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Curtain Up: Agatha Christie: A Life in Theatre
Curtain Up: Agatha Christie: A Life in Theatre
Julius Green
¥125.18
A revealing and witty new examination of how Agatha Christie became the world’s most successful and popular female playwright, including details of never-before-published *s and stories. Published in celebration of Agatha Christie's 125th birthday, Curtain Up! is an essential purchase for Agatha Christie fans worldwide. Everyone knows that The Mousetrap is the world’s longest-running play, but this first ever book dedicated to Agatha Christie as a playwright tells how Christie prevailed against the male-dominated establishment to be the only woman to have three plays in the West End at the same time and became the most popular and successful female playwright in the world. Author and theatre producer Julius Green has been given unprecedented access to archives in the UK and USA and has uncovered unpublished and unperformed plays, as well as previously unknown facts and correspondence. Agatha Christie was a skilful and accomplished stage writer, and this long-awaited book is a fascinating, funny and revealing tale that theatregoers and Agatha Christie fans won't want to miss.
A Strong Hand to Hold
A Strong Hand to Hold
Anne Bennett
¥53.76
A heartbreaking tale of love and loss in a time of war, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. Jenny O’Leary is devastated one morning in 1940 when she receives a telegram giving her the dreadful news that one of her brothers has been killed in action. Grief threatens to engulf her, but as an ARP warden, tending to Birmingham’s injured after the nightly raids, she is well-used to the suffering that thousands are enduring every day. Linda Prosser is just twelve years old and desperately close to her mother and two tiny brothers. As the bombs drop around them one fateful night, Linda takes a risk which has disastrous consequences. Terrified, and buried beneath a mass of debris after her home takes a direct hit, it is Jenny who crawls through the wreckage of the house to rescue her. So begins a friendship which is last through the years. But when Linda falls in love with a man that Jenny despises, she is faced with sacrificing her future happiness for the friend who has given her everything…
Love Me Tender
Love Me Tender
Anne Bennett
¥54.84
A heartrending tale of love and tragedy during The Birmingham Blitz. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. For Kathy O’Malley, life has not been easy with her husband, Barry, out of work and with two children to feed. Then when war breaks out in 1939, many of the local men enlist, including Barry, leaving the women to cope as best they can. The years that follow are full of hardship: rationing, nightly air raids and endless shifts working at the local munitions factory all take their toll on Kathy who longs to feel the strong arms of her husband around her once more. When she meets Doug, a handsome American GI, she is drawn immediately drawn to him but determined to honour her marriage vows. But after she receives a telegram informing that her husband is missing, presumed dead, she makes a decision that will have consequences, not just for herself, but for the lives of all those she loves too…
A Great Day at the Office
A Great Day at the Office
Dr. John Briffa
¥66.22
Dreading work? Tired of a 9 to 5 that’s more like an 8 to 10? Feeling overwhelmed by your job? A Great Day at the Office offers practical solutions to the challenges of modern-day business life for a healthier, happier and more productive time at the office and away. For almost two decades, Dr John Briffa has worked with a wide range of organisations, both in the UK and abroad, to inspire literally thousands of people to live and work more healthily, effectively and sustainably. His techniques have proven, time and again, that small changes to your lifestyle will recharge your batteries and boost your performance and productivity. Areas he will cover include: diet, hydration, the amount of alcohol you drink, and the relation these bear to your quantity and quality of sleep. Many of his solutions go against conventional wisdom, but are based on the most recent and cutting-edge studies.
Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets
Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets
Joanna Blythman
¥66.22
From the author of What to Eat and Shopped, a revelatory investigation into what really goes into the food we eat. Even with 25 years experience as a journalist and investigator of the food chain, Joanna Blythman still felt she had unanswered questions about the food we consume every day. How ‘natural’ is the process for making a ‘natural’ flavouring? What, exactly, is modified starch, and why is it an ingredient in so many foods? What is done to pitta bread to make it stay ‘fresh’ for six months? And why, when you eat a supermarket salad, does the taste linger in your mouth for several hours after? Swallow This is a fascinating exploration of the food processing industry and its products – not just the more obvious ready meals, chicken nuggets and tinned soups, but the less overtly industrial – washed salads, smoothies, yoghurts, cereal bars, bread, fruit juice, prepared vegetables. Forget illegal, horse-meat-scandal processes, every step in the production of these is legal, but practised by a strange and inaccessible industry, with methods a world-away from our idea of domestic food preparation, and obscured by technical speak, unintelligible ingredients manuals, and clever labelling practices. Determined to get to the bottom of the impact the industry has on our food, Joanna Blythman has gained unprecedented access to factories, suppliers and industry insiders, to give an utterly eye-opening account of what we’re really swallowing.
