**DREAM COUNT, the searing, exquisite new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is out now!** A personal and powerful essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. ‘I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently…’ What does “feminism” mean today? In this personal, eloquently argued essay – adapted from her much-admired Tedx talk of the same name – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now – an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

We Should All Be Feminists

The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John, may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this? The horror in the story revolves around the Yellow Wallpaper and like many of us, she sees to have seen patterns in the abstract wallpaper that eventually evolve into characters. She ultimately can enter the wallpaper and more disturbingly, the woman from the wallpaper can come out into her room. The bizarreness of the crouching, creeping figures serves to unnerve the reader.

The Yellow Wallpaper

‘A thrill for the sickos among us’ JIA TOLENTINO ‘Utterly inimitable’ RAVEN LEILANI ‘Unrelentingly brutal and gut-bustingly funny and spares no one’ CARMEN MARIA MACHADO 'Symbiotically serious and funny' MEGAN NOLAN 'The funniest, darkest thing' ST VINCENT LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION An audacious, original and unforgettable novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos. Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the thorniest problems of modern life: sex, relationships, identity and the internet. We see a young man’s passionate allyship turn to a furious and debilitating nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that his feminism isn’t getting him laid; a young woman’s unrequited crush spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of both her sense of self and her group chat; and witness a shy late bloomer’s flailing efforts at a first relationship lead to a life-upending mistake. As these characters pop up in each other’s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways that our delusions can warp our desire for connection. Written with the accomplished authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a losers’ manifesto, Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte radically redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society and oneself. ‘A book of mad, madcap genius’ Garth Greenwell ‘He writes about these things in the way Anthony Bourdain wrote about restaurants… Tulathimutte is a big talent’ The New York Times Book Review ‘Blistering … takes a magnifying glass to the mind in the internet age’ Vogue ‘There’s a volatile thrill to the writing … snortingly funny’ Wall Street Journal ‘Obsessively readable, acerbic, Foster Wallace–inflected’ Vanity Fair ‘A master comedian with a virtuoso prose style … audacious, original and highly disturbing’ New York Times Magazine A Book of the Year in Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New Yorker, NPR, Time Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Kirkus Review and Electric Literature.

Rejection

A short satirical thriller from bestselling author Freida McFadden. My husband is dead. I attended his funeral. I watched his casket be lowered six feet into the ground. (Actually, it may have been only five feet, but that still seems like more than enough.) And then we ate an array of finger sandwiches and deviled eggs and miniature beef wellingtons that cost more than my first car. My point is, Grant is gone. And so are all his many, many deep, dark secrets which I never really ever bothered to ask him about. He is never coming back. So why do I still see his face everywhere I go? The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie is an utterly addictive, unputdownable, nail-biting, absolutely gripping psychological thriller novella with a shocking, breathtaking, heartstopping, spine-chilling twist that you won't see coming, will leave you stunned, and will literally have you picking your jaw up off the floor and bringing it to the nearest hospital for major facial reconstructive surgery.

The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie

A classic work of psychology, this international bestseller provides a groundbreaking insight into the human mind. With an introduction by Will Self, read by Oliver Sacks. If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self – himself – he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent tics or shout involuntary obscenities, and yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales illuminate what it means to be human. A provocative exploration of the mysteries of the human mind, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a million-copy bestseller by the twentieth century's greatest neurologist.

Picador Collection

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

From the author of Everything I Know About Love and longtime Sunday Times Style columnist comes advice and answers to your questions about dating, love, sex, family, friendship and more. “One of the foremost ‘it’ writers of our time. . . . There is no writer quite like Dolly.”—Lisa Taddeo, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women “Nora Ephron for the millennial generation.”—Elizabeth Day, author of How to Fail and The Party For years, New York Times bestselling author Dolly Alderton has been sharing her wisdom, warmth, and wit with the diverse universe of fans who have turned to her “Dear Dolly” column seeking guidance on a host of life problems. Dolly has thoughtfully answered questions ranging from the painfully—and sometimes hilariously—relatable to the occasionally bizarre. They include breakups and body issues, families, relationships platonic and romantic, dating, divorce, the pleasures and pitfalls of social media, sex, loneliness, longing, love and everything in between. Without judgement, and with deep empathy informed by her own, much-chronicled adventures with love, friends, and dating, Dolly helps us navigate the labyrinths of life. In this wonderful collection, she brings together her collected knowledge in one invaluable volume that will make you think, make you laugh, and help you confront any conundrum or crisis.

