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สุขภาพและรูปร่างที่ดีที่ผู้หญิงทุกคนต้องการและใฝ่ฝัน

2009-07-09T23:27:00.001-07:00

รูปร่างดีใคร ๆ ก็แอบมองในความสวย
วันนี้คุณสวยได้ถ้าคุณต้องการเปลี่ยนแปลงรูปร่างกับผลิตภัณฑ์นำเข้ามาจากประเทศญี่ปุ่น
ชุดชั้นในและถุงเท้า ซัมมิทควีน เป็นชุดชั้นในที่ทำมาจากเสนใย Elastic theraphy
เส้นใยบำบัดเพื่อสุขภาพและสรีระที่งดงาม ช่วยปรับและกระชับเรือนร่าง เคลื่อนย้ายไขมัน
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สามารถแก้ปัญหาเฉพาะจุดของสรีระได้ โดยไม่ต้องกินยาหรืออดอาหาร เหมาะสำหรับผู้ที่ไม่มีเวลาออกกำลังกาย

และอีกเรื่องที่กล่าวถึงก็คือ เมื่อมีอายุขัยมากขึ้นการรักษารูปร่างก็จะยากขึ้นตามไปด้วย
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ที่สำคัญออกแบบโดยหมอจีนฝังเข็ม ชุดชั้นในที่ดีผู้สวมใส่จะไม่รู้สึกอึดอัด สวมใส่สบาย ไม่อับชื้น
ไม่เก็บกักกลิ่น ระบายอากาศได้ดี ซักแห้งเร็ว และรู้สึกผ่อนคลายเมื่อได้สวมใส่ ทั้งยังยึดหลังให้ตรง
และเสริมบุคลิกของท่านนอกจากการที่จะช่วยปรับสรีระแล้ว ยังมีผลต่ออวัยวะภายในเป็นสำคัญ
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อันเป็นสุขภาพและรูปร่างที่ดีที่ผู้หญิงทุกคนต้องการและใฝ่ฝัน

ชุดชั้นใน ช่วยกระชับรูปร่างให้ได้สัดส่วน อก เอว สะโพก ดูสวยงามมากขึ้น เป็นสัดส่วนมากขึ้น : ชุดปรับสรีระซัมมิทควีน ผลิตโดยประเทศญี่ปุ่น ไม่มีขายอยู่ในห้างฯ พิเศษกว่า 089-0888298 , 081-7588475
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2009-06-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

เรียนรู้วิธีการสร้างรายได้ จากการทำงานโดยไม่กระทบ
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ต้องการคนร่วมงาน , หางาน , งานพิเศษ Parttime ,สร้างรายได้, รายได้พิเศษ ไม่ต้องลาออกจากงานประจำ ใช้เวลาว่าง ทำได้ทุกที่...

โอกาสที่ดีที่สุดอยู่ที่การตัดสินใจเลือกทางเดินของคุณ

ระหว่าง..........ชีวิต มนุษย์เงินเดือนที่นายจ้างแบ่งจากผลกำไรจากผลงานที่เราเป็นผู้ลงมือทำ หรือ "เรามีชีวิตเป็นเจ้านายตัวเองมีอิสระภาพทางการเงิน และมีเวลาอยู่กับครอบครัวที่เรารักมากที่สุดในโลก โดยไม่ต้องกังวลกับเวลาที่ผันผ่าน

โอกาสที่ดีที่สุดอยู่ที่การตัดสินใจเลือกทางเดินของคุณ

ใน ทุกๆ เช้า ของวันใหม่ที่เราตื่นขึ้นมาแล้วพบว่าเรายังต้องดำเนินชีวิตในรูปแบบที่ เหมือนๆกับทุกๆวันที่ผ่านมา คือต้องตื่นแต่เช้า ออกจากบ้าน ผจญกับปัญหาจราจร เพื่อไปให้ทันเข้างาน ตอกบัตรเข้าทำงาน แล้วก็ทำงานตามภาระรับผิดชอบที่ได้รับมอบหมาย พบเจอกับความเครียดต่างๆในการทำงาน ตอนเย็นเลิกงาน ตอกบัตรออก ผจญกับปัญหาจราจรอีกครั้ง กลับถึงบ้าน แล้วก็หลับไปด้วยความอ่อนเพลีย และเตรียมพบกับวันใหม่ที่ดำเนินชีวิตในรูปแบบเดิมๆ เป็นวงจรซ้ำแล้วซ้ำเล่าทุกวัน เราเคยสังเกตบ้างหรือไม่เราทำสิ่งเหล่านี้เพื่ออะไร? เพื่อที่จะให้สามารถดำรงชีวิตผ่านไปได้วันๆหนึ่งเท่านั้นเองหรือ ? เราต้องการชีวิตที่เป็นแบบนี้จริงๆหรือ ? ผมเชื่อมั่นว่าคนเราทุกคนมีความฝัน อยากจะมีชีวิตที่ดีกว่าที่เราเป็นอยู่ในปัจจุบันนี้อย่างแน่นอน แล้วทำไมไม่ลองหาทางที่จะเปลี่ยนชีวิตของคุณไปสู่รูปแบบของการใช้ชีวิตแบบ ใหม่ในแบบที่คุณอยากเป็น

มีสุภาษิตจีนบทหนึ่งกล่าวไว้ว่า “เดิน ทางร้อยลี้ต้องมีก้าวแรก” หากคุณต้องการเริ่มต้นสร้างความสำเร็จให้กับชีวิต ด้วยเส้นทางที่สามารถสร้างความฝันของคุณให้เป็นจริงได้ ภายในระยะเวลาที่ไม่ยาวนานเกินไป ธุรกิจเครือข่ายจะเป็นเส้นทางที่ดีที่สุดเส้นทางหนึ่ง ที่พร้อมจะเปิดโอกาสให้กับผู้ที่มีความมุ่งมั่นและตั้งใจจริงเสมอ หลังจากนี้ทั้งหมดขึ้นอยู่กับการตัดสินใจของคุณ เมื่อคุณได้มีโอกาสอ่านเอกสารฉบับนี้แล้ว และต้องการจะใช้โอกาสที่ดีนี้เพื่อสร้างอิสรภาพทางการเงินและเวลาให้กับตัว คุณเองและคนที่คุณรัก ผู้ที่แนะนำคุณให้อ่านเอกสารฉบับนี้พร้อมเสมอที่จะช่วย

ณ วันนี้ คุณกำลังทำอะไรอยู่ และทำแบบไหนอยู่ หากคุณยังมองไม่เห็นเป้าหมายที่ดีล่ะก็ คุณลองเริ่มต้นไปกับเราดูซิ แล้วคุณจะรู้ว่า เป้าหมายที่คุณตามหานั้นอยู่ ณ ที่แห่งนี้แล้ว

QI: Advanced Banter

2009-01-06T23:27:00.000-08:00

QI: Advanced Banter by Stephen Fry I absolutely love this book. I have hundreds of quotation books, but they almost all lack the editorial style of Messrs Lloyd and Mitchinson. The big difference is that quotation books are normally only really reference books, this one flows so that you find yourself absorbed and taken along by it.

Other reviewers suggest it's nothing to do with the TV show QI. I don't agree. John Lloyd and John Mitchinson dreamed up and produce the QI TV show, and you can tell the humour and approach is from the same place. The great thing about the TV show is nothing is off limits. If it is interesting and it is funny, it is in. From Greek philosophy to the profane and odd, anything goes. The same applies to this excellent book, and that, along with the Johns' comedy and editorial talent is why this is different from the others.

The White Tiger

2009-01-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga This is a hilarious,acerbic, unsentimental read about modern-day India, of villages and globalised big cities (Delhi, Bangalore), of venality and corruption.
I like the way the narrator, plays his part as downtrodden servant and driver so wryly and knowingly, although the device that the whole book is an open letter to the Chinese president does not really ring true.

This kind of humour and irony is difficult to keep up for book length but the author manages it superbly well, faltering only in a few places. The main problem with unrelenting irony is you feel no sympathy for the characters. Indeed, apart from the narrator there are only caricatures, and some of these verge on cliché through overuse by the end of the book.

Perhaps the best joke of all is that this book made the Booker Prize long list - as if to say this is far more than a good laugh. But this is emphatically NOT a literary novel. No single character stands out, most are two-dimensional. White Tiger has a feel of bringing us up to date on modern, globalised India, but I feel it skims the surface and does not really get us to the nub of people's hopes and fears about these changes. There are already many non-fiction books that tell us about the call centres, the shopping malls in Gurgaon and the IT outsourcing industry.

There is a message at the end, about the servant mentality, but it does not amount to a theme running through the book. Vikas Swarup's Q&A which came out a couple of years ago did a better job of combining humour with characterisation - his servant-boy perspective was more convincing than White Tiger and gave it better claim to being literary, although it had no such pretensions.

This book reads more as a humourous, satirical extended essay or magazine feature. This is no reason not to enjoy it. For Indian literary fiction there are others, such as Amitav Ghosh (also on the Booker list) a far superior writer but let's face it, not half as funny. White Tiger, it seems to me, is a cuckoo in the Booker nest.

The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

2009-01-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

The Gift by Cecelia Ahern I love Cecelia Ahern and I am always so excited when another one of her books is released. She is so young but writes so wisely. I watched the video of her interview on Amazon and she seems like a really nice person. I thought that the book itself was a really great read. I read it in 2 days (around work!) and loved it. I finally finished it in the bath last night and the water went cold because I wanted to finish my book!
The story is a story within a story. The first story is about a kid who throws a frozen turkey through his Dad's living room window (it is Christmas time) and the second story is a story told by a policeman to the kid with the frozen turkey. It sounds confusing but it really isn't.
Lou is a busy working man. He never has time for anything and always needs to be in 2 places at the same time. Enter Gabe. Gabe is a homeless guy that Lou gives a job to. Gabe is so efficient and he seems to be everywhere in Lou's life. Gabe offers Lou some tablets for a headache that essentially means that he can be in 2 places at the same time. His dream come true!
The story follows Lou through Christmas time as he learns a few valuable lessons. I think they are lessons that many people could do with learning. The story was totally unbelievable but the message wasn't.
Another great read by Cecelia and the story will stay with you for a while after you stop reading.....

