Book of the week

Grace and Tom have a strong marriage, a comfortable home, and a beautiful baby daughter. But when Chloe turns three, her life is claimed by Sepsis — a cruel and indiscriminate disease.

A storm orphan, Ruby Flynn, is rescued from a tiny cottage on the Atlantic coast and educated by nuns in preparation for a life in service. Appointed as a nursery maid, Ruby experiences a dangerous attraction to Lord FitzDeane.

It’s the beginning of the end for the people of Earth, as gigantic alien war machines deploy heat rays and noxious gas to destroy everything in their path. Will humanity survive?

Jim lived a double life — an undercover agent amongst spies and radicals in Cold War London. Haunted by her father’s past, his daughter Sam quits university to find out the truth and locate her missing boyfriend — the one person she can trust.

Containing amusing examples of awful grammar, this Sunday Times bestseller is the go-to grammar guide. Leave those split infinitives and dangling modifiers behind, as you ascend to grammatical greatness.

This condensed history of the cosmos offers a complete and comprehensible timeline of life, the universe, and everything. It breaks down big history into accessible parts for everyone to enjoy.

Overused, meaningless and — to be perfectly honest — irritating, clichés are a thorn in the side of everyday English. Lifting the lid on why they should be avoided at all costs, esteemed journalist Nigel Fountain thinks outside the box, sharing his blue sky thinking on how to avoid clichés like the plague. After all, it’s not rocket science.

This award-winning collection of nine short stories explores the impact of American violence, American shame, and the actions and emotions of humans pushed to the brink.

The former poet laureate of Spokane, Washington paints a portrait of herself in different selves: a lost child, a lonely adolescent, a teacher, a daughter, a friend, a wife, and a mother.

The four poetry collections that launched the career of award-winning writer Lucille Clifton, plus her haunting memoir ‘Generations’ are collated here in one essential volume.

There maybe a white tiger in the principal’s office, servitude to a morphing megalomaniac principal, and a class project managing a convulsive neocolony, but it’s all uncomfortably familiar.

One of 20 million young people sent far away for ‘agricultural re-education’ Lu Beiping pines for romance. Instead, he finds himself married off to the foreman’s long dead daughter, in a forbidden religious tradition, and then banished to Mudkettle Mountain.

The sky’s the limit. Nothing is impossible. Dream big. All fine in principle, but getting there can be a little unclear. Now for the first time, you can follow seven scientifically-tested steps to help you achieve your big goals, by thinking small.

From a dead man posting letters to his estranged wife to sexy aliens invading New York City, award-winning author Kelly Link invites you on a voyage through eleven strange short storie

This award-winning poetry collection draws upon painful personal experiences of dictatorship, genocide, and exile, paying tribute to female family members who confront profound loss through artists endeavours.

This immersive, mythic triptych draws inspiration from European folk traditions, harvest rites, and the gods, in rich poetic prose. The three Winter’s Tales are: ‘Jack Daw’s Pack’, ‘A Crowd Of Bone’ and, ‘Unleaving’.

How are every day technologies made, and made better? Don Norman speaks the language of gadgets in this fascinating exploration of product design, written in 1992.

Representing a diverse range of writing genres and contemporary expressions of Islam, this anthology is at once both a cacophony and a symphony of voices.

Janice Dewey presents poetry in three parts: contemplations on the creek environment, observations on the ridiculous, and conversation with women (imagined, historical, and real).

In a world veiled by the illusion of equality, these stories juxtapose societal atrophy — angst, alienation, physical suffering — with power and oppression. And a sex robot falls from the sky.

One moment she’s counting her blessings and her idyllic life on the Devon coast, and the next, Rosie’s husband and children are gone. To another woman.

Twenty-one writers from six countries contribute to this second instalment ‘interstitial’ genre-evading short fictions.

Inheritance of her family’s stately home is no longer assured for best-selling author, Lady Margaret, after the death of her first lover, and buried secrets that come to light.

Getting the measure of things, Graeme Donald explores the multiple systems of measurement that order or our daily lives, probing the past and asking questions about who decided how we do it, and why.

In post-Soviet Georgia, eighteen-year-old Lela is old enough to abandon the Residential School for Intellectually Disabled Children, its violence and neglect. So what’s holding her back?