A mythical history of the beginnings of Rome, written for children by Laura Orvieto (1876-1953).

Rachel Aldred had mixed feelings when she travelled to the airport to meet her boss who was flying out to her holiday Island from England, not least because she was aware that eh was expecting an answer to a certain question he had posed. Still when the man didn't arrive her world was suddenly thrown into bigger turmoil: No doubt this situation was aggravated by the annoying stranger she met, an enigma who unfortunately was to become a large part of her life! As if that was not enough this individual had the distinct habit of turning up at every location she subsequently found herself in eyeing her all the while with a look that hallmarked suspicion. Worse however was to follow when tragedy truck at her own family for it was only then that she began to appreciate the tentacles exuding from the cells of Al Queda that were concentrated not only in some far off country but also closer to home! Yet Lance Turner had still not clearly defined his own role in all of this and how his presence was to affect her own life!

"I don't believe this!" snapped Clarin. "Of all the people in Talesia, Tarn Astaldian picks a group of deranged masochists, a chronic depressive and a ruddy mushroom freak to be his disciples. This is going to turn the Church into a damned laughing-stock!" Corison shrugged. "What's wrong with mushrooms?" "That's it! I'm joining the 'cult of the golden sandal'!" Clarin sighed heavily. "It may be a load of rubbish, but at least you don't get dragged into an enemy stronghold dressed in a bloody potato sack!" The Avatar Flame, a priceless sapphire and religious relic, has been stolen and talk of war is festering in the cities. But war is the least of Talesia's problems, as a plot unfolds to use the magical energy in the Flame to release an evil necromancer from the demon realm. The fate of humanity now rests in the hands of an assassin and a Lieutenant of the Locris City Guard sworn to track him down. In a desperate race against time they must attempt to recover the Avatar Flame and stop a powerful organisation of vampires known as the Black Shield before they can, literally, unleash Hell. An hilarious, fast-paced fantasy novel with a razor-sharp plot that leaves the reader guessing until the end.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2006 COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE IMPAC DUBLIN PRIZE A BBC2 BIG JUBILEE BETWEEN THE COVERS READ London, 1806. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a man no better or worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life.

Terry Griffin thought he had his life sorted. Win the poetry prize and he'd get to see the sea. But that was before Jean showed up. All the way from France. But why choose Birmingham? And what was so special about a miserable transport cafe down by the motorway? Trying to find answers to his questions lands Terry with a truckload of problems. And if he can't solve a crime that has an entire police force baffled, Terry won't just get to see the sea - he and Jean could well end up at the bottom of it.

What is the meaning of life? What happens when you die? Does any part of you survive? These are some of the questions addressed in this book which seeks to reconcile scientific opinion and religious belief.

After the irretrievable break up of her marriage and having just qualified as a practising doctor, the last person that Kathryn now wished to meet was a character like that of Nathan Woodward! Nevertheless employed on a mercy mission to help out in a Haiti hospital after the disaster out there, Kathryn found perhaps initially to her dismay that their paths appeared to cross more and more. Even so for her to actually fall in love with this man was totally unthinkable especially considering that he had already made his views on such matters well known not to mention the shadows from her own past that kept returning to haunt her! Unfortunately or otherwise the two appear to have mutual friends however and it is Nathan, the consultant in tropical medicine who requests her assistance on a special project. Yet can love possibly survive the trauma that has yet to come?

Sir William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) collaborated on a series of popular operettas, many of which are still performed today.

George Sand was the pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant (1804-1876), the first female novelist in France to become popular.

Beatrice Burton Morgan (1894-1983) was a romance author whose books about life in the 1920s were known for their use of current slang and references to popular culture.

This novel tells the story of Sarah Kate Evans, who together with her twin brother Evan John Evans, join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and Royal Air Force, in late 1939. They serve during World War Two, he as a pilot in the RAF, and she becomes a Special Operations Executive (SOE). This is a novel mainly about Sarah Kate Evans and her twin Evan John, but brought into the story are some family characters from the two previous books, set in Langdale, in the English Lake District.

Winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction
Member of the National Writer's Voice Project
Finalist Los Angeles Times Book Award

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with, love and betrayal, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Chayo, the flower seller, and her husband Candelario, the salad maker, are finally blessed with the child they thought they would never have. Their cause for happiness, however, triggers a chain of events that impact the lives of everyone in their world.

