A Point of View

The BBC Radio 4 series, A Point of View, has been on the air since 2007. Over the years, it's had a variety of presenters – including the national treasure that is Clive James – talking for ten minutes about anything and everything that has captured their imagination, piqued their interest, raised their blood pressure or just downright incensed them that week. Of all the presenters, Clive James was a clear favourite, and now, for the first time, his original pieces – sixty in total – and all new postscripts are collected together in one volume. Read along with Clive as he reflects on everything from wheelie bins to plastic surgery, Elizabeth Hurley to the Olympics, 24 to Damien Hirst, Harry Potter to giving up smoking, car parks to Chinese elections, Britain's Got Talent to the expenses scandal – and plenty more besides.
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Secret Histories 10: Dr. DOA

From the New York Times bestselling author of From a Drood to a Kill comes the next Secret Histories adventure... The name is Drood, Eddie Drood, also known as Shaman Bond. My family has been safeguarding humanity for generations, facing the hidden horrors of the world so you can sleep at night and remain oblivious to the existence of the monstrous nightmares that walk and stalk among us. Speaking of predatory night terrors, there is a man who gets away with murder. A man who specializes in removing the problems from other people’s lives, by killing the people who cause those problems. He operates from the darkest shadows of the hidden world, coming and going unseen. No-one knows who he is, just his nomme du muerte. Dr. DOA. Somehow, this demented doc poisoned me. I don’t know how he did it, when or where, but whatever is coursing through my veins seems to be immune to magic cures and treatments. But that’s not going to stop me from finding him and whoever hired him and give them both a taste of their own medicine... ** Review Praise for the series “A literary love letter to the spy thrillers of the ’60s mashed up with every sort of paranormal weirdness under the sun.”—SF Revu “A hard-boiled, fast-talking, druidic James Bond who wields ancient magic instead of a gun...a witty fantasy adventure.”—Library Journal “I love going on adventures with Eddie Drood...Simon R. Green takes the superhero/spy tropes and turns them upside down.”—Fresh Fiction About the Author Simon R. Green is the New York Times bestselling author of the Secret Histories Novels, the Novels of the Nightside, the Ghost Finders series, and the Deathstalker series.
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Deadly Flowers

Kata, a ninja, embarks on her first solo mission to enter a warlord’s castle and make sure that a certain sleeping occupant never awakens. When Kata discovers that her target is a young boy and that her new accomplice is that boy’s slightly older sister, she suddenly realizes her mission is much more complicated than she thought. Faced with taking someone’s life or confronting the dire consequences of failure, Kata must make a hard choice, one that leads her into a more dangerous battle than she ever expected. In this coming-of-age novel, Kata discovers that while a ninja must always act alone, humanity requires accepting the trust and friendship of others.
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Unwifeable

From the popular, "fresh, funny, and highly readable" (Bustle) dating columnist for New York magazine and the New York Post comes a whirlwind memoir recounting countless failed romances and blackout nights, told with Mandy Stadtmiller's unflinching candor and brilliant wit.My story is not standalone. Single girl comes to New York; New York eats her alive. But what does stand out is my discovery that you can essentially live a life that appears to be a textbook manual for everything one can do wrong to find love—and still find Mr. Right. Mandy Stadtmiller came to Manhattan in 2005, newly divorced, thirty years old, with a job at the New York Post, ready to conquer the city and the industry in one fell swoop. Like a "real-life Carrie Bradshaw" (so called by Jenny McCarthy!), she proceeded to chronicle her fearless attempts for nearly a decade in the Post, New York magazine, and xoJane. But there was...
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Dragon's Egg

It is a rare talent, and only she can care for the Inn's herd. She feeds them, gathers their eggs, and tends to their injuries. But Mella dreams about the dragons of legend, even though hardly anyone believes they still exist. Dragons are small farm animals, not huge fire-breathing monsters. Everyone knows that.Until one day changes everything.A Knight of the Order of Defenders arrives at the Inn. Signs of the mythical dragons have led him there, he says. Then a simple errand takes Mella through the forest, where she stumbles across a dragon's egg—and faces the true, terrifying dragon guarding it. On the spot, Mella vows to get the egg safely to the fabled Hatching Grounds. She must leave her home for the first time, and she finds an unlikely companion in the Defender's squire, Roger.For Mella and Roger, this one day is the beginning of an adventure. Where will it take them?
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Latest Readings

In 2010, Clive James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Deciding that "if you don't know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do," James moved his library to his house in Cambridge, where he would "live, read, and perhaps even write." James is the award-winning author of dozens of works of literary criticism, poetry, and history, and this volume contains his reflections on what may well be his last reading list. A look at some of James's old favorites as well as some of his recent discoveries, this book also offers a revealing look at the author himself, sharing his evocative musings on literature and family, and on living and dying.As thoughtful and erudite as the works of Alberto Manguel, and as moving and inspiring as Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture and Will Schwalbe's The End of Your Life Book Club, this valediction to James's lifelong engagement with the written word is a captivating valentine from one of the...
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