The Company We Kept in December 2009

The Company We Kept in November 2009

Jacqueline recommends

Jack and Jill by James Patterson – RM17.90
In the middle of the night, a controversial US senator is found murdered in bed in his Georgetown pied-a-terre. The police turn up only one clue: a mysterious rhyme signed “Jack and Jill” promising that this is just the beginning. Jack and Jill are out to get the rich and famous, and they will stop at nothing until their fiendish plan is carried out. Meanwhile, Washington, D C, homicide detective Alex Cross is called to a murder scene only blocks from his house, far from the corridors of power where he spends his days. The victim: a beautiful little girl, savagely beaten — and deposited in front of the elementary school Cross’s son, Damon, attends. Could there be a connection between the two murders? As Cross tries to put the pieces together, the killer- or killers – strike again. And again. No one in Washington is safe- – not children, not politicians, not even the President of the United States. Only Alex Cross has the skills and the courage to crack the case-but will he discover the truth in time?

If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon – RM17.90
Lovely, idealistic Tracy Whitney is framed into a fifteen-year sentence in an escape-proof penitentiary. With dazzling ingenuity she fights back to destroy the untouchable crime lords who put her there. With her intelligence and beauty as her only weapons, Tracy embarks on a series of extraordinary escapades that sweep her across the globe. In an explosive confrontation Tracy meets her equal in irresistible Jeff Stevens, whose past is as colorful as Tracy’s.

Endal by Allen & Sandra Parton – RM19.90
The remarkable story of Endal, voted “Dog of the Millennium’”, and how, through his remarkable skills, companionship and unstinting devotion, he gave Allen Parton a reason to live again. Allen Parton was seriously injured while serving in the Gulf War. He lost the use of both of his legs, plus all memories of his children and much of his marriage. He was left unable to walk, talk or write – isolated in his own world. After five years of intensive therapy and rehab, he was still angry, bitter and unable to talk. Until a chance encounter with a Labrador puppy – Endal – who had failed his training as an assistance dog on health grounds. They ‘adopted’ each other, and Endal became Allen’s reason to communicate with the outside world, to come to terms with his injuries, and to want to live again. Not content with learning over 200 commands to help Allen complete everyday tasks like getting dressed and going out to the shops in his wheelchair, Endal gave Allen the ability to start living again, and to become a husband and father again in his own special way. This is the incredible story of Allen, his wife Sandra, and his family. And, of course, Endal.

Winnie recommends

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern – RM17.90
Cecelia Ahern’s debut novel follows the engaging, witty and occasionally sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twenty-something daughter of Ireland’s Prime Minister, has discovered a clever and original twist to the moving-on-after-death concept made famous by novelists and screenwriters alike – Gerry has left Holly a series of letters designed to help her face the year ahead and carry on with her life. As the novel takes readers through the seasons (and through Gerry’s monthly directives), we watch as Holly finds a new job, takes a holiday to Spain with her girlfriends, and sorts through her beloved husband’s belongings.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski – RM17.90
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles’ once peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm – and into Edgar’s mother’s affections. Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

The Vagrants by YiYun Li – RM17.90
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens stage a protest after her death and, over the following six weeks, the town goes through uncertainty, hope and fear until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed. They are all taken on a painful journey, from one young woman’s death to another. We follow the pain of Gu Shan’s parents, the hope and fear of the leaders of the protest and their families. Even those who seem unconnected to the tragedy – an eleven-year-old boy seeking fame and glory, a nineteen-year-old village idiot in love with a young and deformed girl, an old couple making a living by scavenging the town’s garbage cans – are caught up in a remorseless turn of events.

