Ellen Wittlinger - Hard love

Since his parents' divorce, John's mother hasn't touched him, her new fiancé wants them to move away, and his father would rather be anywhere than at Friday night dinner with his son. It's no wonder John writes articles like "Interview with the Stepfather" and "Memoirs from Hell." The only release he finds is in homemade zines like the amazing Escape Velocity by Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Lesbian." Haning around the Boston Tower Records for the new issue of Escape Velocity, John meets Marisol and a hard love is born. While at first their friendship is based on zines, dysfuntional families, and dreams of escape, soon both John and Marisol begin to shed their protective shells. Unfortunately, John mistakes this growing intimacy for love, and a disastrous date to his junior prom leaves that friendship in ruins. Desperately hoping to fix things, John convinces Marisol to come with him to a zine conference on Cape Cod. On the sandy beaches by the Bluefish Wharf Inn, John realizes just how hard love can be. With keen insight into teenage life, Ellen Wittlinger delivers a story of adolescence that is fierce and funny -- and ultimately transforming -- even as it explores the pain of growing up.

Oscar Wilde - The happy prince and other stories

Collection of children’s stories written in 1888, dealing primarily with love and selfishness. These stories are generally sad, with a moralistic message. The collection includes: The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket.

Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. The voyages of an Englishman carry him to such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land of giants; and a country ruled by horses.

Cecily Von Ziegesar - Gossip girl

'Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live and go to school and play and sleep - sometimes with each other. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, and we know how to party. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it.' The Gossip Girl series is the ultimate in glamour and cool - set in New York's glamorous Upper East Side the narrative follows the thrills and spills (with Jimmy Choo shoes and shopping at Barneys mixed in along the way) of its richest and most beautiful teenage residents. 'Gossip Girl' is the ultimate in sophistication, scandal and luxury - in fact if Carrie Bradshaw of 'Sex and the City' had a younger sister, there is no doubt she would be 'Gossip Girl'! Publisher's Weekly is quoted: 'Gossip Girl has the effect of gossip itself - once you enter it's hard to extract yourself; teens will devour this whole'. We will be publishing the series at regular intervals throughout 2003 with a high profile, energetic and suitably cutting-edge marketing campaign. This deliciously catty and engrossing series will be the spicy vanguard for Bloomsbury pushing the bundaries into young adult fiction.

Ernest Hemingway - A farewell to arms

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized -- is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Fancy pants

She was the most beautiful British bauble in Europe's jet-set playgrounds. Now she's broke, furious, and limping down a backwoods road in an ugly pink Southern Belle gown....

He was tall, lean, and all-American gorgeous. He liked his brews cold and women loved to keep him warm. Why in hell is he stopping his car for this woebegone, surly Scarlett?

Meet Francesca Day and Dallie Beaudine, two incredible characters whose tangled love affair is at the heart of this ravishing New York Times bestseller from award-winning author Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Come enjoy the adventure of a lifetime — an irresistible story that's touching, hilarious, and hellcat-passionate. You'll never forget Dallie and the sassy lady who needs a good swift kick in her...

Lauren Weisberger - Everyone Worth Knowing

What happens when a girl on the fringe enters the realm of New York's chic, party-hopping elite? Soon after Bette Robinson quits her horrendous Manhattan banking job like the impulsive girl she's never been, the novelty of walking her four-pound dog around the unglamorous Murray Hill neighborhood wears as thin as the "What are you going to do with your life?" phone calls from her parents. Then Bette meets Kelly, head of Manhattan's hottest PR firm, and suddenly she has a brand-new job where the primary requirement is to see and be seen inside the VIP rooms of the city's most exclusive nightclubs. But when Bette begins appearing in a vicious new gossip column, she realizes that the line between her personal life and her professional life is...invisible.

Katherine Neville - The Eight

Computer expert Cat Velis is heading for a job to Algeria. Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....

Jeanne Ray - Eat cake

Ever since childhood, Ruth has found baking cakes to be a source of relief from the stresses of life. And now-as her husband loses his job, her life-of-the-party father arrives for an extended stay (much to the dismay of her mother, who also moved in recently), and her teenage daughter perfects the art of sulking-Ruth is going to need some serenity. But she also needs a plan. Because with funds running low and tempers running short, her family needs more than the perfect sweet. It's going to be up to Ruth to save the day, and let the crumbs fall where they may...

