Book picks similar to
Public Feelings & Other Acts by Ray Shabir


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Love, Spelled in Poetry


Helena Natasha - 2019
    Here's to the plane you missed,the tickets ripped away,and the lands left unexplored.Here's to the boxes left unopened,the keys thrown away,and the treasures left untouched.Here's to the 2 AM thoughts,the song of what ifs,and the chances I missed.

My Perfect Summer in Greece


Ian Wilfred - 2019
     Cheryl is excited her sister Julie has asked for her help in organising her wedding but things aren't turning out the way Cheryl had hoped. There's going to be no little village church and no bridesmaids dress; the wedding is taking place on the Greek island of Holkamos. Vangelis has the perfect beach location for a wedding but his little beach cafe has never catered for weddings before. Will he be able to cope with all of Julie's demands? Andréas has moved back to Holkamos to help run the family gift shop after the death of his father. The business has to move with the times but will his mum allow things to change? Johnny is Cheryl's best friend. He doesn't like the way Julie treats her and has a plan to put things right but is it the right thing for Cheryl and what happens when they both arrive on the Greek island. Could it become more than just a weekend wedding for Cheryl and Johnny?

I am My Own Home and other essays


Isyana Artharini - 2017
    Through wandering, literature, and pop culture, the essays collected here are a way to recreate the idea of 'building a home', a manifesto (of sort) of living life as one person. These stories, on flaws and trying too hard, on intensity and overthinking, and on unrequited love and unfiltered emotions, are also one woman’s way to make sense of her existence.

Final Arrangements: A Novel


Miles Keaton Andrew - 2002
    He decided right then, at the age of nine, what he wanted to be when he grew up...an undertaker. The day he turned twenty-one, Casey joined the ranks of Morton-Albright, a family owned and operated mortuary, in the small Florida town of Angel Shoals. Immediately, he felt right at home. He seems to have a gift for embalming. The Morton and Albright families welcome him like the family he never had. The quirky and mischievous Natalie Albright is the girl he's always dreamed of. And within the walls of Morton-Albright, Casey feels a reassuring presence that calms him, like nothing ever has before. But his happiness will be short-lived if the mortuary falls victim to a rapacious funeral-home giant. With family secrets being uncovered, contested wills, and rumors of illegal funeral practices circling, the lives entwined in this funeral home become filled with intrigue, deception, and, of course, death. Bringing abundant experience and a fresh wit to the page, Miles Keaton Andrew offers a clever, spirited, darkly humorous first novel, rich with dialogue and full of nuanced characters.

Deceit (The Nexus Series Book 3)


Lainie Suzanne - 2015
     Leo put up a good fight, but Gina's natural submissiveness taunts his sadistic nature. Can Gina endure Leo's demanding ways or will her past destroy her and those closest to her, including newlyweds, Katherine and Isaac? ***Warning*** This story contains wickedly erotic romance.

Finding Home


Becka Mack
    Not the space where I sleep or the walls that surround me, but instead, the people that surround me. The ones that make me feel like me. Like I don't need to hide. My brothers, my best friend. It's a small bubble, sure, but one I'm damn happy with. I might be a little lost at times-I mean, who isn't?-but I always know where to go when I need to find myself. It's safe, comfortable, familiar. My home.Until he falls into my lap. No, literally. Into my lap. That beer I spent the last of my money on? Gone. All over me. Damnit. I'm wet, and I'm...oh.Oh dear God.Tall and broad. That surfer hair and those sparkly blue eyes. Cheeky grin and southern drawl that makes a girl wanna drool. All those rippling, tattooed muscles. Oh, yes.Mitchell Hudson, baseball superstar, you may fall into my lap any day, kind sir.Except then he starts making a home inside my heart, and that vital organ? Well, I'm not sure we're ready for what he has to offer. His home is tied to a place thousands of miles away, and mine? Well...mine's right here.The man hits more homeruns than I can count, and that's exactly what I'm afraid he's going to do: run home, and take a piece of my heart with him when he goes.** You do not need to know anything about baseball or even really like the sport to read this story. But if you like athletic men who like to throw their strength and alpha sides (and their women) around, this might be the story for you! **

In the Hands of a Mischievous God


Theodora Sarah Abigail - 2017
    This stunning collection is written with frank, disarming honesty, and ranges from reflections on the rooms in her childhood home to her views on the concept of love. Each essay follows the red strings of fate and explores just what it means for a girl to grow up.

Celia's Puppies


Claudia Hall Christian - 2009
    Over the course of her life, she gathered those who needed her special brand of love. Nine years after her death, Celia's puppies are facing themselves and their lives. Exciting, heart-warming, and always fun, Celia's Puppies is the second installment of the Denver Cereal. An Internet sensation, Denver Cereal is a serial fiction grounded in Uptown Denver, Colorado. "I am completely addicted to this series." - P. Cooper "Claudia Hall Christian brings life to each of these characters, a life that you long to be a part of, that you just can't get enough of." - C. Sund "I love Denver Cereal." - L. Richards Crunchy, sweet and always addicting - you deserve a little Denver Cereal in your life. DenverCereal.com

The Summer of Going Topless


Liz Davies - 2019
    No one seems to notice her - not really. Heck, she often doesn’t notice herself, except for her monthly scrutiny in the mirror to check on her body’s steady slide towards middle age.But when her ancient, practical estate car is consigned to the scrap heap, Candice falls in love with a cute, purple convertible, and from that moment on her life begins to take on a whole new meaning. Strangers wave at her and people stop to talk, and suddenly she isn’t invisible any longer.Life seems to be looking up, especially when she meets silver fox and handy-man, Paul. There’s just one fly in the ointment, one thing that has her second-guessing herself.Is it the car that Paul sees - or is it her?

