Review
Praise for the Percy Jackson series: 'Witty and inspired. Gripping, touching and deliciously satirical...This is most likely to succeed Rowling. Puffin is on to a winner' - Amanda Craig, The Times 'Puns, jokes and subtle wit, alongside a gripping storyline' - Telegraph 'Perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats' – New York Times
Product Description
You can't tell by looking at me that my dad is Poseidon, God of the Sea. It's not easy being a half-blood these days. You mortals can't even see the monsters we have to fight all the time. So when a game of dodgeball turned into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, I couldn't exactly ask my gym teacher for help. And that was just for starters. This is the one where Camp Half Blood is under attack, and unless I get my hands on the Golden Fleece, the whole camp will be invaded by monsters. Big ones. Can Percy survive the treacherous Sea of Monsters and restore order to Half-Blood Hill?
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Friday, February 26, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Gone (Hardcover) - Mo Hayder
Product Description
November in the West Country. Evening is closing in as murder detective Jack Caffery arrives to interview the victim of a car-jacking. He's dealt with routine car-thefts before, but this one is different. This car was taken by force. And on the back seat was a passenger. An eleven-year-old girl. Who is still missing. Before long the jacker starts to communicate with the police: 'It's started,' he tells them. 'And it ain't going to stop just sudden, is it?' And Caffery knows that he's going to do it again. Soon the jacker will choose another car with another child on the back seat. Caffery's a good and instinctive cop; the best in the business, some say. But this time he knows something's badly wrong. Because the jacker seems to be ahead of the police - every step of the way...
About the Author
Mo Hayder has written some of the most terrifying crime thrillers you will ever read. Her first novel, Birdman, was hailed as a 'first-class shocker' by the Guardian and her follow-up, The Treatment was voted by the Times one of 'the top ten most scary thrillers ever written' Mo's books are 100% authentic, drawing on her long research association with several UK police forces and on her personal encounters with criminals and prostitutes. She now lives in England's West Country and is a full-time writer.
November in the West Country. Evening is closing in as murder detective Jack Caffery arrives to interview the victim of a car-jacking. He's dealt with routine car-thefts before, but this one is different. This car was taken by force. And on the back seat was a passenger. An eleven-year-old girl. Who is still missing. Before long the jacker starts to communicate with the police: 'It's started,' he tells them. 'And it ain't going to stop just sudden, is it?' And Caffery knows that he's going to do it again. Soon the jacker will choose another car with another child on the back seat. Caffery's a good and instinctive cop; the best in the business, some say. But this time he knows something's badly wrong. Because the jacker seems to be ahead of the police - every step of the way...
About the Author
Mo Hayder has written some of the most terrifying crime thrillers you will ever read. Her first novel, Birdman, was hailed as a 'first-class shocker' by the Guardian and her follow-up, The Treatment was voted by the Times one of 'the top ten most scary thrillers ever written' Mo's books are 100% authentic, drawing on her long research association with several UK police forces and on her personal encounters with criminals and prostitutes. She now lives in England's West Country and is a full-time writer.
Gone Tomorrow (Paperback) - Lee Child
Amazon.co.uk Review
Lee Child has steadily accrued one of the keenest groups of admirers for any contemporary thriller writer – and the reason is easy to discern. In such gritty and authoritative novels as Tripwire, Killing Floor and Die Trying, Child established his tough itinerant protagonist Jack Reacher as a key modern hero, with a taciturn, hard-boiled appeal that has not palled over many books (though some have queried Jack’s transformation from a man who triumphed -- with difficulty – over insuperable odds – into a nigh-invulnerable super-hero). But the narrative grasp of the author remains absolutely iron-clad, and there are the stunningly drawn American locales that are so notably impressive from an English author.
In the latest outing for Jack Reacher, Gone Tomorrow, Child’s resourceful hero is travelling in New York City, observing his fellow passengers on the subway. He’s aware that suicide bombers are easy to spot – they’re usually nervous, and (as he wryly notes) by definition they're first-timers. As an ex-law enforcer, Jack notices that of his five fellow travellers, one is distinctly giving out the signals that spell danger. Grand Central Station is approaching – will Jack act and save lives – including his own? But… what if he's wrong?