Pat Barker - Double vision

In the aftermath of covering 9/11, English war reporter Stephen Sharkey and photographer Ben Frobisher leave New York and part company. Stephen returns to the devastating discovery of the end of his marriage; while on assignment in Afghanistan Ben is killed. Retreating to the English countryside to write a book questioning the role of the war reporter and photographer Stephen enters into complicated relationships with Ben’s widow Kate, a sculptor, her disturbing and sinister young studio assistant, and a young au-pair. Set far from the literal theatre of war, Double Vision is nonetheless a novel about its representation and effects as Pat Barker once more lays bare the complexities of desire and violence.

Lauren Weisberger - Chasing Harry Winston

The bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing returns with the story of three best friends who vow to change their entire lives...and change them fast. Emmy is newly single, and not by choice. She was this close to the ring and the baby she's wanted her whole life when her boyfriend left her for his twenty-three-year-old personal trainer -- whose fees are paid by Emmy. With her plans for the perfect white wedding in the trash, Emmy is now ordering takeout for one. Her friends insist an around-the-world sex-fueled adventure will solve all her problems -- could they be right? Leigh , a young star in the publishing business, is within striking distance of landing her dream job as senior editor and marrying her dream guy. And to top it all off, she has just purchased her dream apartment. Only when Leigh begins to edit the enfant terrible of the literary world, the brilliant and brooding Jesse Chapman, does she start to notice some cracks in her perfect life... Adriana is the drop-dead-gorgeous daughter of a famous supermodel. She possesses the kind of feminine wiles made only in Brazil, and she never hesitates to use them. But she's about to turn thirty and -- as her mother keeps reminding her -- she won't have her pick of the men forever. Everyone knows beauty is ephemeral and there's always someone younger and prettier right around the corner. Suddenly she's wondering...does Mother know best? These three very different girls have been best friends for a decade in the greatest city on earth. As they near thirty, they're looking toward their future...but despite all they've earned -- first-class travel, career promotions, invites to all the right parties, and luxuries small and large -- they're not quite sure they like what they see... One Saturday night at the Waverly Inn, Adriana and Emmy make a pact: within a single year, each will drastically change her life. Leigh watches from the sidelines, not making any promises, but she'll soon discover she has the most to lose. Their friendship is forever, but everything else is on the table. Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.

Peter Mayle - Chasing Cezanne

Our hero, glamorous art photographer Andre Kelly, is on assignment for glamorous DQ Magazine--run by the glamorous Camilla Porter--in Cape Ferrat on the (you guessed it) glamorous Côte d'Azur. Snooping around an ancestral pile for some snaps, by chance he spies Old Claude, the ancient retainer of the immensely wealthy Denoyer family, packing the family Cezanne into a plumbing van. Puzzled, Andre investigates, and the game is afoot. Peter Mayle's latest effort, Chasing Cezanne, is a whodunit that shows good manners and impeccable taste. It takes its characters--graduates of all the best schools, of course--to some of the world's most posh locales. The plot device is high rent, too: a purloined painting worth a cool $30 million. To call this book lightweight seems unfair and boorish besides. There's lots of travel, lots of opulence, lots of opportunities for Mayle to describe Paris and Provence, and all the yummies you'll find in both places. Who can worry about a mystery when the food's so delectable?

Stephenie Meyer - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

Bree Tanner, who first appeared briefly as a newborn vampire in Meyer’s Eclipse (2007), is the star of this slim partner to the megamillion-selling Twilight series. A self-described “vampire nerd,” Bree recounts her adventures as she roams Seattle fulfilling her thirst for blood (and Meyer fans’ thirst for more books). In a passionate introduction, Meyer reiterates what Eclipse readers already know: Bree has few nights left on Earth. As she joins her red-eyed coven in battle against yellow-eyed adversaries that, while foreign to Bree, will be instantly recognizable to millions of human readers, she finds her first (kissable) friend and discovers a truth about daylight. Formatted as one long, breathless chapter, this novella includes the same casual language and elements of suspense and romance found in the Twilight quartet, and interlocking characters and dialogue fit it easily into Bree and Bella’s scene in Eclipse. While Twilight fans will appreciate the story as an expansion of Bella’s world, this rapid read also stands satisfyingly alone.

