Talking books added to the library in October:
Abercrombie, Joe. The Blade Itself.
The first law series; book 1.
Inquisitor Glokta, a cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. Cutting treason out of the heart of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendships - and his trail of corpses could lead him straight to the rotten heart of the government.
Fantasy
21309
Andy Secombe
16/10/2014
Ahlberg, Allen. The Bucket.
London by his new mother and taken back to Oldbury in the Black Country. Now one of the most successful children's book writers in the world, in The Bucket he describes an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in an industrial town during the 1940s, in conditions which today we might describe as 'deprived'. He writes of a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a tough and fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life assurance policies ('6 if the child dies under age 3') and fearsome bacon slicers, of half-remembered trips to his mother's sister's grave and to the bluebell woods.
Biography
21322
Richard Derrington
17/10/2014
Albom, Mitch. The First Phone Call From Heaven.
'The First Phone Call from Heaven' tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out.
General fiction
21416
Mitch Albom
23/10/2014
Allen, Louise. From Ruin to Riches.
Ruined and on the run, Julia Prior is in desperate straits when she meets a gentleman with a shocking proposal. Certain he is close to death, William Hadfield, Lord Dereham, believes Julia to be the perfect woman to care for his beloved estate when he is gone - if she will first become his wife. Marriage is Julia's salvation, as Lady Dereham she can finally escape her sins. Until three years later, when the husband she believes is dead returns as handsome and strong as ever and intent on claiming the wedding night they never had!
Romance
21312
Olivia Mace
16/10/2014
Archer, Jeffery. Be Careful What You Wish For.
Clifton chronicles ; book 4.
'Be Careful What You Wish For' opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno? When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham. Back in London, Harry and Emma's adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica's future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick.
Family stories
21300
Alex Jennings
16/10/2014
Baker Jo.Longbourn.
It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and bleeding. Domestic life below stairs, ruled tenderly and forcefully by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman smelling of the sea, and bearing secrets. For in Georgian England, there is a world the young ladies in the drawing room will never know, a world of poverty, love, and brutal war.
Historical novels
21417
Patience Tomlinson
23/10/2014
Baker, Margaret. Her Miracle Twins.
Dr Chantal Winstone longs to become a mother - but she never imagined her gorgeous, aloof boss Dr Michel Devine as the father! When he coolly proposes that they have a baby together Chantal is shocked - maybe his emotions really did die with his beloved wife...Yet the chemistry between them is undeniable, and after only one unexpected passionate night Chantal finds herself pregnant with twins! Can the miracle of giving life to two tiny babies heal their damaged hearts?
Romance
21271
Charlotte Strevens
16/10/2014
Banks, Tom. The Great Galloon.
Great Gallon ; book 1.
The Great Galloon is an enormous airship, built by Captain Meredith Anstruther and manned by his crew, who might seem like a bit of a motley bunch but who are able to fight off invading marauders whilst drinking tea and sweeping floors! Captain Anstruther is preparing to marry the beautiful Lady Isabella, but disaster strikes when his evil younger brother comes aboard for the wedding and steals Isabella away onto his underwater Sumbaroon. Stanley, a clever boy with a small horn, and Rasmussen, a reluctant countess-to-be, are busy waiting for an adventure to begin. Instead they have to fight off BeheMoths, avoid enormous Seagles, encounter the terrifying (but nice really) Brunt and save the Galloon from sinking. How will they ever find the Captain's bride when nothing's happening?
Children's stories.|Adventure.
21469
Tom Banks21/10/2014
Beckett, Simon. Whispers of the Dead.
David Hunter ; book 3.
In America to escape the violence that nearly killed him, forensics expert David Hunter has returned to the Body Farm in Tennessee. He needs to know whether he's still up to the job of confronting death in all its strange and terrible forms. So when his former mentor asks David to accompany him to a crime scene, he agrees. But even he is unprepared for what awaits him in the remote cabin. The victim has been tortured, and the body has decomposed beyond recognition. Then a second body is found. As the death toll rises, he is pushed deeper into the heart of a desperate manhunt. But has he met his match?
Modern crime
21301
David Thorpe
16/10/2014
Binebine, Mahi. Horses of God.
