Biographies – Page 3 – Thrift Reads

$10.00

This book presents a broad, accessible narrative of British history, tracing the development of Britain from its earliest beginnings through to modern times. Rowse condenses complex historical periods into a clear, engaging overview, covering major events, influential figures, and social changes that shaped the nation. It explores key eras such as: Prehistoric and Roman Britain; The Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods; The medieval monarchy and conflicts; The rise of parliamentary power; The expansion of the British Empire; Industrialisation and modern political developments. The book is richly illustrated with maps and images, helping to bring historical events to life, and is aimed at general readers seeking an informative yet readable introduction to Britain’s past.

Devil Take the Hindmost A History of Financial Speculation

$6.00

A lively, original, and challenging history of stock market speculation from the 17th century to present day.

Is your investment in that new Internet stock a sign of stock market savvy or an act of peculiarly American speculative folly? How has the psychology of investing changed—and not changed—over the last five hundred years?

In Devil Take the Hindmost, Edward Chancellor traces the origins of the speculative spirit back to ancient Rome and chronicles its revival in the modern world: from the tulip scandal of 1630s Holland, to “stockjobbing” in London’s Exchange Alley, to the infamous South Sea Bubble of 1720, which prompted Sir Isaac Newton to comment, “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”

Here are brokers underwriting risks that included highway robbery and the “assurance of female chastity”; credit notes and lottery tickets circulating as money; wise and unwise investors from Alexander Pope and Benjamin Disraeli to Ivan Boesky and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

From the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, from the nineteenth century railway mania to the crash of 1929, from junk bonds and the Japanese bubble economy to the day-traders of the Information Era, Devil Take the Hindmost tells a fascinating story of human dreams and folly through the ages. Fair: Tidy condition.

The Tiger’s Apprentice Book One

$4.00

Tom Lee’s life changes forever the day he meets a talking tiger named Mr. Hu, and discovers he is the latest in a long line of magical Guardians.

From two–time Newbery Honor author Laurence Yep comes the first book in an action–packed fantasy series that has recently been optioned for film by Miramax!

Ages 10+

Ex Library: Binding is poor. but still readable.

Abbi Make Or Break

$5.00

This major new fiction series from Orchard takes the reader right to centre stage. Who doesn’t dream of becoming a star, having the audience love you, and being the best at what you do? Stage School captures the excitement, the angst, and the exhilaration of performing in a fine arts school. Ages 8-11. Very Good: Very tidy condition.

Last of the Wilds

$10.00

Although the architect of the White’s victory, Auraya feels no joy. Her days are spent trying to reconcile the Dreamweavers and the priesthood, while her sleep is filled with nightmares. The dead haunt her and the only one she trusts to help has vanished. Still struggling to come to terms with the increasingly powerful memories of the long-dead Mirar, the Dreamweaver, Leiard, flees into the mountains with Emerahl, perhaps the last of the Wilds. Emerahl is powerfully gifted, and helps Leiard to make sense of his strange jumble of memories. What they discover will change his life, and the world, forever … Very Good: Very tidy condition.

1788 Diary

$12.00

The first part of this book comprises essays, photos, and articles about Australia’s past and present. The second half of the book contains diary entries from 1788 written by Captain Arthur Phillip which were the unlikely pre-experiences of the founding of the nation of Australia. A historical treasure trove about Australia and its fascinating past. Very Good: Minor fading on the spine of the book otherwise in excellent condition.

Saint Camber Vol II In the Legends of Camber of Guldi

$5.00

The Final Sacrifice: Camber of Culdi, master of arcane Denyri powers, should have been content. When Imre’s evil reign threatened to destroy the Kingdom of Gwynedd, Camber had led the successful revolt against him and had found the last heir of the human kings to replace him. With the crowning of Cinhil, Camber’s work should have been done. But now Ariella, sister of the dead Imre, was plotting war against Cinhil. Only Camber could thwart her evil spells. Only Camber could guide Cinhil to unite human and Deryni forces. Cinhil, however, was in no mood to heed Camber’s advice. He was bitter and angry with Camber for having snatched him from his monastic cell and thrust him into this struggle for power. There seemed no hope for Gwynedd unless Camber could end the resentment of the King against him. And the only way to accomplish that was for Camber of Culdi to die! Poor: Creases on the cover, minor stains on some pages. Binding is good.

