Best friends fast approaching forty in the small Minnesota town of Flame Lake, Devera & Bi Di, were recently voted ' Least Changed' at their twentieth high school reunion
- a label neither one finds very appealing. For each craves a change in her life: Devera wants a break from her humdrum marital routine; Bi Di longs to reconnect with her distant fourteen-year-old daughter (the only girl on the high-school hockey team), not to mention jump-starting a sex drive stuck in neutral.

So when Devera's husband decides to fulfil his longtime dream of opening a nightclub in his basement, Your Oasis on Flame Lake arrives not a moment too soon. Nothing fancy, it's just a BYOB joint where you can hang out, sing, dance, tell jokes & be yourself. But then an unexpected crisis throws both families into chaos, forcing them all to take stock of their lives
- & learn the power of forgiveness.



...

In a remote, piney wood in Finland stands a convalescent hospital called Suvanto, a curving concrete example of austere Scandinavian design. It is the 1920s, & the patients, all women, seek relief from ailments real & imagined. On the lower floors are the stoic Finnish women; on the upper floors are foreign women of privilege ...

In a remote, piney wood in Finland stands a convalescent hospital called Suvanto, a curving concrete example of austere Scandinavian design. It is the 1920s, & the patients, all women, seek relief from ailments real & imagined. On the lower floors are the stoic Finnish women; on the upper floors are foreign women of privilege ...

Few people now get married because they feel they ought to, as there is little social stigma in living together or having children outside wedlock. Most now get married for themselves, because they want to make a statement about their relationship. In the same way, the traditional top-hat, vintage car wedding is in sharp decline. Now, people want their weddings to be individual, different, about them. Sophie Vincenzi has produced a lively, informative, budget-conscious, but above all inspiring guide on how to do things your own way. From choosing a special venue, to writing your own vows & selecting readings that haven't been used thousands of times before, here is all the information you need to make your day different & special. ...

Youth's narrator, a student in 1950s South Africa, has long been plotting an escape from his native country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, & transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing & begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested & continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s, Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness & a fierce clarity. ...

The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, from a father whose failures haunt him, & from what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world, wherever that may be, he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, & transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing. An awkward colonial, a constitutional outsider, he begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested & continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s
- Sharpeville, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam
- Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness, isolated & adrift, turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness & a fierce clarity.

...

Auntie Sue is getting married & she has asked Daisy to be her bridesmaid. But Daisy doesn't do dresses & she certainly doesn't do lovely. Every dress Daisy tries on is ' Yuk!', until she finally manages to strike a deal & design her own dress... If you liked Eat Your Peas, Really, Really & You Do, you will love this book! ...