Book Club Book Sets
Being part of a book club can greatly extend and enhance the pleasure of reading.
To find out more about library run book clubs, please use the contact below.
The many titles listed here are available in sets (usually of 12 copies) for the use of
book clubs in Doncaster
Although the majority of the sets are fiction there are some non-fiction, mostly
biographies and travelogues. These titles can be found at the end of this book list.
Notes
Notes about many of the titles are available, with others under preparation, to be
used as an aid at book club meetings. These notes include a synopsis of the
book, a selection of book reviews and some information about the author.
Proof Copies
From time to time we have the opportunity to take advantage of publishers’ offers of
free proof copies, sometimes in advance of publication, in return for some feedback
from readers - these books are added to the book club stock and clubs can try them
and supply comments to the publishers.
To Borrow Sets of Books
In order to borrow sets of books from the collection you must register your group with
the library by completing an application form. One person in the group must be
responsible for the books and be willing to collect and return them to the library.
To order your next book collection contact:
The Literacy Team
Telephone: 01302 881787
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://library.doncaster.gov.uk/web/arena
Fiction:
The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams
ISBN 9780007250875
Alexander the Great, history's most enigmatic warrior king. His fabled tomb a
wonder of the ancient world, seemingly lost forever. Then a construction crew
unknowingly rip open the mouth of an Alexandrian catacomb and trigger a
deadly race for the greatest treasure of all time.
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
ISBN 9780340935767
Twenty-seven-year-old Josey is sure of three things: winter in her North
Carolina hometown is her favourite season; she's a sorry excuse for a
Southern belle; and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet.
Josey has an uneventful life in her mother's house. . .Until she finds her
closet harbouring a tough-talking, tender-hearted woman who is one part
nemesis - and two parts fairy godmother . . .
The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
ISBN 9780552995887
Spanning four generations, Isabel Allende's family saga is populated by a
memorable, often eccentric, cast of characters. Together, men and women,
spirits, the forces of nature and of history, converge
in a brilliantly realised novel.
The Moon Field by Judith Allnatt
ISBN 9780007522941
It is 1914. George Farrell cycles through the tranquil Cumberland fells to
deliver a letter, unaware that it will change his life. George has fallen for the
rich and beautiful daughter at the Manor House, Miss Violet, but when she
lets slip the contents of the letter George is heartbroken to find that she is
already promised to another man. George escapes his heartbreak by joining
the patriotic rush to war, but his past is not so easily avoided. His rite of
passage into adulthood leaves him believing that no woman will be able to
love the man he has become.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
ISBN 9780435124090
The Republic of Gilead allows Offred only one function - to breed. If she
deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die
slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate
desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on
whom her future hangs.
The Jane Austen Collection
ISBN Various
Various classic novels including two copies of each of the following: Sense
and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey,
Persuasion and Emma
The Picture Book by Jo Baker
ISBN 9781846273827
Set against the rolling backdrop of a century of British history from WWI to
the 'War on Terror', this is an intimate family portrait captured in snapshots.
First there is William, the factory lad who loses his life in Gallipoli, then his
son Billy, a champion cyclist who survives the D-Day Landings on a military
bicycle, followed by his crippled son Will who becomes an Oxford academic
in the 1960s, and finally his daughter Billie, an artist in contemporary London.
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber
ISBN 9781444730241
On May 30th, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern
brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now Christopher
Marlowe reveals the truth: that his 'death' was an elaborate ruse to avoid
being convicted of heresy; that he was spirited across the Channel to live on
in lonely exile; that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the
name of a colourless man from Stratford - one William Shakespeare. With the
grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this remarkable novel in
verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate and mercurial.
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
ISBN 9781841958354
France, 1861. When an epidemic threatens to wipe out the silk trade in
France, Herve Joncour (a young silkworm breeder) has to travel overland to
distant Japan, out of bounds to foreigners, to smuggle out healthy silkworms.
In the course of his secret negotiations with the local baron, Joncour's
attention is arrested by the man's concubine, a girl who does not have
oriental eyes. Although they are unable to exchange so much as a word, love
blossoms between them, a love that is conveyed in a number of recondite
messages. How their secret affair develops is told in this remarkable love
story.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
ISBN 9780099564973
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and
book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in
affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious
than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for
life. Now Tony is retired. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm
divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is
imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to
prove.
The Visitors by Sally Beauman
ISBN 9780751551679
Sent abroad to Egypt in 1922 to recover from the typhoid that killed her
mother, eleven-year-old Lucy is caught up in the intrigue and excitement that
surrounds the obsessive hunt for Tutankhamun's tomb. As she struggles to
comprehend an adult world in which those closest to her are often cold and
unpredictable, Lucy longs for a friend she can love. When she meets
Frances, the daughter of an American archaeologist, her life is transformed.
As the two girls spy on the grown-ups and try to understand the truth behind
their evasions, a lifelong bond is formed.
The Adoption by Anne Berry
ISBN 9780091947057
Having fallen pregnant to a German POW, a young woman gives up her child
for adoption. Years later, after a loveless childhood, her daughter will finally
discover the secrets of her birth.
The Naming of Eliza Quinn by Carol Birch
ISBN 9781844081462
From the author of 'Turn Again Home', comes a novel
set in rural Ireland which begins with the discovery of the
bones of an infant.
The Post Mistress by Sarah Blake
ISBN 9780141046617
It is 1940, and bombs fall nightly on London. In the thick of the chaos is
young American radio reporter Frankie Bard. She huddles close to terrified
strangers in underground shelters, and later broadcasts stories about
survivors in rubble-strewn streets. But for her listeners, the war is far from
home.
Guernica by Dave Boling
ISBN 9780330460668
An extraordinary epic of love, family, and war set in the Basque town of
Guernica before, during, and after its destruction by the German Luftwaffe
during the Spanish Civil War.
The Soldier’s Return by Melvyn Bragg
ISBN 9780340751015
When Sam Richardson returns from WW2 to Wigton in Cumbria, he finds
little has changed, as far as his own limited prospects go. In his absence,
though, his young family has changed immensely, and Sam struggles to
adjust to life in peacetime.
A Whispered Name by William Broderick
ISBN 9780316731553
'To
keep quiet about something so important ...well, it's almost a lie, wouldn't
you say?' When Father Anselm meets Kate Seymour in the cemetery at
Larkwood, he is dismayed to hear her allegation. Herbert Moore had been
one of the founding fathers of the Priory, revered by all who met him, a man
who'd shaped Anselm's own vocation…
The Distant Land of my Father by Bo Caldwell
ISBN 9780099427964
Anna Schoene's father, Joseph, had been a millionaire in 1930s Shanghai.
The Japanese invasion had separated him from his family. Anna grows up in
Los Angeles and over the years begins to learn the real story of her father.
The Second Husband by Louise Candlish
ISBN 9780751539882
When her marriage to Alistair ends with his infidelity, Kate vows she will not
make the same mistake twice. Then Alistair announces that his new wife is
pregnant and he intends to cut his financial support to Kate. She has to divide
her home and make way for a lodger. Enter
Davis, a tutor with a failed marriage of his own behind him.
Palace Council by Stephen L Carter
ISBN 9780099527022
Summer, 1952. Twenty powerful men gather in secret and devise a plot to
manipulate the President of the United States. Soon after, writer Eddie
Wesley leaves a party hosted by affluent and influential members of black
society, and discovers a body. The murdered man had an unusual gold cross
gripped between his hands and Eddie is determined to find out why he was
killed…
Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
ISBN 9780007108268
Using a number of shifting perspectives - wives and husbands, friends and
lovers, masters and servants, and a gravedigger's son - this novel follows the
fortunes of two families in the first years of the 20th century.
A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
ISBN 9780552772969
Paul West, a young Englishman, arrives in Paris to set up some 'English'
tearooms and provides an account of the pleasures and perils of being a Brit
in France.
Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk
ISBN 9780571228485
Juliet is enraged at the victory of men over women in family life. Amanda is
warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework. Solly is confronting
her own buried femininity in the person of her Italian lodger. Maisie despairs
at the inevitability with which beauty is destroyed. And Christine's troubled,
hilarious spirit presides over Arlington Park and the way of life it represents.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
ISBN 9781847671691
The nameless and beautiful narrator of "The Gargoyle" is driving along a dark
road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He
crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures
of the damned. His life is over - he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just
beginning
Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean
ISBN 9780743239998
Jan has been dying for six years, bringing his unhappy marriage with
Annemieke to an end in middle age. Their sons have given them one last gift,
a holiday in the Caribbean. Dorothy and George have also been given a
holiday, by their granddaughter - their first and probably last trip overseas. In
the rain of Bexhill-on-Sea, two weeks at a beach resort seems irresistible.
