万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil
The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil
C. S. Lewis
¥61.51
The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it. First published in February 1942, the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior Demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility for securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient".
Yours, Jack: The Inspirational Letters of C. S. Lewis
Yours, Jack: The Inspirational Letters of C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis,Paul F. Ford
¥95.75
A collection of 365 readings containing the best and most compelling writing culled from more than 4,000 pages of C.S.Lewis‘s famous published letters. Thoughout his life, C.S. Lewis – ‘Jack’ to his friends – spent a good portion of each day writing letters to people for whom he became a spiritual mentor – literally thousands of them. Contained within this vast body of correspondence is wisdom and personal insight as powerful as anything else he ever wrote or had published. Jack’s famous letters, published in their entirety in a collection consisting of three impressive volumes, reveal much about his private life, reflections, friendships and feelings, as well as all of Lewis’s interests: theology, literature, poetry, fantasy, and unknown details about his world-famous Narnia stories and other books. Amongst Jack’s correspondents were J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, Owen Barfield, Arthur C. Clarke, Sheldon Vanauken and Dom Bede Griffiths. Now, this distillation of 365 inspirational readings extracted from the letters offers an easy-to-digest look at this great author’s lifetime of correspondence and drives straight to the heart of this insightful and inspirational thinker.
Helpless
Helpless
Marianne Marsh,Toni Maguire
¥45.62
Neglected by her careless parents, Marianne turned to her neighbour, the one person that she thought she could trust…. Eight year old Marianne, the eldest of five children, was neglected by her slovenly mother and her violent alcoholic father. Uncared for and unkempt she was rejected at school by her peers and scarcely tolerated by her teachers. Only one person gave her the affection she craved; a neighbour who seeing the vulnerable child knew she was easy prey for his perverted desires. ‘Little Lady’ he called her over the few months he groomed her. Less than twelve months later she was caught in a trap of fear - if she talked she would be punished. With no one to turn to she kept ‘their secret’. At thirteen she fell pregnant. Still too frightened to speak out she refused to tell the social workers who the father was. Without family support the teenager gave birth to a daughter in the unmarried mother's home. Six weeks later the baby she had already grown to love was taken away for adoption. Marianne returned home, but the neighbour's abuse continued and a year later she was pregnant again. This time her father literally tried to beat the baby out of her but she failed to miscarry. Scared for her life and that of her baby's she ran away from home carrying only a plastic bag stuffed with her few possessions. Marianne who still missed her first child desperately struggled to keep her second daughter. Two months after the birth she realized that for the baby's sake she would have to hand her over for adoption. Helpless is Marianne’s heartbreaking story as told the bestselling author of Don’t Tell Mummy.
Chicago
Chicago
Alaa al Aswany
¥81.03
Sex, money and politics are the driving forces of society in this new novel from bestselling author Alaa al Aswany. A medley of Egyptian and American lives collides on the campus of the University of Illinois Medical Center in a post-9/11 Chicago, and crises of identity abound. Among the players are an atheistic anti-establishment American professor of the sixties generation, whose relationship with a younger African-American woman becomes a moving target for intolerance; a veiled PhD candidate whose conviction in the code of her traditional upbringing is shaken by her exposure to American society; an emigre who has fervently embraced his new American identity, but who cannot escape his Egyptian roots when faced with the issue of his daughter's 'honour'; an Egyptian State Security informant who spouts religious doctrines while hankering after money and power; and a dissident student poet who comes to America with the sole aim of financing his literary aspirations, but whose experience in Chicago turns out to be more than he bargained for. This tightly plotted page-turner is set far from the downtown Cairo of al Aswany's ‘The Yacoubian Building’, but is no less unflinching an examination of contemporary Egyptian lives.
Dean Spanley: The Novel
Dean Spanley: The Novel
Lord Dunsany,Alan Sharp
¥66.22
The classic humorous novel about an alcohol-loving clergyman who thinks he is the reincarnation of a dog. Complete with the award-winning film screenplay that expands upon the tale. Dean Spanley is affable, conventional and prudent – the very archetype of a bland churchman. Only his keen interest in the transmigration of souls and his obsession with dogs betray any shadow of eccentricity. But then, richly primed with a few glasses of Imperial Tokay, he begins to speak vividly of the joys of rabbiting, of rolling in fresh dung and of baying at the moon. Are these canine memories a drunken fancy? Or can it be that Dean Spanley must once have been a dog? This special edition includes Lord Dunsany’s witty and inventive novel, My Talks With Dean Spanley, together with Alan Sharp’s award-winning screenplay for the film starring Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill, which faithfully adapts and expands upon the events in the story.
