Online Library Catalogue

Based on the author's own vivid experiences, "The Cruel Sea" is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two. Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves. Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning from the deep.

In the waning days of the Second World War, the Japanese tried a last desperate measure - a different kind of Kamikaze mission, this one carried out by two submarines bound for the west coast of the United States, their cargo a revolutionary new strain of biological virus.

A long time ago, Joe Pike asked for help. In return, he would, one day, be called upon to return the favour, no questions asked. That day has come. Joe Pike is asked to protect the life of Larkin Conner Barkley, a spoiled rich girl who happens to be a federal witness in a major case. But someone is leaking information about their whereabouts, and the killers are getting all too close. So Pike he hatches a plan: disappear into the anonymous underbelly of Los Angeles, turn the tables, and hunt down the hunters. Enlisting the help of Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals; even the cops aren't who they seem. But as the body count rises, it becomes clear that Pike's biggest threat may be the girl herself - an edgy, yet intensely vulnerable soul determined to destroy herself, unless Joe can fill the void in her bruised heart.

In the Sicilian village of Roccacolomba, La Mennulara ('the woman who gathers almonds') lies dead.For more than 40 years she had been at the heart of the Alfallipe family, one of the richest families in Roccacolomba first as a humble maidservant and then rising to manager of the family estates. Now, at her death, gossip among the villagers is reaching fever pitch as they begin to wonder just how La Mennulara managed to amass such a large fortune.In this brilliant novel a bestseller in Italy and the winner of four major prizes Simonetta Agnello Hornby has created a splendid cast of characters, among them the greedy Alfallipe children hunting for Mennulara's will, and the villagers who all love to gossip. Was Mennulara a seducer, a blackmailer, a humble servant or an arrogant social climber? And why does don Vincenzo Ancona, the feared mafia boss, come to her funeral?

The Reading Group follows the trials and tribulations of a group of women who meet regularly to read and discuss books.Over the course of a year, each of these women become intertwined, both in the books they read and within each other's lives. Inspired by a shared desire for conversation, a good book and a glass of wine-Clare, Harriet, Nicole, Polly, and Susan undergo startling revelations and transformations despite their differences in background, age and respective dilemmas. What starts as a reading group gradually evolves into a forum where the women may express their views through the books they read and grow to become increasingly more open as the bonds of friendship cement. In The Reading Group, Noble reveals the many complicated paths in life we all face as well as the power and importance of friendship. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Christmas in Adelaide promises to be a pleasant vacation for Andrew Basnett, retired professor of botany and amateur sleuth. But the shadow of an unsolved murder hangs over the lives of his hosts, Tony and Jan Gardiner. The police still suspect Jan of her first husband’s murder – and then a second killing takes place under the same bizarre circumstances. What can a guest do in such a case but try to clear the name of his hostess and solve the crime?

Jude Fawley dreams of studying at the university in Christminster, but his background as an orphan raised by his working-class aunt leads him instead into a career as a stonemason. He is inspired by the ambitions of the town schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson, who left for Christminster when Jude was a child.

From the best-selling author of Circle of Friends comes a Christmas anthology of powerful stories that reflect on the various ways in which the holidays serve as a catalyst to promote change, growth, and new beginnings.

An ancient bridge collapses over a gorge in Peru, hurling five people into the abyss. It seems a meaningless human tragedy. But one witness, a Franciscan monk, believes the deaths might not be as random as they appear. Convinced that the disaster is a punishment sent from Heaven, the monk sets out to discover all he can about the travellers. The five strangers were connected in some way, he thinks. There must be a purpose behind their deaths. But are their lost lives the result of sin? ... Or of love?

Greece, 1940. In the port city of Salonika, with its wharves and brothels, dark alleys and Turkish mansions, a tense political drama is being played out. As Adolf Hitler plans to invade the Balkans, spies begin to circle--and Costa Zannis, a senior police official, must deal with them all. He is soon in the game, working to secure an escape route for fugitives from Nazi Berlin that is protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters--and hunted by the Gestapo. Meanwhile, as war threatens, the erotic life of the city grows passionate. For Zannis, that means a British expatriate who owns the local ballet academy, a woman from the dark side of Salonika society, and the wife of a shipping magnate. With extraordinary historical detail and a superb cast of characters, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to fight back against the world's evil.