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

2009-01-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson Niall Ferguson again here brings us a history that is informative, entertaining and sobering. Being published in the midst of a global economic meltdown, for a book such as this, is a mixed blessing, as a step too far on the bearish side may make the author look like a doommonger, whilst being even slightly bullish might look blinkered. Ferguson, though, seems to manage to pull it off, though that equally is a spot evaluation. However, though it's clear where his loyalties lie in the pro/anti capitalism debate, the balance of the narrative tends nevertheless towards the various shocks delivered to the system rather than towards the prosperity delivered, albeit still strictly speaking to a relative minority of humanity, by markets and their lubricant, money.

As it turned out, some of the ground covered was familiar territory to me, bringing together strands of other books I've read recently, including Findlay and O'Rourke's Power And Plenty, Bentley's A Book Of Numbers, Schama's The American Future and even Lonely Planet Andalucia.

But some of it was new. He gives the origins of ghetto (a geto was a casting, and the original ghetto was in Venice's foundry district); explains that a consol gets its name from "consolidated fund"; and confirms that "dollar" comes from the German "thaler", on which the Spanish based the piece of eight, the world's first truly global currency.

Ferguson is also adept at telling stories: his account of the First Opium War, for example, is probably the clearest I've come across, and in the chapter on housing there is an excellent explanation of how the development of securitisation by Salomons ultimately led to the sub-prime meltdown.

He's not always right. In a description of segregation in Detroit and the 1967 riots he describes Aretha Franklin as a Motown star, which she almost, but never quite, was. And the final chapter begins with speculation that the rest of the world has decoupled from the United States economically. Unfortunately time has not been kind to this notion, with only Brazil, it appears, unaffected so far (December 2008), oil down by over $100 a barrel from its mid-08 peak, and even China's growth looking very shaky. But if there are any signs that "His pages are hot with proof-stage tyremarks", as one newspaper review alleged, then Ferguson is not alone in his revisionism: after all, even the German finance minister got it wrong. And in mitigation, this is the man who ended a previous television series (Colossus) warning that the United States was "heading for a credit crunch".

This is not, to be sure, a technical book. Readers seeking more detail of some of the principles described should go to the likes of Brealey and Myers's Principles of Corporate Finance. However, Ferguson more than succeeds in achieving his objective of providing a foundation of financial awareness for the general reader, providing plenty of food for thought. Amongst the morsels on offer: in better days for Argentina, the other Harrods was in Buenos Aires; the birth of stock markets was in 17th Century Netherlands, a country now often reduced to two letters in "Benelux"; and he ultimately really hits the button marked Panic by reminding us of the consequences of al-Qaeda's effecting a nuclear strike, of a further Katrina-like event, or of inundation courtesy of global warming.

So, great book, and so much for the past, but what of the future? Ferguson describes himself as a "liberal fundamentalist", and certainly descriptions of him as "rightwing" look overdone. Nevertheless, there seems to be a faith implicit that capitalism can cure itself, counter to the standard Marxist analysis of a bankrupt and inevitably doomed system. So where, as Larry Elliott has asked, is the intellectually endorsed social democratic alternative? It is implicit, ironically, in the response of the US government, but the measures being taken by that and several other governments has the appearance of a huge geoeconomic experiment unsupported by any clear theory other than it is the opposite of what was done in the 1930s. What is needed is a Keynes for the noughties. I'm looking forward to reading Krugman's new work to see if that is where the gap is filled.

101 One-pot Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes

2009-01-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

101 One-pot Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes by B.B.C. "Good Food Magazine" Well I'm not sure if you are like me...single, busy, a pet to walk, work to do and a hundred other tasks to occupy so little available time?! But apparently I'm just the person that this book has been written for! I believe these BBC good cooking guide books have been around for a while. Though for some reason I havent happend upon them until now. Im the kind of person that 'thinks' he likes to cook great meals. I have bought loads of cookery books, Delia , Jamie Wotsits and the rest of the motley crew. But when you open those up and look at the ingredients list and some of the fancy techniques dictated...no way hose'! This little book is different. Sensible meals, ingredients that you can actually buy in the supermarket and basic cooking techniques that even I can handle! Very easy to use...to the point instructions and some lovely pics to show you exactly how your masterpiece will really look when you have finished the cooking...ermmmm well possibly! No, seriously, these books are really good and I may now get the whole series. A couple of quid a go..you cant go wrong.! Good luck!

Up to 50% off bestsellers in paperbacks

2008-11-30T23:11:00.001-08:00

Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama It is a rare privilege to have such a personal insight into the life and background of a prominent politician. Often it is written about leaders that nobody knows what they are really like as people. But in Barack Obama's case, it is laid out in quite frank detail in this book.

Like most people outside Illinois, I had not heard of Barack Obama until he gave his speech at the Democratic Convention on 27 July (it can be read on his website: www.obamaforillinois.com), and I was fortunate to find the last copy of his book in a Chicago bookshop in August. The opening of the convention speech is a brief outline of the background that formed the book. His father was a Kenyan who went to study in Hawaii, and his mother was living in Hawaii having grown up in Kansas. They parted company soon after Barack was born.

The book is about his childhood and how he adapted to life after his father left his mother. She remarried an Indonesian man, and they went with him to live in Indonesia for some years. Barack returned to the US to finish high school. After graduating, he went to work in Chicago among underprivileged black communities there before deciding to go to law school in Harvard.

Obama's style of writing is extremely personal and analytical of how he dealt with certain issues in his life - his absent father, the colour of his skin, the remarriage of his mother, how he learnt of his father's death, his work in Chicago, his decision to become a lawyer and his rediscovery of his roots in Kenya (including his grandmother, uncles and aunts, and various half-brothers and sisters). Despite having led a very different life in a different part of the world, I was regularly struck by similarities between his life and mine - and can only assume that every reader would have the same reaction.

On a slightly critical note, the book is written at times in quite a fictionalised style that took some time to get used to. It cannot really be believed that Obama remembered every word and pause in quite so many conversation (not to mention what he saw through the window during the many pauses in conversation).

That aside, this is a great book which appears not to have been written with an eye on a political career (future Republican opponents will doubtless make great play out of a small, passing reference to drug use). It was first published in 1995 when Obama was fresh out of law school, commissioned as a result of his having been the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. Even if his political star were to fade without the widely tipped shot at the 2012 presidency, I would recommend anybody to read his book.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama This is the first book by an aspirant politician, indeed the first political manifesto, (for that is what it is) that I have read cover to cover. (Perhaps, it occurs to me, I should read some of the works by serving British politicians, too, and not just rely on commentaries by journalists?) I bought the book the day after Barack Obama slipped up re-using the "lipstick on a pig" cliché, when, for the first time, McCain and Palin seemed to have achieved a significant lead in the polls.

Obama wrote this book to update his life story, including how he came to be elected senator for Illinois (he completed his first book "Dreams of my father" some ten years earlier), to offer an analysis of how modern American political life has become so polarised, but above all to state his personal and political principles. It would be easy to be cynical: his principles turn out to offer something to everyone, but this is the prerogative and the stategy of the political centrist. Economically, his liberalism demonstrates why Milton Friedman and others were forced to rebrand themselves as libertarians. He seems well versed in the pros and cons of state intervention, and clearly believes in the value of Keynsian-style state intervention, lamenting the breakdown of the New Deal consensus in the 1970s and 1980s. He does, however, go on record as recognising some of the limits of government. While he offers few concrete proposals as to what should be done, the reader does get the impression that this is a man who is aware of major issues and has thought them through in depth. Sadly but unsurprisingly he has not come up with any new solution to the problem that globalisation presents to American manufacturing and the American working class.

I was left with the impression that Barack Obama is a man of principle, but not one whose principles lead him to try to impose them on others. He recognises, for example, the abortion debate as being one of the most polarising in the US, and lays out his own pro-choice view very carefully, doing his best to respect the "social conservatives" who oppose his view. In one recollection he refers to how a pro-life doctor (but potential Democrat voter) who objected to Obama's implicit inclusion of him within the category of "right wing ideologues who wish to take away a woman's right to choose", and how, having thought the matter through, he changed this statement on his web site to a less confrontational one. Obama sketches out (but no more than sketches) a personal journey that led to his being baptised as an adult (his mother was not an adherent of institutionalised religion, but rather of spiritualist, new age inclinations). Cynically, perhaps, I was reminded of an oft-repeated statement that it would be impossible for an atheist to be elected to high office in the US. Obama believes in the separation of church and state, in accordance with the US Constitution; I do too, and perhaps therefore the privacy of his beliefs, whatever they actually are, should be respected.

Obama devotes a whole chapter to Race, although it is inevitably a backdrop to the whole book. He is of course aware that it is the colour of his skin that has given him the early prominence he has achieved. He tells us of his Kenyan cousins, the mainstream African American family of his wife Michelle, his Indonesian step-father and his white mother's family and mentions ethnic Chinese in-laws. He quietly implies that his background makes him both the epitome of the American dream and someone uniquely placed to deal with the domestic and international problems that confront the US, and to represent and to lead a multi-ethnic America. Not everyone is going to be convinced by that argument: he is certainly not guaranteed to succeed and, to be fair, he does not suggest that others with a less heterogeneous background could not succeed. His analysis of the condition of black America seems balanced - much progress made, but much more still to be made. My only concern for the US is that the programmes that he seems inclined to follow would involve a great deal more state expenditure. It is a shame that he has not put more effort into learning Spanish, acknowledging as he does the burgeoning Latino population of the US.

