- Table View
- List View
Caroline: A Mystery
by Cornelius MedveiWhen Mr Shaw meets Caroline on his summer holiday she turns his world upside down. Caroline, whose eyes a man could drown in. Caroline, who likes a radish or two. Caroline, who is in fact a donkey. To the outrage of his neighbours and the bemusement of his wife, when Mr Shaw returns to the city he takes Caroline with him. She plays chess magnificently, charms his colleagues and, most importantly, Caroline re-awakens in Mr Shaw an appetite for life he thought he'd lost. But can this idyll last? Unfolding with the beauty and power of fable, Caroline depicts a glorious Indian summer in one man's life.
The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse
by Geoffrey Robertson QCTHE CASE OF THE POPE delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world.Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law?Geoffrey Robertson QC, a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights.
Castles In The Air: The Restoration Adventures of Two Young Optimists and a Crumbling Old Mansion
by Judy CorbettCastles in the Air is a beautifully written, autobiographical story of rescuing an ancient mansion. Gwydir Castle was inhabited by ravers and rats until Judy Corbett and her husband Peter Welford found and acquired this 500-year-old house mouldering in the foothills of Snowdonia. Despite the toads, strange smells and squatters, they decided to mortgage themselves to the hilt to bring the castle back to life.This is an evocatively written and genuinely moving book and is infused with an extraordinary sense of place. The couple's adventures in a gothic wonderland lead them through plots both supernatural and historical. In a museum storeroom in a Bronx warehouse they find a missing room, in the castle's Solar Tower the ghost of a young woman appears and from the far edges of the woods a silent man called Sven emerges to befriend the couple and their beloved castle.For everyone who has ever wanted to live in a glorious house or escape from the mundanity of life - Castles in the Air is pure magic.
A Cautious Approach
by Stanley MiddletonShortly before his death last year, Stanley Middleton completed this, his last novel, which concludes a unique depiction of middle-class life in 'Middle England', quietly and cumulatively over many volumes and decades. Once again we are in Beechnall, the constant setting of Stanley Middleton's novels, and his sense of place and his feeling for his characters remains as strong as ever. At the heart of A Cautious Approach is a tentative love story, which begins when two lonely men meet, out walking on Christmas Day: Andy invites George home, and there he meets the captivating Mirabel, Andy's former fiancée. George has been a teacher, but ill health has deprived him of his career and confidence, and he has retrained as a postman. This chance encounter, and others that follow, have the potential to shift George's life, and soon he is drawn into a set of uncertain relationships in which past experience, present stoicism and future expectation all play a part. As ever, but here for the last time, Stanley Middleton's bold experimentation with flashbacks, and the embedding of one scene or dialogue within another, gives added density to his depiction of ordinary, defiantly unfashionable human lives.
The Cellar Lad
by Theresa TomlinsonBen Sterndale's days of freedom are over. There'll be no more running wild through Ecclesall woods now that he's got a proper job at Dyson's Scythe Works. As the Cellar Lad he's at everyone's beck and call and it's hard and dangerous work. His father and fellow workers at the cruicible workshop - the forgers, grinders and the puller out - are striving for change. But as the working people of Sheffield unite to peacefully campaign for their rights, SOMEONE is threatening to FIGHT for a difference - no matter what trouble it may bring. . . . . . . .
A Century and Some Change: My Life Before the President Called My Name
by Ann Nixon Cooper Karen Grigsby BatesPresident-elect Barack Obama reflected on the life of Ann Nixon Cooper on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, singling her out of millions of voters, he said, because she was “born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky, when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons—because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.” Energized by this history-making presidential campaign, Mrs. Cooper now shares her story, her life before the president called her name, in her own voice, with the assistance of bestselling author Karen Grigsby Bates. Mrs. Cooper is the beloved matriarch of a large and accomplished family who live throughout the country, and a long-celebrated elder in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, where she raised her children and has lived most of her long and extraordinary life. She was born and raised in Bedford County, Tennessee, near Nashville, on January 9, 1902. Her father was a tenant farmer, and her mother worked at home, taking care of the children. She met her husband, Dr. Albert Berry Cooper II, while he attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville. They settled in his hometown of Atlanta, where he established a successful practice in dentistry. When president-elect Obama referred to her in his speech, she became a celebrity, sought after by media from all over the world. In Mrs. Cooper’swords, “All of a sudden, everyone wanted to talkto me. . . . It was nice they were interested, I guess,but I wasn’t so thrilled that media and ordinaryfolk were acting as if the only exciting thing I’d everdone was vote for a black man for president. . . .I’d had a life before CNN and the rest ‘discovered’me.” And she is going to tell you about it.