Imaginary City


Rain Chudori - 2017
    There is no certainty here, not for seasons and not for deep sentiments. That is why she has returned.--A restless young woman revisits the city where she was born, and encounters a man that she has known for years. The pair becomes involved in a brutally beautiful affair that inevitably binds them within the concrete of the city.This is a story about a space that remains between him and her, a city that exists between the real and the imaginary, a love that lives between now and forever."Captivating."-- Aan Mansyur, writer.

A Love So True (The Billionaires of Sawgrass, #3)


Delaney Cameron - 2020
    He's loved her since high school. She's holding on to the past. He's worked hard to overcome his. Brooks knew better than to fall in love with Jaclyn. She's a trust fund kid, and he's from the wrong side of the tracks. Guys like him never end up with girls like her. His head understood the rules. His heart was another story.

The Crazy Life of a Kid from Brooklyn


Bill Morgenstein - 2014
    I was on the Stuyvesant baseball team, but because of my working hours, my playing time was limited. My first dream to become a corporate president by the time I was 35 years of age was fulfilled.Experience the ups and downs of a life well lived in Bill Morgenstein's compelling new memoir, The Crazy Life of a Kid from Brooklyn.While first reminiscing upon his childhood in Brooklyn during the depression, Morgenstein traces his life through times of war, peace, and everything in between.At times extremely funny and heartbreaking, The Crazy Life of a Kid in Brooklyn details Morgenstein's enlistment in the US Army, his days running a $55 million dollar company, his despair at losing it all to a scam, and much more.His chance encounters with such historical figures as Sergeant York, Cordell Hull, Sid Gordon, Jomo Kenyatta, and Vince Camuto provide amusing cultural touchstones that reveal a willingness to embrace everything life has to offer.Through all the successful, disappointing, dangerous, educational, and enlightening experiences that have shaped his life, Morgenstein remains philosophical as he explores the roles of ethics, honesty, and unfailing determination in shaping the human experience.

The Book of Imaginary Beliefs


Lala Bohang - 2019
    And we’re part of it,not just living on it. Earth is a battle ground where all species constantly face an invisible war. And we’re the main actor of growth, destruction, and peace. Someone’s precious is someone else’s garbage. Someone’s interest is someone else’s boredom. Someone’s principle is someone else’s violation. Someone’s contentment is someone else’s pressure. Someone’s recipe for immunity is someone else’s cause of death. Either you’re the “someone” or the “someone else”, it doesn’t matter because confusion will always bounce back to you, no matter how faryou’ve been running away from it. It’s about facing an empty page each day, it’s about waking up in the morning deciding to be alive,it’s about choosing which mistakes to avoid, it’s about considering what and who to ignore, it’s about crafting a self that’s truly your own, it’s about faking a smile to cure the pain of others, it’s about continuously moving forward because going back is never a choice, it’s about looking at the blue sky and having small talks with it, it’s about everything that feels small and unworthy, it’s about becoming buoyant, never being trapped between other people’s cacophonic agendas, it’s about counting your breath.

To Dream the Blackbane


Richard J. O'Brien
    Scientists referred to the event as The Anomaly. A byproduct of The Anomaly was the advent of hybrid beings—people who became mixed with whatever animal or object was closest to them the moment the event occurred. Humans, or pedigrees, soon relegated fairy refugees and hybrids into ghetto zones in large cities.Seventy years later, Wolfgang Rex, a second-generation hybrid—part human, part Rhodesian Ridgeback—is a retired police detective who runs a private investigation business in Chicago’s Southside. It’s a one-hybrid show; though Rex couldn’t survive without his assistant, the faerie Sally Sandweb.One night, two vampires visit Rex and offer him a substantial reward for the recovery of a stolen scroll. Later that same evening, Charlotte Sweeney-Jarhadill, a pedigree woman from Louisiana, visits Rex and hires him to exorcize the headless ghost of a Confederate soldier from her home.To complicate matters, the private detective ends up falling for Charlotte. Meanwhile, the vampires demand results in the search for the missing scroll. When Rex’s assistant Sally goes missing, he must stay alive long enough to find her. Charlotte and the vampires, however, have other plans for Rex.

What I Wish I Had Known (And Other Lessons You Learned in Your 20s)


Marcella Purnama - 2017
    I will dream a new dream, a dream that’s totally my own, and I will work hard to get it.Ever since her acceptance letter to study abroad arrived at her inbox, nothing in Marcella Purnama’s life has gone according to plan. Instead of choosing Science, like her two older sisters did before her, she steered path to study Arts—a degree so alien to both her families and friends. But as she traveled thousands miles away, struggled with English, had her first byline and went back home to apply for her first job, Marcella realized that plans are meant to be changed. Full of relatable tales of horrific group work, falling in love, first job interview and quarter-life crisis, this illuminating account follows how a young adult grapples with life’s small and big questions, and the lessons learned along the way.