Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Children of Men by PD James


The Children of MenThe Children of Men
Author: P.D. James
Format: Mass market paperback




Description:
The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction. Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly, his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.


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Ghost Rider by Greg Cox


Ghost Rider Ghost Rider
Author: Greg Cox
Format: Mass market paperback




Description:
Motorcycle stunt performer Johnny Blaze agrees to sell his soul to the demon lord Mephistopheles in exchange for his father's life and the safety of his one true love. Years later, their paths cross again, and this time Mephistopheles offers to release Johnny's soul if he agrees to become a host to the legendary 'Ghost Rider' - a fiery spirit of vengeance and justice - in order to defeat the demon lord's rival, the dreaded Blackheart, who promises to create a terrifying new hell on earth...


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The Secret History of Vampires by Darrell Schweitzer


The Secret History of VampiresThe Secret History of Vampires
Author: Darrell Schweitzer; Martin Harry Greenberg
Format: Mass market paperback




Description:
Garlic cloves and wooden stakes are no match for centuries of the undead's mischief and seduction. In this volume,13 original and imaginative stories reveal the vampiric truths behind certain historical happenings. Authors include Harry Turtledove, Tanith Lee, and Keith Taylor. Original.


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Spook Country by William Gibson


Spook Country Spook Country
Author: William Gibson
Format: Hardcover




Description:
Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a producer, and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

Pattern Recognition was a bestseller on every list of every major newspaper in the country, reaching #4 on the New York Times list. It was also a BookSense top ten pick, a WordStock bestseller, a best book of the year for Publishers Weekly, theLos Angeles Times, Newsday, and the Economist, and a Washington Post rave.

Spook Country is the perfect follow-up to Pattern Recognition, which was called by The Washington Post (among many glowing reviews), One of the first authentic and vital novels of the twenty-first century.


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Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong


Jesus for the Non-ReligiousJesus for the Non-Religious
Author: John Shelby Spong
Format: Hardcover




Description:
Bishop John Shelby Spong has been on a life-long quest to rescue the church from irrelevancy. In FREEING JESUS FROM RELIGION'S PRISON, he takes aim at the church's core belief: who is Jesus. He first strips the superstitious barnacles that have attached themselves to this incredible person: such as that Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, that his father was Joseph, that he did miracles, that he had twelve disciples, and especially that he physically rose from the dead.

Next Spong explains how these traditions arose by the early disciples seeing all he did through the lens of the Hebrew Scriptures. With these new revelations, we are then able to see the true Jesus, a heroic figure who revealed divinity through his humanness and can still guide us today.

In short, Spong breaks Jesus free from the idol religion has created and restores for us a revolutionary and life-giving figure we all need to meet.


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Sourcery by Terry Pratchett


Sourcery by Terry PratchettSourcery
Author: Terry Pratchett
Format: Softcover




Description:
All this books and stuff, that isn't what it should all be about. What we need is real wizardry. All is not well within the Unseen University. The endemic politics of the place have ensured that it has finally got what it wished for: the most powerful wizard on the disc. Which could mean that the death of all wizardry is at hand. And the world is going to end, depending on whom you listen to. Unless of course one inept wizard can take the University's most precious artefact, the very embodiment of magic itself, and deliver it halfway across the disc to safety...


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The Dark Tower Volume 5 by Stephen King


The Dark Tower - Vol 5The Dark Tower Volume 5 - Wolves of the Calla
Author: Stephen King
Format: Softcover




Description:
In the fertile lands of the East, the farming community has been warned the wolves are coming back. Four gunslingers, led by Roland of Gilead, are also coming their way. And the farmers of the Calla want to enlist some hard calibers.

Torn between protecting the innocent community and his urgent quest, Roland faces his most deadly perils as he journey through the Mid-World towards the Dark Tower.


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Things every SA man should know by Dennis Cavernelis


Things every SA man should know293 Things every SA man should know
Author: Dennis Cavernelis
Format: Softcover




Description:
This title is exactly what it says - a compilation of 293 snippets of knowledge for the South African man - from worldly wisdom and indispensable advice to good-humoured observation and trivial facts.

