Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storytellers talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city the sequence of voice begins to weave a complex human tapestry. The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself.Outline is a novel about writing and talking, about self-effacement and self-expression, about the desire to create and the human art of self-portraiture in which that desire finds its universal form.

    But sometimes it can also mean entry to a new kind of life, a bigger world. Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women’s movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer—madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can’t quite place—feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she’d always imagined. Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.

    However, in the last two decades the brutality of western beauty practices seems to have become much more severe, requiring the breaking of skin, spilling of blood and rearrangement or amputation of body parts. Beauty and Misogyny seeks to make sense of why beauty practices are not only just as persistent, but in many ways more extreme. It examines the pervasive use of makeup, the misogyny of fashion and high-heeled shoes, and looks at the role of pornography in the creation of increasingly popular beauty practices such as breast implants, genital waxing and surgical alteration of the labia. It looks at the cosmetic surgery and body piercing/cutting industries as being forms of self-mutilation by proxy, in which the surgeons and piercers serve as proxies to harm women s bodies, and concludes by considering how a culture of resistance to these practices can be created.This essential work will appeal to students and teachers of feminist psychology, gender studies, cultural studies, and feminist sociology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and to anyone with an interest in feminism, women and beauty, and women s health.

    Healthier, infinitely happier and proud of her slim new figure, Lisa now reveals how she lost all that weight and - more importantly - kept it off. Lisa knows that if she can do it, anyone can.The very first thing she had to tackle was her thinking, and in this book you'll discover the strategies that helped her get honest with herself and stay on track. Inside Lisa shares:· A simple 8-day eating plan to kick things off· Fast, easy, delicious low-carb recipes· An 'honesty diary' section for keeping track of progress and motivating yourself· Tips for staying healthy when on-the-go and eating out· Everyday fitness ideas that anyone can do With Lisa's help, you can put the fibs and excuses behind you, kick those bad habits and achieve the body and health you've always dreamed of. _____________ What readers say about Lisa Riley's Honesty Diet . . . 'I loved the food, the simplicity of the meals and the plan . . . It has changed my outlook on eating and losing weight, my portion size and my body size' Vivien 'I have a dress which I last wore 3 years ago . . . today I tried the same outfit and whizzed the zip up and down. It was comfortable and a little loose! I'm with Lisa every step of my journey' Elaine'I learnt that I am a lot stronger and more determined than I thought I was and I DO have the willpower! I LOVE IT!' Louise

    Over the course of twenty years, millions of people have learned this lesson while being entertained and enlightened by Loretta LaRoche in one of her enormously popular series of lectures given in public seminars; in corporate environments for clients like IBM, Reebok, Fidel-ity Investments, and Blue Cross, Blue Shield; and most recently in nationwide broadcasts on public television. Now she puts her sensible, sensational philosophy on paper--and gives readers the tools they need to laugh themselves to less stress and better health."One night I greeted Bob at the door wearing nothing but his wing-tipped shoes. I was laughing hysterically about how I looked. Bob didn't crack a smile. Instead, he bellowed, 'What are the neighbors going to think?'" 'I don't know,' I replied, 'I haven't shown them yet.' "Loretta LaRoche has been called "the Erma Bombeck of stress reduction"--and in the helpful and hilarious pages of this book, her enormous talent for finding the funny detail to defuse even the most difficult situation has never been sharper."Buy something silly and wear it. A Groucho Marx nose, mustache, and glasses are my favorite. When the stress seems unbearable, when you've really reached the limits of your endurance, go into a bathroom, look into the mirror, put on your glasses, and ask yourself, 'How serious is this?' "        Relax--You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left is filled with practical exercises, hilarious anecdotes, and specific advice for coming to terms with today's ever-increasing stress levels--it is a remedy for anxiety and a prescription for laughter."Most of us don't realize what an impact we have on the world around us. A positive energy field is going to affect others in a beneficial way, even if you don't notice it at first. Why not ask for a standing ovation once in a while? When you go in to work, say, 'I came in--it wasn't easy. I could have gone somewhere else. I'd like a standing ovation.' "In sections like "If You Don't Have to Suffer--Don't Practice," "My Mother the CEO," and "I'm Not Afraid of Heights, Just Widths," LaRoche dismantles our American predilection for taking ourselves too seriously and shows us how to live longer, happier lives using the healing power of the absurd.

