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Jake Cake: The School Dragon (Jake Cake Ser.)
by Michael BroadThe third book in a four-book series. Each book has three unbelievable adventures written in Jake's own notebooks and embellished with his gloriously funny comments and illustrations throughout. Here Jake meets a dragon in the basement, a troll under his bed and a really sneaky spook – boo!
Jake Cake: The Visiting Vampire (Jake Cake Ser.)
by Michael BroadIn this fourth book in the series, Jake battles with a vampire visiting his school (fangs and bats and zombies), a demon hairdresser (arrrrrggggh!) and stays in a haunted castle (things that go CLANG in the night!).
James May's Magnificent Machines: How men in sheds have changed our lives
by James May Phil DollingOur world has been transformed beyond recognition, particularly in the twentieth century, and so were our lives and our aspirations. Throughout JAMES MAY'S MAGNIFICENT MACHINES James May explores the iconic themes of the past hundred years: flight, space travel, television, mechanised war, medicine, computers, electronic music, skyscrapers, electronic espionage and much more. But he also reveals the hidden story behind why some inventions like the Zeppelin, the hovercraft or the Theremin struggled to make their mark. He examines the tipping points - when technologies such as the car or the internet became unstoppable - and gets up closeξto theξnuts and bolt of remarkable inventions. Packed with surprising statistics and intriguing facts, this is the ideal book for anyone who wants to know how stuff works and why some stuff didn't make it.
Josephine Cox 3-Book Collection 2: The Loner, Born Bad, Three Letters
by Josephine CoxThree dramatic novels about the power of love, from Number 1 best-selling author Josephine Cox.
JPod
by Douglas CouplandJPod, Douglas Coupland's most acclaimed novel to date, is a lethal joyride into today's new breed of tech worker. Ethan Jarlewski and five co-workers whose surnames begin with "J" are bureaucratically marooned in jPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver game design company. The jPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a boneheaded marketing staff, who daily torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan's personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people-smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. JPod's universe is amoral, shameless, and dizzyingly fast-paced like our own. Praise for JPod: "JPod is a sleek and necessary device: the finely tuned output of an author whose obsolescence is thankfully years away."-New York Times Book Review"It's to [Coupland's] credit that in JPod he's still nimble enough to take the post-modern man-too young for Boomer nostalgia and too old for youthful idealism-and drown his sorrows in a willful, joyful satire that revels in the same cultural conventions that it sends up."-Rocky Mountain News "It's time to admire [Coupland's] virtuoso tone and how he has refined it over 11 novels. The master ironist just might redefine E. M. Forster's famous dictate 'Only connect' for the Google age."-USA Today "Zeitgeist surfer Douglas Coupland downloads his brain into JPod."-Vanity Fair
The Karate Princess (Puffin Bks.)
by Jeremy StrongThe youngest of sixteen beautiful princesses, Belinda is ignored by her father, King Stormbelly, and left in the hands of a Japanese tutor. After the king marries off his other daughters he discovers that Belinda has turned into a karate expert. Appalled, he leaves her to find her own handsome prince. But will she be able to – and will she even want to?A hilarious modern fairytale with a twist – and some well-aimed high kicks!
Krazy Kow Saves the World - Well, Almost
by Nick Sharratt Jeremy StrongKrazy Kow is Jamie Fink’s idea – a cow superhero with some amazing udder attachments. He’s trying to make a film starring the Kow as she battles against the Dark Contaminator. But first he has to cope with a few little problems, like exploding strawberries, rampaging toddlers and hostile football fans. After this, saving the world should be a doddle!
The Lady who was Beautiful Inside
by Edward MonktonSuch was the power of the BEAUTY INSIDE her that Winter turned to Spring in her path and flowers grew in her footsteps.Edward Monkton’s verse dedicated to an extraordinary woman, whose incredible gift was to radiate beauty from within… perfect for Mother’s Day.
