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VARIOUS. POETS

Sometimes it's hard to keep looking up at the stars when the gutter we're in seems so full of sh*t. But isn't that why we need poetry? Oscar Wilde wrote some of his best poetry when he was in prison for 'the love that dare not speak its name'. Nelson Mandela held fast to his 'unconquerable soul' on Robben Island with the help of the words a poet wrote about his battle with tuberculosis a century before. So maybe it's not inconceivable that the words in this little book could help you put some of the sh*t in perspective, get all the important bits of your life - like sleep, work, food, travel, love and learning - in some kind of balance, so you can go back to star-gazing again . . . Taking as its starting point the classic 'wheel of balance' life-coach model, this beautifully packaged collection of extracts and short poems gathers wisdom old and new in a perfect gift for anyone who needs comfort in this f**ked up world of ours. 'This is not a poetry book as you know it, this is a life raft.' Emerald Street on Poems for a World Gone to Sh*t.

Poems to Fix a F**ked-Up World

Christy Lefteri

A moving novel of love and war by the author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo It is July 1974 and on a bright, sunny morning, the Turkish army has invaded the town of Kyrenia in Cyprus. For many people, this means an end to life as they know it. But for some, it is a chance to begin living again. Everyone has always talked about Koki. They never believed she was her father's daughter and her mother died too soon to quiet their wagging tongues. And when she became pregnant and there was no sign of a husband, her fate was sealed. So she lives outside the town and hides from her neighbours' eyes. But, held captive with the very women who have made her life so lonely, Koki is finally able to tell them the truth. To talk of the Turkish shoe-maker who came to the town and took her heart away with him when he left. And how she has longed for him all these years. Meanwhile, Adem Berker finds himself back in Kyrenia, his former home, now as a member of the invading force. Here he left everything he ever wanted and, by cover of darkness, risking his life, he is searching every house, every cafe, every old pathway, for just a glimpse of the only woman he has ever loved. For readers of The Island, The Book Thief and The Kite Runner.

A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible

Colin Cotterill

Life has taken a funny turn for Siri Paiboun. After years in obscurity, his country needs him. He is to be their only coroner. Because he's the only doctor left. It's not as flattering as it could be, and when one of the leaders' wives turns up in his hot, shabby, smelly morgue, and he's expected to solve her murder, things take a turn for the worse. He has no experience, training or equipment to speak of, and his only hope are his two trusty assistants - neither of whom know anything either - and his own mental resources. As if this weren't enough, the tortured bodies of several soldiers start floating to the surface of a lake and this second case is even more politically charged than his first. Only Siri's wit, charm and sense of the ridiculous will get him through this...

A Dr Siri Murder Mystery

The Coroner's Lunch

Stella Rimington

MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state will attend. The Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door. The source claims that Syrian Intelligence will act against the pair, presumably by killing them. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out. But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake...

Dead Line

Adrian Hyland

Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel (2007). Shortly after Emily Tempest returns to Moonlight Downs, the Aboriginal community of her childhood, her best friend's father is murdered. Blame immediately falls upon Blakie, the community's violent renegade, who evades arrest and vanishes into the outback. Only gradually does Emily come to believe that there is more to her old friend's death than anyone else is prepared to consider. Determined to uncover the truth Emily applies her traditional insights and university education and sets upon a course of action that will place her, and possibly her friends and family, in mortal danger.

Diamond Dove

Jonathan Black

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The complete history of the world, from the beginning of time to the present day, based on the beliefs and writings of the secret societies. Jonathan Black examines the end of the world and the coming of the Antichrist. Or is the Antichrist already here? How will he make himself known and what will become of the world when he does? Willl it be the end of Time? Having studied theology and learnt from initiates of all the great secret societies of the world, Jonathan Black has learned that it is possible to reach an altered state of consciousness in which we can see things about the way the world works that hidden from our everyday commonsensical consciousness. This history shows that by using secret techniques, people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and George Washington have worked themselves into this altered state - and have been able to access supernatural levels of intelligence. This book will leave you questioning every aspect of your life and spotting hidden messages in the very fabric of society and in life itself. It will open your mind to a new way of living and leave you questioning everything you have been taught - and everything you've taught your children.

