Are you a people watcher because you have interest in the world of persons around you and engaged in so many different activities? These thirty-three short stories capsulate many different orientations in people. Many diverse and interesting situations are zoomed forward so that we can be entertained and maybe laugh. When we laugh at the antics portrayed in these stories, we are laughing at ourselves.

An epic lunch period leads to a fateful showdown as small, skinny seventh-grader Sam's former best friend--now a popular athlete--promises to beat Sam up at recess in exactly thirty-three minutes.

What were flappers and speakeasies? What does this novel say about Jazz Age lifestyles? Who were F. Scott Fitzgerald's characters based upon? Discover how New York's party atmosphere inspired the novel that defined a generation.

The continuing cultural encounters of the Americas, between European and indigenous cultures, and between scientific materialism and premodern supernaturalism, have originated new narrative forms. While supernatural short fiction of the Americas belongs to the broad category of the fantastic, which is generally approached synchronically, reading audiences of the past 200 years have shifted their beliefs about the supernatural several times. While nineteenth-century readers understood science as real and the supernatural as imaginary, modern audiences recognize both as inaccurate, a shift which allows authors of supernatural fiction to celebrate premodern indigenous beliefs which were once disdained by a materialist culture. This book situates supernatural short fiction of the Americas within the changing cultural and epistemological contexts of the last 200 years and explores how authors have drawn upon a wealth of indigenous traditions. The book begins with a discussion of theories of the supernatural and the fantastic. It then looks at some of the first encounters of European and Native American supernatural beliefs and points to the common elements of these early traditions. The volume next focuses on American literature of the nineteenth century, which has a complex fusion of materialist biases and metaphysical fascinations. The final portion of the book gives greater attention to Spanish-American literature and the blending of the supernatural with attitudes of nostalgia and uncertainty.

This biography examines the life of Langston Hughes. The book includes biographies of other historical people and a family tree.

Asian America has produced numerous short-story writers in the 20th century. Some emerged after World War II, yet most of these writers have flourished since 1980. The first reference of its kind, this volume includes alphabetically arranged entries for 49 nationally and internationally acclaimed Asian American writers of short fiction. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a survey of the writer's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Writers include Frank Chin, Sui Sin Far, Shirely Geok-lin Lim, Toshio Mori, and Bharati Mukherjee. An introductory essay provides a close examination of the Asian American short story, and the volume closes with a list of works for further reading.