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With a Zero at its Heart
With a Zero at its Heart
Charles Lambert
¥56.90
24 themed chapters. Each with 10 numbered paragraphs. Each paragraph with precisely 120 words. The sum of a life. In his beautiful and haunting new book, Charles Lambert explores the fragmentary nature of memory, how the piecing together of short recollections can reveal a greater narrative. Through chapters tackling elemental themes such as Sex, Death, and Money, Lambert assembles the narrator’s moving life story. Executed with all the grace and finesse of his previous acclaimed work, this is an incredible artistic achievement, breathtaking in its simplicity yet awe-inspiring in its scope. With cover and text design by the renowned designer Vaughan Oliver, With a Zero at its Heart is as beautiful to look at as it is to read.
Chaos Descends (Darkmouth, Book 3)
Chaos Descends (Darkmouth, Book 3)
Shane Hegarty
¥51.50
The third book in the monstrously funny and action-packed Darkmouth series. It’s going to be legendary. The adventures of the most unfortunate Legend Hunter ever to don fighting armour and pick up a desiccator continue… Finn's been through so much, he'll now be allowed do what he wants with the rest of his life, right? Wrong. Whether he likes it or not, he's going to be made a proper Legend Hunter. But then suddenly people start disappearing, Legends are appearing where they shouldn't, Broonie's complaining, and an attack so big is coming that Finn has the weight of the world on his shoulders. The weight of two worlds, actually…
Worlds Explode (Darkmouth, Book 2)
Worlds Explode (Darkmouth, Book 2)
Shane Hegarty
¥51.50
The second book in the monstrously funny and action-packed new series: Darkmouth. It’s going to be legendary. The adventures of the most unfortunate Legend Hunter ever to don fighting armour and pick up a Dessicator continue… On a list of things Finn never thought he'd wish for, a gateway bursting open in Darkmouth was right up there. But that's about his only hope for finding his missing father. He's searched for a map, he's followed Steve into dead ends, but found nothing. And he's still got homework to do. But soon Finn and Emmie must face bizarre Legends, a ravenous world and a face from the past as they go where no Legend Hunter has gone before. Or, at least, where no legend Hunter has gone before and returned with their limbs in the correct order.
Darkmouth (Darkmouth, Book 1)
Darkmouth (Darkmouth, Book 1)
Shane Hegarty
¥51.50
A monstrously funny debut from the new star of middle-grade adventure. THEY’RE COMING! Legends (also known as terrifying, human-eating monsters) have invaded the town of Darkmouth and aim to conquer the world. But don’t panic! The last remaining Legend Hunter - Finn - will protect us. Finn: twelve-years-old, loves animals, not a natural fighter, but tries really, really hard, and we all know good intentions are the best weapons against a hungry Minotaur, right? On second thoughts, panic. PANIC NOW!
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.
Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum
Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum
Kathryn Hughes
¥73.58
‘Intriguing, gleefully contentious and – appropriately enough – fizzing with life, Victorians Undone is the most original history book I have read in a long while’ John Preston, Daily Mail A groundbreaking account of what it was like to live in a Victorian body from one of our best historians. Why did the great philosophical novelist George Eliot feel so self-conscious that her right hand was larger than her left? Exactly what made Darwin grow that iconic beard in 1862, a good five years after his contemporaries had all retired their razors? Who knew Queen Victoria had a personal hygiene problem as a young woman and the crisis that followed led to a hurried commitment to marry Albert? What did John Sell Cotman, a handsome drawing room operator who painted some of the most exquisite watercolours the world has ever seen, feel about marrying a woman whose big nose made smart people snigger? How did a working-class child called Fanny Adams disintegrate into pieces in 1867 before being reassembled into a popular joke, one we still reference today, but would stop, appalled, if we knew its origins? Kathryn Hughes follows a thickened index finger or deep baritone voice into the realms of social history, medical discourse, aesthetic practise and religious observance – its language is one of admiring glances, cruel sniggers, an implacably turned back. The result is an eye-opening, deeply intelligent, groundbreaking account that brings the Victorians back to life and helps us understand how they lived their lives.