Who Was William Shakespeare? The Mystery of the World’s Greatest Playwright

$4.00

Everyone has heard of plays like Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But why do we know so little about the man who wrote them? Who exactly was William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, and why do so many people believe that he was not the person he seemed to be? Good: Very tidy condition.

Arctic Sounds Reader 5

$4.00

Takes the sounds from Sounds 5 Flash book and uses them in a story about the Arctic. Suggested level: preschool, junior. Good: Very tidy condition

The Saffron Runners

$8.00

Afghanistan, 1827. Suleiman stood in the carnage of his village. At twenty years old he was a man. “I am Suleiman! I take my birthright as Horse Master of all Farkhar”. He raised his sword, pointing west to Persia. “No longer will Prince Omid’s men plunder Afghanistan. We will follow you, Persians. We will seize your horses and restore our honour. We will invade!” Welcome to The Saffron Runners, the adventures of a bold band of brothers who make a fantastic journey from Hindu Kush to desert to fabled cities and back across the Border of Flags. There is only one thing on their minds: The horses. And only one Horse Master who can lead them. A tale of daring, deception, desperation and incredible action, The Saffron Runners will have your heart pounding as you urge the heavenly horses on, gallop with the drinkers of the wind, and thrill to hot-blooded chases spiced with mystery and romance … and always, always, the lure of a destiny to be fulfilled. Outstandingly well researched and brimming with historical detail. Good: Tidy condition

Eagle Strike

$6.00

Alex Rider has ninety minutes to save the world. Relaxing in the south of France with his friend Sabina Pleasure and her family, reluctant MI6 agent Alex Rider is finally able to be like any ordinary 14-year-old. Until a sudden, ruthless attack on his hosts plunges him back into a world of violence and mystery – and this time, MI6 don’t want to know. Especially when Alex tells them that Damian Cray – celebrity, human rights campaigner and the man behind Gameslayer, a state-of-the-art new games console – could be involved. Alex is determined to track down his friends’ attackers, even if he must do it alone. But it’s a path that leads to a long-buried secret – and a discovery more terrible than anything he could have imagined. Fair: Minor crease on back cover.

Arise My Love– Mysticism for a New Era

$8.00

Seamlessly blending history and philosophy, and with deep knowledge of Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu traditions, Johnston provides an exhilarating look at what a new Christian mysticism might be, and what it may accomplish. Good: Tidy condition

Iron Hand

$8.00

‘Edie,’ said George, ‘we’re going to do this together. I’ll be right there with you. Anything, anyone trying to get you is going to have to come past me first.’ But when George makes his promise he is not aware that high on the rooftops an unseen gargoyle is watching them hungrily, quivering with anticipation for the moment when it will unfold its stone wings and pounce. The thing on the roof knows that nothing is over; nothing is finished. Ironhand takes us deeper into the layers of un-London, the place where the good and the bad statues, the spits and the taints, walk and war. George and Edie must repay the debt which they owe the Gunner for his sacrifice. They must face unspeakable danger and doubt if they are to save him. This second title in the Stoneheart sequence by Charlie Fletcher will shake you with its imaginative grasp and vision. It is an epic excitement, not to be missed … Good: Tidy condition

Too Many Mothers A Memoir of an East End Childhood

$10.00

Too Many Mothers is the remarkable story of Roberta Taylor’s early life and the extended family that brought her up. Nanny Mary was the wily matriarch, who would do almost anything to survive, including stealing from her seven children. Her nerve, humour and sheer determination were also the glue that held the family together. Roberta was born to a father Roberta’s mother adored, but that she herself would never know. In this memoir, Roberta Taylor travels to the emotional heart of her childhood to reveal the lives led by the men and women who influenced her most in her formative years. Too Many Mothers is a portrait of an embattled family at war with itself and the outside world. From petty crime to pet monkeys, tender romance to emotional blackmail, illegitimacy, adoption and even murder, Roberta Taylor has written a bittersweet and ultimately unforgettable memoir of her early life. Very Good: Very tidy condition almost as new.

