New Fiction titles

Below is a selection of new adult fiction and non-fiction which have recently been added to our catalogue. Remember that if you would like to reserve any of these titles, you must first LOGON to the library catalogue.

Two tribes by Charlie Owen

 
1978: The UK is crippled by industrial disputes. Rubbish is piled high in the streets and the dead go unburied. Nothing new in Hanstead New Town, a north Manchester overspill. Except an engineering factory is being picketed by the National Front, and it's getting nasty. The police think it's time for action. Chief Inspector Pete Stephenson decides on a subtle solution: a Zulu fighting buffalo formation. Accordingly, the 60-strong patrol group disappear for a month to be trained in Zulu tactics. Between them, the cops at Horse's Arse - Pizza, Psycho, the Brothers Grimm, and the rest - ready themselves for a showdown with the pickets. But who is going to win this battle of wits and will, and who will end up being beaten senseless

Kings of the water by Mark Behr

When Michiel Steyn returns to the family farmstead in South Africa for his mother’s funeral, he has spent close to half his lifetime abroad.
But even after fifteen years absence, neither Michiel nor those he left behind have truly come to terms with his terrible flight from the farm they called Paradise. As Michiel submits himself to the rituals of mourning and remembrance in the small town and on the land where he became a man, all that has lain undisturbed for years is brought to light. A father’s implacable fury and a brother’s violent death, the loss of a child, the betrayal of love and the ugly memory of the dying days of apartheid all come between the prodigal and forgiveness.

The swan thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
 
Robert Oliver, a renowned painter, has brutally attacked a canvas in the National Gallery of Art. What would compel an artist to destroy something he values beyond all else? From the confines of his hosptal room, Oliver maintains a stubborn silence, offering only the briefest explaination befroe he stops speaking altogether; "I did it for her."
But who is she? Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow prides himself on his ability to make even a stone talk, but he gets nowhere with Oliver. Driven at first by professional curiosity and then by a determination that disrupts his ordered, careful world, Marlow embarks on an unconventional pursuit of the answers his patient won't provide and on a journey into the lives of the women Oliver left behind.

The reading group by Elizabeth Noble

The Reading Group follows the trials and tribulations of a group of women who meet regularly to read and discuss books.Over the course of a year, each of these women become intertwined, both in the books they read and within each other's lives.
Inspired by a shared desire for conversation, a good book and a glass of wine-Clare, Harriet, Nicole, Polly, and Susan undergo startling revelations and transformations despite their differences in background, age and respective dilemmas.

The sand fish by Marha Gargash
 
Coming of age in the 1950s, seventeen-year-old Noora is unlike other women of the sun-battered mountains at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Though she shares their poverty and, like them, bears life's hardships without complaint, she is also fiery and independent. Following the death of her mother and her father's descent into dazed madness, Noora flees the threat of an arranged marriage, only to be driven back to her unwanted fate by disappointment and heartbreak. As the third wife to a rich, much older man, Noora struggles to adjust to her new home by the sea, thinking of herself as a sand fish—the desert lizard she observed in the mountains, which, when stuck in the wrong place and desperate to escape, smashed itself again and again into unyielding rocks.

Shades of grey by Jasper Fforde

As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works. But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society.

The wife's tale by Lori Lansens
 
In Lori Lansens’ Leaford, Ontario — home of Rose and Ruby Darlen, the sorrowing parents of Larry Merkel, and not far from Rusholme where Addy Shadd once looked after an abandoned child — love and grief combine to awaken an obese woman from her loneliness.

When her husband doesn’t come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch, who has never learned to be self-sufficient, sets out on a truly remarkable journey of self-discovery that takes her first to the big city and then to another country.

The vagrants by Yiyun Li

This debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society.

In this powerful story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising.

In the sanctuary of outcasts by Neil White

 
Neil White, a journalist and magazine publisher, wanted the best for those he loved. He loaned money to family and friends, gave generously to his church, and invested in his community—but his bank account couldn't keep up. Soon White began moving money from one account to another to avoid bouncing checks. His world fell apart when the FBI discovered his scheme and a judge sentenced him to serve eighteen months in a federal prison. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville, Louisiana, was also home to the last people in the United States disfigured by leprosy. Hidden away for decades, this small circle of outcasts had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world.

