Alex & Ethan are brothers growing up on an estate where there are just two choices: sport or crime. Ethan is a promising footballer & when he is selected to go on a training programme in the US he feels sure that he has found his chance to escape the gangs that dominate his streets. But as life spirals out of control for his brother Alex & things unexpectedly take a turn for the worse for Ethan he finds himself drawn into the midst of an explosive feud with the gun at its heart. The gun can make a weak man strong. The gun is the cowards fist. The gun is power. In this tense gripping & absorbing real life thriller Alan Gibbons explores the complex issue of gun crime & the far-reaching consequences it can have. ...

Rudy Baylor is a newly qualified lawyer: he has one case & one case alone to save himself from his mounting debts. His case is against a giant insurance company which could have saved a young man's life but instead refused to pay the claim until it was too late. The settlement could be worth millions of dollars but there is one problem: Rudy has never argued a case in court before & he's up against the most expensive lawyers that money can buy. ...

Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Glass half-full or half-empty? Do you look on the bright side or turn towards the dark? These are easy questions for most of us to answer because our personality types are hard-wired into our brains. As pioneering psychologist & neuroscientist Elaine Fox has discovered our outlook on life reflects our primal inclination to seek pleasure or avoid danger--inclinations that in many people are healthily balanced. But when our fear brain or pleasure brain is too strong the results can be disastrous as those of us suffering from debilitating shyness addiction depression or anxiety know all too well. Luckily anyone suffering from these afflictions has reason to hope. stunning breakthroughs in neuroscience show that our brains are more malleable than we ever imagined. In Rainy Brain Sunny Brain Fox describes a range of techniques--from traditional cognitive behavioural therapy to innovative cognitive bias retraining exercises--that can actually alter our brains circuitry strengthening specific thought processes by exercising the neural systems that control them. The implications are enormous: lifelong pessimists can train themselves to think positively & find happiness while pleasure-seekers inclined toward risky or destructive behavior can take control of their lives. Drawing on her own cutting-edge research Fox shows how we can retrain our brains to brighten our lives & learn to flourish. With keen insights into how genes life experiences & cognitive processes interleave together to make us who we are Rainy Brain Sunny Brain revolutionises our basic concept of individuality. We learn that we can influence our own personalities & that our lives are only as sunny or as rainy as we allow them to be. ...

Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Glass half-full or half-empty? Do you look on the bright side or turn towards the dark? These are easy questions for most of us to answer because our personality types are hard-wired into our brains. As pioneering psychologist & neuroscientist Elaine Fox has discovered our outlook on life reflects our primal inclination to seek pleasure or avoid danger-inclinations that in many people are healthily balanced. But when our 'fear brain' or 'pleasure brain' is too strong the results can be disastrous as those of us suffering from debilitating shyness addiction depression or anxiety know all too well. Luckily anyone suffering from these afflictions has reason to hope. stunning breakthroughs in neuroscience show that our brains are more malleable than we ever imagined. In Rainy Brain Sunny Brain Fox describes a range of techniques
- from traditional cognitive behavioural therapy to innovative cognitive bias retraining exercises
- that can actually alter our brains' circuitry strengthening specific thought processes by exercising the neural systems that control them. The implications are enormous: lifelong pessimists can train themselves to think positively & find happiness while pleasure-seekers inclined toward risky or destructive behavior can take control of their lives. Drawing on her own cutting-edge research Fox shows how we can retrain our brains to brighten our lives & learn to flourish. With keen insights into how genes life experiences & cognitive processes interleave together to make us who we are Rainy Brain Sunny Brain revolutionises our basic concept of individuality. We learn that we can influence our own personalities & that our lives are only as 'sunny' or as 'rainy' as we allow them to be.

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Encourage kids to get in touch with their creative side with this fun-packed book. Full of inspiring rainy-day activities here youll find an exciting range of creative alternatives to endless hours in front of the computer or TV screen. All the classic crafting techniques are covered from printing to jewellery-making sewing decoupage modelling stencilling & much more along the way. Every project can be completed using readily available materials so just follow the step-by-step instructions. The Rainy Day Book of Things to Make & Do features more than 56 fun & inspiring projects designed especially to appeal to boys & girls aged between 3 & 10 years. Each section is crammed full of colourful ideas for cool crafting activities including Top Toys Great Gifts Dazzling Decorations Funky Fashions & other activities that are sure to keep kids entertained on rainy days. ...

Written in 1980 Raised From the Ground" was the novel with which Jose Saramago first found his distinctive voice & style. It is set in the Alentejo the rural area of Portugal where Saramagos family came from & follows the fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family (literally the Badweathers) from the beginning of the twentieth century through to its middle. While the First & Second World Wars rumble on in the background Joao Mau-Tempo suffers the suicide of his father a drunken cobbler followed by hardship as his mother tries to make ends meet in a society where the landowners are all-powerful & the life of a hired hand is unremittingly harsh. As communist ideas start to spread among the labourers Joao becomes politicised but ends up being imprisoned. Nevertheless the novel ends with optimism as in a May Day revolution the workers take over the land & form cooperatives. Highly political yet full of Saramagos characteristic humour & humanity this is a novel as full of love as it is of pain. It is a vivid moving tribute to the men & women among whom Saramago lived as a child & a fascinating insight into the early work of this literary giant." ...

First published in 1980 Saramago's prizewinning novel Raised from the Ground" follows the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family
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Having a backyard garden just got a lot easier! Framed raised beds & a modular approach to growing vegetables means more production in less space & with less work. Whether you live on a small city lot or a multi-acre country estate this book has something for you. Nones shows you how to set up the raised-bed modular system & then gives in-depth descriptions of all gardening procedures: sowing seeds thinning transplanting cultivating mulching watering harvesting pest control composting crop rotation & seed saving. It s a complete gardening book for both the beginner & the experienced gardener. ...

Author Mary Lou Sullivan sat with Johnny Winter for hours of exclusive no-holds-barred interviews covering the guitar slingers entire career. From toughing it out in Texas to his appearance at Woodstock his affair with Janis Joplin his stadium-filling tours & washing out on drugs & the temptations of the road before finally fulfilling his dream of becoming a 100-per cent pure bluesman resurrecting the career of Muddy Waters & winning a Grammy Award for his effort this is a raucous roller coaster of a story. Rolling Stone" magazine has called Johnny Winter one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Ripped off & beaten down by unscrupulous managers strung out living the extreme highs & extreme lows of an uncompromising musician Johnny is a true rock n roll survivor. He has jammed with guitar heavies Hendrix Clapton & the Allman Brothers & paved the way for fellow Texas superstars Stevie Ray Vaughn & ZZ Top. Still on the road playing hundreds of gigs a year to his devoted adoring fans Johnny like this book is the real deal." ...

A sudden death: In Godwin Honors Hall the walls are draped in black. The college is in mourning for Nicole Werner a blonde & beautiful prom queen who died in a car crash last semester. She was a straight-A student & a prized member of the Virgin Sisters the most powerful sorority on campus. A feverish obsession: Nicoles boyfriend Craig was at the wheel that night. He has no memory of the crash but he is plagued by guilt. For as winter sets in & the nights darken Nicoles death dominates college life. Candlelit vigils & fetishistic rituals become nightly events -and then the hauntings begin. A flicker of suspicion: Craigs roommate Perry doesnt believe in ghosts. A no-nonsense type who always thought Nicole was as manipulative as she was charming he refuses to be swept up by the hysteria. But when he & his fellow sceptics join forces he too sees Nicoles spirit in the crumbling college halls. Something very strange is going on..."" ...