Your child asks for her mother. But she doesn't mean you. When Anna's partner walks away from their relationship, she is shattered. But it is her little girl Ava who takes it hardest of all. The six year old falls silent for three days. When she does speak, her words are troubling. Ava wants to go home. To a place called Seal. To her other mother. Anna knows to unravel the mystery she must find Seal and take Ava there. She hopes this tiny island will unlock her daughter's memories. But could it also offer a new life...and unexpected love...for Anna too?

Heartwarming and gritty, the story of a factory girl in Bermondsey through World War 1. They call them custard tarts – the girls who work at the Pearce Duff custard and jelly factory. But now the custard tarts are up in arms, striking for better conditions. Among them is Nellie Clark, trying to hold her family together after the death of her mother. She has the most desperate struggle to make ends meet, often going hungry to feed her little brothers. Two men vie for Nellie's love. One is flamboyant, confident and a chancer. The other is steady, truthful and loyal. But the choice is not as easy as it might seem. Looming over them all – over Bermondsey, over the factory, over the custard tarts and their lives and loves – is the shadow of the First World War. And that will change everything and everyone.

As a young man, Harvey Beam got the hell out of his hometown, confirming his suspicions that you can successfully run away from your problems. But after forging a big-city career in talkback radio, Harvey is now experiencing a ‘positional hiatus’. The words aren’t coming out right, Harvey’s mojo is fading and a celebrity host is eyeing his timeslot. Back in Shorton, Harvey’s father Lionel appears at long last to be dying. It seems it’s finally time for Harvey Beam to head home and face a different kind of music. In wading through a past that seems disturbingly unchanged, the last thing he expects is a chance encounter with a wonderful stranger …

This unique Colours book will delight children with textured pages, rhymes to read and wonderful fingerprint pictures.

Love Letters in the Sand is a collection of beautiful poems by one of the world's greatest mystics, Khalil Gibran. They evoke that special joy and excitement in the newness of love and the desire it awakens in you. But, as Khalil Gibran follows love's course, from spring to summer to autumn, he is realistic in describing love's often painful and difficult path before it reaches maturity or the sorrows of passing. Love Letters in the Sand, composed of extracts from some of Gibran's most famous works, including The Prophet, conveys the eternal power and magic of love; it will arouse in you a new sense of love's meaning. Optimistic and wise, these love poems convey a mystical certainty of the arrival of love, while dramatizing the search for a soul mate that takes place in daily life, the imagination, and dreams. Inviting reflection on the meaning of love and eloquently rendering the chain of moments that the experience of love leads us through, this famous inspirational poet channels the same proverbial simplicity and lyrical beauty that made his poem "The Prophet" instantly and internationally loved.

Set in a fictional Australian Riverina town at the height of a devastating drought. In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself. A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories he hears from the locals about the priest and incidents leading up to the shooting don't fit with the accepted version of events his own newspaper reported in an award-winning investigation. Martin can't ignore his doubts, nor the urgings of some locals to unearth the real reason behind the priest's deadly rampage. Just as Martin believes he is making headway, a shocking new development rocks the town, which becomes the biggest story in Australia. The media descends on Riversend and Martin is now the one in the spotlight. His reasons for investigating the shooting have suddenly become very personal. Wrestling with his own demons, Martin finds himself risking everything to discover a truth that becomes darker and more complex with every twist. But there are powerful forces determined to stop him, and he has no idea how far they will go to make sure the town's secrets stay buried.

Authentic narrative of the death of Lord Nelson: with the circumstances preceding, attending, and subsequent to, that event; the professional report on his lordship's wound, and several interesting anecdotes, by William Beatty, M.D. Surgeon to the victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, and now physician to the fleet under the Command of the Earl of St. Vincent, k.b. &c. &c. &c.

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. With A Supplement Of Interesting Letters By Distinguished Characters.

The life of American intelligence officer Oliver Grant flips upside down when the Mafia kidnaps his sister. Now, Grant must complete a dangerous assignment for a mob boss to get his beloved sibling back. (Originally published under the pseudonym James Graham.)

When Eve Duncan gave birth to her daughter, she experienced a love she never knew existed. Nothing would stand in the way of giving Bonnie a wonderful life, until the unthinkable happened and the seven-year-old vanished into thin air. Eve found herself in the throes of a nightmare from which there was no escape. But a new Eve emerged: a woman who would use her remarkable talent as a forensic sculptor to help others find closure in the face of tragedy. Now, with the help of her beloved Joe Quinn and CIA Agent Catherine Ling, Eve has come closer than ever to the truth. But the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that Bonnie's father is a key player in solving this monstrous puzzle. And that Bonnie's disappearance was not as random as everyone had always believed.

