Search results for ""author weird"

Running’s Strangest Tales is a fascinating collection of weird and wonderful stories from the world of running, from the earliest marathon to today’s high-tech, apped-up approach. Within these pages you’ll find the bizarre story of the Norwegian footballer forced to miss a crucial World Cup qualifier after colliding with a moose on his morning jog, the American ultra-marathoner who had all his toenails removed to improve his running, and why some runners at the 2015 Tokyo marathon were wearing GPS-enabled, edible bananas, complete with LEDs and incoming Twitter updates. Packed with tales that are so odd you’ll hardly believe them, this book makes the perfect gift for all running enthusiasts, from the seasoned marathoner to the park jogger, and those who only ever run a bath. Word count: 45,000

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In her third adventure, Cookie finds mysteries everywhere - but can she solve them, and save the science show?Hurray, Cookie's Nani is coming to stay from Bangladesh! But she doesn't speak English and Cookie is the only one in the family who doesn't speak Bengali. Luckily, science-mad Cookie realises that her coding lessons at school might help her crack the language code and help her bond with Nani.Other mysteries are harder to solve, though - like, why is Jake's mum acting so weird? Who is the mystery gamer who keeps levelling-up in Cookie's computer game? And who is the Woodburn Hacker, who keeps posting teachers' secrets on the school website? Why does it look like it might be Cookie herself?Can Cookie solve these mysteries, clear her name and save the science show?

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'Satire at its best' ELEANOR CATTON'Outrageous, comic, disturbingly timely' THE GUARDIANBold, darkly funny and brilliantly bizarre, She’s a Killer is the story of what happens when a stubborn slacker is forced to confront a very weird world.Thirty-something Alice has an IQ of 159 (almost a genius) and lives at home with her mother, with whom she communicates only by Morse code. Meanwhile, the climate is in crisis. Wealthy immigrants are flocking to New Zealand for shelter, stealing land, driving up food prices and taking over. When Alice meets attractive wealthugee Pablo, she thinks she has found a way out of her dull existence. But then in walks his teenage daughter, Erika, an actual genius with impeccable eye makeup, and Alice finds herself drawn into action of the most radical – and dangerous – kind. Just what is a slacker to do?

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From revered British indy cartoonist Dan White comes a monster-fighting latchkey kid in the vein of I Kill Giants and Courtney Crumrin. Meet Cindy and Biscuit: a girl and her dog. People (even her mum!) keep telling Cindy she’s weird, that she’s got a morbid, overactive imagination—but if that was true, why would she keep encountering all these monsters, ghosts, and aliens in real life? Watch Cindy and her fearless four-legged best friend get in to all kinds of trouble, as their little coastal town seems to have a preponderance of werewolves, undead mermaids, dimensional portals, alien invasions, and worse . . . it's dark out in the woods! Luckily for all of us, Cindy is the action hero we needed, just in time to save the world a few times between now and detention.

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Over 500 crisp color photos display the wide range of cameras produced from the earliest days of photography to the rise of the digital age. The informative text provides a history of cameras, organized into chapters by various camera types, including snapshot, folding, rangefinder, single lens reflex, twin lens reflex, stereo, panoramic, miniature, and spy cameras. Cameras within each chapter are arranged chronologically to show the development of the camera type. Every camera presented has earned its place by meeting one or more of these criteria: it is a major landmark; epitomizes a certain era; is rare or a prototype; contains something different or unusual in the design; and/or is especially weird or strange. Rounding out this engrossing guide are a glossary of technical terms and an index. This book will be enjoyed by camera collectors, photo historians, and all who have ever captured life on film or in pixels.

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Fired up by the accounts of exploring parties in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writers of the weird and supernatural began to construct a literary Arctic and Antarctic in which terrors lay undiscovered in the ice and gateways to bizarre hidden worlds were waiting. From James Hogg's lurid North Pole narrative of life amongst polar bears in 'The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon' to tales of mad science and ghostly visitations among the wind-blown expanse of the southern continent, this new collection showcases a wealth of neglected material and an overlooked niche of literature obsessed with the limits of human experience. Pulp tales of alien forces emerging from the ice and a battle between hunter and invisible man-eating duck creature drift alongside modern horror from indigenous Arctic voices to show the extent and endurance of the lure of these sublime landscapes.

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"A historically detailed and profoundly weird world, with dynamic art and nonstop mayhem purring along." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"Beautifully captures the visual style of the Jazz Age.” — BOOKLISTIt’s 1927 and Prohibition is in full effect in St. Louis, Missouri. Organized crime has risen to meet the relentless demand for illicit alcohol. Bootleggers, gangsters, and might-makes-right rule dominate the city’s underworld, fueled by the patrons of speakeasies — speakeasies like Lackadaisy.Hidden under the unassuming Little Daisy Cafe and run by the widowed and strong-willed Mitzi May, Lackadaisy holds its own in a rough-and-ready world, where you''re either holding the gun or taking the bullet. But will tenacity, class, and a little bit of crazy be enough to ensure the survival of Mitzi and her gang?A keepsake collected edition of the cult classic, Eisner Award-nominated webcomic!