Inherent vice by Thomas Pynchon

It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is another of those words going around at the moment, like "trip" or "groovy," except that this one usually leads to trouble. He soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists.

The double comfort safari club by Alexander Mccall Smith
 
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi head to a safari camp to carry out a delicate mission on behalf of a former guest who has left one of the guides a large sum of money. But once they find their man, Precious begins to sense that something is not right. To make matters worse, shortly before their departure Mma Makutsi’s fiancé, Phuti Radiphuti, suffers a debilitating accident, and when his aunt moves in to take care of him, she also pushes Mma Makutsi out of the picture. Could she be trying to break up the relationship? Finally, a local priest and his wife independently approach Mma Ramotswe with concerns of infidelity, creating a rather unusual and tricky situation. Nevertheless, Precious is confident that with a little patience, kindness and good sense things will work out for the best.

Too many murders by Colleen McCullough

The year is 1967 and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on.

On a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut, home to prestigious Chubb University and armaments giant Cornucopia, chief of detectives Captain Carmine Delmonico has more pressing concerns than finding a name for his infant son: twelve murders have taken place in one day, and Delmonico is drawn into a gruesome web of secrets and lies..

Angel time by Anne Rice
 
Toby O’Dare, a contract killer of underground fame, is on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases - just now: Lucky the Fox and takes his orders from “The Right Man.”

Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance.

The defector by Daniel Silva

Six months after the dramatic conclusion of 'Moscow Rules', Gabriel has returned to the tan hills of Umbria to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, Chiara, and restore a seventeenth-century altarpiece for the Vatican.

But his idyllic world is once again thrown into turmoil with shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who saved Gabriel’s life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, but Gabriel knows better. He also knows he made a promise.

Matters of the heart by Danielle Steel
 
Hope Dunne has carved out a name for herself as a top photographer, known the joys of marriage and motherhood, and the heartbreak of loss. In her chic SoHo loft, Hope is content with her life, finding serenity and beauty through the lens of her camera.

She isn’t looking for a man or excitement. But these things find her when she accepts a last- minute assignment to fly to London at Christmas and photograph one of the world’s most celebrated writers - an Irish-American author known for novels of thrilling literary darkness. 

Let the great world spin by Colum McCann

It's August of 1974, a summer 'hot and serious and full of death and betrayal,' and Watergate and the Vietnam War make the world feel precarious. A stunned hush pauses the cacophonous universe of New York City as a man on a cable walks (repeatedly) between World Trade Center towers.

This extraordinary, real-life feat by French funambulist Philippe Petit becomes the touchstone for stories that briefly submerge you in ten varied and intense lives - a street priest, heroin-addicted hookers, mothers mourning sons lost in war, young artists, a Park Avenue judge.

The dogs and the wolves by Irene Nemirovsky
 
This wonderful, panoramic novel goes right back to Irene Nemirovsky's roots, sweeping the reader from the Jewish quarter of a Ukrainian city in the early years of the twentieth century to Paris in the twenties and thirties, and back again to eastern Europe in a snowy winter on the eve of war.

At its heart is a tragic love, between Ada from the poor Jewish quarter and Harry, son of a rich financier. The dogs are the comfortable, assimilated rich Jews up on the hill, while the wolves, their distant cousins, struggle below in the ghetto.

Their finest hour and a half by Lissa Evans

It’s 1940. France has fallen, and only a narrow strip of sea lies between Great Britain and invasion. The country is in peril. What’s needed (obviously) is a morale-boosting, heart-warming war film, preferably one that will appeal to the American market.

As bombs start to fall on London, work begins on ‘Just an Ordinary Wednesday’, an almost-true tale of bravery and rescue at Dunkirk. And since call-up has stripped the film industry of the brightest and the best, it’s the callow, the jaded and the utterly unsuitable who are making up the numbers

Parrot and Olivier by Peter Carey

 
Olivier, an improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville, is the traumatized child of aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerant English engraver. They are born on different sides of history, but their lives will be joined by an enigmatic one-armed marquis.

