Tegan's Book Reviews: 2012

Saturday, 22 December 2012

A tale of murder, artistic rivalry and literary trickery; a chinese puzzle of a novel where nothing is quite what it seems; a narrator whose agenda is artful and subtle; a narrative that pulls you in and plays an elegant game with you. The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands. The names of the islands are different depending on who you talk to, their very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into vast musical instruments, others are home to lethal creatures, others the playground for high society. Hot winds blow across the archipelago and a war fought between two distant continents is played out across its waters. THE ISLANDERS serves both as an untrustworthy but enticing guide to the islands, an intriguing, multi-layered tale of a murder and the suspect legacy of its appealing but definitely untrustworthy narrator.

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. Across 1000 miles of Oregon desert his assassins, the notorious Eli and Charlies Sisters, ride - fighting, shooting, and drinking their way to Sacramento. But their prey isn't an easy mark, the road is long and bloody, and somewhere along the path Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for. The Sisters Brothers pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable ribald tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humour, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

Blue River Black Sea

The Danube is Europe's Amazon. It flows through more countries than any other river on Earth - from the Black Forest in Germany to Europe's farthest fringes, where it joins the Black Sea in Romania. Andrew Eames' journey along its length brings us face to face with the Continent's bloodiest history and its most pressing issues of race and identity. As he travels - by bicycle, horse, boat and on foot - Eames finds himself seeking a bed for the night with minor royalty, hitching a ride on a Serbian barge captained by a man called Attila and getting up close and personal with a bull in rural Romania. He meets would-be kings and walks with gypsies, and finally rows his way beyond the borders of Europe entirely.

Take four friends...Rianne: beautiful, wealthy and thoroughly spoilt, she has the world at her feet but is about to risk everything. Gabrielle: intelligent, loyal and always worrying about everyone else, now it's time for her to start looking after No.1. Nathalie: petite, pretty and with a shrewd eye for business, she uses her work to help her forget the one man she can't have. Charmaine: flirty and outrageous, she knows all about the good life. She just needs someone to pay for it...Then a chance encounter changes everything - and for Rianne and her friends, nothing is going to be the same again..

Something strange occurs to guests as soon as they check in. Even if in real life they are perfectly well-mannered, decent people with proper balanced relationships, as soon as they spin through the revolving hotel doors the normal rules of behaviour no longer seem to apply.' All of the following is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

More Mouse Tales: - David Koenig

More Mouse tales, is a behind the scenes peek at disneyland. Stories that outsiders don't always get to hear. From how the cast members portray it. Its a follow up book to Mouse tales, written ten years later to follow up and give you more insight on the previous book.

For ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them. Along the way Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people, and considers whether he's learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them. Has he manipulated the people he's interviewed, or have they manipulated him? From his Las Vegas base, Louis revisits the assorted dreamers and outlaws who have been his TV feeding ground. Attempting to understand a little about himself and the workings of his own mind, Louis considers questions such as: What is the difference between pathology and 'normal' weirdness? Is there something particularly weird about Americans? What does it mean to be weird, or 'to be yourself'? And do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

A young woman is murdered in her flat and a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star is found behind her eyelid. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case, alongside his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on his final warning and has little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor when it becomes apparent that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands.

How much do you know about what really goes on at your local supermarket? We see them every week and they are privy to some of our most intimate secrets - those we wouldn't even share with our closest friends. To us they are the anonymous helpers for whom nothing is too much trouble. But for them, every customer has a part in a gripping soap-opera of lovers' tiffs, family feuds and extraordinary innuendos - turning the daily life of a checkout girl into a hilariously entertaining farce. As we began to contend with the recession, Tazeen Ahmad realised that the supermarket checkout was the perfect place to gauge how the nation was coping with increasing job cuts, sky-high food prices and a billion pound hole in our economy. The answer, it turns out, was with white bread, ice cream and lots and lots of potatoes. Sworn at, flirted with and at the receiving end of endless customer rants.

There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, a great interest in all things literary - and a woman called Thursday Next.