Billie Morgan by Joolz Denby
ISBN 9781852428655
Billie is in her forties, running a little jewellery shop in Bradford, watching over
her godson Natty, trying to live a quiet life, trying to forget the past. Because
Billie has a lot of past to forget. She was a biker chick, lived a life that hurtled
out of control - and ended in murder.
Dead Secret by Catherine Deveney
ISBN 9781908699244
When their father dies of a sudden heart attack, sisters Rebecca and Sarah
Connaghan set aside their differences and return to the family home in
Glasgow. Then Rebecca finds letters between her father and the mother she
barely remembers that cast doubt on everything she’s been told about her
family. Reeling from confusion and grief, she sets off alone for the remote
Highlands village that may hold the key to the past.
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
ISBN 9780747570639
When Mattie is given letters by a guest at the hotel where she has a summer
job, she thinks the guest is simply upset. But when the woman is found
drowned next day, Mattie must decide whether she will read them, or burn
them as requested. A touching, funny surprising novel, set in 1906 and based
on a true story.
Room by Emma Donoghue
ISBN 9780330519021
Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They
don’t have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners.
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
ISBN 9781844080359
Set in 15th-century Florence, this is a novel of mystery, history, politics and
passion. 14-year-old Alessandra's love of art and her lively independence
lure her into a world of all sorts of taboos. She must make crucial decisions
about her life, as Florence itself must choose its future path.
St. Agnes’ Stand by Thomas Eidson
ISBN 9780140238945
Deep in the desert, an injured outlaw stumbles across the trapped survivors
of an Apache ambush: three nuns and seven orphan children. Sister St
Agnes is convinced that Nan Swanson has been sent by God to rescue them.
Candlemoth by RJ Ellory
ISBN 9780752859149
Daniel Ford has thirty-six days to live. Accused of the horrific murder of his
best friend Nathan twelve years before, he has exhausted all appeals and
now faces the long walk to the electric chair. All he can do is make peace
with his God. Father John Rousseau is the man to whom the last month of
Daniel's life has been entrusted. All the two men have left to do is rake over
the last ashes of Ford's existence.
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
ISBN 9780552999359
When Davy Land escapes from jail, his family sets off on a quest to find him.
Set in the 1960s on the edge of the Great Plains, this novel resonates with a
sense of place and vibrates with the possibility of magic in the everyday
world.
The Gathering by Anne Enright
ISBN 9780099501633
The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake
of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although
that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his
grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968.
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
ISBN 9780141189383
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski
Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different
ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and
the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel.
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
ISBN 9780099458289
London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Seven wintry days to track the
lives of seven characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the
biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from
Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a
student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a
schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and a Tube driver whose Circle
Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.
Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato
ISBN 9780312609580
Amid the intrigue and danger of 18th-century Italy, a young woman becomes
embroiled in romance and treachery with a rider in the Palio, the breathtaking
horse race set in Siena....
Eve Green by Susan Fletcher
ISBN 9780007190409
Following the loss of her mother, eight-year-old Evie is sent to a new life in
rural Wales. With a sense of being lied to she sets out to discover her family's
dark secret - unaware that there is yet more darkness to come with the
sinister disappearance of local girl Rosemary Hughes.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
ISBN 9780753827666
Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions
Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding
anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect
Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets
from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows
strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the
persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's
beautiful wife?
The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
ISBN 9781408843161
Gost is surrounded by mountains and fields of wild flowers. The summer sun
burns. The Croatian winter brings freezing winds. Beyond the boundaries of
the town an old house which has lain empty for years is showing signs of life.
One of the windows, glass darkened with dirt, today stands open, and the
lively chatter of English voices carries across the fallow fields. Laura and her
teenage children have arrived. A short distance away lies the hut of Duro
Kolak who lives alone with his two hunting dogs. As he helps Laura with
repairs to the old house, they uncover a mosaic beneath the ruined plaster
and, in the rising heat of summer, painstakingly restore it. But Gost is not all it
seems; conflicts long past still suppurate beneath the scars.
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
ISBN 9780099532446
After a lifetime's struggle with alcohol, critical neglect and depression, in 1840
the nature poet John Clare is incarcerated. The asylum, in London's Epping
Forest, is run on the reformist principles of occupational therapy. At the same
time, the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby and became entangled in
the life of the asylum. This historically accurate, intensely lyrical novel,
describes the asylum's closed world and Nature's paradise outside the walls:
Clare's dream of home, of redemption, of escape.
Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
ISBN 9780340826638
At the age of 12, under the Wind Moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a
map, and sent alone to the edge of the Cherokee Nation to run a trading post
as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as
he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home.
The Secret Place by Tana French
ISBN 9781444755589
A fallow murder investigation is resuscitated when Holly Mackey (daughter of
Frank Mackey, both last seen in Faithful Place) brings Detective Stephen
Moran (Mackey’s protege in Faithful Place) a fresh clue she’s discovered at
her posh girls’ school where the murder took place. Hoping this is his chance
to trade Cold Cases for the Dublin Murder Squad and revive his own career,
Moran finagles himself a partnership with prickly lead cop Antoinette Conway.
Together the detectives try to find the truth inside the secrets, loyalties, and
misdirection thrown their way by two rival groups of teenage schoolgirls. As in
her previous books, just when you think you’ve solved the mystery another
curious twist appears and French keeps you guessing right up until the very
end. - Seira Wilson.
Facing the Light by Adele Geras
ISBN 9780752842844
th
An extended family gathers to celebrate the 75 birthday of its formidable
matriach, Leonora, daughter of the famous Edwardian painter, Ethan Walsh.
All families have their dark side and Leonora's is no exception. During the
course of the evening two shocking past events come to light.
The Tiger Warrior by David Gibbons
ISBN 9780755354382
India. 1879. Lieutenant John Howard witnesses something so unspeakable it
changes him for ever. His subsequent disappearance is never solved.
Egypt. Present day. Marine archaeologist Jack Howard makes an
astonishing discovery on a deep-sea dive. What’s the connection? Jack
Howard doesn’t know yet. But he’s about to find out.
Spook Country by William Gibson
ISBN 9780141016719
What happens when old spies come out to play one last game? In New York
a young Cuban called Tito is passing iPods to a mysterious old man. Such
activities do not go unnoticed, however, in these early days of the War on
Terror and across the city an ex-military man named Brown is tracking Tito’s
movements.
The Last Queen by C.W Gortner
ISBN 9780340962947
One of history's most enigmatic women tells the haunting, passionate story of
her tumultuous life. Juana of Castile is just thirteen when she witnesses the
fall of Moorish Granada and uniting of the fractured kingdoms of Spain under
her warrior parents, Isabel and Fernando….
The Future Homemakers of America by Laurie Graham
ISBN 9781841153131
It is 1953. Five American Airforce wives in Norfolk are waiting for their
husbands to return. There is very little to do, so they dare to look beyond the
safety of the perimeter fence for a little excitement with the natives.
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
ISBN 9780099478478
A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeenyear-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can
escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida
Arnold. Greene's gripping thriller, exposes a world of loneliness and fear, of
life lived on the 'dangerous edge of things'.
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
ISBN 9780099506164
This sweeping account of the siege of Stalingrad gives a
panoramic view of the Soviet Union during World War Two,
revealing a totalitarian regime where the spirit of freedom that arose among
those under fire was feared by the state at least as much as were the Nazis.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
ISBN 9780340962725
When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a
passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits the Benzini
Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth a second-rate travelling circus
struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in
town after endless town.
The Humans by Matt Haig
ISBN 9780857868763
One wet Friday evening, Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University
solves the world's greatest mathematical riddle. Then he disappears. When
he is found walking naked along the motorway, Professor Martin seems
different. Besides the lack of clothes, he now finds normal life pointless. His
loving wife and teenage son seem repulsive to him. In fact, he hates
everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton. And he's a dog.
