The eleven–year–old son of newly–separated parents spends the day with his folks. First published in Many Mountains Moving.Brad doesn't believe in Father Christmas, and he doesn't want anyone else to believe that nonsense either. In fact, he's happiest when he's making everyone else miserable. His parents aren't bothered about Christmas, so on Christmas Eve Brad is in bed like any other night. There's no decorations in the house, no tree downstairs, no stocking hung up. But, whether Brad believes it or not, a noise on the roof has woken him up. He doesn't know it, but soon he'll have to decide whether to stay being Bad Brad, or whether he'll get on his bike and save Christmas.This wonderful short story is perfect for children and families who are longing for Christmas to be here. Deck the halls, turn on the fairy lights, warm the mince pies and read this heartwarming tale of true magic.

When a startling discovery reveals that Sarah's self-cutting problem is much worse than imagined, things unravel quickly in this chilling novelette.After years of therapy, promising New York City attorney Sarah Evans thought she had everything under control. But when a startling discovery reveals that her self-cutting problem is much worse than imagined, things unravel quickly as she struggles to reconcile her past with something even more fundamental—her grip on reality.

From Vietnam to Afghanistan, this is the story of two families impacted by war. Tess’s boyfriend, killed in Vietnam, left her a key that she believes represents his promise to marry her on his return. Mia, her granddaughter, has other ideas and tries to discover the real meaning of the key. Meanwhile, Tess’s daughter, Alison, is dealing with the news that her fiancé is missing in Afghanistan.Tess Newell returns to Clowder Bay, her home town, to find closure to her thwarted relationship with the man she loved as a teenager, and whose child she bore. All that Tess has of Charlie after he was killed in Vietnam is an engraved key - she calls it her promise key - which represents his promise to marry her when he returned. Tess is accompanied by Alison, the daughter Charlie never knew, and whose fiancé is missing in action in Afghanistan, as well as by Mia, Alison's teenage daughter.They meet Kim Trang who is facing eviction from her home. Kim tells of her childhood in Vietnam during the closing stages of the war and how, with her cousin, she escaped and made her way to Australia and ultimately to Clowder Bay. The Tillerman’s Gift tells of Peter’s fate at the hands of the Taliban.It tells of Kim’s escape from Vietnam and how Tess’s and Kim’s stories and unanswered questions are entwined.It also tells the story of Mia befriending Jimmy, Kim’s son, and how they try to deal with the unwelcome attention of local bullies. With the help of a stray cat and a mysterious bikie, and in an adventure that almost sees her lose her life, Mia tries to discover the real meaning of her grandmother’s key.

On an open-ended assignment for one of Hollywood’s mainline studios Raymond James, private investigator, and his partner Miss Suzuki develop an understanding of the communist conspiracy plaguing America. Her experiences lead Miss Suzuki to predict the future capture of our country through promotion of a cult-of-personality figurehead fronting for a shadowy cabal of entrenched domestic enemies.It’s 1947 in America. Enemies foreign and domestic working under explicit orders in service to the Soviet Union have infiltrated virtually every institution. In these times free Americans have not yet succumbed to the doctrines and deceits of political correctness. Engrained with common sense and rational thought, they could never foresee that so many would someday yield to such blatant manipulation after only a few decades of indoctrination and conditioning.Yet one among them does.Newly returned from the Pacific War and Japanese occupation, private detective Raymond James hangs out his shingle in Hollywood, hires on Miss Yuki Suzuki, ex-internee of Manzanar, and works his way onto the studio lots. Neither expects that an unusual assignment will plunge them deep into the heart of darkness of the American communist conspiracy. What starts as a simple case of mistaken identity grows into a cross-country odyssey of treason, murder, duty, honor, and courage before just one communist plot is discovered and run to ground.Join Ray as his adventures take him from the docks of Los Angeles Harbor through the studios of Hollywood and the defense industries of New Mexico to a nest of vipers hidden deep in the high society of Tampa-St. Petersburg. Obtain glimpses of the moral dangers inherent in an alien, inhuman system that brooks no dissent and relentlessly enforces its tenets by any means necessary. Share the vision of Ray’s partner Yuki who understands better than any what the future holds.

