Search results for ""Escape""

'Fierce. Game-changing. Urgently necessary. Brilliant, brilliant and did I say brilliant?' EMMA THOMPSON 'Pacy, vivid, compelling and very, VERY funny ... it will help so many' MARIAN KEYES 'A fucking classic. Required reading for all women and men and I believe it's going to be the book of 2022' BRYONY GORDON 'Fuck, this is good. Every page feels important' LUCY VINE Actor, writer and hopeless romantic Rebecca Humphries had often been called crazy by her boyfriend. But when paparazzi caught him kissing his Strictly Come Dancing partner, she realised the only crazy thing was believing she didn't deserve more.Forced into victimhood by the story, Rebecca chose to reclaim her power, posting her thoughts on social media, including advice for other women who might be experiencing what she realised she'd managed to escape: a toxic, oppressive relationship. A flood of support poured in, but amongst the well-wishes was a simple question with an infinitely complex answer: 'If he was so bad, why did you stay?'Empowering, unflinching and full of humour, this book takes that question and owns it. Using her relationship history, coming of age stories and experiences since the scandal during Strictly, Rebecca explores why good girls are drawn to darkness, whether pop culture glamourises toxicity, when a relationship 'rough patch' becomes the start of a destructive cycle, if women are conditioned for co-dependency, and - ultimately - how to reframe disaster into something magical. 'The best [book] about relationships since Three Women' CAROLINE SANDERSON, THE BOOKSELLER 'So funny and heart-breaking. So stunningly written. For any woman who has been asked 'why did you stay?', Rebecca Humphries' book is a hilarious and brilliant read' SUSAN WOKOMA 'Very, very good' PANDORA SYKES 'A magical, magical book' GLAMOUR 'So thoughtful and moving and funny and sad and great, I love it so, so much. I resented having to put it down' DAISY BUCHANAN 'Her thought-provoking story should be required reading for anyone in a relationship' DAILY MIRROR 'A memoir every woman needs to read' RED MAGAZINE 'This book isn't an ice-cold revenge opus; it's a diary of self-discovery, a celebration of friendship, resilience and finding one's self-worth...is it worth the hype? Absolutely: I had to stop myself from reading it one grateful gulp' LAURA PULLMAN, STYLE

Read more less

The Armistice of November 1918 ended four years of slaughter that left armies exhausted and populations weary of war - but the fighting was not over. In Russia, civil war and revolution had divided the nation and the Allies sought to intervene on behalf of the White' Russians against the Bolsheviks and this conflict continued long after the war had finished elsewhere in Europe. A vital source of information from inside the Bolshevik-held territory came from British secret agents in Petrograd, the main one being Paul Dukes. Known as the Man of a Hundred Faces', Dukes had managed to infiltrate both the Communist Party and the political police. The problem which faced the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Maurice Smith-Cummings, was getting Dukes' information back to London. Carrying information overland was proving far too problematical, so Smith-Cummings hit upon the idea of using one of the Royal Navy's new fast Coastal Motor Boat which was revealed just before the end of the war. He recruited Lieutenant Augustus Agar and through him he found five men, all unmarried, who could handle the two CMBs. Using an inlet on the Finnish coast as a base, Agar slipped past a series of forts, submerged breakwaters and the Russian Baltic Fleet to reach Petrograd and made contact with Dukes. A frequent courier service was soon established, with Agar carrying couriers in and out of Petrograd under the very noses of the Russians. So confident did Agar become, he even torpedoed the Russian cruiser Oleg. He followed this with support from Admiral Sir Walter Cowan in an all-out raid upon the Russian ships with eight larger CMBs and a bombing raid by the RAF. The raid resulted in the sinking of two battleships and the submarine depot ship Pamiet Azova. Agar was quietly given the Victoria Cross but told not to publish his memoirs until 1963. As for Paul Dukes, his cover was eventually blown, and he had to escape via Latvia in a number of hair-raising escapades. In 1920 he was knighted by King George V, who called Dukes the greatest of all soldiers'. To this day, Dukes is the only person knighted based entirely on his exploits in espionage. This is their remarkable story.

Read more less

In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar. Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated and feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo's desires and designs. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, the instrument of Ulmo's designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, and in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon's daughter, and their son is Eärendel, whose birth and profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo. At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Tuor and Idril, with the child Eärendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Eärendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources. Following his presentation of Beren and Lúthien Christopher Tolkien has used the same 'history in sequence' mode in the writing of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was ‘the first real story of this imaginary world’ and, together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, he regarded it as one of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days.

Read more less

Toto is no ordinary cat, and she can't wait for you to join her on her THIRD ninja adventure! After months of keeping London safe from notorious animal bad guys, Toto the Ninja Cat is going on a well-earned holiday to the world's most famous music festival - Catstonbury!But a villain has a dastardly plan to hypnotise the crowd when a world-famous band is on stage, turning them into evil minions. How can Toto possibly prevent the catastrophe when everyone thinks the band is the cat's pyjamas? It will take all Toto's ninja skills - and some help from a friendly otter - to save the day...Ideal for reading aloud or for children to curl up with and read alone, the story features brilliant black and white illustrations throughout. With gentle themes of friendship, inclusivity and winning in the face of adversity, this is a hilarious must-read for all animal-loving kids! The hardback edition features paw-print endpapers and a superstar inner-cover hidden beneath the jacket - making it a brilliant gift for young readers. From one of the UK's best-loved broadcasters, theToto series is purrfect for fans of The Aristocats, The Secret Life of Pets and Atticus Claw Breaks the Law. Dermot says: 'The idea for Toto first came to me when my wife and I rescued two stray cats from an olive grove in Italy. One of them, Toto, has been blind from birth, but we quickly realised she had ninja-like reactions. Like a lot of cat owners (or cat servants), we like to imagine our pets having secret lives when we're out or asleep. So before I knew it I was writing about Toto and her brother Silver's nocturnal adventures around London. I really hope that children who pick it up enjoy reading the adventures of our little Italian underdog (cat).'Have you seen Toto's other adventures? The Great Snake Escape, The Incredible Cheese Heist, The Mystery Jewel Thief and The Legend of the Wildcat are out now, and make perfect gifts for young readers.For more animal adventures, discover Wings of Glory. Can one tiny bird help to win a world war? A funny action-adventure story with a feathery twist, from the bestselling children's author of Toto the Ninja Cat, Dermot O'Leary, with glorious illustrations throughout by Claire Powell.

Read more less

A female professor, a super maximum security prisoner, and how Shakespeare saved them bothShakespeare professor and prison volunteer Laura Bates thought she had seen it all. That is, until she decided to teach Shakespeare in a place the bard had never been before—supermax solitary confinement.In this unwelcoming place, surrounded by inmates known as the worst of the worst, is Larry Newton. A convicted murderer with several escape attempts under his belt and a brilliantly agile mind on his shoulders, Larry was trying to break out of prison at the same time Laura was fighting to get her program started behind bars.A testament to the power of literature, Shakespeare Saved My Life is a remarkable memoir. Fans of Orange is the New Black (Piper Kerman), A Place to Stand (Jimmy Baca) and I Couldn't Help Myself (Wally Lamb) will be be inspired by the story of the most unlikely friendship, one bonded by Shakespeare and lasting years—a friendship that would, in the end, save more than one life.What readers are saying about Shakespeare Saved My Life:"I was tremendously moved by both the potential impact of Shakespeare and learning on human beings and the story of this one man.""This is one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read.""I have never read a book that touched me as much as this memoir.""It is a challenging and remarkable story.""I loved this book so much. It changed my life." What reviewers are saying about Shakespeare Saved My Life:"You don't have to be a William Shakespeare fan, a prisoner, or a prison reformer to appreciate this uplifting book. "Shakespeare Saved My Life" also reveals many important truths ... about the meaning of empathy in our dealings with others"—Finger Lake Times"Shakespeare Saved My Life touches on the search for meaning in life, the struggles that complicate the path to triumph and the salvation that can be found in literature's great works ... An inspiring account."—Shelf Awareness"Opening the mind's prison proves enormously gratifying, not to mention effective ... brave, groundbreaking work"—Publishers Weekly"An eye-opening study reiterating the perennial power of books, self-discipline, and the Bard of Avon."—Kirkus"A powerful testament to how Shakespeare continues to speak to contemporary readers in all sorts of circumstances."—Booklist

Read more less

Revelations of Humanity brings together essays into the history and actuality of how our searches for God and for our own humanity are interwoven. They argue that the revelation of God is possible only when accompanied by a revelation of what it means to be a human being. Revelation implies that the truth is not fully evident in either case.This quest is aided in many of the essays by a recollection of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. As opposed to simple memory, recollection implies that memory has been lost or become clouded, here by the misrepresentation of Thomas' view of humanity's relation to God as harmonistic, at best semi-Pelagian, often even naturalistic. This difficult recovery is made possible by historical research that alone can escape the easy systematic alienation that supporters and critics of Thomas have often brought to their interpretation of his works. Thomas's sense of a real but finite capacity of human beings for God, his grace and revelation, anticipates in more ways than is commonly known much of contemporary suspicion about human capacities, but in ways that are open to God. That programmatic insight into the historical Thomas, keenly aware of human entanglements, limits and hopes, offers on many contemporary issues a ressourcement of systematic thought.Revelations of Humanity revolves around three clusters of issues. The first asks about the reality and limits of the human capacity for truth: in metaphysical, moral and political matters and in relation to the disputed issues of analogous reason and faith. The second cluster is structured around the four involvements that the Second Vatican Council identified as the human face of genuine Christian existence: participation in the legitimate joys, hopes, sorrows and fears of the contemporary world. These are refracted in the broken light of the human proprium of risibility, the abiding uncertainty addressed by hope, the disputed question of a suffering God and the recollection of Christ's anxiety in the face of death. The final cluster brings together anthropological dimensions of current ecumenical and interreligious disputes: the need to complement affirmation with admonition in ecumenical conversation, exemplified by the ambivalence towards sacrifice in a genuinely Catholic theology and the need to avoid the excesses of univocity, equivocity or an all too facile analogy in the determination of interreligious relationalities.