This high voltage situation is the arresting curtain opener here, and the tension is screwed tighter, as Jack Reacher is pitched against the one of the most challenging threats he has come up against. Gone Tomorrow has all the dynamism of Child’s earlier work; spruced-up, super-charged and showing no sign of age. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Lee Child has steadily accrued one of the keenest groups of admirers for any contemporary thriller writer – and the reason is easy to discern. In such gritty and authoritative novels as Tripwire, Killing Floor and Die Trying, Child established his tough itinerant protagonist Jack Reacher as a key modern hero, with a taciturn, hard-boiled appeal that has not palled over many books (though some have queried Jack’s transformation from a man who triumphed -- with difficulty – over insuperable odds – into a nigh-invulnerable super-hero). But the narrative grasp of the author remains absolutely iron-clad, and there are the stunningly drawn American locales that are so notably impressive from an English author.
In the latest outing for Jack Reacher, Gone Tomorrow, Child’s resourceful hero is travelling in New York City, observing his fellow passengers on the subway. He’s aware that suicide bombers are easy to spot – they’re usually nervous, and (as he wryly notes) by definition they're first-timers. As an ex-law enforcer, Jack notices that of his five fellow travellers, one is distinctly giving out the signals that spell danger. Grand Central Station is approaching – will Jack act and save lives – including his own? But… what if he's wrong?
This high voltage situation is the arresting curtain opener here, and the tension is screwed tighter, as Jack Reacher is pitched against the one of the most challenging threats he has come up against. Gone Tomorrow has all the dynamism of Child’s earlier work; spruced-up, super-charged and showing no sign of age. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Alone in Berlin (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback) - Hans Fallada
Product Description
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …
About the Author
Hans Fallada was one of the best-known German writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1893 in Greifswald as Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen, he took his pen name from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. His most famous works include the novels Little Man, What Now? and The Drinker. Fallada died from an overdose of morphine on 5 February 1947 in Berlin. Michael Hofmann is the author of several books of poems and a book of criticism, Behind the Lines, and the translator of many modern and contemporary authors. Penguin publish his translations of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Other Stories and Irmgard Keun’s Child of All Nations.
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …
About the Author
Hans Fallada was one of the best-known German writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1893 in Greifswald as Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen, he took his pen name from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. His most famous works include the novels Little Man, What Now? and The Drinker. Fallada died from an overdose of morphine on 5 February 1947 in Berlin. Michael Hofmann is the author of several books of poems and a book of criticism, Behind the Lines, and the translator of many modern and contemporary authors. Penguin publish his translations of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Other Stories and Irmgard Keun’s Child of All Nations.
Cutting for Stone (Paperback) - Abraham Verghese
Product Description
Marion and Shiva Stone, born in a mission hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s, are twin sons of an illicit union between an Indian nun and British doctor. Bound by birth but with widely different temperaments they grow up together, in a country on the brink of revolution, until a betrayal splits them apart. But fate has not finished with them - they will be brought together once more, in the sterile surroundings of a hospital theatre. From the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, this is both a richly visceral epic and a riveting family story.
From the Inside Flap
Transporting the reader from the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, Cutting for Stone is a thrilling epic of conjoined twins, doctors and patients, temptation and redemption, home and exile – and a riveting family story, irresistibly charged with strange happenings, humour and pathos, that grabs you from its harrowing opening and never lets go.
Marion and Shiva Stone, half-Indian and half-British, are twin sons of a secret union at ‘Missing’, a hospital run by nuns in Addis Ababa. Born in extraordinary circumstances, the brothers couldn’t be more different – Marion, introspective and eager to please, Shiva, a loner with fewer scruples and a photographic memory – but are bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared passion for medicine, and cricket. They come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. The Italians have left behind in Addis cappuccino machines and Campari umbrellas. But they've also left a nation crippled by poverty, hunger, and authoritarian rule: Ethiopia in the 1960s and 1970s is both bolstered and trapped by its emperor, Haile Selassie. Yet it will be love, not politics – their passion for the same woman – that tears the twins apart and forces Marion to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as a surgical intern at an underfunded, overcrowded hospital.When the past catches up with him, in a stunning twist, Marion must trust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world.
