"In the vertiginous era of Trump and Marine le Pen, liberalism's status is challenged. There is a widespread fear that liberal values, long taken for granted, are now in danger -- not only from authoritarian countries abroad, but also from a loss of faith inside the liberal world. What happened? Why did liberalism lose the majority support it once enjoyed? And what is so precious about liberalism in the first place? In What Was Liberalism?, award-winning journalist and author James Traub tackles these questions by examining the history of liberalism, from the American and French revolutions through the writings of John Stuart Mill and early-twentieth-century American progressives to liberalism's midcentury triumph in the West, its shaky present, and its uncertain future. Liberalism, Traub shows, began with a commitment to individual liberty, but it didn't end there. Over time, liberals sought to balance freedom of speech and action with goods like justice and equality, opposing both economic exploitation and totalitarianism. Partly as a result, the relationship between liberalism and democracy also evolved. Many nineteenth-century liberals were deeply worried about the democracy's illiberal effects, but by the middle of the twentieth century, liberalism had become the consensus faith of a wide swath of Americans and Europeans, both left and right. Yet even as the liberal West emerged victorious from the Cold War, liberalism's broad majoritarian foundations were crumbling, falling prey to accelerating economic inequality and the vexing challenges of race and immigration. Traub explores how illiberalism burned out of sight like an underground fire, and how it exploded into view in Europe and the United States in recent decades"--

"The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine has become a landmark in the history of Chinese civilization. In recent years, traditional medical practice has seen a dynamic revival in China and throughout many countries in the Western world. Elements of this time-honored therapy, including acupuncture and the effort to create harmony of human spirit and the natural world, have become part of mainstream medical practice; The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine provides the historical and philosophical foundations of this practice. Ilza Veith provides an extensive introduction to her monumental translation of this classic work, which is written in the form of a dialogue in which the emperor seeks information from his minister Ch'I-Po on all questions of health and the art of healing. A new foreword by Linda L Barnes places the translation in its historic contexts, underlining its significance to the Western world's understanding of Chinese medicine."--Publisher's description.

A family history of surpassing beauty and power: Ian Buruma's account of his grandparents' enduring love through the terror and separation of two world wars. Woven from their correspondence, this labor of love brings to life not just a remarkable marriage, but a class, and an age.

One of the most important original documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to be published on the 50th anniversary of the event. The never before published diary of Edward Jay Epstein's investigation into the assassination reveals startling new details. Epstein, one of America's most acclaimed investigative journalists and widely acknowledged as the premier expert on the assassination, while still an undergraduate at Cornell, interviewed the members of the Warren Commission and its staff of investigators, and obtained their key files. He was the only journalist, ever, to have gained this access. His full findings are disclosed here for the first time. In his investigation, Epstein also interviewed the top officials of the CIA, including at length the legendary chief of counter-intelligence James Jesus Angleton. He was the only journalist to interview Yuri Nosenko, the KGB officer who claimed to be Oswald's KGB case officer. Jim Garrison, the New Orleans district attorney, who attempted to reopen the case, confided his methods and sources in Epstein. Epstein was, moreover, the last person to see George De Mohrenschildt, Oswald's mysterious White Russian friend, who he interviewed for hours until the moment when he took his secrets with him in death. The JFK Assassination Diary is the true story at last of the incredible answers Epstein unearthed in pursuit of the greatest crime of the 20th century. Praise for Edward Jay Epstein "A grand figure of modern journalism...Show Epstein a juicy crime and he will show you how it has been subverted by unseen powers for their own agenda, by the inevitable incompetence of investigative authorities and by the media because it likes a simple story line." -Michael Wolff, USA Today "Epstein believes that conspiracies are more common than most journalists credit; for much of his career, he has reveled in the kind of tantalizing clues that could lead somewhere, or nowhere." -Joe Nocera, The New York Times "Epstein is a bulldog researcher." -Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post "A brilliant investigator." - Lou Dobbs Praise For Agency of Fear "Epstein tells all." -John Leonard, New York Times " Part detective story, part farce, part exposé, and part textbook on investigative reporting. It is ingenious, perverse, hilarious, and shocking." -Victor Navasky "Exciting research, impressive thesis." -Norman Mailer Praise For Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald A fascinating, alarming, and enormously significant book on the mystery of Lee Harvey Oswald-- The New York Times Book Review ABOUT THE AUTHOR Edward Jay Epstein is the author of fifteen books. He studied government at Cornell and Harvard and received a Ph.D from Harvard in 1973. His thesis on the search for political truth became a best-selling book, Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth. His doctoral dissertation on television news was published as News From Nowhere. He is the recipient of numerous foundation grants and awards, including the prestigious Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award for both best biography and best business book for Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer. He has written for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.

Investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein defines the seldom seen universe of intelligence and counterintelligence.Set in the era of the Cold War, it explores the ultimate art of nations: Winning without fighting, or, in a single word, deception. It concerns, as James Jesus Angleton described it to the author, " a state of mind -and the mind of the state." With a new Preface (2014)Praise For Edward Jay Epstein"Epstein delves deep into the wheels-within-wheels of superpower intelligence and counterintelligence, showing ways in which the CIA and the KGB have been "provoked, seduced, lured into false trails, blinded, and turned into unwitting agents." Readers will find new information here on a multitude of subjects: programs involving CIA-written books published under defectors' names; the story of Yuri Nosenko, a KGB officer who defected in 1963 and was "at the heart of everything that happened at the CIA for a decade"; and the theories of James Angleton, the former CIA chief of counterintelligence, on the hidden motives of KGB super-mole Kim Philby. The book concludes with an ominously plausible argument that Gorbachev's glasnost is merely the sixth phase in a grand strategy of Soviet deception conceived soon after the Bolshevik Revolution. Highly recommended."---Publishers Weekly"Epstein's account of the world of intelligence is fascinating, instructive, and, in parts, sensational."-Irving Kristol American Enterprise Institute"This is an important book that reflects an epoch in United States counterintelligence operations and philosophy."-William R. Harris The RAND Corporation"A brilliant investigator examines the fascinating history of glasnost and the unseen motives and machinery of the Soviet state."-Lou Dobbs, CNN

A tragic family history told in a collection of imaginary letters to a famed collector, Moïse de Camondo. 63 rue de Monceau, Paris Dear friend, As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well. Count Moïse de Camondo lived a few doors away from Edmund de Waal’s forebears, the Ephrussi, first encountered in his bestselling memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes . Like the Ephrussi, the Camondos were part of belle epoque high society. They were also targets of antisemitism. Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with the greatest private collection of French eighteenth-century art for his son, Nissim, to inherit. But when Nissim was killed in the First World War, it became a memorial and, upon the Count’s death, was bequeathed to France. The Musée Nissim de Camondo has remained unchanged since 1936. De Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and uncovers new layers to the family story. In a series of haunting letters addressed to the Count, he tells us what happened next.

Stories abound of immigrant Jews on the outside looking in, clambering up the ladder of social mobility, successfully assimilating and integrating into their new worlds. But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird—Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s. Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press. An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl—in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

Stories abound of immigrant Jews on the outside looking in, clambering up the ladder of social mobility, successfully assimilating and integrating into their new worlds. But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird—Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s. Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press. An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl—in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