Nesa recommends

Once On A Moonless Night by Dai Sijie – RM19.90
A young French woman in Peking in the late 1970s interprets between Chinese professors and Bertolucci for his film The Last Emperor. Afterwards, she follows a disgruntled old professor who tells her about a text believed to be taken directly from Buddha’s teachings and inscribed on silk cloth centuries ago. It was written in a now-dead language called Tumchooq (coincidentally, the name of a young Chinese man she has just met), so beautiful in its simplicity it is almost impossible to render accurately in translation. Puyi, the last emperor and last owner of this relic, allegedly tore the silk in two with his teeth while being flown to Manchuria by the Japanese, and threw the fragments from the plane. Only half of the mutilated manuscript was recovered, and the reader, like the narrator, must wait till the end of the novel to discover the rest. When the complete text is finally pieced together, its message is devastatingly simple, and all the more poignant because it has taken such sacrifice and effort to decipher.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones – RM24.90
‘You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.’ Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda’s last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island. When the villagers’ safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville’s children are surprised to find the island’s only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts’ inspiring reading of Great Expectations. But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns. Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt – RM19.90
Olive Wellwood is a famous writer, interviewed with her children gathered at her knee. For each of them she writes a separate private book, bound in different colours and placed on a shelf. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world – but their lives, and those of their rich cousins, children of a city stockbroker, and their friends, the son and daughter of a curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries their own secrets. Into their world comes a young stranger, a working-class boy from the potteries, drawn by the beauty of the Museum’s treasures. And in midsummer a German puppeteer arrives, bringing dark dramas. The world seems full of promise but the calm is already rocked by political differences, by Fabian arguments about class and free love , by the idealism of anarchists from Russia and Germany. The sons rebel against their parents’ plans; the girls dream of independent futures, becoming doctors or fighting for the vote. This vivid, rich and moving saga is played out against the great, rippling tides of the day, taking us from the Kent marshes to Paris and Munich and the trenches of the Somme. Born at the end of the Victorian era, growing up in the golden summers of Edwardian times, a whole generation were heading to the darkness of the First World War; in their innocence, they were betrayed unintentionally by the adults who loved them.

Azira recommends

The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography by National Geographic – RM29.90
“The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography” is the penultimate source for people seeking real how-to advice from the editors and photographers of National Geographic. Each chapter is carefully designed to lead the amateur photographer to better pictures. In the first chapter, you can learn how to use your point-and-shoot camera like a professional camera, including tips from photographers who have published photographs from their own point-and-shoot cameras. Chapter two prepares any photographer, carefully spelling you the basics of fine photography whether you are using a digital SLR or a film camera. Chapter three teaches more advanced techniques for the amateur photographer. An important part of the book is dedicated to the other half of photography that now exists in the digital world: the home darkroom.

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti – RM19.90
In 1966, the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, then twenty-two, left his country to return to university in Cairo. A year later came the Six Day War and Barghouti, like many Palestinians living abroad, was denied entry into his homeland. Thirty years later, he was finally allowed to visit Ramallah, the city he had grown up in. A rickety wooden bridge over a dried-up river connects the West Bank to Jordan. It is the very same bridge Barghouti had crossed little knowing that he would not be able to return. I Saw Ramallah, his extraordinarily beautiful account of homecoming, begins at this crossing, filled with its ironies and heartaches. In half bemusement, half joy, Barghouti journeys through Ramallah, keenly aware that the city he had left barely resembles the present-day city scarred by the Occupation – and he discovers in this displacement, that the events of 1967 have made him permanently homeless.

10,001 Timesaving Ideas by Reader’s Digest – RM34.90
Saving time is all about streamlining your life. This book is a one-stop reference for getting things done in the shortest time possible. It also helps you do a job properly in the first place so that you save time in the long run. This volume shows you how to renovate in the minimum time, speed clean, organise your office, and shop and cook.

Malis recommends

Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson & Gabriells Charbonnet – RM17.90
Jane was a sweet, funny, chubby seven-year-old, desperately seeking love from her self-obsessed mother, Vivienne, and a father who was wrapped up in a new life with his beautiful young girlfriend. Jane’s only friend was handsome, funny, thirty-something Michael. Michael was different; no one else could see him, nor did they believe he existed beyond the realms of Jane’s very creative imagination. They would talk from morning until night. As Jane grew older though, the time came for Michael to leave Jane’s side. Jane couldn’t forget him though. Over twenty years since Michael said goodbye, Jane catches a glimpse of that unforgotten face, her heart pounding, she can’t believe it is true – could it really be Michael? This time though Michael isn’t just a figment of her imagination. But will the path of true love be a smooth one? And will Jane get her happy ever after?

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – RM17.90
Oliver Twist’s famous cry of the heart–”Please, sir, I want some more”–has resounded with generations of readers of all ages. The author poured his own youthful experience of Victorian London’s unspeakable squalor into this realistic depiction of a spirited young innocent’s unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves. Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens’ most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger.

