TOP AUDIOBOOKS: SHORT LISTENS
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Art Matters
Written and Narrated By: Neil Gaiman
A creative call to arms from the mind of Neil Gaiman. Art Matters will inspire its listeners to seize the day in the name of art.
Be bold. Be rebellious. Choose art. It matters.
Neil Gaiman once said that ‘the world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before’. This audiobook is the embodiment of that vision. Drawn together from speeches, poems and creative manifestos, Art Matters explores how reading, imagining and creating can change the world, and will be inspirational to young and old.
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New Erotica for Feminists
By: Brooke Preston, Caitlin Kunkel, Carrie Wittmer, Fiona Taylor
Narrated By: Bridget Christie
He calls me into his office and closes the door…to promote me. He promotes me again and again. I am wild with ecstasy.
Your boss gives you a pay rise, the hotshot producer recognises your talents, the pizza delivery guy hopes you’ve got a box set to watch with your extra-large pizza. Prepared to be satisfied…at last.
Sometimes a plumber is just a plumber. Get what you really want this year with dozens of literary quickies to tantalise and titillate even the most world-weary feminist.
A wickedly funny satirical listen for the feminist in your household and a provocative, subversive response to #metoo and Time’s Up.
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The Ghost Marriage
By: Peter May
Narrated By: Peter Forbes
Li Yan and Margaret Campbell return in a new story, years after the dramatic conclusion of Chinese Whispers.
‘I saw your missing girl at a ghost wedding last week. She was the bride.’
It has been a whirlwind few years for Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. Nowadays, both are busy juggling their huge professional workloads – Li as the newly promoted chief of Beijing’s serious crime squad and Campbell as lecturer at the University of Public Security – with the day-to-day raising of their young son, Li Jon.
When a desperate mother appeals to Campbell’s own maternal instincts, Li agrees to look into the disappearance of a 17-year-old Beijing girl, Jiang Meilin. Yet Li’s investigation soon turns from a favour into a full-scale murder enquiry. And when he receives an anonymous note, he learns Jiang Meilin’s death is tied to a dangerous underground trade and a dark marital rite from China’s past.
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You Are A Badass Every Day
Written and Narrated By: Jen Sincero
From the number one New York Times best-selling author, pocket-size inspiration and guidance to keep your transformation on track.
For anyone who has ever had trouble staying motivated while trailblazing towards success, You Are a Badass Every Day is the companion to keep you fresh, grateful, mighty and driven.
In 100 exercises, reflections and cues that you can use to immediately realign your mind and keep your focus unwavering, this guide will show you how to keep the breakthroughs catalyzed by Sincero’s iconic books You Are a Badass and You Are a Badass at Making Money going.
Owning your power to ascend to badassery is just the first step in creating the life you deserve – You Are a Badass Every Day is the accountability buddy you can keep in your back pocket to power through obstacles, overcome the doubts that hold you back from greatness and keep the fires of determination roaring while you reach your goals.
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Hamilton: The Revolution
By: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
Narrated By: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mariska Hargitay
From Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist-star Lin-Manuel Miranda comes a backstage pass to his groundbreaking hit musical, Hamilton.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking musical, Hamilton, is as revolutionary as its subject: the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States.
Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap and claims the origins of the United States for a diverse new generation.
Hamilton: The Revolution gives listeners an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages – ‘since before this was even a show’, according to Miranda – traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later.
In addition Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, all of which are included here. Their account features exclusive looks into notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself.
The audiobook does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became an international phenomenon: it demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don’t throw away their shots.
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The Furthest Station
By: Ben Aaronovitch
Narrated By: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
There’s something going bump on the Metropolitan line, and Sergeant Jaget Kumar knows exactly whom to call.
It’s PC Peter Grant’s specialty….
Only it’s more than going ‘bump’. Traumatised travellers have been reporting strange encounters on their morning commute, with strangely dressed people trying to deliver an urgent message. Stranger still, despite calling the police themselves, within a few minutes the commuters have already forgotten the encounter – making the follow-up interviews rather difficult.
So with a little help from Abigail and Toby the ghost hunting dog, Peter and Jaget are heading out on a ghost hunting expedition.
