Online Library Catalogue

This highly readable biography charts both the highs and lows of a remarkable career. Unique in her enormous popularity the world over, and in her astonishing capacity for endurance, Julie Andrews is a superstar and a survivor.

"Nothing Like It in the World" gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks. The U.S. government pitted two companies -- the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads -- against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose' hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.

The choice is yours: You can add forty or more vigorous, fulfilling years to your life. It sounds like science fiction, but in fact it’s cutting-edge science grounded in exciting new research. In The Metabolic Plan, internationally renowned biochemist Stephen Cherniske reveals the medical breakthroughs that enable all of us to extend our lives—and the quality of our lives—starting today. Far from giving out due to inevitable wear and tear, the human body is naturally endowed with astonishing powers of renewal, self-repair, and regeneration. The secret to unlocking these powers lies not in genetic tinkering or a high-tech fix but in “tricking” your body into adopting the metabolism of a twenty-year-old. The Metabolic Plan offers a comprehensive diet and exercise regimen specifically tailored to boost antioxidant levels, combat disease, increase muscle, reduce fat, and enhance memory and vision. Cherniske shares the age-defying properties of such cutting-edge supplements as 7-Keto and debunks myths about acid/alkaline foods. Here too are detailed metabolic plans geared to the different needs of men and women and to every decade of our lives—so we’ll know exactly what to focus on when. Longer life, more energy, improved health, a pervasive sense of well-being: It’s all within our grasp. At once revolutionary and eminently practical, this is the book that finally solves the puzzle of aging.

A paradise...tall, slender, grey-eyed, possessing an extreme pallor'. The contemporary view of Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary Rose as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, was an arresting one. Glorious to behold, this Tudor Princess with her red hair flowing loose to her waist, was also impossible for Henry to control. She first married the king of France, a match of great importance to Henry's diplomatic plans. He was dead within three months. The talk of the European courts was that the teenage bride had killed the 51-year old Louis XII with her exertions of the king in his bedchamber. She then ran off with her new lover, the great rake of the Tudors era, Charles Brandon. After some uncomfortable arguments with Henry VIII, she was officially sanctioned to marry the Duke of Suffolk in 1515 at Greenwich Palace. Yet Henry remained deeply fond of his sister, he named his greatest warship after her and continued to support Mary despite her ignoring his every request. David Loades' biography, the first for almost 50 years brings the princess alive once more. Of all Tudor women, this queen of France and later Duchess of Suffolk remains an elusive, enigmatic figure.

Confusion abounds in a world bent on rejecting a loving Creator's guidance on a life well lived. According to its author, Snubbing God shows how "biblical wisdom is opposed by a secular view that has at its heart a fundamental misunderstanding or outright disregard for God's creation and how he has designed it." Some of the issues Kuligin explores as a result of rebuffing God include gay marriage, abortion, climate change, animal rights, and evolution. Though pointing out the weaknesses of a secular viewpoint, the author provides convincing arguments for why living the way the Creator designed it leads to a rich and satisfying life. "Snubbing God is strong medicine," writes sociologist David Ayers in his foreword. "The reader will find it challenging at points morally and intellectually. Few will agree with everything in it. Yet Kuligin has no desire to only preach to a choir, though certainly encouraging the saints is part of his aim. He is trying to get us to pull up short, to think, to reconsider the marvelous truths, and righteous demands, of the Bible and of its Author upon us."

Len Beadell's story of the roads he surveyed and helped develop in the Australian outback.

The turmoil of the world we cannot avoid, but the disturbances of mind we can overcome. The duties and difficulties of life claim our attention, but we can rise above all anxiety concerning them. Surrounded by noise, we can yet have a quiet mind; involved in responsibilities, the heart can be at rest; in the midst of strife, we can know the abiding peace. The twenty pieces which comprise this book, unrelated as some of them are in the letter, will be found to be harmonious in the spirit, in that they point the reader towards those heights of self-knowledge and self-conquest which, rising above the turbulence of the world, lift their peaks where the Heavenly Silence reigns.

