Other books that might interest you

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  How to Build a Boat

  Elaine Feeney

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  Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize 
   
   
   
  Shortlisted for the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year 
   
   
   
  One of the Globe and Mail's "Sixty-Two Books to Read This Fall" 
   
   
   
  One of the Globe 100's Best Books of 2023 
   
   
   
  Jamie O'Neill loves the color red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of certain objects, books with dust jackets, rivers, cats, and Edgar Allan Poe. At age thirteen, there are two things he wants most in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother, Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind, these things are intimately linked, and at his new school, despite the daily barrage of bullies and cathedral bells, he meets two teachers who might be able to help him, though each struggles against inertias of their own. 
   
   
   
  How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy's irrepressible dream finds expression through a community propelled by love out of grief. Lyrical and compassionate, it's a novel about the courage of conviction and the power of the imagination to transform—and how sometimes the best way to break free of old walls is to build something beautiful within them.

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  The Lightning-Rod Man

  Herman Melville

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  A man sits at his hearth as thunder shakes the mountains. Then—a knock. A stranger steps in, soaked and shivering, armed not with warmth or need, but with polished copper and an urgent offer. He doesn't sell comfort. He sells protection—against the very sky.
  The Lightning-Rod Man is Herman Melville at his most compact and cunning. This sharply drawn tale uses one room, one storm, and two voices to stage a quiet war between reason and fear, independence and submission, belief and the glittering promise of safety. It's a sales pitch wrapped in a sermon, disguised as a fable.
  Melville's dry wit and subtle irony crackle beneath the thunder. The visitor's obsession with bolts and conductors, with calculated distances and copper rods, is more than technical fuss—it's a worldview, a business model, a quiet tyranny cloaked in science. The narrator's resistance is equally symbolic: a choice to remain unshielded, to risk being struck, rather than surrender to fear disguised as logic.
  Short, strange, and simmering with tension, this story feels oddly modern. It speaks to every moment we're asked to buy into anxiety, to protect ourselves from what might happen, if only we pay the right price. Whether you read it as allegory, satire, or subtle horror, The Lightning-Rod Man still hums with electric relevance.

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  Alibi by Accident

  Kayleigh Suggett

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  F*ck It isn't just the name of her favorite smoothie―it's also Verona Montero's approach to murder investigations. 
   
  Verona Montero loves calling herself a private dick because it makes her sound like she's in a 1940s detective movie. And it means she gets to say “dick” a lot. So when Miami―a walking Barbie doll with an emoji addiction and bikinis smaller than Verona's patience―needs proof her billionaire husband Javier is cheating, Verona's all over it. Especially when it means working with divorce lawyer Quentin, whose cologne gives her what she professionally diagnoses as “crotch headaches.” 
   
  Then bam―Javier turns up dead in Greece, and suddenly Miami's vacant blue eyes are staring down a murder charge. Her manicured fingers might end up smudging prison bars unless Verona can prove the bombshell doesn't have the brainpower to pull off premeditated murder. With her client's billions at stake and a hefty retainer padding her bank account, Verona's jetting to Mykonos faster than you can say “Dark and Stormy.” 
   
  Between conning hotel staff, interrogating sexy bartenders, and recruiting a drag queen to go undercover in a secret sex club, mounting evidence suggests that the wrong person might be taking the fall. Now Verona's facing her toughest moral dilemma yet: pursue justice for a dead predator, or let a killer with excellent taste in victims walk free. 
   
  If you love your mysteries with enough F-bombs to make a sailor blush, this wickedly funny whodunit delivers the goods. Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan series.

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  Home Bird - a bittersweet and...

  Fran Hill

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  'This has all of Fran's trademark quick wit and black humour' Gráinne Murphy'Funny, warm and very moving' Lucinda Hawksley'Fran writes with such humour and humanity, it was an absolute tonic' Victoria Mackenzie 
  1979. Jackie Chadwick is 17 and living in a supported bedsit. She's still close to her foster parents and friends with (aka unofficial minder for) Amanda, their irresponsible daughter, but she’s enjoying her independence – until a fire leaves her temporarily homeless. Jackie’s dad, widower and recovering alcoholic Dave, has just been released from prison and sees this as his chance to make amends. He offers her his spare room – but can their relationship survive him going back on the booze and the arrival of his gin-loving lady friend and her errant son? As things go from bad to worse, Jackie has to decide how many chances you give someone who keeps letting you down. 
  Bittersweet and funny, Home Bird draws on Fran Hill's own experiences as a teenager in foster care. 
  'Deliciously nostalgic, brilliantly funny' Frances Quinn'I loved Home Bird. Fran drew me in to that world' Jane Ions'A jewel of a book. Fran Hill can do what other authors spend a lifetime trying to achieve: disarm you in a sentence' Deborah Jenkins'The story is ultimately upbeat… the lightness of touch has real depth' Anthony Ferner'Like a perfectly risen souffle made with dangerously volatile ingredients, Jackie’s story of dashed hopes, disappointment, optimism and resilience gripped me from the first line and wouldn’t let me go' Ruth Leigh'Filled with nostalgia and insightful humanity, the reader will laugh aloud and weep with emotion... a beautiful book' Linda Hill, The People's Friend'A treat for the reader... a brilliantly written novel' Anne Cater, Mature Times

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  Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and...

  Oscar Wilde

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  Biting wit and lush descriptions combine in this striking new edition of Oscar Wilde’s short story collection, which contains Wilde’s most famous story, “The Canterville Ghost.” Originally published in 1887 in the British literary magazine, The Court and Society Review. “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime: A Study of Duty” headlines this anthology, first published in 1891. In addition to the title work, Wilde added “The Canterville Ghost,” “The Model Millionaire,” and “The Sphinx Without a Secret.” Editions dated after 1900 (including this one) also contain “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.”   In the 132 years since the publication of this collection, numerous actors, writers, and even musicians wrote adaptations of “The Canterville Ghost,” the most popular of the stories in this volume. But those adaptations also made significant changes in the plot.   Now with a foreword by Hugo-award nominee Paul Di Filippo, go back to the original. Read “The Canterville Ghost,” and the other stories as Oscar Wilde wrote them.

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  And So This is Christmas - 51...

  Brian Bilston

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  It’s that time of year again . . .With his signature wit, Brian Bilston returns with And So This is Christmas, fifty-one poems in celebration of the festive season: from bizarre family traditions to the office Christmas party; from voting day for turkeys to the impossible art of gift-giving.So hang your stockings, grab your mistletoe and curl up with this heart-warming collection of Christmas crackers.

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