Search results for ""author sly"

Pack your bags and grab your gear: you're going to Ninja Camp! Listen closely to the ninja master, who will teach you everything you need to know to become a ninja warrior-but it won't be easy. You'll have to be sly and swift, strong and speedy, and only then will you become a Ninja of the Night!This fun and energetic book will delight and entertain kids and parents alike with its clever, rhyming verse and action-packed depictions of the coolest camp around. For fans of Ninja Red Riding Hood who are looking for a lesson in teamwork and cool stealth skills

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Given its imaginative risk and experimental daring, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Annie Freud’s poetry is its effortless success: these wise, funny, sly, erotic and lightning-witted poems all find their marks with unerring accuracy. From the disturbing dramatic monologue of the title poem, through love poems of great worldly tenderness, to a soliloquy from the inventor of the individual fruit pie – the reader is both challenged and entertained from first to last. The Best Man That Ever Was announces one of the most startlingly original poets to have emerged in recent years.

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You are about to discover the secrets of The Quick –But first, reader, you must travel to Victorian England, and there, in the wilds of Yorkshire, meet a brother and sister alone in the world, a pair bound by tragedy. You will, in time, enter the rooms of London’s mysterious Aegolius Club – a society of the richest, most powerful men in England. And at some point – we cannot say when – these worlds will collide. It is then, and only then, that a new world emerges, a world of romance, adventure and the most delicious of horrors – and the secrets of The Quick are revealed.'Sly and glittering' Hilary Mantel'Impossible to resist' Kate Atkinson

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If you think monsters don't exist, just ask Theodora Hendrix. The third in a brilliantly funny series about an ordinary girl brought up by monsters, perfect for fans of Amelia Fang and A Series of Unfortunate Events.Theodora, Sherman and Dexter are off to the Big Apple for the holidays, and they cannot wait! However, if Dracula and Mummy thought an overseas trip would keep Theodora safe from bad monsters with sinister intentions, they were wrong. For New York is teeming with Shadowmongers – sly, shadowy creatures controlled by the most sinister foe of all. A foe who wants nothing more than to see the Monstrous League of Monsters brought down ... and Theodora with it.

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In Kiss Kiss you will find eleven devious, shocking stories from the master of the unpredictable, Roald Dahl. What could go wrong when a wife pawns the mink coat that her lover gave her as a parting gift? What happens when a priceless piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful bargain? Can a wronged woman take revenge on her dead husband?In these dark, disturbing stories Roald Dahl explores the sinister side of human nature: the cunning, sly, selfish part of each of us that leads us into the territory of the unexpected and unsettling. Stylish, macabre and haunting, these tales will leave you with a delicious feeling of unease.'Roald Dahl is one of the few writers I know whose work can accurately be described as addictive' Irish TimesRoald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.

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'I Meant It Once explores longing, belonging and the big emotions that can make us feel small with unusual elegance and depth' Coco Mellors, author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein'Gorgeously written and staggeringly honest . . . It will bewitch you' Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch'I Meant it Once signals the arrival of a major talent and voice' Brandon Taylor, author of Booker Prize Finalist Real Life'I was enraptured by these stories... Perfect for fans of Greta Gerwig' Edel CoffeyWith this sharp and witty debut collection, author Kate Doyle captures precisely that time of life when so many young women are caught in between, pre-occupied by nostalgia for past relationships - with friends, roommates, siblings - while trying to move forward into an uncertain future. In "That Is Shocking," a college student relates a darkly funny story of romantic humiliation, one that skirts the parallel story of a friend she betrayed. In others, young women long for friends who have moved away, or moved on. In "Cinnamon Baseball Coyote" and other linked stories about siblings Helen, Evan, and Grace, their years of inside jokes and brutal tensions simmer over as the three spend a holiday season in an amusing whirl of rivalry and mutual attachment, and a generational gulf widens between them and their parents. Throughout, in stories both lyrical and haunting, young women search for ways to break free from the expectations of others and find a way to be in the world. Written with crystalline prose and sly humour, the stories in I Meant It Once build to complete a profoundly recognizable portrait of early adulthood and the ways in which seemingly incidental moments can come to define the stories we tell ourselves. For fans of Elif Batuman, Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood, and Melissa Bank, these stories about being young and adrift in today's world go down easy and pack a big punch.'Perceptive, funny, forthright, and often alarmingly relatable, I Meant It Once is a tremendously good debut' Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

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Portrait of Colossus is a searingly forthright début that navigates parenting, masculinity, racism and ambiguities of identity. It articulates, with skill and sly humour, the migrant experience from the perspective of the second generation, the ones who “know [England]/ more than everywhere else/ put together”. Brimming with vulnerability and pitched between the lilt of hooyo's admonitions and Ted Hughes' eye for the natural world, many of the poems reconcile disparate worlds, cultures and identities, firing them with the lyricism of Dawud's Psalms. Samatar seamlessly blends influences from Somali oral history, Ovidian tales and Homer’s Odyssey into a poetics that makes Portrait of Colossus cathartic, musical, emotionally satisfying as well as erudite.