Lamb traces the self-discovery of David Lamb, a narcissistic middle-aged man with a tendency toward dishonesty, in the weeks following the disintegration of his marriage and the death of his father. Hoping to regain some faith in his own goodness, he turns his attention to Tommie, an awkward and unpopular eleven-year-old girl. Lamb is convinced that he can help her avoid a destiny of apathy and emptiness and even comes to believe that his devotion to Tommie is in her best interest. But when he decides to abduct a willing Tommie for a road trip from Chicago to the Rockies, planning to initiate her to the beauty of the mountain wilderness, they are both shaken in ways neither of them expects. Lamb is a masterful exploration of the dynamics of love and dependency that challenges the boundaries between adolescence and adulthood, confronts preconceived notions about conventional morality, and exposes mankind's eroded relationship with nature. (Winner of the 2011 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.)

Malcolm Sage had been a hot shot intelligence agent for Britain's Division Z during the Great War, but when the fighting ceased, his thirst for action and adventure didn't. Fortunately, his old chief from division Z helped him set up the Malcolm Sage Detective Bureau, and much merry mayhem and more than a few ripping good yarns ensued.

Tall, dark and eligible? That's all that matters to the women of Jacobsville when it comes to handsome and aloof FBI agent Jon Blackhawk. But if it were up to him, he would never settle down. Luckily, Jon has the best gatekeeper: his efficient and reliable assistant, Joceline Perry. Without her help, he'd be at the mercy of husband hunters - but the more he comes to rely on her, the more he notices how invaluable she really is.... While Joceline can't deny that her boss is attractive, as a single mother with responsibilities she's determined to be professional. But when Jon is accosted by a criminal seeking revenge, she comes to his aid - fueling the spark that is growing between them. As the attempts on Jon's life increase, Joceline stands by his side. But when the smoke clears, will the man who avoided love realize that all he ever needed was right there all along?

The Adjustment Bureau is a major motion picture based on Philip K. Dick's classic paranoid story, The Adjustment Team. This is the short story, The Adjustment Team, which asks the question, Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Ed Fletcher is a real estate agent with a normal life, until one day he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. He arrives at a terrifying, grey, ash world. Ed rushes home and tells his wife, Ruth, who goes back to the office with him. When they return, everything is normal. But he soon realizes people and objects have subtly changed. Panic-stricken, he runs to a public phone to warn the police, only to have the phone booth ascend heavenward with Fletcher inside.

Hugh Marlowe fought for his country before ending up on the wrong side of the law. After five hard years inside, he was ready to fight anyone who stood in the way of what was his. Rough justice was still the only thing he understood. Until a beautiful, vulnerable woman started asking for his help. A world away from London gangland, Marlowe was ready to try a new life. But like the night, his devil was waiting. Not one of his faces the same.

Walt and Judy's happiness has been blighted by their childlessness; although their marriage seems blissful, Judy feels increasingly empty and Walt longs to make her happy again. So one day he brings home Looee - a baby chimpanzee. Looee, exuberant and demanding, immediately fills up the gap in Walt and Judy's life, and they come to love him as their own son. Like any child, Looee is affectionate and quick to learn, generous and engaging. But he is also a deeply unpredictable animal, and one night their unique family life is changed forever.

1961, Liverpool. Flora Wilcox's fatherless daughters couldn't be more different - Hilary is serious, hardworking and bespectacled, while Isobel is an attractive blonde who seeks fun and excitement. When Isobel's boyfriend drops her to take up with Hilary, a rift develops between the girls, and even their mother can't build bridges. While Hilary settles into wedded bliss and motherhood, Isobel escapes to London and a passionate affair with a much older married man. As Isobel worries whether her secrets will find her out, Hilary's twin sons are struggling with dyslexia. Can the sisters support each other when they need it most?