Never Say Die
Never Say Die
Melanie Davies,Lynne Barrett-Lee
¥54.25
On a Saturday morning in May 1980, Melanie Bowen, a pretty fifteen year old, ran down the stairs of her parents’ home in Port Talbot, grabbed her leather jacket and crash helmet, yelled a goodbye, and then walked out of the front door into the sunshine for what was to be the last time in her life. Never Say Die is the true story of what followed… Since the motorcycle crash that left her paralysed from the chest down, Melanie's life has been one of extremes. On the down side, she has endured 5 horrific months of despair and indignity in rehabilitation, undergone a colostomy at 23, been in another serious car crash, suffered syringomyelia and the terrifying prospect of full quadriplegia, been diagnosed with breast cancer and broken several bones. On the plus side, however, she's won medals in athletics for Wales, been humbled and inspired by Falklands veterans at RAF Chessington, raised thousands for charity, become a major disability poster girl in America, dabbled with the film world and been screen tested for a movie, met the Queen, and set up her own rehabilitation charity, whose patrons include the acclaimed actor Michael Sheen, Dame Tanni Grey Thompson and former Welsh Rugby captain, Gwyn Jones. She has also, against all the odds, found lasting happiness, having fallen in love with and married the surgeon who 25 years earlier told her she would never walk again.
Capricornia
Capricornia
Xavier Herbert
¥91.43
A saga of life in the Northern Territories and the clash of white and Aborigine cultures – one of Australia’s all-time best-selling novels and an inspiration for Baz Luhrmann’s lavish film ‘AUSTRALIA’. Capricornia has been described as one of Australia's 'great novels', a sharply observed chronicle about life in the Northern Territory of Australia and the inhumane treatment suffered by Aborigines at the hands of white men. The story is immense and rambling, laced with humour that is often as bitter and as harsh as the terrain in which it is set, and follows with irony the fortunes (and otherwise) of a range of Outback characters over a span of generations. Through their story is reflected the story of Australia, the clash of personalities and cultures that provide the substance on which today's society is founded. Above all, however, this is a novel of protest and of compassion - for the Aborigines and half-bloods of Australia's 'last frontier'. Sprawling, explosive, thronged with characters, plots and sub-plots, Capricornia is without doubt one of the best known and widely read Australian novels of the last 70 years. When it was first published it was acclaimed as 'a turning point', an 'outstanding work of social protest'. Its message is as penetrating today as it was in the 1930s when Herbert himself was official 'Protector of Aborigines' at Darwin.
Lovers and Newcomers
Lovers and Newcomers
Rosie Thomas
¥72.99
From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel in which a group of old friends reunite to start a new stage of their lives. Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting. To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for ever: power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can’t be put back. When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.
The Stepmothers’ Support Group
The Stepmothers’ Support Group
Sam Baker
¥51.50
You can’t choose your family – but you can choose your friends… A heartfelt, warm and truthful novel about female friendship. Eve has never imagined herself as a stepmother. But when she falls in love with Ian, he comes with a ready-made family of three children. And, to make matters worse, he's a widower. The ghost of his glamorous and well known wife haunts them. Clare, a teacher and single mother, is Eve's best friend. She is the only person Eve can talk to about how on earth a journalist in her thirties can win round three wary children. But despite Clare's years of practice with her own teenage daughter, it's Lily, her younger sister, who provides the truly sympathetic ear. Mel is sent along to Eve's so-called 'support group' by a colleague. With a fledgling relationship and a new business to get off the ground, she has a very different set of pressures to the other women. And Mandy is the stay-at-home mum, whose relationship comes with stepchildren, and who wants more than anything to stitch together a happy family life for herself, her kids and her new step-kids. As a cup of coffee turns to a bottle of wine and the get-togethers become a regular fixture, conversations about new families evolve into ones about relationships, life and each woman’s deepest hopes and dreams. But the friendship is tested and feelings about lovers, husbands and step-children challenged when the five women are forced to confront new futures as well as unwelcome figures from the past…
Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney
Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney
Howard Sounes
¥80.25
The living embodiment of The Beatles and a musical juggernaut without parallel, Paul McCartney is undoubtedly the patriarch of pop. In this authoritative biography, acclaimed author and journalist Howard Sounes creates the most accurate and extensive profile of McCartney ever built, leaving no stone unturned, and no shadow unexplored. He is the torch-bearer of the Beatles – the greatest band in pop – and one of the most closely studied stars in show business. But surprises and secrets still linger in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. In FAB, his full story is told for the first time. Acclaimed author Howard Sounes spent more than two years investigating every aspect of Sir Paul’s life and work, including interviewing over 200 people. The result is the richest and more comprehensive biography of McCartney ever written. Uniquely, FAB pays equal attention to the story of Paul McCartney both in the Beatles and post-Beatles, creating a unique narrative spanning the arc of the artist’s life. FAB culminates in the sensational human story of Sir Paul’s calamitous marriage to Heather Mills, which is fully revealed for the first time. Sounes proves a judicious critic of the music of an iconic star while also delivering a superb psychological portrait of the man.
