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July Fiction News | | | | Between the Assassinations
Welcome to Kittur, an imaginary everytown nestling on the Indian coast south of Goa and north of Calicut. Journeying through its streets and schoolyards, bedrooms and businesses, its inner workings and outer limits, Aravind Adiga weaves a remarkable fictional tapestry of India in the 80s, the years after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and before that of her son Rajiv. From a middle aged Communist to an Islamic terrorist; from the young children of a Tamil building site worker to a privileged and alienated schoolboy; from an idealistic journalist to a Brahmin housemaid, an entire Indian world comes vividly and unforgettably to life. Muslim, Christian and Hindu, high caste and low caste, rich and poor: all of Indian life, the sorrow parade of humanity, is here. 
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| We are All Made of Glue
From bonding to bondage, from B&Q to Belarus, along with seven smelly cats, three useless handymen, two slimy estate agents, social workers, and a bonker lady, this is the story of a very unlikely friendship. Georgie Sinclair's husband has walked out; her sixteen-year-old son is busy surfing born-again websites; and all those overdue articles for Adhesives in the Modern World are getting her down. So when Georgie spots Mrs Shapiro, an eccentric old Jewish emigre neighbour with an eye for a bargain and a fondness for matchmaking, rummaging through her skip in the middle of the night, it's just the distraction she needs. And although they mistrust each other at first - Georgie doesn't like the look of that past-its-sell-by-date fish, while Mrs Shapiro thinks Georgie needs to smarten herself up and grab a new husband - a firm friendship is formed over the reduced-price shelf at the supermarket. Then Mrs Shapiro is admitted to hospital and to Georgie's surprise, she is named as her next of kin.But sorting out Mrs Shapiro's semi-derelict mansion in Highbury, home to seven stinky cats with agendas of their own, is no easy job when the handyman called in to change the locks turns out to be not what he seems and his two assistants, 'the Uselesses', are doing more breaking than fixing. And what about the two slimy estate agents (one with a charming taste for bondage) who start competing to trick Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old house, or the social worker determined to commit her to a nursing home? As Georgie steps in to help her new friend, she finds herself unravelling a mystery which takes her from Highbury to wartime Europe to the Middle East, and learning a bit about DIY along the way. |
| | Dragon Keeper
Return to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain Wild River in this standalone adventure from the author of the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy. Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a Tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations. Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive. People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One such is Thymara. Born with black claws and other aberrations, she should have been exposed at birth. But her father saved her and her mother has never forgiven him. Like everyone else, Thymara is fascinated by the return of dragons: it is as if they symbolise the return of hope to their war-torn world. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, also has an interest in the hatching as does Bingtown newlywed, Alise Finbok, who has made it her life's work to study all there is to know of dragons. But the creatures which emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the powerful, shining dragons of old. Stunted and deformed, they cannot fly some seem witless and bestial. Soon, they become a danger and a burden to the Rain Wilders: something must be done. The dragons claim an ancestral memory of a fabled Elderling city far upriver: perhaps there the dragons will find their true home. But Kelsingra appears on no maps and they cannot get there on their own: a band of dragon keepers, hunters and chroniclers must attend them. To be a dragon keeper is a dangerous job: their charges are vicious and unpredictable, and there are many unknown perils on the journey to a city which may not even exist... |
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| Gentleman's Hour
Boone Daniels, the most laid-back of private investigators, gathers with his surfing buddies on Pacific Beach, California as per usual. There's no surf to speak of, but the Dawn Patrol are out in force anyway...it's what they do. Having no work at the moment, and no real reason to go to the office other than to see the red ink getting redder, Boone sticks around for the second shift on the daily surfing clock - the Gentlemen's Hour, frequented by the older veteranos and successful entrepreneurs - and ends up taking on a hated matrimonial case. But that soon becomes the least of his worries. When The Sundowner, symbolic icon of the San Diego surf scene, sees a dispute between a young surfer and a member of the territorial Rockpile Crew - a dispute that ends in murder - the painful truth that violence is seeping into the surf community can no longer be ignored. So when lawyer Petra Hall, who has a thing with Boone, asks him to help the defence on that particular case, Boone knows he'll be courting outrage from the community...and from the rest of the Dawn Patrol.