Home Made: Good, honest food made easy
Home Made: Good, honest food made easy
Tana Ramsay
¥80.25
Nothing beats the taste and comfort of real home made food. Bestselling cook Tana Ramsay has devised a fabulous range of mouth-watering recipes that will leave family and friends begging for second helpings. Always easy to make, you'll be free to spend more time with the people that count. Great food brings people together and Tana Ramsay's Home Made will do just that. Her recipes are a perfect combination of traditional flavours and modern twists, and are divided into 12 ingredient-led sections for ease of reference, including Chicken, Lamb, Pizzas and Chocolate. Beautifully illustrated throughout, highlights include succulent lemon chicken stew, crispy roast pork with haricot beans, pancetta & thyme, lazy bubble & squeak and a seriously sticky chocolate treacle pie. This is the perfect cookbook for anybody who wants to feed their loved ones great food every day.
The Burden
The Burden
Agatha Christie, writing as Mary Westmacott
¥58.47
A superb novel of possessive love. Laura Franklin bitterly resented the arrival of her younger sister Shirley, an enchanting baby loved by all the family. But Laura's emotions towards her sister changed dramatically one night, when she vowed to protect her with all her strength and love. While Shirley longs for freedom and romance, Laura has to learn that loving can never be a one-sided affair, and the burden of her love for her sister has a dramatic effect on both their lives. A story of consequences when love turns to obsession… Famous for her ingenious crime books and plays, Agatha Christie also wrote about crimes of the heart, six bittersweet and very personal novels, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.
Driving Blind
Driving Blind
Ray Bradbury
¥72.99
One of Ray Bradbury’s classic short story collections, available in ebook for the first time. Over the course of a long and celebrated career, Ray Bradbury has traveled many roads: cruising down country highways that wound through the unseen heart of small-town America; exploring rutted backwoods paths that led to dark and dangerous places; racing at mach-speed along shimmering celestial turnpikes as limitless and exciting as the unbound imagination. DRIVING BLIND is a stunning collection of short fiction. With a steady hand on the wheel, the master once again transports us to remarkable places – and to warm and achingly familiar destinations of the heart, revealed as we've never seen them before in the brilliance of day or gloom of night. Here are unforgettable excursions to the fantastic, glorious grand tours through time and memory – interspersed with strange, unexpected side trips to the disturbing and eerie – where surprises are waiting around every curve and just beyond each mile marker. These are new roads we have never ridden before – sprawling interstates and lush, twisting rural routes fraught with dangers and delights of all manner, shape and substance. With Ray Bradbury in the driver's seat, the journey promises to be a memorable one. Come along and enjoy the ride.
Mistress of Mistresses (Zimiamvia, Book 1)
Mistress of Mistresses (Zimiamvia, Book 1)
E. R. Eddison,Douglas E. Winter
¥95.75
The first volume in the classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. According to legend, the Gates of Zimiamvia lead to a land ‘that no mortal foot may tread, but that souls of the dead that were great upon earth do inhabit.’ Here they forever live, love, do battle, and even die again. Edward Lessingham – artist, poet, king of men and lover of women – is dead. But from Aphrodite herself, the Mistress of Mistresses, he has earned the promise to live again with the gods in Zimiamvia in return for her own perilous future favours. This sequel to The Worm Ouroboros recounts the story of Lessingham’s first day in this strange Valhalla, where a lifetime is a day and where – among enemies, enchantments, guile and triumph – his destiny can be rewritten.
The Irish Are Coming
The Irish Are Coming
Ryan Tubridy
¥80.25
In the sequel to his bestselling JFK in Ireland, the Emerald Isle’s favourite son delves into his country’s past to celebrate the Irish people who through their skills and endeavours helped make the British Isles great. In ‘The Irish Are Coming’ Ryan Tubridy takes a journey into Ireland’s past to unearth the many amazing, and altogether fascinating, contributions the Irish have made to everyday British life; whether it be making us laugh (Graham Norton), thrilling us with their acting (Peter O’Toole), or dazzling us with their audacious adventuring (Earnest Shackleton). Just as Stuart Maconie has celebrated in his own unique way all that is great about his North of England roots, so Ryan Tubridy makes a passionate case for the magnificent contribution Ireland has made to its nearest neighbour.