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With less content in my life I am infinitely more content Against the backdrop of a sibling’s death, an eating disorder, and a few very dismal dating relationships, Villa Negativa looks for laughter behind darkness: the intruder who politely removes her shoes, the fabricator whose closest relationship is with fibreglass, the anorexic who sends the Diet Coke back because it tastes too good. Meditative and mischievous, confessional and philosophical, sincere and sly by turns, Sharon McCartney’s seventh collection articulates an essential truth of self-knowledge—that “to perceive something, we have to be able / to stand away from it.”

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Mikhail Zoshchenko’s Sentimental Tales are satirical portraits of small-town characters on the fringes of Soviet society in the first decade of Bolshevik rule. The tales are narrated by one Kolenkorov, who is anything but a model Soviet author: not only is he still attached to the era of the old regime, he is also, quite simply, not a very good writer. Shaped by Zoshchenko’s masterful hands—he takes credit for editing the tales in a series of comic prefaces—Kolenkorov’s prose is beautifully mangled, full of stylistic infelicities, overloaded flights of metaphor, tortured cliché, and misused bureaucratese, in the tradition of Gogol.Yet beneath Kolenkorov’s intrusive narration and sublime blathering, the stories are genuinely moving. They tell tales of unrequited love and amorous misadventures among down-on-their-luck musicians, provincial damsels, aspiring poets, and liberal aristocrats hopelessly out of place in the new Russia, against a backdrop of overcrowded apartments, scheming, and daydreaming. Zoshchenko’s deadpan style and sly ventriloquy mask a biting critique of Soviet life—and perhaps life in general. An original perspective on Soviet society in the 1920s and simply uproariously funny, Sentimental Tales at last shows Anglophone readers why Zoshchenko is considered among the greatest humorists of the Soviet era.

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Almost every self-help book seems to be about how to be happy, how to be empowered, how to be in a fabulous relationship, how to make a million ... in other words, how to be anything other than the inevitably suffering human beings most of us are. (At least at some point in our lives!). Taking the exact opposite tack, award-winning author, filmmaker, and self-made millionaire William Arntz has chosen the surprising and frequently comical approach to self-help by teaching people how to suffer. We all experience suffering, so why fight it? Better to embrace it, understand it and learn to walk the path in harmony. Better to understand the steps we take to arrive at suffering than to pretend they are not there. Perhaps, in the recognition of those steps, we might stand a chance of escaping. From the Suffering Cycle and how to construct your very own Sufferometer, to the nature of earthly duality (which guarantees suffering). The book reveals the things we all do that create earthly angst and misery (no matter how much money we make or how amazing our love life is) - all of it set forth with sly, tongue-in-cheek humour that takes the sting, if not the truth, out of Will’s suffering formula.

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Witty, lively and gently thought-provoking, this debut picture book from inky genius Tom Morgan-Jones about a group of animals and the unseen monster in their midst will have readers laughing out loud. THUMP THUMP. The Red Dread is on the loose and Shrew and the other animals are afraid. From stolen nuts to missing rabbits, they whisper of the terrible actions of the Red Dread. As panic increases, logic and team spirit evaporate and soon it's every creature for itself. Told entirely in dialogue, this quirky read-aloud tale plays out in sly illustrations brimming with brilliant visual humour.

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In Makbara, Juan Goytisolo—widely considered Spain’s greatest living writer—again dazzles the reader with his energetic, stylistic prose, which he himself compares to a snake: cunning, sly, sinuous. But the themes in Makbara are perhaps more universal than in his earlier works. Makbara is full of its own kind of warmth, humor, and love. After all, makbara is an Arab word referring to the spot in North African cemeteries where young couples meet for romantic encounters. Sex, for Goytisolo, is clearly the greatest cosmic joke, the great leveller. “Sex,” he says, “is above all freedom.”

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Jane Austen takes a satirical swipe at the gothic novel in this classic book bursting with sly subversive wit. 'Jane Austen is a genius, and Northanger Abbey is hugely underrated' Martin Amis Catherine Morland is a young girl with a very active imagination. Her naivety and love of sensational novels lead her to approach the fashionable social scene in Bath and her stay at nearby Northanger Abbey with preconceptions that have embarrassing and entertaining consequences. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY P.D. JAMES VINTAGE CLASSICS AUSTEN SERIES - all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed and introduced by our finest contemporary writers.

