IndieBooks is an innovative retail site providing a range of fantastic titles from the UK's best independent publishers. Every month the bestselling 25 continue into the next month's top 50 books.
Obama Music by Bonnie Greer
(Legend Press)
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Through music Bonnie recalls the culture that influenced Obama’s call to presidency, the fight for equality by American educational institutions and her own experiences growing up on the South Side of Chicago. The book describes the difficulties and opportunities faced by black African American’s from the 1950s and describes the changing atmosphere of America in the years leading up to the inauguration of America’s first black president.
Obama Music is an interpretation of Obama through the culture and music that he chose to make his base. The book speaks about hip-hop; country, classical, rock and roll, all of which were heard on Inauguration Day. The book also covers blues, gospel, soul and jazz, especially from the golden eras; when the people of the South Side began to build the great institutions, and the great solidarity, that enabled Barack Obama to become the most powerful person in the world. ........................................................................................................................................................
Live More Spend Less by Sarah Flower
(Spring Hill)
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There is not a family in this country that will not be affected by the economic downturn. This is not a 2 minute wonder which will be over by Christmas. This is something we’ll be living through for several years to come. This book is aimed at tackling everyday life in a family home. It doesn’t matter if you’re an eco-warrior or someone who just wants to cut their credit card bill, Live More, Spend Less contains what you need to know to help save money without missing out on life.
Live More, Spend Less is not a guide to going without, or to reusing teabags or washing used cling film. It is a guide for households to dip in and out of – as and when they require. It. It is a guide that will inspire you to live well while you’re saving money.
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The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy
Translated by Cathy Porter, Foreword by Doris Lessing
(Alma Books)
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When Sofia Behrs married Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace, husband and wife regularly exchanged diaries covering the years from 1862 to 1910.
Sofia’s life was not an easy one: she idealized her husband, but was tormented by him; even her many children were not an unmitigated blessing. In the background of her life was one of the most turbulent periods of Russian history: the transition from old feudal Russia to the three revolutions and three major international wars. Yet it is as Sofia Tolstoy’s own life story, the study of one woman’s private experience, that the diaries are most valuable and moving. They are a testament to a woman of tremendous vital energy and poetic sensibility who, in the face of provocation and suffering, continued to strive for the higher things in life and to remain indomitable.
From the state of the great writer’s stomach and the progress of his work, to the fierce and painful arguments that would eventually divide the couple for ever, Sofia’s Diaries are both compelling and extraordinarily revealing.
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The Year of the Hare by Arto Paassilinna
Translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas
(Peter Owen Publishing)
Now in its eighth reprint, this is a hilarious, thought-provoking and genuinely enchanting tale from one of Finland’s best-loved and best-selling authors. A newspaper journalist, Vatanen, burnt out and tired of the city, is on assignment in the country when his car hits a young hare on a deserted road. On a whim, he goes in search of the creature. The incident changes his life and he decides to break free from his life: he quits his job, leaves his wife, sells his possessions and sets out to travel the wilderness with his newfound friend.
Their adventures take in forest fires, pagan sacrifices, military war games, killer bears and much more. Translated into seven languages, filmed twice already in Europe and soon to be published by Penguin in the US, The Year of the Hare is rapidly becoming a cult classic in Finnish and world literature.
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The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami
(Haus Publishing)
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A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul's Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer - and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man's mysterious widow, the Secret Service takes the case away from him. Barudi continues to investigate clandestinely and discovers the murderer's motive: it is a blood feud between the Mustak and Shahin clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century. And, linked to it, a love story that can have no happy ending, for reconciliation has no place within the old tribal structures.
'The Dark Side of Love' is a novel which spans a century of Syrian history in which politics and religion continue to torment an entire people, while at the same time the stories from three generations tell of the courage of lovers who risk death sooner than deny their passions.
A heartfelt tribute to the author's hometown Damascus and a great and moving hymn to the power of love.
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The Juggler by Sebastian Beaumont
(Myrmidon Books)
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Mark did what people aren’t supposed to do. He left his home, his job, his wife, his friends; his seven month old baby… everything. He set out with only two things. One was a flyer advertising a nightclub, with an address written on the back in spidery pencil. The other was a small, hard bag of the sort that photographers carry their lenses in. But this bag did not contain photographic equipment. It contained £40,000 in cash.
But it is not so easy to start again. Mark must find his way in a new town where no one will talk about their past, and where mobile phones don’t work. He soon discovers that this is not all that’s strange about this nameless town. Friendships turn into a web of deceit and motives are always suspected. Mark’s journey, both physical and metaphysical, takes him through layers of reality and towards refuge of an unexpected kind.
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The Profit by John Karter
(Roastbooks)
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List of Ingredients: crucial shareholder meeting, philosophy of a corporate king, chilling premonition.
Tycoon Piers Black pours forth his wisdom on a variety of subjects ranging from greed and love, to friendship and mobile phones.
