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The Last Chronicle of Barset
by Anthony TrollopeWhen Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart.Drawing on his own childhood experience of genteel poverty, Trollope gives a painstakingly realistic depiction of the trials of a family striving to maintain its standards at all costs. With its sensitive portrayal of the proud and self-destructive figure of Crawley, this final volume is the darkest and most complex of all the Barsetshire novels.
The Last Chronicle of Barset (The Penguin English Library)
by Anthony Trollope"He is so scandalously weak, and she is so radically vicious, that they cannot but be wrong together. The very fact that such a man should be a bishop among us is to me terribly strong evidence of evil days coming"When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart.Drawing on his own childhood experience of genteel poverty, Trollope gives a painstakingly realistic depiction of the trials of a family striving to maintain its standards at all costs. With its sensitive portrayal of the proud and self-destructive figure of Crawley, this final volume is the darkest and most complex of all the Barsetshire novels. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
The Last Comics on Earth: From the Creators of The Last Kids on Earth (Last Comics on Earth #2)
by Max Brallier Joshua PruettFrom worldwide phenomenon Max Brallier comes a spin-off series based on the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling Last Kids on Earth!Jack, June, Quint, and Dirk face their biggest challenge yet: creating the sequel to their hit graphic novel! And like all sequels, it must be BIGGER, BETTER, and PACKED WITH EVEN MORE NEAT STUFF!While the kids get to work, their superhero alter-egos make a startling discovery: supervillains do not come up with their own evil plans! The shocking truth? Every supervillain scheme comes from the mind of a single, mysterious bad guy.Now, Jack, June, Quint, and Dirk&’s BIGGEST SEQUEL IN HISTORY has our superheroes in a mad-dash, puzzle-filled race across Apocalyptia to stop the BIGGEST EVIL PLAN IN HISTORY!
The Last Concubine: The Shogun Quartet, Book 2
by Lesley DownerJapan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'. Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....
The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins: A Novel (Thomas Hawkins Ser.)
by Antonia HodgsonA lively tale of &“pitch-perfect suspense&” set in eighteenth-century England—one of Publishers Weekly&’s Top Ten Crime/Mystery Novels of the Year. Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger Award London, 1728. Tom Hawkins is headed to the gallows, accused of murder. Gentlemen don&’t hang, and Tom will be damned if he&’s the first—he is innocent, after all. It&’s hard to say when Tom&’s troubles began. He was happily living in sin with his beloved—though their neighbors weren&’t happy about that. He probably shouldn&’t have told London&’s great criminal mastermind that he was in need of adventure. Nor should he have joined the king&’s mistress in her fight against her vindictive husband. And he definitely shouldn&’t have trusted the calculating Queen Caroline. She&’s promised him a royal pardon if he holds his tongue, but there&’s nothing more silent than a hanged man. Now Tom&’s scrambling to save his life and protect those he loves. But as the noose tightens, his time is running out.
The Last Cut: A Mamur Zapt Mystery (Mamur Zapt Mysteries #11)
by Michael PearceFor millennia, Egypt has depended upon the waters of the Nile. Its annual floods fertilize the land. By the time Britain extends its dominion over Egypt, the Cairo Barrage is the key to control, its name taken from the French term meaning a dam or irrigation channel designed to increase a river's depth or to divert its flow.An attempt to blow up the Manufiyah regulator in the Barrage is not a petty matter. Gareth Owen, The Mamur Zapt, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police, is hurriedly summoned. He hasn't a clue what a regulator is. Nor can he identify the mysterious Lizard Man who seems to have a grudge against the whole Egyptian irrigation system. But he does know that the ceremonial cutting of the temporary dam thrown up each year across the mouth of the Khalig Canal restarts the whole irrigation cycle, allowing water to pour through the canal and signal the opening of dams all across the land. The cut will require policing. Especially as it is going to be the last cut before the canal is filled in.While this modernization will wipe out a health hazard, the Cairenes love the party that goes with the cut. They are less than happy with the dam. Things grow worse when a young woman's body is discovered at the site. Owen has to say it's extremely embarrassing. Is this the traditional ritual sacrifice? Or a sign of sabotage? A diversion? Or just plain murder?
A Last Dance in Liverpool
by Elizabeth MortonAll she wants is one last dance…Lily and Vincent have been dancing everything from the waltz to the foxtrot together since they were six-years-old. Now a teenager, Lily realises she has feelings for Vincent that she never knew were there. However, with Vincent off to war, Lily is evacuated to a mother and baby home with her younger siblings. It is there that she finds she has more in common with the fallen women than she once thought. But as the bombs begin to fall in Liverpool, will she ever see her sweetheart again?…A heart-warming saga for fans of Call The Midwife from the author of A Liverpool Girl.