Do you want to see how things got so corrupt, so fast? Would you understand the ethics your kids are taught in school? Want to look behind the curtain at the workings of our cultural confusion? This quick, 14 page essay is a summary of an over 250 page research project. I tried to make complex, philosophical movements as easy-to-understand as possible.Do you want to see how things got so corrupt, so fast? Would you understand the ethics your kids are taught in school? Want to look behind the curtain at the workings of our cultural confusion? This quick, 14 page essay is a summary of an over 250 page research project. I tried to make complex, philosophical movements as easy-to-understand as possible. Yes, we live in a world flooded with information and very little (overview interpretation) wisdom. Without an occasional step back/overview we are in danger of getting cynical and jaded. Enjoy this wider look at the way our world is operating. I hope you find truth delightful and get a sense of peace from this perspective.

Hercules is in a race against time to save the world. Twelve challenges must be completed, and the clock is ticking. Monsters must be fought, puzzles solved and gods confronted, but this time strength will not be enough, it will take honour, wisdom, perseverance and, above all, friendship to win the day. A book where the adventure never stops, it will enthral children of all ages.With triumph after triumph in his past, Hercules has become proud and boastful, believing himself to be almost a god. Unless he can rediscover what it means to be a man, the king of the giants will break free and destroy the world. Twelve challenges must be completed, and the clock is ticking. Monsters must be fought, puzzles solved and gods confronted, but this time strength will not be enough, it will take honour, wisdom, perseverance and, above all, friendship to win the day.A book where the adventure never stops, set in the time when heroes and gods still walked the earth, it will enthral children of all ages.

After getting held up on his way to work, Ed Fletcher worries about the repercussions he will face when he reaches his office. Little does he know that his late arrival will give him a glimpse behind the very fabric of human existence and put him at odds with powers he cannot comprehend. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. “Adjustment Team” was adapted into the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Many of Philip K. Dick’s other stories have been similarly adapted, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. “Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio”(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Originally published as two distinct volumes: 'Il visconte dimezzato' (1952) and 'Il cavaliere inesistente' (1959). Also published in a single volume with 'The baron in the trees' (Il barone rampante, 1957) as 'Our Ancestors' (I nostri antenati, 1960).

The fifth book in the beloved Poppy series by Newbery Medal–winning author Avi, with illustrations from Caldecott Medal–winning artist Brian Floca There's trouble at Gray House, the girlhood home that Poppy left long ago. Poppy's family has called her back to save them all—mother, father, sisters and brothers, and dozens and dozens of deer mouse cousins. Poppy invites her rebellious son, Junior, to join her on the long trip across Dimwood Forest, hoping the journey will bring them closer together. But with Junior's skunk pal, Mephitis, and Ereth, the cantankerous porcupine, in tow—sugared slug soup!—Poppy and Junior may be in for unexpected adventure.

In 2001, #1 New York Times bestselling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell was pulled into a real-life investigation of her own—the long-unsolved and deeply unsettling “Jack the Ripper” murders that mesmerized London in the late 1800s. Applying modern science and forensic techniques to a century-old crime, Cornwell’s research led to the publication of Portrait of a Killer, in which she identified the renowned British painter Walter Sickert as the Ripper. The book became a #1 bestseller but also embroiled Cornwell in controversy as Ripperologists dismissed her claims and her credibility. But for Cornwell, the book was only the beginning. For more than a decade, Cornwell has devoted countless hours and invested millions in her pursuit of new evidence against Sickert. Now, twelve years later, Cornwell revisits the most notorious unsolved crime in history—determined to solve the mystery once and for all. In this exclusive Kindle Single, Cornwell restates her case against Sickert, unveils new evidence, clarifies his motivations, and makes him human—and, along the way, explains how such a prominent cultural figure could be a notorious killer. She also directly faces down her critics with withering skill and, in doing so, is likely to re-ignite the debate over history’s most heinous unsolved crime. Chasing the Ripper offers a surprisingly personal and revealing look into what it has been like for Cornwell to pursue the most sensational murder case in criminal history—even as she continues to thrill her fans with a steady diet of new Scarpetta novels, including Flesh and Blood, her latest New York Times bestseller.

