Download or read book Sorrow and Bliss written by Meg Mason and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brilliantly faceted and extremely funny. . . . While I was reading it, I was making a list of all the people I wanted to send it to, until I realized that I wanted to send it to everyone I know." — Ann Patchett “Improbably charming...will have you chortling and reading lines aloud.” — PEOPLE The internationally bestselling, compulsively readable novel—spiky, sharp, intriguingly dark, and tender—that combines the psychological insight of Sally Rooney with the sharp humor of Nina Stibbe and the emotional resonance of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, the only person she knows without a PhD, a baby or both, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick—the kind who cooks, throws her birthday parties, who loves her and has only ever wanted her to be happy—has just moved out. Because there’s something wrong with Martha, and has been for a long time. When she was seventeen, a little bomb went off in her brain and she was never the same. But countless doctors, endless therapy, every kind of drug later, she still doesn’t know what’s wrong, why she spends days unable to get out of bed or alienates both strangers and her loved ones with casually cruel remarks. And she has nowhere to go except her childhood home: a bohemian (dilapidated) townhouse in a romantic (rundown) part of London—to live with her mother, a minorly important sculptor (and major drinker) and her father, a famous poet (though unpublished) and try to survive without the devoted, potty-mouthed sister who made all the chaos bearable back then, and is now too busy or too fed up to deal with her. But maybe, by starting over, Martha will get to write a better ending for herself—and she’ll find out that she’s not quite finished after all.

Download or read book You Be Mother written by Meg Mason and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do you do, when you find the perfect family, and it's not yours? A charming, funny and irresistible novel about families, friendship and tiny little white lies. The only thing Abi ever wanted was a proper family. So when she falls pregnant by an Australian exchange student in London, she cannot pack up her old life in Croydon fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family. It is not until she arrives, with three-week-old Jude in tow, that Abi realises Stu is not quite ready to be a father after all. And he is the only person she knows in this hot, dazzling, confusing city, where the job of making friends is turning out to be harder than she thought. That is, until she meets Phyllida, her wealthy, charming, imperious older neighbour, and they become almost like mother and daughter. If only Abi had not told Phil that teeny tiny small lie, the very first day they met... Imagine the warmth of Monica McInerney, the excruciating awkwardness of Offspring and the wit of Liane Moriarty, all rolled into one delightful, warm, funny and totally endearing novel about families – the ones we have, and the ones we want – and the stories we tell ourselves about them. 'Rare and delightful ... a beautifully crafted novel about female relationships. I couldn't put this book down.' Clare Press, Fashion Editor-at-large, Marie Claire 'You Be Mother is the kind of book you pick up...and never want to put down ... you will fall in love with this book.' Lauren Sams, author of She's Having Her Baby

Download or read book Say It Again In A Nice Voice written by Meg Mason and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Mothers. Those women with purses the size of meat trays that hold an entire deck of school portrait photos and a chequebook, make a casserole without a recipe, make the tightest bed you'll ever sleep in and only swear under extreme duress. How, how, would I go from me to that?” At twenty-four, Meg Mason was newly married to a man “essentially indistinguishable from a young Matt Damon” after landing her dream job writing for The Times in London. Nothing, she told herself, could possibly go wrong. A holiday shortage of birth control and eight months later, she was heavily pregnant and sobbing on the side of a road over trading her career for something she knew zip about. But she soldiered on. One fine Sunday, she invented motherhood by Having a Baby. On Monday, she discovered that a bunch of women had already done that, but still they couldn't tell her how to do it. Thanks to a helpful neighbour, she learned that convincing a newborn to take a bottle by letting it lick a Dorito first to “get more thirsty” didn't always work, but not what to do when your child won't sleep for roughly two years, why making friends at the park is more difficult than meeting deadlines, or how to remove your hand from a stroller—after you've Super-Glued it to the handle. Hair-raising and hilarious, Say It Again in a Nice Voice is the story of Meg’s journey from parenting novice to . . . well . . . Meg With Kids. Along the way she discovers that being a mother, however disaster-prone, might just be the only thing that she is truly irreplaceable at.

