QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.
A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras.
But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.
If We Were Villains was named one of Bustle's Best Thriller Novels of the Year, and Mystery Scene says, "A well-written and gripping ode to the stage...A fascinating, unorthodox take on rivalry, friendship, and truth."
Pain and the Secrets by Mugeni Ojiambo
It is the electioneering period in Kenya when young Lily seeks fortune in the city. When the country is thrown into the post-election violence frenzy and terror reigns, normal days quickly turn into fear-filled nights. The hands of fate sneaks into the confusion and knocks on Lily's door, bringing with it wounds and indelible scars that she has to learn to live with for the rest of her life.
Etched in her memory, Lily maneuvers through life riddled with shame and a sense of helplessness. In an attempt to make something out of her life, and inconsiderate of everyone she knocks down along the way, she gets sucked into the glitzy life of Nairobi where money is the language. And, as if fate has something against her, her life upends as she plunges deeper into a cancerous river that slowly gnaws away her body and soul. She is shrouded in anger, guilt and regret. All along, she realizes one can only run for so long from one's past.
Set in Kenya's Nairobi and Kitale, here is a tale that seeks to address the domino effect of politically instigated violence in one woman's life, and how the same spills over, creating a debate and questions on social issues and the role of fate.
Qwani First Edition
The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia ...
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.
In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture.
Chayoma Issue 2 by Elias Nabutete
Twisted Fate By Trevor Jalango
After getting involved in some bad businesses and companies, Zach tries to win his soul back, but he is deep in debt, one that he has to pay with blood from his family. His timid nature pushes him to be hands-off, leaving them to clean up his mess, not knowing who, when, how, and why people have to die, and these events slowly lead to a struggle for an inheritance, defending it from the opportunistic vultures and sharing it with the close ones who want to remain together as one.
Skinless Goat in Somalia by Awes A. O...
Awes A. Osman, a Somali residing in Sweden, has written Skinless Goat in Somalia, a novel inspired by his student days in India. ?Strange things remain to look strange to the society, even if it is severe case of the savage action of peeling live goat?s skin, but only for two days and after that people get used to it.? These lines from the novel, Skinless Goat in Somalia, hold the clue to the title of a book that was seeded many years ago, when the author was still a student in India. He had jotted down his random thoughts then, and now many years later, he has dusted memories, gleaned long-lost ideas, and put them all together to publish his first novel. However, the writing of the book is only part of the Awes story.
His tale spans two distinct continents, two varied cultures and many different time zones. Jabalpur where the writer started his first year of university education triggered off the writer in Osman. Indeed, his novel is initially set at the Jabalpur University campus. The hero of the story in Skinless Goat in Somalia is Omar, a Somali student, meets Sunita, the beautiful daughter of his professor, and the two falls in love and it takes an interesting event that jeopardizes the lives of many African students in India. Osman's stay in Jabalpur offered him interesting insights into India.
He would tour the villages, interact with the public and share thoughts. In Jabalpur, a Somali student still had curiosity value. That wasn't to be in Pune, where he transferred after one year. Osman remembers the regular get-togethers with the foreign students.
Red Soil and Roasted Maize: Selected ...
Red Soil and Roasted Maize is a selection of Kenyan writer Rasna Warah's most poignant, introspective and satirical articles, columns and essays that provide snapshots and analyses of events that have shaped Kenyans' lives and dreams in the last decade, from the turbulent transition to democracy in 2002 to a flawed election in 2007 that had a deep impact on Kenya's political, economic and social landscape.
She candidly deciphers and describes the perils of growing ethnic chauvinism and corruption in an increasingly polarised nation and examines her own life as a writer in one of Africa's most diverse and unequal societies.
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodrig...
With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003.
Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.
Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style.
Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira ...
Two Chinese-American sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. Lucia impetuously plows ahead, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again—but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harr...
Landry and Prentiss are two brothers born into slavery, finally freed as the American Civil War draws to its bitter close. Cast into the world without a penny to their names, their only hope is to find work in a society that still views them with nothing but intolerance.
Farmer George Walker and his wife Isabelle are reeling from a loss that has shaken them to their core. After a chance encounter, they agree to employ the brothers on their land, and slowly the tentative bonds of trust begin to blossom between the strangers.
But this sanctuary survives on a knife's edge, and it isn't long before a tragedy causes the inhabitants of the nearby town to turn their suspicion onto these new friendships, with devastating consequences.
Why I Am So Clever by Friedrich Nietz...
'Why do I know a few more things? Why am I so clever altogether?' Self-celebrating and self-mocking autobiographical writings from Ecce Homo, the last work iconoclastic German philosopher Nietzsche wrote before his descent into madness. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love by Ha...
