Crushed ​Mexican Spiders And ​Possibly Forty Ships

Helen Oyeyemi - Gingerbread
Influenced ​by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories--equal parts wholesome and uncanny, from the tantalizing witch's house in "Hansel and Gretel" to the man-shaped confection who one day decides to run as fast as he can--beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe. Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (and, according to Wikipedia, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. In fact, the world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval--a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met. Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.

Terry Pratchett - Ian Stewart - Jack Cohen - The ​Science of Discworld III - Darwin's Watch
Roundworld ​is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator - they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong again - Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress has slowed right down. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be just another layer in the bedrock. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur J Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it Mr Charles Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's not easy task to change history back, as the wizards discover to their cost. He's got to write a different book. And who stopped him writing it in the first place? What went wrong? In Darwin's Watch, Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen weave together a brand new fast-paced Discworld novelette with cutting-edge scientific commentary. The result is fascinating and highly entertaining. And tells the story of the evolution of evolution as it has never been told before...

Terry Pratchett - Men ​at Arms
In ​the 15th Discworld fantasy novel, Terry Pratchett has fun with hard-boiled police procedurals and racial diversity programs. Captain Vimes is preparing to leave the Watch to marry Lady Sybil Ramkin when his attention is captured by the mysterious murders of a dwarf and a clown, an exploded swamp dragon, and the theft of a dangerously compelling weapon from the Assassin's Guild. It all has something to do with an obsessed nobleman and yet another plot to restore the monarchy to the city of Ankh-Morpork, despite the fact that the rightful heir, the scrupulously honest Corporal Carrot, has no interest in being king.

Terry Pratchett - Steven Ross - The ​Colour of Magic
In ​a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly . . . Imagine a flat world, sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. The Discworld is a place (and a time) parallel to our own—but also very different. That is the setting for Terry Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld series, which now celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. The Discworld Graphic Novels presents the very first two volumes of this much-loved series in graphic novel form. First published fifteen years ago, these fully illustrated versions are now issued for the first time in hardback. Introduced here are the bizarre misadventures of Twoflower, the Discworld's first ever tourist, and possibly—portentously—its last, and his guide Rincewind, the spectacularly inept wizard. Not to mention the Luggage, which has a mind of its own.

Terry Pratchett - Snuff
According ​to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all..

Terry Pratchett - Lords ​and Ladies
The ​fairies are back - but this time they don't just want your teeth... Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves. It's Midsummer Night, No time for dreaming... With full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orang-utan. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

Philippa Gregory - Perfectly ​Correct
Feminist, ​Dr Louise Case lives a liberated, non-traditional life. But when Rose, parks her van in Louise's orchard and announces she's staying for a while, Louise's principles and morals are thrown into turmoil as she ponders what she should do.

Terry Pratchett - Thud!
Koom ​Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was far away. It was a long time ago. But if he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. Oh... and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read Where's My Cow?, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do.

Joe Abercrombie - Red ​Country
They ​burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried. Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust... The past never stays buried...

Ian Watson - Orgasmachine
The ​Long Lost Novel, which has achieved cult status in Japan With Illustrations by the late Judy Watson First ever English language edition Forget Stepford Wives; this goes way beyond anything seen in Stepford. The Three Laws of Feministics: 1. Your body is not your own; it belongs to another. Therefore you may not damage it nor, through inaction, allow it to be damaged. 2. You must obey all orders given you by your owner (or in cases of loss of ownership, by any man) even if such orders conflict with the First Law. 3. You may not injure any man, nor through failure to comply with the Second Law, cause him displeasure or mental injury. Women as chattels, as customised sexslaves; bodies freakishly modified to their owners’ dictates, personalities preset to order. Welcome to the world of the Orgasmachine. But Jade and Mari escape their masters and dream of revenge, of revolution, of freedom… When part of the novel appeared as a self-contained story in an anthology, Will Self said of it: “Watson’s word-painting may be of a distant future, when humans are `grown’ to certain sexual specifications, but the eerily empathetic personality of his heroine plugs us back into a grand tradition of literature that pits the naïve against the decadent. In her benighted progress, Jade seems to reprise… Pauline Réage’s anonymous love-object in The Story of O. And in creating a setting for his characters, Watson borrows the furniture of Surrealism to create a picture of a future that I feel would not have seemed anomalous or unbelievable to Kafka.”

