'Not since Faulkner have I read American prose so bristling with life and particularity.' -- J M Coetzee Following in the footsteps of such chroniclers of American absurdity as Cormac McCarthy, Joy Williams, and Charles Portis, Robin McLean's Pity the Beast is a mind-melting feminist Western that pins a tale of sexual violence and vengeance to a canvas stretching back to prehistory, sideways into legend, and off into a lonesome future. Millennia ago, Ginny's family ranch was all grass and rock and wild horses. A thousand years hence, it'll all be peacefully underwater. In the matter-of-fact here and now, though, it's a hotbed of lust and resentment, and about to turn ugly, because Ginny's just cheated on her husband Dan with the man who lives next door. Out on these prairies, word travels fast: everyone seems to know everyone's business. They know what Ginny did, and they know Ginny isn't sorry. She might not be proud of what she's done, but she doesn't regret it either. To be honest, she enjoyed the hell out of it, and as far as Ginny is concerned, that should be the end of the story. Problem is, no one else seems able to let it go. The community can't bear to let a woman like Ginny off the hook. Not with an attitude like hers. With detours through time, space, and myth, not to mention into the minds of a pack of philosophical mules, Pity the Beast heralds the arrival of a major new voice in American letters. It is a novel that turns our assumptions about the West, masculinity, good and evil, and the very nature of storytelling onto their heads, with an eye to the cosmic as well as the comic. It urges us to write our stories anew--if we want to avoid becoming beasts ourselves.

After outsmarting the beast that was planning to eat him, a piglet stays on to cook for the beast.

Beauty kills the Beast transports us to imaginary worlds through very real stories. Four short tales, told as metaphors to actual societal issues, state the struggles of young characters facing emotional abuse, social discrimination, transgender identity, drugs and human trafficking. Each story introduces us to the circumstances and emotional conditions lived by each character, under a close analysis of the author where she calls our attention to issues of self-esteem, respect for oneself and others, forgiveness, gratitude and love, and invites us, the reader, to voice our own point of view and face our own fears to empower ourselves for a better world. Each story faces the problem, goes through an analysis and opens to the endless possibilities of a life lived with love, knowing that all good is within and that with positive mindfulness and faith one can achieve the unthinkable and overcome any obstacles. The book is addressed to the young at heart and its intention is to shed light on modern issues and give a hand in the search for ones power and true love.

After falling off the roof, fifteen-year-old misfit Dylan must attend a therapy group for self-harmers where he meets Jamie, a beautiful and amazing person he doesn't know is transgender.

New York Times Bestselling Author Sarah MacLean returns with the next book in the Bareknuckle Bastards series about three brothers bound by a secret that they cannot escape—and the women who bring them to their knees. The Lady’s Plan When Lady Henrietta Sedley declares her twenty-ninth year her own, she has plans to inherit her father’s business, to make her own fortune, and to live her own life. But first, she intends to experience a taste of the pleasure she’ll forgo as a confirmed spinster. Everything is going perfectly…until she discovers the most beautiful man she’s ever seen tied up in her carriage and threatening to ruin the Year of Hattie before it’s even begun. The Bastard’s Proposal When he wakes in a carriage at Hattie’s feet, Whit, a king of Covent Garden known to all the world as Beast, can’t help but wonder about the strange woman who frees him—especially when he discovers she’s headed for a night of pleasure . . . on his turf. He is more than happy to offer Hattie all she desires…for a price. An Unexpected Passion Soon, Hattie and Whit find themselves rivals in business and pleasure. She won’t give up her plans; he won’t give up his power . . . and neither of them sees that if they’re not careful, they’ll have no choice but to give up everything . . . including their hearts.

"The Beast of Kukuyo is a gripping mystery told through the eyes of 15-year-old Rune Mathura and set in the 1990s. The gritty tale begins with the disappearance of Dumplin Heera, a fifteen year-old East Indian girl in the quiet rural village of Kukuyo. The murder happens while the town is plunged in darkness and the story unveils a deeper moral darkness festering beneath the surface. In part driven by her keen interest in crime fiction, particularly Murder She Wrote, Rune decides that she has seen too much tragedy without redress. Having lost her mother in a senseless act of violence, Rune is unable to sit still when her classmate, Dumpling Heera, is found dead in their village. Rune, an incredibly resourceful young woman, sees this as her chance to make a difference and dives headfirst into a swirling mess of secrets buried in the heart of her village. She bucks against the ease with which villagers try to get back to normal and get over the atrocity. But this is no Nancy Drew novle. Rune soon learns that despite her best intentions her eagerness to right this wrong leaves her almost blind to the truth, and the nuances that colour justice."--Amazon.com.

What this book really is, is a fascinating little memoir, by a lady involved in the early movement in the US, for the humane treatment of animals, which later became the ASPCA. It's a small cameo of the late 1800's; a quite charming sample of some of the more thoughtful among the comfortable classes in conversation at their summer hotel. OK, diletantish, yet they were some of the people who brought us important reforms of the 19th century.