Under Heaven
Under Heaven
Guy Gavriel Kay
¥71.22
An epic historical adventure set in an alternate 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. Honour is beyond measure But its price may be an empire… For two years Shen Tai has mourned his celebrated father and lived like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire. There, by a mountain lake, the bones of the soldiers killed in great battles between the Kitai and the Tagurans lie unburied and their wailing ghosts strike terror into the living. Tai has laboured alone, laying to rest the mingled dead of both empires, until a letter arrives. It contains the promise of a poisoned chalice: Tai will be given two hundred and fifty Sardian horses by the Tagurans, legendary steeds from the far west, as a reward for his courage and piety. Now, Tai must try to return alive from solitude to a glittering, dangerous court. For to give a man even one of the famed Sardians is to honour him greatly; to give him so many is a reward which would overwhelm an emperor, and could be Tai's death warrant.
The Long Exile
The Long Exile
Melanie McGrath
¥72.30
A chilling true story of deception and survival set amidst the Inuit communities of the Canadian Arctic. In 1922 the Irish-American explorer Robert Flaherty made a film called ‘Nanook of the North’ which captured the world's imagination. Soon afterwards, he quit the Arctic for good, leaving behind his bastard son, Joseph, to grow up Eskimo. Thirty years later a young, inexperienced policeman, Ross Gibson, was asked by the Canadian government to draw up a list of Inuit who were to be resettled in the uninhabited polar Arctic and left to fend as best they could. Joseph Flaherty and his family were on that list. They were told they were going to an Arctic Eden of spring flowers and polar bears. But it didn't turn out that way, and this, Joseph Flaherty's story, tells how it did.
The Importance of Being Kennedy
The Importance of Being Kennedy
Laurie Graham
¥57.09
A brilliant novel by Laurie Graham set in wartime London, which follows Kick Kennedy, sister of future US President JFK, as she takes London society by storm. Nora Brennan is a country girl from Westmeath. When she lands herself a position as nursery maid to a family in Brookline, Massachusetts, she little thinks it will place her at the heart of American history. But it's the Kennedy family. In 1917 Joseph Kennedy is on his way to his first million and he has plans to found a dynasty and ensure that his baby son, Joe Junior, will be the first Catholic President of the United States. As nursemaid to all nine Kennedy children, Nora witnesses every moment, public and private. She sees the boys coached at their father's knee to believe everything they'll ever want in life can be bought. She sees the girls trained by their mother to be good Catholic wives. World War II changes everything. At the outbreak of war the Kennedys are living the high life in London, where Joseph Kennedy is the American ambassador. His reaction is to send the entire household back across the Atlantic to safety, but Nora, surprised by midlife love, chooses to stay in England and do her bit. Separated from her Kennedys by an ocean she nevertheless remains the warm, approachable sun around which the older children orbit: Joe, Jack, Rosemary, and in particular Kick, who throws the first spanner in the Kennedy works by marrying an English Protestant. Laurie Graham's poignant new novel views the Kennedys from below stairs, with the humour and candour that only an ex-nursemaid dare employ.
Who Killed Change?
Who Killed Change?
Ken Blanchard
¥66.22
By the bestselling author of The One Minute Manager, a business parable that teaches organizations to cope successfully with change. Every day organizations around the world launch change initiatives – often big, expensive ones - designed to improve the status quo. Yet 50 to 70 percent of these change efforts fail. A few perish suddenly, but many die painful, protracted deaths that drain the organization's resources, energy and morale. So, Who or what is killing change? That's what you'll find out in this delightful whodunit. The story features a Columbo-style detective named Agent who's investigating the murder of yet another Change. One by one, Agent interviews thirteen prime suspects, including a myopic leader named Vision; a chronically tardy manager named Urgency; an executive named Communication whose laryngitis makes communication all but impossible; and several other dubious characters. The suspects are sure to sound familiar, and you're bound to relate them to your own workplace. In the end, Agent solves the case in a way that will inspire you to become an effective Change Agent in your own organization.
