Online Library Catalogue

Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute is frequently hilarious, always surprising, and delivered with a strong cast of charmingly eccentric characters. When a secretive American cult moves to the Gold Coast, freelance journalist Scout Davis's investigative antennae start quivering. She sets out to expose the cult's lunatic beliefs and bizarre practices, but when she learns the identity of a recent recruit, her quest becomes personal. And dangerous. But Scout has her secrets too. In the dead of night she sneaks out with an underground group of yarn bombers to decorate the locality with artworks. The next mission ticks all the right boxes, it's risky, difficult and extremely silly. However, Scout has a sneaking suspicion that the local police sergeant, Rafe Kelly, is hot on her tail.

"I'll tell you something, something important. Love is a decision. Not a feeling. That's what you young people don't realise. That's why you're always off divorcing each other. No offence, dear." So decrees the formidable Connie Thrum of Scribbly Gum Island. She is the chief decision-maker of a rather unconventional family and her word is law. It's been over seventy years since Connie and her sister Rose visited their neighbours and found the kettle boiling and a baby waking for her feed, but no sign of her parents. The 'Munro Baby Mystery' still hasn't been solved and tourists can visit the abandoned home, exactly as it was found in 1932. But now Connie has passed away and the island residents ponder her legacy. Sophie Honeywell is looking down the barrel of her fortieth birthday and still hoping for that fairytale ending. Her beautiful new friend Grace, the Munro Baby's grand daughter, can't tell anyone what she hopes for. It would be too shocking. Meanwhile, a frumpy housewife makes a pact with a stranger, an old lady starts making her own decisions and a family secret finally explodes on an extraordinary night of mulled wine, fire-eating and face-painting, the Last Anniversary.

Driven by the prophetic words of an ancient soothsayer, this novel explores the opposing ideas of predestination and self-determination, as Philip traces a perilous and sometimes unclear path through the terrible years of the Second World War in Penang, Malaysia.

A dinner guest compares the labours of Poirot to those of his mythological namesake, Hercules, the Greek hero, and the great detective is not amused. Poirot has already decided to retire but, as a suitable farewell, he will take on twelve monumental cases that correspond to the twelve Labours of Hercules.

Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption. Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she's questioning whether she's cut out for the role of wife and mother. Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan's affair. He promised he'd never stray again, and she trusted him. But when Juliette intercepts a letter to her husband from Tia that contains pictures of a child with a deep resemblance to her husband, her world crumbles once more. How could Nathan deny his daughter? And if he's kept this a secret from her, what else is he hiding? Desperate for the truth, Juliette goes in search of the little girl. And before long, the three women and Nathan are on a collision course with consequences that none of them could have predicted. Riveting and arresting, "The Comfort of Lies" explores the collateral damage of infidelity and the dark, private struggles many of us experience but rarely reveal.

Hetty Gilbert is a canal child with no permanent address, so when she needs to join the library, she cannot do so. Miss Preece dislikes children, but Hetty's longing for books touches a chord and she stretches the rules to allow the girl to read on the premises. Soon, Hetty's chief desire is to become a librarian like her friend. But with war on the horizon, their lives will never be the same. In 1939 Hetty joins in the war effort, for her knowledge of canal boats is desperately needed, whilst Miss Preece can only sit and listen to the dangers her young friend faces, knowing she herself can do nothing to help. But her chance will come, and with it the meaning behind that fragile mistletoe kiss...

The aristocratic but slow-witted Blotto and his extremely brainy sister Twinks are attending a weekend house party when their hostess, the Dowager Duchess of Melmost, is murdered. An amateur detective, conveniently staying for the weekend, deduces that the Lyminster family's chauffeur, Corky Froggett, is the murderer. But Blotto and Twinks are unconvinced, and the only way to prove Corky's innocence is to find the real perpetrator. So begins the second investigation for the daring duo - one which takes them via an opium den in Limehouse, a Scottish castle and a disused Cornish tin mine, to a thrilling final confrontation at the nerve centre of the evil League of the Crimson Hand. Yes, Blotto and Twinks are back!

