Kansas City Star

TEN WOMEN WHO SHOOK THE WORLD By Sylvia Brownrigg Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 126 pages, $18 This is shaping up to be the summer of the strange short story. George...

Never has a slide into second base appeared more painful than at a recent Kansas City Royals game. The ouch factor: The only uniform this slider had on was his...

They never watch television. They never discuss politics. Books are just shelf decorations. They rarely sit down to talk, and when they converse, the subjects are always the same --...

The fiercest agent in the business, Scott Boras, calls it "icon value." He uses the term to describe an organization's franchise player, the one guy fans are most likely to...

"He's like your child when you get so mad at him and then 10 seconds later, he's doing something and you say, `That's right!'" Manager Tony Muser on first baseman...

PASTORALIA By George Saunders Riverhead Books, 188 pages, $22.95 It may only be May, but George Saunders has already written the short-story collection of the year. "Pastoralia" does everything a...

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in nearby Independence, Mo., will go by a new name: Community of Christ. After two hours of often emotional...

In the winter of 1992, Ann Whedon lived with a feeling of impending doom. She took unusual routes to work. She parked blocks away. Sometimes she wore a disguise. It...

Every NCAA tournament assumes a different flavor. First-round upsets by double-digit seeds marked last year's event. Two years ago, the buzzer-beaters gave the tournament its personality. Vulnerable high seeds have...

Think today's crop of daytime TV shows is unfit for human consumption? Wait until you see what's coming this fall. How about: A show where a single woman interviews three...