Search results for ""author weird"

Who are you? And how can you find who you are? Andrew Bunt has wrestled with these questions. At one point in his childhood, he thought he might be a girl in a boy’s body. As he grew up and discovered he’s same-sex attracted, the world started to tell him that his sexuality is his identity. And for many years, he believed the lie that he was a freak and a weirdo, assuming that’s what everyone thought of him. In this short Christian introduction to identity, Andrew explores and examines different ways we can discover who we are. Blending his personal story with careful Bible teaching and genuine cultural awareness, this is a book to get conversations going and help us all understand our best identity. With questions for discussion and reflection, and an application exercise to end the book, Finding Your Best Identity is a practical and profound introduction to some of the biggest questions we all face.

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Isobel is the Queen of the medieval rave-themed VR game Sparkle Dungeon. Her prowess in the game makes her an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of "power morphemes" - unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skilfully pronounced. But Isobel's reputation makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists, who may be the only thing stopping the cabal from toppling California over the edge of a terrible transformation, with forty million lives at stake. Time is short for Isobel to level up and choose a side - because the cabal has attracted much bigger and weirder enemies than the anarchist resistance, emerging from dark and vicious dimensions of reality and heading straight for planet Earth!

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Phantom in the library! The bizarre true story of a Victorian haunting revealed! King cholera! The day that death came to the Dock family! Exploding mummies! The weirdest events of the blitz examined! A Yorkshire tragedy: Fifteenth-century murder at Calverley Hall! Leeds has one of the darkest histories on record. From the fatal Dripping Riot of 1865, sparked by the theft of two pounds of congealed fat, to the violin-playing killer Charles Peace, said to still haunt the city’s prison cells, you will find all manner of horrible events inside this book. With plague and disease in the city slums, dreadful disasters in Roundhay Park, and riots in the city centre, this is the real story of Yorkshire’s first city.

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CURSED! David was only trying to be cool when he helped some other boys steal an old lady's cane. But when the plan backfires, he is the one whom she 'curses'. Now David can't seem to do anything right. The cool kids taunt him and his only friends are weirdos. He even walks into Spanish class with his fly unzipped! And when he finally gets his nerve up to ask out a cute girl, his trousers fall down midway! But is this the curse at work or is David turning into a total loser? Another witty and very clever tale by the master storyteller Louis Sachar. Other titles in this series are THERE'S A BOY IN THE GIRLS' BATHROOM and DOGS DON'T TELL JOKES.

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In Absinth, you’ll meet three main characters trying to figure out their life on the backdrop of the upcoming Apocalypse: Iris, a fortune-teller who cannot see not the future but weirdly anachronistic versions of the past; Sid Saperstein, a shameless huckster chosen to publish a sacred manuscript whose message will shake heaven and earth alike; Hermes, the Greek messenger god, dispatched by Zeus to sound out his fellow deities, still smarting from the licking they took two thousand years ago, on how best to take advantage of the coming changes, whatever they may be. And also God Himself, whose enigmatic voice addresses us throughout the novel in the contemporary koans of advertising lingo.

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The first ever puzzle book from Flightradar24At any one time there are nearly 20,000 flights in the sky, and more than 75 million flights a year and, since 2006, the website Flightradar24 has kept its beady eye on them all. For the first time ever, the live flight tracker will open its cabin doors onto a wonderful world of flight data and navigational insight, challenging readers to become the pilot in this brilliant new puzzle book.From some of the world's longest, shortest and weirdest flights, to questions on many of the aeronautical world's most enduring mysteries, You're the Captain! is packed full of incredible puzzles that will confound even the most experienced traveller. Complete with colour maps, it asks readers to plot their own routes to destinations, navigate tricky time zones, deal with bad weather and help air traffic control find missing planes all backed by Flightradar24's extraordinary cache of data, flight paths and statistics.So hit the flight deck, buckle up and

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SOME ANGELS ARE DESTINED TO FALL.Instant. Intense. Weirdly familiar . . .The moment Luce looks at Daniel she knows she has never felt like this before. Except she can't shake the feeling that she has . . . and with him - a boy she doesn't remember ever setting eyes on.Will her attempt to find out why enlighten her - or destroy her?Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic. Fallen is a thrilling story about forbidden love.

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Book 3 in the laugh-out-loud detective series - printed with fun coloured sprayed edges! Stolen bicycles? Days before the new skate park opens? This needs investigating. This looks like a case for Mina Mistry. Summer is here, school is out and there’s ... nothing to do?! Since grown-ups invaded the skating rink, there’s nowhere for Mina’s friends to hang out. Luckily, a high-stakes competition is about to mark the opening of a new skate park. As everyone gets weirdly intense about it, Mina faces a string of mysteries. Who stole her cousins’ new bikes? What does Gareth Trumpshaw want? And who keeps levitating past her window? About the Mina Mistry Investigates series: Introducing Mina Mistry, witty schoolgirl detective and soon-to-be Private Investigator. Mina Mistry Investigates is a fun detective series packed with comic-style illustrations and mystery-solving throughout. Great for reluctant readers aged 7+ and fans of the Planet Omar and Anisha, Accidental Detective series.

