A New York story, a dark comedy, Balls: A Novel tells of the 30-year-old Henry Schiller, a songwriter and lounge-player, in love with a woman far younger and more musically gifted than himself, one with her eye on other men and the rise of her own career, whose crisis deepens when he discovers he has testicular cancer.

Comedy / 2m, 4f, 1f child / 2 Ints. An acerbic comedy by the famed cartoonist and author of KNOCK KNOCK and LITTLE MURDERS. It's about a middle-aged journalist who has, at last, grown up - only to find he's trapped in a world of emotional infants. "A laceratingly funny play about the strangest of human syndromes - the love that kills rather than comforts. Feiffer's vision seems merciless, but its mercy is the fierce comic clarity with which he exposes every conceivable permutation of smooth-ton

Her mother makes love to strangers and chooses the worst kind of friends. Her classmates talk of going to college, but Madeleine, with a scholarship waiting at an Ivy League school, knows that escape is unlikely. For Maddy's life revolves around one thing: her jealous, raging, promiscuous mother. And now that Maddy has a lover of her own, now that her mother's delusion-filled, grudge-filled, lover-filled life is crashing down around them, now that Maddy knows leaving would be the deadliest blow of all, there is only one way out: through a terrifying, disastrous moment that will change everything forever.... In her explosive novel Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Judith Rossner issued a chilling wake-up call to a generation intoxicated by sexual freedom. Now the New York Times bestselling author explores another fatal love: in this unforgettable novel of mother-daughter love gone torturously, tragically wrong.

Love of Venice can strike anyone, not just romantic wusses. Among the toughies with serious cases were Lord Byron, Richard Wagner, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway. Symptoms include: Wishing that the movie stars in films set in Venice would move aside so that you can get a better view of the scenery. Wondering why people ask if you had good weather when you were thereas if rain could dampen your love. Thinking that people who go to Tuscany or Provence must be nuts. Believing that the Per San Marco street sign with arrows pointing in opposite directions makes perfect sense. Consoling yourself when you leave by remembering the generations of Venetian merchants who, as they were borne away from Venice, vowed to be back as soon as they had more money. There is no cure for this affliction. This is a guide to managing it

Lovers is pure Krantz, an intoxicating dance of love lost, stolen, and found among women and men who lure each other with potent combinations of money, talent, ambition, and passion. Chief among them is irresistible Gigi Orsini, the high-spirited, merry, adventurous creature who grew up into enchanting womanhood in Scruples Two . Now Gigi is working as a copywriter in a new Los Angeles advertising agency, with her creative "teammate," David Melville, a brilliant young art director who joins her in seeking new accounts. The agency is headed by dashing Archie Rourke, humorous Byron Bernheim and the severely difficult beauty, Victoria Frost, daughter of the famed Millicent Frost Caldwell who, with her husband Angus Caldwell, owns one of New York's largest advertising agencies. Ben Winthrop, a proper Bostonian and an enormously successful mall builder, attempts to capture Gigi's quicksilver affections, although his fierce contenders for the same prize include both David Melville and the dominating film director, Zach Nevsky. Meanwhile, Billy Winthrop Ikehorn Orsini Elliott, the unforgettably impulsive heroine of Scruples , and her new husband, the great charmer, Spider Elliott, are busy with their own fascinating lives, as are Gigi's father, canny film producer Vito Orsini, and her best friend, the ravishing Sasha Nevsky, none of whom can be forgotten from Scruples and Scruples Two . Lovers completes all the stories set in motion in the first two novels, yet it stands entirely on its own as a slice of life in the exciting years of 1983 and 1984.