“An incisive study of the Western world’s shift from institutional religion to more personal beliefs in the second half of the nineteenth century . . . This is intellectual history at its most comprehensive and convincing.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) The late nineteenth century was an age of grand ideas and great expectations fueled by rapid scientific and technological innovation. In Europe, the ancient authority of church and crown was overthrown for the volatile gambles of democracy and the capitalist market. If it was an age that claimed to liberate women, slaves, and serfs, it also harnessed children to its factories and subjected entire peoples to its empires. Amid this tumult, another sea change was underway: the religious revolution. In The Religious Revolution , Dominic Green charts this profound cultural and political shift, taking us on a whirlwind journey through the lives and ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman; of Éliphas Lévi and Helena Blavatsky; of Wagner and Nietzsche; of Marx, Darwin, and Gandhi. Challenged by the industrialization, globalization, and political unrest of their times, these figures found themselves connecting with the religious impulse in surprising new ways, inspiring others to move away from the strictures of religion and toward the thrill and intimacy of spirituality. The modern era is often characterized as a time of increasing secularism, but in this trenchant new work, Green demonstrates how the foundations of modern society were laid as much by spirituality as by science or reason. The Religious Revolution is a narrative tour de force that sweeps across several continents and five of the most turbulent and formative decades in history. Threading together seemingly disparate intellectual trajectories, Green illuminates how philosophers, grifters, artists, scientists, and yogis shared in a global cultural moment, borrowing one another’s beliefs and making the world we know today.

Some years ago, David Freedberg opened a dusty cupboard at Windsor Castle and discovered hundreds of vividly colored, masterfully precise drawings of all sorts of plants and animals from the Old and New Worlds. Coming upon thousands more drawings like them across Europe, Freedberg finally traced them all back to a little-known scientific organization from seventeenth-century Italy called the Academy of Linceans (or Lynxes). Founded by Prince Federico Cesi in 1603, the Linceans took as their task nothing less than the documentation and classification of all of nature in pictorial form. In this first book-length study of the Linceans to appear in English, Freedberg focuses especially on their unprecedented use of drawings based on microscopic observation and other new techniques of visualization. Where previous thinkers had classified objects based mainly on similarities of external appearance, the Linceans instead turned increasingly to sectioning, dissection, and observation of internal structures. They applied their new research techniques to an incredible variety of subjects, from the objects in the heavens studied by their most famous (and infamous) member Galileo Galilei—whom they supported at the most critical moments of his career—to the flora and fauna of Mexico, bees, fossils, and the reproduction of plants and fungi. But by demonstrating the inadequacy of surface structures for ordering the world, the Linceans unwittingly planted the seeds for the demise of their own favorite method—visual description-as a mode of scientific classification. Profusely illustrated and engagingly written, Eye of the Lynx uncovers a crucial episode in the development of visual representation and natural history. And perhaps as important, it offers readers a dazzling array of early modern drawings, from magnificently depicted birds and flowers to frogs in amber, monstrously misshapen citrus fruits, and more.

Abigail & John offers readers the opportunity to view prominent scenes in American history through the remarkable lives of one of the country's most beloved couples-the Adams's. Exploring the historical significance of a partnership that spanned over five decades, the book details the love they shared for each other and the country. From carefree childhoods to years of war, to the births of their children, and the beginning of a new nation, Abigail & John looks into the unique roles the Adams's played in the formation of America, and contributions and sacrifices they made for the young country.From David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, and his mother Clarice Smith, world renowned artist, comes this compelling and insightful historical biography of Abigail and John Adams. This unique nonfiction children's book tells the story of one of America's most-treasured couples alongside stunning and original illustrations.

For more than twenty years David Brion Davis has been recognized as a leading authority on the moral and ideological responses to slavery in the Western world. From Homicide to Slavery, Davis's first book of collected essays, brings together selections reflecting his wide-ranging interests in colonial history, Afro-American history, the social sciences, and American literature. The essays are interconnected by Davis's central concern with violence, irrationality, and the definition of moral limits during a period when Americans believed they were breaking free from historical constraints and acquiring new powers of self-perfection. Topics range from a socially revealing murder trial in 1843 to debates over capital punishment, movements of counter-subverison, the iconography of race, the cowboy as an American hero, the portrayal of violence in American literature, the historiography of slavery, and the British and American antislavery movements.