On the outskirts of Casablanca, next to the dump, is the shantytown of SidiMoumen, where Yachine and his ten brothers grew up in the aimless chaos of drugs, violence, unemployment, and despair. They played football amongst the rocks, detritus, and buried skeletons of the dump but they dreamed of becoming the best football players of all time. Then their dreams changed. Yachine's older brother Hamid started growing a beard and attending religious meetings with Sheikh AbouZoubeir. Week after week, the sheikh beguiled them into believing that there was a better world in the afterlife, where their faith in Allah would be rewarded. They needed only to choose between dying gloriously and together, or living disgracefully and alone.
General fiction
21105
Harry Jardine
14/10/2014
Blake, Fanny. The Secrets Women Keep.
Rose is waiting for her friends and family to arrive at their villa in Pisa when a casual glance at her husband's phone tips her world upside down. The text reads simply: 'Miss you. Love you. Come back soon.' Shaking, she does her best to sound normal when her husband breezes in moments later. Daniel has always been popular with women, she knows that. But now it seems that something has changed within their marriage. As their friends and family gather for a summer break, Rose's faith in Daniel is shaken. How well does she really know him?
Chick lit
21467
Jane McDowell
21/10/2014
Blume, Judy. Forever.
Katherine and Michael meet at a New Year's Eve party. They're attracted to each other, they grow to love each other. And once they've decided their love is forever, they make love. It's the beginning of an intense and exclusive relationship, with a future all planned. Until Katherine's parents insist that she and Michael put their love to the test with a summer apart.
Young adult fiction.|Romance.
21305
Sarah Borges
16/10/2014
Booth, Stephen. One Last Breath.
Ben Cooper and Diane Fry ; book 5.
The vast labyrinth of caverns, passages and subterranean rivers beneath the Peak District are a major tourist attraction. But this summer not all the darkness is underground, and not all the devils are folk legends. Mingling with the holidaymakers is a convicted killer, bent on revenge. Fourteen years ago Mansell Quinn was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing his lover to death. Now he's out and within a matter of hours his ex-wife is found dead -- a new identity and a new home no safeguard against murder. Looking to the original case files for clues to the fugitive's wherabouts, detectives Diane Fry and Ben Cooper discover there may be other potential victims out there. And as the son of the officer responsible for putting Quinn behind bars, Ben realizes that his own name could be high on the list.
Modern crime
21276
David Thorpe
16/10/2014
Courtney, Bryce. Tommo and Hawk.
Australian Trilogy: Book 2
Brutally kidnapped and separated in childhood, Tommo and Hawk are reunited at the age of fifteen in Hobart. Together, they escape their troubled pasts and set off on a journey into manhood.
Historical novels
21333
Gordon Griffin
17/10/2014
Delaney, Joseph. The Spook's Battle.
The Wardstone chronicles; book 4.
In Pendle, the covens are rising and the three most powerful witch clans are rumoured to be uniting in order to conjure an unimaginable evil. Together, they will be capable of raising the dark made flesh - the Devil himself. Tom and the Spook will need to set off for Pendle quickly to avert the unthinkable but first Tom must journey home. Could it be that the boxes will reveal more about his mother's past? And will these powerful secrets place Tom's family in ever greater danger?
Young adult fiction.|Horror.
21119
Laurence Michell, Rachael Louse Miller
14/10/2014
Delaney, Shelagh. A Taste of Honey.
When her mother, Helen, runs off with a car salesman, feisty teenager Jo takes up with a black sailor who promises to marry her before he heads for the seas, leaving her pregnant and alone. Art student Geoff moves in and assumes the role of surrogate parent until misguidedly, he sends for Helen and their unconventional setup unravels. A Taste of Honey offers an explosive celebration of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the female spirit in a deprived and restless world. This depiction of harsh, working-class life in post-war Salford is shot through with love and humour. The play was first presented by Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford, London, on 27 May 1958.
Drama (plays)
21385
Various
17/10/2014
Diamand, Emily. Ways to See a Ghost.
Isis, the daughter of a charlatan psychic, can see ghosts - including that of her dead little sister, Angel. Gray is the son of a UFO-chasing conspiracy theorist. The two teenagers are forced together when their parents start dating. After a reluctant start, a friendship develops, and Isis confesses her secret ability. But when Isis's mum is inducted into an elite psychic society run by charismatic Philip Syndal, Isis and Gray find themselves in grave danger, and Isis is forced to use her ability to save them both.
