of the civilized." This humorous story describes how the Idiot sets out to improve the lot of civilized man through his inventions - the lot of barbarian man already being well tended to by missionaries and other do-gooders