Combining travel to remote islands and shores with brilliant literary detective work, Seeking Robinson Crusoe is a tale of adventure and discovery and is a fantastic journey into myth and history.Who was the real Robinson Crusoe? In search of the world's most famous castaway Tim Severin travels where men were shipwrecked or abandoned in the days of the pirates and buccaneers... and lived to tell their tales of survival.A Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk, has long been considered as the real life inspiration for Crusoe. So Severin begins his quest on the islands of Juan Fernandez 400 miles off the coast of Chile where Selkirk was marooned for four years.Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, also knew the extraordinary survival tale of an English buccaneer surgeon, Lionel Wafer, wounded in a pirate raid and abandoned in the jungle of Panama. So Severin goes to meet the Indian tribe, the Kuna, who rescued him. Carrying on his journey he finally takes a 100 year old sailing... Views: 36
"Caroline knows best."Caroline's mother ran away from her father when Caroline was four years old, and her father and stepmother died fifteen years later, leaving her with a young step-brother and two young step-sisters to bring up. Orphaned, and in the care of their eldest sister, the three children grow up in a world where one thing is true: "Caroline knows best."The children adore her, but as they grow up and spread their wings, tension creeps into formerly happy relationships as Caroline cannot bear to relinquish her hold on them. Having sacrificed her own life for the children, to whom she is practically a mother, Caroline values loyalty above all else; but when she invites a guest into her home, she is not prepared for the resulting shift in allegiances in her long-established realm.First published in 1936, Caroline offers a nuanced study of family relationships, of women trapped by duty and respectability, and how good intentions... Views: 36
Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Call to Treason is yet another gripping addition to the bestselling series masterminded by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. The Op-Center's budget is slashed, leaving General Mike Rodgers in the market for a new job. When presidential candidiate Senator Donald Orr recruits Rodgers to act as his military advisor, it sounds like a perfect transition. There's just one problem. A spree of deaths may be tied to Orr's presidential run and Rodgers must decide whether to sign on or shut it down. Views: 36
"Readers who are looking for a real story of supernatural redemption will appreciate this book, hard edges and all." -Portland Book ReviewA fresh new voice in supernatural fiction, Varian Wolf pays homage to the genre without succumbing to its stereotypes. Her debut novel is as hilarious as it is thoughtful, as intense as it is irreverent. Annie of the Undead is a powerful opener to an edgy new series."Angry" Annie Eastwood is a hard-knock boxer who's spent more time behind bars than inside the ropes, but it turns out that is exactly the kind of girl Vampire Miguel needs. When he plucks her off the frigid streets of wintery Detroit and whisks her away to steamy old New Orleans, not even the fearsome undead prowling the city's streets are ready for her.Hunted by witches, Miguel takes Annie on the run. They hole up in –of all places, a bed and breakfast with a blue FEMA tarp on its roof and a man who regularly runs naked up and down the street. Despite her... Views: 36
You didn't make an Adapted Man with just a wave of the wand. It involved an elaborate constellation of techniques, known collectively as pantropy, that changed the human pattern in a man's shape and chemistry before he was born. And the pantropists didn't stop there. Education, thoughts, ancestors and the world itself were changed, because the Adapted Men were produced to live and thrive in the alien environments found only in space. They were crucial to a daring plan to colonize the universe. Views: 36
Since the Victorian era, London's Underground has had played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. In The Subterranean Railway, Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the nineteenth-century pioneers who made the world's first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground's contribution to twentieth-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with its sleek, driverless trains and the wrangles over the future of the system. The Subterranean Railway reveals London's hidden wonder in all its glory and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today. Views: 36
Maxine's parents have had to do perhaps the worst possible thing: confirm the identity of her brother Derek's body by the clothes he was wearing when he disappeared. So the brother who was missing is now officially dead. But then the worst possible thing really happens: Maxine receives a telephone call from somebody saying he is her brother. She can hardly believe her ears. Has Derek come back from the dead? In this pacy thriller the author manages to confront many issues including: how different people deal with grief/the very under-rated effect of severe bullying at school/sibling rivalry - all in a fast-paced compelling narrative voice. A tense thriller that really picks up pace as Roxy's brother apparently comes back from the dead Cathy MacPhail won the Kathleen Fidler Award with her first novel, Run Zan Run, the Scottish Arts Council Award with her second novel Fighting Back, and a Royal Mail award for Roxy's Baby. Cathy MacPhail's work is enormously popular with young... Views: 36
Life is suddenly looking up for William Wooding. Thirty-five, overweight, sedately employed and unhappily married, he is given the chance to escape to a new life in South America.There he runs the English Bookshop and discovers a different kind of existence: anarchic staff, a beautiful prostitute called Theresa, intrigue at Maria's Tango Club (the local house of pleasure) and a country heading for a bloody coup. Wooding discovers that the country's young president is an old school friend and as a consequence finds himself recruited by the mysterious Mr Box of British Intelligence to investigate what is going on...Tango is a hugely enjoyable mixture of sexual escapades, revolutionary politics, and intelligence-gathering in exotic landscapes. It confirms Alan Judd as the contemporary successor to Evelyn Waugh.'Very entertaining...it makes you want to turn the pages. No mean achievement' Sunday Telegraph'Well-constructed, witty and at times moving' Independent'An... Views: 36
Brian's Choice is an e-only novella prequel to the brand-new Plain and Simple Miracles collection from popular author Vannetta Chapman (A Promise for Miriam). These stories of love and family and Amish community in Oklahoma tell of the miracles that can happen when lives are lived in service to God and to one another.Brian Walker has it all—a trust fund, the job of his dreams, and a beautiful woman at his side. But all of that changes in one tragic moment. Six months later he finds himself in the small town of Cody's Creek, Oklahoma, and eventually becomes a member of the Amish community located there.Brian feels God's hand directing his path, and he begins to hope that perhaps his past is behind him for good. However, nothing prepares him for the day his bishop asks him a question.Brian's choice changes everything.A story about the miracle of faith, the solace of love, and our ability to forgive and be forgiven. Views: 36
King Henri of Bavars has a problem. When his wife, Queen Fairlight Summer Willow, died in childbirth, he promised to remarry only a woman who looked just like her. Many years later, Marquisa, a fairy related to his late wife, shows up and demands he keep his promise…by marrying her. Henri's problem is compounded by his intense feelings for another fairy, Fairlight Winter Violet Frost. Violet has spent the last 18 years raising Henri's orphan daughter, Princess Water Lily. She has managed to hide her feelings for him, knowing he was in mourning all those years for his lost wife. Now Henri must choose. He must either honor his late wife's dying wish, or follow his heart, the one leading him to Violet. Views: 36
