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The Girls in the Hall
A group of women in their 30s live in a cosy apartment building long enough to become good friends. In comes a young, live-in landlord who proves to be a perfect fit for their happy ‘community’. He cooks and bakes for them – even gets a cat he calls Oprah. Much of the book is taken up with their sunny escapades.
However, under the surface of this carefree life lurks another reality, hiding in plain sight, in the person of a fifth woman who has taken the last, vacant apartment. She seems able to smooth her way into the mix and be accepted. But, as different as they all are, the group sense something is not quite right about this newcomer. In fact, something is very wrong.
One of the women is a psychologist by training and builds case evidence against her that culminates in a dramatic arrest on the roof garden and a trial. Shaken, the women manage to go back to living normal lives – most marry and all move out. With this exodus, the landlord sells the apartment block that would seem to bring this troubled idyll to an end but with a riveting twist.
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Reciprocated
Upon discovering a substantial vein of copper ore nestled beneath the conserved lands of the Blue Mountains, a zealous mining tycoon sees a fortune within his grasp. However, his ambitions are thwarted by a dedicated local environmental group.
A diverse coalition, ranging from scholarly academics to homeless drifters, rallies against the formidable forces of big business and government, vowing to safeguard the extensive sanctuary of flora and fauna residing within the unspoiled mountain forests. Yet, the battle they’ve embarked upon isn’t without its shades of moral ambiguity and legality.
As the trail is strewn with hurdles of murder, love, and greed, a close-knit cadre of impassioned strangers forges an alliance to wage a valiant defensive. No stone is left unturned, no alliance too audacious in their pursuit to unearth the culprit behind the sinister murder and shield the beloved environment from desolation.
Immerse in a narrative that introduces you to the most unexpected of heroes, evoking both love and despair as you witness the lengths some would traverse in the face of greed and the quest for opulence.
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Breakfast Chaos of Love and Trust
A black Holden Caulfield reminisces on a life filled with emotional turmoil, from a childhood scarred by hardship to an adulthood tangled in complex relationships. He reflects on the systemic barriers and coping mechanisms that coloured his world across decades - the pain and vulnerability, trust issues and raw humanity. There was love, yet it never fully conquered the chaos.
This fictional memoir gives words to the underrepresented, following an underdog who refuses to give up. It explores the immigrant experience of working tirelessly to overcome discrimination. The narrator clings to his father’s advice to study and gain knowledge as power. As he pets his bulldogs, he contemplates a past that shaped him, for better or worse. This is the story of one man’s perseverance through life’s unpredictable journey.
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Transcending Me
This breathlessly compulsive novel, by turns savage and tender, funny and wise, horrifying and uplifting, tells the story of Aloisio, born male in Latin America, who is convinced from an early age that she is a woman in a man’s body. Moving to the United States to work in the theatre, the butterfly emerges; she finds love and her place in the world, but also depravity and danger, as the book’s narrator, Aloisio—Holly to her friends—navigates the ups and downs of her life with style, wit, perceptive intelligence and blazing honesty.Taking inspiration from the impact of transgenderism on the women’s movement, Elba Barnes has created a wonderfully rich, fully alive protagonist and surrounded her with a supporting cast of vividly realised characters.
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Threeways
Tim has lived in Threeways Mental Hospital for thirty odd years. And, as he will tell you, these are odd years.Threeways Mental Hospital, 1975. Tim Cavendish has spent most of his life within the nicotine-stained walls of the institution. With friends Mike and Sid, he endures the never-ending boredom and grinds out his days. It has been a long time since he thought about the possibility of leaving, until well-meaning nurse Ron comes along.Now, faced with the prospect of leaving his girlfriend, Millie, and abandoning his friends to the sadistic man in the hospital workshop, Tim has a decision to make, and something has to give...
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The Smallest Show on Earth
From the 60s through to the present day Patrick Church has worked in the cinema from Peterborough through to Bury St Edmunds. In The Smallest Show on Earth he takes us through that experience in an autobiography that draws the reader into the trials and joys of a being a projectionist screening blockbusters like ‘Jaws' and a curious period of Indian films where half the time is spent splicing the films back together.The role of projectionist was always a low paid, but with the advent of TV and bingo and other demands on people's time it also became a precarious one as the decades rolled by. Sometimes Patrick had to plead his case as cinemas changed hands from ABC, to Odeon and bingo conglomerates, just to keep his job going and the buildings in operation. The fact that he succeeded is testament to his love for cinema and this passion shines through in this engaging book.
