Gish Jen

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Iowa

Stories

In her first collection of stories since the acclaimed Who's Irish?, the beloved author of The Resisters refracts the fifty years since the opening of China through the lives of ordinary people. Beginning with a cheery, kindly letter penned by a Chinese girl in heaven to "poor Mr. Nixon" in hell, Gish Jen embarks on an eleven-story journey through U.S.-Chinese relations, capturing not only the excitement of a world on the brink of tectonic change, but the all-too-human encounters that ensue as East meets West. Opal Chen reunites with her sisters in China after a hiatus of almost forty years; American Arnie Hsu clashes with his Chinese girlfriend, Lulu Koo, who wonders why Americans "like to walk around in the woods with the mosquitoes"; Tina and Johnson Koo take wholly surprising measures to reestablish contact when their "number one daughter," Bobby, stops answering her phone in New York; and Betty Koo, brought up on "no politics, just make money," finds she must square her mother's philosophy with the repression in Hong Kong. With their profound compassion, equally profound humor, and unexpected connections, these masterly stories reflect history's shifting shadow over our boldest decisions and most intimate moments. Gradually accruing the power of a novel as it proceeds, Thank You, Mr. Nixon furnishes yet more proof of Jen's enduring place among the most eminent of American storytellers.

Thank You, Mr. Nixon (signed, first edition)

5069c482-c32b-4fd9-9778-644a8b6d60d2-1

McSweeney's Books Staff

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Oregon

McSweeney's, Issue 20

9e6b4e2f-2a9b-44b8-93a6-c1f9575daa5b-0

Walter Mosley

First edition. Signed.  Very good shape.  Edges and cover show slight wear.  No marks, highlighting or underlining. 

Virginia

Bestselling author Walter Mosley long ago proved himself a master of narrative tension, both with his extraordinary fiction and gripping writing for television.The Awkward Black Man collects seventeen of Mosley's most accomplished short stories to showcase the full range of his remarkable talent. Mosley presents exceptional characters as they struggle to move through the world and navigate relationships, and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these remarkable black people. In "The Good News Is," a man's insecurity about his weight gives way to a serious illness and the intense loneliness that accompanies it. Deeply vulnerable, he allows himself to be taken advantage of in return for a little human comfort in a raw display of true need. "Pet Fly," previously published in theNew Yorker, follows a man working as a mailroom clerk for a big company--a solitary job for which he is overqualified--and the unforeseen repercussions he endures when he attempts to forge a connection beyond the one he has with the fly buzzing around his apartment. And "Almost Alyce" chronicles failed loves, family loss, alcoholism, and a Zen approach to the art of begging that proves surprisingly effective. Touching and contemplative, each of these unexpected stories offers the best of one of our most gifted writers.

The Awkward Black Man

9912646b-c008-4ee6-99ab-f6ece945f107

John Coyne

Number 382/750

This book has never been read, but the front end page is unglued from the signature page. The endpage is still in tight and will not fall out.

North Dakota

And Other Stories

A Game in the Sun

b4a9786a-0bb3-4e95-8f80-83155754eebb-1

Stephen King

520, 1st edition/ 1st printing,  collectors set as new with dvd unopened and still intact

New Hampshire

collector's set

This collection of short works is comprised of pieces that previously appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Playboy, and McSweeney's, in a volume that includes such tales as ""The Gingerbread Girl"" and "N."

Just after Sunset

07ae62d5-69c6-4c57-a35b-16f946eb7a22-1

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption

The most popular, provocative, and unforgettable essays from the New York Times "Modern Love" column--now revised and updated, featuring stories from the upcoming anthology series starring Tina Fey, Andy Garcia, Anne Hathaway, Catherine Keener, Dev Patel, and John Slattery.tery.

