She tries to remember her mother's voice and the pitch and treble of it passes through her; the rhythm of it so clear that for a moment they are...connected by frail strings. So begins The Land of Women, and we are swept into Fiona O'Faolain's last summer in Ireland, the season of her burgeoning sexuality. It is a time, too, when mother and daughter step toward friendship among the voluminous gowns they make for local brides. Yet that giddy summer also delivers betrayal. Fiona's journey from the shame that ended her girlhood takes her to Santa Fe and to Carlos Aragon, a restorer of antiquities, whose ancestry is mysteriously linked to hers. As he explores their pasts with the precision of an artisan, Fiona must face her excruciating memory. In The Land of Women the past lives in the present, and physical and emotional geography touch.

    Not only was his number one single ‘Living Doll’ the saviour of rock 'n' roll but he also rescued the British film industry with the vast revenues created by his legendary movie Drop Dead Fred. In 1998, he survived an assassination attempt and spent five days in a coma before he literally came back from the dead. Having completed countless phenomenal feature films, TV series, live extravaganzas and radio voice-overs since then, Rik Mayall is now poised on the brink of a whole new epoch-shattering revolution.For the first time ever, Rik reveals in print the deep inner truth behind his gargantuan ascent to the pinnacle of international light entertainment – the mental hospitals he has broken out of, the television executives he has assaulted, the drugs he has definitely not taken, the charities he has bankrupted, the countless pregnancies he has engendered, and so much more.

    Smith was 15 when her older brother, Roy, was killed in a car accident, and her memoir follows her family as they attempt to put their lives back together. Her parents try to take comfort in their strong Catholic faith but are nonetheless shattered. For her part, Smith wonders why God has abandoned her. She finds cold comfort in Catholic symbols and rituals, feeling a connection to Roy only when she enters the old fort they had built together. An engaging storyteller, Smith crafts her memoir to read like a novel, interspersing moving flashbacks of the times she spent with her brother with amusing portraits of the nuns at her parochial school, who sneak out of the infirmary to play cards and make autumnal visits to a secret swimming pool. As a child, Smith wonders why her father blesses her and Roy every morning, touching a relic to their foreheads, mouths, and hands, mentioning each individual body part. "He's got to name us, like Adam named the animals," Roy explained. "To keep track of them." The near impossibility of "keeping track," and the changing nature of faith are just two of the poignant messages in this unforgettable debut.

    Luke feels like he’s been looking after Toby his entire life. He patches Toby up when Toby’s father, a drunk and a petty criminal, beats on him, he gives him a place to stay, and he diffuses the situation at school when wise-cracking Toby inevitably gets into fights. Someday, Luke and Toby will leave this small town, riding the tails of Luke’s wrestling scholarship, and never look back.But during their senior year, they begin to drift apart. Luke is dealing with his unreliable mother and her new boyfriend. And Toby unwittingly begins to get drawn into his father’s world, and falls for an older woman. All their long-held dreams seem to be unraveling. Tense and emotional, this heartbreaking novel explores family, abuse, sex, love, friendship, and the lengths a person will go to protect the people they love. For fans of NPR’s Serial podcast, Jason Reynolds, and Matt de la Peña.

    If you have already been out in the big world and you enjoy the considerate observations that often come from travel, this book is for you. If you just can't get away, but hearing about someone else's adventures can take you there, this book is for you." -Lindsay LaShell2 years on the road. 1 backpack. 15 countries. Banned from one. Stories about Nepal, Colombia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Kenya, Qatar, UAE, Panama and more. This book is about the days, people, stories, ethics and philosophy that bridged the trip. What is modern travel? Why are you not on the road?

    Penny charged straight at the gunmen then dove under their fire. Spinning on her back she kicked the legs from under one man, and as he fell, she kicked the gun from the other man’s hand. Spinning back to the first man she saw the gun barrel moving toward her, and she lashed out with her foot. Her boot crushed his skull and she rolled to her feet to grab the last man in a neck lock. A quick twist and he lay lifeless in her arms. She let him fall, as, breathing deeply, she came down off combat mode. “Are you ladies all right?” she asked as she untied the ropes that held the older woman. “Who are you?” asked the old woman fearfully, as she pulled the tape from her mouth. “They call me Lady Blue,” smiled Penny as she helped the woman to stand. “What are you?” It was the younger woman who spoke. “Cold, hungry, dead tired, and covered in blue war paint,” giggled Penny as she released the older woman’s arm. She turned and began to search the bodies.

    Perry Webster, a university lecturer at York University, is distraught at his young love’s death. But when the police start to suspect he was the culprit, his world is turned upside down. Working in the local bar, his girlfriend was well-known and liked by many. Who could have killed her? Webster begins questioning the pub locals, to no avail. Yet his actions are carefully followed by the police, and several times he is brought in for questioning. Just when the trail is going cold, Webster stumbles on a clue. This takes him down a dangerous path, confronting important people in political circles and dangerous criminals in the underworld. It will take all of Webster’s wit and learning to see through the lies that surround his girlfriend’s death. But, like Webster, the reader is in for a surprise when the true identity of the killer is revealed. Having kicked a hornet’s nest the perpetrator maybe much closer to home than he first thought. Can he prove his case and clear his name? BLONDE is the first in a series of murder mysteries with Perry Webster as private investigator.

    

    Into Thin Air explores the complex emotional bonds of families, the intricacies of love, and the impact on people's lives when they are unwilling or unable to connect with each other.

    Tom Perrotta made his literary debut with his short story collection Bad Haircut, earning critical praise and comparisons to Salinger, Carver, and Roth by taking readers to New Jersey in the 1970s as a boy named Buddy struggles with the timeless mysteries of sex, death, parents-and of course, bad haircuts.

    It's FREE in participating bookshops when a customer buys any book from The 2007 Books Alive Great Read Guide.

    . . . Ammons makes you laugh and forces you to think hard about the way humans relate to natural phenomena and to themselves. From such simple, short expression emerge complex, often confounding ideas. New readers of poetry as well as those with an active interest in lyric verse will love this volume.”—Booklist

    And, in a desperate attempt to protect the secret of the potentially dangerous Trion technology - the ability to manipulate the fundamental particle of the universe - their leader sends one last covert mission to Earth. The mission goes horribly wrong, leaving Billy Caudwell; an overweight, acne-scarred 14 year old, with the Mind Profile of a military genius, a huge battle fleet and a mission to unite the intelligent species of the universe in a Universal Alliance. With people to rescue, space fleets to battle and villains to defeat, Billy has to overcome his own inhibitions, insecurities and a vicious bully before he can start saving the universe. Welcome, dear readers, to the exciting universe of First Admiral.

    Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart?Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide.GROWN AND FLOWN is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to―and through―high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic―such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life―it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars.Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. GROWN AND FLOWN is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.

    And it's nothing any different with Diamond Smith, a young independent 23 year old who feels like her standards is set too high to be suckered into love by a small time street hustler. Garren is his name, a minor league hustler. With high standards of obtaining the woman he desire. But the streets of Detroit refer to him as plain ole G. He feels Diamond is the woman for him without a shadow of doubt, and he is willing to do everything he can to prove it. But, being Diamond Smith, one man just might not be enough. Now caught up in a heart clenching affair. Who will win? Who will lose? Find out in Diamond's Affair.