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The triumphs and tragedies of growing up as the son of a famous Beat artistTOSH is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture. A critical figure in the history of postwar American culture, Tosh Berman's father, Wallace Berman, was known as the "father of assemblage art," and was the creator of the legendary mail-art publication Semina. Wallace Berman and his wife, famed beauty and artist's muse Shirley Berman, raised Tosh between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and their home life was a heady atmosphere of art, music, and literature, with local and international luminaries regularly passing through.Tosh's unconventional childhood and peculiar journey to adulthood features an array of famous characters, from George Herms and Marcel Duchamp, to Michael McClure and William S. Burroughs, to Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell, to the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Toni Basil.TOSH takes an unflinching look at the triumphs and tragedies of his unusual upbringing by an artistic genius with all-too-human frailties, against a backdrop that includes The T.A.M.I. Show, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Easy Rider, and more. With a preface by actress/writer Amber Tamblyn (daughter of Wallace's friend, actor Russ Tamblyn), TOSH is a self-portrait taken at the crossroads of popular culture and the avant-garde. The index of names included represents a who's who of midcentury American—and international—culture.Praise for Tosh:"Tosh Berman's sweet and affecting memoir provides an intimate glimpse of his father, Wallace, and the exciting, seat-of-the-pants LA art scene of the 1960s, and it also speaks to the hearts of current and former lonely teenagers everywhere."--Luc Sante, author of The Other Paris"This is the story of a kid growing up inside of art world history, retelling his upbringing warts and all. A well-written, fast-moving book that is candid, funny, often disturbing, and never dull."--Gillian McCain, co-author of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk"TOSH is a delightfully entertaining memoir filled with sly wit and a profound personal perspective."--John Zorn, composer"One could not wish for a better guide into the subterranean and bohemian worlds of the California art/Beat scene than Tosh Berman, only scion of the great Wallace. Tosh has a sly wit and an informed eye, he is both erudite and neurotic, and often hilarious."--John Taylor, Duran Duran"There's the life—and then there's the life. With TOSH you can have both. My life, and that of many who sailed with me, was formed by the 40's & 50's. TOSH takes you there."--Andrew Loog Oldham, producer/manager, The Rolling Stones "As the son of artist Wallace Berman, Tosh Berman had a front row seat for the beat parade of the '50s, and the hippie extravaganza of the '60s. It was an exotic, star-studded childhood, but having groovy parents doesn't insulate one from the challenge of forging one's own identity in the world. Berman's successful effort to do that provides the heart and soul of this movingly candid chronicle of growing up bohemian."--Kristine McKenna, co-author of Room to Dream by David Lynch "This is a beautifully written memoir, and I highly recommend it to those who are interested in the Sixties, Topanga Canyon, the Southern California art scene, and for those who wonder what it might mean to grow up as the son of one of our most acclaimed artists."--Lisa See, author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

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Richard Russo's slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected workings of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New York - and in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years.Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps. With its sly and uproarious humour and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.

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Louis the bear has had enough. From day one, life has been one indignity after another. If he's not being used as a hankie, he's being hung out to dry - literally. (No one likes clothespins used on their ears!) This teddy is sneaking away just as soon as he can. Then again, no use running off in the rain . . . or during a show-and-tell routine. Maybe Louis has something to lose, after all. This fresh and funny take on a teddy bear come to life is a salty and sweet, grumpy and tender, sly tribute to the ties that bind.

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Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds - Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn't fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he's in a minority of one. Or is he?When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances the villagers of Lochdubh are shocked and outraged. Chief Detective Inspector Blair suspects that members of her family may be involved but Hamish thinks there's much more to the story - and is willing to get rough to solve the riddle of Mrs Gentle's mysterious demise.

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Celebrated pop artist Scott C. continues to captivate audiences around the world with his deceptively simple watercolor paintings and illustrations. Now fans can once again submerge themselves in his fanciful world of dancing skeletons, smiling dinosaurs, playful superheroes, and adorable pop culture icons with an enchanting new collection of the best of his recent work. Handpicked by the artist himself, the images include over one hundred new paintings and illustrations, all created in Scott’s trademark cartoon style with his reflections and anecdotes sprinkled throughout. Filled with warmth, sly humor, and surprising insight, this book is a delightful tribute to an artist guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of both the young and the young at heart.

