Before Bras Lia

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 My father, Rabbi Shaul Kaplan, was a short, stiff-shouldered man with flat, sad eyes and a high forehead that faded into a bald pate. He had called his own father Dad, but as a child I was not critical enough to reflect on the discrepancy between the little I knew of his history and his insistence that their way of life had always been as it was. #2 I was a child in the synagogue on Passover, when I heard that the butcher, a man as tall as a door, had yelled at my father in the synagogue, angry about some ruling my father had made. Because he got to hang out with the men, Elisha always overheard the best gossip. #3 I loved watching movies, and I especially loved watching Davie on-screen. One night, my parents brought me a Davie movie, and I fell in love with him.

"One of the wittiest, most playful, and . . . most alive and ageless books ever written." --Dave Eggers, The New Yorker A revelatory new translation of the playful, incomparable masterpiece of one of the greatest Black authors in the Americas A Penguin Classic The mixed-race grandson of ex-slaves, Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature, who has been championed by the likes of Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated also as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and halfhearted political ambitions, serves up harebrained philosophies, and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty, and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to the work of everyone from Cervantes to Sterne to Joyce to Nabokov to Borges to Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world. This new English translation is the first to include extensive notes providing crucial historical and cultural context. Unlike other editions, it also preserves Machado's original chapter breaks--each of the novel's 160 short chapters begins on a new page--and includes excerpts from previous versions of the novel never before published in English.

In a Brooklyn basement, Sima gives neighborhood women the support they need—but struggles with her own secrets: “Much more than a novel of female bonding” (Publishers Weekly). Sima Goldner runs her own bra shop, where her customers can find not only a perfect fit but also a sympathetic ear. The store, in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, is like a secret underground sisterhood where women of every shape and creed can share milestones, laughter, loves, and losses against a backdrop of discount lingerie. Day in and day out, Sima teaches other women to appreciate their bodies—yet feels betrayed by her own. Shamed by her infertility and a secret from her youth, she has given up on happiness and surrendered to a bitter marriage that has lasted over forty years. But then Timna, a young Israeli with enviable cleavage, becomes the shop seamstress. As the two work together, Sima finds herself awakened to long-lost yearnings for adventure and romance—and must decide if what she has is worth keeping. “A subtle, provocative, and utterly compelling examination of the friendship between two women.” —Michelle Richmond, New York Times–bestselling author of The Marriage Pact

Money can’t buy you love. But it can buy many other very nice things. Lia’s mum is a nag, her sister’s a pain and she’s getting nowhere in pursuit of the potentially paranormal Raf. Then she wins £8 million in the lottery, and suddenly everything is different. But will Lia’s fortune create more problems than it solves? Everyone dreams of winning the lottery - but what’s it really like? Find out in this hilarious story by Keren David, nominated for the Carnegie medal. Check out the fabulous Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery microsite at www.liasguidetowinningthelottery.co.uk

Lia Brooks has a broken heart and a burning desire to escape New York City. She decides Provincetown is the perfect winter escape to find some peace and regroup. Alex McKinnon is the pastry chef and proprietor of The Flour Pot Caf‚ in the heart of Provincetown. She loves owning her own business and the easy, no-strings-attached relationships that come with living in a gay tourist mecca. When Lia appears in the caf‚, the attraction is immediate. The passion between them promises more than a casual affair, but it?s never that simple. Women from Alex?s past pop up at the most inopportune times. Then there?s Lia?s ex, who brokers deals for a living and is unaccustomed to losing. Will Alex and Lia be able to overcome the roadblocks and find a happily ever after?

Murder. Romance. Dog slobber. Join starving artist Lia Anderson and her friends at Cincinnati’s Mount Airy Dog Park as they unravel mysteries in a series that “…continues to deliver for readers who enjoy thoughtfully crafted mysteries that combine elegant plot twists with characters, both human and canine, you'd love to have as friends.” —Stephen Campbell, CrimeFiction.FM This bundle contains the first four Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, written by C. A. Newsome, hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a true talent of the genre.” Book 1: A Shot in the Bark A grieving artist, a smitten detective, a devious killer: You never know who you'll meet at the dog park. Would you recognize a killer if you talked to one every day? Artist Lia Anderson doesn't. Neither do her friends at the Mount Airy Dog Park. When the apparent suicide of Lia’s deadbeat boyfriend draws the attention of Detective Peter Dourson, he decides to adopt the dead man’s dog to infiltrate the tight group he’s certain conceals Luthor Morrissey’s killer. As his investigation uncovers secrets, a grieving Lia fights her growing attraction to the laid-back detective. Meanwhile, Luthor's killer lurks, desperate to stay ahead of the investigation—no matter who has to die… Book 2: Drool Baby Who can you trust when everything you believe is wrong? Artist Lia Anderson survived the murder of her boyfriend and betrayal by a friend, emerging from trauma with a hunky new detective beau, an exciting commission, and a straight-talking therapist to help her sort everything out. When a disturbing message raises questions about Luthor's death, Detective Peter Dourson launches a clandestine investigation into the closed case. Lia copes by refusing to accept that her world is still not safe. Neither of them realize digging for the truth will place her in the crosshairs of a killer increasingly out of control. Book 3: Maximum Security Lia's loyalties are tested when Peter arrests the wrong woman for murder. Lia Anderson's escape-artist foster dog shows up with a human femur, sending Detective Peter Dourson on a hunt for the man's identity that ends with an ironclad case against the man’s former high school sweetheart. Lia shouldn’t have skin in this game, but she helped Peter apprehend Kitty and now she feels responsible. Worse, she believes Kitty may be innocent. When Lia's best patron takes up Kitty’s cause, the pressure is on for the dog park gang to uncover the truth. Book 4: Sneak Thief Lia’s kindness to an orphaned beagle draws the attention of an obsessed killer. Lia's new friend Desiree has a secret admirer, one who leaves her tiny figurines sculpted from twisted aluminum foil. Lia worries about the man’s intentions but the pint-sized sex pot brushes off Lia’s concerns. When Desiree is murdered, Lia not only winds up with the woman's kleptomaniac beagle, she also inherits her stalker. On the outs with Peter and with the police on the wrong track, Lia will have to rely on her wits and her friends if she wants to stay alive.