Orwell draws on his experience in the Indian Imperial Police for his first novel Burmese Days" a devastating indictment of British colonial rule (he resigned 'to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man's dominion over man' as he later wrote). John Flory cowardly & self-pitying makes an unlikely but all-too-human tragic hero as he defies convention & prejudice to befriend an Indian doctor then shoots himself when the girl who had seemed to promise escape from the stultifying 'lie' of colonial life refuses to marry him. While reporting on the dark side of the Raj Orwell nonetheless came under the spell of the landscape of the East & the exotic background of " Burmese Days" inspired his most lush descriptive writing... Back in England Orwell tackles capitalism nonconformity & compromise in " Keep The Aspidistra Flying". Youthful idealist & would-be author Gordon Comstock rebels against a life of middle-class respectability (symbolized by the aspidistra) abandoning his job with an advertising company to work part-time in a bookshop. But everything goes wrong: alternately proud & self-loathing he lets himself sink into poverty; he is unable to write; & he gets his long-suffering girlfriend pregnant. At the end respectably married
- & with an aspidistra of his own -he is back at his old firm writing copy for deodorant ads. Grimly comic
- & again written from Orwell's own experience this time of living in the London slums
- " Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is a still-relevant commentary on society's subservience to 'the Money God' & an affirmation of the power of human relationships to survive in spite of it. In " Coming Up for Air" George Bowling married mortgaged & middle aged deals with his mid-life crisis by forsaking dull suburbia for a rural idyll. But the fondly remembered village of his childhood has been transformed by the very ' Progress' he seeks to escape: the estate where he used to fish has been built over; the pond turned into a rubbish dump. An old girlfriend fails to recognize him & she herself is shockingly ravaged by time. Written in 1938-9 " Coming Up For Air" is permeated with nostalgia for the England of a more tranquil age
- before industrialization & capitalism had done their worst
- & overshadowed by premonitions of what is to come
- 'the war & the after-war Hitler Stalin bombs machine-guns food-queues rubber truncheons'. Above all it unsparingly confronts the failure of youthful dreams & the impossibility of ever reclaiming the past."





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Covering 25 years Burmese Shadows is an unprecedented body of work which highlights with stunning photographs the reality of ...

When Jenner Redwine wins a lottery jackpot things get tough: her father rips her off & disappears; her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex; & friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything. Jenner cant imagine finding a place in the world of the wealthy. But now seven years later shes rubbing elbows with the privileged despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher. When her ally the shy kind-hearted heiress Sydney Hazlett invites her on a charity cruise aboard a luxury liner Jenner reluctantly agrees not realising that danger lies ahead. Taken hostage by a menacing stranger Jenner must cooperate in a mysterious cloak-&-dagger scheme or else. But as her panic gives way to exhilaration & fear of her captor turns to fascination Jenner rediscovers feelings she hasnt had in years
- & realises shes found a life worth living. If she survives.
...

Burn Fat Fast is quite simply the easiest healthiest & most effective way to lose weight. Alternate-day dieting which involves taking in a very low amount of calories on alternate days is all the rage
- this diet takes it to a whole new level. In this book Patrick Holford outlines how by combining elements of alternate-day fasting with a low glycemic-load (GL) diet you can lose fat fast without going hungry or compromising your health. For those new to the low-GL diet it is a way to keep you blood sugar even. Why do this? Because if your blood sugar level resembles a rollercoaster ride you'll have a lot of insulin in your system
- & insulin is the fat-storing hormone. In Burn Fat Fast you'll find: * Simple easy-to-follow guidelines on how the diet works * An outline of what to eat & what to avoid on both phases of the diet * Guidance on fitting the diet into your lifestyle * A short highly effective fat-burning exercise routine developed by former Gladiator & Olympic athlete Kate Staples & if you need any more encouragement consider this: as well as encouraging the storage of fat insulin promotes disease & ageing so by combining a low-GL diet with alternate-day fasting you will not only lose fat fast but also improve your health & longevity.

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Postcard perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops pristine beaches amazing oceanfront homes & three girls quietly plotting revenge. Kat is tired of having people lie to her. One more cruel word from her ex best friend or her secret hook up acting like she doesnt exist will be the last straw. Those two deserve to feel as awful as theyve made her feel. But if she tried anything everyone would suspect her immediately... Lillia is ready to stop pretending her senior year is going to be so great. After what her best friend Rennie got her into this past summer & the way her guy friends are looking at her little sister she is starting to feel like these friends" are nothing but the entitled brats she has always denied they were. Maybe someone should show them there are consequences to bad behaviour... Mary has just gotten back to Jar Island after a traumatic event several years ago that still haunts her. She is determined to put it behind her but when she sees Reeve she is certain that will only happen when he feels the same pain that his actions caused her. But she cant get revenge alone... With an unlikely alliance in place there will be no more "I wish Id said... " or wondering how much better life would be if he wasnt there. These girls will show Jar Island that their revenge is just the beginning." ...

Traumatized by the events that took place in THE EVER-RUNNING MAN Sharon Mc Cone decides to take an extended vacation at her ranch in California's high desert country. Though she plans to contemplate her future Mc Cone soon becomes distracted by a troubled yet highly secretive Native American woman. When traces of violence at an abandoned resort lead directly back to the mysterious woman the county sheriff's deputy handling the case asks Mc Cone for assistance. The investigation will lead Mc Cone across the state & back to her own ranch where imminent danger lies closer than she ever expected & where her future & her life itself may hang in the balance. ...

Y'all need to get yourselves together. Here's a newsflash from the only High Priestess you have left at this dang school: Zoey isn't dead. & believe me I know dead. I've been there done that & got the fricken tee-shirt. Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in House of Night history & is the only person
- vamp or fledgling
- that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. & she might just have a chance if she wasn't so busy being dead. Well dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it's going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae will have to give up a few secrets of her own.. .

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It's spring break & the pretty little liars are trading in Rosewood for a cruise vacation. They want nothing more than to sail into the tropical sunset & leave their troubles behind for one blissful week. But where Emily Aria Spencer & Hanna go A goes too. From scuba diving to tanning on the upper deck A is there soaking up all their new secrets. Emily is smooching a stowaway. Aria's treasure-hunting partner is a little too interested in her booty. Spencer's going overboard trying to land a new boy. & a blast-or rather a crash-from Hanna's past could mean rough waters ahead for everyone. The liars better tighten their life jackets. A perfect storm is brewing & if they aren't careful A will bury them at sea... ...

When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village as in so many others sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to ones family & was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the familys clothes he crept up on her poured petrol over her & set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a crime of honour was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year & many more take place that we hear nothing about Miraculously Souad survived rescued by the women of her village who put out the flames & took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned & abandoned by her family & community it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care & sanctuary she so desperately needed & to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story & uncover the barbarity of honour killings a practice which continues to this day Burned Alive is a shocking testimony a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage & fortitude & of one womans determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices & which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence ...

A serial killer who wants to watch you burn... The media call him The Burning Man a brutal murderer who has beaten four young women to death before setting their bodies ablaze in secluded areas of London's parks. & now the fifth victim has been found... Maeve Kerrigan is an ambitious detective constable keen to make her mark on the murder task force. Her male colleagues believe Maeve's empathy makes her weak but the more she learns about the latest victim Rebecca Haworth from her grieving friends & family the more determined Maeve becomes to bring her murderer to justice. But how do you catch a killer no one has seen? & when so much of the evidence they leave behind has gone up in smoke? ...