A global exploration of the many writing systems that are on the verge of vanishing, and the stories and cultures they carry with them.If something is important, we write it down. Yet 85% of the world's writing systems are on the verge of vanishing - not granted official status, not taught in schools, discouraged and dismissed.When a culture is forced to abandon its traditional script, everything it has written for hundreds of years - sacred texts, poems, personal correspondence, legal documents, the collective experience, wisdom and identity of a people - is lost.This Atlas is about those writing systems, and the people who are trying to save them. From the ancient holy alphabets of the Middle East, now used only by tiny sects, to newly created African alphabets designed to keep cultural traditions alive in the twenty-first from a Sudanese script based on the ownership marks traditionally branded into camels, to a secret system used in one corner of China exclusively by women to record the songs and stories of their inner this unique book profiles dozens of scripts and the cultures they encapsulate, offering glimpses of worlds unknown to us - and ways of saving them from vanishing entirely.

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rina Kent comes a standalone dark MM romance. More information TBA. Crave the Villain is a male x male dark romance.

She summoned him for luck. He wants her for eternity. An inventor and a star-born beast collide in this hauntingly dark romantic fantasy by USA Today bestselling author I.V. Ophelia. In the bioluminescent, star-worshipping city of Astraea, inventor and occultist Lucia Fairfax harvests a particular currency from the shadows—luck itself—drawn from a dimension she calls the Otherside. But when her latest ritual fails and her husband dies tragically, her carefully cultivated fortune bleeds dry. Lucia’s desperate to restore her power, but her next ritual goes catastrophically wrong, summoning something far more Altair, a cosmic entity born of an ancient constellation. He is both human and not—impossibly seductive, unnervingly sentient, and the key to restoring what she’s a way to the Otherside. Crossing into Altair’s realm is the most dangerous thing Lucia has ever done—and the most irresistible. There, she unravels the intoxicating secrets of the Otherside, the disturbing truth about her abilities, and the terrifying depth of his hunger. But with each revelation, escape slips further from reach. Trapped between worlds, Lucia must confront a devastating Love, desire, and ambition all have their price. And Altair is eager to collect.

Kyran Harbor is everything I’m not. Rich. Popular. A superstar football player who’s awfully broody for someone who has it all. Basically, he’s a preppy jock who hates me. Oh, and he’s also my stepbrother. That’s right. We’re stuck together, sharing a school, a house… A bathroom. Honestly, I wouldn’t care… If he wasn’t such an uptight control-freak who messes with me just because we’re different. I had every intention of avoiding him when we got to college… Until abrupt misfortune forces us both into a compromising position. Now the grouchy jerk I was hoping to evade might be the only person who can help me out of it. Avi Vega is everything I despise. A dreamer. A flake. An artist who smokes too much weed and thinks aliens exist. And by some sick cosmic joke, he’s now my stepbrother, following me on what should’ve been my escape plan. It was already a disaster. Add a sudden financial disruption to the mix, and let’s just say my options are heavily limited. If I want to stay an all-star quarterback on the way to the NFL, I’ll need to do something drastic. Unfortunately for me, and my desperate desire for control, the perpetually smiling stoner has a plan. Maybe we can stop hating each other just enough to pull this off. As long as we remember we’re only doing it… for the fans. ** For The Fans is a full-length standalone MM forbidden romance with an HEA. This book contains sensitive subject matter that could make some readers uncomfortable. Please heed foreword warnings and proceed with caution.

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The final installment in the bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel series about life, love, and everything that happens in between. Everyone in school knows Nick and Charlie. Everyone knows they're going to be together forever. But Charlie's busy with his bid to become head boy. And while Nick is preparing to leave for uni, he's starting to wonder who he'll be . . . without Charlie. Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.

After Milford Haven Grammar School, Sarah Ann Waters attended university and earned degrees in English literature. She received a BA from the University of Kent, an MA from Lancaster University, and a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. Her PhD thesis, entitled Wolfskins and togas : lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present,served as inspiration and material for future books.

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.