The Drought
The Drought
J. G. Ballard,M. John Harrison
¥22.76
With a new introduction by M. John Harrison and a striking new cover design from the artist Stanley Donwood, this acclaimed cult novel sees human existence threatened by devastating climate change. Water. Man’s most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the Earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. Violence erupts and insanity reigns as the remnants of mankind struggle for survival in a worldwide desert of despair. Remarkable for its prescience and the originality of its vision, The Drought is a work of major importance from the early career of one of Britain’s most acclaimed novelists. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Ned Beauman, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.
Vitals
Vitals
Greg Bear
¥45.42
Scientist Hal Cousins is close to discovering the key to immortality but someone has already found it and will kill him to keep it secret. Vitals is a tense technothriller in the best Michael Crichton tradition. A mile and a half below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, scientist Hal Cousins, frightened of the dark and no friend of God, is looking for the fountain of youth. The Nobel Prize doesn't interest him. Hal is in longevity research for the long haul, the really long haul. 'Angels' (rich businessmen keen to live a thousand years) fund him. Hal finds what he is searching for: xenos, the single-celled tramps of the sea floor, each one as big as a clenched fist. But then the pilot of his sub goes berserk. Hal barely survives; the xenos don't. The pilot kills himself. Five other scientists in related fields die violently in the space of a week. Hal discovers a trail of death stretching back over decades, from Stalin's Russia to present-day Manhattan. Another epidemic of murder by superbly trained killers has been triggered by what Hal nearly discovered… From the bottom of Russia’s Lake Baikal to a billionaire’s bionic house built into the cliffs of the Californian seashore, from the darkest days of the reign of Joseph Stalin in Russia to the capitalist free-for-all of modern America, the edge of immortality is the most dangerous place to be.
The Children of Húrin
The Children of Húrin
J. R. R. Tolkien
¥66.22
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manu*s and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, this illustrated paperback of the epic tale of The Children of Húrin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves, dragons, Dwarves and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. It is a legendary time long before The Lord of the Rings, and Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwells in the vast fortress of Angband in the North; and within the shadow of the fear of Angband, and the war waged by Morgoth against the Elves, the fates of Túrin and his sister Ni?nor will be tragically entwined. Their brief and passionate lives are dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bears them as the children of Húrin, the man who dared to defy him to his face. Against them Morgoth sends his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire, in an attempt to fulfil the curse of Morgoth, and destroy the children of Húrin. Begun by J.R.R. Tolkien at the end of the First World War, The Children of Húrin became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manu*s, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.
The Information Officer
The Information Officer
Mark Mills
¥72.30
From the No. 1 bestseller and author of Richard & Judy pick The Savage Garden: an atmospheric world war two crime thriller for fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Jed Rubenfeld "You want to know who I am? I'm the last living soul you'll ever set eyes on" Summer, 1942. For the people of Malta, suffering daily bombing raids, the British are the last line of defence against the Nazis. And it is Max Chadwick's job as the information officer to ensure the news the islanders receive maintains morale. So when Max is given proof suggesting a British officer is murdering local women, he knows the consequences of discovery are dire. With the violence on the war-ravaged island escalating daily, he embarks on a private investigation, hidden from the eyes of superiors, friends and the woman he loves. But Max finds himself torn between patriotic duty and personal honour in his efforts to track down the killer… an elusive figure always one step ahead of his hunter.
