Other books that might interest you

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  I am NOT Fine Thanks

  Wil Anderson

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  Good sense, good jokes, and good WIL - a book about enduring turbulent times with humour, community and just a dash of Apple Cider Vinegar. 
   
  'How are you?' 
   
  How am I? How am I? How do you think I am? I know in the Before Times the tradition was to reply, 'I'm fine, thanks.' Then you would ask how they were, and they would reply, 'I'm fine, thanks.' And then we would all get on with our lives. But I can't play my part in that pantomime anymore. I cannot say, 'I am fine, thanks,' because (spoilers) I am not fine, thanks. 
   
  What do you get when a housebound comedian is left with no option but to make comedy using only a rampant washing machine, a lot of Vaseline (it's for the pipes - no, not that pipe), a roast chook and an unused exercise bike to keep him company? You get I Am NOT Fine, Thanks. 
   
  From prime ministers who don't hold a hose, to billionaires who think they're astronauts, to people who think lizards are ruling the country and that thermometers are wiping your memory, it's abundantly clear that the world is going to hell. 
   
  In I Am NOT Fine, Thanks Wil Anderson uses his iconic dry humour to soothe the sting of the last few years - laughter is the best medicine, after all (or is it Apple Cider Vinegar?). Part memoir, part manifesto and all comedy, this is a book that will both make your every frustration feel heard and show you that there is plenty to hope for. 
   
  ‘This book is a welcome icepack after being repeatedly hit on the head by the world.’ SHAUN MICALLEF

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  Dust and Light - On the Art of...

  Andrea Barrett

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  The celebrated National Book Award–winning writer's intimate exploration of how fact is transformed into fiction. 
   
   
   
  In this thoughtful collection of essays, Andrea Barrett draws from her experiences writing some of the most acclaimed historical fiction of our time to explore the mysteries and delights of the genre. Inspiration found in the past, she argues, can illuminate fiction, just as dust scatters light and makes the unseen visible. Delving into some of the largest questions in the genre—How does a writer find meaningful subject matter beyond the confines of their life? How are scraps of history transformed into a fully formed narrative?—Barrett explores how she came to create some of her beloved works and explores lessons gleaned from the work of such masters of historical fiction as Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy, Hilary Mantel, and Colm Tóibín. Candid and elegant, Dust and Light is the perfect book for anyone who loves reading fiction set in the past, as well as for anyone aspiring to write it.

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  A Murder of Touts

  Chris Farrell

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  At the start of a new relationship, she asked a simple question. His naïve response resulted in a yearlong string of life-threatening experiences, massive spider encounters, unexpected hilarity, and...enlightenment. All in the search for love. 
  In the 1990’s, for the first time in history, it was possible to simply strap on a backpack and circle the planet while still staying connected to people back home. Through a string of nearly unbelievable experiences, this true story details how Chris and Paige Farrell slowly discover that their adventure was never actually about the crazy and dangerous things they were experiencing. It was about each other. 
  22-hour bus rides through the African bush on dirt roads, crossing the desolate Ionian Sea through a raging storm in the middle of the night, covertly navigating Syria during Operation Desert Fox’s missile strikes, a SCUBA malfunction 80 feet underwater somewhere in the remote Andaman Sea, hepatitis-infected Patpong Road darts jettisoned at unsuspecting eyeballs, machete-wielding Indonesian bandits pursuing their next victims… The journey would be documented, but the destination was uncertain. 
  In order to arrive somewhere new, you have to leave somewhere behind.

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  The Ghost in the Cupboard Room -...

  Wilkie Collins

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  Wilkie Collins was born on 8th January 1824 in Marylebone, London.  
  The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him. 
  He resumed his education at Mr Cole’s private boarding school in Highbury, Islington.  Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime story.  This ‘little brute’ helped create one of England’s greatest writers.  
  On leaving school, in 1841, he became a clerk at a tea merchant before, 2 years later, publishing his first short story.  However, his first novel was rejected and remained so during his lifetime.  
  A brief stint at Lincoln’s Inn to please his father and to acquire a steady income was halted by his father’s death.  Collins then wrote and published his fathers’ memoirs.  He then completed his legal education though he would never practice.  
  In March 1851, he was introduced to Charles Dickens and there now started a period of sustained literary output and a remarkable lifelong friendship.  His stories were published in Dicken’s magazines, and he toured with Dicken’s theatrical before the two of them travelled to the Continent. 
  By the early 1860’s worrying signs of ill-health appeared with rheumatic gout.  As it worsened, he sought respite and cures in German spa towns and gave up writing to help his recuperation. 
  His personal life had become very complicated.  He was living with the widowed Caroline Graves and conducting an affair with a much younger Martha Rudd.  With the serialised release of ‘The Moonstone’ and vicious attacks of gout Caroline left him and married another.  Collins was now prescribed opium and was soon its lifelong dependent.  Martha bore him two children and with the return of a now divorced Caroline Graves he now divided his time between the two women. 
  In 1874 he set aside writing to tour North America on a reading tour. 
  Throughout his later years he continued to write and publish.  In all 30 novels, 14 plays, 60 short stories and over a 100 non-fiction essays as well as many more collaborations with Dickens. 
  In 1884 the Society of Authors elected him as it’s Vice-President. 
  Wilkie Collins died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, in London. He was 65.

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  The General's Will - An emotive...

  Vera Jelihovsky

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  The Ukrainian writer Vera Jelihovsky was born on the 29th April 1835.  At that time Ukraine, or Little Russia as it was also called, was part of the Russian Empire.   
   
  Vera was also the sister of Helena Blavatsky, herself a noted writer and a co-founder of the Theosophical Society. 
   
  As a writer Vera’s works rests mainly on her children’s stories and little of any of her work is known in the West.   
   
  ‘The General’s Will’ is a fascinating story of a dying man who tries, with the writing of a new Will, to right the wrongs his second marriage has caused to the children of his first.   
   
  His scheming second wife attempts to change that.  But will her selfish plan succeed? 
   
  Vera Jelihovsky died on the 17th May 1896.  She was 61.

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  Arnold Rothstein and the 1919...

  Editors Charles River

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  In the early 20th century, one of the most integral members of the criminal underworld was Arnold Rothstein, the archetype of the old school mobster. He was intelligent, charming, well-spoken, grotesquely wealthy, and a sharp dresser, often pictured with a patterned bowtie and a flat-top fedora snugly fit over his receding hairline. And yet, he was nothing like the stereotypical mobster; Arnold was not a drinker or smoker, and he was not one to be tempted by illicit substances. He was a notorious high roller, with pockets holding wads of $100 bills, but to the casual eye, he was just another dapper, well-mannered gentleman who frequented the tracks and casinos after a long day at the office. 
  Today, Rothstein is remembered for his murky association with the most notorious event in the history of American sports: the fixing of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox were favored 5:1 to beat the Cincinnati Reds, and for the first time since 1903, the Series would be a best-of-nine format. However, at a time when players were treated as second class, some sought a payday beyond what they made in the leagues, and the White Sox players were some of the most poorly paid in the league. The owner of the team, Charles A. Comiskey, was one of the cheapest owners in the game. 
  Around two weeks before the World Series, Chicago first baseman Chick Gandil met with a gambler in his Boston hotel room. During that meeting, Gandil told Joseph Sullivan that for $100,000, he and other members of the White Sox were willing to take a dive and make sure that the Reds won the World Series. Gandil was able to convince the team’s top two pitchers to go along with the plan, as well as five other players. With that, the plan to throw the World Series was put in motion, and rumors began to spread around the country prior to the start of the series as gamblers wagered large sums of money on the Reds.

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