Kolmekordse Friedebert Tuglase novelliauhinna laureaadi Toomas Vindi järjekordne novellikogu “Meeldivalt tühi ruum“ kõnetab tänase päeva lugejaid, pakkudes jutte meie igapäevastest muredest ja rõõmudest. Kirev seltskond nii tavalisi kui ka kummalisi tegelasi püüavad iseendaga toime tulla. Olulised on inimestevahelised suhted, millest pajatatakse raamatus kirgliku avameelsusega. Kogumikus on 16 novelli, mis on kirjutatud viimase seitsme aasta jooksul.

Processes of collective decision making are seen throughout modern society. How does a government decide on an investment strategy within the health care and educational sectors? Should a government or a community introduce measures to combat climate change and CO2 emissions, even if others choose not too? Should a country develop a nuclear capability despite the risk that other countries may follow their lead?

This introductory text explores the theory of social choice. Social choice theory provides an analysis of collective decision making. The main aim of the book is to introduce students to the various methods of aggregating the preferences of all members of a given society into some social or collective preference. Written as a primer suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduates, this text will act as an important starting point for students grappling with the complexities of social choice
theory. With all new chapter exercises this rigorous yet accessible primer avoids the use of technical language and provides an up-to-date discussion of this rapidly developing field.

LINDA LAEL MILLER — Batteries Not Required *
The only boyfriend Gayle Hayes has is the battery-operated kind. But when she returns to her small Montana hometown, rodeo bad boy Tristan McCullough gives her a whole new lesson in power surge...

JILL SHALVIS — Captivated *
James Scott warned his investigator ex-wife Ella to be more careful. Now he finds the irate woman nearly naked and handcuffed to the towel rack in his Mexican vacation condo. He should release her. Then again...

LUCY MONROE — Seducing Tabby *
Everybody always wants Tabby Payton's beautiful sister. But not sexy English spy Calder Maxwell. He wants Tabby, body and soul, and he's willing to take the seduction to new levels to prove it...

KATE ANGELL — No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service
Violet Cates is done surfing beach bums. She's ready for a new wave, someone with more ambition than a grain of sand. Like Brad Davis. He looks like a beach bum, but looks can be so deceiving...

CAT JOHNSON — Fish Out of Water
Carla Henricks is a cowgirl through and through, but her lasso has never met an English professor like Mark Ross. It's true opposites attract. Staying together is the juicy part...

* Previously appeared in the 2005 anthology, Beach Blanket Bad Boys.

Her people left unknowing. Her own mind lost within the world of man. The truth is held within the depths of her soul and the kindly perceptions of her heart. But will she listen. Minds are thrown and hearts are bled. The people of her realm must now travel their own. They must seek for stars dust through the Dell of Depression. They will fight their own demons in mind. All awhile, the beast of dark, Edan, has plans of his own. Ones in which continue to change the fates of time. All lives may now carry question, some that bring no answer at all. Though could it be, that their journey's become a destiny foreseen, or shall it be their breaking.

Sam Huxton doesn’t do one-night stands, especially not with men she’s just met! But the hot guy at the bar was hard to resist and one night is all they share – no names, no numbers, just some much needed fun…

Until the same guy walks into Sam’s life the next day as her new employee.  Sam never mixes business with pleasure and makes it clear an office fling with Ryan is off-limits.  But after-hours…one thing can lead to another. Can Sam trust her heart and her business with the new guy?

German

Perhaps the best-loved nineteenth-century American novel, Mark Twain’s tale of boyhood adventure overflows with comedy, warmth, and slapstick energy. It brings to life and array of irresistible characters—the awesomely self-confident Tom, his best buddy Huck Finn, indulgent Aunt Polly, and the lovely, beguiling Becky—as well as such unforgettable incidents as whitewashing a fence, swearing an oath in blood, and getting lost in a dark and labyrinthine cave. Below Tom Sawyer’s sunny surface lurk hints of a darker reality, of youthful innocence and naïveté confronting the cruelty, hypocrisy, and foolishness of the adult world—a theme that would become more pronounced in Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Despite such suggestions, Tom Sawyer remains Twain’s joyful ode to the endless possibilities of childhood.
 
H. Daniel Peck is John Guy Vassar Professor of English at Vassar College and is the author of Thoreau’s Morning Work and A World by Itself: The Pastoral Moment in Cooper’s Fiction.

Genre: LITERARY FICTION/CONTEMPORARY
Not so alternative ... real history.

Hiroko Yuasa, a Japanese traditional dancer, sways and turns in one of her dances, and Simon Fraser thinks he might not have enough film to capture her. He deems himself lucky -- it has taken him months to find her again in Tokyo, after their chance meet at Narita. An American architectural photographer on contract in Japan, he plans already an exhibition with their work together. They take their time in their love.

Before any words of a formal proposal are spoken though, her father gets wind of their palpable closeness. Here is a man thought to have killed with a single Katana slash her mother's lover once. Also certifiably known to have risen to be a Japanese Mafia godfather years after pushing the car of a gang of made men into the moat of the Imperial palace. A teenager then. And Kazuhiro Yuasa has for this misalliance of his daughter only the eyes of a man whose father was a Kamikaze pilot who died by throwing his plane against an American warship during WWII.

An ocean proves too small for Kazuhiro to fail to get understanding from Simon's parents to do together whatever it takes to keep the young couple separate. And close-to-the-heart history has a huge bearing.

Simon and Hiroko are not aware of the secret agreement, and they decide to visit each the family of the other. Their "Sakura" space of love should help them keep in touch. They believe things are going to be OK. Only they're not, for when evil is started it has a mind of its own.