From powerful and moving to knee-knocking suspense and troubled love, these darkly comic tales of lives on the edge represent some of the best of recent seasons of the hit public radio series Selected Shorts. Michael Imperioli performs a thrilling Stephen King adventure tale with a chilling kicker. Anjelica Huston reads Aimee Bender’s moving story about the life of an artist and what he must sacrifice for his work. Jefferson Mays hilariously relates Nathan Englander’s tale of a pious man’s misadventures and his angst over trying to make his marriage a happier one. Christine Ebersole gives a madcap reading of a far-out fairy tale rewrite featuring the seven dwarves sharing a Soho loft and waiting to be saved from dereliction by Snow White. Harris Yulin performs George Saunders’ scary yet heartwarming story of a grandfather and grandson in a futuristic New York City in which consumer marketing has been taken to a dangerous extreme. With misdeeds covering a range of topics—drug use, vampires, kidnapping, and general mayhem—this assorted collection of memorable stories is sure to keep listeners rapt.

When Jet McDonald cycled four thousand miles to India and back, he didn’t want to write a straightforward account. He wanted to go on an imaginative journey. The age of the travelogue is over: today we need to travel inwardly to see the world with fresh eyes. Mind is the Ride is that journey, a pedal-powered antidote to the petrol-driven philosophies of the past. The book takes the reader on a physical and intellectual adventure from West to East using the components of the bike as a metaphor for philosophy, which is woven into the cyclist's experience. Each chapter is based around a single component, and as Jet travels he adds new parts and new philosophies until the bike is 'built'; the ride to India is completed; and the relationship between mind, body and bicycle made apparent.

Barnaby Skye agrees to act as a scout and translator for the U.S. Army at a meeting of the tribal chiefs, but his mission is threatened by an army officer's outrageous threats.

Robbed of his daughter and his horses by a war party of Lakota Sioux, Con Brann relies on guide and scout Skye to lead him across the Great Plains in search of his child.

The saga of Mr. Skye continues when he heads a wagon train through the Great Plains and into trouble. But what else could he expect with this group of misfits, prostitutes, gamblers, runaways, and mail-order brides?

Six murders. One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations... but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada's murder mystery? 'If James Joyce and Agatha Christie had a literary love child, this would be it.' The Daily Telegraph In 1934, the Observer's cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written. The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible - through logic and intelligent reading - to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers. Only three puzzlers have ever solved the mystery of Cain's Jawbone: do you have what it takes to join their ranks? Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted. 'A unique hybrid of word puzzle and whodunnit.' Literary Review

A portrait of Metallica's late bassist traces his San Francisco upbringing, influence on the group's development and song-writing practices, and tragic death in the wake of a tour bus accident. Original.