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Entertaining, informative, and enlightening! Educational, eyebrow-raising, and profound. Science has never been this much fun! Take a weird and wonderful tour of the every branch of science with this treat of stories, trivia, and facts! From Earth’s weight gain thanks to the many tons of cosmic dust that falls on the planet each year to William A. Mitchell, the inventor of Tang, Cool Whip, and Pop Rocks candy, The Book of Facts and Trivia: Science combines the educational, profound, and trivial into a fascinating collection of science facts! You’ll learn about yourself and the world through hundreds of absorbing stories and interesting tidbits such as … Kissing burns up to six calories per minute. One teaspoon of neuron star weighs about 10 million tons. There are more than 2 million ants for every single person on Earth. That’s approximately 20 quadrillion ants!

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Sure we'd all love to be able to go around telling stories about all the weird, scary, and just-plain-annoying people that we know. But the truth is, no one likes a gossip. Here, the irrepressible Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith have found a way around that problem-they just make like Aesop and change all the people to animals or food, add a moral to each story, and call the stories fables! With tales like Little Walrus, in which too much of the truth is a dangerous thing, the cautionary Slug's Big Moment, wherein Slug is so caught up in herself that she doesn't see the steamroller behind her, and Straw and Matches, which illustrates quite clearly why you should never play with matches (because they cheat), the eighteen fables in this uproarious collection are sure to delight readers both young and old.

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War-games champion Udo Berger is finally on holiday.Travelling to the Costa Brava with his long-ignored girlfriend, Ingeborg, there they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, and a band of shady locals. They have fun, see the sights, relax. Then, late one night, Charly disappears without a trace.Desperate to solve the mystery, Udo refuses to leave, even after Ingeborg returns home. Increasingly frightened, the situation slips beyond his grasp and Udo suddenly realizes that the consequences of this game' are much more serious than he ever imagined.TRANSLATED BY NATASHA WIMMERCapering, weird, rascally and short... The Third Reich is giddily funny, but it is also prickly and bizarre enough to count among Bolaño's first-rate efforts' The EconomistA mesmerizing tale: sleek, linear, easily digested, beautifully translated Classic Bolaño' Washington Post

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Flamingos Are Pretty Funky introduces young readers to flamingos and their fantastic and (truly) fabulous traits. A companion to Wombats Are Pretty Weird, this funny, reader-friendly narrative nonfiction picture book about the natural world features sidebars, comic panels, and extensive back matter.Flamingos are tall, wading birds known for their bright pink color. Their nests look like tiny volcanoes, and they live in areas that are considered extreme—from nearly boiling bodies of water filled with corrosive chemicals to cold, mountainous regions where ice freezes around their feet. And if you ask their snake friend, Joey, those aren’t the only things that are fabulous about flamingos!Abi Cushman’s Flamingos Are Pretty Funky contains informative, expressive, and funny illustrations of flamingos in their natural habitats. This enlightening picture book offers an entertaining blend of narration, sidebars, spe

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West Country Climbs covers around 1000 of the West Country's most popular and highest calibre climbs, which span the full spectrum of climbing styles and grades; from committing multipitch sea cliff routes, to easy-going inland sport climbs. The rock ranges from the moorland and sea cliff granites of Dartmoor and West Penwith, through the geological weirdness of North Devon and Cornwall, to the multitude of limestones on parade in Devon, Somerset, Avon and Dorset. West Country Climbs will be an essential reference book to the climbing available in the region. The guidebook will appeal to the holidaying or regular visitor to the West Country whilst also offering a vast amount of up-to-date and inspirational coverage for the local climber. Areas Covered Wye Valley, Avon and Somerset, North Devon, The Culm, Atlantic Coast, Inland Cornwall, West Penwith, The Lizard, Inland Devon, Torbay.

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With their spectacularly enlarged canines, sabertooth cats are among the most popular of prehistoric animals, yet it is surprising how little information about them is available for the curious layperson. What's more, there were other sabertooths that were not cats, animals with exotic names like nimravids, barbourofelids, and thylacosmilids. Some were no taller than a domestic cat, others were larger than a lion, and some were as weird as their names suggest. Sabertooths continue to pose questions even for specialists. What did they look like? How did they use their spectacular canine teeth? And why did they finally go extinct? In this visual and intellectual treat of a book, Mauricio Antón tells their story in words and pictures, all scrupulously based on the latest scientific research. The book is a glorious wedding of science and art that celebrates the remarkable diversity of the life of the not-so-distant past.

