Smart, sassy, and full of surprises, Friends, Lovers, and Roses follows three gay African-American couples (and their Puerto Rican confidant) through the twists and turns of building (and sometimes, destroying) relationships. Their stories-funny one moment, frightening the next-reveal the hard truths about the journey from lust to love and about the choices we make along the way. This fast-moving romantic drama swings from intense to inspiring and back again in a heartbeat as David, Allen, Stephen, Jamal, Serafina, Dominique (and Damien) struggle.
Dorothy Parker meets Holly Golightly in this sharp, delicious, bright-girl-comes-to-New-York memoir. Alison Rose, former actress and former model (sort of), takes us from her childhood to her years atThe New Yorker, revealing how, often, she “didn’t care enough about existence to keep it going herself” and preferred to stay in her room with her animals and think. She writes about her childhood in California, daughter of a movie-star-handsome psychiatrist who was charming to friends but a bully and a tyrant to his family (he hadn’t wanted children; he believed mental illness was hereditary). She writes about how she never liked any place better than her wisteria-covered veranda off her childhood bedroom . . . and about the times she lay by the pool with her sister’s boyfriend (she ten; he eighteen), listening to “Ten Cents a Dance” on the phonograph—and learned the victory of cahoots-style flirtation . . . She writes about moving to Manhattan in her twenties, sleeping in Central Park, subsisting on Valium, Eskatrol, and Sara Lee orange cake . . . about the “alter” family she assembled: Francine from Atlanta, whose beauty was so unnerving she disoriented those around her; “Mother,” the short gay man who photographed Alison; “Baby Bob,” just out of Austen Riggs mental hospital . . . She writes about moving to L.A., attending the Actors Studio, living with Burt Lancaster’s son “Billy the Fish” (he lived in his own element, coming up for other people’s air), sabotaging her acting efforts (no one knew better than Alison how to shut the window on her own fingers) . . . about encountering Helmut Dantine ofCasablancafame, who gave her shelter from the storm, and about meeting Gardner McKay, her childhood TV idol, and becoming friends—sacred, close, lifelong. She writes about returning to New York, getting a job as a receptionist atThe New Yorker, being taken up by the writers there—“a tribe of gods,” who turned her from a semi-recluse into a full-fledged writer (“You can't be the smartest person who doesn’t do anything forever”); about their kindredness, the impromptu club they formed: Insane Anonymous (a “whole other world that was better than sane”); and her emergence as a writer for the magazine. As Renata Adler said of Alison’s path, “It is the most nuanced, courageous, utterly crazy way to have wended.” Better Than Saneis the debut of a supremely gifted and entertaining writer.
Turn a shady yard into a sumptuous garden Shade is one of the most common garden situations homeowner’s have, but with the right plant knowledge, you can triumph over challenging areas and learn to embrace shade as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. Glorious Shade celebrates the benefits of shade and shows you how to make the most of it. This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. You'll learn how to determine what type of shade you have and how to choose the right plants for the space. The book also shares the techniques, design and maintenance tips that are key to growing a successful shade garden. Stunning color photographs offer design inspiration and reveal the beauty of shade-loving plants.
Enjoy this Steamy Cowboy Romance Book from Small Town Romance author Kaci M. Rose... Who meets their soul mate at 6 years old? Sage We were 6 when Colt saved my life. Not for one second could I deny the bond that formed between us after that. Truth be told, it scared the hell out of me. Who meets their soul mate before learning to drive their first pick-up truck? So, I ran. Yet years later, when a tragic accident lands me in the hospital, he’s right back by my side and refusing to budge. I know I messed up when I left him. Is a second chance even possible? Or does the cowboy womanizer now enjoy a new filly each night too much to resign himself to one saddle? Colt I knew at 10 I was going to marry her. We would run the ranch together and fill our lives with sticky-faced kids and prize-winning cattle. When I thought of the future, all I saw was her. Then, she vanished. Heart shattered, I paid little mind to the rumors spreading like wildfire about me through the small town gossip mill. Until I finally faced the second chance I had been praying for. Now, I’ll do whatever it takes to prove to her there’s no truth to the playboy rumors, and that what we have is worth the risk. The Cowboy and His Best Friend is a novel in the Rock Springs, Texas series, and all books in the Rock Springs world are interconnected standalones. A HOT cowboy romance with a guaranteed happily ever after and an Alpha hero, second chances, friends to lovers, and a reformed playboy. It does have some strong language and oh my, sexy times. Rock Springs, Texas Series The Cowboy and His Runaway The Cowboy and His Best Friend The Cowboy and His Obsession The Cowboy and His Sweetheart The Cowboy and His Secret Rock Springs Wedding Novella
