In this brilliantly rendered, LA Times Book Prize nominated debut collection (as well as Longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award), Sara Lippmann draws the reader into the intimate lives of characters seeking connection beyond their scripted worlds. She captures the beguiling transformation from child to adult with humor, heartache, and desperation. From grieving mothers to fathers adrift, old flames to restless teens, isolated characters in Doll Palace ar...

Thirty-five year old Cassandra (aka Cass, Cassie, Cassidy, and Cassiopeia) Trout is going nowhere fast. Stuck in her hometown of Philadelphia, she spends her lackluster days working retail and running, and then rinse, repeat. But a surprise wedding invitation from an estranged childhood friend is set to change all that.Sally Sellers has made it big in London and is eager to flesh out her guest list. Cass and Sally were once inseparable, sharing everything from boys...

With Jerks, Sara Lippmann rides the proverbial clutch between wanting and having. Ambivalent mothers, aging suburbanites, restless teens, survivalist parents, and disaffected wives—desire is a live wire, however frayed; a reminder that life, for all its sputtering stall outs, is still worth living. The messy characters in these eighteen stories may hack up their bedsheets with group sex, anonymous sex, infidelity, and a literal handsaw, but there's tenderness, too...

Provocative new readings of biblical texts by major contemporary Jewish writers.Finalist for the 2025 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Religion categoryLot's daughters rebel against their predatory father, Jacob wrestles an angel in a queer underground nightclub, Job arrives in the form of an avaricious former sorority girl-Smashing the Tablets presents a collection of provoca...

“This book is for rebellious adults only. . . . Inspires instant recognition of childhoods past. . . . A joy.”—PeopleUniversal and timeless, Delia Ephron's How to Eat Like a Child is a delightful revisiting of the joys—and tricky ploys—of childhood. Made into a children's television special and a musical theater revue performed across the country each year, How to Eat Like a Child offers advice beyond the artful etiquette of food consumption. Ephron also teaches us "How to Laugh Hy...

When Jill McCorkle feels a short story coming on, she goes right ahead and "wastes" wonderful ideas instead of hoarding them for a novel. The result is another extraordinary collection of stories and characters. In "It's a Funeral! RSVP," the storyteller is a woman who takes up self-styled "careers" that suit her circumstances. Now she's stumbled onto one that's so successful that she just can't quit. It's planning funerals, what she calls Going Out Parties, in which the clients are the so...

Dragnet Anthology 1 collects some of the best works from the first eight issues of Dragnet Magazine (dragnetmag.net), the online literary journal that isn’t afraid to approach serious topics with humour. Covering the period from February 2011 to July 2013, it features such fine catches asA.G. PasquellaAmelia FloortjeAndre BabynAndrew J. BorkowskiAndrew FaulknerAndrew F. SullivanAndy Sinclair

Dive into a New York that might be.Drunk fairies, chain smoking mermaids, and wise bartenders are just some of the characters you'll find in this collection of strange tales of New York City.Time stops, windows open into other worlds, and on occasion, people transform in marvelous ways. The collection is sometimes gritty, often funny, and occasionally scandalous.But most importantly each story will draw you into a secret world most of us never see. Seductive and hil...

**#1 New York Times bestseller!In this unforgettable collection of essays, acclaimed humorist David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface.**Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all so...

Three hilarious books in one from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author on marriage, motherhood, and the absurdities of suburban life.If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? is Erma Bombeck's timelessly witty look at the hidden side of married life.Motherhood captures one of the toughest jobs on earth with humor and heart.The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank is Bombeck's take on th...

Are you tired of feeling like you have to check social media to find out what you're supposed to think?Are you weary of the latest self-help books that promise to set you free but only imprison you with laundry lists of studies to consider, positive affirmations to recite, and Facebook groups to join?We've all seen the memes that populate the internet: live your truth, follow your heart, you only have one life to live. They sound nice and positive....

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This essay collection from the “bitches gotta eat” blogger, writer on Hulu’s Shrill and HBO's And Just Like That, and “one of our country’s most fierce and foulmouthed authors” (Amber Tamblyn, Vulture) is sure to make you alternately cackle with glee and cry real tears."A sidesplitting polemicist for the most awful situations.”—The New York Times**Whether Samantha Irby is talking about how her diffic...