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The Story of X: An Erotic Tale
by A.J. MolloyA darkly seductive and passionate tale of secret societies, elaborate rites and sexual experimentation, in the tradition of the captivating classic Story of O and Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut.Shy American student Alexandra Beckmann—‘X’ to her friends—arrives in Naples desperate for adventures beyond the sheltered life she has led. She is there to study the Camorra, an infamous Italian crime organization. But in the sun-soaked, ancient city streets, her research leads her to a man like no one else she has ever met.Irresistibly handsome, Lord Marcus Roscarrick is an Italian aristocrat with a mysterious past. Yet, underneath his refined exterior, X senses a man who is well-acquainted with danger.Soon they begin a passionate affair, and X is drawn into Roscarrick’s world—a world she never dreamed existed. But as she falls ever more deeply under Roscarrick’s spell, X must decide whether she dares to submit entirely to this shadowy realm of dark desire.
The Story of You
by Rose StanleyIt’s the VERY BEST story, It’s the story of you, And no-one can tell it Quite like YOU do! Your story is your treasure. It is what makes you unique. Like a book you can’t stop reading, it gets more and more interesting as you go along. All the ups and downs, twists and turns work together to shape a wonderful story which is not the same as anyone else’s. The more you keep breathing, keep living, the more your story comes together!
The Story Thief
by Kyra GeddesFact and fiction meld into one in this stirring family saga set against shifting landscapes and pivotal moments in Australian history.Lillian was born in 1892, the same year Henry Lawson wrote 'The Drover's Wife' and cemented his place in Australia's literary canon. When Lillian reads the short story as a teenager, she is convinced that it is based upon her own family and becomes determined to prove it. But as the years pass, the truth becomes more problematic, and Lillian must decide what is more important: holding onto the past or embracing the future.The Story Thief is about mothers and daughters, love, loss and the power of words. Ultimately it is about how each of us must find our own way to live.
A Storybook Wedding
by KJ MiccicheWatch out for karaoke mishaps that result in a fake engagement…because weddings are forever…When librarian Cecily Jane Allerton and hotshot struggling author Nate Ellis are caught in a compromising position during their MFA program, they decide to get married to keep the haters from destroying their careers. To the horror of Cecily's family, which is a big fan of big white weddings, they elope to City Hall. Now they're back on Block Island, pretending to be a real married couple, and finding that however fake the relationship may be, the mutual attraction is all too real. With Cecily vying for a literary award, Nate striving to get past his writer's block, and plans to annul the marriage after the MFA program ends, what could possibly go wrong?Praise for The Book Proposal:"Sassy, smart and wicked fun!" —Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author"A wonderfully real main character and a sparkling new voice. Every page is a rom-com lover's delight." —Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, authors of Do I Know You?"With witty banter and a clever, self-aware plot, this romantic gem marks Micciche as a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly STARRED Review"Ridiculously endearing and entertaining, this debut rom-com…will have fans of bookish romances laughing out loud, unable to stop turning the pages." —Library Journal"Full of laugh-out-loud passages, great characters who seem ready to walk right off the page, and some fun raunchy bits, this is a joy to read." —Booklist
Storytime with Daddy
by Alan PickardRory loved listening to stories and he always remembered the ones that Daddy read to him at bedtime. He wanted to know where stories came from. And he told Daddy that one day he would like to write stories. And that was why he couldn’t wait to start reading himself. Rory didn’t think that he would ever get tired of stories!