Introspective and poignant, The Wine of Solitude is the most autobiographical of all of the novels from the celebrated author of Suite Française. Beginning in a fictionalized Kiev, The Wine of Solitude follows the Karol family through the Great War and the Russian Revolution, as the young Hélène grows from a dreamy, unhappy child into a strongwilled young woman. From the hot Kiev summers to the cruel winters of St Petersburg and eventually to springtime in Paris, the would-be writer Hélène blossoms, despite her mother’s neglect, into a clear-eyed observer of the life around her. Here is a powerful tale of disillusionment — the story of an upbringing that produces a young woman as hard as a diamond, prepared to wreak a shattering revenge on her mother. A Vintage Paperback Original

Most of the big money belongs to Torquil Paterson Frisby, the dyspeptic American millionaire - but that doesn't stop him wanting more out of it. His niece, the beautiful Ann Moon, is engaged to 'Biscuit', Lord Biskerton, who doesn't have very much of the stuff and so he has to escape to Valley Fields to hide from his creditors. Meanwhile, his old schoolfriend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann - just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine. In this typically hilarious novel by the master of light comedy, life can sometimes become a little complicated. Oh, and Berry has been left a lot of shares in the Dream Come True copper mine. Of course they're worthless... aren't they?

In Message in the Bottle, Walker Percy offers insights on such varied yet interconnected subjects as symbolic reasoning, the origins of mankind, Helen Keller, Semioticism, and the incredible Delta Factor. Confronting difficult philosophical questions with a novelist's eye, Percy rewards us again and again with his keen insights into the way that language possesses all of us.

From Joyce Carol Oates, an exquisite, psychologically complex thriller about opposing forces within the mind of one ambitious writer and the delicate line between genius and madness. Andrew J. Rush has achieved the kind of critical and commercial success most authors only dream about: He has a top agent and publisher in New York, and his twenty-eight mystery novels have sold millions of copies. Only Stephen King, one of the few mystery writers whose fame exceeds his own, is capable of inspiring a twinge of envy in Rush. But Rush is hiding a dark secret. Under the pseudonym "Jack of Spades," he pens another string of novels—noir thrillers that are violent, lurid, masochistic. These are novels that the upstanding Rush wouldn't be caught reading, let alone writing. When his daughter comes across a Jack of Spades novel he has carelessly left out, she picks it up and begins to ask questions. Meanwhile, Rush receives a court summons in the mail explaining that a local woman has accused him of plagiarizing her own self-published fiction. Before long, Rush's reputation, career, and family life all come under threat—and in his mind he begins to hear the taunting voice of the Jack of Spades.

Laura Grey, a veteran governess, joins the Selwick Spy School expecting to find elaborate disguises and thrilling exploits in service to the spy known as the Pink Carnation. She hardly expects her first assignment to be serving as governess for the children of Andre Jaouen, right-hand man to Bonaparte's minister of police. Jaouen and his arch rival, Gaston Delaroche, are investigating a suspected Royalist plot to unseat Bonaparte, and Laura's mission is to report any suspicious findings. At first the job is as lively as Latin textbooks and knitting, but Laura begins to notice strange behavior from Jaouen-secret meetings and odd comings and goings. As Laura edges herself closer to her employer, she makes a shocking discovery and is surprised to learn that she has far more in common with Jaouen than she originally thought... As their plots begin to unravel, Laura and Jaouen are forced on the run with the children, and with the help of the Pink Carnation they escape to the countryside, traveling as husband and wife. But Delaroche will stop at nothing to take down his nemesis. With his men hot on their trail, can Laura and Jaouen seal the fate of Europe before it's too late?

Before the events of Blake Crouch’s horror novels DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS... Before the events of Jack Kilborn's and Blake Crouch's #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller SERIAL... The year is 1995, and a young girl with psychopathic tendencies named Lucy (the sweetheart from SERIAL) has run away from home to a mystery convention to see her favorite author in the world: Andrew Z. Thomas. But Lucy has problems, and not just the psychopathic kind…to start with, the hotel won’t rent a room to a 15-year-old girl. So she does a bad, bad thing, which only gets worse when a couple of horrifying killers, Orson Thomas, and his protégé, Luther Kite, catch her trying to cover up a nasty mess. BAD GIRL is a thriller novella that brings all of Crouch’s most terrifying villains to the same hotel. A prequel to SERIAL, which has been downloaded more than 200,000 times, BAD GIRL is not for the faint of heart. Let the reader beware. BAD GIRL also contains a bonus interview with Blake, plus excerpts from all four of his novels. *Note: BAD GIRL is fully contained in SERIAL UNCUT. BAD GIRL + TRUCK STOP + SERIAL = SERIAL UNCUT. About the Author: BLAKE CROUCH was born near the piedmont town of Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. Blake is the author of four novels and numerous short stories. He lives with his family in southwest Colorado, where he is at work on a new book. Praise for Blake Crouch’s ABANDON: ABANDON would make an excellent movie, switching back and forth between the plain-but-sturdy homes, saloon and church in 1893 and the same structures rotting to dust in 2009...a clever dual story. CHARLOTTE OBSERVER ABANDON [is] two separate works of past and present seamlessly melded together into a single novel that demands to be read in one sitting, so you can better appreciate the beauty of Crouch’s storytelling…[O]ne of those books that almost instantly puts you in the mind of a classic. BOOKREPORTER Haunting, fast-paced, and thoroughly engrossing... ABANDON is one of the most original tales of ghosts, greed and gold I've come across. Crouch aligns both eras so perfectly, it's as if the characters are occupying the same breath within the space/time continuum. ABANDON will be one of the most talked-about books of the summer. THE MADISON COUNTY HERALD Ambitious…the palpable suspense just keeps building, and many thriller fans—especially those who like a touch of horror—will lose sleep to find out how it all ends. BOOKLIST ABANDON is terrific…a great storyteller hitting his stride. LEE CHILD

