‘I’ve lived through ten iOS upgrades on my Mac – and that’s just something I use to muck about on Twitter. Surely capitalism is due an upgrade or two?’ When Caitlin Moran sat down to choose her favourite pieces for her new book she realised that they all seemed to join up. Turns out, it’s the same old problems and the same old ass-hats. Then she thought of the word ‘Moranifesto’, and she knew what she had to do… This is Caitlin’s engaging and amusing rallying call for our times. Combining the best of her recent columns with lots of new writing unique to this book, Caitlin deals with topics as pressing and diverse as 1980s swearing, benefits, boarding schools, and why the internet is like a drunken toddler. And whilst never afraid to address the big issues of the day – such as Benedict Cumberbatch and duffel coats – Caitlin also makes a passionate effort to understand our 21st century society and presents us with her ‘Moranifesto’ for making the world a better place. The polite revolution starts here! Please.

Eccentric Fran wants a second chance. Thanks to her intimacy with Jane Austen, and the poet Shelley, she finds one. Jane Austen is such a presence in Fran's life that she seems to share her cottage and garden, becoming an imaginary friend. Fran's conversations with Jane Austen guide and chide her – but Fran is ready for change after years of teaching, reading and gardening. An encounter with a long-standing English friend, and an American writer, leads to new possibilities. Adrift, the three women bond through a love of books and a quest for the idealist poet Shelley at two pivotal moments of his life: in Wales and Venice. His otherworldly longing and yearning for utopian communities lead the women to interrogate their own past as well as motherhood, feminism, the resurgence of childhood memory in old age, the tensions and attractions between generations. Despite the appeal of solitude, the women open themselves social to ways of living -...

Stewart returns home to face his past and make up for his mistakes, but he soon discovers that everyone wants something from him. In particular, he doesn't trust the motives of his ex-girlfriend's flirty attention.Stewart returns home to face his past and make up for his mistakes, but he soon discovers that everyone wants something from him. In particular, he doesn't trust the motives of his ex-girlfriend's flirty attention. *** "Leah was already there. She was leaning over the bar, wearing a mini skirt that didn’t quite cover her butt and a sport’s bra. Her warm honey skin glistened, still wet from swimming. The few patrons inside were all riveted to her. As Stewart’s wheels rumbled onto the wooden floor, she turned and fixed him with her well-honed siren smile." *** This is a short story. Though it stands alone, its characters also appear in the novel (W)hole by the same author.

In a world of never-ending winters and permanent darkness, fourteen-year-old Nadia Comani faces a future of servitude. Can she free herself and her family?Even in a world of never-ending winters and permanent darkness, fourteen-year-old Nadia Comani has everything she could ever want: power, privilege, a loving family and most importantly warmth. But her family's refusal to compromise their values changes everything. Nadia is cast down from her pedestal of power onto the trash heap of the lower classes. No longer guaranteed a life of ease, Nadia faces a future of servitude. Branded as powerless and deviant, will Nadia muster the strength to save herself and what remains of her family?

Barbara Pym is a master at capturing the subtle mayhem that takes place in the apparent quiet of the English countryside. Fifty-something sisters Harriet and Belinda Bede live a comfortable, settled existence. Belinda, the quieter of the pair, has for years been secretly in love with the town's pompous (and married) archdeacon, whose odd sermons leave members of his flock in muddled confusion. Harriet, meanwhile, a bubbly extrovert, fends off proposal after proposal of marriage. The arrival of Mr. Mold and Bishop Grote disturb the peace of the village and leave the sisters wondering if they'll ever return to the order of their daily routines. Some Tame Gazelle, first published in Britain nearly 50 years ago, was the first of Pym's nine novels.

After a party, a chain of events occur for two seventeen year olds. Rane and Elaina, one a werewolf and the other not knowing they exist, must come together to face the consequences from a night of partying.