But it's not as straightforward as all that.

There's zombie-killing advice, wheel-changing advice and cigar-lighting advice. There are facts to remember, facts to forget and facts to drop at fancy dinner parties. Entertaining all round, this is the thinking man's light read.

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

In Black and White: The Jake White story by Jake White


In Black and White: The Jake White storyIn Black and White: The Jake White story
Author: Craig Ray and Jake White
Format: Hardcover




Description:
In Black and White traces the life story of Springbok rugby coach Jake White, right up to and including the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The first man to coach the Springboks for four successive seasons, White's rise to the top job in SA Rugby is a journey of intense determination to succeed against all odds: a troubled childhood, coming to terms with the fact that he would never wear a provincial or Springbok blazer, starting out as a school coach, to his eventual elevation to arguably the toughest job in world sport.

White takes readers into rugby's inner sanctum, where politicking and hidden agendas sometimes supersede the best interests of the sport, and relates the incredible highs and desperate lows of being part of the Springbok set-up.

Riveting, controversial, sometimes amusing and often unbelievable, White's story will both absorb and astound.


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The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown


The Diana Chronicles by Tina BrownThe Diana Chronicles
Author: Tina Brown
Format: Hardcover




Description:
"Intensely well researched and an un-put-down-able read, Tina Brown's extraordinary book parts the brocaded velvet and allows us an unprecedented look at the world and mind of the most famous person on the planet. A social commentary, a historical document and a psychological examination, written by a superb investigative journalist."

–Academy Award® Winning Actress Helen Mirren

Ten years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she “the people’s princess, ” who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?

Only Tina Brown, former Editor-in-Chief of Tatler, England’s glossiest gossip magazine; Vanity Fair; and The New Yorker could possibly give us the truth. Tina knew Diana personally and has far-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself.

In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them:   Diana's sexually charged mother, her scheming grandmother,  the stepmother she hated but finally came to terms with,  and bad-girl Fergie, her sister-in-law, who concealed wounds of her own.  Most formidable of them all was her mother-in-law, the Queen, whose admiration Diana sought till the day she died. Add Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ultimate "other woman" into thiscombustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.  


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Zhoozsh by Jeremy Mansfield


Zhoozsh by Jeremy MansfieldZhoozsh
Author: Jeremy Mansfield and Jacqui Mansfield
Format: Hardcover



Description:
For those who love to cook, and those who don't, comes this cookbook from one of South Africa's celebrity couples.

Chock-a-block with quick and easy recipes, humorous stories, travel anecdotes and a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the authors, this is a laugh-out-loud cookbook to be enjoyed in other rooms of your home, and not just the kitchen!


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The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters


The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette WaltersThe Chameleon's Shadow
Author: Minette Walters
Format: Softcover




Description:
This is the stunning new bestseller from Minette Walters.

When Lieutenant Charles Acland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries, he faces not only permanent disfigurement but also an apparent change to his previously outgoing personality. Crippled by migraines, and suspicious of his psychiatrist, he begins to display sporadic bouts of aggression, particularly against women, especially his ex-fiancee who seems unable to accept that the relationship is over. After his injuries prevent his return to the army, he cuts all ties with his former life and moves to London.

Alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a private world of guilt and paranoid distrust... until a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub... Out of control and only prevented from killing the man by the intervention of a 250-pound female weightlifter called Jackson, he attracts the attention of police who are investigating three 'gay' murders in the Bermondsey area which appear to have been motivated by extreme rage... Under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation.

How much control does he have over the dark side of his personality? Do his migraines contribute to his rages?

Has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancee claims?

And why - if he hates women - does he look to a woman for help?


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Beach Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones


Beach Babylon by Imogen Edwards-JonesBeach Babylon
Author: Imogen Edwards-Jones
Format: Softcover




Description:
How does it feel to live and work in the world's most beautiful and luxurious tropical island resort, surrounded by white sandy beaches and aquamarine seas?

How does it feel to exist in the lap of luxury when you're thousands of miles from anywhere else? And when the guests are some of the richest and most demanding people in the world, where do you find the energy every day to smile, smile and smile again? "Beach Babylon" takes you behind the scenes of the world of the five-star tropical island resort.
Do all of the stories which take place behind closed doors of the exclusive spa have happy endings?

