Download or read book By Invitation Only written by Dorothea Benton Frank and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “If I could only read one writer from now until the end of my life, it would be Dorothea Benton Frank.” --Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Identicals The Lowcountry of South Carolina is where By Invitation Only begins at a barbecue engagement party thrown by Diane English Stiftel, her brother Floyd, and her parents to celebrate her son’s engagement. On this gorgeous, magical night, the bride’s father, Alejandro Cambria, a wealthy power broker whose unbelievably successful career in private equity made him one of Chicago’s celebrated elite, discovers the limits and possibilities of cell phone range. While the mother of the bride, Susan Kennedy Cambria, who dabbles in the world of public relations and believes herself deserving of every square inch of her multimillion-dollar penthouse and imaginary carrara marble pedestal, learns about moonshine and dangerous liaisons. Soon By Invitation Only zooms to Chicago, where the unraveling accelerates. Nearly a thousand miles away from her comfortable, familiar world, Diane is the antithesis of the bright lights and super-sophisticated guests attending her son Fred’s second engagement party. Why a second party? Maybe it had been assumed that the first one wouldn’t be up to snuff? Fred is marrying Shelby Cambria, also an only child. The Cambrias’ dearest wish is for their daughter to be happy. If Shelby wants to marry Frederick, aka Fred, they will not stand in her way—although Susan does hope her friends won’t think her daughter is marrying more than a few degrees beneath her socially. At the same time, Diane worries that her son will be lost to her forever. By Invitation Only is a tale of two families, one struggling to do well, one well to do, and one young couple—the privileged daughter of Chicago’s crème de la crème and the son of hard -working Southern peach farmers. Dorothea Benton Frank offers a funny, sharp, and deeply empathetic novel of two very different worlds—of limousines and pickup trucks, caviars and pigs, skyscrapers and ocean spray—filled with a delightful cast of characters who all have something to hide and a lot to learn. A difference in legal opinions, a headlong dive from grace, and an abrupt twist will reveal the truth of who they are and demonstrate, when it truly counts, what kind of grit they have. Are they living the life they want, what regrets do they hold, and how would they remake their lives if they were given the invitation to do so? By Invitation Only is classic Dorothea Benton Frank—a mesmerizing Lowcountry Tale that roars with spirit, humor, and truth, and forces us to reconsider our notions of what it means to be a Have or a Have Not.

Download or read book By Invitation Only written by Alexis Maybank and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a warm September night in 2002, former acquaintances Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis reconnected at a mixer for new students at Harvard Business School. Alexis had just ended a four-year run at eBay during the dotcom boom and bust. Alexandra had just spent three years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Now they were entering the country’s top training ground for future titans of Wall Street and the Fortune 500. Little did either suspect that five years later, they’d become famous not in finance or consulting or corporate management, but at the bleeding-edge intersection of fashion and technology. Gilt Groupe – launched by Alexis, Alexandra, and three colleagues in 2007 – is one of the most fascinating startups of recent years, with a valuation of more than $1 billion. And it all began with one bold idea: to bring sample sales online and change the way millions shop. As Alexis and Alexandra write about the day Gilt.com went live: “We had created a website that could potentially change the rules of retail, for both shoppers and brands. If shopping was traditionally a slow, leisurely activity that might consume an entire day, it would now be competitive, addictive, urgent, thrilling—a rush delivered at the same time each day. Shopping would become not just easier, but so much fun.” But turning that vision into reality wasn’t easy. Designers had long controlled their own sample sales by staging them in anonymous, makeshift locations and strictly limiting invitations. Those lucky enough to hear about a Marc Jacobs or Hermès sample sale would drop everything and run for dramatic, fleeting bargains. Why should elite brands support a new startup trying to replicate the experience online? And even if brands like Valentino, Christian Louboutin, and Zac Posen got on board, would shoppers embrace such a website? Would the kind of people who love high-end fashion really visit a new online sale each day? Was “accessible luxury” a breakthrough idea or an absurd oxymoron? Alexis and Alexandra share their perspective in this dramatic story of Gilt’s birth, rise, and evolution. They show how they juggled the conflicting needs of their suppliers, engineers, marketers, and potential investors. They explain how they blended their individual strengths and weaknesses and managed their rapidly growing team. They cover the growing pains of expanding into new categories like housewares, travel, and menswear. And they take us through the darkest moments of the recession when Gilt might easily have died. As you’ll learn from the true story of Gilt, anything is possible for those with the creativity to recognize a new opportunity and the perseverance to make it real.

