In 1960 Jack Kerouac was near breaking point. Driven mad by constant press attention in the wake of the publication of On the Road, he needed to 'get away to solitude again or die', so he withdrew to a cabin in Big Sur on the Californian coast. The resulting novel, in which his autobiographical hero Jack Duluoz wrestles with doubt, alcohol dependency and his urge towards self-destruction, is one of Kerouac's most personal and searingly honest works. Ending with the poem 'Sea: Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur', it shows a man coming down from his hedonistic youth and trying to come to terms with fame, the world and himself.

Desolation Angels is the wild and soulful story of the legendary road trip that Jack Kerouac took before the publication of On the Road, told through the persona of Jack Duluoz and accompanied by his thinly-disguised Beat cohorts Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William Burroughs. As they hitch, hop freight trains, walk and talk their way across the world, from California to Mexico, London to Paris and on to opium-ridden Tangiers, Kerouac chronicles their poetry, partying, mountain vigils and spiritual contemplation with unsurpassable energy and humanity.

Jack Kerouac called Doctor Sax, the enigmatic figure who haunted his boyhood imagination, 'my ghost, personal angel, private shadow, secret lover'. In this extraordinary autobiographical account of growing up in Lowell, Massachussetts, told through his fictional alter ego Jack Duluoz, he mingles real people and events with fantastical figures to capture the accents, scents, sights and texture of his childhood: playing among the river weeds and railroad tracks, going to church, witnessing life and death on the street corners. Written when he was staying with William Burroughs in Mexico in 1952, Doctor Sax was Kerouac's favourite of all his books: a dark, vivid and magical evocation of a boy's vibrant inner life.

Harmony, Texas, librarian Emily has started a writing group. But Emily suddenly has other things on her mind when a friend from her past shows up in Harmony's library. Now she must deal with a secret she's kept for 15 years Na secret that changed her life and threatens to shatter her future.

Assassin's Creed: Forsaken is the latest thrilling novelization by Oliver Bowden based on the phenomenally successful game series. The new game, Assassin's Creed III, takes one of gaming's most popular franchises to new heights in its most realistic world yet and introduces a brand new Assassin, Connor. During the American Revolution, Connor has sworn to secure liberty for his people and his nation and unleashes his powerful skills on the chaotic, blood-soaked battlefields of the hostile American wilderness. Assassin's Creed: Forsaken is the story behind who Connor really is and how he has become a deadly killer.

Although his father had been reluctant to become a field operative, Jack Ryan Jr. wants nothing more. Privately training with a seasoned Special Forces drill instructor, he's honing his skills to transition his work within The Campus from intelligence analysis to hunting down and eliminating terrorists wherever he can — even as Jack Ryan Sr. campaigns for re-election as President of the United States. But what neither father nor son knows is that the political and the personal have just become equally dangerous. A devout enemy of Jack Sr. launches a privately funded vendetta to discredit him by connecting the presidential candidate to a mysterious killing in the past by John Clark, his longtime ally. A shadowy mercenary team is dispatched to capture the former Navy SEAL. With Clark on the run, it’s up to Jack Ryan Jr., along with Ding Chavez, Dominic Caruso, and the rest of the Campus team, to stop a threat emerging in the Middle East: A corrupt Pakistani general has entered into a deadly pact with a fanatical terrorist to procure nuclear warheads, which can be used to blackmail any world power into submission. With the breakneck speed and military action scenes that have made him the premier thriller writer of our time, Tom Clancy delivers a novel of high-tech warfare in which the enemy within may be even more devastating than the enemy without.

The New Yorker was launched in 1925, and offers reporting, criticism, essays, fiction, poetry, humour, and cartoons. From the very outset, the founders, Harold Ross and Jane Grant, declared that their sophisticated magazine was 'not edited for the old lady in Dubuque'. The New Yorker has also offered great literature in short stories from such acclaimed writers as John Cheever, Roald Dahl, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, J. D. Salinger, and Shirley Jackson. From the very first issue, the now iconic monocled dandy Eustace Tilley made The New Yorker's covers unique and pointed. These signature traits have continued right up to the present day in the striking and sometimes controversial covers from such artists as Peter Arno, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, Jean-Jacques Sempé, and Art Spiegelman.