Bird Populations (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 124)
Bird Populations (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 124)
Ian Newton
¥229.16
Earlier naturalists formed the impression that bird numbers remained more or less stable through time. In the years since these words were written, however, changes have occurred in the landscapes of the British Isles and in the seas around our coasts, causing bird populations to fluctuate in an unprecedented way. In Ian Newton’s latest New Naturalist volume, he explores bird populations and why their numbers vary in the way they do, from year to year or from place to place. He addresses the various factors that we know limit bird numbers – food supplies and other resources, competitors, predators, parasites and pathogens, and various human impacts. The combination of a rapidly expanding human population, a predominantly utilitarian attitude to land, central government policy on land use, and increasing mechanisation have combined to promote more massive changes in land use – and hence in bird habitats – in recent decades than at any comparable period previously. These developments have in turn brought huge changes in bird populations, as some species dependent on the old landscapes declined, and others benefiting from the changes increased. Over the same period, changing public attitudes to wildlife, protective legislation and a growing network of nature reserves allowed previously scarce bird species to recover from past onslaughts, while climate warming has promoted further changes. In this seminal new work, Ian Newton sets out to explain why different bird species are distributed in the numbers that they are, and have changed over the years in the way that they have. He emphasises the factors that influence bird numbers, rather than the numbers themselves, thus providing a much-needed overview which is necessary if we are to successfully manage bird populations, whether for conservation reasons, for sustainable hunting or for crop protection. The continued monitoring of bird numbers can also alert us to impending environmental problems. In addition, the regular watching and study of birds now provides a source of recreation and pleasure for very large numbers of people, who would find a world with fewer birds a poorer place.
Vulgar Things
Vulgar Things
Lee Rourke
¥66.22
The second novel from Lee Rourke, author of the cult hit ‘The Canal’. Jon Michaels – a divorced, disaffected and fatigued editor living a nonde* life in North London – wakes one morning to a phone call informing him that his uncle has been found dead in his caravan on Canvey Island. Dismissed from his job only the day before and hung-over, Jon reluctantly agrees to sort through his uncle’s belongings and clear out the caravan. What follows is a quixotic week on Canvey as Jon, led on by desire and delusion, purposeful but increasingly disorientated, unfolds a disturbing secret, ever more enchanted by the island – its landscape and its atmosphere. Haunted and haunting, ‘Vulgar Things’ is part mystery, part romance, part odyssey: a novel in which the menial entrances and the banal compels.
20 MINUTES TO MASTER ... PILATES
20 MINUTES TO MASTER ... PILATES
Lesley Ackland
¥22.37
First Directions – an inspirational source of information, insights and practical techniques to change your life. Pilates is an exercise system traditionally used by ballet dancers and models, that is designed to make your body longer, leaner and stronger. The soft exercises combine low-impact but high-energy movements with realignment of posture to build your flexibility, stamina and strength. Designed to work for all ages and at all levels of fitness, the short Pilates exercises will soon leave you energized and exuding total confidence and grace. Lesley Ackland has designed a Pilates session to fit every part of your day and to tone every part of your body, and in just 15 minutes a day you too can have the lithe and beautiful body of a dancer.
Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse
Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse
Maggie Fergusson
¥58.86
Discover the true life story of favourite storyteller Michael Morpurgo, in this biography specially edited for children. Also features seven original Morpurgo stories. We are enchanted by Michael Morpurgo’s amazing stories like ‘Private Peaceful’, ‘Born to Run’ and ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. And with big screen adaptations of his novels such as ‘War Horse’ being made into film adaptations by Steven Spielberg, it’s no surprise that he’s our nation’s number one favourite storyteller. But what about the real life story of Michael Morpurgo…? How did a boy supremely uninterested in books, who dreamed of becoming an army officer, become a bestselling author and Children’s Laureate? What stories in Michael’s own life inspired him to write more than a hundred books for children? In a unique collaboration, Maggie Fergusson and Michael himself explore his life through biography and stories. This is a specially abridged edition of the critically acclaimed biography ‘War Child to War Horse’, for children. With additional photos not included in the hardback edition, and with a special activities section, this is the perfect gift for any child who has ever loved a Morpurgo story – and there are millions of them out there…
Wing Girl
Wing Girl
Nic Tatano
¥45.62
‘One of the top 20 books of 2013’ – I Heart… Chick Lit ‘E-book novel of the year’ – Chick Lit Chloe Wing Girl: [wing-gurl] noun 1. A young, single woman frequenting liquor-serving establishments who attracts then later repels eligible men that are eventually picked up by her friends. 2. The essential accessory for dating in Manhattan. For years guys have cruised bars using the "wing man" as a divide and conquer weapon designed to liberate a gorgeous woman from her not-so-beautiful friend. Meet Belinda Carson, Wing Girl. She's a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners investigative reporter fighting for truth, justice and higher ratings. But while her fame draws in the hotties, it’s unfortunate that you can’t buy a new personality at Bloomingdales! Because up close and personal these unsuspecting suitors get fried by a snarky attitude that's sharp enough to slice a stale bagel… which leaves her grateful friends to swoop in for the delectable leftovers! Only enough is enough – isn’t it time for Belinda to stop taking one for the team and land her own Mr Right?