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The Pleasure Cats of Nova Playa
The Pleasure Cats of Nova Playa is a story of sex, drugs, alcohol, violence and techno music. Set in the fictional sun soaked Mediterranean resort of Playa Nova where underground, under town, cats mirror the excesses of the sunseekers above. Into this bustling, vibrant underground city arrives the beautiful Napoleona, a charming and cunning cat with a past, but with her eyes fixed squarely on the future, and in particular the coming winter. In the summer the cats feast and party, but the cold desolate winter threatens to thin them out. She encounters new dangers, especially Count Luciano, the second in command to King Louie, gangsters with pretensions of nobility. The pursuit of power and pleasure seems to have no bounds in this subterranean city. How far will Napoleona go to ensure the party never ends?
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The Painting
Using a shoreline for the book’s landscape, The Painting is about re-emergence from a crisis of confidence. It uses the metaphor of a young water-skiing artist painting his life with his beliefs, inspired by a muse. All ages will enjoy identifying with the insight into peer connections and society, reflecting on the wrecked confidence that is pieced back together in reinventing ourselves. Younger readers will appreciate the colourful symbols littered throughout the story for the simple pleasure of reading unpredictable sentences assembled to meet needs not satisfied by daily conversation. This is entertainment sympathetic to the journey of self-healing. Every word has been carefully chosen for its sound, shape (and colour!) which can be interpreted in ways that are as individual as those reading it.
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The Foreseen
Jodie has finally managed to move on from her violent husband, Jack, and is forming new relationships and establishing her own business. With CJ, her son, she has a new home"”the whereabouts of which are unknown to Jack"”and the prospect of a normal life.Jack, however, feels differently. He is the victim and he wants Jodie back to play the part of the dutiful wife with her life centred around his needs and desires. He is prepared to go to any length to find her and get her back under his control.But not only is he frustrated by Barry, who was involved in getting Jodie away, he is also up against forces beyond his understanding. CJ's best friends, Thomas and Kelly"”killed in a hit and run incident"”are still not at peace. They establish contact with CJ and a medium, Mable, and are instrumental in trying to thwart Jack.
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The Final Fence: Sophomores In The Saddle
Fair Questions for a Feature Story Is a disability something that is subjective or is it objective? Is a diagnosis opinion or fact? The Final Fence: Sophomores in the Saddle authored by Marc O'Brien takes a creative and honest look into a life filled with support due to well meaning individuals that think before they speak. When Eddie Patrick meets up with Danielle Lynne on a college campus, a love of horses triggers a classroom discussion. When their professor - a large chestnut pony named The Great Satan - starts the lecture, the relationship skills make the grade, with the ribbon only being a decorative award. Using a backdrop of the elegant and classy world of the hunter jumper horse shows during the second Ronald Reagan presidential administration, the setting for this novel is a perfect way for the future generations to learn about respect.
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Starting To Shrink
Douglas Barker is a young doctor who starts work as a psychiatrist in Scotland in the 1980s. The job is fascinating, but he soon falls out with his grandiose consultant, Dr Burlington. A patient accuses Douglas of having sex with her, and backed by Dr Burlington, this complaint goes to the General Medical Council. He is called to a hearing in London, where his career hangs in the balance.
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Sex in the Shires
Journalist and single mum, Rebecca Pearce is clever, sexy and sharp and on the lookout for a man. But there’s a snag. Life in the shires is dullsville.com with no decent guys in sight. On offer is Charles Smythe-Bothum Wethem. He’s loaded, but a complete DUD – as in dull, ugly and desperate. Or Mervin Purvis. He’s an amorous, overweight “spam man” she meets on a blind date as a decoy for her married friend Delia who’s bedding his cousin, Toy Boy.“He’s got nice eyes,” says Delia.“Yes,” replies Rebecca, “for a walrus.”Life revs up when she goes speed dating and meets Tor, but there’s a hitch as she clocks her ex, Jake, drooling over her friend Konnie. Meanwhile, hunky Australian, Scott Henderson, walks into her office and invites her to cover a juicy scandal, arousing more than her journalistic instincts. Rebecca is set on a course to create emotional havoc and social upheaval as she tries to decide which man is ‘the one’ – or if she really needs a man at all.
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