A #1 bestseller from one of Britain’s most popular novelists. • An all-consuming story revolving around the consequences of a desperate act. • "Nobody writes page-turning women's fiction like Vincenzi." —USA Today Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand. When they go their separate ways, they vow to get together in London the following year. But many years pass before the three cross paths again, and the once-capricious, carefree girls now all have thriving careers. One of them, however, harbors a terrible secret: On her return from her pre-college excursion, she abandoned her just-born daughter at Heathrow. Clio has fulfilled her ambition of becoming a doctor, only to find herself trapped in a marriage to an arrogant surgeon who belittles her and her professional achievements. Martha is a highly paid corporate lawyer, just embarking on a political career. Dedicated to her job, she has had little time for personal relationships and lives a busy, but lonely life. Jocasta, a tabloid newspaper reporter with an infallible instinct for the big story, is in love with a charming colleague who can’t make the permanent commitment she longs for. The infant abandoned at Heathrow has grown up under the loving care of her adoptive family. Now a beautiful teenager named Kate, she sets out to find her birth mother—a quest that unexpectedly brings the women together and exposes the secret buried so many years before. Impossible to put down, Sheer Abandon is top-notch women’s fiction.

A century-old mystery—and a desperate battle to survive—unfold in this standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion. On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote mining town disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone found. Now, journalist Abigail Foster and her historian father have set out to explore the long-abandoned town and learn what happened. With them are two backcountry guides—along with a psychic and a paranormal photographer who are there to investigate rumors that the town is haunted. But Abigail and her companions are about to learn that the town’s ghosts are the least of their worries. Twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they realize they are not alone. The ordeal that follows will test this small team past the breaking point as they battle the elements and human foes alike—and discover that the town’s secrets still have the power to kill. Part journey into old-West history, part nail-biting survival thriller, Abandon is a bloody, darkly surprising tale as only Blake Crouch could deliver.

_____________________________ POWER Two clever, stylish and ambitious women are fighting for control of a multi-million cosmetics empire. MYSTERY What is the secret that lies behind its charming, ruthless creator, Julian Morell? And why, when he dies, does he leave half his forturne to a complete stranger? GLAMOUR Here are the designer interiors, the jewels, cars and to-die-for couture of the rich and the super-rich - the glittering, fabulous world Julian created for himself, and the women who loved him. PASSION And here is a love story - poignant, sexy, tempestuous - featuring a mother, a mistress, a wife and a daughter, all of whom are overshadowed by ... old sins. PRAISE FOR PENNY VINCENZI "This super-glossy first novel...catches the passing reflection, the sheen and glitter of things, spying out the trends...make no mistake, this is contemporary writing" Guardian "Like a glass of champagne: bubbly, moreish and you don't want it to end... A fantastic read" Daily Express "Penny is the doyenne of the modern blockbuster" Glamour

In this landmark work, noted comparative philosopher Roger T. Ames interprets how the classics of the Confucian canon portray the authentic, ethical human being. He argues that many distinguished commentators on Confucian ethics have explained the fundamental ideas and terms of this distinctively Chinese philosophy by superimposing Western concepts and categories, effectively collapsing this rich tradition into a subcategory of "virtue ethics." Beginning by addressing the problem of responsible cultural comparisons, Ames then formulates the interpretive context necessary to locate the texts within their own cultural ambiance. Exploring the relational notion of "person" that grounds Confucian philosophy, he pursues a nuanced understanding of the cluster of terms through which Confucian role ethics is expressed. Drawing on Western and Chinese sources, Ames provides a convincing argument that the only way to understand the Confucian vision of the consummate life is to take the tradition on its own terms.

In the free church tradition, the pastoral prayer has long assumed an important place in the worship of the congregation. It is expected that the pastor will have a more or less extended prayer pertinent to the day and/or to the run of the service in general. Under the circumstances of normal practice, these would involve awareness of a congregation, or a "flock" for a pastor to tend. After ending a normal pastorate and entering retirement and the far more occasional happenstance of entering a pulpit as a guest, the regular preparation for a worship-leading practice became desirable, personally. As a part of that preparation, most often without entering the leadership of worship, least of all as pastor, the pastoral prayer was prepared. This book collects eleven years worth of pastoral prayers, linked to the preaching text of the day by way of the sermon prepared. As there is no flock as reference point, these are, indeed, "Without A Flock".

An analysis of the ways in which Shakespeare's imagery functions to reveal literary and personal motives.