{"product_id":"playing-chess-with-bulls-sarah-p-blanchard-9798869025562","title":"Playing Chess with Bulls","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis collection comprises ten compelling stories of everyday people struggling to make good decisions in difficult circumstances. Nine award-winning stories have been previously published; \"A Friend Next Door\" is new.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe collection also includes a nonfiction piece, \"Avoiding Failures,\" which offers a unique perspective on gun culture in small-town Appalachia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLife is never easy. \u003c\/strong\u003eThere's always hardship and sometimes danger, but there's also resilience, hope, friendship, and courage. In the title story, a young woman struggles to understand and protect her younger sister who is seemingly bent on self-destruction in a brutal, dangerous sport. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \"Reading the Cards,\" a young couple faces nearly insurmountable odds and difficult choices as they try to rebuild their lives after tragedy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo flash-fiction stories (\"Fathering\" and \"Fishing\") expose the difficulties of connection across barriers of distance, trauma, or miscommunication. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe coming-of-age stories (\"A Friend Next Door,\" \"The Bus Driver,\" and \"Lizzy Baby*\") reveal three very different journeys toward adulthood. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLandscape parallels character, \u003c\/strong\u003eor becomes a character, in many of these stories: the volcanic landscape of Hawaii, rural life in New England and Appalachia, the narrow confines of an elderly woman's single room. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVoice matters. Truth matters. \u003c\/strong\u003eSecrets can save us or destroy us. \"Two Out of Three\" draws together two sisters with competing versions of truth and memory. And in \"Lizzy Baby*,\" the longest story, a girl on the edge of young adulthood must find a way to be heard when danger threatens from within her own family. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e*Trigger warning: \"Lizzy Baby\" depicts child sexual abuse.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sarah P. Blanchard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 886902556X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798869025562\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Eagle Ridge Farm\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/11\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 214\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.49d","brand":"Sarah P. Blanchard","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44652486164735,"sku":"9798869025562","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_9e3e542b-4ae9-479f-a94c-a01a6ad8cb11.jpg?v=1704216338","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/playing-chess-with-bulls-sarah-p-blanchard-9798869025562","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}