The Secret History of the World

Joseph Wambaugh

Hollywood is not all movies, fame and fortune, its underside is dirty, drugged up and criminal with a capital C. Under the watchful eye of their veteran sergeant, known as the Oracle, the men and women of the LAPD working out of Hollywood Station are the ones on the front line. The Hollywood Station squad are as different as the streets that they police - Budgie Polk is a 27-year-old firecracker who is begrudgingly teamed with Fausto Gamboa, the oldest, tetchiest patrol officer. Andi McCrea is a single mom, Wesley Drubb a university drop-out desperate to see some action. Flotsam and Jetsam are two aptly named surfer boys who pine for the petite - but intrepid - Mag Takara. Together they spend their days and nights in the city's underbelly, where a string of seemingly unrelated events lure them to their most startling case yet.

Hollywood Station

Nick Stafford

11 a.m., 11th November 1918. Just when Philomena thinks Dan's going to make it home, her fiancé's slain on a battlefield in France. Four months later, grieving Philomena travels to London to meet three soldiers who fought with Dan. Soon she discovers a terrible possibility: Dan's death wasn't at the hands of the enemy. But there is no proof, no witness, only an accusation by one man and the threat of ruin by another should he ever repeat it. Alone in an alien city traumatised by the aftershocks of the war, whom should Philomena believe, who can she trust, in her attempt to discover if Dan was murdered? And this isn't her only challenge. Whilst inching ever closer to the truth Philomena finds herself falling for one of the men...

Armistice

Andrew Klavan

They are two sworn enemies with a single obsession: a woman on the run from them both. Scott Weiss is a private detective. John Foy is a professional killer known as the Shadowman. The woman is Julie Wyant, an ex-prostitute with a hidden past and an uncertain future. Julie spent one night with Foy - a night of psychopathic cruelty that Foy called love. Desperate to get away from him, she vanished without trace, but Foy wants her back and won't rest until he has her. The only man who can find her is Weiss, a middle-aged private eye with a romantic soul and an empath's ability to read others. Before she disappeared Julie begged him not to come after her, fearing that he would bring the killer in his wake. But Weiss can't stay away, believing that the only way that Julie will ever escape is to force a final confrontation with the Shadowman. Matching each other move for move, Foy and Weiss pursue Julie from San Francisco, across the badlands of Arizona to Union City, Nevada, where finally they meet - on Damnation Street.

Damnation Street

Elena Forbes

You could find your new best friend on the web... or discover your worst nightmare. For fifteen-year-old Gemma, it's already too late. Her body was found in the nave of the parish church in Ealing. For D.I. Mark Tartaglia and the murder squad at Barnes, it's just a matter of time before the tragedy repeats itself.

Die With Me

Paul Glendinning

Both simple and accessible, Maths in Minutes is a visually led introduction to 200 key mathematical ideas. Each concept is quick and easy to remember, described by means of an easy-to-understand picture and a maximum 200-word explanation. Concepts span all of the key areas of mathematics, including Fundamentals of Mathematics, Sets and Numbers, Geometry, Equations, Limits, Functions and Calculus, Vectors and Algebra, Complex Numbers, Combinatorics, Number Theory, Metrics and Measures and Topology.

200 Key Concepts Explained In An Instant

Maths in Minutes

Dan Simmons

In 1865 Charles Dickens, the world's most famous writer, narrowly escapes death in the Staplehurst Rail Disaster. He will never be the same again. A public hero for rescuing survivors, he slowly descends into madness as he hunts the individual he believes to be responsible for the carnage: a spectral figure known only as Drood. His best friend, Wilkie Collins, is enlisted for the pursuit. Together they venture into Undertown, the shadowy, lawless web of crypts and catacombs beneath London. Here Drood is rumoured to hold sway over a legion of brainwashed followers. But as Wilkie spirals ever further into opium addiction and jealousy of the more successful novelist, he must face a terrifying possibility: is Charles Dickens really capable of murder?

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