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A beautiful fact-filled sticker book perfect for nature lovers. The third in a glorious sticker book series created with the National Trust, this book is packed with facts about weird and wonderful sea creatures and their homes. With four pages of wildlife stickers and a spotter's guide to help identify favourite species, you can stick porpoises in the harbour, fill the rock pools with sea urchins, add an octopus into the underwater cave, and much, much more. From basking sharks swimming in the deep sea to crabs scuttling across the sandy shore, this is an excellent introduction to all types of sea creatures for the very young. Other titles in the series include: Hedgehogs, Hares and other British Animals Robins, Wrens and other British Birds Beetles, Butterflies and other British Minibeasts Horses, Hens and other British Farm Animals Bluebells, Birch Trees and other British Plants

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Ever feel like you are pedalling in the choucroute? Been caught with your beard in the mailbox again? Or maybe you just wish everyone would stop ironing your head?Speaking in Tongues brings the weird, wonderful and surprising nuanced beauty of language to life with over fifty gorgeous watercolour and ink illustrations.Here you will find the perfect romantic expression, such as the Spanish tu eres mi media naranja, or 'you are the love of my life, my soulmate', and the bizarre, including dancing bears and broken pots, feeding donkeys sponge cake, a head full of crickets, and clouds and radishes. All encourage new ways of thinking about the world around us, and breathe magnificent life into the everyday.These phrases from across the world are ageless and endlessly enchanting, passed down through generations. Now they are yours.

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Nothing ever happens on the Otter Lake reservation. But when 16-year-old Tiffany discovers her father is renting out her room, she's deeply upset. Sure, their guest is polite and keeps to himself, but he's also a little creepy. Little do Tiffany, her father, or even her astute Granny Ruth suspect the truth. The mysterious Pierre L'Errant is actually a vampire, returning to his tribal home after centuries spent in Europe. But Tiffany has other things on her mind: her new boyfriend is acting weird, disputes with her father are escalating, and her estranged mother is starting a new life with somebody else. Fed up and heartsick, Tiffany threatens drastic measures and flees into the bush. There, in the midnight woods, a chilling encounter with L'Errant changes everything ...for both of them. A mesmerizing blend of Gothic thriller and modern coming-of-age novel, The Night Wanderer is unlike any other vampire story.

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‘An entertaining look at foods of the past.’ – Wall Street Journal Guess what people ate throughout history in this deliciously informative introduction to culinary history In this first book of culinary history for children, readers will discover the fascinating dishes eaten by 10 high-interest historical peoples – from prehistoric humans to children of the future. Whether munching on mud-baked hedgehogs like the ancient Egyptians, or nibbling tacos topped with chillis grown in space like the astronauts of today, readers will be immersed in the diverse, tasty, weird, and wonderful food history of the world. Packed with guess-what challenges, unbelievable facts, and interactive guessing game, 4 real recipes from different eras, and delicious reveals, this fact-filled read-aloud encourages an interest in food (and perhaps a bit of subtle encouragement to taste something new!), and is perfect for history-lovers and food-enthusiasts alike. Ages 6 - 9

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A deluxe edition of original and classic short stories, packed with monsters, vampires and a host of weird creatures. Tales of shadows and voices in the dark from the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Hope Hodgson are cast with previously unpublished stories by some of the best writers of horror today. New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: DJ Tyrer, Ed Grabianowski, Andrew J. Wilson, Elise Forier Edie, Frank Roger, Gwendolyn Kiste, David A. Elsensohn, Bill Kte'pi, Justin Coates, James Lecky, Eric Esser, John H. Dromey, Kristopher Triana, Michael Bondies, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Glen Damien Campbell, William R.D. Wood, Rebecca J. Allred, and Lucy Taylor. A dazzling collection of the most gripping tales of horror, vividly told.

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Two centuries, two children, one house Beth didn’t want to move to Dublin – she misses her old life and her friends back in London. New home and new school is hard enough, but to make matters worse someone keeps messing up her room … At first, Beth blames her annoying brother, Cormac, but when she discovers a boy called Robbie, from the 1950's, is slipping through time and into her room, then things start to get REALLY weird! The two create havoc together, learn about each other’s worlds and manage to help each other when they’re down. But the 1950s and the present day sometimes seem very far apart … Can their friendship stand the test of time? A mischief-maker from the 1950’s – a shy girl from today and a time-slip adventure like no other

