She's just quit her job and is ready to begin her life anew as a nurse. Phil's outrageous offer is one she can't refuse. As Margot readies to accompany Phil to his hometown, she steels herself for heartbreak.After Margot's makeover and a weekend spent attached at the hip, Phil admits he misjudged his former employee. He's ready to pursue her in earnest, if only her scandalous past didn't stand in their way.

    At night, however, it transforms into a “floating world” of escapism, as “all-work” salarymen seek a place to play. Though fascinated by Japanese language and culture, American Lea Jacobson had some difficulty conforming to Japan’s rigidly structured society. After she was fired from her job as an English teacher, Lea found work as a nightclub hostess on Tokyo’s Ginza strip and transformed herself into a doll-like confection whose job it was to flatter, flirt, and engage in mock relationships with her middle-aged clients. Working as a hostess—the occupation a direct descendant of the geisha tradition—quickly became lucrative...and addictive.Her perceptions distorted by the drinks she was paid to consume, her identity confused by the fake personalities she assumed nightly, Jacobson began to lose herself in this fantasy culture.  As she descended into self-abuse and alcoholism, she found that the seductive lifestyle she loved so much seemed impossible to escape.Jacobson’s searing insights into Japan’s cultural dynamics, erotic fascinations, gender politics, and her own spiral into sensory excess create a haunting and mesmerizing memoir that will leave readers transfixed.

    the plot skips around like gunfire on the ricochet." - LOS ANGELES TIMES "Superior stuff - taut, well observed, original and civilized." - THE TIMES "The women are not mere decoration; they are at the heart of the action." - THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR "Suspense builds from start to finish... the author will rank alongside le Carre, Deighton, and Follett." - WEST COAST REVIEW OF BOOKS VIENNA late 1980s - violence is breaking out in strife-torn Poland. A spark that could set the Soviet prison of Eastern Europe ablaze. There are dangerous Western plans to ensure that the inevitable rising will not be a repeat of Hungary in 1956. In Moscow, faceless men and women know that Bill Cable, after years banished to diplomatic backwaters, is into something big - so big they will destroy him to get it. If they fail, this could mean the end for the Soviet Union. They've had a stranglehold on Cable ever since the tragedy, deep in the past, that led to him being kicked out of the Intelligence Service. Now he is back, as British Ambassador in Vienna. Still compromised but, just to make sure, they kidnap his daughter, Sarah, and threaten her life. Will he betray her - or his country and the freedom of millions?

    His name? Vincent Easton. But, while fleeing London with Vincent for Paris and beyond to a new life, she learns of the financial collapse of Richard's business - and soon discovers that more than just his job is at stake.The short story was previously published in the print anthologies 'The Golden Ball and Other Stories', and 'Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories'. It first appeared in 'Royal Magazine' in 1926.

    During a clandestine dive to an old shipwreck, archaeologist Isabella Warnock unearths an artefact unlike anything she has ever seen: an astrarium, a powerful ancient device rumoured to have shaped the destinies of pharaohs and kings since the beginning of time. But her discovery comes at a terrible price.

    Their tense, nine-day standoff builds into a deadly war of nerves between two unforgettably charismatic and strong-minded protagonists.

    Touching stories about people who overcame disabilities and disadvantages, or, who overcame all odds in fields from which they were excluded teach us the lessons of a lifetime. Return to the touching stories and anecdotes over and over again. Then, pass them on to others and discover the good feelings and valuable lessons found in side "Something to Smile About's " pages.

    She is without pretext and assumes that a bright future awaits her as the bride of the wealthy Oliver Foy. Too soon she discovers that her life is a masquerade and pretense her only salvation. No one is whom he or she appears to be.Brushing against the concealed identities and hidden motives of others, Emma quickly acquires secrets of her own. When murder compels Emma to flee her husband's Jamaican plantation, she and her faithful friend find sanctuary wandering the Caribbean. Tragedy cuts short their ocean idyll and delivers Emma from her sea roamings. Once again, she adopts another name, another home, another appearance.