Hollow Man

$6.00

Fans of YOU on Netlfix will love Mark Pryor’s Hollow Man.

“As sharp and slick as a switchblade—both excellent entertainment and an acute psychological portrait. Add Mark Pryor to your must-read list—I have.” —LEE CHILD, #1 New York Times–bestselling author

Dominic is a prosecutor, a musician, and an Englishman living in Texas. He’s also a psychopath. His main goal is to hide his condition and lead a seemingly normal life in hopes to pay off his debts and become a full-time musician in Austin’s club scene. But on one lousy day his carefully-controlled world starts to shatter: he’s demoted at work and accused of stealing a fellow musician’s song. He also meets a beautiful woman in a lime green dress–perhaps the biggest threat to his safety of all. At her urging, Dominic hatches a plan to steal a van he knows will be filled with cash. He picks two friends as accomplices, insisting on no guns and no violence. But a security guard catches them in the act and simple theft turns into capital murder. Cracks start to show in the conspiracy and, with no allegiance to anyone but himself, Dominic has to decide whether to stick by his partners in crime, or let his true nature come out to play. Fair: Minor crease on back cover.

Maestra The Most Shocking Thriller You’ll Read This Year

$10.00

Judith Rashleigh works as an assistant in a prestigious London auction house, but her dreams of breaking into the art world have been gradually dulled by the blunt forces of snobbery and corruption. To make ends meet she moonlights as a hostess in one of the West End’s less salubrious bars – although her work there pales against her activities on nights off. When Judith stumbles across a conspiracy at her auction house, she is fired before she can expose the fraud. In desperation, she accepts an offer from one of the bar’s clients to accompany him to the French Riviera. But when an ill-advised attempt to slip him sedatives has momentous consequences, Judith finds herself fleeing for her life. Now alone and in danger, all Judith has to rely on is her consummate ability to fake it amongst the rich and famous – and the inside track on the hugely lucrative art fraud that triggered her dismissal. Very Good: Very tidy condition almost as new. DIFFERENT COVER

The Nymph King

$5.00

Females young and old, beautiful and plain, crave Valerian’s touch. None can resist his blatant sensuality and potent allure – until he steals Shaye Holling from a Florida beach and holds her prisoner in his underwater kingdom. Poor: Tidy condition minor marks on the cover.

A Mysterious Affair of Style

$6.00

London 1946. A decade may have passed since she solved the ffolkes Manor murder case narrated in The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, but Evadne Mount, herself the irrepressible author of countless bestselling whodunits, has aged as little as most fictional sleuths tend to do. And here she is again, in A Mysterious Affair of Style, seconded as ever by her loyal, long-suffering partner-in-detection, Chief-Inspector Trubshawe, formerly of Scotland Yard, on the trail of an even more fiendishly ingenious killer. Fair: Tidy condition

Fugitive Pieces

$6.00

A young boy, Jakob Beer, is rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city during the Second World War and taken to an island in Greece by an unlikely saviour, the scientist and humanist Athos Roussos. There, in the seclusion and tenderness of Athos’s house, they spend the last years of the Occupation in a precarious refuge made lavish with poetry and cartography, botany and art.
In the novel’s second part, Ben, a young professor and an expert in the drama of weather and biography, meets the now sixty-year-old Jacob and his ardent and glorious Michaela at the home of a mutual friend. The quiet elation Ben senses in the older man, and Ben’s own connection to the wounding legacies of the war, kindle a fascination with Jakob and his writing, disturbing the safety of his carefully ordered world. Fair: Tidy condition

Blood on the Tide

$8.00

Set sail for adventure and love in the next spicy fantasy romance from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash hit Neon Gods.