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'Edward Brooke-Hitching's delightful book is a collection of curiosities. From a 19th-century lonely hearts ad to a nuptial blessing of the bride’s buttocks, an entertaining history of love over the millennia that proves when it comes to the heart, little has changed.' Daily Mail - - - - - - From the author of the critically acclaimed The Phantom Atlas and The Madman’s Library (Sunday Times Literature Book of the Year) comes a magnificent new illustrated work. From prehistoric carvings and ancient Egyptian statues, to medieval spell books and Victorian code-writing, this unique collection gathers a wealth of curious objects and surprising stories to trace the story of love through the ages. Discover the royal marriage that crossed the boundary of death in 14th-century Portugal, the judicial duels between husbands and wives in Early Modern Europe, the love spells found in medieval manuscripts, and the romantic codes hidden in some of art’s greatest masterpieces. Meet the feared ancient Greek army regiment comprised entirely of male couples; the French pirate queen avenging her murdered husband; the first woman to sail around the world; and the quack sexologist who conned 18th-century London with his musical mechanical bed. Here are ancient gods, mythical monsters, the Elizabethan portraits of smiling men on fire and the erotic paintings hidden beneath the ash of Pompeii, as well as Nigerian wedding chains, Welsh love spoons, cryptic postcards and the centuries-old cartographic tradition of mapping the heart. A curiosity cabinet of romantic treasure, Love: A Curious History in 50 Objects draws on a wide range of sources to form a collection perfect for fans of beautiful illustrated works and curious history, while also forming the ideal romantic gift. ‘In his new book, Edward Brooke-Hitching sets out to explore this mysterious emotion. Throughout this lusciously produced volume, he dissects a range of weird and wonderful objects that illustrate the diverse ways by which humans have expressed their loves and lusts.’BBC History Magazine 'A glorious cornucopia of a book, celebrating love from the hilarious to the divine - as always, Brooke-Hitching's encyclopaedic knowledge shines through.' Fern Riddell, author Sex: Lessons From History

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Dive into the most mysterious waters around the world (if you dare) in Spooky Lakes, an illustrated nonfiction book from TikTok star and educator Geo Rutherford From Geo Rutherford—the creator of the hit series Spooky Lake Month (over 65 million likes!)—comes this thrilling nonfiction book that plumbs the depths of 25 unusual lakes around the world. Backed by extensive research and packed with all-new content—including eerie and eye-popping watercolor illustrations in full color—Spooky Lakes takes readers on an adventure through weird and wild waters. Some of Earth’s strangest—and creepiest—wonders lie deep below the surface... There’s Lake Natron, a Tanzanian lake so briny that its waters can mummify any creature that touches its surface; Lake Maracaibo, a Venezuelan tidal bay where a constantly brewing storm sends an average of 28 lightning bolts per second into t

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Blast off into space with this awesome books from Adam Frost. Be amazed by hilarious, mind-fizzing, weird and wonderful facts about space! Winner of the Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards 2019. Do you know how long it would take you to drive to the sun? Or whether you’d like to go on a space vacation? Be truly amazed by these awesome facts about our planet, our solar system, and our universe! Find out: · How long it would take you to drive to Pluto? · What the weather is like on Neptune? · How many tonnes of litter humans have left on the moon? And did you know that next time you look up to the sky and see a shooting start it could actually be a pair of pants? On the ISS undies are ejected into space, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere! Find out more hilarious, intriguing and ridiculous facts with this awesome book. Ready, set, BLAST OFF!

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In The Miserable Lives of Fabulous Artists, Chris Orr turns his humorous gaze on some of the most famous - and fabulous - artists of the past. With over 30 new works, accompanied by Orr's captions, artists from Edward Hopper to Pablo Picasso find themselves in weird and wonderful situations. Edvard Munch holidays at the seaside, John Constable RA is disturbed at his easel by frolicking nudists and there's an unfortunate incident in Barbara Hepworth's studio... No one can escape Orr's imagination: Walter Sickert is distracted from a spreadeagled model by a fly in his soup, Dame Laura Knight RA is caught shoplifting, and Frida Kahlo enjoys a fry-up. Each image is packed with detail to pore over, and the book concludes with notes from the artist, accompanied by preparatory drawings for the finished work. This new collection, published to coincide with an exhibition of Orr's works at the Royal Academy of Arts, is a charming romp which affectionately pokes fun at well-loved artists.

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Gabriel is being chased by monsters! His friend is one, and so is his uncle, his grandma … even the cat! But who will catch him? A brand new picture book from the award-winning Lucy Cousins.Come on everybody, Gabriel wants to PLAY! You be a monster, and he'll run away...Gabriel is being chased by terrible monsters with sharp pointy teeth, spikes on their back, and smelly feet! But it's all right, they can't catch him ... or can they? Let's play monsters!In this riotously funny new story from the award-winning Lucy Cousins, we follow our brave hero Gabriel as he runs away from a host of fantastically weird and wonderful monsters, played by everyone at home from his grandma to a potted plant. Inspired by Cousins' playtime with her own grandson, Let's Play Monsters is a delightful tale celebrating family and the power of imagination – featuring some truly magnificent monster creations!