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight

Grade 9 Up–Headstrong, sun-loving, 17-year-old Bella declines her mom's invitation to move to Florida, and instead reluctantly opts to move to her dad's cabin in the dreary, rainy town of Forks, WA. She becomes intrigued with Edward Cullen, a distant, stylish, and disarmingly handsome senior, who is also a vampire. When he reveals that his specific clan hunts wildlife instead of humans, Bella deduces that she is safe from his blood-sucking instincts and therefore free to fall hopelessly in love with him. The feeling is mutual, and the resulting volatile romance smolders as they attempt to hide Edward's identity from her family and the rest of the school. Meyer adds an eerie new twist to the mismatched, star-crossed lovers theme: predator falls for prey, human falls for vampire. This tension strips away any pretense readers may have about the everyday teen romance novel, and kissing, touching, and talking take on an entirely new meaning when one small mistake could be life-threatening. Bella and Edward's struggle to make their relationship work becomes a struggle for survival, especially when vampires from an outside clan infiltrate the Cullen territory and head straight for her. As a result, the novel's danger-factor skyrockets as the excitement of secret love and hushed affection morphs into a terrifying race to stay alive. Realistic, subtle, succinct, and easy to follow, Twilight will have readers dying to sink their teeth into it.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library

Stephenie Meyer - Eclipse

"Edward’s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again. This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine-like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us."

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire, Victoria, continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob-–knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?
if you’ve enjoyed the first two installments in Stephenie Meyer’s addicting Twilight Saga, picking up Eclipse is a foregone conclusion. And while this book offers plenty of vampire action and teenage romantic drama to thrill fans of the series, it fails to soar quite as high as its predecessors.

Stephenie Meyer - New moon

For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning...

Legions of readers entranced by the New York Times bestseller Twilight are hungry for the continuing story of star-crossed lovers, Bella and Edward. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.

Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved? It would cost you your life. How could you leave the person you love the most, when you know it'll hurt them the most as well?

To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life--first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse-seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed...forever? The astonishing, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.

Robert Ludlum - The Bourne identity

Jason Bourne. He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues. A frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the flesh of his hip. Evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face. Strange things that he says in his delirium--maybe code words. Initial: "J.B." And a number on the film negative that leads to a Swiss bank account, a fortune of four million dollars, and, at last, a name: Jason Bourne. But now he is marked for death, caught in a maddening puzzle, racing for survival through the deep layers of his buried past into a bizarre world of murderous conspirators--led by Carlos, the world's most dangerous assassin. And no one can help Jason Bourne but the woman who once wanted to escape him.

Ahmet M. Rahmanovic - Black soul

"The greatest assets are its characters. Well rounded and written in depth, the relation-ships between them can be compared to some in the world's greatest literature. Namely, relationship between Hamza and his father, by type and value is reminiscent of Andrei Bolkonsky and his father, in Tolstoy's "War and Peace." It is a kind of love, between father and son, which on the surface reveals little, if anything. However, its depths contain everything one that human being is able to offer another. - Academic, Tvrtko Kulenovic , Literature Professor " Black Soul is the riveting tale of one man's journey from the battle-torn hills of Sarajevo to the bustling, windblown streets of Chicago. Hamza's story describes the amazing resilience of a human being who has visited the depths of hell and has lived to tell about it. - Susan Bertuglia "Black Soul is a novel that cannot be put down, and grabs the reader from page one. It is a story of love and war, of tenderness and brutality. The author depicts the raw, often brutal story and unorthodox aggression, the likes of which are unprecedented in the his-tory of war, madness, insanity, blood, and hypocrisy of world powers." - Mugdim Karabeg, Journalist

Ann Patchett - Bel Canto

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.

Elif Shafak - The bastard of Istanbul

From one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlor and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale that will confirm Shafak as a rising star of international fiction.

Ian McEwan - Atonement

Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose. On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives together with her precocious literary gifts brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.

Sophocles - Antigone

Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, who died in the preceding story. Creon is her uncle/grandfather (the genetics are a bit muddy here) and he is leading the ruler of Thebes as the fight in a war. Creon declares Polyneices disgraces as he died fighting for the throne in Thebes during their civil war, while Eteocles will be given proper burial rights. Polyneices is the brother of Antigone and Ismene. They decide to procure his body and give him the proper burial rights, though Ismene's fear of the death penalty keeps her from going through with it. Creon discovers this and demands to speak with her, they argue and he decides she should be punished for her actions. He then calls Ismene to them as he suspects she had something to do with it. She falsely admits to helping her sister in order to die by her side but Antigone wouldn't have that so Ismene was spared. He decides to bury Antigone alive in a cave. Tiresias soon enters and demands Creon bury Polyneices for if he does not he will lose his own sons. Tiresias is always a blind prophet in the majority of these greek plays. Creon eventually goes to correct his mistakes and comes to learn that both Haemon (his son) and Antigone have taken their lives (they were engaged). When Eurydice (Haemon's mother) finds out she takes her life as well. Creon blames himself but remains king. He asserts the punishment by the gods will bring him wisdom.

