Orion Books

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Read by Matthew Spencer

'There is a theory that humans made lists before we invented writing. Adam Sharp's exquisitely arranged, addictively witty book of lists is the reasons why. He is the poet laureate of lists'

John Mitchinson, Senior QI Elf

'So much to disagree with in this book. And I mean that as a huge recommendation' Richard Osman

'Very funny and highly addictive. Adam Sharp, you weird genius' Russell Kane

A list of ways to start a conversation with a cat in different countries

5. Pss-pss-pss (England)

4. Kac-kac-kac (Lithuania)

3. Pish-pish-pish (Iran)

2. Ming-ming-ming (Philippines)

1. Bellowing "What's new pussycat, whoa, oh whoa" (Wales)

Are you feeling down in the dumps? Is the chaotic, disordered nature of modern existence freaking you out? Are you feeling...listless?

Then this collection of fascinating, hilarious and brilliantly odd lists is the remedy you need. Packed full of incredible facts, from what people say instead of cheese when they're taking a photo in Bulgaria, to what a platypus is called in Mandarin, everything under the sun is here.

In order.

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A game that turns to a nightmare ...

Non Omnis Moriar

I shall not altogether die

A young boy watches his mother die. A sadistic man dies in agony. Drunk students play with a Ouija board in a damp cellar. Can bricks and mortar retain imprints of the emotions experienced within them?

Frannie is delighted when a chance meeting with a handsome man and his son leads to a romance. The fact that the relationship is marred by gruesome tragedies, she dismisses as an unsettling coincidence. But eventually she can no longer ignore the fact that she is the only thing linking these horrible events. Is it a murderous practical joke?

Or worse...?

'James just gets better and better' Independent on Sunday

'Britain's answer to Stephen King and Michael Crichton.' Sunday Telegraph

Read more from the multi-million copy bestselling author of the Roy Grace novels:

Possession

Dreamer

Sweet Heart

Twilight

Prophecy

Host

Alchemist

Denial

The Truth

Faith

* Each Peter James novel can be read as a standalone*

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Her husband's moved out - and her dad's moved in...

It's New Year's Eve, and Iris has just found out that her husband, Adam, is cheating on her. Furious, she kicks him out, and enlists her Dad to move in and help with the children whilst she tries to mend her broken heart.

But her Dad soon starts to display signs of Alzheimer's, and Iris realises that if she loses her partner, she'll be managing an awful lot on her own. Soon, she realises that Adam wasn't the only one taking their marriage for granted, and for the sake of the children she decides to give him one more chance.

But is it braver to stay than to run? And can anyone fall in love with the same person twice?

Praise for Helen Whitaker:

'Funny and frank' DAWN O'PORTER

'Hilarious' EMMA GANNON

'Packed with humour' WOMAN AND HOME

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'Comfort reading of the highest order' The I Newspaper

It's almost Christmas and snow is falling in the Cotswolds. Simon and Nora are gearing up for the festive season - but their bookshop is in trouble.

Nora is delighted when a customer buys a book that's been on the shelves for years, but that won't be enough to keep the bailiffs away.

Fuelled by mulled wine and mince pies, Nora and Simon hatch a plan to rouse community spirit, sending out six books to lonely villagers. The books change the recipients' lives, but is it too late to change the bookshop's fate?

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The BOLD AS LOVE series is a world of daring, dread and enchantment, a world that could almost be ours: a brilliant combination of myth, magic and pop culture.

Ax Preston, Sage Pender and Fiorinda, charismatic leaders of the Rock-n-Roll Reich, have beaten the cascade of disasters that followed the collapse of the former United Kingdom. Now they have to find some resolution to the impossible dynamics of their own relationship, while the world keeps falling apart. There are fearsome things going on in England's rural hinterland, and in Continental Europe the green nazis are planning a final solution to desperate environmental damage. But there's nothing the Triumvirate can't handle - until Fiorinda's father, a monster of the kind the world has never before known, reaches out to reclaim his magical child, the flower-bride.

And that's when darkness falls over Ax's England . . .

Harrowing . . . enchanting - a dark fairy tale with an epic sweep, set in a world very like our own.

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Memer is a child of rape; when the Alds took the beautiful city of Ansul, they descecrated or destroyed everything of beauty. The Waylord they imprisoned and tortured for years until finally he is freed to return to his home. Though crippled, he is not destroyed. His life still has purpose. Memer is the daughter of his House, the daughter of his heart.

The Alds, a people who love war, cannot and will not read: they believe that in words lie demons that will destroy the world. All the city's libraries, the great treasure trove of knowledge of ages past, are burned, except for those few volumes secreted inthe Waylord's hidden room.