The Last Colony (The Old Man’s War series #3)
by John ScalziJohn Scalzi's The Last Colony is the third in The Old Man's War series. They must save themselves - or die trying.John Perry was living peacefully on one of humanity's colonies - until he and his wife were offered an opportunity these ex-supersoldiers couldn't resist. To come out of retirement and lead a new frontier world.However, once on the planet, they discover they've been betrayed. For this colony is a pawn in an interstellar game of war and diplomacy. Humanity's Colonial Union has pitched itself against a new, seemingly unstoppable alien alliance, dedicated to ending all human colonization.As this contest rages above, Perry struggles to keep his terrified colonists alive on the surface below - despite dangerous interstellar politics, violence and treachery. And the planet has yet to reveal its own fatal secrets.
The Last Continent: (Discworld Novel 22) (Discworld Novels #22)
by Terry Pratchett'Anything you do in the past changes the future. The tiniest little actions have huge consequences. You might tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future.' There's nothing like the issue of evolution to get under the skin of academics. Even if their field of expertise is magic rather than biology. With the best and most interfering minds of Unseen University somehow left in charge at a critical evolutionary turning point, the Discworld’s last continent needs a saviour… Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Sheep shearer, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober. In fact, it's Rincewind, a wizard so inept he can't even spell wizard. He's the only hero left. Still...no worries, eh?
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic
by Cloudesley Brereton Fred Rothwell Henri BergsonIn this great philosophical essay, Henri Bergson explores why people laugh and what laughter means. Written at the turn of the twentieth century, Laughter explores what it is in language that makes a joke funny and what it is in us that makes us laugh.One of the functions of humor, according to Bergson, is to help us retain our humanity during an age of mechanization. Like other philosophers, novelists, poets, and humorists of his era, Bergson was concerned with the duality of man and machine. His belief in life as a vital impulse, indefinable by reason alone, informs his perception of comedy as the relief we experience upon distancing ourselves from the mechanistic and materialistic. "A situation is always comic," Bergson notes, "if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings." The philosopher's thought-provoking insights (e.g., "It seems that laughter needs an echo. Our laughter is always the laughter of a group.") keep this work ever-relevant as a thesis on the principles of humor.
The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth
by Eoin ColferWill's brother Marty is always playing practical jokes. But when he tells the bloodcurdling story of the cutthroat pirate Captain Crow, Will is terrified. Is it another one of Marty's tricks, or could Captain Crow's ghost really be out to get him?Spooky, funny fiction – brilliant for boys and girls aged 7–9. Now available in paperback!Fabulous, witty illustrations by Tony Ross throughout.
Letters to Ebay: Hilarious Auctions, Crazy Emails, and Bongos for Grandma
by Art FarkasBy day, Paul Meadors is a fifth grade teacher in a small California town. By night, he trolls the millions of items for sale on eBay, posing as his alter ego Art Farkas, and catching sellers off guard with his ludicrous and bizarre questions about their auctions. As he amusingly demonstrates time and time again, even in today's hyper-vigilant and impersonal digital world, the spirit of human salesmanship lives on, no matter how outrageous the question or request. For example, Art asks the seller of a set of bongo drums if there would be a way to attach them to his grandmother's back so that she could take them to the corner and play on the street to earn her rent money--which elicits a sincere, yet bitingly humorous response. From the entertaining auctions themselves, to Paul's loony letters and the serious responses they provoke, LETTERS TO eBAY provides a fascinating and humourous glimpse into the strange world of eBay and those who dwell within.
The Little Black Book of Red Tape: Great British Bureaucracy
by Ian VinceA compendium of insane British BureaucracyEveryone has a call-centre story or some nightmare encounter at the hands of 'customer services' to relate. The Little Black Book of Red Tape is a kind of compendium of such stories, a sort of almanac of the bullshit of the modern world, and a catalogue of individual heroic battles against the corporate state.It features the Derby householder who is selling off minute plots of his back garden to well wishers around the world for £1 each to prevent the council putting a bypass through it; the Shropshire bus service that doesn't stop as 'stopping disrupts the timetable'; and the hospital recently fined £2.5 million for using 'spare capacity' to treat patients quickly.