Dear Dolly

An enchanting short story from Madeline Miller that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, now in audio for the first time **Performed by Ruth Wilson and featuring an afterword by Madeline Miller** In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece—the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen—the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost . . . With a spellbinding performance by Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials, The Affair), step back into Madeline Miller's mythic world.

Galatea

Agatha Christie’s classic, The Hollow, finds Poirot entangled in a nasty web of family secrets when he comes across a fresh murder at an English country manor. A far-from-warm welcome greets Hercule Poirot as he arrives for lunch at Lucy Angkatell’s country house. A man lies dying by the swimming pool, his blood dripping into the water. His wife stands over him, holding a revolver. As Poirot investigates, he begins to realize that beneath the respectable surface lies a tangle of family secrets and everyone becomes a suspect.

Hercule Poirot Mysteries

The Hollow

Read by the author, this is Louis Theroux's hilarious and thought-provoking journey through weird America. For 10 years, Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them. Along the way, Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people and considers whether he's learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them. Has he manipulated the people he's interviewed, or have they manipulated him? From his Las Vegas base, Louis revisits the assorted dreamers and outlaws who have been his TV feeding ground. Attempting to understand a little about himself and the workings of his own mind, Louis considers questions such as: what is the difference between pathology and "normal" weirdness? Is there something particularly weird about Americans? What does it mean to be weird, or "to be yourself"? And do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

The Call of the Weird

'Outstandingly weird and memorable' GUARDIAN 'Deliciously creepy' NEW SCIENTIST Fear never dies…These stories from eighteen master storytellers will curdle your blood, haunt your dreams and redefine terror. From a hungry young woman who is not what she seems, to a boy who has taken his mother's advice a little too seriously; from disfigured girls willing to pay any price to fit in, to an immigrant who cannot escape his tormentor in his new home country; from a new home with a sinister secret, to the discovery that a long-dead parent’s corpse is perfectly preserved decades later; this collection plumbs the depths of the psyche and dredges up some very modern horrors.

Of the Flesh

This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey. Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom. “But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.” Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'Vivid and empowering' GILLIAN ANDERSON 'A stunning book’ BERNARDINE EVARISTO ‘Dazzling’ TARA WESTOVER ‘A story about hope, imagination and resilience’GUARDIAN An award-winning, inspiring memoir of family, education and resilience. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where luxury hotels line pristine white sand beaches, Safiya Sinclair grew up guarding herself against an ever-present threat. Her father, a volatile reggae musician and strict believer in a militant sect of Rastafari, railed against Babylon, the corrupting influence of the immoral Western world just beyond their gate. To protect the purity of the women in their family he forbade almost everything. Her mother did what she could to bring joy to her children with books and poetry. But as Safiya’s imagination reached beyond its restrictive borders, her burgeoning independence brought with it ever greater clashes with her father. Soon she realised that if she was to live at all, she had to find some way to leave home. But how? How to Say Babylon is an unforgettable story of a young woman’s determination to live life on her own terms. A Guardian and Observer summer read. ‘I adored this book … Unforgettable’ ELIF SHAFAK ‘Electrifying’OBSERVER ‘To read it is to believe that words can save’ MARLON JAMES ‘Breathless, scorching’NEW YORK TIMES

How To Say Babylon

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ""BEST HORROR FICTION OF 2024"" From Eliza Clark, the author of the brilliant novels Boy Parts and Penance and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection. A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

She's Always Hungry

An explosive love triangle, a formidable matriarch and a house party of enemies. All drawn inexorably … Towards Zero. Now Anjelica Huston and a star-studded cast feature in a brand new BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's tense, ingenious novel. Read it before you see it! What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a houseparty gathers at Gull’s Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head. It’s all part of a carefully paid plan – for murder…

