The critically acclaimed novel from a master of contemporary American fiction€”now available as an ebook A loving satire of new parenthood and its attendant joys and blunders The Golds and the Hummels live in the same wealthy Manhattan neighborhood, but as both couples prepare for the arrival of their first child, they share little in terms of parenting philosophy. The Golds plunge into natural birth without bothering to first set up a nursery. The Hummels schedule a C-section and fill out hospital admissions paperwork weeks in advance. Both couples, however, are grappling with the transformations they know parenthood will immediately bring. Set in a milieu of material excess and limitless ambition, Only Children skewers new parents who expect perfect lives, but also offers an intimate look at the trials all new parents face as they learn how to nurture.

Anzia Yezierska's "Children of Loneliness" explores the complex experiences of Jewish immigrants in New York City. This literary work delves into the challenges of social alienation and the struggles inherent in cultural assimilation. Through compelling prose, Yezierska examines the conflicts that arise between generations as they navigate new identities in a rapidly changing world. A poignant portrayal of the immigrant experience, "Children of Loneliness" offers a powerful glimpse into the lives of those seeking a new home while grappling with the loss of their traditions. The novel masterfully portrays the universal themes of identity, belonging, and the search for connection in an unfamiliar land, ensuring its enduring relevance. This carefully prepared print republication makes this important historical fiction accessible to all. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Relates the friendship between a little girl whose legs are paralyzed and a young boy whose mother is a mermaid and whose father is a human.

When her parents separate, twelve-year-old Sarah Stein feels split into her mother's daughter and daddy's girl, but a disgraced firefighter who lives in a hidden room in the Brooklyn Bridge, and her grandmother's story of her own childhood, help Sarah find her true self.

Oskar, a survivor of the Holocaust, is a man of little faith. Despite his inability to find answers, he persists in asking questions that all human beings have a right to ask. He encounters diverse characters, such as Bella, a New York prostitute, mystic Martin Buber, and an anti-Semitic high school teacher on the Canadian prairies. Strong language.

"Mia wants a puppy more than anything, but her mom insists that they don't have room. So, Mia and her grandma invite some furry and feathered friends for a visit--Grandma's parrot, Mia's class bunny, a neighbor's cat, even the book club's pet pig. The apartment is overrun! But how will this yowling, squawking, snorting, snuffling chaos help Mia's cause? She plans to convince her mom that there's plenty of room for a pup--at least, once all the other animals are gone! This hilarious twist on the classic Yiddish folktale is a valuable reminder that there is always room for one more"--

Fearing at first that her family is going on vacation without her, Nini the cat ends up traveling with her owners to their new home.

If he always has the headache, why should you suffer? In the bestselling tradition of Bridget Jones's Diary comes this outrageous, hilarious look at love, marriage, and sex, introducing Anna Shapiro, who believes that surely there must be more to married life.... Tabloid reporter Anna Shapiro can pinpoint the day, three years ago, that she and her husband, Dan, last had great sex. Anna would be grateful if something as ordinary as a mere headache was her husband's excuse; Dan's hypochondriac terrors include brain tumors, tropical diseases, and spontaneous combustion. While she loves her husband, she's not ready to give up on sex at age thirty-seven--so what can she do? It's the perfect time for the distraction of a freelance assignment. But what her editor has in mind is a story on the explosive new feminist manifesto that prescribes no-strings-attached affairs for women. Anna's assignment is to interview three women who've had extramarital affairs purely for sexual pleasure--but she's inclined to take her research a bit further.... Can a woman have an uncomplicated affair purely for sexual pleasure--or do her emotions invariably interfere? Anna's determined to find out. And despite her worries about her middle-aged body, potential research assistants prove to be plentiful. Going where no journalist has gone before, Anna delves into a world she'd never considered until now. What is, after all, the perfect outfit for committing adultery in? Is it truly beyond the pale to pick up a man--no matter how sexy he is--at a funeral? And what can be done about that single horrifying gray hair? The answers are more hilarious than Anna could ever have predicted. But soon Anna finds herself facing the question that she never thought she'd have to answer: Is she willing to give up her marriage and her children for what may be the biggest gamble of her life? A novel for every woman who's ever wondered--and every woman who hasn't-- Neurotica will have you roaring with laughter as it takes you on a wickedly delightful journey of sheer indulgence.