Book of Summers by Emylia Hall
ISBN 9780755390854
Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel. Inside is a letter informing her that her
long-estranged mother has died, and a scrapbook Beth has never seen
before. Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and
mementos complied by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood
summers Beth spent in rural Hungary.
The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
ISBN 9780571219292
Beginning as a humble apprentice in Morecambe Bay, Cy flees to America,
where he sets up his own tattoo business on the infamous Coney Island
boardwalk. In this carnival environment of roller-coasters and freak shows,
Cy becomes enamoured with Grace, a mysterious circus performer.
Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah
ISBN 9780340933121
Sally's secret week away turns into a nightmare when she sees a man on TV
calling himself the same person as the man she met while away. What's
going on?
Altered Land by Jules Hardy
ISBN 9780743429047
Joan is a single mother who adores her son, John. They live in the West
Country and John lives his life outdoors. On his 13th birthday they take a trip
to London. Taking a wrong turn, Joan learns the devastating repercussions of
a moment's hesitation.
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
ISBN 9780099518976
In a story which both upholds and questions rural values with a modern
sensibility, three suitors vie for the hand of the beautiful and spirited
Bathsheba Everdene. While their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba
makes, she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
ISBN 9780571238309
As she sits in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly
Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance, nearly four
decades previously, with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved
the fame she maintains he deserved. Back in 1888, the young, art-loving
Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the time of the International Exhibition. After a
chance encounter she befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a
fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious
criminal trial - the promise and certainties of this world all too rapidly
disintegrate into mystery and deception...
Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes
ISBN 9781780891484
You're alone. You're vulnerable. And you have something that someone else
wants. At any cost ... If you liked Before I Go To Sleep, you'll love this
gripping psychological thriller.
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
ISBN 9780956251572
Catherine has been enjoying single life for long enough to know a good catch
when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic and spontaneous, Lee seems
almost too perfect to be true. But there is a dark side to him and his erratic,
controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is
increasingly isolated. Driven into the darkest corner of her world, she plans a
meticulous escape. Four years later, struggling to overcome her demons,
Catherine dares to believe she might be safe from harm. Until one phone call
changes everything...
The Birthday by Julie Highmore
ISBN 9780755343027
Emily spends a few precious hours with her lover, then picks up her children
and returns to normal married life. Her brother Ben's career has crashed with
the banks, and suddenly he has nowhere to go. But they must both put on a
brave face for their mother's sixtieth birthday.
The Last to Know by Melissa Hill
ISBN 9780340953310
Eve knows what she wants. After nine good years and two kids together, it's
about time Liam made an honest woman of her. Eve's sister Sam knows
more than she should. Sam's always thought Eve was too good for Liam.
Then she learns the truth about his business trips to Australia, and her
suspicions are confirmed.
The Island by Victoria Hislop
ISBN 9780755309504
On the brink of her own life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find
out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits
to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London.
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman
ISBN 9781844081271
When Manda Frank gives birth to an astonishing 11 babies, the world
descends on her home town of Three Chimneys, Virginia. Meanwhile,
cheesemaker Margaret Prickett decides to highlight the plight of the rural
community by creating a 1235-pound cheese which she plans to parade all
the way to Washington.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
ISBN 9780747585893
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly
two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager,
Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban
take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and
fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them
to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
ISBN 9780747566533
Winter, 1975: Afghanistan, a country on the verge of an internal coup. 12
year old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father, one of the richest
merchants in Kabul. He's failed to do o through academia or brawn but the
one area they connect is the annual kite fighting tournament.
The Boy I Love by Marion Husband
ISBN 9781905170753
Set in the aftermath of World War One, war hero Paul is coming home to his
lover, Adam. However, Paul's arrival is complicated when he meets the
pregnant fiance of his dead brother - from now on, Paul's choices will have
repercussions on several lives as he unwittingly spins a tangled web of love
and betrayal.
Land Girls by Angela Huth
ISBN 9780349109930
The West Country in wartime, and the land girls are gathering on the farm of
John and Faith Lawrence. This is a story of three different women from
different backgrounds, who find themselves thrown together, sharing an attic
bedroom.
This is How by MJ Hyland
ISBN 9781847673824
When his fiance breaks off their engagement, Patrick Oxtoby leaves home
and moves into a boarding house in a remote seaside town. But in spite of
his hopes and determination to build a better life, nothing goes to plan and
Patrick is soon driven to take a desperate and chilling course of action.
Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason
ISBN 9780099532279
One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam at her
holiday cottage. At first sight, it appears like a straightforward case of suicide;
María had never recovered from the death of her mother two years previously
and she had a history of depression. But then the friend who found her body
approaches Detective Erlendur with a tape of a séance that María attended
before her death and his curiosity is aroused.
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
ISBN 9780099541288
Celebrated as a masterpiece from its first publication, A Single Man is the
story of George, an English professor in suburban California left heartbroken
after the death of his lover, Jim. With devastating clarity and humour,
Christopher Isherwood shows George's determination to carry on, evoking
the unexpected pleasures of life as well as the soul's ability to triumph over
loneliness and alienation.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN 9780571224135
Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were pupils at Hailsham - an idyllic establishment
situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly
sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special,
and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for what reason were they
really there?
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN 9780571225385
During the summer of 1956, Stevens, the aging butler of Darlington Hall
embarks on a leisurely motoring holiday that will take him deep into the heart
of the English countryside and thence into his past.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
ISBN 9780140621334
Three Men in a Boat relates the adventures and mishaps of three lateVictorian gentlemen and a dog on holiday on the Thames. In Three Men on
the Bummel the men are off on holiday again, this time reflecting the
popularity of cycling as a pastime.
A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson
ISBN 9781847392824
When Lou Winter picks up a dog-eared magazine in the dentist' waiting room
& spots an article about clearing clutter, she doesn't realise how it will change
her life…
The Yorkshire Pudding Club by Milly Johnson
ISBN 9781416525905
'The Yorkshire Pudding Club' is the story of how three women find
themselves empowered by unexpected pregnancy. How it
revitalises one
woman's tired marriage, strengthens another's belief in herself and brings
love and warmth to a cold and empty life.
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
ISBN 9780719564567
On a remote South Pacific island, threatened by uprising, Matilda and her
classmates find their lives surprisingly intertwined with those of a boy called
Pip, and a man named Mr Dickens.
Small Wars by Sadie Jones
ISBN 9780099540526
Hal Treherne is a soldier on the brink of a brilliant career. Impatient to see
action, his other commitment in life is to his beloved wife, Clara, and when
Hal is transferred to Cyprus she and their twin daughters join him. But the
island is in the heat of the emergency; the British are defending the colony
against Cypriots - schoolboys and armed guerillas alike - battling for union
with Greece.
The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones
ISBN 9780330485029
A haunting novel set in Japan which reveals a murder on its first page and
takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly – a young,
vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator. As Lucy is
interrogated by the police she reveals her past to the reader, and it is a past
which is dangerously ambiguous and compromising . . .
The Missing Persons Guide to Love by Susanna Jones
ISBN 9780330450836
Isabel, Owen and Julia were childhood friends. But when they were fifteen,
Julia disappeared without a trace – an event that had a devastating impact on
the others.
Water Lily by Susanna Jones
ISBN 9780330485838
Runa is a young Japanese high school teacher leaving the country to avoid
the scandal she has created by sleeping with one of her students. She steals
her sister’s passport and boards the ferry to Shanghai…
Meanwhile, on the last stretch of a fraught and tiring mission to find a wife, an
Englishman also boards the ferry…
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
ISBN 9780552778091
When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife
hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of
the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass,
waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To
save someone else's life.
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
ISBN 9781846275081
Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to
meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least
thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial
encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink
sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal
mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which
tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love. Perfectly constructed, funny, and
moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan and oldfashioned romance.
The Ornament Book by Dennis Kelly
ISBN 9781843863892
In the 1920s, a teen-age girl, Francesca, leaves her valley in the Italian Alps
with her widowed family for the promise of America.
Smoke Portrait by Trilby Kent
ISBN 9781846881299
Set in 1936 in Belgium and Ceylon, Smoke Portrait traces the development of
an unlikely friendship between a young Belgian teenager, Marten Kuypers,
and Glen Phayre, a young English woman in her twenties. Glen has left
England to live with her aunt, who runs a tea plantation in Ceylon and fills her
days with good works, among them the task of writing letters to a Belgian
prisoner. But the letters go astray, and are received instead by Marten, eager
to discover the wide world outside his small village, and desperately missing
his older brother Krelis, who has vanished and is presumed dead.