This is an excellent book. As a commentary on politics in the US over the past 30 years it is easy to read precisely because it is not done to any real depth. As a memoir by someone who is, at the very least, a remarkable man from a very unusual background it is uplifting. Whichever way we might prefer to see the Americans vote, I would hope that all would think it a loss to his country and the world if 2008 turns out to have been the high point in Obama's career. I was convinced that Obama is more than just an excellent public speaker or a politician riding high because of the novelty of his background. He is less beholden to interest groups than most contenders for the presidency. The USA could do a lot worse than bet on Barack Obama for the next 4 years - and I say that as someone who sees a good man in John McCain, too, (although I cannot but feel that he would have made a better president 8 years ago). As we enter the last 8 weeks of the US elections, this is the time to read "Audacity of Hope" if you have not yet done so.

Aliens Love Underpants! by Claire Freedman

Basically this book can be summed up as "Aliens come to earth and play with underpants, then they leave." We get a nice rhyming story and glorious pictures of Alien's playing with smalls. My 4 year old boy giggles the whole way through the story as he thinks it's very funny. It's good, it's fun, the story is nice, the pictures are great. 10/10

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne I'm sure that this is a book that most people have now heard of, especially with the film now released. However, it's probably approached with as least pre-information as possible. I prefer the synopsis that the book originally had..

"The story of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence."

It is listed as a children's book, but it's not for younger children, and it's certainly an adult book aswell. If you haven't yet read it, don't go searching the reviews, just pick up the book, and read it in the way it was intended.

The book is told in a simple manner, reflecting the innocence and naivety of Bruno. I believe it's meant to be read in the same way as a parable or fable, it's not meant to be a historically accurate text. To me, it was a simple, very effective piece of story telling, which brought me to a stand still, made me cry, and has stayed very much in my thoughts.

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?: And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions by Mick O'Hare

great for those who love bizare facts or those who your not really sure what to get for a present! does anything eat wasps is the best in the new scientist series though, but if your getting this for a fact lover then they will probably have that already! a great stocking filler!
my favourite is how long would it take to fill the grand canyon with milk?
about 20,000 years! if you want to know why get the book!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief is one of those children's books that has crossed over into the adult market and become subject to incredible word-of-mouth marketing. To be honest, I let it languish on my nightstand for 12 months, because I wasn't sure it would live up to the hype. I've read my fair share of books about the Holocaust and wasn't sure this one would tell me anything I didn't already know.

But the author, Markus Zusak, has created a wholly original story. First, the narrator is death, who talks in a kind of roundabout language, part all-knowing, part creepy, part loving.

And second, the main character is an ordinary German girl growing up in Nazi Germany who must confront many personal difficulties and traumas during the course of the Second World War. This is not so much a book about the extermination of the Jewish race under Nazi occupation, but the ways in which many Germans went about their ordinary lives at the time and the extraordinary lengths some of them went to save their Jewish friends.

The story begins with Liesel Meminger, a traumatised nine-year-old girl. It's 1939 and she has just witnessed the death and burial of her younger brother enroute to her new foster family in a town called Molching. During the burial Liesel picks up an object she finds in the snow -- The Gravediggers Handbook -- which sets up a lifelong love of books, even if she has to beg, borrow or steal them.

Her foster father, the kindly accordion-playing Hans Hubermann, teaches her how to read, and together the two of them pass many hours pouring over the pages of the gravedigger's instruction manual. Later, when the family takes in a Jewish man, Max Vanderburg, and hides him away in their basement, Leisel shares her love of words with him, too.

Desperate for new reading material, Liesel -- with the help of her blonde-headed friend Rudy -- rescues a book from a Nazi book-burning pile. Later she is introduced to an amazing private library, owned by the mayor's wife, which allows her to momentarily escape the dismal poverty of her ordinary day-to-day life.

But when the Nazis discover her foster father handing out bread to a march-through of Jews on their way to Dachau, their lives suddenly take on a more sinister, darker twist -- which no amount of book thievery can alleviate. When the Allied bombs begin to fall on their street, things get even worse and death begins to close in on Liesel, her family and friends...

The Book Thief is, without a doubt, an incredibly memorable story. The narrative voice is unique, and the style, which double-backs on itself and occasionally jumps backwards and forwards in time, is interesting if somewhat confusing at times (Would kids get this? I kept asking myself). Initially the staccato rhythm of Death's voice jarred, but I soon learnt to appreciate its whimsical charm. However, I enjoyed the story much more when Death kept his mouth shut and simply let Liesel get on with things.

The characters are great, too. Liesel starts off as a rather weak-willed creature, too terrified to even step out of the car when she first arrives at her foster family's home, but over the course of the war she turns into a feisty, courageous tom-boy, who isn't scared of tackling anyone who bullies her. And her best friend Rudy, who has an obsession with Olympic athlete Jesse James, is a suitable, dare I say lovable, ally.

I was not as convinced about the foster parents who seemed a little stereotyped -- the kindly, loving father; the foul-mouthed, bullish mother -- but I can understand that younger readers would enjoy the "good cop, bad cop" personalities.

The Book Thief is a deeply unsettling story and a truly moving one. I teared up over so many scenes that I couldn't bare to list them here for fear of running out of room! The ending is of the typical grab-your-tissues-and-sob-your-eyes-out ilk. But in reading this very long book -- perhaps a fraction too long, in my opinion (it meanders a lot in the middle) -- I never once thought I was being emotionally manipulated. Zusak does a nice line in letting actions speak louder than words, so that the reader gets to join the dots rather than have every little thing spelt out for them. I like this approach, if only because he treats the children to which this book is aimed with intelligence rather than patronising or speaking down to them.

A delightfully human book, haunting, wise and joyous by turn. I don't know why I waited so long to read it.

Harry Hill's Whopping Great Joke Book by Harry Hill

A treat for Harry Hill fans! Britain's favourite comedian, Harry Hill, loves jokes so much that he has put together a side-splitting joke book for all the family. Containing Harry's favourite jokes picked from the world's joke archive, it also features jokes written by Harry, including some brand-new ones written specially for this book.

Harry Hill used to be a doctor but not for a long time now. He's had many TV shows and tells jokes for a living. His hobbies are painting and drawing and occasional games of swingball.

our 8 year old loves this, and keeps going back to it and then comes attacking us with the jokes.

That's Another Story: The Autobiography by Julie Walters That's Another Story: The Autobiography

2008-11-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

That's Another Story: The Autobiography by Julie Walters

I was enthralled from the very first page.

Julie Walters is not only a brilliant actress, she is also an incredibly vibrant, interesting and honest writer. This autobiography is not just about Julie Walters, the actress, but is also a fantastic observation of growing up in the fifties and sixties.

The characters in Julie's life - her mother, her grandmother, her neighbours, friends - are vividly drawn, and even the most difficult people are portrayed through the eyes of genuine love and understanding. She portrays the richness, joy and sadness of her family life with an honesty that left me breathless. She is also open and honest about herself and her experiences, which makes this wonderful book even more of an honour to read.

She has such a great way of describing things and engaging the reader that I frequently laughed out loud and burst into tears - sometimes simultaneously!

If I sound a bit over the top about this book - I'm not. I've read a lot of autobiographies and this is the best I have ever read, bar none.

Having read this book I now understand what makes Julie Walters such an outstanding actress. She observes without judgement and seeks to understand always the 'whys' of what people do and say. Reading this book taught me something about myself - no mean feat in an autobiography!

I loved her joy and enthusiasm for all the experiences that being an actress brings, and she paints it all so vividly within the pages of this book. She seems utterly unpretentious and I would love to meet her!

In fact, having read this book, I feel I already have......

Dear Fatty

2008-11-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Fatty by Dawn French Dawn French doesn't need any introduction - she is a well known comedy actress, loved by many, and is most well known for being half of French and Saunders, and as the wonderful Vicar of Dibley.

What surprised me about this autobiography is the fact that the focus isn't really on her career, and her fame. It's certainly a large part of the book, outlining her early days in the Comic Strip, the films she took part in, as well as her recent roles.

However, the fascinating aspect of this book is the way that Dawn shares her life growing up, the relationships she's had, her heartaches and her joys. She fiercely loves her family, her friends, and her colleagues, and that shines through. (However, she most certainly does not like Madonna! ;))

The book is written as a series of letters, to various people.. a large proportion of these are written to her father, and it's easy to understand why, as he had such an affect on her. One particular letter had me in tears, and I was so glad to see Dawn reaching a type of resolution by the end of the book.. which did make for a good place for it to finish.

Dawn's voice is obvious in the book, you can almost hear her speaking it in your mind.. in her own unique style. There are serious moments in the book, but the humour that you expect is always there. Who else would write a letter to her niece, talking about her life ahead of her.. including what it may be like to have a big bosom?!

For anyone who has enjoyed watching Dawn French over the years, I would highly recommend this autobiography, not only as a peek into her life, but also as a better understanding of the sort of person she is.

The Big Book of "Top Gear" 2009

2008-11-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

The Big Book of "Top Gear" 2009 by Richard Porter

I don't even watch Top Gear that religiously but I bought the book for my brother for Christmas. I opened it to write a message in the cover and ended up reading most of it! I laughed out loud on so many occasions, it is SO funny!! As funny if not funnier than the show.

At My Mother's Knee

2008-11-26T19:07:00.001-08:00

At My Mother's Knee by Paul O'Grady This is the story of Paul O'Grady, presenter TV Actor and the alter ego of the infamous Lily Savage.

If you pick up this book thinking you are getting sordid wild tales of Paul and his famous friends then you are going to be disappointed, there is not even a mention of Buster!

