Books published by publisher Sam Short Books

"Congratulations on the purchase of this exclusive product, tailor-made just for you. It will provide you with years of continuous existence."So begins The Brain: A User s Manual, Marco Magrini s fascinating guide to the inner workings of one of nature s most miraculous but misunderstood creations: the human brain.This user-friendly manual offers an accessible guide to the machine you use the most, deconstructing the brain into its constituent parts and showing you both how they function and how to maintain them for a longer life.Cutting through the noise of modern pop psychology, The Brain: A User s Manual is a refreshingly factual approach to self-help. Written with a deft style and wry humour, it offers tips on everything from maximising productivity to retaining memory and boosting your mood.

Victoria was just 18 when she was crowned Queen in 1837 – a tiny figure, with a will of iron. Never was there so queenly a queen. She made Britain great and the people loved her for it.But in 1861 tragedy struck, when her husband Albert died. The little Queen loved dogs and cream cakes and the troops who fought her wars but most of all she loved Albert. Dumb with grief she hid herself away. Suddenly it seemed the woman who had made the monarchy so strong would destroy it.Could anyone persuade her to be Queen again?Short Books is re-releasing some of its finest writing as a newly designed series of six children’s biographies called The Great Victorians. These are entertaining and engaging stories of some of history’s most fascinating characters. They tell history in a novelistic, engaging way, a halfway house between storybooks and traditional history. There is abundant humour and drama too.With beautifully designed covers these books will catch the eyes of parents as well as children. Also published in a highly collectable set.

Crime Syndicate Magazine is back with nine of the hottest crime fiction short stories on the market today. This issue is full of variety with noir stories, transgressive stories, stories about betrayal and lust, heist stories, rock and roll stories and, surprisingly, baseball stories. Prepare to be entertained! A man bets big on the World Series while stuck on the wrong end of a kidnapping (or is he?) in Dietrich Kalteis's "Bottom of the Ninth."A couple of Hawaiian hoodlums are plagued by a negligent disk jockey on the night of their most serious heist to date in Matt Andrew's "The Song Remains the Same."There is no greater loyalty than that between a man and his dog, even under the darkest circumstances, in Mike O'Reilly's "Fight in the Dog."A lonely teen gets way more help than she bargained for in Preston Lang's "The Counselor."Samuel "Sugar" Cane is a hard man, but he's got a sweet spot for taking care of his own in Michael Bracken's "Sugar."Four British twenty-somethings seek Legendary status as they wreak mayhem on their town as well as their own lives, crossing nearly every line of decency imaginable, in Stephen McQuiggan's "Thunderstone."Gentrifiers learn the hard way how things work in their new Boston neighborhood in J.M. Taylor's "Secrets in the Snow."A pair of mysterious women, each with their own agenda, bring tidings of death with them everywhere they go in Jinapher Hoffman's "Jackpot Blue Thistles."A longtime store clerk remembers the rules as he prepares for the inevitable stickup in Nick Kolakowski's "Stickup."

From tunnels and railways to bridges and ships, Isambard Kingdom Brunel would stop at nothing to realise his amazing engineering ideas.Born at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Brunel had a brilliant brain for design, and never tired of building new and exciting things – the deepest tunnel, the longest bridge, the fastest train. For Brunel, the average and the ordinary were just not good enough. A perfectionist and a control freak, he would stop at nothing to complete a project, even when it meant taking hair-raising risks.Short Books is re-releasing some of its finest writing as a newly designed series of six children’s biographies called The Great Victorians. These are entertaining and engaging stories of some of history’s most fascinating characters. They tell history in a novelistic, engaging way, a halfway house between storybooks and traditional history. There is abundant humour and drama too.With beautifully designed covers these books will catch the eyes of parents as well as children. Also published in a highly collectable set.