Nick Hornby - 31 songs

'I decided that I wanted to write a little book of essays about songs I loved ...Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else.' In his first non-fiction work since "Fever Pitch", Nick Hornby writes about 31 songs that either have some great significance in his life - or are just songs that he loves. He discusses, among other things, guitar solos and losing your virginity to a Rod Stewart song and singers whose teeth whistle and the sort of music you hear in Body Shop. 'The soundtrack to his life ...a revealing insight into one of Britain's most popular writers' - "Evening Standard".

Ernest Hemingway - The short stories

Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. This collection, The Short Stories, originally published in 1938, is definitive. Among these forty-nine short stories are Hemingway's earliest efforts, written when he was a young foreign correspondent in Paris, and such masterpieces as "Hills Like White Elephants," "The Killers," "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber," and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style -- from the plain, bald language of his first story, "Up in Michigan," to the seamless prose and spare, eloquent pathos of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" to the expansive solitude of the Big Two-Hearted River stories. These stories showcase the singular talent of a master, the most important American writer of the twentieth century.

Joanne Harris - Five Quarters of the Orange

In her bestselling and critically acclaimed novel Chocolat, Joanne Harris told a lush story of the conflicts between pleasure and repression. Now she delivers her most complex and sophisticated work yet, an unforgettable tale of mothers and daughters, of the past and the present, of resisting and succumbing -- an extraordinary work of fiction lined with darkness and fierce joy. When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year....

Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha

In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world.
For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan's most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess.

We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child's unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto.
..She is nine years old.
In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha's elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow.
She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival.
Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O'Hara.

And "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a triumphant work - suspenseful, and utterly persuasive.

Nicci French - Killing me softly

Alice Loudon has a devoted boyfriend and a challenging job as a research scientist. Then one morning, on her way to work, she exchanges a lingering look with a devastatingly attractive man. As a lover, Adam Tallis is more passionate than Alice's wildest imaginings. Soon, there isn't anything or anyone she wouldn't give up to stay by his side.

Karen Joy Fowler - The Jane Austen Book Club

The Extraordinary New York Times Bestseller In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behavior and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships. Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.

Fadia Faqir - My Name is Salma

In her village of Hima in the Levant, Salma, a young goat-herd, has violated the code of her Bedouin tribe by becoming pregnant before marriage. To restore their honour, the villagers set out to kill her. Now a runaway from the men of her tribe, Salma's days playing the pipe for her goats and swimming in the spring are over. She is placed in prison for her own protection, and to the sound of her deafening screams, her newborn baby is taken away. After several years, when it seems the men have given up on their chase, she moves to England to seek asylum. So begins her new life in the permissive West. In the middle of the most English of English towns, Exeter, she learns good manners from her ancient landlady, and strives to have a social life at the local pub. But it is with the help of Parvin, a feisty Pakistani girl on the run from an arranged marriage, that Salma is finally able to forge a new identity. But deep in her heart the cries of her baby daughter still echo. When she can no longer bear them, she decides to go back to her village to find her. It is a journey that will change everything - and nothing. Slipping seamlessly back and forth between the olive groves of the Levant and the rain-slicked streets of Exeter, "My Name is Salma" is a searing novel of forbidden love, violated honour and a woman's courage in the face of insurmountable odds. Fadia Faqir's portrait of the fractured lives of immigrants caught up in a painful yet exhilarating cross-cultural encounter is both heartbreaking and humorous. It is a story that will leave no-one unmoved.

India Edghill - Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen

For over forty years, Michal lived and reigned in David’s court. She was the beautiful and proud daughter of King Saul and the prize David would risk his kingdom to win. Behind the palace doors, beneath the burning sun of the desert, or fleeing from Absalom’s warriors, Michal was at the center of court intrigues. Queenmaker introduces in unforgettable detail the characters of one of the greatest periods in Biblical history—their public deeds and private thoughts—and gives us the court of the kings as only a woman could see it.

