For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant—a part of a future that belonged to them.But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.

    Lt. Ummer Fayaz was brutally murdered by armed militants in Kashmir while he was back home, attending a wedding in the family. The death sent a nation into shock, and immortalised the memory of a young man with conviction beyond his years.In his brief, inspiring life, Ummer joined the army to set an example and galvanise fellow Kashmiris to move beyond the cycle of violence that unrest in the state had forced them into.Deeply researched and told with feeling, Undaunted is the extraordinary story of an extraordinary life.Ummer epitomises ‘Kashmiryat’ in its truest sense and will go down in the history as a hero who chose to serve the nation, against all odds.-General Bipin Rawat. Chief of the Army StaffBhaavna Arora's deep field research on the life and times of young Lt. Ummer Fayaz, not without its own inherent dangers, reveals just what are the aspirations of most young Kashmiris.-Lt. Gen. Ata Hasnain. Former Military Secretary of the Indian ArmyA soul-stirring book.-Lt. Gen. Satish Dua. GOC 15 Corps during the Surgical Strikes and execution of Burhan WaniBhaavna has truthfully conveyed all she witnessed, and in this lies the real value of the book.-Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda. Northern Army Commander during the Surgical StrikesUmmer is an icon for our warriors and children.Maj. Gen. G.D. Bakshi. Army HistorianIt’s a must-read for all Indians who care about Kashmir, its future and for those Kashmiris who refuse to be cowed down by terror threats when it comes to serving their country.-Neeraj Kumar. Former Commissioner of Police, Delhi. Man behind the Nirbhaya arrests and convictionThis book has the potential to make many Lt. Ummmer Fayazs.-Major D.P. Singh. India’s first blade runner and Kargil war heroThis book is a plea for hope. Without stating the obvious, it is a cry for Kashmir, a prayer for young Kashmiris to take a deep look at who their heroes should be.-Major Gaurav Arya. Defence AnalystI am particularly struck by the lengths to which Bhaavna has gone to render an authentic account of Kashmir, its life and the life of armymen posted there.-Major Surendra Poonia. President Awardee, Special Forces Veteran

    As they hunt through the primordial depths of the valley, they discover ancient horrors that not only threaten to unravel their minds, but to end their lives as well. When the casualties mount, the men of Vulture Squad must abandon their human nature and give in to their savage instincts in order to survive...the Primitive War. DISCLAIMER - This novel is set in the Vietnam War, and as such, it isn't suitable for children. There is graphic violence, adult language, drug use, and many references to war-borne tragedy.

    She writes about what having an abortion alone felt like because her boyfriend wouldn’t sell his guitar to buy a plane ticket. She writes about the purple flesh of her nipple and pleasure so loud that the world must sigh and shut its blinds—for it cannot taste the desire it has not lived. She writes when grief takes her down to the white tile floor of her kitchen and keeps her there all night. She writes how the brown of an espresso smells in white sheets brought by an Italian who played her legs like a harp all night. She writes her disdain for the commercialization of spiritualism and in the same breath demands that people heed their gut before their guru. She writes how the numbness of grief feels the Monday morning after a suicide. She writes of surfing naked in broad daylight—what freedom tastes like, what dust feels like hitting the back of her legs in the muggy heat of May as she tears through the jungle with the teeth of her heart. She writes about the yellow of fireflies, the bitterness of kicking horse coffee in a blue tin cup, and the taste of air cleaned by hemlocks. She writes of Austin, where cowboys walk in boots that echo on sidewalks stained with love. She writes about her disdain for marriage, politics, pensions, the military, and university—she questions everything and writes the truths we are too afraid to tell ourselves. She doesn’t find her radical vulnerability brave, she finds it common sense—like breathing.This Is For The Women Who Don’t Give A Fuck is a poetry collection of Robinson’s heart. Her work is a diverse assortment of gut-wrenching stories, powerful anecdotes, whimsical observations, and overall joyful expressions. She relinquishes social constructs with command and grace. Her rare eloquence is mesmerizing and inclusive to all readers. This collection takes you to extraordinary places and doesn’t return you quite the same.

    Tragedy beyond what a human can possibly imagine will forever alter Mary’s future. Mary’s life is boring, conservative and typical. She wants adventure, thrills and so much more. But she will soon learn to be careful what to wish for when she’s taken against her will and thrust into the twisted world of a powerful man who doesn’t care if she lives or dies. When Mary starts becoming Elena, she does find a savior, but is he truly the person who will protect her, or will he be the one to escort her straight into the pits of hell? Forgetting who she is or where she belongs, she learns she can trust no one, rely on only herself, and fall further than she ever thought possible. She will become someone else and the cycle will begin. She will become the person who will eventually change the life of so many others. Some might say the change is good, the violence is necessary. And some will cry for this tragedy that should have been stopped. Just when you think you know how it all came about, how it will end, you will be floored again by who can be trusted … and who can’t. Note from the author: This book isn’t anything like what I’ve written before. I had a dream, the opening scene of this book, actually. And I woke up and lay there for a while, and still couldn’t push it away, so I got up, wrote the first chapter. Then I lay back down and was back out of bed within fifteen minutes, where I gave up on sleep and sat at my computer all night and all the next day until my eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. Then for the next week, all I did was eat and sleep (minimally) and the first draft was born. I was so emotionally drained from it, I put it away for a month, and then came back to it and went back into the world of Elena. My question was, what makes someone enter into a lifestyle of BDSM? What makes them enjoy pain? Enjoy being degraded? Then I realized, it’s not a matter of enjoyment necessarily. It’s a matter of your world spinning out of control. And this is a way to ground yourself. Elena has become so special to me. The first book is tragic and I cried several times while writing it. The second book, she starts to find herself, and in the third book … well, the third book leaves your mouth hanging open. I hope you enjoy this journey with me. It’s been an emotional one. This book is intended for mature audiences only. There are explicit scenes of abuse, language and questionable sexual situations. Eighteen and older only. This story is about a woman so abused she turns into a person most wouldn’t even fathom becoming.