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
ISBN 9781472212757
Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and
her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful'
Grimké is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped
in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she
does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot
accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
ISBN 9780340952382
A girl gets lost in the woods and begins to lose hope of getting out alive. She
listens to the baseball on her Walkman, creating an imaginary friendship with
Tom Gordon. As she struggles to
survive she realises that something is watching her.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
ISBN 9780571252633
Born in the US, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico,
Harrison Shepherd is mostly a liability to his social-climbing mother, Salome.
From a coastal island jungle to the unpaved neighbourhoods of 1930s
Mexico City, his fortunes never steady as Salome finds her rich men-friends
always on the losing side of the Mexican Revolution.
The Cypress House by Michael Koryta
ISBN 9780316053693
Arlen Wagner has seen it in men before--a trace of smoke in their eyes that
promises imminent death. He is never wrong. So when he awakens on a train
one hot Florida night and sees death's telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow
passengers, he abandons the train with nineteen-year-old Paul Brickhill.
Soon the two men are stranded at the Cypress House--directly in the path of
a hurricane. But there are much deadlier threats than the storm in this place,
and Arlen's eerie gift warns that they'll never leave.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
ISBN 9780141019970
A young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles
across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the
author. Soon these and other worlds collide in 'The History of Love', a
captivating story of the power of love, of loneliness and of survival.
Edible Stories by Mark Kurlansky
ISBN 9781594484889
In these linked stories, Mark Kurlansky reveals the bond that can hold people
together, tear them apart, or make them become vegan: food. Through
muffins or hot dogs, an indigenous Alaskan fish soup, a bean curd
Thanksgiving turkey or potentially toxic crème brulee, a rotating cast of
characters learns how to honor the past, how to realize you're not in love with
someone any more, and how to forgive. These women and men meet and
eat and love, leave and drink and in the end, come together in Seattle as they
are as inextricably linked with each other as they are with the food they eat
and the wine they drink.
American Youth by Phil LaMarche
ISBN 9780340938041
Set in a New England town riven by social and ideological tensions - as
newcomers encroach on an old rural culture - this is a classic portrait of a
boy's rites of passage in an America ill at ease with itself.
The Girls by Lori Lansens
ISBN 9781844083664
The girls, Rose and Ruby Darlen, were born joined at the head in a rural
farming community in 1974. Abandoned by their frightened teenage mother,
they are adopted by the eccentric nurse who attended their birth, and her
husband, a gentle immigrant butcher.
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
ISBN 9780755300952
Martin is growing up as an only child in wartime London until Dovidl, a
refugee violinist from Warsaw, comes to stay. His arrival brings merriment
and love, mischief and menace. Blood-brothers, they roam the ruined city,
finding tragedy and triumph, sex and crime, until Dovidl disappears.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
ISBN 9780099549482
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of
Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.
Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with
exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the
Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice,
violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for
justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
The History of Us by Philip Leslie
ISBN 9781906558109
The History of Us is a beautiful exploration of love and obsession, based on
the stories of a group of friends growing up in Norfolk and told in reflection
focused on the incredibly close but conversely fractious relationship of the
two central characters. Told in three parts, The History of Us, explores the
relationships between the two and a close friend, bonded by love, but also by
a single tragic moment in their shared lives.
Small Island by Andre Levy
ISBN 9780755307494
Returning to England after the war Gilbert Joseph is treated very differently
now that he is no longer in an RAF uniform. Joined by his wife Hortense, he
rekindles a friendship with Queenie who takes in Jamaican lodgers. Can their
dreams of a better life in England overcome the prejudice they face?
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
ISBN 9780670915606
For years, Nadezhda and Vera have had as little as possible to do with each
other. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since
their mother's death their ageing father has been sliding into his second
childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life.
We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka
ISBN 9780241961834
Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's
obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs
Shapiro has decided they are related. Or so the hospital informs her when
Mrs Shapiro has an accident and names Georgie next of kin. This, however,
is not a case of a quick ward visit: Mrs Shapiro has a large rickety house full
of stinky cats that needs looking after and that a pair of estate agents seem
intent on swindling from her. Plus there are the 'Uselesses' trying to repair it
(uselessly). Then there's social worker who wants to put her in a nursing
home.
The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
ISBN 9780747579380
Having become an instant local celebrity when he discovered a giant squid
on the beach, 13 year-old Miles O'Malley now has to deal with some life
changing events which will accompany his coming of age.
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas
ISBN 9781408834947
Eighteen-year-old Celaena Sardothien is bold, daring and beautiful - the
perfect seductress and the greatest assassin her world has ever known. But
though she won the King's contest and became his champion, Celaena has
been granted neither her liberty nor the freedom to follow her heart. The
slavery of the suffocating salt mines of Endovier that scarred her past is
nothing compared to a life bound to her darkest enemy, a king whose rule is
so dark and evil it is near impossible to defy.
This Is How It Ends by Kathleen MacMahon
ISBN 9781847445469
This is when it begins Autumn, 2008. This is where it begins The coast of
Dublin. This is why it begins Bruno, an American, has come to Ireland to
search for his roots. Addie, an out-of-work architect, is recovering from
heartbreak while taking care of her infirm father. When their worlds collide,
they experience a connection unlike any they’ve previously felt, but soon their
newfound love will be tested in ways they never imagined possible. This is
how it ends…
Spa Wars by Chris Manby
ISBN 9780340937013
When Emily's life - and business - is turned around by a visit from Carina
Lees, Z-list celebrity, she can't believe her luck. With just one other member
of staff to help her out at her Essex salon, Emily is pushed for time as well as
money, and so Carina's patronage is more welcome than a sunbed session
in December.
Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell
ISBN 9780755328192
When newly single Tilly Cole impulsively quits her London job for a fresh start
in the small town of Roxborough she finds she's arrived in a hotbed of gossip,
intrigue and rampant rivalry for the most desirable men…
Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
ISBN 9781847677679
This is the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil. It is
also the story of an extraordinary journey undertaken by a man named
Henry. It begins with a mysterious parcel, and it ends in a place that will
make you think again about one of the most significant events of the
twentieth century. Once you have finished reading it, it is impossible to forget.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
ISBN 9780156027328
Pi lives in Pondicherry, India, where his father owns the city's zoo. The family
decides to immigrate to Canada, but tragedy strikes at sea. In the lifeboat are
five survivors: Pi, a hyena, a zebra, a female
orangutan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
ISBN 9780753828755
Lacey Yeager is beautiful, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the New
York art world by storm. She begins her career at Sotheby's, amidst the
winks and nods of the fabulously wealthy. But hungry for more - and pursued
by a whiff of scandal - Lacey migrates to edgy Downtown, watching Hirsts
and Warhols multiply in value before her eyes.
Life Death Prizes by Stephen May
ISBN 9781408819135
Billy's Mum is dead. He knows - because he reads about it in magazines that people die every day in ways that are more random and tragic and stupid
than hers, but for nineteen-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their
mother's death in a bungled street robbery is the most random and tragic and
stupid thing that could possibly have happened to them.
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
ISBN 9780099276586
Totally compelling and utterly convincing, Enduring Love is the story of how
an ordinary man can be driven to the brink of murder and madness by
another's delusions.
Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy
ISBN 9780719566455
Epic in its sweep, intimate in its insight and understanding, 'Liars and Saints'
follows the Santerres through half a century. Each much find their own place
not only within the family but also in an ever-changing world.
Pure by Andrew Miller
ISBN 9781444724288
Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing,
tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes
Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with
demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of
history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins
to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.
The Song of Achilles
ISBN 9781408821985
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been
exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their
differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into
young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into
something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a
cruel sea goddess. But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been
kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn
between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing
that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach
ISBN 9780099461845
'These Foolish Things' is about Dunroamin, a converted guesthouse in
Bangalore, where Sonny sets up a home for old people. Travel and set-up
are inexpensive, staff willing and plentiful - and the British pensioners can
enjoy the hot weather and mango juice with their gin.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
ISBN 9780099554790
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply
there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that
hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall, Closes at Dawn. As the sun
disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker,
as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies.
When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign
appears.
Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
ISBN 9780752893440
Meredith Martin arrives at the Domaine de la Cade as part of her research for
a biography she's writing. But Meredith soon becomes immersed in the story
of a tragic love, a missing girl, a unique deck of tarot cards, an unquiet soul
and the strange events of one cataclysmic night more than a century ago.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
ISBN 9780718157838
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are
between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The
Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend
Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing
what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle
accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small
and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to
that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a
riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for
all time.
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
ISBN 9780718157845
France, 1916. Sophie Lefevre must keep her family safe whilst her adored
husband Edouard fights at the front. When she is ordered to serve the
German officers who descend on her hotel each evening, her home becomes
riven by fierce tensions. And from the moment the new Kommandant sets
eyes on Sophie's portrait - painted by Edouard - a dangerous obsession is
born, which will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision.
Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson
ISBN 9780099453529
Extraordinarily skillfully written and almost unbearably tense, Julie Myerson's
tale of murder in a small Suffolk seaside town includes all of the features of a
murder mystery. However the book is really about the effect of the murder on
a community and how relationships begin to crumble and unravel.
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
ISBN 9780099520276
A young boy wakes to find his mother missing. Their house is empty but
outside in the garden he sees his mother's favourite scarf - wrapped around
the neck of a snowman. As Harry Hole and his team begin their investigation
they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone
missing over the years.
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
ISBN 9780099524175
When Elspeth Noblin dies she leaves her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate
Cemetery to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina Poole, on the condition that
their mother is never allowed to cross the threshold. But until the solicitor's
letter falls through the door of their suburban American home, either Julia nor
Valentina knew their aunt existed. The twins hope that in London their own,
separate, lives can finally begin but they have no idea that they've been
summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive
crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive
lover who lives below them and works in the cemetery itself.
Pratt à Manger by David Nobbs
ISBN 9780099469094
When pretty young TV researcher Nicky Proctor visits his cafe, Henry Pratt's
life changes forever. He becomes an instant star of a TV food quiz, and his
cookery books are best-sellers. But he finds himself sorely tempted by young
Nicky - and he has also incurred the wrath of a fellow celebrity chef, Bradley
Tompkins.
Between a Mother and Her Child by Elizabeth Noble
ISBN 9780718157845
France, 1916. Sophie Lefevre must keep her family safe whilst her adored
husband Edouard fights at the front. When she is ordered to serve the
German officers who descend on her hotel each evening, her home becomes
riven by fierce tensions. And from the moment the new Kommandant sets
eyes on Sophie's portrait - painted by Edouard - a dangerous obsession is
born, which will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision.
Taking Liberties by Diana Norman
ISBN 9780007105465
Set in the 18th century, this novel follows the journey of two women who
meet in the chaos of wartime Plymouth, both searching for apparently
missing people. One is a young aristocrat searching for the son of a colonial
friend; the other is a self-made woman looking for her daughter.
Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
ISBN 9780571216048
In a small Scottish parish, an English priest is stalked by the fear of scandal,
class hatred and lost ideals. As he looks back on his childhood, Father David
begins to reconsider the central events of his life, and to see what may have
happened to the political hopes of his generation.
Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor
ISBN 9780099469629
During winter 1847, the Star of the Sea sets sail from Ireland for New York.
Among the refugees are a maidservant, bankrupt Lord Merridith, an aspiring
novelist and a maker of revolutionary ballads. Each is connected more deeply
than they know. But a killer is stalking the decks, hungry for vengeance.
Star Struck by Anne-Marie O’Connor
ISBN 9780091932398
All Catherine wants to do is sing, but a TV show is about to make her a star
...Catherine Reilly is 24, single and still lives at home with her family. The
only thing Catherine's ever been any good at is singing, so when she sees a
TV ad for the latest series of ‘Star Maker’ she decides to enter.
The Wake by Jeremy Page
ISBN 9780141027722
Every night, before he cuts the engine and lets the boat drift, Guy writes the
diary of the man he should have been – of a husband with his wife and their
young daughter; of a new family that may not have been perfect but who
were, at least, together.
Starting Over by Tony Parsons
ISBN 9780007226511
This is the story of how we grow old – how we give up the dreams of youth
for something better – and how many chances we have to get it right. George
Bailey has been given the gift we all dream of – the chance to live his life
again. After suffering a heart attack at the age of 42, George is given the
heart of a 19-year-old – and suddenly everything changes…
Stones Fall by Iain Pears
ISBN 9780099516170
John Stone, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he
was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and
continents, has been found dead in mysterious circumstances. His beautiful
young widow commissions a journalist to carry out an unusual bequest in his
will but as he begins his research he soon discovers a story far more
complex than he could have ever imagined.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
ISBN 9780340935798
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever
happens - until a student enters the local high school with an arsenal of guns
and starts shooting, changing the lives of everyone inside and out.
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult
ISBN 9780340835494
Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her
widowed father Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé,
and her own search and rescue bloodhound. But as she plans her wedding,
she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall.
My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher
ISBN 9781780621869
Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has just moved to the Lake District with his
Dad and his teenage sister, Jasmine for a 'Fresh New Start'. Five years ago
his sister's twin, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb. His parents are
wrecked by their grief, Jasmine turns to piercing, pink hair and stops eating.
The family falls apart. But Jamie hasn't cried in all that time. To him Rose is
just a distant memory.
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
ISBN 9780552154246
The truth will out, or at least it's going to try to, any minute. New printing
technology means that words just won't obediently stay nailed down like
usual. They can now be taken apart and used to make other words. Which is
downright dangerous. There's a very real threat of news getting out there. Of
people finding out what's really going on…
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
ISBN 9781447219897
Pat Peoples knows that life doesn't always go according to plan, but he's
determined to get his back on track. After a stint in a psychiatric hospital, Pat
is staying with his parents and trying to live according to his new philosophy:
get fit, be nice and always look for the silver lining. Most importantly, Pat is
determined to be reconciled with his wife Nikki.
Under an English Heaven by Robert Radcliffe
ISBN 9780349115030
In 1943, the sleepy Suffolk town of Bedenham is jerked into the twentieth
century and the harsh realities of war by the arrival on its doorstep of an
American bomber base and its 3000 inhabitants.
God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin
ISBN 9780141033525
Ross Raisin tells the story of solitary young farmer, Sam Marsdyke, and his
extraordinary battle with the world. Expelled from school and cut off from the
town, mistrusted by his parents and avoided by city incomers, Marsdyke is a
loner until he meets rebellious new neighbour Josephine.
Little Gods by Anna Richards
ISBN 9780330464413
An adventure, a black comedy, a fairy tale of sorts and a romance, Little
Gods tells the story of larger-than-life Jean Clocker, whose birth challenges
the very balance of nature and whose body resists all attempts to contain it.
Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley
ISBN 9780755394364
Amity & Sorrow is a story about God, sex, and farming. It's The Lovely Bones
meets Witness: an unforgettable journey into the horrors a true believer can
inflict upon his family, and what it is like to live when the end of the world
doesn't come. In the wake of a suspicious fire, Amaranth gathers her barelyteenage daughters, Amity and Sorrow, and flees from the cult her husband
ran. After four days of driving, Amaranth crashes the car, leaving the family
stranded at a gas station. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of a
downtrodden farmer, a man who offers sanctuary when the women need it
most.
Light Behind the Window by Lucinda Riley
ISBN 9781447218425
The present: Emilie de la Martiniéres has always fought against her
aristocratic background, but after the death of her glamorous, distant mother,
she finds herself alone in the world and sole inheritor of her grand childhood
home in the south of France. An old notebook of poems leads her in search
of the mysterious and beautiful Sophia, whose tragic love affair changed the
course of her family history. As Emilie unravels the story, she too embarks on
her own journey of discovery, realising that the château may provide clues to
her own difficult past and finally unlock the future.
Inside the Whale by Jennie Rooney
ISBN 9780701183288
Stephanie Sandford, recently widowed, must tell her family the truth. But the
past is indistinct and it's complicated. First, there was her mum, who
developed an anxious streak after marrying the wrong Reg. And then there
was the young man from the dairy who gave Stevie swimming lessons before
he broke her heart.
The Son by Michael Rostain
ISBN 9780755390793
We first meet Michel eleven days after the death of his son Lion. Lion was
lost, suddenly, to a virulent strain of meningitis and it's left his father and
entire family reeling. We join Michel on his personal journey through grief, but
the twist that makes the journey truly remarkable, and tips this true story into
fiction, is the fact that we see it all through Lion's eyes.