Children's stories.|Ghost stories.
21471
Joe Coen
17/10/2014
Dobbs, Michael. A Ghost at the Door.
Harry Jones ; 6.
"Tell me about your father." Five short, razor-edged words that rip the world of Harry Jones to pieces. He barely knew his father Johnnie and hated what little he did know, yet no man is able to escape the shadows of the past. Harry has already lost almost everything - his seat in parliament, his reputation, his fortune. There is little left apart from his love for the headstrong Jemma, and now he must risk losing her and even his own life to uncover the truth about his dead father. What starts as a gentle enquiry uncovers a trail of murder and guilt-ridden love that dates back to Johnnie's student days.
Thriller
21419
David Thorpe
21/10/2014
Donaldson, Stephen. The Last Dark.
The last chronicles of Thomas Covenant ; book 4.
Compelled step by step to actions whose consequences they could neither see nor prevent, Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery have fought for what they love in the magical reality known only as 'the Land'. Now they face their final crisis. Reunited after their separate struggles, they discover in each other their true power - and yet they cannot imagine how to stop the Worm of the World's End from unmaking Time. Nevertheless they must resist the ruin of all things, giving their last strength in the service of the world's continuance.
Fantasy
20959
John Chancer
14/10/2014
Downham, Jenny. Before I die.
Tessa has just a few months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with horrible side-effects, Tessa compiles a list of things to do before she dies. And number one is sex. Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa wants new experiences to make her feel alive while her body fails.
Young adult fiction.|General fiction.
21332
Katy Sobey
07/10/2014
Drabble, Margaret. The Pure Gold Baby.
Anna is a child of special, unknowable qualities. She is happy, always willing to smile at the world around her, but she also presents profound challenges. For her mother Jess, still in her early 20s, her arrival will prove life-transforming. Over the course of decades, in ways large and small, Anna will affect the lives and loves of those around her. While Anna herself will remain largely unaltered by the passing years, she will live through a period of dramatic change, her journey illuminating our shifting attitudes towards motherhood, responsibility and the way we care for one another.
General fiction
21420
Julia Franklin
21/10/2014
Ferris, Joshua. To rise again at a decent hour.
Paul O'Rourke, 40-year-old slightly curmudgeonly dentist, runs a thriving practice in New York. Yet he is discovering he needs more in his life than a steady income and the perfect mochaccino. But what? As Paul tries to work out the meaning of life, a Facebook page and Twitter account appear in his name. What's at first an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something more frightening: the possibility that the online 'Paul' might be a better version of the man in the flesh. Who is doing this and will it cost Paul his sanity?
General fiction.
21494
Michael FitzPatrick
07/10/2014
Flanagan, Richard. The narrow road to the deep north.
Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. Richard Flanagan's epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man's reckoning with the truth.
General fiction.
21509
Peter Land
07/10/2014
Flemming, Kathleen. Thirty-Five Acres, a Spade and a Fork.
Kathleen Fleming, a Londoner by birth, married an Irish orphan, Sean brought up by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity in Stillorgan, which is now a suburb of Dublin. When he was fourteen, Sean was sent to work in Offley on a farm owned by Mrs White, who needed transporting to St Joseph's monastery in Tipperary every Sunday. The monks there realised that a lad of fourteen still needed a father figure and the monk in charge of the dairy took him under his wing. This was the leading dairy in Southern Ireland at the time and where the seeds were sown for Sean's dream to have his own farm. The book is about the Flemings as they struggle to start farming in the fifties with no capital.
Autobiography: Country Life
21334
Maggie Marsh
17/10/2014
Flynn, Gillian. Dark Places.
Libby Day was just seven years old when her brother massacred her family while she hid in a cupboard. Ever since then she has been drifting, but now the money is running out. When she is offered $500 to do a guest appearance, she feels she has to accept, unaware that the infamous Kill Club's members believe her brother was innocent.
Thriller
21207
Helene Wilson
15/10/2014
Foreman, Anthony H. In at the deep end.
Anthony Foreman is a retired Catholic Priest. In his memoirs, In at the deep end, he traces his upbringing in the Suffolk Village of Lidgate, his schooling by the Dominican Sisters and Fathers, his training for the priesthood at Oscott College and his eleven years as curate in Cambridge and Norwich.