Black Swan The Spinning Heart Ryan Donal

While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns • Set over the course of one year of Johnsey’s life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonizing self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is • Donal Ryan’s award-winning debut, The Spinning Heart, garnered unprecedented acclaim, and The Thing About December confirms his status as one of the best writers of his generation

The January Man is the story of a year of walks that was inspired by a song, Dave Goulder's 'The January Man'. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks the British Isles, following routes that continually bring his father to mind • As he travels the country - from the winter floodlands of the River Severn to the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs on the Shetland Isle of Foula in June and the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest in autumn - he describes the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rain and fair weather • This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not only inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we can come to an understanding of ourselves and our fellow walkers

The Lollipop Shoes picks up the story of Vianne and her daughters and takes us on a magical and spellbinding journey to Paris. Exquisitely written with the fluid and beautiful prose we expect from Joanne Harris, it's a wonderful and captivating read, full of flavours, tastes and fragrances. You'll need to pace yourself to stop yourself from devouring it all at once! • 'Who died?' I said. 'Or is it a secret?' • 'My mother, Vianne Rocher.' • Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her two daughters live peacefully, if not happily, above their little chocolate shop • Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped - at least for a while • Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes - ruthless, devious and seductive

The Wild Life is John Lewis-Stempel's account of twelve months eating only food shot, caught or foraged from the fields, hedges, and brooks of his forty-acre farm. Nothing from a shop and nothing raised from agriculture. Could it even be done? • We witness the season-by-season drama as the author survives on Nature's larder, trains Edith, a reluctant gundog, and conjures new recipes. And, above all, we see him get closer to Nature. Because, after all, you're never closer to Nature than when you're trying to kill it or pick it • Lyrical, observant and mordantly funny, The Wild Life is an extraordinary celebration of our natural heritage, and a testament to the importance of getting back to one's roots - spiritually and practically

The first memory I have of you is all knickers and legs. You had flipped yourself into a handstand and couldn’t get back down. We became best friends, racing slugs, pretending to be spies – all the things that children do • Ten years later, eighteen-year-old Ravine Roy spends every day in her room. Completing crosswords and scribbling in her journal, she keeps the outside world exactly where she wants it; outside • But as the real world begins to invade her carefully controlled space, she is forced to finally confront the questions she’s been avoiding. Who is her mother meeting in secret? Who has moved in next door? • And why, all those years ago, when two girls pulled on their raincoats and wellies and headed out into the woods did only one of them return?

The soldiers are coming home – after six months in Afghanistan. Surely being reunited with their wives and girlfriends and families will be heaven, after the hell they have been through • When Dan Riley returns to his adored wife, Alexa, and their children, his Army life still comes first. Alexa thought she was prepared to help him, and the whole family, to make the transition to normal life again – but no-one had told her how lonely and near impossible the task would be. Does marrying a soldier always have to mean that you are not marrying a man, but a regiment?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man of over forty is in possession of a major defect • Cassandra Leigh has woken as if from a bad dream: desperate for a baby, and finally out of patience waiting for her 20 year affair with Max to end happily ever after. Maybe Max is not the only man for her? • Perhaps she could find love with her friend Jason - though he's perhaps a little too rugged, and there's something strange about the way his wife disappeared . . . Or there's Dante, the mysterious stranger she meets on a dark night in his haunted manor house • Cass must throw caution to the wind and claim the life she's always wanted. Suddenly, it's a choice between Mr Right, Mr Wrong or Mr Right Now • Fantastically funny and whimsical, this heart-warming novel will charm fans of Milly Johnson and Jill Mansell

‘He said he didn’t remember killing them…’ • As a series of rolling blackouts plunge the city into darkness, Detective Aidan Waits sits on an abandoned hospital ward, watching a mass murderer slowly die. Transferred from his usual night shift duties and onto protective custody, he has just one job… • To extract the location of Martin Wick’s final victim before the notorious mass murderer passes away • Wick has spent over a decade in prison, in near-total silence, having confessed to an unspeakable crime that shocked the nation and earned him the nickname of The Sleepwalker • But when a daring premeditated attack leaves one police officer dead and another one fighting for his life, Wick’s whispered last words will send Waits on a journey into the heart of darkness… • Manipulated by a reticent psychopath from his past, and under investigation from his new partner, Detective Constable Naomi Black, Waits realises too late that a remorseless contract killer is at work

Here is a truth that can’t be escaped: for Mia ‘Rabbit’ Hayes, life is coming to an end • Rabbit Hayes loves her life, ordinary as it is, and the extraordinary people in it • She loves her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colourful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye • But it turns out the world has other plans for Rabbit, and she’s OK with that. Because she has plans for the world too, and only a handful of days left to make them happen • Here is a truth that won’t be forgotten: this is a story about laughing through life’s surprises and finding the joy in every moment

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of sisters Grimm on Earth • You may well be one of them, though you might never know it • This is the story of four sisters Grimm – daughters born to different mothers on the same day, each born out of bright-white wishing and black-edged desire • They found each other at eight years-old, were separated at thirteen and now, at nearly eighteen, it is imperative that they find each other once again • In thirty-three days they will meet their father in Everwhere. Only then will they discover who they truly are, and what they can truly do. Then they must fight to save their lives and the lives of the ones they love. Three will live, one will die • You’ll have to read on to find out who and why

Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life • Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane

Only a miracle can unite a congregation in turmoil • In the gentle precinct of Aldminster Cathedral, crisis looms • The urbane and worldly Dean wants nothing so much as to restore and beautify his beloved Cathedral - even if it means sacrificing the Choir School to pay for it • Alexander Troy, Headmaster of the school, a conscientious man, is determined that nothing and no-one - certainly not the overbearing Dean - should destroy the Choir • As the rift widens to take on immense dimensions, many others find themselves caught in the schism - Leo Beckford, brilliant but wayward organist, repelling the adoration of the Dean's dreadful daughter; the gentle, left-wing Bishop, trying to soothe the angry protagonists; Sally Ashworth, mother of the leading chorister, fighting loneliness and an erring and absent husband