A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays
by David Valdes GreenwoodAh, the sweet memories of Christmas. Gifts under the tree. Cookies for Santa. And, of course, the annual fruitcake.For young David Valdes Greenwood, the indomitable "little fruitcake” at the center of these tales, nothing is sweeter than the promise of the holidays. A modern-day Tiny Tim, he holds fast to his ideal of what Christmas should be, despite the huge odds against him: Sub-zero Maine winters. A host of eccentric relatives. And his constant foil: a frugal, God-fearing Grammy who seems determined to bring an end to all his fun. A book that's "fa-la-la-licious” (Louisville Courier Journal) and filled with funny, charming Yuletide memories (from building a Lego® manger to hunting for the perfect Christmas tree), A Little Fruitcake will inspire even the biggest Grinches around.
Littlejohn's Britain
by Richard LittlejohnRichard Littlejohn's cast of characters including Two Jags, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook and the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban are now part of the fabric of the nation. He ridicules the country Britain has become over the past ten years - the barmy bureaucracy, the surveillance state, the petty interference in our lives, the suffocating regulations, policemen and judges who think they're part of the social services and the insanities of the 'elf 'n' safety industry, which has created such idiocies as forcing revellers celebrating Guy Fawkes Night to watch a bonfire on a big screen.'Littlejohn has been ... a vivid exponent of a great British columnar style that stretches back five centuries or more. He's a distant, bastard cousin of Thomas Nash, Daniel Defoe and Alexander Pope. Cassandra and Bernard Levin might justly buy him a pint in the Cheshire Cheese. Like or loathe him, he's the real, talented deal.' Observer
Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part II, Volume 1: Daniel O'Connell, James Bronterre O'Brien, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt by their Contemporaries
by Nancy LoPatin-Lummis Michael PartridgeLooks at the lives and politics of four of the key players in the independence and labour movements of the 19th century: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847); Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91); Michael Davitt (1846-1906); and James Bronterre O'Brien (1805-64). Volume 1 looks at the life of Daniel O’Connell.
Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part II, Volume 1: Daniel O'Connell, James Bronterre O'Brien, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt by their Contemporaries
by Nancy LoPatin-Lummis Michael PartridgeLooks at the lives and politics of four of the key players in the independence and labour movements of the 19th century: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847); Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91); Michael Davitt (1846-1906); and James Bronterre O'Brien (1805-64). Volume 1 looks at the life of Daniel O’Connell.
Loads More Lies to tell Small Kids
by Andy RileyIt takes the beaks of seven penguins to make a Penguin biscuit'; 'All wind is made by wind farms'; 'Wine makes mummy clever'; 'Milk feels pain'. These are just some of the great lies that Andy Riley had you telling your kids last Christmas, in the Sunday Times bestseller GREAT LIES TO TELL SMALL KIDS. Now here are LOADS MORE LIES, to bamboozle more kids and entertain wicked adults everywhere... A brilliant sequel to the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.
Lost Oasis: In Search Of Paradise
by Robert TwiggerBestselling author of ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS, BIG SNAKE and VOYAGEUR enters into the desert in search of a lost oasis'Last night my son wanted to appease me because of some annoyance he had caused. "Show me your desert things," he said, "show me your crystals and stones." However tired and grumpy I might be, he knew how to revive me. I unwrapped everything from its newspaper roll. The chipped flint knives, the silica glass arrowheads, ancient porous pottery shards I'd found in the Gilf, fossils, the jawbone of a gazelle, palm nuts so desiccated they were like stone . . .'Robert Twigger's latest journey is in search of paradise: a desert adventure in the footsteps of seasoned explorers such as Theodore Almasy (the Inspiration for THE ENGLISH PATIENT) who tried to locate the lost oasis of Zezura, reportedly home to hoards of treasure, flocks of birds and a lush, verdant valley.The Egyptian Sahara is one of the most arid and hostile environments on earth. But it is also a wonder of desolate beauty, where in the ultra-clear light of the desert you can see for miles.Armed with plenty of water and a homemade wooden trolley (his Lada being too heavy for the sand), Twigger embarks on a desert trip ilke no other . . .