Derek fills a void in his own life by leading locals on weekend treks up a small mountain. This time, a young climber touches that void in a way he couldn't have imagined, or wanted. First published in Wanderings Magazine, Spring 2007. A short story.Mistress of the Game is about marriage of two cultures, African and Western that went wrong in the end becasue of betrayal of trust . It is also about the politics of new found oil in Ghana and the greed and dirty dealings that go with it. Mistress of the Game is also about courage, hope and survival in the face of despair and the shattering realisation of living with HIV/AIDS.The intrigue in the novel is hightened when Sarah, the Ghanaian young woman married to a Canadian, Philip, connives with her pushy and overbearing mother (who incidentally means well) to deceive Philip in the most bizarre and unscrupulous manner ever imagined; juxtaposed with this couple are Jason, Philip’s younger brother and Araba, a young Ghanaian girl who discovers that one of the ways to survive in a dying metropolis that now threatens to come alive through the oil boom and the influx of expatriates, technocrats and crooks alike all wanting to cash in on the ‘liquid gold’, is to make good use of her one major asset - her body. Ironically, it is Araba who with her two fatherless children of mixed race, give us hope at the end of the story.The language is rich with humour, laced with Ghanaian English and Akan akin to Ayikwei Parkes’ Tail of the Blue Bird. The main settings for the plot are Takoradi, in Ghana, and Canada. The writer expounds well researched history and facts that gives credence to her academic background. The descriptions of scenes and planes are so vivid that the reader keeps ohing and ahing in recognition of familiar sights and landmarks. The Ghanaian characters are real, with everyday expressions and attiitudes that spell out the ingredients that make the Ghanaian that happy, go lucky human being, easily able to shrug off problems with that matter of fact approach to life, albeit full of humour.

From star-crossed matches to unexpected love triangles, summer on Nantucket always holds the promise of romance in this sensational novel from New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer. Lisa Hudson feels more alive than she has in a long time after hiring hunky carpenter Mack Whitney to renovate her old Nantucket home. There's no denying the spark growing between them—despite the fact that Mack is ten years her junior. But her twentysomething children, Juliet and Theo, on the island for the summer, worry that the new relationship will only lead to Lisa's heartbreak. Yet Juliet and Theo are in for tangled love stories all their own. When dreamy Cooper Hastings moves to the island to pursue a new environmental venture, Juliet feels an unwelcome attraction, her rocky romantic history pushing her to steer clear of love. Theo only has eyes for Mack's daughter, Bethany, with whom he was bound by an unspeakable tragedy in high...

One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year—a masterful and engrossing novel about a single mother’s collapse and the fate of her family after she enters a California state hospital in the 1970s.“A sweeping family epic that took me from one American coast to another…Simpson is so attuned to the family heart.” —Weike Wang, author of Joan Is OkayWhen Diane Aziz drives her oldest son, Walter, from Los Angeles to college at UC Berkeley, it will be her last parental act before falling into a deep depression. A single mother who maintains a wishful belief that her children can attain all the things she hasn’t, she’s worked hard to secure their future in caste-driven 1980s Los Angeles, gaining them illegal entry to an affluent public school. When she enters a state hospital, her closest friend tries to keep the children safe and their mother’s dreams for them alive.At Berkeley, Walter discovers a...

Clementine Liu is back for more fashion, dating, and drama! Clementine Liu, the super-stylish fashion student behind the Bonjour Girl blog, is about to finish her first eventful year in New York City. Ready to put all the drama behind her, she's about to embark on a prestigious exchange program — in Shanghai!Before Clementine actually sets foot in China, though, a whole bunch of problems put her impending departure in jeopardy. Despite it all, Clementine flies off to Shanghai, where she immerses herself in the new, exciting fashion world and cutthroat blogging scene. Then there's Henry, a charming classmate who's on a mission to capture her heart, despite her New York boyfriend.Even halfway across the world, Clementine can't escape her problems. But can she find a way to survive and thrive while staying true to herself?

Readying her Norwegian sail-training ship, Sørlandet, for a fresh voyage through the Shetland Islands, Cass Lynch has the shock of her life when the new third officer is a ghost from her past – the man she thought she'd left to drown in the Atlantic eleven years before.Cass has an odd feeling about some of the new trainees: a slick city-boy, and a brother and sister. As her distrust of the newcomers deepens, two people go missing and a third is found dead. Struggling to confront the ghosts of her past, the deceased of her present, and the man of her future, Cass must out-manoeuvre the killer before she too becomes one of the victims.