‘John Karter’s book (The Profit) is a timely satire of the modern financial world.’ – The Financial Times
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Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua
(Halban Publishers)
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A husband and wife spend a week apart over the Hanukkah holiday: Daniela visits her recently widowed brother-in-law who has insisted on staying in Africa on an obscure archaeological dig. She wants to revive early memories of her sister with him but, in ways she cannot begin to understand, he has been left wounded and raging following an earlier tragedy – a death by friendly fire. Amotz Ya’ari stays behind in Israel, rushing between his elevator engineering company, his son’s family, his grandchildren and his father.
Life in the Ya’ari family is full, complicated and often humorous, but beyond it lies a fragile society deeply uneasy with itself and badly scarred, with each family harbouring its own ghosts. Ever-creative, A.B. Yehoshua’s short, interwoven chapters create a duet like narrative which penetrates deeply – too deeply for some – into human relationships. He taps into the psyche of the reader as he taps into the psyche of his country, and we emerge altered by what we have read.
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The China Bird by Bryony Doran
(Bookline & Thinker)
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Edward's twisted spine has shielded him from friendships. But when a young art student sees him in the distance she is inspired. She asks to paint him - clothed and then unclad. Edward takes tentative steps until he is awakened from years of apathy and experiences emotions he cannot suppress. This tale of secrecy, love and eventual understanding explores our perceptions of beauty.
The China Bird was selected by book groups from around the UK to win the Hookline Novel Competition.
'(The novel) hovers like a moth around the edge of your consciousness, insisting that you turn one more page.' - Thebookbag.co.uk
'A literary classic that should be, must be, eagerly consumed by readers of all tastes.' - Robaroundbooks.com
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Thinking Aloud by Simon May
(Alma Books)
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In these provocative thoughts on the central questions of living, Dr Simon May catches our minds off guard in areas as diverse as love, pride, self-esteem, gratitude, timing, lying, talking, knowing, suffering, escaping, silence, evil, and thinking itself. By turns humorous and serious, his aphorisms go to the core of who we are.
The better one knows someone, the harder it is to recognize them.
Modesty shields us from others, humility from ourselves.
Not all impatience is a vice, but all vices may be forms of impatience.
Few of our deep problems can be resolved; most must be outgrown.
Chance, like a lover, is one of those awkward things of which we must be simultaneously slave and master.
‘Wit and wisdom do not always go together in this foolish world – but with Simon May they do, and we can all enjoy the result.’ Douglas Hurd, former British Foreign Minister and former Chairman of the Booker Prize judges
‘Distilled wisdom is rare and valuable; it is here in abundance.’ Peter Sutherland, Chairman, Goldman Sachs International and Chairman, BP
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Eating Blackbirds by Lorraine Jenkin
(Honno)
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Sixteen and with a newborn daughter, Georgia's been kicked out of her city squat. But she'd rather suffer her Uncle God's supermarket shampoo and recycled tea-bags than go home to her mum and be reminded of the incident.
After a lifetime's scrimping and saving, early retirement looms for Godfrey Palmer and his colleagues in Council Tax are in for one hell of a shock.
For Mansel Big Face, 'Ducks 'n' Dogshit' officer, it's time to climb out of the Superman tights and face the music. Time to come to the rescue not cause the accident. When Georgia turns up on Godfrey's doorstep she doesn't realise quite what a catalyst for change she's going to be...
‘funny and feel-good... gloriously off-the-wall plot’ - www.thebookbag.co.uk.
‘a novel to delight in for one reason after another – starting with its ability to make this reviewer laugh out loud... feel-good as well as funny and a rollicking read that's hard to put down’ - Steve Dube, Western Mail
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An Imitation of Life by Laura Solomon
(Solidus)
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A bizarre story set in Provencia, a city that has been devastated naturally by an earthquake and then very unnaturally by a massive bomb. Through this landscape gallumphs Celia with her camera. Hideously deformed—a giantess ageing at three times the normal human rate—Celia has had a remarkable life.
Peopled by such wonderful characters as Celia’s grandmothers: Lolly and Stuff, and her elusive uncle whose magic shows terrify young audiences, this is a humane book about people whose lives are on the periphery of polite society.
Celia tells her fantastical story through the writing of a brochure for the gallery that will show her final photographic retrospective. At times extremely funny and always surprising, this is a unique read.
‘Witty, clear-edged, both lemon-sharp and seductive, Laura Solomon is a writer to watch.’ - Maggie Gee, Chair of the Royal Society of Literature
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Taming Poison Dragons by Tim Murgatroyd
(Myrmidon Books)
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Western China, 1196: Yun Cai, a handsome and adored poet in his youth, is now an old man, exiled to his family estates. All that is left to him are regrets of a growing sense of futility and helplessness and the irritations of his feckless son and shrewish daughter-in-law. But the ‘poison dragons’ of misfortune shatter his orderly existence.
