Winter's Song celebrates the intimate and intense relationship Americans living in the northern Midwest have with winter. The season is often viewed as an inhospitable time of year, accompanied by yearnings to fly south, yet Mischke invites us to view winter through the rich and varied lives of the hearty Northerners who have come to accept the season's extraordinary presentation—its hard lessons and hidden treasures.

While

Trips to the Moon collects together three works by the Assyrian master of rhetoric and satire, Lucian of Samosata. The works are regarded as some of the first novels in western civilization, including some of the earliest examples of science fiction. He is witty and derisive and parodies the work of Homer as well as lowbrow popular tales of his time.

This engaging and good-humored collection of essays brings together an array of early twentieth-century literary luminaries to comment on the concepts of censorship and prohibition in general, and more specifically, on the ban of alcohol sales in the United States during the period. Chock-full of penetrating insights from some of the period's foremost thinkers and writers, Nonsenseorship is an entertaining and interesting read.

The Awakening (1899) appears in this collection of short stories. Upon publication of the story Chopin's writing was highly praised, but the public was outraged by the content and only one edition was printed. The Awakening was rediscovered in the 1960s, when Chopin was praised for raising feminist questions. The story follows the personal discovery of a married woman of the things she did not even realize she was missing.

Dive into this eclectic, entertaining collection of tales from Ambrose Bierce, one of the masters of the American short story. Cobwebs From an Empty Skull brings together fables, essays, observations, and other thoroughly engaging odds and ends that readers of all tastes and interests are sure to enjoy.

The West's first encounters with the folk tales and myths of the East proved to be a heady experience, as they were based on an entirely different value system and worldview than those that are reflected in the Greek myths and most subsequent Western folk tales. In Myths and Legends of China, author E.T.C. Werner offers up a rich tapestry of Chinese folk narratives. A must-read for fans of world myths, fairy tales, and legends.