The Change We Choose: Speeches 2007-2009
by Gordon BrownThe Change We Choose: Speeches 2007-2009 brings together the key speeches made by Gordon Brown during the first two and a half years of his premiership. It reflects how the values and beliefs that have defined his political career have shaped his response to what have been arguably some of the greatest challenges ever to have faced a new prime minister.The speeches in this book trace what will be seen by historians as an extraordinary era in British and international history. We can learn a lot about his premiership by looking at the Prime Minister's penetrating and insightful speeches in this period, as he sets out his thinking on domestic and foreign policy and responds to the events that have shaped his time in office. We also learn much about Gordon Brown, the man, from the insights of those who have kindly agreed to contribute introductions - and from the person who knows him best of all: his wife, Sarah, who introduced his party conference speeches.
Charlie Small: Forest of Skulls (Charlie Small #12)
by Charlie SmallWhisked away by his old adversaries, the Perfumed Pirates of Perfidy, Charlie is put to work aboard their new galleon. Held captive and forced to raid an unsuspecting ship with the bloodthirsty crew, Charlie is sure things can't get much worse... Until the pirates spot an enormous blunt-headed, sharp-toothed whale. A terrible battle ensues as the pirates try to harpoon the beast and Charlie tries his best to stop them. Will Charlie and the whale escape from the evil pirate crew's clutches? And, more importantly, will Charlie Small EVER find his way home?
Charlie Small: Land of the Remotosaurs (Charlie Small #14)
by Charlie SmallSomething happened to Charlie when he was just eight years old. He went on a journey - and he's been trying to get back for over four hundred years!Crumbs! Charlie is about to be devoured by deadly dinosaurs. Will he and his piggy pals survive this deadly game of life and death? And will Charlie EVER get safely back home?EVIL GENIUSES, MECHANICAL MONSTERS, FOREST SPRITES ... No adventure is too BIG for Charlie Small!
Charlie Small: Planet of the Gerks (Charlie Small #13)
by Charlie SmallSomething happened to Charlie when he was just eight years old. He went on a journey - and he's been trying to get back for over four hundred years!Yikes! Charlie has been whisked into outer space. Get ready for alien encounters and a totally cosmic adventure. Will Charlie EVER get safely back home?GADGETS, INVENTIONS, MONSTROUS CREATURES, EVIL VILLAINS... No adventure is too BIG for Charlie Small!
Chloe's Song
by Leslie ThomasThe new tale of love and life, rich with humour and pathos, from our best loved storyteller. From the prison cell where Chloe Smith, 43, is awaiting trial for the merciful murder of the only man who ever loved her with honesty, she recalls the men in her life who lied to her. She remembers her adored father, who drank too much; the loss of her virginity at Stonehenge to a schoolboy, her marriage to petty crook Zane Tomkins, the Isle of Wight ferryman who said he was a lonely deep sea sailor, the young priest who said he loved her but left to establish a church for men, or the lighthouse keeper who shouted in his sleep-all these men, and many others, have let Chloe down. Chloe`s Song is the story of one woman`s quest to get what every woman wants-a man who tells the truth.
Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter
by Stephen AndertonChristopher Lloyd (Christo) was one of the greatest English gardeners of the twentieth century, perhaps the finest plantsman of them all. His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).