Cutting for Stone is both an unforgettable story of lives cut in half and a gripping evocation of the power, intimacy, danger and curious beauty of the art of medicine. A masterly debut novel, it is visceral in its power, heartbreaking in its tenderness.
About the Author
Born and brought up of Indian parents in Ethiopia, Abraham Verghese qualified as a doctor in Madras and is currently professor of medicine at Stanford University, California. He is the author of My Own Country, an NBCC finalist made into a film directed by Mira Nair, and The Tennis Partner, a New York Times Notable Book. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
Marion and Shiva Stone, born in a mission hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s, are twin sons of an illicit union between an Indian nun and British doctor. Bound by birth but with widely different temperaments they grow up together, in a country on the brink of revolution, until a betrayal splits them apart. But fate has not finished with them - they will be brought together once more, in the sterile surroundings of a hospital theatre. From the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, this is both a richly visceral epic and a riveting family story.
From the Inside Flap
Transporting the reader from the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, Cutting for Stone is a thrilling epic of conjoined twins, doctors and patients, temptation and redemption, home and exile – and a riveting family story, irresistibly charged with strange happenings, humour and pathos, that grabs you from its harrowing opening and never lets go.
Marion and Shiva Stone, half-Indian and half-British, are twin sons of a secret union at ‘Missing’, a hospital run by nuns in Addis Ababa. Born in extraordinary circumstances, the brothers couldn’t be more different – Marion, introspective and eager to please, Shiva, a loner with fewer scruples and a photographic memory – but are bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared passion for medicine, and cricket. They come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. The Italians have left behind in Addis cappuccino machines and Campari umbrellas. But they've also left a nation crippled by poverty, hunger, and authoritarian rule: Ethiopia in the 1960s and 1970s is both bolstered and trapped by its emperor, Haile Selassie. Yet it will be love, not politics – their passion for the same woman – that tears the twins apart and forces Marion to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as a surgical intern at an underfunded, overcrowded hospital.When the past catches up with him, in a stunning twist, Marion must trust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world.
Cutting for Stone is both an unforgettable story of lives cut in half and a gripping evocation of the power, intimacy, danger and curious beauty of the art of medicine. A masterly debut novel, it is visceral in its power, heartbreaking in its tenderness.
About the Author
Born and brought up of Indian parents in Ethiopia, Abraham Verghese qualified as a doctor in Madras and is currently professor of medicine at Stanford University, California. He is the author of My Own Country, an NBCC finalist made into a film directed by Mira Nair, and The Tennis Partner, a New York Times Notable Book. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Paperback) - Rick Riordan
Product Description
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive. This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea. Can Percy find the lightning bolt before a fully-fledged war of the Gods erupts?
About the Author
Rick Riordan is an award-winning mystery writer. For the past fifteen years he has taught at middle schools in the San Francisco Bay area and in Texas. Rick lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive. This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea. Can Percy find the lightning bolt before a fully-fledged war of the Gods erupts?
About the Author
Rick Riordan is an award-winning mystery writer. For the past fifteen years he has taught at middle schools in the San Francisco Bay area and in Texas. Rick lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons.
The Pregnant Widow (Hardcover) - Martin Amis
Product Description
It was summer 1970 - a long, hot summer. In a castle in Italy, half a dozen young lives are afloat on the sea of change, trapped inside the history of the sexual revolution. The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing - twenty years old, a literature student all clogged up with the English novel - is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends. The sexual revolution may have been a velvet revolution (in at least two senses), but it wasn't bloodless - and now, in the twenty-first century, the year 1970 finally catches up with Keith Nearing. "The Pregnant Widow" is a comedy of manners and a nightmare, brilliant, haunting and gloriously risque. It is the most eagerly anticipated novel of the year and Martin Amis at his fearless best.
About the Author
Martin Amis is the author of ten novels, the memoir Experience, two collections of stories and six collections of non-fiction, most recently The Second Plane. He lives in London.
