![]() Jude, one of the new guys who’d moved in last month, sat in a corner of one of the sofas doing something on his phone, his dark curly head bending low and the glow of the screen lighting up his angular features. ![]() Sunk in a black hole of despondency, he gazed surreptitiously around the room at his housemates instead. The TV was on, showing an old episode of Prison Break, but Shawn wasn’t paying attention to it. If Shawn’s going to get what he wants, he needs to find the courage to stop hiding from himself and be honest about who he is.īack in the living room, he threw himself into his armchair again. But Jude isn’t looking to get involved with someone so deep in the closet. Jude agrees, and things get complicated-and kinky-fast. Keen to explore his bicurious side, Shawn suggests they do a show together. ![]() It makes Shawn want things that scare him, yet his fascination forces him to confront his attraction. When Shawn discovers Jude works as a cam boy, he can’t resist the urge to watch one of his shows. Out and proud, he’s everything Shawn’s been running from since he hit puberty. Jude is a student living in the same shared house. His girlfriend dumped him, his friends have moved on, and he’s still in Plymouth-going nowhere. ![]() Recently graduated, he’s stuck in a dead-end job that barely pays the bills. Watching Jude’s cam show stirs desires Shawn’s always denied… ![]()
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![]() ![]() He argued that the empire had declined from a ‘regular kingdom’ into an ‘irregular’ one, suggesting that its political development somehow ran opposite to that of other European states by becoming progressively weaker and more decentralised. Others, like the political philosopher Samuel Pufendorf a century earlier, described the empire as ‘resembling a monstrosity’ because it did not conform to any of the recognised categories of state. Even this was denied by some sceptical observers, notably Voltaire, who famously dismissed the empire as ‘neither holy, Roman, nor an empire’ in 1756. ![]() This geographic heterogeneity is reflected in how the empire’s history has been written, as that of a loose confederation with little binding it together beyond a vague sense that the empire embodied the fading ideal of a single Christendom. ![]() The Holy Roman Empire sprawled across much of Europe for over a millennium, encompassing what are now Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, much of Italy, and parts of France, Denmark, and Poland. T his essay originally appeared under the title ‘Identity and belonging in the Holy Roman Empire‘ in Nation, State and Empire: Perspectives from the Engelsberg Seminar, published by Bokförlaget Stolpe in collaboration with the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit, 2017. ![]() ![]() Lady Rosamund Hunter is journeying from her home in Lincolnshire to spend some time with her brother and his family before they all head off to a house-party being held by his father-in-law, the Marquess of Gilmore, at which an announcement will be made confirming the betrothal of Rosamund’s niece to the Earl of Wetherby. While this 1991 title from Mary Balogh isn’t set at Christmas, it IS set in the winter, which, in my book, qualifies it as a suitable book to read at this time of year! ![]() The reserved Rosamund and the rakish Earl had a great deal to teach each other – if only they could persuade the other to learn… Rating: B+ Yet even the most exquisitely enchanting of his partners in passion had left him unmoved. The handsome dashing Earl of Wetherby was supremely well-versed in the pleasures of love. ![]() Yet she had never been touched by the fires of the heart. Young and beautiful Lady Rosamund Hunter had known the tenderness of love in her all-too-brief marriage to a much older, kind and gentle husband. ![]() ![]() ![]() She turns out to be self-important and obsessed with her image, insisting on leading the party and renaming it to The Royal Court of Princess Donut, but the two of them feel a degree of loyalty and kinship to each other. ![]() A broadcast message plays all around him, explaining that the interstellar Syndicate is taking all the materials in the world, and inviting the survivors to enter the World Dungeon, battling their way through eighteen floors and being televised all the way, if they want to reclaim the planet.Ĭarl enters the Dungeon rather than face exposure and starvation, and narrowly survives the trip to a tutorial guild, where Donut is given increased intelligence and the ability to speak as a reward for being the first cat in the Dungeon, becoming a Dungeon Crawler in her own right. Read at your own risk.Ĭarl steps outside in the middle of a winter night, to retrieve his ex-girlfriend's cat Donut - and every man-made structure suddenly collapses. ![]() Warning: Official policy states that no spoiler tags should exist on recap pages. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Conditions are hopeless unless the workers, whom Elsa has come to admire, band together. ![]() But unscrupulous growers exploit Central Valley workers, wringing labor out of malnourished migrants for meager wages, leaving them impoverished and beholden, scorned by native Californians. Elsa has no choice but to take her two children to California in search of work in the cotton fields and a better life. Life is hard work, but they have fully stocked shelves for over a decade until drought and dust storms ravage the land, when Rafe abandons Elsa and their two children, Loreda and Ant.