QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.
Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.
The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, comes the highly anticipated and jaw-dropping finale to The Folk of the Air trilogy.
The Wicked King by Holly Black
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
Bandits on the Border: The Last Front...
Bandits on the Border: The Last Frontier in the Search for Somali Unity - By Nene Mburu.
In the early 1990s, Somalia was in the spotlight for factionalism as Warlords, clans, and sub-clans doggedly wrenched their fiefdoms from the Polyglot State through bloody civil wars. In contrast, thirty years earlier the Somali were pre-occupied with the struggle for stitching together the five Somali-inhabited enclaves of the Horn of Africa into one Greater Somalia.
Bandits on the Border revisits pan-Somalia nationalism of the 1960s when Kenyan Somalis attempted to secede and join the Somalia State which had been created after the merger of the former British Somaliland with the Italian Trusteeship.
This book is the first insiders analysis of the so-called Shifta secessionist war of the early 1960s and its degeneration into apolitical banditry that continues in the former Northern Frontier Districts of Kenya (NFD). The author argues that in the late 1950s Britain's crumbling colonial empire was beyond salvage and, having just fought the Mau Mau, the colonial power could not risk another protracted war in Kenya.
It therefore procrastinated a resolution of the Somali questions until it handed over political power to Jomo Kenyattas government. Nevertheless, having neglected and insulated the Somali community/region from the mainstream Kenyan society for sixty years, Britain bequeathed Kenyatta an advanced security problem that required time and long-term economic investment to eradicate collective disaffection and secessionism.
The book also explores the dynamics of the Shifta insurrection in its geopolitical context to illustrate why Somalia's irredentist foreign policy was unsustainable. It details how the Shifta war was affected by, and correspondingly affected, the realpolitik of the prevailing Cold War. It also gives a detailed comparative analysis with other secessionist wars taking place in Africa.
Lastly, the book explores the symmetrical connexion between insecurity in the NFD, the collapsed Somali State, and Americas war on international terrorism particularly after the bombing of the US embassies in eastern Africa and the attacks in USA of 11 September 2001.
Geological Highlights of East Africa&...
The national parks and reserves of East Africa are widely known for their rich and abundant wildlife. This book presents a new and exciting angle – the geological highlights of the region’s intriguing landscape. East Africa’s cataclysmic volcanic legacy, caused by rifting of the landmass, has resulted in a rich source of geological wonders. These range from the seemingly endless, peaceful plains of the Serengeti to the stark skyscraper walls of extinct calderas and the boiling magma cauldrons and belching vents of the Nyiragongo Volcano.
This handy guide escorts users around all the major – and some minor – parks of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as the Virunga Mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Descriptions of each park and its wildlife offerings, both fauna and flora, preface discussion of the geological origins, influences and current conditions. Key geosites in the parks, and how to access them, are indicated. Maps, satellite images and diagrams, along with vivid photography, help explain the dramatic landforms, both close up and from above.
For anyone planning a safari to the legendary East African game parks and reserves, this book adds an exciting new dimension.
When the Circus Leaves Town: What Hap...
What happens when a football club ups sticks and leaves its traditional home for pastures new? What replaces the terraces, stands and floodlights that tower above old town centres and terraced streets? How does football relate to the new landscapes that the clubs head to? What happens when football leaves home? When the Circus Leaves Town explores the impact of the ruptures created when clubs and supporters wave goodbye to their homes.
It examines disruption to matchday routines, erasure of geographic memories and the difficulties in repairing these, and considers whether such moves have been for better or worse. Writer Dave Proudlove walks the streets of towns and cities across the country visiting housing estates, retail parks and shiny new stadiums.
He talks to those involved with the relocation of football clubs - club officials, developers, politicians, fans - to understand the reasons behind the upheaval, and to bring us the full story of what happens when football leaves home.
Descent From Cherangany Hills: Memoir...
The life story of B. E. Kipkorir (1939-2015) is a stunning account told with the grace and ease of a seamless symphony; in captivating literary language, complete with rhetorical flashes of gripping phrases and simple sentences mortised to astonishing tightness. It is a story about the ultimate triumph of a man who beat great odds to scale the highest heights he possibly could.