It was summer 1970 - a long, hot summer. In a castle in Italy, half a dozen young lives are afloat on the sea of change, trapped inside the history of the sexual revolution. The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing - twenty years old, a literature student all clogged up with the English novel - is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends. The sexual revolution may have been a velvet revolution (in at least two senses), but it wasn't bloodless - and now, in the twenty-first century, the year 1970 finally catches up with Keith Nearing. "The Pregnant Widow" is a comedy of manners and a nightmare, brilliant, haunting and gloriously risque. It is the most eagerly anticipated novel of the year and Martin Amis at his fearless best.
About the Author
Martin Amis is the author of ten novels, the memoir Experience, two collections of stories and six collections of non-fiction, most recently The Second Plane. He lives in London.
Sweet Little Lies: An LA Candy Novel (Hardcover) - Lauren Conrad
Product Description
In TV star Lauren Conrad's deliciously entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them. Jane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend Scarlett Harp landed their own reality show, L.A. Candy. Suddenly they found themselves thrown into the public eye with VIP tickets to everything. But the starlets quickly discover that fame goes hand in hand with scandal when Jane finds herself the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. Even her relationship with Scarlett is threatened. Things go from bad to worse when Scarlett falls for a guy who is strictly off limits! In reality TV nothing stays secret for long and with all this drama L.A Candy's ratings rocket. The show is a bona fide hit - but can the girls stand another season in the spotlight?
About the Author
Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in MTV's #1 show, The Hills. She has been featured on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Her first novel, L.A Candy was a huge bestseller. She lives in Los Angeles.
In TV star Lauren Conrad's deliciously entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them. Jane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend Scarlett Harp landed their own reality show, L.A. Candy. Suddenly they found themselves thrown into the public eye with VIP tickets to everything. But the starlets quickly discover that fame goes hand in hand with scandal when Jane finds herself the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. Even her relationship with Scarlett is threatened. Things go from bad to worse when Scarlett falls for a guy who is strictly off limits! In reality TV nothing stays secret for long and with all this drama L.A Candy's ratings rocket. The show is a bona fide hit - but can the girls stand another season in the spotlight?
About the Author
Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in MTV's #1 show, The Hills. She has been featured on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Her first novel, L.A Candy was a huge bestseller. She lives in Los Angeles.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Paperback) - Mary Ann Shaffer
Product Description
It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.
About the Author
MARY ANN SHAFFER was born in 1934 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. She became interested in Guernsey while visiting London in 1976. On a whim, she decided to fly to Guernsey but became stranded there as a heavy fog descended and no boats or planes were permitted to leave the island. As she waited for the fog to clear, she came across a book called Jersey Under the Jack-Boot, and so her fascination with the Channel Isles began. Many years later, when goaded by her own literary club to write a book, Mary Ann naturally thought of Guernsey. Mary Ann died in February 2008. She knew that this, her only novel, was to be published in thirteen countries. Before she died she wrote, 'I must tender special thanks to my niece, Annie, who stepped in to finish this book after unexpected health issues interrupted my ability to work shortly after the manuscript was sold. Without blinking an eye, she put down the book she was writing, pushed up her sleeves, and set to work on my manuscript. It was my great good luck to have a writer like her in the family, and this book could not have been done without her.' ANNIE BARROWS is the author of the Ivy and Bean series for children, as well as The Magic Half.
It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.
About the Author
MARY ANN SHAFFER was born in 1934 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. She became interested in Guernsey while visiting London in 1976. On a whim, she decided to fly to Guernsey but became stranded there as a heavy fog descended and no boats or planes were permitted to leave the island. As she waited for the fog to clear, she came across a book called Jersey Under the Jack-Boot, and so her fascination with the Channel Isles began. Many years later, when goaded by her own literary club to write a book, Mary Ann naturally thought of Guernsey. Mary Ann died in February 2008. She knew that this, her only novel, was to be published in thirteen countries. Before she died she wrote, 'I must tender special thanks to my niece, Annie, who stepped in to finish this book after unexpected health issues interrupted my ability to work shortly after the manuscript was sold. Without blinking an eye, she put down the book she was writing, pushed up her sleeves, and set to work on my manuscript. It was my great good luck to have a writer like her in the family, and this book could not have been done without her.' ANNIE BARROWS is the author of the Ivy and Bean series for children, as well as The Magic Half.
