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God Don't Like Ugly (GOD #1)
By Mary Monroe. 2000
New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe sweeps readers back to the streets, porches, and parlors of civil rights-era Ohio…
to bring to life the first steps of an enduring friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the track. . .Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer Annette turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not--gorgeous, slim, and worldly--welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father;her lovely, fragile "Muh'Dear;" her brooding, dangerous brother Jock;and her colorful white relatives--half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose. With Rhoda's help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette's world will never be the same."A coming-of-age journey depicted with wit, poignancy and bite." --Publishers WeeklyStrange Music
By Laura Fish. 2008
In Laura Fish's ambitious and captivating novel, three very different women struggle for freedom. While Elizabeth Barrett Browning is confined…
to bed, chafing against the restriction of her doctors and writing poetry and fretful letters, at her family's Jamaican estate Kaydia, the Creole housekeeper, tries to protect her daughter from their predatory master; and a recently freed black slave, Sheba, mourns the loss of her lover.As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege both Sheba and Kydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. The resulting novel is an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the nineteenth-century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.Strandloper: From the author of the 2022 Booker longlisted Treacle Walker
By Alan Garner. 1996
A captivating novel by the author of the 2022 Booker Prize-longlisted Treacle WalkerBased on a true story, Strandloper tells the…
extraordinary tale of a nineteenth-century Englishman, William Buckley, who was convicted and transported to Australia. Refusing to accept his fate he escaped and lived among the Aborigines for thirty years.In this visionary novel, Alan Garner is as true to William the Cheshire bricklayer and William the Aboriginal spiritual leader, as William is true to his fate. The result is extraordinary.'A remarkable feat of literary imagination' Sunday TimesSouth Riding (Vmc Ser. #659)
By Winifred Holtby. 2011
The community of South Riding, like the rest of the country, lives in the long shadow of war. Blighted by…
recession and devastated by the loss, they must also come to terms with significant social change.Forward-thinking and ambitious, Sarah Burton is the embodiment of such change. After the death of her fiancé, she returns home to Yorkshire focused on her career as headmistress of the local school. But not everyone can embrace the new social order. Robert Carne, a force of conservatism, stands firmly against Sarah. A tormented man, he carries a heavy burden that locks him in the past. As the villagers of South Riding adjust to Sarah's arrival and face the changing world, emotions run high, prejudices are challenged and community spirit is tested. Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and David Morrissey lead an outstanding cast in this rich and panoramic portrait of community in turmoil. Winifred Holtby's little-known and hard-to-find literary gem is a magnificent masterpiece, to be joyfully rediscovered by a whole new generation of readers.Sophisticated Boom Boom
By John Kelly. 2003
In Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the seventies, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon and his trusted friend Spit Maguire…
stand under lampposts waiting to be overtaken by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black leather jacket...Sophisticated Boom Boom is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders. Crucially, though, this is a love letter to the period and the place, and to the liberating, healing power of music that galvanises and transforms.The Snow Ghost and Other Tales: Classic Japanese Ghost Stories
By Various. 2023
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.…
From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms: the world of everyday and the world of supernatural.It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.For readers of Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell and Shirley JacksonSlow Motion Ghosts
By Jeff Noon. 2019
'Noon's storytelling is assured and compelling ... it's a belter' Guardian‘Constantly surprising’ SpectatorA viciously occult murder.A curious clue left on…
the body.The soundtrack to the murder still playing...It is 1981 and Detective Inspector Henry Hobbes is still reeling in the aftermath of the fire and fury of the Brixton riots. The battle lines of society - and the police force - are being redrawn on a daily basis. With the certainties of his life already sorely tested, a brutal murder will shake his beliefs to their very core once more. The manner of the death and its staged circumstances pose many questions to which there are no obvious answers. To track the murderer, Hobbes must cross boundaries into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday world he thought he knew. His investigation takes him into a twisted reality, which is both seductive and devastating, and asks him the one question he has been dreading: How far will he go in pursuit of the truth?Jeff Noon is the author of six acclaimed novels, Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation, Needle in the Groove and Falling Out of Cars, as well as two collections of short fictions, and is also the crime fiction reviewer for The Spectator. He lives in Brighton.A Short Gentleman
By Jon Canter. 2008
How did Robert Purcell, distinguished barrister and perfect specimen of the British Establishment, end up in prison? An intellectual giant…