California Design by Jo Laurie & Suzanna Baizerman – RM29.90
The furniture, jewelry, recreational objects, ceramics, fabric arts, and other designs that emerged from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s California would come to identify its outdoorsy, eccentric, sometimes entirely funky persona. And the best of these were exhibited, sometimes idolized, through a series of popular shows at the Pasadena Art Museum. California Design is a detailed retrospective of these exhibitions and the West Coast style they epitomized, replete with hundreds of innovative photographs showcasing the works in all their original glory. Signature works from Charles & Ray Eames, Tropi-Cal, Don Chadwick (co-creator of the Aeron chair), and many other designers and studios illustrate twenty years of style that was as diverse as it was pioneering.

Jovita recommends

Giant Book of Aesop’s Fables – RM49.90
Aesop’s Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Aesop’s Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, especially beast fables involving anthropomorphic animals. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop’s Fables, such as The Fox & The Grapes (from which the idiom “sour grapes” was derived), The Tortoise & The Hare, The North Wind & The Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant & THe Grasshopper are well-known throughout the world.

Cooking For Friends by Gordon Ramsay – RM39.90
This cookbook is packed with simple, seasonal, modern British recipes. Gordon lives life in the fast lane, travelling the world to foster his many hugely successful business enterprises and to film his highly acclaimed TV series. But, despite the commitments of a busy work life, he has always believed that families should sit around their tables to eat together as much as possible. His latest cookbook gathers together over 100 inspiring and well-constructed recipes which everyone will enjoy cooking for their friends and family, including Chorizo, broad bean and mint couscous, Scallop brochettes with coriander and chilli butter, Smoked salmon and horseradish cream tarts and Toffee and chocolate steamed pudding. The recipes embody Gordon’s strongly held opinion that we should support local producers and farmers’ markets, that we should cook with seasonal fresh ingredients which haven’t travelled miles to reach our plates and that we should celebrate the wealth of regional dishes available to us from Cornish crab soup to Bakewell tarts.

Simple Glass Beading Book & Craft Kit – RM29.90
Includes a copy of the bestselling book Simple Glass Beading, which demonstrates easy-to-follow beading techniques and includes 18 dazzling step-by-step projects 1,800 glass seed and bugle beads offer vast scope for colourful, creative beading 3m of beading thread and a beading needle allow you to get started straight away 1 m of shimmering pastel green organza ribbon, plus gorgeous tulle and organza fabric, allow the beaded sachets shown on the box cover to be make Packaged in a stylish but sturdy presentation box, with visible content, colour photographs and inspirational descriptions of the contents

Su Lyn recommends

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman – RM17.90
Lyra’s life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel’s research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra’s own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant. Set in an England familiar and strange, Philip Pullman’s lively, taut story is a must-read and re-read for fantasy lovers of all ages.

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel – RM17.90 SOLD OUT
This is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit and recipes. A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her. For the next twenty-two years, Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

The Right Attitude To Rain by Alexander McCall Smith – RM24.90
The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain – just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have. Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy’s boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat’s ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel’s junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love.

Lydia recommends

The Mountain of Adventure by Enid Blyton – RM9.90
Surely a peaceful holiday in the Welsh mountains will keep the children out of trouble! But the mystery of a rumbling mountain soon has them thirsty for more adventure. Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann and Jack are determined to explore the mountain and uncover its secret, but first they must escape from a pack of ravenous wolves and a mad genius who plans to rule the world!

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis – RM14.90
Narnia … where dwarfs are loyal and tough and strong – or are they? … where you must say good-bye … and where the adventure begins. The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now. A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia’s only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, “The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do.” Who is the real Aslan and who is the impostor?

Weekend Crochet: 25 Chic & Easy Projects – RM24.90
This work is packed with 25 easy and intermediate projects to teach you a range of skills. Advance to complicated styles as you build your confidence with techniques. Every project can be completed over a weekend! With the myriad fashion and home projects to make, it comes as no surprise that many of us are hooked on crochet! A easy and inviting reference book, Weekend Crochet offers straightforward and practical advice on learning how to crochet. Special instructions are also included for more advanced techniques so learning filet crochet and creating unusual textured patterns such as bobbles, openwork and lace designs is a breeze. Best of all, the book features twenty-five fun fashion and home accent designs, some of which are more advanced to continually challenge the crocheter. Each project is accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions and a full-colour photograph to make the stitch process all the more enjoyable.