Collected Letters Volume One: Family Letters 1905–1931
Collected Letters Volume One: Family Letters 1905–1931
C. S. Lewis
¥104.48
This collection brings together the best of C.S. Lewis’s letters – some published for the first time. Arranged in chronological order, this is the first volume covering Family Letters: 1905-1931. C.S. Lewis was a most prolific letter writer and his personal correspondence reveals much of his private life, reflections, friendships and feelings. This collection, carefully chosen and arranged by Walter Hooper, is the most extensive ever published. In this great and important collection are the letters Lewis wrote to J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, Owen Barfield, Arthur C. Clarke, Sheldon Vanauken and Dom Bede Griffiths. To some particular friends, such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Lewis wrote over fifty letters alone. The letters deal with all of Lewis’s interests: theology, literary criticism, poetry, fantasy, children’s stories as well as revealing his relationships with family members and friends. This first volume of Family Letters: 1905-1931 covers Lewis’s boyhood and early manhood, his army years, undergraduate life at Oxford and his election to a fellowship at Magdalen College. Lewis became an atheist when he was 13 years old and his dislike of Christianity is evident in many of his letters. The volume concludes with a letter describing an evening spent with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson when he came to see that he was wrong to think of Christianity as one of ‘many myths.’ ‘What Dyson and Tolkien showed me was that… the story of Christ is simply a true myth… but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.
Jail Bird
Jail Bird
Jessie Keane
¥63.77
Murder, loyalty and vengeance collide in Jessie Keane’s gritty fourth novel. Lily King has spent years behind bars Convicted of murdering her husband, London villain Leo King, she hasn’t been missed. Everyone believes she got what she deserved, but Lily knows she was fitted up. Now she’s out, and she doesn’t do forgiveness. In her absence, things have moved on and the old order has changed. But now she’s ready to reclaim her position as head of the King family. Fuelled by vengeance, Lily King is back, and some people aren’t going to know what’s hit them.
The Make
The Make
Jessie Keane
¥63.77
Murder, loyalty and vengeance collide in Jessie Keane's gritty fourth novel. Life is good for Gracie Doyle – running her Manchester casino keeps her busy. Until the police turn up at her door one day and her world is turned upside down. She is given news that her two estranged brothers have been viciously attacked. George is in hospital on a ventilator and worringly, Harry is missing. Gracie has no option but to leave the good life and dip her toe into the murky waters of her East End past. She leaves for London in an attempt to avenge her brothers and in doing so uncovers some unsavoury secrets about the lifestyle they've been leading. Their little games have got them into big trouble with the wrong people… She must keep her wits about her and try to find Harry, or it could prove fatal…
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…
Fragile Minds
Fragile Minds
Claire Seeber
¥68.67
Trust no one - not even yourself . 'I think I might have done something bad. Last Friday.' When a bomb explodes outside the Royal Academy of Ballet in the heart of London, the police initially suspect a terrorist group. But the pieces don't fit and DCI Silver is struggling to find any suspects. Still recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a terrible tragedy, Claudie fears that her recent black-outs are a sign that her symptoms are returning. When her friend Tessa dies in the explosion, Claudie is gripped by the inexplicable certainty that she is involved in some way – if only she could remember. Meanwhile, Silver is shocked to find that one of the dancers from the academy – now missing in the aftermath of the explosion – is linked to his past, and the lines between his personal and professional life are starting to blur. Can Claudie and Silver get to the heart of what is real and what isn't before something terrifying happens again? A compelling read for fans of Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.
Last Known Address
Last Known Address
Elizabeth Wrenn
¥63.77
Thelma and Louise for The Empty Nest generation! Get ready for the trip of a lifetime in this endearing new novel from the author of Second Chance. Ever fancied escaping your normal life? Then join three friends as they take the road trip of a lifetime and pick up a few strays along the way … For best friends C.C. Byrd, Meg Bartholomew and Shelly Kostens, middle age is feeling awkwardly familiar: fluctuating hormones, heartbreak and romance and believing no one understands you. CC must cope with widowhood after the sudden death of her husband while Meg rues the day she ever met hers after he ditches her for a younger model. Even the ever-confident Shelly is facing money worries. In a bid to forget their problems, the three woman head south to fix up and sell C.C.'s newly-inherited childhood house. Meeting unsuitable men, stray dogs and a few home truths along the way, the women re-discover their own identities and their friendship and learn that love - in all its forms - can make any address a home. Thelma and Louise for the young at heart, this heart-warming and captivating tale will delight fans of Maeve Binchy, Cathy Kelly and Marley & Me.
Flashman on the March (The Flashman Papers, Book 11)
Flashman on the March (The Flashman Papers, Book 11)
George MacDonald Fraser
¥70.44
Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world. Who better to undertake a perilous mission into deepest Abyssinia, to rescue Britons held hostage by a mad emperor? When it comes to skulking in Ali Baba disguise or seducing barbarian monarchs, nobody does it better than Harry Flashman.