A woman and her husband admitted to a hospital to have a baby requests that their nurse be reassigned, they are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is black, to touch their baby. The hospital complies, but the baby later goes into cardiac distress when Ruth is on duty. She hesitates before rushing in to perform CPR. When her indecision ends in tragedy, Ruth finds herself on trial, represented by a white public defender who warns against bringing race into a courtroom. As the two come to develop a truer understanding of each other's lives, they begin to doubt the beliefs they each hold most dear.

Celebrations are being prepared to mark the hundreth anniversary of the birth of Nathaniel Patten, one of Thrush Green's most famous sons. A statue is being put up to mark the occasion and when the long-anticipated day arrives events culminate in more than one cause for rejoicing.

The author's memories in the form of a series of short stories.

In a city full of victims, it's murder to choose just one... Chelsea Hart, a fresh-faced Indiana college student, spends the final night of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite New York City nightclub with her girlfriends and a fake ID. The next morning, joggers find her in East River Park, her celebrated blonde hair hacked off. NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher catches the case and quickly homes in on a group of privileged men who were last seen partying with Chelsea. When a tight case is built against a young hedge fund manager, the department is elated. But Ellie has her doubts. Chelsea's murder is eerily similar to three other deaths that occurred a decade ago: the victims were young, female, and in each case, the killer had taken her hair as a souvenir. Ellie's search for the truth pits her against her fellow cops and places her under the watchful eye of of a psychopath eager to add the prideful young detective to his list. (Originally published in the US with the title Angel's Tip.)

As the story opens, snowman is sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. In a world in which science-based corporations have recently taken mankind on an uncontrolled genetic-engineering ride, he now searches for supplies in a wasteland.

Leah Turner's father has been killed in an accident at the laundry, and it falls to her to become sole provider for her little sister. But pawning the few belongings she has left will only keep the rent collector at bay for a few weeks. Out of the blue Charlie Willcox, the local pawnbroker, offers her a deal. His invalid brother Jonah needs a wife. The idea of a marriage of convenience doesn't please Leah, but she finds Jonah agreeable enough and moving with him to the pretty hamlet of Ellindale may be the only chance of a better life. But other people have plans for the remote Pennine valley, and the two sisters find themselves facing danger in their new life with Jonah.

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts. Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realise that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers. As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerising finish.

A desperate escape from Romania after the fall of the Ceausescus... a violent introduction to the new rules of warfare on the borders of Afghanistan... then an icy struggle for survival among the world's highest mountains... Death follows those who seek beyond the 'Delta Connection' - searching for something closely guarded in the most dangerous region on earth.

June 1793, Gibraltar. The gathering might of revolutionary France prepares to engulf Europe in another bloody war. As in the past, Britain will stand or fall by the fighting power of her fleet. For Richard Bolitho, the renewal of hostilities means a fresh command and the chance of action after long months of inactivity. However, his mission to support Lord Hood in the monarchist-inspired occupation has gone awry: Bolitho and the crew of the Hyperion are trapped by the French near a dry Mediterranean island.

A tale of three peasant girls getting to grips with life in the big city. The Li sisters donʼt have much education, but their father has drummed into them - their mother is a failure because she hasnʼt managed to produce a son, and they themselves only merit a number as a name. Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken. Men, on the other hand, are like the strong rafters holding up the roof of a house. When circumstances lead the sisters to seek work in distant Nanjing, the shocking new urban environment opens their eyes, and when the money they earn starts arriving back at the village, their father is forced to recognize that his daughters are not so dispensable after all. Translated from the Chinese by Esther Tyldesley.

Emily Parmenter has built a life around the plantation in Sweetwater Creek where her father and brothers raise their hunting spaniels. It is a narrow world, but to Emily it has a magic of its own. Then comes Lulu Foxworth, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season. Lulu has a powerful enchantment of her own, and this, along with the dark secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's world apart - at a terrible price.

A plane crashes in unexplained circumstances and the mystery deepens when police investigate. The owners know nothing of the four bodies found in the wreckage. So who are these unidentified passengers? But the biggest question of all comes from a husband frantic with worry. His wife was supposed to be on the plane - but never boarded it. Why then is she still missing? It's a riddle detective Peter Decker will have to answer quickly if he is to prevent further lives being lost in a case full of twists and shocks.