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Brought to you by Penguin.To pay Mrs Twit back for the worms in his spaghetti, Mr Twit thought up a really clever, nasty trick . . .Mr Twit is a foul and smelly man who always has bits of cornflake and sardine in his beard.Mrs Twit is scheming and sly and always thinking of the next horrible trick to play on her husband.The Twits are so ghastly and evil that they even keep Muggle-Wump the monkey and his family captive in their garden.But not for much longer! The monkeys are planning to trick the terrible Twits so that they can escape and put a stop to the frightful pair once and for all!1980 The Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd (P)2023 Penguin Audio

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Peering into life's cringe-worthy moments, best-selling author Beth Lisick excavates territory that most would rather ignore. Funny, odd, deeply personal, yet somehow universal, these are the kind of memories that haunt us all, the small awful moments of shame and humiliation that we'd rather forget than relive. Beth Lisick has made a career of opening her life to her readers in all of its messy, smart hilarity, but this type of story doesn't usually find its way into a memoir. With her trademark humor and sly intelligence, writing in short flashes the way these episodes tend to pop up in memory, Lisick recounts her most embarrassing moments with gusto. From a trick she played on a neighbor thirty years ago to what she accidentally blurted out at last night's dinner party, she explores the bad judgments and free-floating regrets that keep her up at night, and the result is a daring, candid, and wickedly funny collection of embarrassment embraced, the triumph of humor and perspective over everyday mortification. Writer, performer, and independent film actress Beth Lisick is the author of the New York Times best-selling comic memoir Everybody Into the Pool and the gonzo self-help manifesto Helping Me Help Myself. Praise for Yokohama Threeway: "The ultimate joyride for those of us who enjoy cringe-worthy embarrassment, genuine pathos, and an overdosing amount of schadenfreude."--Michael Ian Black "This book is fucking great."--Kathleen Hanna, of Bikini Kill and The Julie Ruin "A strangely touching and engaging portrait of the artist as a young screwup."--Booklist "Yokohama Threeway blends the funny and the painful into an elixir more closely resembling cough medicine than soda pop--a little bitter, made up of strange ingredients, not real pretty, but necessary if you want to get better. In the end, you are happy you took it, even if it leaves a funky aftertaste."--World Literature Today "Speaking as someone who hates everything, I love this book."--James Greer, musician & author of The Failure "Hilarious, heartbreaking, compassionate, pitch perfect, utterly original." --Joyce Maynard, author of After Her and Labor Day "A laugh-out-loud series of short, revelatory confessions propelled by curiosity and an acute desire to experience the world. It is not now and perhaps never will be quite in vogue for people to share their shames, but Lisick does it with aplomb and even exuberance."--Evan Karp, SF Weekly "Beth Lisick's new essay collection Yokohama Threeway made me laugh out loud more than anything else I have read all year, she is a master at sharing her life experiences with self-deprecating yet honest humor."--David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy "Beth Lisick, divulges the most embarrassing moments in a series of short essays dripping with wicked humor."--7x7 Magazine

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Worcestershire Murders brings together numerous murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Worcestershire. They include the murders of the entire Gummery family at Berrow in 1780; Catherine Gulliver, killed by John Butler at Ombersley in 1864; and Maria Holmes, slain by her husband at Bromsgrove in 1872. Cases from the twentieth century include two unsolved murders - the body of an unidentified woman found in a tree in Hagley Wood in 1943, and the brutal killing of Florrie Porter at Lickey End in 1944. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Worcestershire's history.

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Wiltshire Murders brings together numerous murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Wiltshire. They include the murder of Eliza Jones, stabbed to death by her common-law husband in 1836; the shooting of a policeman in 1892; Mary Ann Nash, who disposed of her illegitimate son in 1907 by dropping him into a disused well; and Edward Richards, who died in Trowbridge during an attempted robbery in 1925. Nicola Sly's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Wiltshire's history, and should give much food for thought.

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You are about to read a book like no other. Bloody Jack is a collection about the making and unmaking of story, of poetry and of history. Based loosely on the life of John Krafchenko, a notorious Manitoban outlaw, the poems of Bloody Jack turn fact and fiction upside down and inside out. Dennis Cooley has added more than a dozen new poems to this revised edition and Douglas Barbour has written an introduction. By turns earthy and earnest, soulful and sly, Bloody Jack is a rollicking, fun-filled riot of a volume by one of Canada's favourite poets. "Bloody Jack is back again, bigger, bolder, sweeter and even more outrageous." -David Arnason Introduction by Douglas Barbour.

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Banana Yoshimoto has a magical ability to animate the lives of her young characters, and here she spins the stories of three women, all bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by another woman whom she was once pitted against in a love triangle. Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque surrealism, Asleep is an enchanting book from one of the best writers in contemporary international fiction.

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Hollywood & God is a virtuosic performance, filled with crossings back and forth from cinematic chiaroscuro to a kind of unsettling desperation and disturbing - even lurid-hallucination. From the Baltimore Catechism to the great noir films of the last century to today's Elvis impersonators and Paris Hilton (an impersonator of a different sort), Robert Polito tracks the snares, abrasions, and hijinks of personal identities in our society of the spectacle, a place where who we say we are, and who we think we are, fade in and out of consciousness, like flickers of light dancing tantalizingly on the silver screen. Mixing lyric and essay, collage and narrative, memoir and invention, Hollywood & God is an audacious book, as contemporary as it is historical, as sly and witty as it is devastatingly serious.