A Quiver Full of Arrows. From London to China, and New York to Nigeria, Jeffrey Archer takes the reader on a tour of ancient heirlooms and modern romance, of cutthroat business and kindly strangers, of lives lived in the realms of power and lives freed from the gloom of oppression. Fortunes are made and squandered, honor betrayed and redeemed, and love lost and rediscovered. A Twist in the Tale. The expected never happens . . . A man calls unexpectedly on his mistress and sees another man leaving her flat. Accusing her of being unfaithful, he quarrels with her, strikes her. She dies. Leaving unseen, he tips off the police so that the other man is arrested and charged . . . Has he achieved 'The Perfect Murder'? A tantalising opening to A Twist in the Tale, a fantastic collection of short stories from bestselling author Jeffrey Archer.

Twenty-five-year-old Cassie Danvers is holed up in her family’s crumbling mansion in rural St. Jude, Ohio, mourning the loss of the woman who raised her—her grandmother, June. But a knock on the door forces her out of isolation. Cassie has been named the sole heir to legendary matinee idol Jack Montgomery's vast fortune. How did Jack Montgomery know her name? Could he have crossed paths with her grandmother all those years ago? What other shocking secrets could June’s once-stately mansion hold? Soon Jack’s famous daughters come knocking, determined to wrestle Cassie away from the inheritance they feel is their due. Together, they all come to discover the true reasons for June’s silence about that long-ago summer, when Hollywood came to town, and June and Jack’s lives were forever altered by murder, blackmail, and betrayal. As this page-turner shifts deftly between the past and present, Cassie and her guests will be forced to reexamine their legacies, their definition of family, and what it truly means to love someone, steadfastly, across the ages.

From its opening scene to its breath-catching climax, Liz Carlyle's newest novel is a vividly etched portrait of passion and intrigue. When a woman consumed by sinister secrets opens the door to a strikingly handsome stranger, a powerful desire rushes in -- and a love she could not have imagined. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Jonet Rowland is surely that. But she is also lovely, rich, and -- it is rumored -- an unrepentant adulteress. When her philandering husband, the marquis of Mercer, is murdered in his own bed, it's whispered that Jonet is a femme fatale in more ways than one. Shunned by society, the daring widow steels herself to fight for what truly matters -- her children. When his scheming uncle begs him to investigate the death of his brother, Lord Mercer, Captain Cole Amherst refuses. But it is soon apparent that treachery stalks two innocent boys, and Cole plunges into the viper's pit that is Jonet Rowland's life. Nothing could have prepared Cole for the lust Jonet inspires. But as danger swirls about them, he is tortured by doubt. Can an honorable soldier open his shuttered heart and let a wicked widow teach him how to truly love?

My neighbour, Mrs Fanshaw, is portly-plump and gay, She must be over sixty-seven, if she is a day. You might have thought her life was dull, It's one long whirl instead. I asked her all about it, and this is what she said: I've joined an Olde Thyme Dance Club, the trouble is that there Are too many ladies over, and no gentlemen to spare. It seems a shame, it's not the same, But still it has to be, Some ladies have to dance together, One of them is me. Stately as a galleon, I sail across the floor, Doing the Military Two-step, as in the days of yore. I dance with Mrs Tiverton; she's light on her feet, in spite Of turning the scale at fourteen stone, and being of medium height. So gay the band, So giddy the sight, Full evening dress is a must, But the zest goes out of a beautiful waltz When you dance it bust to bust. So, stately as two galleons, we sail across the floor, Doing the Valse Valeta as in the days of yore. The gent is Mrs Tiverton, I am her lady fair, She bows to me ever so nicely and I curtsey to her with care. So gay the band, So giddy the sight, But it's not the same in the end For a lady is never a gentleman, though She may be your bosom friend. So, stately as a galleon, I sail across the floor, Doing the dear old Lancers, as in the days of yore. I'm led by Mrs Tiverton, she swings me round and round And though she manoeuvres me wonderfully well I never get off the ground. So gay the band, So giddy the sight, I try not to get depressed. And it's done me a power of good to explode, And get this lot off my chest.

Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies’ man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for, and put to work in the privileged position of Tätowierer – the tattooist – to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young woman, Gita, who steals his heart at first glance. His life given new purpose, Lale does his best through the struggle and suffering to use his position for good. This story, full of beauty and hope, is based on years of interviews author Heather Morris conducted with real-life Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz- Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. It is heart-wrenching, illuminating, and unforgettable.