Blood Rites by SJ Rozan
ISBN 9780091936341
Lydia Chin and Bill Smith have been hired by one of the most respected
figures in New York City's Chinatown, for what appears to be a simple task deliver a family heirloom to the young grandson of the recently deceased
business colleague of Grandfather Gao. Before they can deliver the heirloom,
the grandson is kidnapped and two separate ransom demands are made.
While the family of the kidnapped boy tries to freeze them out, Lydia and Bill
must quickly learn their way around a city where the rules are different, the
stakes are high, and the cost of failure is too dire to imagine.
Ours Are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
ISBN 9780330515818
When Imtiaz Raina leaves England for the first time, to bury his father on his
family’s land near Lahore, he exchanges his uncertain life in Sheffield for a
road that leads to the mountains of Kashmir and Afghanistan. Once back in
Yorkshire, he writes through the night to his young wife Becka and baby
daughter Noor, and tries to explain, in a story full of affection and yearning,
what has happened to him – and why he has a devastating new sense of
home.
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
ISBN 9780330450799
Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the
country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest
network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell, a
team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the
monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries are to be
dissolved.
Stabat Mater by Tiziano Scarpa
ISBN 9781846687693
The female musicians of the Instituto della Pietà play from a gallery in the
church, their faces half hidden by metal grilles. They live segregated from the
world. Cecilia, is a violinist who, during anguished, sleepless nights, writes
letters to the mother she never knew, haunted by her and hating her by turns.
She eats little and cannot sleep. But things begin to change when a new
violin teacher arrives at the institute. The astonishing music of Vivaldi, the
'Red Priest', electrifies her and changes her attitude to life, compelling her to
make a courageous choice.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
ISBN 9780330485388
A huge bestseller in America and now a major film, this is a novel about life
and death, forgiveness and vengeance, memory and forgetting. My name
was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was
murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our
neighbourhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to
him once about fertilizer.
Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See
ISBN 9780747583004
'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' is a story of two extraordinary women
surviving in a time of strict rules and ancient customs. With the eye of a
historian and the vibrancy of a true storyteller, Lisa See has written a
mesmerising novel filled with colour, fascinating detail and heartfelt drama.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
ISBN 9780752881676
'The Thirteenth Tale' is an emotional mystery in the vein of Daphne du
Maurier's 'Rebecca', about family secrets and the magic of books and
storytelling. Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield House. As she
digs deeper, Margaret discovers tragedy and secrets about her own past.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
ISBN 9780747596684
It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the
blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance,
he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their
mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence.
A Stone’s Throw by Fiona Shaw
ISBN 9781846688317
'You must choose how you live your life. And as you are my son, William, I
tell you that you, and you alone, must do the choosing. 'Like everyone, Meg
has made choices over the course of her life; for the most part, she's proud of
the decisions she made, but that doesn't mean she's not without regrets, not
haunted by questions of what might have been . . . What if her older brother
hadn't gone missing when she was just a child? What if she'd married for
love, rather than duty? What if she told her son why it matters so much that
he, unlike her, listens to his heart.
Teacher, Teacher by Jack Sheffield
ISBN 9780552155281
It's 1977 and Jack Sheffield is appointed headmaster of a small village
primary school in North Yorkshire. So begins Jack's eventful journey through
the school year and his attempts to overcome the many problems that face
him as a young and inexperienced headmaster. Warm, funny and nostalgic,
"Teacher, Teacher" is a delightful read that is guaranteed to make you feel
better.
The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud by Ben Sherwood
ISBN 9780330488907
As a boy, Charlie St Cloud narrowly survived a car crash that killed Sam, his
little brother. Years later, still unable to recover from his loss, Charlie has
taken a job tending to the lawns and monuments in the New England
cemetery where Sam is buried. When he meets Tess Carroll, a captivating,
adventurous woman in training for a solo sailing trip around the globe, they
discover a beautiful and uncommon connection that, after a violent storm at
sea, eventually forces them to choose between death and life, past and
present, holding on and letting go. The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud is
a romantic and uplifting novel about second chances and the liberating power
of love.
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
ISBN 9780349118567
The events of a December afternoon on which a father and his daughter find
an abandoned infant in the snow will forever alter 11-year-old Nicky Dillon's
understanding of the world which she is about to enter and the adults who
inhabit it.
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
ISBN 9781852424671
Who is to blame for teenage atrocity? Narrator Eva Khatchadourian's son,
Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker,
and the much-loved teacher who tried to befriend him. This novel is an
examination of the effect tragedy has on a town, a marriage and a family.
The Story of a Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
ISBN 9780099558385
On a stormy night in small-town America, a couple, desperate and soaked to
the skin, knock on a stranger's door. When Martha, a retired schoolteacher,
answers their knock, her world changes for ever. Her visitors are Lynnie and
Homan, who have fled The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded with
their newborn baby. But the police are closing in and their freedom is about to
be snatched away. Moments before she is taken back to the School, bound
and tied, Lynnie utters two words to Martha: 'Hide her.' And so begins the
heart-rending story of Lynnie, Homan, Martha and baby Julia - lives divided
by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but drawn together by a secret pact
and extraordinary love.
The Satinwood Box by Claire Smallwood
ISBN 9781909716063
In 1875, Jessica Warner, a wealthy socialite, has a passionate affair with
Theo Harcourt, son of a Lancashire mill owner. Finding herself pregnant and
bereaved of her father, she makes a drastic decision to protect her
reputation. Jessica moves to France with her son Culbert, where she raises
him in anonymity, but carefully conceals her diaries in a beautiful satinwood
box that holds her secret for future generations to come. Culbert marries but,
travelling between Paris and England, embarks on an affair with his wife's
sister, fathering children by both women. The secret is discovered and the
family torn apart. While researching their genealogy, Jessica's grandchildren
are brought together and with the discovery of the Satinwood Box , the
secrets of the family dynasty are revealed.
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
ISBN 9781844080212
This is the journal of Cassandra Mortmain. First, there is her eccentric father.
Then there is her sister, Rose - and her stepmother, Topaz. Finally, there is
Stephen, who is in love with Cassandra. Cassandra records her feelings on
all of them.
No Harm Can Come To A Good Man by James Smythe
ISBN 9780007541904
How far would you go to save your family from an invisible threat? A
terrifyingly original thriller from the author of The Machine.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
ISBN 9780141184746
This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin
shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the
importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury
of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single
match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the
first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard
manual labour and freezing cold - and participate in the struggle of men to
survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system
that defines their conditions of life.
King Crow by Michael Stewart
ISBN 9780956687609
Paul Cooper is an outsider. When he looks at people he wonders what bird
they are. He finds making friends difficult especially when he has to move
from school to school, so he obsesses about ornithology until he meets
Ashley.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
ISBN 9780141039282
Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black
maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver. There's
Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by
her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her
tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why
her beloved maid has disappeared.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
ISBN 9781853260865
During a business visit to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, a young
English solicitor finds himself at the centre of a series of horrifying incidents.
Jonathan Harker is attacked by three phantom women, observes the Count's
transformation from human to bat form, and discovers puncture wounds on
his own neck that seem to have been made by teeth. Harker returns home
upon his escape from Dracula's grim fortress, but a friend's strange malady
— involving sleepwalking, inexplicable blood loss, and mysterious throat
wounds — initiates a frantic vampire hunt.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
ISBN 9780007525492
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely
travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his
contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of
thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an
unexpected journey ‘there and back again’. They have a plot to raid the
treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous
dragon…
Frankie and Stankie by Barbara Trapido
ISBN 9780747568148
Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in South Africa in the fifties. It is at
school that Dinah first learns about racism. As we follow Dinah from
childhood, through adolescence and marriage, to voluntary exile in London,
we get a vivid glimpse of one of the darker passages of 20th century history.
River Run Deep by Rachael Treasure
ISBN 9781848090859
After an argument with her father over their family property,
Rebecca climbs into her ute and heads north with her sheepdogs. It's only
when tragedy shatters her world that Rebecca finds strength and courage
she never knew she had, in this action-packed novel of adventure, dreams,
heartbreak and love.
The Colour by Rose Tremain
ISBN 9780099425151
The Colour' is a sweeping saga of sacrifice and greed set during the midnineteenth century gold rush in New Zealand.
