Vin Armani - the most notorious sexual iconoclast of our generation - presents his personalphilosophy in TAO of the GIGOLO. With a focus on sex and relationships, the author illustrates the path he developed that led him to become a straight male escort and carried him to the highest echelons of that profession. This book is written as a primer for those readers seeking guidance towards refining their skills in the romantic arts. Though designed to be a starting point for the novice in the Art Of Seduction, Tao Of The Gigolo stands as a pivotal work due to Armani's unique perspective on the metaphysics of love and sexual attraction - a perspective that is simultaneously refreshing, provocative, and controversial.

This 1922 collection of eight stories features "The Afternoon of a Faun," "Old Man Minick," "Gigolo," "Not a Day Over Twenty-one," "Home Girl," "Ain't Nature Wonderful!" "The Sudden Sixties," and "If I Should Ever Travel!" The title story was made into a 1926 movie—the first but not the last of her tales to be filmed.

This is the definitive, widely acclaimed translation of the major prose work of one of our century's greatest poets -- "a masterpiece like no other" (Elizabeth Hardwick) -- Rilke's only novel, extraordinary for its structural uniqueness and purity of language. First published in 1910, it has proven to be one of the most influential and enduring works of fiction of our century. Malte Laurids Brigge is a young Danish nobleman and poet living in Paris. Obsessed with death and with the reality that lurks behind appearances, Brigge muses on his family and their history and on the teeming, alien life of the city. Many of the themes and images that occur in Rilke's poetry can also be found in the novel, prefiguring the modernist movement in its self-awareness and imagistic immediacy.

“A thriller, and a whacking good thriller, too . . . shows how much can be done within a classic form by a writer who knows his business.”—The New York Times Alex Cutter is a scarred and crippled Vietnam veteran, obsessed with a murder he’s convinced his buddy, Richard Bone, witnessed. That it was committed by the powerful tycoon JJ Wolfe only makes Cutter even surer that Bone saw the unthinkable. Captivated by Cutter’s demented logic, Bone is prepared to cross the country with Cutter in search of proof of the murder. Their quest takes them into the Ozarks—home base of the Wolfe empire—where Bone discovers that Cutter is pursuing both a cold-blooded killer, but also an even bigger and more elusive enemy. “Tense, funny, and despairing . . . charged with a passion that makes even grotesques seem likeable and, more important, credible right up to the last, startling sentence.”—Time “May be the quintessential cult crime classic . . . continues to be cited by other writers as groundbreaking . . . The ending is pure Chinatown, with a dose of Easy Rider, and it leaves us reeling.”—Booklist (starred review) Praise for Newton Thornburg “A commanding writer of unusual delicacy and power.”—The New Yorker “A born storyteller.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “One of the truly great American writers of the 20th century.”—The Guardian

"The Geriatric Gigolo" is a new erotic romance novel, by Randall "Randy" Jones. This novel is a sequel to his previous erotic romance called "A Sensuous Businessman." This book is about how Randall, a sixty-two year-old man, finds himself in heavy debt after a series of business failure. He decides, after reading hundreds of personal online profiles to become a gigolo catering to older, wealthy divorcees and widows. He finds most of his clients on online dating sites. He becomes a one-man escort service to a wide range of mature women with unique sexual appetites. With the ever-present help of Cialis, his charm, and his well-honed bedroom skills, Randall sets out to clear his massive debt with the help of a number of lovely, lonely, rich women. Randall reveals his most intimate feelings about some of his most memorable clients. He also makes us privy to the details of his exotic life style and the mature women who are willing to pay for his "escort" services.

What makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation. Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step. The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. It will change the way you read.

Hollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today’s bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have created a durable tradition—one that we should not be ashamed to call artistic, and one that survives in both mainstream entertainment and niche-marketed indie cinema. Bordwell traces the continuity of this tradition in a wide array of films made since 1960, from romantic comedies like Jerry Maguire and Love Actually to more imposing efforts like A Beautiful Mind. He also draws upon testimony from writers, directors, and editors who are acutely conscious of employing proven principles of plot and visual style. Within the limits of the "classical" approach, innovation can flourish. Bordwell examines how imaginative filmmakers have pushed the premises of the system in films such as JFK, Memento, and Magnolia. He discusses generational, technological, and economic factors leading to stability and change in Hollywood cinema and includes close analyses of selected shots and sequences. As it ranges across four decades, examining classics like American Graffiti and The Godfather as well as recent success like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this book provides a vivid and engaging interpretation of how Hollywood moviemakers have created a vigorous, resourceful tradition of cinematic storytelling that continues to engage audiences around the world.