Following on from the hugely popular 'Rolling Into The World', this is the second instalment of ABC radio personality Eoin Cameron's memoirs. Packed with highs, lows and hilarious adventures, 'The Voice Of The Great South' begins with Eoin as a mishap-prone sixteen year old on a farm in Albany, traces his early life in radio in the Southwest and the ABC in Perth, and ends with his entry into federal parliament in 1993.

Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice . . . she is not the only one. When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park's pond, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation. The victim appeared to have the perfect life -- what dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding? When Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes. All were found strangled, hands bound and dumped in water around London. As she inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in. With her failing career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she's faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again?

Jerry West has a few problems. His uncle Crispin is broke. His other uncle, Willoughby, is rich but won't hand over any of his inheritance. And to cap it all, although already engaged, Jerry has just fallen in love with the wonderful Jane Hunnicutt. But she's an heiress, and that's a problem too, because Jerry can't be seen to be a gold-digger. Enter 'The Girl in Blue' - a Gainsborough miniature which someone has stolen from Uncle Willoughby. Jerry sets out on a mission to find her - and somehow, hilariously, everything comes right.

When 51-year-old Nathan Smith, a once confirmed bachelor, is found in his bed with a hole in his head made by a 38-caliber slug, it's not hard to imagine Nathan's young bride as the one with her finger on the trigger. Even her lawyer thinks she's guilty. But given that Mary Smith is entitled to the best defence she can afford - and thanks to Nathan's millions, she can afford plenty - Spenser hires on to investigate Mary's bona fides ...

"Brawler" by Lauren Groff and "What Can You Do With a General" by Emma Cline. Lauren Groff reads her story from the May 13, 2019, issue of the magazine. Groff has published three novels, including "Arcadia," in 2012, and "Fates and Furies," in 2015. Her second story collection, "Florida," which came out last year, won the Story Prize in 2018 and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Emma Cline reads her short story from the February 4, 2019, issue of the magazine. Cline's first novel, "The Girls," was published in 2016. She is a winner of The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize, and was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, in 2017.

Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th. Lachlan Fox has made a career out of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a shore assault specialist in an Australian Navy Clearance Diver Team, he often came up against bad guys and even worse odds. Now working as an investigative journalist for an independent news organisation he doesn’t back away from uncovering the big stories: global conspiracies, rogue secret agents, terrorist cells. With his best friend Alister Gammaldi, Fox is caught up in the corrupt world of international politics and arms races and, it seems, as the earth feels the impact of global warming that the commodity everyone is after is water. Lachlan discovers some people will do anything to control it. When he exposes their secrets he finds himself back in the front line and facing his strongest enemy yet.

New friends Drew and Jeffrey are drawn into the investigation of the mysterious death of Dr. Marshall. Romance and intrigue abound and you'll be kept guessing up to the end as to who the murderer could be. (Summary by Kate Follis)

Is it true that people can literally be scared to death? Is it possible to photograph astral projections? What happens if you play with a pack of cards which belonged to a dead card-trickster? These and more questions are raised and answered in ''The Seen and the Unseen'' (first published in 1900), a collection of twelve short stories of a supernatural and uncanny nature by English author Richard Marsh (1857-1915), famous for such mystery/horror novels as ''The Beetle'' and ''The Goddess: A Demon''. So if you feel you are ready for some goosebumps before bedtime, snuggle up and have a listen. - Summary by Sonia

Fourteen mysteries from the pages of the Saturday Evening Post, the Metropolitan, Red Book, and Pictorial Review magazines featuring Uncle Abner, who solves crimes in the pre-Civil War West Virginia hill country. His weapons are keen observation, logic, and a fundamentalist’s belief in the victory of good over evil. Post’s historical mysteries have been favorably compared to those of his fellow American Edgar Allan Poe. - Summary by Winston Tharp

Published in 1917, this is a collection of a novella and seven short stories by one of the cleverest authors of the early twentieth century. ‘In Queen's Quorum (1951), a survey of crime fiction, Ellery Queen listed Bennett's The Loot of Cities among the 100 most important works in the genre. This collection of stories recounts the adventures of a millionaire who commits crimes to achieve his idealistic ends. Although it was "one of his least known works," it was nevertheless "of unusual interest, both as an example of Arnold Bennett's early work and as an early example of dilettante detectivism".’ - Summary by David Wales

A widow has been murdered in the home of a relative on a foggy night in London town when all residents were off on to the theatre, and one to run an errand involving the title bauble. Who done it? - Summary by Matt Pierard