First, Yun Cai’s village is threatened with destruction by a vicious civil war. His wayward second son, a brutal rebel officer seems determined to ruin his entire family. Meanwhile, Yun Cai struggles to free an old friend, P’ei Ti, from a hellish prison- no easy task when P’ei Ti is the rebels’ most valuable hostage and Yun Cai considers himself merely a spent, and increasingly frightened old man.
Throughout these ordeals, Yun Cai draws from the glittering memories of his youth, when he journeyed to the capital to study poetry and join the upper ranks of the civil service: how he contended with rivalry and enmity among his fellow students and secured the friendship of P’ei Ti. Above all, he reflects on a great love he won and lost: his love for the beautiful singing girl, Su Lin, for which he paid with his freedom and almost his life.
Yun Cai is forced to reconsider all that he is and all that he has ever been in order to determine how to preserve his honour and all that he finds he still cherishes. Only then can summon the wit and courage to confront the warlord General An-Shu and his beautiful but cruel consort, the Lady Ta-Chi.
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The Salmon of Knowledge by Nick Owen
(Crown House Publishing)
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The Salmon of Knowledge contains over 140 stories, from ancient to contemporary, from all points of the compass and organised by theme. These stores invite us to wake up, stop taking ourselves so damned seriously, look at the world from perspectives other than our own, and recognise that only by changing ourselves can we reconnect with what is truly important in life.
‘I loved this book, it is full of wisdom. It brought me joy, and quiet illumination. May it lighten your way.’ – Adrian Machon, Director, Executive & Leadership Development, Corporate Leadership & Organisation Development, GlaxoSmithKline
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Rush! The Making of a Climate Activist
by Tamsin Omond (Marion Boyars)
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When Tamsin Omond left university she had no idea that within a year she would be up on the roofs of Parliament, breaking the law for her beliefs about climate change. Rush! The Making of a Climate Activist is a candid account of her journey from directionless student to becoming a young leader for the green movement.
Join her as she takes her first steps in the eco-topia of Climate Camp, gets arrested with radical activists from Plane Stupid and launches CLIMATE RUSH, a Suffragette-inspired direct action group, with a thousand-strong rush at Parliament. Then read the DIY guide and get involved. From the excitement of Obama’s inauguration day to braving police violence at the G20, and facing two months in Holloway, ‘Rush’ is one girl’s response to the reality of climate change.
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An A-Z of Possible Worlds
by A.C. Tillyer (Roastbooks)
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An A-Z Of Possible Worlds is a luxury box set of 26 individually bound, interlinking short stories. Each is a separate work, one for every letter of the alphabet, set in different imagined world. Every box contains an insert map, which acts as a guide to the set, displaying fictional and real places.
The beautifully crafted box set, with the 26 mini books within, makes this the ideal literary gift, a real treat for book lovers. Each set is part of a limited edition, and signed by the author.
This is a bold and experimental piece of fiction, drawing praise from many authors, with the word 'Kafka-esque' being mentioned a great deal, as well as comparisons to Jorge Luis Borges, BS Johnson and Georges Perec.
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Black President by Rick Schmidt
(Picnic Publishing)
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JFK seduces Sarah Little, a devout, married, African-American woman. Two and a half years later he is dead. Against all conceivable adversity, their son rises from poverty to attain America’s highest office. Victory in the White House 2012 has its roots in the lost innocence of the past . . .Weaving together important US events and personalities, this is a breathtaking journey through fifty years of subterfuge, civil rights, scandals, assassinations and conspiracies, from the Bay of Pigs to the Twin Towers and beyond; a journey via Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom, J. Edgar Hoover’s wardrobe, JFK’s cabinet meetings and the quagmire of Vietnam. Rick Schmidt serves up a stirring, topical must-read for those who love – or hate – America.
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Taking Woodstock by Elliott Tiber
with Tom Monte (Deep Books)
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Before there was a Woodstock Concert, there was Elliot Tiber working to make a go of his parents' hotel, the El Monaco. It wasn't easy and in the process, Elliot became the area's official issuer of event permits - not that anybody else wanted that position. Then, in the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber's life changed in a way he never could have foreseen. Greenwich Village had become the mecca for gays in America. There, Elliot had socialised with the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol and a talented young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe and yet had managed to keep his gay life a secret from his family. Then on Friday, June 27, Elliot walked into the Stonewall Inn - and witnessed the riot that would galvanise the gay movement in the United States. And on July 17, when Elliot read that the Woodstock Concert promoters had lost their license to stage the show in Wallkill, he called to offer his help in finding a new venue. In the days that followed, Elliot found himself swept up in a vortex that would change his life forever.
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Good Home Cooking by Diane Peacock
(Spring Hill)
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With 300 tried-and-tested recipes, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to eat good, fresh, local home made food - whatever their income.