Towards Zero

Read by the full cast of authors When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter? Shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year 'Engrossing . . . fascinating . . . courageous' – Observer In 2016, Mariam Khan read that David Cameron had linked the radicalization of Muslim men to the ‘traditional submissiveness’ of Muslim women. Mariam felt pretty sure she didn’t know a single Muslim woman who would describe herself that way. Why was she hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim, nor female? Years later the state of the national discourse has deteriorated even further, and Muslim women’s voices are still pushed to the fringes – the figures leading the discussion are white and male. Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. With a mix of British and international women writers, from activist Mona Eltahawy's definition of a revolution to journalist and broadcaster Saima Mir telling the story of her experience of arranged marriage, from author Sufiya Ahmed on her Islamic feminist icon to playwright Afshan D'souza-Lodhi's moving piece about her relationship with her hijab, these essays are funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, and each of them is a passionate declaration calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia. What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it’s all about the burqa. Here’s what it’s really about.

It's Not About the Burqa

In 81 brief chapters, Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao—the basic principle of the universe. Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.

Tao Te Ching

Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in this collection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about topics ranging from Nancy Reagan to Robert Mapplethorpe to Martha Stewart. Here are subjects Didion has long written about – the press, politics, California robber baronsac, women, the act of writing, and her own self-doubt. Each piece is classic Didion: incisive and, in new light, stunningly prescient.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean

A brand new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.Read by Alex Kingston, Adrian Scarborough, Adjoa Andoh, Imogen Stubbs, Alison Steadman, Jodhi May, Chipo Chung, Cathy Tyson, Ramon Tikaram, Tanya Reynolds, Celia Imrie and Miriam Margolyes. This collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery. · Naomi Alderman · Leigh Bardugo · Alyssa Cole · Lucy Foley · Elly Griffiths · Natalie Haynes · Jean Kwok · Val McDermid · Karen M. McManus · Dreda Say Mitchell · Kate Mosse · Ruth Ware Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.

Marple: Twelve New Stories

Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction 'An instant classic' - THE GUARDIAN 'A bloody masterpiece.' - MELISSA BRODER, author of THE PISCES 'Witty, emotional and gripping, Open Throat is a short but savage thrill ride' - THE INDEPENDENT 'Open Throat is Bret Easton Ellis meets mountain lion in the Hollywood Hills . . . it already has people talking' - THE SUNDAY TIMES I’ve never eaten a person but today I might . . . A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Fascinated by the voices around them, the lion spends their days protecting a nearby homeless encampment, observing hikers complain about their trauma and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their own identity. When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call 'ellay'. As they confront a carousel of temptations and threats, the lion takes us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: do they want to eat a person, or become one? 'Open Throat is what fiction should be.' - THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'A blinding spotlight beam of a book that I was completely unable and unwilling to put down.' - Catherine Lacey, author of Pew Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, ELLE, Vanity Fair, Buzzfeed, i-D, Boston Globe, Nylon, Alta, Shondaland, Chicago Review of Books, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Literary Hub.

Open Throat

Includes the story “The Monkey”—now a major motion picture! The #1 New York Times bestseller—a mesmerizing treasury of short stories by Stephen King. An eerie-looking child’s toy harbors an unimaginable evil. A supermarket is unexpectedly the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction. A trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell. An idyllic lake conceals a bottomless terror. And a desert island is the scene of the most frightening struggle for survival ever waged. Featuring the short story “The Monkey” (now a major motion picture) and the novella “The Mist,” which was both a feature film and television series, as well as many other haunting now classic tales, this magnificent collection is enduring and irresistible proof that Stephen King is a true master of the short story form. Table of Contents: “The Mist” “Here There Be Tygers” “The Monkey” “Cain Rose Up” “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” “The Jaunt” “The Wedding Gig” “Paranoid: A Chant” “The Raft” “Word Processor of the Gods” “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” “Beachworld” “The Reaper’s Image” “Nona” “For Owen” “Survivor Type” “Uncle Otto’s Truck” “Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)” “Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)” “Gramma” “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” “The Reach”

Skeleton Crew

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. What happens when a robot begins to question its creators? What would be the consequences of creating a robot with a sense of humour? Or the ability to lie? How do we truly tell the difference between man and machine? In I, Robot, Asimov sets out the Three Laws of Robotics – designed to protect humans from their robotic creations – and pushes them to their limits and beyond. Following genius robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan, these short stories helped to transform artificial intelligence from a dream into a science and changed perceptions of robots for ever.

