This is a startling memoir of a successful journalists journey from the deserted & dusty mining towns of the American Southwest to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic & adventurous childhood with her dreaming brilliant but alcoholic parents. At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education & civilisation her parents sought to escape Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the mundane middle class existence she had always craved. In her apartment overlooked by a portrait of someone elses ancestor she recounts poignant remembered images of star watching with her father juxtaposed with recollections of irregular meals accidents & police-car chases & reveals her complex feelings of shame guilt pity & pride toward her parents. ...

Every girl has her price.. . To Steph working as a bar hostess in Japan sounds too good to be true. Friends say she can earn a fortune simply by flirting with drunk businessmen & theres no sex involved
- honest. Old friends Julia & Annabel are earning piles of cash in Tokyo & say hostessing is perfectly safe. But once in Japan Steph realises Julia is a shadow of her former self & Annabel has disappeared. No one cares that Annabels gone
- least of all a troubled & secretive Julia. As Steph searches for her missing friend she is lured into gritty glamorous Roppongi
- an exotic world of sex modern-day geishas & easy money. There she meets Mama San a charismatic & powerful hostess club owner who has worked in the shadowy Japanese sex industry all her life & knows everything about pleasing men. But the longer Steph stays in Tokyos sex district the less finding Annabel seems to matter. Steph soon realises she must discover whats happened to Annabel or risk selling a part of herself shell never get back.


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Sharon Li: apprentice shaman & community support officer for the magically inclined. It wasn't the career Sharon had in mind but she's getting used to running Magicals Anonymous & learning how to Be One With The City. When the Midnight Mayor goes missing leaving only a suspiciously innocent-looking umbrella behind him Sharon finds herself promoted. Her first task: find the Midnight Mayor. The only clues she has are a city dryad's cryptic warning & several pairs of abandoned shoes... Suddenly Sharon's job feels a whole lot harder. ...

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. When Claire heads off-campus the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life but they come out fighting when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out hungry for fresh blood... ...

Kit Mc Mahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass where everyone knows everyone; children who walk to school together grow up & become sweethearts & marry people gossip & grumble & dream their lives away. For it is a place where change comes slowly. Until one day beautiful mysterious Helen Mc Mahon disappears presumed drowned in the lake & then the gossip runs wild. The consequences for Helen's husband her son but above all for her daughter Kit are unimaginable & will leave not one of their lives unchanged. ...

In a tiny stained-glass shop hidden in the backstreets of Westminster lies the cracked sparkling image of an angel. The owners of Minster Glass have also been broken: Fran Morrisons mother died when she was a baby; a painful event never mentioned by her difficult secretive father Edward. Fran left home to pursue a career in foreign cities as a classical musician. But now Edward is dangerously ill & its time to return. Taking her fathers place in the shop she & his craftsman Zac accept a beguiling commission
- to restore a shattered glass picture of an exquisite angel belonging to a local church. As they reassemble the dazzling shards of coloured glass they uncover an extraordinary love story from the Victorian past sparked by the windows creation. Slowly Fran begins to see her own reflection in its themes of passion tragedy & redemption. Frans journey will lead her on a search for the truth about her mother through mysteries of past times & the anguish of unrequited love to reconciliation & renewal.
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In a tiny stained-glass shop hidden in the backstreets of Westminster lies the cracked sparkling image of an angel. The owners of Minster Glass have also been broken: Fran Morrison's mother died when she was a baby; a painful event never mentioned by her difficult secretive father Edward. Fran left home to pursue a career in foreign cities as a classical musician. But now Edward is dangerously ill & it's time to return. Taking her father's place in the shop she & his craftsman Zac accept a beguiling commission
- to restore a shattered glass picture of an exquisite angel belonging to a local church. As they reassemble the dazzling shards of coloured glass they uncover an extraordinary love story from the Victorian past sparked by the window's creation. Slowly Fran begins to see her own reflection in its themes of passion tragedy & redemption. Fran's journey will lead her on a search for the truth about her mother through mysteries of past times & the anguish of unrequited love to reconciliation & renewal.
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The Dark Wizard Troubler has tightened his grip on the snow-bound Kingdom of Gems & is close to possessing the powerful Candara Gems. The kingdom seems lost to the rule of his evil spell as his dominance grows. Amalek & Seph have survived their long & perilous journey to the great Wizard Elzaphans castle to seek his magical help. However their rest is short-lived as a terrifying task lies ahead. Along with the group of courageous animals including Joog the owl they have to complete the return journey which is filled with unforeseen dangers. They must face the evil wizard to save their kingdom... ...

When Dave Robicheaux gets the call saying his ex-partner Clete Purcel is in jail for felony assault & resisting arrest bailing him out is instinctive. After all Clete is the man who saved Dave's life by carrying him down a fire escape with two bullets in his back. But Clete's latest escapade isn't just worrying because it shows his demons are gaining the upper hand; it also brings some of those demons into Dave's life in the most personal way possible. The man Clete assaulted a big-time pimp & meth dealer is a suspect in the murder of a series of young women
- but his criminal activities are hidden behind his involvement in a charity aimed at getting young women off the streets. As Dave probes the charity further he finds that its main sponsor is the smooth-talking scion of a wealthy family & a man whose motives Dave instinctively mistrusts. He also happens to be Dave's daughter's boyfriend.
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Cool. Balanced. Modern. The precisions of science the wild variance of lust the catharsis of confession & the fear of failure
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