What is life? By what traits and attributes is one thing defined as living, and another not? CCD-08, who prefers to think of herself as "Bo", muses on the subject as the civil war for robot independence rages on outside her bakery doors. She wages her own personal fight inside, trying to bring robots and humans together on either side of a table.What is life? By what traits and attributes is one thing defined as living, and another not? CCD-08, who prefers to think of herself as "Bo", muses on the subject as the civil war for robot independence rages on outside her bakery doors. Defeat could mean lobotomy at best, mass decomissioning at worst. Victory will likely only open the way for further battles. Bo, in turn, wages her own personal fight inside, trying to bring robots and humans together on either side of a table. Maybe she can't change the world on her own. But at least she can stop the fighting long enough, courtesy of a hot cup of motor oil on one side and some perfectly prepared cupcakes on the other, for robots and humans together to see that maybe they don't have much to fight about in the first place. Whatever happens next, both sides have to see that they can't coexist without the other anymore if they both want to escape the flames of war.

A brief but haunting glimpse into a community of reclusive rabbit-folk keeping their doors barred against a land changing for the worse. Much as they try to hide their children from the world, the world and all its strangeness has a way of finding its way to their doorstep. A strange spirit takes hold one night, drawing all the children from their beds to show them that there's nothing to fear.A brief but haunting glimpse into a community of reclusive rabbit-folk keeping their doors barred against a land changing for the worse. Much as they try to hide their children from the world, the world and all its strangeness has a way of finding its way to their doorstep, and their children are not content to stay safe forever. One little Long Ear remembers their little hamlet as it used to be when dozens of different races came to trade, and can't help but wonder what happened.That one little girl has her eyes open wide enough to see the first stranger drift into town in a very long time. Her parents keep their heads down and rush right on by. That stranger and her even stranger influence takes hold of the village one night, drawing all the children from their beds to show them that while the night may be dark and full of secrets, not all of them are to be feared. For the first time in far too long, a community is brought together in celebration rather than dread, and it's a night that none of them will ever forget.

My great Aunt Juliet was knocked over and killed by a bus when she was eighty-five. The bus was travelling very slowly in the right direction and could hardly have been missed by anyone except Aunt Juliet, who must have been travelling fairly fast in the wrong direction.Growing up in the 1930s in a grand old home in Sydney’s bohemian Kings Cross, Robin Dalton experienced a childhood of curiosity and wonder. Raised by a bevy of idiosyncratic aunts and a revolving door of unconventional houseguests, Dalton recalls a time when children had real adventures in a world not easy but perhaps less complicated than today’s.With a gentle warmth and wicked wit, Robin Dalton brings to life all the colour, glamour and charm of Australian society between the wars. Steeped in nostalgia, Aunts Up the Cross is a delightfully funny memoir of family, childhood and an Australia of yesteryear. Robin Dalton was born in Sydney, and has lived in London since...