Modern Love, Revised and Updated

60f1caaf-4a4d-4761-a0c8-198c637840c4-1

Ohio

“A knockout of a book.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer and The Committed “Fiona and Jane is the book I did not know I was waiting to be written. . . . Read this remarkable work of fiction and feel the world open up around you.” —Angela Flournoy, author of National Book Award finalist The Turner House “Unsentimental, subtly subversive, and always surprising. . . . I love this book.” —Cathy Park Hong, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Minor Feelings A witty, warm, and irreverent book that traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades. Best friends since second grade, Fiona Lin and Jane Shen explore the lonely freeways and seedy bars of Los Angeles together through their teenage years, surviving unfulfilling romantic encounters, and carrying with them the scars of their families' tumultuous pasts. Fiona was always destined to leave, her effortless beauty burnished by fierce ambition—qualities that Jane admired and feared in equal measure. When Fiona moves to New York and cares for a sick friend through a breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane remains in California and grieves her estranged father's sudden death, in the process alienating an overzealous girlfriend. Strained by distance and unintended betrayals, the women float in and out of each other's lives, their friendship both a beacon of home and a reminder of all they've lost. In stories told in alternating voices, Jean Chen Ho's debut collection peels back the layers of female friendship—the intensity, resentment, and boundless love—to probe the beating hearts of young women coming to terms with themselves, and each other, in light of the insecurities and shame that holds them back. Spanning countries and selves, Fiona and Jane is an intimate portrait of a friendship, a deep dive into the universal perplexities of being young and alive, and a bracingly honest account of two Asian women who dare to stake a claim on joy in a changing, contemporary America.

Fiona and Jane

ae5a5ef1-2b9a-4181-85a9-8f73fec85781-1

N. K. Jemisin

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories. "Marvelous and wide-ranging."--Los Angeles Times"Gorgeous" --NPR Books"Breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."--Entertainment Weekly Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story "The City Born Great," a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul. For more from N. K. Jemisin, check out: The Inheritance TrilogyThe Hundred Thousand KingdomsThe Broken KingdomsThe Kingdom of Gods The Inheritance Trilogy (omnibus edition)Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych (e-only short fiction)The Awakened Kingdom (e-only novella) Dreamblood DuologyThe Killing MoonThe Shadowed Sun The Dreamblood Duology (omnibus) The Broken EarthThe Fifth SeasonThe Obelisk GateThe Stone Sky

How Long 'til Black Future Month?

347b382a-329a-4d85-86b1-55255f0de43f-1

Melissa Albert

California

A gorgeously illustrated collection of the twelve original stories that frame Melissa Albert’s New York Times bestsellers The Hazel Wood and The Night Country. Before The Hazel Wood, there was Althea Proserpine’s Tales from the Hinterland... Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice—and still lives. Perfect for new readers and dedicated Hinterland fans alike, Tales from the Hinterland features full-page illustrations by Jim Tierney, foil stamping, two-color interior printing, and printed endpapers.

Tales from the Hinterland SIGNED Illustrated Edition

ce3a7d83-db1a-472a-9967-f49b3c5fca64-1

Jess Walter

Steph Cha

Vermont

A collection of the year's best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by #1 New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Jess Walter and series editor Steph Cha. 

New York Times bestselling author and "superb storyteller" (Boston Globe), Jess Walter flexes his genre chops and selects twenty short stories that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022

de1538cc-8432-460d-9686-a7dd05b300a7-1

Hardcover w/ DJ price clipped 
DJ poor, foxing and torn on cover and along edges. The book is in good-great condition. Minor foxing on top book block. Clean text, tight binding 

Rhode Island

Goodbye, Columbus 1966 First Modern Library Edition

Leigh Bardugo

☀️Shadow and Bone series Graphic novel, small tear in corner, otherwise no imperfections, beautiful illustrations :)

Discover the start of a grand and sinister destiny in Demon in the Wood, the must-have graphic novel prequel to the bestselling book series and international Netflix sensation Shadow and Bone from spectacular new talent Dani Pendergast and #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo.

Before he led Ravka's Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power.

Eryk and his mother, Lena, have spent their lives on the run. But they will never find a safe haven. They are not only Grisha--they are the deadliest and rarest of their kind. Feared by those who wish to destroy them and hunted by those who would exploit their gifts, they must hide their true abilities wherever they go. But sometimes deadly secrets have a way of revealing themselves . . .

Praise for Demon in the Wood

"An absolutely vital addition to the Shadow and Bone world...centering on the Darkling when he was just a boy, this tragic and beautiful story adds layers to the villain we know and the scared child he once was." -- Nerdist

"An illuminating new chapter in the Darkling's origin story." - Entertainment Weekly

Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel

a1d448d1-47ca-43ea-85e7-6d1cbd7e7a49-1

Alvin Schwartz

#paperback #horror #fiction #childrens #shortstories #legends #art #misscassiereads 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

cde74a5b-6a7e-4082-a689-edf9d613d10f-1

David Foster Wallace

373 pages. Selection of stories. Book shows signs of use, ear marked, creased, soft wrinkles.