Thirty unmarried years have passed since Harvey Nash failed to show up at his own engagement party. Today, the near-bride, Adele, and her two sisters, Lois and Kathleen, blame Harvey for their spinsterhood until, one cold April night, Harvey returns to the scene of his first romantic crime. Now older, filled with regrets, and more charming than ever, he's reinvented himself as Nash Harvey, jingle composer and chronic bachelor.

A Scottish doctor who is personal physician to the African dictator, Idi Amin, is seduced by his charm and the perks of office to the point where he ignores the dictator's unspeakable brutality. Now back in Scotland, Dr. Nicholas Garrigan questions his complicity and finds the answer in the corruption of power.

In 1940, as the shadows are lengthening over Europe, artist Louis Duval decides to leave his studio in Brittany and makes the perilous journey to England. His aim: to help liberate his beloved France from the enemy. Reaching Dartmouth he finds lodgings with a young widow, Barbara Hillyard. Meanwhile Lieutenant-Commander Alan Powell of the Royal Navy, assigned the task of forming an undercover organisation, enlists Louis Duval, who agrees to return to France. Alan falls deeply in love with Barbara, but she seems to have eyes only for Louis.

After years spent in the shadow of her movie-star sister, Monica, Anna Vincenzi finally remakes herself. But when Monica is murdered, Anna is arrested as the prime suspect. Fortunately Anna is not alone as she fights to exonerate herself. When a Carson Springs dweller as beloved as Anna needs help, all the valley's residents rally together, each working in his or her own special way to help one of their own. And what of her passionate encounter with Dr Marc Raboy?

She moved to the music that ruled her life both onstage and off. He dealt with the world with ruthless expertise. Music was his business and he was all business. That is, until she lit up the stage. The attraction was instant and impossible. Because he ruled his empire from glass towers high above the vibrancy of her world, and coming to close to hers was risky business. But she was a woman who dared to dream, and she had dreams big enough for them both.

Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene of the biggest case he's ever been part of. The President's son and daughter have been kidnapped from their school. Alex does everything he can but is shunted to the fringes of the investigation. A deadly contagion in the DC water supply threatens to cripple the capital, and Alex sees the looming shape of the a devastating attack. He is already working flat-out on the abduction, and this massive assault pushes Cross completely over the edge. In an emotional private meeting, the First Lady asks Alex to please save her kids. But even the highest security clearance doesn't help - and Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes in.

'I grew up on the world's largest island.'This apparently simple fact is the starting point for Tim Winton's beautiful, evocative and sometimes provocative memoir of how this unique landscape has shaped him and his writing.For over thirty years, Winton has written novels in which the natural world is as much a living presence as any character. What is true of his work is also true of his life: from boyhood, his relationship with the world around him - rockpools, seacaves, scrub and swamp - was as vital as any other connection. Camping in hidden inlets of the south-east, walking in the high rocky desert fringe, diving at Ningaloo Reef, bobbing in the sea between sets, Winton has felt the place seep into him, with its rhythms, its dangers, its strange sustenance, and learned to see landscape as a living process.Island Home is the story of how that relationship with the Australian landscape came to be, and how it has determined his ideas, his writing and his life. It is also a passionate exhortation for all of us to feel the ground beneath our feet. Much more powerfully than a political idea, or an economy, Australia is a physical entity. Where we are defines who we are, in ways we too often forget to our detriment, and the country's.Wise, rhapsodic, exalted - Island Home is not just a brilliant, moving insight into the life and art of one of our finest writers, but a compelling investigation into the way our country makes us who we are.

Germany, 1939: Christa Sommer boards the Kindertransport, unsure that she'll ever see her parents again. Once in England she is taken in by elderly Mrs Pelling, who grows to love Christa as the daughter she never had. But in 1945 Mrs Pelling dies and her money-grabbing niece turfs Christa out, with only a suitcase to her name. Luck comes her way when a lady she saves from being mugged turns out to be Mayne Esher's friend Daniel's mother. Taking pity on Christa, they take her to Rivenshaw where they plan to start a new life as part of the Esher building firm. There Christa is welcomed with open arms and she soon develops a love for the place, the people and, Daniel...

