Ranging from urgently contemporary London and Dublin to New York's Lower East Side in the nineteenth century, from dark comedy to poignancy, from the wryly provocative to the quietly beautiful, these stories offer a gathering of dreamers and lost souls who contend with the confusions of living. Here are men without women, children parenting parents, residents of the Broke-bank Mountain that is Ireland after the Celtic Tiger, emigrants, travellers, cheats and lovers, families, friends and foes. The focus is on those moments of the everyday when possibility seems to appear. A football match becomes an occasion of hard-won acceptances. An old acquaintance re-encountered plays mind-games in a bar. A fling between people who have almost nothing in common alters their lives forever. In Dublin, a desperately ill woman meets a tour guide in a hotel. A civil servant drives his father into Wicklow to say a final goodbye. A boy comes of age in a seaside town where everything is about to change. Where Have You Been? is a powerfully moving, entertaining and life-affirming read, from the internationally acclaimed author of Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls and Ghost Light.

    Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mir­rors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.

    Of course, they're all dead composers, but why nitpick? Her love life is just like the musical compositions she researches--undiscovered. It's time for Maggie to let loose and go wild. In a dive bar on Bourbon Street, Maggie makes a real find in the house band's keyboard player. He's hot. Sexy. Flirtatious. Soulful. And she could swear he's playing an unknown piece she's been researching, which is impossible, unless he's dead... Centuries before he was a badass vampire with a rock-star wardrobe and Big Easy charm, Ren was Renauldo D'Antoni, a composer on the verge of great success until he was betrayed. No one could ever know that, but tonight, the shy strawberry blonde with the big eyes and obviously borrowed outfit actually seemed to recognize his long-lost composition. Now, she wants to know about the composition, and Ren wants to know her...intimately. But what starts as attraction--and distraction--just might lead to the biggest discovery of their lives...

    

    100 Quotes compiled by Wolfgang Riebe authors to make you think about the meaning of life.

    Pretty and intelligent, Ankita has everything she wants: friends, boys in hot pursuit, and admission into a premier management school for her MBA. But six months later, she finds herself a patient in a mental health hospital. How did she get here and will she ever get back her life again? Somehow, everything that made up her world has been taken away - and now she must fight like she has never had to, to recover her rightful lot. A gripping story of the pains of growing up, the strength afforded by faith and the indestructibility of the spirit, here is an inspiring story for modern readers.

    A journey of two strangers, the writer and the reader, filled with words of love, pain, anger and passion.

    To have so much pain you can barely breathe. My entire life got burned down in flames, and now I’m nothing. My escape? Friends, booze, and willing women. They make me feel numb. Better yet, they keep me distracted from the memories that plague me. When a curvy brunette walks into my tattoo shop I immediately recognize the sad look in her eyes. Pain. Regret. Grief. But I’m drawn to her, wanting to be near her all the time. Maybe it’s because we have something in common. A broken heart. Harlow has just about as many walls around her as I do. We’re both ruined, but despite being shattered into a million pieces, the more time we spend together the more she’s beginning to show me what hope looks like. It’s terrifying. If I keep on pursuing her, there are only two ways this could end. We’ll either help each other mend, or we’ll destroy the last bit of humanity we have left.

    At only fourteen, she developed a teenage crush on me, the man who rescued her. I gave her time to grow, waiting for her feelings to mature. As years, when I was forbidden to touch her, passed, I never doubted she was mine. I just wasn’t allowed to show it. Circumstances send us to Colorado, away from the restrictions and over-protective brothers. At last we have a chance to be together. What could be better? What could be worse? A new club. A new life. Out of my depth, I don’t fit in. A different president and his old lady who’ve been married thirty-six years. That their marriage is on shaky ground spills over into how they treat us. For some reason, Hellfire and Moira want to force Jayden and I apart. Jay and I are just beginning. Or, is it the end? After all this time, will we make it work? Or have the years I’ve spent waiting been wasted?

    It is a story of a Kashmiri woman who married a Pakistani Army Officer so as to provide the Indian intelligence with invaluable information during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. Sehmat devised unique ways in her quest to get closer to the top brass in Pakistan. She almost single-handedly torpedoed Pakistans war plans through indefinable courage, wit and determination and was responsible for saving lives of scores of Indian soldiers. The story gives rare insight to the humble yet brave people of Kashmir who not only swear by India but also are willing to sacrifice their very being for the service of our nation.

    He cultivates a wicked reputation as Lord Adonis, Master of Love, until his uncle sends him an irresistible bequest of books, on the condition he accept also the prim librarian who comes with them.Miss Callista Higginbotham struggles to support her quirky household as a rare book dealer and librarian, while tottering on the dangerous edge of poverty. But she quickly finds herself in greater danger yet, as her desire flares for the infuriatingly flirtatious lord. Dominick wants nothing more than to unleash his luscious new librarian from her straight-laced propriety. He’s learned, however, never to trust desire—and certainly not the all-consuming passion that soon bedevils him. But when Callista discovers a plot against Dominick’s life and risks all to save him—they both learn that love is the one lesson that cannot learned from books…

    This screenplay featured in the 2019 Black List, and is now in development with Olivia Wilde attached as director. Wilde will also appear in the film alongside Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson.

    Xavier thinks other wise. After all he is her teacher and 6 years older than her, he's 24, shes only just turned 18. So on her 18th birthday he told her just that. No. How does one deal with rejection? Well Chloe doesn't know either. Another werewolve story with a boring ending and boring story line? NO WAY! Read her tale as she deals with Xavier 's jealous, rejection and trying to find herself.

    These are just some of the poignant and eye-opening stories about people from all over the country that Sudha Murty recounts in this book. From incredible examples of generosity to the meanest acts one can expect from men and women, she records everything with wry humour and a directness that touches the heart.First published in 2002, Wise and Otherwise has sold over 30,000 copies in English and has been translated into all the major Indian languages. This revised new edition is sure to charm many more readers and encourage them to explore their inner selves and the world around us with new eyes.

    She can't seem to get over him, but when her best friend's brother poses as her boyfriend at a party to make Kyle jealous and it works, she hatches the perfect plan or so she thinks...Sometimes pretending isn't the best game to play especially when pretending can become real and especially when you're pretending with your best friend's brother.