The Merry Widow S Diary

Saturday, September 22 1. Get a dog cat. 2. Get a man. 3. Get adventurous (go skinny-dipping!) 4. Get a life! She'd been the pampered and protected wife. Now she was a widow with both daughters off at college and she was suddenly desperate to fill her empty nest with something—anything. So when Jill Townsend finds a mysterious key in her late husband's office she sets out to find the door it opens. Saying so long to suburbia, she heads for the wilds of Manhattan, where new friends and career opportunities loom—and sexy men are hitting on her! But will Jill ever be able to step beyond the safe and secure world she's always known and take that leap into merry widowhood?

By the late 1930s, Europe sat on the brink of a world war. As the holocaust approached, many Jewish families in Germany fled to one of the only open port available to them: Shanghai. Once called "the armpit of the world," Shanghai ultimately served as the last resort for tens of thousands of Jews desperate to escape Hitler's "Final Solution." Against this backdrop, 11-year-old Ursula Bacon and her family made the difficult 8,000-mile voyage to Shanghai, with its promise of safety. But instead of a storybook China, they found overcrowded streets teeming with peddlers, beggars, opium dens, and prostitutes. Amid these abysmal conditions, Ursula learned of her own resourcefulness and found within herself the fierce determination to survive.

This wise, humorous and highly entertaining book brings compassion, pithiness and excellent practical suggestions to the vital task of advising widows how to make themselves merry despite having lost the love of their life. After all, as Mary Essinger points out here in 'How to be a Merry Widow'...'Look on the positive side, no shirts to iron for a start. Rejoice in your independence. You can do exactly as you like; paint the house pink, invite your chain-smoking brother to stay or relocate to anywhere on the planet. Consider the good things about being alone. For the first time in your life you are free. Spoil yourself; spend his money on chocolate and taxis. You're worth it.Remove yourself from the place of loneliness, your home. Plan at least one social event every day and plan outings to look forward to. Unless you are dying, staying in all day is a bad idea and will make you morose. You may have demanding things to do in the home but go out at least for some part of the day. Too cold? Wear three coats but go out. Raining? Big umbrella but go out. Not feeling too good? Try fresh air and a walk. Fight any temptation to hide away feeling sorry for yourself.'Ultimately, Mary urges widows to follow her advice because their dear departed one would want them to be happy. As she says:'I wrote "e;How to be a Merry Widow"e; because it's great to be cheerful and widows should support each other. Being a widow has a positive side and the purpose of this book is to tell you about it.'

It all began at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, New York, in 1961 - Two Princeton graduates - John Hopkins and Joe McPhillips - have returned from Peru. Loathe to return to a life of work, marriage and mortgages, they are tempted by a mysterious letter from Kenya. Hatching a plan to ride a motorbike across North Africa, they buy a sleek, white R50 BMW and paint her name - 'The White Nile' - on the fuel tank, in honour of the route they plan to follow. In limpid, elegant prose, Hopkins describes deadly salt deserts and fig-laden oases, disappeared travellers and the funerals of young Tunisians killed in the battle for independence. He conjures up the ghosts of ancient Rome in Leptis Magna and of Homer's Lotus Eaters in Djerba . They encounter armed vigilantes in the Tunisian desert and outrun Libyan border patrols, barely escaping with their lives. They climb the pyramids of Giza at dawn and ride the 'Desert Express' across the wastelands of the Nubian Desert, but their final adventure, at Sam Small's Impala Ranch, is perhaps the most surreal of all -

This book is a documentary survey of Hong Kong history, from the 1920s to the mid-1960s, from the perspective of the Maryknoll Sisters, as recorded in their diaries written during that period. It is a priceless collection of first-hand materials on the social history of Hong Kong.

What is the best way to tell a story? In this anthology, the first-ever collection of essays by innovative, cutting-edge writers on the theme of narration, forty of the continent's top experimental writers describe their engagement with language, storytelling and the world. The anthology includes renowned writers like Kathy Acker, Dennis Cooper, Nicole Brossard, Daphne Marlatt, Lydia Davis and Kevin Killian, writers who have spent years pondering the meaning of storytelling and how storytelling functions in our culture, as well as presenting a new generation of brilliant thinkers and writers, like Christian Bök, Corey Frost, Derek McCormack and Lisa Robertson. Contemporizing the friendly anecdotal style of Montaigne and written by daring writers of different ages, of different origins, from many different regions of the continent, from Mexico to Montreal, these essays run the gamut of mirth, prose poetry, tall tales and playful explorations of reader/writer dynamics. They discuss aesthetics founded on new explorations in the field of narrative, the mystery that is the body, questions of how representation may be torqued to deal with gender and sexuality, the experience of marginalized people, the negotiation between different orders of time, the 'performance' of outlaw subject matter. Brave, energetic and fresh, Biting the Error tells a whole new story about narrative. Biting the Error is edited by Mary Burger, Robert Glück, Camille Roy and Gail Scott, the co-founders of the Narrativity Website Magazine, based at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University.

Sure to please fans of Lawrence Block, John Dunning, and Christopher Fowler, the new Rare Book Mystery plunges readers into a centuries-old struggle of blood, faith, family, and revenge. In 1844, Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, died at the hands of an angry mob who stormed his jail cell in Carthage, Illinois. Shortly after, a radical faction of Smith’s followers swore to avenge Smith’s death by killing not only the four men deemed most responsible, but to teach their heirs to eliminate future generations of the prophet’s murderers as well. One hundred and seventy years later, rare book dealer Michael Bevan is offered a valuable first-edition Book of Mormon that bears a strange inscription hinting at blood atonement. Within days of handing the book over for authentication, the volume disappears and two people lie dead. Michael soon learns that his friend Natalie Phelan, whose only crime is her genealogy, is the likely next victim. One of her would-be murderers has fallen in love with her, another is physically incapable of carrying out the act, but other avenging angels remain on the loose. When Natalie is kidnapped, Michael must venture into a clandestine camp of vengeful men hell-bent on ritual sacrifice. To save her life, the book dealer needs all his worldly courage, brawn, and wits. But to defeat fanatics driven by an unholy vision, a little divine intervention couldn’t hurt. Praise for The Widow’s Son “Enthralling . . . [a] tightly-knit series . . . a real page-turner, with great insights into that rare world of rare tomes.”—Mallory Heart Reviews “Exciting . . . intense.”—Journey of a Bookseller “Shawver weaves a tight tale of vengeance that mystery lovers will enjoy.”—The Book Breeze “An extremely twisty tale.”—Reading Reality “If you enjoy mysteries with little violence and an interesting historical plot, you may enjoy this book.”—Nancy Famolari’s Place Praise for the Rare Book Mystery series “A page-turner . . . gripping and engaging . . . or, as dealers rate rare books, definitely VF—Very Fine!”—Carolyn Hart, New York Times bestselling author of the Death on Demand mysteries, on The Dirty Book Murder “An antique book auction, complex characters driven by greed, and bittersweet family tensions come together in this atmospheric thriller. Readers of crime fiction will enjoy the ride and look forward to bookstore owner Michael Bevan’s next adventure.”—Sally Goldenbaum, bestselling author of the Seaside Knitters series, on The Dirty Book Murder “[Left Turn at Paradise is] an entertaining and action-packed adventure reminiscent of Indiana Jones, delicately seasoned with the allure of rare old books. Bibliophiles and mystery/adventure lovers will be mesmerized by this epic tale.”—Library Journal

J. C. Williamson presents, "The Merry Widow", playing at Her Majesty's Theatre, Saturday 30th October, 1909.