Books

The Inheritance of Loss is Kiran Desai's extraordinary Man Booker Prize winning novel. High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time. The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook's heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home. Around the house swirl the forces of revolution and change. Civil unrest is making itself felt, stirring up inner conflicts as powerful as those dividing the community, pitting the past against the present, nationalism against love, a small place against the troubles of a big world. 'A Magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and political acuteness' Hermione Lee, chair of the Man Booker Prize judges 'Poised, elegant and assured . . . breaks out into extraordinary beauty' The Times 'Desai's bold, original voice, and her ability to deal in a grand narratives with a deft comic touch that affectionately recalls some of the masters of Indian fiction, makes hers a novel to reread and remembered' Independent Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971, was educated in India, England and the United States, and now lives in New York. She is the author of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, which was published to unanimous acclaim in over twenty-two countries, and The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Man Book Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

Mental maths skills are essential for all age groups and this series of six books provides lots and lots of practice of number facts to make sure children are really up to speed with their mental maths! Each page features four columns of mental maths questions that children are challenged to complete in less than one minute. Answers are provided, also arranged in columns for ease of marking. When used on a regular basis, improvements in accuracy and speed will soon begin to show.

Enjoyable decodable stories featuring Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy which enable children to practise their decoding skills

على نحو فني رائع ودرامي مثير صوّرت لنا الكاتبة العالمية أجاثا كريستي جريمة قتل السيد راتشيت في قطار الشرق عبر رحلة أروبية سريعة, ويتخيل للقارئ للوهلة الأولي أنها جريمة قتل تقليدية من تلك الجرائم المعتادة والتي تكون بدافع شخصي. ولكن الكاتبة هنا ترصد لنا ملامح وتجليات وعبقريات المحقق الدولي السيد هيركيول بوارو وكيف أنه أخذ يحقق في تلك القضية الشائكة, وكيف أنه أخذ يربط بين الأحداث المتشابكة والغامضة في آن واحد حتى وصل إلي الحل. ولم يكن توقف قطار الشرق بسبب الثلوج أمرا عارضا في الرواية, وإنما جاء من أجل الحبكة الدرامية لكي يضفي على الرواية لمسة فنية رائعة.

Jeremy Marsh is the ultimate New Yorker: handsome, almost always dressed in black, and part of the media elite. An expert on debunking the supernatural with a regular column in "Scientific American," he's just made his first appearance on national TV. When he receives a letter from the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, about ghostly lights that appear in a legend-shrouded cemetery, he can't resist driving down to investigate. Here, in this tightly knit community, Lexie Darnell runs the town's library, just as her mother did before the accident that left Lexie an orphan. Disappointed by past relationships, including one that lured her away from home, she is sure of one thing: her future is in Boone Creek, close to her grandmother and all the other people she loves. Jeremy expects to spend a quick week in "the sticks" before speeding back to the city. But from the moment he sets eyes on Lexie, he is intrigued and attracted to this beautiful woman who speaks with a soft drawl and confounding honesty. And Lexie, while hesitating to trust this outsider, finds herself thinking of Jeremy more than she cares to admit. Now, if they are to be together, Jeremy Marsh must make a difficult choice: return to the life he knows, or do something he's never done before--take a giant leap of faith. A story about taking chances and following your heart, True Believer will make you, too, believe in the miracle of love.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train, and the critically acclaimed author of Bird in Hand , comes a novel of love, risk, and self-discovery—includes a special PS section featuring insights, interviews, and more. Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn’t want and a life that seems to have, somehow, just happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it—these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine—a charming reminder of a life that could be hers, if she could only muster the courage to go after it. On a hope and a chance, Angela decides to pack it all up and move to Maine, finding the nudge she needs in the dating profile of a handsome sailor who loves dogs and Italian food. But her new home isn’t quite matching up with the fantasy. Far from everything familiar, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up. Working at a local coffeehouse, she begins to discover the pleasures and secrets of her new small-town community and, in the process, realizes there’s really no such thing as the way life should be.

How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of who we are?