1. Robopocalypse: A Novel Daniel H. Wilson They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.  In the near future, **at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as **Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.   When the Robot War ignites — at a moment known later as Zero Hour — humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.       

    Robopocalypse: A Novel

    Daniel H. Wilson

    They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.
     
    In the near future, **at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as **Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
     
    When the Robot War ignites — at a moment known later as Zero Hour — humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years. 
     

     
     
  2. Sisters Brothers Patrick DeWitt

    Sisters Brothers

    Patrick DeWitt
  3. The Invention of Hugo Cabret Brian Selznick Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

    The Invention of Hugo Cabret

    Brian Selznick

    Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.
  4. George Mackay Brown Ron Ferguson Enigmatic - mysterious - intriguing: George Mackay Brown was a notoriously private man. He rarely left his native Orkney, and yet became one of the 20th century’s finest poets and prose stylists. In his prolific writings, George Mackay Brown’s spirituality and his love of the wind-scoured island landscape fused to give us some of the most beautiful poetry and prose in the English language. His work is shot through with glimpses of the divine. With curiosity and passion, Ron Ferguson tracks his friend’s literary and spiritual journey, including his controversial move from Presbyterianism to Roman Catholicism. He explores the darker, more tormented, side of Orkney’s bard and uncovers the intense relationship between alcohol, suffering and creativity. The reader is swept along on a literary and spiritual voyage of discovery that compels to the very end. The author draws on previously unpublished letters and original conversations with many well-known writers and friends of George Mackay Brown. He quotes extensively from the poet’s writings and weaves a brilliant and enriching narrative.

    George Mackay Brown

    Ron Ferguson

    Enigmatic - mysterious - intriguing: George Mackay Brown was a notoriously private man. He rarely left his native Orkney, and yet became one of the 20th century’s finest poets and prose stylists. In his prolific writings, George Mackay Brown’s spirituality and his love of the wind-scoured island landscape fused to give us some of the most beautiful poetry and prose in the English language. His work is shot through with glimpses of the divine. With curiosity and passion, Ron Ferguson tracks his friend’s literary and spiritual journey, including his controversial move from Presbyterianism to Roman Catholicism. He explores the darker, more tormented, side of Orkney’s bard and uncovers the intense relationship between alcohol, suffering and creativity. The reader is swept along on a literary and spiritual voyage of discovery that compels to the very end. The author draws on previously unpublished letters and original conversations with many well-known writers and friends of George Mackay Brown. He quotes extensively from the poet’s writings and weaves a brilliant and enriching narrative.
  5. Percy Jackson pbk 5-book boxed set (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) Rick Riordan At last the wait is over! All five books in the blockbuster Percy Jackson and the Olympus series, in paperback, have been collected in a box fit for demigods. This value-priced set includes the best-selling The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters,The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympians. Whether it is for readers who are experiencing Percy’s thrilling adventures with Greek gods and monsters for the first time or for fans who want to devour the saga again, this gift will be prized by young and old.

    Percy Jackson pbk 5-book boxed set (Percy Jackson & the Olympians)

    Rick Riordan

    At last the wait is over! All five books in the blockbuster Percy Jackson and the Olympus series, in paperback, have been collected in a box fit for demigods. This value-priced set includes the best-selling The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters,The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympians. Whether it is for readers who are experiencing Percy’s thrilling adventures with Greek gods and monsters for the first time or for fans who want to devour the saga again, this gift will be prized by young and old.
  6. On the Move Bono “The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.” —Bono This small book, based upon the speech given by Bono at the 2006 NPB, delivers an inspiring and powerful message. Here, in Bono’s own words, is a reflection on his own faith and a challenge to people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call “the least of these.”

    On the Move

    Bono

    “The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.” —Bono

    This small book, based upon the speech given by Bono at the 2006 NPB, delivers an inspiring and powerful message. Here, in Bono’s own words, is a reflection on his own faith and a challenge to people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call “the least of these.”
  7. What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey In 1987, an IRA bomb buried Gordon Wilson and his twenty-year-old daughter beneath five feet of rubble. Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, ’ I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge … I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them.’ His words caught the media’s ears — and out of one man’s grief, the world got a glimpse of grace. Grace is the church’s great distinctive. It’s the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else — for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What’s So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God’s love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life’s stark images, tests its mettle against horrific ‘ungrace.’ Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today’s AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus’ day. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace’s life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear? And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What’s So Amazing About Grace?

    What’s So Amazing About Grace?