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From the bestselling author of the DCI Matilda Darke series comes a standalone thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page… ‘Dark, twisting and captivating. The very essence of the just-one-more-page thriller’ Will Carver ‘Wood gets better with every book. I couldn’t let go of this tragedy of loss and deception from the moment I picked it up’ Alex Marwood, author of The Island of Lost Girls *** On a cold February afternoon in 1990, seven-year-old Danny Redpath disappeared from his home. Four months later, his body was found in the nearby forest, wrapped in a sheet and washed clean of all evidence. Apprehended while attempting to abduct another child, Jonathan Egan-Walsh was charged with the murders of more than a dozen boys. Convicted on all counts, he received life in prison and went unrepentant, still refusing to reveal the whereabouts of one of his victims, Zachery Marshall. Twenty-five years later, Zachery’s mother Diane is still searching for his body. When Jonathan dies in custody, she realises she will never know its location – until she receives a letter he left in his cell, in which he admits he was guilty of all the crimes of which he was accused, except the murder of her son… *** ‘A twisty, gripping read takes us inside the mind of a perverted serial killer. It pulls no punches, and the final scenes come as a real shock’ David Young ‘Immersive and darkly devious with sly twists and a compelling protagonist’ Neil Broadfoot ‘If you like your crime books intense, character-driven and with regular punches to the gut, this is for you’ Louise Swanson Readers love The Seventh Victim: ‘You can't go wrong with a Michael Wood book. His Matilda Darke series is superb and so is this his first standalone’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Dark and twisted’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This book had me gripped and reading through the night’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This is one of the darkest books I've read for a very long time, but Michael in his usual way handles it brilliantly’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘My new favourite author’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Utterly fantastic’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Fast-paced’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Bleak and chilling… highly recommended’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HANDMAID'S TALE, THE TESTAMENTS AND ALIAS GRACE'Dark and witty tales from the gleefully inventive Margaret Atwood. Witty verve, imaginative inventiveness and verbal sizzle vivify every page' Sunday TimesA recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire, and a crime committed long ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite.'A collection of nine acerbic, mischievous, gulpable short stories' Harper's Bazaar'Atwood's prose is so sharp and sly that the effect is bracing rather than bleak' Guardian'[Look at these tales] as eight icily refreshing arsenic Popsicles followed by a baked Alaska laced with anthrax, all served with impeccable style and aplomb. Enjoy!' Ursula K. Le Guin, Financial Times 'Atwood has characters here close to death, dead already, unwittingly doomed or - in one memorable case - freeze-dried; but her own curiosity, enthusiasm and sheer storytelling panache remain alive and kicking' Independent

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Packed with make and do activities and over 200 stickers, The Singing Mermaid Make and Do Book is a great gift for any child – ideal for rainy days and holidays.Tempted by the promise of fame and fortune, the Singing Mermaid joins a circus. The crowds love her, but the poor mermaid is kept in a tank by the wicked circus owner Sam Sly, and she soon longs to return to the freedom of her ocean home. Join the mermaid's adventures and find out how to make a shimmering mermaid crown, a circus tent theatre, and a sparkling ocean in a jam jar.Based on the bestselling picture book The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks.

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If you like Mo Willems' Pigeon, you'll love Sam Wedelich's Chicken Little!Chicken Little is NOT afraid of anything, not even a wolf. No matter how big or bad he is.In fact, she''s never even seen a wolf.So when a real wolf shows up and ruffles her feathers, what''s a fretful fowl to do: Join the frenzied flock and fly the coop? Or find out if this newcomer is as bad as his reputation?The plucky star of Chicken Little: The Real and Totally True Tale goes toe-to-toe with literature''s most famous villain in this brilliant comedy spun with sly wisdom.

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An illustrated adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes mystery – at an easy-to-read level for readers of all ages! Also includes a QR code for the free audiobook! Holmes shook his head sadly. ‘You think that unless this document is found there will be war?’ ‘It’s very likely,’ said the prime minister. ‘Then, sir, we must prepare for war.’ A secret government document has been stolen. It’s up to Holmes and Watson to find it and save the country from war! But with sly secret agents, mysterious murders and the question of a curious bloodstain to contend with, will Holmes and Watson be able to piece the puzzle together in time?

