At fifty, Alice Adams isn't looking for love. Nor is she looking for a new home. She's settled into widowhood and anticipating the arrival of her only daughter's first child. Then she meets Leighton Walker, and love turns her world upside down. Giddy like an infatuated teenager, Alice finds herself wanting to spend as much time as possible with the man who shares so many of her interests. But Leighton Walker is settled into his own life on the coast, with family and business needs over a hundred and fifty miles from Alice's secure world. Can Leighton overcome distance, his family's skepticism, and the conniving efforts of a long-time friend to claim him for her own? Or will the sea beckon him to retain his normal life and refuse a second chance at at love?

Hi, my name is Sara. Sea has always fascinated me. I love to spend leisurely hours by its shores in quietude, for that's how I converse with it. My inhibited emotions and yearnings find their expression under its compassionate care. But my days are far from a smooth sail. And only when I have started to believe in the promises of life, the unwelcoming twist of fate has shattered me from within. Eventually, exhausted emotionally by my unending dilemmas and frustrations, I decide to go my way in the pursuit of my inner callings. I am out to explore the possibilities that cross my path. In my journey, I come across many loving and interesting people who support and guide me in their own ways. But as is the supreme rule in life, a roller coaster ride awaits me as well. I can either get overwhelmed by the experience of it or simply enjoy the ups, the downs, the twists and the turns of this ride. I often wonder where my destiny would lead me to. Walk along with me as I endeavor to discover my true self. Shikhar Gupta is professionally serving as a scientist in ISRO. Since childhood, he has had an inclination towards various forms of art and creative activities, be it drawing, doing paper craft, singing, playing on harmonium, composing poems or writing one page essays which gave him a kick and courage to try his hand on writing a novel. This novel in your hand is his maiden novel. Connect with Shikhar on his twitter handle @shikhar_musafir or mail him at [email protected]

Looking back, author Bernhard J. Abrahamsson cannot say exactly why, at age fourteen, he chose a seafaring life. Perhaps, the choice was less the result of deliberate design and pursuit than of circumstances that led him in that direction. In The Beckoning Sea, Abrahamsson, a native of Sweden, shares the short stories and vignettes from a youth spent dreaming of seeing the world. This memoir narrates his experiences when he joined the Swedish Merchant Marine and sailed all over the world on Swedish and Israeli merchant ships through the 1950s. He passed the sea captain's exam in 1953 and was licensed as a captain in 1958, reaching the rank of commander in the Swedish Naval Reserve before becoming a US citizen. Funny and sad events mesh to form a picture of seafaring as it once was--of a lifestyle that no longer exists. The Beckoning Sea offers stories of friendship, loss and madness at sea, the forces of nature, and life in the rough ports of the Baltic coal trade immediately after World War II. A tale of a boy's journey to adulthood, The Beckoning Sea also contains a collection of memories and often comical stories from Abrahamsson's own second chapter--his life after leaving the sea and planting his feet on firm ground.

A mercenary discovers ancient horrors made flesh beneath the surface of a long-gone antediluvian ocean; an all-female submariner crew on a water world fall prey to sirens that sing of their deepest desires; and a selkie, held against her will in marriage, seeks to be reunited with her people. These are but a few of the stories featured in The Sea, offered up by Alex Hughes, Amy Lee Burgess, Andrea Jones, Anna Reith, Barry King, Benjamin Knox, Camille Griep, Diane Awerbuck, Don Webb, J.C. Piech, Rob Porteous, Simon Dewar, Steve Jones, Toby Bennett, and Wayne Goodchild. Plunge into watery worlds where mystery, horror or wonder await.

This timely follow-up to Conway's highly successful Marine Art of Geoff Hunt (2004) presents the considerable artistic output of Britain's leading marine painter since 2003. This new volume is heavily illustrated with images ranging from large paintings to sketchbook drawings with text written by the artist himself. The new book reflects Hunt's developing career during a time in which he served a five-year term as President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, worked on large-scale paintings such as the definitive Mary Rose,and also completed numerous outdoor sketches and paintings. The book is divided into six sections: 1. The Sea Painter's World, an introduction to the artist's studio work at Merton Place, London and his plein air work on the River Thames; 2. Home Waters; 3. The Mediterranean; 4. In the Wake of Nelson; 5. North America and 6. The West Indies and Beyond. This concept sets Geoff's work in a broadly geographical context, showcasing the artist's freer plein air style alongside the exhaustively researched maritime history paintings to which he owes his standing as Britain's leading marine artist.