Louise Douglas - The love of my life

'I miss him with every breath and heartbeat. He should have been my happy ending. Instead, he is the sad beginning to my story.' Olivia and Luca Felicone had known each other nearly all their lives, but when they fell in love as teenagers and eloped to London they broke the hearts of those closest to them. Luca's parents run Marinella's restaurant, the colourful hub of life in the otherwise bleak north-eastern seaside town of Watersford, and his mother, Angela, has never forgiven Olivia for causing such a rift in her beloved family.On a freezing January night Olivia's life is shattered when she learns that Luca has been killed in a car accident. She is left with nothing and, after suffering from weeks of overwhelming grief, she abandons her job and returns north to where Luca has been buried in Watersford. Olivia's chance meeting with Luca's married twin brother, Marc, leads to the realization that he is experiencing a loss almost as painful as her own. Their desolation draws them into an affair which both know has no future, but fills the space where Luca should be. It is a course of action that can only spiral out of control, and when it does the consequences are both explosive and cruel. "The Love of My Life" is a beautiful novel that portrays both the innocence of childhood, and the dynamics of love and loss with deftness and sensitivity. It is, above all, a stunning debut from an author with a unique and natural narrative voice.

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

The book focuses on a young boy, who becomes a young man, named Pip, raised by his over dominating sister, and a kind blacksmith, Joe Gargory. For awhile Pip has gratitude for living in the town, but, when he is spurned by the rich Estella and Miss Havisham, he wants to be something greater, someone richer. Being rich falls into his lap, but not without consequences. The book is about the follies of false vanities, of turning ones back on those who loved you, on trying to chase an uncatchable dream from those who don't reciprocate feelings, (in this case Pip's devotion to the haughty Estella) and for neglecting the good values of life for the ostentatious ones. Too often in todays society people forget about what's truly important, family and good friends, and associate with only the proud and the, what they deem to be, the important. In the process they get too wrapped up by material wealth rather than the simple beauties around them.

Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe

The fictional Robinson Crusoe was born in York in the first half of the seventeenth century. He was a bit of a wastrel who longed for a seagoing career. He went on to own a plantation in Brazil becoming involved in the slave trade. Crusoe was shipwrecked on a desolate island in the Caribbean. All of his shipmates were drowned.
Crusoe was able to salvage tools, food and plants from the wrecked ship. He lived on the island for 28 years before he was rescued enabling him to return to England. During his long sojourn on the island Crusoe rescued his man Friday from cannibals. Friday was also a cannibal but was converted to Christianity by Crusoe. Crusoe also fought pirates who landed in his last year on the island . The bulk of the short novel deals with how Crusoe managed to survive. He did so by domesticating goats, training a pet parrot and planting various crops. He was very ingenious in his ability to survive.

Jill A. Davis - Girls' Poker Night

Eat, Drink, Gossip...Who said Poker Night was just for the Guys? Dissatisfied both with writing a “Single Girl on the Edge/Ledge/Verge” column and with her boyfriend, Ruby Capote sends her best columns and a six-pack of beer to the editor of The New York News and lands herself a job in the big city. There, Ruby undertakes the venerable tradition of Poker Night—a way (as men have always known) to eat, drink, smoke, analyze, interrupt one another, share stories, and, most of all, raise the stakes. When Ruby falls for her boss, though, all bets are off. What happens when Mr. Right has his own unresolved past? As smart as it is laugh-out-loud funny, Girls’ Poker Night is a refreshingly upbeat look at friendship, work, and love.

Brian D'Amato - Beauty

Obsessed with beauty, Jamie D'Angelo is an emerging New York artist whose true metier--reconstructing the human face--must be practiced secretly, since his advanced procedure has not been medically approved. With his expensive lifestyle supported by wealthy clients, Jamie longs to create a face of ultimate beauty. But when he finally fulfills his wish, the experiment backfires with hideous consequences. First novelist D'Amato, an artist himself, deftly captures society's preoccupation with youth and beauty. "Facial beauty is kind of a controlling metaphor for everything our society wants," declares Jamie, and in this deranged, arrogant character, the author stretches the compulsion to its darkest extreme. Trendiness aside, Beauty is a fascinating and memorable parable of artistic creation. Definitely recommended.