What do the world's richest people expect from room service during their fortnight in paradise? What does the windsurfing instructor do to keep sane after hours?

In the bestselling tradition of her previous Babylon books, Imogen Edwards-Jones here investigates the rivalries and alliances between the staff at a resort where catering for the guests' every whim is only the beginning. With a cast of millionaires, celebrities, hangers-on and prostitutes, "Beach Babylon" takes you to a world where luxury is the norm and where excess somehow isn't always enough...


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Thabo Mbeki: A dream deferred by Mark Gevisser


Thabo Mbeki: A dream deferredThabo Mbeki: A dream deferred
Author: Mark Gevisser
Format: Softcover




Description:
This title is a story about home and exile. It is a story, too, of political intrigue; of a revolutionary movement struggling first to defeat and then to seduce a powerful and callous enemy, of the battle between unity and discord, and the dogged rise to power of a quiet, clever, diligent but unpopular man who seemed to take little joy in power but have much need for it.

By the time he retires in 2009, Thabo Mbeki will have ruled South Africa, in effect, for the full fifteen years of its post-apartheid democracy: the first five as Nelson Mandela's 'prime minister' and the next ten as Mandela's successor.

No African leader since the uhuru generation of Nkrumah and Nyerere has been as influential.

The author's long-awaited biography is a profound psycho-political examination of this brilliant but deeply-flawed leader, who has attempted to forge an identity for himself as the symbol of modern Africa in the long shadow of Mandela. It is also a gripping journey into the turbulent history and troubled contemporary soul of the country; one that tries to make sense of the violence of the past and confusion of the present.

As Mbeki battles, in the current day, with demons ranging from AIDS to Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and finds his legacy challenged by the ever-growing candidacy of his would-be successor Jacob Zuma, The Dream Deferred tracks us back along the path that brought him here, and helps us understand the meaning of South Africa, post-apartheid and post-Mandela.


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Hide and Seek by James Patterson


Hide and Seek by James PattersonHide and Seek
Author: James Patterson
Format: Paperback




Description:
It was the trial that electrified the world. Not only because of the defendant, Maggie Bradford, the woman whose songs captivated the world's heart. Not only because of the victim, Will Shepard, the world's most glamorous athlete. But also because everyone said Maggie had murdered not just one husband, but two.

And because in Maggie's world -- the world she feared and despised but could not escape, the world of the powerful, the rich, and the ruthless -- both death and life could never be what they seemed.

From James Patterson, bestselling author of KISS THE GIRLS and ALONG CAME A SPIDER, comes his most brilliantly realized thriller, a story that will shatter your expectations...and hold every last one of your nerves in thrall, with each twist of the plot and every turn of the page.


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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah


A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy SoldierA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Author: Ishmael Beah
Format: Hardcover




Description:
The first-person account of a 25-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy.

'My new friends have begun to suspect that I haven't told them the full story of my life. "Why did you leave Sierra Leone?" "Because there is a war." "You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?" "Yes, all the time." "Cool." I smile a little. "You should tell us about it sometime." "Yes, sometime."' This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

Ishmael Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.;By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty. Ishmael Beah came to the United States when he was seventeen, and graduated from Oberlin College in 2003. He lives in New York City.

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Monday, October 8, 2007

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown


Angels and Demons by Dan BrownAngels and Demons
Author: Dan Brown
Format: Softcover




Description:
When a scientist is found brutally murdered, Harvard professor Robert Langdon is asked to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. Realising it must be the work of the Illuminati - an ancient secret brotherhood sworn against Cathol

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Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell


Book of the DeadBook of the Dead
Author: Patricia Cornwell
Format: Softcover




Description:
The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning.

Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues offer expert crime scene investigation and autopsies to communities lacking local access to competent death investigation and modern technology. It seems like an ideal situation, until the murders and other violent deaths begin.

A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is found dumped in a desolate marsh. A sixteen-year-old tennis star is found nude and mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones before her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names ? and the pen may be poised to write her own.

