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. He doesn't know it, but on Christmas Eve he'll have to decide whether to stay being Bad Brad, or whether he'll get on his bike and save Christmas. Deck the halls, turn on the fairy lights and read this magical Christmas story.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.

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as Delia plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall. And then a policeman knocks on her door, revealing a secret that changes the world as she knows it." In shock and confusion, Delia must sift through the truth - even when it jeopardizes her life and the lives of those she loves. What happens when you learn you are not who you thought you were? When the people you've loved and trusted suddenly change before your eyes? When getting your deepest wish means giving up what you've always taken for granted? Vanishing Acts explores how life - as we know it - might not turn out the way we imagined; how doing the right thing could mean doing the wrong thing; how the memory we thought had vanished could return as a threat.

The follow-up to #1 NYT bestseller Kelley Armstrong’s acclaimed City of the Lost, Rockton town detective Casey Duncan makes a terrible—and dangerous—discovery in the woods outside of town. When experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers. Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that...before another victim goes missing. Casey Duncan returns in another heart-racing thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than its name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Instead they “check out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what’s going on. But once they take their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls of the bookstore. Evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or Umberto Eco, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like—an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.

Country swagger, filthy mouth, and one big, huge…gun. The wildest outlaw in Sugar County is about to get his dirty hands all over one lucky lady. And this is one cowboy who knows how to hold on tight. No one ever said robbing a drug kingpin was gonna to be easy. But for a rough and tumble outlaw like me, it should be a cakewalk. That is, before I crash in locked and loaded to find the prettiest little firecracker this side of the Mississippi sticking a gun in my face. She’s the good girl gone bad – the gorgeous, tempting little socialite with a shotgun. Problem is, we’re after the same money. Problem is, one look at that fiery red hair and those sweet curves that won’t quit, and I’m hooked like a fish on a line. Problem is, we already slept together. Yeah. Shit. I know the rules, and I know a rough, filthy country boy like myself should stay away from a rich, sassy heiress like Chastity Huntington. But I’ve already had a taste of her sweet lips, and gotten a tease of her soft moans. And now? Well now I’m gonna make her mine. We’re tied to each other – literally – and on the run from some very dangerous people. But lucky for her, I carry a big gun. Lucky for her, I know how to hold on tight and ride all night. Lucky for her, I’m never gonna let go. Giddyup.

The major new novel from the prizewinning author of Out Stealing Horses. Two men meet by accident on a bridge early one morning. Once they were best friends -- but Tommy and Jim haven't seen each other for 35 years. Back then, Tommy and his sister were abandoned by their mother and later by their abusive father, and Jim, who lived alone with his religious mother, went to high school and became a socialist. Then one winter, Jim started to doubt whether he was deserving of the friendship. Now Jim is standing on the bridge, fishing, when Tommy drives by in his expensive new Mercedes. I Refuse follows both men during the course of the fateful day that follows. Per Petterson's outstanding new novel is broader in scope than many of his previous novels, but as powerful and moving as anything he has written to date.

At last a book that no boy, young or old, should be without; a book that guarantees hours of fun; a book that shows readers exactly how to be the best at everything. Find out how to throw a custard pie and tame a lion, as well as how to make a time capsule and navigate by the stars and much more.

The first lesson Lister learned about space travel was you should never try it. But Lister didn't have a choice. All he remembered was going on a birthday celebration pub crawl through London. When he came to his senses again, with nothing in his pockets but a passport in the name of Emily Berkenstein. So he did the only thing he could. Amazed to discover they would actually hire him, he joined the space corps----and found himself aboard Red Dwarf, a spaceship as big as a small city that, six or seven years from now, would get him back to Earth. What Lister couldn't forsee was that he'd inadvertently signed up for a one--way jaunt three million years into the future---a future which would see him the last living member of the human race, with only a hologram crew mate and a highly evolved cat for company. Of course, that was before the ship broke the light barrier and things began to get really weird...