With a killer on the loose, it's the worst time to be on lockdown ... It's just another day at the office for Washington Metro Police lieutenant Sam Holland when a body surfaces off the shores of the Anacostia River. But before Sam can sink her teeth into the new case, Secret Service agents seize her from the crime scene. A threat has been made against her family, but nobody will tell her anything--including the whereabouts of her husband, Vice President Nick Cappuano. This isn't the first time the couple's lives have been at risk, but when a bombshell from Sam's past returns to haunt her, she can't help but wonder if there's a connection. With a ruthless killer out for vengeance, and Nick struggling to maintain his reputation after secrets from his own past are revealed, Sam works to tie the threat to a murder that can't possibly be a coincidence. And she has to get it done before her husband's career is irrevocably damaged...

As the title indicates, here are three science fiction stories by Frank Herbert: Missing Link, originally published in Astounding SF, 1959; Operation Haystack, also published in Astounding SF, 1959; and Old Rambling House, published in Galaxy SF, 1958.

Rose Woodrowe is getting married to Tyler Masson, a wonderful, sensitive man who is head over heels in love with her. The only problem? This isn't the first time for either of them, and their five grown-up children have strong opinions on the matter. Who to listen to? Who to please? Rose and Tyler are determined to get it right this time, but in trying to make everyone happy, can they ever be happy themselves?

When an inexplicable wave of energy slammed into North America, millions died. In the rest of the world, wars erupted, borders vanished, and the powerful lost their grip on power. Against this backdrop, with a conflicted U.S. president struggling to make momentous decisions in Seattle and a madman fomenting rebellion in Texas, three women are fighting their own battles, for survival, justice, and revenge. Special agent Caitlin Monroe moves stealthily through a South American jungle. Her target: a former French official now held prisoner by a ruthless despot. To free the prisoner, Caitlin will kill anyone who gets in her way. And then she will get the truth about how a master terrorist escaped a secret detention center in French Guadeloupe to strike a fatal blow in New York City. Sofia Peiraro is a teenage girl who witnessed firsthand the murder and mayhem of Texas under the rule of General Mad Jack Blackstone. Sofia might have tried to build a life with her father in the struggling remnants of Kansas City, if a vicious murder hadn't set her on another course altogether: back to Texas, even to Blackstone himself. Julianne Balwyn is a British-born aristocrat turned smuggler. Shopping in the most fashionable neighborhood of Darwin, Australia, now a fantastic neo-urban frontier, Jules has a pistol holstered in the small of her lovely back. She is playing the most dangerous game of all: waiting for the person who is hunting her to show his face, so she can kill him first. Three women in three corners of a world plunged into electrifying chaos. Nation-states struggling for their survival. Immigrants struggling for new lives.

Like the city of New Orleans itself, Claire Laurent is a vibrant beauty laced with a mysterious elusiveness. The founder of French Silk, a fabulous lingerie company, she has fought hard to make it a worldwide success. Then a TV evangelist attacks French Silk's erotic sleepwear as sinful. And when he is killed, Claire becomes the prime suspect. District Attorney Robert Cassidy knows Claire is damning herself with lie after lie about the murder, even as he feels her drawing him into her world and her very soul. But neither Cassidy nor her protests of innocence can save Claire unless she reveals a shocking truth, one she has sworn to take to the grave.

"Whichever option I choose, men are going to die ..." This is the devil's alternative. An appalling choice, it must be congronted by the President of the United States and other statesmen thoughout the world. This gripping story takes the reader from Moscow to London, from Rotterdam to Washington, as the world's biggest oil tanker takes threatens to pollute the North Sea.

Having simultaneously received letters of call from two different churches, Philip Strong must choose, balancing head, heart, and God's calling.

Will Robie returns home from a mission overseas to discover that his boss--code named Blue Man--has vanished. His last known location was in remote Colorado, and there have been no other sightings or communications since. But there is violence brewing in this small town, and Robie and his sometime partner Jessica Reel will be lucky if they make it out alive--with or without Blue Man.

Opposites attract, but they don't last. At least that's what improper Southern belle Maggie Forsythe thinks after being unceremoniously dumped two weeks before getting hitched to a man even her mother approves of. Maggie has never given two figs what anyone thinks, so why is she hiding away from her South Carolina Low Country home?

