From transporting illegal merchandise and stealing cars to breaking safes, he's done it all. But now, in his fortieth year, he's ready to retire. So when Udham Kumar, a crooked politician from Uttar Pradesh, commissions the Captain to track down and steal Poppy Flowers, a Vincent van Gogh's painting that has been smuggled into India after it went missing in a museum in Egypt in 2010, the Captain knows that he's found his last, and biggest case. But the painting is now in possession of a dangerous gangster, and the Captain is being followed by Udham Kumar's ruthless associates, greedy for both money and power. As the odds against him begin to stack up, the Captain realizes that his last heist might not be as easy as he'd imagined.

     Hard-hitting newspaper journalist turned stay-at-home mum and part-time failing food columnist, Marnie is wondering when her life went so wrong. While her husband Matt’s career takes off, she’s left with the impossible task of pairing socks and locating Lego. His late nights at the office are turning into late nights who knows where else and they haven’t had a proper conversation in weeks, sex in months, or a full night’s sleep in years. On the brink of losing everything when a fantasy about movie star Maddox Wolfe leads to a missed deadline and a disastrous case of food poisoning, Marnie becomes Mrs Make Believe: anonymous blogger, secret spiller, and voice of imperfect mums everywhere. However, Marnie Martin could never have imagined that her movie star daydream would walk off the screen and into her reality, turning her already muddled world totally on its head. Will Marnie find happiness in the arms of the (literal) man of her dreams? Or will she find that true love is just make believe?

    They spend most of their time watching and playing the sport they love. They dream of making their living in the sport.When they are not playing the game, they put on their thinking cap and come up with alternate versions of important matches or provide parodic answers to questions that have plagued cricket fans over the years.However, fate intervenes in their idyllic life. On 18th April 1986, Javed Miandad hits Chetan Sharma for a six in Sharjah and leaves their cricket viewing life in tatters. The after-effects of this fateful event, continue to haunt them for many years.Their problems don’t end there. Sat fails to graduate from school level cricket to state level cricket. He is heartbroken by the loss of his dreams and faces a mini identity crisis.How do the boys solve their problems?Will the boys ever recover from that Javed Miandad incident?Will Sat get his mojo back? Come, join the heartwarming ride and find out the answers, as Sat takes you through his nostalgic memories of the sport and narrates his coming of age story, which is deeply influenced by the sport!

    

    What started as an outreach program to make sure no one spent Christmas alone, turned into a story in my head, and then a journey of soul searching that I hadn't intended to take. This novel is a work of fiction, but I hope it encapsulates the fear so many of us face in living up to our potential, and more importantly, I hope it highlights the brave life so many choose to live after the loss of a loved one. Because it is a choice; a hard choice with so many possible endings. This novel is for the readers who have shared their stories, and for those who have yet to tell. Thank you for your honesty, your bravery and your incredible will to live. I've learned so much from you all. God bless. - C. G. Cooper BOOK DESCRIPTION Elmore Thaddeus Nix, it's retirement time. You're sixty-five and ready. Take that final physical and then it's adios to your old life and hello to the new. Not so fast. Sorry, Elmore. Your plan's about to change. It's Elmore's last day of work. As part of his retirement, he heads to the family doctor for the follow-up to a routine physical. That's when the universe shifts on its axis. Cancer. Then we find out that Elmore's wife lies at home with only days to live. The stroke of injustice falls hard. And so, with a final word from his wife, and the buck passed to the opposition's corner, Elmore must decide whether to take his wife's advice or just wither away. To Elmore, the choice seems easy. Which path will he choose? Only time will tell, but time is not on our friend's side. Along the way, we'll find out what secrets Elmore's been hiding from the world, and maybe even himself...

    I want to go home. I want you to come with me.'I want to go from here . . .'Finger on Cape Reinga.'. . . to here.'Finger at the bottom of Stewart Island, right at the bottom of the map.It's been years since Alex was in New Zealand, and years since he spent any one-on-one time with his twin sister, Amy. When they lose their parents in a shock accident it seems like the perfect time to reconnect as siblings. To reconnect with this country they call 'home'.As they journey the length of State Highway One, they will scratch at wounds that have never healed - and Alex will be forced to reckon with what coming home really means.

    But most of all, she had to endure the shame of her name – that of the city's most notorious prostitute. Taking care of her younger brother and desperately trying to live down her name, Maggie manages to escape from Liverpool to enjoy an idyllic new life. But fate forces her back again and into the arms of a stranger who is to bring her both heartbreak and the greatest happiness she will ever know.

    Those trapped inside the castle are used to dealing with the volatile mix of light-fingered teens and obnoxious tourists; less so a truckload of explosives and a hidden agenda. For Catherine and her team, it's a recipe for a potentially deadly day off. Tense, twisted and laugh-out-loud funny, Siege Mentality is a day-trip you won't forget. For more from Catherine McLeod, read the Jasmine Sharp trilogy, beginning with Where the Bodies are Buried , a sample from which is included with this short story.

    scholar, practically living in her research lab, leading an uneventful life. Amudha’s life takes an adventurous turn, when she finds a puzzle in an old Mathematics book. Surprisingly, the puzzle has nothing to do with Mathematics. Amudha embarks on a journey to solve the enigma. Every twist and turn in her journey is filled with suspense and surprises. The journey challenges and threatens Amudha. Whenever Amudha solves a part of the puzzle, a new one presents itself. Will Amudha solve the puzzle? How far does the rabbit hole go? What awaits her at the end of it? Will Amudha be the same person if she comes out of it? Read on Magic Square for answers.