Read more less

Just in time for Christmas, escape with a perfect love song, a perfect love story, and a perfect dose of holiday magic. "Patti Callahan Henry is quickly becoming one of my favorites." —Debbie Macomber, New York Times bestselling author Can one song change the course of a life? Brothers Jimmy and Jack Sullivan live a nomadic life doing what they love: touring with their band, The Unknown Souls. But Jack’s recent engagement to Kara has everyone looking forward to a Christmas destination wedding in Ireland.Unlike his brother, Jimmy never expected to fall in love. But he feels a sense of peace and happiness whenever he’s around Kara’s best friend, Charlotte—which has him wondering what he’s missing. Over Thanksgiving, Jimmy and Charlotte write a song while sitting together on the back porch. When the band sings it at a Christmas concert the next night, Jimmy insists it’s the perfect love song—but a manager for another famous duo is adamant that it’s the perfect Christmas song. Before Jimmy knows what’s happening, he’s on tour with the hottest country band around and suddenly everyone knows his name.But fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and Jimmy finds himself far away from those he loves—especially Charlotte. Only a Christmas miracle—or two—will be able to lead Jimmy back to Ireland, to his brother, and to love. “I fell in love with both Patti Callahan Henry and her work. The Perfect Love Song is a lyrical and heartwarming tale of love and forgiveness. Patti takes you to those places in the heart you didn’t even know you wanted to go.” —Pat Conroy, New York Times bestselling author of The Prince of Tides and South of Broad “Patti Callahan Henry’s The Perfect Love Song is a wonderfully romantic and inspiring novel about love and redemption that sings with emotional truth. An essential read by a master storyteller.” —Cassandra King, New York Times bestselling author of Same Sweet Girls “Her characters are so real, you feel as if you’ve known them a very long time.” —Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed Beautiful, jacketed hardcover perfect for gift giving Sweet Christmas story of approximately 45,000 words Includes: Discussion questions for book clubs Patti’s family shortbread recipe Instructions for Charlotte’s Southern Garland The Legend of the Claddagh Ring

Read more less

Examines the complex ecology of quasi-public and privatized institutions that mobilize and administer many of the political, administrative, and fiscal resources of today’s metropolitan regionsIn recent decades metropolitan regions in the United States have witnessed the rise of multitudes of “shadow governments” that often supersede or replace functions traditionally associated with municipalities and other local governments inherited from the urban past. Shadow governments take many forms, ranging from billion-dollar special authorities that span entire urban regions, to public–private partnerships and special districts created to accomplish particular tasks, to privatized gated communities, to neighborhood organizations empowered to receive private and public funds. They finance and administer public services ranging from the prosaic (garbage collection and water utilities) to the transformative (economic development and infrastructure). Private Metropolis demonstrates that this complex ecosystem of local governance has compromised and even eclipsed democratic processes by moving important policy decisions out of public sight. The quasi-public institutions of urban governance generally escape the budgetary and statutory restraints imposed on traditional local governments and protect policy decisions from the limitations and vagaries of electoral politics. Moving major policy decisions into a privatized and corporatized realm facilitates efficiency and speed, but at the cost of democratic oversight. Increasingly, the urban electorate is left debating symbolic issues only tangentially connected to the actual distribution of the resources that affect people’s lives. The essays in Private Metropolis grapple with the difficult and timely questions that arise from this new ecology of governance: What are the consequences of the proliferation of special authorities, privatized governments, and public–private arrangements? Is the trade-off between democratic accountability and efficiency worth it? Has the public sector, with its messiness and inefficiencies—but also its checks and balances—ceded too much power to these new institutions? By examining such questions, this book provokes a long-overdue debate about the future of urban governance.Contributors: Douglas Cantor, California State U, Long Beach; Ellen Dannin, Pennsylvania State U; Jameson W. Doig, Princeton U; Mary Donoghue; Peter Eisinger, New School; Steven P. Erie, U of California, San Diego; Rebecca Hendrick, U of Illinois at Chicago; Sara Hinkley, U of California, Berkeley; Amanda Kass, U of Illinois at Chicago; Scott A. MacKenzie, U of California, Davis; David C. Perry, U of Illinois at Chicago; James M. Smith, U of Indiana South Bend; Shu Wang, Michigan State U; Rachel Weber, U of Illinois at Chicago.

Read more less

Promising Care: How We Can Rescue Health Care by Improving It collects 16 speeches given over a period of 10 years by Donald M. Berwick, an internationally acclaimed champion of health care improvement throughout the course of his long and storied career as a physician, health care educator and policy expert, leader of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These landmark speeches (including all of Berwick's speeches delivered at IHI's annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care from 2003 to 2012) clearly show why our medical systems don't reliably contribute to our overall health. As a remedy he offers a vision for making our systems better — safer, more effective, more efficient, and more humane. Each of Berwick's compelling speeches is preceded by a brief commentary by a prominent figure in health care, policy, or politics who has a unique connection to that particular speech. Contributors include such notables as Tom Daschle, Paul Batalden, and Lord Nigel Crisp. Their commentaries reflect on how it felt to hear the speech in the context in which it was delivered, and assess its relevance in today's health care environment. The introduction is by Maureen Bisognano, CEO of Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and author of Pursuing the Triple Aim. Praise for previous books by Don Berwick Curing Health Care: "The book is an easy and affirming read for anyone who is familiar with and has used the TQM teachings of Dr. Joseph M. Juran and Dr. W. Edwards Deming and would be a simple and informative introduction to the concepts for anyone who has been hearing about TQM but has no idea what it is all about and wants to know more."—Permanent Fixes (blog) "Donald Berwick is the most clearly heard evangelist of applying industrial methods of continuous quality improvement in health care."—Annals of Internal Medicine Escape Fire: "With an effective blend of common sense, real-life stories, persuasive metaphors, and out-of-the-box thinking, Dr. Berwick's presentations make for fascinating reading for anyone interested in improving America's $1.7 trillion health care system."—Piper Report "Anyone interested in change in the healthcare system would enjoy this book. In degree programs, the various speeches would be useful for discussion in a health policy readings course."—The Annals of Pharmacotherapy

Read more less

Süssen Is Now Free of Jews offers a close look at the legacy of a few Jewish families from Süssen—a village in the District of Göppingen, which is located in the state of Baden Württemberg in southern Germany. The author, Gilya Gerda Schmidt, looks at this rural region through the lens of two Jewish families—the Langs and the Ottenheimers—who settled there in the early twentieth century. As a child, she shared with the Langs the same living space for just a few months. She remembers her mother’s telling her of the Jews who lived in Süssen until the Holocaust. More than thirty years later, in a used bookstore in Knoxville, Tennessee, the author accidentally found documentation verifying the Jewish presence in a book about the surviving Jews of Württemberg. In it, she found confirmation that there had been Jews living in Süssen until the Holocaust. For the first time, she had the proof she needed to look into the reality behind this lingering mystery. Here began her detective-like journey to find out what happened to the Jews of Süssen. A decade of research into local and regional archives ensued, and this very penetrating study is the result. In it, the author attempts to shed light on not just the original question of what happened to the two families during the Holocaust but also on a host of other questions: What was it like to be Jewish in rural southern Germany a century ago? What were the Jewish traditions of this region? What were the relations between Jews and Christians before the Holocaust? And where did those family members who were able to escape or who survived the concentration camps go when they left Süssen or Göppingen? Few witnesses came forward, yet the documents in the archives spoke volumes. This micro-history records the not-so-romantic journey of two Jewish families who lived in the Fils Valley. The study also addresses issues of being an American prisoner of war; of resuming life after the Holocaust; of the bureaucratic nightmare of requisitions, restitution, and reparations; and of life in America. This unique book will be of interest to a general readership and is an important book for scholars in German and Holocaust studies.

Read more less

Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a dramatic history of the South in the years leading up to and following the Civil War: a history that focuses on the women, black and white, rich and poor, who made up the fabric of southern life before the war and remade themselves and their world after it. Positing the household as the central institution of southern society, Edwards delineates the inseparable links between domestic relations and civil and political rights in ways that highlight women's active political role throughout the nineteenth century. She draws on diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, government records, legal documents, court proceedings, and other primary sources to explore the experiences and actions of individual women in the changing South, demonstrating how family, kin, personal reputation, and social context all merged with gender, race, and class to shape what particular women could do in particular circumstances. Meet Harriet Jacobs, the escaped slave who hid in a tiny, unheated attic on her master's property for seven years until she could free her children and herself. Marion Singleton Deveaux Converse, the southern belle who leaped out a second-story window to escape her second husband's "discipline" and received temporary shelter from her slaves. Sarah Guttery, a white, poor, unwed mother of two, whose hard work and clean living earned her community's respect despite her youthful transgressions. Aunt Lucy, who led her fellow slaves in taking over her master's abandoned plantation and declared herself the new mistress. Through vivid portraits of these and other slaves, free blacks, common whites, and the white elite, Edwards shows how women's domestic situations determined their lives before the war and their responses to secession and armed conflict. She also documents how women of various classes entered into the process of rebuilding, asserting new rights and exploring new roles after the war. An ideal basic text on society in the Civil War era, Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore demonstrates how women on every step of the social ladder worked actively throughout the period to shape southern society in ways that fulfilled their hopes for the future. They used the resources at their disposal to fashion their own positive identities, to create the social bonds that sustained them in difficult times, and to express powerful social critiques that helped them make sense of their lives.

Read more less

‘I loved this book so much I actually read the whole thing in a day, did not want to put it down! A delightfully well written, funny, romantic and intriguing book.’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘It’s funny, like I just laughed out loud on the tube funny!!!!’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Helen Pines is far from where she thought she would be. Whilst her ex-boyfriend is now engaged, Helen’s ordering Deliveroo for one, dreaming of her last first date. Determined to give online dating a go, she matches with drop-dead gorgeous Brody… One date later, Helen’s heart is still singing. Brody’s sexy, charismatic, and the perfect gentleman. But then she receives an error message on the app… all her contacts have been deleted. With nothing but Brody’s name and job title to go on, Helen is determined to track him down. But despite the initial chemistry, Helen knows surprisingly little about her mystery man… Was it really love-at-first like, or will she find a new love along the way? From international dating expert Hayley Quinn, comes an utterly hilarious, laugh-out-loud romance that will have you grinning from the first page to the last! Fans of Our Stop and Mhairi McFarlane will fall in love with this book. Readers LOVE The Last First Date! ‘Funny, yet so relatable and moving at the same time!! [It] was at times like reading my diary. The thoughts and experiences that the main character, Helen, lives through feel so real and I truly connected with her.’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved how real and honest this book felt, Quinn is a promising writer with an ability to make you fall in love with her quirky and imperfect characters. I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This book is a page turner and a complete escape from reality while making you giggle along the way – perfect read for any occasion!’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Feeling down? Pick up this book! I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it was such a fun read! I could not help but cheering [Helen] on her journey to love, and personal growth.’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Love this book! It represents the reality of many single women in their thirties. Empowering too!’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more less

'A cyclone of a novel' GuardianAn absolute marvel' Max Porter, bestselling author of Lanny'Dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerney, bestselling author of The Rules of RevelationFIRST VOICE: Why are we listening? SECOND VOICE: I dunno, I mean, what else is there to do? Tony Cooney, a local-radio DJ, spends his days on air, talking to the listeners of Cork. They call in to tell him about overturned sewage trucks and nuisance graffiti artists, each story a small testimony to the bustle of life that goes on in the county. Off air, however, Tony is beginning to feel unsettled. His long marriage is strained, his teenage daughter is struggling with her mental health, and then out of the blue an old girlfriend gets in touch and suggests he come to visit. Lou Fitzpatrick, Tony's young radio-show producer, is having her own off-air problems. She wants children, but her girlfriend has other ideas; they've lost their beloved cat and her father's drinking is way past problematic. Which is why both Tony and Lou are relieved to leave Cork and drive across Ireland as part of a radio publicity stunt organized by a local car dealership. Their aim is to give away the Mazda 2 that they're driving, the catch being that it must go to one of the many emigrants who have recently returned home to escape a wave of escalating terror attacks in London. But as they navigate dual-carriageways and Travelodges, giving airtime and narrative to the great cacophony of voices calling into the show, the car competition transforms into a surreal quest: Tony to find his first love, Lou to find answers to impossible questions, and all the while two mysterious voices listen in, making their own estimations... A mighty tale of radios, road trips and of the noisy static of life, All Along the Echo asks us whether our lives ever add up to more than the stories we tell ourselves. Funny, warm and in the wilding spirit of George Saunders or Samuel Beckett, Danny Denton's novel is a bravura capturing of modern Ireland, one that shows us the possibilities of fiction, the nature of love and death, and what it is for each of us to be only the briefest signal in life's splendid broadcastttzchidhcmxc [static].