When Olivier sets sail for the nascent United States, ostensibly to make a study of the penal system, but more precisely to save his neck from one more revolution - Parrot will be there, too: as spy for the marquis, and as protector, foe, and foil for Olivier. 

Sons of the rumour by david Foster

Foster retells the tale of the legendary eighth-century King Shahrban of Persia who, furious at his wife's infidelity, has decided to marry and then behead a fresh virgin every day.

But then the king meets Scheherazade, a beauty of such wiles and storytelling gifts she manages to entertain the him for 1001 nights, staving off death for both herself and her countrywomen. In the process, she also bears him three sons, wisely educates him in morality and kindness, and eventually convinces him to take her as his lawful wife.

Apology for the woman writing by Jenny Diski
 
Born in Paris in the late 16th century, Marie de Gournay is thoughtful, emotional and bookish and thus completely ill-equipped for the only two possible vocations for a young woman of her era and status: marriage or religious vows.

But as Marie's mother frets about her daughter's apparently bleak future, Marie's discovery of the essays of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne offers her a revelation; her ensuing devotion to de Montaigne is abject and, in essence, religious.

Her fearful symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London.

They feel that at last their own lives can begin but have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins' mother - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat.

The anthologist by Nicholson Baker
 
The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder - a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves.

What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of The New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredibly important poetry is to our live

The maintenance of headway by Magnus Mills

In Magnus Mills'short novel he transports us into the bizarre world of the bus drivers who take us to work, to the supermarket, to the match and home again. It is a strange but all too real universe in which 'the timetable' and 'maintenance of headway' are sacred, but where the routes can change with the click of an inspector's fingers and the helpless passengers are secondary.

The journey from the southern outpost to the arch, the circus and the cross will seem as familiar as your regular route, but then Magnus Mills shows you the almost religious fervour which lies behind it, and how it is fine to be a little bit late but utterly unforgivable to be a moment early.

 Access Road by Maurice Gee
 
Access Road is at once a novel of chilling tension and expansive humanity; both a beautifully crafted work of literature and an effortlessly seductive family story.

Three brothers and sisters, all now in their eighties, two of them living in the old family home, are struggling to cope with events that have happened way back in the past. It all bursts into the open when an old school friend visits Loomis, with malice in his heart.

Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers - one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness or perhaps greatness, by mustard gas in the Great War.

They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, scavenging the city streets for things they think they can use, hoarding the daily newspapers as research for Langley’s proposed dateless newspaper whose reportage will be as prophecy.

The illumination by Natalie Landau

Natalie Landau, a museum curator with an expertise in Mesopotamian protective amulets and magical beliefs, has received a puzzling gift from her sister Dana--a necklace with a blue evil eye pendant on it. The Evil Eye is a symbol of protection common throughout the world, with a history connecting it to many religions.

When Natalie learns Dana was murdered only hours after sending the gift, she begins to think her evil eye amulet had something to do with her sister’s death. As she races to discover the origin of the pendant, Natalie is sucked into an international battle between powerful religious factions, each battling for the eye.

Censoring an Iranian love story by Shahriar Mandanipour

From one of Iran’s most acclaimed and controversial contemporary writers, his first novel to appear in English—a dazzlingly inventive work of fiction that opens a revelatory window onto what it’s like to live, to love and to be an artist in today’s Iran.

A writer named Shahriar—the author’s fictional alter ego—has struggled for years against the all-powerful censor at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Now, on the threshold of fifty, tired of writing dark and bitter stories, he has come to realize that the “world around us has enough death and destruction and sorrow.” He sets out instead to write a bewitching love story

 Juliet naked by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby's compelling new novel is about the nature of creativity and obsession and how two lonely people can gradually find each other.

