Full House: Crazy About the Future by Devra Speregen

This collection of four stories, “I Stand Here Ironing, ” “Hey Sailor, What Ship?, ” “O Yes, ” and “Tell Me a Riddle, ” has become an American classic. Since the title novella won the First Prize O. Henry Award in 1961, the stories have become staples in literature classes. They have been anthologized over a hundred times, made into three films, translated into thirteen languages, and – most important – once read, they live forever in the hearts of their readers.

When Richie Rossiter, once a famous pianist, dies unexpectedly, Chrissie knows that she must now tell the truth to their three daughters: their parents were never married. And there is one more shock to come when Richie’s will is read. It seems he never forgot the wife and son he left behind years ago – Margaret, who lives a quiet life of routine and work, and Scott, who has unresolved feelings about the father who left him. Now tow families are left to confront their losses and each other, and neither of them will ever be the same.

“Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again.” So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past ther beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten…her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant — the sinister Mrs. Danvers — still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca…for the secrets of Manderley.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family on a mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. The carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it – from garden seeds to Scripture – is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo’s fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected Prime Minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring and modern writers.