In Polite Company

In Polite Company

Author: Gervais Hagerty

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-08-17

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0063068877

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“This terrific debut lifts the veil on the charming old city of Charleston and a prominent Lowcountry family to deliver an entertaining story about becoming yourself without totally rejecting your past. Plus: debutante balls! I love this novel.” —Lauren Weisberger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons A captivating debut novel that looks inside the private lives of Charleston aristocracy, where a former debutante learns that sometimes good behavior leads to bad decisions. Tourists think they see the real Charleston, but Simons Smythe knows there’s more to her hometown than sweet tea and Southern hospitality. Behind the walled gardens, inside the fabled historic homes, live Charleston’s elite. Simons was born into this powerful aristocracy that has quietly ruled the city for centuries. Simons’s family has a banner year ahead; Her older sister will give birth to her second child, and her younger sister will make her debut—a series of cocktail parties and balls to introduce her to society. And in one year, Simons plans to marry Trip. She hopes that’s enough time to fall back in love. Simons produces the news at a local TV station, a job that increasingly tests her loyalty to her family and friends. On her days off, Simons surfs the waves of Folly Beach, crabs the salty rivers of Edisto Island, and follows her wayward heart to King Street bars. The one touchstone in this confusing time is her elegant and secretive grandmother, Laudie, who—repeatedly and mysteriously—urges Simons to “be brave”. In this sparkling novel, Simons unlocks riddles from the past, flirts with a new future, and discovers that some rules are made to be broken.


The Seraphinians

The Seraphinians

Author: Christos Jonathan Hayward

Publisher: C.J.S. Hayward

Published: 2015-08-15

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13:

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Devotees of Fr. Cherubim (Jones) Demand his Immediate Canonization and Full Recognition as "Equal to the Heirophants" Adamant devotees of Fr. Cherubim (Jones) demand immediate canonization and full recognition as "Equal to the Heirophants". They have stepped beside their usual tactics of demanding canonization whether or not Fr. Cherubim should be canonized, and demanding that any problems be swept under the carpet, to insist that he be called, "Equal to the Heirophants." Much of the work in his wake was consolidated in the book, Christ the Eternal Doubt. Our devotee explained, "Blessed Cherubim Jones saw more than anything the spiritual toxicity of postmodernism. And he sensed, perhaps even more than he realized, that the proper rebuttal to postmodernism is to reconstruct modernism: indeed, there are powerful modernist currents in his thought even when he seems to condemn all Western trends. The great grandfather of modernism was René DesCartes, and Blessed Cherubim Jones uncovered layer after layer of this philosopher whose very name means 'Born Again' and whose Meditations put doubt on a pedestal and said, in essence, 'Doubt what you can; what remains after doubt is unshakable.' And Λογος or Logos is interchangeable, one might almost say homoousios, with logic and with doubt." And to quench the ills of the postmodern world, Blessed Cherubim Jones mined a vein that would come together in the classic Christ the Eternal Doubt. Fr. Cherubim has left a considerable wake; the tip of the iceberg is in his contribution to a wave of commited Evangelicals deciding that being Orthodox is an indispensible aid to pursuing their cottage industry of reconstructing the ancient Church. The sycophant excitedly commented, "Yes; there was an article on this phenomenon in The Onion Dome. It was a bit like that article in The Onion, um, what was it... there was a woman, a strong woman, who overcame years of childhood abuse to become a successful porn star. And this is nothing next to what happened when he was the only fashionable Orthodoxy the communist East could listen to." Fr. Cherubim was indeed very concerned that his version of the Fathers be adhered to. He pointed out that many Church Fathers, in giving the theology of the created world, absolutely denied that matter was made from atoms and molecules, but insisted that science properly interpreted proves that matter was made from the four elements: "earth, air, fire, and water." And he drew a line in the sand here, and most of his Cherubinian devotees are extraordinarily suspicious about whether you can be Orthodox and believe anything like modern atheistic chemistry. There is some slight controversy surrounding Fr. Cherubim's teaching on the phantom tollbooth. His position, as carried forth by others, is that practically every major element of The Phantom Tollbooth is already in the Fathers and is attested in quite ancient liturgy. Consequently, many argue, the book The Phantom Tollbooth is no mere imaginative children's tale, but an entirely literal factual account describing life beyond the mundane. But as much as Fr. Cherubim tried to break free of Western tendencies, the concensus among non-Cherubinians that part of his spiritual ambiance and a legacy among Cherubinians is, in the words of one striking television commercial, "wacky wild, Kool-Aid style!"


