Parakeet Races and Other Stories is a memoir that recounts the challenges and escapades of a family of six children in the 1950's which faces the premature death of its mother. Always authentic, each self-contained story can be read in just a few richly rewarding minutes that may leave the reader laughing out loud, crying, or both. Together the stories recount the collective memories of a remarkable set of siblings, three boys and three girls, the father who gives it his very best, and the mother whom the children can barely remember. The stories explore the "mystery" of the mother's death and reflect how the death of a parent in that era was often a topic not to be discussed or processed. The author, Cindy Hall Ranii, is the oldest daughter in the Hall Family, and beyond sharing the memories of her childhood and that of her siblings, she also shares her experiences as a world traveler, first as a teenager in Finland, then as a college student in India and finally as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran. With her keen powers of observation and respectfulness of different cultures she gives the reader the opportunity to eavesdrop on other peoples and other places. In the final segment of Parakeet Races Dr. Ranii takes the reader into the world of disability. Stricken with Transverse Myelitis, a rare neuro-immunologic disorder, she went from playing golf one day to being paralyzed from the chest down four days later. Her accounts of this chapter of her life are told with the same delicious, rhythmic writing style as the other two segments of the book. The author skillfully weaves her stories from decade to decade, taking the reader on a journey that captivates, entertains and challenges.

"In Bad Company, and other stories" by Rolf Boldrewood s a collection of short stories and prose essay. The tales in this volume's collection are: "In Bad Company" "Morgan the Bushranger" "How I Became a Butcher" "Moonlighting on the Macquarie" "An Australian Roughriding Contest" "The Mailman's Yarn : An Ower True Tale" "Dear Dermot" "The Story of an Old Log-Book" "A Kangaroo Shoot" "Five Men's Lives For One Horse" "Reedy Lake Station" "A Forgotten Tragedy" "The Horse You Don't See Now" "How I Began to Write" "A Mountain Forest" "The Free Selector : A Comedietta" "Free Hospitality" "Lapsed Gentlefolk" "Shearing in the Riverina, New South Wales" "Ancient Sydney" "After Long Years" "In the Droving Days" "The Australian Native-Born Type" "My School Days" "Sydney, Fifty Years Ago" "Old Time Thoroughbreds" "The First Port Fairy Hunt" "Bendemeer" "Sport in Australia" "Old Stock-Riders" "Mount Macedon" "Walks Abroad" "From Tumut to Tumberumba" "In the Throes of a Drought" "A Spring Sketch" "New Years Day 1886" "A Dry Time" "In the Bloom of the Year" "Fallen Among Thieves" "A Transformation Scene" and "In Bushranging Days".

Reproduction of the original: In Bad Coompany and Other Stories by Rolf Boldrewood

"Spix's Macaw tells the story of a unique band of brilliant blue birds - who talk, fall in love, and grieve - struggling against extinction. By the second half of the twentieth century the birds had become more valuable than heroin, worth thousands of dollars on the black market. In 1990, only one was found to be living in the wild and an emergency international rescue operation was launched, calling on private collectors to come forward with their birds to mate with the last wild Spix's." "In a breathtaking display of stoicism and endurance, the loneliest bird in the world had lived without a mate for fourteen years, outwitting predators and poachers. Would he take to a new companion? Like humans, Spix's Macaws can't be forced to love, but the stakes were as high as they could be: the survival of one of the world's most beautiful birds."--BOOK JACKET.

Contains the following short stories: Rivers of Damascus Fosterage The Colleen Rue Sea Change Graft And Did Those Feet - The Thing Called Gratitude The Sound of Millstones The Bride's Play A Woman in the House A Wife of No Importance Donn Byrne (Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne) was born in New York City. Shortly after his birth, however, his parents took him back to the land of his forefathers. There he was educated and came to know the people of whom he wrote so magically. At Dublin University his love for the Irish language and for a good fight won him many prizes, first as a writer in Gaelic and second as the University's lightweight boxing champion. After continuing his studies at the Sorbonne and the University of Leipzig, he returned to the United States, where, in 1911, he married and established a home in Brooklyn Heights. He earned his living, while trying to write short stories, as an editor of dictionaries. Soon his tales began to attract attention and he added to his collection of boxing prizes many others won in short-story contests. When Messer Marco Polo appeared in 1921 his reputation in the literary world was firmly established. Thereafter, whatever he wrote was hailed enthusiastically by his ever-growing public, until 1928, when his tragic death in an automobile accident cut short the career of one of America's best-loved story-tellers.

In 'Beatrice Boville and Other Stories', we are introduced to a wide array of characters through a series of short stories told through the pen of Ouida. Some of the included titles are: 'Slander and Sillery', 'Our Country Quarters', 'Beatrice Boville', and 'Sir Galahad's Raid'.