Life had always been predictable for Ann…until she met her college roommates, Niki and Hildy. Niki is always in motion, brash, often vulgar, with a philosophy of “win at any cost.” And Hildy’s aura of serene wisdom cloaks a most unusual way of looking at things. The trio becomes inseparable—until something happens that changes their lives forever.

Tony used to be a winner: five consecutive Top Ten hits, a haircut that was imitated by every Top of the Pops fan, and a coke habit that was little short of legendary. Of course this was back in the 80s, when Tony was part of pop duo A Boy and His Diva, singers of the synth-pop classic 'Lovers and Losers'. In 1984 they were the biggest band in Britain. That is before Katrina, the other half of the duo, had her heart broken and the friendship was destroyed. Now in his forties, missing his fame and his hairline, Tony has signed up for a new reality TV show called The Clink. This could be the ideal opportunity to relaunch the band and revive his comatose career. There's just one problem: Tony and Katrina haven't spoken in years. Meanwhile, Katrina is busy arranging a funeral for a cherished friend, and coping with his estranged mother. When Tony knocks on her door, his arrival reopens old wounds and raises some very uncomfortable questions. Paul Burston's third novel is a wise, witty and evocative novel about the decade of excess, and its many legacies - New Romantics, gender benders, electro-pop and AIDS.

A laugh out loud look at first love, loss and trying to avoid the girl of your dreams. What a stupid expression that is in the first place: To fall in love. Like you fall into a ditch or something. Maybe people need to look where they’re going. As far as Phoebe Davis is concerned, love is to be avoided at all costs. Why would you spend your life worrying about something that turns you into a complete moron? If her best friend Polly is anything to go by, the first sniff of a relationship makes you forget about your friends (like, hello?), get completely obsessed with sex (yawn) and bang on constantly about a person who definitely isn't as great as you think they are. So Phoebe isn't going to fall in love, ever. But then she meets Emma . . . Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a hilarious, life-affirming novel about all the big stuff: love, sex, death, family, heartbreak, kittens . . . and kisses that turn the whole world upside down.

School and public libraries often provide programs and activities for children in preschool through the sixth grade, but there is little available to young adults. For them, libraries become a place for work—the place to research an assignment or find a book for a report—but the thought of the library as a place for enjoyment is lost. So how do librarians recapture the interest of teenagers? This just might be the answer. Here you will find theme-based units (such as Cartoon Cavalcade, Log On at the Library, Go in Style, Cruising the Mall, Space Shots, Teens on TV, and 44 others) that are designed for young adults. Each includes a display idea, suggestions for local sponsorship of prizes, a program game to encourage participation, 10 theme-related activities, curriculum tie-in activities, sample questions for use in trivia games or scavenger hunts, ideas for activity sheets, a bibliography of related works, and a list of theme-related films. The units are highly flexible, allowing any public or school library to adapt them to their particular needs.

LRB BOOKSHOP'S AUTHOR OF THE MONTH ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 'If you haven't read Bernhard, you will not know of the most radical advance in fiction since Joyce ... My advice: dive in.' Lucy Ellmann 'I absolutely love Bernhard: he is one of the darkest and funniest writers ... A must read for everybody.' Karl Ove Knausgaard Mid-century Austria. Three aspiring concert pianists - Wertheimer, Glenn Gould, and the narrator - have dedicated their lives to achieving the status of a virtuoso. But one day, two of them overhear Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, and his incomparable genius instantly destroys them both. They are forced to abandon their musical ambitions: Wertheimer, over a tortured process of disintegration that sees him becoming obsessed with both writing and his own sister, with whom he has a quasi-incestuous relationship culminating in death; and the narrator, instantly, retreating into obscurity to write a book that he periodically destroys and restarts. Written as a monologue in one remarkable unbroken paragraph, Thomas Bernhard's dazzling meditation on failure, genius, and fame is a radical new reading experience: musical, paralysing, raging, and inimitable.

This is a love story, as the name suggets. But the author decides to go beyond that. In other words, this can be my story, can be your story. This is a story about growing up, maturing, being a better with the help of love, family, and friendship. Hope it will resonate with some of you.