Many of Haruki Murakami's fans know about his massive vinyl record collection (10,000 albums!) and his obsession with running, but few have heard about a more intimate passion: his T-shirt collecting.
In Murakami T, the famously reclusive novelist shows us his T-shirts—from concert shirts to never-worn whiskey-themed Ts, and from beloved bookstore swag to the shirt that inspired the iconic short story "Tony Takitani." These photographs are paired with short, frank essays that include Murakami's musings on the joy of drinking Guinness in local pubs across Ireland, the pleasure of eating a burger upon arrival in the United States, and Hawaiian surf culture in the 1980s.
Together, these photographs and reflections reveal much about Murakami's multifaceted and wonderfully eccentric persona.
Life of David Hockney by Catherine Cu...
With clear, vivid prose, this meticulously researched novel draws an intimate, moving portrait of the most famous living English painter.
Born in 1937 in a small town in the north of England, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After leaving his home in Bradford for the Royal College of Art in London, his career flourished, but he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalized, and his inclination for a figurative style of art not sufficiently “contemporary” to be valued. Trips to New York and California—where he would live for many years and paint his iconic swimming pools—introduced him to new scenes and new loves, beginning a journey that would take him through the fraught years of the AIDS epidemic.
A compelling hybrid of novel and biography, Life of David Hockney offers an insightful overview of a painter whose art is as accessible as it is compelling, and whose passion to create has never been deterred by heartbreak or illness or loss.
I See You by Clare Mackintosh
It all starts during her commute home one night. Zoe Walker glances through her local paper and sees her own face staring back at her in a classified ad. With the grainy photo is a phone number and a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com.
In the following days, she sees other women in the same ad, a different one every day, and nearly all of them show up in the newspapers as victims of increasingly violent crimes—including murder.
With the help of a determined cop, Zoe uncovers the ad’s twisted purpose…And suddenly, the man on the train sitting across the car—the one smiling at Zoe—could be more than just a friendly stranger. He could be someone who has deliberately chosen her and is ready to make his next move.
After the End by Clare Mackintosh
Absolutely incredible' (Reader review)'I have never felt so emotionally wrapped up in characters in a book' (Reader review) Powerful, uplifting and full of hope, AFTER THE END is the most moving book you'll read this year - from number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know.
Only now they're facing the most important decision of their lives - and they don't agree.
With the consequences of an impossible choice threatening to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.
King of Wrath by Ana Huang
Ruthless. Meticulous. Arrogant.
Dante Russo thrives on control, both personally and professionally.
The billionaire CEO never planned to marry—
until the threat of blackmail forces him into an engagement with a woman he barely knows.
Vivian Lau, jewelry heiress and daughter of his newest enemy.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful or charming she is. He'll do everything in his power to destroy the evidence and their betrothal.
There’s only one problem: now that he has her...he can't bring himself to let her go.
***
Elegant. Ambitious. Well-mannered.
Vivian Lau is the perfect daughter and her family’s ticket into the highest echelons of high society.
Marrying a blue-blooded Russo means opening doors that would otherwise remain closed to her new-money family.
While the rude, elusive Dante isn't her idea of a dream partner, she agrees to their arranged marriage out of duty.
Craving his touch was never part of the plan.
Neither was the worst thing she could possibly do: fall in love with her future husband.
King of Wrath is a steamy billionaire/arranged marriage romance. It contains explicit sexual content, profanity, and mild violence. Recommended for mature readers only.
House of Sky and Breath: The unmissab...
THE DEADLIEST POWER.
THE FIERCEST PASSION.
THE CRUELLEST FATE.
The #1 Sunday Times bestseller and sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller. Sarah J. Maas's sexy, groundbreaking CRESCENT CITY series continues with this second instalment.
Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar have made a pact. As they process the events of the Spring they will keep things platonic until Winter Solstice. But can they resist when the crackling tension between them is enough to set the whole of Crescent City aflame?
And they are not out of danger yet. Dragged into a rebel movement they want no part of, Bryce, Hunt and their friends find themselves pitted against the terrifying Asteri - whose notice they must avoid at all costs. But as they learn more about the rebel cause, they face a choice: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight. And they've never been very good at staying silent.
Twisted Lies by Ana Huang
Charming, deadly and smart enough to hide it, CHRISTIAN HARPER is a monster dressed in the perfectly tailored suits of a gentleman. He has little use for morals and even less use for love, but he can’t deny the strange pull he feels toward the woman living just one floor below him.
She’s the object of his darkest desires, the only puzzle he can’t solve. And when the opportunity to get closer to her arises, he breaks his own rules to offer her a deal she can’t refuse.
Every monster has their weakness. She’s his. His obsession. His addiction. His only exception.