A vibrant new novel from Penelope Lively--a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends. Through a richly conceived and colorful cast of characters, Penelope Lively explores the powerful role of chance in people's lives and deftly illustrates how our paths can be altered irrevocably by someone we will never even meet. Brought to life in her hallmark graceful prose and full of keen insights into human nature, "How It All Began" is an engaging, contemporary tale that is sure to strike a chord with her legion of loyal fans as well as new readers. A writer of rare wisdom, elegance, and humor, Lively is a consummate storyteller whose gifts are on full display in this masterful work.

Cort, the high school senior jock seems to have it all -- except a summer job. When he lands one doing women's nails, his eyes are opened to the catty, back-stabbing world of females. Girls he thought he knew and trusted turn out to shock and use him. He gets to know Rachel, an elusive girl the others gossip about, a girl with secrets. From her he learns there is more to life than weekend partying and social status, and one of the secrets she shares with him will change his life forever.

Sometimes evil lingers so close, you can feel it.... Seattle police sketch artist Maggie Barnes has an extraordinary gift. She listens as traumatized crime victims describe their ordeals — and then uses those horrifying recollections to draw dead-on sketches of the assailants. Some cops think Maggie is telepathic, that she can actually enter the victims’ minds. Only Maggie knows the truth behind her rare talent ... and she isn’t telling. But her secret may be exposed when a madman seizes Seattle in his terrifying grip. He abducts women and blinds them, leaving them barely alive. The police have one hope: the lone victim who might recover her sight. But they don’t know that Maggie has her own dark connection to the monster — an eerie link that may stretch back to a string of unsolved murders. To stop the escalating terror, Maggie will have to push her abilities to the breaking point — even if it means confronting a predator whose powers seem to have no bounds....

Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell—widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life—ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot? Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration. The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.

Ellie, Magda and Nadine are back - but they're not very happy! Ellie's glorious romance with Russell is teetering on the rocks. Magda's lost her pet and is desperately upset (though the others didn't even know she still had a hamster!). And Nadine is fed up with the other two lecturing her about the dangers of meeting someone on the Internet. She thinks her e-mail boyfriend sounds wonderful! Buckets of tears are wept and hundreds of tissues sniffled into. Can the girls' friendship survive these testing times? A superb fourth instalment in the GIRLS series, following GIRLS IN LOVE, GIRLS UNDER PRESSURE and GIRLS OUT LATE. A perfect read for older fans from the best-selling author, Jacqueline Wilson.

A comic hippie soap opera chronicling 366 days in the life of Ole Miss graduate student Daniel Medway and friends from August 1971 to August 1972.Meet Daniel Medway, rumored to be the most dangerous student on the Ole Miss campus because of his reputation for creating hippie mayhem in every corner of Oxford, Mississippi. But appearances can be deceiving. Over the course of this big-hearted comedy of bad manners, Daniel discovers that he actually has the soul of a gentleman and the moral compass of a saint, to offset his god-given knack for stumbling into trouble. It’s August 1971, and Daniel is about to embark on the most riotous year of his life, in the company of his friends Garrett, Clamor, Dr. Goodleigh and a cast of unforgettable characters that includes a mad Chinese cook, a sometimes invisible dog, an ex-KGB agent, and a kindly stranger who might just be Elvis in disguise.

Trying to recreate a family tradition when my Grandfather took me with him to cut down and carry home the family Christmas tree, my children and I would traipse out to our local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. Our tradition culminated in the Christmas my friends and family still refer to as the year of "The Mother Lode" tree. Laugh and cry at an attempt to preserve childhood memories.Trying to recreate a family tradition when my Grandpa Shorty took me with him to cut down and carry home the family Christmas tree, proved more difficult than I thought. Each year my children and I would traipse out to our local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree, deck it with ribbons and bows as identifiers, then come back to cut it down in time for Christmas. Each year our Christmas tree got taller and wider. Our family tradition culminated in the Christmas my friends and family still refer to as the year of the “Mother Lode Tree”.