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London In The Nineteenth Century: 'A Human Awful Wonder of God'
by Jerry WhiteJerry White's London in the Nineteenth Century is the richest and most absorbing account of the city's greatest century by its leading expert.London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. This was the London of Blake, Thackeray and Mayhew, of Nash, Faraday and Disraeli. Most of all it was the London of Dickens. As William Blake put it, London was 'a Human awful wonder of God'.In Jerry White's dazzling history we witness the city's unparalleled metamorphosis over the course of the century through the daily lives of its inhabitants. We see how Londoners worked, played, and adapted to the demands of the metropolis during this century of dizzying change. The result is a panorama teeming with life.
Longing for Toys
by Virginia CrowleyRobert and James are upstanding members of the community. They are young professionals with bigoted, conservative upper-middle-class girlfriends. When Michele - a gorgeous stripper at the notorious club Hot Summer's - sees Robert's shiny red new roadster, she is overcome by a desire to possess it. Manipulating his friends and neighbours with offerings of ever more sordid sexual delights, she engineers Robert's descent into a tangled world of erotic temptation. As his character degrades from that of an altruistic medical researcher into a drooling plaything around the manicured fingers of his keeper, Robert's fiancée and best friend try to help him; unfortunately, their involvement also subjects them to the irresistible lure of pretty toys.
Lord Jim
by Joseph ConradThis compact novel, completed in 1900, as with so many of the great novels of the time, is at its baseline a book of the sea. An English boy in a simple town has dreams bigger than the outdoors and embarks at an early age into the sailor's life. The waters he travels reward him with the ability to explore the human spirit, while Joseph Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero.
The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes)
by Henri Alain-Fournier'I read it for the first time when I was seventeen and loved every page. I find its depiction of a golden time and place just as poignant now as I did then' Nick HornbyThe Lost Estate is Robin Buss's translation of Henri Alain-Fournier's poignant study of lost love, Le Grand Meaulnes.When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party at a mysterious house - and his love for the beautiful girl hidden within it, Yvonne de Galais - his life has been changed forever. In his restless search for his Lost Estate and the happiness he found there, Meaulnes, observed by his loyal friend Francois, may risk losing everything he ever had. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain-Fournier's compelling narrator carries the reader through this evocative and unbearably poignant portrayal of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence. Robin Buss's translation of Le Grand Meaulnes sensitively and accurately renders Alain-Fournier's poetically charged, expressive and deceptively simple style. In his introduction, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik discusses the life of Alain-Fournier, who was killed in the First World War after writing this, his only novel.If you liked Le Grand Meaulnes, you might enjoy Gustave Flaubert's Sentimental Education, also available in Penguin Classics.
Love (Penguin Great Loves Ser.)
by StendhalIn 1818, when he was in his mid-thirties, Stendhal met and fell passionately in love with the beautiful Mathilde Dembowski. She, however, was quick to make it clear that she did not return his affections, and in his despair he turned to the written word to exorcise his love and explain his feelings. The result is an intensely personal dissection of the process of falling - and being - in love: a unique blend of poetry, anecdote, philosophy, psychology and social observation. Bringing together the conflicting sides of his nature, the deeply emotional and the coolly analytical, Stendhal created a work that is both acutely personal and universally applicable.
