Love Is All Around A Collection Of Short Stories

When you read this, you will be transported in the lives of a handful of people whose lives got turned sideways by a chance meeting.

When you read this, you will be transported in the lives of a handful of people whose lives got turned sideways by a chance meeting.

In his second collection, including the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark.

It doesn't matter if you're a caveman, a time traveller or a regular person. Sooner or later, someone's going to break your heart. The sketches in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and - if you've ever been in love - all too familiar. From the invisible man stalking his ex, to Sherlock Holmes' only blind spot, The Last Girlfriend on Earth is always enchanting, often sweet, though occasionally awkward. Just like love itself. 'The Last Girlfriend On Earthis silly, surreal, sometimes sad and always laugh-out-loud funny. This collection will have you giggling/crying/squirming in recognition, and wondering what exactly Simon Rich has eaten to dream all this stuff up ... pulls off the tough trick of being both heart-warming and hilarious - it's a must-read if you've ever so much as had a crush on someone' Heat 'Pithy, occasionally bonkers' Time Out 'Truly hilarious' Eva Wiseman, Observer

"More engaging than any new fiction in years." —Chuck Palahniuk An unforgettable work of fiction that peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents. Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place. Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are irresistibly, undeniably real. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor.

Thirteen glittering, surprising, and darkly funny stories of people testing the boundaries of their lives, from two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Alix Ohlin. In the mordantly funny “Money, Geography, Youth,” Vanessa arrives home from a gap year volunteering in Ghana to find that her father is engaged to her childhood best friend. Unable to reconcile the girl she went to dances with in the eighth grade and the woman in her father’s bed, Vanessa turns to a different old friendship for her own, unique diversion. In the subversive “The Brooks Brothers Guru,” Amanda drives to upstate New York to rescue her gawky cousin from a cult, only to discover clean-cut, well-dressed men living in a beautiful home, discussing the classics and drinking cocktails, moving her to wonder what freedoms she might be willing to trade for a life of such elegant comfort. And in “The Universal Particular,” Tamar welcomes her husband’s young stepcousin into her home, only to find her cool suburban life knocked askew in ways she cannot quite understand. Populated with imperfect families, burned potential, and inescapable old flames, the stories in We Want What We Want are, each one, diamond-sharp — sparkling with pain, humour, and beauty.

A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces. “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better.

My encounter with Jacob, “my calling” My life changing experience started many years ago, when a messenger from God asked me to acknowledge the word of God; I was at a train station with two of my boys, now in their thirties; My messenger had a limp in his leg, he was in his seventies, olive skinned, with thin build, he carried nothing and with many people around he chose me to talk to and my boys where witnesses to his presence; He asked if we could talk about God; he said he came from the Holy Land and that God healed him from a light beaming from the heavens while in his tent; he wanted me to receive his words, to read the word from God, and what was my beliefs in God. I replied that I had the Bible but found it hard to understand the parables; but I believed; meanwhile our train arrived to take us to our destination,home” The train was only one carriage long because my stop was the last and only a one gate exit; we got on the train including the man; and he ask if he could continue our talk about God; I felt fear, and then this overwhelming change of love come over me. We came to our last stop and we all got off, when my boys said mum where is the man, I replied he is behind me, I looked in the train, then on the small platform, outside the gate, even though he had to go past us, but he had disappeared, vanished. Years past; my life had become a mess with the death of my mother, depression, skin cancer, “I turned to someone for help “God” I never forgot my divine messenger, neither my boys; I knew my messenger was Jacob, his limp was from his fight with God, God let him live because of his strength and faith, Jacob had asked God when he asked his name for healing and blessings; Jacob called me to acknowledge God, and God has given me the gift of his words, a heavenly treasure to share with all, to change lives, to believe in God and his messengers who walk among us, to call us to do good, to make a difference to someone else, now let me take you on the journey with Gods heartfelt prayers. Lynda Hackford