From light snacks to hearty main courses and home baking, it shows you how a cleverly stocked store cupboard and some simple recipes mean tasty family meals, whatever your budget.
How to make your own pickles, baked beans, bread, sausages, bacon, butter, yoghurt and curd, cream and cottage cheese - without expensive equipment.
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Soothing Music for Stray Cats
by Jayne Joso (Alcemi)
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Mark’s best friend Jim just jumped out from the twentieth floor. Mark steps out of his life and onto the London train. Ending up flat sitting for acquaintance Ron, off to “find himself” in Costa Rica, he acquires into the bargain Ron’s totally wrong music collection. On grief’s low-battery setting, cold and underfed, Mark drifts through a familiar yet alien cityscape, developing a habit of imagining happier lives for the strangers around him.
Guilt at failing to save Jim spurs Mark to wonder whether anyone can intervene – when it counts - in another’s life. But as irritation at Ron’s music leads Mark to start buying him better CDs, the city throws at him chances to show and accept people’s trust. Credit at the Turkish cornershop; a gift of nicked shoes from his newfound best little mates, the Three Musketeers; meeting shaky Japanese student Kazu.... And best of all, appointing Kazu as the boys’ pre-dawn cricket coach. Flooded with warmth, this debut novel looks at friendship between men, altruism, songwriting and Samurai philosophy.
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The Pearl in the Grass by John Harris
Illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones (Notreallybooks)
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Imagine you're so poor you have to scrape a living by selling wild grass. When the rains don't come the ground dries up and nothing can grow. You go hungry, and you know eventually you'll starve. So if you found a patch of fast growing grass in the middle of the desert you'd think your problems were over, wouldn't you? That's what Sheng thought. But when his mum suggested he dig up the grass to plant in their garden his problems had only begun...
‘Delightful... absorbing... imaginative... stylish illustrations heighten the speed and suspense of the well-paced text.’ - Jenny Blanch - Carousel: The Guide to Children's Books
‘John Harris’s skill as a professional storyteller is evident in his retelling of this Chinese folk tale.... gossiping neighbours, wicked robbers and a terrifying dragon all lead to a hugely satisfying end.’ - Sybil Hannavy, The School Librarian magazine.
‘Wonderful - a classic in the making’ - Richard Hammond, Amazon Vine.
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Faith-Based War by T.Walter Herbert
(Equinox Publishing Ltd)
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A faith-based policy governed key features of the American invasion of Iraq, including the choice of a self-defeating “Shock and Awe” strategy, and the grossly mismanaged occupation. A religious rationale likewise blinded devotees of the White House torture program to the predictable cost in American lives, and the damage to America’s moral standing.
The Bush administration embraced an imperialist Christian militarism that unites elements of classic Puritan tradition with the mythology of the Western frontier. Faith-Based War brings into focus this dangerous perversion of Christian teaching, and details its catastrophic results.
‘It will take me some time to come to terms with all the thoughts this book provokes. Brilliant writing, thoughtful analysis, intellectual integrity and historical challenge are embedded in every single page as Walter Herbert wrestles with and unpacks for us the ramifications for all humankind as national mythology become articles of faith is translated into political policy in the hands of the most powerful nation on earth. This is self-critique at its best: disarming, but nonetheless devastating in its honesty, entirely convincing in its argument and universal in its reach.’ - Allan Boesak, Extraordinary Professor of Public Theology, Stellenbosch University
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No End to Snowdrops - A Biography of Kathleen Raine
by Philippa Bernard (Shepheard-Walwyn)
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Raine, knew as a small girl she wanted only to write poetry. At Cambridge in the twenties, she became friends with many brilliant writers, artists and scientists. After a short marriage, she eloped with the poet Charles Madge to live in Blackheath where two children were born.
At the outbreak of war, she ran away with her children to the Lake District where she found peaceful seclusion which enabled her to write some of her finest poetry, but found it difficult to support her family. Leaving the children with a friend, she returned to London. She joined the Fitzrovia set, meeting Tambimuttu who published her first book of poems, Stone and Flower.
She met Gavin Maxwell and fell disastrously in love with him, but he failed to reciprocate the warmth of feeling that overwhelmed her. The title of his famous book, Ring of Bright Water, was taken from a poem of hers.
With the publication of Blake and Tradition, Raine became a leading Blake scholar. Works on Coleridge, Yeats and Thomas Taylor followed. She founded the journal Temenos with the help of Prince Charles, and was honoured with the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and made a Companion of Honour.
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Something is Going to Fall like Rain
by Ros Wynne-Jones (Reportage)
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In Adek, a tiny village in the sprawling desert of Southern Sudan, a community lives on a knife-edge of starvation and war, at the mercy of the bombs that fall from the sky like rain. When three western aidworkers are stranded here - a place where poets carry Kalashnikovs and rebel commanders wear pink dressing gowns- their presence brings hope and danger in equal measure.
