Showing titles in City Life

Is there any chance of a second date? That all depends on what a woman and a man are willing to invest in the first, in this quick-witted short story of a perfectly equitable modern romance. After 10 years of bad blind dates, Candace is having a hard time believing Patrick is so spot-on. He’s sharp, handsome, and kind - her mind can’t help racing to where it all will lead. Then the check arrives. It’s time to get real.

Jessie doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Until one sunny Saturday in London, a fire alarm in Whole Foods throws her into a stranger's arms. Cal is charming and funny: their chemistry is instant. Quick-fire flirting turns into the most romantic day of Jessie’s life. But that evening they're forced apart before swapping numbers. Jessie is devastated – has she just lost the one? After weeks of searching, Cal turns up on her doorstop holding two dozen red roses. It feels like fate. The only thing is, they’re not for her…

Dasia Harris lives an ordinary life in London. Well, ordinary for a woman determined to blend in at all costs. Once a gifted computer engineer, now Dasia eschews social media and takes one temporary, dead-end job after another. Because her mother was right: she's not to be trusted. When Dasia does what comes naturally to her, people get hurt.

In 1992, on his thirtieth birthday, Artie Anderson meets the man who will change his life. Artie spends his days at a tedious advertising job, finding relief in the corner of New York City he can call his own, even as the queer community is still being ravaged by HIV. But when his birthday celebration brings Artie and his friends to his favorite bar, a chance encounter with Abe, an uptight lawyer and Artie’s opposite in almost every way, pushes Artie to want, and to ask for, more for himself.

Like Jim Sheridan’s acclaimed movie, In America, Me and Five Guys tells the story of a first-generation immigrant family’s life in New York, relating both the good and the bad events with bold, straightforward charm. The listeners first meets Frankie, the winsome narrator, in the birth canal on the day JFK is shot. Her Irish father is in the bar, drinking away his sorrow at the president’s murder. Her Italian mother, who is delighted to finally have a daughter, chooses an Italian name for her, Francesca.

Life can change in the blink of an eye. That's a truth Andy Slater learns as a young man in 1982, taking the Chicago "L" to work every morning. Andy's life is laid out before him: a good job, marriage to his female college sweetheart, and the white picket fence existence he believes in. But when he sees Carlos Castillo for the first time, Carlos’ dark eyes and Latin appeal mesmerize him. Flash forward to present day. Andy is comfortable but alone, and has never forgotten the powerful pull of Carlos’ gaze on the "L" train. He vows to find him once more, hoping for a second chance.

On the eve of the Occupy Wall Street protests, C is flat broke. Once a renowned textile artist, she’s now the sole proprietor of an arts supply store in Lower Manhattan. Divorced, alone, at loose ends, C is stuck with a struggling business, a stack of bills, a new erotic interest in her oldest girlfriend, and a persistent hallucination in the form of a rogue garden gnome with a pointed interest in systems collapse. Replaying recent history through a distorting glass, The Visitors charts the last days of a broken status quo as the path is cleared for something new.

Since moving to a new city, once-adventurous Steph is doing her best to prove to her friends and family back home that her life is as fulfilling and envy-inducing as ever. The truth? She is broke and has found that making new friends isn't as easy as she expected. Eric has lost his way in life since his breakup with perfect Clarissa. Now that all his friends are buying homes, getting married and starting families, Eric is still living in a house share, feeling left behind. Eric and Steph are strangers, but with one connection - they live on the same street, on either side of number 26.

The story opens in the shadow of the new World Trade Center, on July 4, 1976, when students George and Anna meet on the weed- and wine-fueled night of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration. George, haunted by his upbringing, instantly falls for the sensual, magnetic Anna. Soon, they couple up, dropping acid, swapping music, exploring the city and each other. Yet their romance is short-lived, and they go their own ways.

It’s October in Montreal, 2002, and winter is coming on fast. Past due on his first freelance gig and ensnared in lies to his family and friends, a graphic design student with a gambling addiction goes after the first job that promises a paycheck: dishwasher at the sophisticated La Trattoria. Though he feels out of place in the posh dining room, warned by the manager not to enter through the front and coolly assessed by the waitstaff in their tailored shirts, nothing could have prepared him for the tension and noise of the kitchen, or the dishpit’s clamor and steam.