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“I, Archimedes the mathematician, son of Phidias the astronomer, prostrate myself before the goddess of wisdom. May Athena restore our people to her favour and see us through the descending storm…” So begins The Beast in the Labyrinth, a story of sly and pitiless ambition. Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, is struggling to chart a course between the warring empires of Rome and Carthage. His only close confidante is his eccentric cousin, Archimedes. But Hieron is ninety years old, and his nobles are scheming in the shadows. The two old men turn to Dion, the kingdom’s most brutal warrior. Surrounded by smiling enemies, and menaced by the rival empires, Dion’s mental stability comes under increasing pressure. Will he prove the kingdom’s salvation or its destruction?

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These five late biblical books offer readers a range of pleasures not usually associated with the Bible. They are artful, entertaining literary works—innovative, even startling. Women often stand centre stage. The Song of Songs, a celebration of young love, frankly sensuous, with no reference to God, offers some of the most beautiful love poems of the ancient world. The story of Esther’s shrewd triumph is a secular entertainment that mixes farce with sly sexual comedy. The character of Ruth embodies the virtues of loyalty, love and charity in a harmonious world. Enigma replaces harmony in Daniel, whose feverish dreams envision the end of time. And the traditions of prophecy are recast in the tale of a fish that swallows Jonah. Alter’s translation restores the original power of these popular books.

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Wharton's sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg, with a foreword bySofia CoppolaConsidered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton's second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the journey of Undine Spragg from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of the America's interior and its nouveau riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled and selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, and through the intricate plot of Undine's marriages and affairs, Wharton conveys a vision of a social class that is both supremely informed and supremely disenchanted.

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Gilles Verlant’s biography of Serge Gainsbourg is the best and most authoritative in any language When Serge Gainsbourg died in 1991, France went into mourning: François Mitterand himself proclaimed him “our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire.” Gainsbourg redefined French pop, from his beginnings as cynical chansonnier and mambo-influenced jazz artist to the ironic “yé-yé” beat and lush orchestration of his 1960s work to his launching of French reggae in the 1970s to the electric funk and disco of his last albums. But mourned as much as his music was Gainsbourg the man: the self-proclaimed ugly lover of such beauties as Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, the iconic provocateur whose heavy-breathing “Je t’aime moi non plus” was banned from airwaves throughout Europe and whose reggae version of the “Marseillais” earned him death threats from the right, and the dirty-old-boy wordsmith who could slip double-entendres about oral sex into the lyrics of a teenybopper ditty and make a crude sexual proposition to Whitney Houston on live television. Gilles Verlant’s biography of Gainsbourg is the best and most authoritative in any language. Drawing from numerous interviews and their own friendship, Verlant provides a fascinating look at the inner workings of 1950s–1990s French pop culture and the conflicted and driven songwriter, actor, director and author that emerged from it: the young boy wearing a yellow star during the German Occupation; the young art student trying to woo Tolstoy’s granddaughter; the musical collaborator of Petula Clark, Juliette Greco and Sly and Robbie; the seasoned composer of the Lolita of pop albums, Histoire de Melody Nelson; the cultural icon who transformed scandal and song into a new form of delirium.

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Inspired new translations of the work of one of the world's greatest fabulistsTold in an elegant style, Jean de la Fontaine's (1621-95) charming animal fables depict sly foxes and scheming cats, vain birds and greedy wolves, all of which subtly express his penetrating insights into French society and the beasts found in all of us. Norman R. Shapiro has been translating La Fontaine's fables for over twenty years, capturing the original work's lively mix of plain and archaic language. This newly complete translation is destined to set the English standard for this work. Awarded the Lewis Galantière Prize by the American Translators Association, 2008.

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In the grand finale of Elise Gravel's graphic chapter book series that Kirkus called "a charming treasure," Arlo the crow is going to be a dad! The third book in this quirky series from acclaimed author Elise Gravel is perfect for fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Castronauts.Parenting is tough—even for a genius like Arlo—but luckily he isn’t alone: his partner Marla and Uncle Pips are there to help! From building a new nest and taking care of Marla while she incubates the eggs to teaching the chicks everything they need to know, Arlo has his wings full. Join Arlo, Pips, Marla, and the new chicks as they explore this next big chapter in their lives.Snappy dialogue paired with a limited color scheme that's perfect for newly independent readers, this final story has tons of amazing "kid-pleasing" bird facts.More praise for Arlo & Pips #1: King of the Crows: A New York Public Library Best Book * A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best * A Junior Library Guild Selection * "An unexpected friendship story! In three short graphic chapters marked by [Gravel’s] signature sly humor, facts about crows are sprinkled throughout, making the reader believe that maybe crows are truly as amazing as Arlo says.” —The Horn Book (starred review)