    Philip Yancey

    In 1987, an IRA bomb buried Gordon Wilson and his twenty-year-old daughter beneath five feet of rubble. Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, ’ I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge … I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them.’ His words caught the media’s ears — and out of one man’s grief, the world got a glimpse of grace. Grace is the church’s great distinctive. It’s the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else — for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What’s So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God’s love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life’s stark images, tests its mettle against horrific ‘ungrace.’ Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today’s AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus’ day. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace’s life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear? And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What’s So Amazing About Grace?
  8. Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline (Pocket Classics) Lauren F. Winner ‘After her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Lauren Winner found that her life was indelibly marked by the rich traditions and spiritual practices of Judaism. She set out to discover how she could incorporate some of these practices into her new faith. Winner presents eleven Jewish spiritual practices that can transform the way Christians view the world and God. Whether discussing attentive eating, marking the days while grieving, the community that supports a marriage, candle-lighting, or the differences between the Jewish Sabbath and a Sunday spent at the Mudhouse, her favorite coffee shop, Winner writes with appealing honesty and rare insight. ‘Lauren Winner speaks the language of this generation. It is authentic, free and bold.’—-|Ben Young, author of The Ten Commandments of Dating’ At a time when we are so aware of the differences between Judaism and Christianity, Lauren Winner’s book on what we can learn from each other is so refreshingly welcome.’—-|Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People ‘For all of us who can’t get our spiritual lives in shape by shipping out to a monastery, Lauren Winner explores simple, do-able ways of keeping company with God in the ordinary, day-to-day world of eating, working, resting, romancing, aging, earning, grieving, and celebrating. Her rich identity as a Jewish/Christian/scholar/writer informs every sentence.’—-|Brian McLaren, pastor and author of A New Kind of Christian ‘[Winner is] a gifted writer who has much to teach us about the deep and indestructible bonds between Judaism and Christianity.’—-|Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Seminary

    Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline (Pocket Classics)

    Lauren F. Winner

    ‘After her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Lauren Winner found that her life was indelibly marked by the rich traditions and spiritual practices of Judaism. She set out to discover how she could incorporate some of these practices into her new faith. Winner presents eleven Jewish spiritual practices that can transform the way Christians view the world and God. Whether discussing attentive eating, marking the days while grieving, the community that supports a marriage, candle-lighting, or the differences between the Jewish Sabbath and a Sunday spent at the Mudhouse, her favorite coffee shop, Winner writes with appealing honesty and rare insight. ‘Lauren Winner speaks the language of this generation. It is authentic, free and bold.’—-|Ben Young, author of The Ten Commandments of Dating’ At a time when we are so aware of the differences between Judaism and Christianity, Lauren Winner’s book on what we can learn from each other is so refreshingly welcome.’—-|Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People ‘For all of us who can’t get our spiritual lives in shape by shipping out to a monastery, Lauren Winner explores simple, do-able ways of keeping company with God in the ordinary, day-to-day world of eating, working, resting, romancing, aging, earning, grieving, and celebrating. Her rich identity as a Jewish/Christian/scholar/writer informs every sentence.’—-|Brian McLaren, pastor and author of A New Kind of Christian ‘[Winner is] a gifted writer who has much to teach us about the deep and indestructible bonds between Judaism and Christianity.’—-|Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Seminary
  9. Football Against the Enemy Simon Kuper Throughout the world, football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world’s hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped them. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation’s distinctive style of play, from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.

    Football Against the Enemy

    Simon Kuper

    Throughout the world, football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world’s hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped them. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation’s distinctive style of play, from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.
  10. No Ordinary Journey: John Rae, Arctic Explorer 1813-1893 Ian Bunyan John Rae’s solitary childhood in the rugged hills of Orkney, Scotland, can be seen as preparation for the challenge he later faced in the Canadian Arctic. As a member of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with a posting as surgeon and clerk to George Simpson, he travelled extensively in the Arctic, often alone. Taught to survive in extreme conditions by the Indians and the Inuit, he used this knowledge in exploring, surveying and mapping; collecting information on zoology, ethnography, and geology; and making detailed observations of the ethnography of the Inuit. In his later years he wrote widely on the natural history, geography, and anthropology of the North. Rae was a committed, independent, and idiosyncratic man and a controversial figure in his own period. There has, until now, been little recognition of the importance and diversity of his achievements.

    No Ordinary Journey: John Rae, Arctic Explorer 1813-1893

    Ian Bunyan

    John Rae’s solitary childhood in the rugged hills of Orkney, Scotland, can be seen as preparation for the challenge he later faced in the Canadian Arctic. As a member of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with a posting as surgeon and clerk to George Simpson, he travelled extensively in the Arctic, often alone. Taught to survive in extreme conditions by the Indians and the Inuit, he used this knowledge in exploring, surveying and mapping; collecting information on zoology, ethnography, and geology; and making detailed observations of the ethnography of the Inuit. In his later years he wrote widely on the natural history, geography, and anthropology of the North. Rae was a committed, independent, and idiosyncratic man and a controversial figure in his own period. There has, until now, been little recognition of the importance and diversity of his achievements.

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