Churchill's Navigator
by Air Commodore John Mitchell Sean FeastAn RAF pilot who flew around the world with Winston Churchill during World War II tells his story. An RAF Volunteer Reserve officer, John Mitchell was mobilized on the outbreak of war—and just missed going to join a Battle Squadron in France where he would have undoubtedly been killed. Instead, he was posted to No. 58 Squadron flying Whitleys, surviving a tour of operations in 1940–41 that included ditching in the North Sea. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was sent to the US, becoming involved in the development of the first navigation training simulators with the famous Link Trainer factory. There, he was awarded the US Legion of Merit, signed by Harry S. Truman. Then, returning to the UK in 1942, he was personally selected to join the crew of Winston Churchill&’s private aircraft, one of the early prototype Avro Yorks called Ascalon. For two years he navigated Churchill to conferences around the world—from North Africa to Italy, the Middle East to Moscow, including the famous Teheran and Yalta conferences. He also flew &“General Lyon&” (aka His Majesty George VI) on several occasions. After the war, he enjoyed an eventful career as an air attaché, including an intelligence posting to Moscow, and was senior navigation officer for the long range exercises over the Pole in the converted Lincoln, Aries III. His is an exceptional story, told with wit and verve to military aviation historian Sean Feast, who adds authoritative and informed insights.
City of Tranquil Light: A Novel
by Bo Caldwell"What ardent, dazzling souls emerge from these American missionaries in China . . . A beautiful, searing book that leaves an indelible presence in the mind." —Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist's Daughter Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P'ing Ch'eng— City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to love—and face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them? Told through Will and Katherine's alternating viewpoints—and inspired by the lives of the author's maternal grandparents—City of Tranquil Light is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn, and is further evidence that Bo Caldwell writes "vividly and with great historical perspective" (San Jose Mercury News).
The Club
by Christy O'ConnorIn 1999, the hurlers of St Joseph's Doora-Barefield won the All-Ireland club championship. That winter, they became only the second club in history to win successive Munster club titles, and the following March they became the only Munster club to reach successive All-Ireland club finals. Ten years on, St Joseph's is in a totally different place, well down the pecking order not just nationally, but in County Clare. the senior team is still spearheaded by many members of the 1999 All-Ireland winning team, who are raging at the dying of the light. At the beginning of the 2009 season, the team, club and parish were deeply wounded by two family tragedies. One of those tragedies - the sudden death of one member of the 1999 team - cut deep into the soul of the senior team. And that was not the last tragedy to strike the club ... As part of the healing process, the senior team made a pact to honour the memory of those lost by defying the odds and becoming county champions once again. A campaign fuelled by emotion and pain began promisingly, but slowly began to unravel into one of the stormiest and controversial in the club's history. The story of St Joseph's Doora-Barefield is unique; but it is also a story that anyone connected with one of the 1,700 other GAA clubs will relate to. From player infighting to player-management stand-offs, team-bonding and on-pitch battles, The Club is a chronicle of the 2009 season told with unflinching honesty by Christy O'Connor, who covers GAA for the Sunday Times and who has been the St Joseph's senior team goalkeeper for 20 years. This is a story like no other, a fly-on-the-wall tale of the effort, agony and struggles that define the journey undertaken every season by every club side. This is grass-roots GAA at its purest and rawest, a great story brilliantly told.
Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of the Hoover Dam
by Michael HiltzikAs breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America’s efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam’s striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation’s very culture—the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal’s outstanding—and enduring—symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik’s hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California’s great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam’s renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.
Come This Way Home
by Liz LyonsOne wet and stormy Irish summer, the three Miller sisters gather at their grand but shabby old family home, Tobar Lodge.Gina, middle sister and mum to a troubled teenage girl, is doing her best to keep the old country house afloat by playing host to summer visitors who rent converted cottages on the land.Eldest, Lottie, is home to lick her wounds after her latest romantic adventure has ended in disaster once again.Rachel, the youngest, has led a more charmed life but this time is coming home accompanied by a family struggling after the collapse of her husband's business.As family and strangers meet and collide, and a long hidden secret is exposed, they begin to discover that love and life is all about losing, yearning for and ultimately finding a place called home. By the time the holiday season draws to a close, all will realise that complications of past lives simmer just beneath the surface, a rich layer of secrets concealed from the eyes of others but keenly felt in the hearts of those to whom they belong.
