Margret lives in a small house out in the country where she hosts a weekly knitting club with her good friends Dot, Rebecca, Vera, and Sage. This isn' t your average knitting club: the five older women have been writing sci-fi books together for a decade, all along keeping it secret by using the pen name Rod Reaper. It is going better than ever: they are about to get an award at a sci-fi convention that will mean book sales and maybe even a movie deal. But to get the award, the author need...

Rory' s Not That Guy: And Other Tales from Middle America takes the reader on a tour of " flyover country," from struggling small towns to honky-tonks to the parts of cities that don' t make it onto postcards. It' s 19 short stories, many humorous, many not, include coming of age in a hopeless small town (" Art" ), what if you could go back in time and go to high school again (" No Returns" ), and what happens when your carefully arranged world is disrupted by civil unrest (" Willie Wallac...

Life is not going as planned for Sybil Voss. Growing up in a small town on the Great Plains, she had one goal: to get out as soon as she could. She succeeded, moving to New York after college and building a reasonably happy life. But now she' s back, the sole caregiver for her elderly father who suffers from " media-induced psychosis" and can only communicate through TV sitcoms. But Sybil' s making the best of it, running her antique business, " New York ' Tiques," serving as mayor (since ...

Jack is a Vietnam vet who had hit rock bottom. He's still got a long way to go, but now things are starting to look up — he's off the junk, has a room at the Rand Hotel and works temp most days. Best of all, his long-estranged blind father has come to visit. Jack wants to impress, so he decides to fluff up his situation by embellishing on what the old man can’t see. How can that fail?It’s 1979 on Block E, the center of a woebegone Times Square-type district filled with characters o...

A man living in a flophouse tries to impress his long-estranged blind father by embellishing on what the old man can’t see. Two employees of a porn theater pick the wrong day to get stoned. A fragile young woman and follower of a street preacher witnesses a tragedy, setting her on a mission that may be beyond her abilities.It’s 1979 on Block E, a woebegone Times Square-type district filled with characters of all stripes—hookers and the homeless, addicts and drug dealers. But the st...

The anthology includes 40 works representing a wide range of Minnesota experiences and voices, from urban to rural, from historical to present day. From celebrating the connection many of us feel to a community, to the beauty of the north woods, to struggling to find a way to keep our hard-earned home or to carve out a home in a sometimes hostile land, Home is a truly American story.

12 stories from the heart of South Minneapolis: Lake Street.Lake Street cuts across Minneapolis from west to east, from the urbane to the urban to the blue-collar. North and south, it is the dividing line between inner-city neighborhoods and tidy bedroom communities. Lake Street is a polyglot of people from all corners of the world mixing with lifelong Minneapolitans.These stories connect people's hope for a new beginning with the history of what was.

Dwayne has plans. He’s working his way through college, and he has no doubt that he’s going to be an architect one day. But until that day, Dwayne is stuck working at the box office of a miserable little porno theater. Boring job, usually, and today especially so. His co-worker, Chulo, seems bent on distracting Dwayne from his homework. Mister straight and narrow, maybe Dwayne needs a distraction. Chulo pulls out a joint, and Dwayne decides: what the heck. What could go wrong?It’s ...

Sister Sarah is a damaged young woman who is sure Brother Jed has the answers. Every evening he stands on a box on the worst corner in town bringing the Good Word to all the lost people walking by, while she and her fellow sisters hand out pamphlets. Sister Sarah has found a safe community to which to belong; she believes in what she is doing, and she likes her fellow sisters. But when she witnesses a tragedy, it’s too much for her to fit into her neat little worldview. She must know more,...

Camping sounded like a great idea—until it wasn’t.In book fifteen of the #1 international bestselling series, the Heffleys hit the road and end up stuck in a flooded RV park.Are they in over their heads, or can they rescue their disastrous vacation?A great read for ages 8–12 who love wild outdoor adventures and the unexpected surprises of camp life.Collect all the books in the #1 bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series: ...

**#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...

A New York Times , USA Today , and Publishers Weekly bestseller"This character-driven romance will enthrall [Rivers's] many fans." ― Library JournalThe New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming Love returns to her romance roots with this unexpected and redemptive love story, a p...