Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain

Like many people in this world, Phil and Terry are just looking for their personal slice of divine assistance. It's not their fault that they decide to settle on Lucky, a raccoon god of good fortune. At first, everything seems to be working fine. But they will soon learn that the world of divine powers is not to be entered into casually.Lucky, it seems, had a falling out with another ancient god long ago. And while Lucky has moved on with his life, the ancient twisted deity is still nursing a grudge. Add to this a scorned goddess looking for revenge and it starts to become clear that Phil and Terry may have taken on more than they ever bargained for.

Diana's life was in a rut - she hated her job, she was perpetually single, and she needed a place to live. But then the perfect apartment came along. It seemed too good to be true - because it was.As it turns out, the apartment was already inhabited - by monsters. Vom the Hungering was the first to greet Diana and to warn her that his sole purpose in life was to eat everything in his path. This poses a problem for Diana since she's in his path...and is forbidden from ever leaving the apartment.It turns out though that there are older and more ancient monstrous entities afoot - ones who want to devour the moon and destroy the world as we know it. Can Diana, Vom, and the other horrors stop this from happening? Maybe if they can get Vom to stop eating everything...and everyone.

TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE is a tender and funny story of Hant'a - a man who has lived in a Czech police state - for 35 years, working as compactor of wastepaper and books. In the process of compacting, he has acquired an education so unwitting he can't quite tell which of his thoughts are his own and which come from his books. He has rescued many from jaws of hydraulic press and now his house is filled to the rooftops. Destroyer of the written word, he is also its perpetuator.But when a new automatic press makes his job redundant there's only one thing he can do - go down with his ship.This is an eccentric romp celebrating the indestructability- against censorship, political opression etc - of the written word.

With a cover design by Lucienne DayWhen Mrs Hawkins tells Hector Bartlett he is a 'pisseur de copie', that he 'urinates frightful prose', little does she realise the repercussions. Holding that 'no life can be carried on satisfactorily unless people are honest' Mrs Hawkins refuses to retract her judgement, and as a consequence, loses not one, but two much-sought-after jobs in publishing. Now, years older, successful, and happily a far cry from Kensington, she looks back over the dark days that followed, in which she was embroiled in a mystery involving anonymous letters, quack remedies, blackmail and suicide.

The Ashes 2005 saw an almighty clash between age-old enemies: England versus Australia; Freddie versus Gilly; the King of Spain versus the King of Spin; worker versus conscience. For up and down the land, the nation wondered the same question - how can I follow the cricket at work without being given my marching orders quicker than Ian Bell? Help was at hand with Guardian Unlimited's brilliant over-by-over coverage: witty, incisive and occasionally informative, this was a Test Match Special for the Internet generation. Now, for the first time, this unique take on the Ashes is available in wireless book format. Relive again the highlights of England's glorious summer; Kevin Pieteresen's fielding masterclass; Ricky Ponting's paean to substitute fielders; and Channel 4 going to the races as a crucial wicket is about to fall. 'I hope you guys realise that I'm risking my very job just being here?' wails James Holbrook from impending firedom. 'New ICT policy means I can only use t'internet for 5% of my working time. Stuff the economy, I'm on here from 10.30 til I bunk off early at four.' The chance of finishing at 4 on a Friday. Bah! It's alright for some.

Vidal has a fierce, uncontaminated sense of what's right and wrong, and he expresses his most intimate opinions fearlessly' John Simpson, Daily MailThis new selection brings together the best of Gore Vidal's essays, comment and criticism from his fifty-year writing career. With mercurial intelligence and often courageous - and outrageous! - forthrightness, Vidal explores his keystone subjects: primarily the worlds of literature and US politics; but also showbiz, sexuality and modern manners. His gaze ranges from the fiction of Calvino and Updike to the politics of pornography to the Clinton and Bush administrations, America post-September 11 and contemporary imperial ambitions. These essays are a witty and brilliant assessment of our times from the most memorable of American literary masters.

What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and the development of her writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have seen fit to assume, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the book's title: if a writer is to be seen as 'gifted', who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift?Margaret Atwood's wide and eclectic reference to other writers, living and dead, is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences as a writer, both in Canada and on the international scene. The lightness of her touch is underlined by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of western literature.

Catherine, a blossoming film student whose sexuality has been recently stirred, finds herself drawn into a secret club where the world's most powerful people meet to explore their deepest, often darkest sexual fantasies.But even as these new experiences open intense new pleasures for Catherine, they also threaten to destroy everything she holds dear.In her debut novel, Sasha Grey takes us inside a private, high-profile, sex society where anything and everything can happen.