A NEW YORK TIMES AND #1 INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER #6 on American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom's Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020 A Little Free Library Action Book Club Selection National Parenting Product Award Winner (NAPPA) Something Happened in Our Town follows two families — one White, one Black — as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives. Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.

Bob Slocum was living the American dream. He had a beautiful wife, three lovely children, a nice house...and all the mistresses he desired. He had it all -- all, that is, but happiness. Slocum was discontent. Inevitably, inexorably, his discontent deteriorated into desolation until...something happened. Something Happened is Joseph Heller's wonderfully inventive and controversial second novel satirizing business life and American culture. The story is told as if the reader was overhearing the patter of Bob Slocum's brain -- recording what is going on at the office, as well as his fantasies and memories that complete the story of his life. The result is a novel as original and memorable as his Catch-22.

SOMETHING HAPPENED is a collection of storiesÑ11 short stories, 1 poem, 1 novella, and 1 one-act playÑfilled with ghosts, aliens, serial killers, and vampires, along with that age-old purveyor of terror: the human mind. The stories in this collection feature a man whose mind drives him to extreme lengths just to have someone to talk to, a young manÕs journey from answering a plea for help from a stranger to becoming part of a much bigger drama, a centuries-old vampire's encounter with the most notorious serial killer in history, a female contractor killer's dilemma over her next assignment, a 12-year-old boyÕs bike ride down a notoriously haunted alley, and a young woman whose avid interest in aliens and UFO lore leads her unknowingly into a dangerous situation. These stories along with the others in this collection are sure to have readers avidly turning their pages to find out whatÕs going to happen in the next story and if the characters will get out of alive in the end.

In both the literal and metaphorical senses, it seemed as if 1970s America was running out of gas. The decade not only witnessed long lines at gas stations but a citizenry that had grown weary and disillusioned. High unemployment, runaway inflation, and the energy crisis, caused in part by U.S. dependence on Arab oil, characterized an increasingly bleak economic situation. As Edward D. Berkowitz demonstrates, the end of the postwar economic boom, Watergate, and defeat in Vietnam led to an unraveling of the national consensus. During the decade, ideas about the United States, how it should be governed, and how its economy should be managed changed dramatically. Berkowitz argues that the postwar faith in sweeping social programs and a global U.S. mission was replaced by a more skeptical attitude about government's ability to positively affect society. From Woody Allen to Watergate, from the decline of the steel industry to the rise of Bill Gates, and from Saturday Night Fever to the Sunday morning fervor of evangelical preachers, Berkowitz captures the history, tone, and spirit of the seventies. He explores the decade's major political events and movements, including the rise and fall of détente, congressional reform, changes in healthcare policies, and the hostage crisis in Iran. The seventies also gave birth to several social movements and the "rights revolution," in which women, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities all successfully fought for greater legal and social recognition. At the same time, reaction to these social movements as well as the issue of abortion introduced a new facet into American political life-the rise of powerful, politically conservative religious organizations and activists. Berkowitz also considers important shifts in American popular culture, recounting the creative renaissance in American film as well as the birth of the Hollywood blockbuster. He discusses how television programs such as All in the Family and Charlie's Angels offered Americans both a reflection of and an escape from the problems gripping the country.

There are times in my life, when I wasn't truly looking around to see the goodness that exists. I am extremely lucky to have people who have mentored me along the way by their examples, words and actions to look for the good. I have learned and witnessed that if you open your eyes and ears, you can live your life staying present to the positive. This book is just that. It is a collection of stories that may inspire you, challenge you, or let you see a situation in an entirely new way.

Every one of us has a life-affirming story to tell... The inspiring true stories of the interesting people who inhabit the pages of Sudha Murty’s books leave an indelible impression on us. But the books are able to chronicle the stories only of the men and women Mrs Murty has come across personally in the course of her social work. There must be so many more wonderful stories that scores of others have to share. Something Happened on the Way to Heaven is a collection of twenty such memorable true-life stories. Handpicked by Sudha Murty from entries submitted in an open competition run by Penguin, they capture the hope, faith, kindness and joy that life is full of even as we make our way through the daily grind. Moving and uplifting, this is an anthology that will engross and delight every reader who believes in the goodness of the human heart.

Raymond Carver meets William Faulkner in this “pitch-perfect” short story collection that captures the hopes and fears of working-class Greeks during the country’s economic crisis (Los Angeles Review of Books) Ikonomou’s stories convey the plight of those worst affected by the Greek economic crisis—laid-off workers, hungry children. In the urban sprawl between Athens and Piraeus, the narratives roam restlessly through the impoverished working-class quarters located off the tourist routes. Everyone is dreaming of escape: to the mountains, to an island or a palatial estate, into a Hans Christian Andersen story world. What are they fleeing? The old woes—gossip, watchful neighbors, the oppression and indifference of the rich—now made infinitely worse. In Ikonomou’s concrete streets, the rain is always looming, the politicians’ slogans are ignored, and the police remain a violent, threatening presence offstage. Yet even at the edge of destitution, his men and women act for themselves, trying to preserve what little solidarity remains in a deeply atomized society, and in one way or another finding their own voice. There is faith here, deep faith—though little or none in those who habitually ask for it.