Read more less

Four new adventures featuring class Doctors encountering monsters from the new series of Doctor Who! 3.1 The House that Hoxx Built by Tim Foley. When the Third Doctor and Sarah journey far into the future of Earth, the last thing they expect to find is a haunted house! Invited to dinner by the Hoxx of Balhoon and his ovine ward, the TARDIS travellers experience strange and disturbing phenomena, and the Doctor is determined to discover the cause... 3.2 The Tivolian Who Knew Too Much by Robert Valentine. Taking an Italian holiday, the Fourth Doctor and Leela encounter another tourist very far from home. Timble Feebis is a particularly timid Tivolian, but he has much to be fearful about! Guarding a vital data-chip, the three visitors are soon caught up in the machinations of a crime boss and his gang, and a dangerous alien assassin... 3.3 Together in Eclectic Dreams by Roy Gill. The Sixth Doctor takes companion Mari to the Archipelago of High Dream to try and stop the nightmares she's having in the TARDIS. Instead, they find the Lethe Foundation, a research facility overseen by musician Tara, lulling her clients to sleep with soothing melodies. But the Kantrofarri are hunting, and a mystery Green Man holds the key to escape... 3.4 If I Should Die Before I Wake by John Dorney (from a story by Jacqueline Rayner). The Eighth Doctor and Charley are lost - in a labyrinth of monsters. And somewhere, lurking, are the Dream Crabs... From the Sphinx to Gorgons, Cerberus and Pegasus, the Greek myths are alive and threatening the TARDIS duo with death at every turn. How long until their Fates unravel, and the truth is revealed? CAST: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Paul McGann (The Doctor), Tim Treloar (The Doctor), Robert Daws (Timble Feebis/Thug 2), India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Rebecca Front (Tara), Anthony Howell (Volen Steasel/Thug 1), Louise Jameson (Leela), Damian Lynch (Mr Quave/White Lighning), Sadie Miller (Sarah Jane Smith), Emily Casey (Letícia Giallo), Imogen Church (Dr Kleeb/Krevellon General/Envoy Gilbar), Raj Ghatak (Monk of High Dream/Professor Klovis), Susan Hingley (Mari Yoshida), David Rintoul (Butler), Sam Stafford (Sam Duffy/Orderly/Radio DJ), Dan Starkey (The Hoxx of Balhoon), Ozloma Whenu (Francesca). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Read more less

Life is better lived in the momentMeet Alex. She has a wonderful fiancé, a job she thrives in, and a best friend she’s known since childhood. Life’s not perfect, but it’s pretty fantastic. Until a shock diagnosis suddenly throws everything off course.But Alex has never been one to back down from a fight. Now single and unemployed, she packs up and moves from her Glasgow hometown to vibrant Birmingham for a fresh start. In a new job, in a new city, she’s learning all over again what’s important in life. Friendship, fun and even romance lie just around the corner – but can Alex get out of her own way and learn to just take a moment, and live?A stunning, uplifting romance for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Jo Watson.Praise for Take A Moment 'A beautiful thought provoking book, simply inspirational' Christie Barlow, author of the Love Heart Lane series‘Honest, hopeful and beautifully written. A must read’ Sandy Barker, author of One Summer in Santorini‘Having loved Nina Kaye’s Gin Lover’s Guide, I’ve been itching to get my hands on Take A Moment. Kaye’s humorous yet heartfelt writing is the perfect tonic for tough times’ Chrissie Manby, author of Three Days in Florence'Take A Moment is a really thought-provoking and inspirational book. An uplifting, warm-hearted, wonderful read with really relatable characters, that I thoroughly enjoyed' Kim Nash, author of Escape to Giddywell Grange'A refreshing and heartwarming tale that is sure to be close to many people's hearts. Loved it' Rachel Dove, author of The Second Chance Hotel'A heartwarming story which makes you laugh, cry, reflect and think. Not one you'll forget reading; it'll stay with you.' Sasha Morgan, author of A Country Scandal'This is so much more than a delightful romcom. Packed with music, fun, 'chance' meetings, liveliness, positive female characters... Rich, lively, heart-warming.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review'Funny, charming, honest and the characters were fabulous. A beautiful read, love your work Nina.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review'Being brave when your whole world tumbles around you is one of the most courageous things and I admired Alex’s strength. This book covered some very deep and hard subjects but it was so well handled. I really enjoyed this book.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review

Read more less

A House in the Sky is the dramatic and redemptive memoir of Amanda Lindhout, a woman whose curiosity led her to the world's most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity-an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace.As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia-"the most dangerous place on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives "wife lessons" from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory-every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity-and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity. For fans of the award-winning blockbuster Captain Phillips and readers of Kate McCann's Madeleine, Natasha Kampusch's 3,096 Days and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea.Amanda Lindhout is the founder of the Global Enrichment Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports development, aid and education initiatives in Somalia and Kenya. For more information, visit Amandalindhout.com and globalenrichmentfoundation.comSara Corbett is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. Her work has also appeared in National Geographic; Elle; Outside; O, the Oprah magazine; Esquire; and Mother Jones.

Read more less

Some of the finest architectural structures in India are to be found below ground: these are its ancient stepwells. Stepwells are unique to India; the earliest rudimentary wells date from about the 4th century CE, and eventually they were built throughout the country, particularly in the arid western regions. Stepwell construction evolved so that, by the 11th century, they were amazingly complex feats of architecture and engineering, not only providing water all year round but also serving as gathering places, refuges and retreats. The journalist Victoria Lautman first encountered stepwells three decades ago, and this book – now available in paperback for the first time – is a testament to her determined efforts over several years to document these fascinating but largely unknown structures before they disappear. Of the thousands of stepwells that proliferated across India, most were abandoned as a result of modernization and the depletion of water tables. Frequently commissioned by royal or wealthy patrons, the wells vary greatly in scale and design. Some also functioned as subterranean Hindu temples, featuring columned pavilions and elaborate stone carvings. Islamic wells were generally less flamboyant, but often incorporated shady loggias and small chambers in which to relax and escape the stifling heat. Today, few stepwells are in use. The majority have been left to silt up, fill with rubbish and crumble into disrepair. Gradually, however, the Indian government and heritage organizations are recognizing the need to preserve these architectural wonders. In 2014 India’s grandest and best-known stepwell, the Rani ki Vav in Patan, Gujarat, became a UNESCO World Heritage site. In her introduction, Lautman discusses why and where the stepwells were built. She reflects on the reasons they became derelict and considers how the appreciation of stepwells is changing with the work of organizations and individuals who aim to protect and restore them. The main part of the book is arranged in a broadly chronological order, with up to four pages devoted to each of c. 70 stepwells, every one unique in design and engineering. The name, location (including GPS coordinates) and approximate date of each well accompany colour photographs and a concise commentary by Lautman on the history and architecture of the well and her experience of visiting it. While many of the stepwells are rather decrepit, their magnificent engineering and great beauty never fail to impress.

Read more less

Test your wits in this creepy collection of horror-themed mini-mysteries, a follow-up to Sleuth & Solve! How does one boy discover the lair of Frankenstein's monster? What is the identity of the werewolf who torments an isolated village? And how do two sisters escape the vengeful Loch Ness Monster? Welcome to the world of Sleuth & Solve: Spooky, where creepy clues are hidden in every detail and clever twists put your wits to the test. These mind-bending mini-mysteries inspired by classic creepy characters feature familiar fiends as well as terrifying new tales of ghosts, witches, and more! Solving this suite of spooky puzzles takes keen observation, strong logic, and lots of creative thinking. Play solo or with friends, collecting points as you crack each compelling case, decode the solution using a clever cryptograph, and reveal whose sleuthing skills reign supreme! SCARY STORIES ARE IRRESISTIBLE: From monster-themed birthday parties to Dungeons & Dragons, Stranger Things, and Monsters, Inc., it's clear that readers of all ages have a perennial predilection for all things monstrous and scary. These tales are perfect for reading alone or together, under the covers or in the dark, around the crackling of a campfire . . . as long as you can crack the case before it's too late. BOO! EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD MYSTERY: From Encyclopedia Brown to Sherlock Holmes to Clue, mysteries transfix, engage, and entertain! Following the previous two books in the Sleuth & Solve series, this latest smart, age-appropriate take on mysteries for kids will quickly become a family favorite. A-GAME-IN-A-BOOK: This engaging narrative formula incorporates both a game (players earn points for discerning each answer) and an opportunity to decrypt and decode the clever solutions to each puzzle, adding opportunities for interactivity and upping the stakes of the reading experience. REINFORCES LOGICAL REASONING SKILLS: These clever mysteries are solved by way of deduction, inference, and logical reasoning, all of which are critical thinking skills crucial to young readers' intellectual development both in and outside of the classroom. IDEAL FOR RELUCTANT READERS: With a comic-esque style, unique narrative approach, quirky scenarios, and a compelling mystery/"scary stories" theme, this book packs loads of reluctant reader appeal. Perfect for: • Fans of scary and spooky stories • Fans of brainteasers and puzzles • Mystery aficionados • Gift-givers • Parents • Educators