I, Robot

A heart-wrenching full-cast adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Steinbeck, starring Jeffrey Donovan and Shirley Knight. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family's trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirley Knight as Ma Joad, Frank Galati's play finds its timeless heart in the generous spirit of the common man. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Shirley Knight as Ma Joad Jeffrey Donovan as Tom Joad Emily Bergl as Rose of Sharon Michael Buie as Connie and others Daniel Chacon as Al Joad Maurice Chasse as Deputy Sheriff and others Shannon Cochran as Mrs. Wainwright and Elizabeth Sandry Trista Delamere as 2nd Narrator and Al's Girl Francis Guinan as Jim Casy Charlie Matthes as Willy and others Gas Station Attendant and Hooper Ranch Guard Rod McLachlan as Uncle John Robert Pescovitz as Pa Joad Joel Rafael as Car Salesman and Man with Guitar Stephen Ramsey as 1st Narrator and others Nick Sadler as Agricultural Officer and others Andy Taylor as Gas Station Owner and others Floyd Knowles and Weedpatch Camp Director Todd Waring as Hooper Ranch Bookkeeper and others Fredd Wayne as Grampa, Mayor of Hooverville and Camp Guard Michael Weston as Noah Joad and others Kate Williamson as Gramma and others Live music performed by the Joel Rafael Band. Adapted by Frank Galati. Directed by Richard Masur. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

The Grapes of Wrath

There's a 5* Christmas mystery unfolding at The Regency Grand Hotel…Full of charm and feel-good festive cheer, The Mistletoe Mystery short story is the perfect stocking-filler this Christmas! ____ It’s the Christmas countdown at the Regency Grand Hotel, and Molly the maid is polishing up her holiday list. *Deck halls *Dust off decorations *Buy Secret Santa gift *Solve mystery? A festive plot throws Molly off-kilter. Why does her beau, Juan Manuel, keep disappearing? And why are the hotel corridors filled with whispers? Someone is keeping a secret. And, as Molly discovers, the answers to the mystery lie in a most unexpected gift… *Escape into the world of Molly the Maid in this delightful Christmas short story!* ____ Over a million readers have been swept away by Molly the Maid: 'Captivating, emotional, powerful and wise. I absolutely loved it and think Nita is my new favourite author' READER REVIEW ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A book full of such charm!' READER REVIEW ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I didn’t think I could love a character any more than I loved Eleanor Oliphant but along comes Molly the Maid. God, I love her’ READER REVIEW ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! I loved everything about this book' READER REVIEW ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Lots of twists and turns and highly gripping’ READER REVIEW ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Maid was a Sunday Times bestseller for w/c 08/05/2023

Molly the Maid

The Mistletoe Mystery

On a pristine island in the Gulf of Finland, six-year-old Sophia is awakening to life, while her wise yet cranky grandmother is contemplating its end. This unlikely duo becomes each other's perfect companions for a season of unforgettable adventures. From crafting boats out of bark to creating their own miniature Venice, they explore their island world with youthful curiosity and aged wisdom. Along the way, they tackle the universal questions that captivate young and old: What is life and death? What is the nature of love and God? In this enchanting tale, Jansson crafts a world that is a microcosm of life's joys and sorrows, making "The Summer Book" a season you'll never want to end. © 2024 Tove Jansson, Moomin Characters™ Published in the English language by arrangement with Rights & Brands Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is globally cherished for creating the Moomin universe. Born in Helsinki, her tales of the Moomins captivated readers worldwide. Beyond Moominvalley, she penned profound adult novels, most notably "The Summer Book".

The Summer Book

**DREAM COUNT, the searing, exquisite new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is out now!** From the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes a powerful new statement about feminism today – written as a letter to a friend. I have some suggestions for how to raise Chizalum. But remember that you might do all the things I suggest, and she will still turn out to be different from what you hoped, because sometimes life just does its thing. What matters is that you try. In We Should All be Feminists, her eloquently argued and much admired essay of 2014, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie proposed that if we want a fairer world we need to raise our sons and daughters differently. Here, in this remarkable new book, Adichie replies by letter to a friend’s request for help on how to bring up her newborn baby girl as a feminist. With its fifteen pieces of practical advice it goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century.

Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto In Fifteen Suggestions

Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing? Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body. Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. In Hallucinations, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr Oliver Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture's folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition.

Hallucinations

Nikki Maxwell’s summer is packed with drama in this fourteenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series! Nikki and her bandmates are looking forward to an AWESOME summer on tour as the opening act for the world famous Bad Boyz! Nikki is a little worried when her frenemy, MacKenzie Hollister, weasels her way into a social media intern position with the tour. But she has a total MELTDOWN when she learns that MacKenzie is her new roommate! Will Nikki survive her dream tour as it quickly goes from AWESOME to AWFUL?!

Dork Diaries

Dork Diaries 14

**DREAM COUNT, the searing, exquisite new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is out now!** A devastating essay on loss and the people we love from the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. 'Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language' On 10 June 2020, the scholar James Nwoye Adichie died suddenly in Nigeria. In this tender and powerful essay, expanded from the original New Yorker text, his daughter, a self-confessed daddy's girl, remembers her beloved father. Notes on Grief is at once a tribute to a long life of grace and wisdom, the story of a daughter's fierce love for a parent, and a revealing examination of the layers of loss and the nature of grief.

Notes on Grief

Immerse yourself in a world where the wonderful Stephen Fry reads some of the more memorable short stories of our time. A brilliant combination of reader and writer come together in these seven short stories available on digital download only. Immerse yourself in a world where the wonderful Stephen Fry reads some of the more memorable short stories of our time. Stephen's voice takes you into a different kind of listening experience, enabling you to imagine narrative, settings, places and people with vivid colour and meaning. Enjoy the work of one of the most celebrated writers in world literature – Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekov. A brilliant combination of reader and writer come together in these seven short stories available on digital download only. Includes An Avenger, A Blunder, Boys, The Huntsman, The Lady with the Dog, Misery and Oysters.

Stephen Fry Presents

Short stories by Anton Chekhov

Tolkien’s acclaimed modern classic ‘fairie’ tale, read by Derek Jacobi. ‘Here is something that no devotee of the Hobbit epic can afford to miss, while awaiting a further instalment of the history of these fascinating people – a selection [of verses] offered as an ‘interim report’ to those interested in Hobbit-lore, and to any others who may find amusement in this mixed bag of old confections.’ One of the most intriguing characters in The Lord of the Rings, the amusing and enigmatic Tom Bombadil, also appears in verses said to have been written by Hobbits and preserved in the ‘Red Book’ with stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and their friends. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil collects these and other poems, mainly concerned with legends and jests of the Shire at the end of the Third Age. This special edition has been expanded to include earlier versions of some of Tolkien’s poems, a fragment of a prose story with Tom Bombadil, and comprehensive notes by acclaimed Tolkien scholars Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

Voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the ""Best Crime Novel of all Time"" Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement in one of Agatha Christie’s ten favorite novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose. However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

A powerful exploration of machismo and sexual desire, by Peru's most acclaimed writer. A Peruvian desert town in the 1940s. When a young girl disappears it seems that only La Chunga, the barwoman, knows the truth, but refuses to tell. Undeterred, the local men make up their own version of what happened in an attempt to extract the full story. Mario Vargas Llosa's play Mistress of Desires ( La Chunga) was written in 1985 and first staged in January 1986 in the Teatro Canout, Lima, Peru, by the Grupo Ensayo. This English translation by Sebatian Doggart was first staged in February 1992 in Christ's Theatre, Cambridge University, by The Southern Development Trust.

