After yet another breakup and on the cusp of her 40th birthday, Shannon Laughlin is ready for something new—a new outlook, a new adventure… a new love. While scrolling online, a chance post by an old friend offers to give Shannon the change she’s been seeking. That friend is free-spirited Alina. Alina is a seasonal worker at a winery up north and has orchestrated a life for herself that revolves around following her bliss. Shannon can’t help but remember the time in college when the two women hooked up, and this second chance Alina is offering is just too good to pass up. As she stumbles into her 40s, Shannon is ready for whatever comes next. Will this opportunity with Alina allow Shannon to find some bliss of her own? --- This book is written for those who love lesbian romance, lesbian fiction, lesfic, lesbian authors, lesbian writers, lesbian lovers, lesbian novels, lesbian books, and lesbian stories.

The human body is always changing its meanings. Historical research on this can draw on a host of specialisms. Historians, lettrists and linguists contribute to this book a coherent little tumult of perspectives: what was thinkable for pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxons, and how far did the two really differ? Why did New English Puritans stop addressing God as if He were their breast-feeding Mother? How did Western colonisers’ perspectives on animals and on ‘subject races’ interact? How did Victorian and Edwardian women’s participation in sports grow? How transgressive was the figure of the ‘dandy’? What motivated late-Victorian panics over prostitution, and on what terms were victims helped? Why, in an increasingly ‘democratic’ age, did reactions to Britain's first universal health-measure become a basis for cynicism about the masses? Repeatedly, the rigidity of separation between male and female fluctuated, as did the boundaries themselves. Sometimes, the greater the rigidity, the less the sources may tell us of resistance to them. But sometimes this can be inferred indirectly. Better testimony than this volume to the liveliness and variety of body-studies is hard to imagine.

Raise your wine glasses high to toast the men of Dahlonia while they discover the secret to happiness – LOVE. For Nolan Woods, life had been a miserable existence that had left him lonely and depressed. Nothing had ever seemed to go his way. It was his own fault for being such a loser, but it would still be nice if just once he had something end up in his favor. Unfortunately, for that to happen he’d have to put down the food he loved so much. West Baxter led a charmed life. In college, he and his friends had decided to open a winery, allowing him to travel and meet new people. It had been a playboy lifestyle but when he met Nolan Woods, he found himself longing to settle down instead. Too bad their new winery needed him out on the road to sell their wines it they ever hoped of being the success they had dreamed about. Nolan’s misery had him taking drastic action to change himself. He never thought in a million years anyone would like him as he was. But before he could go under the knife, West had finally had enough of life on the road and seduced Nolan. Suddenly Nolan no longer knew what to do. He didn’t believe West would ever be able to love him as he was, but if he told West his plans West just might realize what a loser Nolan was and leave him even sooner. Either way, Nolan had to pray that West would understand that Nolan could no longer be Full Bodied.

Lisa Kirkpatrick is stubborn, but she's not stupid. If this guy needs a date to evade an unwanted admirer, who is she to object? It's not as if handsome men are lining up to ask her out. Sure, they know there's a woman in the wheelchair, but it would never occur to them that there's a WOMAN in the wheelchair. He notices. This solid, fun, straight-shooting guy ticks off every box on her ideal man list. But why do they call him Slick? ? Roger Plankey thought his life was full until he walked into the town clerk's office and laid eyes on the woman behind the counter. A spunky, independent woman with a dash of humor and just enough sass to keep him on his toes. She fills that unknown void in his life like she was made for him. But is there such a thing as too perfect?

As the newest member of the Rose Avenue Wine Club, Halsey wants to expand her palate—not solve murders. But when a neighbor is found dead, it’s up to her to pair the culprit with a deadly crime . . . Leaving behind a failed marriage, New Yorker Annie “Halsey” Hall is ready to begin the next phase of her life in coastal Southern California. From the moment she arrives at her new digs on cozy Rose Avenue, she looks forward to joining the neighborhood ladies for their weekly Wine Club gathering. With only a rambunctious yellow lab puppy to keep her company, Halsey could really use a confidant—and a glass or two of her favorite white wine . . . Unfortunately, she finds nothing but red at the Wine Club meeting—and judging by the dead woman lying face down in the backyard, it’s not spilled merlot. Halsey accidentally stumbled into the wrong address at the wrong time, and with suspicions about her past on the rise, she must prove that she isn’t a killer. Enlisting the eclectic talents of the Wine Club ladies, Halsey searches for the true criminal at large. But separating friends from foes isn’t easy on Rose Avenue, and as she racks up a suspect list, Halsey can’t shake the feeling that someone in her inner circle has a taste for murder . . .

A bundle of books #3 (FULL BODIED) and #4 (STRAIGHT UP) in Mia Gold’s Ruby Steele cozy mystery series. This bundle offers books three and four in one convenient file, with over 150,000 words of reading. In FULL BODIED (Book #3), Ruby’s known for making friend in bad places. And her newest friend, a bouncer at the brothel next door, is no exception. When he comes to her with a sob story, she can’t turn away. When that story turns to a body he found this morning, Ruby sits up straighter. When it turns out that body belonged to a trafficked teenaged girl, Ruby’s sense of justice is lit. Ruby’s gotta solve this one, for her own need to set wrongs right. Problem is, the cops don’t care, and this case will surely take her to some bad places, and up against some bad people. That may just include a billionaire with his own private yacht—and his own private army. It’s not like Ruby doesn’t have an army of her own coming after her. The last thing Ruby needs right now is a two-front war. But it looks like that’s exactly what she’s going to get. No one said Ruby’s judgement was good. Then again, if it was, she wouldn’t be hiding out in the Bahamas, tending bar, with a monkey on her shoulder and an enemy list a mile long. In STRAIGHT UP (Book #4), when a 40th birthday bash for a rich wife gets way out of hand, she wakes up with her best friend’s husband sleeping beside her—dead. Looking at life in a Bahamian jail for murder, she turns to Ruby for the help she desperately needs. Ruby knows what it feels like to be setup. She also knows what it’s like to be played. Is this woman telling the truth? Which one of her rich, envious friends wanted her dead? Or was it someone else completely? But Ruby has a bad habit of helping other people when barely able to handle troubles of her own: Senator Wishbourne’s briefcase is still missing, the pressure is building, and Ruby’s running out of time. And this time won’t be any different. Welcome to the Bahamian world of Ruby Steele, replete with her local dive bar, her wily pet monkey, her major drinking problem, her (way) too many fights, her inability to get herself out of trouble, and her fists made of stone. Ruby’s life is a complete wreck. But there’s one thing she’s good at: capturing your heart. THE RUBY STEELE MYSTERY SERIES is a page-turning mystery/thriller series, one that will linger with you long after the last page is read.

“An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving.

Stop treating your work and your life as separate. Work shouldn't be a burden that takes place outside of your "real life." It should, and can, be a source of happiness and authentic meaning--if you work from the inside out. In The Full Body Yes, LinkedIn's Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs Scott Shute shows how the evolution within companies lies in the evolution of ourselves. After all, a company is the sum of its people: we decide where, how, and why we work. Through a four-step action plan, Shute demonstrates how the journey to a working life of happiness and authentic meaning is fueled by compassion. Through guided activities to cultivate compassion for yourself and others, you'll move toward a work lifestyle that allows you to: ● discover what is important to you, so that you can spend more time doing just that ● recognize and empower the deeper part of yourself ● measure your success by your own happiness ● allow yourself to develop and evolve at work ● love and serve all of life (including yourself) Everyone deserves to do work that makes them happy, and to find happiness at work. With compassion, we can all get there.