Annie and Duncan fit together naturally, like jigsaw pieces, though Duncan's passionate obsession with Tucker Crowe, the reclusive, tortured -genius songwriter, has never left much time for anything meaningful, like marriage or kids. When Tucker's record company suddenly issue a stripped down version of his most famous album and Annie just can't see what's good about it, Duncan finds solace in bed with somebody else - and Annie is at last liberated to throw him out.

Lady of the butterflies by Fiona Mountain

Set in Somerset and London during the turbulent time of the Restoration, Lady of the Butterflies is a dramatic tale of passion, prejudice and death by poison, of riot and rebellion, science and superstition, madness and metamorphosis. It is also about the beauty of butterflies, about hope, transformation and redemption.

Eleanor is the daughter of a strict puritan and Roundhead major and lives in a medieval manor on the bleak wetlands of Somerset. Her longing for colour and brightness leads to an obsession with butterflies as well as to an illicit passion for charismatic but troubled Richard Glanville

Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre

The senior pupils of St Peter’s High School are on retreat to a secluded outdoor activity centre, coming to terms with the murder of a fellow pupil through the means you would expect: counselling, contemplation, candid discussion and even prayer – not to mention booze, drugs, clandestine liaisons and as much partying as they can get away with.
Not so far away, the commanders of a top-secret military experiment, long-since spiralled out of control, fear they may have literally unleashed the forces of Hell.Two very different worlds are on a collision course, and will clash in an earthly battle between science and the supernatural, philosophy and faith, civilisation and savagery.

Predicament by Ronald Hugh Morrieson

Youthful Cedric, bored and waiting for something to change his life in the direction of his fantasies and dreams, meets Mervyn and his unusual friend. He is caught up in plots and events that both excite and alarm him Harmless pranks become serious crimes and while Cedric batles his conscience he yet yearns to punish some of those around him.

This wonderous New Zealand tale deligts with the richness of its language and the storytelling skill of the writer, offering a potent mix of psychological insight, tension and comic twist.

Sense, sensibility and sea monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H Winters

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels?

A week iin December by Sebastian Faulks

A Week in December is Sebastian Faulks' first wholly contemporary novel. Set in London, it's a brilliant social satire, structured like a thriller, that takes place over the course of a single week at the end of 2007.

It brings together an intriguing cast of characters, each apparently in his or her own world but - as gradually becomes clear - ultimately intricately related. The anti-hero, John Veals, is a shadily successful and boundlessly ambitious Dickensian figure who is trading billions and other characters include a teenage Muslim fanatic, a Polish footballer, a female tube driver, a literary critic, a care worker and a chutney tycoon

New Non Fiction

Hope for animals and their world by Jane Goddall

At a time when animal species are becoming extinct on every continent and we are confronted with bad news about the environment nearly every day, Jane Goodall, one of the world's most renowned scientists, brings us inspiring news about the future of the animal kingdom.

With the insatiable curiosity and conversational prose, Goodall, along with Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard, shares fascinating survival stories about the American Crocodile, the California Condor, the Black-Footed Ferret, and more; all formerly endangered species and species once on the verge of extinction whose populations are now being regenerated. 

Nine lives - in search of the sacred in modern india

A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet – then spends years trying to atone for the violence by hand-printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve to death.

A woman leaves her middle-class family in Calcutta, and her job in a jute factory, only to find unexpected love and fulfilment living as a tantric in a skull-filled hut in a remote cremation ground. A prison warden from Kerala becomes, for two months of the year, a temple dancer and is worshipped as an incarnate deity; then, at the end of February each year, he returns to prison. NIne people, nine lives.

Terra - tales of the earth

Blending history, science and eye-witness accounts, and arranged in chapters corresponding to the four elements (earth, air, fire and water), Terra explores the relationship between the planet and the humans who inhabit its surfaces.

Through four case histories - the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; the weather-panics of the summer of 1783; the eruption of Krakatau in 1883; and the Hilo tsunami of 1946 - Hamblyn reminds us of the earth's unimaginable force and describes what happens when that force is unleashed, both in terms of the immediate human consequences and the longer term economic and scientific implications. 