First published in 1940, this book was written by Charles S. Myers, who was Consulting Psychologist to the British Armies in France and the First World War. Based on a war diary, it explains the work he did in France and England for shell shock and shell concussion cases, and, as he writes, may well serve 'to re-enlighten the general public as to the nature of shell shock, and to convince them how dependent it is on previous history and inherited predisposition, on inadequate examination and selection of soldiers for the front line, on lack of proper discipline and esprit de corps; and how necessary it may be to adopt apparently harsh measures in order to diminish the undoubted contagiousness of the complaint.'

Join Flavia, Jonathan, Nubia, and Lupus as they explore fascinating facets of life in ancient Rome. Evocative text and vivid full-color illustrations bring to life the themes, settings, and personalities in the bestselling series. Topics covered include Flavia on the class system in Roman society, favorite myths and legends, and holidays and celebrations; Jonathan discovering the world of Roman sport and leisure and the different religions; Nubia on animals in Roman times; and Lupus on childhood in Roman times, plus ancient cultures' fascination with number and alphabet puzzles and games.A timeline of key events in Roman history and a map of the Roman Empire are included."

At last Betty Friedan herself speaks about her life and career. With the same unsparing frankness that made The Feminine Mystique one of the most influential books of our era, Friedan looks back and tells us what it took -- and what it cost -- to change the world. Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, started the women's movement; it sold more than four million copies and was recently named one of the one hundred most important books of the century. In Life So Far, Friedan takes us on an intimate journey through her life -- a lonely childhood in Peoria, Illinois; salvation at Smith College; her days as a labor reporter for a union newspaper in New York (from which she was dismissed when she became pregnant); unfulfilling and painful years as a suburban housewife; finding great joy as a mother; and writing The Feminine Mystique, which grew out of a survey of her Smith classmates and started it all. Friedan chronicles the secret underground of women in Washington, D.C., who drafted her in the early 1960s to spearhead an "NAACP" for women, and recounts the courage of many, including some Catholic nuns who played a brave part in those early days of NOW, the National Organization for Women. Friedan's feminist thinking, a philosophy of evolution, is reflected throughout her book. She recognized early that the women's movement would falter if institutions did not change to reflect the new realities of women's lives, and she fought to keep the movement practical and free of extremism, including "man-hating." She describes candidly the movement's political infighting that brought her to the point of legal action and resulted in a long breach with fellow leaders Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug. Friedan is frank about her twenty-two-year marriage to Carl Friedan, an advertising entrepreneur. She writes about the explosive cycle of drinking, arguing, and physical battering she endured and explores her prolonged inability to leave the marriage. (They are now friends and the grandparents of nine.) Friedan was not only pivotal in the founding of NOW, she was also the driving force behind the creation of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), and the First Women's Bank and Trust Company. She made history by introducing the issue of sex discrimination as an argument against the ratification of a Supreme Court nominee. She convinced the Secretary General of the United Nations to declare 1975 the International Year of the Woman. In this volume, Friedan brings to extraordinary life her bold and contentious leadership in the movement. She lectures, writes, leads think tanks, and organizes women and men to work together in political, legal, and social battles on behalf of women's rights. It is exactly this breadth of vision that makes Friedan's memoir an important and compelling work.

What does jihad really mean? What is the Muslim conception of law? What is Islam's stance toward unbelievers? Probing literary and historical sources, Bernard Lewis traces the development of Islamic political language from the time of the Prophet to the present. His analysis of documents written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish illuminates differences between Muslim political thinking and Western political theory, and clarifies the perception, discussion, and practices of politics in the Islamic world. "Lewis's own style, combining erudition with a simple elegance and subtle humor, continues to inspire. In an era of specialization and narrowing academic vision, he stands alone as one who deserves, without qualification, the title of historian of Islam."—Martin Kramer, Middle East Review "A superb effort at synthesis that presents all the relevant facts of Middle Eastern history in an eminently lucid form. . . . It is a book that should prove both rewarding and congenial to the Muslim reader."—S. Parvez Manzor, Muslim World Book Review "By bringing his thoughts together in this clear, concise and readable account, [Lewis] has placed in his debt scholars and all who seek to understand the Muslim world."—Ann K. S. Lambton, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies "[Lewis] constructs a fascinating account of the ways in which Muslims have conceived of the relations between ruler and ruled, rights and duties, legitimacy and illegitimacy, obedience and rebellion, justice and oppression. And he shows how changes in political attitudes and concepts can be traced through changes in the political vocabulary."—Shaul Bakhash, New York Review of Books

