"Nine all-stars in the field of YA lit contribute stories. . . . An anthology of stand-alone stories that invite — no, demand — a straight read-through." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) Nine of YA literature’s top writers, including Walter Dean Myers, Rita Williams-Garcia, Adam Rapp, Joseph Bruchac, and Sharon Flake reveal how it all goes down in a searing collection of short stories, in which each one picks up where the previous one ends. Characters weave in and out of narratives, perspectives change, and emotions play out for a fluid and fast-paced ode to the game of street basketball. Crackling with humor, grit, and streetball philosophy, and featuring poems and photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr., this anthology is a slam dunk.

The Nobel Laureate's psychologically penetrating story of the love affair between a rich South African and the illegal alien she "picks up" on a whim Who picked up whom? Is the pickup the illegal immigrant desperate to evade deportation to his impoverished desert country? Or is the pickup the powerful businessman's daughter trying to escape a priveleged background she despises? When Julie Summers' car breaks down in a sleazy street, at a garage a young Arab emerges from beneath the chassis of a vehicle to aid her. The consequences develop as a story of unpredictably relentless emotions that overturn each one's notion of the other, and of the solutions life demands for different circumstances. She insists on leaving the country with him. The love affair becomes a marriage-that state she regards as a social convention appropriate to her father's set and her mother remarried in California, but decreed by her 'grease monkey' in order to present her respectably to his family. In the Arab village, while he is dedicated to escaping, again, to what he believes is a fulfilling life in the West, she is drawn by a counter-magnet of new affinities in his close family and the omnipresence of the desert. A novel of great power and concision, psychological surprises and unexpected developments, The Pickup is a story of the rites of passage that are emigration/immigration, where love can survive only if stripped of all certainties outside itself.

Meeting a gorgeous guy in a rideshare headed to Lollapalooza is not how Mari expected her Chicago summer to start. She doesn't believe in dating...but TJ may just change her mind. Can an electric, weekend romance turn into more than just a summer fling? When Mari hails a Ryde to a music festival, the last thing she expects is for the car to pick up a gorgeous guy along the way. Mari doesn't believe in dating—it can only end with a broken heart. Besides, she's only staying at her dad's house in Chicago for the weekend. How close can you get to a guy in three days? TJ wants to study art in college, but his family's expectations cast a long shadow over his dreams. When he meets Mari in the back of a rideshare, he feels alive for the first time in a long time. Mari and TJ enter the festival together and share an electric moment but get separated in a crowd with seemingly no way to find each other. When fate reunites them (with a little help from a viral hashtag), they'll have to decide: was it love at first sight, or the start of nothing more than a weekend fling?

Nick Somebody once said we don't decide who we love. The world decides for us. But I disagree. I believe love is a decision. Who we love, how we love. It's in our control--in our hands. I grew up having no clue about the true meaning of love. Money. Cars. Houses. Status. Fame. That's what love means to the people around me. It wasn't until the woman I picked up in a bar came back into my life and showed me love can be so much more. So, what's the problem? The woman I'm falling in love with believes in fairytales. She compares everything to a storybook and wants the happily-ever-after. So while she's stuck on recreating stories that have already been told, page by page, I'm showing her it's time we write our own book. Nobody ever said the journey of falling in love would be easy, just that it would be worth it.

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard In this riveting novel of psychological suspense, Charles Willeford charts a duel trajectory of alcoholic desire and destruction that is at once poignant, terrifying and utterly authentic. Prowling the grimy streets of San Francisco, Helen is a beautiful, sensuous drunk - and a pathetically easy pick-up. Harry just wants to help, but before long they are both adrift in a sea of alcohol - until Harry conceives the ultimate crime.

A tried-and-tested programme to help men become confident and skilled at approaching and talking to any woman. Imagine having the confidence to approach any woman. Imagine knowing exactly what to say to her. Imagine looking forward to a date, rather than it filling you with dread. With Robert King's methods all of this can become a reality. Robert King is an ordinary guy, who has become a master of picking up and dating attractive women and has brought dating success to thousands of men. In The Pick-Up Game he shares his methods. Learn what to say to a woman you like, how to interact socially and how to handle the logistics of approaching and spending time with women. Then learn the Zen way of letting go, especially when under pressure socially, and how not to try too hard to make something work - simply let it all unfold naturally. With Robert's techniques you will gain total confidence in yourself, learn to read and understand women and maximize every date you go on. Whatever your goal - whether it's to have more fun, more sex or a serious relationship - look no further than this invaluable book. You really can become a success with women.Robert King read his first self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, at the age of 19 and this sparked his desire for personal transformation. Naturally shy and reserved, after university Robert discovered the pick-up artist community and soon cultivated a natural style with women. After teaching at other pick-up companies and becoming "wings" with the best pick-up artists in the community he set up his own company www.puamethod.com, which has featured in The Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers and on various television programmes. He has taught close to 1,000 students natural pick up.

Illustrations and rhyming text show that a crane can lift anything from a load of steel to a cow.