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
ISBN 9780099478461
Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to
eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter. He struggles with
the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the
London scene. We see the road Lev travels through his eyes, and we share
his dilemmas.
Trespass by Rose Tremain
ISBN 9780099478454
In a silent valley in southern France stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the
Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic haunted by his violent
past. His sister, Audrun, alone in her bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel,
dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted
her life. Into this closed world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but
disillusioned antiques dealer from London seeking to remake his life in
France. From the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and
unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion...
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
ISBN 9780743462266
From the bestselling author of the 'Big Stone Gap' series, comes the
explosive story of a passionate young woman whose fateful choice changes
her life forever.
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
ISBN 9780099499398
Dealing with themes such as belonging, pride, prejudice and love, this is the
story of two extended families who are brought together thanks to the arrival
of two tiny adopted Korean babies on the same night.
The Herring in the Library by LC Tyler
ISBN 9780330472142
When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure
crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking
forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half
way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study.
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
ISBN 9780099443636
My brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the
twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths in
the thick air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. Bound by birth, we were
driven apart by bitter betrayal. No surgeon can heal the would that divides
two brothers. Where silk and steel fail, story must succeed. To begin at the
beginning...
Pilgrim State by Jacqueline Walker
ISBN 9780340960783
'Pilgrim State' is the story of generations of strong women, a fictionalised
autobiography, spanning a period from the 1940s to the present day. It
follows a family's migration from Jamaica, via the USA and Canada, to
Britain. At the heart is the story of Dorothy, a mother of four who would do
anything to keep her family together.
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
ISBN 9780552164139
Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?
Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten
overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.
Welcome to Christine's life.
Dockside at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs
ISBN 9781848450899
With her daughter grown-up and flown from the nest, Nina Romano is ready
to embark on a new adventure. As a young single Mum there were things
she’d given up – no postponed! – and this is Nina’s time to start again, chase
new dreams and find herself or at least a new self…! But just as she she’s
beginning to enjoy being on her own, Nina meets Greg Bellamy, owner of the
charming Inn at Willow Lake. Greg’s struggling being a single dad, his
teenage daughter is pregnant and he can’t figure out how to fix things. Nina
finds herself stepping in to help. Perhaps Nina’s new life will include a new
love?
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson
ISBN 9780575075467
The unsettling dreams begin for small-town reporter Will Barbee not long
after he first meets the mysterious and beautiful April Bell. They are vivid,
powerful and deeply disturbing nightmares in which he commits atrocious
acts. And, one by one, his friends are meeting violent deaths.
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
ISBN 9781471123764
If life were fair, Jam Gallahue would still be at home in New Jersey with her
sweet British boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She’d be watching old comedy
sketches with him. She’d be kissing him in the library stacks. She certainly
wouldn’t be at The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school in rural
Vermont, living with a weird roommate, and signed up for an exclusive,
mysterious class called Special Topics in English. But life isn’t fair, and
Reeve Maxfield is dead. Until a journal-writing assignment leads Jam to
Belzhar, where the untainted past is restored, and Jam can feel Reeve’s
arms around her once again. But there are hidden truths on Jam’s path to
reclaim her loss.
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
ISBN 9780099535836
Frank and Leon are two men from different times, discovering that sometimes
all you learn from your parents' mistakes is how to make different ones of
your own. Frank is trying to escape his troubled past by running away to his
family's beach shack. As he struggles to make friends with his neighbors and
their precocious young daughter, Sal, he discovers the community has fresh
wounds of its own. A girl is missing, and when Sal too disappears, suspicion
falls on Frank. Decades earlier, Leon tries to hold together his family's cake
shop as their suburban life crumbles in the aftermath of the Korean War.
When war breaks out again, Leon must go from sculpting sugar figurines to
killing young men as a conscript in the Vietnam War.
My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young
ISBN 9780007361441
While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and
their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and
Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle,
eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare
for her beloved husband’s return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the
war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make
promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And
Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost
all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead?
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon
ISBN 9780753820254
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books',
a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of
print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold
morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and
pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax.
The Never List by Koethi Zan
ISBN 9781846556562
There were four of us down there for the first thirty-two months and eleven
days of our captivity. And then, very suddenly and without warning, there
were three. Even though the fourth person hadn't made any noise at all in
several months, the room got very quiet when she was gone. For a long time
after that, we sat in silence, in the dark, each of us wondering what this
meant for her and for us, and which of us would be the next in the box.
The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi
ISBN 9780747592754
When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek
island, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident. Then a
stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to
investigate further.
The Taint of Midas by Anne Zouroudi
ISBN 9780747596165
For over half a century the beautiful Temple of Apollo has been in the care of
the old beekeeper Gabrilis. But when the value of the land soars he is forced
to sign away his interests - and hours later he meets a violent, lonely death.
When Hermes Diaktoros finds his friend's battered body by a dusty roadside,
the police quickly make him the prime suspect. But with rapacious developers
threatening Arcadia's most ancient sites, there are many who stand to gain
from Gabrilis's death. Our investigator resolves to avenge his old friend and
find the true culprit, but his methods are, as ever, unorthodox
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
ISBN 9780552773898
Here is a small fact - you are going to die. 1939. Nazi Germany. The country
is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl,
is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken
away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the
story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
Non-Fiction:
Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey
ISBN 9780141019239
Situated in Rotherham, Yorkshire, surrounded by 70 collieries
employing tens of thousands of men, is Wentworth, the finest and
largest Georgian house in Britain. This volume tells the story of its
demise. It is the story of how the fabric of English society shifted beyond
recognition in 50 turbulent years in the 20th century.
The Farm by Richard Benson
ISBN 9780141012940
The Story of One Family and the English Countryside. Richard Benson
was never cut out for life on the family farm, yet when his father chose
to sell up he decided to return to Yorkshire. This is his account of being
outwitted by even the dimmest of animals whilst trying to make ends
meet.
Train and Buttered Toast by John Betjeman
ISBN 9780719561276
Eccentric, sentimental and homespun, John Betjeman's passions were
mostly self-taught. He saw his country being devastated by war and
progress and he waged a private war to save it. His only weapons were
words - the poetry for which he is best known and, even more
influential, the radio talks that first made him a phenomenon. From
fervent pleas for provincial preservation to humoresques on eccentric
vicars and his own personal demons, Betjeman's talks combined wit,
nostalgia and criticism in a way that touched the soul of his listeners
from the 1930s to the 1950s. Now collected in book form for the first
time, his broadcasts represent one of the most compelling archives of
twentieth-century broadcasting, reawakening the modern reader to
Betjeman's unique perspective and the compelling magic of the golden
age of wireless.
She Wolves: Women Who Ruled England by Helen Castor
ISBN 9780571237067
When Edward VI - Henry VIII's longed-for son - died in 1553,
extraordinarily, there was no one left to claim the title King of England.
For the first time, all the contenders for the crown were female. In 1553,
England was about to experience the 'monstrous regiment' - the
unnatural rule - of a woman. But female rule in England also had a past.
Four hundred years before Edward's death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I
and granddaughter of William the Conquerer, came tantalisingly close to
securing her hold on the power of the crown.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chau
ISBN 9781408822074
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a story about a mother, two
daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese
parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's
about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you
can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old.
Round the Bend by Jeremy Clarkson
ISBN 9780241956953
Jeremy Clarkson gets really riled in Round the Bend. What's it like to
drive a car that's actively trying to kill you? This and many other burning
questions trouble Jeremy Clarkson as he sets out to explore the world
from the safety of four wheels. Avoiding the legions of power-crazed
traffic wombles attempting to block highway and byway, he he.
It’s A Long Way From Penny Apples by Bill Cullen
ISBN 9780340826539
Born and bred in the inner city slums of Summerhill in Dublin, Bill Cullen
was one of 14 children. A street seller from the age of six, Bill left school
at 13 to make a living. Getting a job in a Ford car dealership, he
progressed to eventually head a company with a turnover of over 250
million.
Ghosts By Daylight by Janine Di Giovanni
ISBN 9781408822319
Janine and Bruno first fell in love as young reporters in the besieged city
of Sarajevo. Years later - after endless phone calls, much of what the
French call malentendu, secret trysts in foreign cities, numerous breakups, three miscarriages, countless stories of rebel armies and a dozen
wars that had passed between them - they arrive in Paris one rainy
January to begin a new life together.