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Dan Gutman’s My Weird School meets James Patterson’s House of Robots in the adventures of Geeger, a robot who loses his class pet, in the second story in a fun-to-read Aladdin QUIX chapter book series that’s perfect for emerging readers!Geeger the Robot gets along great with the class pet, Fudge the Hamster—they both spend a lot of their time eating and share a love for mushy bananas. But when Fudge goes missing, some of the kids in Ms. Bork’s class think Geeger might be to blame! Could Geeger have eaten Fudge?! He certainly wouldn’t have done so on purpose. But Geeger has been known to eat things by accident before. With the help of his best friend Tillie, Geeger puts his strengths to use to find Fudge and clear his name!

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Dan Gutman’s My Weird School meets James Patterson’s House of Robots in the adventures of Geeger, a robot who loses his class pet, in the second story in a fun-to-read Aladdin QUIX chapter book series that’s perfect for emerging readers!Geeger the Robot gets along great with the class pet, Fudge the Hamster—they both spend a lot of their time eating and share a love for mushy bananas. But when Fudge goes missing, some of the kids in Ms. Bork’s class think Geeger might be to blame! Could Geeger have eaten Fudge?! He certainly wouldn’t have done so on purpose. But Geeger has been known to eat things by accident before. With the help of his best friend Tillie, Geeger puts his strengths to use to find Fudge and clear his name!

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From the creator of Netflix original series Dead End: Paranormal Park comes the graphic novel series that started it all! “DeadEndia is immediately appealing with its colorful art, unique setting, and funny jokes, but I especially loved the complicated emotional arcs of the characters and the weird, spooky magic underlying everything!” —Molly Knox Ostertag, creator of The Witch Boy “Heart-warming, heartbreaking, heart-pounding, and heartfelt!" —Marika McCoola, The New York Times bestselling author of Baba Yaga’s Assistant Norma Khan has been split in two . . . literally! Dead End, the haunted hotel attraction at Phoenix Parks, has been rebuilt following the epic destruction that occurred there when Norma and her friends Barney and Pugsley saved the world. Unfortunately, Norma can’t keep herself together as a result. Not only is her friendship with Barney on the rocks, but she can’t seem to keep her own ghost inside her body. When Norma feels like she’s about to lose it all, her irksome friend and demon, Courtney, steps in to provide some unexpected support—though they are battling their own issues with identity and sense of belonging. Meanwhile, Barney can’t face going back to Phoenix Parks and is mourning the loss of his beloved friend Pugsley. When his boyfriend, Logan, urges him to get a job, an opportunity from the demon planes comes knocking, and soon Barney is climbing the ladder of success in the Demon Wrestling Federation. Barney’s glory in the ring quickly comes crashing down when the friends discover they’ve stepped into an eons old battle between the demons and the angels. Can they keep their relationships and sense of self intact while doing battle with the forces of good AND evil?Part workplace comedy, part supernatural horror adventure, with a splash of LGBTQ+ romance, The Broken Halo is perfect for fans of author Hamish Steele’s TV series Dead End: Paranormal Park who are in search of more adventures, for graphic novel lovers who want more diversity in their reads, or for anyone who has finished The Watcher’s Test and is ready for the next entry in the zany, creative, and laugh-out-loud funny world of DeadEndia.

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A weird western, a gun-toting, cigarillo-chewing fantasy built from hangman’s rope and spent bullets.Wormwood has appeared, and with it a doorway to the afterlife. But what use is a door if you can’t step through it?Hundreds have battled unimaginable odds to reach this place, including the blind shooter Henry Jones; the drunk and liar Roderick Quartershaft; that most holy, yet enigmatic of orders, the Brotherhood of Ruth; the inventor Lord Forset and his daughter Elisabeth; the fragile messiah Soldier Joe and his nurse Hope Lane.Of them all, Elwyn Wallace, a young man who only wanted to travel west for a job, would have happily forgone the experience. But he finds himself abroad in Hell, a nameless, aged gunslinger by his side. He had thought nothing could match the terror of his journey thus far, but time will prove him wrong.On the road to Hell, good intentions don’t mean a damn.

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A 2015 ReLit finalist A 2014 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize finalist Shortlisted for the 2015 Pat Lowther Memorial Award 'It offers wit, precision of speech, weird connections, odd juxtapositions, jarring images, & a variety of moods in a swirl of sentences that refuse to stay still but argue with each other & with their readers. This School is well worth attending.'--Eclectic Ruckus "Her poetry is a subversion of the dominant paradigms in this country ...one ride that will leave you gripping both sides of the canoe."--Lambda Literary Review At times a call to action and at others an intimate conversation between friends, Jen Currin's sensual and surreal poems speak to the political upheavals and environmental catastrophes of our time. School is an instruction manual for igniting transformation through a collective effort of love and community. Jen Currin's books of poetry include Hagiography and The Inquisition Yours, which won the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and was shortlisted for a Lambda Award.