Coming of the Storm: Book One Of Contact: The Battle For America (Contact: The Battle for America #3)
by W. Michael Gear Kathleen O'Neal GearDiscover the first in the epic trilogy by New York Times bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Sun Born, Morning River), which vividly recounts the devastating clash of cultures that occurs when Native Americans and Europeans make first contact.The pale, bearded newcomers who call themselves &“Kristianos&” fascinate Black Shell, an exiled Chickasaw trader, and not even the counsel of Pearl Hand, the beautiful, extraordinary woman who has consented to be his mate, can dissuade him from interacting with them. Only after a firsthand lesson in Kristiano brutality does Black Shell fully comprehend the dangers these invaders pose to his people&’s way of life.While his first instinct is to run far from the then, Black Shell has been called to a greater destiny by the Spirit Being known as Horned Serpent. With Pearl Hand by his side, Black Shell must find a way to unite the disparate tribes and settlements of his native land and overcome the merciless armies of the man called Hernando de Soto.Using archeological data, ethnographic records, and historical journals, the authors bring to vivid life the beliefs, technologies, and daily experiences of lost American civilizations.
The Complete Marriage Counselor: Relationship-Saving Advice from America's Top 50+ Couples Therapists
by Sherry Amatenstein• More couples than ever before are seeking relief from couples therapy (American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy) • Author is the Dating Doyenne for iVillage and writes the column &“Dating After 40&” for More magazine • Amatenstein has provided relationship advice for VHI, BBC, Lifetime, Inside Edition, Regis and Kelly, The Early Show, CBS News, and many other programs • Contributors are the most well-known marriage counselors in America, including: Dr. Judy Kuriansky, Dr. John Gray, Dr. John Gottman, Dr. Warren Farrell, Dr. Harville Hendrix, Dr. Ruth, and more Combining the best advice from the best counselors across the country—couples on the brink of divorce finally have the answers they need. Bringing this prestigious group of experts together for the first time, Sherry Amatenstein offers readers advice based on counseling sessions with real couples from around the country. By selecting the 101 most-asked questions after polling 50+ notable counselors in America, Sherry gets to the heart of the real problems couples are facing today. With questions about everything from sex and money to infidelity and communication, troubled couples will realize they&’re not alone while absorbing the best advice there is on the market today. Questions include: • I hate his family. What can I do to get out of seeing them so often? • Why does she always overspend? • How do I/do we get over an affair? • How can we stop being so bored? • Why does she treat me like I&’m the enemy? The ultimate resource for unhappy couples, The Complete Marriage Counselor features marriage-saving solutions that really work.
The Complete Slow Cooker Cookbook: Over 200 Delicious Easy Recipes
by Cara HobdayThis must-have guide is an invaluable companion to your slow cooker. From a mid-week supper to a more elaborate dinner party, The Complete Slow Cooker Cookbook is on-hand with dishes that can be prepared with little fuss. Containing over 200 tried-and-tested recipes, Cara shows you how to make best use of your slow cooker and create a delicious range of nutritious and healthy dishes – and with minimal preparation time in the morning, you are guaranteed to enjoy a hearty, hot dinner every evening. Choose from a light and tasty Provençale Pasta Sauce or Seafood Risotto; rustle up a winter warmer such as Chicken with Bacon, Leeks and Mustard or a creamy Lamb and Cauliflower Kashmir Curry; and impress your friends with Slow-roasted Duck and Apples followed by an indulgent Toffee and Pecan Pudding. You don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen to make a delicious meal – your slow cooker will do the hard work for you. Filled with quick, tasty, and easy-to-follow recipe ideas, this is the only slow cooker cookbook you will ever need. The cookbook also contains guidance on choosing a slow cooker according to your needs; how to care for your cooker and how to adapt cooking times and recipes for different scenarios. There is also a chapter of ideas for how to spice up a Sunday roast as well as buying advice and troubleshooting tips.