As a bloodline vampire, Lizzie has never had a problem taking what she wants, and right now what she wants are the family heirlooms that were stolen from her, a ship, and a portal home. Unfortunately, even that short list is impossible to accomplish on her own-and her allies have bigger things to worry about. When they rescue a selkie, it’s the perfect solution to her problem. Lizzie needs a guide through Threshold and the selkie needs her skin back.

Maeve didn’t choose to give up her skin-it was stolen from her. Now she’s in an uneasy partnership with a dangerous woman who seems more apt to kill than to share a kind word. It’s terrifying…and a bit alluring. Even though she knows it will end in heartbreak, Maeve can’t help being drawn to Lizzie.

Unfortunately, the danger to Maeve’s heart is the least of her worries. Good: Tidy condition

A Twist in the Tale Twelve Short Stories

$12.00

It is an alliance made in hell and it has just one purpose – the destruction of the president of the United States. Saddam Hussein is the instigator, but while he sets his plans in motion, a beautiful young Israeli girl, with a reason for revenge is being put in place by Mossad. Fine: almost like new very tidy condition.

Dragon

$4.00

FANTASY-WHEN THE JADE EMPEROR’S DAUGHTER FALLS IN LOVE WITH A COMMON COW HERD AND ELOPES WITH HIM TO EARTH THERE IS UPROAR IN THE CELESTIAL COURT.THE FURIOUS GOD SUMMONS THE STAR DRAGON TO FETCH HER BACK.BUT AS CONFUCIOUS SAY,THERE ARE MANY REVOLUTIONS IN THE CHINESE DRAGONS TAIL FOR THE STAR DRAGON,ONCE UNLEASHED,WILL SPREAD CONFLICT AND CHAOS WHEREVER HE GOES.AS THE LOVERS FLEE THE FATEFUL DRAGON SAVAGE WARS BREAK OUT ALL AROUND THEM IN ANCIENT CHINA.THE STAR DRAGON HAS SET IN MOTION AN INEXORABLE CHAIN OF EVENTS WHICH WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINIES OF ALL THE GIODS AND ALL MORTAL MEN. Poor: A well read copy, Binding is good. Minor creases on the cover.

The Age of Diminished Expectations U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s

$8.00

Paul Krugman’s popular guide to the economic landscape of the 1990s has been revised and updated to take into account economic developments of the past three years. New material in the third edition includes: – A new chapter–complete with colorful examples from Lloyds of London and Sumitomo Metals–on how risky behavior can lead to disaster in private markets.- An evaluation of the Federal Reserves role in reining in economic growth to prevent inflation, and the debate over whether its growth targets are too low.- A look at the collapse of the Mexican peso and the burst of Japans bubble economy.- A revised discussion of the federal budget deficit, including the growing concern that Social Security and Medicare payments to retiring baby boomers will threaten the solvency of the government. Finally, in the updated concluding section, the author provides three possible scenarios for the American economy over the next decade. He warns that we live in an age of diminished expectations, in which the voting publ

Bloodline of the Holy Grail The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed

$6.00

Did Jesus marry and have children with Mary Magdalene? If so, what happened to his family? Are descendants of Jesus still alive today? This extraordinary account of the potential family line that the author believes was born from Jesus Christ encompasses some of the most romantic, colourful and sacred territory of the past 2,000 years. From royal and suppressed archives, Gardner presents proof of the heritage of Jesus in the West and new findings on the long awaited discovery of the Holy Grail. Featuring all the charm and adventure of Arthurian romance, coupled with enthralling Rosicrucian and Templar disclosures, this work has a cutting edge of intrigue and exposure of conspiracy in the vein of Michael Baigent’s international bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Arrow). Bringing together revelatory insights into the descendant heirs of Jesus and his brother James, Gardner: Proves that there is an authentic line of succession from the sons of Jesus and James Documents a hidden legacy of the Messiah. Fair: Tidy condition