A Love Affair with Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections
by Jean AndersonMore than a cookbook, this is the story of how a little girl, born in the South of Yankee parents, fell in love with southern cooking at the age of five. And a bite of brown sugar pie was all it took."I shamelessly wangled supper invitations from my playmates," Anderson admits. "But I was on a voyage of discovery, and back then iron-skillet corn bread seemed more exotic than my mom's Boston brown bread and yellow squash pudding more appealing than mashed parsnips."After college up north, Anderson worked in rural North Carolina as an assistant home demonstration agent, scarfing good country cooking seven days a week: crispy "battered" chicken, salt-rising bread, wild persimmon pudding, Jerusalem artichoke pickles, Japanese fruitcake. Later, as a New York City magazine editor, then a freelancer, Anderson covered the South, interviewing cooks and chefs, sampling local specialties, and scribbling notebooks full of recipes.Now, at long last, Anderson shares her lifelong exploration of the South's culinary heritage and not only introduces the characters she met en route but also those men and women who helped shape America's most distinctive regional cuisine—people like Thomas Jefferson, Mary Randolph, George Washington Carver, Eugenia Duke, and Colonel Harlan Sanders.Anderson gives us the backstories on such beloved Southern brands as Pepsi-Cola, Jack Daniel's, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, MoonPies, Maxwell House coffee, White Lily flour, and Tabasco sauce. She builds a time line of important southern food firsts—from Ponce de León's reconnaissance in the "Island of Florida" (1513) to the reactivation of George Washington's still at Mount Vernon (2007). For those who don't know a Chincoteague from a chinquapin, she adds a glossary of southern food terms and in a handy address book lists the best sources for stone-ground grits, country ham, sweet sorghum, boiled peanuts, and other hard-to-find southern foods.Recipes? There are two hundred classic and contemporary, plain and fancy, familiar and unfamiliar, many appearing here for the first time. Each recipe carries a headnote—to introduce the cook whence it came, occasionally to share snippets of lore or back-stairs gossip, and often to explain such colorful recipe names as Pine Bark Stew, Chicken Bog, and Surry County Sonker.Add them all up and what have you got? One lip-smackin' southern feast!A Love Affair with Southern Cooking is the winner of the 2008 James Beard Foundation Book Award, in the Americana category.
Love Against All Odds: a compelling and moving saga set on the brink of WW2 from much-loved and bestselling author Rosie Harris
by Rosie HarrisLet much-loved multi-million copy bestseller Rosie Harris sweep you away to Cardiff in this captivating and emotionally charged wartime saga. Perfect for readers of Dilly Court, Kitty Neale, Emma Hornby and Rosie Goodwin.'A tale of triumph over tragedy in the tradition of Catherine Cookson, and a rattling good read' -- activelife'Enjoyed from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review'I loved this book and read it in a couple of days' -- ***** Reader review'Excellent' -- ***** Reader review'I was hooked from the first page right to the end' -- ***** Reader review******************************************************************WAS SHE ALWAYS TO BE FATED IN LOVE?When Gaynor's God-fearing father drives her childhood sweetheart away, she's certain she will never love again. But a young German soon helps her to forget her sorrows - that is until, with war looming, he must return home and Gaynor is left heartbroken once more.When her parents discover she's pregnant and insist she cannot keep the child, Gaynor runs away to Cardiff.Penniless and alone in a strange city she is forced to give birth in the workhouse. Luckily, shortly afterwards she is taken in by a friendly Spanish family who care for her and little Sara.She quickly falls for the charms of the eldest son. But just when she thought she'd found love and a chance of happiness at last, a telegram shatters her dreams...
Love Song of the Dominatrix
by Cat ScarlettDinah is a tough-talking bisexual dominatrix with a weakness for redheads. So when she meets Grace, a beautiful hotel receptionist looking for excitement, she can't resist converting her to a life of lesbian submission. But Grace is forced to overcome her timidity and take up the whip herself when ex-boyfriend Aidan finds out about their relationship and decides to teach Mistress Dinah a lesson.
Love That Moves the Sun and Other Stars (Penguin Little Black Classics)
by Dante Alighieri'Happiness beyond all words! A life of peace and love, entire and whole!'A collection of cantos from Paradiso, the most original and experimental part of the Divina Commedia.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
Lovejoy on Football: One Man's Passion for The Most Important Subject in the World
by Tim LovejoyTim Lovejoy loves football. Along with Helen Chamberlain he presented Soccer AM for more than a decade to become as much a part of a football fan's weekend as phone-ins, back-page EXCLUSIVES and the vidiprinter. But why does Tim love football? Is it actually the most important subject in the world? And did he really once support Watford as a kid?Lovejoy on Football gets down to the nitty gritty of the really important stuff in football, such as:Why he, Tim, is technically a rubbish football fan; Women's true place in football;How 'Save Chip' became the biggest football cause in the country;Why it's a bad idea to hammer Razor Ruddock; And why footballers are in fact underpaid.Packed with amusing anecdotes, bustling with great football stories and full of strong opinions, Lovejoy on Football is the must-have football book of 2007.