NHB Modern Plays

Mistress of Desires

THE COMPLETELY UPDATED COLLECTION WITH OVER 70 BRAND NEW POEMS, FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WILD HOPE AND WORDS TO LIVE BY The first children's book by Donna Ashworth, Words Can Fly: Mindful and Uplifting Poetry for Children, is coming out this June. Pre-order your copy now! 'Amazing . . . Donna's words speak to my heart' - Davina McCall To the Women is a celebration of the beauty, strength and joy of being a woman. A love letter to our deep capacity to love, rage, fear and rebuild, Donna Ashworth reminds us that we are stronger when we come together and unstoppable when we accept ourselves. With poems such as 'Be That Woman', 'Take Up Space', 'When One Woman Screams', 'There Will Be Days' and 'To the Woman Who Thinks She Isn't Good Enough', Donna helps us find comfort, inspiration and courage in the many roles we play in life as daughters, guides, mothers and friends. Originally self-published in 2020 with 48 poems, this beautiful gift hardback edition has been fully revised and updated complete with over 70 new poems. Full of wisdom and comfort every woman needs to hear, Donna helps us see that we're never walking alone. PRAISE FOR DONNA ASHWORTH 'Powerful and comforting ... Donna's words could change your life.' DAWN FRENCH 'Absolutely beautiful ... whenever I'm feeling lost, I reach for Donna Ashworth's words and feel found.' BRYONY GORDON 'Some people have the Bible by their bed. Others a self-help manual. I have Donna Ashworth.' SUSANNAH CONSTANTINE 'Donna's writing calms me down, lifts me up, inspires and enlightens. She makes women feel good about themselves and that's my type of girl!' DENISE WELCH [TO THE WOMEN by Donna Ashworth was the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller w/e 8th March 2025]

To the Women - The New Collection of Wise Words Every Woman Needs

The New York Times bestselling debut book of poetry from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. “Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.” —Lana Del Rey Lana’s breathtaking first book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times” (The Atlantic). The collection features more than thirty poems, many exclusive to the book: Never to Heaven, The Land of 1,000 Fires, Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, LA Who Am I to Love You?, Tessa DiPietro, Happy, Paradise Is Very Fragile, Bare Feet on Linoleum, and many more. This beautiful hardcover edition showcases Lana’s typewritten manuscript pages alongside her original photography. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator. Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is also brought to life in an unprecedented spoken word audiobook which features Lana Del Rey reading fourteen select poems from the book accompanied by music from Grammy Award–winning musician Jack Antonoff.

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass

Nikki Maxwell’s diary enters her bratty little sister’s clutches in this sixteenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series! It’s almost time for school to start again, and Nikki is a little worried—but, as always, she has her BFFS to help. Only, it turns out her friends need Nikki’s help. Nikki quickly gets overwhelmed and even starts feeling sick…which is when her little sister, Brianna, takes her chance to steal Nikki’s diary! How much damage can Brianna do before Nikki is back on her feet?

Dork Diaries 16

Read by a diverse cast of performers, including the author Olivie Blake Dazzling stories of love, magic and betrayal . . . A sensational collection from internationally bestselling author Olivie Blake. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the spirit tethered to a magical bridge rapidly approaches burnout – and craves her freedom. Elsewhere, Congress enacts a complex auditing system designed to un-waste your youth. We also follow a banished fairy, as she answers a Craigslist ad. And we meet a Victorian orphan, who gains literacy for her occult situationship. In another time and place, a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away. Escape the slow trudge of mortality with these magical ruminations on life, death and the love (or revenge) that outlasts both. This collection also features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry and at least one set of actual wedding vows. Januaries is collection of new and existing short stories from the internationally bestselling author Olivie Blake. ‘Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent’ – Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights ‘Sign me up for anything she writes’ – Cosmopolitan Also by Olivie Blake: The Atlas Six The Atlas Paradox The Atlas Complex Alone with You in the Ether One For My Enemy Masters of Death Olivie Blake is a multiple Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller - reaching No. 1 for The Atlas Complex in January 2024.

Januaries

Nikki Maxwell is starting eighth grade at a new school—and her very first diary is packed with hilarious stories and art in this SUPER SQUEE first book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series! Nikki confesses all in her first diary ever: her epic battle with her mom for an iPhone, meeting her new soon-to-be BFFs Chloe and Zoey, falling for adorably sweet crush Brandon, dealing with her zany little sister Brianna’s antics—and the immediate clashes with mean girl MacKenzie, who becomes Nikki’s rival in a school-wide art competition. Nearly 30 million books in print worldwide!

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.’ Shakespeare’s darkest psychological thriller. Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death. All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. The full cast includes: Toby Robertson; Roger Prior; Tony Church; John Barton; Gerald Mosbach; Gary Watson; Derek Jacobi; David Jones; Chris Renard; Terrence Hardiman; Donald Beves; Richard Marquand; John Tracy-Phillips; Michael Bates; Terrence Hardiman; George Rylands; John Arnott; Clive Swift; John Bird; John Kimber; Irene Worth; Freda Dowie; Mrs Shire; Willa Muir; Freda Dowie; Janette Richer.