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A celebration of the wildest and weirdest that action cinema has to offer, the hosts of the Really Awful Movies podcast take you on a fun-filled pilgrimage through the nuttiest movies in the genre. Traversing both decades and continents, these 100 titles reach beyond the typical patron saints of action, giving unsung genre heroes like Vic Diaz, Reb Brown, and Godfrey Ho their due. Our intrepid hosts have highlighted action gems with all of the necessary components for greatness: Heroes! Villains! Henchmen! But something’s typically missing. Usually, it’s a budget. Often, it’s talent. But that doesn’t mean these films aren’t as entertaining as any mainstream fare. Divided into nine chapters by subgenre, featuring stills and posters, and with a foreword by genre icon Brian Trenchard-Smith, Mine’s Bigger Than Yours is a romp through the world of fisticuffs, jailbreaks, pit fighting, mercenaries, and really big explosions—all the stuff that makes action movies great.

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To an outsider, working as a university professor might seem like a dream: summers off, a few hours of class each week, an exchange of ideas with brilliant colleagues, books and late afternoon lattes...Who wouldn't envy that life? But those in the trenches of academe are well acquainted with the professoriate's dark underside: the hierarchies and pseudo-political power plays, the peculiar colleagues, the over-parented students, the stacks of essays that need to be graded ASAP. No one understands this world better than novelist Julie Schumacher, who here provides a bitingly funny distraction designed to help you survive life in higher education without losing your mind. Sardonic yet shrewdly insightful, Doodling for Academics offers the perfect cognitive relief for the thousands of faculty and grad students whose mentors and loved ones failed to steer them toward more reasonable or lucrative fields. Through forty pages of original illustrations and activities from coloring to paper dolls to mad libs this book traces the arc of a typical day on campus. Get a peek inside the enigma of the student brain. Imagine a utopian faculty meeting. Navigate the red tape maze of university administration. With the help of hilarious illustrations by Lauren Nassef, Schumacher infuses the world of campus greens and university quads with cutting wit, immersing you deep into the weirdly creative challenges of university life. Offering a satirical interactive experience for scholars, the combination of humor and activities in this book will bring academia into entertaining relief, making it the perfect gift for your colleagues, advisors, or newly minted graduates.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES POETRY BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZEThe black poet would love to say his century beganWith Hughes or God forbid, Wheatley, but actuallyIt began with all the poetry weirdos & worriers, warriors,Poetry whiners & winos falling from ship bows, sunsetBridges & windows. In a second I'll tell you how littleWriting rescues.So begins this astonishing, muscular sequence by one of America's best-selling and most acclaimed poets. Over 70 poems, each titled 'American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin' and shot through with the vernacular energy of popular culture, Terrance Hayes manoeuvres his way between touching domestic visions, stories of love, loss and creation, tributes to the fallen and blistering denunciations of the enemies of the good.American Sonnets builds a living picture of the whole self, and the whole human, even as it opens to the view the dividing lines of race, gender and political oppression which define the early 21st Century. It is compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, bewildered - and unstoppably, rhythmically compelling, as few books can hope to be.

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Set in rural Wales, Happy Families shines a tender, funny and heartwarming light on the lives of three generations of a Chinese immigrant family. Refreshing and original, this is perfect for fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Rosie Project and Gavin & Stacey.When was the last time you paid much attention to the person behind the counter of your local Chinese takeaway? Amy is thirty-four and has just given up her glittering career in the big (Welsh) city to move back in with her grandfather, returning to work in the small-town Chinese takeaway where she spent her bookish and boring childhood. Why? That's a secret she won't tell.Just like the secret of why her grandfather, Ah Goong, and her faith, TC Li, haven't spoken to each other in thirty years. Weirder still, they've lived in the same small flat above the takeaway for the majority of those years, with Amy's mother Joan acting as their unfortunate go-between and buffer.Now Amy's parents have moved, leaving her in charge of looking after the old man. But then Ah Goong collapses in the street and time is running out if Amy wants to play happy families before it's too late.

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"Plans are usually only good for one thing - laughing at in hindsight. So, armed with rudimentary Spanish, dangerous levels of curiosity and a record of poor judgement, I set off to tackle whatever South America could throw at me." On his nineteenth birthday, Peter Allison flipped a coin. One side would take him to Africa and the other to South America. He recounted his time spent as a safari guide in Africa to much acclaim in Don't Run, Whatever You do and Don't Look Behind You. Sixteen years later he makes his way to Chile, ready to seek out the continent's best, weirdest and wildest adventures - and to chase the elusive jaguar. From learning to walk a puma (or rather be bitten and dragged along by it) in Bolivia, to finding love in Patagonia and hunting naked with the remote Huaorani people in Ecuador, How to Walk a Puma is Peter's fascinating and often hilarious account of misadventures in South America. Ever the gifted storyteller and cultural observer, Allison makes many observations about life in humid climes, the nature of nomadism, and exactly what it is like to be nearly blasted off a mountain by the famous Patagonia wind. His self-deprecating humour is as delightful as his crazy stunts, and his love for animals - even when they bite - is infectious.