Straight Jacket
by Matthew Todd'This is an essential read for every gay person on the planet' - Elton John'A really brilliant and moving read for everybody, especially LGBTQI+ people' - Olly Alexander, star of It's A SinStraight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT community, their friends and family. Part memoir, part ground-breaking polemic, it looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be - and if not, why not? Meticulously researched, courageous and life-affirming, Straight Jacket offers invaluable practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues. It also recognizes that this is a watershed moment, a piercing wake-up-call-to-arms for the gay and wider community to acknowledge the importance of supporting all young people - and helping older people to transform their experience and finally get the lives they really want.WINNER BOYZ BEST LGBT BOOK 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI BOOK PRIZE 2017'Insightful, inclusive, clever and engaging' - Jeremy Langmead'Utterly brilliant' - The Guardian
Straight Outta Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human Being
by Romesh RanganathanTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERStraight Outta Crawley is the hilarious and irreverent autobiography from comedian Romesh Ranganathan.'Very, very funny. I can't recommend it highly enough.' Jonathan Ross_________________________________At the age of 9, Romesh Ranganathan delivered his first ever stand-up set at a Pontin's holiday camp talent competition, smashing the other competitor, a young girl playing the kazoo.The gig went so well that Romesh retired his comic genius for twenty-two years, hiding behind the guise of a maths teacher, before finally revealing himself again (no, not like that) at the tender age of 31. In 2010, Ranganathan staged his epic comeback gig to an almost silent room, and has since gone on to earn his place as the most in-demand overweight vegan Sri Lankan comedian in Britain.Now, for the first time, he tells the full story of how he got here. From the delights of Sri Lankan hospitality to his struggles as a child, teacher and now parent, to his adolescent flirtation with a rap career and his attempts to make it in comedy, Straight Outta Crawley is Ranganathan's hilarious and irreverent autobiography.Have you read Romesh's latest book? As Good As It Gets: Life Lessons from a Reluctant Adult is Romesh Ranganathan's hilarious and painfully accurate dissection of what it really means to grow up.
Straight Up: My Autobiography
by Danny DyerGrowing up in the eighties in East London was no picnic. Proper hard bastards, wannabe villains and cockney wide boys everywhere you went, all looking to make their mark. With trouble at home and more at school, Danny Dyer didn't have many options. He was a rascal, running with a tough crowd, getting himself into scrapes with the Old Bill, on the verge of becoming just another nobody. Until he started to act.It came naturally to him. He landed role after role, working with big stars, making a name for himself. And then came Human Traffic, and his career went into overdrive. Fame opened doors into the best clubs, the best booze and even better drugs. But with the highs came the lows, and as the drinks flowed, the work dried up. Shut out of an industry that didn't understand him, that heard his reputation before bothering with his talent, he had no choice but to turn it around and sort himself out. This is the real story - straight up.Funny, honest, full of swagger, and jammed full of antics and anecdotes, this memoir tears it up proper and delivers on every page.
Straight Up and Dirty: A Memoir
by Stephanie Klein"I did have my own friends, my own salary, my health, and TiVo: all the important things we're likely to take for granted. Still, when it hit that I'd now have to date again, I panicked. Dating meant nightclubs, heels, and black. It meant, 'No, thank you. Really, I'm full.' It meant matching bras and underwear. Clothes with the micro used to describe them. Because until you date again, people will hiccup lines about getting back on horses. So you invest in an Agent Provocateur whip and a subscription to an online dating service. . . ."--from Straight Up and DirtyShe had every girl's dream: the perfect marriage to the perfect guy in the perfect apartment on the Upper East Side. Marriage fit Stephanie Klein like a glove . . . but unfortunately it fit her husband like a noose. And then, just like that, Klein found herself "divorced when you're firm, fashionable, and let's face it—fetching."Celebrated bloggist, photographer, and freelance writer Stephanie Klein lets it all hang out in this juicy tell-all tracing her jump back into single life following her divorce. On the dating advice of her therapist, Klein attempts to keep "a pair and a spare" of men always on hand and has lots of bawdy fun along the way. But when the anniversary of the devastating breakup from her "wasband" forces her to revisit what happened, she finds herself wanting more than her therapist's recommended gimmick to keep her emotionally safe.Straight Up and Dirty demonstrates that the true measure of success isn't what's crossed off life's to-do list. It's having the grace and fortitude to move through change, curls intact and smiling
Straits of Power (The Jeffrey Fuller Novels #5)
by Joe BuffIn his latest mission, Commander Jeffrey Fuller will go head–to–head against his most dangerous adversary yet – his own allies.Jeffrey Fuller has a new mission – use his cutting–edge submarine Challenger to recover a German spy claiming to have key information about the Berlin–Boer Axis, information that could be crucial to winning the war. Fuller will have to navigate his super–silent sub through some of the most densely patrolled waters in Europe if he hopes to accomplish his mission.But Fuller knows he can't trust the spy, code–named Zeno, an expert in electronic and information warfare. The man could be a double agent sent by the enemy to compromise Challenger. And when they finally recover the mysterious spy, he reveals that only by helping him infiltrate Israel can he hope to prevent an imminent Axis attack. Fuller is caught in a terrible dilemma – if the man is a double agent, he could be dooming Israel, but if he does nothing, the country could fall to the German assault. To go ahead with the plan would pitch Fuller against the best defences of his own allies, placing his crew in danger and possibly shattering bonds between nations. It is a battle that, if fought, Fuller will have to fight entirely on his own.