Fragment
Fragment
Warren Fahy
¥47.77
Jurassic Park meets Lost in this electrifying new adventure thriller. When the cast and crew of reality TV show ‘SeaLife’ land on picturesque, unexplored Henders Island it’s a ratings bonanza. But they’re blissfully unaware that the decisions they make there will shape the fate of mankind … if they can only survive. For they quickly discover that the island is seething with danger. Having evolved in total isolation from the rest of the planet for millennia, Henders is home to host of vicious and exotic predators, terrifying creatures who live in a lightning fast blur of kill or be killed. A team of crack scientists is sent in to assess the situation and they are astounded by what they find. It soon becomes clear that if even the smallest bug ever made it off Henders island, life on earth as we know it would change very quickly indeed. The President is faced with the toughest decision of his career: take the risk of letting one of these creatures escape so that further research can be done, or nuke the island to protect the rest of planet Earth? Just when it seems the stakes couldn't get any higher, the scientists make a surprise discovery that changes everything…
Crash
Crash
J. G. Ballard,Zadie Smith
¥66.22
The definitive cult, post-modern novel – a shocking blend of violence, transgression and eroticism. When Ballard, our narrator, smashes his car into another and watches a man die in front of him, his sense of sexual possibilities in the world around him becomes detached. As he begins an affair with the dead man's wife, he finds himself drawn with increasing intensity to the mangled impacts of car crashes. Then he encounters Robert Vaughan, a former TV scientist turned nightmare angel of the expressway, who has gathered around him a collection of alienated crash victims and experiments with a series of auto-erotic atrocities, each more sinister than the last. But Vaughan craves the ultimate crash – a head-on collision of blood, semen, engine coolant and iconic celebrity. First published in 1973 Crash remains one of the most shocking novels of the second half of the twentieth century and was made into an equally controversial film by David Cronenberg. Ballard’s autobiography Miracles of Life was published in 2008 and Extreme Metaphors, a collection of interviews with the author, is due out in 2012.
The Great Christmas Knit Off
The Great Christmas Knit Off
Alexandra Brown
¥63.77
Can wacky Christmas jumpers really mend a broken heart? For fans of The Christmas Cracker by Trisha Ashley and The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan. Heartbroken after being jilted at the altar, Sybil has been saved from despair by her knitting obsession and now her home is filled to bursting with tea cosies, bobble hats, and jumpers. But, after discovering that she may have perpetrated the cock-up of the century at work, Sybil decides to make a hasty exit and, just weeks before Christmas, runs away to the picturesque village of Tindledale. There, Sybil discovers Hettie’s House of Haberdashery, an emporium dedicated to the world of knitting and needle craft. But Hettie, the outspoken octogenarian owner, is struggling and now the shop is due for closure. And when Hettie decides that Sybil’s wonderfully wacky Christmas jumpers are just the thing to add a bit of excitement to her window display, something miraculous starts to happen…
Amazing Philanthropists: B1 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)
Amazing Philanthropists: B1 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)
Jane Rollason,Fiona MacKenzie
¥42.67
The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Alfred Nobel, creator of the Nobel Prize Andrew Carnegie, the businessman who built libraries for poor people John D. Rockefeller who made money from oil and gave it all away Thomas Barnardo who created homes for poor children Henry Wellcome who used his money for medical research Madam C. J. Walker who gave her money to the African-American community BRITISH ENGLISH Word count: 13,950 Headword count: 1179 Each book includes a free CD with a full recording of each story. PLUS: visit www.collinselt.com/readers for videos, teacher resources and self-study materials. This book is Level 3 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level 3 is equivalent to CEF level B1. About the Amazing People series: A unique opportunity for learners of English to read about the exceptional lives and incredible abilities of some of the most insightful people the world has seen. Each book contains six short stories, told by the characters themselves, as if in their own words. The stories explain the most significant parts of each character’s life, giving an insight into how they came to be such an important historic figure. After each story, a timeline presents the most major events in their life in a clear and succinct fashion. The timeline is ideal for checking comprehension or as a basis for project work or further research. Created in association with The Amazing People Club. About Collins ELT Readers: Collins ELT Readers are divided into four levels: Level 1 - elementary (A2) Level 2 - pre-intermediate (A2–B1) Level 3 - intermediate (B1) Level 4 - upper intermediate (B2) Each level is carefully graded to ensure that the learner both enjoys and benefits from their reading experience.
