Showing results by narrator "Laurel Laurel" in All Categories

Award-winning novelist Vikram Seth is renowned worldwide for his magnum opus A Suitable Boy. But his dazzling debut, though less well-known, is equally innovative, masterly and ambitious. First published in 1986 and inspired by Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, it is written entirely in verse, comprising almost 600 stanzas of rhyming sonnets. This epic poem focusses on the interconnected stories of five young professionals, as they make their way in the 'unfettered city' of San Francisco in the '80s.

Unshackle: No woman can resist Luke Sanch. When he infiltrates La Rocha Cartel, he must seduce Vera Gomez to determine whether to rescue her. Or kill her. Dominate: There are many reasons to jump off a bridge, but Rylee Sutton only needs one. Her husband’s betrayal. Just before she leaps, she receives an email from a stranger. Complicate: Cole Hartman is a mystery. He works alone, sleeps alone, and satisfies his aches...alone. No one will ever compare to the one who broke his heart. Until he stares into the seductive eyes of his enemy.

Susan Sontag was one of the most formidable, original, and influential thinkers of the last century. On Women presents seven essays and exchanges, spanning a range of subjects: the challenges and humiliations women face as they age; the relationship between women’s liberation and class struggle; beauty, which Sontag calls “that over-rich brew of so many familiar opposites”; feminism; fascism; and film. Taken together, these pieces—relentlessly curious, historically precise, politically robust, and allergic to easy categorization Sontag’s inimitable mind at work.

Prince Hywel has called all the bards of Wales to him for a music festival to mark the third anniversary of his rule over Ceredigion. He has invited all the lords of Wales too, including his father, his uncle, and his neighbor to the south, King Cadell. But with the highborn also come the low: thieves, spies, and other hangers-on. And when a murderer strikes as the festival starts, Gareth and Gwen are charged with discovering his identity - before the death of a peasant shakes the throne of a king.

My life couldn’t get any more ridiculous. A few days ago, my son’s teacher wanted to berate me on my parenting style. I politely told her to f--k off, in so many words. And now? She’s sitting across the table from me at my first blind date in years. You can’t make this s--t up. Nothing has been easy since my wife left me and Hunter years ago. And yet, we persevered. He’s my whole world, and the last thing I have time for is a woman.

Alisa hasn’t had the best of luck. Her dream of expanding her salon into a franchise has stalled. Her dating life is non-existent. She spends her nights with wine, takeout, and thriller marathons. Looking to spice up her life, she heads back to the one place she knows will satisfy her desires. Little does she know that one night of passion (and a leaked photograph) will upend her life in more ways than one.

I had rules. Krystina broke them. That’s just the way things were. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to make her my wife. She exemplified the triskelion, representing my past, my present, and my future.

Krystina Cole was a girl on a mission. She had big dreams and aspirations, none of which included a man by her side. She knew better than that - at least until she met Alexander Stone, the New York billionaire real estate tycoon. She saw the way that he looked at her, and the dark promises in his eyes. She was curious about his world and all that it entailed. But the shadows of her past haunted her, making her afraid to explore possibilities that she could never before have imagined....

So, I’m in trouble. My mate Iain thinks I betrayed him. That's because I did - using a love potion to control him. But now, it's stopped working, and there's nothing left but his anger. He's not the only one pissed off at me. My court knows that I’ve lost the sacred stone of our people, putting everyone in danger. When the royal guard comes for me with a pair of fire manacles, I’m not surprised. But when my estranged mate, king of the Sea Fae, strolls into the Court of Fire to help me...well, that bit is unexpected.

Elle is thrilled to spend a month minding the beautiful Gillespie property. Over an hour's drive from the nearest town, the aging mansion is ideal for someone seeking solitude. But as she explores her new home, Elle makes a startling discovery: there's a graveyard nestled deep in the woods, containing a generation of the house's residents...all who died the same year.

Natalie Collins hasn’t heard from her sister in more than half a year. The last time they spoke, Kit was slogging from mundane workdays to obligatory happy hours to crying in the shower about their dead mother. She told Natalie she was sure there was something more out there. And then she found Wisewood.

A shattering history of the last 100 years of genocidal war that itemises in authoritative, persuasive manner exactly what the West knew and when, and what it chose to do, and what not to do, with that knowledge. In this convincing and definitive interrogation of the last century of American history and foreign policy, Samantha Power draws upon declassified documents, private papers, unprecedented interviews and her own reporting from the modern killing fields to tell the story of American indifference and American courage in the face of man's inhumanity to man.

In the vein of Big Little Lies and Reconstructing Amelia comes an emotionally charged domestic suspense novel about a mother unraveling the truth behind how her daughter became brain-dead. And pregnant.

In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take. But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum that looms on Blackwell's Island. There, she will work undercover to document—and expose—the wretched conditions faced by the patients. But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors.

There’s an unwritten rule about your best friend’s boyfriend, and I broke it when I kissed Joshua after Chelsea’s tragic death. I’ve stayed away from Williamsport ever since.

The Birches was one of the grand mansions of the 1920s, with a ballroom, tennis courts, and, of course, a swimming pool. But after the crash of '29, when Lois and Judith's father killed himself to escape his debts, the family turned the summer home into a fulltime retreat from the world. Decades later, Judith is the queen of New York society, a fast-living beauty whose nerves are beginning to fray, while Lois still lives in the dilapidated old mansion, writing mystery novels to pay the bills. She is about to encounter a mystery of her own.

I can handle anyone who walks into my pub. Except him - the most powerful vampire who ever lived. The First. Dark, damaged, and hot as hell. He says I’m his one and only Vampire Bride, and that five years ago, I buried him alive. Obviously he’s crazy, because I don’t remember any of that. All I know is that if I want to escape his vengeance, I have to help him infiltrate a deadly secret society.

Making art—giving form to the images that arise in our mind's eye, our dreams, and our everyday lives—is a form of spiritual practice through which knowledge of ourselves can ripen into wisdom. This book offers encouragement for everyone to explore art making in this spirit of self-discovery—plus practical instructions on material, methods, and activities.

Professional Quarterback Austin Riley is finally seeing his dreams come to fruition - he has a ring under his belt, he is one of the league's top contenders for future Hall of Fame recognition, he is building a family legacy, and just months away, he will be marrying the woman he's loved since before he understood what love truly meant: Sommer Hayes. But it is in times of invincibility that a man's true nature is tested. His past comes back to haunt him in a way he never expected.

Workplaces have traditionally been viewed as “straight spaces” in which queer people passed. As a result, historians have directed limited attention to the experiences of queer people on the job. Queer Career rectifies this, offering an expansive historical look at sexual minorities in the modern American workforce. Arguing that queer workers were more visible than hidden and, against the backdrop of state aggression, vulnerable to employer exploitation, Margot Canaday positions employment and fear of job loss as central to gay life in postwar America.