In the second novel of James’s celebrated late period, American Lambert Strether is sent to Paris on behalf of Mrs Newsome, his fiancée, to collect her son, Chad. When Strether finds Chad, he discovers an altered man and becomes introduced to a free and unconventional style of life that soon intoxicates him. His views begin to change; the morality of Woollett, his hometown, becomes foreign, and the ‘ambassador’ loses sight of his mission… Part tragedy, part comedy, The Ambassadors is a rew...

The tree, the fireside, the candles, the presents and the festive food may be the main features of the traditional Christmas, but so were the stories, the poems, and the traditional tales. Here, is a delightful confection of Christmas texts: the story of The Nutcracker told with Tchaikovsky’s immortal music, Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, as well as nineteenth and twentieth century poems and the always affecting tale of The Little Match Girl. An enchanting collection for those...

This book shows how today’s waves of book bans and disinformation campaigns intentionally drive the cultural erasure of marginalized communities—and what we can do to stop them.Across schools, libraries, and museums—in the United States and elsewhere—the coordinated onslaught of efforts to remove books and roll back diversity initiatives are reshaping public life. While both these methods of cultural control have been widely used for centuries, their nefarious role...

Bloomsbury presents Creed Taylor by David Sutter, read by John Chancer.The life and career of a producer who sought to bring jazz to the massesCreed Taylor was one of the most successful jazz producers of all time—and one of the most controversial. His career spanned five decades, in which he produced albums with legends such as John Coltrane, Ray Charles, George Benson, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, and Nina Simone. In 1960, he famously f...

Bloomsbury presents The Girl Who Would be Marilyn Monroe by Tony Castro, read by John Chancer.A thoughtful glimpse into the childhood of Norma Jeane Mortenson and how it shaped her into the iconic Marilyn Monroe for the 100th anniversary of her birth.At the fragile intersection of myth and memory stands a girl—often eclipsed by the legend she became. The Girl Who Would Be Marilyn Monroe dares to strip away the satin, the spotlight, the stu...

Bloomsbury presents The Love of Analog: Meditations on Value by Darren Hudson Hick read by John ChancerVinyl records. Board games. Paperback books. Film. A philosopher dives into the analog world to show what it offers us and what it says about our values.Packed with first-person anecdotes, hand-drawn illustrations, and extensive scholarship, Darren Hudson Hick takes us through the pleasure of board games and jigsaw puzzles and ins...

For the four fraught, mysterious days of her doomed maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic sails towards New York, glittering with luxury, freighted with millionaires and hopefuls. In her labyrinthine passageways the last, secret hours of a small group of passengers are played out, their fate sealed in prose of startling, sublime beauty, as Beryl Bainbridge's haunting masterpiece moves inexorably to its known and terrible end.

Bloomsbury presents The Biggest Lie by Joseph Kelly, read byJohn Chancer."Kelly tells this story with vivid immediacy."—ADAM HOCHSCHILD"A sweeping and much needed work of history."—GREG GRANDINAn eye-opening work of narrative history tracing the roots of American fascism back to the Antebellum South.Named a "Best of July" by Publishers Lunch, Lit Hub, Book Culture, and the Orange...

In a lonely valley, deep in the mountains, a ranger watches over the last surviving grizzly bear.With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild.One night, he hears voices in the valley – poachers, come to hunt his bear.A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey – Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his ...

Why would a man escape from prison the day before he's due to be released?Audie Palmer has spent a decade in prison for an armed robbery in which four people died, including two of the gang. Seven million dollars has never been recovered and everybody believes that Audie knows where the money is.For ten years he has been beaten, stabbed, throttled and threatened almost daily by prison guards, inmates and criminal gangs, who all want to answer this same ques...

Brought to you by Penguin.GET READY TO MEET REBEKAH. SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR TIM WEAVER IS BACK WITH HIS FIRST STANDALONERebekah Murphy has been missing for five months. Why is no one looking for her?___________Rebekah Murphy knows too much. . .She knows she's alone on an abandoned island with a killer on her trail.She knows that to get home to her children, s...

In The Gift (1925), Marcel Mauss elevates a simple gift from the status of innocent object to something that has the capacity to motivate people and define social relationships. The Gift analyzes cultures across the world and across time, examining the ways gifts are given and received to understand the rules and traditions of many different societies. Gifts can be tangible, like jewelry, or intangible, like the offering of skills. But binding relationships are always created when gifts ar...