Argo Classics

Macbeth

From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks–writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles Here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage.

South and West

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SPOKEN WORD POETRY COLLECTION FROM LANA DEL REY, VIOLET BENT BACKWARDS OVER THE GRASS 'Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.' Lana Del Rey Lana Del Rey brings her breathtaking poetry to life in an unprecedented audiobook. In this stunning spoken-word performance, Lana Del Rey reads fourteen poems from her debut book Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass accompanied by music from Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff. Lana’s debut book solidifies her further as 'the essential writer of her times' (The Atlantic). This audiobook features Lana reading select poems from the book, including LA Who Am I to Love You?, The Land of 1,000 Fires, Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, Never to Heaven, Tessa DiPietro, Happy and several others. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.

Named a Top Ten Book of the Year by Time, the bestselling debut story collection by the extraordinarily talented Miranda July, award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author of All Fours, a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction. In No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, a shy revelation can reconfigure the world. Her characters engage awkwardly—they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals her characters’ idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

No One Belongs Here More Than You

From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself. Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms. this is the recipe of life said my mother as she held me in her arms as i wept think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom

The Sun and Her Flowers

This is another volume of the successful Best Short Stories Collection, a selection of masterpieces by authors from various nationalities and with very diverse themes, but sharing an enormous and possibly the most important literary quality: providing pleasure to the reader. In this e-book, you will have access to the Best Foreign Short Stories, a selection of memorable tales written by great masters of international literature such as James Joyce, Julio Cortázar, Borges, Horacio Quiroga, Edgar Allan Poe, and others. It is a unique and unmissable work!

The World's Best Short Stories

From Rupi Kaur, the top ten Sunday Times-bestselling author, comes the beautiful audio edition of milk and honey, her debut poetry collection. Read to you by the author, milk and honey is a book about surivival, love, loss and femininity. milk and honey takes you on a journey of of hurting, loving, breaking and healing. Listen to Rupi Kaur's incredible poetry, in her own words. this is the journey of suriving through poetry this is the blood sweat tears of twenty-one years this is my heart in your hands this is the hurting the loving the breaking the healing - rupi kaur Praise for Sunday Times bestseller milk and honey: ‘Kaur is at the forefront of a poetry renaissance’ Observer ‘Kaur made her name with poems about love, life and grief. They resonate hugely’ Sunday Times ‘Poems tackling feminism, love, trauma and healing in short lines as smooth as pop music’ New York Times ‘Caught the imagination of a large, atypical poetry audience…Kaur knows the good her poetry does: it saves lives’ Evening Standard ‘Breathing new life into poetry…It has people reading, and listening’ The Pool

Milk and Honey

In Agatha Christie’s classic, Three Act Tragedy, the normally unflappable Hercule Poirot faces his most baffling investigation: the seemingly motiveless murder of the thirteenth guest at dinner party, who choked to death on a cocktail containing not a trace of poison. Sir Charles Cartwright should have known better than to allow thirteen guests to sit down for dinner. For at the end of the evening one of them is dead—choked by a cocktail that contained no trace of poison. Predictable, says Hercule Poirot, the great detective. But entirely unpredictable is that he can find absolutely no motive for murder.…

Three Act Tragedy

In these tense, macabre stories, bodies fall from the sky, perfect nails conceal grisly secrets and violence pulses behind gleaming façades. From hellish visions to obsessive relationships, acclaimed author Agustina Bazterrica takes us to the dark heart of human desires and fears. Shocking, brutal, yet glinting with sharp humour, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a breathtaking dive into human monstrousness from a master of contemporary horror.

