C. S. Lewis wanted to name his last novel “Bareface.” Now Doris T. Myers’s Bareface provides a welcome study of Lewis’s last, most profound, and most skillfully written novel, Till We Have Faces. Although many claim it is his best novel, Till We Have Faces is a radical departure from the fantasy genre of Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters and has been less popular than Lewis’s earlier works. In Bareface, Myers supplies background information on this difficult work and suggests reading techniques designed to make it more accessible to general readers. She also presents a fresh approach to Lewis criticism for the enjoyment of specialists. Previous studies have often treated the novel as mere myth, ignoring Lewis’s effort to present the story of Cupid and Psyche as something that could have happened. Myers emphasizes the historical background, the grounding of the characterizations in modern psychology, and the thoroughly realistic narrative presentation. She identifies key books in ancient and medieval literature, history, and philosophy that influenced Lewis’s thinking as well as pointing out a previously unnoticed affinity with William James. From this context, a clearer understanding of Till We Have Faces can emerge. Approached in this way, the work can be seen as a realistic twentieth-century novel using modernist techniques such as the unreliable narrator and the manipulation of time. The major characters fit neatly into William James’s typology of religious experience, and Orual, the narrator-heroine, also develops the kind of personal maturity described by Carl Jung. At the same time, both setting and plot provide insights into the ancient world and pre-Christian modes of thought. Organized to facilitate browsing according to the reader’s personal interests and needs, this study helps readers explore this complex and subtle novel in their own way. Containing fresh insights that even the most experienced Lewis scholar will appreciate, Bareface is an accomplishment worthy of Lewis’s lifelong contemplation.

From the author of the Mates, Dates series comes the first two books in a new series based on the classic game of Truth or Dare. As best friends Becca and Cat play the game, will they be able to handle the consequences that may test their friendship? Original.

Jools Holland has had a fascinating life. From playing on bomb sites as a boy in the East End, to skiving off school and then selling millions of records with Squeeze, the first twenty years of his life were eventful, chaotic and colourful. Then came The Tube with Paula Yates, the seminal live music programme that propelled him to fame. Over the following three decades, Jools succeeded in placing himself at the epicentre of a global community comprising just about anybody who is anybody in music. Through Later with Jools Holland, the longest-running music programme on television, he has given British TV debuts to countless now world famous bands. Packed with hilarious anecdotes written in Holland’s own inimitable style and laced with quirky insights and deliciously acute detail, this autobiography by one of Britain’s most gifted and debonaire musicians is not just for music fans, but for anyone who is looking for something several cuts above the conventional showbiz memoir.

The poems in Allison Joseph's latest collection are smart, shameless, and empowered confessions of the best kind. In semi-autobiographical verse highlighting in turns light-hearted and harsh realities of modern black womanhood, these poems take the reader down "A History of African-American Hair," visit with both Grace Jones and the Venus de Milo, send Janis Joplin to cheerleading camp, bemoan a treacherous first pair of high heels, and discuss "vagina business." Funny, but never flippant, and always forthcoming about the author's own flaws and foibles, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman is sure to keep readers entranced, entertained, and enlightened.

A witty, often satirical, A-Z medical encyclopedia, written by doctor and broadcaster, Michael O’Donnell whose barefaced approach to medicine is often serious but never solemn, and always entertaining.From an early age – his father was a GP in a Yorkshire mining village – Michael O’Donnell was aware of the oddities, uncertainties, life-affirming surprises and black comedy that make the practice of medicine so rewarding. His observations were enhanced when he worked as a GP in the ‘gilded south’ before becoming editor of World Medicine, rebel in residence on the General Medical Council, international medical journalist, and writer and presenter of over 100 television and radio medical documentaries.Inspired by a lifelong exposure to medical culture, and with tongue firmly in cheek, Michael defines, dissects and discusses a vast range of topics in his latest book. Including:• Arcanian: The approved language for discourse between politicians, NHS managers, and interdisciplinary in-depth strategic thinkers seeking to roll out a raft of innovative frameworks• Data: Information published in medical journals in lieu of thought.• Doubt: Apart from death, the only certainty in medicine.• Herbaceous fever: Obsessional state induced by overexposure to television gardening programmes.• Modernising the NHS: Striving earnestly to fix that which does not need fixing while not fixing that which does. • Patients: Quirky individuals put on this earth to thwart the plans of clear-thinking, well-meaning nurses, doctors, and health administrators. • Socialised medicine: Phrase US citizens use to denounce any healthcare system more equitable than their own.• Superstition: The irrational beliefs of other people. Our own irrational beliefs we call Faith