"This is a book for everyone who has developed an unexpected nostalgia for political 'norms' during the Trump years . . . Other books on the Trump White House expertly detail the mayhem inside; this book builds on those works to detail its consequences." —Carlos Lozada (one of twelve books to read "to understand what's going on") "Perhaps the most penetrating book to have been written about Trump in office." —Lawrence Douglas, The Times Literary Supplement The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies. From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the “invaluable” ( The New York Times ) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this book, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors’ misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own? By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other.

"A deep dive into the life of history's "best known, least known" woman, the Virgin Mary, tracking how her story was changed and lost over the centuries. In the first century AD, a widowed Jewish woman raised eight children during a brutal Roman occupation of her homeland, instilling into them the lessons she'd learned from growing up under extreme violence barely twenty years before. Some of her sons would go on to proselytize based on what she'd taught; her eldest would face persecution, crucifixion, and, after his death, be known to the world as Jesus Christ. But everyone knows Jesus. What do we know about Mary? Anchoring itself firmly in the "messianic game of thrones" employed by Herod the Great and turbulence of Roman rule, The Lost Mary presents a detailed account of the influences shaping Mary's life, and, by extension, the lives she touched. With precision and expertise, Dr. Tabor breathes life into a woman who remains well-known but unseen, exploring her upbringing and marriage, and presents a compelling case for understanding her not as the saintly mother of a prophet, but as the influential foremother of a movement. Working with snippets from the Bible and primary writings from the period, and drawing on his long academic career, Dr. Tabor pieces together a spellbinding composite of Christianity's forgotten founder: A girl from a wealthy and well-pedigreed family in the cosmopolitan city of Sepphoris. A fierce and devoted mother who instilled her beliefs into her sons. A woman whose accomplishments were lost to theological dogma and time, but, guided by this groundbreaking work, may once again be imagined as something more"--

A riveting retelling of diplomatic history with praise from Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Tony Blair (UK), Ehud Olmert (Israel), and more. “A magisterial tome on the international negotiations that shaped modern American history.... Grand in scope and grounded in decades of experience, The Art of Diplomacy is a compelling work of political history aimed at the diplomatic negotiators of tomorrow.” -Foreword Reviews Commended by Kirkus Reviews , which says Eizenstat writes with "authority and clarity of experience." Inside the greatest diplomatic negotiations of the past 50 years In one readable volume, diplomat and negotiator Stuart E. Eizenstat covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord. Written from the perspective that only a participant in top level negotiations can bring, Eizenstat recounts the events that led up to the negotiation, the drama that took place around the table, and draws lessons from successful and unsuccessful strategies and tactics. Based on interviews with over 60 key figures in American diplomacy, including former presidents and secretaries of state, and major political figures abroad, Eizenstat provides an intimate view of diplomacy as today's history. The Art of Diplomacy will be an indispensable volume to understand American foreign policy and provide invaluable insights on the art of negotiation for anyone involved in government or business negotiations. The paperback edition adds a substantive afterword that presents the challenges and opportunities for the second Trump administration.