Polite Society

Polite Society

Author: Mahesh Rao

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-08-20

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0525539964

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"So funny, smart, sophisticated, and captivating, you just want to spend your whole life with it."--Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians In this modern reimagining of Jane Austen's Emma, Delhi's polite society is often anything but polite. Beautiful, clever, and more than a little bored, Ania Khurana has Delhi wrapped around her finger. Having successfully found love for her spinster aunt, she sets her sights on Dimple: her newest, sweetest, and most helpless friend. But when her aunt's handsome nephew arrives from America, the social tides in Delhi begin to shift. Surrounded by old money and new; relentless currents of gossip; and an unforgettable cast of socialites, journalists, gurus, and heirs, Ania discovers that her good intentions are no match for the whims and intrigues of Delhi's high society--or for her own complicated feelings toward her cherished childhood friend, Dev. Pairing razor-sharp observation and social comedy with moments of true tenderness, this delicious whirl through the mansions of India's dazzling elite celebrates that there's no one route to perfect happiness.


A Man in Full

A Man in Full

Author: Tom Wolfe

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 756

ISBN-13: 1429960698

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The Bonfire of the Vanities defined an era--and established Tom Wolfe as our prime fictional chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. With A Man in Full, the time the setting is Atlanta, Georgia--a racially mixed late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth, avid speculators, and worldly-wise politicians. Big men. Big money. Big games. Big libidos. Big trouble. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur turned conglomerate king, whose expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 28,000-acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife--and a half-empty office tower with a staggering load of debt. When star running back Fareek Fanon--the pride of one of Atlanta's grimmest slums--is accused of raping an Atlanta blueblood's daughter, the city's delicate racial balance is shattered overnight. Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real-estate syndicates, cast-off first wives of the corporate elite, the racially charged politics of college sports--Wolfe shows us the disparate worlds of contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most phenomenal, most admired contemporary novelist. A Man in Full is a 1998 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.


The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness

The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness

Author: Florence Hartley

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 1872

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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In preparing a book of etiquette for ladies, I would lay down as the first rule, "Do unto others as you would others should do to you." You can never be rude if you bear the rule always in mind, for what lady likes to be treated rudely? True Christian politeness will always be the result of an unselfish regard for the feelings of others, and though you may err in the ceremonious points of etiquette, you will never be impolite. Politeness, founded upon such a rule, becomes the expression, in graceful manner, of social virtues. The spirit of politeness consists in a certain attention to forms and ceremonies, which are meant both to please others and ourselves, and to make others pleased with us; a still clearer definition may be given by saying that politeness is goodness of heart put into daily practice; there can be no _true_ politeness without kindness, purity, singleness of heart, and sensibility.


The Rake and The Recluse

The Rake and The Recluse

Author: Jenn LeBlanc

Publisher: Jenn LeBlanc

Published: 2012-05-31

Total Pages: 953

ISBN-13: 0983795487

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She never thought time-travel was real. Until it happened to her... Researching her father's journals in her spare time was closest Francine came to time-travel and frankly, who would believe it? But when she's tossed back in time, she regrets she didn't pay more attention to the past... of course that's only after she finally admits to herself that she's been tossed into another world, much like a Victorian freaky-Friday. The first thing Francine has to reconcile is that a woman in Victorian England is a commodity. She's owned. Francine is no longer the powerful business woman she was only moments ago and on top of it all she's being chased by a man who wants her dead—or worse. Her only chance for safety lies in Gideon Trumbull the lionhearted—but evasive—duke who discovers her: terrified, running for her life, at the edge of his lands. What began as a compulsion to learn anything she could about him turns into an urgent need and she finds herself in an inescapable new reality—a world in which she doesn't belong. °•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•° Meanwhile... Gideon's brother Perry has likewise been caught up in an incident. Finding a stowaway housemaid in his carriage as he's bound for London will be the most life-changing moment of his life. She's plotting to seduce the rake who refuses to touch her. Propriety be damned. Getting him to teach her what love is seems like just the right challenge to sooth her damaged soul. Until the man who chased Francine sets his sites on someone much more accessible. The entire Trumbull family comes together to protect the women they've accepted into the fold in the first installment in the Trumbull Family Saga, The Rake and The Recluse.


The Food Activist Handbook

The Food Activist Handbook

Author: Ali Berlow

Publisher: Storey Publishing

Published: 2015-05-05

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1612121802

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One person really can make a difference. From starting neighborhood kitchens to connecting food pantries with local family farms, Ali Berlow offers a variety of simple and practical strategies for improving your community’s food quality and security. Learn how your actions can keep money in the local economy, reduce the carbon footprint associated with food transportation, and preserve local landscapes. The Food Activist Handbook gives you the know-how and inspiration to create a better world, one meal at a time.