Strandloper: From the author of the 2022 Booker longlisted Treacle Walker
by Alan GarnerA captivating novel by the author of the 2022 Booker Prize-longlisted Treacle WalkerBased on a true story, Strandloper tells the extraordinary tale of a nineteenth-century Englishman, William Buckley, who was convicted and transported to Australia. Refusing to accept his fate he escaped and lived among the Aborigines for thirty years.In this visionary novel, Alan Garner is as true to William the Cheshire bricklayer and William the Aboriginal spiritual leader, as William is true to his fate. The result is extraordinary.'A remarkable feat of literary imagination' Sunday Times
Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach
by Jean SpracklandStrands describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate beach: inter-tidal and constantly turning up revelations: mermaid's purses, lugworms, sea potatoes, messages in bottles, buried cars, beached whales and a perfect cup from a Cunard liner. This is a series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool, Strands is about what is lost and buried then discovered, about all the things you find on a beach, dead or alive, about flotsam and jetsam, about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.
The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn & Other Stories
by John BuchanIn 'The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn' and the other stories in this collection, peculiar worlds of temptation, adventure or iniquity are perilously close at hand. Mr Hawthorn himself steps outside to allow his porridge to cool and disappears for five years and more, a Glasgow grocer is shipwrecked and ultimately worshipped as a god, a young mathematician discovers an entirely new aspect of reality and becomes terrified by what he finds there, and an ageing sinner clings grimly, weakly to a hard-won life of decency: John Buchan in each demonstrating his abilities as a gripping writer of short stories.In his introduction, Giles Foden explores Buchan's innate sense of the fascination held by sudden jeopardy and vanished comfort, and the themes of the will and fate in his work.
A Strange and Sublime Address
by Amit ChaudhuriWriter and musician Amit Chaudhuri&’s elegant debut novel, in which an Indian ten-year-old experiences the entirely distinct experiences of life in Bombay, where his family lives, and Calcutta, where he visits relatives during his summer vacation.Ten-year-old Sandeep lives in a high-rise in Bombay, where his father has an important job that keeps him busy all the time. Come summer, Sandeep and his mother travel to Calcutta to spend time with his aunt, his self-absorbed and improvident uncle, and Abhi, his favorite cousin. His relatives&’ house is shadowy and rambling; the vast city around it ramshackle and alluring. They fascinate curious, observant Sandeep. Days pass; the heat grows; the rains come; the visit ends. In the winter, Sandeep and his family return to Calcutta—and encounter an unexpected turn of events. But Sandeep has arrived at a new sense of things, an understanding of how the marvelous inheres in the mundane, that will be his, we feel, for good. At once delicate and incisive, A Strange and Sublime Address succeeds in both immersing us in a boy&’s inner world and depicting that boy and his world from outside. It was Amit Chaudhuri&’s first book, the work of a novelist whose striking originality of conception would subsequently become ever more clear. The three decades since the publication of A Strange and Sublime Address have only confirmed its appeal and poetry.