Read more less

Escape “Zombie Scrum” and Get Real Value from Agile! “Professional Scrum and Zombie Scrum are mortal enemies in eternal combat. If you relax your guard, Zombie Scrum comes back. This guide helps you stay on your guard, providing very practical tips for identifying when you have become a Zombie and how to stop this from happening. A must-have for any Zombie Scrum hunter.” --Dave West, CEO, Scrum.org “Barry, Christiaan, and Johannes have done a magnificent job of accumulating successful experiences and sharing their inspiring stories in this very practical book. They don't shy away from telling it like it is, which is why their proposals are always as useful as they are grounded in reality.” --Henri Lipmanowicz, cofounder, Liberating Structures Millions of professionals use Scrum. It is the #1 approach to agile software development in the world. Even so, by some estimates, over 70% of Scrum adoptions fall flat. Developers find themselves using “Zombie Scrum” processes that look like Scrum, but are slow, lifeless, and joyless. Scrum is just not working for them. Zombie Scrum Survival Guide reveals why Scrum runs aground and shows how to supercharge your Scrum outcomes, while having a lot more fun along the way. Humorous, visual, and extremely relatable, it offers practical approaches, exercises, and tools for escaping Zombie Scrum. Even if you are surrounded by skeptics, this book will be the antidote to help you build more of what users need, ship faster, improve more continuously, interact more successfully in any team, and feel a whole lot better about what you are doing. Suddenly, one day soon, you will remember: that is why we adopted Scrum in the first place! Learn how Zombie Scrum infects you, why it spreads, and how to inoculate yourself Get closer to your stakeholders, and wake up to their understanding of value Discover why Zombie teams can't learn, and what to do about it Clear away the specific obstacles to real continuous improvement Make self-managed teams real so people can behave like humans, not Zombies Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is for Scrum Masters, Scrum practitioners, Agile coaches and leaders, and everyone who wants to transform the promises of Scrum into reality. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Read more less

‘Oh my goodness this book is just gorgeous!!!!! I read it in an afternoon because I couldn’t put it down!!… I’m so excited for other people to read this magnificent book.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A sun-baked terrace. The rustle of vines. And the clink of wine glasses as the first cork of the evening is popped… Welcome to Italy. A place that holds the answer to Zia-Lucia Costa Chalmers’ many questions. Not least, how she ended up with such a mouthful of a name. When revelations close to home turn Zia’s world upside down,she realises the time has come to search out the Italian family she’s never known. But as she looks for answers, she can’t help but notice Piero, the vineyard owner next door – a distraction who may prove difficult to ignore… This summer, join Zia as she sets out to uncover her past. But can she find the future she’s always dreamed of along the way? The perfect summer read for fans of Katie Fforde and Carole Matthews. Readers love Under The Italian Sun! ‘I was awake until 3.15am reading… Sizzling and heartwarming. I loved it.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘HOLY COW! If you want a one-way ticket to Italy without ever leaving your couch, then this is the book for you… I could not get enough.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Absolute escapist joy… I felt completely transported to Italy.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Wonderful Italian escape!! Feel good brilliant read! Loved this book!!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Escapist perfection in a novel.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Fantastic staycation read, pure escapism.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A charming, heartwarming read. I loved it!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Climb into the pages and soak in the sunshine – this book is wonderful!’ Milly Johnson ‘Packed full of love, friendship, romance and sunshine… An addictive read.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Full of sunshine and secrets.’ Heidi Swain ‘Utterly captivating… A must read… I loved it.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Evocative, engaging and gloriously romantic.’ Cathy Bramley ‘I just could not put this story down… Bliss!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more less

Axos has been freed from the time loop, and is plotting to drain Earth's energy. Without the Doctor's help to stop the powerful space parasite, UNIT are forced to rely on a multipersonality renegade Time Lord... known as the Eleven. UNIT Chief Kate Stewart and her squad now have to confront her father's past foe...Contains four new adventures: 3.1 The Vulpreen Encounter by Andrew Smith When a forty-mile long asteroid drifts into the solar system, Osgood and new UNIT recruit Lt Jimmy Tan are sent to investigate on board the newly-built UK spaceship Starseeker. Kate Stewart visits a UNIT safe house in Norway where Jacqui McGee is recovering from the trauma of her experiences at the hands of the Vulpreen. She needs Jacqui's help against the Vulpreen threat - but can she be trusted? 3.2 By Jacqui McGee by Lisa McMullin As Kate Stewart and the UNIT team race to escape a Vulpreen assassination squad, Jacqui McGee uploads the most important report of her career. Vulpreen Commander Krillen is coordinating a hostile operation across planet Earth. But are the Vulpreen planning an immediate attack, or do they have something more sinister in mind? 3.3 Axos Unleashed by Katharine Armitage With the threat of a Vulpreen invasion imminent, a new menace presents itself in the shape of golden humanoids. A foe from UNIT's past. Axos has escaped the Time trap it was placed in years before and has returned to feed off the Earth. 3.4 Time of the Vulpreen by Roland Moore UNIT coordinates a worldwide response to the arrival of Vulpreen Arches across the globe. Troops stand ready to face the invaders. Kate Stewart and Osgood form an uneasy alliance with the Eleven to destroy the time fields that protect each Arch and which are being used as a devastating weapon by the Vulpreen. But when the invasion starts, the odds may be stacked too heavily against them... CAST: Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood), Mark Bonnar (The Eleven), Eleanor Crooks (Naomi Cross), Daniel Easton (Daniel Hoyer/Vulpreen Deputy), Richard Goulding (Axos/Axons), Chris Lew Kum Hoi (Lieutenant Jimmy Tan), David Holt (Commander Krillen), James Joyce (Captain Josh Carter), Glen McCready (Vulpreen), Suan-Li Ong (Yang Li/Private Burgess), Alisdair Simpson (Lord Varliss), Sam Stafford (Private Moorey/Butler), Tracy Wiles (Jacqui McGee). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Read more less

NO PHONESNO OUTSIDERSNO ESCAPE'An exciting and compelling new voice, Anna Downes' The Safe Place is a very accomplished debut' B.A. Paris, Sunday Times bestselling author of The DilemmaRated 4.5 * on NetGalley, this international bestseller is perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Lesley Kara and Ruth WareA BEAUTIFUL HOME MIGHT HIDE DANGEROUS SECRETSEmily Proudman has been offered the chance of a lifetime - leave her messy London life, move to a beautiful estate in France and help her boss' wife take care of their daughter, Aurelia. It seems like the perfect opportunity to start again.But once there, Emily soon starts to suspect that her charismatic new employers aren't telling her the whole truth. That there are even dangerous secrets hidden beneath the glamourous facade. Rather than throwing herself headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool, Emily can't help but ask questions. Why have the family been moved to this isolated house so far from home? Why does Aurelia refuse to speak or be touched? Why are there whispers in the night? The only problem is, the more Emily knows, the less chance there is she will ever be able to leave . . .PRAISE FOR THE SAFE PLACE'Tense and atmospheric with the seemingly idyllic, yet eerie, setting. A truly gripping read'Karen Hamilton, bestselling author of The Perfect Girlfriend'An outstanding debut. The Safe Place is destined to be a book club favourite'Chris Hammer, award-winning author of Scrublands'It's such a rare thing - a claustrophobic, addictive thriller that lets you actually feel for all of the characters involved'Gytha Lodge, bestselling author of She Lies in Wait'Compellingly disturbing. Anna Downes is a powerful story writer who will lull you into a false sense of security - and then pounce. An author to be watched'Jane Corry, bestselling author of My Husband's Wife 'A brilliantly atmospheric novel that keeps you equally gripped and unsettled from page one. Starkly original and with an alarmingly plausible premise, this is destined to be a bestseller'J.P. Pomare, bestselling author of Call Me Evie'A dark and wonderful debut that lulls you in with beautiful prose and complex, believable characters, then beats you over the head with a killer plot and a thrilling climax. Everyone will be talking about this book!'Christian White, bestselling author of The Nowhere Child

Read more less

From 2016 Man Booker longlisted Virginia Reeves comes a moving and riveting new novel about the head doctor of a mental institution whose marriage and job come under threat when he and a younger patient develop a relationship. Doctor Ed Malinowski believes he has realized most of his dreams. A passionate, ambitious behavioural psychologist, he is now the superintendent of a mental institution and finally turning the previously crumbling hospital around. He also has a home he can be proud of, and a fiercely independent, artistic wife Laura, whom he hopes will soon be pregnant. But into this perfect vision of his life comes Penelope, a beautiful, young epileptic who should never have been placed in his institution and whose only chance at getting out is Ed. She is intelligent, charming and slowly falling in love with her charismatic, compassionate doctor. As their relationship grows more complicated and Laura stubbornly starts working at his hospital, Ed must weigh his professional responsibilities against his personal ones and find a way to save both his job and his family. A love triangle set in one of the most chaotic, combustible settings imaginable, The Behaviour of Love is an incredibly compulsive, poignant exploration of marriage, lust, and ambition from one of America's great young literary talents. ‘Reeves’s theme – as in her debut – is the limits of forgiveness. She’s a superb writer, moving with crisp, swift strokes over the thorny question of how far people ever change’ Daily Mail Praise for Work Like Any Other: ‘A striking debut about love and redemption, the heavy burdens of family and guilt and learning how to escape them. Powerfully told and lyrically written, there is not a false note in this book. Reeves is a major new talent’ Philipp Meyer, author of The Son ‘Work Like Any Other is an exceptional novel told in clear, direct, and starkly beautiful language. Virginia Reeves has a gift for bringing to life all the tensions that emerge wherever people, place, and progress collide. I absolutely loved it’ Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds ‘Assured and absorbing… a potent mix of icy honesty and heart-wrenching tenderness’ Jim Crace ‘Beautifully written, this is an unusual and moving debut’ Sunday Times ‘A slow-burning pleasure. Brutal, beautiful, and to some significant extent, redemptive’ Daily Mail

Read more less

'Utterly captivating. Carrick spins an exciting web of mystery, magic, and political treachery in a richly drawn and innovative world.' S. A. Chakraborty, author of The City of BrassDarkly magical and beautifully imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a rich and dazzling fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city. Nightmares are creeping through the city of dreams . . . Renata Virdaux is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadezra -- the city of dreams -- with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune and her sister's future. But as she's drawn into the aristocratic world of House Traementis, she realises her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as corrupted magic begins to weave its way through Nadezra, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled -- with Ren at their heart.'I was utterly entranced by this glittering world filled with masked vigilantes, cunning conwomen, and dark magic. A sheer delight!' Katy Rose Pool, author of There Will Come A Darkness'The Mask of Mirrors is exactly the fantasy adventure novel you're craving: an escape into a vast, enchanting world of danger, secret identities, and glittering prose'Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne'The Mask of Mirrors kept me up reading way past my bedtime. A web of intrigue, magic, and the art of the con this novel will catch hold of your dreams and keep you from sleeping'Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Calculating Stars'The Mask of Mirrors ushers you into the fascinating city of Nadezra, replete with complex politics, intricate magic, and mysteries that readers will be racing to unravel. Wonderfully immersive--I was unable to put it down'Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter'An intricate, compelling dream of a book that kept me turning pages, with a world and characters that felt deeply real and plenty of riveting twists and turns. I loved it!'Melissa Caruso, author of The Obsidian Tower'For those who like their revenge plots served with the intrigue of The Goblin Emperor, the colonial conflict of The City of Brass, the panache of Swordspoint, and the richly detailed settings of Guy Gavriel Kay'Booklist (starred review)

