It also runs through the veins of all the women in the Pacific Heights Moms & Tots Club:Besides dealing with the politics of the Pacific Heights Moms & Tots Club, Lorna discovers a secret that will scandalize the members--and perhaps have one them leaving in disgrace;As for Jade, her new part-time job on the UC Berkeley campus allows Reggie to see her in a whole new light--one that will either make, or break, their relationship;Jillian is juggling too much--not just the twins, the growth of Life of Pie, and the details of her wedding, but the guardianship of the infant, Scotty. Will her fiancé, Caleb man up to fatherhood--or will he be scared off by threats of a lawsuit from Rona, the mother her deceased ex-husband, Scott?And Brady's frustration over Ally's refusal to commit to marrying him leads him down a slippery slope-into her past.And finally, Bettina's idea for a new mobile app may get her out of hock--but will it keep her in the good graces of Daniel Warwick, the Federal agent chasing down Art?

    My Own Private Idaho charts the pilgrimage of a narcoleptic hustler who is searching for his long-lost mother in a world absent of love.

    Henry is a hip young DJ, Philip is an ex-MP ruined by scandal, Diana is his long-suffering wife, Lizzie is battling with illness and Marianne has replaced her husband with gin and chocolate, but when Polish backpacker Eva arrives, they realise a fresh pair of eyes can make a world of difference.

    Expat Bronte McKnight is in the early days of her love affair with charismatic doctor Leonidas Papachristou. But as Bronte tries to live and love like a Greek, the economic crisis spawns an unlikely predator in the village. While she begins to question her sunny existence in Greece, an old love from Leonidas’s past also makes a troubling appearance. Now working as a freelance journalist, when Bronte is offered an interview with a famous novelist, and part-time expat, it seems serendipitous. But the encounter becomes a puzzle that takes her deep into the wild Mani region of the southern Peloponnese, for which she enlists the help of her maverick father Angus, and the newest love of her life, Zeffy, the heroic rescue dog. The challenges Bronte faces bring dramatic as well as humorous outcomes as she tries to find a foothold in her Greek paradise. But can she succeed?

    Revenge, justice, loyalty, lies, love, anger and an identity crisis. Turns out, the new chauffeur is not her only driver...so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

    Three friends: a nationalist, a unionist and a couldnae-care-lesser meet for a pub crawl down Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile. Can Ian convince Euan to vote for independence or is he just gambling with all their futures? Will Euan’s defence of the union break Ian’s resolve, or is he just hanging on to another struggling marriage? Does Stuart even care? And how can a travel writer have a fear of flying? And who is the mysterious ninety-five year old man in the red tartan trousers? The Mile is an entertaining alcohol-fuelled stagger down a street that has a lot more to it than tartan rugs and cashmere shops. Join our friends, their hangers-on, and their pursuers, as they take in 300 years of Scottish history. And a skinful of beer and whisky… REVIEW "This is a much-needed injection of booze-soaked banter and comedy into the independence debate. Assured and heartwarming stuff." Doug Johnstone "A witty comedy with a big heart and surprise waiting at every pub stop, The Mile is a whirlwind of laughs, loss and love. If that isn’t enough to get you reading, then you may never find out how Scotland is like a millionaire’s shortcake … " Karyn Dougan, Glasgow Review of Books

    He had written over thirty novels, eighteen plays, and twenty volumes of short stories. During his lifetime, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times and had seen almost all of his major novels appear in English. While the flamboyance of his life and the apparent fanaticism of his death have dominated the public's perception of his achievement, Japanese and Western critics alike are in agreement that his literary gifts were prodigious.Mishima is arguably at his best in the shorter forms, and it is the flower of these that appears here for the first time in English. Each story has its own distinctive atmosphere and each is brilliantly organized, yielding deeper layers of meaning with repeated readings. The psychological observation, particularly in what it reveals of the turmoil of adolescence, is meticulous.The style, with its skillful blending of colors and surfaces, shows Mishima in top form, and no further proof is needed to remind us that he was a consummate writer whose work is an irreplaceable part of world literature.

    This year: * Her boyfriend finally proposed after six years of dating (only for her to find out he cheated on her for five and a half of them)* She landed her dream job as a writer at Craze magazine (which swiftly fell into administration)* She moved into her dream flat overlooking the city (just for the pipes to explode making the place unliveable)As she mourns everything wrong in her life, her best friend mutters the dreaded words: Saturn Return. The time in a woman's life where Saturn returns to the position it was in on the day of their birth, 29.5 years ago, and, according to legend, everything goes to shit. Krystal has never bought into astrology but maybe it's time to re-evaluate - because if the stars got her into this mess, they can get her out of it. And she only has six months to make things right.Loaded with crystals, horoscopes, tarot cards and a carefully aligned chakra or two, Krystal's determined to have her life back on track by the time Saturn returns. No longer shall she brand herself a 'human disaster' because this time it's not her fault, it's written in the treacherous stars. It's Krystal versus the universe in a fight for her future that she's determined to win.

