The Goodman's Five-Star Stories series is a collection of high-interest anthologies on 10 reading levels featuring well-known short stories from around the world. The selections provide hours of reading pleasure while improving reading and literature skills.

High interest-low vocabulary books.

High interest-low vocabulary books.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A richly textured portrait . . . an intimate look at a closed Orthodox community.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK It is 1976. And the tiny upstate New York town of Kaaterskill Falls is bustling with summer people in dark coats, fedoras, and long, modest dresses. Living side by side with Yankee year-rounders, they are the disciples of Rav Elijah Kirshner. Elizabeth Shulman is a restless wife and mother of five daughters; her imagination transcends her cloistered community. Across the street Andras Melish is drawn to Kaaterskill by his adoring older sisters. Comforted, yet crippled by his sisters’ love, he cannot overcome the ambivalence he feels toward his own children and his young wife. At the top of the hill, Rav Kirshner is nearing the end of his life. As he struggles to decide which of his sons should succeed him—the pious but stolid Isaiah or the brilliant but rebellious Jeremy—his followers wrestle with their future and their past. With this community, Allegra Goodman weaves magic. The nationally bestselling author of The Family Markowitz crafts a tale of family and tradition—one that confirms this author’s place as a virtuoso of her generation.

Lady Sophia Colley, daughter of the late Earl of Tremont, faces mercenary relatives demanding she marry the money her funds-poor father failed to leave them. Gabriel Whitney, Marquess Eastlyn (East to his friends), is tasked by the Crown with opening new trade with China. Calling upon his three boon companions: South, North, and West--The Compass Club--for aid, two things stand in East's way: The Society of Bishops, a group of men who were East's boyhood tormenters, and false rumors of his engagement to Lady Sophia Colley. When East arrives at Lady Sophia's doorstep to dispel the rumor, the last thing he expects is to be entranced by a woman who's lived beneath his notice. East proposes on the spot. Sophie turns him down flat. The desire between them may be impossible to deny, but deny it she must to protect East from a past intrigue that is about to place them both in very present danger. REVIEWS: "Jo Goodman is a master at historical romance." ~Fresh Fiction THE COMPASS CLUB, in series order Let Me Be The One Everything I Ever Wanted All I Ever Needed Beyond A Wicked Kiss THE DENNEHY SISTERS, in series order: Only My Love My Heart's Desire Forever in My Heart Always in My Dreams Only in My Arms THE MARSHALL BROTHERS, in series order: Her Defiant Heart His Heart's Revenge THE THORNE BROTHERS TRILOGY, in series order: My Steadfast Heart My Reckless Heart With All My Heart

"I have a faith in language," said the poet W. S. Merwin. "It's the ultimate achievement that we as a species have evolved so far." Language is a deep ocean of living words, as varied as undersea life. It is a gift inherited by each person when he or she is born; it can be corrupted and regulated, but it cannot be owned. It is an enormous, complex, inexhaustible gift. The Soul of Creative Writing is a tribute to language and to its potentials. It explores the elements of language, style, rhythm, sound, and the choice of the right word. Richard Goodman paints an image of how language can produce a life and meaning that otherwise cannot exist in the symbols themselves.Goodman's stunningly creative collection was written after a lifetime of working and struggling with language. He collects rich examples from writers of the past and present, both great and small, and uses them to illustrate how each element of our written language can be used. The book begins with an analysis of words and how they can be used to create music on the page. Goodman uncovers the strength of words, writing about the shades of meaning that make the search for the exact word both arduous and immensely rewarding. He discusses how to find the proper title and how to find a fitting subject. He show how to create nonfiction work that is vivid and memorable through the use of the same techniques fiction writers employ.Goodman's volume is written with humor and clarity--with fascination and reverence. Writers will find it an indispensable source of creative inspiration and instruction. In Goodman's words, "reading is a tour of a writer's efforts at manipulating language to create art, to create flesh and blood and mountains, cities, homes, and gardens out of inky symbols on the page." To literary critics, this book will be a guide to understanding the tools and devices of great writing.

From four acclaimed authors come four all-new novellas featuring the rugged men of the West and the women who want them… From Jodi Thomas...Callie has done a lot of crazy things, but it’ll take one more to prove she isn’t nuts: find a husband, fast! Her only requirement: he has to be taller than she is and swear not to have her committed during their ruse of a marriage. From Jo Goodman...Felicity Ravenwood was raised to be independent-minded, but when this runaway bride opposes her father’s choices, it is up to Nat Church to bring her around. But he doesn’t count on springing her from jail, holding her hostage, or falling head over boot-heels in love. From Kaki Warner...Two strangers on a train have more in common than they know—both have hidden purposes and ties to a Nebraska bank robbery. But when their schemes unravel, they find a bigger surprise awaiting them than either could have imagined. From Alison Kent...When runaway New York socialite Maeve Daugherty joins her father’s bodyguard Zeb Crow on his personal mission of revenge, what was a slightly scandalous new life as a bookkeeper for an infamous San Antonio brothel becomes downright dangerous. But that’s not stopping Maeve from having the time of her life.