"Delight in intriguing, thought-provoking conversations about ethics, philosophy, and social issues! After Dinner Conversation is a (501(c)(3) nonprofit that publishes a monthly short fiction literary magazine. Each issue features both established writers and up-and-coming authors who contribute fascinating philosophical insights on controversial topics like marriage equality, assisted suicide, the meaning of death, animal rights and defining

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"There is a certain place where dumbwaiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother's mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home." - From The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley

Hilarious and colorful episodes in the lives of families - many depicted from a kid's-eye-view - are the theme for this compilation. Being part of a family is often trying, and stranger than any fiction, but never dull and always worth

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The Punishment of the Stingy, first published in 1901, has become a classic of American Indian literature. George Bird Grinnell's retelling of Indian tales like "The Star Boy," "The Girl Who Was the Ring," "The First Medicine Lodge," and "Nothing Child" retains the humor and mystery of their sources. Featuring the twin themes of generosity and stinginess, this is the only one of Grinnell's collections to embrace narratives from a number of tribes-Blackfoot,...

Agatha Christie's first novel, introduces the characters of Hercule Poirot, Chief Inspector Japp and Captain Arthur Hastings. In the midst of World War I, the residents of Styles wake one morning to find Emily Inglethorpe has been fatally poisoned. Captain Hastings, staying with the family, enlists the help of his old friend, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. With the evidence mounting against one member of the family, Poirot uses his technique to...

Jack London gained his first and most lasting fame as the author of tales of the Klondike gold rush. This, his first collection of stories, draws on his experience in the Yukon. The stories tell of gambles won and lost, of endurance and sacrifice, and often turn on the qualities of exceptional women and on the relations between the white adventurers and the native tribes. Stories included are: - The White Silence- The Son of the Wolf - The Men of...

During the United States Civil War, a condemned man has many thoughts as he stands on a bridge, awaiting hanging. Includes an analysis of the story and a biography of the author.

Present a collection of twenty stories featuring Miss Jane Marple, an amateur sleuth who bases her solutions to crimes on past experiences and on the belief that human nature is the same everywhere.

Finally, Brother Cadfael's many fans can discover the chain of events that led him into the Benedictine Order! Lavishly illustrated, these three tales show Cadfael at the height of his sleuthing form.

A successful socialite's beautiful wife was raped and murdered in her own home -- and Matt Scudder believes the victim's "grieving" husband was responsible for the outrage. But to prove it, the haunted P.I. must descend into the depths of New York's sex-for-sale underworld, where young lives are commodities to be bought, perverted... and destroyed.

Small-time stoolie, Jake "The Spinner" Jablon, made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money -- and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in. And what's worse, no one cares -- except Matthew Scudder. The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscientious avenging angel. But...