Lust Bites
by Kristina Lloyd Mathilde Madden Portia Da CostaThree erotic novellas with a vampire theme.Zachary Trevelyan is a vampire but a mishap involving kisses and necks leads him to fall in love with his best friend, Teresa. And not only that, he really wants to bite her...For centuries, Billy has been yearning for the woman he accidentally killed as a novice vampire in Constantinople. Now she's back, reborn as Esther, the explorer. Exiled in the Arctic, Billy is already battling his lust to devour her all over again. The only way that Merle Cobalt can save her father's life is to spend twenty five days living with renegade vampire Darius Cole. But vampires are known for their mind controlling powers and Merle knows that after spending so long with Cole her free will might become a thing of the past.
Lust Call
by Ray GordonAttractive, blonde Sarah lives happily with her husband in a state of suburban bliss. Until she receives a salacious e-mail from a man called 'Brian', who knows intimate details about her. It suggests she is being watched. More mails arrive admiring her sexy outfits. Her bemusement soon turns to curiosity and she begins a correspondence with Brian. Convinced the writer is her husband, she begins to follow the requests in the emails and engages in sexual games with her husband. Hooked on the game, the requests become more extreme and she engages in affairs with other men. It is only then that she becomes aware that the identity behind Brian is not her husband. A stranger has transformed her from a loyal loving wife, to an insatiable adulterer.Swamped by an overwhelming desire not only to discover who Brian is, but to find gratification from outrageous sexual acts, she begins to seduce the men she suspects are Brian. Time after time she attempts to solve the mystery of Brian, but fails, while slipping further and further into shame and depravity. And all the time, he watches, until ... finally, he is revealed.
Lying in Mid-Air
by Anne TourneyLauryn is a business consultant who spends half her life on airplanes, traveling from one boring industrial complex to another. She longs to visit exotic cities for adventure and romance, but her evil boss is making sure that her assignments are as dull as dirt. Chloe is a graduate student with a passion for translating Japanese love poetry; she dreams about leading an erotic double life in Tokyo, but her fear of flying keeps her earthbound. Veronica fantasises about starting her own escort service for goth chicks, while working as a shoeshine girl at the airport.These three very different women have two things in common: their dreams are deadlocked, and they're about to fall for the same irresistible liar. Joel is a freelance journalist who loves women as much as he loves traveling. Lately, he always seems to be between stories, which may be why he's inventing so many about himself. His alternate personalities are proving remarkably successful at winning the attention of three very sexy women-trouble is, he's falling in love with all of them. With everyone juggling multiple identities, whose fantasies will actually come true?
Lying in Mid-Air: A Rouge Erotic Romance
by Anne TourneyA straight-up businesswoman, a flighty art student and a bad-ass goth, Lauryn, Chloe and Veronica all have one thing in common – they long to escape their mundane lives. And Joel, a freelance journalist who can’t help but find all women irresistible, ends up falling in love with all of them. Whose fantasies will come true?
Madame B's White Hot & Wild Whispers
by Ann SummersIn this second collection of sexy secrets as told to hostess Madame B, we discover a world of delicious and dangerous delights. No fantasy is too extreme, no indulgence or scenario off limits.Velvet Underground - an everyday Tube journey takes an erotic turn for a young womanDigits - the telephone provides the ultimate release for two strangersThe Magic Toyshop - a mysterious saleswoman opens a young customer's eyes to new pleasures Buckle My Shoe - Nick is an unashamed foot fetishist; but has he met his match?Hard Cell - the prisoner/guard relationship is taken to extremes of passionStatuesque - Englishwoman Kelly enjoys a very special midnight feast while on a cooking holiday in ItalyThe Lure of the Greasepaint - best friends Jade and Tania get closer than they ever expected as extras in an orgy sceneFourplay - on a second honeymoon in the Seychelles, Alex and Jessica meet attractive Australian couple Laura and Brad, and have a holiday they will never forgetThe Sinner - when her car breaks down, a reporter seeks shelter at a monastery, where she meets the shy Brother Michael...Rockstar 2 - model Anna Lamb and her rockstar boyfriend Joey love taking sexual risks in public, and at a masked club for the rich and famous they show everyone else what they're missing.With private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, Madame B's White Hot & Wild Whispers ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.