This is Paul from the beginning to him turning 18. Here he tells the story of his life, growing up in Birkenhead. That small fishing village near Liverpool!! Paul tells brilliantly all the tales of his family and the sorts of tricks that any little boy gets up to when they are 4 or 5, as well as the tricks they get up when they discover girls (and boys!). Experiences of school and work will make you laugh out loud, and his experience with the church and Catholicism is also so philosophical and funny at the same time. What is apparent throughout this book is how all the characters of his life, his mum and her sisters have influenced his later life not just personally but in his character of Lily Savage.

The stories you hear him tell on television, are true (if slightly exaggerated for effect) they are so beautifully told in the book, that you feel you are with Paul as he wrote this.

So many `famous' people try and tell their story in one book, but I feel Paul has only really touched the tip of the iceberg I hope there is a sequel.......please Paul write another.....

Guinness World Records 2009

2008-11-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

Guinness World Records 2009 (Guinness World)

I first read the Guinness Book of World Records when I was kid back in the 70s, and it's comforting to see it still going strong. I'll say that I definitely preferred the old school text-heavy versions from back in the day to the flourescent lime, 3D photography, picture-fest of today. It's a new world we live in now, so I guess it's hard to fault the Big G for keeping up with the times.

As much as I've long loved the Guinness book itself, I was always a little disappointed that there wasn't a good resource written ABOUT Guinness -- its history, evolution, and especially about how it became the phenomenon that inspires people to carry out such dedicated acts of nuttiness. A few weeks ago in New York, I saw a book profiled in the newspaper titled GETTING INTO GUINNESS by Larry Olmsted. Olmsted is a journalist as well as a two-time GBWR record-holder, and I gave it a try. Well, it's the perfect companion piece to the Guinness book; it puts everything into context and lets you feel like a real insider. 300 pages of fascinating real life stories about the quest for Guinness recordhood, and Amazon has it for under nine pounds. I'll be giving them together as a gift to my nephew. Buy them as a tandem (which is what I should have done) and you'd even get free shipping with Prime!

Book used and new

2008-11-10T23:44:00.000-08:00

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

Ghostwitten is the debut novel by David Mitchell and is a true gem. This is the third novel I’ve read by Mitchell, the previous two being the fantastic Cloud Atlas and Number9dream. It’s tough for me to pick between Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas as my favorite. Both weave a narrative through multiple short stories that interconnect in a Robert Altman kind of way. Cloud Atlas is a bit more complex and subtle while Ghostwritten is far more raw and angry.

Mitchell has many gifts as a writer, the first and foremost being a natural storyteller. Whether writing about love, theft, quantum physics or Mongolian culture, Mitchell can rivet your attention to the page. He propels you through the narrative, plunges and dunks you with an amazing descriptive capability and empathy for his characters. I never felt cheated by any one of the stories or characters in Ghostwritten, which is amazing given there are ten distinct stories within the novel. One would think a few of these would be less satisfying and that Mitchell might have had passion for just 7 of the 10.

That is not the case with Ghostwritten. Passion is not a problem for Mitchell. And I mourned the passing of each story because I wanted more. Each did reach a satisfying conclusion, but you wanted to inhabit that world, that reality, for a bit longer, to experience more of what Mitchell had created. The odd thing is that Ghostwritten is not a ‘happy’ piece of writing, but instead an expose on the hideous things people do to each other. I say this is odd because it doesn’t seem depressing. The actions are frightening in sections, heartbreaking in others but the tone lyrical and ethereal, much like a ghost watching those that remain alive.

I was also taken with many turns of phrase by Mitchell, as seen in the July Quotation Contest. Here are the others I would have liked to have used if they weren’t already easily available on the Internet.

“Nothing often poses in men as wisdom.”

“Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present.”

“The human world is made of stories, not people.”

The last quote is apt given the composition of Ghostwritten. I’m partial to the more science-fiction themed stories of ‘Mongolia’ and ‘Night Train’. However, ‘Holy Mountain’ was a piercing and painful look at China’s evolution and ‘Petersburg’ a taut and powerful crime drama written from a unique point-of-view of a character unaware of the reality ahead of her. It’s akin to being in a movie theater and wanting to scream, ‘Don’t go out into the woods alone, that’s where the creature is!’

There’s nothing more for me to say other than to go and read Ghostwritten.

Stranger Passing by Joel Sternfeld

Joel Sternfeld’s Stranger Passing, a collection of sixty photographic portraits, is an art book worth buying. This is high praise for me, since I generally find art books useless. Bought with the best of intentions, they usually wind up unopened and coated with a layer of dust. Besides, they’re over-sized and don’t fit on any of my bookshelves.

To pull off the art book thing you need to have an Architectural Digest type living room with an attractive smoked glass coffee table. It’s not that I might not like a Van Gogh art book, but why get one when I can have a print on a wall where it can truly be appreciated. Heck, I can buy a calendar and marvel at a different masterpiece each month.

Stranger Passing is not the typical art book because you can’t find anything like it in your local mall. I discovered Sternfeld’s work by accident during an Ansel Adams exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). I quickly realized that I’d seen too many Adams prints in dorm rooms, hung by co-eds striving for culture, and that while striking, each of his photographs contained the same stark-nature-of-beauty theme. I’m not saying you can’t appreciate every tree in the forest but … I’d had my fill.

Clogged with people and unsatisfied I wandered into a room with huge nearly life size portraits, which upon closer inspection turned out to be photographs! I was immediately drawn to the detailed, quirky, gorgeous images that showcased people and landscapes from all walks of life. One would convey the harsh realities of the homeless while another would poke fun at American excess.

While Adams evoked a mood, Sternfeld provoked thought. Who were the people in these photographs? What were they thinking? What had brought them to that specific time and place? Each of Sternfeld’s photographs tells a rich story.

The cover photo of Stranger Passing is titled ‘Young Man Gathering Shopping Carts’ and portrays a teenager, standing in a parking lot cluttered with pink shopping carts, against the backdrop of an all too familiar generic strip mall. You can feel his repetitive discontent and nearly hear him grumble in a Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure accent as he collects the carts … again.

Some of my favorites in the collection include a young shirtless man standing in front of a colorful demolition derby car, newlyweds posing in a backyard with a flipped over kiddie pool and a colorful sari wrapped middle-eastern woman pumping gas.

You don’t need a guide to help you understand these photos. No pompous, overly academic explanations about brush strokes or f-stops are required. Vivid, accessible and fascinating, Stranger Passing is a sprawling collection that documents the changing American landscape through the experiences of Sternfeld’s subjects.

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland

If you know anything about music you know Douglas Coupland’s Eleanor Rigby is about loneliness. The classic (and great) Beatles song brought isolation and depression to the top of the charts. (As a side note, Squeeze may be one of the best at bringing sad lyrics to the masses in such melodic, catchy pop tunes. Listen to Up The Junction if you have any doubts.)

Sure enough, Eleanor Rigby follows the life of Liz Dunn, a fat, friendless woman approaching middle-age, who resides in a sterile condo, watching Law and Order reruns. In 1991 Coupland’s Generation X exploded onto the cultural scene, for lack of a better cliche. This was the cool book of my formative years and it was liberating to see the oversize pages with textbook like definitions on the edges of the pages, surrounded by images or logos like ‘Economy of Scale is Ruining Choice’ and ‘Eroticize Intelligence’. I still think of corporate cube farms as ‘veal fattening pens’ because of Coupland.

And it wasn’t just the gimmicks that made Generation X so good. The writing was solid and it felt like he was dragging you into the digital future of adjectives. Coupland’s ability to fuse the new cultural reality with traditional narrative was inspiring. He spoke the language of films like Repo Man and Buckaroo Banzai and the music of Nirvana.

So is this a review of Eleanor Rigby or Generation X you ask? I think you have to look at where Coupland entered the literary landscape to see the maturity of Eleanor Rigby. Coupland had stepped in to speak for an entire generation and in many ways got trapped there in my opinion. It took a lot of time (both in written form and otherwise) for Coupland to finally step away from that legacy and start to stand on his own without the reverberation of Generation X roaring in his ears.

I’ve liked most of Coupland’s novels, but there has been an ebb and flow. Eleanor Rigby brings Coupland back to the forefront with a cast of quirky and likable characters set against the themes of death and loneliness. As you would expect there is plenty of darkness in the novel, from disease to dysfunctional families and a broken foster care system. But amid all that charcoal is a very bright light, a lilting cadence and dialog, as well as a simple yet fantastic and twisting plot.

Eleanor Rigby reminds you how good you have it, and how many people don’t and to never lose that perspective.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell is a compilation of essays, stories and anecdotes with a theme of liberal politics and history. I’d been meaning to read Sarah Vowell for a while. She’d been mentioned in the same breath with David Sedaris whom I find hilarious and I’d seen her titles on a co-worker’s bookshelf. She’s got good taste which helped sway my thoughts. Throw in some love from Jon Stewart and it seemed that what I was really missing in my life was reading Ms. Vowell. (And what a great name for a writer eh?)

I enjoyed The Partly Cloudy Patriot, though I’m not sure everyone would, particularly if you have a conservative mindset. No, she’s not anywhere near the Augusten Burroughs nor David Sedaris in the out-in-left-left-field department, but she’s not really a moderate either. Let’s face it, she trekked to the Bush inauguration to show her displeasure for the way in which he was elected. Don’t get me wrong, I lean that way heavily myself and in some ways admire those who have the time and inclination to partake in the political discourse. But … I have things to do too.

Ms. Vowell is witty and amusing, but her writing feels more like she is sitting there telling you about this. That you’ve settled down into a non-corporate coffee shop drinking fair trade lattes and are getting the download direct from Sarah. Sometimes this works, and at others, it just doesn’t translate that well to the page. The historical and political vignettes are strong and fall in line with my politics, but I far more enjoyed some of her personal revelations and observations including her love of Pop-A-Shot and or detailed views on Tom Cruise (no it’s not what you think.)

