When Archie goes in search of his missing son, Arden, in the Spanish Canary Islands, he stumbles upon a higher mission: to save his ailing fourteen-year-old granddaughter, Ella. Using a portal-jumping device called the Tillastrion, Archie and a strange creature, a Bangol named Zeno, are transported—along with a cruise ship full of people, including Ella and her mother, Tessa—to a magnificent yet terrifying island in another realm, a place called Jarr-Wya, where Archie hopes to locate Ella's cure. On Jarr-Wya, the Bangols battle the Olearons—creatures made of fire—and the evil Millia sands for control of Jarr-Wya. When Ella is captured by the Bangols, her wit and resourcefulness emerge as she fights against all odds, and against all manner of creatures, to survive. Meanwhile, Tessa, must confront her long-buried secrets, broken marriage, and a confusing new love triangle, all while navigating the mysterious island in search of her daughter. And unbeknownst... Views: 30
Anna Quindlen first visited London from a chair in her suburban Philadelphia home--in one of her beloved childhood mystery novels. She has been back to London countless times since, through the pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, she takes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literary cities.While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed in fiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been the star, both because of the primacy of English literature and the specificity of city descriptions. She bases her view of the city on her own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of her favorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh's bright young things danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with the dastardly Wickham.In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, moving within blocks from the great books of the 19th century to the detective novels of the 20th to the new modernist... Views: 30
As soon as Adam Kay set foot on a hospital ward for the first time, he realized there's quite a lot they don't teach you at medical school . . .His diaries from the NHS front line - scribbled in secret after long nights, endless days and missed weekends -are hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking by turns. This Is Going to Hurt is everything you wanted to know about being a junior doctor, and more than a few things you really didn't.And yes, it may leave a scar. Views: 30
Arctic Norway freezes Leda’s social life until she meets Roar, a smoking hot guy with tattoos and secrets. Roar shouldn’t be drawn to Leda, but then he discovers a secret of her own. She’s the weapon that can save his planet. She just doesn’t know it yet. Views: 29
A city torn apart by war. A family torn apart by tragedy At the top of Lester Road in London's East End stands 'Paddy's Castle', the three-storey, red-bricked Georgian house that is home to Grace Donnelly and her family. Life may be hard in the late 1930s, but it is nothing compared with what is about to follow. Grace's beloved fiancé Stanley decides to enlist in the fight against Nazi Germany. And as the sirens signal blitz after blitz of bombers, the family can only hide in the cellar and hope they will survive. But Grace has more than just the Germans to worry about. The good-looking Nobby Clark is keen to do more than just look out for his best friend's fiancée. And scheming barmaid Beryl Lovesett is determined to worm her way into the family home, seducing Grace's uncle with her fur coat, no knickers... A classic World War Two saga, Fur Coat, No Knickers is a perfect read... Views: 29
At 15, Cathy Quinn is an intelligent misfit living in 1980s Dublin. As the book opens she discovers that her charming older brother Stevie, who's gay, is falling in love with the one boy in school whom she likes. Over her last two years of school, Cathy struggles with her repressed, unhappy family, coming to terms with her powerful attraction to her best friend Jeanette, and leaving Ireland. "The Leaving" is a realistic yet lyrical look at adolescence and first love.Above all, the novel offers a wry, raw look at growing up in the conservative, recession-plagued Dublin of the 1980s, when homosexuality was still taboo, and being different was not tolerated. Views: 29
The first biography of acclaimed American novelist and story writer Richard YatesCelebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. Classic novels such as Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are incomparable chronicles of the quiet and not-so-quiet desperation of the American middle-class. Lonely housewives, addled businessmen, desperate career-girls and fearful boys and soldiers, Yates's America was a panorama of high living, self-doubt and self-deception. And in the tradition of other great realistic writers of his time (Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Cheever and Updike), Yates's fictional world mirrored his own. A manic-depressive alcoholic and unapologetic gentleman, his life was a hornets' nest of childhood ghosts, the horrors of war, money woes, and ebullient cocktailed evenings in... Views: 29
When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the Outrun on the sheep farm where she grew up. Approaching the land that was once home, memories of her childhood merge with the recent events that have set her on this journey. Amy was shaped by the cycle of the seasons, birth and death on the farm, and her father's mental illness, which were as much a part of her childhood as the wild, carefree existence on Orkney. But as she grew up, she longed to leave this remote life. She moved to London and found herself in a hedonistic cycle. Unable to control her drinking, alcohol gradually took over. Now thirty, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, standing unstable at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in London. Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, the days tracking Orkney's wildlife - puffins nesting on sea stacks, arctic terns swooping close enough to feel their wings - and nights... Views: 29
John Taylor is not a private detective per se , but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.
For John Taylor, there's no place like home... Views: 29