A singular raconteur, the author weaves a tapestry – spanning many years – in quick rapid fire, both vivid and compelling. It’s a story to make you laugh, a story to make you cry, to build your faith to maximize your potential, for it is a story about possibilities.
We read fascination as the quintessential Marakwet village boy, with almost frightful upbringing turns into a consummate academic (albeit reluctantly), as he makes an epic journey through GAS Tambach, Alliance High School, Makerere University and finally, to Cambridge University, England.
Kipkorir, an amazing figure of pure will, took his burning ambition to equally deadly and fierce combat zones of war: study, the corporate world and public service; working, as a Deputy Clerk of the Sirikwa County Council, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Executive Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank and later, as Kenya’s Ambassador to Washington.
Then, in a cruel twist of fate, disaster struck the Kipkorir’s closely-knit family, with the force of a hurricane - and the family was shaken to a jolt - when Kipkorir’s wife, Lea, was diagnosed with cancer. The author nostalgically relieves his last days with Lea, in a language that is heartbreaking, poetic and haunting; he recounts joys past and envisions what could have been.
Despite the passionately penetrating, often unflattering accounts of his personal and family life, these memoirs are a work of history. Of no less relevance are his accounts of the incredibly amateurish approaches of European missionaries to the social engineering of African societies and their culture, aided in so small measure by colonial administrators, employing Africans’ own resources for the purpose! These memoirs are the history of his people, both local and national, in his time and circumstances. They inform and challenge. They are intended to inspire others to contribute further to the illumination of our time.
Strategic Litigation and the Struggle...
There has been a rise in the use of strategic litigation related to seeking equality for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons. Such developments are taking place against the backdrop of active homophobia in Africa. The law and the general public should, argues the author, treat LGB persons in the same way that heterosexuals are treated.
In the past two decades,30 strategic cases have been led by LGB activists in the Common Law African countries, namely in Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. While the majority of the cases have been successful, they have not resulted in significant social change in any of the countries. On the contrary, there have been active backlashes, counter-mobilisations, and violence against LGB persons, as well as the further criminalisation of same-sex relations and constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriages in some of the jurisdictions.
The author argues that activists in Common Law Africa have to design LGB strategic litigation in such a way as to the actual social and political conditions in their countries if strategic litigation is to spur social change.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Mur...
Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction ― many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual ― and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less.
Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.
Saint Mazie: Roman by Jami Attenberg
Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and bawdy, she's the truth-telling proprietress of The Venice, the famed New York City movie theater. It's the Jazz Age, with romance and booze aplenty--even when Prohibition kicks in--and Mazie never turns down a night on the town. But her high spirits mask a childhood rooted in poverty, and her diary, always close at hand, holds her dearest secrets.
When the Great Depression hits, Mazie's life is on the brink of transformation. Addicts and bums roam the Bowery; homelessness is rampant. If Mazie won't help them, then who? When she opens the doors of The Venice to those in need, this ticket-taking, fun-time girl becomes the beating heart of the Lower East Side, and in defining one neighborhood helps define the city.
Then, more than ninety years after Mazie began her diary, it's discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story. Who was Mazie Phillips, really? A chorus of voices from the past and present fill in some of the mysterious blanks of her adventurous life.
Inspired by the life of a woman who was profiled in Joseph Mitchell's classic Up in the Old Hotel, Saint Mazie is infused with Jami Attenberg's signature wit, bravery, and heart. Mazie's rise to "sainthood"--and her irrepressible spirit--is unforgettable.
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by ...
When Daniel Benchimol—consummate dreamer—uncovers the photographed reveries of a famous Mozambican artist, Moira, his fascination quickly develops to obsession as the sight lines between reality and dreams get harder to bring into focus
Daniel Benchimol spends his dreaming hours interviewing revolutionaries and writers. In this treacherous sleepscape, we find the Angolan anti-communist Jonas Savimbi, Muammar Gaddafi, hunched and hiding in a gutter, and Julio Cortázar as a great billowing tree, speaking to Daniel through an alphabet of clouds. He dreams wild dreams of people he’s never met, squinting at them as if submerged in the hazy waters of southern Angola.