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You never know how things really are in other people’s families, in other people’s homes. There’s the public face and the private truths – the personal griefs and tragedies, whether festering or resting in peace. In her wry, engagingly strange poems, Anne Bailey takes the door off the latch and lets us inside. She shows us loss and disappointment, as well as hardness and resilience, particularly through the eyes of a daughter, wife and mother. We see the domestic sphere in such close-up detail that it becomes bizarre, an uncanny dimension that nonetheless rings horribly, weirdly true. "So you’ve put a picture on the lovely blank wallthat used to go pink in the sun and feel like an ice cream. A wall on which I used to rest my eyes in pleasant contemplation."- from 'Domestic'

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UFOs are one of the world's greatest mysteries...and I hope they stay that way. For the day that aliens reveal themselves may very well become the beginning of the end of life on Earth as we know it!A flying saucer crashes deep in the mountains of Japan. Wary of the hyper-intelligent beings they find inside, the government hides from the public all news of the alien craft. But it's not the strange visitors themselves that they should be afraid ofthe real danger is the parasitic spores smuggled aboard! Will Earth survive the UFO MUSHROOM INVASION?!Originally published in 1976, Shirakawa Marina's UFO MUSHROOM INVASION is a masterpiece of sci-fi horror. Drawing on his deep knowledge of Japanese folklore and the supernatural, Shirakawa created one of manga history's cult classics and an unforgettably creepy entry in the canon of spore-horror. With an essay by weirdologist Udagawa Takeo, UFO MUSHROOM INVASION is the second volume of SMUDGE, a line of vintage

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A thrilling guide to the most incredible objects, weirdest discoveries, and most surprising science in our Universe.Go on an outer space adventure to discover amazing stories of objects, matter, and mysteries that make up the universe. This fascinating space book will take you above the clouds and beyond the Earth''s atmosphere to show you the vast expanse of space that stretches above us.This fascinating space book for kids offers:- The fourth title in DK's Amazing Earth series, with over 100,000 copies sold globally.- Surprising stories that go beyond the normal facts and figures of typical children's space books.- Out of this world photography and artwork that jumps out of the pages and explains each concept.Have you ever wondered why some planets have rings? Or whether galaxies can collide? Or how humans are able to explore the vastness of space? Amazing Space allows kids aged 7+ to step on to the surface of other plan

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THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING HILARIOUS NEW BOOK FROM THE NATION''S FAVOURITE COMEDIAN, BILLY CONNOLLYBeing a Rambling Man was what I always wanted to be, to live the way I damn well pleased. I''ve met the weirdest and most wonderful people who walk the Earth, seen the most bizarre and the most fantastic sights - and I''ve rarely come across something I couldn''t get a laugh at. I don''t think I''ve ever had a bad trip. Well, apart from in the 1970s, but that''s a whole other story . . . When Billy set out from Glasgow as a young man he never looked back. He played his banjo on boats and trains, under trees, and on top of famous monuments. He danced naked in snow, wind and fire. He slept in bus stations, under bridges and on strangers'' floors. He travelled by foot, bike, ship, plane, sleigh - even piggy-backed - to get to his next destination. Billy has wandered to every corner of the earth and believes that being a Rambling

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If you had your birthday party on the moon, what would it be like? Blast off to an extraterrestrial celebration and find out! This cool picture book combines fun and facts to help kids learn all about outer space. Have your birthday party on the moon and everyone will come! After all, who wouldn’t want to ride in a rocket and celebrate for a day that lasts as long as a month on Earth? Then, young partygoers could romp in a low-gravity playground; watch candles and balloons behave weirdly in the Moon’s atmosphere; and see why the “moon angels” they make in the thick carpet of lunar dust will last for thousands of years. With each discovery, kids learn the science behind the surprise, explained in terms they’ll understand. Complete with sidebars and a glossary, this entertaining adventure is perfect for sharing at home and at school. Full of facts about the moon and space!

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‘We shall be detectives, Sponge!’ exclaimed Mildew. ‘We shall solve the Mystery of the School Spoon!’ Mildew and Sponge don’t think much of Maudlin Towers, the blackened, gloom-laden, gargoyle-infested monstrosity that is their school. But when somebody steals the School Spoon and the teachers threaten to cancel the Christmas holidays until the culprit is found, our heroes must spring into action and solve the crime! But what starts out as a classic bit of detectivating quickly becomes weirder than they could have imagined. Who is the ghost in the attic? What’s their history teacher doing with a time machine? And why do a crazy bunch of Vikings seem to think Mildew is a werewolf? Hugely funny, deliciously creepy and action-packed by turns, this brand new series from Chris Priestley is perfect for 8+ readers who like their mysteries with a bit of bite. Fans of Lemony Snicket and Chris Riddell will love Curse of the Werewolf Boy.

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Haunting’s consequences for the literary imagination.Reading is a weirdly phantasmic trade: animating words to revive absent voices, rehearing the past, fantasizing a future. In Romantic Shades and Shadows, Susan J. Wolfson explores spectral language, formations, and sensations, defining an apparitional poetics in the finely grained textures of writing and their effects on present reading. Framed by an introductory chapter on writing and apparition and an afterword on haunted reading, the book includes chapters of sustained, revelatory close attention to the particular, often peculiar, literary imaginations of William Wordsworth, William Hazlitt, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, W. B. Yeats, and John Keats. Wolfson also explores the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (a self-confessed Ghost-Theorist), Mary Shelley, and other writers of the Long Romantic era, canonical as well as less familiar. All are encountered in freshly pointed ways on an arc of investigation that builds with generative force.Romantic Shades and Shadows is written with a lucidity, wit, and accessibility that will appeal to general readers, and with a critical sophistication and scholarly expertise that will engage advanced students, critics, and professional peers.

