Ibiza Man


Book Description

In Ibiza Man, Michael Lieberman gathers an array of inventive and unforgettable stories. In this, his second collection, he demonstrates his abilities in precisely distilled, unflinchingly honest studies of human connection and disconnection. From the deliverance of an English working girl's dysfunctional relationship to a spoiled aristocrat by the mysterious Ibiza man; the fate of a trouble female attorney's long lost lover revealed at a lunch with Mike Arnold; a rock star's return to his twentieth high school reunion, including a dance with his most potent past muse; to the punch line, the exclamation point to a well-intentioned, but disastrous family reunion, Lieberman evokes painful and tender truths, poetic, painful, and deeply political. The well-meaning protagonists of Ibiza Man are caught to both disastrous and hilarious effect in the maelstrom of family and social upheaval, life in the modern world, and the intimate connection between the foreign, familiar, and the inescapably human. In Ibiza Man Michael Lieberman delves deep into the heart of modern life in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and irony.




MR Pikes


Book Description

The playboy who built himself a playground reveals all in his hard-hitting memoir. The iconic hotelier reflects on a fast life of hedonism and the globe-trotting backstory that influenced his set-up of pioneering Balearic boho bolthole, Pikes. Tony looks back on the extreme highs and lows of an unparalleled life, goes exclusively behind the scenes of the Club Tropicana video shoot which put his unique hotel on the map and discusses his relationships with guests/friends including George Michael, Freddie Mercury, Julio Iglesias and lover Grace Jones.




Ibiza Bohemia


Book Description

From roaring nightlife to peaceful yoga retreats, Ibiza’s hippie-chic atmosphere is its hallmark. This quintessential Mediterranean hot spot has served as an escape for artists, creatives, and musicians alike for decades. It is a place to reinvent oneself, to walk the fine line between civilization and wilderness, and to discover bliss. Ibiza Bohemia explores the island’s scenic Balearic cliffs, its legendary cast of characters, and the archetypal interiors that define its signature style.




Hypocrites and Other Stories


Book Description

Eleven short stories dealing with a Church community in Ontario, loneliness in London, England, an English pub, a Spanish Don Juan, cuckolding in a provincial town in France, and a mother searching for her lost daughter and grandchild, plus an essay on theatre and one on old Ibiza.




Cocaine Confidential


Book Description

Cocaine is the world's most notorious narcotic. It underpins a vast, multi-billion pound underworld with a dark and deadly side. But who really are the shadowy people behind this chilling network? The coca farmers, the jungle sweat-shop workers, the smugglers, the suppliers, and, ultimately, the dealers who provide for the world's hundreds of millions of users. Cocaine Confidential goes inside the lives of all these characters to reveal their stories for the first time. Along the way you'll meet hitmen, pimps, desperate former international footballers, coke barons, mules, hardened traffickers and corrupt cops as the truth is unravelled in a roller coaster ride through this secret world.




Personal Jesus (Engaging Culture)


Book Description

Pop music is now an ever-present force shaping citizens in the West. Even at funerals, pop music is often requested over hymns. But how does popular music work? And what roles does it play for listeners who engage it? This new addition to the critically acclaimed Engaging Culture series explores the theological significance of the ways pop music is listened to and used today. The authors show that popular music is used by religious and nonreligious people alike to make meaning, enabling listeners to explore human concerns about embodiment, create communities, and tap into transcendence. They assess what is happening to Christian faith and theology as a result. The book incorporates case studies featuring noted music artists of our day--including David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Sigur Rós, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Lady Gaga--and includes practical implications for the church, the academy, and daily musical listening. It also includes a foreword by Tom Beaudoin, author of Virtual Faith.




