An unusual stone provokes a journey into an underground world of fantasy where Maris is guided by a dog-sized beetle.

The Gates were there on Phobos when mankind first arrived. Inert, unyielding, impossibly alien constructs, for twenty years they sat lifeless, mute testaments to their long-vanished creators, their secrets hidden. Then one day, they sprang to life... Meet Corporal Flynn Taggart, United States Marine Corps; serial number 888-23-9912. He's the best warrior the twenty-first century has to offer, which is a damn good thing. Because Flynn Taggart is all that's standing between the hell that just dropped in on Mars and an unsuspectingg planet Earth...

"Named after a hurricane, Camille is the rebellious 16-year-old daughter of a New Orleans bar-owner who grows up in the shadow of Bourbon Street, raised on stories of hauntings, lusty encounters and voodoo magic. And even though her family loses their home in a hurricane, she counts herself among the lucky until she discovers that her 18-year-old Creole neighbor whom she secretly loves died heroically in the storm. Devastated by Antwone's death, Camille begins taking unnecessary risks as if to prove she can be safe in an unsafe world. Her downward spiral is stopped by a spirit intercession. Based on the strength of her love and with the help of a dead voodoo queen, Camille wills Antwone back to earth. Because she is the only one who can see him--not his grandmother or his ex-girlfriend--she takes a kind of ownership of him in death that she never had in life. But gradually, she seeks something in their union beyond sex or love or passion--an understanding of the thin line between life and death itself and a need to find answers where none might lie. Camille's story unfolds as a Mardi Gras memoir, one girl's journey through the parties and parades as her community comes together and rises up from the chaos following the devastating storm. Like all good tales born of the bayou, hers involves the dead, the living, and the one trapped in the brackish waters between heaven and hell--a story of true love and true disaster."--

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'I just howled. Bloomin' love you' Giovanna Fletcher 'You're hilarious. Thank you for making me laugh every day' Mrs Hinch When does Mary Effing Poppins arrive? Laura Belbin survived hitting her thirties (oh, to be wrinkle-free again), anxiety (just), motherhood (two adorable little shits) and the new body that went with it (a left tit that sags slightly more than the right, anyone?). In Knee Deep in Life she gives a fearless and filthy account of her transformation from no-responsibilities woman to being in demand 24/7, the heartaches and humiliations, and most importantly, her (definitely-pushed-to-the-limits-but-totally-indestructible) marriage to Steve, the man who helped her to hold it together when post-natal depression kicked in. Full of heart and wit - not to mention swearing that would make a sailor blush - this is the beast of a book Laura intends on riding into the hands of those people who doubt themselves every single day: the ones who have struggled to accept the way they look; the mums-to-be about to find themselves taking their first step towards parenthood; and the women bossing it like badasses every single day but never getting the credit they deserve. You are more than enough.

From 1905 to 1069, the Blanchard Boat Company of Seattle was renowned and respected for its well-built vessels, large and small, sail and power. Hundreds of graceful Blanchard boats still ply the sounds and inlets of Washington, Alaska and British Columbia today. Norman C Blanchard is the son of Norman J Blanchard, founder of the firm, and his stories of beautiful boats and dedicated boaters go back to the turn of the century. The Blanchards worked with all the outstanding naval architects and designers of their day, including Ed Monk, Ben Seaborn, Ted Geary and Bill Garden, and built boats for unassuming fishermen and high profile yacht racers alike. Stephen Wilen has done all classic-boat enthusiasts a favor by collecting Norm Blanchard's fond reminiscences of a life devoted to splendid wooden boats.

A dazzling novel about four generations of fear and longing in the deep South. "Who're your people, girl?" It's the song of the South, the big question, persistent and unforgiving. Helene Strickland, daughter of Lafayette County, Arkansas, and lately of the Northeast, doesn't have an answer. Instead, she has memories riddled with half-truths, stories heard in fits and starts, a family history from a family that doesn't know its own past. In the steamy August of 1976, Helene returns home for her aunt's funeral determined to learn the truth, but her probing yields more questions than answers: Why did her grandmother, Liberty, a cotton picker turned saloon owner, have no name until she was fourteen? Why does Queen Ester, Helene's mother, dress like a child, talk to no one, and refuse to see her own daughter? And who was Chess, a man with a terror of water, a man like a honey trap who drew the women and then destroyed them?

A tiny Indian woman leading an inconspicuous life in Calcutta profoundly influenced the evolution and teaching of Buddhist meditation practice in America. Knee Deep in Grace presents the life story of Dipa Ma Barua, along with the essential spiritual teachings that make her a towering figure in contemporary Buddhism. While she experienced fame in her lifetime and had a following of many Burmese, Indian, and American students, she was like the women saints of the Vedas, remarkable women...from the dawn of history...who achieved realization while cleaning their homes and raising their children (Daughters of the Goddess: Women Saints of India).Dipa Ma was a primary teacher of Sharon Salzberg Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein, who have been among the most influential importers of Buddhism to America. Through the centers they founded and the teachers trained in them (the author among them), the example and teaching of Dipa Ma reach multitudes. Jack Kornfield described the power of Ma's influence: Without anything said or done, just the impact of meeting a person so developed can be enough to change one's whole way of life.Knee Deep in Grace is filled with intimate stories collected over a period of ten years, not only from prominent meditation teachers in the West but from Dipa Ma's daughter and grandson and her Calcutta students. Dipa Ma addressed her teaching to ordinary people in her apartment complex and her extended family, and her iconoclastic style of daily life immersion practice brought many of her students to awakening.