As young Jake Horner's mind became an increasingly paralyzing cobweb of dark thoughts, he turned for help to an extraordinary doctor-part saint, part evil-genius, a weird combination of faith healer, magician, and devil. And in so doing Jake found himself following a drastic prescription that was to draw him into a strange, compulsive relationship. It is around the startling results of Jake Horner's "cure" and its amazing mastermind-a doctor almost...

Cabbages and Kings (1904) is a novel by American writer O. Henry. Inspired by his experiences as a fugitive in Honduras, the interconnected stories that make up Cabbages and Kings-the title refers to a line from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass-address themes of revolution, imperialism, exploitation, and greed. The novel is significant not only for launching O. Henry's career as a successful professional writer, but for coining the term "banana...

Ben Ide is a failure in the horse trade because he loves horses more than money. A few bad deals have turned the world against him. His greatest adversary is his father, who thinks Ben good for nothing. Determined to show what he is made of and what he can do, Ben pursues a herd of wild horses. The herd leads him directly into danger: cattle thieves with connections in high places. Distrusted by the woman he loves, menaced by killers, and hounded...

A man of solitude, a man of the wild, lives in his solo camp in Paradise Park. He leaves the company of wolves and stars and rides into the world of man: a world ranchers, of gunslingers; a world of trouble. A story about a "loner" who is uncertain about his own future. Yet, when Helen Rayner appears to be in "real" trouble he leaves his solitariness to defend and befriend her and her little sister who have come west to visit relatives, and to escape...

Bigger, a young black man in Chicago, kills his first victim in a moment of panic. He then goes on to kill again. The book describes the feelings of freedom and identity Bigger gains from these acts.

The wear and tear of being a homosexual early this century when you had to keep quiet. The hero is a college professor who leads a double life, straight at work, gay at home. Originally published in 1919, the novel had a quick death, shunned by society.

"It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-one year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before...

"From Jung Yun, the critically-acclaimed author of Shelter, an unflinching portrayal of a woman trying to come to terms with the ghosts of her past and the tortured realities of a deeply divided America. Elinor Hanson, a forty-something former model, is struggling to reinvent herself as a freelance writer when she receives an unexpected assignment. Her mentor from grad school offers her a chance to write for a prestigious magazine about the Bakken...

"This Side of Paradise" is about the education of a youth, and to this story Fitzgerald brings the promise of everything that was new in America during the years following World War I. Amory Blaine-egoistic, versatile, callow, and imaginative-inhabits a book that is interwoven with songs, poems, playscripts, and questions and answers.

The residents of Clayton, Colorado, must learn to live with what has burned and what threatens to ignite. In Defensible Spaces, a bus driver confronts a rush of memories when an old flame climbs aboard; a trailer park resident attempts to save her home; a reclusive fire mitigation worker fuels public outrage. Throughout ten linked short stories, townspeople work through relationships with alcoholism, history, and each other, negotiating where and...