Roses, pleasure and politics: a fresh take on Orwell as an avid gardener, whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world. 'I loved this book... An exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times' Margaret Atwood 'Expansive and thought-provoking' Independent Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening - George Orwell Inspired by her encounter with the surviving roses that Orwell is said to have planted in his cottage in Hertfordshire, Rebecca Solnit explores how his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Following his journey from the coal mines of England to taking up arms in the Spanish Civil War; from his prescient critique of Stalin to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism, Solnit finds a more hopeful Orwell, whose love of nature pulses through his work and actions. And in her dialogue with the author, she makes fascinating forays into colonial legacies in the flower garden, discovers photographer Tina Modotti's roses, reveals Stalin's obsession with growing lemons in impossibly cold conditions, and exposes the brutal rose industry in Colombia. A fresh reading of a towering figure of the 20th century which finds solace and solutions for the political and environmental challenges we face today, Orwell's Roses is a remarkable reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance. 'Luminous...It is efflorescent, a study that seeds and blooms, propagates thoughts, and tends to historical associations' New Statesman 'A genuinely extraordinary mind, whose curiosity, intelligence and willingness to learn seem unbounded' Irish Times
What if the man you’ve always loved isn’t the right one for you? Rose Atwood has been in love with her best friend since she was twelve years old. The only problem is, he's the biggest player to have ever landed on Earth. Rose has waited forever for Tyler to grow up, all the while keeping her feelings under wraps for fear of getting hurt. But after watching Tyler go through girl after girl, Rose has lost hope he’ll ever change. Being Tyler's best friend is becoming more difficult with every passing year and every new woman in his life—especially when the girlfriend du jour is Georgiana, a snotty, beautiful girl who’s in Law School with them and who never leaves Tyler's side. When Rose, dumped by her long-term boyfriend, moves temporarily into Tyler’s apartment, tension spikes. Georgiana wants Rose out of the house. Rose wants Georgiana out of Tyler’s life. And Tyler … well, he doesn’t really know what he wants. As an unexpected argument brings Rose and Tyler closer than they’ve ever been, they must decide if there’s more to their relationship than being just friends. And they must do it quickly, as Georgiana is determined to do everything in her power to keep Tyler and Rose apart. After all, all is fair in love and war. Will Rose make a leap of faith and trust Tyler with her heart? Will Tyler make the right choice, or will he be too late?
What happens when a former Zen Buddhist monk and his feminist wife experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary? “This book could not have come at a more auspicious time, and the message is mystical perfection, not to mention a courageous one. I adore this book.”—Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Before a vision of a mysterious “Lady” invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary’s prayers and mysteries—secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear? Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path—available to everyone, religious or not—that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.
MikkaOne kiss.One little misstep. But it knocked us off course.Jay was my best friend, my colleague, Hollywood's biggest heartthrob.And not the boyfriend I went home to that pivotal night.I tried to forget but my boyfriend reminded me violently of my one mistake.Two months later-My boss wants me to help Jay heal. But how can I when all I think about is...One kiss. One misstep that has us barreling toward love... or disaster.JayOne kiss.One little misstep. That's all it took to dig myself into a hole so dark I couldn't see the light. I got lost in my addiction because that kiss wasn't mine to take.Mikka was the best personal assistant, my partner in crime.And the girlfriend of an abusive man who she refused to see was bleeding the life from her.So, I demand Mikka come to my hometown to be my sober watchdog. This trip isn't supposed to be about us but...One kiss. One misstep that has us falling down a deep, dark hole.And I have to make sure we survive the plunge, that after it all? We thrive.
Love’s Work is at once a memoir and a work of philosophy. Written by the English philosopher Gillian Rose as she was dying of cancer, it is a book about both the fallibility and the endurance of love, love that becomes real and lasting through an ongoing reckoning with its own limitations. Rose looks back on her childhood, the complications of her parents’ divorce and her dyslexia, and her deep and divided feelings about what it means to be Jewish. She tells the stories of several friends also laboring under the sentence of death. From the sometimes conflicting vantage points of her own and her friends’ tales, she seeks to work out (seeks, because the work can never be complete—to be alive means to be incomplete) a distinctive outlook on life, one that will do justice to our yearning both for autonomy and for connection to others. With droll self-knowledge (“I am highly qualified in unhappy love affairs,” Rose writes, “My earliest unhappy love affair was with Roy Rogers”) and with unsettling wisdom (“To live, to love, is to be failed”), Rose has written a beautiful, tender, tough, and intricately wrought survival kit packed with necessary but unanswerable questions.
THE FIRST BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING SERIES AND A TIKTOK SENSATION 'With bits of Buffy, Game Of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series of total joy' STYLIST Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death... Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. _________________________ Sarah J. Maas's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into 37 languages. Discover the tantalising, sweeping romantic fantasy, soon to be a major TV series, for yourself.