A year before he died, Jack Matthews (author of 10 story collections and over 30 books) was asked to suggest his 3 favorite stories from all his books for this story sampler. "Amos Smith, the Gunsmith" reaches into the folk tale tradition to produce a nice allegory about human labor. "A Woman of Properties" is a satirical suburban tale (reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor or Cheever) about a real estate agent with a grudge. "The Girl at the Window" is an unsettling and mysterious tale about our relationship to the past. Also included is an extended interview the author gave about the craft of writing in 2009. During his career as a writer, Mr. Matthews was distinguished professor of Fiction Writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio for over 4 decades. Winner of Guggenheim and several arts grants, Matthews has been anthologized widely, translated into several languages and nominated for a National Book Award. His own books have been praised by Eudora Welty, Anthony Burgess, Shirley Ann Grau, Tim O’Brien, Doris Grumbach, Walker Percy and a host of other famous and highly accomplished authors. "Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose." (Tom O'Brien, New York Times) "Matthews' always graceful prose finds that precise telling detail. It's easy to fall in love with such writing." (Perry Glasser, North American Review) "Engaging wit and irony have been characteristic of Matthews's writing from the start, and both are strongly present in his latest gatherings of stories. His irony is increasingly darker, however, and his characters' obsession with memory and its distortions plays a more dominant role in this later work, much of which deals with death. For the most part, these are stories with deceptively simple and ordinary surfaces, but they are driven by powerful and ominous undercurrents, which often fuse the local and regional with the archetypal. Few can do it better. Without question, Matthews has established himself as one of America's finest storytellers." (Stanley Lindberg, editor, Georgia Review)

Newbery honor winner, New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Finalist, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor book. A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known. Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.

The world of "Time Stops Moving" and "Time Always Moving" continues with the "Three Times Moving" trilogy. This is the original screenplay to the sixth Lee Neville Entertainment short film, third short film in the overarching "Time Moving" series, and first of three parts that was originally released in 2014- "Three Times Moving: The Kiss Through Time". Discover a completely different narrator, as well as slightly shifted order of story presentation. Also included are behind-the-scenes and promotional photos, the complete end credits, list of video and promotional content, and a reflective introduction written by Lee Neville in 2024 that will give detailed insight into the making and story of the short film.

From the author of How to Train Your Dragon: Two young heroes fight to save their beloved homes in the next thrilling installment of the internationally bestselling Wizards of Once series. Xar and Wish are heroes with a huge task ahead -- confronting the Nuckalavee is not for the fainthearted. But with Magic and Iron together, they might just have a chance of saving their beloved homes from those who seek to destroy everything they hold dear. The third electrifying book in The Wizards of Once series fizzes with magic and introduces us to a host of glorious new characters: bears and piskies and magical pins and needles to name but a few. Beloved bestselling author Cressida Cowell once again brings her trademark wit and stunning combination of action, adventure, humor, and incredible artwork to this epic new adventure, sure to transport and enchant readers. Stunningly written, magnificent in scope, hilarious and thrilling, Knock Three Times immerses you in a world you won't ever wish to leave.

A seemingly inexplicable murder has occurred in a small Northern California town. Its bizarre nature draws an aging, retired FBI agent from his self-imposed exile into the fray of the chase. Unlike any case he has encountered, this murder could have been committed by three suspects, in three different ways. The convoluted truth of the case will change his life forever and launch him into a new career.

On May 9, 1940, Adrie de Kievit is a carefree ten-year-old boy who lives with his parents ,Arie and Ko, and his thirteen-year-old sister Willie in Yselmonde in the Netherlands. The familys life is about to change drastically. As planes soar low overhead with cannons firing at them, a neighbor with access to a radio confirmed that the Dutch are now at war with the German Army. This memoir offers a firsthand narrative of what it was like growing up under the backdrop of World War II. While accented with many historical details, Winning Three Times is a personal story of how the war and the German occupation affected Adrie, his family, their neighbors, their city, and the country. From food hoarding to rationing and shortages, Winning Three Times recounts with great detail surviving the war in a small down under the shadow of Rotterdam. He tells of how his family coped with the hardships such as no gas, no electricity, no telephone, and little outside communication. This personal history communicates a story of both challenge and triumph.

Winner of the Carlo Boscarato Prize 2016 Winner of the Lo Straniero Prize 2016 Winner of the Attilio Micheluzzi Prize for Best Writing 2017 Sélection Officielle Angoulême 2018 In a forsaken corner of the Italian countryside, Guido and his friends Moreno and Katango spin out their days in languor and boredom intermixed with desire and, occasionally, violence. Nearby live the Stančič, a family of Romani who escaped the communist regime of Marshal Tito and settled here just after World War II. Guido’s coming-of-age is changed by the evolving relationship that the rural town has with this group of outsiders, these “gypsies.” The author is unsparing in his depiction of the townspeople’s cruelty. And yet, there are also many instances of solidarity between Guido’s community and the Stančič. Reviati’s first book in English, Spit Three Times is an extraordinary story of young men, disillusioned and trying to find their way, caught in the breach between post-war exuberance and the stagnation of the early twenty-first century.