Because finding the ghosts and deciphering their urgent message might just be a matter of life and death.
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Less
By: Andrew Sean Greer
Narrated By: Robert Petkoff
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018.
Who says you can’t run away from your problems?
Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the post: it is from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can’t say yes – it would be too awkward; he can’t say no – it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on his desk to half-baked literary events around the world.
From France to India, Germany to Japan, Arthur almost falls in love, almost falls to his death, and puts miles between him and the plight he refuses to face. Less is a novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart.
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TOP AUDIOBOOKS
This site is brought to you by Hachette UK.
© 2019 Hachette UK Limited.
Registered in England and Wales with company number 02020173.
Registered address: Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.
Read our Privacy Notice – Read our Use of Cookies
TOP AUDIOBOOKS: LONGER LISTENS
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I'm Absolutely Fine!
By: Emilie McMeekan & Annabel Rivkin
Narrated By: Emilie McMeekan & Annabel Rivkin
I’m absolutely fine but I slightly need to pee, I followed the road less travelled and now I don’t know where the hell I am, I may bleed to death shaving my legs, my soul aches, another week has ended without me becoming accidentally rich, I just put my keys in the fridge, unexpected object in the bagging area, I’ll have a café mocha vodka Valium latte to go please, where’s my phone? My anxieties have anxieties, no…not like that – here, I’ll do it, do I have to do everything? WTF?
Is it just me? We gnaw on that, don’t we? Is it just me? Well, look around. Look at the rage, the resolution, the ‘hear me roar’, the panic, the power, the chin hairs, the shame, the empathy, the conversation, the sheer potential.
Welcome to Midulthood. A place where we recognise that we are all more alike than we are unalike. Of course it’s not just you. If we’re not in it together, we’re not in it at all….
From sex (What Could Possibly Go Wrong) to self-image (Does This Straightjacket Make Me Look Fat?), I’m Absolutely Fine is a wry look at real life, real wisdom and real information framed in fun.
Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan founded The Midult in 2016. They are journalists, worriers and incredibly good friends. Annabel has written for everybody from The Times to Vogue, while Emilie has been Features Editor of the Evening Standard and Deputy Editor of Tatler. Together they write a Midult column in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine and Annabel has a column in the Evening Standard’s ES Magazine. Emilie is sunshine, Annabel is brimstone and together they wrote this book, lying on the floor a lot and stroking their beards.
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The Wolf:
Under the Northern Sky, Book 1
By: Leo Carew
Narrated By: Matt Addis
Leo Carew’s debut novel, The Wolf, the first book in the Under the Northern Sky series, is a masterpiece in epic historical fantasy – a new voice to rival David Gemmell or George R. R. Martin.
Violence and death have come to the land under the Northern Sky. The Anakim dwell in the desolate forests and mountains beyond the black river, the land under the Northern Sky. Their ancient ways are forged in Unthank silver and carved in the grey stone of their heartland, their lives measured out in the turning of centuries, not years.
By contrast, the Sutherners live in the moment, their vitality much more immediate and ephemeral than their Anakim neighbours. Fragile is the peace that has existed between these very different races – and that peace is shattered when the Suthern armies flood the lands to the north.
These two races revive their age-old hatred and fear of each other. Within the maelstrom of war, two leaders will rise to lead their people to victory. Only one will succeed.
The Wolf is a thrilling, savagely visceral, politically nuanced and unexpectedly wry exploration of power and identity – and how far one will go to defend them.
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A Long Night in Paris
By: Dov Alfon
Narrated By: Matt Addis
From a former Israeli intelligence officer comes the most realistic, thrilling and authentic thriller of the year.
Chinese gangsters and Israeli intelligence face off in Paris – Israel’s best-selling book of 2017, perfect for fans of Homeland, John Le Carré and Mick Herron.
When an Israeli tech entrepreneur disappears from Charles de Gaulle airport with a woman in red, logic dictates youthful indiscretion. But Israel is on a state of high alert nonetheless. Colonel Zeev Abadi, the new head of Unit 8200’s autonomous Special Section, who just happens to be in Paris, also just happens to have arrived on the same flight.
