Washoe County Library System

"In this long short story, or short novella, Dave Eggers gives us an unforgettable duo, Helen and Peter Mahoney, a homebody niece and her adventurous, almost-British uncle. Helen designs invitations to parties and galas to which she is not welcome, and is quite comfortable with that. One day, though, Peter wonders, 'Why not print an extra invite and I'll be your plus one?' What starts out as an innocuous lark becomes much more -- a very funny and...

"The narrator of this creepy but feministically delicious novella, an early 21st-century novelist decides to write the biography of Helen Ralston, an all-but-forgotten 20th-century novelist she has long admired. In the late 1920s, Helen studied painting with W.E. Logan. Logan painted her as Circe, and Helen painted herself as an island titled My Death. When they parted for good, both turned to writing. Willy became famous; Helen did not. The narrator...

"An evocative and engrossing collection of new stories and a novella about women experiencing life's challenges and beauty from the award-winning writer Megan Mayhew Bergman. A recently separated woman fills a huge terrarium with endangered flowers to establish a small world only she can control in an attempt to heal her broken heart. A competitive swimmer negotiates over which days she will fulfill her wifely duties, and which days she will keep...

"Quintus Shu'al, the world's only navigating fox, is in disgrace after guiding an expedition to its doom, leaving no survivors. One year later, Quintus is offered the chance to redeem himself: he will need to lead a motley, fractious team—both human and animal—all the way to the gates of Hell"--

"Burned by napalm as an infant and adopted by the guardian spirit of a river, Numamushi spends the first years of his life catching frogs to eat and learning to shed his skin like his serpentine father. Then one day, a lonely man moves into the abandoned house next to the river, and curiosity for all things human awakens in Numamushi. This mysterious man shares Numamushi’s penchant for eating frogs but also carries the scars of war, a love of the...

"In A Spindle Splintered, it's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday. When she was young, an industrial accident left her with a rare condition and no one who has it has lived to twenty-two. Her best friend is intent on making Zin's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, she finds herself cast into another world, with another sleeping beauty, just...