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Here's a book about London that's seriously streetwise! Let Marco and Amelia, our Lonely Planet explorers, take you off the tourist trail and guide you on a journey through London that you'll never forget. This book is perfect for anyone who has been to London, plans to go there or is just interested in finding out more about this amazing city! Discover London's best-kept secrets, amazing stories and loads of other cool stuff from the comfort of your own home or while visiting the city! But, you don't have to be a visitor or armchair traveller to enjoy this-Londoners are sure to learn new things about their very own city too! Find out how an old parrot hit the headlines, where you can purchase a tin of panic or some tasty brain jam, what the weirdest item ever left on a bus was and lots more! For readers ages 8 and up. Contents: Special Streets London By Jetpack Tunnel Under London Treasure Hunt Yum Yum London Go Wild Magical Mysteries and Legends London Wheels London Out Loud Scream Streets Tales of Tails Hey! Nosy Parker! Secrets Revealed Let's Do the Show Wear London Right Royal Route Watery London Sporty London Pleased To Meet You Also available: Paris City Trails, New York City Trails. About Lonely Planet Kids: From the world's leading travel publisher comes Lonely Planet Kids, a children's imprint that brings the world to life for young explorers everywhere. With a range of beautiful books for children aged 5-12, we're kickstarting the travel bug and showing kids just how amazing our planet can be. From bright and bold sticker activity books, to beautiful gift titles bursting at the seams with amazing facts, we aim to inspire and delight curious kids, showing them the rich diversity of people, places and cultures that surrounds us. We pledge to share our enthusiasm and love of the world, our sense of humour and continual fascination for what it is that makes the world we live in the diverse and magnificent place it is. It's going to be a big adventure - come explore!

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From Africa, alligators, and astronauts to zippers, zebras, and Zambonis, this treasure trove of fascinating, fantastic facts will keep fun-seeking 7-to-10-year-olds entertained for hours! Did you know that houseflies taste with their feet—which are 10,000,000 times more sensitive than the human tongue?Or that Sesame Street's Big Bird is one foot shorter than a real-life ostrich? This collection of the world’s most entertaining and interesting facts from National Geographic Kids is bursting at the seams with bright, colorful page layouts and over 1,200 photographs about kids’ favorite subjects. Every topic has a full two-page spread packed with tantalizing tidbits on topics like toys and games, mysteries of history, robots and reptiles, sports and spies, wacky words, and so much more: • Deadly Animals • Spiders • Knights and Castles • The Brain • Extreme Weirdnes

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A beautiful and urgent exploration of the experience of child poverty from Tom Percival, creator of the bestselling Big Bright Feelings series, for fans of Boy at the Back of the Class. Working in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, £1 from the sale of a hardback copy in the UK will go towards supporting children in poverty. 'Powerful and moving with the potential to change lives' Hannah Gold'Full of empathy and most importantly, heart' Phil EarleThere's a bunch of kids in there and suddenly they're all looking at me like someone who can actually do something, not just some weirdo with the wrong shoes and a rubbish coat . . . Will has the wrong shoes – he's always known it but doesn't know how to change it. Navigating the difficulties of home and school when you feel you stick out is tough, but finding confide

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While quietly studying prisms and light on his family's Lincolnshire farm in the plague year of 1666, Isaac Newton suddenly finds himself transported to 2020. There he meets young Archie, who assumes that this curious character on a country riverbank is a random weirdo with a few marbles missing. It turns out that Newton is quantumly entangled, the victim of an experiment with physical laws way beyond even his own revolutionary insight. He's not the only one caught in this plight: Archie becomes entangled with Isaac, unwittingly riding the timelines too. The pair end up on the run in two different ages, pursued by panicky scientists and agents of the law in the twenty-first century, and facing potentially lethal accusations of sorcery in the seventeenth. Can the combined talents of Newton and his modern colleagues untangle the mess? The science is sound(ish) and the story is a delight. Noel Hodson's playful novel is the easiest, most enjoyable introduction to quantum physics ever written.