but an emotional pygmy, Robert is a man struggling to come to terms with the forces that have brought him down, from the wife who wanted him to change, to the ex-girlfriend who came back to haunt him and the childhood bully who turned into an adult bully.Despite everything, Robert remains the same magnificently self-righteous man he always was, utterly resistant to therapy, change and the emotional demands of the opposite sex.Shine/Variance
By Stephen Walsh. 2021
"Great, beautiful little studies of unspoken fear and longing and love, told with a sure-footed delicacy rare in a debut"…
Sarah Moss, Irish Times"An exciting, original, and very welcome new voice" Donal Ryan"These are startling, adventurous and often wonderful stories. I loved this collection" Roddy DoyleA sharp and insightful debut short story collection about the pitfalls of ordinary life A wife yearns to escape the tight-fisted confines of a package holiday. A boy dreams of footballing greatness as his mother mourns a loss. A man tries to assemble an absent child's playhouse, with impossible instructions and too much beer. A woman seeks clarity from automated voices. A father is distracted from Christmas tree shopping with his son by the looming pressure of quarterly sales targets.Shine/Variance captures the tiny crises and wonders of daily life with warmth, wit and decisive clarity. Ordinary people - commuters, call centre workers, children and parents - struggle for stability while craving more, and the schism between expectation and reality is only rarely bridged. Yet, amidst the faltering, recognition and bright moments of hope still illuminate their days.Fresh, tender and darkly funny, these stories are a window into the longings, frustrations and painfully human connections of ordinary life from a remarkable new voice in fiction."The most powerful new collection I've read in some years" John Boyne"Brilliantly bats, staggeringly compelling, and ferociously funny. Stephen Walsh rips the concreteness of reality straight from us and reflects back a more wobbly version of our turbulent lives... Completely unique" June Caldwell"Full of assured originality and freshness - a new writer much to be welcomed" Bernard MacLavertyFire and Ice (The Ice Series #5)
By Anne Stuart. 2008
The stunning finale to RITA Award-winner Anne Stuart&’s The Ice Series brings us back to Japan, where deadly machinations have…
an odd couple in their crosshairs.In the wake of a failed love affair, Jilly Lovitz takes off for Tokyo. She&’s expecting to cry on her sister&’s shoulder, then spend a couple months blowing off steam in Japan. Instead, she&’s snatched away on the back of a motorcycle, narrowly avoiding a grisly execution attempt meant for her sister and brother-in-law.Her rescuer Reno is the Committee&’s most unpredictable agent. They&’d met once before and the attraction was strange—opposites in more way than one—but electric. Now Reno and Jilly are pawns in a deadly tangle of assassination attempts, kidnappings, and prisoner swaps that could put their steamy partnership on ice.Previously published.Scatterlings: A Novel
By Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe. 2020
A BEST NEW BOOK from *Vanity Fair *The Root *Vulture *People *The Washington Post *Christian Science Monitor *Los Angeles Times…
*EssenceA New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick! A New Yorker Best Book of the Year!A lyrical, moving novel in the spirit of Transcendent Kingdom and A Burning—and the most awarded debut title in South Africa—that tells the story of a multiracial family when the Immorality Act is passed, revealing the story of one family’s scattered souls in the wake of history.In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between “Europeans” (white people) and “natives” (Black people). Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment—for men of up to five years; for women, four years.Abram and his wife Alisa have their share of marital problems, but they also have a comfortable life in South Africa with their two young girls. But then the Act is passed. Alisa is black, and their two children are now evidence of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state.At first, Alisa and Abram question how they’ll be affected by the Act, but then officials start asking questions at the girls’ school, and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to how to protect his young family from the grinding machinery of the law, whose worst discriminations have until now been kept at bay by the family’s economic privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple’s bond is tattered.Alisa, who is Jamaican and the descendant of slaves, was adopted by a wealthy white British couple, who raised her as their child. But as she grew older and realized that the prejudices of British society made no allowance for her, she journeyed to South Africa where she met Abram. In the aftermath of the Immorality Act, she comes to a heartbreaking conclusion based on her past and collective history – and she commits her own devastating act, one that will reverberate through their entire family’s lives.Intertwining her storytelling with ritual, myth, and the heart-wrenching question of who stays and who leaves, Scatterlings marks the debut of a gifted storyteller who has become a sensation in her native South Africa—and promises to take the Western literary world by storm as well.Moby Dick
By Herman Melville. 2011
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 PickMelville’s classic tale of obsession and the sea, one of the most important…