An ominous ode to Africa's violent beauty, Something is Going to Fall Like Rain is also a life-affirming reminder that love and happiness can co-exist with famine and conflict.
'One of the 50 Best Summer Reads Ever' - the Observer
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Lord Lucan: My Story
by William Coles (Legend Press)
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A murder gone wrong. A Worldwide police hunt for the killer. And a fugitive who became a legend: The 7th Earl of Lucan. The Lord Lucan Scandal is one of the greatest and most extraordinary mysteries of the 20th Century. Ever since Lucky Lord Lucan disappeared in 1974 after the murder of his nanny, the world has wondered what happened to Britain’s most dashing Peer. Here, in his own hand, is the answer. This is Lord Lucan’s personal memoir of his life as the world’s most infamous fugitive.
It is the story of an Old Etonian Earl on the run; of how a man became a murderer; and how a life-long friendship soured into an enduring hate. Here, for the first time, is the full monstrous account of the life of Lord Lucan. This is his story.
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None of the Cadillacs was Pink
by William Bedford (Solidus)
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This book brings together a selection of William Bedford’s finest short stories and non-fiction, exploring the experiences behind his first two novels: Happiland and All Shook Up. Many of the short stories appeared originally in publications such as The Dalhousie Review, The Daily Telegraph, Encounter, London Magazine, and the London Review of Books. Several were broadcast by the BBC.
‘It's easy to don rose-tinted spectacles, and forget the reality, a hard life of survival and endurance for the fishing communities, until you read something as uncompromisingly grounded as this. William Bedford writes about the everyday sound of the sea washing through the lives of people, the gritty sand permeating their lives on the margins of the sea. For them, fairground rides, slot machines and shows on the Pier aren't traditional seaside amusements but a chance to scrape a living outside the fishing industry, since the fish docks are the otherwise inevitable destination for all those people who live within sight of the sea.’ - Trish Simpson-Davis, The Bookbag.
‘One of the finest poets and writers of our generation’. - Karen Maitland
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Beauty by Raphael Selbourne
(Tindal St Press)
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
“The girl was faggol, crazy and refusing to marry”
Beauty — in both name and appearance — is a twenty-year-old British Bangladeshi, back in England having disgraced her family by refusing an abusive arranged marriage. Under continuing domestic pressure, she runs away.
Her encounters with officialdom, welfare-claimants, and strangers in the streets are complicated by her language and culture. Her isolation places her at the mercy of such unlikely helpers as Mark, a friendly, Staffordshire bull terrier-breeding ex-offender, and Peter, a middle-class underachiever on the rebound from a bitter relationship. Determined and spirited, yet tormented by doubts, Beauty is forced to examine her own beliefs. While her brothers search for her across the city, the conflict between her desire for personal freedom and her sense of family duty deepens. What will she do?
A sharply-rendered, compassionate and challenging portrait of a fragmented, multicultural urban England.
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Bougainvillea Ringplay
by Marion Bethel (Peepal Tree Press)
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Bougainvillea Ringplay is the long awaited second collection by Marion Bethel, a poet who has long established herself as one of the most necessary voices in Caribbean poetry. These poems are finely crafted works that reveal a maturity of voice and a distinctive use of language that delves into the fruitful place of intersection between her Bahamian dialect and the English that she plies as a lawyer.
These poems are sensual in the most literal sense - the poems are about the senses, the smell of vanilla and sex, the sound of waves - radio, voices, sea; the taste of crab soup; the texture of hurricane wind, and the chaos of colors bombarding the eye.
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The Invisible City by Emili Rosales
Translated by Martha Tennent (Alma Books)
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Emili Rosell, the young owner of one of Barcelona’s top galleries, receives an old manuscript written by an Italian architect about the “Invisible City” – an ambitious project dreamt up by King Carles III to build an alternative capital city in the Ebro delta. The manuscript tells of a lost masterpiece by the Venetian painter Tiepolo, and the site of the Invisible City is where Emili used to play as a child; drawn in by these factors, he is plunged into a fascinating extinct world.
Juxtaposing the worlds of the eighteenth-century royal court and the contemporary art world – both with a similar share of intrigue, politics and romance – The Invisible City is a gripping historical thriller and a compelling examination of the forces of power and love.
‘Emili Rosales is one of the brightest and more promising new voices in recent Catalan Literature, and his Invisible City is a seductive cocktail that blends intrigue, art and the secret history of Europe to create a literary, yet thrilling, journey of self-discovery.’ - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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Roads Ahead edited by Catherine O'Flynn
(Tindal St Press)
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In October 1999 a spiky anthology of young writing was the first title to appear from the Tindal Street Press imprint and the first on a prize-winning road ahead. Widely reviewed, praised for its energy and variety, and awarded an Arts Council publishing prize, Hard Shoulder kick-started the careers of several young writers, editors and publishers.