    She's grieving the death of her father (who she has more in common with than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other towards middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways.Bold, tender, propulsive, and unexpected in countless ways, Jean Kyoung Frazier's Pizza Girl is a moving and funny portrait of a flawed, unforgettable young woman as she tries to find her place in the world.

    For a rising generation young women, the sky is the limit. Women can be anything and have everything. They are outpacing their male peers in higher education and earning the corner office at work. Smart, driven, assertive women are succeeding at just about everything they do--except romance. Why are so many men afraid to date smart women? Modern men claim to want smarts, success, and independence in romantic partners. Or so says the data collected by scientists and dating websites. If that's the case, why are so many independent, successful women winning in life, but losing in love? Journalist Jenna Birch has finally named the perplexing reason: "the love gap"--or that confusing rift between who men say they want to date and who they actually commit to. Backed by extensive data, research, in-depth interviews with experts and real-life relationship stories, The Love Gap is the first book to explore the most talked-about dating trend today. The guide also establishes a new framework for navigating modern relationships, and the tricky new gender dynamics that impact them. Women can, and should, have it all without settling.

    This second edition of THE GROWN-UP'S GUIDE covers estimating cost-of-living expenses, the dos and don'ts of international health care, the boom in online travel resources, and much more. Whether planning a monthlong escape or a whole new life in another country, this empowering guide will encourage mature would-be expats to pursue the overseas adventure they've been craving.  An accessible primer for midlife adults who long to live or retire in another country, featuring information on choosing a destination, readying finances, working, and keeping the stateside home fires burning. Detailed advice is interspersed with lively and inspiring anecdotes from the author's own adventures, plus interviews with other experienced expats.

    In her latest collection of essays, she turns her attention to subjects like bondage which she notes now seems to come in fifty shades of grey and has been renamed Spanx. She muses on those lessons learned in Kindergarten that every woman must unlearn like not having to hold the hand of the person you're waking next to (especially if he's a bad boyfriend) or needing to have milk, cookies and a nap every day at 3:00 PM (which tends to sap one's energy not to mention what it does to one's waistline). She sounds off about all those things a woman hates to hear from a man like "Calm down" or "Next time, try buying shoes that fit". "'If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?'" is about getting loud, getting love, getting ahead and getting the first draw (or the last shot). Here are tips, lessons and bold confessions about bad boyfriends at any age, about friends we love and ones we can't stand anymore, about waist size and wasted time, about panic, placebos, placentas and certain kinds of not-so adorable paternalism attached to certain kinds of politicians. The world is kept lively by loud women talking and "'If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?'" cheers and challenges those voices to come together and speak up. You think she's kidding? Oh, boy, do you have another thing coming.

    If Sawyer didn’t know who Kace was then, Kace definitely knew Sawyer: gorgeous, honor student, gymnastic enigma, and star football player. A boy Kace wouldn’t dare dream he’d ever have. The guys Kace now met in the big city were okay, but they weren’t Sawyer. Nothing like Sawyer.At least until Kace stepped into Steam, Atlanta’s hottest male strip club, discovering the star entertainer looked almost like Sawyer. A little too much like him. But tattooed bad boy strippers were a definite no no on Kace’s check list of compatible guys. However, Kace might have to rethink his strict rules when Sawyer pursues him…and Kace finds himself growing totally infatuated again with the one guy he always wanted.SawyerDemanding pressure caused golden boy, Sawyer Jensen, to rebel against everything he was raised to be after graduating high school. Using his good looks and muscled physique, he pursued an exciting life as a male stripper. Coaxed into taking a job at Steam in Atlanta as the main attraction, Sawyer is soon intrigued by a shy-cutie that looks familiar. Sawyer pursues Kace and contemplates more in life than just random hookups…unaware of Kace’s past super-secret high school crush. When four years of suppressed hidden passion explodes, Kace faces increasing obstacles that threaten to destroy his one chance at finally landing his ultimate dream man.All About Sawyer is a steamy second chance M/M Romance Novel with a guaranteed HEA and is Book 1 of He’s The One Series. Can be read as a standalone.

    In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.For readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another.

    Two Dominants. One Drunken Bet. IAN MATHERS That feisty blonde making my life hell is Kathryn, a woman who seduced me twelve years ago. Seduced and left me in one of the most embarrassing situations of my life. I don't hold a grudge. Not really. How can I when I still find myself staring at her every time she's around? How can I want her to leave my presence when all I think about is her watching my every move, studying me... wanting me? Oh, I still want her. I need to have her like the world needs the sun. There's just one problem. She's a Domme. I have no idea how to seduce a woman I refuse to let control me. KATHRYN ALISON Ian is smug, condescending... and so stupidly handsome that I can't stop thinking about him as we work together. When the sparks fly so hot that we finally get what we've wanted for the longest decade ever, I make the greatest mistake of my life. I propose a friendly wager that sees the loser submitting to the other for a night. I never anticipated losing.

    From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans.

     Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school.  You don't want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

    And by grounded, she means working as an indentured servant in her family’s struggling grocery store to pay off her debts. With each order of deli meat she slices, Margot can feel her carefully cultivated prep school reputation slipping through her fingers, and she’s willing to do anything to get out of this punishment. Lie, cheat, and maybe even steal…Margot’s invitation to the ultimate beach party is within reach and she has no intention of letting her family’s drama or Moisés—the admittedly good looking but outspoken boy from the neighborhood—keep her from her goal.