Anna S Story

At 15 Anna Wood went to a party and took an ecstasy tablet. Three days later she was dead. A life destroyed. A family devastated. She was just fifteen. She was leaving school to start the job of her dreams. She was beautiful, she had a loving family and countless friends. Yet on 21 October 1995, Anna Wood took an ecstasy tablet at a dance party and died three days later. A life destroyed, a family devastated, a community in shock. Bronwyn Donaghy interviewed friends, family members and numerous professionals in order to write the story of the circumstances surrounding Annaᱠdeath and of her family's decision to try and turn tragedy into a positive force for good. It is a story of our times, a story with powerful resonances for Anna's generation and their parents, for counsellors, doctors and teachers, for anyone who values the sanctity of life. 'As a teenager I have taken all kinds of drugs, not really knowing what they were and why I did it. then I found this book. I vowed never to take drugs again but itᱠjust a shame it took the life of a beautiful, talented girl to make me realise how dangerous it was.' BC, aged 17, New South Wales 'I have never tried illicit drugs and although I was curious to do so ... the information provided in this book has scared me away from that forever.' LO, aged 16, Western Australia 'I've had Mum and Dad give me lectures about not taking drugs and stuff but it didn't really affect me until I read Anna's Story and realised what they do to ordinary people just like me.' AE, aged 15, Queensland

Russia, 1905. Behind the gates of the Karenin Palace, Sergei, son of Anna Karenina, meets Tolstoy in his dreams and finds reminders of his mother everywhere: the almost-living portrait that the Tsar intends to acquire and the opium-infused manuscripts she wrote just before her death, one of which opens a trapdoor to a wild feminist fairytale. Across the city, Clementine, an anarchist seamstress, and Father Gapón, the charismatic leader of the proletariat, tip the country ever closer to revolution. Boullosa lifts the voices of coachmen, sailors, maids, and seamstresses in this playful, polyphonic, and subversive revision of the Russian revolution, told through the lens of Tolstoy’s most beloved work.

In 1927, at the age of two, Anna could not conceive at her tender age what the future held for her. She attempted several times to climb on the slab where her mother lay. When she finally succeeded the arduous climb, she sat beside her mother and sucked her thumb whilst trying to wake her. The candle in the room softened the stark reality of her mother’s death. Anna was born in a village of Old Hungary, Albertsdorf, which was situated in the county of Baranya. Her grandparents, Teresa and Anton, raises Anna and her sister, Kati, as their father abandons them for another woman. When WWII breaks out, this has a profound effect on Anna and the family. She, like so many others, finds herself in a dangerous dilemma as she comes to realise they are displaced persons and belong nowhere. Anna’s journey from her village will eventually lead her to a man who becomes her partner with the inclusion of a baby girl. They were interrogated in Hungary when they tried to escape to Austria. They eventually end up in Munich and find their way to the American zone. Anna finds her sister in Munich and discovers that their grandmother, Teresa, has died in a prison-of-war Yugoslavian concentration camp. They try to stay in Europe without success. The journey ends after they cross the Indian Ocean and find their way to Sydney, Australia, at Pyrmont wharf. This will become Anna’s new home.

Fearless optimist Anna sets off on an epic journey--teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven--to find her sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom. This storybook includes beautiful, full-color art in the style of the beloved film, Frozen.

Anna had everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere... Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Étienne St. Clair, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he's taken – and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?

A national indie bestseller! Meet Anna K: every happy teenage girl is the same, while every unhappy teenage girl is miserable in her own special way... At seventeen, Anna K is at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society (even if she prefers the company of her horses and dogs); she has the perfect (if perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander W.; and she has always made her Korean-American father proud (even if he can be a little controlling). Meanwhile, Anna's brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are trying to weather an sexting scandal; Lolly’s little sister, Kimmie, is struggling to recalibrate to normal life after an injury derails her ice dancing career; and Steven’s best friend, Dustin, is madly (and one-sidedly) in love with Kimmie. As her friends struggle with the pitfalls of ordinary teenage life, Anna always seems to be able to sail gracefully above it all. That is...until the night she meets Alexia “Count” Vronsky at Grand Central. A notorious playboy who has bounced around boarding schools and who lives for his own pleasure, Alexia is everything Anna is not. But he has never been in love until he meets Anna, and maybe she hasn’t, either. As Alexia and Anna are pulled irresistibly together, she has to decide how much of her life she is willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she is forced to question if she has ever known herself at all. Dazzlingly opulent and emotionally riveting, Anna K: A Love Story is a brilliant reimagining of Leo Tolstoy's timeless love story, Anna Karenina—but above all, it is a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER​ ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Sex and the City meets Bad Blood and Catch Me if You Can in the astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as an heiress in New York City—as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor who got seduced by her friendship and then scammed out of more than $62,000. Rachel DeLoache Williams’s new friend Anna Delvey, a self-proclaimed German heiress, was worldly and ambitious. She was also generous—picking up the tab for lavish dinners at Le Coucou, infrared sauna sessions at HigherDOSE, drinks at the 11 Howard Library bar, and regular workout sessions with a celebrity personal trainer. When Anna proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech at the five-star La Mamounia hotel, Rachel jumped at the chance. But when Anna’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, the dream vacation quickly took a dark turn. Anna asked Rachel to begin fronting costs—first for flights, then meals and shopping, and, finally, for their $7,500-per-night private villa. Before Rachel knew it, more than $62,000 had been charged to her credit cards. Anna swore she would reimburse Rachel the moment they returned to New York. Back in Manhattan, the repayment never materialized, and a shocking pattern of deception emerged. Rachel learned that Anna had left a trail of deceit—and unpaid bills—wherever she’d been. Mortified, Rachel contacted the district attorney, and in a stunning turn of events, found herself helping to bring down one of the city’s most notorious con artists. With breathless pacing and in-depth reporting from the person who experienced it firsthand, My Friend Anna is an unforgettable true story of “glamour, greed, lust for power” (The New York Times), and female friendship.