Robin Cook - Shock

The novel is about two friends Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, both of whom are shown equally as protagonists. Joanna dumps her boyfriend Carlton Williams and finds herself in need of money to complete her studies. Her friend Deborah shows her a newspaper article about Wingate Clinic that is offering $45,000 for people willing to donate their eggs for infertile patients. The two friends decide to take the offer and donate the eggs. Everything goes on peacefully till they complete their doctorate studies and come back to USA. Here their curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to find out what happened to their eggs. With the Wingate Clinic maintaining a strict silence about their working, the two of them decide to use some unfair means to get this information.

Robin Cook - Invasion

With his finger on the pulse of the latest medical technology, Robin Cook preys on our deepest fears with uncanny skill. Now, in his most provocative thriller to date, he explores a sudden outbreak of strange new symptoms that defy diagnosis. The cause is unknown --- and unknowable --- because it is unlike anything humankind has ever seen ...

Robin Cook - Contagion

After he loses first his midwestern ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant and then his family to a commuter airline tragedy, Dr. John Stapleton's life is transformed to ashes. Feeling less the golden boy than a jaded cynic, Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology and relocates to find an uneasy niche for himself in a city that suits his changed perspective: the cold, indifferent, concrete maze of New York.

Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series of virulent and extremely lethal illnesses - capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenza - strikes the young, the old, and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. When the apparent epicenters of these outbreaks are revealed to be hospitals and clinics controlled by the same for-profit giant that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a diabolic conspiracy of catastrophic proportions: Could the for-profit giant be engaged in the systematic elimination of its more costly subscribers?

Getting at the truth leads to Stapleton's unlikely pairing - both professionally and personally - with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. Together they discover that the real explanation behind the killer contagions is even more Machiavellian than could be imagined.

Carlo Collodi - The Adventures of Pinocchio

In an Italian village, Geppetto, an old woodcarver, receives a piece of wood which looks perfect for his next project, a puppet. But when he sets to work something magical happens – the piece of wood begins to talk. When Geppetto is finished, the puppet turns out to be cheeky, naughty, and can walk, run and eat with as hearty an appetite as any young boy.

Geppetto calls him Pinocchio (which means ‘pine nut’) and brings him up as his son. But Pinocchio is disobedient – he tells lies, and every time he lies, his nose grows longer. Geppetto makes many sacrifices for his adopted son, but Pinocchio finds it hard to be good. He is easily led astray, tumbling from one disastrous adventure to another in which he is robbed, imprisoned, chased by bandits and only narrowly escapes death. His friends, the Cricket and the Blue Fairy, try to make see that his dream – to be a real boy – can never come true until Pinocchio finally changes his ways.

Jackie Collins - Hollywood Divorces

In her most scandalously titillating novel since the #1 bestselling Hollywood Wives, internationally renowned author Jackie Collins once again takes her readers behind the scenes and into the bedrooms of Hollywood's glamorous world of superstardom, where narcissism is a virtue, and fidelity means not sleeping with anyone less attractive than your spouse. Leaving her readers to guess which real celebrities she has used as models for her fabulous characters, Collins uses her insider's knowledge of the Hollywood scene to bring life to their stories of lust, scandal, and sweet revenge. Principal among the characters that make Hollywood Divorces so compulsively readable are three strong, unforgettable women who find themselves walking the treacherous pathway that inevitably leads to divorce. These are classic Jackie Collins women -- beautiful, sexy, and determined to get things done their way -- succeeding in spite of the odds. Shelby Cheney, 32. The raven-haired beautiful Shelby -- a talented film actress -- is married to Linc Blackwood, a macho movie star with a yen for hard booze, nights out with the guys, and plenty of other women. Shelby continues to put up with his infidelities, because only she knows the tragic secrets of his past. Lola Sanchez, 24. A sexy Latina superstar, Lola climbed to the top the hard way. As an unknown, Lola encountered Linc Blackwood at a party and spent the night with him. Now that she is a superstar, he fails to remember their long and steamy night together, infuriating Lola, who has revenge on her mind. Currently she is married to Matt Seel, a tennis pro who she wed on the recommendation of her advisers in an effort to distance herself from the real love of her life, Tony Alvarez, a brilliant Latino movie director with a drug habit he can't seem to break. Cat Harrison, 19. Blond, independent, a hot writer/director with a wild-child past, she has a hit movie, a rock star husband, and an amorous and powerful studio mogul determined to make her do things his way or not at all. But Cat is not a girl to be pushed around, and Cat has big plans of her own -- plans that will surprise and shock everyone. Divorce -- Hollywood style -- has never been more fascinating, for no one has ever before offered so revealing a look. The result is delicious fun.