Peter Gordon - a culinary journey

Growing up in a small town in New Zealand, Peter Gordon didn't discover avocados or sushi until he moved to Australia in his late teens.  From there he travelled to Asia where a whole new culinary world opened before his eyes.

Often dubbed the 'father of Fusion cuisine' - a culinary style that integrates various regional flavours and cooking techniques in order to create innovative new tastes - Gordon reveals how he developed his unique culinary philosophy, influenced by his travels around the world, exploring different cuisines, foods, tastes and cooking ideas.

Art that moves - the work of Len Lye by Roger Horrocks

Len Lye (1901-1980) is one of the most original artists to have emerged from New Zealand. He developed his own theories about an ‘art of movement’ as a new approach to art.

He became known around the world for his animation films, pioneering the method of ‘direct film’ (bypassing the camera by painting, scratching and stencilling images directly onto celluloid). Later he became a pioneer of kinetic or motorised sculpture. His work has an energy and freshness that gives it broad appeal.

Hotel Kerobokan by Kathryn Bonella

 Welcome to Hotel Kerobokan, the ironic name given to Bali's most notorious jail by its inmates. It's a bizarre nether world where murderers sleep alongside petty thieves, drug and alcohol addiction is rife, guards are corrupt and money talks.

The inmates' grim experiences are at stark odds with the holiday paradise that exists just beyond Kerobokan's dank concrete walls. Into this hellhole have passed a procession of the infamous and the tragic: the Bali bombers, Gold Coast beautician Schapelle Corby, the Bali Nine and Chris Packer, among others.

Inside the kingdom by Robert Lacey

Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox. It is a modern state driven by contemporary technology and possessed of vast oil deposits, yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back a thousand years to match those of the prophet Muhammad.

With Inside the Kingdom, journalist and bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. While living for years among the nation's princes and paupers, its clerics and progressives, Lacey endeavored to find out how the consequences of the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself. 

Arctic labyrinth by Glyn Williams

For centuries British navigators dreamt of finding the Northwest Passage - the route over the top of North America that would open up the fabulous wealth of Asia to British merchants. We know now that, while several such passages exist, during the period of the search by sailing vessels they were choked by impassable ice. But this knowledge was slowly won.

Arctic Labyrinth tells this extraordinary story with great skill and brilliance. From the tiny, woefully equipped ships of the first Tudor expeditions to the icebreakers and nuclear submarines of the modern era.

Wright-sized houses by Diane Maddex

America's most famous architect was obsessed with small houses. Even though this exciting aspect of his work has been long overlooked, the truth is that Frank Lloyd Wright spent most of his career addressing the problems of houses intended for individuals or small families of modest means.

In the only book on the master architect to focus on “the house of moderate cost,” Wright expert Diane Maddex takes the reader inside a selection of his houses, turning the spotlight on Wright's ingenious solutions to make these homes look and feel large.

The longest siege of Tobruk by Robert Lyman

Beginning on 10th April 1941, and lasting for 240 days, the siege of Tobruk is a mesmerising tale of human endurance and heroism. It is an epic story of extraordinary resilience as the Libyan port's 24,000 defenders met increasingly desperate attempts by Rommel's Panzer divisions to break through the hurriedly thrown-up defences.

It was a battle of bayonets and grenades against tanks, of David versus Goliath. The eventual allied victory came against overwhelming odds. Tobruk was defended in the main by the Australian 9th Division, followed by the British 70th Infantry Division who then linked up with the advancing 8th Army.

Blood, Iron and gold by Christian Wolmar

The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of a revolution in transportation. Blood, iron and gold reveals the huge impact of the railways as they spread rapidly across the world, linking cities that had hitherto been isolated, stimulating both economic growth and social change on an unprecedented scale.

From Panama to the Punjab, Tasmania to Turin, Christian Wolmar describes the vision and determination of the pioneers who developed railways that would one day span continents, as well as the labour of the navvies who endured horrific conditions to build this global network.

Vintage furniture by Fay Sweet

Vintage furniture is a It's a useful (and chronological) reference, covering the evolution of design styles, new materials and production techniques.