    We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience. This is an Instaread Summary of 'Me Before You' by JoJo Moyes. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Chapter 1 Louisa ‘Lou’ Clark, a member of a working class family in a small English village, has just lost her job. Although both Lou’s father, Bernard, and her sister, Treena, work, neither makes enough money to help the family make ends meet without Lou’s income. For this reason, it is decided that Lou should apply for a new job at the Job Centre as soon as possible. The next day Lou goes to the gym to see her boyfriend, Patrick. He sees Lou’s lost job as an opportunity for her to improve herself and find something better. The counselor at the Job Centre suggests Lou apply as a care assistant for a man in a wheelchair. She is not interested in this job, but she is running out of options. She agrees to go for the interview. Chapter 2 Lou usually wears odd, eccentric clothes. For the job interview, Josie, her mother, insists she wear a business suit. Lou goes to Granta House, an elegant and expensive home next to the local tourist attraction, Stortfold Castle. She is interviewed by Camilla Traynor. Camilla is Will Traynor’s mother. Will became a quadriplegic after being hit by a motorcycle. He already has a nurse named Nathan to take care of his personal and medical needs. Camilla wants to hire someone to be a companion for Will and to stay with him during the day when no one else can be there. Lou thinks the interview goes badly. Therefore, she is surprised when Camilla offers her the job with a six-month contract and generous pay. Chapter 3 Lou reports for work at Granta House the following morning. Camilla shows her around the annexe, a space that was once stables but was turned into guest quarters. This is where Will lives now that he is confined to a wheelchair. Camilla explains her duties to Lou. She makes it clear that Lou is not to leave Will alone and unattended for more than 15 minutes at any one time. Camilla introduces Lou to Will and Nathan, Will’s nurse. Nathan explains Will’s medications to Lou and tells her she is there to cheer Will. Nathan leaves, and Lou and Will are left to get to know each other. It does not go well. Will is sullen, quiet, and talks very little. She keeps herself busy with cleaning and household chores to fill in the time. Lou is unhappy about the first day at her new job. She talks to her sister Treena about it. Treena asks her to stick with the job because she has decided to quit her job and go back to college. She has received a grant to help pay her tuition, but will have to quit her job. Lou feels this puts more pressure on her to earn an income.

    Though his novels no longer hit the bestseller lists, he has been described as the Chekhov of Coldsands-on-Sea, and once was even shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Were it not for the delicious Brenda Bodkin, his publicist, and their endlessly unconsummated passion, his life would be very dull indeed. One day, Felix receives a tape in the mail which reveals the sad tale of Gavin, a man whose life was destroyed by PROD, the Parental Rights and Obligations Department. Shortly thereafter, Felix again hears Gavin, now on a radio phone-in, and a few days later meets him at a book-signing. Gavin introduces the author to Miriam, who assures Felix that he is the father of her child, Ian. Before Felix knows it, he is in receipt of a huge bill for Ian's maintenance and, as if that weren't shocking enough, he soon finds himself the chief suspect in a murder case. To discover the identity of the murderer, our hero has no choice but to enter the underworld and live among the down-and-outs of London. There among the rubbish and the smell of poverty he finds friendship and unexpected grace.

    The Allies have won the war. Now they have to win the peace ...Silas Payne is a Scotland Yard officer seconded to Germany to help implement the Allied policy of denazification. When a former Waffen SS soldier is found murdered in the cellar of a requisitioned house, Payne begins an investigation that leads him on a tortuous path of discovery through the chaos of post-war Germany and pits him against a depraved killer who will stop at nothing to protect his secret.

    And oh the black dress, the black heels and the push up bra--just in case!" What would you do if your sleazy boss ran his hands all over you and then blamed you for not doing your job well? Well, I just packed off on a road trip! Just me in my old jeep, Iqbal Mastani, we travelled all the way from Delhi to this little guest house up in the mountains. I met people I had never known (cute boys who taught me to fish), did things I would have never done (sleeping drunk in a cold balcony) and somewhere in the middle of that, fell in love! Lanka in all its diversity.

    “Ethshar” is the invented world that has been the setting for almost a dozen novels from the pen of Lawrence Watt-Evans. Its inhabitants don’t call it that; they call it “the World.” For readers, though, that’s not specific enough. The dominant nation on the World is the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, while the largest, richest city, where most of the stories are set, is Ethshar of the Spices, so “Ethshar” is close enough. The name itself comes from words meaning “safe harbor.” You don’t need to have read any of the novels to enjoy the stories herein; each one should stand alone. And if you've read the novels, you will enjoy this return to the world of Ethshar with 11 stories... This is the first time they have all been collected in one book!

    Despite his mother's plans for him to attend college in Chicago, he has no desire to leave home. One autumn, in a camp of migrant farm workers, Martin discovers a music that touches him like nothing before -- the unsettling melodies and timeless words of the country blues. He also falls in love with Corinna, the daughter of the black foreman who runs the orchards. He ends up fathering her child, only to lose her in a stunning betrayal. Martin's music and his love for Corinna are the two themes of his life. His struggle to combine them in a single story takes him far from home and the life he had always envisioned for himself, only to bring him back again in a way he could never have imagined. In this beautifully rendered novel, Robert Hellenga explores the fragility of happiness, the struggle to discover one's true calling in life, and the sorrows and satisfactions of family.