Finally, here's how to do all those showy tricks and flourishes that card players are dying to know: how to send a deck cascading from one hand to the other. How to snap open two flawless fans. How to cut a deck with one hand. Choose four aces seemingly at random. Flick a card accurately across the room. The clearest, easiest-to-follow book of step-by-step directions, The Amazing Book of Cards will show anyone how to do 52 amazing things with a deck of cards. Written by Joshua Jay, the award-winning close-up magician and card-obsessed author of Magic: The Complete Course , The Amazing Book of Cards combines friendly, concise text and full-color photos with a full-length DVD that teaches the lessons and shows the subtleties of performance. Here are simple, killer tricks, like "Presto Prediction," which performs the impossible task of knowing someone's choice before she even makes it. Nine different shuffles, including the Faro Shuffle, the one most often used by pros, which helps you perfectly weave a split deck together in seconds. How to perform fans, flips, and flourishes, including Ribbon Spread & Flip and Catch-a-Deck. Tricks you can't loseÑgo ahead, take the bet to throw a card in a hat. How to memorize a deck in less than ten seconds, how to put a deck of cards into a glass bottle, build a card castle, and more. Filling out this labor of love is a whole world of card trivia, including the origins of Kings: King of Spades is modeled after King David, the King of Diamonds is Julius Caesar, Hearts is Charlemagne, and Clubs, Alexander the Great.

About the Book First published in this country in 1937, and long unavailable English, Confession of a Murderer is a subtle, profoundly moral masterpiece by one of the greatest European novelists of the century, and a terrifying insight into the insidious, corrupting powers of jealousy, ambition and unrequited love. An exile in Paris since the Revolution, the narrator tells of how he grew up, the son of a forester, in the knowledge that his real father was the dissolute, powerful Prince Krapothin; of his futile, begging visit to the Prince in his enormous white place by the sea near Odessa, and his obsessive hatred for Kropotkin's legitimate son; of his wretched, destructive passion for Lutetia, the heartless Paris mannequin; of his enrolment in the Ochrana, the Tsar's dreaded secret police, and the betrayal of the innocent in the cause of his twin obsessions; of the devilish, ubiquitous Jeno Lakatos-dandified, limping, reeking of violets, the emissary from Hell who leads him into the realms of the eternally lost. Vivid, compelling, combining a detailed evocation of prerevolutionary Russia with the moral truths of a parable, Confession of a Murderer is a supreme embodiment of Joseph Roth's belief that' aman's private life, simple humanity, is more important, greater, more tragic, than all the public affairs in the world.' About the Author Joseph Roth (1894-1939) was brought up on the eastern frontiers of the Austro-hungarian Empiere; he spent time in Russia during the First World Was and later as a journalist. He left Germany in 1933 and settled in France, where he became a central figure in the intellectual opposition to the Nazis. His novels include Job: The story of a Simple Man and The Emperor's Tomb and The Radetzky March.

"Zoltan Beck is dying. His devoted but long-suffering sons, Ben and Frank, are trying to prepare themselves and their families for Zoltan's eventual departure...but they can't quite bring themselves to believe that the end is really at hand, and neither can Zoltan himself. The head of a family marked by war and tragedy for decades, he "can't stand to be in a room with a miserable person" and has done his best to keep the pain of his refugee past from his beloved children. But as he faces the end of his life, he discovers a heartbreaking secret from the War that will ultimately bring the family together - or irrevocably disrupt it. Set in both mid-20th century Hungary and contemporary Toronto, this is a deeply moving novel that revels in the energy of its extraordinary characters. It is the story of lost love and newfound connections, of a father and his sons desperately reaching out to bridge an ever-widening gap...even as their time together ebbs away."--Provided by publisher.

This book describes a search for God and for values which is both personal and traditional. It is a quest set within the ancient Jewish disciplines of Thorah, the service of God and acts of faithful love, upon which Simon the Just taught over two thousand years ago that the world stands, and which, to this day, define the life of the Jew. The questions and attempted responses here relate to issues with which the author has lived all the more seriously since he became a rabbi and has had the privilege of listening to others at some of the most important moments in their lives. Here is a book for practising Jews; for Jews who for one reason or another have ceased to practice but cannot forget their Jewishness; and for those of other faihs, whose questions are so often those which are discussed so movingly here. Jonathan Wittenberg is Rabbi of The North London Synagogue.

