For the writer, there was something majestic and elemental about these inscrutable creatures he admired, sentient beings whose searing gaze could penetrate deep into our being. Bukowski considered cats to be unique forces of nature, elusive emissaries of beauty and love.On Cats offers Bukowski’s musings on these beloved animals and their toughness and resiliency. He honors them as fighters, hunters, survivors who command awe and respect as they grip tightly onto the world around them: “A cat is only ITSELF, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.”Funny, moving, tough, and caring, On Cats brings together the acclaimed writer’s reflections on these animals he so admired. Bukowski’s cats are fierce and demanding—he captures them stalking their prey; crawling across his typewritten pages; waking him up with claws across the face. But they are also affectionate and giving, sources of inspiration and gentle, insistent care.Poignant yet free of treacle, On Cats is an illuminating portrait of this one-of-a-kind artist and his unique view of the world, witnessed through his relationship with the animals he considered his most profound teachers.

    When The Professor, a man of enormous intellect and appetite, takes The Kid under his wing, his own startling past will cause upheavals in both of their worlds. At once lyrical, witty, and disturbing, Banks’s extraordinary novel showcases his abilities as a world-class storyteller as well as his incisive understanding of the dangerous contradictions and hypocrisies of modern American society.

    Seven years later, that promise is broken, and the Maasai must choose between war with a powerful enemy and a perilous trek to the land allocated them by the government. Ole Sadera has risen from village scapegoat to leadership of his people. Now, they look to him for answers, while he struggles with betrayal and rapid change - and his desire for another man's wife. British administrator George Coll arrives in East Africa to face impossible choices of his own. How can he do the job he has been given and stay silent? And how can he ask the woman he loves to share an uncertain future? The Maasai gather to make their historic decision...and an Empire holds its breath.

    She knows that her real name is Purity, that she's saddled with $130,000 in student debt, that she's squatting with anarchists in Oakland, and that her relationship with her mother - her only family - is hazardous. But she doesn't have a clue who her father is, why her mother chose to live as a recluse with an invented name, or how she'll ever have a normal life. Enter the Germans. A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads Pip to an internship in South America with The Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world--including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins. TSP is the brainchild of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic provocateur who rose to fame in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now on the lam in Bolivia, Andreas is drawn to Pip for reasons she doesn't understand, and the intensity of her response to him upends her conventional ideas of right and wrong. Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity, and murder. The author of The Corrections and Freedom has imagined a world of vividly original characters - Californians and East Germans, good parents and bad parents, journalists and leakers - and he follows their intertwining paths through landscapes as contemporary as the omnipresent Internet and as ancient as the war between the sexes. Purity is the most daring and penetrating book yet by one of the major writers of our time.

    What begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James, gradually transforms into an emotional and erotically charged bond that challenges Maggie's sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire.

    On the cusp of seventy-five, she is in good health and makes the most of it, enjoying road trips in her vintage Porsche, chatting to strangers, and recollecting characters from her favourite novels. Then she has a fall and her independence crumbles. Without the support of family, she relies on friends and chance encounters. As Morayo recounts her story, moving seamlessly between past and present, we meet Dawud, a charming Palestinian shopkeeper, Sage, a feisty, homeless Grateful Dead devotee, and Antonio, the poet whom Morayo desired more than her ambassador husband. A subtle story about ageing, friendship and loss, this is also a nuanced study of the erotic yearnings of an older woman. “Dr. Morayo Da Silva is one of the most memorable characters you are likely to encounter on the page – intelligent, indomitable, author and survivor of a large life. In dreamlike prose, Manyika dips in and out of her present, her past, in a story that argues always for generosity, for connection, for a vigorous and joyful endurance." - Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves“Manyika's story about an elderly Nigerian woman is quiet, sophisticated and it expands the canon of contemporary African literature into welcome new territory.” - Bernardine Evaristo, author of Mr Loverman“If aging be a lamp, then Morayo, the protagonist in Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is a mesmerizing glow. Astute, sensual, funny, and moving.” - NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names “A wonderfully constructed novel, always surprising and wrong-footing the reader at every turn and challenging one's assumptions about the Other. Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is a delightful multi-helical reading experience that speaks to our times in insightful and pleasantly understated ways." - Brian Chikwava, author of Harare North

    Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but has ended up in middle age as a servant. When Olivier sets sail for the New World - ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution - Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. Through their adventures with women and money, incarceration and democracy, writing and painting, they make an unlikely pair. But where better for unlikely things to flourish than in the glorious, brand-new experiment, America? A dazzlingly inventive reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville's famous journey, Parrot and Olivier in America brilliantly evokes the Old World colliding with the New. Above all, it is a wildly funny, tender portrait of two men who come to form an almost impossible friendship, and a completely improbable work of art.