For Commissaire Léger of the Paris Police, coincidences have their reasons, and most are suspect. When a second young Israeli is kidnapped soon after arriving on the same flight, this time at gunpoint from his hotel room, his suspicions are confirmed – and a diplomatic incident looms.
Back in Tel Aviv, Lieutenant Oriana Talmor, Abadi’s deputy, is his only ally, applying her sharp wits to the race to identify the victims and the reasons behind their abduction. In Paris a covert Chinese commando team listens to the investigation unfurl and watches from the rooftops. While by the hour the morgue receives more bodies from the river and the city’s arrondissements.
The clock has been set. And this could be a long night in the City of Lights.
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Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him
By: Tracy Borman
Narrated By: Julie Teal
Tracy Borman, author of the best-selling biography Thomas Cromwell, takes us behind the scenes of Henry VIII’s court and sheds new light on the most notorious Tudor monarch through the fresh perspective of his male relationships.
Henry VIII is well known for his tumultuous relationships with women, and he is often defined by his many marriages. But what do we see if we take a different look? When we see Henry through the men in his life, a new perspective on this famous king emerges….
Henry’s relationships with the men who surrounded him reveal much about his beliefs, behaviour and character. They show him to be capable of fierce but seldom abiding loyalty, of raising men only to destroy them later. He loved to be attended and entertained by boisterous young men who shared his passion for sport, but at other times he was more diverted by men of intellect, culture and wit. Often trusting and easily led by his male attendants and advisers during the early years of his reign, he matured into a profoundly suspicious and paranoid king whose favour could be suddenly withdrawn, as many of his later servants found to their cost. His cruelty and ruthlessness would become ever more apparent as his reign progressed, but the tenderness that he displayed towards those he trusted proves that he was never the one-dimensional monster that he is often portrayed as.
In this fascinating and often surprising new biography, Tracy Borman reveals Henry’s personality in all its multifaceted, contradictory glory.
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Twilight
By: Stephenie Meyer
Narrated By: Ilyana Kadushin
A story that captured the imaginations of a generation, Twilight is reimagined in audiobook form through the subtle narrative style of Ilyana Kadushin. As she breathes life into Bella’s words, allow yourself to get caught up in this undeniable romance.
When seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father she expects that her new life will be as dull as the town itself.
In spite of her awkward manner and low expectations, she finds that her new classmates are drawn to this pale, dark-haired new girl in town. But not, it seems, the Cullen family. These five adopted brothers and sisters obviously prefer their own company and will make no exception for Bella.
Bella is convinced that Edward Cullen in particular hates her, but she feels a strange attraction to him, although his hostility makes her feel almost physically ill. He seems determined to push her away – until, that is, he saves her life from an out of control car.
Bella will soon discover that there is a very good reason for Edward’s coldness. He, and his family, are vampires – and he knows how dangerous it is for others to get too close.
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Oathbringer
By: Brandon Sanderson
Narrated By: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading
From the best-selling author who completed Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series comes a new original creation that matches anything else in modern fantasy for epic scope, thrilling imagination, superb characters and sheer addictiveness.
Return to a planet swept by apocalyptic storms, a world tipping into war as aristocratic families move to control the shard blades and shard plates, ancient artefacts from a past civilisation that can win wars.
As the world tips into a war for control of the mythical artefacts of power made from Shard, characters are swept up into new dangers which will threaten their integrity and their lives.
Huge, ideas-filled, world-spanning fantasy from a master of the genre.
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The Little Stranger
By: Sarah Waters
Narrated By: Simon Vance
A ghost story from one of Britain’s finest and best loved writers. After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote The Night Watch, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime Britain. Short-listed for both the Orange and the Man Booker, it went straight to number one in the best-seller chart.
In a dusty postwar summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.
Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.
London Rules
By: Mick Herron
Narrated By: Sean Barrett
Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one.
Cover your arse.
Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he’s facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number 10; from the showboat’s wife, a tabloid columnist, who’s crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who’s alert for Claude’s every stumble.
Meanwhile, the country’s being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone’s trying to kill Roddy Ho.
Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they’re about to rediscover their greatest strength – that of making a bad situation much, much worse.
It’s a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren’t going to break themselves.
