English books
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – Beautiful Chaos
Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?
For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.
Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.
KAREN BLUMENTHAL – GRANDE EXPECRATIONS
The world of publicly traded companies can be confusing. What does a particular stock skyrocket one day and plummet the next? How is the value of a company - particularly a multi-national one - really determined? Karen Blumenthal, a veteran reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal, provides all of these questions and more in this riveting book. A grand business narrative in the tradition of Michael Lewis, Grande Expectations shows how money is made and lost by following one familiar stock, Starbucks, over the course of an entire year, demonstrating how all the players - big and small investors, company management, the media, and more - determine its performance.Blumenthal takes us behind the scenes at the company's annual stockholders meeting, into the inner sanctum of Starbucks's corporate headquarters, and introduces us to an array of colourful characters: the head of an investment club, a paranoid short seller, the manager of a huge investment portfolio, and more. What emerges is not only a demystification of the complex world of high finance, but a compelling biography of one of the world's most recognised brands.
KAREN MAITLAND – THE FALCONS OF FIRE AND ICE
The Falcons of Fire and Ice by Karen Maitland, author of the hugely popular Company of Liars, is a powerful historical thriller which takes you right back to the darkest corners of the 16th century. Intelligently written and meticulously researched, it is a real treat for all fans of CJ Sansom and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.
'A tour de force: dark and woven with the supernatural' Daily Mail
1564, Lisbon. The Inquisition displays its power and ruthlessly spreads fear. Heretics are tortured and burned. Any who oppose the Church's will realize that silence is preferable to a slow and agonizing death.
Isabela, daughter of the Falconer at the Royal Court, is about to be caught in the Church's terrifying schemes. The slaughter of two of the King's precious white falcons sees her father arrested and imprisoned. As punishment he and his family will be killed unless the birds are replaced.
Isabela, young and headstrong, decides that only she can save her father. These birds are impossibly rare, and she will have to travel far and into strange lands to find them to clear her father's name. It is a journey that will take her into a dark and dangerous world filled with menacing people driven by fearful beliefs.
And, unfortunately for Isabela, the Church has sent a companion to ensure she never returns . . .
Step back in time with Karen Maitland's Dark Tales and discover a world full of imagination in The Falcons of Fire and Ice - 'a thrilling horrible vision of the Dark Ages' Metro
Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before finally settling in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln. She is the author of The White Room, Company of Liars, The Owl Killers and The Gallows Curse. The latter three titles are available as Penguin paperbacks.
KAREN ROBARDS – SHIVER
Samantha Jones is the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of a flashy new BMW is a different breed entirely.Daniel Panterro knows he hasn’t seen the last of the vicious drug runners who kidnapped him from protective custody and left him for dead. His only recourse is to take his pretty savior and her four-year-old son hostage and force her to help him. With ruthless killers stalking their trail, Sam must trust this handsome, menacing stranger. But as she relinquishes control, she feels an unmistakable desire. What is the price of falling in love with a man who operates on the edge of danger—her heart, her life . . . or both?
KAREN ROSE – I CAN SEE YOU
In Karen Rose's brilliant thriller I CAN SEE YOU, the first in her Minneapolis series, a killer is targeting the participants of an online role-playing game called Shadowland.
Each of the victims is befriended by the killer online. He then stalks them in real life, murdering them in the way that they worst fear. Eve Wilson, who we previously met in NOTHING TO FEAR, is researching the game as part of her thesis on how self-esteem is affected by violence. Now she must work with Detective Noah Webster to find the murderer before the killings escalate out of all control and Eve herself becomes a target.
KAREN ROSE – KILL FOR ME
Five teenage girls have been viciously attacked. One survived. Only she can reveal the secrets of a disturbing ring of people who kidnap and sell teenage girls on the black market. But those responsible for the crimes will do whatever it takes to maintain her silence.