Confidence in a Minute
by Tony WrightonYou're about to discover the key to instant confidence. Offering quick-fix confidence boosts based on the principles of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), this easy-to-use, down-to-earth guide will enable you to overcome the key barriers to confidence that can affect all areas of your work and personal life, from big presentations to awkward social situations. You'll discover how to: -visualise success (rather than failure)-master body language-prepare effectively (rather than exhaustively) -harness your nerves, and much, much more. With Tony Wrighton's help you'll feel more confident in minutes, not weeks or months.
Control: (Reuben Maitland: book 4): a heart-stopping and engrossing nightmarish thriller that you won’t be able to stop reading
by John MackenFans of Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell will love this hard-hitting and riveting forensic thriller by bestselling author John Macken."Cutting -edge forensics, an all-too-human hero and a nightmarish scenario: Control is one you won't put down" - Simon Beckett"Tense and absorbing" - OBSERVER"This kept me engrossed from start to finish" -- ***** Reader review"Has everything a good crime thriller should have: killings, suspense, terror..." -- ***** Reader review********************************************************IF YOUR CHILD WAS KIDNAPPED, HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO GET THEM BACK?Two murders, days apart but clearly linked. Each victim has had the tips of their fingers removed with a hacksaw. The killer is sending a message and wants his next victim to know who they are - and be very afraid. But beside the gruesome nature of their deaths there is no obvious connection between the two victims.Reuben Maitland, freshly returned to GeneCrime, must investigate the case. The forensics come in, DNA is sampled, the clues begin to mount up.Then the killer strikes again. Reuben's young son, Joshua, is snatched from his pram. The murderer sends Reuben a message: 'Stop hunting me. I will kill again, a third and final victim and you must not stop me. Come after me and your son will die.
Couch Fiction: A Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy
by Philippa Perry'A gem' - The Evening Standard'Pure book joy. Deep thinking made digestible & doled up with lashings of wit' Bernardine Evaristo on Twitter 'So smart and interesting!' Fearne Cotton on Instagram____________________________________________________________________________Ever wanted to know what really happens in a therapist's consultation room? Bestselling author Philippa Perry (The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read) turns her keen insights to the power of therapy. This compelling study of psychotherapy in the form of a graphic novel vividly explores a year's therapy sessions as a search for understanding and truth.Beautifully illustrated by Flo Perry, author of How to Have Feminist Sex, and accompanied by succinct and illuminating footnotes, this book offers a witty and thought-provoking exploration of the therapeutic journey, considering a range of skills, insights and techniques along the way.______________________________________________________________________________'I loved it. I smiled and laughed. And nodded. One to read' Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy'(Full of) wit and good sense (...) Philippa is a tonic' Rachel Cooke, Observer
Crap Jokes: Wet Yourself Laughing with the Ultimate Joke Book
by Jonathan SwanFind laughs on the loo. This book has loads of them - over 400 pages of the best jokes in fact.What happened when the human cannonball was late for work? He got fired! See?!Enjoy this and hundreds of other feel-good jokes and one-liners.
Creating Your Own Destiny: How to Get Exactly What You Want Out of Life and Work
by Patrick SnowA motivational speaker and entrepreneur presents the ultimate ten-step road map for personal and professional success! This book is for anyone who wants more out of life. Most people want more time, money, freedom, while other seek better health, deeper love, and more sustainable happiness in life. Creating Your Own Destiny shows you how to get all these things through a simple ten-step step success road map. This book not only helps you soul-search for your true passions, but also provides simple strategies that will help you get what you ultimately what out of life. You will learn how to: -Visualize your desired future and make it your reality -Attain all your dreams while keeping family top priority -Create a winning game plan that fulfills your passions -Build wealth through home-based business ownership -Find solutions for dealing with fear and failure -Gain more time, money, freedom, health, love, happiness -Apply the ultimate success secret in life -Secure personal freedom when you create your own destiny