Monday, February 15, 2010
One Day (Paperback) - David Nicholls
'It's rare to find a novel which ranges over the recent past with such authority, and even rarer to find one in which the two leading characters are drawn with such solidity, such painful fidelity, to real life that you really do put the book down with the hallucinatory feeling that they've become as well known to you as your closest friends. Hard to imagine anyone encountering characters as well drawn as this and not recognizing the extraordinary talent of the writer who has created them.' (Jonathan Coe Guardian Books of the Year 20090621)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl (Paperback) - Belle de Jour
Review
'this is a no-holds-barred account of the high-class sex trade, and an insight into the secret life of an extraordinary woman.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (11.9.05) 'Belle is wickedly witty and you'll pick up a kinky trick or three on the way.' COSMOPOLITAN (October) **** 'Belle's tamer anecdotes would make Graham Norton choke. But it does possess a raw emotional intimacy, which is surprising given that it started off as an internet blog...it is Belle's portrayal of city-life alienation that is so candid.' -- Isobel Shirlaw TELEGRAPH (24.9.05) 'Insight into life as a high-class hooker. Shocking but funny.' HEAT (1-7 October) **** 'A good diarist draws you in through intrigue or through empathy. Belle does both...Everyday middle-class London is caught with its trousers down.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE (1.1.06)
'this is a no-holds-barred account of the high-class sex trade, and an insight into the secret life of an extraordinary woman.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (11.9.05) 'Belle is wickedly witty and you'll pick up a kinky trick or three on the way.' COSMOPOLITAN (October) **** 'Belle's tamer anecdotes would make Graham Norton choke. But it does possess a raw emotional intimacy, which is surprising given that it started off as an internet blog...it is Belle's portrayal of city-life alienation that is so candid.' -- Isobel Shirlaw TELEGRAPH (24.9.05) 'Insight into life as a high-class hooker. Shocking but funny.' HEAT (1-7 October) **** 'A good diarist draws you in through intrigue or through empathy. Belle does both...Everyday middle-class London is caught with its trousers down.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE (1.1.06)
The Return: Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries) (Paperback) - L J Smith
Product Description
Elena Gilbert is alive - again.
When Elena sacrificed herself to save the two vampire brothers who love her she was consigned to a fate beyond death. Until a powerful supernatural force pulled her back.
Now Elena is not just human. She has powers. What's more, her blood pulses with a unique force that makes her irresistible to any vampire.
Both brothers still want Elena to be theirs, but something bigger and more powerful than all of them may want her more...
About the Author
L J Smith is the globally best-selling author of more than 20 books for young adults, including the cult phenomenon the Night World sequence. Since childhood she has been fascinated by the night and the way the ordinary world changes when darkness falls. She lives in Northern California in a rambling house in a small town.
Elena Gilbert is alive - again.
When Elena sacrificed herself to save the two vampire brothers who love her she was consigned to a fate beyond death. Until a powerful supernatural force pulled her back.
Now Elena is not just human. She has powers. What's more, her blood pulses with a unique force that makes her irresistible to any vampire.
Both brothers still want Elena to be theirs, but something bigger and more powerful than all of them may want her more...
About the Author
L J Smith is the globally best-selling author of more than 20 books for young adults, including the cult phenomenon the Night World sequence. Since childhood she has been fascinated by the night and the way the ordinary world changes when darkness falls. She lives in Northern California in a rambling house in a small town.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Worst Case: A Detective Michael Bennett Novel (Hardcover) - James Patterson
Product Description
The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal. Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can't begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone's children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn the heat up on the mayor, the press, anyone who will listen, to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett's work life - and love life - suddenly get even more complicated. Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI's intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes his routine. His plan leads up to the most devastating demonstration yet - one that could bring cataclysmic devastation to every inch of New York.
About the Author
JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade: the Women's Murder Club, the Alex Cross novels and Maximum Ride, and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son. James is passionate about encouraging both adults and children alike to read. This has led to him forming a partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy.
