With customary charm & deftness Alexander Mc Call Smith gives us another installment in this popular series now running in its eighth season in The Scotsman. Anything could happen to Bertie & the gang especially with an invitation to one of Scotlands premier jazz festivals - ...

Do you ever wonder where your life is going? Do you worry that you might wake up in the morning & suddenly be old? You are not alone. Story (thats his name) can feel a middle-youth
- or is that middle-age?
- crisis coming on. Hes got a great job a great flat & great mates: Mac who is obsessed with biscuits; JP who never says anything if its nice; Cannie whose only admirer is the bird that lives outside her window; & Vincent who has finally proposed to his girlfriend after nineteen years. But alongside the drinks & the kicks what has any of them actually done? & why is time passing like sand in a sieve? Is it possible to turn life around? Life is just life right? & change is a gasping & slippery fish. Afsaneh Knights portrait of ageing Generation X-ers is funny compassionate & unsparing. Were under her microscope & while you might squirm shell have you laughing crying & caught.

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The observatory on the moon has the proof. Life on earth will be incinerated in April 2037 by a massive solar flare. It is building down & it is unstoppable. With only 18 months until doomsday mankind must unite & embark on the most ambitious engineering project ever: the construction at the La Grange point between the sun & the earth of a deflecting mirror the diameter of our home planet. The price of failure? Extinction. One scientist an expert on the sun predicted the flare. One person who knew nothing about the sun nevertheless knew the exact date that life on earth would come to an end. She had witnessed the bizarre time dislocations brought by the eyes. She knows who is responsible. This is hard SF in the grand tradition of the genre ...

Two pioneers in health--Dr Deepak Chopra & Prof Rudolph E. Tanzi one of the world's foremost experts on the causes of Alzheimer's--share a bold new understanding of the brain & a prescriptive plan for how we can use it to achieve physical mental & spiritual well-being. In his bestselling books Ageless Body Timeless Mind & Reinventing the Body Resurrecting the Soul Deepak Chopra reveals 'the forgotten miracle'
- the body's infinite capacity for change & renewal. Now Chopra focuses his attention on a part of the body undergoing intense study & radical reevaluation: the brain. No one is better able to share the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience than preeminent neurologist Rudolph E. Tanzi & together Chopra & Tanzi present a new vision of the human brain together with a practical plan for how to use it to achieve higher levels of success & fulfilment. They contend that by using techniques & skills such as mindfulness intention & meditation we can create new neural pathways in the brain. Thus we can transform it into our most powerful tool for achieving health happiness & enlightenment.
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Throughout history there have been references & examples in literature art & philosophy of an increased awareness of life while under the influence of extreme emotions
- these have become known as Peak Experiences. Soon after Colin Wilson became aware of this phenomena in the 1960s he wondered about its history & how its power could be harnessed thus began a 40 year investigation. In SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS" we see how such luminaries as Yeats Blake Satre Nietzche & Robert Graves were all effected by PE's & how on the opposite side it has long been noted that we are least insightful when we are at our lowest ebb. By looking in detail through the different areas where this phenomena has occurred & offering anecdotes & examples of how many people in history (as well as himself) were effected Wilson reveals a pattern of insight with emotions. He ends the book with an instructional section on achieving power consciousness for yourself."
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George & Harold (the co-stars of the enormously popular Captain Underpants series) are in big trouble again! Their mean principal Mr. Krupp has demanded that they stop making comics about poop. Always resourceful the boys decide to create an all-new epic novel about a totally different subject: Pee! Illustrations. ...

Hilarious action-packed new title in the bestselling Duck in the Truck series from highly-regarded picture book creator Jez Alborough. Make way SUPER DUCK is here! Goat is eager to try out his new kite with the help of friends Sheep & Frog. But just they are about to see if it will fly Super Duck arrives in his super truck. & as always when Duck is around things are bound to go wrong! Indeed it is not long before Frog is carried up into the sky on the end of the kite's string. Poor Frog! Can Super Duck save the day? ...

Heidi Swansons approach to cooking whole natural foods has earned her a global following. From her Northern California kitchen she introduced us to a less-processed world of cooking & eating. In Super Natural Every Day Heidi helps us make nutritionally packed meals part of our daily repertoire by sharing a sumptuous collection of nearly 100 of her go-to recipes. These are the dishes that Heidi returns to again & again because theyre approachable good for the body & just plain delicious. This stylish cookbook is equal parts inspiration & instruction showing us how to create a welcoming table filled with nourishing food for friends & family. The flavourful vegetarian recipes for breakfast lunch dinner snacks treats & drinks are quick to the table but tasty enough to linger over. Gorgeously illustrated with over 100 photos that showcase the engaging rhythms of Heidis culinary life & travels Super Natural Every Day reveals the beauty of uncomplicated food prepared well & reflects a realistic yet gourmet approach to a healthy & sophisticated natural foods lifestyle. ...

With home baking & confectionary making on the rise people are finding out how much fun it is to create their own treats & are looking for new inspirations for their kitchen experiments. One of the most popular treats at the moment is the cake pop which can be shaped & decorated to be as adorably cute or as stylishly elegant as the occasion requires. By starting from the initial idea of a delicious cake ball on a stick this book is able to go even further toward finding a whole range of delicious treats that are made even better by coming in bite-sized be-sticked form. Focusing for the first time on rich complex flavours & simple techniques this book will make it easy for anyone to try out a range of indulgences that are sure to impress at parties events or as presents. With recipes ranging from traditional cake pops with exciting new flavours all the way to brittles & meringues there is something here for everyone to enjoy. Easy-to-understand directions make every step simple to understand & even absolute beginners can walk away with an impressive collection of desserts in an easy-to-hold form. The range of new flavours & techniques mean even seasoned confectioners will find something here to inspire & challenge them making this book a practical resource to own or a thoughtful gift to give. ...

In a very near future a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But dont tell that to poor Lenny Abramov proud author of what may well be the worlds last diary. Despite his job at an outfit called Post-Human Services which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele death is clearly stalking this cholesterol-rich morsel of a man. & why shouldnt it? Lennys from a different century. He TOTALLY loves books (or printed bound media artifacts as theyre now known) even though most of his peers find them smelly & annoying. But even more than books Lenny loves Eunice Park an impossibly cute & impossibly cruel 24-year-old Korean-American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images & a minor in Assertiveness. When riots break out in New Yorks Central Park the citys streets are lined with National Guard tanks & patient Chinese creditors look ready to foreclose on the whole mess Lenny vows to convince his fickle new love that in a time without standards or stability there is still value in being a real human being. ...