ĭesperate struggles against nature are portrayed with harrowing images of devastation, dire perils, and death. She ends up pregnant and is taken in to marry Rafe by his kindly immigrant farmer parents. During the 1920s, Elsa’s Texas Panhandle family smothers her as a fragile outcast until she rebels to experience life with Rafe, a farmer. ![]() ![]() With its abundant jump scares, horror readers and fans of the TV show American Horror Story will delight in the fast-paced plot., "With all the elements of a perfect horror book, including illustrations from actual cemeteries and other haunted places in New Orleans, fans of Madeline Roux's Asylum series will be glad to see a return to Brookline." - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) Praise for Asylum - "The plentiful illustrations both advance the story line and immeasurably contribute to the spooky atmosphere. ![]() A good choice for readers who enjoy books with scary situations that lead to a solid climax., The plentiful illustrations both advance the story line and immeasurably contribute to the spooky atmosphere. Roux (aided by unsettling photo illustrations of abandoned asylums and tormented patients) creates an entertaining and occasionally brutal horror story that reveals the enduring impact of buried trauma and terror on a place., Madeleine Roux's Asylum takes the fondest dream of our collective nerdy childhood and handily turns it into the scariest collective nightmare., Illustrations used in this book are from actual asylums, and the author builds the tension nicely as Dan receives what may be messages from an inmate. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. The Underground Man is a detective novel of merciless suspense and tragic depth, with an unfaltering insight into the moral ambiguities at the heart of California's version of the American dream. What he uncovers amid the ashes is murder-and a trail of motives as combustible as gasoline. Along with its merciless suspense, The Underground Man possesses a moral vision as complex as that of a classic Greek tragedy.īook Synopsis As a mysterious fire rages through the hills above a privileged town in Southern California, Archer tracks a missing child who may be the pawn in a marital struggle or the victim of a bizarre kidnapping. About the Book As a mysterious fire rages through an affluent community in Southern California, Lew Archer tracks a missing-and possibly kidnapped-child and uncovers and entire secret history of wayward parents, wounded offspring, and murder. ![]() ![]() Even as 2 am rolled around and I knew I had to be up in a couple of hours! I love, love, love this book! This was my first read of Lauren Layne's books and I couldn't put it down. And, at the same time, he’s exactly what she wants. In other words, Mitchell is the polar opposite of what Julie needs right now. And the leggy journalist notorious for avoiding love is exactly the type of no-strings fling he’s looking for. A devastatingly hot workaholic who tends to stay in relationships for far too long, he should be the perfect subject for Julie’s “research.” But what Julie doesn’t know is that Mitchell is looking to cut loose for once in his life. Normally, Mitchell Forbes would be exactly that man. But when Julie gets assigned the hardest story of her career-a first-person account of that magical shift between dating and “I do”-she’ll need a man brave enough to give a total commitment-phobe a chance at more. Comfy pants, sleepy Sundays, movie nights on the couch? Shudder. ![]() Loves steamy first dates, sizzling first kisses, and every now and then, that first sexy romp between the sheets. ![]() ![]() ![]() Available Aug 26 from Random House (Loveswept) ![]() ![]() ![]() It's interesting to note how even extreme individualists like Dirac could only develop their ideas through interaction (either personal or through published material) with their peers. Farmelo's treatment of this succeeded brilliantly. There is the additional element in science of discovering how the individual fitted in to what has become very much a collective enterprise. ![]() I am always interested in the early biography of creative people, showing how they developed and kindled their creative interests. For the most part the author does a good job of tracing the development of quantum physics, the math and Dirac's place within it, without giving the impression of talking down to the layman. Unusually for a scientific book, I couldn't put it down! It covers the purely biographical aspects without skipping the harder conceptual material of the physics. Farmelo certainly picked a hard nut to crack in writing about Dirac for a lay audience, in terms both of Dirac personally and of the complexity of his work. ![]() ![]() ![]() Their video captures the paranoia and suspense of omniscient serial killer fiction. Jo Nesbø’s books, translated into forty languages, have sold more than eleven million copies worldwide. ![]() This year, the aspiring filmmakers were commissioned by Random House to direct another book trailer for Joe Nesbo’s latest opus, and 8 th installment of the Harry Hole series, The Leopard. This professionally-polished crime fiction trailer is co-directed by Yasmin Al Naib and Christopher, student filmmakers of the National Film & Television School in the U.K. With all the kudos given to The Snowman, it’s high time to revisit the winning entry from the 2010 Book Video Award. The Sunday Times describes it as “so gripping that it recalls classics such as The Silence of the Lambs” and The Independent hails its “spine-chilling quality that evokes the English master of the macabre, M. The book has received acclamation from a number of reviews that compare it to masterpieces. It is the 7 th installment in the dark thriller series that features the subversive yet vulnerable Oslo police inspector Harry Hole. 10 on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction. The Snowman by Joe NesboScandinavian crime-fiction author Jo Nesbo’s novel The Snowman has climbed to no. ![]() |