A profoundly unsettling collection of tales of Americans caught up in the ethnic, religious, social, economic, and political conflicts of modern day Israel, by an astonishing new voice. In a land where sudden death is an everyday fact of life, a boy dodges bullets and searches through rubble for news of his soldier father. An aging rabbi?s faith is tested by a crippling, seemingly supernatural affliction. A middle-aged man comforts his Holocaust-survivor mother as she faces senility, convinced that Nazis are conspiring against her. And the mysterious biblical red heifer makes a startling appearance in the midst of a decidedly contemporary struggle. In these unsettling tales, the remarkable Jon Papernick transports us to modern-day Israel, a country torn by war, strife, and controversy throughout the history of its statehood. Giving voice to striking characters--Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans; Arabs, Christians, and Jews--caught in the ethnic, religious, social, and political conflicts of a dangerous region, Papernick brings the images we glimpse from afar, in newspapers and on television, chillingly to life. By turns starkly realistic and allegorically fantastic, these tales chronicle the conflict from the inside and illuminate the suffering and anger experienced by those on all sides. In?An Unwelcome Guest,? a young Jewish settler from New York plays a deadly game of backgammon with a ghostly old Arab while his pregnant wife sleeps unaware. In?The King of the King of Falafel,? a restaurant rivalry ends in apocalyptic violence. In "Lucky Eighteen," two young Americans living in Jerusalem as the Oslo accords collapse juggle political activism and a devastating love triangle--under the dark specter of suicide bombings. And in the brilliant, horrifying title story, a lonely shepherd wanders a broken no-man's-land, carrying with him the burden of an unspeakable act. In these haunting and strangely beautiful stories, the tragic carnage of the Middle East is rendered in unforgettable form. Suffused with rage, violence, humor, magic, and religion, this gripping collection leaves a profound impact. Evenhanded yet passionate, shocking yet hopeful, The Ascent of Eli Israelheralds the arrival of a masterful storyteller. Please visit.

Written by Jonathan Ames Art and cover by Dean Haspiel "Hysterically funny and gut-wrenchingly dramatic...graphic lit at it's best." - WIZARD MAGAZINE "Painfully honest, shockingly revealing and totally riveting." - Blair Butler, G4TV "An engaging graphic novel . . . Unflinching . . . Powerful." - THE NEW YORK TIMES "Tender, funny and heartbreaking." - PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Jonathan A. is a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic and, of course, entirely fictional novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life writer Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man and What's Not to Love? For the fictional Jonathan, writing and drinking come easy. The hard parts of life are love and hope. From a touching relationship between Jonathan and his aging great aunt, to an inebriated evening with an amorous, octogenarian dwarf, Ames's first original graphic novel, with gritty, poignant art by Dean Haspiel (THE QUITTER), tells a story about how our lives fall to pieces and the enduring human struggle to put things back together again. Advance-solicited; on sale September 16 - 136 pg, 6.875" x 9", B&W, $14.99 US - MATURE READERS

From Jon Sopel, bestselling author and presenter of hit podcast The News Agents , comes an incisive examination of post-Brexit Britain and what it means for our future. 'I like and trust Jon Sopel and you should too' JOE LYCETT 'A thrilling, nerve-wracking book. You couldn't make the last ten years up; thanks to Jon Sopel, you don't have to' PETER FRANKOPAN 'A hugely entertaining and quite traumatic rollercoaster' ARMANDO IANNUCCI 'Acute and unflinching - Sopel deploys his foreign correspondent skills on home shores as well as far ones, and brings together the story of a tumultuous few years on both sides of the Atlantic' MISHAL HUSAIN Returning to the UK in some ways has been disconcerting - or maybe discombobulating would be a better word. It is, after all, my home; it is where I grew up, a country I love and am proud of. But either it' s changed, or I have. Maybe both. It just feels like a strange land. After eight years of political reporting in the US, Jon Sopel returned home to the UK to find a very different place than the one he left. In his first book since launching the global hit podcast The News Agents , Jon explores what has happened to the country he once knew. Either Britain has changed dramatically, or he has. Perhaps it' s both. As a second Trump administration begins, and a new chapter of American history exerts its influence over our own isle, Strangeland paints an unforgettable portrait of a country gone through the looking glass.