Made In Brighton: From the grand to the gutter: Modern Britain as seen from beside the sea
by Daniel Raven Julie BurchillBritain is experiencing a sudden reckless rush of liberalisation, from 24 hour licensing to gay marriages. But how did we get from idolising Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier to Jordan and Peter Andre? Funny and bittersweet, Made In Brighton interweaves personal stories of life in Brighton with larger themes of sex, politics and class to take a cold, hard look at the changing face of Britain, and at the town which has always been at the vanguard of Britain's cultural evolution. From punk to dance, dope to coke, the Labour party to hen parties, straight to gay to bi, this book holds a mirror up to the dazed face of Britain and gives it a good hard slap.
Magic City: A Novel (Thorn Series #7)
by James W. HallA novel based on real events and newly declassified documents, Magic City is to Miami what L.A. Confidential and Chinatown were to Los Angeles. It evokes a time in our nation's history when powerful men were willing to do whatever they thought necessary to achieve their goals.A simple black and white photograph taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight on Miami Beach may hold the key to a horrific, politically-motivated crime forty-two years earlier. After it suddenly appears on display at a trendy Miami gallery opening, the photograph is burned in an act of arson that sets off a modern-day murder spree, reaching from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. What the killer didn't know is that there is one remaining copy. When it falls into Thorn's hands, he and everyone he loves become the target of madmen and trained killers, each of whom has his own powerful motive to see the photograph destroyed forever and its mysteries kept hidden.To find retribution for the death of a loved one, Thorn joins forces with a dangerous enemy to solve a maddening puzzle. At its center are two families from very different worlds with their own dark secrets. Unraveling this dangerous riddle shakes the foundation of his bond with both Alexandra and his closest friend, and sends him on a deadly journey. But cover-ups have a way of disintegrating over time, especially when someone like Thorn is pounding on the door. Magic City is an epic crime thriller--exposing the past of a city in a time capsule of a novel.
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
by Lucette Lagnado“Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . ”—Miami HeraldIn vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power. With Nasser’s nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxtaposed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind. An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado’s memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.
The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
by Andrew LycettThough Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's name is recognized the world over, for decades the man himself has been overshadowed by his better understood creation, Sherlock Holmes, who has become one of literature's most enduring characters. Based on thousands of previously unavailable documents, Andrew Lycett, author of the critically acclaimed biography Dylan Thomas, offers the first definitive biography of the baffling Conan Doyle, finally making sense of a long-standing mystery: how the scientifically minded creator of the world's most rational detective himself succumbed to an avid belief in spiritualism, including communication with the dead. Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Always romantic, energetic, idealistic and upstanding, he could also be selfish and fool-hardy. Lycett assembles the many threads of Conan Doyle's life, including the lasting impact of his domineering mother and his wayward, alcoholic father; his affair with a younger woman while his wife lay dying; and his nearly fanatical pursuit of scientific data to prove and explain various supernatural phenomena. Lycett reveals the evolution of Conan Doyle's nature and ideas against the backdrop of his intense personal life, wider society and the intellectual ferment of his age. In response to the dramatic scientific and social transformations at the turn of the century, he rejected traditional religious faith in favor of psychics and séances -- and in this way he embodied all of his late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era's ambivalence about the advance of science and the decline of religion. The first biographer to gain access to Conan Doyle's newly released personal archive -- which includes correspondence, diaries, original manuscripts and more -- Lycett combines assiduous research with penetrating insight to offer the most comprehensive, lucid and sympathetic portrait yet of Conan Doyle's personal journey from student to doctor, from world-famous author to ardent spiritualist.
Marching with the First Nebraska: A Civil War Diary
by August ScherneckauAugust Scherneckau’s diary is the most important firsthand account of the Civil War by a Nebraska soldier that has yet come to light. A German immigrant, Scherneckau served with the First Nebraska Volunteers from 1862 through 1865. Depicting the unit’s service in Missouri, Arkansas, and Nebraska Territory, he offers detail, insight, and literary quality matched by few other accounts of the Civil War in the West. His observations provide new perspective on campaigns, military strategy, leadership, politics, ethnicity, emancipation, and a host of other topics. Scherneckau takes readers on the march as he and his comrades plod through mud and snow during a grueling winter campaign in the Missouri Ozarks. He served as a provost guard in St. Louis, where he helped save a former slave from kidnappers and observed the construction of Union gunboats. He describes the process of transforming a regiment from infantry to cavalry, and his account of First Nebraska’s pursuit of Freeman’s Partisans in Arkansas is an exciting portrayal of mountain fighting. An annotated edition that brings to bear the editors’ and translator’s respective expertise in both the Civil War and the German language, Scherneckau’s account is an important addition to primary material on the war’s forgotten theater. It will be a valued resource for historian and Civil War enthusiast alike.