The hopes, triumphs, failures, and shortcomings of the novel's enchanting array of characters create a graceful picture of life that is both a universal portrait and an insider's look at life in Latin America.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Another thrilling domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Not a Happy Family "The End of Her will keep you guessing right up to the end . . . once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down." -USA Today "[Shari Lapena is] the queen of the one-sit read" -Linwood Barclay A long-ago accident-and a visitor from out of the blue. . . Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls. The babies are a handful, but even as Stephanie struggles with the disorientation of sleep deprivation, there's one thing she's sure of: she has all she ever wanted. Then Erica, a woman from Patrick's past, appears and makes a disturbing accusation. Patrick had always said his first wife's death was an accident, but now Erica claims it was murder. Patrick insists he's innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. Still, Erica knows things about Patrick--things that make Stephanie begin to question her husband. Stephanie isn't sure what, or who, to believe. As Stephanie's trust in Patrick begins to falter, Patrick stands to lose everything. Is Patrick telling the truth--is Erica the persuasive liar Patrick says she is? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake? How will it end?

Something strange is happening in Richard's curtain...Is it a trick of the light? A dream? Or a side-effect of the awful medication he has to take to make the last months of his life more bearable? Then they speak, these shapes in the curtain, and come to adopt a life of their own. They have no identity, no background; so are they real, or simply a figment of his troubled mind? But they have an insight and wisdom that surely could not have come from within him. As he slips deeper into his illness and towards its inevitable conclusion, his night time conversations with the people in the curtain, and the stories they tell him, ease his fear and discomfort. Through them he is able to face his final days with an acceptance that belies his years. This is both a tragic tale of a dying boy and a heartening fable that should encourage us to appreciate what we have, while we still have it.

Goan Ricardo and Scots Ella decide to face the world together as citizens of no particular country. Youthful optimism sees them through their extraordinary adventures in Africa, Mauritius, Goa and remote Highland and Island Scotland but can they survive without roots? Where will they find somewhere to be happy?

This is my sanity screamed onto the page, a secret place where I hide the last of my hope. This is what happened, what is happening, and what might happen. This is my sword to strike back, and my shield to protect me; this is my fearsome roar, and my gentle smile; this is my cry of pain, and my steely defiance. This is what I have become, and why, this is what I might be, and all the endings that might transpire. What was done to me was monstrous, beyond taste, beyond reason, beyond humanity, a horrific experiment, with me as the laboratory rat. Dehumanising, humiliating, excruciating. I wrote this story at the end of tolerance, balanced on the edge of madness, tiptoeing along the division of fantasy and reality. I live in fear, that the torture will never end, that there will be no escape; terror that I will be deformed beyond recovery or repair. I lived this book; survived the torment, but not unscarred. We are all shaped by our experiences, as I was shaped by mine. The experiment failed, but my will to resist remains, as does my grip on the truth. I am bloodied but standing, misshaped by the beatings, poisoned by the diet I am fed, eroded by pressure and time; but I am alive, and not ready to submit. This is my last shout for freedom.

Can love survive the tide of deception? The love that Stacey once knew on the Island in the Lake, is cruelly wrested from out of her grasp with the advent of those who appear to be intent upon grasping the things that she cherishes. Thus the Island itself is left to return into a veil of secrecy. In truth however, whilst one misunderstanding has resulted in forcing her apart from her true love, more is yet to follow, for Stacey subsequently is to find herself at the mercy of someone who wishes to use her merely as a way of fulfilling his own needs. Consequently the question remains as to whether her lover will be able to return in time to save her or will the present shroud of silence seek to immerse her into its fathomless depths.

George Claude Lorimer (1838-1904) was a noted reverend, and was pastor of several churches around the United States. His son, George Horace Lorimer, was also a novelist.

Honor de Balzac (1799-1850) was one of the premiere French novelists. This is a collection of his stories.

Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy's further talents as essayist, dramatist, and educational reformer made him the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family.

The year is 1942 and young Jack Adams, a nine year old wartime evacuee from South London reluctantly finds himself living amongst the country folk of the county of Kent. Some of his exploits are fraught with danger at the height of the Second World War whilst others are exciting adventures amongst not only the kindest of people, but the prostitutes and pimps and the thieves, villains and vagabonds of this time. This tale is fast moving and gripping and takes place amongst some of the historic towns and villages, dairy and hop farms of this beautiful county. The Garden of England.