Amos Decker, David Baldacci's unique special agent, who suffered a head injury that resulted in giving him the gift of a remarkable memory together with a condition called synaesthesia, takes on another case in The Fix. Walter Dabney is a family man. The father of four grown daughters and a loving husband, he's built a life many would be proud of. But then the unthinkable happens. Standing outside the FBI Headquarters in Washington DC, Dabney shoots school teacher Anne Berkshire in cold blood before turning the gun on himself. One of the many witnesses is Amos Decker; a man who forgets nothing and sees what most miss. Baffled by what appears to be a seemingly senseless and random killing, Decker is thrust into the investigation to determine what drove this family man to pull the trigger. As part of an FBI special task force, Decker and the team delve into the lives of Dabney and Berkshire to find a connection that doesn't seem to exist. What they do find are secrets that stretch back a lifetime, and reveal a current plot of impending destruction that will send the world reeling and place Decker and his team squarely in the crosshairs.

February 1806: Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho carries the news of Trafalgar to southern Africa, where he is to aid British ground forces in any way he can to retake Cape Town from the Dutch. Impatient to be home, Bolitho decides yet again that the boldest measures are best, and proves to the army that brave men do not die in vain.

Christmas: a time of peace and goodwill. Oh no it isn't, thinks Detective Paul Banham, called out to a suspicious death at the local theatre, right in the middle of the pantomime. Was it an accident - or murder? On the other side of the curtain Banham and his squad find rivalries, grudges and illicit liaisons begin to surface. A second death leaves Banham in no doubt that theres a murderer on the loose - but the panto is sold out and show must go on.

Bella must choose between her friendship with Jacob and her relationship with Edward, both vampires, but when Seattle is ravaged by a mysterious string of killings, the three of them need to decide whether their personal lives are more important than the well-being of an entire city.

What is it like to be a fox hunted by hounds? We find out through the senses of an escaped convict as he struggles to free himself from would-be captors. The struggle is brutal. In the end, we are left wondering which person really wins--the pursued or the pursuer. Or perhaps which one is now the pursuer, which the pursued.

New York City is thrown into chaos by the assaults of the Bone Collector, a serial kidnapper and killer who gives the police a chance to save his victims from death by leaving obscure clues - The cops go to Lincoln Rhyme, an ex-NYPD forensics expert left paralysed after an accident on the job - Rhyme reluctantly postpones his ambitions towards suicide and puts together a forensic investigation team, enlisting as his eyes and ears young police officer Amelia Sachs. Rhyme digs deep into the only world he has left - his astonishing mind - and slowly begins to narrow the noose around the Bone Collector. But the kidnapper is narrowing his own noose - around Lincoln Rhyme.

In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked by the "butcher boy" incident, as coverage of a family brutally murdered by one of their own swept across newspapers and TV screens nationwide - Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood. Lonely, that is, until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand. Polly finds him attractive, charming, and intelligent. Marshall, a lifelong bachelor, spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly's two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him. However, as Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband's increasing dark moods, fearing that Danny may be influencing Marshall in ways she cannot understand. But what of the prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader, who proclaims that Polly will murder her husband? What, if any, is the Marchand's connection to the infamous "butcher boy" multiple homicide? And could Marshall and his eccentric brother be keeping a dark secret from Polly, one that will shatter the happiness she has forever prayed for?

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a prolific and genre-bending American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. 2 B R 0 2 B is a satiric short story that imagines life (and death) in a future world where aging has been "cured" and population control is mandated and administered by the government. (Summary by Wikipedia and Laurie Anne Walden) This recording is done as a dramatic reading.

CLASSIC FICTION (PRE C 1945). William Dorrit has been a resident of the Marshalsea debtors prison for so many years that he has gained the nickname "The Father of the Marshalsea." However, his suffering is eased by his close bond with youngest daughter Amy, or "Little Dorrit." The dashing Arthur Clennam, returning to London after many years in China, enters their lives and the Dorrits' fortunes begin to rise and fall. A biting satirical work on the shortcomings of nineteenth-century government and society. Little Dorrit is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857.

"It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. from Red's father and mother, newly-arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red's grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.

Harold Middleton returns in this explosive sequel to The Chopin Manuscript as he's drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war. Careening from Nice to London and Moscow to Kashmir to prevent nuclear disaster, Middleton is unaware his prey has changed and the act of terror is far more diabolical than he knows. Will he discover the identity of the Scorpion in time to halt an event that will pit the United States, China, and Russia against each other at the brink of World War III? A follow-up to the award-winning The Chopin Manuscript, The Copper Bracelet brings together 16 of the world's most celebrated thriller writers including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, David Hewson, David Liss, and Lisa Scottoline to each write a chapter of this pulsing tale. Once again, Jeffery Deaver set the story in motion, and brings it to its shocking finale.