Here are heartfelt writings from some renowned names in lesbian and gay literature, as well as some debut appearances. These essays explore a kind of love uncomplicated by romance, but surprisingly sensual. As the writers pursue their relationships with the oposite sex, they ultimately lay bare the nature of friendship itself.

Never Going Home is a wake-up tale of passionate love, intrigue, despair, and tragedy. The players in Never Going Home are alone. They find their way to one another and create a family of super-intellects. Betty, a wise eighty-five-year-old retired librarian, leads the family. Other accomplished family members include Harold, a lawyer; Bailey, a widow and mother with an MSF degree in finance; Will, a sociologist; Bob, a bank president; Gloria, with an MBA degree; and Lenny, a Vietnam veteran who studied psychotherapy to understand his PTSD in which he relives his combat experiences. Ruby, a Las Vegas showgirl, and voted best of Vegas five years running, hearing of Lenny's thesis in psychotherapy, surmises Lenny could be the key to unlocking her very private dysfunction. Betty reveals the enormous wealth Harold and she accumulated investing in the military-industrial complex off a tip from an aircraft-manufacturing lobbyist Harold defended in court prior to the Vietnam War. They made millions as crony capitalists. There seems to be no challenge the family can't rise to. Author Jerry Lewis exposes through his "can-do" characters a wide variety of issues facing Americans today: war, deplorable treatment of veterans, religious intolerance, racial issues, corruption and deception, cultural evolution, mismatch disease, health-care hoaxes, diet, and exercise. This book will earn a front-and-center position on your bookshelf.

"In Bitter Bronx, one of our most gifted and original novelists depicts a world before and after modern urban renewal destroyed the gritty sanctity of a land made famous by Ruth, Gehrig, and Joltin' Joe. Bitter Bronx is suffused with the texture and nostalgia of a lost time and place, combining a keen eye for detail with Jerome Charyn's lived experience. These stories are informed by a childhood growing up near that middle-class mecca, the Grand Concourse; falling in love with three voluptuous librarians at a public library in the Lower Depths of the South Bronx; and eating at Mafia-owned restaurants along Arthur Avenue's restaurant row, amid a "land of deprivation…where fathers trundled home…with a monumental sadness on their shoulders." In "Lorelei," a lonely hearts grifter returns home and finds his childhood sweetheart still living in the same apartment house on the Concourse; in "Archy and Mehitabel" a high school romance blossoms around a newspaper comic strip; in "Major Leaguer" a former New York Yankee confronts both a gang of drug dealers and the wreckage that Robert Moses wrought in his old neighborhood; and in three interconnected stories―"Silk & Silk," "Little Sister," and "Marla"―Marla Silk, a successful Manhattan attorney, discovers her father's past in the Bronx and a mysterious younger sister who was hidden from her, kept in a fancy rest home near the Botanical Garden. In these stories and others, the past and present tumble together in Charyn's singular and distinctly "New York prose, street-smart, sly, and full of lurches" (John Leonard, New York Times)".--Dust jacket.

"As intriguing and impressive a novelist as she is a musician, Hval is a master of quiet horror and wonder.” —Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick A lyrical debut novel from a musician and artist renowned for her sharp sexual and political imagery Jo is in a strange new country for university and having a more peculiar time than most. In a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no boundaries, she finds her strange home coming to life in unimaginable ways. Jo’s sensitivity and all her senses become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh. This debut novel from critically acclaimed artist and musician Jenny Hval presents a heady and hyper-sensual portrayal of sexual awakening and queer desire.