Read more less

'Terrific - terrifying, amazing' STEPHEN KING 'Completely, indescribably magnificent' MARIAN KEYES ----- A DISAPPEARANCE. A SMALL TOWN. A QUESTION THAT NEEDS ANSWERING... Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can't make himself walk away. Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people aren't always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door. A gripping tale of breath-taking beauty and suspense that asks how we decide what's right and wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we risk if we fail. WINTER RICHARD AND JUDY BOOKCLUB PICK THE SUNDAY TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2021 THE TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2021 FT BEST BOOK OF 2020 THE GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLER BOOK OF 2020 THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR 2020 ----- 'I'm a big fan of Tana French' IAN RANKIN 'I didn't want it to end' HARRIET TYCE 'To say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too limiting. Rather she's simply this: a truly great writer' GILLIAN FLYNN 'Immersive and atmospheric ... Cal and Trey could very well be the new sort of heroes we need in this strange world' ARAMINTA HALL 'This is a tour de force of suspense and storytelling. Comes closer to perfection than anything I've read in the last decade' SARAH HILARY 'The Searcher is its own kind of masterpiece' WASHINGTON POST 'One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History' THE TIMES 'French offers a masterclass in unreliability' SUNDAY TIMES '[Crime fiction's] biggest contemporary star' GUARDIAN 'One of the finest writers of contemporary crime fiction' THE DAILY MAIL 'An audacious departure for this immensely talented author . . . not to be missed' THE NEW YORK TIMES 'Nuanced and compelling' THE NEW YORKER

Read more less

Thousands of books and articles examine nearly every aspect of the Civil War, but the important retreat of the armies from the Gettysburg battlefield to the Potomac River has been but little covered. Until now, no one had produced a critical analysis of the command decisions made during that fateful time based upon available intelligence. “Lee is Trapped and Must be Taken”: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4 to July 14, 1863, by Thomas J. Ryan and Richard R. Schaus, now available in paperback, rectifies this oversight. This comprehensive day-by-day account, which begins after the end of the Gettysburg battle, examines how Maj. Gen. George G. Meade organized and motivated his Army of the Potomac in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s mandate to bring about the “literal or substantial destruction” of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeated and retreating Army of Northern Virginia. As far as Lincoln was concerned, if Meade aggressively pursued and confronted Lee before he could escape across the flooded Potomac River, “the rebellion would be over.” The long and bloody three-day battle exhausted both armies. Both commanders faced the difficult tasks of rallying their troops for more marching and fighting. Lee had to keep his army organized and motivated enough to conduct an orderly withdrawal into Virginia. Meade faced the same organizational and motivational challenges with the added expectation of catching and defeating a still-dangerous enemy. Central to their decision-making was the information they received from their intelligence gathering resources about the movements, intentions, and capability of the enemy. The eleven-day period after Gettysburg was a battle of wits to determine which commander better understood the information he received and directed his army accordingly. Prepare for some surprising revelations. Ryan and Schaus rely on a host of primary sources to craft their study, including letters, memoirs, diaries, official reports, newspapers, and telegrams. The threading of these intelligence gems creates a gripping narrative with a significant amount of new information—which the authors use to offer their own direct and often damning conclusions. “Lee is Trapped and Must be Taken” is a sequel to Thomas Ryan’s Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign (Savas Beatie, 2015), the recipient of the Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award and Gettysburg Civil War Round Table Distinguished Book Award.

Read more less

Love arrives at the most unexpected time . . . 1821: Elias Roch has ghastly luck with women. He met Josephine De Clare once and penned dozens of letters hoping to find her again.2021: Josie De Clare has questionable taste in boyfriends. The last one nearly ruined her friendship with her best friend.Now, in the wake of her father's death, Josie finds Elias's letters. Suddenly she's falling in love with a guy who lived two hundred years ago. And star-crossed doesn't even begin to cover it . . . “Dearest Josephine is the type of story that becomes your own. The characters’ heartaches worked their way into my own chest until I hurt with them, hoped with them, and dared to dream with them. This book is teeming with swoon-worthy prose, adorable humor, and an expert delivery of ‘Will they end up together?’ I guarantee you’ll be burning the midnight candle to a stub to get answers. Step aside Pride and Prejudice, there’s a new romance on the English moors.” —Nadine Brandes, author of Romanov“Caroline George infuses an epistolary love story with a romance and charm that crosses centuries. Touching and inventive, it bursts with wit, warmth, and a blending of classic and contemporary that goes together like scones and clotted cream. Dearest Josephine is a delight.” —Emily Bain Murphy, author of The Disappearances “Dearest Josephine is more than an immersive read. It is a book lover’s dream experience. Josie’s residence in a gothic English manor and her deeply romantic connection to Elias, who lived years in the past, is as chillingly atmospheric as Rochester calling across the moors. This story is George’s treatise on the power of books and character to creep across centuries, to pull us close and invite us to live in a fantasy where we find love—literally—in the kinship of ink and binding. But it also acknowledges the dangers of letting ourselves fall too deeply when sometimes an equally powerful connection is waiting next door. This love letter to books, and the readers who exist in and for them, is a wondrously singular escape.” —Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration and The Mozart Code Romantic and evocative read in both contemporary and historical time periods Stand-alone novel Book length: 86,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Read more less

Second book in New York Times-bestselling author Tad Williams's cyberpunk fantasy series • “Tad Williams is the brightest and best of the fantasists.” ―Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known—to those who know of their existence at all—as The Grail Brotherhood. Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may not remain so for long. For they have exacted a terrible price from humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever.And now a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. But having broken into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies in the real world. And as dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again and again to the River that flows—in one form or another—through all the worlds.But the odds seem to be completely against them as they—and the one outsider with whom they might join forces—become hopelessly lost in realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in blood...where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs...where they are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of tin...where cartoon ads take on a life of their own...where humans strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion...and where one among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying weapon—a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to the people of Earth...

Read more less

"With her eye for historical detail and flair for sympathetic heroines, Francesca Stanfill breathes new life into the medieval court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Falcon’s Eyes is a novel of epic proportions that succeeds in being both intimate and vast. History is Stanfill’s canvas, humanity her inspiration."—Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire“Stanfill has persuasively re-imagined the Middle Ages, surrounding the legendary Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine with indelible characters in an immersive tale of intrigue, bravery, ruthlessness, and compassion. . . . The Falcon’s Eyes is a dazzling adventure, with riveting twists and turns and a surprising yet deeply satisfying conclusion."—Sally Bedell Smith, author of Elizabeth the QueenSet in France and England at the end of the twelfth century, the moving story of a spirited, questing young woman, Isabelle, who defies convention to forge a remarkable life, one profoundly influenced by the fabled queen she idolizes and comes to know – Eleanor of AquitaineWillful and outspoken, sixteen-year-old Isabelle yearns to escape her stifling life in provincial twelfth century France. The bane of her mother’s existence, she admires the notorious queen most in her circle abhor: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Isabelle’s arranged marriage to Gerard --- a rich, charismatic lord obsessed with falcons --- seems, at first, to fulfill her longing for adventure. But as Gerard’s controlling nature, and his consuming desire for a male heir, become more apparent, Isabelle, in the spirit of her royal heroine, makes bold, often perilous, decisions which will forever affect her fate.A suspenseful, sweeping tale about marriage, freedom, identity, and motherhood, THE FALCON’S EYES brings alive not only a brilliant century and the legendary queen who dominated it, but also the vivid band of complex characters whom the heroine encounters on her journey to selfhood: noblewomen, nuns, servants, falconers, and courtiers. The various settings — Château Ravinour, Fontevraud Abbey, and Queen Eleanor’s exiled court in England — are depicted as memorably as those who inhabit them. The story pulses forward as Isabelle confronts one challenge, one danger, after another, until it hurtles to its final, enthralling, page. With the historical understanding of Hillary Mantel and the storytelling gifts of Ken Follett, Francesca Stanfill has created an unforgettable character who, while firmly rooted in her era, is also a woman for all times.

Read more less

'A cyclone of a novel' GuardianAn absolute marvel' Max Porter, bestselling author of Lanny'Dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerney, bestselling author of The Rules of RevelationFIRST VOICE: Why are we listening? SECOND VOICE: I dunno, I mean, what else is there to do? Tony Cooney, a local-radio DJ, spends his days on air, talking to the listeners of Cork. They call in to tell him about overturned sewage trucks and nuisance graffiti artists, each story a small testimony to the bustle of life that goes on in the county. Off air, however, Tony is beginning to feel unsettled. His long marriage is strained, his teenage daughter is struggling with her mental health, and then out of the blue an old girlfriend gets in touch and suggests he come to visit. Lou Fitzpatrick, Tony's young radio-show producer, is having her own off-air problems. She wants children, but her girlfriend has other ideas; they've lost their beloved cat and her father's drinking is way past problematic. Which is why both Tony and Lou are relieved to leave Cork and drive across Ireland as part of a radio publicity stunt organized by a local car dealership. Their aim is to give away the Mazda 2 that they're driving, the catch being that it must go to one of the many emigrants who have recently returned home to escape a wave of escalating terror attacks in London. But as they navigate dual-carriageways and Travelodges, giving airtime and narrative to the great cacophony of voices calling into the show, the car competition transforms into a surreal quest: Tony to find his first love, Lou to find answers to impossible questions, and all the while two mysterious voices listen in, making their own estimations... A mighty tale of radios, road trips and of the noisy static of life, All Along the Echo asks us whether our lives ever add up to more than the stories we tell ourselves. Funny, warm and in the wilding spirit of George Saunders or Samuel Beckett, Danny Denton's novel is a bravura capturing of modern Ireland, one that shows us the possibilities of fiction, the nature of love and death, and what it is for each of us to be only the briefest signal in life's splendid broadcastttzchidhcmxc [static].