Perfect People - Peter James

John and Naomi Klaesson are grieving the death of their four- year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but when they find out they are both carriers of a rogue gene, they realize the odds of their next child contracting the same disease are high. Then they hear about geneticist, Doctor Leo Dettore. He has methods that can spare them the heartache of ever losing another child to any disease - even if his methods are more than they can afford. At his clinic is where their nightmare begins. They should have realized something was wrong when they saw the list. Choices of eye colour, hair, sporting abilities. They can literally design their child. Now it's too late to turn back. Naomi is pregnant, and already something is badly wrong ...

I don't know how to tell you what I did. Would you read a letter never meant to be opened? Would you want to know secrets never meant to be told? Or should a woman's mistakes stay buried? An unfinished letter was hidden amongst Tara and Emerson's best friend's things after her suicide. Noelle was the woman they entrusted to deliver their precious babies into the world, a beloved friend. Her suicide shocked them both. But her legacy could destroy them. For her letter reveals a terrible secret that challenges everything they thought they knew. Taking them on a journey that will irrevocably change their own lives and the life of a desperate stranger forever.

The Invisible Gorilla - Christopher Chabris, Daniel J. Simons

If a gorilla walked out into the middle of a basketball pitch, you'd notice it. Wouldn't you? If a serious violent crime took place just next to you, you'd remember it, right? The Invisible Gorilla is a fascinating look at the unbelievable, yet routine tricks that your brain plays on you. In an award-winning and groundbreaking study, psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons asked volunteers to watch a 60-second film of a group of students playing basketball and told them to count the number of passes made. About halfway through, a woman dressed head to toe in a gorilla outfit slowly moved to centre screen, beat her chest at the camera, and casually strolled away. Unbelievably, almost half of the volunteers missed the gorilla. As this astonishing and utterly unique new book demonstrates, exactly the same kind of mental illusion that causes people to miss the gorilla can also explain why many other things, including why: / honest eyewitness testimony can convict innocent defendants / expert money managers suddenly lose billions / Homer Simpson has much to teach you about clear thinking Insightful, witty, and fascinating, The Invisible Gorilla closely examines the false impressions that most profoundly influence our lives and gives practical advice on how we can minimize their negative impact.

In Africa "only food runs...and there's nothing you can outrun!" Peter Allison works as a top safari guide in the Okavango Delta. In this oasis of wetland in the middle of the Kalahari desert, rich with wildlife, he caters to the whims of his wealthy clients, he often has to overcome the impulse to run as far away from them as he can, as these tourists are sometimes more dangerous than a pride of lions! Full of outrageous-but-true tales of the people and animals he has encountered - the half-naked missing member of the British royal family; the squirrel that overdosed on malaria pills; the monkeys with an underwear fetish; and last, but by no means least, "Spielberg" the video-obsessed Japanese tourist

Allison's hilarious stories reveal his good-natured scorn for himself, as well as others. Allison's humour is exceeded only by his love and respect for the animals, and his goal is to limit any negative exposure by planning trips that are minimally invasive - unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way, as he and his clients discover to their cost when they find themselves up to their necks in a hippo-infested watering hole! Full of essential wisdom like "Don't run,whatever you do" and "never stand behind a frightened zebra" (they are prone to explosive flatulence when scared!), this is a wonderful and vivid portrait of what the life of a safari guide is really like.

Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and just when she's about to get her heart's desire, tragedy destroys her world. In the aftermath of loss and divorce, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist. Working with Vanessa, she finds their relationship moving from business, to friendship, and then - to Zoe's surprise - blossoming into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of children again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that she and her husband never used. But Max, having sought peace at the bottom of a bottle, has found redemption in an evangelical church, and Zoe needs his permission to take his unborn child ...