Ten years on, Tindal Street Press celebrates a decade of prize-listed publishing — and of commitment to the short story and the wealth of regional writing talent — with a showcase that’s just as groundbreaking. Costa award-winning author Catherine O’Flynn presents exciting new voices from the next generation of English writers.
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Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
(Peter Owen Publishing)
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Natsume Soseki’s importance to Japanese literature can be compared to that of Dickens to Britain or Henry James to North America. Kokoro is the Soseki novel that has been given most attention by critics and the public in Japan over the last century, since its first publication. On one level a meditation on the changing face of Japanese culture and its attitudes to honour, friendship, love, death, it is also a sly subversion of all of these things.
The novel centres around the friendship between the narrator and the man he calls Sensei, who is haunted by mysterious events in his past. As the friendship grows and the narrator gets to know more about the man he so admires, he is increasingly intrigued by this hidden history. The Sensei, however, refuses to reveal anything until the third part of the book when the narrator is called away to look after his sick father and the truth is revealed in tragic circumstances, etching itself onto the narrator – and the reader’s – ‘Kokoro’ : Heart.
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Shadow and Light by Jonathan Rabb
(Halban Publishers)
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Berlin 1927: when an executive at the newly-famous Ufa film studios is found dead in his bath, it falls to Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, of the Kriminal polizei to investigate.
With the help of the German film director Fritz Lang and the head of the most powerful crime syndicate, Hoffner finds his case reaches deep into Berlin’s sex and drug trade, and into the political world of Hitler’s Brownshirts (the SA).
Caught up in this story is Hoffner’s new lover, and his two sons, one of whom works for Joseph Goebbels. We last met Hoffner in Rosa (2007); his relationship with his sons develops menacingly in Shadow and Light.
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city-lit Berlin (Oxygen Books)
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From Christopher Isherwood and David Bowie to Anna Funder and Marlene Dietrich, experience this amazing city in the company of its most fascinating writers.
‘This wonderful anthology explores what it is really like to be a Berliner by bringing together extracts about the city from a range of genres, including some specially translated’ – The Guardian
‘An eclectic pillow-book … a stimulating intellectual tour of the idea of the city that would complement any guidebook’s more practical orientation’ – Financial Times
‘A gem of a book’ Rosie Goldsmith, BBC Radio 4
‘Brilliant … the best way to get under the skin of a city’ Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth
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The Mystery of Lewis Carroll
by Jenny Woolf (Haus Publishing)
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The more closely Lewis Carroll is studied, the more he seems to slide quietly away. The elusive author of Alice in Wonderland has been portrayed in innumerable ways over the last hundred years. He has been posthumously psychoanalysed, condemned and criticized for his supposed sexual perversions and drug use. He has been pitied for his apparent repressions, his hidden tragedies and his emotional frustrations. Carroll shunned publicity and became increasingly guarded as the years went by. His family descendents kept a tight hold on or destroyed many major documents about his personal life.
This new biography uncovers previously unseen letters casting new light on his relationship with the family of the so-called “real” Alice. The biography will be published within weeks of Alice in Wonderland being given a new film treatment by director Tim Burton, with a cast that includes Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter.
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No Smoke, No Fire - The Autobiography of Dave Jones
by Dave Jones with Andrew Warshaw (Know the Score!)
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Dave Jones is one of the most respected managers in football, who took Cardiff to the FA Cup final, Wolves to the Premier League and Stockport to their highest ever league position. But few fans, if any, could possibly identify with the anguish and turmoil that blighted his life. A staunch family man and loving father of four children, Dave’s world was turned upside down when, while manager of Premier League Southampton, out of the blue he was charged with child abuse relating to his time working as a care worker.
As he fought to clear his name from these totally false allegations, supported by his loyal wife Ann, who will also reveal her thoughts, Dave lost his job and, tragically, his father. What he didn’t lose was his determination to tell his side of the story, even in the face of threats from those who sought to finish him. Now, in unprecedented detail, Dave reveals the effect the traumatic episode had on him and his family, identifies those he believes were responsible - and explains how, against all the odds, he picked up the pieces and resumed a highly successful managerial career.
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The Book of Thunks by Ian Gilbert
Illustrated by Andrew Curran
(Crown House Publishing)
Order your copy - £7.99 (inc P&P):
Shake up your neural templates, rattle your thought routines and think about things differently thanks to ‘Thunks’. So find a friend or family member, ask a ‘Thunk’, disagree with their answer (remember there are no right and wrong answers) and keep your brain working longer and better!
If you decide to only ever choose the easy option, are you making life hard for yourself?
If you typed the word ‘run’ a thousand times, would that be a short story?
Can water get wet?
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Black Mongoose by Jon Haylett
(PaperBooks)
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USuzwe is an African country rotten with corruption. Its rulers systematically pillage the economy, rob the charities and drain the aid budgets of gullible Western countries. However, a group of citizens rebel against the poverty, food shortages, bankrupt social services, disease and early deaths and plan to topple the regime within a week, their unsuspecting instrument ex-Royal Marine Commando Johnny.