When Thomas Barnardo arrived in East London in 1866, his plan was to train at the London Hospital before sailing to China to work as a missionary. The conditions he found in the East End stopped him in his tracks. The unemployment, poverty, overcrowding, drinking and disease were bad enough, but seeing thousands of half-starved children living on the streets broke his heart. By the time of his death he had helped 100,000 children and his work continues to this day. Doctor of the Lost is the fictionalised story of Dr Barnardo's early years in East London.

Jabone is the birth son of Tarius the Black and Arvon, but was raised by four parents. As the son of the Great Leader, he has had a sword in his hand since he was old enough to walk and has listened to his parents and their friends weave great tales of battle and conquest all his life. Across the sea in the land of the Jethrik, the Amalite populations of entire villages are disappearing. A secret group of Amalites are suspected, but no one knows how - or where - they take their prisoners. The Jethrikian king must deal with the problem, but his thoughts lie mostly with his daughter Kasiria. She is the only woman to apply to, and graduate from, the Sword Master's Academy since the rule forbidding women to fight was struck from the books. When Jabone and his friend - young Tarius and Ufalla, the children of Tarius's right hand man, and Jestia, the wayward magic-wielding daughter of the Queen of the Kartik - want to cross the ocean and join the Jethrikian forces to fight their parents' enemies, Tarius forbids it at first. Finally she relents and sends them with her blessings and the gift of her knowledge of the enemy. In a new land, the youths will find love and adventure, and they will learn loyalty, pain, loss, and the truth of battle.

Flappy returns in the fabulously fun follow-up to Flappy Entertains from bestselling author Santa Montefiore, and this time something is amiss in the village of Badley Compton . . . Binoculars at the ready, Flappy Scott-Booth is set to investigate. Newcomers have moved in, a young couple from London, delightful no doubt but they do need to know their place. Who better to teach them the ways of this close-knit community than Flappy herself? But Flappy has other distractions. An ardent admirer, a New Year's Ball to organize and manifold appearances to be kept up. How much time and effort it all takes! Add to the mix the sudden arrival of her son Jasper with his utterly charming persona and total lack of ambition and drive, accompanied by his pretentious wife and their two highly-strung children - and Flappy is on ultra-high alert. Endlessly entertaining and gorgeously gossipy, Flappy Investigates is the perfect escape. Praise for Flappy Entertains : 'Santa Montefiore is a born storyteller' Woman's Weekly 'A friendly, undemanding read in unfriendly, demanding times' Daily Mail 'A keeping up with the Joneses tale that will lift your spirits in no time' New! 'Another winner from the author who writes about relationships so astutely' Belfast Telegraph 'Packed with wickedly funny insights and throwaway lines and written with an extra-large helping of heart, this is the perfect escape for anyone in need of of a book hug!' Lancashire Post 'With its air of nostalgia, gentle humour and snobbery, this is a super but also surprising read' NFOP magazine

When the children take charge and make Iris their leader, wonderful changes take effect, such as trampoline sidewalks and raining marshmallows, but to be a good leader Iris may have to make her hardest decision yet.

Edenborn begins with a stark vision--a microbial apocalypse called Black Ep has wiped humanity from the globe, yet not all is lost. Six individuals have survived the epidemic and are now committed to the task of rebuilding a peaceful civilization. But not everyone shares the same vision, and soon two very different societies begin to form. As we follow a child from each 'family' someone - or something - begins to threaten their innocence. And as the mystery mounts, a mutated strain of Black Ep makes a deadly return. Now the architects who gave breath to this new world must scramble to protect their children from a two-front assault.

Product Description Three novellas set in the Negev Desert. Startling and original, Bornstein possesses a powerful, sometimes magical, voice. The heat of the Desert is captured in this collection of three novellas. An escaped murderer holds a young woman hostage in HOUSE OF BONDAGE. In THE MAESTRO OF YERUCHAM, a Russian violinist who has survived the Nazis and the Soviet regimes finds a young girl he believes to be the heir to his talents. And in SAND DEVIL, the adolescent son of a fundamentalist family discovers the terrifying secrets of the desert Review "...the desert is an unremitting presence, imprisoning the main characters, but also providing a means for their redemption." -- The Jerusalem Post About the Author MICHAEL BORNSTEIN lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children. He served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and as advisor to the Israel delegation to the UN and to the government of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. An historian with degrees from Princeton and Columbia, he has written extensively on the Middle East. He is also the author of several works of fiction and screenplays.

