Love and family life in the global age: grandparents in Salonika and their grandson in London speak together every evening via Skype. A U.S. citizen and her Swiss husband fret over large telephone bills and high travel costs. A European couple can finally have a baby with the help of an Indian surrogate mother. In their new book, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim investigate all types of long-distance relationships, marriages and families that stretch across countries, continents and cultures. These long-distance relationships comprise so many different forms of what they call ‘world families’, by which they mean love and intimate relationships between individuals living in, or coming from, different countries or continents. In all their various forms these world families share one feature in common: they are the focal point in which different aspects of the globalized world become embodied in the personal lives of individuals. Whether they like it or not, lovers and relatives in these families find themselves confronting the world in the inner space of their own lives. The conflicts between the developed and developing worlds come to the surface in world families- they acquire faces and names, creating confusion, surprise, anger, joy, pleasure and pain at the heart of everyday life. This path-breaking book will appeal to a wide readership interested in the changing character of love in our times.

For Edward, Elizabeth is the epitome of the perfect woman-black hair, creamy skin, and a voluptuous body that begged to be touched. He considers her his soul mate, with one problem: her husband, Michael, an attention-hungry, self-centered jerk, who Edward considers to be an imposter in his perfect world. The three of them have been friends for thirty years, but Edward has never made his feelings about Elizabeth known ... until now. It begins harmlessly enough-a few sexy notes and playful gifts from a secret admirer. Elizabeth would never suspect Edward, and he wants to keep it that way, to shield them both from scandal. But the notes and gifts escalate, until Edward finds himself pulled into the depths of obsession, stalking Elizabeth and watching her every move. Edward's love from a distance is soon out of control. As he loses his grasp on reality, he also loses his grasp on sanity. Told from the perspective of a man tumbling down the tunnel of madness, Distant Love details Edward's addiction to Elizabeth, from innocent to evil. Is it possible for Edward to peer into the darkness and return to face the light? Or will his harmless game mean the end of his life-and perhaps, the life of someone else?

When Claire Draper's fictional love story goes viral in the wake of a pandemic, the line between reality and fiction is blurred. But will she be able to tell the difference? Claire is a junior in high school when a worldwide pandemic strikes, and she's in the epicenter of it all in New York City. Suddenly, Claire is forced to isolate with her family indefinitely, which means she won't be able to see her friends or even her girlfriend, Vanessa, in person for a long time. At first it's not so bad, but the longer the pandemic lasts, the more Claire feels her priorities changing. That's when she looks outside her bedroom window and notices something new: A girl who lives in the building across the street sitting on her fire escape. So Claire starts writing a story online about a girl who falls for the girl across the street. To Claire's surprise, the story goes viral-and it seems people think true. But how true is true? And what if Vanessa finds out? Will Claire be able to manage her newfound internet fame before everything spirals out of control?

Love is impossible to understand in its entirety, especially when we are in love with someone else. Distant lover is a walk through three stages of love and how we find ourselves trapped in its grip, struggling to make sense of where to go and how to get there.

Tandi Crawford feels trapped in a sexless, loveless marriage to her husband Jared. She begins to fantasise about a boy she dated when she was seventeen, turning a blind eye to the good man her husband is. She takes her son and flees her marriage, ending up on her father's doorstep - a place she vowed never to return to. Old grudges are ignited and Tandi is forced to send her son home to her husband, becoming trapped in her father's home when the old man has a stroke. Tandi turns to her best friend Evonne for support - but Evonne is after Tandi's husband.

Set in the Rose City of Portland, Oregon, the All-4-Love series evolves around Alley's wacky relationship toggles and family issues. Sure, typical family problems can be repeated snores when it comes to reading, but I've taken it to wild and crazy heights and it should keep all readers glued to the end. Distant Lover is about protagonist Alley's yearning for someone that seems hard to reel in. He yearns for Lavida Jones, but she is entangled in parenting, job, and ex-fiancé problems. The story opens with Alley being the ultimate, unemployed, and complete loser. Not only is Alley suddenly blessed with finding job security, he meets his distant lover on a bus. Together, Alley and Lavida survive all the wacky challenges: A stalking bum that eventually cleans up his alcoholic behaviors, returns to the bottle, and ends up dead by the end of Distant Lover. The gangster son of Lavida, who threatened to shoot Alley if marriage came up, ends up shot and finds that Jesus is his best friend. The ex-fiancé and part time Jamaican pimp, Robert, ends up the most hated villain you'll ever read about.

A narrative reminiscent of Phileas Fogg meets Professor Challenger, featuring the exploits of scientist-cum-adventurer Doctor Ludweg Phinagler, as recorded by his (semi-)faithful assistant, Fosse. A maverick academic, Phinagler, mounts a series of expeditions, confronting ancient mysteries and deadly dangers.