The first name in forensics. The last name in suspense. Once again, Patricia Cornwell proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthral.

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Total Onslaught by De Wet Potgieter


Total Onslaught: Apartheid's Dirty Tricks ExposedTotal onslaught: Apartheid's Dirty Tricks Exposed
Author: De Wet Potgieter
Format: Softcover



Description:
For much of its time in power, the National Party government was bolstered by the direct involvement of its security forces. Ordinary citizens had no idea that their taxes were being used to fund unorthodox and even illegal operations, ranging from international propaganda campaigns to local death squads.

It was the government's total strategy against the enemy's total onslaught. Despite the efforts of a handful of intrepid journalists who began the process of uncovering the truth about apartheid, South Africa's recent history remains fraught with secrets.

Now, for the first time, investigative reporter De Wet Potgieter can reveal the truth behind some of the most enigmatic events in South Africa's past, from what happened during PW Botha's final cabinet meeting to the assassination of Olaf Palme.

These, and many other news stories of the time, are brought to light in this read.

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Ja, No, man! by Richard Poplak


Ja, No, man! by Richard PoplakJa, No, man!
Author: Richard Poplak
Format: Softcover




Description:
Ja, No, Man! is an eerily familiar portrayal of the life of an ordinary white South African growing up during Apartheid-era South Africa. Told with extraordinary humour and self-awareness, the author's story brings his gradual understanding of the difference between his country and the rest of the world vividly to life.

A startlingly original memoir that veers sharply from the quotidian to the bizarre and back again, Ja, No, Man! is an enlightening, darkly hilarious, and, at times, disturbing read.

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The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien


The Silmarillion by JRR TolkienThe Silmarillion
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Format: Softcover




Description:
The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion fills in the background which lies behind the more popular work, and gives the earlier history of Middle-earth, introducing some of the key characters.

The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's World. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.

The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

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Making Money by Terry Pratchett


Making Money by Terry PratchettMaking Money
Author: Terry Pratchett
Format: Hardcover




Description:
It's an offer you can't refuse.

Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Royal Mint and the bank next door? It's a job for life.

But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There's something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mint runs at a loss.

A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he's about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lot of people want him dead Oh.

And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies.

Everywhere he looks he's making enemies. What he should be doing is ...Making Money!

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The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall


The Russian ConcubineThe Russian Concubine
Author: Kate Furnivall
Format: Softcover




Description:
Junchow, China, 1928. Lydia Ivanova has a fierce spirit. Nothing can dim it, not even the foul waters of the Peiho River. Into the river's grime bodies are tossed - those of thieves and Communists alike.

So every time Lydia steals from someone to feed herself and her mother, she takes her life into her own hands. Lydia's mother, Valentina, numbered among the Russian elite until the Bolsheviks rounded them up. They took her husband but she managed to buy back her child and bring her to China.

But survival is hard. Even though mother and daughter live in the Whites-only settlement, no walls can keep Lydia in. She escapes to meet Chang An Lo, who saves her life once and is bound to her for ever .

But Chang has enemies who are hunting him down - Chiang Kai Shek's troops are headed towards Junchow to kill Reds like him.

Their all-consuming love can only mean danger for them both, but they are powerless to end it ...

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You've Been Warned by James Patterson


You've Been Warned by James PattersonYou've Been Warned
Author: James Patterson
Format: Softcover




Description:
A creepy thriller from bestselling novelist James Patterson.
Nanny and amateur photographer, Kristin, is plagued by a horrifying recurring nightmare.

In the nightmare she arrives at the aftermath of a shootout where she spies four bodies and a detective, and she can't help but photograph the ghastly scene. The following morning she is greeted with this very same scene as she walks to work.

Kristin's life is complicated: her lover Michael is a married man, and the father of the children she looks after. His wife is a nasty, icy woman.

But things are set to get worse. She starts seeing and photographing the ghosts of dead people on the streets of New York. Yet in her photographs the bodies appear to be transparent, just like the bodies in her nightmare.

Kristin feels like she's going mad, nothing seems to make sense...