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TOP AUDIOBOOKS: FOR KIDS
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Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different
By: Ben Brooks
Narrated By: Joshua Higgott, Thomas Judd
Winner of the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year 2018.
Daniel Radcliffe, Galileo Galilei, Nelson Mandela, Louis Armstrong, Grayson Perry, Louis Braille, Lionel Messi, King George VI, Jamie Oliver… All dared to be different.
Prince charming, dragon slayer, mischievous prankster… More often than not, these are the role models boys encounter in the books they read at home and at school. As a boy, there is an assumption that you will conform to a stereotypical idea of masculinity.
But what if you’re the introvert kind? What if you prefer to pick up a book rather than a sword? What if you want to cry when you’re feeling sad or angry? What if you like the idea of wearing a dress?
There is an ongoing crisis with regards to young men and mental health, with unhelpful gender stereotypes contributing to this malaise. Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different offers a welcome alternative narrative. It is an extraordinary compilation of 100 stories of famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule breaker and innovator in his own way, and all going on to achieve amazing things. Entries include Frank Ocean, Salvador Dalí, Rimbaud, Beethoven, Barack Obama, Stormzy, Ai Weiwei and Jesse Owens – different sorts of heroes from all walks of life and from all over the world.
A beautiful and transporting audiobook packed with stories of adventure and wonderment, it will appeal to those who need the courage to reject peer pressure and go against the grain. It is the must-have book for all those boys who worry about stuff and all those parents who worry about their boys who worry about stuff. It will educate and entertain while also encouraging and inspiring.
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Nevermoor - The Trials of Morrigan Crow
By: Jessica Townsend
Narrated By: Gemma Whelan
Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2018 Younger Fiction Category
Enter the Wundrous world of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor.
Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she’s blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks – and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her 11th birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.
It’s then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city’s most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart – an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have.
To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests – or she’ll have to leave the city and confront her deadly fate once and for all. Perfect for fans of the Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials, this series takes listeners into an extraordinary world, setting hope and imagination alive.
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The Wizards of Once
By: Cressida Cowell
Narrated By: David Tennant
The number 1 best seller read by David Tennant.
Once there was Magic, and the Magic lived in the dark forests. Until the Warriors came….
This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide. Xar is a Wizard boy who has no Magic, and will do anything to get it. Wish is a Warrior girl, but she owns a banned Magical Object, and she will do anything to conceal it.
In this whirlwind adventure, Xar and Wish must forget their differences if they’re going to make it to the dungeons at Warrior Fort. Where something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring….
From the best-selling author of How to Train Your Dragon.
Horrid Henry
By: Francesca Simon
Narrated By: Miranda Richardson
Four hilarious stories with amazing music and sound effects.
Henry is dragged to dancing classes against his will; vies with Moody Margaret to make the yuckiest Glop!; goes camping in France; and tries to be good like Perfect Peter, but not for long.
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The Haven
By: Simon Lelic
Narrated By: Joe Jameson
An adrenaline-fuelled adventure in a new series by top thriller writer Simon Lelic.
Ollie Turner isn’t sure he’s ready to be a hero….
Our city. Our secret. Our rules.
Alone. On the run. Ollie Turner has nowhere to hide.
But he gets a second chance. Underneath the city there’s a secret organisation, far from adult eyes.
It’s called The Haven.
Soon Ollie is caught up in their battle: to stop Maddy Sikes destroying the city. Time is running out for Ollie and his new friends, and millions of lives are at stake….
An explosive and compelling listen from the writer of adult thrillers The House, The Liar’s Room and Rupture.
Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape
Written and Read By: Dermot O’Leary
Meet Toto: she’s no ordinary cat, and she can’t wait to have an adventure with you!
Join Toto for a funny animal escapade written by one of the UK’s best-loved broadcasters. For fans of The Aristocats, The Secret Life of Pets, 101 Dalmatiansand Atticus Claw Breaks the Law.
Toto the cat and her brother, Silver, live footloose and fancy-free in a townhouse in London. Toto is almost totally blind and learned to trust her senses from a ninja cat-master who taught her back in Italy, where they were born. By day Toto and Silver seem to be ordinary cats, but by night they love to have adventures!