America Unchained - Dave Gorman

The plan was simple. Go to America. Buy a second-hand car. Drive coast-to-coast without giving any money to The Man. What could possibly go wrong? Dismayed by the relentless onslaught of faceless American chains muscling in where local businesses had once thrived, Dave Gorman set off on the ultimate American road trip - in search of the true, independent heart of the US of A. He would eat cherry pie from local diners, re-fuel at dusty gas stations and stock up on supplies from Mom and Pop's grocery store. At least that was the idea. But when did you last see an independent gas station? Gamely, Dave beds down in a Colorado trailer park, sleeps in an Oregon forest treehouse, and even spends Thanksgiving with a Mexican family in Kansas. But when his trip mutates into an odyssey of near-epic proportions and he finds himself being threatened at gun point in Mississippi, Dave starts to worry about what's going to break down next. The car...or him?

The Night The Angels Came - Cathy Glass

When Cathy receives a call about a terminally ill widower terrified of leaving his son all alone in the world, she is wracked with sadness and indecision. After her devastating divorce, can she risk exposing her own young children to a little boy on the brink of bereavement? Eight year old Michael is part of a family of two, but with his beloved father given only months to live and his mother having died when he was a toddler, he could soon become an orphan. Will Cathy's own young family be able to handle a child in mourning? To Cathy's surprise, her children insist that this boy deserves to be as happy as they are, prompting Cathy to welcome Michael into her home.

A cheerful and carefree new member of the family, Michael devotedly prays every night, believing that when the time is right, angels will come and take his Daddy to be with his Mummy in heaven. However, incredibly, in the weeks that pass, the bond between Cathy's family, Michael and his kind and loving father Patrick grows. Even more promising, Patrick is looking healthier than he's done in weeks. But just as they are settling into a routine of blissful normality, an unexpected and disastrous event shatters the happy group, shaking Cathy to the core. Cathy can only hope that her family and Michael's admirable faith will keep him strong enough to rebuild his life.

Daunted by the dark secrets of the tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Ana Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a US publishing house. But desire for Grey still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, she cannot resist. Soon she is learning more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades than she ever thought possible. But while Grey wrestles with his inner demons, Ana must make the most important decision of her life. And it's a decision she can only make on her own...

Chances - Freya North

Vita's nursing a broken heart. Oliver's heart belongs to the past. They should be perfect for each other. But will they chance it? Vita's gift shop would do better if she ran it as a business, not as somewhere to daydream. But she's not one to tell herself off: she leaves that to Tim, her ex. Active and outdoorsy Oliver runs his tree-surgery business as calmly as his home -- but his love life is intensely private. When Vita and Oliver's paths cross at a pear tree, there's a chance of something blossoming. As spring turns into summer, both Vita and Oliver are given choices and chances. But will they take them -- or walk away?

French Women Don't Get Fat - Mireille Guiliano

This is the book we've all (certainly every woman between 25 and 75) been waiting for. It is classy, chic, convincing, funny, wise, well-written and very timely. It's the ultimate non-diet book, which nonetheless shows us how to eat with balance, control and above all pleasure. Chuck out all the radical diet books, think about what you eat and why, and then enjoy eating the right things (and some of the wrong ones) intelligently, and in smaller portions. Eat, like a French woman, with your head not your stomach. Guiliano, French-born and bred, gets the tone absolutely right. She succeeds in that rare high-wire act of being really serious about her subject but without taking herself too seriously; manages to encourage and inspire and amuse, without being bossy or earnest. This is a book that will make you laugh out loud and yet have you following several of her practical precepts within days - everyone who reads it becomes evangelical (French women don't go to the gym, they climb the stairs). It combines just the right balance of memoir, wisdom, wit, delicious recipes, and French common sense.

Heather Poole gives the inside scoop on how to be the most hated passenger on the plane, whether passionate affairs with pilots are really as frequent as you'd think, what it's like flying in a post-9/11 world, and everything else passengers never knew. Readers will learn what it's like to live in a flight attendant crashpad in Crew Gardens, Queens, where the bedrooms are crammed with bunkbeds and the neighbors get the wrong idea about why attractive women are coming and going at all hours. They'll find out why it's a bad idea to fall for pilots, and - in Heather's case, at least-why it can be a good idea to fall for business class passengers. They'll watch passengers and coworkers alike get escorted off the planes by police, and learn insider secrets on starting salaries, FA schedules, celebrity misbehavior, and much more. Packed with sometimes unbelievable and always hilarious stories, "Cruising Attitude" intermingles the best of galley gossip with Heather's own experiences of life in the sky.