Download or read book Invitation Only written by Kate Brian and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in a world of exclusive boarding schools, Kate Brian's compelling series, PRIVATE, combines the bitchy snobbery of the elite and wealthy with a Heather-esq element of dark secrets, mystery, and satire. An invitation is only the beginning… Reed Brennan is living her dream. She's a student at prestigious Easton Academy and she's been invited to live in the exclusive Billings Hall, home to the most beautiful, intelligent, and enviable girls on campus. Life couldn't bemore exciting - apart from the nagging fact that her boyfriend, Thomas, has gone missing… A night partying in the woods leads to Reed being caught in a compromising situation. Now she's being blackmailed: either she dishes the dirt on the Billings Girls, or she'll be exposed - and expelled… This compelling series full of dark secrets, mystery and satire is a must for fans of Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Mean Girls?.

Download or read book The Invitation Only Zone written by Robert S. Boynton and published by Atlantic Books Ltd. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1970s and early 80s, dozens - perhaps hundreds - of Japanese civilians were kidnapped by North Korean commandos and forced to live in 'Invitation Only Zones', high-security detention-centres masked as exclusive areas, on the outskirts of Pyongyang. The objective? To brainwash the abductees with the regime's ideology, and train them to spy on the state's behalf. But the project faltered; when indoctrination failed, the captives were forced to teach North Korean operatives how to pass as Japanese, to help them infiltrate hostile neighbouring nations. For years, the Japanese and North Korean authorities brushed off these disappearances, but in 2002 Kim Jong Il admitted to kidnapping thirteen citizens, returning five of them - the remaining eight were declared dead. In The Invitation Only Zone, Boynton, an investigative journalist, speaks with the abductees, nationalists and diplomats, and crab fishermen, to try and untangle both the kidnappings and the intensely complicated relations between North Korea and Japan. The result is a fierce and fascinating exploration of North Korea's mysterious machinations, and the vexed politics of Northeast Asia.

Download or read book Invitation Only Murder written by Leslie Meier and published by Kensington Cozies. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With family tensions intensifying in Tinker’s Cove, part-time reporter Lucy Stone could really use some time off the grid—but disconnecting from reality comes at a deadly price . . . Lucy doesn’t know what to expect as she arrives on a private Maine island owned by eccentric billionaire Scott Newman, only that the exclusive experience should make for a very intriguing feature story. An avid environmentalist, Scott has stripped the getaway of modern conveniences in favor of an extreme eco-friendly lifestyle. A trip to Holiday Island is like traveling back to the nineteenth century—much to the dismay of the island’s other residents . . . Before Lucy can get the full scoop on Scott, she is horrified to find one of his daughters dead at the bottom of a seaside cliff. Stuck on a clammy island with murder suspects aplenty, Lucy must tap into the limited resources around her to outwit a cold-blooded killer—before it’s lights out for her next!

Download or read book The Long Weekend written by Adrian Tinniswood and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an acclaimed social and architectural historian, the tumultuous, scandalous, glitzy, and glamorous history of English country houses and high society during the interwar period As WWI drew to a close, change reverberated through the halls of England's country homes. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, the shadows lengthened on the lawns of a thousand stately homes. In The Long Weekend, historian Adrian Tinniswood introduces us to the tumultuous, scandalous and glamorous history of English country houses during the years between World Wars. As estate taxes and other challenges forced many of these venerable houses onto the market, new sectors of British and American society were seduced by the dream of owning a home in the English countryside. Drawing on thousands of memoirs, letters, and diaries, as well as the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls and bibulous butlers, Tinniswood brings the stately homes of England to life as never before, opening the door to a world by turns opulent and ordinary, noble and vicious, and forever wrapped in myth. We are drawn into the intrigues of legendary families such as the Astors, the Churchills and the Devonshires as they hosted hunting parties and balls that attracted the likes of Charlie Chaplin, T.E. Lawrence, and royals such as Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. We waltz through aristocratic soiré, and watch as the upper crust struggle to fend off rising taxes and underbred outsiders, property speculators and poultry farmers. We gain insight into the guilt and the gingerbread, and see how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs. Through the glitz of estate parties, the social tensions between old money and new, the hunting parties, illicit trysts, and grand feasts, Tinniswood offers a glimpse behind the veil of these great estates -- and reveals a reality much more riveting than the dream.

Download or read book By Invitation Only written by Jodi Della Femina and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Femina has spent a lifetime meeting extraordinary people, watching her father's businesses flourish, and working in his famous restaurant on Long Island. From her rarified perspective, she has fashioned a novel about what she knows best.

