Maggie Brown is sensible, responsible, and worried. Her irresponsible sister has run off with a revolutionary, their feckless mother swears she’s dying, and Maggie has no choice but to brave the forests of San Pablo to reunite her family. To do so, she needs Ben Frazer, a rough and tumble soldier of fortune who seems a little too interested in Maggie and has a tendency to head in the wrong direction. Throw in a counter-revolutionary named El Gallo Loco and life isn’t nearly as sensible as she thought it was. Ben’s doing his best to throw her off the trail. She’s annoying, straight-laced and absolutely irresistible, and the sooner she’s back in the States, the better. Unfortunately Miss Magnolia Brown is ready to fall off her pedestal, and who better to catch her but Ben?

In this powerful and virtuosic collection of interlocking stories, each one "a marvel of concision and compassion" (Washington Post), a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and "master of his form" (/~i~New York Times) takes the short story to new heights. Through forty-four compressed gems, Peter Orner, a writer who "doesn't simply bring his characters to life, he gives them souls" (NYT Book Review), chronicles people whose lives are at inflection points, gripping us with a series of defining moments. Whether it's a first date that turns into a late-night road trip to a séance in an abandoned airplane hangar, or a family's memories of the painful mystery surrounding a neglected uncle's demise, Orner reveals how our fleeting decisions between kindness and abandonment chase us across time. These stories are anchored by a poignant novella that delivers not only the joys and travails of a forty-year marriage, but an entire era in a working-class New England city. Bristling with the crackling energy of life itself, Maggie Brown & Others marks the most sustained achievement to date for "a master of his form" (New York Times). A New York Times Notable Book A Chicago Tribune Notable Book An Oprah Magazine Best Book of 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction of 2019 Longlisted for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize

What if you're a nerdy med student and a womanizing rock star wants you as her next conquest--then leaves you totally humiliated. Now fast-forward eleven years. Sexy and magnetic, Australian rock star Austen Farleigh is at the height of her spectacular career. Her penchant for one-night stands is as famous as her many songs. American Dr. Merritt Harrington now works for Doctors Without Borders and is at a crossroads in her life. Her last assignment in the Andes Mountains was harrowing, and her love life at a dead end. No one has been able to ignite even a tiny spark since Austen--damn her. When they meet again in Australia, Merritt is desperate to keep Austen at arm's length. But temptation whispers in her ear. From the US to Peru to Australia and the highlands of Papua New Guinea, their desire for one another is on an uncontrollable collision course--with a force they may no longer be able to ignore.

Abby Benton thought she'd have the last laugh when she painted her competition portrait of the arrogant Victoria Myers. In her opinion, the beautiful, poised mining magnate needed to be taken down a peg. When their paths cross again it's Victoria's chance to turn the tables. There's no way the struggling artist can refuse the job Victoria has for her, not when it comes with a breathtaking paycheck. Six months doesn't seem so long for Abby to have to put up with the insufferable Ms Myers. Not when it means giving her dependent mother a better life. Victoria might think she's in charge, but Abby is going to pipe her own tune...

Joy the Pandacorn is 50% unicorn, 50% panda, and 100% excited about her first day of school. But when neither the unicorns nor the pandas want her to sit with them, she's totally crushed. With the help of an unexpected friend, Joy creates her own happiness while showing her classmates that playing together is the best combination of all!

Historical romance.

'One of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation' OLIVIA LAING What can freedom really mean? In this invigorating, essential book, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think, experience or talk about the concept in ways that are responsive to our divided world. Drawing on pop culture, theory and the intimacies and plain exchanges of daily life, she follows freedom - with all its complexities - through four realms: art, sex, drugs and climate. On Freedom offers a bold new perspective on the challenging times in which we live. 'Tremendously energising' Guardian 'This provocative meditation...shows Nelson at her most original and brilliant' New York Times 'Nelson is such a friend to her reader, such brilliant company... Exhilarating' Literary Review * A New York Times Notable Book * * A Guardian and TLS 'Books of 2021' Pick *

Corporate lawyer Winter Carlyle is the first to admit that she's become jaded with romance after a very messy public breakup. When her bossy aunt asks her to visit a high-end nightclub to check on her young cousin, Winter reluctantly agrees. Poking her nose into her cousin's love life is the last thing she wants to do. So what if he has a giant crush on Pandora, a lounge singer thirteen years his senior? The cougar just might teach him a thing or two. For Pandora, the sultry siren with the slinky low-cut gown façade is all an act. It's showbiz. She dislikes the adulation and the numerous advances, especially from the Russian gangster and the aging playboy. Besides, she has an ulterior motive for being at the club, and romance is definitely off the agenda. But uptight, reserved Winter is a complication she hasn't foreseen. And even with the best intentions, love has a way of striking at the most inopportune times.

A free sneak preview of The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern. Download now and enjoy this extended excerpt before the book goes on sale on May 6, 2014. As befits a future President of the United States of America, Maggie Mayfield has decided to write a memoir of the past year of her life. And what a banner year it's been! During this period she's Student of the Month on a regular basis, an official shareholder of Coca-Cola stock, and defending Science Fair champion. Most importantly, though, this is the year Maggie has to pull up her bootstraps (the family motto) and finally learn why her cool-dude dad is in a wheelchair, no matter how scary that is. Author Megan Jean Sovern, herself the daughter of a dad with multiple sclerosis, writes with the funny grace and assured prose of a new literary star. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of this book will be donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

This book covers a dramatic decade in the fortunes of Britain's quirkiest broadcaster. It opens in 2009, with the realisation that Channel 4's biggest money spinner, Big Brother, had become a toxic asset and would have to be discarded, at the same time as advertising revenues were shrinking in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. Maggie Brown's compelling narrative, which draws on interviews with key players in Channel 4's story and unique access to the broadcaster's archives, takes us inside the boardroom battles, changes in senior management and commissioning teams, interventions by the media regulator Ofcom, and the channel's response to a rapidly-changing media and political landscape. Brown describes how the channel, under its new chief executive David Abraham, successfully fought off the threat of privatisation, which became a reality after the Conservatives' general election victory in 2015. The price for remaining publicly funded was a substantial relocation of Channel 4's operations, with Leeds announced in 2018 as a new 'regional hub'. The Channel 4 story is also one of ambitious and innovative programming, with a new director of content, Jay Hunt, instigating radical changes in commissioning and scheduling. Brown traces programming hits and losses during this period, with the departure to competitors of celebrity chefs, Black Mirror and Charlie Brooker, horse racing and Formula 1, and a reappraisal of the remit of institutions such as Channel 4 News and Film 4. But there were successes too, with the 2012 Paralympics helping to restore a public service sheen, and new programmes such as Gogglebox in 2013 connecting with younger audiences, and, in 2016, the coup of taking The Great British Bake Off from its home at the BBC.