Download or read book Love and Other Puzzles written by Kimberley Allsopp and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the clues doesn't always lead you where you might expect ... A witty, warm-hearted and appealing novel about how stepping out of our comfort zones can sometimes be the best – and worst – thing that can ever happen to us. Rory's life is perfectly predictable, ordered and on track – just the way she likes it. She walks her 12,000 steps a day, writes her to-do list and each night she prepares her breakfast chia pods and lays out her clothes for the next day. She's doing everything right. So why does everything feel so wrong? Deep down, she knows her life and career – not to mention her relationship – are going nowhere, and so Rory, in a moment of desperation, takes an uncharacteristic step: letting the clues of The New York Times crossword puzzle dictate all her decisions for a week. Just for a week, she reasons. Just to shake things up a bit. What's the worst that could happen? A delightfully witty, deliciously original and astringently refreshing rom-com that reads like you're inhaling a zingy citrus cocktail made by Nora Ephron, at a party thrown by Dolly Alderton and Beth O'Leary. 'Warm, witty, charming and romantic, Love and Other Puzzles is a glorious debut. It's so clever and satisfying and I can't wait for the world to get their hands on it.' Jessica Dettmann 'Love and Other Puzzles has more heart than Harry Burns, more zingers than Daniel Cleaver and is hotter than Fitzwilliam Darcy emerging from a lake, partially clothed. If you love rom coms as I do, you will meet cute with this wonderful twist on the genre.' Lauren Sams Totally charming ... a lovely and witty first novel about finding the gorgeous sweet spot between comfort and spontaneity ... perfect for fans of Marian Keyes, Minnie Darke, Dolly Alderton and Meg Mason.' Booktopia 'A charming, clever and wickedly funny twist on, and homage to, the genre.' Australian Financial Review

Download or read book Amity Sorrow written by Peggy Riley and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she's convinced will follow them wherever they go: her husband. The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can't imagine what the world holds outside their father's polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley's abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, Amity & Sorrow is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own.

Download or read book Her First American written by Lore Segal and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed by the New York Times as coming “closer than anyone to writing The Great American Novel,” Lore Segal stuns with this passionate love story of a refugee from Hitler’s Europe and a witty, hard-drinking black intellectual For Ilka Weissnix, everything is new. Having recently arrived in the United States, she is determined to escape the immigrant communities of New York and boards a train headed west to discover “the real America.” She finds Carter Bayoux “sitting on a stool in a bar in the desert, across from the railroad.” Older, portly, experienced, and black, Carter is magnetic. To Ilka, he exemplifies the values and cultures of a changing America. In order to understand her new country and her new love, Ilka throws herself into Carter’s dizzying world, nurses him through his bouts of depression and his alcoholism, and becomes fascinated by stories of his amorous past. But Carter’s ghosts are ever present, and soon Ilka finds herself torn between saving him and saving her own future. With a foreword by Stanley Crouch, Her First American is the poignant story of an immigrant experience in a country of endless possibilities and of a rich and breathtaking love that is doomed from the start.

Download or read book Magpie written by Elizabeth Day and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish comes a twisty psychological suspense novel about motherhood, obsession, and just how far some will go for the perfect family. “Great, plain and simple” (Stanley Tucci). Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. And Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate—and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for the baby of their dreams. Except—no one is truly perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly familiar with Jake. But Marisa doesn’t let it concern her, knowing that soon Kate will be gone, and it will just be her, Jake, and their future baby. Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession—with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake? In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create—her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self. Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created—and what she stands to lose. For fans of Gone Girl and The Perfect Nanny, Magpie is a “tense” (The Guardian), “gorgeous” (Lisa Taddeo, bestselling author of Three Women), “completely, terrifyingly brilliant” (Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups) novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

Download or read book In the Distance There Is Light written by Harper Bliss and published by Ladylit Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two women lose the man they love. All they have left is each other. After her partner dies in a terrible accident, Sophie thinks she’ll never recover. But when her sorrow leads her to Dolores, who understands the depth of her grief, Sophie is shocked to find herself wondering: Is it too soon to love again? If you love deeply emotional lesbian romance with a twinge of controversy, don't miss this intense but hopeful novel by chart-topper Harper Bliss. The Lesbian Review's Best Book of 2016! What readers are saying about IN THE DISTANCE THERE IS LIGHT: ★★★★★ "A wonderful and deeply moving romance novel." ★★★★★ "More Than Entertainment!" ★★★★★ "A book I keep going back to read again & again." What reviewers are saying about IN THE DISTANCE THERE IS LIGHT: "Harper's best book ever!" - The Lesbian Review

