Congratulations! You`re the proud owner of the most complex information processing device in the known universe. The human brain comes equipped with all sorts of useful design features, but also many bugs & weaknesses. Problem is you don`t get an owner`s manual. You have to just plug & play. As a result, most of us never properly understand how our brains work & what they`re truly capable of. We fail get the best out of them, ignore some of their most useful features & struggle to overcome their design faults. Featuring witty essays, enlightening infographics & fascinating `try this at home` experiments, New Scientist take you on a journey through intelligence, memory, creativity, the unconscious & beyond. From the strange ways to distort what we think of as `reality` to the brain hacks that can improve memory, The Brain: A User`s Guide will help you understand your brain & show you how to use it to its full potential. ...

` This is the story of how your life shapes your brain, & how your brain shapes your life.` Locked in the silence & darkness of your skull, the brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality & your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are `you`? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human? In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, & the search for immortality. Strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells & their trillions of connections, something emerges that you might not have expected to see in there: you. ...

Pre order Marian Keyes` new novel The Break in paperback NOW... ` Myself & Hugh... We`re taking a break.`A city-with-fancy-food sort of break?` If only. Amy`s husband Hugh says he isn`t leaving her. He still loves her, he`s just taking a break
- from their marriage, their children &, most of all, from their life together. Six months to lose himself in south-east Asia. & there is nothing Amy can say or do about it. Yes, it`s a mid-life crisis, but let`s be clear: a break isn`t a break up
- yet... However, for Amy it`s enough to send her
- along with her extended family of gossips, misfits & troublemakers
- teetering over the edge. For a lot can happen in six-months. When Hugh returns if he returns, will he be the same man she married? & will Amy be the same woman? Because if Hugh is on a break from their marriage, then isn`t she? The Break isn`t a story about falling in love but about staying in love. It is Marian Keyes at her funniest, wisest & brilliant best. `A born storyteller` Independent on Sunday` When it comes to writing page-turners that put a smile on your face & make you think, Keyes is in a class of her own` Daily Express



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A retirement statement from a sports star rarely causes a flicker, but Nicole Cooke went out as she rode her bike: giving it her all. The contrast could not have been greater
- as Lance Armstrong, a fraudster backed by many corporate sponsors & feted by presidents, was about to deliver a stage-managed confession to Oprah, so a shy, young woman from a small village in Wales took aim. She too had been a cyclist, the only rider ever to have become World & Olympic champion in the same year, & the first British cyclist to have been ranked World No.1, but as a woman in a man`s sport, her exploits gained little recognition & brought no riches. She too had ridden through this dark period for the sport when drug-taking was everywhere. Nicole Cooke spoke up for those who had taken a very different path to Lance & his team-mates. In he frank & outspoken autobiography, Cooke reveals the real story behind British cycling`s rise to global dominance. With a child`s dreams of success, she left home at 18 to pursue her goals in Italy. Broken contracts, unpaid wages, a horrendous injury & drugs cheats were just some of the challenges she faced, even before she lined up to take on her opponents. The Breakaway is a book that will not only inspire all those who read it, but which also asks some serious questions about the way society regards women`s sport.
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In the Contentin peninsula on the northern coast of Brittany, lies a village that to all intents & purposes might just be at the end of the world. Amid this desolation, a stranger appears in the cafe & begins stirring up suspicion about the village's lighthouse keeper, now retired. An old grandmother wanders the beaches, looking for a child named Michel. Meanwhile, a woman arrives from the south. The man of her life has just died & she throws herself into her work, cataloguing her surroundings in obsessive detail. The villagers seem to be guarding old secrets about events in their past. But what actually happened? Who were the victims? Who is seeking answers
- & why? This mystery has the force of a Greek tragedy unravelled, as secrets & answers slowly come to light. Set in a vast, empty landscape where the sea endlessly breaks on the rugged shore, The Breakers is as fascinating about the seascape & the birdlife as it is about the inhabitants of the village & the events that unfolded so long ago.
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When it comes to the most important meal of the day, this is the book to end all books, a delectable selection of recipes, advice, illustrations & miscellany. The recipes in the robust volume begin with the iconic full English
- which can mean anything as long as there are eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding, bread, potatoes & beans involved
- before moving confidently on to more exotic fare such as kedgeree, omelette Arnold Bennett, waffles, American muffins, porridge, roast peaches, channa masala from India, borek from the Balkans & paes de queijo from South America. There are also useful tips like the top songs for boiling an egg to, & how to store mushrooms. Interspersing the practicalities of putting a good breakfast together are essays & miscellanies from a crack team of eggsperts. Among them are H.P. Seuss, Blake Pudding, Poppy Tartt & Malcolm Eggs, who offer their musings on such varied topics as forgotten breakfast cereals of the 1980s, famous last breakfasts & Freud's famous Breakfast Dream. Whether you are a cereal purist, a dedicated fan of eggs & bacon or a breakfast-aficionado with a world view, The Breakfast Bible is the most important book of the day.

