Shane Gordon is the author of two books, Dear Baby Boomers and The Tenth Man. This book is Short Stories, Tall Tales And True Confessions. Something for everyone from 16 to 65 plus, some funny, some serious, some just stories.

Avi's treasured Newbery Honor Book now in expanded After Words edition!Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle is excited to return home from her school in England to her family in Rhode Island in the summer of 1832. But when the two families she was supposed to travel with mysteriously cancel their trips, Charlotte finds herself the lone passenger on a long sea voyage with a cruel captain and a mutinous crew. Worse yet, soon after stepping aboard the ship, she becomes enmeshed in a conflict between them! What begins as an eagerly anticipated ocean crossing turns into a harrowing journey, where Charlotte gains a villainous enemy . . . and is put on trial for murder!After Words material includes author Q & A, journal writing tips, and other activities that bring Charlotte's world to life!

B.N. Napoleon is a female Private Eye who sometimes, when the situation warrants it, becomes a male by dressing in a man's suit, shoes and wearing a false moustache. Her hair is cut short and fortunately she is under endowed. She does this when it becomes apparent that a prospective client conveys he or she is looking for a male private investigator at which time Barbara Napoleon informs them that her brother will be back in town in the morning and if they will leave a phone number, she will inform her brother B.N., and he will call in the morning upon his return. Thus the transformation the next morning to B.N. Napoleon, P.I.

Billy Coldwell was product of the 60's. He lived in the projects of LA with his Russian immigrant parents who were unsuccessful in life. He was determined to escape the projects and 'make it' at all costs. Friends who could help him up the ladder of success fell by the wayside, because money was the answer and he would get it somehow. He lived by the moto he learned early in life: "One For the Money, don't be so slow, Grab for the Gold Ring and Go, Go, Go!"

For years, Todd Snider has been one of the most beloved country-folk singers in the United States, compared to Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, John Prine, and dozens of others. He's become not only a new-century Dylan but a modern-day Will Rogers, an everyman whose intelligence, self-deprecation, experience, and sense of humor make him a uniquely American character. In live performance, Snider's monologues are cheered as much as his songs. But never before has he told the whole story. Running the gamut from personal memoir to shaggy-dog comedy to rueful memories of his troubles and triumphs with drugs and alcohol to sharp-eyed observations from years on the road, I Never Met a Story I Didn't Like is for fans of Snider's music, but also for fans of America itself: the broad, wild country that has produced figures of folk wisdom like Will Rogers, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Tonya Harding, Garrison Keillor, and more. There are storytellers and there are performers and there are stand-up comedians. And then there's Todd Snider, who is all three in one, and something else entirely.

Enchanted Objects investigates the relationship between visual art and contemporary fiction, addressing the problems that arise when paintings, deluxe books, porcelains, or statues are represented in contemporary novels. The distinction between objects and art objects depends on aesthetics. While some objects are authenticated through museum exhibits, others are hidden, broken, neglected, coveted, hoarded, or salvaged. Allan Hepburn asks four broad questions about aesthetics and value: What is a detail in visual art? Is all art ornamental? Does the value of an object increase because it is fragile? What defines ugliness? Contemporary novels, such as Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Barry Unsworth's Stone Virgin, and Bruce Chatwin's Utz offer implicit answers to these questions while critiquing museums and the determination to invest objects with value through display. Addressing current debates in museum studies, cultural studies, art history, and literary criticism, Enchanted Objects develops an extensive theory of how contemporary literature engages with and relates to aesthetic objects.

Freedom and awakening of an adolescent, Bronx bred, Irish Catholic girl