Viking in Wonderland

Magnus Ericsson is a simple man. He loves the smell of fresh-turned dirt after springtime plowing. He loves the feel of a soft woman under him in the bed furs. He loves the heft of a good sword in his fighting arm.

But, Holy Thor, what he does not relish is the bothersome brood of children he’s been saddled with. Or the mysterious happenstance that strands him in a strange new land— the kingdom of Holly Wood. Here is a place where the folks think he is an act-whore (whatever that is), and the woman of his dreams—a winemaker of all things—fails to accept that he is her soul mate, a man of exceptional talents, not to mention . . . a very virile viking

In this follow-up to her bestselling Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what goes on behind the closed door of a queen's boudoir. Impeccably researched, filled with page-turning romance, passion, and scandal, Sex with the Queen explores the scintillating sexual lives of some of our most beloved and infamous female rulers.

She was the queen, living in an opulent palace, wearing lavish gowns and dazzling jewels. She was envied, admired, and revered. She was also miserable, having been forced to marry a foreign prince sight unseen, a royal ogre who was sadistic, foaming at the mouth, physically repulsive, mentally incompetent, or sexually impotent—and in some cases all of the above.

How did queens find happiness? In courts bristling with testosterone—swashbuckling generals, polished courtiers, and virile cardinals—many royal women had love affairs.

• Anne Boleyn flirted with courtiers; Catherine Howard slept with one. Henry VIII had both of them beheaded.

• Catherine the Great had her idiot husband murdered, and ruled the Russian empire with a long list of sexy young favorites.

• Marie Antoinette fell in love with the handsome Swedish count Axel Fersen, who tried valiantly to rescue her from the guillotine.

• Empress Alexandra of Russia found emotional solace in the mad monk Rasputin. Her behavior was the spark that set off the firestorm of the Russian revolution.

• Princess Diana gave up her palace bodyguard to enjoy countless love affairs, which tragically led to her early death.

When a queen became sick to death of her husband and took a lover, anything could happen—from disgrace and death to political victory. Some kings imprisoned erring wives for life; other monarchs obligingly named the queen's lover prime minister.

The crucial factor deciding the fate of an unfaithful queen was the love affair's implications in terms of power, money, and factional rivalry. At European courts, it was the politics—not the sex—that caused a royal woman's tragedy—or her ultimate triumph.

Beating Level Nine By Sahara Kelly Not all vampires are dark, intense creatures of the night. In fact, the myth of the tortured soul certainly doesn't apply to Stefan Delouise, who lives a very nice life, thank you, as an entrepreneur and businessman. An enviable existence except for one little thing...he's totally unable to conquer the last challenge - Level Nine of that powerful online game he's addicted to. Perhaps he needs some help from an unexpected source... Blood Law By Dominique Adair Book 1 in the Xanthra Chronicles series Ilsa was a woman on a mission. Her quest was to kidnap and seduce the Crown Prince Loren el Ranuth and in exchange for her sacrifice, she would gain much-needed protection for her people. Unbeknownst to her, she'd kidnapped the wrong man... Zane was no woman's toy... As a venerated member of the Lorai, the vampire warriors, Zane is feared throughout the galaxy. He wakes from a drugged stupor to find the beautiful Ilsa calling him by his twin brother's name and offering herself to him sexually. Zane takes the beautiful woman to bed and unknowingly becomes a pawn in a dangerous game of power and succession. Blood Lite By Dakota Cassidy Chicken wings, cheese fries, maybe a slice of pizza or two...this is where Leah's trouble begins. When she gets on the scale, she realizes her fondness for all things fried, dipped in chocolate, or smothered in cheese has become a hazard to her thighs. It's time to take matters into her own hands and feel the burn, or at the very least find someone who can help her to "find" the burn she can't seem to locate. Leah hires a personal trainer and she's not at all worried about him seeing her flabby thighs, because all personal trainers are gay...or at least that's what she thinks until Erik comes to give her the workout of her lifetime. All four hundred and twenty years of that lifetime, that is. Erik and Leah fall wildly in lust with each other. The chubby vampire is having the romp of the millennium, except for one small problem. She's falling in love with the very human Erik... And Leah's daddy hates humans... My Fair Pixie By Samantha Winston What does a five hundred year old, cultured male vampire want? Sebastian Montgomery Chateaufix stares at the mirror and wonders. His reflection eludes him as usual but that doesn't matter. What matters is that in five hundred years he hasn't found what eludes him a soul mate. But that is about to change. He finds himself on The Mating Game after unknowingly sucking up Viagra with his meal. And as Sebastian is about to discover, Viagra + red wine + a Vampire = completely stoned. But that doesn't matter. He's met the pixie of his dreams! Pixies, as everyone knows, are the trailer trash of the supernatural world. Vampires are the aristocrats. So when Jessica finds herself in front of her chosen one a vampire who obviously lost some stupid bet she has only one choice, to deck him. And she does. It's love at first bite. But in order to live happily ever after, Sebastian has to pass Jessica off as an aristocrat to Queen Mabb and the fairy court at summer solstice. Jessica's education is about to begin. That is, if she can get the bubblegum out of her bleached blonde beehive hairdo.