Amazing Writers: B2 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)
Amazing Writers: B2 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)
Katerina Mestheneou,Fiona MacKenzie
¥42.67
The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Geoffrey Chaucer, writer of the first great works of English Literature William Shakespeare, writer of the greatest plays in history Charles Dickens who wanted to make England a better place Victor Hugo, the French writer who cared about the poor Leo Tolstoy, the man who wrote War and Peace Rudyard Kipling who wrote The Jungle Book and won a Nobel Prize BRITISH ENGLISH Word count: 12,886 Headword count: 1,039 Each book includes a free CD with a full recording of each story. PLUS: visit www.collinselt.com/readers for videos, teacher resources and self-study materials. This book is Level 3 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level 3 is equivalent to CEF level B1. About the Amazing People series: A unique opportunity for learners of English to read about the exceptional lives and incredible abilities of some of the most insightful people the world has seen. Each book contains six short stories, told by the characters themselves, as if in their own words. The stories explain the most significant parts of each character’s life, giving an insight into how they came to be such an important historic figure. After each story, a timeline presents the most major events in their life in a clear and succinct fashion. The timeline is ideal for checking comprehension or as a basis for project work or further research. Created in association with The Amazing People Club. About Collins ELT Readers: Collins ELT Readers are divided into four levels: Level 1 – elementary (A2) Level 2 – pre-intermediate (A2–B1) Level 3 – intermediate (B1) Level 4 – upper intermediate (B2) Each level is carefully graded to ensure that the learner both enjoys and benefits from their reading experience.
Sue’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 5)
Sue’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 5)
Lynn Russell,Neil Hanson
¥11.77
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’ With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps’ key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime – it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution.
The ZimZum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage
The ZimZum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage
Rob Bell,Kristen Bell
¥66.22
Sunday Times bestselling author Rob Bell is joined in this book by his wife of twenty years, Kristen, to present a new way to make marriage work. Marriage is complex because people are complicated. You think you’re one. But then there are moments when it’s shockingly obvious that you’re two, with two opinions – whether over politics, childrearing or what you’re going to watch on TV. So how do you stop yourself flaring up when you hit one of these relationship flashpoints and start seeing marriage as a chance for you to learn more about the person you want to know best of all? Early on in their marriage Rob and Kristen experienced the struggles and fights that come to all couples. They still do. But they quickly learned that a great marriage needs to be focused and nurtured – and that fights should be as productive as possible! In this inspiring and humorous insight into marriage, the popular husband and wife team explore communication, dealing with relatives, money, sex, petty fights, work and boundaries, as well as love, forgiveness, fidelity, faith and hope – because something special can happen when two people give themselves fully to each other. With extensive discussion points in the endnotes, this easy-to-read book is invaluable for anyone searching for a happy, fulfilling relationship.
Self Esteem: Simple Steps to Build Your Confidence
Self Esteem: Simple Steps to Build Your Confidence
Gael Lindenfield
¥32.67
The new updated and fully revised edition of this bestselling title. Poor self-esteem can sabotage relationships and careers, cause self-destructive behaviour and can hold us back from achieving our full potential. In this new updated and fully revised edition of this bestselling title Lindenfield helps us to recover from a deep-seated hurt and cope with knocks to our pride. The beginnings of poor self-esteem usually lie far back in our childhood, but our confidence can easily be knocked in our adult life by criticism and trauma. A practical program that can make us feel more energized and self-reliant than ever before; and ultimately, overcome our doubts and fears to achieve self-fulfilment.