Things the Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Everett
ISBN 9780349120843
How does one young man survive the deaths of his entire family and
manage to make something worthwhile of his life? In Things The
Grandchildren Should Know Mark Oliver Everett tells the story of what
it's like to grow up the insecure son of a genius in a wacky Virginia Ice
Storm-like family.
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
ISBN 9780143120537
An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking
with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his
memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on
cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and
venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding
of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to
deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of
journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the
sum of our memories.
Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
ISBN 9780753813058
This biography examines Marie-Antoinette's influence over the king, the
accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the
arts, her imprisonment, the death threats, rumours of lesbian affairs,
and her trial.
The Sun Hasn’t Fallen From the Sky by Alison Gangel
ISBN 9781408822050
Seven-year-old Ailsa Dunn's Ma is prettier than all the other mothers,
her Da is the most handsome man in the world. They're made for each
other... But the grown-up world is more complicated than that, and when
alcohol intrudes, violence becomes the norm and unpredictability reigns
- and the ground shifts beneath Ailsa's small feet.
David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
ISBN 9780241959596
David and Goliath is the dazzling and provocative new book from
Malcolm Gladwell, no.1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink,
Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Why do underdogs succeed so much
more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong? In David
and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell takes us on a scintillating and surprising
journey through the hidden dynamics that shape the balance of power
between the small and the mighty.
Marley and Me by John Grogan
ISBN 9780340922101
John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young
and in love. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow fur ball of
a puppy. This is the heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in
the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what
really matters in life.
A Handful of Honey by Annie Hawes
ISBN 9780330457224
Aiming to track down a small oasis town deep in the Sahara, some of
whose generous inhabitants came to her rescue on a black day in her
adolescence, Annie Hawes leaves her home in the olive groves of Italy
and sets off along the south coast of the Mediterranean.
The Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey
ISBN 9780141039268
Patrick Hennessey is pretty much like any other member of Generation
X: he spent the first half of the noughties reading books at university,
going out, listening to early-90s house on his iPod and watching war
films. He also, as an officer in the Grenadier guards, fought in some of
the most violent combat the British army has seen in decades. Telling
the story of how a modern soldier is made, from the testosterone-heavy
breeding ground of Sandhurst to the nightmare of Iraq and Afghanistan,
The Junior Officers' Reading Club is already being hailed as a modern
classic.
Now All Roads Lead to France by Matthew Hollis
ISBN 9780571245994
Edward Thomas was perhaps the most beguiling and influential of First
World War poets. Now All Roads Lead to France is an account of his
final five years, centred on his extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost
and Thomas's fatal decision to fight in the war. The book also evokes an
astonishingly creative moment in English literature, when London was a
battleground for new, ambitious kinds of writing. A generation that
included W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost and Rupert Brooke
were 'making it new' - vehemently and pugnaciously.
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
ISBN 9780141031514
In the closed world of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints,
Carolyn Jessop was forced to obey her controlling husband’s every
demand. She had no money, no power and existed as one of six wives
battling for her husband’s attention. For seventeen years Carolyn
suffered for the sake of her children. She tried to protect them as the
cult’s new leader, Warren Jeffs, started marrying girls off younger and
younger. But when Carolyn discovered that her twelve-year-old
daughter had spent three days at Jeffs’ home, she knew she had to do
everything in her power to take her children and flee. At 35 Carolyn
escaped. This is her harrowing - and ultimately triumphant - story
Triumph by Carloyn Jessop
ISBN 9780141047058
At the age of 18, Carolyn Jessop was forced to marry a 50-year-old
stranger and religious cult member. She became one of six wives and
bore him eight children in 15 years. When the cult started preaching
death and destruction, she knew she and her children had to escape.
Red Sky at Sunrise by Laurie Lee
ISBN 9780140172850
Beginning with ‘Cider with Rosie’, Laurie Lee writes evocatively of his
idyllic childhood in the Cotswolds of the twenties, a world of rich
sensuousness and native innocence. ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer
Morning’ picks up the story as he leaves his valley for London and then
for Spain. There, equipped only with a violin and his wits, he crossed
the dramatic landscape of a vibrant and still almost medieval Spain for
which he developed an abiding affection. In the winter of 1937 he
returned to a country now in the grip of Civil War and joined the
International Brigade, describing in ‘A Moment of War’ his journey into
the dark side of Spain with unsparing honesty and poignancy.
Rebel Girls by Jill Liddington
ISBN 9781844081684
Rejecting the deadening conventions of their Victorian elders, the rebel
girls demanded new freedoms and new rights. They took their suffrage
message out to the remotest Yorkshire dales and fishing harbours, to
win Edwardian hearts and minds. 16-year-old Huddersfield weaver Dora
Thewlis on arrest was catapulted onto the tabloid front-pages as 'Baby
Suffragette'. Her life was transformed. Dancer Lilian Lenton waited till
her twenty-first birthday - then determined to burn two buildings a week
until the Liberal government granted women the vote. Rebel Girls shows
how this daring campaigning shifted from community suffragettes to
militant mavericks.
Story by Deric Longden
ISBN 9780552139441
In 1971 Deric Longden's wife Diana fell ill with the mysterious disorder
known as ME. Deric, devoting more and more time to looking after
Diana, he became house husband, nurse and caretaker of the woman
he loved. This is their story.
Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie
ISBN 9780091910235
A Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the
North, attempting to discover where the cliches end and the truth
begins.
Fat, 40 and Fired by Nigel Marsh
ISBN 9781449423377
As he approaches forty, Nigel Marsh is in a seemingly enviable position
in life: he has just moved from the UK to Sydney and he runs the
Australian office of a leading advertising agency. Unfortunately, he is
also stressed, overweight and struggling to balance a career, a
marriage and the demands of four small children. However, Nigel’s
adventure really begins when he loses his job…
Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
ISBN 9780007200375
'Stuart' is the story of an extraordinary friendship between a reclusive
writer and illustrator and a chaotic, knife-wielding beggar whom he gets
to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
Vroom With A View by Peter Moore
ISBN 9780593052785
372 From picnicking in the Italian alps to exploring tumbledown seaside
villages, gate-crashing Frances Mayes' villa and re-enacting Roman
Holiday, this is Peter Moore's travel adventur
Slave by Mende Nazar
ISBN 9781844081141
Mende Nazer tells the horrifying story of her kidnap, at age 12, from an
idyllic life with her family in a small village in Sudan, to be sold into
slavery. Trafficked to Europe and the London home of a Sudanese
diplomat, Mende escaped - only to find she had to fight for asylum in a
supposedly free country.
Catching Fireflies by Tony Rocca
ISBN 9780099469339
Following an extended bout of hard city life, Tony Rocca and his wife,
Mira, decided to invest in an Italian hotel. When it became clear that
alternative avenues would have to be explored to increase their income,
Tony was persuaded to use the vines that had been part of the
purchase. This is their story.
Traversa by Fran Sandham
ISBN 9780715637678
Inspired by the great explorers, Fran Sandham left the daily grind of
London to undertake an extraordinary adventure. 'Traversa' is the funny
and engaging story of his epic 3,000-mile walk across an entire
continent.
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
ISBN 9781844080472
In the spring of 2002, journalist Asne Seierstad went to Afghanistan to
live with a family for several months. Here she reveals her experiences,
telling the story of Sultan Khan - who defied the authorities for 20 years
to supply books to the people of Kabul - and his family.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
ISBN 9780330533447
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a
poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells -- taken without her
knowledge -- became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most
important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her
'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with
devastating consequences . . . Balancing the beauty and drama of
scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our
bodies are made of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an
extraordinary journey in search of the soul and story of a real woman,
whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world.
Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger by Nigel Slater (non fiction)
ISBN 9781841154718
This is Nigel Slater's truly extraordinary story of his childhood
remembered through food. Nigel's likes and dislikes, aversions and
sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating and often amusing
backdrop to this incredibly moving and evocative memoir of childhood,
adolescence and sexual awakening.
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
ISBN 9780747596486
In the village of Road in Wiltshire during the summer of 1860, a family
awakes to discover that a gruesome murder has taken place in their
home. The guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of
Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, has the
unenviable task of conducting the investigation
BFI Film Classics Collection (Various)
ISBN (Various)
A series of non-fiction books about film classics including Blade Runner,
Citizen Kane, Vertigo and Don’t Look Now.