Mara L. Keire’s history of red-light districts in the United States offers readers a fascinating survey of the business of pleasure from the 1890s through the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Anti-vice reformers in the late nineteenth century accepted that complete eradication of disreputable pleasure was impossible. Seeking a way to regulate rather than eliminate prostitution, alcohol, drugs, and gambling, urban reformers confined sites of disreputable pleasure to red-light districts in cities throughout the United States. They dismissed the extremes of prohibitory law and instead sought to limit the impact of vice on city life through realistic restrictive measures. Keire’s thoughtful work examines the popular culture that developed within red-light districts, as well as efforts to contain vice in such cities as New Orleans; Hartford, Connecticut; New York City; Macon, Georgia; San Francisco; and El Paso, Texas. Keire describes the people and practices in red-light districts, reformers' efforts to limit their impact on city life, and the successful closure of the districts during World War I. Her study extends into Prohibition and discusses the various effects that scattering vice and banning alcohol had on commercial nightlife.

IT'S BEEN A BUSINESS DOING PLEASURE WITH YOU is my autobiography of being a high profile gay escort, from early military upbringing and its clashes with my young gay identity, to tales of leaving home under threat of shotgun. Going out into the world I made my way to find a niche of survival, only to discover soon afterwards that I had something far harder to survive, a virus called HIV. With the lost lives of friends, lovers, and dogs, I met many in my Hollywood movie like life, famous and not so famous. In my pursuit of happiness I often found myself as shaman to many souls, some lost. Sometimes sex was the last thing required, instead many needed to be held or touched, and to be reassured of their humanity. This was not lost to me, I embraced it, as kindness was healing. Rounding out my years in the oldest profession are some bits of wisdom, folly, and finally closure with my father after years of distance with his gay son.

The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of commercial profits and intense competition for status. The Confusions of Pleasure marks a significant departure from the conventional ways in which Chinese history has been written. Rather than recounting the Ming dynasty in a series of political events and philosophical achievements, it narrates this longue durée in terms of the habits and strains of everyday life. Peppered with stories of real people and their negotiations of a rapidly changing world, this book provides a new way of seeing the Ming dynasty that not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of the period but also provides an entertaining and accessible introduction to Chinese history for anyone.

Matthew Callahan has spent seven years struggling against the insatiable hunger for blood consuming him. Unable to stop the vampire inside from preying on humans, he keeps himself confined to a lonely existence. Everything changes the night he is lured into a trap and taken prisoner by High Lord General Tarrick-a seductive incubus who feeds off sexual energy. Forced into the middle of a war between vampires and incubi, Matthew is used as a weapon against his own kind. Although he's desperate for freedom, he is unable to deny the burning desire drawing him to the incubus general he now calls Master.

The authoritative guide to the etiquette of taking tea for business or pleasure.

Alec: I'm in my thirties and life is...well not boring, but uneventful despite being CEO of the family company. Just how I like it. Then I meet Lumen, a woman who challenges everything in such an irresistible way. For once in my life I can see myself in a relationship. There's one problem though, she's off limits. Lumen: Growing up in foster care wasn't the nightmare for me as it was for some, but life hasn't been easy. I work hard, focus on my goals, and I never let things distract me, specifically men and relationships. Until one rainy Seattle night when a gorgeous hunk walks into the spa where I work.When billionaire Alec McCrae mistakes Lumen Browne's workplace for a "happy ending" massage parlor, things get more complicated than he prefers. Especially when their lives become entwined in ways never imagined. Don't miss Off Limits, the first book in The Scottish Billionaire, M. S. Parker's latest romance series.