Download or read book Catastrophic Bliss written by Myronn Hardy and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-27 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catastrophic Bliss contemplates the longing to understand connections and disconnections within a world ever more fragmented yet interdependent. With allusions to Dante, Stevie Wonder, Fernando Pessoa, Persephone and Marianne Moore, these poems move from the tumultuous to the sublime: a pit bull killing an invading thief, two people on a New York City subway playing chess, Billy Eckstine recording in Rio de Janeiro, to an imagined Barack Obama writing poems to his father. Myronn Hardy’s third collection comprises war, place, love, and history all yearning to be reconciled.

Download or read book Rules for Visiting written by Jessica Francis Kane and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An elegant and deeply moving meditation on friendship, family, and life on earth. Rules for Visiting is a wonderful novel.” —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Sea of Tranquility, The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven The national bestseller and an Indie Next List pick Name a Best Book of the Year by O Magazine • Good Housekeeping • Real Simple • Vulture • Chicago Tribune Named a Best Book of the Summer by The Today Show • Good Morning America • Wall Street Journal • San Francisco Chronicle • Southern Living Shortlisted for the 2020 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize Long-listed for the 2020 Tournament of Books Dry, witty, and unapologetic, May Attaway loves literature and her work as a botanist for the university in her hometown. More at home with plants than people, May begins to suspect she isn’t very good at friendship and wonders if it’s possible to improve with practice. Granted some leave from her job, she sets out on a journey to spend time with four long-neglected friends. Smart, funny, and full of compassion, Rules for Visiting is the story of a search for friendship in the digital age, a singular look at the way we stay in touch. While May travels, she studies her friends’ lives and begins to confront the pain of her own. With simplicity and honesty, Jessica Francis Kane has crafted an exquisite story about a woman trying to find a new way to be in the world. This nourishing book, with its beautiful contemplation of travel, trees, family, and friendship, is the perfect antidote to our chaotic times.

Download or read book Be Frank With Me written by Julia Claiborne Johnson and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION ADULT DEBUT HONOR BOOK WINNER OF THE AUDIE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE NARRATOR LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she’s flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders. As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book. Full of heart and countless “only-in-Hollywood” moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.

Download or read book The Jetsetters written by Amanda Eyre Ward and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the "Become a Jetsetter" contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can't seem to find a bride; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young and she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When she wins the cruise, the family packs all their baggage--literal and figurative--and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the Perkins family is forced to confront the defining choices in their lives. Can four lost adults find the peace they've been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back to each other? In the vein of The Nest and The Vacationers, Ward has created a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood to cruise--we can only hope--toward joy"--

Download or read book Under the Blue written by Oana Aristide and published by Serpent's Tale. This book was released on 2022-02-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How to Kill Your Best Friend written by Lexie Elliott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you suspected your best friend, the person you were closest to in the whole world, was a murderer, what would you do? Would you confront her? Would you help keep her secret? Or would you begin to feel afraid? Most importantly, why don't you feel safe now that she's dead? From the author of The French Girl comes a novel full of secrets, suspense, and deadly twists. Georgie, Lissa, and Bronwyn have been inseparable since dominating their college swim team; swimming has always been an escape from their own problems, but now their shared passion has turned deadly. How can it be true that Lissa, the strongest swimmer they know, drowned? Granted, there is something strange about Kanu Cove, where Lissa was last seen, swimming off the coast of the fabulous island resort she owned with her husband. Lissa’s closest friends gather at the resort to honor her life, but Georgie and Bron can’t seem to stop looking over their shoulders. Danger lurks beneath the surface of the crystal-clear water, and even their luxurious private villas can’t help them feel safe. As the weather turns ominous, trapping the funeral guests together on the island, nobody knows who they can trust. Lissa’s death was only the beginning....