The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal. Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can't begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone's children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn the heat up on the mayor, the press, anyone who will listen, to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett's work life - and love life - suddenly get even more complicated. Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI's intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes his routine. His plan leads up to the most devastating demonstration yet - one that could bring cataclysmic devastation to every inch of New York.
About the Author
JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade: the Women's Murder Club, the Alex Cross novels and Maximum Ride, and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son. James is passionate about encouraging both adults and children alike to read. This has led to him forming a partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy.
A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Myst) (Hardcover) - Charlaine Harris
Review
"The most interesting character is Sookie, which is lucky as she's the main one, the fact that she can read minds and how she does it is brilliantly illustrated in the opening 'Fairy Dust' and 'Lucky'. A brilliant example of how an author should do a short story collection." (NEXTREAD.CO.UK )
"The tales are appealingly fast-paced, lighthearted and sexy (though there's nowhere near the level of sex and violence of the TV series), and the Sookie of these stories is, in her own straightforward way, just as winning as the Sookie of True Blood." (James Skipp TOTAL SCI FI )
I really enjoyed that Harris told each story 'how it was'. Sookie may have her issues but the emphasis is always on the plot at hand and what's going on. It's also refreshing to see how Harris treats her otherworldly characters; while they're powerful enough they're also susceptible to human failings (and I'm not just talking about sex!) that make them more endearing to the reader and easier to get into." (GRAEME'S FANTASY BOOK REVIEW )
Product Description
Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her job as a cocktail waitress in Merlotte's, a small-town bar in small-town Bon Temps, deep in Louisiana. She's funny and pretty and, thanks to her grandmother, she's very well-mannered - but since not many people truly appreciate her ability to read their minds, the guys haven't exactly been beating down her door . . . And then along came Bill, tall, dark and handsome - and Sookie couldn't 'hear' a word he was thinking. He was exactly the type of guy she'd been waiting all her life for. Of course, Bill had a disability of his own: fussy about his food, not into suntans, bit of a night person: yep, Bill was a vampire. But at least now Sookie nows there *are* guys she can date who won't worry about her catching them thinking about other women . . . And that's going to make Sookie's life really interesting!
"The most interesting character is Sookie, which is lucky as she's the main one, the fact that she can read minds and how she does it is brilliantly illustrated in the opening 'Fairy Dust' and 'Lucky'. A brilliant example of how an author should do a short story collection." (NEXTREAD.CO.UK )
"The tales are appealingly fast-paced, lighthearted and sexy (though there's nowhere near the level of sex and violence of the TV series), and the Sookie of these stories is, in her own straightforward way, just as winning as the Sookie of True Blood." (James Skipp TOTAL SCI FI )
I really enjoyed that Harris told each story 'how it was'. Sookie may have her issues but the emphasis is always on the plot at hand and what's going on. It's also refreshing to see how Harris treats her otherworldly characters; while they're powerful enough they're also susceptible to human failings (and I'm not just talking about sex!) that make them more endearing to the reader and easier to get into." (GRAEME'S FANTASY BOOK REVIEW )
Product Description
Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her job as a cocktail waitress in Merlotte's, a small-town bar in small-town Bon Temps, deep in Louisiana. She's funny and pretty and, thanks to her grandmother, she's very well-mannered - but since not many people truly appreciate her ability to read their minds, the guys haven't exactly been beating down her door . . . And then along came Bill, tall, dark and handsome - and Sookie couldn't 'hear' a word he was thinking. He was exactly the type of guy she'd been waiting all her life for. Of course, Bill had a disability of his own: fussy about his food, not into suntans, bit of a night person: yep, Bill was a vampire. But at least now Sookie nows there *are* guys she can date who won't worry about her catching them thinking about other women . . . And that's going to make Sookie's life really interesting!