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Brett Kebble: The inside story by Barry Sergeant


Brett Kebble: The inside story by Barry SergeantBrett Kebble: The inside story
Author: Barry Sergeant
Format: Trade paperback




Description:
When Brett Kebble was gunned down in his luxury sedan last September, police initially suspected he was the victim of a botched hijacking.

But within 24 hours of the death of this controversial mining magnate, no one believed that his death at the age of 41 was anything but a Mafia-style ‘hit'.

In the weeks that followed, sensational headlines laid bare Kebble's flamboyant lifestyle and unorthodox business deals, feeding frenzied speculation about who killed him, and why. In life, Kebble's image was that of an altruistic billionaire - patron of the arts, champion of black economic empowerment, urbane raconteur and generous host.

In death, he was exposed as one of South Africa's most cunning corporate confidence tricksters, a manipulative deal-maker who ran the major companies under his control as if they were his personal piggy bank.

In this title, the author investigates how Kebble maintained a R5-million-a-month lifestyle, despite zero visible income, and how he concealed hundreds of millions of rands of corporate debt. The title exposes many of Kebble's dark secrets for the first time, and explores his relationships with some of South Africa's ‘new elite'.

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The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma


The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin SharmaThe Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Author: Robin Sharma
Format: Softcover




Description:
An internationally bestselling fable about a spiritual journey, littered with powerful life lessons that teach us how to abandon consumerism in order to embrace destiny, live life to the full and discover joy.

This inspiring tale is based on the author's own search for life's true purpose, providing a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance and joy. It tells the story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life: following a heart attack, he decides to sell all his beloved possesions and trek to India.

On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he meets Himalayan gurus who offer powerful, wise and practical lessons that teach us to:- Develop joyful thoughts - Follow our life's mission - Cultivate self-discipline and act courageously - Value time as our most important commodity - Nourish our relationships - Live fully, one day at a time

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What Einstein Didn't Know by Robert L Wolke


What Einstein Didn't KnowWhat Einstein Didn't Know
Author: Robert L. Wolke
Format: Trade paperback




Description:
A "Washington Post" columnist offers a fun, fascinating guide to everyday science for those who never wore a slide rule or a pocket protector.

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What Einstein Told His Barber by Robert L Wolke


What Einstein Told His BarberWhat Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions
Author: Robert L. Wolke
Format: Trade paperback




Description:
Written in a humorous style, this book addresses such questions as "what really keeps and airplane up?" and "why do wet things look darker?" Wolke (chemistry, U. of Pittsburgh) provides simple explanations to complex phenomena like gravity and acoustics, as well as simple experiments to do at home that prove his points. Annotation c. Book News, Inc

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Around Africa on my bicycle by Riaan Manser


Around Africa on my bicycle by Riaan ManserAround Africa on my bicycle
Author: Riaan Manser
Format: Softcover




Description:
Cycling an average of 90km a day, often in extreme conditions on badly-maintained gravel and sand roads, being thrown into jail in Equatorial Guinea by aggressive and drunken border police, and facing possible death when taken hostage by drugged Liberian teenage rebels may not be a conventional idea of truly 'living', but, in November 2003, Riaan Manser rode out of Cape Town, determined to become the first person to circumnavigate Africa by bicycle. He thought it would take him a year - it took him over two.

At the end of 2005, he cycled back into Cape Town, 14kg lighter and having covered 36 500 km through thirty-four countries. Intending to use his journey to generate local and international awareness of the often appalling standard of living in Africa, Riaan was also propelled by a strong desire for African adventure, a desire that was inevitably fulfilled.

While Riaan's journey allowed him to experience some of the greatest generosity and kindness that he had ever encountered, often from the poorest of the poor, his adventures were also often of a more harrowing kind.

In Around Africa on my Bicycle, Riaan allows the reader to relive the toil, excitement and occasional terror of his journey - negotiating the Sahara and Libyan deserts, learning French, Portuguese and Arabic, eating monkey, rat and bat, standing in front of the pyramids, being awarded the freedom of the Red Sea in Egypt, feeding hyenas mouth to mouth, and standing on the highest, as well as at the lowest, points in Africa. Riaan arrived safely in Cape Town on 25 November 2005.