A Sukey Reynolds mystery.

Detective Harry Hole arrives in a steaming hot Bangkok. But it's work, not pleasure. The Norwegian ambassador has been found dead in a seedy motel room, and no witnesses have come forward. The ambassador had close ties to the Norwegian prime minister, and to avoid a scandal Harry is sent there to hush up the case. But he quickly discovers that there is much more going on behind the scenes. When Harry lays hands on some CCTV footage that will help him unravel what happened that night, things only get more complicated. The man who gave him the tape goes missing, and Harry realises that failing to solve a murder case is by no means the only danger in Bangkok.

As the widow of an infamous race car champion, Abby O'Hurley shunned publicity. But how could she keep charming, disarming, and ruthlessly cynical biographer Dylan Crosby from uncovering her darkest secrets?

FBI Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith, last seen in Backfire, has been recruited by Dillon Savich to join his unit in Washington, D.C. Savich sees something special in Hammersmith, an almost preternatural instinct for tracking criminals. While on his way to D.C., Hammersmith plans to visit his sister, Delsey, a student at Stanislaus School of Music in Maestro, Virginia. Before he arrives, he gets a phone call that Delsey was found naked, unconscious, and covered with blood after a wild party. The blood isn't hers--so who does it belong to? Meanwhile, back in D.C., Savich and Sherlock have their hands full when the grandson of former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is found murdered, every bone in his body broken, and frozen at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Was Savich right--is Griffin gifted with a unique ability to "see" how criminals think? And will he figure out who was behind the attempt on Delsey's life--before it's too late?

What was planned as a restful country sojourn turns into the stuff of nightmares: a young girl who can't remember anything, rumours of vile white slavery and the body of an old woman missing her emerald rings. And Phryne is at the centre, working through the clues to arrive at the incredible truth before another murder is committed. Fortunately, Phryne can still find a little time for a discreet dalliance and the delicious diversion of that rowing team of young men.

The Grelliers and the Schapens are two families who have been farming in the Kaw River Valley for over a hundred and fifty years, their lives connected through the generations by history and geography. Gina Haring, bringing with her the liberal air of the big city, moves into a dilapidated house near both families' properties. Gina has secrets, her own reasons for being in the Kansas countryside, and they're not necessarily what the people around her imagine. Almost every one of the Grelliers is drawn to her, but it is Susan Grellier, a woman of ephemeral passions, who stirs up the wrath of the Schapen clan by getting involved -- and has cataclysmic results for her own family.

Phryne Fisher has plans for her Sydney sojourn, but they begin to go awry when Phryne's maid discovers her thoroughly respectable sister Joan has left her family for the murky nightlife of the Cross, and then postponed again because Phyrne is definitely not the woman to say 'no' when two delightful young men are of their knees, begging for her help in finding their friend innocent of theft. It all sounds simple enough as Phryne sets investigations into motion. But when greed and fear are the motivating factors, people become ruthless and Phyrne quickly finds herself enmeshed in blackmail, secrets, lies and the dangerous influences of deep magic.

This was no ordinary murder, for the victim was Frank Masters, millionaire and philanthropist. The case was bound to attract much public attention. But Inspector Ghote finds that his demands for evidence are met with nothing but lies and evasions.

The House of Lords will never be the same.... Disinclined to watch her language or moderate her manners, "Jack" Troutbeck—assisted by her old friend Robert Amiss—plots vigorously with others to scupper an anti-hunting bill of which she violently disapproves. But she hadn't expected the campaign of intimidation mounted by the animal activists and the attempt on the life of one of her allies. And now there are scenes of horrifying carnage among the peers....

It is 1814. After a long and exhausting series of battles the British and Spanish armies are pushing into south-western France from Spain. Rumours abound that Napoleon has surrendered, been murdered, or fled. But before the French are finally defeated, and Sharpe can lay down his sword, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war must be fought: the battle for the city of Toulouse ... Sharpe's war is not over with the victory. Accused of stealing a consignment of Napoleon's treasure en route to Elba, Sharpe must elude his captors and track down the unknown enemy who has tried to incriminate him.