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This is a lively and thought-provoking book about how to do creativity, unlock your potential, and make a difference. The artists, musicians, and writers we think of as ’very creative’ are just like us, except that they have spent time developing and realising ideas, and have found the confidence to share them with the world. None of this comes naturally. This wide-ranging book offers research, advice, and philosophy to fuel your understanding and passion for creativity. David Gauntlett draws on his own experiences of making music and experimenting with digital media alongside 25 years of researching creativity. Including insights from a diverse array of creators, this book highlights the vitality of the individual creative voice in a world where social media offers a weird mix of inspiration and suffocation, and our struggles for social justice are equally hopeful and upsetting. Creativity shows how vulnerability, experimentation, and courage can enable us to become bold and engaging creators.

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Although Woody Allen is best known for his cult movies, he is also a writer of outstanding wit and skill. Dip into this collection of fifty-two pieces for hilarity, deadpan weirdness, and some extremely outlandish ideas. Do you want to hear about the time Hitler went for a haircut? Or why Woody reveres Socrates? Have you ever wondered what would have happened if the Impressionists had actually been dentists? You can learn much about history – the piece on the invention of sandwiches is eye-opening – or modern life in this laugh-out-loud collection of thoughts, observations, diaries and stories from one of the most original minds and wonderfully comic voices of our time. ‘It’s no secret that Allen’s short stories are just as entertaining and accomplished as his films . . . Allen’s witty stories satirise contemporary society and classic modern literature in a style that is characteristically breathless, off the cuff and brilliant’ Observer

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Chocolate has beguiled us for centuries. From the spiced drinks sipped by the nobility in ancient Mexico to the artisan bars filled with weird and wonderful flavor combinations we devour today, chocolate has always had a magical pull on our senses. Exotic, indulgent, hedonistic and sensual, its power over us somehow exceeds the sum of its parts. This ground-breaking exploration of chocolate, by award-winning writer and lifelong cocoa enthusiast Sue Quinn, will intrigue, inspire, surprise and fascinate you in equal measure. In these pages is a wealth of cultural, historical, and culinary information about the story of chocolate through the ages and across the world, illustrated with vintage packaging, iconic advertisements, and stunning illustrations. Interspersed throughout the book are 80 sweet and savory recipes to tantalize the taste buds, such as Salted Caramel and Lime Chocolate Sauce; Triple Chocolate and Liquorice Cake with Treacle Praline; Spelt, Chocolate and Cranberry Cracker

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Did you know that 32 pigeons have received medals for wartime valor? And a dog named Laika was the very first creature in space? Did you know that there is an island in Japan entirely overrun by bunnies? And -- for a brief time -- rats adorned with ribbons were a popular lap pet in upper-class London?In Andy Warner's Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets, you can find out more than you ever thought possible about creatures both cute and weird, both large and small, while discovering new stories about human history from the perspective of our animal companions.Did you know that bees communicate with each other using special dances? Or that a popular anime called Rascal the Racoon may be largely responsible for Japan's huge raccoon population? Packed with incredible facts and charming stories like these, this is the perfect book for curious readers.

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Adventures with Natural Wondersis an immersive encounter with more than 20 natural phenomena that deserve special mention. Which is the world's largest living feline? Where are the most impressive waterfalls on Earth? What makes the oceans glow in the dark? Climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Follow the trail of a mythical Irish giant. And glide over Cappadocia in a hot-air balloon. From animal oddities to weird weather effects, and tiny grains of sand to towering geographical landforms, experience the breathtaking natural world as never before!The World of Science comics series engages, educates and entertains children, imparting scientific facts, while nurturing the love of Science through dynamic, full-colour comics. All topics covered are in line with the Singapore primary Science syllabus and the Cambridge primary Science curriculum, and also offer beyond-the-syllabus insights designed to stretch inquiring young minds.This book aligns with the following syllabi:

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Meet Suee: Twelve years old, wears her hair to the left in a point, favors a black dress, has no friends—and she likes it that way! When Suee transfers to the dull and ordinary Outskirts Elementary, she doesn’t expect to hear a strange voice speaking to her from the darkness of the school’s exhibit room, and she certainly doesn’t expect to see her shadow come to life. Then things start to get really weird: One by one, her classmates at school turn into zombie-like, hollow-eyed Zeroes. While Suee investigates why this is happening, her shadow gains power. Soon, Suee must confront a stunning secret that her shadow has been hiding under her own two feet—something very dark and sinister that could put Suee and her newfound friends at risk!

