One night in 1974, a young Frenchman secretly
- & illegally
- rigged a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade

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Reading a story to another person creates a bond between two people. It is often assumed that reading aloud is only for children, but the practice was once a common pleasure for adults too. The time has come to rediscover it. This simple yet powerful action connects us with our friends, helps us centre ourselves in the present & lets us focus gently on what matters. To Read Aloud consists of 75 extracts of an average 1000 words each, from writers ranging from Cicero to Lewis Carroll to Robert Macfarlane (alongside less familiar names). It is arranged under ten thematic chapters: Love, Loss, Lightness, Pleasure, Work, Nature, Change, Chaos, Wonder, & Coda: Delicacies for Discussion. A literary toolbox for well-being, To Read Aloud invites you to to take just ten minutes off, sit down with somebody you care about & share a passage of writing. ...

This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014. ” The Catch-22 of dentistry”. (Stephen King). Joshua Ferris` dazzling new novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is about the meaning of life, the certainty of death, & the importance of good oral hygiene. There`s nothing like a dental chair to remind a man that he`s alone in the world`. Paul O` Rourke
- dentist extraordinaire, reluctant New Yorker, avowed atheist, disaffected Red Sox fan, & a connoisseur of the afternoon mochaccino
- is a man out of touch with modern life. While his dental practice occupies his days, his nights are filled with darker thoughts, as he alternately marvels at & rails against the optimism of the rest of humanity. So it goes, until someone begins to impersonate Paul online. What began as an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something far more soul-frightening: the possibility that the virtual ` Paul` might be a better version of the man in the flesh...” Frenetic, very funny, it confirms Ferris as a rising star of American fiction”. (Mail on Sunday). ” Glorious...A very, very funny novel”. (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review). ” Dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be”. (Guardian). Joshua Ferris was born in Illinois in 1974. He is the author of Then We Came to the End (2007), which was nominated for the National Book Award & longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, & The Unnamed. In 2010 he was selected for the New Yorker`s prestigious `20 under 40` list. To Rise Again At A Decent Hour has been shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize 2014 & the Dylan Thomas Prize 2014. He lives in upstate New York.

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Aged eighteen, Tessa Dunlop went to post-Revolutionary Romania to work in an orphanage
- to do something remarkable to help her
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This is the story of an institution in which courage in battle & bravery in death were a byword, from Nelson's death at Trafalgar to Commander Robert Scott's death in the icy wastes of Antarctica. It is also the story of a military force very different from any other, with a cast of individual personalities, from Sir Frances Drake & Captain James Cook to Charles Darwin & Sir Winston Churchill. But above all, the Royal Navy is part of the story of how one nation rose to global dominance without precedent & without equal, even today. But it also facilitated trade & communication with every other part of the planet. Thanks to its navy, the British Empire became the first truly global community, bound together by law, language, & commerce
- & by the 'hearts of oak' of British ships & sailors. It created the first balance of power in Europe & helped to free the Continent from a succession of dictators, from Philip II of Spain & Louis XIV of France to Napoleon & Hitler. It ended the African slave trade, opened the Pacific Rim to international commerce, & established the bonds that hold together today's world.
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The Atlantic salmon is an extraordinary & mysterious fish. In To Sea & Back, Richard Shelton combines memoir & deep scientific knowledge to reveal, from the salmon`s point of view, both the riverine & marine worlds in which it lives. He explores this iconic fish`s journey to reach its feeding grounds in the northern oceans before making the return over thousands of miles to the burns of its birth to reproduce. Along the way, Shelton describes the feats of exploration that gave us our first real understanding of the oceans, & shows how this iconic fish is a vital indicator of the health of our rivers & oceans. Above all, To Sea & Back is the story of Richard Shelton`s lifelong passion for the sea & his attempt to solve the perennial enigmas of the salmon`s secret life. ...

Now in its twelfth year, the Caine Prize for African Writing is Africa`s leading literary prize, & is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. This collection collects the five 2011 shortlisted stories, along with stories written at the Caine Prize Writers` Workshop, taking place in Spring 2011. ...

When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Rick Braithwaite is saddened & angered by her prejudice. In post-war cosmopolitan London he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school the reactions are the same. Slowly & painfully some of the barriers are broken down. He shames his pupils, wrestles with them, enlightens them & eventually comes to love them. To Sir With Love is the story of a dedicated teacher who turns hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into self-respect, contempt into consideration for others
- the story of a man`s own integrity winning through against all the odds.
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After returning from a pleasant holiday with his wife, Astrid, & their two children, Thomas walks out the front door. Thomas walks up the street. Thomas keeps walking. Astrid gradually realizes that her husband has not just gotten up early to go to work. She waits for as long as she can & then puts as much energy as she can into trying to find him
- coming to underst&, along the way, that there is little she can do if Thomas is striving to stay lost. In precise & hypnotic prose that cuts as cleanly as a scalpel, To the Back of Beyond is a novel that takes away the safe foundations of a marriage & a lifestyle to ask deeper questions about identity, connection & how free we are to change our lives. It is a graceful & resonant work from one of Europe`s most important writers.
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Shortlisted for a 2016 Edward Standford Travel Writing Award. Set in the Alaskan landscape that she brought to stunningly vivid life in THE SNOW CHILD, Eowyn Ivey`s TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD is a breathtaking story of discovery & adventure set at the end of the nineteenth century. Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester receives the commission of a lifetime when he is charged to navigate Alaska`s hitherto impassable Wolverine River, with only a small group of men. The Wolverine is the key to opening up Alaska & its rich natural resources to the outside world, but previous attempts have ended in tragedy. Forrester leaves behind his young wife, Sophie, newly pregnant with the child he had never expected to have. Adventurous in spirit, Sophie does not relish the prospect of a year in a military barracks while her husband carves a path through the wilderness. What she does not anticipate is that their year apart will demand every ounce of courage & fortitude of her that it does of her husb&. ...