Jackie Collins - Dangerous Kiss

The seductively beautiful, street-smart, and powerful Lucky Santangelo, star of four of Jackie Collins's previous international number-one bestsellers -- Chances, Lucky, Lady Boss, and Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge -- returns in Dangerous Kiss. In Chances, Lucky grew up in a top crime family; in Lucky, she was married three times; in Lady Boss, she took on Hollywood and bought Panther Studios; and in Vendetta, she fought off a lifelong enemy to keep the studio, and her husband. Now, in Dangerous Kiss, when a member of her family is brutally gunned down in a random holdup, her fury knows no bounds. While she is tracking the killer, her relationship with her husband, charismatic writer and director Lennie Golden, is put to the test. Then, suddenly, into her life comes a man from her past -- a man with a dangerous kiss. Dangerous Kiss is a story of raw anger, love, lust, murder, and revenge, and at its white-hot center is Lucky Santangelo, a strong, exciting woman who dares to take chances -- and always wins. In Dangerous Kiss, you will encounter many familiar faces, among them: Brigette Stanislopoulos, Lucky's twenty-five-year-old goddaughter -- an heiress due to become one of the richest women in the world. Now a top supermodel in New York, Brigette is put in desperate peril when she meets a man who is out to ruin her life. Alex Woods, a Hollywood producer with a lethal smile and a deadly obsession... Venus Maria, America's most controversial superstar...and... Charlie Dollar, the off-the-wall, fifty-something movie star with an eye for teenage girls. You will also meet an exciting cast of newcomers: Count Carlo Vittorio Vitti, a dangerously handsome playboy with his own twisted agenda... Lina, a devastatingly sexy black supermodel with an insatiable yen for men, money, and a big film career... Price Washington, a famous black comedian with a crack-addicted past... Teddy Washington, his sixteen-year-old son who unintentionally gets caught up in murder... Claudia, a simple Italian girl with a secret from Lennie's past that will rock Lucky's world... And the Kopistanis: Irena -- Price's Russian housekeeper who knows all his secrets; and Mila -- her eighteen-year-old daughter with a heart of steel and the cunning of a fox.

Jackie Collins - Vendetta, Lucky's Revenge

Lucky Santangelo is back -- with a vengance! Dangerously sensual, breathtakingly beautiful, and utterly unforgettable, she is Lucky Santangelo, the sizzling star of Chances, Lucky, and Lady Boss. With Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge, Jackie Collins continues the saga of Lucky Santangelo in a nonstop, action-packed tale of sex, betrayal, drugs, intrigue, and murder. A scorching new installment of the wildly popular Lucky series, Vendetta finds Lucky in the most perilous situation of her life when her prized Panther Studios is taken from her by Donna Landsman, the unscrupulous widow of Lucky's arch-enemy, Santino Bonnatti. Donna intends to destroy Lucky in every way she can, but Lucky is street-smart, powerful, and just as ruthlessly dangerous. And so the battle for control begins. With Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge, Jackie Collins proves once again why she is an international powerhouse, a writer who digs deep into the glamorous, intoxicating -- yet ultimately treacherous -- world of Hollywood.

Jackie Collins - Lovers and players

Dangerous sex, family secrets, irresistible power, mega money, and two murders equal one reckless week in New York … In Lovers & Players , the Diamond family rules. Red Diamond is an abusive and much-loathed billionaire. His three sons, Max, Chris , and Jett, are summoned to New York for a family meeting which rocks their world. Diahann , a beautiful black ex-singer, works as Red’s housekeeper—a job her daughter, Liberty , does not approve of. A waitress and would-be singer herself, Liberty has dreams of her own and while she pursues them, Damon P. Donnell , married hip-hop mogul supreme, pursues her . Young New York heiress Amy Scott-Simon is engaged to marry Max. At her bachelorette party she runs into Jett. Jett has no idea who Amy is. She also doesn’t realize who he is. A one-night fling leads to major complications. Now the lives of these characters will intertwine, forever changing their destinies, in this highly charged love story about family relationships and deadly choices. “A decadent concoction sure to appeal…a fast lane take on the lives of the rich and fabulous.”