There are real gems within the pages, in particular ‘Underground Lunchroom’ a discourse on the strange battle over an underground lunchroom in Carlsbad Cavern National Park. The Partly Cloudy Patriot is a satisfying read for any left leaning reader who enjoys politics, history and social commentary.

A Bound Man: Why We are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win

2008-11-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

A Bound Man: Why We are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele

In Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thoughtprovoking new book, "A Bound Man," the award-winning and bestselling author of "The Content of Our Character" attests that Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking quest for the highest office in the land is fast becoming a galvanizing occasion beyond mere presidential politics, one that is forcing a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America. Says Steele, poverty and inequality usually are the focus of such dialogues, but Obama's bid for so high an office pushes the conversation to a more abstract level where race is a politics of guilt and innocence generated by our painful racial history -- a kind of morality play between (and within) the races in which innocence is power and guilt is impotence. Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American mainstream: bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity. Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man. Says Steele, Americans are constrained by a racial correctness so totalitarian that we are afraid even to privately ask ourselves what we think about racial matters. Like Obama, most of us find it easier to program ourselves for correctness rather than risk knowing and expressing what we truly feel. Obama emerges as a kind of Everyman in whom we can see our own struggle to accept and honor what we honestly feel about race. In "A Bound Man," Steele makes clear the precise constellation of forces that bind Senator Obama, and proposes a way for him to break these bonds and find his own voice.The courage to trust in one's own careful judgment is the new racial progress, the "way out" from the forces that now bind us all.
A Bound Man: Why We are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele

Barack Obama: The Improbable Quest

2008-11-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama: The Improbable Quest by John K. Wilson

Barack Obama is quickly becoming America s most popular politician, and his run for the presidency has brought huge crowds at home and an unprecedented wave of international attention as well. Much more than a biography, this book is a political tour of Obama's legislative experience as well as his ideas about race, religion, and politics. Political writer John K. Wilson, author of four previous books including a study of Newt Gingrich, explores the reaction Obama has received from the left, the right, and the media. As the first presidential candidate from Generation X, Obama has generated an exciting movement of young people (who turned out in force for the Iowa caucuses) to support his campaign as he defines a new kind of broadly popular progressive politics. As improbable as such a quest may be this fresh new candidate may be just the right one to bridge not only generations but ideologies that often divide. Amid all the hype surrounding Obama, this book provides the first in-depth look at what he believes, what he represents, and how he might transform American politics.
About the Author
John K. Wilson is the author of The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education (Duke University Press, 1995) and How the Left Can Win Arguments and Influence People: A Tactical Manual for Pragmatic Progressives (New York University Press, 2001).

This blatantly positive profile of presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama presents the man, his positions and specific responses to the criticisms against him. Extensive direct quotes from the candidate himself plus 30 pages of footnotes buttress the book's powerful, if partisan, presentation. John K. Wilson, a former student of Obama's, omits some important things, however, it is only fair to note that some hot campaign topics (such as Reverend Wright) emerged after the book's publication. Wilson also makes a few odd comments (for instance, drawing a link between low black unemployment and the high incarceration rate under Bill Clinton). Still, he sets forth a compelling case for Obama and provides observations about the Senator's formative years, accomplishments and policies. He offers some good insights, for example, he discusses the role cynicism plays in politics and the role of white guilt. While Wilson sometimes gets carried away with his support of the candidate, he notes that both the far right and the far left have attacked Obama, so he must be doing something correctly. getAbstract recommends this to voters who want the story (albeit somewhat sunny) behind the candidate and to Obama supporters seeking more information about their presidential hopeful.
Barack Obama: The Improbable Quest by John K. Wilson

The Rise of Barack Obama

2008-11-06T17:57:00.001-08:00

The Rise of Barack Obama by Pete Souza

Pete Souza, an award-winning photojournalist, documents the rise of the charismatic Barack Obama from his first day in the U.S. Senate right up to the Pennsylvania primary in April 2008.More than 80 percent of these candid and stunning photographs, capturing private and political moments, have not been seen before.Souza provides extended commentary about each photo to place it in context and describe the scene and participants. Photo by photo, the viewer is allowed to examine the senator and candidate's path to the very cusp of history.

Change We Can Believe in: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise

2008-11-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

Change We Can Believe in: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise by Obama for America

Obama: From Promise to Power

2008-11-06T17:51:00.001-08:00

Obama: From Promise to Power by David Mendell

David Mendell has covered Obama since the beginning of his campaign for the Senate and as a result enjoys far-reaching access to the new Senator - both his professional and personal life. He uses this access to paint a very intimate portrait of Obama and his life pre and post Senate, including Obama's new status as a sex symbol now that going into a crowd to shake hands with constituents carries the added concern of being groped by women, and the toll this has had on his marriage.Mendell also describes the dirty tactics sanctioned by Obama - who has steeped his image and reputation on the ideals of clean politics and good government - to win his Senate seat by employing David Axelrod, a Chicago-based political consultant (consultant to the John Edwards' campaign) with what the author describes as 'an appetite for the Big Kill'. Mendell also positions Barack Obama as in fact the Saviour of a fumbling Democratic party, who is potentially orchestrating a career in Senate to guarantee him at the very least a vice presidential nod, if not a nod for the top job in 2008.

Should Barack Obama Be President? DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, AUDACITY OF HOPE, ... Obama in '08?

2008-11-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Should Barack Obama Be President? DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, AUDACITY OF HOPE, ... Obama in '08? by W. Frederick, Zimmerman

Barack Obama: A Biography

2008-11-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies) by Joann F. Price

This revealing biography traces the events of Barack Obama's remarkable life, from his upbringing in humble circumstances to becoming a presidential candidate.Barack Obama splashed onto the political scene with an inspirational, rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. From that night on, Obamamania was very real. He is bold and audacious; his rhetoric fiery, convincing and very compelling. He encourages cross-over appeal, discourse, affiliation, and has drawn many Americans, including today's youth, into politics. This is the story of a man of mixed race heritage who inspires, listens, compromises, and is often bipartisan. With a charismatic smile and a cadre of "change we can believe in," many believe that he embodies the American dream. Thousands have turned out to hear the dynamic senator from Illinois speak as he campaigns to become the next President of the United States.This revealing biography traces the events of his remarkable life thus far. From Barack Obama's upbringing in humble circumstances in Hawaii and Indonesia to becoming the fifth African American senator in U.S. history, and later, a presidential candidate, this well-researched volume highlights the hardships and successes, the people who most influenced his career, his personal life, and his meteoric rise to popular icon status. Rounded out with photos, a timeline, a bibliography, and an index, this volume is a must-read title.

The Faith of Barack Obama

2008-11-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield

This is a short book at about 130 pages (although with a 45 pages of appendices including texts of speeches) but it provides an excellent introduction to Barack Obama and the place that his Christian faith holds in his life. It briefly describes his upbringing by an atheist mother and Muslim father, his conversion to Christianity and his relationship with his mentor, Jeremiah Wright. The book doesn't delve deeply into Obama's political history but discusses a few of his political views and how they fit with his faith. There is a particularly helpful chapter which looks at Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and George W Bush and the way in which the faith of each of them works out in their lives.

The book was an easy read with some interesting anecdotes and no strong political axe to grind although I didn't feel that I got a very in-depth look at the character of Obama, he still felt somewhat distant. The book accurately portrayed the rising importance of Christian faith in American politics and showed the different ways in which the faith of the candidates can be demonstrated. It is a helpful resource for those interested in American politics and in the man who may well be the next President.

Barack Obama: Speeches 2002-2006

2008-11-06T17:36:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama: Speeches 2002-2006 by Maureen Harrison

Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama

2008-11-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama by Steve Dougherty

Barack Obama, the young black Democratic Senator for Illinois, is the rising star of American politics: the man who has emerged as the symbol of hope for America, and is now being touted as a candidate for the next Presidential election raising the possibility of the first black U.S. President...Obama's own books (a memoir and a policy book) have figured highly on the "New York Times" bestsellers lists, but this is the first biographic portrait of the man, written by a leading journalist and filled with more than 100 lively photographs. It provides an overview of Obama's life up to the current time: childhood; Harvard Law School; civil rights lawyer; early political career; symbol of hope; keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention; family life; issues; vision; speeches; and quotations. It explores "Obamamania" - the whole buzz about him, the comparisons with Bobby Kennedy, the turning of American politics and his running for President...No political figure on the American scene has generated as much interest as Obama has, and many compare his appeal to that of a rock star...

Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama by Steve Dougherty

The Audacity of Hope

2008-11-06T17:25:00.001-08:00

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
This is the first book by an aspirant politician, indeed the first political manifesto, (for that is what it is) that I have read cover to cover. (Perhaps, it occurs to me, I should read some of the works by serving British politicians, too, and not just rely on commentaries by journalists?) I bought the book the day after Barack Obama slipped up re-using the "lipstick on a pig" cliché, when, for the first time, McCain and Palin seemed to have achieved a significant lead in the polls.

Obama wrote this book to update his life story, including how he came to be elected senator for Illinois (he completed his first book "Dreams of my father" some ten years earlier), to offer an analysis of how modern American political life has become so polarised, but above all to state his personal and political principles. It would be easy to be cynical: his principles turn out to offer something to everyone, but this is the prerogative and the stategy of the political centrist. Economically, his liberalism demonstrates why Milton Friedman and others were forced to rebrand themselves as libertarians. He seems well versed in the pros and cons of state intervention, and clearly believes in the value of Keynsian-style state intervention, lamenting the breakdown of the New Deal consensus in the 1970s and 1980s. He does, however, go on record as recognising some of the limits of government. While he offers few concrete proposals as to what should be done, the reader does get the impression that this is a man who is aware of major issues and has thought them through in depth. Sadly but unsurprisingly he has not come up with any new solution to the problem that globalisation presents to American manufacturing and the American working class.