Johnny arrives in the Kingdom of USuzwe like any other tourist, intent on enjoying its palm-fringed beaches, game parks and beautiful girls. But when his brother mysteriously disappears, he finds himself the object of a huge police manhunt. Guided by Ephraim and the beautiful Lindiwe Dhlimani, Johnny begins the systematic destruction of the snakes of Kisingo’s regime, but at a terrible price.
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city-lit Paris (Oxygen Books)
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From Gertrude Stein and Julian Barnes to Joanne Harris and Alex Kapranos, over sixty dazzling writers on this extraordinary city.
‘It’s terrific – all the best writing on this complex city in one place’ - Andrew Hussey, author of Paris: The Secret History
‘An essential guidebook. It maps the Paris of the imagination beautifully’ - Kate Muir, author of Left Bank
‘Whether you’re a newcomer to Paris or a die-hard aficionado, this gem of a book will make you think of the city in a completely new way’ - Living France
‘This innovative guide takes us from Marcel Proust on that perfect erotic moment to Gertrude Stein on the origins of the croissant to Agnes Catherine Poirier on the lure of the Paris café’ - Paris Voice
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A Treaty of Love by Samir El-Youssef
(Halban Publishers)
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For the first time in six years, Ibrahim enjoys a breakfast of tomatoes, onions and pita bread, while his girlfriend Ruth takes a parcel to the local post office. As he waits for her return, he reflects on the events of the previous few days and then of the past few years.
He is Palestinian, she Israeli and they live in London, a city they explore and grow to love. They delight in living against the political tide and in confounding people’s assumptions. But, as the situation in the Middle East deteriorates, so it inevitably impinges on their life together and they struggle to maintain their relationship. It is the family secret that Ibrahim finally reveals that threatens to engulf them forever.
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Gateway to the Heavens
by K.L French (ygp Publishing)
Order your copy - £15.00 (inc P&P):
As a reason for some purpose to life, humans have always looked for order in the seeming random nature of our surroundings. Our ancestors unravelled the importance of sacred geometry in this quest for knowledge. They knew how simple shapes animate and direct the action, how they even underlie the purpose of our lives as they play out from beginning to end.
Using simple language and with the aid of over 700 carefully chosen diagrams and illustrations, Gateway to the Heavens explains how a select few simple geometric shapes mould reality and the fabric of your being. Discover the meaning and purpose of these shapes in the model called the ‘Gateway to the Heavens’; how they have a direct bearing on what you are and why you are here. Learn how this knowledge can be achieved through the expansion of your conscious awareness and how this expansion is made possible.
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Hypnotizing Maria
by Richard Bach (Deep Books)
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In this teaching fable, mega-author, Richard Bach returns to his main themes: love of flight and a profound interest in metaphysics. In the course of this slim volume, Bach tells the story of a no-nonsense veteran pilot, James Forbes, and his encounters with a woman named Maria trapped in a plane without a pilot, a flamboyant hypnotist and the hypnotist's deceased wife. Like his previous books, the story is a vehicle to explore various spiritual and philosophical issues. In a sense, Bach asserts, our world is a result of one hypnotic suggestion after another and the secret of a meaningful life is learning to control those suggestions.
‘While it mines the same territory as The Secret, Bach's book is far richer, raising provocative questions and striking the perfect balance, providing answers without implying that they are the only - or necessarily the right - ones.’ - Publishers' Weekly Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions, Out of My Mind and Messiah's Handbook, returns after an absence of ten years - truly a publishing event for the many Bach fans.
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Bone Song by Sherryl Clark
(Ransom Publishing)
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Interest age: teens and young adults / Reading age: 12+
Melissa is running for her life; she can’t risk making friends and she can’t trust anyone. But detention with the school rebel, Dobie, gives an unexpected opportunity to make a friend. If she takes it, she could risk everything.
Bone Song is part of the Cutting Edge series: quick reads for teens and young adults looking for fiction which chimes with their perspective on life. A compelling, harrowing, yet moving page-turner. With two narrators, two engaging voices, and two intertwined personal stories, it delves right to the heart of two young, broken lives, against a back-drop of family turmoil, abuse, cynicism, jealousy, love and hate.
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When Rooks Speak of Love
by Hilary Dixon (Solidus)
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A lyrical exploration of love in its various guises. The poet Arthur Transcombe is the fixed point in the spinning worlds of his partner Clementine and the younger, more beautiful Lily. Clementine’s demanding love for Arthur is tested almost beyond endurance when Lily turns up on the doorstep with a preposterous request.
The intensity of Arthur and Clementine’s extraordinary relationship is by turns infuriating, funny and sometimes even enviable. And despite their eccentricities, and the emotional challenges they create and suffer, they remain knowable and sympathetic.
