With high hopes of conquering Hollywood, the novel’s main character goes to Los Angeles to study directing and screenwriting. On the way, she ends up at a roadside bar that uncannily links the destinies of the main characters, who had given up everything to follow their dreams. What’s in store for the young rebels in Los Angeles? Does your dream have another side, one that’s just as enigmatic and invisible as the far side of the Moon?
A night porter in a sleazy Barcelona hotel, the only thing the forty-year-old Antonio Castro has going for him is his resemblance to Frank Sinatra. Thinking he has nothing to lose, Antonio joins a lonely hearts club and into his life come a Perez Galdos widow, a dwarf poet, a gay barman. The Lonely Hearts Club is a novel of Barcelona. Its people and its places, the Ramblas, the Plaza Real, the Barrio Chino, are brought to life in a book that is outrageously funny but never loses sympathy with its characters.
Five lonely strangers join a bar trivia team in an effort to find friends, but end up on a path that will change each of their lives forever, in this heartwarming debut perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Sophie Kinsella. How do you make friends as an adult? That’s one question lonely Londoners Bryony, Harry, Jaime, Luke, and Donna would really like the answer to. They tend to do better with questions of a different variety—trivia questions like How did prosecco get its name? and Which Mariah Carey song has topped the charts in twenty-six countries? In an effort to meet new people, the five not-yet-friends answer an ad seeking members of a bar trivia team—the Red Hot Quizzy Peppers. As the weeks go on, the disparate band of unhappy strangers becomes swept up in both the buzz of winning and the way quiz nights start to bond them together in friendship . . . to the detriment of other parts of their lives. Despite all odds, the Quizzy Peppers might just have a shot at making the London Pub Quiz League’s Grand Final, if only they can get past the Golden Girls, the Banana Splits, and the Bombay Bad Boys. Utterly charming and uplifting, The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night is a story of finding friendship, love, confidence, and purpose—just right for fans of Jennifer Weiner.
Jo Waldman lives life to her own soundtrack—working for her father by day while pursuing her music career in NYC’s downtown clubs at night. Music is her passion, along with her boyfriend, Jesse, who shares her dreams of making it big. Jo's old band, The Lonely Hearts Club, came thisclose to getting a huge recording contract, and she’s just biding her time, waiting for lightning to strike twice. The music business is tough, but so is Jo. So when Jo's father fires her and Jesse breaks up with her, Jo doesn’t get upset—she just wants to rage. Dusting off her computer, Jo writes a blog entry, pouring her heart out about the shortcomings of love. Except that no sooner does Jo hit “upload” than the site sends a mass e-mail to the entire Lonely Hearts mailing list, alerting everybody Joe has ever met that she's been brutally dumped. All Jo wants to do is hide under the covers, but to her surprise, supportive e-mails start flowing in—many of them from complete strangers. Apparently, her anti-love rant has struck a chord. The Lonely Hearts Club Blog develops a huge following, even capturing the eye of Jo’s sworn nemesis, bubble gum pop princess Amber Fairchild. Jo soon becomes an icon for all things “anti-love,” and at her fans' request, she begins to plan The Lonely Hearts Club Ball—a massive anti-love Valentine's Day party to end all parties. Jo quickly becomes the poster girl for lonely hearts, and it inspires her to start writing music again. There's only one problem: the web programmer helping Jo with her site is simply dreamy. Jo's never been very good at depriving herself of anything, but if this budding romance is exposed, she'll be revealed as an 'anti-love' fraud and risk losing all the people who have grown trust her voice. So is it time to start singing love songs, or time to pick up the guitar and return to the hard rock that almost got The Lonely Hearts signed in the first place? Either way, Jo's got some big decisions to make, and it looks like she's going to have to take one step closer to doing something she never thought she'd do—becoming a grownup. From Brenda Janowitz, author of the beloved Brooke Miller novels SCOT ON THE ROCKS and JACK WITH A TWIST comes another uproariously funny and heartfelt story that will ring true to anyone who's dug themselves into a hole only to find that getting out is where you least expect it.