and enduring masterworks of nineteenth-century literature, Moby Dick is a riveting drama, exploring rage, hope, destiny, and the deepest questions of moral truth. “Call me Ishmael.”Thus begins one of the most famous journeys in literature—the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod and its embattled, monomaniacal Captain Ahab. Ishmael quickly learns that the Pequod’s captain sails for revenge against the elusive Moby Dick, a sperm whale with a snow-white hump and mottled skin that destroyed Ahab’s former vessel and left him crippled. As the Pequod sails deeper through the nights and into the sea, the divisions between man and nature begin to blur—so do the lines between good and evil, as the fates of the ship’s crewmen become increasingly unclear. . . .Broken Glass (The Mirror Sisters Series #2)
By V. C. Andrews. 2017
This second gothic novel in the dark Mirror Sisters trilogy continues the tale of sisterly love at its absolute worst—from…
the legendary New York Times bestselling author of Flowers in the Attic and My Sweet Audrina (now Lifetime movies). For fans of Ruth Ware (In a Dark, Dark Wood) and Liane Moriarty (The Husband&’s Secret).Under their mother&’s watchful eye, identical twins Haylee and Kaylee Fitzgerald have lived their entire lives in sync. Never alone, never apart, everything about them must be exactly the same: clothes, friends, punishments. One night, in the darkness of a movie theater, Haylee reveals that she&’s leaving to meet up with someone she knows from online. But suddenly feeling ill, and not wanting to disappoint this older man, she convinces Kaylee to go in her stead. He&’ll never know, and this way he won&’t think she stood him up. Kaylee reluctantly agrees to go, but when the credits roll and she&’s nowhere to be found, Haylee confesses everything to her mom. With the manhunt on, Haylee knows everything must be done to find her sister. Still, for the first time in her life, she&’s free from her twin, which, really, isn&’t so bad...is it?A terminally ill doctor battles crime and corruption in this medical thriller trilogy by the New York Times–bestselling author of…
Critical Condition. Farewell to Dreams: ER doctor Angela Rossi is struggling with insomnia when she receives a ghostly plea to save a missing girl. Aided by a police detective fallen from grace, Angela searches the midnight catacombs beneath the city, facing down a ruthless gang leader and stumbling onto a serial killer&’s lair. Her desperate quest to rescue the girl leads her to the one thing she least expected to find: a last chance for love. As her symptoms escalate in bizarre and disturbing ways, Angie realizes exactly how serious her illness is. She might be dying, but she&’s finally choosing how to live . . . A Raging Dawn: Dr. Rossi is diagnosed with Fatal Insomnia and given only a few months to live. She&’d like to say her goodbyes to everyone and spend her last days on a deserted island. But first she must provide testimony in a rape case. However, on the day of the trial, the victim is murdered, allowing the rapist to go free—and motivating Angela to bring him to justice. With nothing left to lose or fear, she makes for a perfect vigilante . . . The Sleepless Stars: When Dr. Rossi discovers that her disease—and the disease she&’s discovered in dozens of young children—is the creation of a mysterious cabal, she begins investigating the lies and betrayal that led the terrible epidemic. Meanwhile, Devon Price, a father of one of those children, is on the hunt for those responsible. He is willing to lie, cheat, steal, or even kill to ensure his daughter&’s safety. But in the end, their only hope might be a desperate deal with the devil: the faction behind the epidemic. A deal paid with blood. A deal not everyone will survive. Praise for the Fatal Insomnia series &“A remarkable medical thriller equal to the very best of Robin Cook or Michael Crichton. This intelligent, well-crafted novel, based on a startlingly original premise, builds up tension to the breaking point and beyond, delivering plenty of surprises along the way. Totally absorbing and impossible to put down.&” —Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times–bestselling author &“Farewell to Dreams has it all: a heroine you&’ll never forget and a story that whips by at bullet speed.&” —Tess Gerritsen, New York Times–bestselling authorFalling Stars (Shooting Stars)
By V. C. Andrews. 2001
All The World's A Stage -- but What If The Play Doesn't Go As Planned? Four talented girls from vastly…
different pasts share a dream of stardom: Cinnamon, the edgy actress; Ice, the phenomenal vocalist; Rose, the beautiful dancer; and Honey, the first-rate violinist. The four meet at the prestigious Senetsky School of the Performing Arts -- housed in an ornate New York City mansion -- and become instant friends as they take off on a dazzling whirlwind of intense classes, theater outings, and celebrity-studded parties. And together they bend the strict house rules of Madame Senetsky, a famous actress who guarantees success for students under her tutelage. But they soon realize this is no ordinary school. Madame Senetsky pushes the girls' studies beyond reason. She controls their social lives. And they get the strange feeling someone is watching them. But who...and why? Cinnamon, Ice, Rose, and Honey set out to untangle a shadowy web of Senetsky family secrets. As they explore dark corners and hidden rooms, every creak and moan of the old mansion tells a story too frightening to repeat. A devastating story that can destroy their dreams...Since their first publication in the 1830s and 1840s, Edgar Allan Poe's extraordinary Gothic tales have established themselves as classics…