Paulo Coelho - The winner stands alone

The beloved, bestselling international author of The Alchemist returns with another haunting novel—a thrilling journey into our constant fascination with the worlds of fame, fortune, and celebrity. A profound meditation on personal power and innocent dreams that are manipulated or undone by success, The Winner Stands Alone is set in the exciting worlds of fashion and cinema. Taking place over the course of twenty-four hours during the Cannes Film Festival, it is the story of Igor, a successful, driven Russian entrepreneur who will go to the darkest lengths to reclaim a lost love—his ex-wife, Ewa. Believing that his life with Ewa was divinely ordained, Igor once told her that he would destroy whole worlds to get her back. The conflict between an individual evil force and society emerges, and as the novel unfolds, morality is derailed. Meet the players and poseurs behind the scenes at Cannes—the "Superclass" of producers, actors, designers, and supermodels, as well as the aspiring starlets, has-been stars, and jaded hangers-on. Adroitly interweaving the characters' stories, Paulo Coelho uses his twelfth novel to paint an engrossing picture of a world overrun by glamour and excess, and shows us the possibly dire consequences of our obsession with fame.

Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist

The Alchemist details the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. He then tells a lone gypsy about this treasure. As he leaves, the gypsy mentions one thing: If he does find the treasure, she wants 1/10 of it. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king named Melchizedek who tells him about discovering his personal legend: what he always wanted to accomplish in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the book. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks. Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings."

Paulo Coelho - The Zahir

The Zahir means 'the obvious' or 'conspicuous' in Arabic. The story revolves around the life of the narrator, a bestselling novelist, and in particular his search for his missing wife, Esther. He enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. He is suspected of foul play by both the police and the press, who suspect that he may have had a role in the inexplicable disappearance of his wife from their Paris home.

As a result of this disappearance, the protagonist is forced to re-examine his own life as well as his marriage. The narrator is unable to figure out what led to Esther's disappearance. Was she abducted or had she abandoned the marriage? He encounters Mikhail, one of Esther's friends, during a book launch. He learns from Mikhail that Esther, who had been a war correspondent against the wishes of her husband (the protagonist), had left in a search for peace, as she had trouble living with her husband. The author eventually realizes that in order to find Esther he must first find his own self. Mikhail introduces him to his own beliefs and customs, his mission of spreading love by holding sessions in hotels and meeting homeless people living in the streets. He tells the narrator about the voices he hears, and his beliefs related to them. The narrator, who only too frequently falls in love with women, consults with his current lover, Marie, about his encounters with Mikhail. She warns him that Mikhail could be an epileptic. However, she also advises him to search for the Zahir as is his desire, even though she would prefer him to stay with her.

The narrator eventually decides to go in search of his Zahir. As it was Esther who had initially brought Mikhail from Kazakhstan to France, the protagonist suspects that she may in fact be in Kazakhstan. At first, he is curious about what made Esther leave, but later he realizes that troubles with her relationship with her husband may have been a major reason. As he discovers, she was interested in getting to know herself through the making of carpets. Eventually the narrator meets his Zahir and the outcome of this meeting constitutes the climax of the book. Through the narrator's journey from Paris to Kazakhstan, Coelho explores the various meanings of love and life.

In a recurring theme in the book, Coelho compares marriage with a set of railway tracks which stay together forever but fail to come any closer. The novel is a journey from a stagnant marriage and love to the realization of unseen but ever increasing attraction between two souls.

Paulo Coelho - Eleven minutes

Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness -- sexual pleasure for its own sake -- or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Harlan Coben - Hold tight

#1 bestselling author Harlan Coben asks that provocative and terrifying question with his fifteenth thriller. How much do parents really want to know about their kids? #1 bestselling author Harlan Coben asks that provocative and terrifying question with his fifteenth thriller. #1 bestselling author Harlan Coben has become an unstoppable force in suspense fiction. His most recent novel, The Woods , spent more time on the New York Times bestseller list than his previous books and sales reached his highest levels to date. His latest page-turner, which is about just how far parents will go to protect their kids, is destined for the top of every bestseller list. Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they’d become the type of overprotective parents who spy on their kids. But their sixteen-year-old son Adam has been unusually distant lately, and after the suicide of his classmate Spencer Hill—the latest in a string of issues at school—they can’t help but worry. They install a sophisticated spy program on Adam’s computer, and within days are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent addressed to their son: “Just stay quiet and all safe.” Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for Spencer put together by his classmates, Betsy Hill is struck by a photo that appears to have been taken on the night of her son’s death . . . and he wasn’t alone. She thinks it is Adam Baye standing just outside the camera’s range; but when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community. For Tia and Mike Baye, the question they must answer is this: When it comes to your kids, is it possible to know too much?