A sparkling, moving, utterly charming new novel from the incomparable Sarah-Kate Lynch Annie Jordan never wanted to go to India: there were too many poor people and the wrong sorts of smells. But when she ends up there anyway, to her great surprise it’s not the beggars that cling to her, it’s the lessons in life — courtesy of Heavenly Hirani and her beachside laughing yoga. This endearing new novel by Sarah-Kate Lynch will reconfirm for her fans what a master she is of humour, exploring and understanding human experience and creating a vivid world around her utterly believable characters.

Yoga has offered the Indian state unprecedented opportunities for global, media-savvy political performance. Under Modi, it has promoted yoga tourism and staged mass yoga sessions, and Indian officials have proposed yoga as a national solution to a range of social problems, from reducing rape to curing cancer. But as yoga has gone global, its cultural meanings have spiraled far and wide. In Flexible India, Shameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an exercise in cultural power. Drawing on her own experience and her readings of political spectacles, yoga murder mysteries, court cases, art installations, and digital media, Black shows how yoga’s imaginative power supports diverse political and cultural ends. Although many cultural practices in today’s India exemplify “culture wars” between liberal and conservative agendas, Flexible India argues that visions of yoga offer a “culture peace” that conceals, without resolving, such tensions. This flexibility allows states, corporations, and individuals to think of themselves as welcoming and tolerant while still, in many cases, supporting practices that make minority populations increasingly vulnerable. However, as Black shows, yoga can also be imagined in ways that offer new tools for critiquing hierarchical structures of power and race, Hindu nationalism, cultural appropriation, and self-help capitalism.

A funny, touching, endearing romp towards happiness by one of New Zealand's best-loved writers. 'In 1997 I wrote my first book about always being on a diet but never being thin. I wanted to call it Screw You Dolores after an anecdote that I felt summed up the attitude I wanted to promote, but my publisher at the time said it was too rude; that little old ladies might be too embarrassed to ask for it or booksellers might want to hide it in brown paper bags. 'In 2013 I wrote my twelfth book and called it Screw You, Dolores. It’s about knowing when to do what someone tells you to do, and knowing when to tell them to stick it up their jacksie.' This first book in Sarah-Kate Lynch's Wicked Approach To ... series tackles the subject of happiness, and how and where to find it — especially when you hit that milestone birthday of 50. Just like its author, it's sharp, full of attitude, funny and sassy. Buy it for yourself or for a friend for a good giggle. And buy it because, as she explores how to make herself happy by ignoring the expectations of others, Sarah-Kate Lynch finds great wisdom too.

Afternoon tea has never been so much fun! A bittersweet novel about life, living and the importance of cupcakes. Rotten things happen in threes in Florence’s family, so when she’s fired by her best friend and left by her husband in the space of a single afternoon, she knows there is yet more trouble brewing. And when her son Monty returns from his gap year Down Under it’s only too clear what, or who, that trouble is. Then the plan to turn her crumbling home into a tea room hits a snag, the macramé at her sister’s house starts to seriously unravel, and why is her doctor leaving so many messages? Enter Will, a mysterious handyman with a secret stash of chocolate truffles, and soon life – with all its hiccups – is just her cup of tea.

Sugar Wallace did not believe in love at first sight, but her bees did. . . . Every spring Sugar Wallace coaxes her sleepy honeybee queen—presently the sixth in a long line of Queen Elizabeths—out of the hive and lets her crawl around a treasured old map. Wherever the queen stops is their next destination, and this year it's New York City. Sugar sets up her honeybees on the balcony of an East Village walk-up and then––as she's done everywhere since leaving South Carolina––she gets to know her neighbors. She is, after all, a former debutante who believes that manners make the world a better place even if they seem currently lacking in the big city. Plus, she has a knack for helping people. There's Ruby with her scrapbook of wedding announcements; single mom Lola; reclusive chef Nate; and George, a courtly ex-doorman. They may not know what to make of her bees and her politeness, but they can't deny the magic in her honey. And then there's Theo, a delightfully kind Scotsman who crosses Sugar's path as soon as she gets into town and is quickly besotted. But love is not on the menu for Sugar. She likes the strong independent woman she's become since leaving the South and there's nothing a charmer like Theo can do to change her mind . . . only her bees can do that. The Wedding Bees is a novel about finding sweetness where you least expect it and learning to love your way home.

Explores the central role the aesthetic played in energising the massive mobilisations of young people, the disaffected, the middle classes and the apolitical silent majority in the North African and Middle Eastern uprisings with protest movements such as Occupy.

Details The Present Way Of Life Of The Kalbelias Of Rajasthan Whose Occupation Is Snake Charmers. Describes Their Religious Orientation As Naths, Their Work As Healers, Spirit Mediums, Entertainers, Beggars, And Labourers. Also Describes Thier System Of Dispute Settlement, Brideservice, Marriage, Death And Inheritance. Has 9 Chapters And 4 Appendices And Illustration.