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One hitman is feared above all in Japan: the killing machine known as The Fable. But is he really a tough guy or more of a...weirdo? After a particularly lucrative spree necessitates a break from his life of crime, the Fable faces his hardest assignment ever: living as a normal guy, with a cover story, an apartment, and a pet parrot! It''s Way of the Househusband minus the wife and kid, plus one adorable, friendly bird, topped off with a whole lotta blood! Omnibus edition includes Vol. 3-4. Anime coming soon! KILLING IS MY JOB. GRAPHIC DESIGN IS MY PASSION. The boogieman of the Japanese underworld known as Fable is taking a year off from killing for hire to lay low in Osaka, and it turns out this normal life thing is pretty fun. He's got a new friend (a parrot), and his neighbor Misaki has gotten him a new job, doodling childish cartoons for an hourly pittance at the small design company where she works. But as Misaki saves up

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One hitman is feared above all in Japan: the killing machine known as The Fable. But is he really a tough guy or more of a...weirdo? After a particularly lucrative spree necessitates a break from his life of crime, the Fable faces his hardest assignment ever: living as a normal guy, with a cover story, an apartment, and a pet parrot! It''s Way of the Househusband minus the wife and kid, plus one adorable, friendly bird, topped off with a whole lotta blood! Omnibus edition includes Vol. 3-4. Anime coming soon! The man called The Fable is a self-proclaimed genius at killing. The mention of his codename strikes fear into the hearts of every yakuza in Japan. His talent has brought him everything he could want: money, respect, purpose. But this is no legend. He''s just a man--a rather irritating man who loves stupid jokes and bad TV. After a bloody period of gang enforcement in Tokyo, the Fable''s boss advises him to lie low and en

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Ripley's Believe It or Not! will amaze and astound children and adults alike with thousands of strange stories, unusual feats and hair-raising oddities from around the world.Bursting with thousands of extraordinary facts and accompanied by lists, stunning photography, infographics, and the science behind some of the weirdest stories, Ripley's Believe It or Not! will entertain, inform and flabbergast you with stories of people who are pushing the boundaries. This year's annual takes the reading experience to the next level with mini games, interactive video content, quizzes, secrets to be unlocked and many more innovative features. No Christmas is complete without it.

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A brisk guide for the aspirant bike rider all the way from choosing a first bike to techniques for wheelies and bunny hops and the finer points of riding in a group. This multi-layering of information makes this an inspirational read on many levels. Praise for Young Cyclist's Companion! "A clear, fun, accessible, accurate, and encouraging guide for kids who love to bike". -- Kirkus Starred Review "Much like Chris Hoy’s guide, The Young Cyclist’s Companion is a fun and accessible guide sure to entertain and inform, well-supported by illustrations and photographs". -- We Love Cycling "Packed with a surprisingly large amount of useful and entertaining information. Best of all it makes you want to get out and ride". -- Bikemonger "A fantastic foray into the world of cycling and all things ‘bike’ for children, which could not have come at a better time". --The Literacy Tree "A great, bright and catchy non-fiction book, well supported by photographs and illustrations. This would be a great gift for children who have shown interest in cycling". -- Reading Zone "With a clever blend of introductory explanation and more in-depth tips for budding enthusiasts, this comprehensive hardback guide to owning and riding a bicycle will appeal to a wide range of children in KS2". -- School Reading List Who doesn’t remember what it feels like to be a young person on a bike. Cycling offers kids an unrivalled freedom and independence. With global cycling trends on a new, post-pandemic high, ever more young people are experiencing the joys of the beautiful machine. This book is aimed at young people who are already proficient cyclists and are keen to learn more. It explains all the basics: How to choose a bike (types of bike, getting the right fit), basic maintenance (changing a tire, cleaning your bike), cycling techniques (pedalling, gearing, cornering, bunny hops) and next level cycling (competitions and training). Alongside these informative texts there is a cornucopia of facts and trivia about the unusual habits of famous cyclists, the weirdest, biggest, furthest and longest bikes and journeys, the most useful cycling life-hacks, etc.

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Completely hilarious … kind of The League of Gentlemen for kids' Zoe Ball Shabba me whiskers! It's a bold new look for Mr Gum, the best-selling cult classic, ready for a new generation of nibbleheads. Good evening. Talking parrots in the rooftops? A giant cactus on the high street? Mosquitos so nasty that even their own friends don’t like them? Something’s gone terribly wrong in Lamonic Bibber … and Mr Gum is nowhere to be found. Yes, folks, Polly and Friday are facing their biggest challenge yet. So strap yourselves in, cry ‘HI-HO-WEIRDY!’ and get ready for an adventure so crazy your feet will melt with happiness! And I’m not just saying that, I’ve actually seen it happen. HOORAY! Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout is the eighth book in the internationally best-selling series by Andy Stanton, which has won everything from the Blue Peter Book Award (twice) to the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Red House Children’s Book Award. Don't miss Mr Gum's other villainously brilliant adventures… You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire Mr Gum and the Goblins Mr Gum and the Power Crystals Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear What's for Dinner, Mr Gum? Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout Andy Stanton studied English at Oxford but they kicked him out. Before becoming a children’s writer he was a film script reader, a market researcher, an NHS lackey, a part-time sparrow and a grape. He is best known for the hilarious, bestselling and award-winning Mr Gum series and has also written picture books, including Danny McGee Drinks the Sea. Andy lives in North London and likes cartoons, books and music (even jazz). David Tazzyman studied illustration at Manchester Metropolitan University. As well as illustrating the Mr Gum series, he has illustrated many picture books Eleanor's Eyebrows, You Can't Take an Elephant on the Bus, Michael Rosen's Jelly Boots, Smelly Boots and My Mum's Growing Down by Laura Dockrill. He lives in Leicester with his wife and three sons.