When Tubby informs his fiancee that her new hat makes her look like a Pekingese and then questions the validity of the story of her narrow escape from a beastly, hungry shark their engagement is firmly called off. But love is in the air for Gussie Fink-Nottle. He abandons his beloved newts to court the new object of his affections, the dreamy and romantic Miss Madeline Bassett. He is dressed as Mephistopheles...and it appears that even the Devil can rely on Jeeves.

THE CURIOUS CURATE: When the village curate is found murdered, retired PR guru Agatha Raisin vows to bring his killer to justice, particularly if the investigation also brings her closer to her handsome next-door neighbour, Colonel Lacey. DUCK AND COVER: Still reeling from the death of their curate, the inhabitants of Carsely decide on Duck Racing and Morris Dancing to cheer themselves up. But the village Fete is unlikely to go smoothly while the killer is still amongst them. THE BURIED TREASURE: When Agatha embarks on a plan to give up smoking, little does she know that it will lead to a treasure hunt, humiliation and a rather nasty murder. THE CIVIL WAR: The search to find the killer leads Agatha and James to the dreamy spires of Oxford, where they soon get Intimate - in a cupboard full of E. M. Forster first editions.

Thirteen years ago eighteen year old Hannah Docherty was arrested for the brutal murder of her family. It was an open and shut case and Hannah's been incarcerated in a secure hospital ever since. When psychotherapist Frieda Klein is asked to meet Hannah and give her assessment of her she reluctantly agrees. What she finds horrifies her. Hannah has become a tragic figure, old before her time. And Frieda is haunted by the thought that Hannah might be as much of a victim as her family; that something wasn't right all those years ago. And as Hannah's case takes hold of her, Frieda soon begins to realise that she's up against someone who'll go to any lengths to protect themselves.

When the shah is thrown out of Iran, the nation's turmoil becomes world headlines. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, heartbreak, and violent death are the foreign helicopter pilots who have been servicing the oil fields up and down the country. Their one objective is to make a bold, concerted escape to safety across the Gulf. James Clavell told the full story of the three weeks it took them to achieve this in his hugely popular bestseller "Whirlwind." Here he has taken out a single, poignant thread from that epic narrative. The result is the moving and tender love story of Erikki, the blond Finnish pilot, and his beautiful high-born Iranian wife, Azadeh.

This is the story that inspired a popular series of films starring Sylvester Stallone. When a young stranger arrives in Madison, Kentucky, the chief of police is determined to rid the town of him and the two war veterans become involved in civilian combat.

Alexandra Frobisher, a modern-thinking woman with hopes of a career in England's famous chocolate-making town of York, has received several proposals of marriage, although none of them promises that elusive extra: love - Matthew Britten-Jones is a man of charm and strong social standing - He impresses Alex and her parents with his wit and intelligence, but would an amicable union be enough for a fulfilling life together? At the end of the war, Captain Harry Blakeney discovers a dead soldier in a trench in France. In the man's possession is a secret love note, tucked inside a tin of chocolates that had been sent to the soldiers as a gift from the king. In pursuit of the author of this mysterious message, Harry travels to Rowntree's chocolate factory in England's north, where his life becomes inextricably bound with Alexandra and Matthew's. Only together will they be able to unlock secrets of the past and offer each other the greatest gift for the future.

Civil war is tearing apart the Kingdom of the Isles, for the throne lies empty and rivals are converging. Somewhere in the Grey Towers Mountains something not of this world is emerging. It will require that alliances be made between mortal enemies if disaster is to be averted. Elves and men must stand together, ancient heroes must rise again, and the magicians must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if the whole world is to be saved.

Translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith. In Police--the last novel featuring Jo Nesbø's hard-bitten, maverick Oslo detective--a killer wreaking revenge on the police had Harry Hole fighting for the safety of the people closest to him. Now, in The Thirst, the story continues as Harry is inextricably drawn back into the Oslo police force. A serial murderer has begun targeting Tinder daters--a murderer whose MO reignites Harry's hunt for a nemesis of his past.