Twenty sensational erotic stories that are sinfully good from Xcite Books, winners of the ETO Best Erotic Book Brand 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Featuring stories by some of the best writers in the erotic field including Kay Jaybee, Angela Meadows, Elizabeth Cage and Penelope Friday. Indulge yourself in this sensational collection and discover the pleasure of Ultimate Sins. French Connection by Cathy King Escaping to France in the wake of a failed marriage, Mandy attempts to put the past behind her and indulge in a change of scenery. Bad memories fade as the delights of her holiday destination reveal themselves. With British men off of the menu, she is determined to sample the local fare. A chance encounter following an early evening trip to the beach allows Mandy to experience some of the local delicacies. But, with her appetite whetted all she can crave for is more. Eat Me by Elizabeth Cage Tired after a hard day at work all Joanne wants is to go home, relax and indulge her sweet tooth. A chance encounter at the bus station results in a journey home by quite a different route. Her unforeseen diversion is not without its delights. As the evening unfolds she discovers an appetite that needs to be satiated, and is soon treated to a gourmet feast from a menu of the very risqué kind. Vichysoisse by Astrid L. Gathering ingredients to make a soup at the local supermarket, Sophia encounters the highly charged and seductive Samantha, and is immediately enchanted. Intoxicated by her presence she invites Samantha for a culinary lesson in the preparation of Vichysoisse. As the cooking begins, intimacy, passion and anticipation quickly swirl into a heady infusion that consumes the both of them. Unlike the cold soup that brings them together, their relationship soon progresses from a light simmer to boiling desire. Bamboobzled by Landon Dixon When gorgeous celluloid dame, Brinn Stones saunters'' into his office, hard-nosed PI Jim Brubaker is offered a case he simply cannot refuse. Charged with the task of unearthing a seedy blackmailing scam, Brubaker is forced to trawl the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels. As the case reveals itself, he soon discovers that Tinsel Town is not quite as it seems. It''s a dog-eat-dog world, where just about anything goes. Pretty Young Things by Cathryn Cooper It''s the Roaring Twenties, a decade of decadence, prosperity and wild-abandon. In need of fresh excitement, Carew accepts the challenge of a car race to the nearby abbey ruins. With the brazen Suzanne at his side, he leads the rowdy crowd out into the dark night. Once at the ruins, Suzanne embarks upon a ribald display that soon drives those in attendance into a wanton frenzy. Unmoved, Carew leaves the gathering to wander the ruins, chancing upon a mysterious woman and an erotic encounter of his own. Purposeful Liaison by Shermaine Williams When work calls her husband back from their romantic island holiday, Charlotte is left to enjoy what''s left on her own, rather that reigniting the lost passion of her marriage. Her sudden abandonment soon registers on the radar of Matthew, a well-toned holiday-maker looking for company during his stay. His persistent attention soon wears down Charlotte''s resolve, and a late-night invitation for a drink releases more passion than she can possibly control. Alice and the Red Queen by Jean Roberta When a young student takes on the job of gardener for an erstwhile tennis star, gardening is not the only activity to leave her hot and breathless. The Red Queen soon sets her sights on the nubile employee and enters into a game where domination is the ultimate prize. As the game begins, the temperature starts to rise as the former tennis queen samples the many new delights that await her in the intimacy of her well-maintained grounds. Serial Satisfaction by Cathryn Cooper Michael can''t wait to indulge in his affair with his best friend''s wife. In the seclusion of a lay-by Crystal waits for her lover, but has demands of her own in mind. As Michael revels in her sensuous affection, Crystal takes him to the brink only to stop. A girl needs commitment and that''s exactly what she wants. Crystal wants Michael for herself, not to be shared with his wife. As Michael ponders his next move, he soon learns an important lesson, that Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. Shared Experience by Lynn Lake The saying goes two''s company and three''s a crowd, but is that always the case? David is desperate for Amy to join him in realising his yearning for a threesome. Reluctant at first, Amy eventually succumbs to his wish and arranges for the arrival of the additional party: the voluptuous Cassandra. With her appetite whetted, Amy soon becomes a willing participant in David''s lustful scenario. However, her