Unfolding in the heady world of the glittering Restoration court, A Want of Kindness follows an expendable princess on her unlikely progress to becoming queen, through the religion, politics, disease, deceit, and treachery of the time. The wicked, bawdy Restoration court is no place for a child princess. Ten-year-old Anne cuts an odd figure: a sickly child, she is drawn towards improper pursuits. Cards, sweetmeats, scandal, and gossip with her Ladies of the Bedchamber figure large in her life. But as King Charles' niece, Anne is also a political pawn, who will be forced to play her part in the troubled Stuart dynasty. Transformed from overlooked princess to the heiress of England, she will be forced to overcome grief for her lost children, the political maneuverings of her sister and her closest friends, and her own betrayal of her father, before the fullness of her destiny is revealed. In A Want of Kindness, Limburg has created a richly realized time and world, and in Anne, a complex and all-too-human protagonist.

"Mild and sensitive Richard Hieck endured a quietly difficult childhood in Germany. Raised in humble circumstances, Richard was profoundly influenced by his withdrawn mother and by his father, an enigma whose devotion centered not on his five children but on his mysterious career. From his father, Richard inherited an interest in the night sky, learning to love the constellations and to take comfort in the strength of Orion and the warm radiance of Venus. Richard's shadowy, elusive father also influenced him to pursue studies in mathematics, a field offering Richard the discipline he had craved as a child." "Published in 1933, The Unknown Quantity is Hermann Broch's study of the underlying chaos - and, finally, the impossibility - of life within a society whose values are in decay. As Richard seeks to reconcile the conflicting demands of love and science, of passion and reason, societal and family values begin to undermine him and those in orbit around him." --Book Jacket.

Ted and Maisie's parents moved to the community of Blackberry Mountain in upstate New York full of hope for the future; they would live a wholesome life rooted in the natural world, free from social constraints and the ugly urban climate of the early seventies. But all this changes when Maisie, age fifteen, stands poised at the top of a waterfall on the 4th of July and looks down over her family and friends before plunging headfirst into the shallow pool, doing herself injuries that will mark them all forever. "The sins of parents are visited on their children in this superb new novel. . . a stinging social and cultural portrait of a time, a place and a generation whose highflown ideals masked a weak moral fiber.. . . While he is writing about the death of dreams, he provides a satisfying ending that is a healthy antidote to much current fiction in which cynicism triumphs over faith and moral turpitude over justice."

Cybill Berenson, mother of three, newly divorced at age 42, is sure the most passionate years of her life are behind her. Then she meets Mel, a sexual shaman who takes her to new heights-and new depths. After their liaison ends, she feels a new openness to pleasure, and she sees that the conventional life is not for her. She falls in love with Quinn, a much younger man; she travels to the Burning Man festival on her own; she edits a book called Adultery Now (which outrages her children); she takes lovers while in her fifties and sixties. Cybill never stops seeking the thrill of deep connection to another human being. When a lover calls her his soul-mate, Cybill realizes "it was for moments like this, and not sex, that she had love affairs." John Updike described Hiller's story collection, Skin, as "Good, brave and joyful fiction." The same can be said about Cybill Unbound-a novel like Fear of Flying for those over forty. "Uh-oh! Cybill's witty rationalizations for her bold adventures are seeming all too rational to me." -Kathleen Rockwell Lawrence, author of The Last Room in Manhattan

Erast Fandorin, our erstwhile gentleman sleuth and hero has gone off to serve in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) so as to forget his personal sorrows. Captured by the Turks, Fandorin wins his freedom by beating his captor at backgammon. He then encounters a naive, young "progressive" Russian woman trying to join her "husband" at the Russian headquarters. It's here where the action really takes off. Fandorin is requested to investigate certain devious goings-on, and he eventually exposes a well-known French journalist as a Turkish agent (who was one of the children raised by Lady Astair's establishments in The Winter Queen). The new Fandorin thriller is another compelling page-turner from Boris Akunin.

Shock number one for Dinah is that she is actually dating Geoff, star quarterback and all-around great guy. Shock number two is that her usually supportive family objects and that Geoff does not understand why. Why must difficult choices always come with wanting to have fun?