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When it comes to the most important meal of the day, this is the book to end all books, a delectable selection of recipes, advice, illustrations & miscellany. The recipes in the robust volume begin with the iconic full English
- which can mean anything as long as there are eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding, bread, potatoes & beans involved
- before moving confidently on to more exotic fare such as kedgeree, omelette Arnold Bennett, waffles, American muffins, porridge, roast peaches, channa masala from India, borek from the Balkans & p es de queijo from South America. There are also useful tips like the top songs for boiling an egg to, & how to store mushrooms. Interspersing the practicalities of putting a good breakfast together are essays & miscellanies from a crack team of eggsperts. Among them are H.P. Seuss, Blake Pudding, Poppy Tartt & Malcolm Eggs, who offer their musings on such varied topics as forgotten breakfast cereals of the 1980s, famous last breakfasts & Freud`s famous Breakfast Dream. Whether you are a cereal purist, a dedicated fan of eggs & bacon or a breakfast-aficionado with a world view, The Breakfast Bible is the most important book of the day.

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For five seasons, Walter White & Jesse Pinkman were undisputedly the greatest cooks in North America. From their humble origins as part-timers in a cramped (and decidedly unreliable) RV to the halcyon days in a state-of-the-art `kitchen`, the duo prospered, with competitors falling (sometimes explosively) by the wayside. Customers paid top dollar for their product. Connoisseurs came from all over the continent, & even as far afield as Europe, to sample their distinctive blue ice. The partners may have had their detractors but, without a doubt, they were the best of the best. Finally, their knowledge & expertise has been condensed into one easy-to-use cookbook. Everything from the Whites` celebrated cooked breakfast, ASAC Hank Schrader`s delicious barbecue, Walter`s mouth-watering Heisenburger & Gus Fring`s delectable Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken is broken down to its most basic elements, with step-by-step instructions, lists of ingredients & handy tips gleaned from the series. Copiously illustrated, here is the last word on how to cook like New Mexico`s finest. Whether you favour precision & exact measurements, or prefer flair-cooking with a dash of chilli powder, this book has something for everyone
- especially if you`re `breaking bad`.
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Julian Tremayne is a missionary priest in a remote Philippine village during the Marcos dictatorship. After championing the communist rebels, he finds himself imprisoned for the murder of a local military commander. Three decades later, following his own mysterious death, a cult develops around Julian & there are calls for him to be made a saint. When Philip Seward is sent out to investigate on behalf of Julian`s family, he is drawn into a labryinth of vice, violence & corruption where nothing & nobody are what they seem. ...

The fantastic bumper volume of classic stories from the world`s best-loved children`s author, Enid Blyton. Brer Rabbit will never learn! He loves to play jokes, tricks & set traps for his friends
- but once in a while, they beat him at his own game! These timeless stories of the briar patch trickster are re-told in Blyton`s hugely popular & successful style. This collection contains many Brer Rabbit stories from the books Enid Blyton`s Brer Rabbit Book, Brer Rabbit Again & Brer Rabbit`s a Rascal. Enid Blyton is arguably the most famous children`s author of all time, thanks to series such as The Wishing-Chair, The Faraway Tree-, The Mysteries, The Famous Five & The Secret Seven. In these three Brer Rabbit stories, readers can enjoy all the magic, fun & adventure one can be guaranteed of when they open a Blyton classic.
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