We are on the cusp of a reading revolution Increasingly research is uncovering an intimate connection between reading & wellbeing The seemingly simple act of being read to brings remarkable health & happiness benefits It stimulates thought & memory encourages the sharing of ideas & feelings hopes & fears It enriches our lives & minds This unique book offers a selection of prose & poetry especially suitable for reading aloud
- to your husband or wife a sick parent or child an elderly relative With short introductions & discussion topics for each piece there's something here for everyone
- from Shakespeare & Black Beauty to Elizabeth Jennings & Bruce Chatwin All royalties in full will go to The Reader Organisation the leading UK charity for reading & health

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This lavishly photographed interiors book shows how to leave behind design rules to create truly beautiful original interiors For over 20 years Kit Kemp has been at the forefront of the international design community with her signature style that mixes contemporary elements with antiques & junk-shop finds luxurious fabrics with printed wallpapers & hand finished detailing with collections of simple objects that create impact She avoids taking design too seriously playing with scale colour & pattern to create very personal handcrafted spaces Alongside the stunning images of room sets & detailed close-ups will be the inspiration behind Kit's work & her tips for creating your own version of her style at home Interiors are meant for living in & the key is to create a space that is comfortable beautiful & reflects who you really are ...

Rick Gekoski's follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut Darke is a novel about 1950s America a marriage in crisis & a family falling apart at the seams 320 pages Gekoski Rick ...

One of the most vivid & realised characters of recent fiction Willie Dunne is the innocent hero of Sebastian Barry's highly acclaimed novel Leaving Dublin to fight for the Allied cause as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers he finds himself caught between the war playing out on foreign fields & that festering at home waiting to erupt with the Easter Rising Profoundly moving intimate & epic A Long Long Way charts & evokes a terrible coming of age one too often written out of history ...

A gripping tale of conflict & survival that has inspired millions of young readers & adults alike 128 pages Park Linda Sue ...

A retired couples' lives are thrown into disarray when their dream life in the South of France is dramatically changed when they meet another younger couple ...

Irene Bobs loves fast driving Her husband is the best car salesman in rural south eastern Australia Together with Willie their lanky navigator they embark upon the Redex Trial a brutal race around the continent over roads no car will ever quite survive A Long Way from Home is Peter Carey&s late style masterpiece; a thrilling high speed story that starts in one way then takes you to another place altogether Set in the 1950s in the embers of the British Empire painting a picture of Queen & subject black white & those in-between this brilliantly vivid novel illustrates how the possession of an ancient culture spirals through history
- & the love made & hurt caused along the way
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Irene Bobs loves fast driving Her husband is the best car salesman in rural south eastern Australia Together with Willie their lanky navigator they embark upon the Redex Trial a brutal race around the continent over roads no car will ever quite survive A Long Way from Home is Peter Carey&s late style masterpiece; a thrilling high speed story that starts in one way then takes you to another place altogether Set in the 1950s in the embers of the British Empire painting a picture of Queen & subject black white & those in-between this brilliantly vivid novel illustrates how the possession of an ancient culture spirals through history
- & the love made & hurt caused along the way
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The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy My new friends have begun to suspect that I haven't told them the full story of my life Why did you leave Sierra Leone? Because there is a war You mean you saw people running around with guns & shooting each other? Yes all the time Cool I smile a little You should tell us about it sometime Yes sometime' This is how wars are fought now by children hopped-up on drugs & wielding AK-47s There are more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide & it is estimated there are some 300000 child soldiers fighting Ishmael Beah used to be one of them What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists & novelists have struggled to imagine their lives But until now there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell & survived Ishmael Beah now twenty-five years old tells a riveting story how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone he fled attacking rebels & wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence By thirteen he'd been picked up by the government army & Beah at heart a gentle boy found he was capable of truly terrible acts This is a rare & mesmerizing account told with real literary force & heartbreaking honesty ...

Alexander von Humboldt was the most admired scientist of his day But the achievements for which he was most celebrated in his lifetime always fell short of perfection When he climbed the Chimborazo then believed to be the highest mountain in the world he did not quite reach the top; he established the existence of the Casiquiare canal between the great water systems of the Orinoco & the Amazon but this had been well known to local people; & his magisterial work Cosmos was left unfinished This was no coincidence Humboldt's pursuit of an all-encompassing immersive approach to science was a way of finding limits of nature & of the scientist's own self A Longing for Wide & Unknown Things portrays a scientific life lived in the era of German Romanticism -- a time of radical change where the focus on the individual placed a new value on feeling & the pursuit of personal desires As Humboldt himself admitted he 'would have sailed to the remotest South Seas even if it hadn't fulfilled any scientific purpose whatever' ...