Susannah Vartanian and Luke Papadopoulos have both sworn to stop the murderers for their own personal reasons. The investigation leads them to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where anyone can mask his or her identity. They soon discover a chain of deception so intricate they don't know whom to trust. Finding comfort in each other's arms, they begin to unravel the intricately knotted threads, but the killers are ruthless and determined, and won't hesitate to take extreme measures to insure their anonymity and keep their business intact. When Susannah proves to be inexplicably linked to the crimes, her life is soon in danger, and Luke will do everything he can to save the woman he loves.
Five teenage girls have been viciously attacked. One survived. Only she can reveal the secrets of a disturbing ring of people who kidnap and sell teenage girls on the black market. But those responsible for the crimes will do whatever it takes to maintain her silence.
Susannah Vartanian and Luke Papadopoulos have both sworn to stop the murderers for their own personal reasons. The investigation leads them to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where anyone can mask his or her identity. They soon discover a chain of deception so intricate they don't know whom to trust. Finding comfort in each other's arms, they begin to unravel the intricately knotted threads, but the killers are ruthless and determined, and won't hesitate to take extreme measures to insure their anonymity and keep their business intact. When Susannah proves to be inexplicably linked to the crimes, her life is soon in danger, and Luke will do everything he can to save the woman he loves.
KAREN TRAVISS – GEARS OF WAR ( THE SLAB)
MARCUS FENIX. WAR HERO. LOYAL SON. TRAITOR.
Ten years after Emergence Day, as the Locust Horde advances on humanity’s last defended area—Ephyra—in a bloody war that has seen billions die, Marcus Fenix does the unthinkable: he defies orders and abandons his post during a critical battle in a bid to rescue his father, weapons scientist Adam Fenix. But Adam is buried in the rubble during a ferocious assault on the Fenix mansion, and Ephyra falls to the enemy. Marcus, grieving for a father everyone believes is dead, is court-martialed for dereliction of duty and sentenced to forty years in the Coalition of Ordered Government’s brutal maximum security prison, known simply as the Slab.
But Adam is very much alive, snatched from the destruction by the elite Onyx Guard on Chairman Richard Prescott’s orders. He’s now a long way from home and in a prison of his own—a COG doomsday bunker on the tropical island of Azura, a place hidden from the rest of Sera since the Pendulum Wars. His own guilty secret has been exposed: Adam knew the Locust existed deep below the surface of Sera long before Emergence Day, and were being driven from their tunnels by a lethal parasite known as the Lambent. Now he has to find a way to destroy the Lambent while the dwindling COG forces fight to hold back a growing Locust army that’s threatening to overrun the city.
As Adam struggles to find redemption in his comfortable island jail, Marcus seeks his own atonement in the squalid, closed world within the Slab’s granite walls. While Dom Santiago and Anya Stroud fight to get him released, ready to make any sacrifice to free him, Marcus gradually finds unexpected kinship among Sera’s most dangerous criminals—and a way to carry on his personal war against the Locust.
KATE ELLIS – AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE
When the body of Pauline Brent is found hanging from a yew tree in a local graveyard, DS Wesley Peterson immediately suspects foul play. Meanwhile Wesley's archaeologist friend Neil Watson has excavated a corpse at his nearby dig, that of a young woman wholocal legend has ithad been publicly hanged from the very same tree before being buried on unhallowed ground five centuries ago. Wesley is forced to consider the possibility that the killer knows the tree's dark history. Has Pauline also been executed rather than murdered? To catch a dangerous killer Wesley must discover as much as he can about the victim, but Pauline appears to have been a woman with few friends, no relatives, and a past she has carefully tried to hide.
KATHERINE HANNIGAN – IDA B
The New York Times bestselling debut novel from acclaimed children's author Katherine Hannigan is both very funny and extraordinarily moving.
Who is Ida B. Applewood? She is a fourth grader like no other, living a life like no other, with a voice like no other, and her story will resonate long after you have put this book down.