One evening, news reaches Toto that a king cobra has escaped from London Zoo! Together with help from a very posh rat and two hungry tigers, Toto and Silver must investigate. Can they find the giant snake before it’s too late?
Dermot says, ‘The idea for Toto first came to me when my wife and I rescued two stray cats from an olive grove in Italy. One of them, Toto, has been blind from birth, but we quickly realised she had ninja-like reactions. Like a lot of cat owners (or cat servants), we like to imagine our pets having secret lives when we’re out or asleep. So before I knew it, I was writing about Toto and her brother Silver’s nocturnal adventures around London. I really hope that children who pick it up enjoy the adventures of our little Italian underdog (cat).’
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TOP AUDIOBOOKS: FOR 'YOU' TIME
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The Unexpected Joy of Being Single
Written and Read By: Catherine Gray
Single in your late 20s or, hold the phone, in your 30s or beyond? Oh hi! You’re in the right place.
Over a third of us are now single. With the single camp growing at 10 times the rate of the actual population, it is now the norm to be single well into our 30s – the average marriage age for women is 35 and 37 for men. But nobody seems to have told society, rom-com makers, songwriters, marriage-hungry mothers, ‘tick-tock’ uncles, our mates or us that.
Cue: single anxiety. Love addiction. Spending hours scrolling through dating apps. Being inconsolable when he/she doesn’t text. Humming ‘Here Comes the Bride’ when they do.
Catherine Gray went through all of this. And then some. She took a whole year off dating to get her love-hooked head straight. How do we chill our boots about our single status? Detach from ‘all the good ones are gone!’ panic? And deprogramme from urgent, red, heart-shaped societal pressure to find your ‘other half’*?
We know intellectually that single is far preferable to panic-settling, yet we forget that almost constantly. Why? Psychologists and neuroscientists tell us? Let’s start the reverse brainwash and locate our happily-single sanity for good. Are you in?
*Spoiler: you’re already a whole person.
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Calm the F**k Down
Written and Read By: Sarah Knight
The latest no-f**ks-given guide from New York Times best-selling author of the international sensation The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k, Get Your Sh*t Together and You Do You.
Do you waste time overthinking things you can’t do anything about?
Do you freak out when things don’t go to plan?
Does anxiety get in the way of you living your best life?
When life hands you a big fat f**king lemon, Calm the F**k Down gives you practical ways to manage the situation, not to mention your anxiety about the situation. One hundred percent practical and 0 percent Pollyanna-ish, this is a book that acknowledges all the bad shit that can and probably will happen to you – from breakups and breakdowns to floods, family feuds and France running out of butter – and shows you what you can realistically do about it so you can get on with your life, stop worrying and wallowing and start bouncing back.
Think of Calm the F**k Down as the friend who, instead of reassuring you that ‘everything’s going to be okay’, actually shows you how to make it so.
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Eat It Anyway
Written and Read By: Laura Dennison and Eve Simmons
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf.
The definition of ‘healthy eating’ has been chewed up, spat out and re-digested enough times to make Joe Public give up and seek out their nearest branch of McDonald’s. Our mindless obsession with eating ‘right’ is such that we’re now more concerned about what our Instagram followers think of a poorly lit picture of our dinner than we are of its effect on our own palate. Or, indeed, our happiness. We seem to be living in a time where we no longer eat with our hearts, emotions or heritage – but with what our waistlines (and followers) in mind.
Not Plant Based are on a mission to help you love food again. The principle is very simple: eat what you like and don’t worry about it. It’s a menu that’s especially delicious, ‘guilt-free’ and requires a hell of a lot less money spent in health food shops. Throughout the book, Laura and Eve call on experts to debunk myths and provide a balanced exploration of our attitude towards food, with some delicious recipes thrown in along the way. They discuss their own experiences of eating disorders and offer personal tips and coping mechanisms to help rid you of anxiety linked to food. No one is saying healthy eating is bad; there is simply a lot of misleading information out there. More to the point, food is so much more in the grand scheme of life than health: it’s family, friends, enjoyment and memories.