Everywhere on earth the fairy world of each country is older and perhaps more enduring than the one we see and feel and tread upon. So I tell in this book the folk lore of the Korean people, and of the behavior of the particular kind of fairies that inhabit the Land of Morning Splendor. (From the Preface by William Elliot Griffis)

Two friends were asked by their respective fathers on their death beds to promise to marry a special girl, who lived across the street and who they had been very fond of since childhood. Once they reached young manhood, one of these fulfilled his father's wish. The story takes off from there, and, while all three continued to be very close to one another as they grew older, the married man was sent abroad on business, allowing his friend to take care of his wife and child while he was away. While overseas, the married man fell into temptation. Many twists and turns, as well as surprises were to follow, rendering the reader curious as to how it would all turn out. ( Roger Melin)

Fergus Hume was a prolific writer of Victorian murder mysteries and The Clock Struck One is another great example of his inventive plots. Julian Edermont living in near seclusion for the last 20 years fearful of an unknown assailant is beaten to death in his study following an argument with his ward's fiance Dr. Allen Scott. The secret revealed to Allen during this argument is such that he breaks off his engagement to Dora refusing to reveal the cause. Since those around her seem unwilling to share what they know it is up to Dora to discover the truth and unmask the murderer of her guardian. - Summary by Celine Major

This short, engaging volume summarizes the life of a priest who, intending to spark a lively academic debate by nailing 95 theses on a church door, unwittingly sets the continent aflame with the 1517 Reformation of the Catholic Church. - Summary by Elyse J. Wood

This is the story of Lillie Bird, a woman from a locked religious community who one day finds herself in the freedom of a strange new world, England, accused of murdering a man. It was there, in that land of cold, dark skies and scuffed and tumbling streets that she had first found the pleasure and the sadness, and the love she had, for years, so desperately sought.

The classic story of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, now in play form! The play was adapted by Jessie Braham White (the pen name of Winthrop Ames), from the Grimm tale.

This monumental and fascinating book, the product of seven years of original research, will forever change the terms of the debate about the conflicting claims of the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East. The weight of the comprehensive evidence found and brilliantly analyzed by historian and journalist Joan Peters answers many crucial questions, among them: Why are the Arab refugees from Israel seen in a different light from all the other, far more numerous peoples who were displaced after World War II? Why, indeed, are they seen differently from the Jewish refugees who were forced, in 1948 and after, to leave the Arab countries to find a haven in Israel? Who, in fact, are the Arabs who were living within the borders of present-day Israel, and where did they come from? Joan Peters's highly readable and moving development of the answers to these and related questions will appear startling, even to those on both sides of the argument who have considered themselves to be in command of the facts. On the basis of a definitive weight of hitherto unexamined population and other historical data, much of it buried in untouched archives, Peters demonstrates that Jews did not displace Arabs in Palestine-just the reverse: Arabs displaced Jews; that a hidden but major Arab migration and immigration took place into areas settled by Jews in pre-Israel Palestine; that a substantial number of the Arab refugees called Palestinians in reality had foreign roots; that for every Arab refugee who left Israel in 1948, there was a Jewish refugee who fled or was expelled from his Arab birthplace at the same time-today's much discussed Sephardic majority in Israel is in fact composed mainly of these Arab-born Jewish refugees or their offspring; that Britain, the Mandatory power, winked at and even encouraged Arab immigration into Palestine between the two World Wars; that by disguising the Arab immigrants as "indigenous native Palestinian Arabs," the British justified their restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement, dooming masses of European Jews to destruction in the Nazi camps. Joan Peters also unfolds a historical record to shatter the widely held belief that Arabs and Jews harmoniously coexisted for centuries in the Arab world-the fact is that the Jews, along with other non-Muslims, were second-class citizens, oppressed in the Muslim world for more than a millennium. And this continuing prejudicial tradition of hostility underlies, as well, every Arab action toward the state of Israel. In addition to her pioneering archival researches, Joan Peters has frequently traveled in the Middle East, conducting numerous interviews and gathering the personal observations of the first-rate reporter she is. The result is a book that has already had a major impact on policy discussions of one of the most vital and intractable of the world's problems, shrouded until now in a fog of misinformation and ignorance.