A chilling masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also illuminated dark corners of Victorian sexuality. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to advise Count Dracula on a London home, he makes a horrifying discovery. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the arrival of his 'Master', while a determined group of adversaries prepares to face the terrifying Count. The Penguin English Library — 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Chilling, prophetic and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realizes that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture — now weak and living in terror of the sinister Morlocks lurking in the deep tunnels, who threaten his very return home. H. G. Wells defined much of modern science fiction with this 1895 tale of time travel, which questions humanity, society, and our place on Earth. The Penguin English Library — 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Paradox ruled Thomas Hardy's life. His birth was almost his death; he became one of the great Victorian novelists and reinvented himself as one of the twentieth-century's greatest poets; he was an unhappy husband but a desolate widower; he wrote bitter attacks on the English class system yet prized the friendship of aristocrats. In the hands of Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy the novelist, poet, neglectful husband and mourning lover all come intensely alive.

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. Black maids raise the white children, but no one trusts them not to steal the silver. Black maids clean the toilets, but they have their own out back. Everyone stays within the lines. But, suddenly, three women: Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, who find themselves tired of the lines. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

«This isn't just any cookery book. It is «Mastering the Art of French Cooking», first published in 1961, and it's a book that is a statement, not of culinary intent, but of aspiration, a commitment to a certain sort of good life, a certain sort of world-view; a votive object implying taste and appetite and a little je ne sais quoi. Julia Child was like Amelia Earhart, or Eleanor Roosevelt: she was a hero who'd gone out there and made a difference. Her books are a triumph, and also a trophy.» (AA Gill, «The Times»). 'Mastering any art is a continuing process ...' In this book Julia Child and Simone Beck help cooks everywhere master the full repertoire of classic French dishes. Their recipes range across soups from the garden and bisques from the sea, famour fish stews from Provence and Normandy, to suckling pig and charcuterie, baguettes and croissants, and through a huge variety of desserts to petit-fours, all accompanied by clear step-by-step instructions and 458 illustrations.»

In the early hours of the morning, following a wedding reception, a car filled with stoned, drunk and sleepy guests accidentally hits and kills a girl on a dark country road. This title explores the after effects of one night's terrible trauma on three siblings over years.

The Ugly Truth book & CD is a gorgeous gift edition of the bestselling fifth title in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Perfect for holidays and long car journeys! Greg Heffley has always been in a hurry to grow up. But is getting older really all it's cracked up to be? Suddenly Greg is dealing with the increased pressures of boy-girl parties, increased responsibilities, and even the awkward changes that come with getting older. And after a big fight with his best friend Rowley, it looks like Greg is going to have to face the ugly truth all by himself. Praise for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The world has gone crazy for Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. (Sun ). Kinney is right up there with JK Rowling as one of the bestselling children's authors on the planet. (Independent). Hilarious. (Telegraph). The Diary of A Wimpy Kid series is an international bestseller, having sold over 50 million copies worldwide, and has now been made into three blockbuster films. The original Diary of a Wimpy Kid book has recently won the Blue Peter Award for the Best Children's Book of the Last 10 Years. As well as being a bestselling author, Jeff is also an online developer and designer. He lives with his family in Massachusetts, USA.

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon have undergone many hair-raising adventures before — but never one quite like this. Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Cabrillo and his remarkable men and women must survive them all. A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China... a daring rescue in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border... a woman gone missing in the jungles of northern Thailand and Myanmar... for Cabrillo and company, all of these events will come together — leading to the greatest threat against US security that the country has ever known.

When make-believe Princess Jessica throws a royal ball, she delivers invitations to her loyal subjects, picks out her best ball gown, and even loses her slipper. If only her sister wasn't such a royal pain! Jessie becomes a princess complete with a ball gown, a crown, royal jewels, and loyal subjects to come to the royal ball.

The number-one New York Times -bestselling author delves into the world of elite firefighters who thrive on danger and adrenaline-men and women who wouldn't know how to live life if it wasn't on the edge. There's little as thrilling as firefighting-at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend. She's been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home-even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering. Fortunately, this year's rookie crop is one of the strongest ever-and Gulliver Curry's one of the best. He's also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids' arcade. Everything is thrown off balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she can't complicate things with Gull-any distractions in the air or on the ground could mean the end-but if she doesn't find someone she can lean on, she may not make it through the summer...

The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed If I Stay Picking up several years after the dramatic conclusion of If I Stay, Where She Went continues the story of Adam and Mia, from Adam's point of view. Ever since Mia's decision to stay — but not with him — Adam's career has been on a wonderful trajectory. His album, borne from the anguish and pain of their breakup, has made him a bona fide star. And Mia herself has become a top-rate cellist, playing in some of the finest venues in the world. When their respective paths put them both in New York City at the same time, the result is a single night in which the two reunite — with wholly satisfying results. And don't miss Gayle's newest novely, JUST ONE DAY and the forthcoming companion, JUST ONE YEAR.