Tingleville is a transformational romantic love story about two young adults. Joe is a dynamic lawyer who is recovering from the pain of a failed marriage. His ex-wife Mary Ellen was a sexual connoisseur who kept Joe so whipped that he was blind to her adulterous ways until she was able to replace him with a richer man. After a two-year vengeance filled sexual rampage through many of the most desirable ladies of Richmond, Joe realizes that he will never find love between silken sheets. Only by facing his fears and being semi-celibate, can he hope to find the perfect person to love. Lucy, an assistant professor of law at Richmond University, is also recovering from a failed marriage. Her pain was both physical and mental because her marriage to her high school sweetheart ended by annulment while she was still recovering from the first and last beating her husband gave her. After two years as an associate at a major Chicago law firm and another couple in private practice, she abandoned the courtroom for the classroom. The loud ticking of her biological clock and the emptiness of her life has her thinking of finding someone to love. A conference that neither wanted to attend resulted in their paths crossing and becoming intertwined. After a slow start, they race to see if the emotions they feel are real. One slow dance was enough to ignite fires of passion and put both of them on a quest for understanding. Joe hoped to find a woman to love that would love him exclusively, and be as skilled in the arts of love as his former wife was. He sees potential in Lucy. Lucy s mother told her that sex was as natural an act for a woman as washing dishes or doing the laundry. According to Mrs. Bishop, sex was a chore. It was a woman s obligation to please her man and take her pleasure from the happiness of her husband. She assured Lucy that the act was more pleasurable for men than women. Lucy s first sexual experience and subsequent ones proved her mom correct. One dance with Joe proved her mom wrong and set her on a quest for the paradise named Tingleville.
These two dark stories, and the most notable works of the short career of Nathanael West, remain stunningly powerful pieces of fiction more than 75 years after their original publication.
Vivacious, unconventional, candid, and straight, Helen Branson operated a gay bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s—America’s most anti-gay decade. After years of fending off drunken passes as an entertainer in cocktail bars, this divorced grandmother preferred the wit, variety, and fun she found among homosexual men. Enjoying their companionship and deploring their plight, she gave her gay friends a place to socialize. Though at the time California statutes prohibited homosexuals from gathering in bars, Helen’s place was relaxed, suave, and remarkably safe from police raids and other anti-homosexual hazards. In 1957 she published her extraordinary memoir Gay Bar, the first book by a heterosexual to depict the lives of homosexuals with admiration, respect, and love. In this new edition of Gay Bar, Will Fellows interweaves Branson’s chapters with historical perspective provided through his own insightful commentary and excerpts gleaned from letters and essays appearing in gay publications of the period. Also included is the original introduction to the book by maverick 1950s psychiatrist Blanche Baker. The eclectic selection of voices gives the flavor of American life in that extraordinary age of anxiety, revealing how gay men saw themselves and their circumstances, and how others perceived them. Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association Best Books for High Schools, selected by the American Association of School Libraries
Take two stubborn cowboys, add in one determined little boy, and toss in a snowstorm for good measure. Who knew building a family could be so hard? If you ask Isaiah Preston, he's pretty lucky. He's happy in his job as a ranch manager, admires his boss, Grady, in more ways than one, and if he doesn't have everything he wants, well, that's life, isn't it? Enter one little brother, and suddenly Isaiah's comfortable world is turned upside down. Everything becomes complicated and he's seeing people in ways he never has before—good and bad. Near-perfect isn't enough anymore. Isaiah wants it all—home, family and, most importantly, Grady, in both his life and bed. To get what he wants, though, Isaiah is going to have to fight prejudice, misunderstanding, and even Grady himself.
Home Bar covers all aspects of home bar design in addition to offering inspiration advice on how to create it; from which drinks to include, glassware and fridges, to recipes from some key bartenders and truly inspiring interiors. Whether you hanker after a small, stylish bar cart for a tiny urban apartment or are planning a bespoke entertainment space in your home, indoors or out, Home Bar is a comprehensive resource and a go-to inspirational manual of discerning drinks. With exclusive access to the owner of Pernod Ricard’s own glamorous home bar in the south of France, this book will appeal to Mad Men fans, millenials for whom a homemade cocktail from a drinks trolley is the height of cool, and also to any discerning drinker fascinated by the mystique of soda syphons, cocktail kits and seriously interesting aperitifs and digestifs. Written by a leading authority on drink, Home Bar includes photographs from Simon Upton, one of the world’s leading interiors photographers working in exclusive homes. With images from major bar cart retailers too, this book is a beautiful, comprehensive and indispensable reference for cool drinks at home, anytime.