Terry Pratchett - Guards! ​Guards!
This ​is where the dragons went. They lie... not dead, not asleep, but... dormant. And although the space they occupy isn't like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there's a key... Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel - and after this, dragons will never be the same again!

Terry Pratchett - The ​Truth
William ​just wants to get at the truth. Unfortunately, everyone else wants to get at William, and it's only the third edition... William de Worde is the accidental editor of the Discworld's first newspaper. Now he must cope with the traditional perils of a journalist's life - people who want him dead, a recovering vampire with a suicidal fascination for flash photography, some more people who want him dead in a different way and, worst of all, the man who keeps begging him to publish pictures of his humorously shaped potatoes.

Sue Townsend - Adrian ​Mole - The Cappuccino Years
He's ​back. Aged 30 1/4. Twenty-first century Mole. Now in his thirties, Adrian's still worrying: Can he be a good father? Is Viagra cheating? Why won't the BBC produce 'The White Van', his serial killer comedy? Will he find the fulfilment he seeks as celebrity offal chef, single parent and celibate novelist? Is there a place for Adrian Mole in Blair's Brave New Britain?

Terry Pratchett - Hogfather
It's ​the night before Hogswatch. And it's too quiet. Where is the big jolly fat man? Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker... Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won't be a morning. Ever again... The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too). As they say: You'd better watch out...

Trisha Ashley - The ​Magic of Christmas
It's ​the most wonderful time of the year... In the pretty Lancashire village of Middlemoss, Lizzy is on the verge of leaving her cheating husband when tragedy strikes and she finds herself widowed. Her Christmas Pudding Circle - a group of friends swapping seasonal recipes - offers her a welcome distraction, whilst a simmering rivalry with local cookery writer Nick erupts over who will win Best Mince Pie at the village show... Meanwhile, the whole village village is gearing up for the annual Boxing Day Mystery Play. But who will play Adam to Lizzy's Eve? Could it be the handsome and charismatic soap actor, Ritch, or will someone closer to home win her heart? Whatever happens, it promises to be a Christmas to remember!

Douglas Adams - The ​Restaurant at the End of the Universe
When ​all questions of space, time, matter and the nature of being have been resolved, only one question remains - 'Where shall we have dinner?' _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ provides the ultimate gastronomic experience, and for once there is no morning after to worry about.

Simon Tofield - Simon's ​Cat - Feed Me!
A ​pocket-sized collection of food-themed Simon's Cat cartoons selected from the first two Simon's Cat books. In full colour for the very first time and featuring 10 brand new cartoons, Simon's Cat is back, only smaller, cheaper and cuter.

Jacqueline Wilson - Double ​Act
Ruby ​and Garnet are ten-year-old twins. They're identical, and they do EVERYTHING together, especially since their mother died three years earlier - but they couldn't be more different. Bossy, bouncy, funny Ruby loves to take charge, and is desperate to be a famous actress, while quiet, sensitive, academic Garnet loves nothing more than to curl up with one of her favourite books. And when everything around the twins is changing so much, can being a double act work for ever?

Jacqueline Wilson - The ​Illustrated Mum
Dolphin ​adores her mother, Marigold. She's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body - a colourful lady, to match her colourful life. But Dolphin's older sister, Star, is beginning to wonder if living with Marigold's fiery, unpredictable moods is the best thing for the girls ...

Jasper Fforde - Early ​Riser
Imagine ​a world where all humans must hibernate through a brutally cold winter, their bodies dangerously close to death as they enter an ultra-low metabolic state of utterly dreamless sleep. All humans, that is, apart from the Sleep Marshalls, a group of officers who diligently watch over the vulnerable sleeping citizens. When John Fugue, a junior Sleep Marshall, finds himself in the forgotten rural outpost of Sector Twelve, he hears of a conspiracy - a viral dream is somehow spreading amongst those in the hibernational state, causing paranoia, hallucination and a psychotic episode that can end in murder. When Fugue enters the Sleepstate himself and wakes two months later, all those who knew about the dream have disappeared and, more disturbingly, Fugue himself can recall parts of the viral dream - a dream that shouldn't be possible.