But times are changing. Gry Barre of Roddmant and Orrec Caspro of Caspromant have arrived in the city. Orrec is a story-teller, the most famous of all: he has the gift of making. His wife Gry's gift is that of calling; she walks with a halflion who both frightens and fascinates the Alds.

This is Memer's story, and Gry's and Orrec's, and it is the story of a conquered people craving freedom.

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'Fierce, funny and long overdue - I read this book out loud to anyone who'd listen.' Adam Kay

'Toksvig's Almanac is intended merely as a starting point for your own discoveries. Find a fabulous (or infamous) woman mentioned and, please, go looking for more of her story. The names mentioned are merely temptations. Amuse-bouches for the mind, if you like. How I would have loved to have written out in detail each tale there is to be told, but then this book would have been too heavy to lift.'

Let Sandi Toksvig guide you on an eclectic meander through the calendar, illuminating neglected corners of history to tell tales of the fascinating figures you didn't learn about at school.

From revolutionary women to serial killers, pirate nuns to pioneering civil rights activists, doctors to dancing girls, artists to astronauts, these pages commemorate women from all around the world who were pushed to the margins of historical record. Amuse your bouche with:

Belle Star, American Bandit Queen

Lady Murasaki, author of the world's first novel

Madame Ching, the most successful pirate of all time

Maud Wagner, the first female tattoo artist

Begum Samru, Indian dancer and ruler who led an army of mercenaries

Inês de Castro, crowned Queen Consort of Portugal six years after her death

Ida B. Wells, activist, suffragist, journalist and co-founder of the NAACP

Eleanor G. Holm, disqualified from the 1936 Berlin Olympics for drinking too much champagne

These stories are interspersed with helpful tips for the year, such as the month in which one is most likely to be eaten by a wolf, and the best time to sharpen your sickle. Explore a host of annual events worth travelling for, from the Olney Pancake Race in Wiltshire to the Danish Herring Festival, or who would want to miss Serbia's World Testicle Cooking Championship?

As witty and entertaining as it is instructive, Toksvig's Almanac is an essential companion to each day of the year.

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Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, this is fiction that pushes the boundaries of the novel form.

Shaw had a breakdown, but he's getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge, and an on-off affair with a doctor's daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age fourteen.

It's not ideal, but it's a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn't got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical . . .

Meanwhile, Victoria is up in the Midlands, renovating her dead mother's house, trying to make new friends. But what, exactly, happened to her mother? Why has the local waitress disappeared into a shallow pool in a field behind the house? And why is the town so obsessed with that old Victorian morality tale, The Water Babies?

As Shaw and Victoria struggle to maintain their relationship, the sunken lands are rising up again, unnoticed in the shadows around them.

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'Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be' EMPIRE

'Told with shimmering lyricism, this coming-of-age saga will leave readers transformed' BOOKLIST

'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER

'A tour de force' EVENING STANDARD

The final part in the story that started with GIFTS, and the tale of Gry Barre of Roddmant and Orrec Caspro of Caspromant, two children with extraordinary powers.

They play a part in VOICES too, the sequel to GIFTS, in which Memer, a girl who has grown up in a captured city, is part of the people's fight for freedom.

And now, in POWERS, we have the conclusion to Ursula Le Guin's beautifully written, powerful and moving story of the Western Isles, a tale that will leave every reader begging for more.

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Sadness is an inevitable part of life, but for most people it will usually alternate or coexist with happy times. Clinical depression, on the other hand, is a mental disorder that causes torment and anguish. It has no moments of relief. It unhinges us from everything we thought we knew about the world and makes us strangers to those we love. It is the predominant mental-health problem worldwide, affecting more than 250 million people. More than a fifth of the population of the UK report symptoms of depression or anxiety. Yet how much do we really know of the condition and of ways to treat it?

In MENDING THE MIND, Oliver Kamm recounts what it's like to be mentally ill with severe depression, and he details the route by which, with professional help, he was able to make a full recovery. His experience prompted him to find out all he could about a condition that has afflicted humanity throughout recorded history. He explains the progress of science in understanding depression, and the insights into the condition that have been provided by writers and artists through the ages. His message is hopeful: though depression is a real and devastating illness, the mind and its disorders are yielding to scientific inquiry, and effective psychological, psychiatric and pharmacological treatments are already available. Candid, revelatory and deeply versed in current scientific research, MENDING THE MIND sets out in plain language how the scourge of clinical depression can be countered and may eventually be overcome.