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Do you get teased by others for being a weirdo, a geek, a nerd or a bookworm? Friends, families and neighbours around Li-Na felt it was affectionate to tease her for her not-so-girly hobbies and clothing. Li-Na is about a little girl who refused to be stereotyped. It is a story that encourages kids to be kids until they are ready to be who they want to be. Li Na Is My Name is a book that is as relevant then as it is now. Wishing Li Na’s spirit, grit and resilience to all children. Love the way she stays true to herself. Let’s spread this so all children love themselves for just who they are.

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Say goodbye to boring biology with this fast-fact-packed tour of the world of plants. It's the perfect way for children aged 9 plus to brush up on their S.T.E.M. stats and cement what they have learned in class with this fun book.Plants explores the oddest, weirdest and most interesting facts about and features of plants in bite-sized chunks of text, so readers won't be overwhelmed with information. Funny illustrations and photos are designed to hold their interest, and help them engage with S.T.E.M. topics.Plants takes a look at plant parts - such as leaves and flowers - and their functions. It looks at the ingenious ways plants pollinate, grow and defend themselves, and how some even eat animals to survive. There is also a fun activity all about revealing the colours of leaves for budding STEMsters to try out, too.The Stupendous and Tremendous Science series is ideal for all children aged 9+ who are studying S.T.E.M. topics at school or who simply have a fascination with science. It covers all the core topics in a fun and accessible way.Title in the series:Ecstatic and Excellent EnergyHappy and Healthy Human BodyPowerful and Pongy PlantsSoaring and Spectacular Space

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Waterstones Best Humour Books of 2023Meet serial dater Olive. She's just a regular gal looking for love, but navigating the wild world of modern dating is getting her no closer to finding the one - why are there so many weirdos out there?!Follow Olive on her quest for companionship, as she goes on dates that go from bad to worse to even more disastrous, including a man who disappears after going to the toilet in a restaurant and is later spotted on shift waiting tables; a woman who vomits all over her on the beach; and a professional triangle player who gets into a fist fight and jumps out of not one but two moving cabs.Will Olive ever find the one? And will they be everything she's looking for?Following up on the popularity of her viral dating comics series on Instagram, Disaster Dates and Lucky Escapes is crammed full of outrageous dating comics illustrated in artist Tess Smith-Roberts's colourful and fun signature style so loved by her 193k Instagram followers. The sometimes gross, often relatable but always laugh-out-loud hilarious stories are weaved into a narrative, with some dates submitted by Tess's Instagram followers, some inspired by previous submissions and, of course, some fan favourites from her popular dating comics series on Instagram.

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No genre manifests the pleasure of reading - and its power to consume and enchant - more than romance. In suspending the category of the novel to rethink the way prose fiction works, Without the Novel demonstrates what literary history looks like from the perspective of such readerly excesses and adventures.Rejecting the assumption that novelistic realism is the most significant tendency in the history of prose fiction, Black asks three intertwined questions: What is fiction without the novel? What is literary history without the novel? What is reading without the novel? In answer, this study draws on the neglected genre of romance to reintegrate eighteenth-century British fiction with its classical and Continental counterparts. Black addresses works of prose fiction that self-consciously experiment with the formal structures and readerly affordances of romance: Heliodorus’s Ethiopian Story, Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Fielding’s Tom Jones, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, and Burney’s The Wanderer. Each text presents itself as a secondary, satiric adaptation of anachronistic and alien narratives, but in revising foreign stories each text also relays them. The recursive reading that these works portray and demand makes each a self-reflexive parable of romance itself. Ultimately, Without the Novel writes a wider, weirder history of fiction organized by the recurrences of romance and informed by the pleasures of reading that define the genre.

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“This book is hilarious and that bitch made me laugh out loud.”—Chelsea Handler A chaotically joyous collection of essays from one of the original influencers and the internet's sweetheart, Bretman "The Baddest" Rock. Hilarious and earnest, this collection of essays, how-tos and never-before-seen photos goes far beyond what we know of Bretman Rock from social media. Who is Bretman Rock Sacayanan behind the screen and how did he become the original superstar influencer and today’s beloved best friend of the internet? You're That Bitch welcomes you into Bretman Rock's world—from how his childhood in the Philippines, his family, Filipino culture, and being a first-generation immigrant helped shape him into who he is today. Peek into how Bretman became a social media sensation at the precocious age of 14, balancing living a glamorous jet-setting lifestyle on weekends while still serving lunch at his school’s cafeteria, running as a varsity track-star, and making honor roll during the week. With his signature honesty, this is an unfiltered and unprecedented look at what it means to be one of the first digital celebrities and that bitch–-from dealing with cancel culture, drama and heartbreak, to what it means to love yourself and your community. From the funniest and undeniably cutest person on the internet, this is a book for the weirdos and for the bad bitches . . . this book is for you!

