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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 TimesStarring Tracy Beaker (Tracy Beaker #16)
By Jacqueline Wilson. 2007
"I said, 'It's my life and it hasn't been very special so far, has it, so why shouldn't I write…
any old rubbish?"Tracy Beaker is BACK . . . and she's just DESPERATE for a role in her school play.They're performing A Christmas Carol and for one extremely worrying moment, the irrepressible Tracy thinks she might not even get to play one of the unnamed street urchins.But then she is cast in the MAIN ROLE!Can she manage to act grumpy, difficult and sulky enough to play Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, she does have a bit of help on that front from Justine Pain-In-The-Bum Littlewood.As Tracy prepares for her big moment, Cam is the one helping her learn her lines. But all Tracy really wants to know is if her film-star mum will make it back from Hollywood in time to watch her in her starring role...A heartwarming story of one of the UK's favourite children's characters - Headteacher UpdateSouth 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 JacksonThe Shrimp
By Emily Smith. 2001
Ben spends the holidays with his nose in the sand and bottom in the air. It's not because he's shy…
- though some of his classmates do call him the Shrimp. It's because he's got a great idea for his wildlife project.A competition is on! The class projects are going to be judged by a famous TV wildlife presenter, and the prize is irresistible. Ben would love to win it, but others have their eyes on the prize too...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 MacLavertyScatterlings: 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. . . .The Secrets Club: The Truth about Tash (The Secrets Club #1)
By Chris Higgins. 2013
Meet The Secrets Club. This is the second book in a highly collectable new series by bestselling author Chris Higgins;…
perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson and Karen McCombie.Tash, Alice, Danni and Lissa are in their first year at Riverside Academy, making new friends, facing their fears and sharing their secrets. In the first book, Alice in the Spotlight, we discovered Alice's secret. Now it's Tash's turn.Tash wants to tell her friends the truth about what's happening in her life. It would explain why she's struggling to be in the right place at the right time. But she's promised someone very important that she won't ...The Secrets Club: No Match for Dani (The Secrets Club #2)
By Chris Higgins. 2013
The third book in the popular The Secrets Club series by author Chris Higgins, for pre-teen girls. The Secrets Club…
- Alice, Tash, Dani and Lissa in their first year at secondary. These girls are forging new friendships, facing fears and finding their way. Should they keep their secrets or share them with each other? In the first two books, Alice and Tash fessed up. Now it's Dani's turn. Should she admit to her friends that every weekend she plays football with a group of boys who don't even know she's a girl?!'This book should be prescribed for all girls about to leave the safety of primary school, for reassurance, for information, and most of all-for fun!' thebookbag.co.uk on The Secrets Club: Alice in the Spotlight'A lively and engaging story about friendship' Chicklish.co.uk on The Secrets Club: Alice in the SpotlightThe Secrets Club: Alice In The Spotlight (The Secrets Club #3)
By Chris Higgins. 2012
INTRODUCING THE SECRETS CLUB:Alice, Tash, Dani and Lissa''It's OK. We're the Gang of Four, remember? The No-Secrets Club.' Her stern…
face softens into her familiar smile and my world lights up again.Briefly. But soon the cloud comes back.I have got a secret.A big one.I want to tell my friends, I really do. But the longer I keep it hidden the harder it is to do . . .'Join the girls in The Secrets Club series as they begin their new lives at Riverside Academy; making friends, facing their fears and choosing which secrets they share . . .Secrets
By Bali Rai. 2013
JIT can’t be bothered with school. His mum’s new boyfriend is doing his head in, and the last thing on…
his mind is dealing with lessons and homework. He needs the gang’s help, and fast . . . SUKY and Imi have been going out for ages. But there’s trouble in paradise – namely, Suky’s strict parents. A whole load of drama is about to kick off . . .Two great stories from the Devana High gang.The Secret Football Club (Pocket Money Puffins)
By Tom Palmer. 2010
James, Lily and friends have had some bad news - football is now banned at their school. But they all…
love football! So if they're not allowed to kick a ball the playground, they'll have to find another way to play - in secret . . .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.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.Day After Night: A Novel
By Anita Diamant. 2009
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post and The Salt Lake Tribune Just as she gave…
voice to the silent women of the Hebrew Bible in The Red Tent, Anita Diamant creates a cast of breathtakingly vivid characters—young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe—in this intensely dramatic novel.Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for “illegal” immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp who survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to hope, the four of them find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country. Diamant’s triumphant novel is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption that reimagines a singular moment in history with stunning eloquence.