Strange Attractor Journal Five
by Mark Pilkington Jamie SutcliffeThe return of the Strange Attractor Journal, offering a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture.After seven years of silence, the acclaimed Strange Attractor Journal returns with a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture. Covering previously uncharted regions of history, anthropology, art, literature, architecture, science, and magic since 2004, each Journal has presented new and unprecedented research into areas that scholarship has all too often ignored.Featuring essays from academics, artists, enthusiasts, and sorcerers, Journal Five explores matters including the folklore of foghorns; the occult origins of the dissident surrealist secret society the Acéphale; the pleasures of heathen falconry; the dark cosmological mysteries of Bremen's Haus Atlantis; a provisional taxonomy of animals with human faces; a twentieth-century crucifixion on Hampstead Heath, and an unpublished horror script by David MacGillivray and Ken Hollings.Journal Five sees Strange Attractor continuing in its mission to celebrate unpopular culture.Join us.ContributorsNadia Choucha, William Fowler, Jeremy Harte, Ken Hollings, Christopher Josiffe, Phil Legard, David MacGillivray, Karen Russo, Robert J. Wallis, Dan Wilson, E. H. Wormwood
The Strange Bird: A Borne Story
by Jeff VanderMeerThe Strange Bird—from New York Times bestselling novelist Jeff VanderMeer—is a novella-length digital original that expands and weaves deeply into the world of his “thorough marvel”* of a novel, Borne.The Strange Bird is a new kind of creature, built in a laboratory—she is part bird, part human, part many other things. But now the lab in which she was created is under siege and the scientists have turned on their animal creations. Flying through tunnels, dodging bullets, and changing her colors and patterning to avoid capture, the Strange Bird manages to escape.But she cannot just soar in peace above the earth. The sky itself is full of wildlife that rejects her as one of their own, and also full of technology—satellites and drones and other detritus of the human civilization below that has all but destroyed itself. And the farther she flies, the deeper she finds herself in the orbit of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm that has populated the world with experiments both failed and successful that have outlived the corporation itself: a pack of networked foxes, a giant predatory bear. But of the many creatures she encounters with whom she bears some kind of kinship, it is the humans—all of them now simply scrambling to survive—who are the most insidious, who still see her as simply something to possess, to capture, to trade, to exploit. Never to understand, never to welcome home.With The Strange Bird, Jeff VanderMeer has done more than add another layer, a new chapter, to his celebrated novel Borne. He has created a whole new perspective on the world inhabited by Rachel and Wick, the Magician, Mord, and Borne—a view from above, of course, but also a view from deep inside the mind of a new kind of creature who will fight and suffer and live for the tenuous future of this world.Praise for Borne*“Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy was an ever-creeping map of the apocalypse; with Borne he continues his investigation into the malevolent grace of the world, and it's a thorough marvel.” —Colson Whitehead“VanderMeer is that rare novelist who turns to nonhumans not to make them approximate us as much as possible but to make such approximation impossible. All of this is magnified a hundredfold in Borne . . . Here is the story about biotech that VanderMeer wants to tell, a vision of the nonhuman not as one fixed thing, one fixed destiny, but as either peaceful or catastrophic, by our side or out on a rampage as our behavior dictates—for these are our children, born of us and now to be borne in whatever shape or mess we have created. This coming-of-age story signals that eco-fiction has come of age as well: wilder, more reckless and more breathtaking than previously thought, a wager and a promise that what emerges from the twenty-first century will be as good as any from the twentieth, or the nineteenth.” —Wai Chee Dimock, The New York Times Book Review
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
by Robert Louis StevensonEveryone has a dark side.Dr Jekyll has discovered the ultimate drug. A chemical that can turn him into something else. Suddenly, he can unleash his deepest cruelties in the guise of the sinister Hyde. Transforming himself at will, he roams the streets of fog-bound London as his monstrous alter-ego.It seems he is master of his fate.It seems he is in complete control.But soon he will discover that his double life comes at a hideous price...
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde & the Suicide Club
by Robert Louis StevensonDr Jekyll faces awful consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that changes him into the disgustingly evil Mr Hyde.
