Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives. In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances. Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life. What's your jumping-off point? MaureenWhy is it the biggest sin of all? All your life you're told that you'll be going to this marvelous place when you pass on. And the one thing you can do to get you there a bit quicker is something that stops you getting there at all. Oh, I can see that it's a kind of queue-jumping. But if someone jumps the queue at the post office, people tut. Or sometimes they say "Excuse me, I was here first." They don't say "You will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity." That would be a bit strong. MartinI'd spent the previous couple of months looking up suicides on the Internet, just out of curiosity. And nearly every single time, the coroner says the same thing: "He took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed." And then you read the story about the poor bastard: His wife was sleeping with his best friend, he'd lost his job, his daughter had been killed in a road accident some months before . . . Hello, Mr. Coroner? I'm sorry, but there's no disturbed mental balance here, my friend. I'd say he got it just right. JessI was at a party downstairs. It was a shit party, full of all these ancient crusties sitting on the floor drinking cider and smoking huge spliffs and listening to weirdo space-out reggae. At midnight, one of them clapped sarcastically, and a couple of others laughed, and that was it-Happy New Year to you, too. You could have turned up to that party as the happiest person in London, and you'd still have wanted to jump off the roof by five past twelve. And I wasn't the happiest person in London anyway. Obviously. JJNew Year's Eve was a night for sentimental losers. It was my own stupid fault. Of course there'd be a low-rent crowd up there. I should have picked a classier date-like March 28, when Virginia Woolf took her walk into the river, or November 25 (Nick Drake). If anybody had been on the roof on either of those nights, the chances are they would have been like-minded souls, rather than hopeless f*ck-ups who had somehow persuaded themselves that the end of a calendar year is in any way significant.

    It relieved the hurt she felt when she overheard Maisie say she preferred her older daughter, Cathryn. Now, Nora lives in Edinburgh, far from her gaudily decorated suburban London home and the volatile Maisie. She is introduced to a circle of friends who all work in the same publisher's offices. In Brendan, the gentle deputy editor, she finds a friend who shares her deprecating humour, and fascination with trivia, as they chat and walk about town. And in Nathan, she finds a lover she adores.Though always braced for betrayal, this time it takes her by storm. It is only when she learns to forgive, and be forgiven, that she begins to come to terms with her past.

    100% of author profits from this edition of the book will go to The Trussel Trust, a charity that supports 1,200 UK food banks and provides emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, people who need help more than ever at this time.

    Both at the top of their class, holding themselves to the highest standards; both captains of their volleyball teams, Logan as the girls captain, Noah as the boys; and both constantly playing seemingly harmless pranks to get back at one another. Or, at least, they're usually harmless...If one thing is true, Noah Locke and Logan Pierce are not friends.But does that mean they could never be friends? Or transcend their title as enemies?Logan might take things too far sometimes, but there's a reason behind the angry front she puts on, and in order to get behind it, someone needs to show her that there's more to life than being the best at everything.Cue Noah Locke.When the two volleyball teams are sent away to a team bonding camp for a week over Fall break, Logan and Noah must learn to get along for the sake of their teams. Partnered up and made to do activities together and bond, the goal is for Noah and Logan to stop this ongoing feud. And when something happens at the bonding camp that brings Logan's vulnerable side up to bat, Noah is the one who has to bring her back.While Logan and Noah explore something other than hatred for one another, there are secrets and people who could be working in toll to bring them apart. But will they be able to transcend those factors and stop fighting for once? Or were they destined to be enemies forever?"Better Than You" challenges the idea that enemies have to stay enemies forever, and proves that if you don't run away from love, you may just find where you were meant to be.

    It’s 2008 and things are falling apart: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are going under, and the residents of Pepys Road, London—a banker and his shopaholic wife, an old woman dying of a brain tumor and her graffiti-artist grandson, Pakistani shop owners and a shadowy refugee who works as the meter maid, the young soccer star from Senegal and his minder—are receiving anonymous postcards reading “We Want What You Have.” Who is behind it? What do they want? Epic in scope yet intimate, capturing the ordinary dramas of very different lives, this is a novel of love and suspicion, of financial collapse and terrorist threat, of property values going up and fortunes going down, and of a city at a moment of extraordinary tension.

    Their father, a Ted Hughes scholar and scruffy romantic, imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness.In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird is attracted to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and physical pain of loss gives way to memories, this little unit of three begin to heal.In this extraordinary debut - part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's compassion and bravura style combine to dazzling effect. Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth, Grief is the Thing with Feathers marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.