Fifty Shades Of Grey - E.L James

When literature student Anastasia Steele interviews successful entrepreneur Christian Grey, she finds him very attractive and deeply intimidating. Convinced that their meeting went badly, she tries to put him out of her mind - until he turns up at the store where she works part-time, and invites her out. Unworldly and innocent, Ana is shocked to find she wants this man. And, when he warns her to keep her distance, it only makes her want him more. But Grey is tormented by inner demons, and consumed by the need to control. As they embark on a passionate love affair, Ana discovers more about her own desires, as well as the dark secrets Grey keeps hidden away from public view...

Disney Legend Charles Ridgway looks back on over forty years of working as a press agent with the Mouse, from Disneyland, to Walt Disney World, to Euro-Disney and beyond. Filled with light-hearted and hilarious reminiscences of famous people and outlandish publicity stunts, this memoir will delight Disney fans young and old.

Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart - Tim Butcher

When "Daily Telegraph" correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley's famous expedition - but travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was 'suicidal', Butcher set out for the Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vessels including a motorbike and a dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher's journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.

Can you scan 800 barcodes an hour? Can you smile and say 'thanks' 500 times a day? Do you never need to go to the toilet? Then working at a supermarket checkout could be just the job for you. Anna Sam spent 8 years as a checkout girl. Checkout - A Life on the Tills is a witty look at what it's really like to work in a supermarket: the relentless grind and less-than-perfect working conditions, along with people-watching and encounters with every kind of customer from the bizarre to the downright rude.

Before I Go to Sleep - S J Watson

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother - her cheerful, can-do mother - tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes perilous. Anything can be revealed at any meal. Rose's gift forces her to confront the secret knowledge all families keep hidden - truths about her mother's life outside the home, her father's strange detachment and her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up, she realises there are some secrets that even her taste buds cannot discern. "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" is a luminous tale about the heartbreak of loving those whom you know too much about. It is profound and funny, wise and sad, and Aimee Bender's dazzling prose illuminates the strangeness of everyday life.

******SPOLIER ALERT***********

Before I Start the review - an Apology. I have left it a while between reading the book and the review, so this is going to be short and sweet, and unfortunately my memory of the story is not as great as i would have liked.

This is a coming of age story, about a teenager struggling to fit into his own skin and grow up. A little bit of a strange kid, with a troubled background. His dad died when he was younger and his mum is an alcoholic. This is a bit of an emotional mixed bag of a story. Barnes writes with a very witty point of view, mixed in with a sadness and pity for the kid, and with the kid having great grit and determination.

No Turning Back - Susan Lewis

Eva Montgomery is at the peak of her career when she is viciously attacked by a stalker. While still traumatised by the event she makes the biggest mistake of her life - one she can never turn back from. Sixteen years later, Eva has managed to rebuild her life in a way that seemed impossible after the attack. Her home in Dorset, high on the cliffs overlooking the sea, is as elegant as Eva herself, but bears none of the scars. The love she shares with her husband, Don, has become the very mainstay of her existence. Her beloved sister, Patty, lives nearby. To an outsider, Eva's world seems perfect in every way. However, behind the facade there is more tragedy and deceit than even she is aware of. It is when the past starts to invade the present that the greatest betrayal of all shatters Eva's world, over and over. Hurt, frightened and confused, she struggles desperately to put right the terrible mistake she made sixteen years ago and finally break free from a past that nearly destroyed her ...