I was left with the impression that Barack Obama is a man of principle, but not one whose principles lead him to try to impose them on others. He recognises, for example, the abortion debate as being one of the most polarising in the US, and lays out his own pro-choice view very carefully, doing his best to respect the "social conservatives" who oppose his view. In one recollection he refers to how a pro-life doctor (but potential Democrat voter) who objected to Obama's implicit inclusion of him within the category of "right wing ideologues who wish to take away a woman's right to choose", and how, having thought the matter through, he changed this statement on his web site to a less confrontational one. Obama sketches out (but no more than sketches) a personal journey that led to his being baptised as an adult (his mother was not an adherent of institutionalised religion, but rather of spiritualist, new age inclinations). Cynically, perhaps, I was reminded of an oft-repeated statement that it would be impossible for an atheist to be elected to high office in the US. Obama believes in the separation of church and state, in accordance with the US Constitution; I do too, and perhaps therefore the privacy of his beliefs, whatever they actually are, should be respected.

Obama devotes a whole chapter to Race, although it is inevitably a backdrop to the whole book. He is of course aware that it is the colour of his skin that has given him the early prominence he has achieved. He tells us of his Kenyan cousins, the mainstream African American family of his wife Michelle, his Indonesian step-father and his white mother's family and mentions ethnic Chinese in-laws. He quietly implies that his background makes him both the epitome of the American dream and someone uniquely placed to deal with the domestic and international problems that confront the US, and to represent and to lead a multi-ethnic America. Not everyone is going to be convinced by that argument: he is certainly not guaranteed to succeed and, to be fair, he does not suggest that others with a less heterogeneous background could not succeed. His analysis of the condition of black America seems balanced - much progress made, but much more still to be made. My only concern for the US is that the programmes that he seems inclined to follow would involve a great deal more state expenditure. It is a shame that he has not put more effort into learning Spanish, acknowledging as he does the burgeoning Latino population of the US.

This is an excellent book. As a commentary on politics in the US over the past 30 years it is easy to read precisely because it is not done to any real depth. As a memoir by someone who is, at the very least, a remarkable man from a very unusual background it is uplifting. Whichever way we might prefer to see the Americans vote, I would hope that all would think it a loss to his country and the world if 2008 turns out to have been the high point in Obama's career. I was convinced that Obama is more than just an excellent public speaker or a politician riding high because of the novelty of his background. He is less beholden to interest groups than most contenders for the presidency. The USA could do a lot worse than bet on Barack Obama for the next 4 years - and I say that as someone who sees a good man in John McCain, too, (although I cannot but feel that he would have made a better president 8 years ago). As we enter the last 8 weeks of the US elections, this is the time to read "Audacity of Hope" if you have not yet done so.
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father

2008-11-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

This may be the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician.' - Joe Klein, Time * 'Whatever else people expect from a politician, it's not usually a beautifully written personal memoir steeped in honesty. Barack Obama has produced one.' - Oona King, The Times * 'Obama's writing is characterised throughout by a graceful eloquence, a generosity of perception and spirit rare in young men of many gifts and charisma...here is a testimony for the ages.' - Candace Allen, Independent * 'It is an almost illicit pleasure to be reading the unspun memories of a man who may yet become president of the US.'
Not a campaign booklet, but a frank personal insight
It is a rare privilege to have such a personal insight into the life and background of a prominent politician. Often it is written about leaders that nobody knows what they are really like as people. But in Barack Obama's case, it is laid out in quite frank detail in this book.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

Dark Knight Returns (Batman) (Paperback)

2008-09-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Batman: Dark Knight Returns (Batman) (Paperback) by Frank Miller is There's an interesting, seemingly neofascist strain in Frank Miller's graphic novels. 300 comes to mind as the most disturbing example of this, but The Dark Knight Returns isn't far behind. The story picks up around 15-20 years after Batman's heyday and he is in retirement. The world has gone amok and through a series of events, Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement. I won't go into the details, but by the end, Batman unites a group of street thugs into a coherent vigilante force who will "bring order" to the world.

This isn't a pretty vision of the world. It reminds me of a sort of Charles Bronson Deathwish universe where a solitary and borderline psychopathic hero will bring peace to the world through violence. I can't quite figure out Frank Miller's politics. He parodies Reagan and blatant militarism pretty harshly in The Dark Knight Returns, but also looks to extralegal solutions to crime and basks in ultraviolence. Miller's Gotham is hopelessly corrupt and he seems to think that only a fiery holocaust can cleanse it. He portrays liberals in a stereotypically Bronson-esque fashion -- always ready to coddle wrongdoers and let them off the hook. There are always horrific consequences to such actions. The hard-line, and only the hard-line, is the only real solution according to Miller. He recognizes the harvest of blood and terror that will ensue, but Miller feels this is necessary and justified.

Having said all this, The Dark Knight Returns warrants the praise it has received. It's storytelling is powerful and its vision of a corrupt world is appealing in a "Blade Runner" sort of way. The retelling of Batman is effective as a graphic narrative and there is a real sense of moral ambiguity. I disagree with pretty much everything Miller seems to believe in, but I felt engaged as a reader. I was willing to suspend my disbelief and horror and go along for the ride. In the end, I'm not sure that's such a good thing. I feel sort of corrupted and a bit more cynical about the world.

Batman: Dark Knight Returns (Batman) (Paperback) by Frank Miller

The Killing Joke

2008-09-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore There are two parallel stories going on here, both intricately connected. First, we see the Joker's origin. It's pretty tragic: he's an unemployed stand-up comic with a wife and new baby on the way. Financially down-on-his-luck, he becomes embroiled in a criminal robbery scheme. He then finds out that his wife and her unborn baby were killed the day of the heist. His accomplices force him to continue with the plan anyway. He runs afoul of the Batman and ends up taking a chemical bath, which, of course, hideously scars him. That's a really bad day and his life as he knows it is over.

The second story is set in the present day. The Joker decides to create another "really bad day" for Commissioner Gordon to drive him insane in order to prove that anyone, not just the Joker (or Batman, for that matter) would be driven insane when their world is brought to a sudden end. To do this, the Joker shows up at the Gordons' door and immediately shoots Barbara in the spine. The implication is that she was raped or at least sexually exploited as well. Jim Gordon is and taken to an abandoned carnival, stripped naked, and forced to look at photos of Barbara in her broken state. Despite all this, Gordon doesn't break. Despite all that he has suffered, he still wants to bring the Joker to justice by the book. That's a really pivotal moment. Batman rescues Gordon and has a showdown with the Joker when they both realize how inextricably linked they are. Great dialogue between them.

Oh and f you've ever wonder where Todd McFarlane got the idea for the evil munchkins in his Twisted Land of Oz series of figures, I'm pretty sure he took it directly from this book.

Just saw the new Batman: The Dark Knight movie and it's no exaggeration to say that they cribbed a significant portion of the dialogue between Batman and Joker from The Killing Joke, so the book is stil very relevant.

Great comic. Truly a classic if you're a Batman fan. Highly recommended.

Batman: Killing Joke (Paperback)by Alan Moore

Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-ass Solutions for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!) (Paperback)

2008-09-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-ass Solutions for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!) (Paperback) by Rory Freedman
"(s)equel to the fabulously successful diet book with attitude, this will inspire anyone to don their apron to see what they can whip up. Whether it's an easy after-work meal or a dinner party, the book contains 75 easy-to-make recipes from around the globe." --Look Magazine

"(t)he first Skinny Bitch book hit the headlines when Victoria Beckham was seen clutching a copy. With 75 easy, low-cal recipes this follow-up proves healthy eaters can have fun in the kitchen, too." --Glamour Magazine

"Victoria Beckham's a fan of the Skinny Bitch diet, so she'll love these low-cal recipes for girls on the go.
When this book first came out, Victoria Beckham was seen flicking through its pages with a bony thumb. What better endorsement can there be than that of the skinniest woman in celebville? Skinny Bitch in the Kitch should be endorsed if only for its ludicrous title. The sequel to the successful Skinny Bitch, in which authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin suggest giving up artificial sweeteners, caffeine and other foods that taste really good, this new book contains recipes from across the world that will apparently make you skinny.

Have Your Vegan Vake and Eat it!

I love this little book and its small enough to carry around (why do cookbooks have to be so big). An ideal book for a vegan beginner or those of love western style comfort foods (which I do!).
"In the Kitch" shows that you can have your vegan cake and eat it with recipes such as Cheezy Cream of Broccoli Soup, Potato and Pumpkin Curry, Stuffed Shells with Red or White Sauce, Dream Bars, Fresh Fruit Crumble, and Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes
There are more international recipes too such as Pad Thai and Japanese Soba Noodles with Steamed Vegetables and Tofu. No pictures but some funny ass girl talk between sections which I loved.

The Shack

2008-09-10T18:46:00.001-07:00

The Shack

Time to Rain on this Parade
I am certain that there is no other book I've been asked to review more times than William P. Young's The Shack, a book that is currently well within the top-100 best-selling titles at Amazon. The book, it seems, is becoming a hit and especially so among students and among those who are part of the Emergent Church. In the past few weeks many concerned readers have written to ask if I would be willing to read it and to provide a review. Because I am always interested in books that are popular among Christians, I was glad to comply.

First, a word about the book as it is written. William Young shows himself to be a capable writer, though I would not have believed it through the first couple of chapters. The book began with far too many awkward sentences and awkward sentence constructs (e.g. "One can almost hear a unified sigh rise from the nearby city and surrounding countryside where Nature has intervened to give respite to the weary humans slogging it out within her purview"). But as it went on and as the story took over the book became easier to read. The story itself is interesting enough, though certainly it lacks originality. The last chapter should have been left on the editing room floor and the final paragraph (before the "After Words") was a ridiculously terse attempt to provide closure to remaining plot lines. But on the whole the book is readable and enjoyable. Never does it become boring, even after long pages of nothing but dialog.