     Amy has officially put dating on the back burner after a string of noncommittal relationships. But when she accidentally brushes her hand against a handsome stranger's one night at a movie theater, her heart decides it has other plans—until she realizes her handsome prince brings a new girl to the theater almost every weekend. This doesn’t stop her from admiring him from afar, while she and her twin brother make up outlandish stories about him every time he comes to the theater. But when their worlds collide, she needs to decide if she will open her heart and take another chance on a man, or push him away after she’s done with his services. Steven has waited months to ask out a girl he’s only had a few brief interactions with. But every time he tries, she runs away from him. His coworkers step in with a plan to put his bachelor days behind him. But the fun and games come with a price tag, as his Cinderella stands to lose something much more valuable than a glass slipper. Other titles by this author: The Billionaire Club Series The Billionaires Secret The Billionaires Conflict Excerpt from this book: “She moved to the edge where the prince was still standing. His eyes were bright as she stepped next to him then her mind went blank as panic set in. This man was on a date with another woman. She was crazy. She stood awkwardly trying to form a coherent sentence. He smiled down at her and her heart skipped at the satisfaction in his eyes. “I left your hot sauce at home,” he said, breaking her awkward silence. She gasped at his unexpected words, shifting uncomfortably. She needed to pull it together. She felt like an awkward teenager. “Didn’t I see you with someone?” she asked, grasping at anything her brain could find in her muddied state. “She’ll be back in a minute.” He glanced back to the restroom and Amy followed his gaze. “I’m sorry about that,” Amy said the next thing her scattered mind thought of. He lifted an eyebrow at her, a smile playing at the edge of his lips. “That my date will be back.” She laughed out loud before cupping her hand to her mouth. She dropped her hands in embarrassment. “No, sorry. I’m sorry for throwing popcorn at you.” “That was definitely unexpected.” She bit her bottom lip, unsure of what she should ask next. If she ever needed saving, now would be perfect timing. Too bad she didn’t have twin telepathy.”

    He's a wealthy man from the big city. Can the holidays bring them together? Teachers of Trumanville Book 1 Brittany Acevedo is only in the big city for one reason: to watch her daughter march in the country's largest Thanksgiving Day parade. Then she'll gladly go back to a place where traffic jams are caused by tractors. Cole Holmes is comfortable with his life in Manhattan, even coming to the rescue of a woman from middle America when Times Square proves to be a bit overwhelming. After the parade, they'll never see each other again. So they deny the attraction between them. But when Cole is sent to Trumanville to run Winterfest - the same Winterfest Brittany has been put in charge of - will they have more than a clash of cultures? Or can they find a way to work together and put love on parade? An unofficial prequel to Small Town Girls Don't Marry Hollywood Hunks!

    There's Pat, a twenty-year-old who has recently moved into a flat with Bruce, an athletic young man with a keen awareness of his own appearance. Their neighbor, Domenica, is an eccentric and insightful widow. In the flat below are Irene and her appealing son Bertie, who is the victim of his mother’s desire for him to learn the saxophone and italian–all at the tender age of five.Love triangles, a lost painting, intriguing new friends, and an encounter with a famous Scottish crime writer are just a few of the ingredients that add to this delightful and witty portrait of Edinburgh society, which was first published as a serial in The Scotsman newspaper.

    Then along comes Geoffrey, gentle, compassionate, generous to a fault, with his miserable little children and his manipulative ex-wife.Tilly's own expertise in the arts of deception and avoidance should be enough to make sure she's always one step ahead of Geoffrey's disastrous, crumbling family. But time and again she finds herself staying, brought down by their cowardly backsliding and their barefaced lies.How has she managed to stay so long in a relationship she knows perfectly well has to be doomed? More importantly, how can Tilly plan her permanent escape?

    But with the invention of Twitter, James found his real voice, and with it, the chance to reply with a simple 'up yours'. Now the King of Twitter has ascended to the heady heights of occasionally 'winning the internet'.Selected and introduced by James himself, this is a year in the life of the world's most reluctant social media sensation. Now learn for yourself how to be a complete and utter Blunt . . .

    Born on the night of an ill-auguring comet just before Charles II's Restoration, Ursula Flight has a difficult future written in the stars.Against the custom of the age she begins an education with her father, who fosters in her a love of reading, writing and astrology.Following a surprise meeting with an actress, Ursula yearns for the theatre and thus begins her quest to become a playwright despite scoundrels, bounders, bad luck and heartbreak.

    Could you keep your cool while talking to all levels of stupid? Would you be able to wear a headset all day without wanting to throw it out of the window? All calls are recorded, analysed and timed to the second. Average handling time (AHT) is discussed as if it's the very meaning of life and managers are always coming up with new ways to shave milliseconds from each call. Is it acceptable to only have a total eight minutes a day for visits to the toilet or coffee machine? Imagine not being allowed to hang up on someone who is screaming abuse down the line at you. Welcome to the Call Centre! Izabelle worked in call centres for many years; from insurance to home shopping, from selling advertising to discussing loans. Finally in the early hours one morning, she decided enough was in fact far too much and left her final call centre job the same day, never to return. On her way out of the door for the final time she vowed she would write a book about life in a call centre. Here is that book. Read about call centres in general, memorable customers and staff. How do staff stay sane? What is Big Red? Are cranberries the true meaning of Christmas? Why would you have leather trousers round your ankles in a lift? How not to impress your boss. Izabelle shares these and many other true tales from her years of incarceration in UK call centres.

    Originally published in the Strand, in September 1929.