This is a story about relationshipsbonds of passion between men and women. The drama revolves around six individuals, their amorous intimacies, and the unperceived wounds and psychological mutilation they sustain as they plummet into the Intimacy Maelstrom. Dmitri is a self-absorbed, young Russian intent on achieving the American dream, and thinks little of marriage and fatherhood. In contrast, unattractive Irina desperately fears becoming an old-maid. Her work colleague, Caroline, older, sophisticated, despite having a soul-mate, is bored and seeking breathtaking romance. In his twilight years, Dr. Ramirez is dispirited in his burned-out marriage, but believes he is too old to alter his life, until meeting sexy Claire, a patient. Unfortunately Nina, his wife, is an old-fashioned woman who believes only marriage, children, and family bring fulfillment. Into this mlange comes Ronny, her sonhandsome, sexy, a sensualistwho adores women, but in his own aberrant, warped manner. The author paints, in vivid colors, a picture of tormented lives entangled in passionate but toxic, perverted, unhealthy relationships. Although the lovers may strip themselves of their lacerating liaisons, do they walk away unscathed and unscarred? The novel illumines the imperceptible damage and mayhem sustained when our lives and happiness depend upon fickle, unreliable love from others. The bold, flaming, shattering scenes portrayed may have one gasping for fresh air and sunshine.

Love, Intimacy and Online Dating: How a Global Pandemic Redefined Romantic Relationships is an innovative work that explores the concept of intimacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book provides an overview of the online dating world and apps, the use of which gradually became common as the pandemic restricted people’s interaction in the physical world. The author’s extensive research conducted during the pandemic posits a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s motivation to join a dating app and explores its varied aspects. This thoroughly researched book explores the themes and elements of online dating and examines the users’ motivation for joining a dating app, for seeking intimacy as well as for self-presentation on the app. Portolan examines the underlying politics and role of infrastructure of dating apps and describes how gender, power, and intimacy intersect to create new intimacy phenomena. She also utilises her research to put forth the key concept of "Jagged Love", which describes a user’s cyclical relationship with dating apps during the pandemic, and the gap between a user’s act to seek familiar romantic narratives and the app’s inability to deliver against these ideas. The chapters further explore the differences between virtual and In Real Life (IRL) intimacy, the generation of gender and the emanation of stereotypical cultural ideals that the users sought through the apps. The book serves as an invaluable discussion on the pandemic’s impact on modifying the definitions of romance and intimacy. This book will be useful for highlighting the impact social factors can have on familiar concepts and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the definition of love and intimacy, making it fascinating for students, academics and professionals interested in relationships, digital media and gender. It will also be useful in enhancing the comprehension of love and romance in the fields of social science.

A modern-day women’s manifesto: a look at how love, romance, and the digital domain police women's behaviours. Be the cool girl and get the guy. Otherwise you're ... Too fat or too thin; too clever or too stupid; too free or too restricted. You need to be .... Pretty but relatable, not difficult, not demanding - yes, virtually invisible. Play down your attributes, your wants, your needs and most definitely, don't be high maintenance! The term “high-maintenance” is part of everyday speech, and usually refers to a woman who places a high value on her personal image, wants or needs. Often uttered within the context of dating, the implication is the woman in question is too much hard work. Rarely, if ever, do we come across the term “high-maintenance man”. On a daily basis women are deliberately portraying themselves as “low-maintenance”, “chill” and “cool”. Hidden behind these seemingly insignificant, even innocuous words, is something far more sinister. They tend to describe the multitude of ways women reign themselves in to appease men. The “high-maintenance” woman is too much to handle – confirming known stereotypes that women are expected to be quiet, subservient, opinion-less, and always amenable. That they shouldn’t be difficult. This rhetoric is dangerous. It teaches women around the world, and distressingly, the next generation that they need to play into a male stereotype of what a woman should be – and that’s smaller, and less than. This is a call to arms to women. To take up as much space as you like. To be as clever, as madeup, as dull, as vibrant, as curious, or as difficult as you choose.To live wildly. To occupy and embrace different spaces. This is your moment to be, yes, high maintenance. Embrace it

In American Maelstrom, Michael A. Cohen captures the full drama of this watershed election, establishing 1968 as the hinge between the decline of political liberalism and the ascendancy of conservative populism and the anti-government attitudes that continue to dominate the nation's political discourse, taking us to the source of the politics of division.

It was upon moving to New York City from my hometown of Pittsburgh that I first noticed this strange phenomenon. In Pittsburgh, I mostly rode around in a car driven by my mother or father. But in New York, arriving at the age of 19, I walked the streets and rode the subways, mixing with the citizenry of the famous city. It was then that I first became aware of it. People continuously stared at me! Or they yelled out comments ... or mumbled them under their breath as they passed. Or they simply made faces—grimaced, smiled, laughed, looked puzzled, angry, bewildered, amused, or showed disdain and contempt. Or, they would pass me and then stop to look back ... or look over their shoulder as they walked. For sure, traversing the streets of the great city, I seemed to create for others a mini-sideshow of sorts. But ... why were they staring at me? And why were they yelling out comments? And why were they making faces? I remember, many times, moving from the middle of the sidewalk, into a sheltered doorway, fumbling in my purse for my mirror, and then looking to see what was wrong. Why was I causing a commotion? “Maybe a bird has pooped into my hair?” “Maybe I have a huge, black spot of city soot on my face?” “Maybe my makeup is smeared in some amusing way?” “Maybe my hair has blown around to create some bizarre hair-do?” Such were my thoughts. But never could I find anything strange! I just saw my face ... as I had always seen it. Granted, I did wear a lot of makeup—an almost white makeup base, green eye shadow, black mascara, pink rouge, red lipstick, and heavy black eyeliner, top and bottom. But New York had lots of theatrical people—actresses, Broadway dancers, theater performers—who wore makeup. I didn’t think my makeup to be that extreme or outstanding in any way. Indeed, I had seen far more interesting makeup than mine!

Second in the Rifters Trilogy, Hugo Award-winning author Peter Watts' Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir. This is the way the world ends: A nuclear strike on a deep sea vent. The target was an ancient microbe—voracious enough to drive the whole biosphere to extinction—and a handful of amphibious humans called rifters who'd inadvertently released it from three billion years of solitary confinement. The resulting tsunami killed millions. It's not as through there was a choice: saving the world excuses almost any degree of collateral damage. Unless, of course, you miss the target. Now North America's west coast lies in ruins. Millions of refugees rally around a mythical figure mysteriously risen from the deep sea. A world already wobbling towards collapse barely notices the spread of one more blight along its shores. And buried in the seething fast-forward jungle that use to be called Internet, something vast and inhuman reaches out to a woman with empty white eyes and machinery in her chest. A woman driven by rage, and incubating Armageddon. Her name is Lenie Clarke. She's a rifter. She's not nearly as dead as everyone thinks. And the whole damn world is collateral damage as far as she's concerned. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Dan B. Allender and Tremper Longman III have together written this brief, simple and engaging introduction to help couples build healthy and happy marriages. Following the "leave, weave and cleave" imagery of the Bible, they help couples learn how to leave their parents, weave a life together and cleave to each other.