National Network for Equitable Library Service

From the eerily "real," almost holographic evocations of historical figures like Lyndon Johnson, over-televised game show hosts, and late-night comedians, to the title story, where terminal punk nihilism meets Young Republicanism, Wallace renders the incredible comprehensible, the bizarre normal, the absurd hilarious, and the familiar strange.

In this volume of fifteen tales of the town known to readers of Anne of Green Gables, a Persian cat plays an amazing role in a marriage proposal, and a foolish lie threatens to make an unattached woman the town's laughingstock.

Twenty-three science fiction and fantasy authors explore the depth and breadth of caring and of giving. They find insight, joy, devastation, and heroism in grand sweeps and in tiny niches. And, like wasps made of stinging words, there is pain in giving, and in working one's way through to the light. Our lives and relationships are complex. But in the end, there is hope, and there is love. These are their stories. Children giving care. Dogs and cats giving care. Sidekicks, military, monks, ghosts, robots. Even aliens. Care given by lovers, family, professionals.

All emotions are universal. We born, we dream, we strive, we die...Where the stars rise? Stories that bind us together regardless where we come from or where we are going-on Earth or in space. Futuristic Istanbul. Kerala waters. Cebu jungles. Gyeongbok Palace. Post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Follow twenty-three science fiction and fantasy authors and their stories seen from an Asian perspective and envisioned through Asian eyes. Even beyond being Asian, the characters are diverse within themselves as they explore magic and science and deal with love, race, and politics.

In these powerful stories the verandah people are Jonathan Bennett's own compatriots: Australians for whom the ever-present verandah is both stage and shelter, a retreat from hostile bushland or city street and a seductive barrier to participation in the wider world.

Marianne Ackerman's second collection of stories for Guernica puts the focus on women, their ascent into selfhood, the beauty and carnage of the their journey. Literary Montreal is the setting of two stories spun around an alpha poseur, George. Picking up from the Gothic shadows of Albert Fine in Holy Fools (Guernica, 2014), Ackerman follows the lives of an Ontario farm family marked by a bloody incident they struggle to understand. Four interlocking stories plumb the secrets of one man's sister, ex-wife, friend and mother.

Recently launched with ECW Press, Joyland eBooks presents new collections from the best voices in short fiction. For the special price of 19.95 you can start reading all three of our titles right now on any device.

The Joyland Trio Deal includes:

How I Came to Haunt My Parents by Natalee Caple

"Moving...unsettling." -- The New York Times on The Heart Has Its Own Reason.

How I Came to Haunt My Parents is storytelling for parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In this beautifully written suite of short fiction Natalee Caple explores fables from the dark side of adulthood and imagines what moral Aesop may have offered to a mother who gave birth to a murderous dictator. Caple's animals and humans are imbued with modern complexity as they confront sex, death, and history, but her stories are as witty as they are profoundly lucid.

“Quirky, Sedaris-style musings with unexpected theatrical trimmings.” — Time Out Chicago

These days, reality can be hard to swallow. How do we get to the end of day, let alone the end of the week? Some people drink, others get therapy, but all of us — hidden in the secret places in the backs of our minds — have fantasies. These are what we wish for, fight for, live for. Maybe yours is a pretty girl. Maybe it’s a better job. Maybe its the love that’ll swoop down makes everything seem okay.

This debut collection of stories — featuring a talk-show host and her talking hand, a women’s activity group that writes to prisoners, and a poncho-making nudist — is as unique as it is compelling. Set in their own melodramatic worlds, the stories take inspiration from Old Hollywood, Gothic novels, art-world gossip, and maybe a Lifetime movie or two. Balzer’s observations are as sharp as Flaubert’s, and his characters are drawn with the complexity of George Saunders (and the wit of George Sanders).