Gough had no small talk, Margaret had the gift of easy conversation. He was often ill-at-ease in company and preferred his books. She was warm, inclusive and jollied him along. He had a vicious tongue and a quick temper. She always tried to see the best in people. He knew everything about the ideology, history and heroes of the labour movement. She trusted her instincts.They saw each other as equals and never hesitated to express their different viewpoints. He may have passed the laws that changed the nation, but she made it possible. This is a story of love, respect, struggle, success, failure, disappointment and resilience. The strength and endurance of this remarkable relationship helped change our nation politically, culturally and socially. Neither Gough Whitlam nor Margaret Dovey would have developed into what each became without the influence of the other. Through every major political change, every election campaign, every triumph and every loss, they stood together. Margaret and Gough takes us inside a partnership where the political was always personal and the personal was always political.

A self help book about laughter.

The world knows Bon Scott as the wild rocker, the frontman for AC/DC who tragically died of alcohol poisoning on the eve of the band's rise to superstardom. That's the legend, now meet the man. Live Wire gives us the Bon Scott we never knew. In this deeply personal and revealing portrait we learn what it was like to be his friend, live and tour with him, and be part of the close-knit world from which one of biggest bands of all time emerged. With Bon there was always sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, but Live Wire also demonstrates the humour, intelligence and warmth of the man. From his early days with The Valentines, living in rundown apartments in inner Melbourne, to the legendary early years of AC/DC, this is the story of Bon, told by three of the people who knew him best. John D'Arcy was Bon's roadie and mate. Gabby D'Arcy, Darce's wife, was a close friend of Bon's. And Mary Renshaw was - as AC/DC's former bass player Mark Evans called her - Bon's soulmate and companion. As Bon said, it's a long way to the top. And Mary, Darce and Gabby were with him every step of the way. They lived with him, they loved him, and this is how they remember him.

21 Suggested lessons to make your life happy and fulfilling.

Can a memoir begin without memories? Can a father be invented? When David Carlin was only six months old, his father, Brian, died. It was the 1960s in isolated Western Australia, a place in which emotions were discreetly veiled, women did not attend funerals - and suicide was a sin. Brian became a mysteriously absent figure in David's family story, hardly spoken of again. As an adult, David yearns to conjure up his father, to uncover what led to his death at his own hand. Gradually, he begins to piece together Brian's story from the faltering memories of friends and relatives, and from the voices and incidents that emerge from Brian's medical records. Into the inevitable gaps that remain, David cannot help but stray with his own imaginings. Through David, Brian's story starts to fill out - up rise the hessian-walled house of his childhood on the edge of the wheat belt during the Depression, the outposts of heady undergraduate bohemia in late-1940s Perth, and Brian's happily married life with a brilliant and loving young wife, and an equally brilliant career. But, in among it all, there also rises a darkness - a damaging undertow of electric-shock therapy, insulin comas, and whispered wartime events. In this masterfully rendered memoir, David moves like a ghost through time and place, deftly weaving a story from what he has always known, and from all that he will never know.

Sally Field is one of the most celebrated, beloved and enduring actors of our time, and now she tells her story for the first time in this intimate and haunting literary memoir - In her own words, she writes about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother. Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated audiences for more than five decades, beginning with her first television role at the age of 17. From Gidget's sweet-faced girl next door, to the dazzling complexity of Sybil to the Academy Award-winning ferocity and depth of her role in Norma Rae and Mary Todd Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity. Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within. With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind the scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships including, most importantly, her complicated love for her own mother.

The story of the Clipper ships, and the tens of thousands of migrants they brought to the Australian colony of the 19th century, is one of the world's great migration stories - For anyone who travelled to Australia before 1850, it was a long and arduous journey that could take as much as four months - With the arrival of the clipper ships, and favourable winds, the journey from England could be done in a little over half this time - It was a revolution in travel that made the clipper ships the jet airlines of their day, bringing keen and willing migrants 'down under' in record time, all hell-bent on making their fortune in Australia - Rob Mundle is back on the water, with a ripping story that starts on the sea, aboard a clipper ship charging across the Southern Ocean, laden with passengers heading for Melbourne in response to the lure of gold. Brimming with countless stories of the magnificent ships and fearless (and feckless) characters we find on them, like Englishman 'Bully' Forbes and American 'Bully' Waterman driving their ships to the limit and the tragic legacy of the many shipwrecks that were so much a part of this era.