    It explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad.Ben Fountain’s remarkable debut novel follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

    Unlike Frédéric Moreau in Flaubert's L'Éducation sentimentale (to which this book owes no meagre debt), Piet is magnificently gifted, not only "extremely attractive to most women and to many men," but also a fine pianist, draughtsman and lover. We first meet him interviewing for the role of tutor to the son of the wealthy hotelier, Maarten Vermeulen-Sickerts. All is not well in his gilded household. Egbert, the son, is agoraphobic. The matriarch, Jacobina, hasn't been touched by her husband in almost a decade. Into this highly strung atmosphere comes Piet, charged with the task of freeing Egbert from his paralysing fear of the outside world. We soon realise, however, that Egbert isn't the only one in need of help. Piet sets about liberating the libidos of the repressed family through music – championing bawdy Bizet over abstract Bach – and oral sex. While the setting is Dutch, the influences are French – think Bel-Ami, Les Liaisons dangereuses and Gide's L'Immoraliste.

    Soon Gen Xers will be the only cohort of Americans who remember life as it was lived before the arrival of the Internet. They are, as Hennessey dubs them, “the last adult generation,” the sole remaining link to a time when childhood was still a bit dangerous but produced adults who were naturally resilient. More than a decade into the social media revolution, the American public is waking up to the idea that the tech sector’s intentions might not be as pure as advertised. The mountains of money being made off our browsing habits and purchase histories are used to fund ever-more extravagant and utopian projects that, by their very natures, will corrode the foundations of free society, leaving us all helpless and digitally enslaved to an elite crew of ultra-sophisticated tech geniuses. But it’s not too late to turn the tide. There’s still time for Gen X to write its own future. A spirited defense of free speech, eye contact, and the virtues of patience, Zero Hour for Gen X is a cultural history of the last 35 years, an analysis of the current social and historical moment, and a generational call to arms.

    Love another man and give him all of me again. In fact, I was still dealing with the broken heart my ex-fiancé left me with. Time doesn’t heal all wounds… hardly any if you asked me. What time did do though, was give me a chance to find myself. I thought I was madly in love when really, I just loved the idea of it. I still do. I’m a hopeful romantic and loved knowing that one day I'd be a man’s everything, get married and start a family of our own. It was on my list of things to do before I was called home. With the abrupt death of my Aunt, the realization of time stopping for no one hit me. I didn’t have time to sulk in my sorrows anymore. And, Rashad wouldn’t let me. He wanted me… baggage and all. To fulfill every need that had gone unmet with what’s his name. He wanted me… smart mouth and all. Insecurities and all… Because his heart had been broken too. So, we connected even though I wasn’t ready for us too. Sometimes, men were just extra baggage, and Lord knows I didn’t need that but was Rashad worth it? Could he and I possibly seal our shattered hearts together and master loving again? I was ready to take that risk and find out.

    

    Taking a leap of faith, she moved to Brooks, Georgia and opened her own sweets shop. What she was not prepared for was bringing Tripp, her less than thrilled 14-year-old grandson, with her. This makes for an uncertain, and sometimes amusing, start to a new chapter of life. Soon after they arrive in Brooks, there’s a murder in town. And that’s where Mary meets easy on the eyes Officer Preston. From there, they discover they make quite the detective duo. Each book in this Cozy Mystery series has individual mysteries from this Sweet Southern town. From murders to bank robberies to family secrets that rocked the community, Mary and Officer Preston will give you the best in Cozy Mystery! AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you for your interest in my Sweets Shop Cozy Mysteries Series! If you like reading about murder mysteries, women who own sweets shops, cats named Sweet Feet, family life and a little clean romance on the side, you’ll likely enjoy this series. It also deals with middle-aged woes and teenage angst, so this story can be enjoyed across the ages. And it’s written with no swear words, minimal violence (aside from the murders, which aren’t described in detail) and no steamy romance scenes. Download and immerse yourself in this fun four-book series located in the small town of Brooks, Georgia…

    His little sister, Gabby, is in the car with him when he gets distracted and crashes into a tree at 2612 Cherryhill Lane. Gabby loses her life and Jonathan’s legs are amputated.After the accident, his father won’t speak to him, his girlfriend breaks up with him, he loses his scholarship, and all hope seems to be lost until, years later, he meets Samantha Reid. She accepts a job as his personal assistant and teaches him that God still loves him no matter his mistakes, that redemption can be found, and he needs to first forgive himself to find it.Thanks to Samantha, Jonathan turns from a despondent, dejected, and bitter man who no longer cares about football to someone capable of loving life, people, and football again. Much to their surprise, too, Jonathan and Samantha kindle a tasteful romance that takes them on a journey of triumph over tragedy.

    Her husband, Jerrod was a successful businessman, and they had three beautiful children, a lovely home, and more money than they could spend. There was just one thing missing in Takari’s eyes, and that was the love and attention of her husband. Although their marriage started out wonderfully, along the way, Jerrod’s job began to take priority over his family. Jerrod feels that he’s done his job as a provider, and Takari is just spoiled and ungrateful. When family issues and hidden resentments push them even further apart, Takari and Jerrod must decide if their marriage is worth saving.