    The aged, abused monarch—a man in his eighties, like Harold Bloom himself—is at once the consummate figure of authority and the classic example of the fall from majesty. He is widely agreed to be William Shakespeare’s most moving, tragic hero. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about Lear with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one Emma Bovary or Hamlet when we are seventeen and another when we are forty, Bloom writes about his shifting understanding—over the course of his own lifetime—of Lear, so that this book also explores an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity. Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters make. He delivers that kind of exhilarating intimacy, pathos, and clarity in Lear.

    Daisy and June are now destitute and must go to the local orphanage. Once there, they take comfort in each other but they are robbed of even this consolation when they are parted because June is taken away for adoption. Years later, although out of touch and worlds apart, both share a disturbing childhood memory which will connect them forever. A memory that takes on a ghastly significance when June discovers the reason they were abandoned...

    Working with the blindest of clues, Siddharth has to race against time to prevent terrorists from achieving their horrific goal--an India laid low by a catastrophe of biblical proportions.This is a story that leaps across continents, gets to the heart of convoluted terrorist plots and attacks, and amazes you with its exposition of high-tech gadgetry and science. It is equally a story of breathtaking bravery, recounted at a mind-blowing pace. At its core, it is also a story about the beauty of relationships. Relationships that are beyond national boundaries and historic enmities…

    An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery.While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something—a romance, a promotion—to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places—that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant—Rosa, the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning.Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected windfalls; a novel about life.

    An established industry expert and aesthetician, she knows what works, what doesn’t, what you need and what you absolutely do not.Whether you are a skincare pro or overwhelmed by information, Skincare: The New Edit covers where to start, how to build a routine, ingredients to look for and things to avoid, whatever your age, skin concerns or budget.Fully revised and updated, this book is packed with all the latest skincare recommendations, brandsand techniques… and no nonsense. Including:Brand new photographyAll new product recommendationsIndustry updatesFully restructured for maximum usabilityNew sections on black skin, SPF, maskne, perimenopause and menopause

    Why does everyone look like they’re smashing motherhood when she’s barely made it out of the house? She’s usually covered in sick, eating yet another beige freezer dinner, and relying on wet wipes to clean the baby, herself and the house. And coffee. All the coffee. Surely she can’t be the only new mum totally winging it?Emily’s about to discover that when you’re starting a family, what you really need are your friends...

    Yum! I hope you like it.

    isn't it?'A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the 'Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops' blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From 'Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; and from 'I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter' to 'Excuse me... is this book edible?: here is a book for heroic booksellers and booklovers everywhere.This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers McLeod also includes top 'Weird Things' from bookshops around the world.

    "Being Human" is the third book in the "Staying Alive" poetry trilogy. "Staying Alive" and its sequel "Being Alive" have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry. "Being Human" is a companion volume to those two books - a world poetry anthology offering an even broader, international selection of "real poems for unreal times". The range of poetry here complements that of the first two anthologies: hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world; poems that touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit; poems about being human, about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder. There are more great poems from the 20th century as well as many recent poems of rare imaginative power from the first decade of the 21st century. But this book is also rare in reflecting the concerns of readers from all walks of life. Such has been the appeal of "Staying Alive" and "Being Alive" that many people have written not only to express their appreciation of these books, but also to share poems which have been important in their own lives. "Being Human" draws on this highly unusual publisher's mailbag, including many talismanic personal survival poems suggested by our readers.

    Blaine Kendricks thinks the strangers have come to Shadow Hollers to trade, but he is dead wrong, and as the invasion proceeds, he is recruited by a magician to participate in a dangerous game.