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Last 10 Seconds (Hardcover) - Simon Kernick
Product Description
The Undercover Cop - Having worked undercover the last ten years, Sean Egan is used to life on the edge. He's recently infiltrated one of London's most dangerous criminal gangs, and they've just informed him that they want him for a very special job: the daring abduction from police custody of a serial killer known as The Night Creeper. The Killer - Brutally violent yet highly intelligent, The Night Creeper has earned his reputation by torturing five young women to death. Arrested the previous night, he claims that he has a cast-iron alibi for one of the murders, and some highly important information that can prove his innocence - and implicates someone else. The Policewoman Di - Tina Boyd has an instinct for trouble, and a past that continues to haunt her. She was the policewoman who charged The Night Creeper. Now he's been kidnapped, and it's Tina's task to find him. And find him fast, because it's clear that some very dangerous people want to silence him permanently. A man, a woman and a sadistic killer. As they race towards a terrifying confrontation only one thing is certain: they're all going to have to fight very hard just to stay alive.
The Undercover Cop - Having worked undercover the last ten years, Sean Egan is used to life on the edge. He's recently infiltrated one of London's most dangerous criminal gangs, and they've just informed him that they want him for a very special job: the daring abduction from police custody of a serial killer known as The Night Creeper. The Killer - Brutally violent yet highly intelligent, The Night Creeper has earned his reputation by torturing five young women to death. Arrested the previous night, he claims that he has a cast-iron alibi for one of the murders, and some highly important information that can prove his innocence - and implicates someone else. The Policewoman Di - Tina Boyd has an instinct for trouble, and a past that continues to haunt her. She was the policewoman who charged The Night Creeper. Now he's been kidnapped, and it's Tina's task to find him. And find him fast, because it's clear that some very dangerous people want to silence him permanently. A man, a woman and a sadistic killer. As they race towards a terrifying confrontation only one thing is certain: they're all going to have to fight very hard just to stay alive.
Blacklands (Paperback) - Belinda Bauer
Product Description
Review
Thought-provoking and utterly original. --MO HAYDER
A very special debut thriller, and a clear-eyed depiction of ordinary people under extraordinary stress. This is something quite new. --ANN CLEEVES (CWA Gold Dagger Winner 2006)
Exceptional debut . . . A new UK crime writer to shout about.
--Bookseller
Thought-provoking and utterly original
--MO HAYDER
`With this extraordinarily powerful and provocative debut, Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller. Imagine Thomas Harris crossed with Kate Atkinson and you still won't be close... top-notch, absolutely terrifying suspense... Right from the start you know you are reading something both new and with real guts --Daily Mirror
This astonishingly assured debut...for once lives up to the hype... a psychological tour-de-force about the cruelty of hope and, ultimately, the triumph of innocence
--Guardian
Product Description
Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer ...
Review
Thought-provoking and utterly original. --MO HAYDER
A very special debut thriller, and a clear-eyed depiction of ordinary people under extraordinary stress. This is something quite new. --ANN CLEEVES (CWA Gold Dagger Winner 2006)
Exceptional debut . . . A new UK crime writer to shout about.
--Bookseller
Thought-provoking and utterly original
--MO HAYDER
`With this extraordinarily powerful and provocative debut, Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller. Imagine Thomas Harris crossed with Kate Atkinson and you still won't be close... top-notch, absolutely terrifying suspense... Right from the start you know you are reading something both new and with real guts --Daily Mirror
This astonishingly assured debut...for once lives up to the hype... a psychological tour-de-force about the cruelty of hope and, ultimately, the triumph of innocence
--Guardian
Product Description
Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer ...
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Aliens Vs Predator - Sega
Product Description
Developed at Rebellion by the team responsible for the original 1999 classic, in the all-new Aliens vs. Predator players have the chance to take the role of the three infamous species; the Colonial Marine, the Predator and the Alien.
Each of the three species has its very own distinct story-driven single-player campaign mode that interweaves with the campaigns of the other two species. Aliens vs. Predator will also feature unique 3-way online multiplayer, allowing gamers to pit the three species against each other in the ultimate battle for survival and for the right to be crowned the deadliest species.
On planet BG-386 a colonist mining group discovers an ancient pyramid containing a dark and horrible secret. Across the stars a race of warriors is alerted to the discovery of their pyramid and a hunting party is dispatched to ensure that it remains sealed at all costs, whilst deep inside the ruined pyramid a malevolent intelligence awakes from centuries of dormancy.