Landscape, seascape, colour and the minutiae of domestic life create a richly textured narrative.
‘Poetic, intriguing and thought-provoking. A good book group choice’ - Katie Fforde
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Selling Light by Effie Gray
(Roastbooks)
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List of ingredients: dilapidated lighthouse, obsessional research student, identity crises.
A young research student studies crabs, unaware that soon she will meet her most interesting specimen yet, in a world where everything is for sale and the interpretation of reality is up for grabs.
‘A brilliant short book’ Scott Pack, me and my big mouth
‘Quirky, fresh, lyrical…I wholeheartedly recommend.’ Caroline Smailes, author of ‘In Search of Adam’.
‘A fascinating and beautifully told tale’ Reading Matters
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What the Buddha Thought
by Richard Gombrich (Equinox Publishing Ltd)
Order your copy - £14.99 (inc P&P):
In What the Buddha Thought, Richard Gombrich argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time.
Intended to serve as an introduction to the Buddha’s thought, and hence even to Buddhism itself, the book also has larger aims: it argues that we can know far more about the Buddha than it is fashionable among scholars to admit, and that his thought has a greater coherence than is usually recognised. It contains much new material. Interpreters both ancient and modern have taken little account of the historical context of the Buddha’s teachings; but by relating them to early brahminical texts, and also to ancient Jainism, Gombrich gives a much richer picture of the Buddha’s meaning, especially when his satire and irony are appreciated. Incidentally, since many of the Buddha’s allusions can only be traced in the Pali versions of surviving texts, the book establishes the importance of the Pali Canon as evidence.
The book contains much new material. The author stresses the Buddha’s capacity for abstraction: though he made extensive use of metaphor, he did not found his arguments upon it, as earlier thinkers had done. He ethicized and radically reinterpreted older ideas of karma (human action) and rebirth. Similarly, building on older texts, he argued for the fundamental importance of love and compassion, and analysed fire as a process, which could stand as a model for every component of conscious experience. Morally, the Buddha’s theory of karma provided a principle of individuation and asserted each individual’s responsibility for his own destiny. To make the book completely accessible to the general reader, the author provides an introductory section of ‘Background Information,’ for easy reference.
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Grandma's Ways for Modern Days
by Diana and Paul Peacock (Spring Hill)
Order your copy - £12.99 (inc P&P):
Helps readers to re-learn the everyday traditional skills of their grandparents that have been forgotten in the age of convenience foods.
This book is about learning and using those skills that made it possible for people to live a self-sufficient, low impact and highly satisfying life over the last hundred or so years, and applying them to today’s complex times.
Many people these days are looking for a better way of living – where profit is measured in terms of harvest and not gain; - where food is homemade and wholesome; - where a day’s work is rewarded by the sharing of food, materials and the comfort they bring for family or friends.
This book has a simple aim: to bring people and the means of life - be it baking bread or growing vegetables, brewing beer or preserving food - closer together. Grandma’s Ways represents a large repository of knowledge and techniques such as curing food, keeping hens, growing vegetables, making candles and a host of other things.
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Happy Kids Happy You
by Sue Beever (Crown House Publishing)
Order your copy - £14.99 (inc P&P):
Every child, every family situation is different and parenting is a journey of constant change. There are no "right answers", only what works for you and your family. This book will give you a toolkit of practical NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) methods flexible enough to cover all situations. It focuses equally on the needs of you, the parent, as well as your child and will help you: get your family life running more smoothly understand your children support and encourage them and their development more effectively recognise and meet your own needs so you can be more resourceful in family life feel more confident and positive so you can have fun and enjoy being a parent more of the time!
Rather than giving prescriptive advice, Happy Kids Happy You will enable you to develop your own solutions to situations. You will learn to speak and behave more positively with your children and experience outstanding results!
‘A very clear, informative and practical book to have in any home or work place, I will certainly be recommending it to all my parents." - Joyce Forster Head of First Steps Nursery Harrogate
‘This has got to be essential reading for every mum and dad.’ - Clive Wilson, Deputy Chairman Primeast, specialist in leadership, change and teamwork
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On the Plot with 'Dirty Nails'
by Joe Hashman (Spring Hill)
Order your copy - £12.99 (inc P&P):
Joe’s first book, How to Grow Your Own Food received widespread praise and a growing army of fans. His down-to-earth style and quirky tales from the garden continued with the release of A Vegetable Gardener’s Year.
This latest volume stands alone as a manual for both the first-time grower or seasoned expert, and perfectly complements his earlier titles in the ongoing quest for success and satisfaction on the plot.
Journeying week-by-week through the vegetable and fruit growing calendar, Dirty Nails delivers an engaging mixture of practical advice, humour and information on and around the plot.
It is a ‘grow your own’ manual, a recipe book, and a store of fascinating observations about natural history in the garden.
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