Gentleman Of Leisure

A facsimile edition of the first 1972 edition that followed Silky, a pimp, and his women through an entire year of life on the streets of New York City. Bob Adelman dives headlong onto the world of the original Macks and players - the Big City Pimps - in this in-depth photographic exploration of the underworld figures that populated the streets of New York City. Armed with only a camera Adelman entered the lives of Silky and his women. This facsimile edition re-introduces this classic of the times and makes available, once more, this compelling and hugely popular book.

A book published in 1910 by a master of humor P. G. Wodehouse. The action begins with bachelor Jimmy Pitt in New York; having fallen in love on a transatlantic liner, he befriends a small-time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet. The cast of characters head to England, and from there on it is a typically Wodehousean romantic story, set at the stately Dreever Castle, overflowing with imposters, detectives, crooks, scheming lovers and conniving aunts... A pure comedic joy, as always!

If you want it real and true, hard hitting and deadly whore-some, sexy, and to the point, then this book is a must-read for inquiring minds that want to know!

A young lady pursues a brazen scheme to seduction a man she’s never met in the #1 New York Times bestselling author’s Victorian romance series. England, 1854. To break a centuries-old curse, beautiful, headstrong Lady Kathleen MacDavid knows she must ignore every rule of propriety by seducing—and marrying—the Earl of Norcroft. So she sets off for London, braving scandal and ruin to achieve her goal . . . until a crazy bump on the head makes her forget nearly everything. The thrill of winning a bet—that he'd be the last of his set to wed—hasn't eased the earl's pain of losing his friends to marriage. Still, he'd be willing to settle down if he could meet someone worthy of his love—and desire. But he has met no such woman, until Kathleen is brought to him. Suspicious of her motives, he's determined to resist her seductive ways. But sometimes even the most proper gentleman finds it expedient to act improperly . . .

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility. 'A comic masterpiece.' The Times 'Winning . . . gorgeous . . . satisfying . . . Towles is a craftsman.' New York Times Book Review 'A work of great charm, intelligence and insight.' Sunday Times 'Everything a novel should be: charming, witty, poetic and generous. An absolute delight.' Mail on Sunday 'If we do a better book than this one on the book club this year we will be very very lucky.' Matt Williams, Radio 2 Book Club 'Abundant in humour, history and humanity' Sunday Telegraph 'Wistful, whimsical and wry.' Sunday Express On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. And with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef and a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure and purpose.

A truly remarkable person, Caroline Macdonald (1874-1931) was a Canadian woman who spent almost her entire working life in Japan and who played a significant role there in both the establishment of the YWCA and in prison reform. A native of Wingham, Ontario, she was one of the first women to attend the University of Toronto, where in 1901 she graduated with honours in mathematics and physics. But rather than follow an academic career, she opted in 1904, through her connections with the Presbyterian Church and the YWCA in Canada and the United States, to move to Tokyo to work as a lay missionary and social worker. During the 1920s, she was the best-known foreign woman in Tokyo. In A Heart at Leisure from Itself Margaret Prang follows Caroline Macdonald's life and career, focusing on her work in Japan on behalf of incarcerated criminals. Working mostly with male prisoners and their families, Macdonald became an international interpreter of the movement for prison reform work for which she is still warmly remembered in Japan. She regarded herself as a missionary but was also highly critical of much missionary endeavour, her own work being more in the practical than spiritual realm. Her death in 1931 elicited tributes from all over the world, particularly from Japan. Perhaps the most fitting came from Arima Shirosuke, the prison governor with whom Macdonald worked most closely. Reflecting on her life, Arima observed that he thought it was her absolute conviction that every human being was a child of God and her 'effortless' practice of that faith that placed Macdonald 'beyond every prejudice' of religion, race, or class. She was, he said, 'a heart at leisure from itself.' This book throws light on Japanese-Canadian relations in the first few decades of this century. Macdonald's career reveals the cross-cultural influence of the YWCA in Japan, the role of the Protestant churches there, and the evolution of prison reform in Japan and the people involved in it.