Last Dance, Last Chance: And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files #8)
by Ann Rule&“America&’s best true-crime writer&” (Kirkus Reviews) presents an all-new collection of crime stories drawn from her private files and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences. The inspiration behind the upcoming Lifetime movie event Desperate Hours.Dr. Anthony Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western New York State suggested a highly successful career. But appearances can be deceiving—and, for the doctor&’s wife, very nearly deadly. Now, the motivations of the classic sociopath are plumbed with chilling accuracy by Ann Rule. Along with other shocking true cases, this worldwide headline-making case will have you turning pages in disbelief that a trusted medical professional could sink to the depths of greed, manipulation, and self-aggrandizement where even slow, deliberate murder is not seen for what it truly is: pure evil.
The Last Days: A memoir of faith, desire and freedom
by Ali MillarA Scotsman Book to Watch for 2022 It is 1982 and in the Kingdom Hall we are Jehovah's Witnesses. The state of the world shows us the end is close, and Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. Ali Millar is waiting for Armageddon. Born into the Jehovah's Witnesses in a town in the Scottish Borders, her childhood revolves around regular meetings in the Kingdom Hall, where she is haunted by vivid images of the Second Coming, her mind populated by the bodies that will litter the earth upon Jehovah's return. In this frightening, cloistered world Ali grows older. As she does, she starts to question the ways of the Witnesses, and their control over the most intimate aspects of her life. As she marries and has a daughter within the religion, she finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into its dark undertow, her mind tormented by one question: is it possible to escape the life you are born into? A tale of love and darkness, of faith and absolution, The Last Days is an unforgettable memoir of one woman's courageous journey to freedom.
Last Days in Old Europe: Trieste '79, Vienna '85, Prague '89
by Richard BassettSelected as a Book of the Year in the TLS and SpectatorThe final decade of the Cold War, through the eyes of a laconic and elegant observerIn 1979 Richard Bassett set out on a series of adventures and encounters in central Europe which allowed him to savour the last embers of the cosmopolitan old Hapsburg lands and gave him a ringside seat at the fall of another ancien regime, that of communist rule. From Trieste to Prague and Vienna to Warsaw, fading aristocrats, charming gangsters, fractious diplomats and glamorous informants provided him with an unexpected counterpoint to the austerities of life along the Iron Curtain, first as a professional musician and then as a foreign correspondent.The book shows us familiar events and places from unusual vantage points: dilapidated mansions and boarding-houses, train carriages and cafes, where the game of espionage between east and west is often set. There are unexpected encounters with Shirley Temple, Fitzroy Maclean, Lech Walesa and the last Empress of Austria. Bassett finds himself at the funeral of King Nicola of Montenegro in Cetinje, plays bridge with the last man alive to have been decorated by the Austrian Emperor Franz-Josef and watches the KGB representative in Prague bestowing the last rites on the Soviet empire in Europe.Music and painting, architecture and landscape, food and wine, friendship and history run through the book. The author is lucky, observant and leans romantically towards the values of an older age. He brilliantly conjures the time, the people he meets, and Mitteleuropa in one of the pivotal decades of its history.
Last Days in Plaka: A Novel
by Henriette LazaridisAn immersive and multifaceted novel—The Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Elena Ferrante—that explores the lies at the heart of an old woman&’s identity and the desperation of a young woman&’s struggle to belong.Today's Athens is a city of contradictions and complexity—it is grand and scruffy, ancient and modern, full of strivers, refugees and old-timers—and nowhere more so than the neighborhood of Plaka, where the Parthenon looms overhead and two women grapple with what is right and what is true, and how to live your life when you are running out of time. Searching for connection to her parents&’ heritage, Greek-American Anna works at an Athens gallery by day and makes street art by night. Irini is elderly and widowed, once well-to-do but now dependent on the charity of others. When the local priest brings the two women together, it&’s not long before they form an unlikely bond. Anna&’s friends can&’t understand why she spends so much time with the old woman, yet Anna becomes more and more consumed by Irini&’s tales of a glamorous past. As they join the priest&’s tiny congregation to study the Book of Revelations in preparation for a pilgrimage to Patmos, Anna sinks deeper into Irini&’s stories of an estranged daughter and lost wealth and the earthquake damage to her noble home. Looking for revelation of her own, and driven by a sense that time is running out, Anna makes a decision that puts her in peril, exposes Irini's web of lies, and compels Anna to confront the limits of her own forgiveness.