Teddy, would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father, navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

Most debutantes dream of finding husbands. Lady Pandora Ravenel would much rather stay at home and plot out her new board game business. But one night at a glittering London society ball, she's ensnared in a scandal with a wickedly handsome stranger. After years of evading marital traps with ease, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, has finally been caught by a rebellious girl who couldn't be less suitable. In fact she wants nothing to do with him. But Gabriel finds the high-spirited Pandora irresistible. He'll do whatever it takes to possess her, even if their marriage of convenience turns out to be the devil's own bargain. But soon Pandora discovers that her entrepreneurial endeavors have accidentally involved her in a dangerous conspiracy -- and only her husband can keep her safe. As Gabriel protects her from their unknown adversaries, they realize their devil's bargain may just turn out to be a match made in heaven.

Jack Travis is a macho Houston businessman - rich, tough and always in control. So when a beautiful young woman approaches his office carrying a baby that she claims is his, he's shaken more than he would ever let on. Stunned, Jack listens to Ella Varner as she explains that her sister recently gave birth and then abandoned her baby boy - and that enquiries have brought Ella to Jack's door. He virtually has a seizure when she asks him to do a paternity test. But ultimately, will a paternity test set things right? If Jack is the father, will he be the one to care for the baby? Would Ella be prepared to let him go? And if not? Ella can't bear to think of an answer.

It's been two months since Pandora English left her small hometown to live with her mysterious great-aunt in a haunted mansion in Spektor, the fog-wreathed suburb of Manhattan that doesn't appear on any map. With the help of her great-aunt and the beautiful, but dead, Lieutenant Luke, Pandora is beginning to understand the significance of the Lucasta family heritage her late mother kept secret from her. Pandora is heir to a great gift. And with that comes frightening responsibility. Meanwhile, she seems doomed to be forever underestimated in the mortal world. Her fashion editor boss doesn't seem to know she exists. But New York needs Pandora's special gifts. There is a new designer in town, and her ambitions extend far beyond taking over the fashion world one knit at a time.

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the third and final instalment of the 'Infernal Devices' trilogy. (The Infernal Devices is the prequel series to The Mortal Instruments series.)

Thomas has inherited a magical box from his dead grandmother, which provides entry into a mysterious garden where her ghost warns him she was poisoned. For once she belonged to an arcane guild whose members each cultivated a garden and mastered the arts of poison, perfume and medicine. The remaining guild members jostle for power as one by one, they are murdered. Can Thomas solve the mystery before he in turn is threatened?

"Hamlet's father has just died. By the time they've filled in the grave his mother has remarried. Hamlet suspects foul play, and it's troubling his spirit. Or maybe he was always troubled. Ophelia is in love with him. His best friend Horation can't work him out. Then, on a cold, still night, Hamlet meets the ghost of his father..."

Save ten lives with a paperclip, discover how a big banana can ruin your sister's holiday, make a new friend with a garbage bin, develop a taste for sheep's spleen and chips, bounce on a vampire's bed, rescue your dad from a dog and a spider, use a toilet roll to get justice, upset the neighbours with a pickaxe, eat a pizza that makes you fearless, and imagine a world where teachers earn more money than a rock star.

Rosalind and Robbie don't want to spend the summer stuck in their dad's new house with irritating Smash and her glamorous mum. Dad's biggest wish is for everyone to get along. So when he suggests a picnic in nearby Oxshott woods, the children grudgingly agree. That afternoon, in a golden sandpit, Rosalind makes a wish of her own and something extraordinary happens. It just might change their summer from weeks of rows and bickering into the best holiday these four children have ever had.

Nilly is new to the neighbourhood, but is quick to make friends: Doctor Proctor, an eccentric professor; and Lisa, who is teased by the twin terrors Truls and Trym. Nilly and Lisa help Doctor Proctor develop his latest invention, a powder that makes you fart. The powder makes Nilly and Lisa very popular at school when they sell it for fifty cents a bag. And they get revenge on Truls and Trym by giving them an extra-strength dose of fart powder that shoots them up into a tree! It's all good farty fun. That is, until someone steals the industrial-strength fart powder. Now Doctor Proctor's ticket to fame is in the hands of an enemy with evil intentions.

