Like Albert King wrote in 1967, Ravi Dane was born under a bad sign. Son of an overindulgent young mother and his guitar-playing, drug-addicted father, Ravi stood little chance at surviving, much less succeeding, at life. His stolen first breath would be the only card cleanly dealt to him. Out-of-control circumstances robbed him of the life others would enjoy as he grew up sidestepping an abusive stepfather and finding acceptance and safety in friends that would protect and love him throughout the rest of his life. A retired guitar hidden under years of dust and disappointment unlocked innate musical ability commonly found on stages and in concert halls throughout the world. The love of a young woman hiding in plain sight and the four members of a garage band would ferry Ravi into the world of rock and roll and the destiny always in his cards.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Town & Country, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Thrillist, BookPage • “[A] worship song to writers and readers.”—Oprah Daily For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

West Virginia, 1895. A deadly dry spell has left the earth parched and souls desperate. Crops are failing. Cities are starving. A missing newspaper man doesn’t account for much in times so terrible, except to the twelve-year-old son he left behind. When Elliot Sweeney discovers the search for his father has been called off, he boards a train alone to find him. His quest leads Elliot into the depths of an abandoned mine, with a peculiar pocket watch, a blind burro, and a gutsy girl at his side. He discovers a world he never dreamed of, even in his worst nightmares, and lands smack in the middle of a war between two kingdoms. Monstrous insects, smiling villains, and dark riddles are everywhere. Deciding who to trust may prove to be his greatest challenge, while the fate of the world above hangs on Elliot's choice.

In 1979, several graduate students in the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures at Auburn University met with one of the authors (CEB) and asked him to teach a new course on water supply for aqua culture. They felt that information on climatology, hydrology, water distribution systems, pumps, and wells would be valuable to them. Most of these students were planning to work in commercial aquaculture in the United States or abroad, and they thought that such a cdurse would better prepare them to plan aquaculture projects and to communicate with engineers, contractors, and other specialists who often become involved in the planning and construction phases of aquaculture en deavors. The course was developed, and after a few years it was decided that more effective presentation of some of the material could be made by an engineer. The other author (KHY) accepted the challenge, and three courses on the water supply aspects of aquaculture are now offered at Auburn University. A course providing background in hydrology is followed by courses on selected topics from water supply engineering. Most graduate programs in aquaculture at other universities will even tually include similar coursework, because students need a formal intro duction to this important, yet somewhat neglected, part of aquaculture. We have written this book to serve as a text for a course in water supply for aquaculture or for individual study. The book is divided into is concerned two parts.

To his legions of readers, Gene Logsdon is best known as the Contrary Farmer. This is Logsdon's ode to the watery microcosms all around, from the half-acre farm pond to the suburban garden pool. Readers looking for hands-on experience will find plenty of pond-keeping do's and don'ts.