‘Luuurve is a many trousered thing…’: Confessions Of Georgia Nicolson (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #8)
by Louise RennisonSound the Cosmic Horn! Georgia Nicolson’s 8th book of confessions is here!
Making Money: (Discworld Novel 36) (Discworld Novels #36)
by Terry Pratchett'Whoever said you can't fool an honest man wasn't one.'The Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork is facing a crisis and needs a shake-up in management. Cue Moist von Lipwig, Postmaster General and former con artist. If anyone can rescue the city's ailing financial institution, it's him. He doesn't really want the job, but the thing is, he doesn't have a choice.Moist has many problems to solve as part of his new role: the chief cashier is almost certainly a vampire, the chairman needs his daily walkies, there's something strange happening in the cellar, and the Royal Mint is running at a loss.Moist begins making some ambitious changes . . . and some dangerous enemies. Because money is power and certain stakeholders will do anything to keep a firm grip on both . . .'As bright and shiny as a newly minted coin; clever, engaging and laugh-out-loud funny' The TimesMaking Money is the second book in the Moist von Lipwig series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.
The Mammoth Book of Insults (Mammoth Books)
by Geoff TibballsNever be stuck for a wicked line again! - the ultimate collection of insultsHere is the biggest and best ever collection of insults and sharp retorts for when you just wish you could have thought of something faster. Editor Geoff Tibballs presents over 5000 come-backs, put-downs, snaps, insults, unadmiring quips and quotes, for every occasion. From the most elegant of studied insults to the wickedest of putdowns, from the language of the street to the literary, political, and entertainment worlds, from playground insults to sports, family and marriage jibes - here is every possible barb you could ever need, guaranteed to crack up all those around you. As an outsider, what do you think of the human race? Your mother's so fat, she has her own area code. Are your parents siblings? Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn't have given you worse advice. Is there no beginning to your talents? You'd be out of your depth in a puddle. Don't you need a licence to be that ugly? I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my arse. I'd love to go out with you but I have to worm my dog.
Man Walks Into A Bar 2
by Jonathan SwanMan Walks Into A Bar 2 is the second volume of the hugely popular and hilariously funny joke book series. A one-stop shop for anyone who likes to hear and tell jokes. The jokes are ordered thematically - wives, husbands, doctors, lawyers, the French, the Germans, jokes about nuns, jokes about monkeys, the lot. There are also regular panels which group jokes by type too - Essex girls, changing a lightbulb etc. Our material will turn you into the toast of your local pub or make you loathed in your own home - remember, it is all in the telling. From the sublimely erudite to stuff Frank Carson would turn down, this book can service you with every joke you'll ever need.Including such gems as the following:Why have elephants got big ears?Because Noddy won't pay the ransom.A magic tractor is driving down a country road and turns into a field.An amnesiac walks into a bar. 'Do I come here often?'I went to a book shop and asked the saleswoman where the Self Help section was. She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose.How do you know when you're a pirate? You just arrrrrggghh.
The Man Who Sold Nelson's Column: And Other Scottish Frauds
by Dane LoveIn this fascinating book, Dane Love uncovers a strange collection of tales of devious fraudsters and curious hoaxes. Spanning the 18th century to the present day, these tales range from the quaint to the absurd, touching on all social classes and settings in society. Among them are the phoney minister who established a church and performed illegal marriage ceremonies, a middle-aged gentleman who passed himself off as an adolescent schoolboy, and the man who persuaded the world that he was the prince of an imaginary country. This book also looks at more familiar Scottish mysteries such as those surrounding the Loch Ness monster, the 'Great Highland Hoax' of Ossian's poems, and the Burns Temple Hoax. This highly entertaining read makes us realist just how gullible many of us have been and may also continue to be.