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Very few playwrights can be identified from a single line of dialogue – debbie tucker green is one of them. This collection of her first six plays, together with a short introduction by the author, shows a dramatic artist in full control of her craft. born bad (Hampstead Theatre, 2003; winner of the Olivier Award for Best Newcomer) dives headlong into the heart of a conflicted family, unleashing wit, ferocity and verbal dexterity on the way. 'One of the most assured and extraordinary new voices we’ve heard in a long while. Electrifying' Independent on Sunday dirty butterfly (Soho Theatre, 2003) is a mesmerising study of voyeurism, power and guilt. 'There is a sly, controlled power in this writing… And now I cannot get it out of my head' Guardian generations (National Theatre Platform performance, 2005; Young Vic, 2007) follows three generations of a Black South African family comparing cooking skills – but food isn’t the only topic and the family numbers are declining. 'Devastating… will last you a lifetime' Guardian stoning mary (Royal Court Theatre, 2005) confronts the reality of global conflicts, transposing them to the West. 'The words fly around the theatre piercing the dark like gleaming shards of shrapnel' The Stage trade (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2005) shines a light on the world of female sex tourism. 'Poetry laced with shards of broken glass' Guardian random (Royal Court Theatre, 2008) is set over one day, following one family and the effects of one random act of violence. 'The writing seems to penetrate the very heart of grief' Telegraph 'debbie tucker green uses language as deftly as a composer might use notes.' Financial Times

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BEST DESIGNED CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT SERIES ABDA AWARD 2020When a lovable sloth's book is hijacked by a fox with STYLE and PIZZAZZ, sloth has to learn how to find his voice and take back control.Lento the sloth is SO excited you are reading HIS book. He has a BIG story to tell you. First, though, he needs a little nap. But if you snooze, you lose. Enter Fox, stage right, to steal the show.The first book in a ridiculously fun series about a bewildered sloth who just wants to express himself and a sly old fox who keeps stealing the limelight.

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Jenny Joseph was no ordinary poet - and Led by the Nose is no ordinary memoir. Shaped around the smells of the English countryside, it is full of the wilful personality and the sly humour that characterised the purple-clad old woman in her iconic poem 'Warning'. Joseph's eccentricities permeate each chapter as she flows through the gardening year with its chores and blossoms, frequently leading the reader off the garden path to stop, smell the roses, and ignore the world for a while. Full of the sensual awareness of Jenny Joseph's poetry, Led by the Nose is a singular memoir: a work of delicious diversion and literary flair, horticultural anxieties and countercultural tendencies, providing a glimpse - or sniff - of the landscape of this treasured poet's life.

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Inspired new translations of the work of one of the world's greatest fabulistsTold in an elegant style, Jean de la Fontaine's (1621-95) charming animal fables depict sly foxes and scheming cats, vain birds and greedy wolves, all of which subtly express his penetrating insights into French society and the beasts found in all of us. Norman R. Shapiro has been translating La Fontaine's fables for over twenty years, capturing the original work's lively mix of plain and archaic language. This newly complete translation is destined to set the English standard for this work. Awarded the Lewis Galantière Prize by the American Translators Association, 2008.

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When it′s 9 P.M. in Brooklyn, it′s 10 P.M. in Puerto Rico, and midnight on the mid-atlantic. Far from the vroom of New York traffic, the Puerto Rican night is filled with conga music, sweet rice, and fruit ice. In India, villagers begin their morning chores as well ropes squeak, buckets splash, and bracelets jangle. Meanwhile, in Australia, a sly kookaburra is ready for a noontime feast. Marilyn Singer′s rhythmic lullaby, with bright illustrations by Franc. Lessac, gently transports children through different time zones and distant lands. Young readers will travel far from home, then back again, on a glorious bedtime journey. Ages 5+

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Deceptively straightforward and subtly pyrotechnic, the poems in Hannah Sanghee Park's debut collection captivate with their wordplay at first glance, then give rise to opportunities for extended reflection. ""If / truth be told, I can't be true,"" she writes, but her startling juxtapositions of sound and meaning belie that claim, necessitating a search for the truth behind her semantic games. Here are dozens of brief sentences that can serve as epigrams to undermine our ordinary ways of seeing, as Park's playfully deployed puns recall the sly paradoxes of Oscar Wilde. The Same-Different ranges from the wonders of the natural world to close human relationships, occasioning the kind of explorations offered in ""And A Lie"": ""The asking was askance. / And the tell all told. / So then, in tandem // Anathema, and anthem.

