Without Feathers"The title Without Feathers is a reference to Emily Dickinson's poem
"'Hope' Is the Thing with Feathers", reflecting Allen's neurotic sense of hopelessness."
A Scott's Quair"A Scots Quair is a trilogy by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon, describing the life of Chris Guthrie, a woman from the north-east of Scotland during the early 20th century. It consists of three novels: Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe (1933), and Grey Granite (1934). The first is widely regarded as an important classic (voted Scotland's favourite book in a 2005 poll supported by the Scottish Book Trust and other organisations) [1][2] but opinions are more varied about the other two."
"The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie, growing up in a farming family in the fictional Estate of Kinraddie in The Mearns (Kincardineshire) in north-east Scotland at the start of the 20th century. Life is hard, and her family is dysfunctional. She marries a farmer, Ewan Tavendale, who dies in
World War I."
"Cloud Howe continues the story of Chris Guthrie. She marries for a second time to Robert Colquhoun, a Church of Scotland minister. At the end of the novel, he dies in the pulpit while delivering a sermon."
"Grey Granite takes the story of Chris Guthrie further. She moves to the fictional city of Duncairn (previously referred to in Cloud Howe as Dundon). In the Introduction, Gibbon points out that Dundon/Duncairn is based neither on Aberdeen nor on Dundee (as some reviewers had surmised) but is "merely the city which the inhabitants of The Mearns (not foreseeing my requirements in completing my trilogy) have hitherto failed to build". An important character is her son by her first marriage, Ewan Tavendale, Jr., who becomes a left-wing political activist."
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves"Truss dedicates the book "to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers of St. Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters, and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution"; she added this dedication as an afterthought after finding the factoid in a speech from a librarian."
Van Wars"The real story of the
Glasgow Ice Cream Van Wars. In Glasgow, in the 1980s neither the Police nor the Public could understand why grown men were fighting over the rights to sell ice cream, the violence was extreme, and the streets of the housing estates were turned into war zones."
Beyond Blessed"For almost 20 years, Pastor Robert has been teaching the Church how moving from selfishness to generosity is the key to living a blessed life, because it not only transforms your finances but also every area of your life. But before we can be generous, we have to first learn how to
be faithful stewards in managing everything God entrusts to us."
Do You Think What You Think You Think?"Is what you believe coherent and consistent, or a jumble of contradictions? If you could
design a God, what would He, She, or It be like? And how will you fare on the tricky terrain of ethics when your taboos are under the spotlight?"
The Godmother"Meet Patience Portefeux, fifty-three, an underpaid French-Arabic translator who specialises in police phone taps. Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is wedged between the costs of raising her daughters and the nursing home fees for her ageing mother. She’s laboured for twenty-five years to keep everyone’s heads above water."
The Eejits By Roald Dahl"In The Twits, Roald Dahl’s story about the world’s most revolting couple, Mr Twit was horrible and hairy and his wife Mrs Twit was just plain ugly."
"Roald Dahl was
a spy, ace fighter-pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and many more brilliant stories. He remains the World’s No.1 storyteller."
The Brain That Changes Itself"Using personal stories from the heart of this neuroplasticity revolution, Dr. Doidge explores the profound implications of the changing brain for understanding the mysteries of love, sexual attraction, taste, culture and education in an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at human possibility and human nature."
The '86 Fix"Consequently, Craig now lives in a loveless marriage and earns a living in a
dead-end job as the manager of an electrical store. He could have been so much more. He could have achieved so much more."
The Adventures of Tintin"Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market. Only it isn't any model ship--it holds a piece of the puzzle to finding the resting place of Red Rackham's treasure! But Tintin isn't the only ones after the notorious pirate's booty. With dangerous treasure seekers at their heels, Tintin and his dog, Snowy, are on a high-stakes thrill ride, that takes them from land to sea, from open air to the ocean floor!"
This is Not a Drill: Just Another Glorious Day in the Oilfield"He's back on the rigs and back in trouble. Picking up right where he left off, Paul Carter pulls out more tall tales of a mad, bad, and dangerous life in the international oil trade. Starting with action and mayhem galore This Is Not A Drill sets an unrelenting pace that just doesn't let up, as Paul almost drowns when the Russian rig he's working on begins to capsize; is reunited with his Dad—another adrenaline junkie; gets married; hangs out with his rig pig buddies in exotic locations; gets hammered on vodka in Sakhalin; and spends a couple of interesting weeks in Afghanistan with some mates who run an outfit that just happens to contract out mercenaries for hire."
Black Middens"There is plenty for everyone here, covering a wide range of themes, and happily proving that our authors aren’t feeling restricted to writing about referendums and political uncertainty."
Robert Louis Stevenson"Born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson traveled often, and his global wanderings lent themselves well to his brand of fiction. Stevenson developed a desire to write early in life, having no interest in the family business of lighthouse engineering. He was often abroad, usually for health reasons, and his journeys led to some of his early literary works."
Lonely Boy"For the very first time Steve describes the sadness of never knowing his dad, the neglect and abuse he suffered at the hands of his step father, and how his interest in music and fashion saved him from a potential life of crime spent in remand centres and prison. From the Kings Road of the early seventies, through the years of the Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and the recording of Never Mind the Bollocks (ranked number 41 in Rolling Stone magazine’s Best Albums of All Time), to his self-imposed exile in New York and Los Angeles where he
battled with alcohol, heroin and sex addiction – caught in a cycle of rehab and relapse – Lonely Boy, written with music journalist and author Ben Thompson, is the story of an unlikely guitar hero who, with the Sex Pistols, changed history."
The Incredibly Strange Film Book"Forget about the dry, academic studies of cinematic technique by crusty old celluloid bores. This book is about raw movie making: the extraordinary low budget maniacs who were willing to recreate any of the seven deadly sins and then invent a few more if committing them to film meant bums on seats. It's about the unsung heroes and heroines of the movie world; the salacious delights of the porn movie; banned movies like so many of Russ Meyer's masterpieces."
A Field Guide to the Bird Songs & Calls of Britain and Northern Europe"This book describes
bird sound in a simple and understandable way."
A Song for the Dark Times"Retired John
Rebus investigates the disappearance and death of his daughter's partner Keith Grant."
"Keith has apparently not just walked out, and he was obsessed by the history of a nearby wartime internment camp
Camp 1033 which housed both POWs and civilians of German and other nationalities."
In a House of Lies"Some boys discover a car in a deep gully in some woodland. Inside is a handcuffed corpse; the ex-lover of the dead man was the son of a serving detective inspector in what was the old Strathclyde Police of Rebus' day before it became Police Scotland. Rebus, long retired, and 'Big Ger' Cafferty, are connected to the corpse's original missing-persons case, while Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox are assigned to the current investigation. Rebus is suffering from COPD and has given up cigarettes and
almost stopped drinking alcohol."