Why did hagiographers of the late Middle Ages praise mothers for abandoning small children? How did a group of female mystics come to define themselves as "apostles to the dead" and end by challenging God's right to damn? Why did certain heretics around 1300 venerate a woman as the Holy Spirit incarnate and another as the Angelic Pope?

In From Virile Woman to WomanChrist, Barbara Newman asks these and other questions to trace a gradual and ambiguous transition in the gender strategies of medieval religious women. An egalitarian strain in early Christianity affirmed that once she asserted her commitment to Christ through a vow of chastity, monastic profession, or renunciation of family ties, a woman could become "virile," or equal to a man. While the ideal of the "virile woman" never disappeared, another ideal slowly evolved in medieval Christianity. By virtue of some gender-related trait—spotless virginity, erotic passion, the capacity for intense suffering, the ability to imagine a feminine aspect of the Godhead—a devout woman could be not only equal, but superior to men; without becoming male, she could become a "womanChrist," imitating and representing Christ in uniquely feminine ways.

Rooted in women's concrete aspirations and sufferings, Newman's "womanChrist" model straddles the bounds of orthodoxy and heresy to illuminate the farther reaches of female religious behavior in the Middle Ages. From Virile Woman to WomanChrist will generate compelling discussion in the fields of medieval literature and history, history of religion, theology, and women's studies.

Uncover the fun and sexy attractions of gay life and love in this humorous,eye-popping picture book of verse. View hunks in trunks and leathers and feathers in 40 vivid and original color illustrations that accompany each verse. Chapters include: Thongs of Love, Boxer Rebellion, Truss Me, Darling, Heavenly Bodies and Fig Leaf Briefs.

"Brevity is the soul of wit, and Walter Cooper takes it to new heights with his pithy, saucy, tres gay verse." (Michael Musto)

Here's an honest look at the lighter side of the gay experience, touching such riveting topics as: decorating, male anatomy, friendship, aging, leather, cruising, pride, porn, coming out, drag, lust, monogamy, gays in the military, the clergy and my own bent view of creation.

Dark Red Cloth Hardbound with Gold imprinting and embossed gold stag on cover

In the search for quality entertainment, a man must be heavily armed against the snobbery and derision of a Leonard Maltin or a Janet Maslin. Here, at last, is a movie reference guide that doesn't look down its nose at action films, but actually celebrates the genre. Based on rock-hard decades of macho wisdom, The Manly Movie Guide is your ticket to movies that shoot first and ask if it makes sense later. Yet this masterful compendium goes way beyond Arnold, Sly, and Bruce. While it does list hundreds of your favorite films and categories, The Manly Movie Guide is far more than just a collection of capsulized reviews. Like the brawniest heroes, this book has wit, sensitivity, and a real brainy heart. Not to mention the guts to use them all with extreme prejudice. Part movie reference, part pop culture guide, part humor and part homage, The Manly Movie Guide is a must for film fans of every gender and testosterone level.

Heads up, manly movie lovers! Put down those barbells, snap open a brewsky, and crack the cover of The Manly Movie Guide! You won't be sorry. David Everitt and Harold Schechter point out the best, steer you away from the worst, and watch for the steamiest and most gratuitously gory films in every genre imaginable. You'll find chapters devoted to Westerns, science fiction movies, war pictures, action-adventure flicks, and martial-arts extravaganzas, not to mention foreign films, dramas, and even musicals and romances! The best thing about this book is the bold sense of humor with which the authors champion their cause, rejecting "allegations of sexism and xenophobia as the vicious propaganda of godless feminists and pseudo-intellectual foreigners." In Everitt and Schechter's lights, Moby Dick is "about one man's dream--to turn an awesome white whale into a vat of lamp oil." Dracula is "a take-charge guy and natural leader who commands the respect of everyone he meets, mainly by robbing them of their will and transforming them into soulless vampiric slaves. The chicks really dig him too." And leave it to authors of this book to classify Martin Scorsese's gangster epic GoodFellas as a comedy! Gentlemen, with this book in your shopping cart, you'll never again accidentally rent chick flicks like The River Wild (which has a deceptively manly title) and The Bridges of Madison County (which deceptively stars manly Clint Eastwood). --Raphael Shargel

Compilation of 253 poems on themes of interest to men by famous & not-so famous poets, including: Robert Burns, Coleridge, John Donne, Emerson, Larry Flint, Edgar Guest, Thomas Hardy, Bret Harte, Langston Hughes, Ben Jonson, Rudyard Kipling, Longfellow, Don Marquis, Alfred Noyes, Dorothy Parker, Edgar Allen Poe, Carl Sandburg, Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Whittier, & Oscar Wilde.