The Last Days of Socrates
by PlatoEuthyphro/Apology/Crito/Phaedo'Nothing can harm a good man either in life or after death'The trial and condemnation of Socrates on charges of heresy and corrupting young minds is a defining moment in the history of classical Athens. In tracing these events through four dialogues, Plato also developed his own philosophy of a life guided by self-responsibility. Euthyphro finds Socrates outside the court-house, debating the nature of piety, while the Apology is his robust rebuttal of the charges against him. In the Crito, awaiting execution in prison, Socrates counters the arguments of friends urging him to escape. Finally, in the Phaedo, he is shown calmly confident in the face of death.Translated by HUGH TREDENNICK and HAROLD TARRANT with an Introduction and notes by HAROLD TARRANT
The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire
by Ryan Gingeras'A tour de force of accessible scholarship' The Guardian'Impressive ... It is a complicated story that still reverberates, and Gingeras narrates it with lucid authority' New StatesmanThe Ottoman Empire had been one of the major facts in European history since the Middle Ages. Stretching from the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean, the Empire was both a great political entity and a religious one, with the Sultan ruling over the Holy Sites and, as Caliph, the successor to Mohammed.Yet the Empire's fateful decision to support Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914 doomed it to disaster, breaking it up into a series of European colonies and what emerged as an independent Saudi Arabia.Ryan Gingeras's superb new book explains how these epochal events came about and shows how much we still live in the shadow of decisions taken so long ago. Would all of the Empire fall to marauding Allied armies, or could something be saved? In such an ethnically and religiously entangled region, what would be the price paid to create a cohesive and independent new state? The story of the creation of modern Turkey is an extraordinary, bitter epic, brilliantly told here.
The Last Ditch
by K M PeytonJonathan Meredith's life is a disaster, all because of a Greek holiday and Iris, the girl who has brought his world - parents, education, society - tumbling down. So Jonathan seeks refuge with Peter, his jockey friend with ambitions to win the National. Jonathan's life quickly becomes focused on the race, and chances of a very challenging horse . . .
The Last Dragon Charmer: Villain Keeper (The Last Dragon Charmer #1)
by Laurie McKayThis first book in the Last Dragon Charmer series is packed with adventure and wit, perfect for fans of Soman Chainani's School for Good and Evil series and Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series.All his life, Prince Caden has dreamed of slaying a dragon. But before he has the chance, he is ripped from his home in the Great Winterlands of Razzon and finds himself in Asheville, North Carolina—a land with no magic and no dragons.Or so he thinks. The longer Caden spends in Asheville, the more he comes to realize that there is unexpected and dangerous magic in this strange land. There just may be dragons here too. But what if Caden's destiny isn't to slay a dragon, after all?
The Last Dragon Charmer: Realm Breaker (The Last Dragon Charmer #3)
by Laurie McKayIn this fantastical finale to the Last Dragon Charmer series, a young prince from a fantasy realm finds himself trapped in the seemingly normal world of Asheville, North Carolina—and must defeat unexpected evil in order to find his way home.Asheville goes by another name in Prince Caden’s homeland of Razzon: the Land of Shadow, a place where the most vile villains are sent to live out their days disguised as ordinary middle school teachers. But the villains are no longer content to stay trapped in Asheville. They are plotting to go home, overthrow Caden’s father the King, and take over. Caden will do anything to protect his homeland and his family. But preventing the villains from completing a mysterious four-part spell and breaking the barrier between realms is no small task. He will need the help of his brave friends—and his special gift to charm a ravenous Elderdragon. And if Caden and his friends can save his home, he might finally be able to return to it.With its perfect blend of wit, action and heart, Laurie McKay’s The Last Dragon Charmer will remind readers young and old what it truly means to be a hero, and is perfect for fans of Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil and Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories.
The Last Dragon Charmer: Quest Maker (The Last Dragon Charmer #2)
by Laurie McKayThis second book in the epic Last Dragon Charmer series is perfect for fans of Soman Chainani’s School for Good and Evil and Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories. When mysterious magic transported Prince Caden from the Greater Realm to seemingly normal Asheville, North Carolina, he was shocked to discover it was home to the most dangerous villains ever banished from his homeland. And that a great and powerful Elderdragon rules them all. Now Caden suspects that dark forces are conspiring on both sides of the magical divide between his world, and this one. The Elderdragon gives Caden a quest: uncover the dangerous plan and protect the Greater Realm from banished villains hungry for revenge. Because if they find a way home before Caden can, everyone he loves may be in danger. With its perfect blend of wit, action, and heart, Laurie McKay’s Last Dragon Charmer series will captivate readers young and old, and remind them what it truly means to be a hero.“A sometimes-amusing, sometimes-thrilling, and always entertaining sequel.” —Kirkus Reviews
The Last Dragonslayer: The Chronicles Of Kazam, Book 1 (The Chronicles of Kazam #1)
by Jasper FfordeIn the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.