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“This book is hilarious and that bitch made me laugh out loud.”—Chelsea Handler A chaotically joyous collection of essays from one of the original influencers and the internet's sweetheart, Bretman "The Baddest" Rock. Hilarious and earnest, this collection of essays, how-tos and never-before-seen photos goes far beyond what we know of Bretman Rock from social media. Who is Bretman Rock Sacayanan behind the screen and how did he become the original superstar influencer and today’s beloved best friend of the internet? You're That Bitch welcomes you into Bretman Rock's world—from how his childhood in the Philippines, his family, Filipino culture, and being a first-generation immigrant helped shape him into who he is today. Peek into how Bretman became a social media sensation at the precocious age of 14, balancing living a glamorous jet-setting lifestyle on weekends while still serving lunch at his school’s cafeteria, running as a varsity track-star, and making honor roll during the week. With his signature honesty, this is an unfiltered and unprecedented look at what it means to be one of the first digital celebrities and that bitch–-from dealing with cancel culture, drama and heartbreak, to what it means to love yourself and your community. From the funniest and undeniably cutest person on the internet, this is a book for the weirdos and for the bad bitches . . . this book is for you!

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His hair shines brighter than the sun, his smile is impossible to resist, and in order to talk to him, you’ll have to get past his harem of loving girlfriends. He’s Hiro, and he’s heartstoppingly perfect in every way. But there’s one person who’s completely unimpressed with Hiro—Takashi, a sullen, dark-haired boy who has no friends. Why should Hiro care if Takashi doesn’t like him? He couldn’t care less about Takashi, and he’s definitely not staring a hole through the back of Takashi’s weirdly handsome head, or agonizing over Takashi’s surprisingly luscious lips. So…why does Hiro find himself tied up in Takashi’s bed? The hit boy’s love webcomic tale of Hiro and Takashi’s hilarious relationship, uncensored and collected entirely in print for the first time!

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SMALL, WELL APPOINTED FUTURE. SEMI DETACHED.If the end of the world is nigh, then surely it's only sensible to make alternative arrangements. Certainly the Earth has its points, but what most people need is something smaller and more manageable. Of course there are those who say that's planetary treason, but who cares what the weirdos and terrorists think? Not Nathan. All he cares is that his movie gets made and that there's somebody left to see it.In marketing terms the end of the world will be very big. Anyone trying to save it should remember that.

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Things aren’t going well for private investigator and mom Margie Peterson. Her husband, Blake, is claiming his taste for drag queens is “just a phase.” Her first-grade daughter isn’t fitting in at her new posh elementary school, Holy Oaks Catholic School. And her hippie mother has swept into town and replaced the family’s store of processed foods with seaweed snacks. To top it all off, a late-night phone call from her boss, Peaches Barlowe, has pulled Margie into a very strange murder case, one that involves the Holy Oaks headmaster, George Cavendish. Poor man—he just happened to die in a dominatrix’s pink vinyl wading pool while wearing nothing but Aquaman tights and goggles. As it turns out, there are a lot of people who might have wanted Mr. Cavendish dead, from his bereaved, betrayed widow to the shady owners of the local strip joint. Not even Margie’s best friend, whose daughter didn’t get into Holy Oaks, is above suspicion. Can the overtaxed PI solve the case before things get even weirder?

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Featuring comedic captions revealing what dogs are really thinking while they do their number twos, this eye-watering collection of photos is guaranteed to gross you out while cracking you up Dogs gotta defecate, just like people. But unlike us, they do it out in public. And we watch them in the act like the absolute weirdos we are. Sometimes we even take pictures. What must our canine companions think of all this? Well, Pooping Pets: The Dog Edition is here to capture and share these priceless moments in all their disgusting glory. Within its pages, you’ll find the private thoughts of dogs as they empty their bow-wow-wow-els, including: Hehehe, you’ll be picking this up in a minute! Err, could you not watch me while I birth this butt-log? Bears aren’t the only creatures that lay one out in the woods! Not for the faint-hearted, but the perfect gift for lovers of toilet humour, this poo-blication is a steaming tribute to the bodily functions of our four-legged friends.

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Notes from the Crawl Room employs the lens and methods of horror writing to critique the excesses and absurdities of philosophy. Each story reveals disastrous and de-humanising effects of philosophies that are separated from real, lived experience (e.g. the absurdity of arguing over a sentence in Kant while the world burns around us). From a Kafkaesque exploration of administrative absurdities to the horrors of discursive violence, white supremacy and the living spectres of patriarchy, A.M. Moskovitz doesn't shy away from addressing the complex aspects of our lives. In addition to offering often humourous critiques of philosophy, these works are also, somewhat ironically, pieces of philosophy themselves. Each story seeks to move a subject area forward offering the reader the capacity to think through ideas in a weirder and more open way than traditional philosophy usually allows. An antidote to philosophy that seeks to close down and shut off the imaginative potential of human thought, Notes from the Crawl Room revels in the unsettling and creative potential of stories for revealing what thinking philosophically might really mean.