Barbara Comyns


Book Description

The extraordinary twentieth-century writer Barbara Comyns led a life as captivating as the narratives she spun. This pioneering biography reveals the journey of a woman who experienced hardship and single-motherhood before the age of thirty but went on to publish a sequence of novels that are unique in the English language. Comyns turned her hand to many jobs in order to survive, from artist’s model to restoring pianos. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society. While working as a housekeeper in her mid-thirties, Comyns began transforming the bleak episodes of her life into compelling fictions streaked with surrealism and deadpan humour. The Vet’s Daughter (1959), championed by Graham Greene, brought her fame, although her use of the gothic and macabre divided readers and reviewers. This biography not only excavates Comyns’s life but also reclaims her fiction, providing a timely reassessment of her literary contribution. It sheds new light on a remarkable author who deftly captured the complexities of human life.




The Family


Book Description

The Family is a story of self discovery. Join me on my journey and walk beside me as I venture to find the Happy Family life of which I crave. As I battle my mental health, depression and addiction issues and strive to find the meaning of love and discover the promise of the happily ever after that it brings.




Best Man's Duties


Book Description

Being asked to be a best man is a great honour... but there's the terrifying prospect of giving the speech. There's the stag party to organise, but where do you start? Then there are all those other duties, not to mention the general support you'll need to give the groom. Pretty soon you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed and start to wonder how you can get out of it. Well I'm afraid that's generally not an option, as in this case the groom is like Don Corleone in the Godfather: he has made you an offer you can't refuse. This book will help you rise to the challenge. Written in an informal and lively style it guides you through all your duties from comprehensively exploring the options for the stag party to ensuring you are fully prepared to deliver a great speech on the day (to help with this the book includes 10 original, entertaining and inventive sample speeches). Its detailed guidance should ensure that anyone chosen to be best man will be able to fulfil the role with confidence and in doing so really enjoy the experience.




The Man Who Loved Islands


Book Description

The unforgettable finale to the international, bestselling Disco Days Trilogy ... Bobby, Joey and Max Mojo return in an attempt to reclaim the elusive stardom of their youth, reuniting a legendary band that didn't quite live up to expectations, with predictable results... 'A real new talent on the Scottish literary scene' Press & Journal 'By turn hilarious and heart-breaking, more than anything Ross creates beautifully rounded characters full of humanity and perhaps most of all, hope' Liam Rudden, Scotsman 'David Ross carved out an enduring place for himself among contemporary Scottish novelists' Alastair Mabb, Herald Scotland –––––––––––––––––––––––– The Disco Boys and The Band are back... In the early 80s, Bobby Cassidy and Joey Miller were inseparable; childhood friends and fledgling business associates. Now, both are depressed and lonely, and they haven't spoken to each other in more than ten years. A bizarre opportunity to honour the memory of someone close to both of them presents itself, if only they can forgive ... and forget. With the help of the deluded Max Mojo and the faithful Hamish May, can they pull off the impossible, and reunite the legendary Ayrshire band, The Miraculous Vespas, for a one-off Music Festival – The Big Bang – on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island? Absurdly funny, deeply moving and utterly human, The Man Who Loves Islands is an unforgettable finale to the Disco Days trilogy – a modern classic pumped full of music and middle-aged madness, written from the heart and pen of one of Scotland's finest new voices. –––––––––––––––––––––––– Praise for David F. Ross 'A warm, funny consideration of reconciliation between middle-aged friends and a celebration of music's healing powers. Suggest to fans of Nick Hornby' Library Journal 'Warm, funny and evocative. If you grew up in the eighties, you're going to love this' Chris Brookmyre 'Dark, hilarious, funny and heart-breaking all at the same time, a book that sums up the spirit of an era and a country in a way that will make you wince and laugh at the same time' Muriel Gray 'An astonishing tour de force' John Niven 'This is a book that might just make you cry like nobody's watching' Iain MacLeod, Sunday Mail 'Crucially Ross's novel succeeds in balancing light and dark, in that it can leap smoothly from brutal social realism to laugh-out-loud humour within a few sentences' Press & Journal 'Full of comedy, pathos and great tunes' Hardeep Singh Kohli 'If I saw that in a store I would buy it without even looking at what was inside' Irvine Welsh 'Like the vinyl that crackles off every page ... as warm and authentic as Roddy Doyle at his very best' Nick Quantrill 'A solid-gold hit of a book! The closest you'll ever get to being on Top of the Pops' Colin McCredie