Read more less

Examines the complex ecology of quasi-public and privatized institutions that mobilize and administer many of the political, administrative, and fiscal resources of today’s metropolitan regionsIn recent decades metropolitan regions in the United States have witnessed the rise of multitudes of “shadow governments” that often supersede or replace functions traditionally associated with municipalities and other local governments inherited from the urban past. Shadow governments take many forms, ranging from billion-dollar special authorities that span entire urban regions, to public–private partnerships and special districts created to accomplish particular tasks, to privatized gated communities, to neighborhood organizations empowered to receive private and public funds. They finance and administer public services ranging from the prosaic (garbage collection and water utilities) to the transformative (economic development and infrastructure). Private Metropolis demonstrates that this complex ecosystem of local governance has compromised and even eclipsed democratic processes by moving important policy decisions out of public sight. The quasi-public institutions of urban governance generally escape the budgetary and statutory restraints imposed on traditional local governments and protect policy decisions from the limitations and vagaries of electoral politics. Moving major policy decisions into a privatized and corporatized realm facilitates efficiency and speed, but at the cost of democratic oversight. Increasingly, the urban electorate is left debating symbolic issues only tangentially connected to the actual distribution of the resources that affect people’s lives. The essays in Private Metropolis grapple with the difficult and timely questions that arise from this new ecology of governance: What are the consequences of the proliferation of special authorities, privatized governments, and public–private arrangements? Is the trade-off between democratic accountability and efficiency worth it? Has the public sector, with its messiness and inefficiencies—but also its checks and balances—ceded too much power to these new institutions? By examining such questions, this book provokes a long-overdue debate about the future of urban governance.Contributors: Douglas Cantor, California State U, Long Beach; Ellen Dannin, Pennsylvania State U; Jameson W. Doig, Princeton U; Mary Donoghue; Peter Eisinger, New School; Steven P. Erie, U of California, San Diego; Rebecca Hendrick, U of Illinois at Chicago; Sara Hinkley, U of California, Berkeley; Amanda Kass, U of Illinois at Chicago; Scott A. MacKenzie, U of California, Davis; David C. Perry, U of Illinois at Chicago; James M. Smith, U of Indiana South Bend; Shu Wang, Michigan State U; Rachel Weber, U of Illinois at Chicago.

Read more less

This extraordinary collection, the first anthology of Icelandic short fiction published in English translation, features work by twenty of Iceland’s most popular and celebrated living authors—including Andri Snær Magnason, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, and Auður Jónsdóttir—granddaughter of Halldór Laxness, who won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. Celebrated in Europe and Scandinavia but less known in the English-speaking world, these writers traverse realms of darkness and light that will be familiar to readers who have fallen under the spell of Scandinavian fiction. While uniquely Icelandic in topography and tenor, with a touch of the island’s supernatural charm, the stories traffic in the enduring and universal complexities of human nature. Here is a fictional universe where the ghosts of Vikings and spirits tread, volcanoes grumble underfoot, and writers trip the Northern Lights fantastic across the landscape of the Icelandic imagination. At long last, readers can enjoy award-winning stories now expertly rendered into English by the country’s most renowned translators. In “Killer Whale” a father contemplates euthanasia for a terminally ill child, in “Self Portrait” a vacationing family in Spain crosses paths with migrants, in “Escape for Men” a woman searches for an ex-lover in the South of France, and in “The Most Precious Secret” the nature of artists and the art world is mercilessly revealed. Both the Viking myths of Iceland’s forefathers and the cutting-edge modern world of the country today are brilliantly alive in these remarkable and original stories.This collection is an excursion to an island where almost two million travelers descend yearly on a population of 345 thousand natives. Iceland is the place Björk calls home, the location where Game of Thrones was filmed—a place with open lava fields, glaciers, and iceberg lagoons among other natural wonders that is becoming one of the “hottest” tourist destinations on earth.Out of the Blue transports readers to Iceland’s timeless and magical island of Vikings and geographical wonders, and it promises to be a seminal collection that will define Icelandic literature in translation for decades to come. Contributors: Auður Ava Olafsdóttir, Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Þórarinn Eldjárn, Gyrðir Elíasson, Einar Örn Gunnarsson, Ólafur Gunnarsson, Einar Már Guðmundsson, Auður Jónsdóttir, Gerður Kristný, Andri Snær Magnason, Óskar Magnússon, Bragi Ólafsson, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Óskar Árni Óskarsson, Magnús Sigurðsson, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Ágúst Borgþór Sverrisson, Guðmundur Andri Thorsson, Þórunn Erlu-Valdimarsdóttir, Rúnar Helgi Vignisson.

Read more less

"What is the value of Black life in America?" In Avidly Reads Passages, Michelle D. Commander plies four freighted modes of travel—the slave ship, train, automobile, and bus—to map the mobility of her ancestors over the past five centuries. In the process, she refreshes the conventional American travel narrative by telling an urgent story about how history shapes what moves us, as well as what prevents so many Black Americans from moving or being moved. Anchored in her maternal kin’s long history on and alongside plantations in rural South Carolina, Commander explores her family members’ ability and inability to navigate safely through space, time, and emotion, detailing how Black lives were shaped by the actual vehicles that promised an escape from the confines of American racism, yet nearly always failed to deliver on those promises. Using personal and public archives, Avidly Reads Passages unfolds distinct histories of transatlantic slavery ships, the possibilities presented by rail lines in the Reconstruction South, the fateful legacies of school busing, and the ways that Black Americans attempted to negotiate their automobility, including through the use of road and travel compendiums such as Travelguide and The Negro Motorist Green Book. In order to understand the intricacies of slavery and its aftermath, Commander began her exploration with the hope of engaging with the difficult evidences and stubborn gaps in her family’s genealogy; what she produced is a biting and elegiac reflection on working-class life in the Black South. Commander demonstrates that the forms of intimidation, brutality, surveillance, and restriction used to control Black mobility have merely evolved since slavery, marking Black life writ large in America, with neither the passage of time nor the passage of laws assuring true and adequate racial progress. Despite this bleak observation, Commander catalogs and celebrates, through affecting stories about her beloved South Carolina community, the compelling strivings of Southern Black people to survive by holding on firmly to family, and their faith that new worlds could be imagined, created, and traveled to someday. Part of the Avidly Reads series, this slim book gives us a new way of looking at American culture. With the singular blend of personal reflection and cultural criticism featured in the series, Avidly Reads Passages offers a unique lens through which to capture the intricacies of Black life.

Read more less

'A legend of the game' - Anthony Seibold 'He's a player that never lets his team down' - Billy Slater Darius Boyd broke into the Brisbane Broncos NRL team in 2006 straight out of high school and was part of the premiership-winning team in his debut season. He'd go on to win another premiership with the Dragons in 2010, claiming the Clive Churchill Medal for man of the match and forever stamping his name as an elite champion of the game. He has played 28 State of Origins for Queensland and taken the field in 23 Tests for Australia - never playing in a losing Australian team. In 15 seasons at the top level, Darius has won nearly every honour the sport can award and is undeniably an NRL great. But listing statistics, awards and premierships doesn't reveal the battles that Darius Boyd has faced off the field. A teenager with a troubled background, he started his career with innate footy talent but also the emotional baggage of an unknown father, the devastating loss of loved ones, and a mother who was walking a mental health tightrope herself, which as a kid he didn't understand. As his talent shone on the field and his profile increased, Darius struggled. Hiding years of depression and unhappiness, playing footy was his escape. But no one can run from themselves forever. The horrific spinal injury to good mate and Newcastle Knights teammate Alex McKinnon was the catalyst that finally broke Darius. Realising he needed help for his anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, he turned his back on football, checked into a mental health facility and began to mend his life and himself. Now, as he heads into retirement, Darius Boyd is sharing his story, to celebrate his triumphs on the field but, more importantly for him, revealing how to deal with depression, overcome adversity and live with mental illness. He reflects on excerpts from his private journal which charted his journey from the depths of despair to a life of gratitude. It is a heartfelt message he now takes across the NRL and into boardrooms, schools and footy clubs in a quest to keep our young men alive. BATTLING THE BLUES is a raw, honest and inspiring memoir that takes us into the heart of an NRL champion and his fight to conquer his demons and live a better life.

Read more less

'Rebecca meets The Secret History. Gloriously dark, gloriously gothic' Sara Collins, Costa First Novel Award-winning author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton For 150 years, Caldonbrae Hall has loomed high above the Scottish cliffs as a beacon of excellence in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. A boarding school for girls, it promises that its pupils will emerge 'resilient and ready to serve society'. Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie, a 26-year-old Classics teacher and new head of department. Rose is overwhelmed by the institution: its arcane traditions, unrivalled prestige, and terrifyingly cool, vindictive students. Her classroom becomes her haven, where the stories of fearless women from ancient Greek and Roman history ignite the curiosity of the girls she teaches and, unknowingly, the suspicions of the powers that be. But as Rose uncovers the darkness that beats at the very heart of Caldonbrae, the lines between myth and reality grow ever more blurred. It will be up to Rose - and the fierce young women she has come to love - to find a way to escape the fate the school has in store for them, before it is too late. Perfect for fans of Margaret Atwood and Madeline Miller, Madam is a darkly feminist tale with an electrifying cast of heroines you won't soon forget.______________________'Imagine if Donna Tartt and Margaret Atwood got together to write a creepy, suspenseful novel . . . Brooding and unsettling, Wynne paints a gorgeous picture that only serves to camouflage the dark secrets she's hidden within' - Chandler Baker, author of Whisper Network'The simmering menace and mystery kept me absolutely gripped . . . This was a smouldering slow burn of a novel that I could not put down' - Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne'Strange, dark, and utterly consuming . . . I loved it' - Katie Lowe, author of The Furies'Chilling, eerie and very clever. I devoured it' - Polly Crosby, author of The Illustrated Child'A thrilling debut, reminiscent of Du Maurier. The narrative, written in precise prose with beautifully crafted characters, barrels along at pace, leaving us breathless at each twist and turn. A truly wonderful read' - Nydia Hetherington, author of A Girl Made Of Air'I ripped through it and thoroughly enjoyed the ride . . . A highly entertaining and atmospheric read' - Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding'Full of fire and light, written with a passionate intensity . . . Madam is a book that shimmers . . . It's an extraordinary achievement' - Now and Fen blog

Read more less

'Forget dark academia: give me instead this kind of winter-sunshined, sharp-tongued and footnoted academia, full of field trips and grumpy romance' Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous LightAn intrepid professor must uncover faerie secrets in the delightful and heart-warming second instalment of the Sunday Times bestselling Emily Wilde series.Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore, and has catalogued many secrets of the Hidden Folk in her encyclopaedia with her infuriatingly charming fellow scholar, Wendell Bambleby, by her side.But Bambleby is more than just a brilliant and unbearably handsome scholar. He's an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, in search of a door back to his realm. By lucky happenstance, Emily's new project, a map of the realms of faerie, will take them on an adventure to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby's realm, and the key to freeing him from his family's dark plans. But with new friendships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart. Praise for this series:'A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic, this book wholly enchanted me' Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches'A thoroughly charming academic fairy tale, complete with footnotes and a low-key grumpy romance' Guardian'Enchanting in every sense of the word. . . This book is real magic' H. G. Parry, author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep'A book so vividly, endlessly enchanting, so crisply assured, so rich and complete and wise and far-reaching in its worldbuilding that you'll walk away half ensorcelled, sure Fawcett found Emily Wilde's journal in some sea-stained trunk' Melissa Albert'The ideal book to curl up with on a chilly winter's evening. . . this book is an absolute delight.' Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy'A charmingly whimsical delight. . . Five dazzling, gladdening stars' India Holton, author of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels'I enjoyed every word of this gorgeously written fairy tale featuring a grumpy heroine and an utterly charming love interest' Isabel Ibañez, author of Woven In Moonlight