The Linnet Bird

The Linnet Bird

Author: Linda Holeman

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2005-05-17

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0307238482

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“For you, I will write of it all—part truth, part memory, part nightmare—my life, the one that started so long ago, in a place so far from here . . .” India, 1839: Linny Ingram, the respectable young wife of a British colonial officer, settles down to write her life story. In the claustrophobic, mannered world of British India, Linny seems the perfect society wife: pretty, gracious, subservient. But appearances can be deceptive. Linny Ingram was born Linny Gow, an orphan raised in the cold, gray slums of Liverpool. Sold into prostitution by her stepfather when she was only eleven, Linny is a born survivor and an accomplished chameleon and manipulator. Through a stroke of luck and considerable scheming, she manages to re-create herself as a proper Victorian young lady, middle-class and seemingly respectable. By befriending a merchant’s daughter, Linny secures a place with her new companion on a ship bound for India, where they will join “the fishing fleet”—young women of good birth but no fortune who sail to India in search of a husband. India, with its exotic colors, sights, and smells, is a world away from the cold back alleys of Linny’s childhood. But even there, she is haunted by her past, and by the constant threat of discovery. To secure her place in society, she marries Somers Ingram, a wealthy British officer with secrets of his own. Soon Linny discovers that respectability and marriage bring a new kind of imprisonment, as well as the same menace and violence that she thought she had escaped. But Linny is not about to surrender easily. In the lush tropics of India she finds not only the means for rebellion but also the love and freedom she never had in England. We had been at sea almost four months. Swallows swooped near the railings, indicating land nearby. Mrs. Cavendish likened these busy, twittering creatures to the dove with its olive branch. She was right, and within another day villages were spotted along the coast. The water became noisy with dozens of tiny rocking boatloads of Indians. Bumboat men, Mrs. Cavendish called them, shouting to be heard over the cries of the villagers as they boasted of their merchandise, hoping to sell coconuts, bananas, or tamarinds. I hung over the railing, watching as the natives threw ropes with baskets attached over the ship’s side. Some of the crew called down to them in a strange tongue that I couldn’t identify, putting coins into the baskets. The baskets were lowered, and then came up again, filled with whatever the sailors had requested. I longed to try the strange-looking fruit, but Mrs. Cavendish, with a slight shake of her head, indicated that it would be beneath us to purchase anything in this way. During the last few days, as we grew ever closer to our destination, excitement grew in me. At first I attributed it to the beauty of the water and sun, the flying fish sending little droplets of water onto the smooth sea, but then realized it was something else. I detected a difference in the atmosphere, and whether it was the air itself or the degree of heat I couldn’t say. Perhaps the smells carried in the wind contributed to the unexplained breathlessness I experienced. My nose filled with the strange smells of an unfamiliar populace, the scents of unknown vegetation. I felt as heady as I had when twirled in my first quadrille. —from The Linnet Bird


It's Getting Scot in Here

It's Getting Scot in Here

Author: Suzanne Enoch

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1250296382

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The first in a wickedly seductive new Scottish historical romance series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Enoch! “It’s time to fall in love with Suzanne Enoch.” — Lisa Kleypas HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER London socialite Amelia-Rose Baxter is nobody’s fool. Her parents may want her to catch a title, but she will never change who she is for the promise of marriage. Her husband will be a man who can appreciate her sharp mind as well as her body. A sophisticated man who loves life in London. A man who considers her his equal—and won’t try to tame her wild heart... IN THE HIGHLANDS Rough, rugged Highlander Niall MacTaggert and his brothers know the rules: the eldest must marry or lose the ancestral estate, period. But Niall’s eldest brother just isn’t interested in the lady his mother selected. Is it because Amelia-Rose is just too. . . Free-spirited? Yes. Brazen? Aye. Surely Niall can find a way to soften up the whip-smart lass and make her the perfect match for his brother for the sake of the family. JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT HOTTER. Instead it’s Niall who tempts Amelia-Rose, despite her reservations about barbarian Highlanders. Niall finds the lass nigh irresistible as well, but he won’t make the mistake his father did in marrying an Englishwoman who doesn’t like the Highlands. Does he have what it takes to win her heart? There is only one way to find out...


Beauty and the Wolf

Beauty and the Wolf

Author: Lois Faye Dyer

Publisher: Silhouette

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1426879407

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Happily single Frankie Fairchild was well aware her uncle Harry Hunt was trying to play matchmaker. So she decided to find herself a fake fiancé first! Utterly irresistible family friend Eli Wolf would make the perfect pretend groom, and thankfully, he also had permanent bachelor written all over his handsome face. Eli was only too happy to accept Frankie's proposition. Once the biggest playboy in Seattle, the millionaire contractor had long ago set his sights on the beautiful professor. Now he finally had the opportunity to seduce her with his notorious charm. Problem was, being so close to Frankie had Eli wanting more, wanting something…permanent. And this new desire could mean scaring off his commitment-phobe target for good…!