Download or read book Scooby Doo 5 Minute Stories Scooby Doo written by Random House and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of Scooby-Doo stories that can each be read aloud in 5 minutes! Boys and girls ages 3 to 7 who love Scooby-Doo will enjoy this hardcover 5-Minute Story Collection of tales. Featuring Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, and the rest of Mystery Inc. chasing monsters and solving mysteries, each exciting story can be read in five minutes or less, making it perfect for bedtime-or anytime!

Download or read book Brother of the More Famous Jack written by Barbara Trapido and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-03-02 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stylish, suburban Katherine is eighteen when she is propelled into the centre of Professor Jacob Goldman's rambling home and his large eccentric family. As his enchanting yet sharp-tongued wife Jane gives birth to her sixth child, Katherine meets the volatile, stroppy Jonathan and his older, more beautiful brother Roger, who wins her heart. First love quickly leads to heartbreak and sends her fleeing to Rome but, ten years on, she returns to find the Goldmans again. A little wiser and a lot more grown-up, Katherine faces her future. Brother of the More Famous Jack is Barbara Trapido's highly acclaimed and much loved debut; a book that redefined the coming-of-age novel.

Download or read book The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss written by Michael Langford and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book there are practice instructions for seven different methods of meditation including: 1. The Awareness Watching Awareness Method. 2. The Abandon Release Method. 3. The Eternal Method. 4. The Infinite Space Method. 5. The Loving All Method. For thousands of years humans have been stuck in the same pool of inward unsolved problems. Thousands of years ago humans had the problems of suffering, sorrow, anger, fear, violence, conning, cheating, lying, death, etc. Today humans have the problems of suffering, sorrow, anger, fear, violence, conning, cheating, lying, death, etc. All of those problems have a single cause. In this book the cause of the lack of progress and the solution that actually works is revealed. There is a secret, a missing link, a vicious circle, that is keeping humans stuck in the same pool of unsolved problems. That secret, that missing link, that vicious circle is revealed in this book. How to break free of that ancient human trap is also revealed in this book. The solutions taught in the past have failed. Not even one in a million humans has been freed from all suffering and been established in absolutely perfect infinite-eternal-awareness-love-bliss by the solutions that have been taught in the past. It is possible to be free of all sorrow and suffering and to experience absolutely perfect infinite eternal joy in this lifetime. It is possible for all humans, not just a few humans. There is a rapid means to infinite bliss. That rapid means is taught in this book. Whatever spiritual path you are on, this book will be a great help. The problem of the ego distorting, distracting and keeping the attention directed outward is a problem shared by all humans, whatever path they are on. The ego's tricks have seldom been looked at in spiritual literature. The ego's tricks are revealed in this book. How to put an end to the ego's tricks is also taught in this book, making this book a unique and immensely valuable contribution. This book is a great help to all humans, including those who are not on a spiritual path, because the most direct and rapid means to end suffering and sorrow and to live in awareness-love-bliss, is of benefit to all. For human consciousness to be transformed something new must be introduced. This book introduces something new into human consciousness. It is rare that a spiritual book goes into detail revealing the tricks the ego uses to avoid liberation. The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss is such a rare book. Step-by-step instructions in how to put an end to the ego's tricks are given in this book. This book shows how to directly experience infinite-eternal-awareness-love-bliss in this lifetime. This book contains a detailed description of the difference between the True Self and the imposter self. Detailed instructions in how to directly experience the True Self are given in this book. Of the thousands of spiritual books you could purchase, The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss is the best first choice. This is the book that created a spiritual revolution that is continuing to transform all human life. The direct experience of infinite-eternal-life is available to all humans. There is a fork in the road. One road leads to ideas, beliefs, concepts and opinions. The other road leads to Direct Experience. This book shows the difference between these two roads and how to choose the road that leads to eternal-perfect-love-bliss in this lifetime. This book is a new doorway for humanity. On a combination lock that you have been unable to open it is not the numbers on the dial that are new. It is the combination that opens the lock that is new. The more than fifteen hundred sentences in this book reveal the combination that opens the lock. On the other side of the door is eternal Life-Love-Bliss.