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Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard Branson


Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard BransonScrew It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life
Author: Richard Branson
Format: Softcover




Description:
Global entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has built a business empire and made billions and is renowned for his approachability and ability to challenge and succeed against the odds.

"Screw It, Let's Do It" reveals the lessons that have helped him through his business and personal life, like believing it can be done and that, if others disagree with you, try and try again until you achieve your goal; or that you must love what you do.

These and other lessons, with examples of how he learned them and how he's used them, are included in this stirring and candid look at his lessons from an exceptional life, which will inspire you to make a difference in your everyday life.

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Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts


Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts Shantaram
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Format: Softcover




Description:
In 1978, gifted student and writer Greg Roberts turned to heroin when his marriage collapsed, feeding his addiction with a string of robberies. Caught and convicted, he was given a nineteen-year sentence. After two years, he escaped from a maximum- security prison, spending the next ten years on the run as Australia's most wanted man.

Hiding in Bombay, he established a medical clinic for slum- dwellers, worked in the Bollywood film industry and served time in the notorious Arthur Road prison. He was recruited by one of the most charismatic branches of the Bombay mafia for whom he worked as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler, and fought alongside a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan.

His debut novel, SHANTARAM, is based on this ten-year period of his life in Bombay. The result is an epic tale of slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison torture, mafia gang wars and Bollywood films.

A gripping adventure story, SHANTARAM is also a superbly written meditation on good and evil and an authentic evocation of Bombay life.

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini


The Kite Runner by Khaled HosseiniThe Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Format: Softcover




Description:
Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting toumament, to prove that he has the makings of a man. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help him for he always helps Amir but this is 1970s Afghanistan and Hassan is merely a low-caste servant who is jeered at in the street, although Amir still feels jealous of his natural courage and the place he holds in his father's heart.
But neither of the boys could foresee what would happen to Hassan on the afternoon of the tournament, which was to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return, to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption

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Friday, August 3, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Adult Edition by J.K. Rowling


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Adult Edition by J.K. RowlingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Adult Edition
Author: J.K. Rowling
Format: Hardcover




Description:
'His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.'

With these words "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" draws to a close. And here in this seventh and final book, Harry Potter discovers what fate truly has in store for him after the moments of calm as he inextricably makes his way to that final meeting with Voldemort.

In this thrilling climax of the phenomenal bestselling series, J.K. Rowling will reveal answers to the many questions that her readers have been so eagerly waiting for.

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Thursday, August 2, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Children's Edition by J.K. Rowling


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Children's Edition by J.K. RowlingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Children's Edition
Author: J.K. Rowling
Format: Hardcover




Description:
'His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.'

With these words "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" draws to a close. And here in this seventh and final book, Harry Potter discovers what fate truly has in store for him after the moments of calm as he inextricably makes his way to that final meeting with Voldemort.

In this thrilling climax of the phenomenal bestselling series, J.K. Rowling will reveal answers to the many questions that her readers have been so eagerly waiting for.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled HosseiniA Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Format: Softcover




Description:
A gripping drama of beauty, destruction, sadness, and suspense, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is at once an incredible chronicle of the last thirty years of Afghan history, and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, and the salvation to be found in love.

Poor, uneducated Mariam is terrified and only fifteen years old when she is shipped off to Kabul to marry a troubled man thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, pretty fifteen-year-old Laila finds herself in the same situation when her intellectual parents are killed by a stray Mujahideen bomb.

Forced to forget the passionate love of her life, a boy she's known since childhood, Laila has no choice but to join that same loveless household with shy Mariam and the bitter husband they now share. In time, however, orphaned Laila and childless Mariam form a friendship that makes them both sisters and mother and daughter to one another.

When children are born into this household, the situation gets worse and worse - from shootings and bombings on the street, to physical abuse and starvation at home - and the women are put to phenomenal tests of endurance and strength.;In scene after suspenseful scene, Hosseini shows us just how a woman's love for her family can motivate her to overcome the most daunting obstacles, can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice.