I Alone Can Fix It Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year

$10.00

The definitive behind-the-scenes story of Trump’s final year in office, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, the Pulitzer Prize winning reporters and authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller, A Very Stable Genius The true story of what took place in Donald Trump’s White House during a disastrous 2020 has never before been told in full. What was really going on around the president, as the government failed to contain the coronavirus and over half a million Americans perished? Who was influencing Trump after he refused to concede an election he had clearly lost and spread lies about election fraud? To answer these questions, Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig reveal a dysfunctional and bumbling presidency’s inner workings in unprecedented, stunning detail. Focused on Trump and the key players around him-the doctors, generals, senior advisers, and Trump family members- Rucker and Leonnig provide a forensic account of the most devastating year in a presidency like no other. Their sources were in the room as time

The Dice Man

$8.00

“The rules are all around you. The rules that stop you seducing your neighbour downstairs, that stop you hitting your boss, that stop you leaving your family and leaving the country. The rules that stop you living. The dice don’t do rules; the dice do life. Luke Rhinehart is a psychiatrist, a husband and a father, his life locked down by routine and order – until he picks up the dice. The dice govern his every decision and each throw takes him further into a world of risk, discovery and freedom. As the cult of the dice grows around him the old order fades: chance becomes his religion, the dice his god. If you haven’t lived the life of the dice, you haven’t lived at all. Let the dice decide. And roll with it.”–Cover. Good: Very tidy condition

300 Minutes of Danger

$6.00

10 stories. 10 dangerous situations. 10 brave kids. 30 minutes to escape. George is trapped in a falling aeroplane with no engine and no pilot. Milla is covered with radioactive waste and her hazard suit is running out of air. Otto is in the darkest depths of the ocean, where something hungry is circling… Jack Heath’s arresting book of short stories will fascinate and terrify during each full 30-minute countdown, as ten nail-bitingly dangerous situations play out right down to the last crucial moment. Who will live and who will die? Good: Tidy condition

Days of Rage

$4.00

Pike Logan and the Taskforce are used to being the hunters. But in this explosive “thriller that really thrills” (Publishers Weekly) from New York Times bestselling author Brad Taylor, they are the hunted…

Intent on embroiling the US in a quagmire that will sap its economy and drain its legitimacy, Russia passes a potential weapon of mass destruction to Boko Haram, an extreme Islamic sect in Nigeria. The Russian FSB believes the weapon, a relic of the Cold War, has deteriorated and is no longer effective, but they are wrong. Boko Haram has the means for mass destruction, which will be set loose upon a multitude of unsuspecting innocents on one of the world’s grandest stages.

Trying to uncover who might be stalking them, Pike Logan and the Taskforce have no idea what has been set in motion. But there is another secret from the Cold War buried in the Russian FSB, and exposing it will mean the difference between life and death for millions. Poor: Marks on the cover well read binding is good.

No Comebacks

$5.00

Deception, blackmail, murder, revenge – these are the themes of stories that move from London to the coast of Spain, from Mauritius to Dublin to Dordogne. Whether his subject is assassination by stealth, the cruel confidence trick or the cold shock of coincidence, Frederick Forsyth is never less than compulsive, the detail always authentic. Fair: Tidy condition

Nine Letters Long

$6.00

The thrilling sequel to The Red Cardigan, another paranormal mystery

Evie has a gift–a gift she’s not always comfortable with. But when Alex suggests they conduct a séance, Evie reluctantly agrees. The letters on the board start spelling out one name, C-A-Z, over and over, and Evie knows she’s been contacted again. A cryptic message with nine letters leads Evie to a family where two sisters, one living and one dead, share a dark secret that must be revealed. But is Evie strong enough to solve the mystery and reveal the truth in time to release both girls? Good: Tidy condition

Helping Charities

Easy Shipping

Trusted & Secure

Customer Service

Get to Know Us

News, offers & more for

Book Worms & Bargain Seekers