When Daniel finds a camera on the beach, he becomes obsessed with the woman in the photos. Moira is a Mozambican artist with a similar preoccupation with her subconscious life – she stages her dreams in her artwork. The two meet, and together they explore the cloudy edges of their nightly visions, tugging at the fringed hem of the real. The Society of Reluctant Dreamers is a delicately crafted glimpse into the aftermath of Angolan independence, a postcard sent to prod the illusion of peace and freedom.
Spare by Prince Harry
“Spare takes readers immediately back to one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror,” reads the press release from publisher Penguin Random House. “As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.” The forthcoming tell-all is described as “a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
The one-word title is, at first glance, a vague one, yet, for Harry—and the generations of royal second-borns before him—it carries heavy significance.
“The heir and the spare” or “the spare to the heir” has long been a common refrain to describe the monarch and their sibling. In the olden days when disease was rampant and death among children common, having multiple offspring, or “spares” were necessary to ensure a family’s line in case death befell the first born. Simply put: they were human insurance—and, once their older brother reached a mature age, expendable.
Working Hard, Hardly Working: How to ...
We all know the pressure of feeling like we should be grinding 24/7 while simultaneously being told that we should 'just relax' and take care of ourselves, like we somehow have to decide between success and sanity. But in today's complex working world, where every hobby can be a hustle and social media is the lens through which we view ourselves and others, this seemingly impossible choice couldn't be further from our reality.
In Working Hard, Hardly Working, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed 'lazy workaholic' Grace Beverley challenges this unrealistic and unnecessary split, and offers a fresh take on how to create your own balance, be more productive and feel fulfilled.
Insightful, curious and refreshingly honest, Working Hard, Hardly Working will make you reflect on what you want from your life and work - and then help you chart your path to get there.
The Mixer: The Story of Premier Leagu...
An absolutely essential book for every modern football fan, about the development of Premier League tactics, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition.
Back in 1992, English football was stuck in the dark ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The game was physical, bruising and attritional, based on strength over speed, aggression over finesse. It was the era of the midfield general, reducers, big men up front and getting it in the mixer; 4-4-2 was the order of the day. Few teams experimented tactically.
And then, almost overnight, it all changed. The creation of the Premier League coincided with one of the most seismic rule changes in football history: the abolition of the back-pass. Suddenly defenders had no-get-out-of-jail-free card, goalkeepers had to be able to field and play the ball and the pace of the game quickened immeasurably. Tactics evolved dramatically, helped by an increased foreign influence.
The Mixer is the first book to delve deep into the tactical story of the Premier League, and take a long view of how the game has developed over the last quarter century. From Ferguson’s directness to Keegan’s relentlessly attacking Newcastle outfit, to Mourinho’s cagey, reactive Chelsea, all the way to Ranieri’s counter-attacking champions, The Mixer is one of the most entertaining, rich and knowledgeable football books ever written.
The Fatherhood Principle: Gods Design...
The inherent purpose of all men is fatherhood. Whether a man is married or single, and whether or not he has children, he is designed by God to fulfill the role of father in the lives of those around him. It is his calling to reflect the creative and cultivating nature of God.
This book provides key principles and insights that will teach you how to be a father in your personal sphere of influence. In clear and compelling terms, Dr. Munroe explains how a man can become source, nourisher, sustainer, protector, teacher, discipler, leader, head, caring one, and developer. The Fatherhood Principle provides practical guidelines for fulfilling your God-given fatherhood role by showing you…
- How to be the foundation of your family
- How to be strong even in the storms of life
- How to meet the needs of women
- How to develop the potential and gifts of children
- How to find your life’s vision
- Five vital purposes of the male
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
“Bono met his wife in high school,” Park says.
“So did Jerry Lee Lewis,” Eleanor answers.
“I’m not kidding,” he says.
“You should be,” she says, “we’re 16.”
“What about Romeo and Juliet?”
“Shallow, confused, then dead.”
“I love you,” Park says.
“Wherefore art thou,” Eleanor answers.
“I’m not kidding,” he says.
“You should be.”
Set over one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Faro...
Opposites attract in this battle-robot-building YA romance from the NYT best-selling author of The Atlas Six.
Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either.
Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.
In her YA debut, Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake), explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty. With an adorable, opposites-attract romance at its center and lines that beg to be read aloud, My Mechanical Romance is swoonworthy perfection.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