The Marine’s story is an incredible fight against the odds, and the horrors lurking in the dark. Beset on all sides yet armed to the teeth, the Colonial Marine represents humanity’s last stand with the firepower to fight back.
As the Alien, players will discover what it’s like to be the most murderous and lethal creature in the universe, with the ability to traverse any surface with awesome agility in order to get close enough to unleash its deadly teeth and claws.
A master of the hunt, the Predator grants the player a suite of exotic weaponry and equipment with which to stalk its unknowing prey. Earn the greatest honour by ambushing prey up-close and butchering them for a gory trophy kill.
Developed at Rebellion by the team responsible for the original 1999 classic, in the all-new Aliens vs. Predator players have the chance to take the role of the three infamous species; the Colonial Marine, the Predator and the Alien.
Each of the three species has its very own distinct story-driven single-player campaign mode that interweaves with the campaigns of the other two species. Aliens vs. Predator will also feature unique 3-way online multiplayer, allowing gamers to pit the three species against each other in the ultimate battle for survival and for the right to be crowned the deadliest species.
On planet BG-386 a colonist mining group discovers an ancient pyramid containing a dark and horrible secret. Across the stars a race of warriors is alerted to the discovery of their pyramid and a hunting party is dispatched to ensure that it remains sealed at all costs, whilst deep inside the ruined pyramid a malevolent intelligence awakes from centuries of dormancy.
The Marine’s story is an incredible fight against the odds, and the horrors lurking in the dark. Beset on all sides yet armed to the teeth, the Colonial Marine represents humanity’s last stand with the firepower to fight back.
As the Alien, players will discover what it’s like to be the most murderous and lethal creature in the universe, with the ability to traverse any surface with awesome agility in order to get close enough to unleash its deadly teeth and claws.
A master of the hunt, the Predator grants the player a suite of exotic weaponry and equipment with which to stalk its unknowing prey. Earn the greatest honour by ambushing prey up-close and butchering them for a gory trophy kill.
Sacred Hearts (Paperback) - Sarah Dunant
Product Description
1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara, and the convent of Santa Caterina is filled with noble women who are married to Christ because many cannot find husbands outside. Enter sixteen-year-old Serafina, ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, howling with rage and hormones and determined to escape. While on the other side of the great walls, counter-reformation forces in the Church are pushing for change, inside, Serafina's spirit and defiance ignite a fire that threatens to engulf the whole convent. SACRED HEARTS is a novel about power, creativity and passion - both of the body and of the soul. Hidden history brought alive by a wonderful storyteller, renowned for her Italian Renaissance novels.
About the Author
Sarah Dunant is a cultural commentator, award-winning thriller writer and author of a trilogy of novels set in renaissance Italy exploring women's lives through art, sex and religion.
1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara, and the convent of Santa Caterina is filled with noble women who are married to Christ because many cannot find husbands outside. Enter sixteen-year-old Serafina, ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, howling with rage and hormones and determined to escape. While on the other side of the great walls, counter-reformation forces in the Church are pushing for change, inside, Serafina's spirit and defiance ignite a fire that threatens to engulf the whole convent. SACRED HEARTS is a novel about power, creativity and passion - both of the body and of the soul. Hidden history brought alive by a wonderful storyteller, renowned for her Italian Renaissance novels.
About the Author
Sarah Dunant is a cultural commentator, award-winning thriller writer and author of a trilogy of novels set in renaissance Italy exploring women's lives through art, sex and religion.
The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback) - J. D. Salinger
From Amazon.co.uk
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent". Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his 16-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. --Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk Review
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent". Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his 16-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. --Amazon.com
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent". Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his 16-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. --Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk Review
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent". Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his 16-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. --Amazon.com
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Book Thief (Paperback) - Markus Zusak
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies. The author is a prize-winning writer of children's books, and this, his first novel for adults, proved to be a triumphant success. The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).
Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.
Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. --Barry Forshaw
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies. The author is a prize-winning writer of children's books, and this, his first novel for adults, proved to be a triumphant success. The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).
Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.
Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. --Barry Forshaw
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