National Network for Equitable Library Service

Selected by Jeffrey Deaver and Raymond Benson, this is a collection of mystery/thriller short stories from some of today's top writers.

24 Award-Winning Authors and Illustrators Accompanied by Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynn Nye, Jerry Pournelle, Ciruelo and Echo Chernik and Edited by David Farland Your search for something new and different in sci-fi and fantasy ends here. Presenting this year's collection of fresh voices, fabulous worlds, and fantastic new characters. Each year, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests' blue-ribbon judges search the world to discover and introduce to you the very best new talent in sci-fi and fantasy. Created by L.

"Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: give me leave to do my utmost." This line from "Babette's Feast" lends itself to both of the stories in this audio collection, which tell of unbreakable human spirit and total commitment to life choices. "Babette's Feast," now an award-winning film, takes a humorous look at a pure-spirited community in which love, lost youth, self-denial, and creative urges contribute to making the right choices. And "Sorrow-Acre," the most anthologized of Isak Dinesen's stories, challenges the most profound choice of all.

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, five Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards, the renowned writer Ursula K. Le Guin has, in each story and novel, created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

Zinnia, Mississippi, rolls out the red carpet for controversial food activist Priya Karsan. When the event turns bizarre - and downright deadly - PI partners Sarah Booth and Tinkie are on the case. But it's the detective agency's four-legged gumshoes, Sweetie Pie, Chablis, and Pluto, who save the day.

Here are twelve short stories by Anton Chekhov, one of the finest masters of what is acknowledged to be a difficult genre. There is the richly comic Oh! The Public, about a hassled ticket inspector, a wry look at morals and manners in The Chorus Girl, and the melancholic tale of a cab driver in Misery. Perhaps the finest of all is the novella In The Ravine, a minutely observed look at life in a village through the eyes of one family. All the characters come to life with their foibles, their strengths, and their hopes.

A collection of three stories by Louis L'Amour: "Black Rock," "Gamble of the KT," and "Showdown Trail."

Woody and the gang go on a campout, Cinderella tells her mouse friends a bedtime story, Pooh and Piglet have a best-friend sleepover, Pongo puts his puppies to bed, and more. With 365 stories, bedtime has never been so much fun.

The fictional town of Liverwood’s main employer is the potash mine that seems to arc over the town and everything people do. With a novel-like persistence to detail, Trettwer’s stories observe how the townspeople thread their way through the thorn-fields of their relationships, which are complicated by their addictions and obsessions and by the numbing constancy of their lives. In the background the mine looms large, its four-rotor boring machines rumble deep under the earth, while six kilometers away, Liverwood town life embraces their rhythm.

The stories in Farnsworth’s The Things She’ll Be Leaving Behind explore what it means to be a woman in the modern world, struggling against circumstances that are often unfair, inexplicable, and destructive. The women in this book don’t always behave in ways that are sensible or advisable or, for that matter, likely to result in success, but there’s a warped logic to what they do and the reasons they do it are intrinsically human.