    

    A world as cruel as it is beautiful. And all the time, they are being stalked by a fearsome beast, who needs one of the children to break a centuries-old curse.But the price of breaking the curse is a terrible one . . . A spellbinding and wild adventure, full of unexpected magic and danger.

    Their old friend from college days, Sam Sharp, who has since become a successful screenplay writer, drops by unexpectedly on the way to Los Angeles. Sam is fuming over a scathing profile of himself by Fanny Tarrant, one of the new breed of pugnacious interviewers, in that day's newspaper. Together, Sam and Adrian plan to take revenge on the journalist, though Adrian is risking what he values most: his privacy. What follows is unexpected and upsetting for all of them, including Fanny.David Lodge's delicious novella examines with characteristic wit and insight the tensions between private life and public interest in contemporary culture.

    A waiter rushes out to find a girl he fancied who hasn't paid her bill, only to find a diary in which their fictitious flirtation is anatomised. But the story actually begins with a man taking a leak after making love to his wife. He has the inklings of a novel, but thoughts will keep intruding, with all their seductive possibilities. The man on the train is living in an England that has decided, with characteristic diffidence and lack of fuss, that it no longer wants to live under a totalitarian regime which has lasted for 40 years. I say totalitarian, but think more of Brazil, a world of terribly genial tyranny, where officialdom tries so hard to be accommodating. And Duncan has another story, one prompted by the memory of his father's car crashing down a slope. As with all good postmodernist novels, the endless digressions are more soothing than jarring."Murrough O'Brien in The Independent on Sunday The strikingly inventive structure of this novel allows the author to explore the similarities between fictions and history. At any point, there are infinite possibilities for the way the story, a life, or the history of the world might progress. The whole work is enjoyably unpredictable, and poses profound questions about the issues of motivation, choice and morality." The Sunday Times"A writer more interested in inheriting the mantle of Perec and Kundera than Amis and Drabble. Like much of the most interesting British fiction around at the moment, Music, in a Foreign Language is being published in paperback by a small independent publishing house, giving hope that a tentative but long overdue counter-attack is being mounted on the indelible conservatism of the modern English novel.With this novel he has begun his own small stand against cultural mediocrity, and to set himself up, like his hero, as ' a refugee from drabness. From tinned peas, and rain.'"Jonathan Coe in The Guardian

    Things are wonderful, and she's ready to start a family. Everything changes when Brad is involved in a car crash and dies for thirteen minutes. Previously an agnostic, Brad comes back to life on a mission. Unbeknownst to his wife, he buys a lighthouse on the Hudson River and plans to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Bailey reluctantly joins him, but she's overwhelmed by business stresses, eclectic guests, and strange rumours. And as Brad's behaviour grows increasingly erratic, she must find a way to get him to come back down to earth if their marriage is to survive...

    But when it comes to Caroline, one is more than enough...Caroline is about to embark on her third Season, and her parents fear she'll be permanently on the shelf if she fails to make a match this time. Unfortunately for them, that is precisely what Caroline wants! Curious and adventuresome, Caroline longs for a life of travel, excitement, and perhaps even a touch of danger.If only she can remain unmarried until she turns twenty-one, Caroline will inherit her grandmother's bequest and gain her freedom. It's not a staggering amount, but it's enough to fund her dreams without a husband's permission. She has her future all planned out—until Lawrence Sinclair appears on the scene.Intense, intriguing, and handsome, the man reminds Caroline of a caged lion. In fact, the more she knows of him, the more questions she has. And when she learns how dangerous he really is, he may just become her new fascination—the one she can't resist.

    van Vogt. First published in 1957 by Shasta Publishers in an edition of 2000 copies, the novel is a fix-up of the first five of van Vogt's Gods stories which originally appeared in Astounding magazine. The remaining Gods stories are collected in The Wizard of Linn. Author & critic James Blish observed that the plot of the Gods stories resembled that of Robert Graves' Claudius novels. The novel concerns adventures of a mutant genius in a barbaric future where spaceships are used without being understood.A Son Is BornChild of the Gods Hand of the Gods Home of the Gods The Barbarian