But Young did not write this book for the story. This book is all about the content and about the teaching it contains. The book's reviews focus not on the quality of the story but on its spiritual or emotional impact. Eugene Peterson grasps this, saying in his glowing endorsement, "When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of "The Shack." This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" did for his. It's that good!" Could it really be that good? Is it good enough to warrant positive comparison to the English-language book that has been read more widely than any other save the Bible? Let's turn to the book's content and find out.

The Shack revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips. Four years before this story begins, Mack's young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls. As the story begins, Mack, who has been living in the shadow of his Great Sadness, receives a strange note that is apparently from God. God invites Mack to return to this shack for a get together. Though uncertain, Mack visits the scene of the crime and there has a weekend-long encounter with God, or, more properly, with the godhead.

Young covers a wide variety of theological topics in this book, each of which is relevant to the theme of Mack's suffering and his inability to trust in a God who could let his daughter be treated in such a horrifying way. The author is unafraid to tackle subjects of deep theological import--a courageous thing to do in so difficult a genre as fiction. The reader will find himself diving into deep waters as he reads this book. Unfortunately much of this theology is simply inconsistent with the Bible. Young shares strange ideas on the Trinity, the way God reveals Himself to us, forgiveness and a variety of other topics.

Despite the great amount of poor theology, my greatest concern is probably this one: the book has a quietly subversive quality to it. Young seems set on undermining orthodoxy Christianity. For example, at one point Mack states that, despite years of seminary and years of being a Christian, most of the things taught to him at the shack have never occurred to him before. Later he says, "I understand what you're saying. I did that for years after seminary. I had the right answers, sometimes, but I didn't know you. This weekend, sharing life with you has been far more illuminating than any of those answers."

Throughout the book there is this kind of subversive strain teaching that new and fresh revelation is much more relevant and important than the kind of knowledge we gain in sermons or seminaries or Scripture. Young's readers seem to be picking up on this. Read this brief Amazon review as an example: "Wish I could take back all the years in seminary! The years the locusts ate???? Systematic theology was never this good. Shack will be read again and again. With relish. Shared with friends, family, and strangers. I can fly! It's a gift. `Discipleship' will never be lessons again." Another reviewer warns that many Christians will find the book difficult to read because of their "modern" mindsets. "If one is coming from a strong, propositional and, perhaps, fundamentalist perspective to the Bible, this book certainly will be threatening." Still another says "This book was so shocking to my "staid" Christianity but it was eye opening to my own thoughts about who I think God is." At several points I felt as if the author was encouraging the reader to doubt what they know of Christianity--to deconstruct what they know of Christian theology--and to embrace something new. But the faith Young reconstructs is simply not the faith of the Bible.

Because of the sheer volume of error and because of the importance of the doctrines reinvented by the author, I would encourage Christians, and especially young Christians, to decline this invitation to meet with God in The Shack. It is not worth reading for the story and certainly not worth reading for the theology.

The One Minute Manager

2008-09-10T18:43:00.001-07:00

The One Minute Manager (Paperback)

by Kenneth H. Blanchard

An essential read
OK, so this book is not the definitive guide to management, but reading it is guaranteed to change the way you think. I have no hesitation recommending this to anyone who wants to re-examine the way they manage people.

It may not suit everyone and it may not have all the answers, but I learned more from the hour-or-so it took me to read this book than on a seven day management course I attended recently.

It debunks the myth that management has to be hard, or that you can only be a nice guy or a 'company' guy. You can be both.

The main reason people criticise this book is not because the book is bad, but trying to force everyone to use this (or any single) method can never work. And do you really believe a book that bad would sell millions of copies?

And the £5 or so I spent on this book has already helped me get my £10k+ pay rise and promotion this year. That's value for money. Read this. You owe it to yourself.

Italian: Essential Language

2008-09-10T05:16:00.001-07:00

Italian: Essential Language for Short Trips (Lonely Planet Fast Talk) (Paperback) by Lonely Planet

Best for curious and independent-minded travelers'
When time is short, Fast Talk Italian gives you the essential language to:

do the sights & shop till you drop
book a room & order a meal
get from A to B fast
clinch that crucial deal
get your message across

Includes easy pronunciation of all words & phrases plus a mini dictionary of key words. Lonely Planets Fast Talk series provides you with all the basics for a short trip or weekend away in a practical pocket-sized format, making sure your stay is fun, easy and hassle free.

CHINESE FOOD MADE EASY

2008-09-09T20:29:00.001-07:00

CHINESE FOOD MADE EASY: 100 simple, healthy recipes from easy-to-find ingredients (Hardcover)
by Ching-He Huang

Ching-He Huang is one of the brightest stars in modern Chinese cooking in the UK. Each week in her new BBC2 series she re-invents the nation's favourite Chinese dishes, modernising them with fresh, easy to buy ingredients, and offering simple practical tips and techniques. These are brought together in this beautiful book to accompany the series. Drawing on the experiences of top chefs, her family and friends, growers and producers and celebrity enthusiasts Ching sets out to discover the best Chinese cooking in the UK today, introducing easy-to-make Chinese food to sometimes resistant Brits, and painting a picture of modern Anglo-Chinese life in the UK as she goes. Chinese Food Made Easy begins with some of the most familiar dishes from a Chinese takeaway menu - Sweet & Sour Prawns, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Chop Suey and Cantonese Vegetable Stir Fry, each with Ching's special and imaginative twist. Later we explore spicy Szechuan food: Noodles, Dumplings and Dim sum; Seafood; Fast Food; Desserts and finally Celebratory Food, where Ching presents a complete banquet of dishes to celebrate the Chinese New Year.Ching's knowledge, charm and enthusiasm shine through as she shares the 'basic principles' of Chinese cooking including some of the simple techniques and tips taught by her Grandparents for tasty results.

Using ingredients from high-street supermarkets and some imaginative suggestions for alternative ingredients, these classic Chinese dishes are updated, fresh and healthily prepared so that anyone can make and enjoy them.

Interviewed by Geoff Elliss for Radio Times

Is the Typical Chinese Takeaway menu really Chinese?
It’s certainly not Chinese home cooking. Some of these dishes do come from Canton – that’s because of the British connection with Hong Kong – but they’ve been westernised. Wherever Chinese food has gone in the world, it’s been adapted to use healthy dishes at home that are not laden with monosodium glutamate.

So what should I keep in my Chinese store cupboard?
You may already have corn flour and good-quality stocks. Add dark and light soy sauces, five-spice powder, black rice vinegar, a good chilli sauce to get you going and toasted sesame oil for dressing – for cooking I use groundnut oil. Some olive oils are too strongly flavoured and conflict with the Chinese flavours. Then the rest is fresh, including the typical flavourings: ginger, garlic, spring onion, chilli and coriander.

What about Stir-fry sauces that you can buy in jars?
I hate those. The only sauces that are OK in jars, if they are good quality, are oyster sauce and chilli bean sauce. They’re both proper preserved sauces. For sweet and sour sauce, use pineapple juice, brown sugar and ketchup for colour.

Should I be looking for Chinese Supermarkets?
I’m surprised and pleased to see authentic Asian products on some supermarket shelves. In general I’d say you have to experiment. You often find that even good brands do only one excellent product. I can recommend Kikkoman soy sauce, for example. That’s my honest opinion – they don’t pay me!

Can you give an example of the sort of thing you cook?
When I cook dinner at home, I’ll make a one-pot meal, chao mian, meaning "stir noodle" or chow main as you probably call it. Marinate some sliced chicken in five-spice powder and minced garlic for a few minutes. Cook noodles in boiling water – buy dried, long wheat-flour noodles; don’t bother with ready cooked. Drain and put to one side; you can toss in a bit of sesame oil to stop them sticking. Chop red pepper, bok choi and spring onion. Mince some ginger. Get your wok nice and hot. Cook the chicken until it’s fully opaque. Put to one side. Add the other ingredients, stir then and add a splash of water to create steam to help cook the veg. After about 40 seconds return the chicken to the wok, season with soy sauce, sesame oil, and add the noodles. And that’s it a modern, one-pot dish.

Not the same as other Chefs

These recipes really do work. My family have been cooking
Asian food for 15 years, and over that time, have accumulated
many Chinese cook books.There are no silly recipes in here.
Just quick and easy. The Chow Mein was plain sailing. I had
never seen a version of sweet n sour cooked like the
recipe, but it was so tasty. I like the way Ching
explains which sauces are essential in her cupboard
collection. There are no recipes which tell
you to marinate for 24 hours.Its all NOW,

and that is life....
If you have one Chinese cook book in your collection,
make sure it's this one, and ...impress friends with your
cooking. Ching makes it look easy, and it is!!

The Forgotten Garden (Paperback) by Kate Morton

How fairytale can have reverberations to the past

THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN is the second novel by Kate Morton; THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON being her first. Whilst I did not greatly enjoy THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON, I found THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN to be better.

The story revolves around Nell who, at the age of four, is seemingly abandoned by her mother. Found on the docks in Australia, Nell is taken under the wing of another family as they cannot bear for such a young girl to be left there on her own. Years later, Nell is told the truth that she is not their own, which of course causes her to wonder about her who her parents were and why she was left in such a way.

As Nell's story begins to unfold the reader is tossed from one age to another - Nell was abandoned in 1913, but the story goes back to 1900 and stretches to 2005 as Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, begins to trace her grandmother's story.

That is all I shall try and convey in regards to the plot - there are a lot of twists and elements which all finally draw togteher to make a whole, and doubtless other reviewers have likely tried to include more of these in their thoughts about the novel. So I shall now describe what I enjoyed about the story, and what I felt a little let down by.

