Showing titles in City Life

Is the world ready for The Velveteens? An all-girl punk band try to make it to the top Get your crimper out, your mohawk ready and your best punk pout on - the Queens of Noise have arrived! Set in 1980s London, this modern music drama charts the rise of a girl punk band. Packed with classic hits...

The London Classics Collection: Stories of the City allows you to step into the heart of London with a curated selection of iconic literary works that explore the soul of one of the world's most fascinating cities. From the smoky alleys of Victorian London to the political upheavals of the 20th century, this collection brings together stories that capture the city's rich history, diverse characters, and unflinching reflections on society.

Ivy Edwards is 31 years old, funny, shameless and a bit of a romantic. She's also currently trying not to cry in the office toilet. Partly because she's just run out of money for fags. A bit because her mum continues to annoy her. Definitely not because she's just been dumped by her fiancé. With her London life in shambles and her family miles away in the Welsh valleys, Ivy doesn't actually feel like she belongs anywhere.

When her mother emigrates to China for work, twenty-year-old Chizu moves in with 71-year-old Ginko, an eccentric distant relative, taking a room in her ramshackle Tokyo home, with its two resident cats and the persistent rattle of passing trains. Living their lives in imperfect symmetry, they establish an uneasy alliance, stress tested by Chizu's flashes of youthful spite. As the four seasons pass, Chizu navigates a series of tedious part-time jobs and unsatisfying relationships, before eventually finding her feet and salvaging a fierce independence from her solitude.

When Ryan spots a young woman on the tube on his commute, he can’t take his eyes off her. Instantly attracted and intrigued, he’s keen to find out more about his mysterious fellow passenger. The woman he thinks of as Millie spends all day travelling the Underground, unable to leave for reasons unbeknownst to Ryan. For some inexplicable reason, he just can’t shake the feeling he wants to help her escape her endless commute.

Bloomsbury presents Cult Classic written and read by Sloane Crosley. A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES ‘The witty, improbably propulsive rom-com you didn't know you were waiting for' ELIF BATUMAN ‘Razor sharp and very funny on the cult of modern dating' PANDORA SYKES ‘So good. I...

Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people’s homes by his bullying older siblings, he’s also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum. On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead, but that’s just the beginning of their nightmare, because the woman is the wife of Edinburgh’s biggest crime lord, Deke Holt.

Diary of a Drug Fiend. This captivating novel, first published in 1922, explores the alluring highs and harrowing lows of addiction through the lens of Crowley’s unique philosophical and occult perspective. Perfect for fans of historical fiction, esoteric literature, and compelling narratives, this audiobook is an essential addition to your collection.

Step back into the streets of Victorian London, as the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce brings together a strange group of people, including Ada Clare and Richard Carstone who are at the heart of the legal battle, orphan Jo and Inspector Bucket. Oscar-winning actor Sir John Gielgud transports you to the criminal slums of the poor and the drawing rooms of the rich in Dickens’ riveting portrayal of a corrupt society. 

Banneker Homes is a low-income high rise in Harlem where gentrification weighs on everyone's mind. There is Swan in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend's release from prison jeopardises the life he's been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, who hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe's and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can't seem to escape the building's gravitational pull. 

Audrey Wade longs to escape her domineering father and the bleak streets of post-war Yorkshire. Hollywood glitters with glamour, freedom, and the promise of a life with her best friend Freddie. But when Freddie abandons her, Audrey is left to chase her dreams alone. Rex Trent is more than Hollywood’s leading man. Charismatic and dangerously handsome, he’s adored by millions and watched by powerful enemies in a paranoid 1950s America. One wrong move could destroy him. When Rex proposes, Audrey is swept into Hollywood’s glamour and high-stakes secrets.

Breathtakingly tender, Seven Days in Tokyo is an astonishing debut about the intricacies of desire and a search for belonging. It is a lyrical, immersive portrait of how some things, however beautiful and profound, are destined to be as short-lived as the cherry blossoms.

On the night her younger sister, Giulia, moves in with Risa to recover from a bad break-up, a fateful accident occurs: Risa, boiled over with anger and fear, strikes a drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot. The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for self-defense, or bury the man’s body and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, in the late hours of the night, they call upon Sav’s childhood friend—the sweet, loyal Christopher Gardini—to help them, hoping they can trust him to carry a secret like this.

The narrator of Rob Doyle's Threshold has spent the last two decades traveling, writing, and imbibing drugs and literature in equal measure, funded by brief periods of employment or "on the dole" in Dublin. Now, stranded between reckless youth and middle age, his travels to far-flung places have acquired a de facto purpose: to aid the contemporary artist's search for universal truth.

Brought to you by Penguin. Writer, Samson Young, is staring death in the face, and not only his own. Void of ideas and on the verge of terminal decline, Samson’s dash to a decaying, degenerate London has brought him through the doors of the Black Cross pub and into a murder story just waiting...

* OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, WASHINGTON POST, VULTURE, GLAMOUR, FRESH AIR, NPR, THE GUARDIAN, THE ECONOMIST, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, THE TIMES (London), THE IRISH TIMES, THE NEW STATESMAN...

Brought to you by Penguin. Agnes Maurer has a plan. Before tomorrow’s spin class, she will find someone willing to kill her. New York City, 2014: a place of gleaming towers, boutique fitness, designer handbags and, of course, existential despair. As Agnes wipes away the sweat from her...

The Mudlark is a captivating tale of courage, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of dreams against all odds. It’s a whirlwind ride, coursing through the riveting life of an intrepid young heroine who challenges her fate with every rising sun.

It is 2003 – ten years since Spud Milton’s class of 93 matriculated and the boys went their separate ways. Despite their seemingly unbreakable bond, the Crazy Eight – Rambo, Mad Dog, Vern, Fatty, Garth Garlic, Boggo, Simon and Spud – have not kept in touch. Or at least, not as far as...

In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem. "Novelist Richard Price has as fine an ear for American speech as anyone writing today..."—AudioFile East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a...