{"product_id":"small-bites-forty-short-stories-9781936135554","title":"Small Bites: Forty Short Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSmall Bites, \u003c\/em\u003e Don Tassone offers readers bits of contemporary life, mostly gentle, mostly optimistic, often instructive. Stories range from flash-fiction size half-pagers to twenty-page studies of how relationships develop, how decisions are made and unmade, how persuasion and collaboration work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe collection is divided into fourteen tiny Appetizers, twelve substantial Entrees, and fourteen small but intense Desserts. Appetizers like \"Friends\" and \"Run\" are quick and easy to consume; they're secular parables, meant to produce a small, \"got it \" sense of surprise as readers fill in what's implied but not directly stated. Entrees range more widely, sometimes questioning current forms of connectivity, sometimes underscoring a sense that humans need to trust and to engage with one another. \"The Discord in Our Souls,\" for example, leaves readers puzzling over which of several bad options is least bad. \"Beauty Mark\" traces a model's reaction to the accident which defaces her. \"Everything Is Real\" includes a ghost. Most stories in the final set, the Desserts, focus on beginnings and endings--on little acts of courage, sweet though painful memories, manageable ironies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSmall Bites, \u003c\/em\u003e Don Tassone combines insights gained during a successful thirty-year career in corporate public relations with those which come from growing up in a middle class American family, becoming a parent, watching people grow. He's the author of the novel, \u003cem\u003eDrive, \u003c\/em\u003eand another collection of stories titled \u003cem\u003eGet Back.\u003c\/em\u003e He currently teaches courses at Xavier University, writes, and enjoys cooking up stories like these.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Golden Antelope Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/04\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781936135554\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 158\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.81h x 5.06w x 0.34d","brand":"Don Tassone","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38014830280885,"sku":"9781936135554","price":13.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_48e487e4-3b83-4757-8489-933b2858f78c.jpg?v=1609150422","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/small-bites-forty-short-stories-9781936135554","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}