    The narrator, a professor of philosophy, wrestles with issues of sexual desire, sex education, and the proper place of sensuality. He tells the story of his own journey into sexual awareness, spanning fifteen years, from his first exposure to erotic woodcuts at the age of six, to his first physical response to a woman, and his eventual encounter with a professional courtesan. Beyond being a poignant account of one boy's coming of age, Vita Sexualis is also an important record of Japan's moral struggles during the cultural upheaval of the last years of the Meiji era.In response to the publication of Vita Sexualis, Ogai Mori was reprimanded by Japan's vice-minister of war.

    Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t think girls from Connecticut married other girls. Yet here she is with Caroline, the love of her life, at their destination wedding on the Bermuda coast. In attendance—their respective families and a few choice friends. The conflict-phobic Tiny hopes for a beautiful weekend with her bride-to-be. But as the weekend unfolds, it starts to feel like there’s a skeleton in every closet of the resort.From Tiny’s family members, who find the world is changing at an uncomfortable speed, to Caroline’s parents, who are engaged in conspiratorial whispers, to their friends, who packed secrets of their own—nobody seems entirely forthcoming. Not to mention the conspicuous no-show and a tempting visit from the past. What the celebration really needs now is a monsoon to help stir up all the long-held secrets, simmering discontent, and hidden agendas.All Tiny wanted was to get married, but if she can make it through this squall of a wedding, she might just leave with more than a wife.

    It never happened to anyone I knew ... It happened over breakfast, or lunch. It happened to parents who were careless”Alice Winters is not a careless mother. Yet one awful day her two-year-old daughter is taken from her pushchair outside a village shop. Alice’s life becomes every parent’s worst nightmare as she begins questioning everything and everyone she knows, vowing to leave no stone unturned until Grace is found.Now, ten years later, Alice believes that the publication of her book recollecting the events surrounding Grace’s disappearance will be the final needle in the haystack needed to bring her home.Who had taken Grace and why? Will Alice ever be ready to accept the truth, no matter how difficult it is to hear? For fans of Diane Chamberlain, this is a must read.

    After the family housekeeper introduces him to the pleasure of cunnilingus, Munch develops a compulsion to give oral sex to total strangers. His insatiable desire to taste the various flavors of numerous women often leads to heartbreak as Munch confuses sex with love. Compounding his problems, his overbearing stepmother strongly disapproves of his oral obsession, and she dispenses unusual punishments to try and break him out of the habit. As the years progress, Munch’s oral sex addiction intensifies and he often goes on pussy-eating binges. Can Munch find true love with one woman or will he always be on the hunt to satisfy his taste buds?

    This was her job, she told herself, this was what she had wanted. She must do it. So she picked up her bag and followed them to the cage which carried the miners below ground, praying that the man did not die, that she need not produce some miracle . . . Determined to practise as a doctor, Prue escapes a loveless marriage to journey far from home and join a surgery in Tow Law. But she soon finds that long hours and limited resources are only the beginning - gaining the townspeople's trust will be her greatest challenge of all. From the bestselling author of Miss Appleby's Academy comes the story of Prue Stanhope, young woman doctor to the miners of Tow Law, County Durham.

    After all, she is only there to try and convince him and his fellow villagers to sell up so her company can build a bypass. If Sarah thinks she can make Shay give up his farmhouse and his business, she has another thing coming!But when an unexpected blizzard leaves Sarah stranded in Shay’s home, he soon realises that they are far more alike than he could have ever imagined – and perhaps both of them deserve a second chance ...

    Wild Pets is an instant set text of the emerging canon of millennial fiction.' Guardian 'A wickedly funny and emotionally complex novel.'Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation'An impresive, cumulatively powerful first outing.' Daily Mail 'A ripe and excellent debut... funny and smart and human and true.'Andrew O'Hagan, author of MayfliesWild Pets follows Iris, Ezra and Nance in the years after university. They fall in and out of bed with each other, reread The Art of War, grieve the closing of Fabric and write book proposals on the history of salt, while submerging their nights in drink and drugs. Confronting adulthood with high wit and low behaviour against contemporary political and social turmoil, these young men and women seem to have everything going for them. So why are they still swimming desperately against the tide? A bold, honest novel, Wild Pets is about the fragility of mental health, power imbalances in friendship and sex, and creative ambition fused with destruction - and the lingering power of first loves.