Summer Reads

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a heartwarming collection of tales that will inspire you to live your dreams. The stories demonstrate the best qualities we share as human beings: compassion, grace, forgiveness, generosity and faith and they share a...

‘The plot is the source and the soul of tragedy’In his near-contemporary account of Greek tragedy, Aristotle examines the dramatic elements of plot, character, language and spectacle that combine to produce pity and fear in the audience, and asks why we...

In this classic account of madness, Michel Foucault shows once and for all why he is one of the most distinguished European philosophers since the end of World War II. Madness and Civilization, Foucault's first book and his finest accomplishment, will...

John Rawls aims to express an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition—justice as fairness—and to provide an alternative to utilitarianism, which had dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political thought since the nineteenth...

"A loving testament to the work and reward of the best friendships, the kind where your arms can’t distinguish burden from embrace.” — People   New York Times Bestselling author Ann Patchett’s first work of nonfiction chronicling her decades-long...

"Reminding us that history is made up of infinite individual choices, Shadows of Berlin is a masterful story of survival and redemption." —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue Star   A captivating novel of a Berlin...

'[T]his promising, poignant debut concludes with that vital ingredient: a well-crafted twist' -- THE OBSERVER   Can Henrietta find out what happened to Annie’s sister—before it’s too late? Haunted by the past, Henrietta throws herself into a new job...

Graffiti is a dying art in this thriller from the bestselling DI Nick Dixon crime series.   A routine missing person enquiry takes a grisly turn when a young couple drag a box containing human remains out of a Somerset river. The victim was a...

Their neighbours welcomed them with open arms. Now they’ve vanished without a trace.   Anna and Peter desperately need to escape London for a fresh start. And they’ve found just the place: a perfect house on a perfect street in a perfect new development...

All’s fair in love and revenge in this taut thriller from bestselling author Lisa Gray.   Ex–crime reporter Leonard Blaylock spends his days on an unusual hobby, developing strangers’ forgotten and discarded rolls of film. He loves the small mysteries...

From the bestselling author of If Only I Could Tell You comes the story of two women determined to uncover the truth. But how can you trust the present if you can't remember the past?   “Left me gasping. Brilliant.” —Alex Michaelides “Has one of the best...

Featuring an all-new cover, New York Times bestseller Bill Bryson's irrevent and hilarious journey through the beloved island nation he called home for two decades. From Downing Street to Loch Ness, this is a delightful look at the United Kingdom...

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia.His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned...

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat"terrorism"in the Taliban’s backyardAnyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg...

Karen Blixen's Out of Africa is the lyrical and luminous memoir of Kenya that launched a million tourist trails, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills . . . Up in this high...

Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma  Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates...

You’ve done a bad thing. She has you in her sights. Now you’re going to pay.   Meet Camilla Black: an affluent, respected, influential fashion magazine editor, who lives it up in her beautiful Mayfair apartment. But Camilla’s glamorous life is a lie...

A fantastic collection of much-loved, classic stories for all the family! Mrs Pepperpot can't choose when she will shrink to the size of a pepperpot - it just happens! But whatever she encounters, whether it be a monstrous mousetrap, a crafty fox or a...

The “superb” time travel adventure of one lonely young girl, a remarkable family, and an impossible task, set between modern and Elizabethan England (The Washington Post)"A beautiful book . . . a form of enchanting ghost story, with the ghosts drawn in...

Black Beauty is a perennial children's favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is a moralistic tale of the life of the horse related in the form of an autobiography, describing the world through the eyes of the...