involvement is always going to be on her own terms, whatever they may be. Sweet Dreams by Jade Taylor Horny, frustrated and eager to get her toy boy home to the bedroom, Ellie must first lure Greg away from the nightclub. However, the easy distractions of youth interfere with her intentions, despite her most determined and seductive efforts. However, fate works in mysterious ways, and an after hours invitation to Greg''s friend Adam''s home provides her with a golden opportunity. Employing the power of her sensual allure, she teases them both only to enjoy a return that doubles her delight. The Florist by Eva Hore Melissa is determined to have her way with John the hunky Florist. With a plan in mind, she arrives late one evening to pursue her intention. As Melissa embarks on her seductive task, events take a very sudden and unexpected twist. Melissa soon finds herself at the centre of a wanton scenario that takes her on a wild, new experience of pleasure and pain. Behind closed doors at the florists will never be the same again. A Lesson For Victoria by Angela Meadows Dispatched by her Father, Victoria arrives at a school for young ladies nestled high the Tyrol. It soon becomes clear, that she has been sent to be educated as a lady. Under the expert guidance of Madams Thackeray and Hulot Victoria is to be prepared for presentation as a desirable Wife for high society gentleman. As the first evening session in the curriculum unfolds, it''s soon apparent to Victoria that her two-year attendance will be extremely hands on. Story Telling by Jim Baker Reality and imagination become entwined in a series of carnal encounters. A lecturer stumbles upon some raunchy extra-curricular activity in the University lecture hall, whilst a Librarian offers a personal and energetic critique of an author''s work. Yet it''s the mind behind these tales that feeds eagerly from its muse. As the plots are energetically worked out, the Authors fantasies are the only limitation. Beautiful Sin by Penelope Friday Two friends met again after a period of prolonged absence and cordially acknowledge each other. The reality is that both Catherine and Elizabeth share a passion that the world must never know. Against a backdrop of strict moral codes, their true feelings would see them incarcerated and separated forever; their lust for each other deemed a sin. Yet when the lights go out and others settle for the night, both women can meet secretly once more to share in their beautiful sin. The Spying Game by Roz MacLeod It''s the height of the Cold War and the nation is on its guard against the spectre of foreign espionage. When Sandi, a top agent in the Secret Service is called before Control, she is presented with a mission to uncover a possible double agent. Determined to safeguard the Nation''s secrets and using the cover of an erotic dancer, Sandi embarks on her wild and raunchy assignment, using every vice at her disposal to catch her target. The Librarian by Eva Hore A young woman returns early to her shared apartment, to find her scantily clad room mate preparing for a mysterious night-out. Where does a Librarian go after a day in the stacks? Imagination runs riot as an increasingly lecherous scenario unfolds in the young woman''s mind. Her room mate''s daytime mousy demeanour, tight bun and glasses are soon discarded, to reveal a wanton dominatrix hell bent on tasting the delights of her desires. Wreck-Her by Lynn Lake A business woman is unexpectedly delayed as her company car breaks-down, deep in the sun-parched Manitoba prairie. With no cell phone signal and the soaring heat of the surroundings rising, desperation rapidly begins to set in. Help soon arrives in the form of a tow truck that stops to offer assistance. After thoroughly appraising the situation, the truck driver is soon ready to dispense a unique form of roadside assistance that ultimately proves much to the woman''s delight. Mixed Blessings by Phoebe Grafton Two friends are in need of temporary relief from their respective husbands. With one husband too demanding and the other too languid, both wives decide that a weekend exchange is the best tonic. A plan is hatched, and after a night out together is put into effect, as door keys are exchanged for each others home and husband. The weekend that follows indulges each in the marital secrets of the other and in doing so sheds light over the question: is the grass always greener on the other side? Blindspot by Elspeth Potter Becca is both excited and intrigued when Dante brings a new toy to their swingers'' event. But what fascinates her more is how he wants to use it. Very soon, she is joined by Marcus who assists both Dante and herself in experiencing a new, exciting and heightened pleasure. As they plunge into their shared lascivious adventure, all inhibitions fall away leading t