Texas

Stories 1989 edition

This collection could possibly represent the first flowering of post-postmoderism: visions of the world that re-imagine reality as more realistic than we can imagine. A compelling presence of a holograph and the up-to-the-second feeling of the most advanced art. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Girl with Curious Hair

78f9921c-2f82-4f08-968e-87516118d5dc-1

Colorado

Weird Tales

4eb750e0-28dd-402f-8166-f70875bf7eb7-0

#immigrantstories
#paperback #fiction #womenauthors #anthology #shortstories #howtopronounceknife 

A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize, this revelatory story collection honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her stunning debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do--brightly, ferociously, unforgettably. Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation. "As the daughter of refugees, I'm able to finally see myself in stories." --Angela So, Electric Literature

How to Pronounce Knife

66ed8a67-bd95-44ac-b10f-7f7dc1392833-1

Massachusetts

Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird

Spine is broken, it’s a bad habit of mine. Read about half before DNF’d. Just not my style of book.#paperback #shortstories #paperback #adult 

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction “[These stories] vibrate with originality, queerness, sensuality and the strange.”—Roxane Gay “In these formally brilliant and emotionally charged tales, Machado gives literal shape to women’s memories and hunger and desire. I couldn’t put it down.”—Karen Russell In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naïvely assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes. Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction.

Her Body and Other Parties

2437ce92-1a95-48ed-be9c-14e7cf04b811-1

J. D. Scott

Beautiful and magical book filled with short stories. Dreamlike prose, magical scrolls, a drowned twin returning from the sea, a drama on life and death of an ancient chinchilla… in perfect condition! Needs a new home if you like fantastical short stories from a new talent.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The award-winning debut collection of short fiction by New York resident JD Scott.

Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day

9c82484a-3bd3-4f3d-9724-678ec6bd35f0-1

Arkansas

Fiction. Asian American Studies. MEMORY SICKNESS by Phong Nguyen is the winner of the 2010 Elixir Press Fiction Award. It is a loosely related series of short stories, set in Rhode Island, that illuminates our tentative and painful paths in this world. William Giraldi has this to say about it: "Dead-on in its depiction of modern malaise, MEMORY SICKNESS will burn in your own memory forever, assuring you of the sickness we are. Phong Nguyen has crafted stories with zero at the bone, stories of how the child is father of the man, of what we do to one another in this world, and what we do to ourselves. His Providence, Rhode Island, seems borne into being by the bastard offspring of Denis Johnson and Mary Gaitskill: a place of danger, horror, and the dim hope necessary for our survival. This book will scar you."

Memory Sickness, and Other Stories

b12b0817-ac24-4408-bc7f-48c39c615953-1

John Joseph Adams

Stories of the Apocalypse

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence . . . the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon . . . these are our guides through the Wastelands. From the Book of Revelation to ''The Road Warrior'', from ''A Canticle for Leibowitz'' to ''The Road'', storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse. Gathering together the best postapocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction - including George R. R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King - Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders. Wastelands delves into this bleak landscape, uncovering the raw human emotion and heart-pounding thrills at the genre's core.

Wastelands

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#hardcover #fiction #classics #shortstories #literature #historicalfiction #American #southerngothic #southern #anthologies

Connecticut

The Portable Faulkner

#hardcover #fiction #zadiesmith #shortstories #signededition

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal! A dazzling collection of short fiction Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and her inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. Interleaving eleven completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from The New Yorker and elsewhere, Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction. Moving exhilaratingly across genres and perspectives, from the historic to the vividly current to the slyly dystopian, Grand Union is a sharply alert and prescient collection about time and place, identity and rebirth, the persistent legacies that haunt our present selves and the uncanny futures that rush up to meet us. Nothing is off limits, and everything—when captured by Smith’s brilliant gaze—feels fresh and relevant. Perfectly paced and utterly original, Grand Union highlights the wonders Zadie Smith can do.

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