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Entombed within these pages are twenty-seven accounts of the dead and the bizarre, tales of those who have experienced for themselves the Queen City's supernatural world. Meet a child ghost who died in a horrible auto accident and now haunts current area drivers. Consider the vanishing Monroe family or the disappearing murder suspect in Fourth Ward. Be careful of a knock at the door—it could be a ghost...or someone literally coming back from the dead. Visit a forest where a young spirit girl saves a boy, then haunts him as a man. Drive over the Catawba River Bridge, where you may be lured to jump by the ghosts struggling in the water beneath. Ramble about the Rosedale Plantation to understand its haunted past. Above all, enjoy the mystical, weird, horrifying, and sometimes funny, stories from behind Charlotte’s eternal curtain.

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Hilarious, illustrated school-based antics where everything that happens leads to DRAMA and RUNNING AROUND and even some FAINTING! When a session of extreme dancing leaves Maisie in hospital with a broken leg, things take a turn for the weird! Strange noises in the ward at night, missing cuddly toys and a sandwich trolley that only ever has TUNA sandwiches. Could Maisie's leg be CURSED? If it is, and it DEFINITELY IS, then everything is DOOMED!Laugh-out-loud fun from Blue Peter Award winners Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham.Read more of Izzy's adventures!Baby Aliens Got My TeacherThe Spy Who Loved School DinnersMy Headteacher Is a Vampire RatAttack of the Demon Dinner LadiesTo Wee Or Not To Wee!There's a Werewolf In My Tent!The Phantom Lollipop Man!There's a Yeti in the Playground!Icarus Was Ridiculous

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The ultimate book of Blues trivia, The Man City Miscellany is full of weird and wonderful facts. Including: * The only goalkeeper to have scored for City, * The name of Clive Allen’s dog, * The identity of the City player who played with a toothpick in the corner of his mouth, * Who is the ‘Invisible Man’ the City fans sing about?"I rang my secretary and said 'what time do we kick off tonight?' and she said 'every 10 minutes.'" - Alan Ball during his troubled reign of City, 1996"Apparently, decapitation is no longer a capital offence." - Joe Royle reacts to an unpunished tackle on Kevin Horlock, 1998Packed with random Man City facts, stats, lists, tables, anecdotes and quotes, from the club's record scorer to the bizarre name of the club cat, this is the ultimate trivia book for every City fan’s bookshelf.

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Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein; but have you heard of Margaret Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier? Have you read the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era? Or the stories of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, whose writing influenced H.P. Lovecraft? Monster, She Wrote shares the stories of women past and present who invented horror, speculative, and weird fiction and made it great. You ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V.C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Coltor, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). And each profile includes a curated reading list so you can seek out the spine-chilling tales that interest you the most.

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Species evolve over time to become perfectly adapted to their environments, right?Well, sometimes.Consider that an elephant will not grow a seventh set of teeth, even though wearing down the sixth will condemn it to starvation; that hosts of the European cuckoo seem unable to tell that the overgrown monster in their nest is not their own chick; and that whales are fully aquatic mammals who, millions of years after first abandoning the land, still cannot breathe underwater.This book is about evolution, but not its greatest hits. Instead, it explores everything in the animal kingdom that is self-defeating, ill-made, uneconomical, or downright weird – and explains how natural selection has favoured it. In the grand struggle for survival, some surprising patterns emerge: animals are always slightly out-of-date; inefficiency tends to increase over time; predators usually lose, and parasites usually win. With equal parts humour and scientific insight, Andy Dobson is here to explain the how and why of evolution’s limits and liabilities.

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From the Caldecott Honor–winning creator of Home and Du Iz Tak? comes a gorgeous and quirky tale of an extraordinary room where everything is a half.The half room is full of half things. A half chair, a half cat, even half shoes – all just as nice and weird and friendly as whole things. When half a knock comes on half a door, who in the world could it be? With her trademark touch of magic and whimsy, Caldecott Honor winner Carson Ellis explores halves and wholes in an ingenious and thought-provoking picture book. The lightly rhyming text is soothing yet spirited, revealing the many absurdities and possibilities to be discovered in this irresistibly fanciful home. Ink and gouache illustrations featuring wry detail and velvety textures conjure a dreamlike mood while leaving space for imagining. A celebration of the surreal and the serendipitous, and the beauty of the two together, this brilliant picture book will have readers seeing the joys of halves with whole new eyes.

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We are ninjas and ninjas are brave! Willa and her best friends love ninjas. They have matching ninja backpacks and ninja t-shirts, and at school they even form a ninja club. But Willa has a secret: she’s a werewolf! Worried that no one will understand, she hides the truth from her friends. Until Val has a sleepover... and it’s on the night of the full moon. Willa is overcome with nerves. When an accident reveals that her friends were hiding secrets too, she realises maybe it’s not so important to be a normal ninja. After all, a paranormal ninja can do so many cool things! Join three remarkable friends as they discover that ALL of us are weird in our own special ways. Lovable and lively illustrations accompany this charming story that explores facing your fears, encouraging readers to celebrate their true selves.