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird

A Times book of the yearA Guardian book of the year‘Magnificent’The Times‘Dazzling’ New Statesman‘It filled me with hope’ Zadie SmithWe are living in the era of the self, in an era of malleable truth and widespread personal and political delusion. In these nine interlinked essays, Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker’s brightest young talent, explores her own coming of age in this warped and confusing landscape. From the rise of the internet to her own appearance on an early reality TV show; from her experiences of ecstasy – both religious and chemical – to her uneasy engagement with our culture’s endless drive towards ‘self-optimisation’; from the phenomenon of the successful American scammer to her generation’s obsession with extravagant weddings, Jia Tolentino writes with style, humour and a fierce clarity about these strangest of times. Following in the footsteps of American luminaries such as Susan Sontag, Joan Didion and Rebecca Solnit, yet with a voice and vision all her own, Jia Tolentino writes with a rare gift for elucidating nuance and complexity, coupled with a disarming warmth. This debut collection of her essays announces her exactly the sort of voice we need to hear from right now – and for many years to come.

Trick Mirror

A letter from beyond the graveOne last requestAn unsolvable crimeWhen Miss Marple receives a letter from the recently deceased millionaire Jason Rafiel, she’s not sure what to make of it. Knowing her deductive skills, he challenges her to solve a crime. If she does so, she will inherit £20,000. The only problem is that he has failed to mention who was involved, or where, and when the crime was committed. Jane Marple is intrigued. Never underestimate Miss Marple ‘Sorry Poirot, but I’m team Marple every time. A mind to rival the great Sherlock Holmes – and much handier with a knitting needle – yet patronised and underestimated by those around her, her invisibility is her superpower. That and her uncanny understanding of the darkest depths of human nature . . .’ Lucy Foley ‘Her gift is pure genius.’ Observer

Marple

Nemesis

'A beautiful book: funny, honest, revealing, heartfelt and moving' - Adam Kay, bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt' 'Vital, heartfelt and surprising, these tales from a life are told with humour, style and intelligence.' - Graham Norton 'A wonderful memoir by a glorious writer: funny, poignant, profound. I gobbled it up in one joyous sitting.' - Elizabeth Day 'An absolute jewel of a book. Gloriously readable, hilarious, painful, acute, sharply recalled and vividly brought to life' - Stephen Fry A dazzling 'tell-most' memoir: poignant and laugh-out-loud funny scenes from the life of actor Minnie Driver. I love stories. I have mostly told other people's but now, in telling my own, I realize how all our stories are connected by that great leveller of acclaim, loss, fortitude, and fortune: being human. When I look at my life from the alleged halfway point, some patterns are revealed: one, that the story does not necessarily begin or end where it should; two, happy endings are overrated. And three, happy endings are almost never the end. This book is memoir-ish. A tell-most. Largely because there's a lot I don't remember, and a lot that's not worth talking about. So, this is a collection of stories about how things not working out - worked out in the end. How reaching for the dream is easily more interesting, expansive, sad and funny than the dream itself coming true. I really hope you enjoy it. Love, Minnie x

Managing Expectations

'I wonder what I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat. Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a mark?' Irina takes erotic photos of average-looking men. Always behind the lens, she watches, she moulds, and she stalks. These boys are putty in her hands, just the way she likes it. When the opportunity to show her photographs in a fashionable London gallery coincides with a new boy to obsess over, cracks begin to appear. How far can she push her new prey for the perfect shot, or has she already gone too far? Based on the critically acclaimed debut novel by Eliza Clark, which was a finalist for the Women's Prize Futures Award, Boy Parts is a pitch-black psychological thriller that subverts the erotic gaze and asks what happens when our need for connection gets twisted. This stage adaptation for one actor by Gillian Greer was premiered in 2023 at Soho Theatre, London, in a co-production between Metal Rabbit Productions and Soho Theatre, and directed by Sara Joyce. Praise for Eliza Clark's novel: 'Hilariously sardonic… Will make most readers howl with laughter and/or shut their eyes in horror'Guardian 'A carnival funhouse ride: terrifying, feverish, hilarious' Julia Armfield 'Boundaries are for breaking and if anyone can crash through and reinterpret the fear of our time, Eliza Clark can'Mslexia 'Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp' Jessica Andrews 'Delightfully and deviously rooted in the now with its delectable internet and culture references and evocative and real-feeling portrait of women'Dazed 'Smart, stylish, and very funny' Lara Williams 'Explores the darkest corners of artistic practice, sexuality and violence with bold wit and fearlessness. A dazzling, horrifying debut'Irish Times

Boy Parts

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Books in category 'Short Stories, Drama & Poetry'

Short Stories, Drama & Poetry

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