Teenager Wanda is gifted with good looks, but she is oppressed by her secure-yet-restricted life in the Slovakia of the 1980s. The whirlpool of historical changes initiated by the Velvet Revolution in 1989 helps the heroine to abandon her roots and disappointments.

"Like Schopenhauer's porcupines, we rush together because we are chilly and rush apart because we are prickly." It is twenty years since Wanda's husband threw himself off the top floor landing of their house in Primrose Hill. Hers is a story of abandonment. In 1939, she lost her mother at the railway station as the family fought its way onto the last train out of Warsaw. She has spent her life determined never to let go of anything again. Her husband's presence has been resurrected in a shrine out on the landing, with his shoes left in the same spot where he took them off that night. The family reunions that mark the anniversary of his death have turned into a battlefield, on which those still imprisoned in her claustrophobic grip try vainly to escape. But this, the twentieth reunion, is destined to be different. Wanda is about to find out why her husband left her so dramatically, the shocking secret that her sister, Mitzi, has held onto all these years, and the unwitting role played in the tragedy by Wanda's elder son, the brilliant, wayward Schopenhauer scholar, Gregor Silver. Author and painter Lynn Bushell lives in France on the west coast of the Normandy Peninsula, which provides the subject for most of her paintings. Schopenhauer's Porcupines is her third novel.

When three friends organise a scheme to make money selling mail order brides from the Czech Republic, greed and jealousy turn a simple con into a life-changing game with unexpected costs.

This is an erotic historical romance based on a journal written at the start of the 16th century by a young man called Antonio, who grew up in the village of Cortona in northern Italy. His mother died in childbirth, his brother moved away to find work in Perugia, and he was left living with his father Giorgio, from whom he learned the trade of carpentry. The novel takes the form of a picaresque adventure in search of work. This leads to his meeting several of the famous artists of the time, painting frescoes in different churches. As he progresses past adolescence, he discovers women to his delight. Antonio is clearly an honest, generous, affectionate and good looking young man. As he moves from one village to another, he meets a variety of young women whose wishes and desires he is unable to resist.Increasingly he becomes aware of the wider world and the fractious politics of the time. The Borgias are in power in the Vatican, and Cesare Borgia is rampaging through Tuscany, working his way towards Cortona. He sends his agent, Leonardo da Vinci, to survey the local fortifications, and Antonio almost meets him.There is also a studious side to his nature, and he finds a mentor at the local monastery who teaches him how to write, and keeps him informed about the events of the day, including the scandals surrounding the Borgias. Other events include meeting a ghost at an ancient monastery, and consulting a soothsayer who reveals his future.Running through this story is a golden thread, with one end being his abiding love for a particular woman, the great love of his young life, who seems beyond his reach. As he moves from one romantic attachment to another, it is his true love who really occupies his thoughts. As his future unfolds, we see him holding onto that thread, and somehow hoping that he would never have to let it go. How the story is played out against the short term vicissitudes of his life is finally revealed in the last chapter. This story is truly a Rite of Passage from youth to manhood.

Wanda's worries become even greater than usual during her family's summer vacation at a Vermont lodge when her divorced stepgrandmother develops an interest in a prospective new husband.

The Funny Thing is an "aminal" who eats nothing but dolls until the good little man of the mountains gets him to taste the jum jills.

Add to your quilting repertoire with the universally popular plus sign! These 16 bold, graphic designs range from modern to traditional, with something for every skill level and style. Detailed instructions and illustrations walk confident beginners and intermediate quilters through traditional piecing, paper piecing, and fusible machine appliqué to create baby quilts, throw quilts, bed quilts, and more. Use your favorite types of fabric—solids, prints, precuts, or scraps—to make the projects your own.

Collects Avengers Origins: Vision (2011) #1, Giant-Size Avengers (1974) #4, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #129-130. These two mighty Avengers shared one of the greatest romances in the entire Marvel-Verse! They are the synthezoid Vision and the reality-manipulating Scarlet Witch — and these are some of their most action-packed adventures! First, the Vision is unleashed on the Avengers by his “father” — the evil android, Ultron! Vision’s control of his density makes him a formidable opponent, but his inner nobility soon sees him turn on his inhuman creator! Joining the team, Vision soon finds love with Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch — and their far-out wedding is one of the greatest Avengers stories ever told! Wanda and Vision make one heck of a team — but even with Spider-Man by their side, can they defeat the dark sorcerer Necrodamus?