So go on, take a bite out of Eat It Anyway and learn to love your food all over again. It’s SO mouth-wateringly good – we bet you’ll be back for seconds.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work
Written and Read By: Rupert Sheldrake
By the author of The Science Delusion, a detailed account of how science can authenticate spirituality.
To go beyond is to move into a higher state of consciousness, to a place of bliss, greater understanding, love, and deep connectedness, a realm where we finally find life’s meaning – experiences for which all spiritual seekers seek. Dr Rupert Sheldrake, writing as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects.
He combines the latest scientific research with his extensive knowledge of mystical traditions around the world to show how we may tune in to more-than-human realms of consciousness through psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, and by taking cannabis. He also shows how everyday activities can have mystical dimensions, including sports and learning from animals. He discusses traditional religious practices such as fasting, prayer and the celebration of festivals and holy days.
Why do these practices work? Are their effects all inside brains and essentially illusory? Or can we really make contact with forms of consciousness greater than our own?
We are in the midst of a spiritual revival. This book is an essential guide.
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Eat, Drink, Run.
Written and Read By: Bryony Gordon
The new hilarious and inspirational memoir from Sunday Times number one best-selling author Bryony Gordon.
Bryony Gordon was not a runner. A loafer, a dawdler, a drinker, a smoker, yes. A runner, no. Yet somehow, as she began to recover from the emotional roller coaster of laying her life bare in her mental health memoir Mad Girl, she started to realise that getting outside, moving her body and talking to others for whom life was also an occasional challenge might actually help her.
Going for a run might not banish her sadness, but at least it might show it that she was damn well trying to beat it, which is sometimes half the battle. As she began to run farther, she started to see the limitations she had imposed on her life more clearly. Why couldn’t she be a runner? Or a bungee jumper? Or a deep sea diver? Maybe rather than sitting on the sofa watching the world go by, fulfilling your dreams was just about standing up and taking that first step. Maybe you can do it, too.
In April 2017, less than a year after she had weighed herself at over 16 stone but stepped off the scales and started training anyway, Bryony Gordon ran all 26 and 3/4 miles of the London Marathon. Here, in her new typically funny and hugely inspiring memoir, she shows us how extraordinary things can happen to us all, no matter what life throws at us, if we’re just willing to keep going.
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Start Now. Get Perfect Later.
Written and Read By: Rob Moore
From the best-selling author of Money.
Contains an hour and a half of additional content exclusive to the eBook and audiobook editions.
What are you waiting for? If you have a burning ambition, brilliant business idea or creative passion, now is the time to get going. Don’t wait around for everything to fall magically into place – get started, get going and get perfect later. It’s the fastest route to success.
Hardly anyone gets it right the first time, but many of us are crippled by indecision and fear of failure. The desire to get it right can inhibit us from getting started. In this audiobook Rob Moore, the best-selling author of Money, shows that the quickest way to perfect is starting right now and improving as you go. This audiobook will show you how to launch your business or idea, begin the next phase of your career and overcome self-doubt – right away. Get perfect later; get started NOW.
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Calm
Written and Read By: Fearne Cotton
‘Calm for me is less about thought and much more about feeling. It is a stillness that allows my lungs to expand like hot air balloons. It is an acceptance of the noise around me. It is a magic alchemy that might last a second or a whole day, where I feel relaxed yet aware; still yet dynamic; open yet protected….’
In today’s always-on world, for many of us it seems impossible to relax, take time out or mute the encircling noise. It is easy to feel trapped in this frenzied state of mind: we are surrounded by negative stories in the press, weighed down by pressures from work, family life or school and subject to constant scrutiny under the all-seeing eye of social media. As a result, mental health illnesses are on the rise in every age group, and more of us than ever before yearn for silence, peace and calm.
Calm is Fearne’s mission to find the simple things that can inch us away from stress and over to the good stuff. Including expert advice, conversations with wise friends from all walks of life, easy ideas to try, activities to complete – and the little things that have made a difference to her own sometimes bumpy life, this book is a friendly reminder that calm is a place that exists in us all: we just have to find our way back to it.
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The World's Fittest Book
Written and Read By: Ross Edgley
The Sunday Times best seller.
How to train for anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere.