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Based on the hit graphic-novel series from BOOM! Studios, the publisher behind Lumberjanes, Giant Days follows the hilarious and heartfelt misadventures of three university first-years: Daisy, the innocent home-schooled girl; Susan, the sardonic wit; and Esther, the vivacious drama queen. While the girls seem very different, they become fast friends during their first week of university. And it’s a good thing they do, because in the giant adventure that is college, a friend who has your back is key—something Daisy discovers when she gets a little too involved in her extracurricular club, the Yogic Brethren of Zoise. When she starts acting strange and life around campus gets even stranger (missing students, secret handshakes, monogrammed robes everywhere . . .), Esther and Susan decide it’s up to them to investigate the weirdness and save their friend.

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Parasites are masterful works of evolutionary art. The tiny mite Hisliostoma laboratorium, a parasite of Drosophila, launches itself, in an incredible display of evolutionary engineering, like a surface-to-air missile at a fruit fly far above its head. Gravid mussels such as Lampsilis ventricosa undulate excitedly as they release their parasitic larval offspring, conning greedy predators in search of a tasty meal into hosting the parasite. The Art of Being a Parasite is an extensive collection of these and other wonderful and weird stories that illuminate the ecology and evolution of interactions between species. Claude Combes illustrates what it means to be a parasite by considering every stage of its interactions, from invading and reproducing to leaving the host. An accessible and engaging follow-up to Combes's Parasitism: The Ecology and Evolution of Intimate Interactions, this book will be of interest to both scholars and nonspecialists in the fields of biodiversity, natural history, ecology, public health, and evolution.

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The third title in the bestselling and highly illustrated children's books series, soon to be hitting screens everywhere as an animated film and TV show with Nickelodeon and produced by James Corden. A super-accessible and highly-illustrated chapter book series, perfect for readers aged 6+ and fans of Pamela Butchart, DogMan, the Naughtiest Unicorn and Hotel Flamingo. Ever wonder why pigeons always act so weird? It’s because they’re out there chasing the bad guys and saving your butts! What do REAL PIGEONS do? They nest, of course! And when they nest, they nest HARD. Protecting their city from crime is tiring work after all! But the squad can’t rest yet, not with a bone-crunching vulture on the loose, a wild child running amok, and a long-lost family to find! Will the REAL PIGEONS ever find the perfect nest to take the perfect nap?

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Andrea Hoffman is an overeducated, underemployed, and unmotivated recent college graduate—until an unexpected robbery blasts her out of her funk and into a job in the finance world of early-1980s Chicago. At first, it seems like a bad fit. But the world of finance has its own weird charm, and she grows increasingly fascinated by the strange language of trading, the complexity of the stock market, and her colleagues, who navigate it all with a ruthless confidence. Even though she has two strikes against her—Jewish and female—Andrea’s quick wit and strong work ethic propel her into an actual sales job and her career takes off. But this is the Wall Street of the eighties, and along with making a lot more money, Andrea adopts a new, fast life of cocktails, cocaine, and casual sex. Drunk on her achievements, she gradually realizes that at some point, she’s going to have to decide what success really means to her.

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Wakeful Children is a collection of highly imaginative and inventive short stories. The oak sways gently, a shiver shimmers its way from roots to tip. A branch creaks as if in resistance. A small, fresh leaf strains to curl into life, shows promise for an instant, then withers and dies. A sigh, just beyond human hearing, vibrates the night. All else is still. You will be unwittingly taken on a journey to witness the twisted brutality of Joe Gallows, the weird dream-scape of The Sandman, the ice-cold grasp of The Face of the Gale, the elemental horror of an ancient, evil entity in Devil’s Drop. You will visit some of the residents down a darkly troubled street in Absorption; watched over by a beautiful, malignant presence all the while. These and other tales make Wakeful Children an extremely unusual, compelling and refreshingly different read in this genre. One that will leave you thinking of it long after you have turned the last page...

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The weird and wonderful weather of our planet is brought to life in Eye Wonder: Weather. This updated and revised edition is the perfect introduction to the exciting world of weather, from rain, sun, and wind to hurricanes, snow storms, and twisters, and also gives the facts about climate change, how we predict the weather, the differences in clouds, and why we have changing seasons.A precursor to DK's award-winning Eyewitness series, Eye Wonder was specially developed for children aged 5+, featuring astonishing photography exhibiting subjects within their natural setting and offering a whole new level of information through powerful images.Learn about science, history, and the natural world through beautiful photography and lively, age-appropriate text. The Eye Wonder series organizes information in a way that's easy to search, easy to read, and easy to learn.

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