New Arrival: Non-Fiction Picks

Friday, July 23, 2010

Are you ready for a life changing journey to a more postive self-persona from the way you package yourself?

Or are you feeling into different heart-warming or heart-wrenching biographies?

Look no more, BookXcess presents our new arrival of non-fiction picks, mostly Biographies this time around.

What Your Clothes Say About You: How to Look Different, Act Different and Feel Different by Susannah Constantine, Trinny Woodall   RRP: RM109.90 Price: RM24.90
Susannah and Trinny can tell how you feel about yourself by how you dress. This book shows how to project yourself in a positive way through your clothes. It shows how to re-tune your appearance so that you can tell the world you are who you want to be. When you look different you will act different, when you act different you will feel different. Susannah & Trinny’s last television series attracted 5 million viewers and sold more than 400,000 copies.

Real Heroes introduced by Jeremy Clarkson & Ross Kemp   RRP: RM49.90 Price: RM9.90
A unique, full-colour, action-packed collection of true stories of heroism from the British Armed Forces. Discover a wealth of fascinating information about servicemen’s kit, weapons, vehicles, survival aids, tactics, bases and frontline accounts of experiences of battle. Other features include detailed maps, interviews with key personnel, understanding Afghanistan, military awards, breakdowns of battle units and insightful pieces from expert authors including Ben Brown, Patrick Bishop, Christina Lamb, James Holland and Ed Macy.

‘Real Heroes’ is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to support our troops — proceeds from the book will be donated to Help for Heroes, a tremendous charity set up to support the men and women of the British Armed Forces who are wounded in the line of duty. Exciting, eye-catching and informative, ‘Real Heroes’ is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about modern warfare, or simply enjoys a fast-paced account of real courage, comradeship and battle.

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger by Nigel Slater   RRP: RM35.90 Price: RM17.90
This book aims to capture 30 years of British cooking and the recipes that we have grown up with since the days when a grilled grapefruit was the last word in dinner party chic. Everyone has gorged on cake mix, endured disastrous dinner parties, and put up with the loved one who can only ever produce burnt toast. Nigel Slater is no different.
The Sunday Times Bestseller, and the biggest memoir of the year, from Britain’s best loved food writer. TOAST is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother’s ritual burning of the toast, his father’s dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered somehting of a status symbol in Wolverhampton) this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties surburban England.

The Crimes of Josef Fritzl: Uncovering the Truth by Stefanie Marsh, Bojan Pancevski   RRP: RM38.90 Price: RM9.90
The only inside account of the Fritzl case – Josef Fritzl’s horrific incarceration of his daughter in a windowless dungeon for 24 years and the seven children he fathered with her – from the journalists who helped to break the story. Until April 19 2008, Josef Fritzl seemed like an upstanding member of the community in the Austrian town of Amstetten: an ideal father and successful businessman who had worked his way up from humble beginnings to become a role model of respectability. Yet for over two decades he had been living a double life of unimaginable and unparalleled horror.

This bold and forensically-researched study sheds new light on the mind and the psychological development of the man who became one of the most unique and frightening criminals in history. Stefanie Marsh and Bojan Pancevski were the first English-speaking reporters to break the case and were there as the police uncovered the dungeon.

The Pocket Book of Death by Morgan Reilly, Joanna Tempest, Rob DenBleyker (Illustrator)
RRP: RM35.90 Price: RM14.90
A laugh-out-loud miscellany of everything you ever wanted to know about death. From bizarre funeral practices and macabre urban myths to lucrative jobs in the death business. Accompanied by cartoons from the creators of the hit webcomic, ‘Cyanide & Happiness.’ There’s just something about the end that makes us want to run screaming back to the beginning! The Pocket Book of Death is a jaw-dropping miscellany of macabre word origins, hysterical famous last words, bizarre death rituals, the last meals of death row inmates and more.

