Inheriting his grandmother's crumbling mansion, Rory Blaine creates Britain's first retirement home for gay men. Perceptive and moving, Rory's Boys is about one man's struggle to accept who he is and about the need most of us have to find some sort of family.

"Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama."Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system. Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative,humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.

The war in Afghanistan is over ten years old. It has cost countless lives and hundreds of billions of pounds. Politicians talk of progress, but the violence is worse than ever.   In this powerful and shocking exposé from the front lines in Helmand province, leading journalist and documentary-maker Ben Anderson (HBO, Panorama, and Dispatches) shows just how bad it has got. Detailing battles that last for days, only to be fought again weeks later, Anderson witnesses IED explosions and sniper fire, amid disturbing incompetence and corruption among the Afghan army and police. Also revealing the daily struggle to win over the long-suffering local population, who often express open support for the Taliban, No Worse Enemy is a heartbreaking insight into the chaos at the heart of the region.   Raising urgent questions about our supposed achievements and the politicians’ desire for a hasty exit, Anderson highlights the vast gulf that...

During the Second World War Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.Left emotionally scarred and unable to form normal relationships, Lomax suffered for years until, with the help of his wife, Patti Lomax, and of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came terms with what happened. Fifty years after the terrible events, he was able to meet one of his tormentors. The Railway Man is a story of innocence betrayed, and of survival and courage in the face of horror.

The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific. But nothing goes as planned as young Americans go up against fanatical defenders, who revel in snipers, big guns, and human wave attacks from which there is no escape save death. As blood colors the waters around Tarawa, Josh flounders ashore through a floating graveyard of dead men and joins the survivors, determined to somehow wrest victory from disaster. Critically wounded, ,Josh expects to die. Instead, he is spun off on one of his greatest adventures when Sister Mary Kathleen, a young Irish nun, nurses him back to health, then shanghais Josh, sidekick Bosun Ready O'Neal, and three American marines to a group of beautiful tropical islands...

R. K. Narayan (1906--2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan's most autobiographical novel, searches for meaning when the death of his young wife deprives him of his greatest source of happiness. This pioneering novel, luminous in its detail and refreshingly free of artifice, is a gift to twentieth-century literature.

An Amazon Best Book of August 2015In 2000, while moving his household from Vermont to North Carolina, author David Payne watched from his rearview mirror as his younger brother, George A., driving behind him in a two-man convoy of rental trucks, lost control of his vehicle, fishtailed and flipped over in the road. David's life hit a downward spiral. From a cocktail hour indulgence, his drinking became a full-blown addiction. His career entered a standstill. His marriage disintegrated. He found himself haunted not only by George A.'s death, but also by his brother's manic depression, a condition that overlaid a dark family history of mental illness, alcoholism and suicide, an inherited past that now threatened David's and his children's futures. The only way out, he found, was to write about his brother.Barefoot to Avalon is Payne's earnest and unflinching account of George A. and their boyhood footrace that lasted long into their adulthood, defining their...

From the New York Times bestselling author of From a Drood to a Kill comes the next Secret Histories adventure... The name is Drood, Eddie Drood, also known as Shaman Bond. My family has been safeguarding humanity for generations, facing the hidden horrors of the world so you can sleep at night and remain oblivious to the existence of the monstrous nightmares that walk and stalk among us. Speaking of predatory night terrors, there is a man who gets away with murder. A man who specializes in removing the problems from other people’s lives, by killing the people who cause those problems. He operates from the darkest shadows of the hidden world, coming and going unseen. No-one knows who he is, just his nomme du muerte. Dr. DOA. Somehow, this demented doc poisoned me. I don’t know how he did it, when or where, but whatever is coursing through my veins seems to be immune to magic cures and treatments. But that’s not going to stop me from finding him and whoever hired him and give them both a taste of their own medicine... ** Review Praise for the series “A literary love letter to the spy thrillers of the ’60s mashed up with every sort of paranormal weirdness under the sun.”—SF Revu “A hard-boiled, fast-talking, druidic James Bond who wields ancient magic instead of a gun...a witty fantasy adventure.”—Library Journal “I love going on adventures with Eddie Drood...Simon R. Green takes the superhero/spy tropes and turns them upside down.”—Fresh Fiction About the Author Simon R. Green is the New York Times bestselling author of the Secret Histories Novels, the Novels of the Nightside, the Ghost Finders series, and the Deathstalker series.

A teenage paparazzo makes a dangerous discovery in this timely look at celebrity that is likely to be snapped up and make a lasting impression (School Library Journal). All Jamie Gordon wants to do is to take pictures of celebrities...and maybe to become famous herself. Shes only fourteen, but already her work is sought after by fanzines and websites, and shes invited to all the best parties. And now she has the chance of a lifetime: She has been invited to spend a week with Willow Twine, taking pictures of the teen superstars new chaste life. But when Jamie gets her hands on some sensational shots of Willow, shes suddenly in over her head. The pictures could make her careerand destroy Willows. It seems like everyones eager to get their hands on the photos, and Jamie has to decide what she really wants...and what shes willing to pay to get it.

Kata, a ninja, embarks on her first solo mission to enter a warlord’s castle and make sure that a certain sleeping occupant never awakens. When Kata discovers that her target is a young boy and that her new accomplice is that boy’s slightly older sister, she suddenly realizes her mission is much more complicated than she thought. Faced with taking someone’s life or confronting the dire consequences of failure, Kata must make a hard choice, one that leads her into a more dangerous battle than she ever expected. In this coming-of-age novel, Kata discovers that while a ninja must always act alone, humanity requires accepting the trust and friendship of others.