But what makes this book particularly interesting are the examples of collectible furniture shown in their original settings - over 200 items illustrated in colour and a full international source directory with up-to-date information on where to buy the pieces.

The River Cafe classic Italian cookbook by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

Over the last twenty years, Rose and Ruth have both visited Italy time and again and during these visits have learned the many different subtleties that appear in dishes from the different and very diverse, regions of the country.

They have cooked alongside mothers, grandmothers, cousins and wine makers who have shared their family recipes. This book is Rose and Ruth's personal interpretation of these recipes. It's a celebration of the real, classic food of Italy.

Elephant dance by Tammie Matson

From the magic of Bushmanland, to the banks of Chobe River in Botswana, to the civil strife of Assam, India, Elephant Dance takes us to the heart of a conservationist's fight to find a way for elephants to live peacefully in a world with too many people, too few resources and the increasing threat of climate change.

It's the middle of the night in the Namibian desert when zoologist Tammie Matson wakes with a start to find two elephants standing beside her tiny tent. She makes a promise: "If you just let me survive tonight I will give up Africa. I'll give it all up. Just don't let them stand on me."

Along the enchanted way : a Romanian story by William Blacker

From his early carefree days tramping the hills of Transylvania to the book's poignant ending, 'Along the Enchanted Way' transports us back to a magical world most of us thought had vanished long ago

Havana : autobiography of a city by Alfredo Jose Estrada

One of the most captivating cities in the world, Havana has been forbidden to Americans for nearly fifty years.

Now, with Cuba on the brink of great change, Alfredo Jose Estrada offers a tour through the island's capital with a journalist's passion for accuracy and a novelist's eye for detail.

Light on distant hills : a memoir by Cathal O'Searcaigh

Light on distant hills is poet Cathal O'Searcaigh's memoir of his childhood in rural Donegal. A remarkably lyrical telling by one of Ireland's favourite poets.

Cathal grew up in the 1950s and 60s on the harsh peaty acres of a Donegal hill farm, where his illiterate mother believed in the fairies and knew more about their movements than of their own neighbours. The locals were an assortment of odd characters too, from artists, drunken randy farmers to the all-conquering parish priest. Growing up with Gaelic as his first language, Cathal began to understand the excitement of linking images with words and creating poetry.

Little daughter : a memoir of survival in Burma and the west by Zoya Phan

Zoya Phan was born in the remote jungles of Burma, to the Karen ethnic group. For decades the Karen have been under attack from Burma's military junta; Zoya's mother was a guerrilla soldier, her father a freedom activist.

A gifted pupil, she was eventually able to escape, first to Bangkok and then, with her enemies still pursuing her, in 2004 Zoya fled to the UK and claimed asylum. The following year, at a 'free Burma' march, she was plucked from the crowd to appear on the BBC, the first of countless interviews with the world's media.

Lost crafts

Lost Crafts is an attractive and engaging introduction to a range of traditional and sustainable crafts, activities and pastimes. Around 100 traditional pursuits are described and illustrated, from whittling to spinning, beekeeping to dry-stone walling, lace-making to trout guddling.

Whether seeking instruction or inspiration, interested in social history or simply curling up in an armchair and daydreaming, Lost Crafts is a fascinating treasury of pastimes from a bygone age. And, as awareness grows of our environmental footprints, these sustainable pursuits are increasingly relevant.

Missions to the moon by Rod Pyle

From the beginning of recorded history man has gazed into space and yearned to explore. Missions to the Moon tells the compelling story of mans journey to the moon through stunning photographs and facsimile documents.

Beginning with the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, this unique book traces our quest to reach the moon. Witness the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and experience the terrifying failures and stunning triumphs of the Apollo Missions.

The reiki bible by Eleanor Mackenzie

Explaining how reiki can treat a wide range of ailments, this title helps you discover its history and development, how it works, and the everyday benefits it can yield. It also features practical, easy to understand diagrams and pictures on how to fully utilise the healing and soothing potential of reiki.

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