of horror fiction and have also created many of the conventions which still dominate the genre of detective fiction. As well as being highly enjoyable, Poe's tales are works of very real intellectual exploration. Attentive to the historical and political dimensions of these very American tales, this new selection places the most popular -- `The Fall of the House of Usher', `The Masque of the Red Death', `The Murders in the Rue Morgue; and `The Purloined Letter' -- alongside less well-known travel narratives, metaphysical essays and political satires.The Season: (Debutantes: 2): LOVE, HATE, ALLIES, ENEMIES. The Season begins
By Charlotte Bingham. 2001
An immensely readable drama of period society that you WILL NOT be able to put down. Authored by the million…
copy and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlotte Bingham, perfect for fans of Louise Douglas and Dinah Jefferies.'Bingham's imagination is thoroughly original' - DAILY MAIL'Charlotte Bingham...always tells a rattling good story...Pure escapism!' - Woman and Home'Pure delicious escapism' - ***** Reader review'The characters are so well developed with such an engaging story line. I wish there were more books in this series.' - ***** Reader review*********************************************************************************ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR...Portia and Emily meet to launch their daughters on an unsuspecting Society for the London Season. Both are determined that their offspring, Phyllis and Edith, will catch the eye of their friend May's son, a future Duke.Meanwhile, their arch-enemy Daisy Lanford, fallen on hard times due to his own extravagance and penchant for lovers, is busy launching American heiresses. However, Phyllis, having formed an unholy alliance with Edith, is intent on spoiling the American girl's chances.As always, the Season is fraught with dangers for both the young and the middle-aged, while the old observe, knowing it has all gone on before.It will be a minor miracle if all three girls find husbands before the end of the Season, and their mothers renewed happiness...Bestselling author Douglas Jackson expertly brings the Roman Empire to life in this riveting historical adventure of fire, blood and…
battle. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane and Conn Iggulden. Readers are loving Gaius Valerius Verrens! "Storytelling of the highest order" - 5 STARS"Glorious Roman adventure." - 5 STARS"The drama never lets up - it is gripping" - 5 STARS"I'm just gutted to have finished it!" - 5 STARS"Verrens rules, ok?" - 5 STARS************************************************************BETRAYED, BANISHED BUT NOT BROKEN...70 AD: Disgraced, dishonoured and banished on pain of execution if he ever returns to Rome, Gaius Valerius Verrens makes his way East through the death and destruction of the savage Judaean rebellion. He knows his only hope of long term survival lies with his friend Titus, commander of the Army of Judaea and son of the newly crowned Emperor Vespasian.But when he reaches the Roman camps that surround the seemingly impregnable city of Jerusalem he finds Titus a changed man. Gone is the cheerful young officer he knew; in his place, a tough, ruthless soldier under pressure from his father to end the insurrection at any cost. Soon, Valerius finds himself at the centre of a web of intrigue spun by Titus' lover, Queen Berenice of Cilicia, and her sometime ally, the general's turncoat adviser, Flavius Josephus, who together have an ulterior motive for wanting the siege to end quickly.Yet the laurels Valerius needs in order to regain his honour cannot be won in the tunnels that run beneath Jerusalem. Only in the heat and blood of battle can he find the glory that brought him the title Hero of Rome.Gaius Valerius Verrens' adventures continue in Saviour of Rome.The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 2008
'One of the greatest allegories in all literature' D.H. Lawrence Hester Prynne is a beautiful young woman. She is also…
an outcast. In the eyes of her neighbours she has committed an unforgivable sin. Everyone knows that her little daughter, Pearl, is the product of an illicit affair but no one knows the identity of Pearl's father. Hester's refusal to name him brings more condemnation upon her. But she stands strong in the face of public scorn, even when she is forced to wear the sign of her shame sewn onto her clothes: the scarlet letter 'A' for 'Adulteress'A gripping and breath-taking novel of Roman adventure from bestselling author Douglas Jackson. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow and…
Ben Kane.Readers are loving Gaius Valerius Verrens! "Spellbinding" - 5 STARS"I didn't want to come to the end, some really fascinating detail and a great story." - 5 STARS"Unexpected twists and an ending full of surprise rates it among my favorite reads to date." - 5 STARS"Kept me absolutely gripped from start to finish [-] historically accurate with the fictitious stories and characters expertly weaved into the real makes it utterly believable." - 5 STARS*****************************************REBELLION SIMMERS...AND TREACHERY LIES IN WAIT. AD 72: Vespasian is Emperor of Rome - but his grip on power is weakening. Economic disaster threatens the city - and when Rome is threatened, so too is the Empire.Recently married and building a new home, Gaius Valerius Verrens thought he'd at last found a life away from the battlefield. But he is summoned by the Emperor to do one last favour for Rome: he must journey to the remote, mountainous region of Asturica Augusta and investigate claims that a bandit called 'The Ghost' is raiding the Empire's gold convoys.When Valerius arrives, he finds a tortured, gods-forsaken land whose native tribes, exploited for so long, are a growing threat. But treachery lurks in the shadows, and it seems the real danger comes from those closer to him.Valerius must put an end to a conspiracy that would plunge the Empire into a devastating new conflict - but first he must establish who is a friend, and who a foe . . .Gaius Valerius Verrens's adventures continue in Glory of Rome.