The World’s Fittest Book is set to become every fitness enthusiast’s bible. Dubbed the body’s complete user guide, it will become the go-to resource for learning all you need to know about building muscle, losing fat, eating (healthy) cake and unlocking your superhuman physical potential.
Packed with workouts the author tried and tested in the pursuit of multiple world records, it’s more than a book, it’s the greatest training tool ever written! Designed for anyone who wants to make permanent and lasting changes to their food and fitness, it’s the first book to combine the teachings, tips and tricks of Olympic and world champions into one easy to follow resource.
This book will show you how it’s possible to:
- Live below 10 percent body fat with the aid of chocolate and Mayan secrets
- Add 27 percent more muscle mass, courtesy of tips from world heavyweight champions
- Increase speed by 10 percent, thanks to gold medal winning Olympic sprinters
- Squat, deadlift and bench weights you never dreamed of lifting, with the guidance of the world’s strongest men
- Improve endurance capacity by 60 percent, thanks to the knowledge of world champions in multi endurance-based sports
…all of which the author has achieved during the 10-year ‘fitness pilgrimage’ that has taken him around the globe.
Until now, there hasn’t been a book covering such an ambitious range of areas, catering for the casual fitness enthusiast seeking clarity and guidance in their own gym routine and kitchen habits as well as the seasoned sportsperson who’s hit a plateau and is searching for tips, tricks and tweaks they can make to their training and diet. This book changes that and will take you on a journey to whatever level of fitness you want to find.
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TOP AUDIOBOOKS: ROMANCE
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Burning Moon
By: Jo Watson
Narrated By: Carly Robins
We promise this rom -com will make you laugh out loud! Again and again and again. Jo Watson’s Burning Moon brings you laughter, adventure and a love story to give you the warm-and-fuzzies. Perfect for fans of Cate Woods’ I Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Joanna Bolouri’s The List, The Bad Mother’s Diary and Tracy Bloom. Chase your dreams. Dance under the stars. Fall in love at the festival of Burning Moon.
WARNING: Being jilted at the altar in front of 500 wedding guests can lead to irrational behaviour, such as going on your honeymoon to Thailand alone. On the way to paradise, symptoms may include getting arrested, setting yourself on fire, turning up on a ‘Missing Poster’ and going viral. Side-effects may include desert island stranding, star gazing and jungle trekking.
Recovery will lead to partying the night away at Burning Moon festival – and falling in love with the person you least expect…For more hilarious, romantic hijinks, look out for Jo’s next unmissable rom-com, Almost A Bride.
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Relight My Fire
By: Joanna Bolouri
Narrated By: Samara MacLaren
The naughtiest rom-com you will listen to this year, from the best-selling author of ebook sensation The List.
When Phoebe and Oliver had their happy ending, they thought the hard part was over. And now, with a five-year-old daughter, they are far from the blissful hedonistic lifestyle of when they first started dating.
Not one for giving up, Phoebe creates a sexy wish list: a jar where they can ask the other for anything they’ve ever wanted in bed – or out of it. But with distractions aplenty, will they be able to relight the fire in the bedroom?
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Once in a Lifetime
By: Chrissy Manby
Narrated By: Karen Cass
What if once in a lifetime happened twice?
Dani Parker had grand plans for her life – but that was 22 years ago. Now she’s a single mother still living in the quaint seaside town of Newbay, still working at the hotel where she got her first ever job. When she bumps into ex-boyfriend Nat, Dani wonders if this might be the start of something not-quite-new. But that’s before she meets his fiancée….
Dani’s daughter, Flossie, is 16 – so she knows best about everything, of course. And her new boyfriend, Jed, is all she could ever want in a man…right?
Flossie’s grandma Jane, a widow of 15 years, firmly believes that lightning never strikes twice. So when she finds herself visiting Bill’s pet shop a little more often than necessary, she refuses to believe that the L-word has anything to do with it.
In a whirlwind of cakes, elopements and more naughty puppies than they can handle, will the three women discover that ‘once in a lifetime’ isn’t quite as rare as they thought?
The wonderful and hilarious new listen from Chrissie Manby, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Jill Mansell and Trisha Ashley.