SPOILER ALERT*************

How long can I live on beer alone? Why do people have eyebrows? Has nature invented any wheels? Plus 99 other questions answered. Every year, readers send in thousands of questions to "New Scientist", the world's best-selling science weekly, in the hope that the answers to them will be given in the 'Last Word' column - regularly voted the most popular section of the magazine. "Does Anything Eat Wasps?" is a collection of the best that have appeared, including: why can't we eat green potatoes; why do airliners suddenly plummet; does a compass work in space; why do all the local dogs howl at emergency sirens; how can a tree grow out of a chimney stack; why do bruises go through a range of colours; and, why is the sea blue inside caves. Many seemingly simple questions are actually very complex to answer. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. "New Scientist"'s 'Last Word' celebrates all questions - the trivial, the idiosyncratic, the baffling and the strange. This selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

Die Trying - Lee Child

Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere. A Chicago street in bright sunshine. A young woman, struggling on crutches. He offers her a steadying arm. And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach. Chained in a dark van racing across America, Reacher doesn't know why they've been kidnapped. The woman claims to be FBI. She's certainly tough enough. But at their remote destination, will raw courage be enough to overcome the hopeless

"Shoot the Damn Dog" blasts the stigma of depression as a character flaw and confronts the illness Winston Churchill called 'the black dog', a condition that humiliates, punishes and isolates its sufferers. It is a personal account of a journey through (and out of) severe depression, as well as being a practical book, offering ideas about what might help. With its raw, understated eloquence, it will speak volumes to anyone whose life has been haunted by depression, as well as offering help and understanding to those whose loved ones suffer from this terrifying condition.

Secrets She Left Behind - Diane Chamberlain

Nineteen-year-old Maggie Lockwood spent a year in prison for her part in a fire that cost three lives. The scars carried by the surviving victims – inside and out – are still raw and Maggie’s release from jail does nothing to free her from the guilt. Returning home, Maggie hides herself away, too afraid to see Keith, the boy she grew up with, played with as a child – and recently learnt is her half-brother. Keith nearly lost his life in the fire and the emotional and physical wounds he carries have changed him forever. With childhood innocence gone, Maggie and Keith must learn to come to terms with their new lives, but trying to move forward will have deadly consequences…

Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope. But life can change in an instant. A cold February morning ...a snowy road ...and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all. Gripping, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, "If I Stay" will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be.

Millionaire Junkie - Jason Peter

Blighted by a neck injury at a young age, sports superstar Jason Peter was forced to retire prematurely. In just a few short years, Peter's brilliant career was in ruins as he found himself consumed by painkillers, then crack and finally heroin. His addiction transformed him from a pumped-up athletic gladiator to a small, wispish shell of his former self. In "Millionaire Junkie", Peter tells of the lost days and nights spent prowling the streets of Manhattan, flying cross-country with high-class call girls and doing piles of heroin and cocaine. It is a visceral, ragged-edged story of true glory, self-destruction, addiction and, finally, redemption.

The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror - and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike. The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape

The Hunger Games 2&3 - Susane Collins

In the second book in of the ground-breaking "Hunger Games" trilogy, after winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta return to their district, hoping for a peaceful future. But their victory has caused rebellion to break out ...and the Capitol has decided that someone must pay. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol's Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless they can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Then comes the cruelest twist: the contestants for the next Hunger Games are announced, and Katniss and Peeta are forced into the arena once more....Then in the third book - Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge...

The Tent, The Bucket, And Me - Emma Kennedy

For the Seventies child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves. For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was being swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always left them battered and bruised. But they never gave up. Emma's memoir, "The Tent, The Bucket and Me", is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend your summer holidays cold, damp but with sand between your toes.

The Year Of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, the tending of the Earth, and the cultivation of bees and organic crops on flat rooftops - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have avoided it: the young trapeze-dancer, Ren, locked into the high-end sex club, Scales and Tails; and former SecretBurgers meat-slinger turned Gardener, Toby, barricaded into the luxurious AnooYoo Spa, where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived?

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton lands in Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter's piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony's heady social life. She soon begins an affair!only to discover that her lover's enigmatic demeanour hides a devastating past. As the threads of this compelling and engrossing novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges -- between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and above all, the past.