What if God fell in love and the person was already married? A bitter story of the very first love triangle between a man, his wife, and their God First came Adam, whose fall soured His quest for absolute authority, then Noah, whose dreary sense of duty He found dull. God resolves for a third and final time to get it right, to select a vessel through whom He can direct human affairs, and to whom He can communicate directly His will. He chooses a solitary figure whose trust must be wooed, but whose faith, once secured, will surely reflect even greater glory and love. Were matters only that simple. In Only Human , Jenny Diski's brilliant and affecting retelling of the Abraham and Sarah story, God learns that no man, chosen or not, is solitary, and that the bonds forged by the human heart are resilient even to divine commandment. Diski transforms an archetypal tale of Old Testament obedience into a fierce love triangle, a test of wills over not only mankind's future, but over who will tell the story of its past.

It was 1994: post-Liz Phair, mid-Courtney Love, just shy of Alanis Morissette. After seven years of slogging it out in the Boston music scene, Jen Trynin took a hard look at herself and gave "making it" one last shot. It worked. Suddenly Trynin became the spark that set off one of the most heated bidding wars of the year. Major labels vied for her, to the tune of millions of dollars in deals. Lawyers, managers, and booking agents clamored for her attention. Billboard put her on the cover. Everyone knew she was the Next Big Thing. But then she wasn't. In a series of dizzying, hilarious, heartbreaking snapshots, Trynin captures what it's like to be catapulted to the edge of rock stardom, only to plummet back down to earth. Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be is the story of a girl who got what she wished for--and lived happily ever after anyway.

"Shut Up, I'm Talking! chronicles the life and career of actor and comedian Jason Stuart. It's the funny, poignant story of a gay Jewish boy whose life changed after seeing Funny Girl at a second-run movie theatre in Hollywood. "I thought to myself, I'm in love with Omar Sharif - who am I left to be but Barbra Streisand! And I'm a guy... Oy!" It's about surviving a crazy family who survived the Holocaust and clearing up the wreckage of one's past while learning how to become a man. Jason has appeared in over 200 films and TV shows and has had a long and varied career, from my coming out in 1993 on the Geraldo Rivera Show to having a major supporting role in the historical drama The Birth of a Nation playing "Joseph Randall" a white, heterosexual, Christian, slave owner in 1891 while being a gay liberal Jew! As a comedian he has headlined at all the major comedy clubs, appeared twice at prestigious Just for Laughs comedy festivals and did stand-up on Broadway with Joan Rivers and Sandra Bernhard. He was featured in Comedy Central's groundbreaking special Out There, and his own stand-up comedy special Making It to the Middle. Jason has acted with George Clooney, Faye Dunaway, Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, John Lithgow, Laurie Metcalf, Alexandra Paul, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marisa Tomei, Jon Voight, Damon Wayans and they are all in the book! His movies include Kindergarten Cop, Lost & Found, Vegas Vacation, Love Is Strange, Tangerine and on some of the most popular TV shows, Love, Sleepy Hollow, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Will & Grace, The Closer, George Lopez, House, Charmed, My Wife & Kids, The Drew Carey Show and Murder, She Wrote. Jason lives alone in Hollywood, takes care of his mom and is still looking for Mr. Right. He wrote the book with Dan Duffy, a filmmaker and author of The Half Book."--

To see through the eyes of essayist and dramaturge Jan Kott is to gain in knowledge not just of the theater but also of human culture. Since his Shakespeare Our Contemporary appeared in English in 1964, Kott's work has altered--and strengthened--the way critics and the public approach the theater as a whole. The Memory of the Body highlights a number of dramatic personalities and personages: authors and directors Witkiewicz, Brecht, Kantor, Grotoswki, Ingmar Bergman, Wedekind; Tilly Newes on the stage in turn-of-the-century Vienna; the all-too-mortal, two-thirds divine Gilgamesh; and a shaman in rural Korea. In a style flecked with passion, poignancy, and wit, Kott moves beyond a mere discussion of theater to speak of eroticism, painting, love, and death. -- Publisher description.