Nel dicembre del 1957 un lungo inverno di cenere e ombra avvolge Barcellona e i suoi vicoli oscuri. La città sta ancora cercando di uscire dalla miseria del dopoguerra, e solo per i bambini, e per coloro che hanno imparato a dimenticare, il Natale conserva intatta la sua atmosfera magica, carica di speranza. Daniel Sempere - il memorabile protagonista di "L'ombra del vento" è ormai un uomo sposato e dirige la libreria di famiglia assieme al padre e al fedele Fermín con cui ha stretto una solida amicizia.

Organised. Neat. Lonely. Kathy Simmonds is alone at Christmas this year, after her beloved husband John passed away a few months ago. She keeps her home spick and span, struggling with her grief for a family she has lost or lost touch with. But a chance phone call from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home opens the door to something new. She meets Scruff, a messy Jack Russell with a heart of gold who has been left for dead on the streets of London.

Helen Clapp is a physics professor. She doesn't believe in pseudoscience or time travel and especially not in ghosts. So when she gets a missed call from Charlie, her closest friend from university with whom she hasn't spoken in over a year, Helen thinks there must be some mistake. Because Charlie died two days ago. Then when her young son, Jack, claims to have seen Charlie in their house just the other day, Helen begins to have doubts.

Sunning himself in the south of France, Johnny has started to believe that his life is finally on the up. But the arrival of a face from his past drags him back down to earth with a harsh dose of cold reality. Johnny Klein once again finds himself walking the tightrope between redemption and despair. When his daughter is in danger of getting consumed by the sins of Johnny’s own past, and a dark secret threatens to engulf people he holds dear, light at the end of the tunnel feels further away than ever.

Estate agent Frankie Blue is known on his home turf—White City, Shepherd’s Bush—as ‘Frank the Fib’. He’s a liar—but one who always tries to tell the truth. Frankie has been friends with Diamond Tony, a hairdresser, Colin, a computer nerd, and Nodge, a cabbie, since schooldays. Now they are thirty and trying to live the same life as they did then—drinking, girls, banter, football. Then comes Frankie’s Great Betrayal—Veronica, and marriage, his ticket to a bigger, better grown-up world.

It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, she spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping something might spark inspiration. Instead, everything looks like a dead end. And art isn’t the only thing that feels wrong: wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Her relationship, once anchored by shared queerness, is falling apart as her boyfriend Lukas increasingly seems to be attracted to Dawn only when she’s at her most masculine.

When Nora landed an editorial assistant role at Parsons Press she thought it would be The Dream Job. But after five years of admin and taking lunch orders, Nora has come to the conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist. With her life spiralling and unable to afford her rent, Nora does the only thing she can think of and starts freelancing for a rival publisher. But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling author (who also happens to be quite attractive), is thrown into Nora’s life, she must decide where her loyalties lie, and whether she’s ready to choose herself and her future over her job.

Angelini’s third book and the finale to the Hyena trilogy is a must-listen for anyone longing for something real in a world full of fake. Fin digs even deeper into the world and experiences of the author, who tries to reconcile the sometimes brutal reality of life with the quest for family and a meaningful place in this world. Angelini takes you from behind-the-scenes of Hollywood elites underbelly to the LA "kickbacks" on the outskirts of the city, where Ketamine and Molly are the norm.

Written entirely in East Coast Scots, A Working Class State of Mind, the debut book by Colin Burnett, brings the everyday reality and language of life in Scotland to the surface. Colin's fiction takes themes in the social sciences and animates them in vivid ethnographic portrayals of what it means to be working-class in Scotland today. Delving into the tragic exploits of Aldo, as well as his long-suffering best friends Dougie and Craig, the book follows these and other characters as they make their way in a city more divided along class lines than ever before.

The biggest prank could be falling in love.... In this San Francisco neighborhood, a kiss at sunset means you might find your true love. Two best friends are about to find out if the legend is real. Lt. Firefighter Dylan Reyes believes the sunset kiss legend is nothing more than a tourist attraction. He's a big fan of exit plans, science, and health insurance. But since the last time his best friend Charley was in the city, he hasn't stopped thinking about her naked. One night, and a realistic dream, changed everything.