Marco Pierre White in Hell's Kitchen: Over 100 wickedly tempting recipes
by Marco Pierre WhiteLong before Gordon Ramsay and Antony Bourdain, there was Marco Pierre White: the first and the greatest enfant terrible of the cookery world. His book, White Heat, caused a sensation on publication in 1990. Now Marco puts his chef's whites back on and returns to the kitchen for the first time in years as he puts the celebrities through their paces on this exciting and enduringly popular television show, moving into its third series. The colourful chef, as famous for his ability to make headlines as for making headturning dishes, serves up 100 delicious recipes in this mouthwatering cookery book. Alongside the wonderful recipes - ranging from partridge pie with creamy wild mushroom sauce to melting chocolate souffle with vanilla cream - come shortcuts, masterful tips and tricks of the trade. Marco Pierre White is a natural for television and this fully illustrated book allows his talents to shine. Use this book at home and you'll have a taste of what it's like to cook in the company of a culinary genius.
Masterpiece
by Miranda GloverArt, fashion, fame and sex - artist Esther Glass has it all. That is, until a ghost from her past threatens to destroy her perfect life. Trying to cover her tracks, Esther goes for ultimate sensation, selling herself as a living work of art. She takes the international art scene by storm, performing as the female sitters inside seven great paintings. But underneath the surface the cracks start to show as Esther is forced to reconcile a very private history with a very public life. Fast-paced, smart and scintillating, Masterpiece gives the reader a rare glimpse into a closed world.
The Melodramatic Thread: Spectacle and Political Culture in Modern France (Interdisciplinary Studies in History)
by James R. Lehning“This ambitious undertaking is concerned with the melodramatic form in theatre and film and its impact on French political culture.” —H-France ReviewIn France, both political culture and theatrical performances have drawn upon melodrama. This “melodramatic thread” helped weave the country’s political life as it moved from monarchy to democracy. By examining the relationship between public ceremonies and theatrical performance, James R. Lehning sheds light on democratization in modern France. He explores the extent to which the dramatic forms were present in the public performance of political power. By concentrating on the Republic and the Revolution and on theatrical performance, Lehning affirms the importance of examining the performative aspects of French political culture for understanding the political differences that have marked France in the years since 1789.“In this thoroughly researched and persuasive book, Lehning provides a fascinating reading of public performances in modern France . . . This is an important contribution to the study of French culture and the democratization process . . . Essential.” —Choice“Lehning’s application of the themes of melodrama to French political culture offers new insights into French history. His style is lively, clear, and highly readable.” —Venita Datta, Wellesley College“The analyses in this book make a real contribution to debates about the ways in which art, particularly popular art, and politics interact; how politics itself is theatrical in the French case; and the role of ritual in politics and the function of politics as ritual and ceremony.” —John Gaffney, Aston University
Men!: Forget the fiction! Where are the interesting and available men?
by Isabel LosadaFast, hard-hitting, funny and honest, this is the book that answers the question that all women discuss every day: 'Where are the interesting and available men?' Forget the fiction. This is not self help or a dating manual - This is 'Men!' - controversial, sassy and very entertaining - Michael Moore meets real life Bridget Jones.Bestselling author Isabel Losada throws herself (literally) into all male environments to learn about how different 'Men!' are from women. From learning to be a plumber and riding a Harley to interviewing psychologists and dating hosts, every page will have readers smiling and learning about 'Men!' and about themselves. How do you define an 'interesting' man? (or women?) How are male and female brains different? What do the richest men in the city and the builders on the building sites want of women? This is not a book for women who think that finding a man is the solution to their problems; rather it is an intelligent, controversial and often hilarious journey through modern life and relationships by a unique and well-loved author.