Download or read book Invitation to Geometry written by Z. A. Melzak and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for students of many different backgrounds with only a modest knowledge of mathematics, this text features self-contained chapters that can be adapted to several types of geometry courses. Only a slight acquaintance with mathematics beyond the high-school level is necessary, including some familiarity with calculus and linear algebra. This text's introductions to several branches of geometry feature topics and treatments based on memorability and relevance. The author emphasizes connections with calculus and simple mechanics, focusing on developing students' grasp of spatial relationships. Subjects include classical Euclidean material, polygonal and circle isoperimetry, conics and Pascal's theorem, geometrical optimization, geometry and trigonometry on a sphere, graphs, convexity, and elements of differential geometry of curves. Additional material may be conveniently introduced in several places, and each chapter concludes with exercises of varying degrees of difficulty.

Download or read book Invitation to the Game written by Monica Hughes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1993-06 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unemployed after high school in the highly robotic society of 2154, Lisse and seven friends resign themselves to a boring existence in their "Designated Area" until the government invites them to play The Game.

Download or read book The Invitation A Novel written by Anne Cherian and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vikram, a successful first-generation Indian immigrant, invites three of his college friends to his son's graduation from MIT--an event where real life collides with unmet expectations.

Download or read book Invitation Strictly Personal written by Iain R. Webb and published by Goodman Publishers. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a foreword by celebrated designer Anna Sui, and rarely seen material from the great fashion houses, Invitation Strictly Personal lets you share in the fashion show experience The fashion show invitation is a statement of intent, providing the first inkling of the designer's vision for that season. Invitation Strictly Personal presents a unique collection of 300 invitations that span the past four decades, from both ready-to-wear and haute couture houses in the fashion capitals of New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Here are some of the key, unforgettable fashion moments such as Alexander McQueen's Memorial "Show" at St. Paul's Cathedral, Stella McCartney's first show for Chloe, and John Galliano's return to the runway in spring 1994 with the support of Anna Wintour. Most of the invitations come from the personal collection of award-winning author Iain Webb, accumulated over his years as a fashion correspondent. This unique volume also features program notes, lookbooks, posters, and promotional objects--all rarely available outside the fashion industry.

Download or read book The Invitation written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2000 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cult bestseller The Invitation is more than just a poem. It is a profound invitation to a life that is more fulfilling and passionate, with greater integrity. This book is a word-of-mouth sensation, whose truths have resonated with people all over the world, and is now reissued with a beautiful new cover design.

Download or read book How We Give Now written by Lucy Bernholz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Go Fund Me to philanthropy: the everyday ways that we can give our money, our time, and even our data to help our communities and seek justice. In How We Give Now, Lucy Bernholz shows that philanthropy is more than writing a check and claiming a tax deduction. For most of us--the non-wealthy givers--philanthropy can be a way of living our values and fully participating in society. We give in all kinds of ways--shopping at certain businesses, canvassing for candidates, donating money, and making conscious choices with our retirement funds. We give our cash, our time, and even our data to make the world a better place. Bernholz takes readers on a tour of the often-overlooked worlds of participatory philanthropy, learning from a diverse group of forty resourceful givers. Donating our digitized personal data is an emerging form of philanthropy, and Bernholz describes safe, equitable, and effective ways of doing so--giving genetic data for medical research through a nonprofit genetics organization rather than a commercial one, for example, or contributing photographs to an online archive like the Densho Digital Repository, which documents America's internment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Bernholz tells us to "follow the money," however, when we're asked to "add a dollar" to our total at the cash register, or when we buy a charity-branded product; it's more effective to give directly than to give while shopping. Giving is a form of participation. Philanthropy by the rest of us--across geographies and cultural traditions--begins with and builds on active commitment to our communities.

Download or read book The King s Invitation written by Irene Dover and published by Concordia Publishing House. This book was released on 1968-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Clan Building written by Gregory David Weisman and published by SLG Publishing. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Based on the hit animated Disney series."--Cover.

Download or read book Invitation to the Classics written by Louise Cowan and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2006-08-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motivation and direction for reading and understanding the great authors and works of Western culture.

Download or read book The Books of Magic 1 The Invitation written by Carla Jablonski and published by HarperTeen. This book was released on 2003-05-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen-year-old Tim discovers he may be the greatest wizard of his time when four strangers introduce him to the world of magic, taking him on a journey through the past, present, future, and Faerie realms, where danger threatens at every turn.