In the end, we see, it is love - or even love's memory - that is often the key to survival. "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is the heartbreaking story of an unforgiving history, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love; it is a novel that lives on in the mind long after the last page.

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Spud: The madness continues by John van de Ruit


Spud: The madness continues by John van de RuitSpud: The madness continues
Author: John van de Ruit
Format: Softcover




Description:
But Spud is returning to a boarding school where he is no longer the youngest or the smallest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member and his house has a new clutch of first years (the Normal Seven). If Spud thinks his second year will be a breeze, however, he is seriously mistaken.

He is soon beset with women trouble, coerced into misguided late night adventures, and finds his dreams of a famous career on the stage in tatters after landing the part of the Dove of Peace in a disastrous house play production of Noah’s Ark. Hilarious, bitter-sweet, tragic and real, join Spud as he takes another tentative step forward while all around him the madness continues...

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Spud by John van de Ruit


Spud by John van de RuitSpud
Author: John van de Ruit
Format: Softcover




Description:
Cursed with parents from well beyond the lunatic fringe, a senile granny, and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has to forge a new life for himself in this foreign and sometimes hostile environment.
Surrounded by names such as Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud takes his first tentative steps along the path towards manhood. (The path, it seems, could be a rather long road.)

Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes us from illegal nightswimming to the cricket field, from ghostbusting to teacher baiting. He also invites us into the mind of a boy struggling to come to terms with a strange new world; a boy whose eyes are being opened to love, friendship and complete insanity

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The Secret by Rhonda Byrne



The Secret by Rhonda ByrneThe Secret
Author: Rhonda Byrne
Format: Hardcover



Description:
Once known only by an elite who were unwilling to share their knowledge of the power, 'the secret' of obtaining anything you desire is now revealed by prominent physicists, authors and philosophers as being based in the universal Law of Attraction.

And the good news is that anyone can access its power to bring themselves health, wealth and happiness. Fragments of The Secret have been found in oral traditions, literature, religions and philosophies throughout the centuries.

A number of the exceptional people who discovered its power went on to become regarded as the greatest human beings who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo and Einstein. Now 'the secret' is being shared with the world.

Beautiful in its simplicity, and mind-dazzling in its ability to really work, The Secret reveals the mystery of the hidden potential within us all. By unifying leading-edge scientific thought with ancient wisdom and spirituality, the riveting, practical knowledge will lead readers to a greater understanding of how they can be the masters of their own lives.

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Similar to:
Law of Attraction by Michael J Losier


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The Assault on Reason by Al Gore


The Assault on Reason by Al GoreThe Assault on Reason
Author: Al Gore
Format: Softcover




Description:

At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 per cent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism.

We live in an age when the 30-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry.

Related to this and of even greater concern is the current administration's lack of interest in the process by which the truth is ascertained - first among which are an embrace of open inquiry, in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.

How did the US get here? And how much damage has been done to the functioning of American democracy and its role as steward of its national security?;Never has there been a worse time for the US to lose the capacity to face the reality of long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment.

As "The Assault on Reason" shows us, there is precious little time to waste. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.

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The Woods by Harlan Coben


The Woods by Harlan CobenThe Woods
Author: Harlan Coben
Format: Softcover




Description:
Twenty years ago, four teenagers at summer camp walked into the woods at night. Two were found murdered, and the others were never seen again. Four families had their lives changed forever. Now, two decades later, they are about to change again.

For Paul Copeland, the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey, grief at the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Cope, as he is known, is now dealing with raising his 6-year old daughter alone after his wife has died of cancer. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career as a prosecutor distract him from his past traumas, but only for so long.

When a homicide victim is found with evidence linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of the prosecutor's family are threatened. Is this body one of the campers who disappeared with his sister? Could his sister be alive?

Cope has to confront so much he left behind that summer 20 years ago: his first love, Lucy, his mother who abandoned the family, and the secrets that his parents might have been hiding even from their own children.

Cope must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to the light. And can he find absolution?O;Once again Harlan Coben delivers his unique mix of powerful characters, lightning pace and twists in a stunning new novel about family, lost secrets and mistakes that can haunt a life forever.

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