Beauty and the Basement


Book Description

In this modern version of Beauty and the Beast, unhappy fifteen-year-old Carlo has been living in the basement of his family's mansion ever since his father died--until beautiful fifteen-year-old Belle shows up to pay for the rose her father picked in the garden.




Garfield and the Beast in the Basement


Book Description

Garfield's knees start knocking when two frightened mice give him some terrible news--there's a beast living in the house.




An Object of Beauty


Book Description

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to the highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights--and, at times, the dark lows--of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today.




The Thing in the Basement: A Bloomsbury Reader


Book Description

Book Band: Brown - Ideal for ages 7+ A spooky school-set mystery from Michaela Morgan. Perfect for fans of Anne Fine and Pamela Butchart. There's a thing in the basement of Scott's new school and it's a thing only Mr Crawley can control. There's a thing in the basement of Scott's new school and it flashes and ROARS! There's a thing in the basement of Scott's new school and surely it can't be a dragon... or can it? This mysterious adventure from Michaela Morgan has quirky black-and-white illustrations by Doffy Weir and is perfect for children who are developing as readers. The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with book-banded stories to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2 by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence. With engaging illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for home and school. For more information visit www.bloomsburyreaders.com. 'Any list that brings together such a quality line up of authors is going to be welcomed ... Bloomsbury Readers are aimed squarely at children in Key Stage 2 and designed to support them as they start reading independently and while they continue to gain confidence and understanding.' Books for Keeps




The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas


Book Description

“Ursula Le Guin is more than just a writer of adult fantasy and science fiction . . . she is a philosopher; an explorer in the landscapes of the mind.” – Cincinnati Enquirer The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her spare, elegant prose, rich characterization, and diverse worlds. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is a short story originally published in the collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters.




All the Beauty in the World


Book Description

"A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard"--




Panther in the Basement


Book Description

The lighthearted tale of a 12-year-old Jewish boy who befriends a British policeman in 1947 Israel, a friendship which leads his comrades to accuse him of treason. The boys have formed a secret liberation army to throw out the British.




The Girl in the Basement


Book Description

Enter the minds of a psychopath and a defenceless teenager in this mesmerising and timely page-turner, with its unforeseeable twists and edge-of-the-seat suspense.A man lurks in the shadows, spying on a girl in a red party dress. The girl, Libby, is trying to shrug off a bad date. Not for a moment does she suspect that this night is the end of life as she knows it. The man pounces; Libby is grabbed and driven away. Held prisoner in a basement, she grapples with constant fear, all the while sustaining herself with thoughts of escape. Meanwhile, her captor is engaged on another mission, that of abducting a young boy to complete his 'family'. Will Libby ever escape? Or will the man kill her? And what of the boy who refuses to submit to the man's demands? Can he possibly survive his merciless anger?




The Walworth Beauty


Book Description

From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue and Kate Atkinson 2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, and move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: and Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark streets, he is tempted by brothels' promises of pleasure – and as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush against each other – a breath at Madeleine's neck, a voice in her head – the murmurs of ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire and exploitation, isolation and loss, and the faltering search for human connection; this is Michèle Roberts at her masterful best.




Truth & Beauty


Book Description

"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 friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy. Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In Gealy's critically acclaimed and hugely successful memoir, Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared together. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined...and what happens when one is left behind. This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty and being uplifted by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.