Read more less

What would you do if your actual dream man turned out to be real?The bestselling author of Shipped returns with a fresh romantic comedy following a law student who wakes up from a car accident with memories of a boyfriend she's never met, only to run into him in a flower shop a year later. Perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Rebecca Serle's In Five Years.'I quickly fell in love with (the amazing characters) and I couldn't put this book down . . . If you're looking for a great read for the summer, definitely check this one out! ' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ reader review'I loved it! Such a crazy whirlwind of an adventure . . . I can't wait to read more from Angie Hockman!'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ reader review'A fast, funny, and sweet read . . . The twists and surprises kept coming' ABBY JIMENEZ'Sharp writing, charming characters, and delightful banter . . . Angie Hockman has outdone herself with this one!' LACIE WALDON...................................When law graduate Cass Walker wakes up after surviving a car accident, she is flooded with memories of a man named Devin. The only problem? Devin - as confirmed by family, friends and doctors - doesn't exist. Everything about him, from his coffee-brown eyes to the slightly crooked angle of his pinkie finger to his high-wattage charm, is a figment of Cass's coma-addled imagination. Still, she can't get him out of her head. So when she happens upon the real Devin a year later in a Cleveland flower shop, she's completely shocked. Even more surprising is that Devin actually believes her story and - despite his protective younger brother's doubts - they soon embark on a real-life romance. With her dream man by her side and a new job at a prestigious law firm, Cass's future seems perfect. But fate might have other plans . . ....................................More praise for Angie Hockman!'The inventiveness drew me in, the engaging characters kept me reading, and the romance made me sigh happily . . . a winner of a book!' TRISH DOLLER'The perfect slice of vacation in book form' ROSIE DANANPerfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne, escape with Shipped - the whipsmart and escapist romantic comedy that celebrates the power of second chances and the magic of new beginnings.'Witty, romantic, and completely addictive' LAUREN LAYNE'Shipped is a sweet, sunny getaway of a novel' SARAH HOGLE

Read more less

'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Wow, wow, wow. I loved this story' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Wow!!! What a book! Wish I could give it more stars!'**Game, Set, Match, the hilarious and utterly irresistible new romcom from Heidi Stephens, is available to pre-order now!**WHEN LIFE HAS YOU DOWN ON LOVE, SURELY THE ONLY WAY IS UP . . . ? __________________________Twenty-five years in showbiz is a good run, right? Because after tonight, when her small (read: huge) wardrobe malfunction was broadcast to the nation's living rooms, Daisy's time in the spotlight might be over.It's all about damage control now, and Daisy needs an escape route. Fast. Especially when her sporting hero boyfriend publicly announces their engagement - the one she hasn't actually agreed to tell the world about.All she needs is space from prying eyes and time for the press to get bored and move on. But the only place she can run to at such short notice is the Cotswolds cottage she used to own with her ex-husband. Not ideal, but at least it's in the middle of nowhere and close to her teenage daughter.Seems like a perfect plan, apart from the person selling stories to the tabloids about her and Tom, the local headmaster.But that's just a rumour, right?The perfect uplifting and feel-good romantic comedy that will have you snorting with laughter. If you love Sophie Ranald, Catherine Walsh, and Mhairi Macfarlane, you won't want to miss this!___________________________Readers LOVE Heidi Stephens!'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ A definite winner!''⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ One of my favourite reads!' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Beautifully written, full of charm and a story that will capture your heart, this is the perfect read!' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ I ABSOLUTELY loved this book! It made me laugh and cry' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Brilliant! Just Brilliant! Consumed it in a day as I just couldn't put it down' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ I read it in one sitting' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐A gorgeous, romantic book' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐A five-star read that will make you fall in love again' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐A brilliant array of characters [and] a wicked sense of humour . . . Heidi Stephens understood the assignment and delivered' '⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ If you're a fan of romcom, this one is for you'

Read more less

The feel-good romantic comedy hit! Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Sophie Ranald.Readers can't stop raving about The Prenup! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Sweet, sassy, sparkling!''My absolute favourite''A perfect easy-reading, cheer-you-up, read''Lauren's books take you on a journey of love, laughter and unexpected twists''The sweetest and most amazing book''There are books that make you want to stay curled up until you finish them, and this is one of those'....................................................................LOVE WASN'T PART OF THE DEAL FOR THIS MARRIAGE...My name is Charlotte Spencer and, ten years ago, I married my brother's best friend. I haven't seen him since. Charlotte Spencer grew up on the blue-blooded Upper East Side of Manhattan but she never wanted the sit-still-look-pretty future her parents dictated for her. Enter Colin Walsh, her brother's quiet, brooding, man-bun-sporting best friend, and with him a chance to escape. He's far from Charlotte's dream guy but they need each other for one thing: marriage. One courthouse wedding later, Charlotte's inheritance is hers to start a business in San Francisco and Irish-born Colin has a Green Card. Ten years later, Colin drops a bombshell: the terms of their prenup state that before either can file for divorce, they have to live under the same roof for three months. Suddenly this match made in practicality is about to take on whole new meaning.......................................................................More raves for The Prenup!'Layne does it again with this sexy, sassy romantic comedy with all the feels!' JENNIFER PROBST'Utterly charming. With non-stop wit, this feel-good romance pays homage to the old-school rom-coms we all loved so much' RS GREY'Layne's best work yet' RACHEL VAN DYKEN'One beautifully written bundle of fun wit and real emotion' NOELLE ADAMS'Lauren Layne's voice sparkles in The Prenup. With its sharp humor, easy banter and toe-curling sexual tension, it's the ultimate LL experience' JESSICA LEMMONWant more fun, fresh, flirty and very sexy rom-com? Check out all of Lauren's books! Don't miss:You, AgainMade In ManhattanTo Sir, With LoveThe Central Park Pact seriesOxford seriesWedding Belles seriesI Do, I Don't seriesLove, Unexpectedly series

Read more less

Following the acclaimed Queen's Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle brings us a new novel of intrigue and menace at the Tudor Court. . .1554: Lady Jane Grey is executed by her cousin Queen Mary... Now Lady Jane's younger sisters Katherine and Mary, cursed with the Tudor blood that saw their sister killed, face the perils of the royal court alone. Lady Katherine - young and spirited - makes dangerous romantic liaisons. While Lady Mary - crook-backed and vulnerable - becomes the Queen's reluctant companion, yet yearns to escape court intrigue. And both girls fear their proximity to the Queen might be their undoing. For the childless Queen is ill. If she should die Katherine may be pushed to power, but the Queen's half-sister Elizabeth casts a long shadow and if she gains the throne the court will become a terrifying maze of treachery and suspicion - where holding royal blood could be a death warrant for the two sisters...This sumptuous historical drama is perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel. Through the eyes of the Grey sisters we are given an insight into the treacherous rule of the Tudor Court.Praise for Elizabeth Fremantle:'An endlessly fascinating era, and Fremantle manages to combine pacey storytelling with superb background. . .terrifically entertaining.' The Times'Fremantle is surely a major new voice in historical fiction (...) what Hilary Mantel fans should read while waiting for the final part of her trilogy' The Bookseller'A sumptuous epic' Metro'Gripping' Woman & Home'A great read. Sisters of Treason totally transports the reader to the Tudor court, with all its tensions and games' Katherine Webb, author of The Misbegotten'Electric' Good Housekeeping'Rich and enticing' Stylist'Elizabeth Fremantle brings the decadent, conniving, back-stabbing world of the 16th-century British court to brilliant life here, revealing what one woman can teach us all about the timeless art of survival'Andrea Walker, Oprah.com'Wildly entertaining' Huffington PostElizabeth Fremantle is the author of Queen's Gambit and Sisters of Treason. She holds a first in English and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck. As a Fashion Editor she has contributed to various publications includingVogue, Elle, and Vanity Fair. Her debut novel, Queen's Gambit, was published in 2013 followed by Sisters of Treason. Her new novel, Watch the Lady, is out in June 2015.

Read more less

**A Red magazine book of 2023**'The most charming, utterly lovely story I've read in ages... this is one of my books of the year' RED 'This joyous novel is a feast for the senses, as well as the soul' JOANNA NELLA warm-hearted debut novel set in the beautiful coastal city of Chennai, for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Joanna Nell and Graeme Simsion.Grand Life Apartments is a middle-class apartment block surrounded by lush gardens in the coastal city of Chennai, India. It is the home of Kamala, a pious, soon-to-be retired dentist who spends her days counting down to the annual visits from her daughter who is studying in the UK. Her neighbour, Revathi, is a thirty-two-year-old engineer who is frequently reminded by her mother that she has reached her expiry date in the arranged marriage market. Jason, a British chef, has impulsively moved to India to escape his recent heartbreak in London.The residents have their own complicated lives to navigate, but what they all have in common is their love of where they live, so when a developer threatens to demolish the apartments and build over the gardens, the community of Grand Life Apartments is brought even closer together to fight for their beautiful home...-------------------------------'I loved this heartwarming read' PRIMA'It's utterly entrancing - so humane and funny, and so seeped in India that I could smell the cooking and breathe the exhaust fumes. I absolutely loved it from start to finish.' DEBORAH MOGGACH'I was put in mind of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City . . . a distinctive and evocative voice' GRAEME SIMSION'Warm, gorgeous, tender, hopeful and human. I felt so HAPPY when I was reading it' DAISY BUCHANAN'An enchanting hug of a book with characters that you'll really root for' NIKKI MAY'A super warm and lovely read ... Should have a warning though: WILL MAKE YOU HUNGRY!' KATE SAWYER'Hema Sukumar's debut is an absolute joy. I loved being transported to the Grand Life Apartments and I was bewitched by the characters, colours and tastes of Chennai. Please can I move in forever?' CLARE POOLEY 'A gorgeous, beautifully-written story, full of wonderfully charming characters - and a loveable cat.' NICK BRADLEY'Written with such warmth ... full of life and love. Hema Sukumar's lovely characters became like friends to me, and I adored spending time with them.' SARA ADAMS