There would be trouble at Paradise . . . From birth, Polly Harper seems destined for tragedy. Raised by her loving grandparents on Paradise Farm she is unknowingly tangled in a web of secrecy regarding her parentage. When she falls in love with Tobias, the wealthy son of a local landowner of disrepute, her anxious grandparents send her to work in a dairy. There she becomes instantly drawn to the handsome Matt Dinsdale, propelling her further into the depths of forbidden romance and dark family secrets. But when tragedy strikes, Polly is forced to confront her past and decide the fate of her future. Will she lose everything, or will she finally realise that her roots and love lie in Paradise?

As usual, gentleman thief Arsène Lupin finds himself wrongfully accused of murder, and must find the real killer to clear his coloured name. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)

You might have heard about a wonderful little yarn store in downtown Seattle. Debbie Macomber can take you there! In the year since it opened, A Good Yarn has thrived, and so has Lydia Hoffman, the owner. A lot of that is due to Brad Goetz. But when Brad's ex-wife reappears, Lydia is suddenly afraid to trust her newfound happiness. Elise Beaumont joins one of Lydia's popular knitting classes. Living with her daughter, Aurora, Elise learns that her onetime husband plans to visit and that Aurora wants a relationship with her father, regardless of how Elise feels about him. Bethanne Hamlin is facing the fallout from a divorce and joins the knitting class as the first step in her effort to recover a sense of dignity and hope. Courtney Pulanski is a depressed and overweight teenager. She's staying with her grandmother, who's trying to help by taking her to the knitting class at A Good Yarn.

Four "Goon Show" episodes from the mid-1950s: "The Treasure of Loch Lomond", "The Greenslade Story", "Wings Over Dagenham" and "The Rent Collectors".

Sunderland, 1940. Polly never dreamed she would be able to work in the shipyards like the men in her family but times are tough and her new job ends up giving her more than she ever expected when she meets enigmatic dock diver Tommy Watts. During the day, head welder Rosie teaches her fledgling flock of trainees their new trade, but at night she hides a secret life. And mother hen Gloria signs up to escape her brutal husband, but finds she cannot run from her problems. The Shipyard Girls start off as strangers - but end up forging an unbreakable bond of friendship in the most difficult times.

When Gemma Woodstock, homicide investigator in the large rural town of Smithson, views the body of her old school friend Rosalind splayed open on the autopsy table, she suffers the same feeling of inscrutability that has coloured her relationship with Rose for so long. Gemma, however, is hiding her own secrets. She has a four-year-old son, Ben, and has recently moved in with the boy's father, Scott. But the relationship is troubled and she is having an affair with a colleague that she works closely with, Felix, who is married with two teenage daughters. She knows that Rosalind recently moved back to Smithson to teach drama at their old school, but Gemma had not made contact and now she wonders why the incendiary Rose really came back to this country town. Rose lived alone in a small run-down apartment, even though her father is one of the town's richest men.

"Do Not Stop" by Salvatore Scibona and "Son of Friedman" by Emma Cline. Salvatore Scibona reads his short story from the January 21, 2019, issue of the magazine. Scibona's first novel, "The End," was a finalist for the National Book Award and a winner of the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His second novel, "The Volunteer," from which this story was adapted, will be published in March. Emma Cline reads her story from the July 1, 2019, issue of the magazine. Cline's first novel, "The Girls," was published in 2016. She is a winner of The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize, and was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, in 2017.

"Ross Perot and China" by Ben Lerner and “God’s Caravan” by Tiphanie Yanique. Ben Lerner reads his story from the May 27, 2019, issue of the magazine. Lerner is the author of the novels "Leaving the Atocha Station" and "10:04," as well as three books of poetry. His third novel, "The Topeka School," from which this story was adapted, will be published in October. Tiphanie Yanique reads her story from the November 4, 2019, issue of the magazine. Yanique is the author of “How to Escape from a Leper Colony: a Novella and Stories” and the novel “Land of Love and Drowning,” which won the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize in 2014.