Richard Nixon opens with young Navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. Within four years of that first win, Nixon would be a U.S. senator; in six the vice president of the United States of America. "Few came so far, so fast, and so alone," Farrell writes. Finally president, Nixon's staff was full of bright young men who devised forward-thinking reforms addressing health care, poverty, civil rights, and protection of the environment. It was a fine legacy, but Nixon cared little for it. He aspired to make his mark on the world stage instead, and his 1972 opening to China was the first great crack in the Cold War. Nixon had another legacy, too: an America divided and polarized. It was Nixon who launched the McCarthy era, who set South against North, and who spurred the Silent Majority to despise and distrust the country's elites. He persuaded Americans to gnaw, as he did, on grievances, and to look at one another as enemies. Finally, in August 1974, after two years of the mesmerizing intrigue and scandal known as Watergate, Nixon became the only president to resign in disgrace.

Landmark United States Supreme Court decisions focusing on civil rights and equal protection between 1856 and 1948.

Three very different girls from the same country town share an inner-city house during their first year out of school.'Sometimes your life changes and you don't know why. A kind of shift happens. I remember thinking, well, that's over: eighteen years, three months and fifteen days. From now on it will be different.'Carmel, Jude and Katerina come from the same country town, but they couldn't be more different. Carmel is a talented musician, but awkward and painfully shy. Jude is a passionate idealist still coming to terms with the death of her revolutionary father. And Katerina, well, let's just say she's not called Queen Kat for nothing. So when they all move into the same inner-city house in their first university year, sparks are ready to fly.But this year is a time to re-invent themselves, a time to square up to the world. Time to get a life.Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life is about friendship, families, betrayal and love, and a tumultuous year in the lives of three unforgettable young women.

'If I stood you in front of a man, pressed a gun into your palm and told you to squeeze the trigger, would you do it?' 'No, sir, no way!' 'What if I then told you we'd gone back in time and his name was Adolf Hitler? Would you do it then?' Zimbabwe, 1980s. The war is over, independence has been won and Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era. For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he learns that for some of his classmates, the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on ...white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government. Boys like Ivan. Clever, cunning Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top.

Surfing the net during a lightning storm has amazing consequences for a group of teenage friends. Superhero powers are theirs at the click of a mouse! Trouble is, they don't know what the powers will be until they try them out ...But super powers carry super responsibilities. When a weather-altering, world-conquering supervillain kidnaps their mum, they have to decide: save her ...or save the world!

There are a lot of things Jamie hates about her life: her dark hair, her dad's Stone Age Charter of Curfew Rights, her real name - Jamilah Towfeek. For the past three years Jamie has hidden her Lebanese background from everyone at school. It's only with her email friend John that she can really be herself. But now things are getting complicated: the most popular boy in school is interested in her, but there's no way he would be if he knew the truth. Then there's Timothy, the school loner, who for some reason Jamie just can't stop thinking about. As for John, he seems to have a pretty big secret of his own.

The story of Minions begins at the dawn of time. Starting as single-celled yellow organisms, Minions evolve through the ages, perpetually serving the most despicable of masters. Continuously unsuccessful at keeping these masters--from T. rex to Napoleon--the Minions find themselves without someone to serve and fall into a deep depression. But one Minion named Kevin has a plan, and he--alongside teenage rebel Stuart and lovable little Bob--ventures out into the world to find a new evil boss for his brethren to follow. The trio embarks upon a thrilling journey that ultimately leads them to their next potential master, Scarlet Overkill, the world's first-ever female super-villain. They travel from frigid Antarctica to 1960s New York City, ending in modern London, where they must face their biggest challenge to date: saving all of Minionkind ... from annihilation.

This collection features the following stories: The hare and the tortoise -- The honest woodcutter -- Rapunzel -- Simeli Mountain -- The queen bee -- The tinder box -- The pied piper of Hamelin.

After a tornado uproots her from her home in Kansas, Dorothy and her beloved dog Toto are whisked away to the strange and magical Land of Oz - Landing in Munchkin Country, and accidentally killing the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy and Toto embark on a quest to find the only person who can help them return home: Oz, the Great and Terrible Wizard. Setting off along the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, they quickly make new friends, including a Scarecrow, Tin Man and cowardly Lion, all of whom hope that Oz might help them in their own quests: to find brains, a heart and courage. But not everyone is so welcoming. The Wicked Witch of the West has vowed revenge for the death of her sister, and she will do everything in her power to ensure that Dorothy never makes it back to Kansas.