Boss Girl
Boss Girl
Nic Tatano
¥54.65
Sydney Hack is the single, thirtysomething VP of news for a failing network… and she also has a taste for younger men. She soon realizes a whole lot of over-thirty female viewers do as well, so she sets out to give these women what they want; a chiseled, trophy buck in his twenties sitting on the anchor desk next to a woman… Just. Like. Them. With nothing to lose she does the unthinkable; along with three female managers who happen to be her best friends she brings out the casting couch and turns it into a sleeper sofa. Doesn't matter that the men have no television experience. As long as they look good. And there’s a hint of romance in every newscast. Ratings skyrocket as a result, but Sydney and her female cohorts discover something else along the way… True love is not always age appropriate.
It Girl
It Girl
Nic Tatano
¥54.65
~ Veronica Summer is stuck in the dream job from hell. The spunky New York reporter is offered the network's morning anchor position, but she doesn't want it because she's a night person. Then the network plays a trump card, promising her the evening anchor chair in three years. So the fiery redhead takes the plunge, with the ultimate gig waiting down the road. Problem is, that road is filled with two am wake-up calls and the only social life she has is one with bats and raccoons. She quickly realizes she'll never survive the grind and decides the only way out is to get fired by being her snarky self on live television. And the ratings skyrocket. Veronica becomes the nation's It Girl, so the network makes her a celebrity contestant on its most popular nighttime dance competition show, Dance Off. While her journalistic credibility is shot to hell by the show's skimpy costumes, she's thrown into close contact with two incredibly attractive men; her dance partner and the show's sarcastic British judge. And she soon discovers that love is the ultimate gig.
The Park Bench Test: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance
The Park Bench Test: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance
Sarah Lefebve
¥51.50
~ “Can you still see yourself sitting on a park bench, holding hands with that person when they are old and wrinkly? That’s the question you have to ask yourself…” Aspiring journalist Becky loves her boyfriend Alex, but when her best friend Katie gets engaged, she’s left wondering if Alex really is her Mr Right. Their other best friend Emma doesn’t believe in ‘the One’– she’s just looking for a man who will stick around longer than her dad did. As they come together to plan Katie’s big day, navigating the chaos of wedding dress shopping, seating plans, and the dreaded singles table, the girls begin to question their own relationships; and the possibility of settling for anything less than butterflies… Debut author Sarah Lefebve asked her own friends and family how they knew they had found the elusive Mr Right and then turned their honest – and often surprising – answers into this charming, emotional and downright funny romance.
Take A Look At Me Now
Take A Look At Me Now
Miranda Dickinson
¥34.14
How far would you go to make a new start? Heart-warming and romantic, Take a Look at Me Now will make you laugh, cry and cheer Nell on from start to finish. What a difference a day makes… Nell Sullivan has always been known as ‘Miss Five-Year Plan’. But when she finds herself jobless and newly single on the same day, Nell decides it is time to stop planning and start taking chances. Nell blows her redundancy cheque on a trip of lifetime to a place where anything is possible – San Francisco. There she meets a host of colourful characters, including the intriguing and gorgeous Max. Very soon the city begins to feel like Nell’s second home. But when it’s time to return to London, will she leave the ‘new Nell’ behind? And can the magic of San Francisco continue to sparkle thousands of miles away?
Wish Upon a Star
Wish Upon a Star
Trisha Ashley
¥58.86
A wonderful warm festive treat from Sunday Times bestseller Trisha Ashley. The perfect gift isn’t always under the tree… Single mum Cally’s life is all about her little girl Stella. She’s resigned to the fact that the only romance she’s going to get is from the rom-coms she watches, and with her busy job and her daughter, she doesn’t have time to even think about love. But life gets very tough when Stella gets sick. Balancing her job as a recipe writer and looking after Stella is all consuming, so when Cally meets handsome baker Jago the last thing she wants to do is fall in love, especially when she’s been badly burned by a Prince Charming from her past. Can laid-back, charming Jago unlock Cally’s frozen heart and help her find true love and magic under the mistletoe? Come home for Christmas with this gorgeous festive treat, perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.
Shoeless Joe
Shoeless Joe
W. P. Kinsella
¥34.14
The book that inspired the movie Field of Dreams. The voice of a baseball announcer tells the Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella: "If you build it, he will come." "He" is Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ray's hero. "It" is a baseball stadium which Ray carves out of his cornfield. Like the movie Field Of Dreams that was made from this novel, Shoeless Joe is about baseball. But it's also about love and the power of dreams to make people come alive. . .