Felix is a grandfather. He has achieved much in his life and is widely admired in the community. He has mostly buried the painful memories of his childhood, but they resurface when his granddaughter Zelda comes to stay with him. Together they face a cataclysmic event armed only with their gusto and love, an event that helps them achieve salvation from the past, but also brings the possibility of destruction.

A lonely pair of magic boots are locked up in a tower and in need of a good home. Titch and Mitch would dearly love to have them, but the boots have other ideas. Escaped lions, mercy missions, a turkey with special powers, Christmas chaos and some very strange cheese! These two pixies take it all in their stride.

The author tells the story of her and her mother's escape from an abusive, fanatical Iranian father when she was six, as well as how she lived her subsequent life under the shadow of fear of her menacing father, and eventually was healed by her faith in God.

The brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances. In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals.

World War II, the German Army attacking, during the Battle of the Bulge. Taken by surprise, the allies ordered all troops to hold their line at all costs. The US 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division followed orders. Usually a reconnaissance group, these redoubtable men engaged in deadly combat until they ran out of ammunition. The whole platoon was captured, but only after they had held a crucial road junction long enough to seriously delay Joachim Pieper's SS battle group. By allowing the allies to regroup, they probably changed the course of this battle. The story shows their training prior to the engagement and their life in prison camps afterwards.

Kristina Olsson's mother lost her infant son, Peter, when he was snatched from her arms as she boarded a train in the hot summer of 1950. She was young and frightened, trying to escape a brutal marriage, but despite the violence and cruelty she'd endured, she was not prepared for this final blow, this breathtaking punishment. Yvonne would not see her son again for nearly 40 years. Kristina was the first child of her mother's subsequent, much gentler marriage and, like her siblings, grew up unaware of the reasons behind her mother's sorrow, though Peter's absence resounded through the family, marking each one. Yvonne dreamt of her son by day and by night, while Peter grew up a thousand miles and a lifetime away, dreaming of his missing mother.

Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy, the rock'n'roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have. Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny - Jimmy Barnes's childhood memoir is at once the story of migrant dreams fulfilled and dashed. Arriving in Australia in the Summer of 1962, things went from bad to worse for the Swan family - Dot, Jim and their six kids. The scramble to manage in the tough northern suburbs of Adelaide in the 60s would take its toll on the Swans as dwindling money, too much alcohol, and fraying tempers gave way to violence and despair. This is the story a family's collapse, but also a young boy's dream to escape the misery of the suburbs with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a rock n roll band and get out of town for good.

Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. As a five-year-old during the Second World War, Alex Kurzem had watched from a tree as the entire Jewish population of his village, including his family, were murdered by a German-led execution squad. He scavenged in the forests of Russia for several months before falling into the hands of a Latvian police brigade that later became an SS company. After one soldier discovered this young boy was actually Jewish, Alex was made to promise never to reveal his true identity - to forget his old life, his family, and even his name. The young boy became the company's mascot and part of the Nazi propaganda machine responsible for killing his own people. Fearful of being discovered-as either a Jew or a Nazi-Alex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity.

Most people at one time or another have probably been curious to know, "What could account for all of those strange objects in the sky that many credible witnesses see?" Or, what about the modern mystery of alien abductions and stories of visitations by beings claiming to be from other planets or star systems? Are aliens really making contact with human beings? Is it important anyway? At last, an easy-to-understand book traces the history of this strange phenomenon utilizing the research of many of the "heavyweights" of UFOlogy -- and it's been making sense to a lot of people. This is a book for everyone. The author's research and conclusions will surprise you and challenge your thinking, not just about UFOs, but about the nature of life itself. This is a landmark volume that brings together the most important evidences, coming to conclusions far more sinister -- yet profound -- than most could imagine. - Publisher.

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington sharing his personal experience of having to work to rise up from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, to his work establishing the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to help black people learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and Native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students.