The Strange Crime of John Boulnois
by G K ChestertonThe colossus of crime leaned over to the little rustic priest with a sort of sudden interest.'You have heard of it?' he asked. 'Where have you heard of it?''Well, I mustn't tell you his name, of course,' said the little man simply. 'He was a penitent, you know. He had lived prosperously for about twenty years entirely on duplicate brown-paper parcels. And so, you see, when I began to suspect you, I thought of this poor chap's way of doing it at once.''Began to suspect me?' repeated the outlaw with increased intensity. 'Did you really have the gumption to suspect me just because I brought you up to this bare part of the heath?''No, no,' said Brown with an air of apology. 'You see, I suspected you when we first met. It's that little bulge up the sleeve where you people have the spiked bracelet.''How in Tartarus,' cried Flambeau, 'did you ever hear of the spiked bracelet?''Oh, one's little flock, you know!' said Father Brown, arching his eyebrows rather blankly. One of detective fiction's most idiosyncratic and best-loved characters, G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown is both a diminutive, genial clergyman and a master sleuth. In these two stories involving the ingenious, unobtrusive priest, a murdered man denounces his killer with his dying breaths, and a brilliant French inspector follows a trail of gentil carnage across London.This book includes The Strange Crime of John Boulnois and The Blue Cross.
A Strange Grandmother Comes Visiting
by Ambreen AhmadHassan had a problem. His grandmother was unlike any of the grandmothers he had ever seen! Her looks were different, her dress was different, and she even spoke differently. They were family but it was like they came from two different worlds. Hassan worried what his friends would think if they met her. &‘She is so strange,&’ Hassan thought, until he discovered his grandmother&’s secret strengths.
Strange Music
by Laura FishIn Laura Fish's ambitious and captivating novel, three very different women struggle for freedom. While Elizabeth Barrett Browning is confined to bed, chafing against the restriction of her doctors and writing poetry and fretful letters, at her family's Jamaican estate Kaydia, the Creole housekeeper, tries to protect her daughter from their predatory master; and a recently freed black slave, Sheba, mourns the loss of her lover.As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege both Sheba and Kydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. The resulting novel is an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the nineteenth-century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: The Classic Collection Of Eerie And Fantastic Chinese Stories Of The Supernatural (Tuttle Classics Of Japanese Literature Ser.)
by Pu SonglingThe Strange Tales of Pu Songling (1640-1715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing is as it seems. Here a Taoist monk conjures up a magical pear tree, a scholar recounts his previous incarnations, a woman out-foxes the fox-spirit that possesses her, a child bride gives birth to a thimble-sized baby, a ghostly city appears out of nowhere and a heartless daughter-in-law is turned into a pig. In his tales of humans coupling with shape-shifting spirits, bizarre phenomena, haunted buildings and enchanted objects, Pu Songling pushes back the boundaries of human experience and enlightens as he entertains.
Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature
by Alva NoëA philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for investigating ourselvesIn his new book, Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, the philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë raises a number of profound questions: What is art? Why do we value art as we do? What does art reveal about our nature? Drawing on philosophy, art history, and cognitive science, and making provocative use of examples from all three of these fields, Noë offers new answers to such questions. He also shows why recent efforts to frame questions about art in terms of neuroscience and evolutionary biology alone have been and will continue to be unsuccessful.
A Strangely Wrapped Gift
by Emily JuniperIn A Strangely Wrapped Gift, you will find journeys from mental illness to recovery, from heartbreak to heart growth, from hopelessness to empowerment, and from the ocean to the stars. Juniper takes heavy, emotional raw material and weaves it into stunning, relatable poetry you'll long to share with friends and loved ones.This collection is a reminder that broken pieces make the most beautiful mosaics, and that all of us possess the power to bloom even after a harsh winter.
The Stranger: Black Lace Classics
by Portia Da CostaOnce she had got over the initial shock of the young man’s nudity, Claudia allowed herself to breathe properly again...When Claudia finds a sexy stranger near her home she discovers that he has lost his memory along with his clothes.Having turned her back on relationships since the death of her husband, Claudia finds herself scandalising her friends by inviting the stranger into her home and into her bed...From the Sunday Times bestselling author of In Too Deep