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HER PERFECT TWIN. YOUR NEW OBSESSION.'Sarah Bonner's debut novel made my jaw drop. There are so many twists in this story, I never knew what was coming next. You won't want to miss this one!' Samantha Downing, author of My Lovely Wife'A wonderfully twisty, and twisted, thriller that'll have you up until the early hours, and with an ending that you will NOT see coming. Brilliant' S J Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep'A terrifyingly vivid psychological thriller - paranoid, claustrophobic and captivating' Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The AppealWhen Megan discovers photographs of her estranged identical twin sister on her husband's phone, she wants answers. Leah already has everything Megan has ever wanted. Fame, fortune, freedom to do what she wants. And when Megan confronts Leah, an argument turns to murder. The only way Megan can get away with killing her twin is to become her. But then lockdown hits. How can she continue living two lives? And what happens if someone else knows her secret too? HER PERFECT TWIN IS THE MOST ADDICTIVE, TWISTY THRILLER YOU'LL READ IN 2022. DON'T MISS THIS WILD RIDE OF A NOVEL.'Brilliantly twisty and thoroughly entertaining - an extremely impressive debut' TM Logan, bestselling author of The Holiday 'A deliciously sticky web of a tale that snared me from the very first page and didn't let me go until the shocking end' C. L. Pattison, author of The Housemate'Intense, sharp, and surprising. Everything I love in a thriller' Jo Jakeman, author of Safe House'A perfect storm of sly revenge and rivalry' LV Matthews, author of The Prank'Twisty, compelling and clever, this is a fabulous debut with a heroine you'll root for' Penny Batchelor, author of Her New Best Friend'I was gripped by this unpredictable rollercoaster of a novel! Full of conniving characters, clever twists and high stakes. It had me constantly wondering what the characters were going to try next and who was going to prevail' Helen Cooper, author of The Downstairs Neighbour'More deliciously twisty than Gone Girl . . . Dark and compelling, Her Perfect Twin is the perfect thriller. Sharp as a knife and so twisty, it hooked me from the very first page' Vikki Patis, author of In The DarkReal readers love Her Perfect Twin:'An outstanding debut from Sarah Bonner. I have never read anything quite like it''Cleverly plotted with great characters . . . A top notch thriller!''This book definitely had me hooked. It's one of those that gets under your skin''A devious, twisty story laced with dark humour, with characters you'll love and love to hate . . . Echoes of Hitchcock and du Maurier, but also more contemporary thrillers like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. Brilliant''Absolutely amazing'

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The Bulgarian Training Manual is a comic novel that tells the story of Tina in her quest to find her true parents and jeans that fit.With the help of a mysterious book with magical powers, Tina makes her way from her waterlogged apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, to an Oz-like journey to Bulgaria and back. Our heroine is the catalyst for a final contest that is part body-builder pose-off and part poetry slam.The novel is a sly and comic look at self-improvement, our self-doubts and fervent dreams, and our endless internal yammering. Those who follow The Bulgarian Training Manual add more than muscle. They become poets.

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When shop-owner Julia Segovia decides that she’s going to marry the handsome if exceedingly young and naive soldier Valentin Brû, he willingly goes along with her scheme. Little does he know that he will have to contend with disgruntled in-laws, eccentric locals, a cunning wife, a shifty career in fortune-telling, the approaching threat of war with Germany and the mysteries of Parisian public transport. With a cast of eccentric characters, amusing incidents and an uplifting tone, The Sunday of Life – its title playfully alluding to Hegel’s theory of history – is a scintillating novel which showcases Queneau’s trademark punning, sly wit and delight in the absurdity of people and situations.

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"To pay Mrs Twit back for the worms in his spaghetti, Mr Twit thought up a really clever, nasty trick . . ."Mr Twit is a foul and smelly man who always has bits of cornflake and sardine in his beard.Mrs Twit is scheming and sly and always thinking of the next horrible trick to play on her husband.The Twits are so ghastly and evil that they even keep Muggle-Wump the monkey and his family captive in their garden.But not for much longer! The monkeys are planning to trick the terrible Twits so that they can escape and put a stop to the frightful pair once and for all!The text in this edition of The Twits was updated in 2022 for young independent readers.

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SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023MOJO BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023AN UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023A VARIETY MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer who created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock; penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and 70s, from Everyday People to Family Affair; and electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop culture performance. Yet he has also been a cautionary tale, known as much for how he dropped out of sight as for what put him in the spotlight in the first place. As much as people know the music, the man remains a mystery. In Thank You, his much-anticipated memoir, he''s finally ready to share his story - a story that many thought he''d never have the chance t

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Stalking Paloma is award-winning poet Ifor Thomas's follow-up to his Welsh Book of the Year shortlisted Body Beautiful. Central to this collection is an arresting and original sequence exploring the obsessive nature of fandom and its pursuit through social media. Staking out the territories of Facebook and Twitter, Thomas is witness to the interplay of intimacy and alienation which has increasingly come to define twenty-first century life. Elsewhere, his other preoccupations come to the fore: the changing face of Cardiff, negotiations with the past, mortality, and poetry - and the personalities that populate his art. With a love of the noir and a sly, mordant wit, Thomas delivers a performance as entertaining as it is essential.

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