As his closest friendships begin to fray, and he digs deeper into the murkier side of surfing culture, Boone sees his two cases overlap in unexpected ways and finds himself struggling to stay afloat as the water gets deeper and deeper...and more deadly. |
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| This Is How
This is How tells the story of Patrick Oxtoby, an outsider longing to fit in. When his fiancee, Sarah, breaks off their engagement, Patrick leaves home and moves to a boarding house in a seaside village a few hours away. In spite of his hopes for a new and better life, Patrick struggles to make friends or make the right impression. He can't shake the feeling that his new acquaintances are conspiring against him, further fracturing his fragile personality and prompting him to take a course of action that alters the course of his life. This is How is a mesmerizing and meticulously drawn portrait of a man whose unease in the world leads to his tragic undoing. With breathtaking wisdom and penetrating insight into the human mind, M. J. Hyland has given us a masterpiece that arouses horror and sympathy in equal measure. |
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July Non-Fiction News | | | 
| Raising My Voice
Malalai Joya has been described as the bravest woman in the world. As a teenager she worked as a women's rights activist under the Taliban, running underground classes and clinics in her native Afghanistan that would have resulted in her torture and execution if she'd been caught. After the fall of the Taliban, Malalai was elected as one of the few women to represent her province at the first assembly to frame a new Afghan constitution. Here she dared to speak out against the crimes of the warlords, who backed by the Americans now ruled the country. To her, their crimes were almost as bad as those of the hated Taliban, yet the West seemed content to support them as part of its realpolitik approach to Afghanistan. Her public denunciation resulted in several attempts to assassinate her, and for the last five years she has lived under constant threat, moving from safe house to safe house. It hasn't stopped her speaking out, though. She represents the voiceless, the oppressed, the victims and the innocents of Afghanistan's endless cycle of violence. |
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| Balibo
Balibo provides a unique account of the deaths of the five young television reporters who were killed by the Indonesian military as they filmed the advance of Indonesian infantry troops into the East Timor border town of Balibo in October 1975. This book tells their personal stories, and of their families' heart-breaking struggle for the truth. Jill Jolliffe argues that the Australian government was always aware of the circumstances of the killings, and that its cover-up was a key factor in Indonesia's decision to invade and occupy East Timor, and its subsequent long reign of terror. The author's quest to identify and indict the Balibo killers is intertwined with East Timor's recent tragic history. In following their trail, she uncovers evidence of another massacre in which hundreds of innocent villagers were machine-gunned years later. Part memoir, part history, this book is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings. |
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| Perfection
Married to a charismatic, charming writer who adored her, Julie Metz and their young daughter lived in a beautiful home in an idyllic (if somewhat provincial) small town outside New York City. Her husband had just begun work on a food book on the topic of Umami, the Japanese idea of perfection, when he dropped dead on her kitchen floor from an embolism. Widowed at 44, Metz was suddenly a single mother with bills to pay and a daughter to raise on her own. Then, six months later, still grieving, she discovered her husband of twelve years had had a string of affairs - including a continuing relationship with a woman whom she considered a close friend. This incredible blow forced her to confront what was underneath the perfect veneer of her life and question this idea of perfection. The memoir is a story of coming to terms with painful truths, and of rebuilding both a life and an identity after betrayal and widowhood. Ultimately, it is a story of rebirth and happiness, if not perfection. |
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| Ivory Moon
Beautifully told, Sally's vivid depiction of the natural world and the wildlife that rules Africa's desert are unparalleled. This book takes us into the heart of a strange desert world where nothing is as it seems. |
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| In the Sanctuary of Outcasts
Neil White was once a man who lived by appearances he owned expensive cars, house and worked at glossy magazines. When his bank balance couldn't keep up with his lifestyle, he started kiting - illegally depositing and drawing cheques between his two accounts. He got caught and sent to prison. The experience transformed him completely. |
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| The Lost Mother
The Lost Mother is a poignant, interweaving narrative about author Anne Summers relationship with her mother, told through her search for a lost painting of her mother as a child. |
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| Magnificent Desolation
Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human - minutes after Neil Armstrong - to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind's greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their earth-centric perspective changed forever by gazing at the iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the surface of the Moon with the blackness of space behind him. He described what he saw as 'magnificent desolation'. The flight of Apollo 11 made Aldrin one of the most famous people on the planet, yet few people know the rest of the story. In Magnificent Desolation, Aldrin not only gives us a harrowing first-person account of the lunar landing that came within seconds of failure, as well as the ultimate insider's view of life as one of the superstars of America's space program, he also opens up with remarkable candor about his more personal trials - and eventual triumphs - back on Earth.