The Last Enemy: The Centenary Collection (G - Reference,information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)
by Richard HillaryThe Last Enemy is the story of Richard Hillary, one of Sebastian Faulks' three 'fatal englishmen'. In this extraordinary account, the author details his experiences as a fighter pilot in the Second World War, in which he was shot down, leading to months in hospital as part of Archibald McIndoe's 'Guinea Pig Club', undergoing pioneering plastic surgery to rebuild his face and hands. The Last Enemy was first published in 1942, just seven months before Hilary's untimely death in a second crash and has gone on to be hailed as one of the classic texts of World War Two.
The Last Enemy: The Centenary Collection (The Centenary Collection)
by Richard HillaryIn 1918, the RAF was established as the world's first independent air force. To mark the 100th anniversary of its creation, Penguin are publishing the Centenary Collection, a series of six classic books highlighting the skill, heroism and esprit de corps that have characterised the Royal Air Force throughout its first century.The Last Enemy is Richard Hillary's extraordinary account of his experience as a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War. Hillary was shot down during the Battle of Britain, leading to months in hospital as part of Archibald McIndoe's 'Guinea Pig Club', undergoing pioneering plastic surgery to rebuild his face and hands. The Last Enemy was first published in 1942, just seven months before Hilary's untimely death in a second crash and has gone on to be hailed as one of the classic texts of World War II.
The Last Expedition
by R. F. ScottWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SIR RANULPH FIENNESThe Last Expedition is Captain Scott's gripping account of his expedition to the South Pole in 1910-12. It was meant to be a voyage of scientific discovery and a heroic exploration of the last unconquered wilderness. Scott's expedition, carried in the Terra Nova, pitted him and his team not only against the elements but also against the Norwegian explorer, Amundsen. Ultimately, Scott was beaten by both. The journals are full of incident and drama, courage and endurance, hope and bitter disappointment.These journals were found, along with Scott's body, several months after his death and just 11 miles from base camp and safety.
The Last Flannelled Fool: My small part in English cricket's demise and its large part in mine
by Michael SimkinsMichael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer - passionate, obsessive, technically inept, and hopelessly deluded. When an injury rules him out of an entire season, not only might it spell the end of his long career, he is faced more immediately with a summer aimlessly wandering garden centres and listening to The Archers. He decides instead to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England in search of that golden time in his youth when his passion for the game was first kindled. It's a journey that begins in May in light drizzle at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favourite ground (now a Marks & Spencer) and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith - returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd. So can cricket still bring comfort and meaning to his life or is Old Father Time about to call for Michael's bails?
The Last Gangster: My Final Confession
by Charlie RichardsonCharlie Richardson, one of Britain's most notorious gangland bosses, sheds light on his extraordinary life story completed just weeks before his death in September 2012.Notorious Charlie Richardson was the most feared gangster in 1960s London. Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.
The Last Gentleman of the SAS: A Moving Testimony from the First Allied Officer to Enter Belsen at the End of the Second World War
by John Randall M J TrowIn 1945, John Randall was the first Allied officer to enter Bergen-Belsen – the concentration camp that would reveal the horrors of the Holocaust to the world. Randall was one of that league of extraordinary gentlemen handpicked for suicidally dangerous missions behind enemy lines in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany throughout the Second World War. He was a man of his class and of his times. He hated the Germans, liked the French and was unimpressed by the Americans and the Arabs. He was an outrageous flirt, as might be expected of a man who served in Phantom alongside film stars David Niven and Hugh Williams. He played rugby with Paddy Mayne, the larger-than-life colonel of the SAS and winner of four DSOs. He pushed Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, out of an aeroplane. He wined and dined in nightclubs as part of the generation that lived for each day because they might not see another.This extraordinary true story, partly based on previously unpublished diaries, presents a different slant on that mighty war through the eyes of a restless young man eager for action and adventure.
The Last Ghost Dancer: A Novel
by Tony Bender"This is a remarkable coming-of-age story and spiritual journey with as much between the lines as in them. Sometimes wry, always thoughtful, the characters seem to live and breathe, and you won't soon forget them."—Senator Byron Dorgan The Last Ghost Dancer is more than a coming-of-age fable, more than the wry memoirs of a spiritual search. It is the story of a remarkable summer in a remarkable west river town. It is a commentary on the depth and breadth of friendships forged, of lovers lost, and the realization that it is the journey that is of importance, and not so much the destination. Looking back, as old men do, it's hard to imagine it really happened. But it did. One wise teacher, one perfect girl, one harrowing summer, can set the course of a lifetime. Meet Bones, the wry, funny, ever-observant, thoughtful and hapless narrator, a grease monkey at the only gas station in Pale Butte, whose most recent claim to fame is dropping an Edsel off the hoist. Now, some sixty years later, Bones, a dreamer of apocalyptic dreams, reflects on miracles small and large and his spiritual discovery that marked the summer of 1977.