How does Ida B cope when outside forces—life, really—attempt to derail her and her family and her future? She enters her Black Period, and it is not pretty. But then, with the help of a patient teacher, a loyal cat and dog, her beloved apple trees, and parents who believe in the same things she does (even if they sometimes act as though they don't), the resilience that is the very essence of Ida B triumph...and Ida B. Applewood takes the hand that is extended and starts to grow up.
This modern classic is a great choice for independent reading.
What happens when a girl who talks to trees has to learn how to talk to people again?
- Homeschooling to Public School: For Ida B, leaving her family's farm for the halls of Ernest B. Lawson Elementary is a disaster she never planned for.
- A Parent's Illness: A heartfelt and honest look at how a family changes when a mother gets sick, perfect for starting important conversations with children.
- Finding Your Voice: When Ida B enters her 'Black Period,' she must find her way through big feelings of anger and sadness with the help of a patient teacher.
- Resilience for Kids: A story that shows how even in the hardest times, the strength to grow up and reconnect with the world is always inside you.
KATHERINE HANNIGAN – TRUE
Can friendship save you?
The day Ferris Boyd moves to town, Delly Pattison is sure a special surpresent (a present that is a surprise) is on its way. Instead, Delly ends up in even more trouble than usual.
The Boyds' arrival in River Bluffs means big changes for Brud Kinney, too. He can't believe who he's hanging around with. Ferris Boyd isn't like anyone Delly or Brud have ever known. Ferris is a mystery and a wonder.
Through friendship, though, Delly, Brud, and Ferris discover truths that will change their lives. And bring them the best surpresent of all.
Includes an all-new afterword featuring a short story, photographs by the author, and more
KATHERINE LONGSHORE – GILT
When Kitty Tylney's best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII's heart and brings Kitty to court, she's thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat's shadow, Kitty's now caught between two men--the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat's meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.
KATHLEEN KENT – THE TRAITOR’S WIFE
I’ll not ask you to be mine … I will never seek to blunt the fury in you, never, and will honour your will as my own. What say you? Can you be a soldier’s wife?
New England, 1673. Martha Allen, a young woman reviled by her family because of her refusal to marry, is packed off to be a servant in her cousin’s home. She takes charge of the neglected household and annoys everyone around her – including a mysterious Welshman who works for the family, a man whose forceful nature matches her own. As they both gradually let their guard down, a fragile, uneasy friendship grows between the pair.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, a band of assassins, driven by the will of Charles II, charter a ship to the New World. They have a single aim: to capture Thomas Morgan, the killer of Charles I, and bring him back to London where he will face an excruciating death. The Royalists want to see his head on a spike outside the Tower of London.
As Martha begins to fall for the tall Welshman, he reveals a little of his past. It soon becomes clear that his life is in grave danger. As the threat of the assassins grows closer, can Martha find it in herself to be a traitor’s wife?
Praise for The Heretic’s Daughter
‘Absolutely compelling’ Daily Mail
‘A very fine novel … a remarkably accomplished telling of a truly shocking tale’ Daily Express
KATHRYN HARRISON – ENCHANTMENTS
Enchantments takes place in 1917 St. Petersburg in the final days of the Romanov Empire. After Rasputin's body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family -- including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin's miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia. Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other's company. To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories -- some embellished and some entirely imagined. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand. Mesmeriz
KATHRYN T. GINES – HANNAH ARENDT AND THE NEGRO QUESTION
While acknowledging Hannah Arendt's keen philosophical and political insights, Kathryn T. Gines claims that there are some problematic assertions and oversights regarding Arendt's treatment of the "Negro question."Gines focuses on Arendt's reaction to the desegregation of Little Rock schools, to laws making mixed marriages illegal, and to the growing civil rights movement in the south. Reading them alongside Arendt's writings on revolution, the human condition, violence, and responses to the Eichmann war crimes trial, Gines provides a systematic analysis of anti-black racism in Arendt's work.