In the Four Streets in Liverpool, a dreadful murder has been committed, and 14-year-old Kitty Doherty is pregnant with the dead man's child. This secret is so dangerous that her mother, Maura, and the redoubtable Kathleen, her best friend Nellie's grandmother, decide the girls must be spirited away quietly to Ireland to await the birth of the baby. But back in Liverpool, the police are not giving up their search for the truth. Somewhere, in this tight-knit Irish Catholic community, someone must know something. Someone surely will talk one day. The streets are alive with gossip and rumour and it isn't easy to keep a secret that big.

This is a wonderfully written novel by Mrs. Hungerford about the perennial bachelor and the various interests in his life, where he is a doctor by trade. From taking care of his sister's children to a possible love on the horizon, the author keeps us on our toes in this quick read of a book with its many unexpected twists and turns!

Every family has its secrets ... As the first anniversary of her marriage to Vice President Nick Cappuano approaches, Lieutenant Sam Holland is dreaming of Bora Bora--sun, sand, and a desperately needed break from the DC grind. But real life has a way of intervening, and Sam soon finds herself taking on one of the most perplexing cases of her career. Government worker Josh Hamilton begs Sam to investigate his shocking claim that his parents stole him from another family thirty years ago. More complicated still, his "father" is none other than the FBI director. When a member of Josh's family is brutally murdered, Sam begins to question how deep this cover-up goes. Is it possible the revered director was part of a baby-napping ring and that others involved are also targets? With a killer intent on deadly revenge and her team still reeling from a devastating loss, Sam's plate is full--and when Nick and their son, Scotty, take ill, is her dream of a tropical anniversary celebration in peril too?

Coming of age during China's Cultural Revolution, Benfu survived the cruel years, but he did not emerge unscathed. The Scavenger's Daughters is the story of Benfu and his beloved wife Calli, chronicling their attempts to build a life in the turmoil and aftermath of Maoist China. At the heart of their struggle lies the pain of losing their only child. To fill the terrible hole in their lives, they take in abandoned girls the unwanted weeds as their own, lovingly caring for them as flowers in a garden. Linnea, the oldest of the scavenger's daughters, embarks on a struggle of her own, as she falls in love with the son of a wealthy family. Inspired by a true story, this poetic tale of modern-day China chronicles Benfu and Calli as they turn their path of hardship into a beautiful field of flowers.

Jeffrey Eugenides reads his story "Bronze" from the February 5th, 2018, issue of the magazine. Eugenides is the author of three novels, including "Middlesex," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. His most recent book, the story collection "Fresh Complaint," was published last year.

Sadia Shepard reads her story from the January 8, 2018, issue of the magazine. Shepard is a writer and documentary film producer. Her first book, "The Girl from Foreign: A Memoir," was published in 2008.

Rachel Kushner reads her story "Stanville," from the February 12 & 19, 2018, issue of the magazine. Kushner is the author of two novels, "Telex from Cuba" and "The Flamethrowers," both of which were finalists for the National Book Award. Her third novel, "The Mars Room," from which this story was adapted, will be published in May.

"Texas" by David Gates and "The Boundary" by Jhumpa Lahiri. David Gates reads his story from the January 15, 2018, issue of the magazine. Gates is the author of four books of fiction, including the novel "Preston Falls" and the story collection "A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me," which was published in 2015. Jhumpa Lahiri reads her story from the January 29, 2018, issue of the magazine. Lahiri is the author of two novels and two short-story collections. Her first book, "Interpreter of Maladies," won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and her most recent novel, "The Lowland," was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award in 2014.

Hamlet is Jeremy’s dog. This 1923 book is Hugh Walpole’s second volume in his Jeremy semi-autobiographical trilogy about a ten-year-old English boy.

Come and get fit with the Aussie animals as they dance,run,jump and clap hands together! But look out...you never know who might drop in on the fun!

The captivating sequel to INKHEART, the critically acclaimed, international bestseller by Cornelia Funke, an author who is emerging as a truly modern classic writer for children. Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of INKHEART, the book whose characters became real. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with the ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval world of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long, both are caught inside the book, too. But the story is threatening to evolve in ways neither of them could ever have imagined.

When Alice Bliss learns that her father is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind. Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full-blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie.

This adventure is set in the exotic Island of Hawaii and involves the search for a missing sloop and the whereabouts of a valuable mine. Biff Brewster, his father and friends become entangled with ruthless criminals who are also intending to find the sunken boat and discover the map and the mine. They have kidnapped the elderly scientist who holds the key to the discovery. An exciting adventure with lots of action on land and sea.