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'A cornucopia of our weirdest and most wonderful archaeological sites and artefacts. They make you feel proud to be a citizen of these gloriously intriguing isles.' Sir Tony RobinsonAn Ice Age cannibal’s skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle… anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them. Britain is full of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but small, strange places and objects that hint at a deep and enduring relationship with the mystic. Secret Britain offers an expertly guided tour of Britain’s most fascinating mysteries: archaeological sites and artefacts that take us deep into the lives of the many different peoples who have inhabited the island over the millennia. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wo

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More extraordinary but true stories from London’s history. In this fascinating follow-up to his bestselling London’s Strangest Tales, Tom Quinn makes a further foray into the weirder side of the capital, bringing us a splendiforous collection of bizarre-but-true stories that explore a thousand years of London’s history. Discover the ghosts that stalk West End theatres, the mysterious mummy who lives in a City church cupboard, and secret tunnels under the Thames. Find out why there’s a TARDIS at Earl’s Court, why frogs once rained from the skies, and why the mulberry tree in the gardens at Buckingham Palace isn’t quite what it was supposed to be. A dip-in-and-outable treasure trove of London lore, London’s Truly Strangest Tales is both an ideal gift for dyed-in-the-wool Londoners who want to find out more about the great city they live in, and the perfect souvenir for people just passing through. Word count: 58,000

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'Though unmarried I have had six children,' Walt Whitman claimed in a letter late in his life. The title poem of Mark Ford's third collection imagines the great poet's getting of these mysterious children, of whom no historical trace has ever emerged. Conception and extinction dominate this extraordinary new volume from one of the country's most exciting poets; it includes a lament for the passing of the passenger pigeon, a sestina on the Mau Mau insurrection in Kenya (where the poet was born), a chance encounter with a seventy-year-old Hart Crane in Greenwich Village, an elegy for Mick Imlah (whose Selected Poems Ford has edited for Faber), and a moving tribute to that weirdest of religious sects, the Münster Anabaptists. Six Children is Ford's most formally varied and historically wide-ranging volume. It is sure to win many new admirers for a poet whose work has been championed by such as Helen Vendler, John Bayley, Barbara Everett, and John Ashbery.

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From the creator of the hit manga and anime Kiss Him, Not Me! comes another off-the-wall, geeky shojo comedy! A series of mixups leads to God misplacing the souls of a girl and the handsome idol singer she adores--in each other's bodies! And they can switch back and forth by...kissing?! Azusa lives for only one man: Chika-kun, the cutest and most popular star in the idol group Prince 4 U. She goes to the shows. She watches the interviews. She ropes in her long-suffering best friend and makes him stand in line at dawn to buy the latest exclusive merch. But one concert changes her life, when she accidentally dies trying (and failing) to save his life! It turns out it was all a mix-up, and God agrees to return the two of them to Earth...but fate's mistakes don't end there, as they each wake up in the other's body! To make matters even weirder, they discover they can switch back and forth by kissing! What on Earth does heaven have in store for them?

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Theodore Drown is a destructive. A recovering addict to weirdcore, he’s keeping his head down lecturing at the university of the Moon. Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. The emergences were our future but they chose exile. All except one. Dr Easy remains, researching a single human life from beginning to end. Theodore’s life.One day, Theodore is approached by freelance executive Patricia to investigate an archive of data retrieved from just before the appearance of the first emergence. The secret living in that archive will take him on an adventure through a stunted future of asylum malls, corporate bloodrooms and a secret off-world colony where Theodore must choose between creating a new future for humanity or staying true to his nature, and destroying it.File Under: Science Fiction [ Fatal Loop / Emergent See / Lunar Lunatics / Dr Easy ]

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A Times, Telegraph and Guardian Book of the Year 2020 'Quivers with honesty, A-list gossip and sardonic prose' The Times'Everett is a deliciously gifted writer. Nothing and no one escapes his attention' ObserverIn his highly anticipated third memoir, Rupert Everett tells the story of how he set out to make a film of Oscar Wilde's last days, and how that ten-year quest almost destroyed him. (And everyone else.)Travelling across Europe for the film, he weaves in extraordinary tales from his past, remembering wild times, freak encounters and lost friends. There are celebrities, of course. But we also meet glamorous but doomed Aunt Peta, who introduces Rupert (aged three) to the joys of make-up. In '90s Paris, his great friend Lychee burns bright, and is gone. While in '70s London, a 'weirdly tall, beyond size zero' teenage Rupert is expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Unflinchingly honest and hugely entertaining, To the End of the World offers a unique insight into the 'snakes and ladders' of filmmaking. It is also a soulful and thought-provoking autobiography from one of our best-loved and most talented actors and writers.

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NANNY FOR 10-YR-OLD TWINS. MAINE COAST. OWN ROOM & GENEROUS SALARY. MUST LOVE BLACK. “Must love black?” Sounds like a coffee-loving, seclusion-seeking goth girl's dream job. Philippa isn’t fazed by the fog-enshrouded mansion on a cliff, the weirdest twins on the planet, or even the rumors about ghosts, ‘cause when she meets the estate’s hot gardener, Philippa’s pretty sure she’s found her dream boy, too. Too bad Geoff’s already taken…by a girl whose wardrobe is head-to-toe pink. Still, Philippa can’t get Geoff out of her head. What will it take to lure him to the dark side?

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All the fun of Pavilion’s bestselling Strangest series, now in quiz form! Test your rugby knowledge with this handy quiz book, packed with fun and challenging quiz questions based around the weirdest events from more than a century of rugby history. Quiz categories include: Famous Firsts and Lasts Trophy Cabinet Unexpected Interruptions Men and Women Behaving Badly Political Connections The Numbers Game Family Ties Never Mind the Weather Whether you're testing your friends, practising for pub quizzes or just reading it in an armchair, this book will take your rugby knowledge to a whole new level. Word count: 30,000 words.

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