Long time jockey Carl Arvo knows the things he can have and the things he cannot. An unexpected turn of fortune gives him the chance to be with a woman, Christine Fleming, who in some ways is the person he's been looking for his entire life.

Work, and the coffee-fueled day-to-day grind, is the shared concern of these stories, which have been chosen from among the hundreds that have appeared in the prestigious Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction series.More than seventy volumes, which include approximately eight hundred stories, have won the Flannery O'Connor Award. This stunning trove of always engaging, often groundbreaking short fiction is the common source for this anthology on work—and for planned anthologies...

The ten stories in Winter Money are set in rural Kentucky and West Virginia, in dim horse racing and river towns. The men in Andy Plattner’s stories are tough and uncertain, the women independent and disappointed, but they are strong-willed and high-spirited, always believing there’s a better life, just over the horizon, after the next race.The title story depicts the life of a jockey agent who has seen some bad breaks but knows in his heart he can turn things around if he...

Greg Heffley and sports just don’t mix. In Big Shot, the sixteenth book in Jeff Kinney’s #1 international bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Greg is ready to retire from athletics after a disastrous field day—until his mom convinces him to give basketball one last shot.Greg lands on the worst team imaginable, and their chances of winning are slim. But when the ball is in Greg’s hands, anything can happen.A slam dunk for kids ages 8-12 who...

DON’T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK’S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF AND AN UNFORGETTABLE AND SWEEPING FAMILY SAGA.From the author of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger is an acclaimed novel filled with laughter, fists, and love.A MICHAEL L. PRINTZ HONOR BOOKFIVE STARRED REVIEWSEd Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of ...

Dennis Lehane returns to the streets of Mystic River with this love story wrapped in a crime story wrapped in a journey of faith—the basis for the major motion picture The Drop, from Fox Searchlight Pictures directed by Michaël Roskam, screenplay by Dennis Lehane, and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and James Gandolfini.Three days after Christmas, a lonely bartender looking for a reason to live rescues an abused puppy from a trash can and meets ...

Keeping a secret from the past proves deadly for a group of old friends in this New York Times–bestselling thriller by the author of The Bad Sister.A killer’s masterpiece will be painted in cold blood . . .At first, Bridget Corrigan’s work with her twin brother’s senatorial campaign is an exciting distraction from the trauma of her messy divorce. But everything changes when Bridget is reminded of the secret she and Brad have been ...

Kevin Chong has grand plans. He draws up a to-do list of major milestones that will give him the life he always wanted-and the life that will inspire awe and envy in his friends. Things like settling down and starting a family; learning a foreign language; getting a tattoo. But these grand plans go out the window when Chong makes an unconventional decision: he's going to buy a racehorse. Not the whole thing-he'll become part-owner of the horse. Just don't ask him which part.Thus Ch...

As the advertising director of Nutty Nathan's, Nick Stefanos knows all the tricks of the electronics business. Blow-out sales and shady deals were his life. When one of the stockboys disappears, it's not news: just another metalhead who went off chasing some dream of big money and easy living. But the kid reminded Nick of himself twelve years ago: an angry punk hooked on speed metal and the fast life. So when the boy's grandfather begs Nick to find the kid, Nick says he'll try. A Firin...

"Block grabs you with the first story and never lets go" in this indispensable collection packed with unforgettable characters and crimes (Elmore Leonard).Enough Rope, a collection of superb stories, establishes the extraordinary skill, power, and versatility of contemporary Grand Master Lawrence Block. Block's beloved series characters are on hand, including ex-cop Matt Scudder, bookselling burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and the disarming duo of Chip Harrison ...

Get your tissues ready for this unrequited love story that’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews.Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart?Right. That sounds like a b...

This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indige...