Showing results for "Birthdays" in Genre Fiction

From the author of the award-winning Kindle single, Cornbread, comes a story about Cumberland Bixby, a minor league baseball player turned B-list actor who wakes up on his 34th birthday to find he's been dead for nearly nine hours. Seeking answers, Cumberland crisscrosses Manhattan on foot, his last glimpses of the city disappearing behind him. Happy Birthday, Cumberland Bixby is a story about life and death in the era of self-promotion, and what it means to be truly seen.

New York in the 1990s - impoverished writer Jonathan Dainty takes his wife, Maddie, out to the beach for her birthday. Hours later he finds himself at the local police precinct trying to explain how on earth he let his wife get into a stranger's car and allowed it to drive her away. More than 20 years later, Maddie is presumed dead and Jonathan has channelled his grief into a best-selling series of crime novels. As far as he can, he is living the perfect life. Then one day he catches a glimpse of his dead wife, moving through a throng of people.

Valerie Wyatt is the queen of gracious living and the arbiter of taste with a successful TV show. Since her long-ago divorce, she’s worked hard to reach the pinnacle of her profession and to create a camera-ready life in her Fifth Avenue penthouse. So why is she so depressed? All the hours with her personal trainer, the careful work of New York’s best hairdressers, cosmetic surgeons, and her own God-given bone structure and great looks can’t fudge the truth or her lies about it: Valerie is turning sixty.

Dear Carys, Zoe and Andrea. Come and join me for my 40th birthday adventure weekend, full of mysteries and surprises the like of which you can't imagine. When Joanne's friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, it quickly becomes clear that there is more to this weekend than they are expecting. One of them is hiding a secret. And Joanne is planning to reveal it.... A weekend away in a cottage in the woods sounds like fun - until no one can hear your cries for help.

In a feat of virtuoso storytelling, Anne Rice unleashes Akasha, the queen of the damned, who has risen from a six-thousand-year sleep to let loose the powers of the night. Akasha has a marvelously devious plan to “save” mankind and destroy the vampire Lestat—in this extraordinarily sensual...

Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled fans with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

'A wonderful storyteller' Ciara Geraghty 'Meaney is utterly credible, utterly authentic, utterly irresistible' Irish Independent 'Roisin Meaney is a skilful storyteller' Sheila O'Flanagan The new novel from No.1 bestselling author Roisin Meaney. Another summer is in full swing on the island of...

In the thrilling, suspenseful new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz, all of Ellie de Florent-Stinson’s secrets come to light in one eventful evening full of twists, turns, and surprises. Before she became a glamorous fashion designer, Ellie de...

Eight years ago, Elliott Nash’s daughter was murdered. Since then, everything the brilliant former criminal psychologist had is a memory - his child, his career, his wife, and his home. Now he lives on the streets around Washington, DC, with only a bottomless well of guilt and nightmares to make him feel alive. Until Amy Scowcroft solicits his help.

It’s Poppy Kinsey’s birthday. She should be blowing out candles and opening presents, but hers falls on the type of heart-wrenching, agonising anniversary she would far rather forget. The worst day of them all. The day her mother died. But this year is special because the person she misses most in the world has left her a set of letters, one for each of her next 10 birthdays. As Poppy opens them year by year, she discovers that no matter how tough life gets, her mum will always be by her side, guiding her along the way.

Valerie Wyatt is the high priestess of elegance: She has built an empire on how to entertain, how to decorate, how to live beautifully, and is at the top of her game with licensing arrangements for fine fabrics, furniture, wallpaper; six books; and a highly rated TV show. Valerie's daughter, April, is a classically trained chef and the workaholic proprietor of a comfortable, popular downtown New York restaurant. They couldn't be happier in their chosen fields—or more different in their attitudes.

Isabelle's not in the market for a relationship-not even close. But she can't stop thinking about her one-night stand with a stranger on his birthday.

There's nothing fabulous about 50 for LA film critic Jeremy Lerner, who loses his marriage, his job, and the use of his right arm just days after the birthday party he begged his now ex-wife not to throw him. But fate is a sly devil. Jeremy's string of calamities leads to a game-changing emotional and creative rebirth after he meets the intoxicating Annabelle, a beguiling widow who comes to his rescue - and Jeremy to hers. If only their baggage didn't match quite so well.

"The Birthday of the Infanta" is about a hunchbacked dwarf, found in the woods by courtiers of the King of Spain. The hunchback's father sells him to the palace for the amusement of the king's daughter, the Infanta, on her twelfth birthday. Her birthday is the only time she is allowed to mingle with other children, and she much enjoys the many festivities arranged to mark it, especially the Dwarf's performance. He dances, as he did in the woods, thoroughly unaware of his audience's laughing at him.

Bahn frei für die nächste Generation: Aus den Bailey-Babies sind Teenager geworden! Eilmeldung vom Lake Starlight Buzz Wheel: Den Gerüchten nach feiert die First Lady der Bailey-Familie einen runden Geburtstag! Es heißt, dass alle Baileys zurück nach Lake Starlight kommen, um mit ihrer geliebten (Great-)Grandma Dori zu feiern. Und weil Dori mittlerweile 26 (!) Urenkel hat, ist Chaos vorprogrammiert. Mal schauen, was Calista, Maverick, Easton, Brinley und Palmer so von der Party berichten.

O istorie personală, reconstituită într-un puzzle existențial, ce are ca laitmotiv data de 28 iunie, se suprapune peste cele mai importante momente din istoria Basarabiei. Povestea lui Mihai Mihailovici, recompusă fragmentar, din momentele cel mai acute ale vieții sale, e o cronică indirectă a unei lumi aflate într-o permanentă frământare – oglindă a felului în care Marea Istorie copleșește și distruge destine individuale –, scrisă ca o farsă întunecată, cu momentele ei de umor și de speranță.

An unputdownable queer coming-of-age rom-com about life and love in Hollywood. "Both an irresistible love story and a riveting exploration of Hollywood dynamics.” —Rachel Lynn Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of The Ex Talk For aspiring cinematographer Luna Roth, coming out as...

Shortlisted for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour Longlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Awards How can you say goodbye forever when you've left an important secret unspoken? "I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Zoltan said. "When I die, I'll leave my luck to you." Zoltan Beck is dying. His...

"This splendid story collection is a sword through the heart."--Ben Fountain From the O. Henry Prize-winning author comes a heartbreakingly beautiful and brutal exploration of lives fragmented by the Pacific side of World War II. Spanning more than 150 years, and set in multiple locations in...

In which our intrepid correspondent speaks of the President speaking about the unspeakable.