What if the school bully stole your lunch everyday? How would you feel and what would you do about it? How far would you go to get rid of him for good? Zach and Sam face this dilemma everyday. Zach reads his sisters diary and discovers her secret, the reason why her life seems so perfect. A magical tree stump that grants wishes can fix all their problems. But be careful what you wish for.“These days, we do not lack information about other societies and countries” writes Eva Hoffman, in her introduction to this illuminating collection of essays. But why, we must ask, does this unprececedented level of knowledge not translate into greater understanding?Spurning the sound byte, glossy guide or shallow schematic, an international group of thinkers and writers set out on a much more vital journey leading us through the Innner Lives of Cultures. In these 10 revealing essays about Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Romania, Russia and Uzbekistan, we enter, through empathy and imagination ‘into the subjective life of another culture – its symbolic codes, its overt beliefs and implicit assumptions’. Often, they suggest, it is the experience of emmigration or displacment which is the key: it reveals most sharply to us not only how culture shapes our human enviroment but also the inner landscapes of the self which perceives it. In an opening essay, ‘Barbarism, Civilisation, Cultures’, Tzvetan Todorov, argues forcefully that without this much-prized knowledge of what ‘culture’ is, we may increasingly fail to become what he calls “a civilised person: one who is able, at all times and in all places, to recognise the humanity of others fully”. This is an urgent and indispensible book for our world now.

All she wanted was a vacation. All she wanted was time away form the limelight. All she wanted was to sit on a beach, disappear and get herself back together. She never expected to fall in love. She certainly didn’t expect it to happen with someone who didn’t know who she was. Because, she was famous.Maybe you’re lucky the quiet girl’s keeping quietThe ‘quiet girl’.The ‘serious girl’.The ‘Oh just ignore her’ girl.There’s always one girl in class like that, isn’t there?Maybe it’s you.Maybe it’s someone else.Maybe you’re glad it’s not you.But maybe, just maybe, the quiet girl’s quiet for a reason.See, she’s got a secret.She sees all your secrets.

After a stalker breaks into her home, internet entrepreneur Bee Langston decides Kelly Connolly is the only man who can help her—but seeking help from the former Marine isn’t easy, especially after she made a spectacular fool of herself trying to kiss the sinfully sexy bodyguard. When Kelly spots Bee weaving her way through the Houston nightspot where he’s working security, all those feelings he’s desperately tried to deny for his best friend’s sister come flooding to the surface. He’ll do anything to keep her safe, even if means getting up close and personal with the one woman he simply can’t have. Soon, Bee’s stalker isn’t his only problem. His gambling addict father is tangled in a mess of debts to two of Houston’s toughest loan sharks. With the family gym on the line, there’s only one way for Kelly to make everything right. He agrees to fight for the Albanian mob in an underground bare-knuckle fighting tournament. But winning the tournament and saving his family’s legacy comes at a high price—one that just might cost Bee her life.

Are small white lies acceptable? When Denise tells one, her master is ready with a passion filled punishment. Enjoy this sizzling sequel to Bound by Desire. This 1500 word short story contains a *BONUS* free first chapter read of Bound by Desire, the exciting prequel to Sex, Lies, and Videotape.Are small white lies acceptable? When Denise tells one, her master is ready with a passion filled punishment. Enjoy this sizzling sequel to Bound by Desire. This 1500 word short story contains a *BONUS* free first chapter read of Bound by Desire, the exciting prequel to Sex, Lies, and Videotape.

When pawn broker Abby Kirkwood discovers the evidence of a chilling drug cartel hit on one of the video cameras hocked in her store, she turns to the only man she can trust—Jack Connolly. The smolderingly sexy former Marine runs a successful gym down the street and coaches her brother's special needs baseball team. He's the one man who is always there when she needs him. If anyone can protect her family, it's commanding, capable Jack. The moment he learns someone is threatening Abby and her brother, Jack sees red. To save the woman he's secretly loved for years, he'll do whatever it takes, even if it means facing off with a Mexican drug cartel and making deals with the same Albanian mob outfit that tried to ruin his family. He finally has sweet, feisty Abby right where she was always meant to be—writhing with pleasure in his bed and safely sheltered in his arms. The vicious cartel assassin hot on her heels has no idea what he's up against. The Connolly brothers are standing strong together—and no one touches their family.

One cold, sleeting day in the middle of winter, Benny, stumbles upon a secret door, to a secret room, in the basement of his Great Uncle Crispin’s house, in Bayswater, London. But this is just the beginning.This is a selection of OMR - One Minute Reads. Each week when I attended Pomona Writers Group 2012 the facilitator gave us homework to write no more than five hundred words on the title he chose.Hope you indeed enjoy reading these OMR - One Minute Reads as I have had in writing and publishing them.

New York Times bestselling author Zane presents a tantalizing short story collection, which is now the basis of the Cinemax series Zane's Sex Chronicles, calls for a sexual revolution and brings forth our favorite characters—Patience James, Maricruz, Lyric, Eboni, and Ana Marie—as they balance common day-to-day issues, a slew of hot sex, and the fine men in the big city. Anyone who thinks that men are by nature more sexual than women or that African American women are especially inhibited hasn't read Zane. Here, she presents an erotic read in three parts: Wild, Wilder, and Off Da Damn Hook. With a unique ability to tell it like it is—and also to tell it like it could be in your wildest dreams—Zane crafts stories about everyone from the sensual housewife who wants her husband to experiment more to a secret underground sorority of women that organizes some rather unconventional social events. By turns tender and...

KARIN Theo Valentine is a cruel heartbreaker. A manipulative psychopath. As beautiful as a fallen angel and the most damaged man I’ve ever met. He came into my life ten years ago like a whirlwind, taking over my town and my high school. I couldn’t resist. I tried to fix him. In return, he broke me and destroyed my life. Now our past has caught up to us, throwing us together again. Theo is more twisted than ever, but this time, I’m ready for him. This time, I’m unbreakable. THEO Ten years ago, she turned my life upside down. She came close to me and made me feel for the first time. So I took everything from her. Karin Beckett will stay away from me this time if she wants her heart intact. But she won’t. She has always been drawn to broken things, and she will try to save me once more. If only she knows how fucked up I am now. I’m too far gone, too sick in the head for saving. All I’ll do is break her again. Broken is a complete standalone novel in the New York Heirs Series *Contains explicit intimate scenes and profanity.