Read more less

The stunning new summer story from the bestselling author of Summer at Buttercup Beach. Step into the delightful seaside village of Sandcastle Bay, where you'll discover golden sand, welcoming smiles and an unforgettable romance...Melody Rosewood loves her new home in idyllic Sandcastle Bay. The beautiful little cottage on the edge of Sunshine Beach, with its bright yellow door and view of the sea has captured her heart. And she loves being close by to her family and best friend Tori Graham. Life by the sea is pretty much perfect, there's just one thing missing...Gorgeous Jamie Jackson, with his cheeky grin and adorable puppy, works as a sculptor opposite Melody's jewellery shop. From the moment he and Melody meet sparks fly. But despite their instant attraction, a past heartache is holding Jamie back.As Melody starts to make a life for herself in the close-knit, quirky seaside community, she realises Jamie could be the one for her. But as the two of them take a chance on romance, it's one dating disaster after another. Are they destined to always be just good friends? Or will Melody finally find her happily-ever-after in Sandcastle Bay?A perfect, feel-good summer read that will make you want to escape to the beach for a romantic day in the sun. If you enjoy reading Sarah Morgan, Jenny Oliver and Lucy Diamond this book is for you.Read what everyone is saying about Holly Martin:'Wow! Every time I pick up a Holly Martin book I devour it within hours... Holly Martin's writing is more than a 5 star rating...' Goodreads Reviewer'OMG this is Holly's best book ever I haven't laughed so much in ages ... hilarious and endearing ... The chemistry is electric (and steamy too).' Goodreads'Every page of this book was delicious and impossible to put down... a beautifully written tale, that was funny and well thought out ... Swoonsome, flirty and downright gorgeous.' Escapades of a Bookworm'This is a hug in a book and I found it simply delightful.' Goodreads Reviewer'Utterly enchanted by this incredibly romantic story, set in a picturesque location... written by one of the queens of rom coms - Holly Martin! I devoured this book!' Rachel's Random Reads, 5 stars'A beautiful summer read with sizzling hot romance.' Jessica's Book Biz

Read more less

Whether you want to follow in the footsteps of legendary figures at the Minoan palace, swim in the turquoise waters of idyllic Zakynthos bay, or watch the sun set over Corfu from Kaiser's throne, your DK Eyewitness travel guide makes sure you experience all that the Greek Islands have to offer.The perfect escape, the Greek Islands offer spectacular beaches, crystal-clear seas, and picturesque villages. Though the islands vary greatly in character, they all share delicious cuisine, hospitable locals, and views capable of stealing your breath away.Our updated 2023 guide brings the Greek Islands to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights, trusted travel advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on practically every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations which place you inside the region's iconic buildings and neighbourhoods. DK Eyewitness Greek Islands is your ticket to the trip of a lifetime. Inside DK Eyewitness Greek Islands you will find: - A fully-illustrated top experiences guide: our expert pick of the Greek Islands' must-sees and hidden gems.- Accessible itineraries to make the most out of each and every day.- Expert advice: honest recommendations for getting around safely, when to visit each sight, what to do before you visit, and how to save time and money.- Colour-coded chapters to every part of the Greek Islands, from Athens to Crete, the Dodecanese to the Cyclades.- Practical tips: the best places to eat, drink, shop and stay.- Detailed maps and walks to help you navigate the region country easily and confidently .- Covers: The Ionian Islands, The Argo-Saronic Islands, The Sporádes and Évvia, The Northeast Aegean Islands, The Dodecanese, The Cyclades, Crete, AthensAbout DK Eyewitness: At DK Eyewitness, we believe in the power of discovery. We make it easy for you to explore your dream destinations. DK Eyewitness travel guides have been helping travellers to make the most of their breaks since 1993. Filled with expert advice, striking photography and detailed illustrations, our highly visual DK Eyewitness guides will get you closer to your next adventure. We publish guides to more than 200 destinations, from pocket-sized city guides to comprehensive country guides. Named Top Guidebook Series at the 2020 Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards, we know that wherever you go next, your DK Eyewitness travel guides are the perfect companion.

Read more less

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL FOR 2023'A joy to read, a full universe of feeling, an effortless page-turner by a born storyteller' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers'Devastating and intimate, and political and radical all at the same time. Bhattacharya's storytelling talents are limitless' Nikesh Shukla'Exceptional ... you have complete faith that Bhattacharya will take you to all the right places. Heartbreaking and yet so full of hope' Melody Razak, author of Moth____________________________________________India, 1992. The country is ablaze with riots. In Lucknow, ten-year-old Shubhankar witnesses a terrible act of mob violence that will alter the course of his life: one to which his family turn a blind eye.As he approaches adulthood, Shabby focuses on the only path he believes will buy him an escape - good school, good degree, good job, good car. But when he arrives in Mumbai in his twenties, he begins to question whether there might be other roads he could choose. His new friends, Syed and Shruti, are asking the same questions : together, buoyed by the freedom of the big city, they are rewriting their stories.But as the rising tide of nationalism sweeps across the country, and their friendship becomes the rock they all cling to, this new life suddenly seems fragile. And before Shabby can chart his way forward, he must reckon with the ghosts of his past . . .Dazzling and deeply moving, One Small Voice is a novel of modern India: of violence and prejudice, friendship and loyalty, community and tradition, and of a young man coming of age in a country on fire.____________________________________________'A compassionate, many-layered chronicle of trauma and recovery following mob violence in contemporary India, One Small Voice is a wonderful, timely contribution to world literature' Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of This Mournable Body'Bhattacharya has the enviable ability to create a cast of characters that feel as real as any person I've met. His effortless writing sings on the page, and by the time you get to the end, you'll wish you didn't have to leave his mind so soon' Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions'Whilst the plot turns on our capacity for cruelty, Bhattacharya's book brims with compassion. A novel about the complexities of adulthood, and the shame we all carry, that is both fearless and kind' Clare Pollard, author of Delphi

Read more less

Ever wished it could be Christmas every day? Wish again… READERS LOVE LINDSEY KELK: ‘Absolutely hilarious, engaging and fun’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A festive romance with a twist . . . with plenty of funny moments and a whole load of emotion’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The perfect antidote to these dark evenings, full of warmth, humour, deep insights and feel-good prose’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘If you read one Christmas book this year . . . let it be this one!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Everything you want for a Christmas read’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Warm-hearted, funny and so enjoyable’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker is hoping that a family Christmas – countryside, a mountain of food and festive films – will salve the sting of her career hanging by a thread and her heart being trampled on. Because everyone else has their life sorted: even Dev, her boy-next-door crush, is now a tall, dark and handsome stranger with a fiancée. She can’t help wishing her future was clearer. Then Gwen wakes up to discover it’s Christmas day all over again. Like Groundhog Day but with turkey. And family arguments. On repeat. As she figures out how to escape her own particular Christmas hell, Dev is the one bright spot. He might be all grown-up but underneath he’s just as kind and funny as she remembers. Maybe, just maybe, her heart can be mended after all. But how do you fall in love with someone who can’t remember you from one day to the next? 'This novel tastes like mince pies fresh out of the oven, sprinkled with a dusting of magical realism…A heartwarming romance about the biggest love of our lives: ourselves (and the hot, tall surgeon next door).' Good Housekeeping ’Romantic, festive fun and as irresistible as a tub of Quality Street’ Red ‘With laugh-out-loud moments, it’s another classic Kelk novel’ Woman and Home Lindsey Kelk has hit the sweet spot with a festive romcom that’s Groundhog Day meets The Family Stone’ Stylist ’Fun and festive . . a witty, feelgood read’ Popsugar ‘Heartwarming and funny’ Heat ‘This brilliant, hilarious read is escapist fun’ Fabulous ‘With genuine laugh-out-loud moments, it’s another Kelk novel that will put a big smile on your face’ Woman’s Weekly

Read more less

In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar. Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated and feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo's desires and designs. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, the instrument of Ulmo's designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, and in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon's daughter, and their son is Eärendel, whose birth and profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo. At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Tuor and Idril, with the child Eärendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Eärendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources. Following his presentation of Beren and Lúthien Christopher Tolkien has used the same 'history in sequence' mode in the writing of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was ‘the first real story of this imaginary world’ and, together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, he regarded it as one of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days.

Read more less

In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar. Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated and feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo's desires and designs. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, the instrument of Ulmo's designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, and in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon's daughter, and their son is Eärendel, whose birth and profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo. At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Tuor and Idril, with the child Eärendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Eärendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources. Following his presentation of Beren and Lúthien Christopher Tolkien has used the same 'history in sequence' mode in the writing of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was ‘the first real story of this imaginary world’ and, together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, he regarded it as one of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days.

Read more less

REDEMPTION AT TRINITY The Rim rebellion was glorious—and doomed from the start. Brilliant Rim Confederation Navy spaceship captain Jared Clement scuttled his career and professional life by joining the rebels against the overwhelming force of the 5 Suns Alliance. The rebel cause was just. That didn’t matter. Ten years later, Clement regrets nothing — and would prefer to be left alone to his thoughts and drink. But a new chance to command a ship of incredible potential is thrust in his lap—humanity’s first truly faster-than-light vessel. The destination: Trinity, a newly discovered star system where strange signs of possible spacefarers may lead to humanity’s first alien encounter. Or to interstellar war. Humanity is on the brink of a new age, and everything depends on one crusty starship captain, his gritty crew, and the Beauregard, a ship that was never meant to wage war turned into a weapon-bristling battleship that will either propel humanity to ultimate destruction or into a new starfaring age of exploration and conflict. And along the way, a noble lost cause—one Captain Jared Clement—may finally get his revenge. And find his redemption. About Trinity: “[A] rousing. . . far-future tale, taking hard-drinking former Rim Confederacy Navy Capt. Jared Clement of the gunship Beauregard into a whopper of a galactic confrontation. . . . [with] Clement’s rebirth as an idealistic military commander, leading to breathless Horatio Hornblower–type ship-to-ship action updated into a Star Trek–like environment. . . [with] plenty of fun, derring-do, and even some tension-relieving fraternization will keep readers invested in Clement and crew. This is an entertaining escape from the here and now.”—Publishers Weekly About Dave Bara: “. . . fun, fast, and proper science fiction, where the stakes are big and things matter.”—New York Times best-selling author Simon R. Green on Dave Bara’s Lightship Chronicles Series “This energetic mélange of tried-and-true elements—futuristic jargon, military and romantic tactics, and multiple levels of skullduggery—easily grabs the reader’s attention; more impressive is that Bara’s story holds that attention all the way to the end.” —Publishers Weekly on The Lightship Chronicles Series “Bara manages to ramp up the depth and complexity of his world while retaining that sense of excitement, suspense, and adventure.” —Barnes & Noble Sci Fi & Fantasy Blog

Read more less