A young lad awakens on an island, alone and brutally injured, with no memory of his past. Captain Declan Ross searched for riches that will free him and his headstrong daughter, Anne, from the piracy business forever . . . Bartholomew Thorne, an infamously ruthless pirate, seeks to destroy Ross and any who stand in his way of the legendary treasure hidden by a mysterious order of monks.  With these intriguing characters and many more, Wayne Thomas Batson weaves a spell-binding adventure filled with high-seas drama where battles rage, storms brew, a long-dormant volcano awakens, and a sea creature slithers in the deep as pirates race for a cliff-top fortress.

A number one bestseller in Britain, Stephen Fry's astonishingly frank, funny, wise memoir is the book that his fans everywhere have been waiting for. Since his PBS television debut in the Blackadder series, the American profile of this multitalented writer, actor and comedian has grown steadily, especially in the wake of his title role in the film Wilde, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and his supporting role in A Civil Action. Fry has already given readers a taste of his tumultuous adolescence in his autobiographical first novel, The Liar, and now he reveals the equally tumultuous life that inspired it. Sent to boarding school at the age of seven, he survived beatings, misery, love affairs, carnal violation, expulsion, attempted suicide, criminal conviction and imprisonment to emerge, at the age of eighteen, ready to start over in a world in which he had always felt a stranger. One of very few Cambridge University graduates to have been imprisoned prior to his freshman year, Fry is a brilliantly idiosyncratic character who continues to attract controversy, empathy and real devotion. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Hailey Twitch wants to have fun, fun, FUN! Hailey has a secret. She has a friend named Maybelle that no one else can see. Hello, long weekend! Hailey is going camping with her best friend and her magical sprite. They will get to eat delicious ooey-gooey marshmallows. It will be the best weekend ever! Only one thing can ruin their fun: Maybelle's out of control magic. Can Hailey stop Maybelle from giving them itch, itch, itchy poison ivy? "This winning series depicts one youngster's balancing act between her sweet and spunky sides and provides a welcome resource for kids waiting for the next Clementine or Moxy Maxwell." -Kirkus

1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles returns with his most eagerly anticipated novel yet—Natchez Burning—the first installment in an epic trilogy that interweaves crimes, lies, and secrets past and present in a mesmerizing thriller featuring Southern lawyer and former prosecutor Penn Cage Growing up in the rural Southern hamlet of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned everything he knows about honor and duty from his father, Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor is accused of murdering Viola Turner, the beautiful nurse with whom he worked in the early 1960s. A fighter who has always stood for justice, Penn is determined to save his father. The quest for answers sends Penn deep into the past—into the heart of a conspiracy of greed and murder involving the Double Eagles, a vicious KKK crew headed by one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the state. Now Penn must follow a bloody trail that stretches back forty years, to one undeniable fact: no one—black or white, young or old, brave or not—is ever truly safe.

Treasures of Time is the twelfth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively, a spellbinding story of the dangers of digging up the dark secrets of the past. This edition features an introduction by Selina Hastings. Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling. Penelope Lively's Treasures of Time was published in 1979, and is an acutely observed study of marriage and manipulation. When the BBC want to make a documentary about acclaimed archaeologist Hugh Paxton, his widow Laura, daughter Kate and her fiancé Tom are a little nervous: digging up the past can also disturb the present . . . Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.