Helpless: The True Story of a Neglected Girl Betrayed and Exploited by the Neighbour She Trusted by Marianne Marsh, Toni Maguire   RRP: RM34.90 Price: RM17.90
Eight year old Marianne, the eldest of five children, was neglected by her slovenly mother and her violent alcoholic father. Uncared for and unkempt she was rejected at school by her peers and scarcely tolerated by her teachers. Only one person gave her the affection she craved; a neighbour who, seeing the vulnerable child, knew she was easy prey for his perverted desires. ‘Little Lady’ he called her over the few months he groomed her. Less than twelve months later she was caught in a trap of fear – if she talked she would be punished. With no one to turn to she kept ‘their secret’. At thirteen she fell pregnant. Without family support the teenager gave birth to a daughter in the unmarried mother’s home. Six weeks later the baby she had already grown to love was taken away for adoption. Marianne returned home, but the neighbour’s abuse continued and a year later she was pregnant again. Marianne who still missed her first child desperately struggled to keep her second daughter. Two months after the birth she realized that for the baby’s sake she would have to give her up for adoption. Helpless is Marianne’s heartbreaking story.

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 by Sir Max Hastings   RRP: RM129.90 Price: RM24.90
Pre-eminent military historian Max Hastings presents Winston Churchill as he has never been seen before. Winston Churchill was the greatest war leader Britain ever had. In 1940, the nation rallied behind him in an extraordinary fashion. But thereafter, argues Max Hastings, there was a deep divide between what Churchill wanted from the British people and their army, and what they were capable of delivering. Here is an intimate and affectionate portrait of Churchill as Britain’s saviour, but also an unsparing examination of the wartime nation which he led and the performance of its armed forces.

Torres: El Nino: My Story by Fernando Torres   RRP: RM99.90 Price: RM19.90
Fernando Torres is one of the hottest properties in world football. From local Madrid idol to Kop hero and European Championship winner, he talks here for the first time about the unique challenges faced in his two years in England, with candid snapshots of his life on and off the field. At the age of 25, Spain’s Fernando Torres has already established himself as one of the Liverpool greats and a proud wearer of the fabled No 9 shirt. His first book provides a captivating illustrated story of his career to date, alongside candid snapshots of his early life in Madrid, as a child football prodigy and lifelong fan of local club Atletico. Away from the football, Torres talks about life out of the spotlight with his childhood sweetheart Ollala, his family and friends, and what inspires and motivates him.

Blog Bonanza 41 Winners

Friday, July 23, 2010

Thank you to everyone who participated. It is quite heartening see people responding to the call of books!

Answers for Blog Bonanza 41:
1.) Name one other fiction book written by Sarah Tucker.
- The Control Freak Chronicles/ The Battle for Big School/ The Playground Mafia/ The Younger Man/ The Last Years of Being Married/ The Year of Being Single
2.) Name the two publishing companies Sarah Tucker works for.
- Mira Books (Harlequin)/ Arrow Books Ltd/ Red Dress Ink (just to name a few)
3.) Sarah Tucker is a columnist for which specialty for a monthly regional magazine?
- Travelling for Traveller Magazine

4.) Name one other published works by Roberto Bolaño.
- The Savage Detectives/ The Secret of Evil/ Between Parentheses (just to name a few)
5.) From which country is Roberto Bolaño from?
- Chile
6.) Which translated novel of Roberto Bolaño’s kickstart his fame in the publishing world?
- The Savage Detectives (Wimmer’s translations of “The Savage Detectives” in 2007 and “2666″ in 2008—published in the US by Farrar, Straus & Giroux–brought Bolaño his widest recognition among English readers.)
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Roberto_Bola%C3%B1o

The three names with all correct answers drawn among the entries for this contest are…

1.  Aida May

2. Tony Lau Pak Hoe

3. Robin Brian Vander Slott

Congratulations to the 3 winners, who have just won themselves either a copy of School’s Out by Sarah Tucker or 2666 by Roberto Bolaño.

Do stay tuned to check out what the next Blog Bonanza will bring soon!