From the glory of being part of the mission that fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge to reach the Moon before the decade was out, Aldrin returned home to an Air Force career stripped of purpose or direction, other than as a public relations tool that NASA put to relentless use in a seemingly nonstop world tour. The twin demons of depression and alcoholism emerged - the first of which Aldrin confronted early and publicly and the second of which he met with denial until it nearly killed him. As an adventure story, a searing memoir of self-destruction and self-renewal, and as a visionary rallying cry to once again set our course for Mars and beyond, Magnificent Desolation is the thoroughly human story of a genuine hero. |
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| Wesley the Owl. The Remarkable Love Story of an Ow
When biologist Stacey O'Brien met a four-day-old baby barn owl, little did she know that this fateful encounter would turn into an astonishing 19-year saga. With nerve damage in one wing, the owlet had no hope of surviving on his own in the wild. O'Brien was immediately smitten, promising to care for the helpless owlet and give him a permanent home. With both a tender heart and a scientist's eye, O'Brien records his life from a helpless ball of fuzz to a playful, clumsy adolescent to a gorgeous, gold-and-white adult owl with a heart-shaped face. Their bond deepens as she discovers Wesley's outsize personality, subtle emotions and playful nature. When O'Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist is rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal. Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heart-warming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, and, most important, love and loyalty. |
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| The 27s
Excess and tragedy are the stuff of music legend, but it is only with hindsight that deeper patterns emerge. None of these is more striking than the deaths at age 27 of some of the greatest musicians of our time.
Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Jim Morrison. Brian Jones. Kurt Cobain. Founding bluesman Robert Johnson. All died at 27. Their stories, as well as those of ill-fated members of the Grateful Dead, The Stooges, Badfinger, Big Star, Minutemen, Echo & the Bunnymen, and The Mars Volta, are here presented for the first time as a profound and interlocking web that reaches beyond coincidence to the roots of artistic causality and fate.
The 27s is the first comprehensive account of the lives and legacies of the thirty-four musicians who make up (to date) rock's most notorious myth. It is also a capsule history of rock & roll, twisting and turning through decades and genres, unfurling layers of numerology, philosophy, and astrology along the way. The text is complemented by compelling and multifaceted artwork that brings a nonlinear graphic-novel edge to this major contribution to the study of rock culture. |
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| Two Dogs and a Garden
Filled with passion, beauty and truly gorgeous photographs, this delightful book is about an extraordinary and unique garden and the trials and tribulations experienced by those living in it: Derelie, Bob, Jessee and Trudy. |
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July Children's News | | | 
| Just Macbeth
Take one Shakespearean tragedy: Macbeth, add Andy, Danny and Lisa the Just trio, whose madcap exploits have already delighted hundreds of thousands of readers for the last ten years. Mix them all together to create one of the most hilarious, most dramatic, moving stories of love, Whizz Fizz, witches, murder and madness. Ages 9+. |
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| Dandelion Fire
N. D. Wilson continues the story he began in 100 Cupboards. Henry York never dreamed his time in Kansas would open a door to adventure - much less a hundred doors. But a visit to his aunt and uncle's farm took an amazing turn when cupboard doors, hidden behind Henry's bedroom wall, revealed themselves to be portals to other worlds. Now, with his time at the farm drawing to a close, Henry makes a bold decision - he must go through the cupboards to find the truth about where he's from and who his parents are. Following that trail will take him from one world to another, and ultimately into direct conflict with the evil of Endor. |
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| Free to a Good Home
Most people don't like being different. They want exactly the same things as their neighbours, only bigger and more of them. Yet no matter how much they have, they always feel there is something missing. The Smiths are not like other people. They might not be any good at cooking, or housework, or homework, but in their jumbled house full of strange things that will probably come in useful one day, they are happy and content. Yet the Smiths, too, feel that there is something missing from their lives. And today the children went down to the shops and found it. |
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| When Henry Caught Imaginitis
Henry is a very serious boy. His room is always neat, and he always buttons his shirt right to the top. But lately Henry has been having thoughts that don't make any sense, thoughts about pirates, dragons, and rocket ships. Henry has caught imaginitis - and the only cure is to grow up. But what should Henry do in the meantime? Age 4+. |
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| Stolen
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| The Ask and the Answer
We were in the square, in the square where I'd run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her - But there weren't no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men...Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...The Ask and the Answer is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. This is the second title in the Chaos Walking trilogy. |
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After the incredible success of the first 49 titles published in the Popular Penguins series, Penguin have released the next 50. Follow the link below to see which books are available. 