First of all, this novel did not grab my attention from the very beginning. This book, so dense and heavy in your hands, is one which slowly grew on me. In the end perseverance did pay off, so do not give up straight away if the same happens to you. As more and more of the charaters are introduced, especially the time which involves the Blackhurst estate, my attention was hooked. Morton has managed to create more complex and satisfying characters, in my opinion, compared to those within THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON.

What I also loved about the book was the way that fairytales played such an integral part to the story. There is a magical sense to this book - the forgotten garden itself, the maze leading to it are just some ways Morton has achieved this. But she also includes a few 'fairytales' which are penned by one of her characters. This is an original way of adding more to the main body of the plot, giving the reader the sense that life is not always so greatly removed from such magical tales.

One of the reasons why I have not awarded the fifth star to this book is that there are times during Cassandra's hunt into the past that things feel just too convenient - as another reviewer said, the fact that an incredibly important part of Nell's story was discovered through a long forgotten letter did smack a little. But I suppose artistic licence has to be taken into account.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read - not too demanding but offering enough of what it is to be human for it to be engaging. Recommended as a summer read.

Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) (Hardcover)
by Stephenie Meyer

Breaking Dawn is going to be a phenomenon...

I am an aspiring writer, and after reading this saga i am absolutely insipred to become as well a writer as Stephenie Meyer. She combines two people with love that cannot be seperated. these books show that love hasd no limitations. I highly recommend these books to anyone who loves romances with a twist of fear and hope for anyone who needs it. even in the darkest of times will there be a dim light that shows that there is a hope for an even briter futuree. read these books ! and the host it's even better !

The Road Home (Paperback) by Rose Tremain

Another fine book from a true original

Rose Tremain can, it seems, do just about anything. Each one of her books is utterly different from the last, each creates a detailed and authentic world for her characters and their quests.

In The Road Home, Tremain tells the story of Lev, an Eastern European migrant worker who has left his village and travelled to England so that he can finance a better life for his mother and daugther. He takes with him his grief for his dead wife. There is an almost fairytale-like quality to Lev's chance encounters and where they lead him, although, that said, they also feel natural and possible; Tremain has always been good on the essential randomness of experience.

Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency - an ugly picture of the way we live now - but there is nothing polemical about the book. The world Tremain creates feels real, and she allows her characters to negotiate it, and make their compromises with it, in a way that is both convincing and very poignant. There is also a rich vein of humour that runs through the book, much of which comes from the stories about and conversations with Lev's friend Rudi, who has stayed back in the village.

The 1983 Granta list of best young British novelists famously includes: McEwan, Rushdie, Pat Barker, Amis, Graham Swift. Tremain was among this group but in my view remains a little underrated. Both Music & Silence and Restoration have found critical acclaim and broad readerships, but The Colour - a fine, fine book - did less well, and The Way I Found Her is a book far less well known than it should be. Almost alone amongst that stellar group of 1983, she hasn't yet put a foot wrong.

No Time For Goodbye (Paperback)
by Linwood Barclay

Fantastic first half, disappointing second

I'm with the reviews that say this book was very promising, but doesn't live up to its potential. The first half of the book was excellent - the action starts immediately, sucking the reader in; as the drama unfolds the plot seems to thicken, with some moments that were truly chilling to the bone. There was never a moment where I felt bored as the story moves with breakneck speed, and I managed to finish in one sitting.

The second half of the book was, however, a letdown. The story, while it cleverly ties up all the loose ends together, starts to border on the ridiculous in its incredulity and some of the characters seem to have been created for the sole purpose of slotting into the jigsaw very conveniently. Indeed, the story may have been salvaged had more of the characters been better developed: the main 'villain' in the story in particular was so laughably one-dimensional that I was hoping it was a red herring. The main twist in the story was good, one that you would never have guessed from the onset - but the writer eases you into it too gradually so that by the time it arrives, it feels as though it was almost predictable.

At the risk of sounding rather pedantic, I also became increasingly irritated by the unnecessary amount of swearing and the slangy style, mainly within the dialogue. For example, the writer frequently omits the first verb in a question, so that it reads "You going to pick her up?" instead of "Are you going to pick her up?". While I am not against swearing or colloquialisms at all, it feels odd to read such writing in print so many times and I feel that it degrades the novel somewhat to a second-rate genre. However, this may be just hair-splitting on my part and may not be something that will annoy everyone.

All in all, I feel that the basic skeleton of the book is based on a very ingenious idea, one that could have made a great novel. However, the writer's use of clichés and stereotypic characters means that this original concept was never realised to its full advantage. While this book, with its exhilarating and breathtaking speed, would be a good read on a plane journey, it will not be one that will be listed among the greatest of thrillers.

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox: 6 (Artemis Fowl) by Eoin Colfer

2008-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox: 6 (Artemis Fowl) by Eoin Colfer is As an ardent fan of Artemis Fowl from the first book onward, I was more than just a little excited to find out that THE TIME PARADOX was in the works. The previous book in the series, THE LOST COLONY, was one of my favorites, and it opened so many doors that I wanted desperately to see explored. After reading THE TIME PARADOX over the course of a single day, my reactions are mixed, but one thing's for sure: with Artemis Fowl in the mix, there's never a dull moment.

The storyline opens only a short while after the end of the previous book. Fourteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl has been out of his home time for nearly three years as the result of the events of THE LOST COLONY, and the world has changed around him. But the presence of younger twin brothers at Fowl Manor is not nearly as surprising as the fact that Artemis has managed to retain some of the fairy magic that he stole while in the time tunnel, making himself part magical in turn. Early on in the story, the readers find out that Artemis has used this small magic to mesmerize his parents into forgetting all about his three-year disappearance, and is learning how to control it for specific purposes.

So when Artemis's mother develops symptoms of several deadly illnesses overnight, Artemis's first instinct is to use his fairy magic to save her. When that fails, draining all of the magic out of Artemis, his first call is to Holly Short, reinstated Captain in the Lower Elements Police. Holly arrives and diagnoses Artemis's mother with a rare disease known as spelltropy, usually passed between magic users by the use of power. The only cure is the brain fluid of a silky sifaka lemur--a species that became extinct nearly eight years ago, thanks to the work of a younger Artemis Fowl desperate for money to fuel the search for his then-missing father.

Artemis is convinced there's a simple solution to this problem: go back in time using the magic of demon warlock No. 1 and steal the lemur from his younger self before returning to his own time. Of course, with Artemis involved, nothing could ever really be that simple. Nonetheless, he and Holly both make the journey almost eight years back in time to outsmart the ten-year-old Artemis and a group of Extinctionists bent upon getting their hands on the lemur--not to mention a mysterious third player who may be manipulating everyone from behind the scenes.

The storytelling is vivid, the jokes are always funny, the puns are horrendous in the best of ways. The repartee between Artemis and Holly gets better in every book. But for whatever reason, I didn't enjoy this Fowl adventure as much as I did previous ones. It seemed somehow like there was less at stake. It was an interesting ploy, since the "villain" Artemis faces off against for the first half of the story is himself, but a lot of the major weight of the story felt psychological.

Of course, there were the requisite explosions and high-speed cross-country chases, but the focus of this book seemed to be more upon the minds of the characters involved, particularly Artemis and Holly, and their relationships to their own pasts. That's not to say the book wasn't good--it just had a different kind of depth from the others, one that I probably couldn't fully appreciate on a first reading. Some of the doors opened in THE LOST COLONY were closed rather suddenly, in my opinion, or led down passageways I hadn't thought they would explore, so that the main developments of this book were not what I thought they would be at all. But then, what would be the fun of a predictable book?

If Colfer is one thing consistently as a writer, it's unpredictable, and this book is no exception.

Watchmen

2008-08-02T06:09:00.001-07:00

Watchmen (Paperback) by Alan Moore is It's hard to categorize The Watchmen. It's a graphic novel, to be sure, but it's got many layers to it. It's a period piece, set in the Cold War. It's an ethical treatise, pitting rival versions of morality against one another. It's an explication of human nature. It's a postmodernist deconstruction of the superhero genre. And it's many more things -- I suspect reading it again will reveal further levels.

Alan More and Dave Gibbons set their story in an alternative universe where superheroes are real, Nixon was elected for a third term,and the U.S.A. won the Vietnam War. The Superheroes, however, are not all that super. In fact, they're pretty pathetic characters whose powers are pretty much non-existent (with one notable exception). The plot centers around the death of several of these superheroes and a few of their rivals and twists into an incredibly detailed (and at times convoluted) story. There are also multiple subplots and numerous secondary characters as well as a comic within the comic and an intriguing text-based extracts from various primary sources set in this alternative timeline.

This isn't a book I enjoyed in they way I enjoyed some other graphic novels, and it's almost more akin to the comic equivalent of Franz Kafka. It's a disturbing and morally ambivalent universe that Moore and Gibbons create and the good guys aren't all that good and the villains are more pathetic than evil. Most of the heroes are pathetic vigilantes and their political philosophy is pretty much racist and fascist. Liberals aren't portrayed much better and come across as either hopelessly naive or as ruthless as their conservative counterparts. The illustrations do a great job of reflecting the atmosphere and Gibbons does a great job of recreating the style of earlier comics; there's a grimy and depressing quality to everything.

The Watchmen deserves its reputation and it deserves all the praise it's received. It won the Hugo Award and was named one of Time Magazine's top novels of all time a few years back. If you have a preconceived notion of comic books or superheroes, this book shatters everything you've thought about the genre. I don't think that everyone will appreciate this book -- there's just something odd and demented about it. I also found it a bit slow to get going but I think that's because I had trouble getting past my preconceived notions about superheroes. If you're patient with the book, though, and give yourself some time to reflect on the book once you've read it, you'll be more than rewarded.

Watchmen (Paperback) by Alan Moore

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

2008-08-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Batman: Dark Knight Returns (Batman) (Paperback) by Frank Miller

Batman: Killing Jokeby Alan Moore

2008-08-02T04:51:00.001-07:00