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Happiness for Humans
By: P. Z. Reizin
Narrated By: Gavin Osborn
Happiness for Humans is a joyful, romantic and very funny story, perfect for those who loved The Rosie Project and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
Do you believe in soulmates?
Aiden does. So when his colleague, Jen, is dumped unceremoniously by her dreadful boyfriend, Aiden decides to take matters – and Jen’s life – into his own hands.
Scouring the internet for a suitable partner for Jen, Aiden finds Tom. He’d be perfect for Jen apart from one minor detail: Tom lives in New York.
Luckily for Jen and Tom, Aiden’s not just an interfering colleague. In fact, Aiden isn’t exactly human – he’s a very complicated artificial intelligence.
As Jen and Tom’s romance grows, Aiden begins to take more and more risks to make sure that they can be together. But what will happen if they realise how they met…and that somebody else is pulling the strings?
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The Arrangement
By: Sonya Lalli
Narrated By: Nina Wadia
A funny, warm debut novel bringing Westernised Indian culture to the fore – perfect for fans of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bend It Like Beckham.
Twenty-nine-year-old Raina is still unmarried and battling her family’s expectations for her future – they think that by now she should have been married in a dream Indian wedding. The pressure reaches new heights when her grandmother, Nani, decides to play matchmaker in order to find her the perfect arranged marriage. Eager not to disappoint her family, Raina goes along with the plan, but when the love of her life returns – ex-boyfriend Dev – she’s forced to confront her true feelings. As she tries to free herself from the cultural pressures she faces, Raina realises that sometimes you have to disappoint those closest to you in order to forge your own path.
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The Hating Game
By: Sally Thorne
Narrated By: Katie Schorr
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman sit across from each other every day…and they hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate.
Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight approach to his job and refusal to smile. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and desire to be liked. Now they’re up for the same promotion, and Lucy, usually a determined people pleaser, has had enough: it’s time to take him down.
But as the tension between Lucy and Joshua reaches its boiling point, it’s clear that the real battle has only just begun….
This best-selling, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy is an unmissable, utterly loveable treat and is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella’s My Not So Perfect Life or Jo Watson’s Love to Hate You.
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The Year of Surprising Acts of Kindess
By: Laura Kemp
Narrated By: Lowri Walton
Sometimes all it takes to make the world a better place is a small act of kindness….
When Ceri Price arrives in the small seaside village of Dwynwen in West Wales, she only means to stay for a couple of nights – long enough to scatter her mother’s ashes and then go back to her life as a successful makeup entrepreneur. But a case of mistaken identities means she lands a job as the barmaid in the local pub, unexpectedly finds friendship and wonders if love might follow…. But when the plans for a new housing estate put the local woodland under threat, she fears the way of life here could disappear.
Then mysterious acts of kindness start springing up around the village – a string of bunting adorns the streets, a new village signpost appears out of nowhere and someone provides paint to spruce up the houses on the seafront. Who is behind these acts of kindness, and can they help in the race to save the village from the faceless developers?
Welcome to Dwynwen: Village of Love. Where friendship flourishes and love blossoms….
The Good Guy
By: Susan Beale
Narrated By: Craig Van Ness, Caitlin Shannon
Christmas has arrived in the little village of Welford. The scent of hot roasted chestnuts is in the air, and a layer of frost sparkles on the ground.
This year, vet Mandy Hope is looking forward to the holidays. Her animal rescue centre, Hope Meadows, is up and running – and she’s finally going on a date with Jimmy Marsh, owner of the local outward bound centre.
The advent of winter sees all sorts of animals cross Mandy’s path, from goats named Rudolph to baby donkeys – and even a pair of reindeer! But when a mysterious local starts causing trouble, Mandy’s plans for the centre come under threat. She must call on Jimmy and her fellow villagers to put a stop to the stranger’s antics and ensure that Hope Meadows’ first Christmas is one to remember.
One thing’s for certain: this Christmas, there’ll be animal escapades, kisses under the mistletoe…and plenty of festive cheer for all.
This site is brought to you by Hachette UK.
© 2019 Hachette UK Limited.
Registered in England and Wales with company number 02020173.
Registered address: Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.
Read our Privacy Notice – Read our Use of Cookies