Lost At Sea - Brian O'Malley

Raleigh doesn't have a soul. A cat stole it - or at least that's what she tells people - or at least that's what she would tell people if she told people anything. But that would mean talking to people, and the mere thought of social interaction is terrifying. How did such a shy teenage girl end up in a car with three of her hooligan classmates on a cross-country road trip? Being forced to interact with kids her own age is a new and alarming proposition for Raleigh, but maybe it's just what she needs - or maybe it can help her find what she needs - or maybe it can help her to realize that what she needs has been with her all along.

Travel writer Stephen Smith provides an alternative guide and history of the capital. It's a journey through the passages and tunnels of the city, the bunkers and tunnels, crypts and shadows. As well as being a contemporary tour of underground London, it's also an exploration through time: Queen Boudicca lies beneath Platform 10 at King's Cross (legend has it); Dick Turpin fled the Bow Street Runners along secret passages leading from the cellar of the Spaniards pub in North London; the remains of a pre-Christian Mithraic temple have been found near the Bank of England; on the platforms of the now defunct King William Street Underground, posters still warn that 'Careless talk costs lives'. Stephen Smith uncovers the secrets of the city by walking through sewers, tunnels under such places as Hampton Court, ghost tube stations, and long lost rivers such as the Fleet and the Tyburn.

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson meets everybody from a Broadmoor inmate who swears he faked a mental disorder to get a lighter sentence but is now stuck there to the influential psychologist who developed the industry standard Psychopath Test and who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are in fact psychopaths. Combining Jon's trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is a deeply honest book unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. "The Hunger Games" is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...

We Bought A Zoo - Benjamin Mee

'Chuck it all in and buy a zoo? Why not?' Thought Benjamin Mee, unaware of the grim living conditions, creditors and escaped big cat that lay in wait! A few years ago, Ben and his wife, Katherine, sold their small flat in Primrose Hill and moved to France to pursue their dream of restoring an old barn near Nimes. That dream then became much, much bigger for, last October, they moved with their two young children, Ben's 76-year-old mother and his brother, into a dilapidated zoo on the edge of Dartmoor which they had bought, and found themselves responsible for 200 animals including four huge tigers, lions, pumas, three massive bears, a tapir and a wolf pack. Ben found himself juggling the complexities of managing the zoo and getting it ready for re-opening, and at the same time having to care for his rapidly deteriorating wife, their two young children, and their ever growing menagerie of animals.

THE DARK SIDE OF DISNEY reveals all of the tips, tricks, scams, and stories that THEY don’t want you to know about! Unabashedly unafraid of offending the family-oriented audiences catered to by other Disney travel guides, author Leonard Kinsey gives intrepid travelers access to the seamy, raunchy, and often hilarious underbelly of Walt Disney World. From cautionary tales of scoring illegal tickets, to thrilling accounts of exploring off-limits areas, to chronicles of drug-induced debauchery, this completely unauthorized guidebook will change the way you think about vacationing at “The Happiest Place on Earth”.

Safe Haven - Nicholas Sparks

Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again you must learn to trust again. When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet unassuming, Katie is determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community. But even as Katie starts to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts her ...

Laura Brandon's promise to her dying father was simple: to visit an elderly woman she'd never heard him speak of before. A woman who remembers nothing - except the distant past. Visiting Sarah Tolley seemed a small enough sacrifice to make. But Laura's promise results in another death - her husband's. And after their five-year-old daughter, Emma, witnesses her father's suicide, Emma refuses to talk about it...or to talk at all. Frantic and guilt-ridden, Laura contacts the only person who may be able to help, a man she's met only once before - a man who doesn't know he's Emma's real father. Guided only by a child's silence and an old woman's fading memories, the two unravel a tale of love and despair, bravery and unspeakable evil. This is a tale that links them all. It is a tale shrouded in silence...

How to be Lost - Amanda Eyre Ward

To their neighbours in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters, and a sense of security in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed. Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in People Magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister. As she travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, she devotes herself to salvaging her broken family. "How To Be Lost" is a spellbinding novel about sisters, family secrets - and love.

In his most extraordinary book, Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. These are case studies of people who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people or common objects; whose limbs have become alien; and, who are afflicted and yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents