How to Marry the Man of Your Choice by Margaret Kent
Before there was The Rules there was the wildly bestselling How to Marry the Man of Your Choice, now revised and updated for a whole new generation of single women. Presented with intelligence and peppered with just the right amount of humor, How to Marry the Man of Your Choice offers women a step-by-step program for making–and then landing–the very best choice in a husband. Topics covered include:
1. How to dress to your advantage
2. How to orchestrate your dates to maximize fun and future potential
3. Dealing with previous marriages and children
4. Enhancing and maintaining the right relationship and more!
Through its use of success stories, do and don’t lists, and an abundance of insightful advice, How to Marry the Man of Your Choice will have every wannabe wife walking down the aisle in no time!
Be it the mountain hot spring retreats of Japan or the crystal clear waters of the Pacific, this exploration takes you to the most exquisite resorts around Asia. Along with breathtaking photographs taken by the author, Asian Resorts includes exclusive stories based on firsthand interviews. This book drops you right into a dream world of the healing powers of a natural spa, the fresh air that comes with forest hikes, the amazing wonders of snorkeling amidst tropical coral reefs, and the simple joys of fishing, golfing, exotic cooking and more.
Akihiko Seki
Akihiko Seki is a native of Japan. He has traveled with his wife and his cameras throughout Japan and Asia in pursuit of the ultimate healing and relaxation experiences. He is the photographer of Ryokan: Japan’s Finest Spas and Inns.
Last Thursday, 15th April 2010, Malacca celebrated their Declaration as a Historical City Day. Today, we are running a contest where you’ll stand to win a copy of 2009′s Tourism Guide Book on Malacca (ISBN 9789834347611, valued at RM 39.00). This book contains lots of pictures, guides on numerous historical sites, places of interest, cultural background, good eating spots, etc.
We have 5 copies of the travel guide to give away.
Tasks – answer the questions below:
1. Together with Penang, what was Malacca conferred with by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) on 7th July, 2008?
2. Which is your favourite place of interest in Malacca and why? (If you have never been to Malacca, you can tell us the reason why you like certain places or buildings that you may have read or heard about)
This contest will historically end on 28th April 2010.
In the book Horns, Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache…and a pair of horns growing from his temples.
At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it “all,” and more — he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside…
Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look — a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge…
It’s time the devil had his due…
Joe Hill
Joe Hill
Hill is the second child of authors Stephen and Tabitha King. He grew up in Bangor, Maine. His younger brother Owen is also a writer. Hill has three sons.
Hill chose to use an abbreviated form of his given name (a reference to executed labor leader Joe Hill, for whom he was named) in 1997, out of a desire to succeed based solely on his own merits rather than as the son of Stephen King. After achieving a degree of independent success, Hill publicly confirmed his identity in 2007 after an article the previous year in Variety broke his cover (although online speculation about Hill’s family background had been appearing since 2005).
Joe Hill is a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. He has also received the William L. Crawford award for best new fantasy writer in 2006, the A. E. Coppard Long Fiction Prize in 1999 for “Better Than Home” and the 2006 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella for “Voluntary Committal”. His stories have appeared in a variety of magazines, such as Subterranean Magazine, Postscripts and The High Plains Literary Review, and in many anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (ed. Stephen Jones) and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (ed. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant).
Kathy Reichs is both an author and a forensic anthropologist. Her first novel Déjà Dead catapulted her to fame when it became a NY Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Devil Bones is her 11th novel.
In Devil Bones, Temperance Brennan is called to investigate on a case after a plumber uncovers an unknown cellar filled with animal bones, a decapitated chicken, ceremonial religious relics in cauldrons and the skull of a teenage girl. Grisly.
Reichs’ next novel, out in Autumn 2010, is called Spider Bones.
We have 3 copies of Devil Bones (ISBN 9781416584957) to give away, courtesy of MPH Distributors Sdn Bhd. No extras.
And the winners are …
Atkah, Josette and TsiLip
Winners will be notified via e-mail by the end of the week.
Thank you for participating.
The next contest will be out very soon. About our historical state.
Scenes of domestic abuse and the journey to recovery make Kleypas’s modern romance anything but fluff. A Wellesley grad and daughter of a Houston energy baron, Haven Travis is an unlikely romantic heroine until her brief but ardent encounter with a man who turns out to be Hardy Cates, the East Texas roughneck from Sugar Daddy who worked his way up from poverty and then outmaneuvered the Travis clan in a business deal. Haven’s engaged to Nick Tanner-a man her dad thinks is unfit for her-and though she and Hardy have a charged interaction, she elopes with Nick, and her father cuts her off. Nick turns out to be a bad guy, and a beaten and bruised Haven returns to Houston, where Hardy’s still at odds with her family. Their passion proves as fervent as ever, but demons from Haven’s recent past-as well as strife with her family and troubles at work and in bed-stand in the way. Kleypas isn’t a literary stylist, but she delivers a page-turning, formula-breaking romance that takes on social issues and escalates passion to new heights.
Lisa Kleypas
Lisa Kleypas
Kleypas has always loved to read, especially within the romance genre. She began writing her own romance novels during her summer breaks from studying political science at Wellesley College, Her parents agreed to support her for a few months after her graduation so that she could finish her latest manuscript. Approximately two months later, at age 21, Kleypas sold her first novel.
At approximately the same time, the 5’2″ Kleypas was named Miss Massachusetts. During her competition at the Miss America pageant, Kleypas sang a song she had written, earning her a “talented nonfinalist” award.
Kleypas has been a full-time romance writer since selling that first book. Her novels have ranked high on major best-seller lists, sold millions of copies around the globe and have been translated into fourteen different languages.
In October 1998, Kleypas’s Texas home flooded within a matter of hours after heavy rains inundated their town. She and her family lost everything except the clothes they were wearing and her purse. Within days,her colleagues at Avon sent boxes of clothes and books to help the family recover. For Kleypas, though, the defining moment was the after the flood, when she and her mother (whose home had also flooded), made a quick trip to the store to purchase toothbrushes, clean clothes, and other necessities. Separately, each of them had also chosen a romance novel, a necessity to them in helping them escape the stress they were currently under. To Kleypas, this realization validated her decision to write romance novels instead of more literary works.
Though primarily known for her historical romance novels, Kleypas made an announcement in early 2006 concerning her momentary departure from historical romances to delve into the contemporary romance genre. She does plan to write historical romances again in the future.
Lisa lives in Washington with her husband, Gregory, and their two children.
1. Necropolis: London and Its Dead By Catharine Arnold
Necropolis is a luminous, oddly beguiling account of how London has treated its dead, ranging from Roman burial rites to the horrors of the plague, from the founding of the great Victorian cemeteries to the more recent trends of collective grief and the cult of mourning, such as that surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Leaving no headstone unturned, Catherine Arnold unearths one of the great untold histories of the nation’s capitol. Skillfully blending history, architecture, archaeology, and anecdote, she also explores phenomena like bodysnatching, public executions, and the rise of the undertaking trade. Ghoulishly entertaining and full of fascinating nuggets of information, Necropolis is destined to become a classic work on the city.
2. Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe By Adam Zamoyski
In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, following a brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was economically and militarily weak and its misguided offensive to liberate the Ukraine in the spring of 1920 laid it open to attack. Egged on by Trotsky, Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky. All that Great Britain and France had fought for over four years now seemed at risk. By the middle of August the Russians were only a few kilometers from Warsaw, and Berlin was less than a week’s march away. Then the Miracle of the Vistula occurred: the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history. As a result, the Versailles peace settlement survived, and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country. The battle for Warsaw bought Europe nearly two decades of peace, and communism remained a mainly Russian phenomenon, subsuming many of the autocratic and Byzantine characteristics of Russia’s tsarist tradition.
3. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West By Dee Brown
Eloquent, heartbreaking, and meticulously documented, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee follows the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century. Upon its publication in 1970, the book was universally lauded and became a cultural phenomenon that proved instrumental in transforming public perceptions of manifest destiny and the “winning” of the West. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown’s work highlighted the voices of those American Indians who actually experienced the battles, massacres, and broken treaties. Here is their view of the events that ultimately left them demoralized and defeated, including: the Battle of Sand Creek; Red Cloud’s War; the Battle of the Little Bighorn; and, of course, the Wounded Knee Massacre.
4. A People’s History of the World By Chris Harman
The only comprehensive “bottom up” history of the world from the earliest human society to the twenty-first century. Chris Harman describes the shape and course of human history as a narrative of ordinary people forming and re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals. Interacting with the forces of technological change as well as the impact of powerful individuals and revolutionary ideas, these societies have engendered events familiar to every schoolchild – from the empires of antiquity to the world wars of the twentieth century. In a bravura conclusion, Chris Harman exposes the reductive complacency of contemporary capitalism, and asks, in a world riven as never before by suffering and inequality, why we imagine that it can – or should – survive much longer. Ambitious, provocative and invigorating, A People’s History of the World delivers a vital corrective to traditional history, as well as a powerful sense of the deep currents of humanity which surge beneath the froth of government.
5. Empires of the Sea: the Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580 By Roger Crowley
In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, despatched an invasion fleet to the island of Rhodes. This was the opening shot in an epic struggle between rival empires and faiths, and the ensuing battle for control of the Mediterranean would last sixty years. Empires of the Sea tells the story of this great contest. It is a fast-paced tale of spiralling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar and features a cast of extraordinary characters: Barbarossa, the pirate who terrified Europe; the risk-taking Emperor Charles V; the Knights of St John, last survivors of the crusading spirit; and the brilliant Christian admiral Don Juan of Austria. Its brutal climax came between 1565 and 1571, six years that witnessed a fight to the finish, decided in a series of bloody set pieces: the epic siege of Malta; the battle for Cyprus; and the apocalyptic last-ditch defence of southern Europe at Lepanto one of the single most shocking days in world history that fixed the frontiers of the Mediterranean world we know today. Empires of the Sea follows Roger Crowley’s first book, the widely praised Constantinople: The Last Great Siege. It is page-turning narrative history at its best – a story of extraordinary colour and incident, rich in detail, full of surprises and backed by a wealth of eyewitness accounts.
6. Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1944-1945 By William I Hitchcock
“In this book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of the peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock’s account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions.” This multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth.
7. The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World By Niall Ferguson
Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it’s the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it’s the chains of labour. But in “The Ascent of Money”, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What’s more, he reveals financial history as the essential back-story behind all history. The evolution of credit and debt was as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization, from ancient Babylon to the silver mines of Bolivia.Banks provided the material basis for the splendours of the Italian Renaissance, while the bond market was the decisive factor in conflicts from the Seven Years’ War to the American Civil War. With the clarity and verve for which he is famed, Niall Ferguson explains why the origins of the French Revolution lie in a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scots murderer. He shows how financial failure turned Argentina from the world’s sixth richest country into an inflation-ridden basket case – and how a financial revolution is propelling the world’s most populous country from poverty to power in a single generation. Yet the most important lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts – sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers – sooner or later greed flips into fear. And that’s why, whether you’re scraping by or rolling in it, there’s never been a better time to understand the ascent of money.
8. Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing By Katherine Ashenburg
Personal hygiene is something that only other people never seem to get quite right…Yet in this fascinating history of washing our bodies Katherine Ashenburg discovers that cleanliness exists above all in our minds: it is a cultural creation and a constant work in progress…Napoleon once wrote in a love letter to Josephine ‘I return to Paris in five days. Stop washing.’ To smell like a human was not always the misdemeanour it is today. Body odour was in fact an important factor of sex and courtship, considered by some to be a powerful aphrodisiac, as we see in Napoleon’s letter. Contrary to what we like to think, no bodily odour is innately disgusting, instead it is our noses which adapt to fit our beliefs.The Romans would bathe in company and daily. Later, Europe underwent four centuries without a bath. Was it the threat of diseases like syphilis that it feared in the soapy water? Religion links the act of washing with forgiveness and regeneration. We wash the bodies of dead loved ones because somehow we imagine it as the end of the old and the beginning of the new. The history of washing our bodies reveals much about our intimate selves, about how we want to be seen and what we desire most…In this gripping new history, Ashenburg searches for clean and dirty in plague-ridden streets, hospitals, battlefields and makeshift water closets. In the bizarre prescriptions of history’s doctors, the eccentricities of famous bathers and the hygienic peccadilloes of great writers we see the twists and turns that have brought us to our own, arbitrary notion of ‘clean’.
9. Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town By Mary Beard
Pompeii explodes a number of myths – from the very date of the eruption, probably a few months later than usually thought; the hygiene of the baths which must have been hotbeds of germs; and the legendary number of brothels, most likely only one, to the massive death count which was probably less than ten per cent of the population. Street Life, Earning a Living: Baker, Banker and Garum Maker (who ran the city), The Pleasure of the Body: Food, Wine, Sex and Baths, these chapter headings give a surprising insight into the workings of a Roman town. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica. A fast-food joint on the Via dell’ Abbondanza introduces food and drink and diets and street life. These are just a few of the strands that make up an extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain’s leading classicist.
10. Henry: The Virtuous Prince By David Starkey
The first instalment of the highly anticipated biography of Henry VIII, written by one of the UK’s most popular, established and exciting historians. ‘Henry: Virtuous Prince’ is a radical re-evaluation of the monarchy’s most enduring icon. Henry VIII was Britain’s most powerful monarch, yet he was not born to rule. Thrust into the limelight after the sudden death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur, Henry ascended the throne in 1509, marking the beginning of a reign that altered the course of English history. In his youth Henry was highly intelligent, athletic and musically talented. He excelled in Latin and Mathematics and was an accomplished musician. On his accession to the throne, aged just seventeen, after the tumultuous rule of his father, he provided England with hope of a new beginning. Nobody could have foreseen how radical Henry’s rule would prove to be. Often overshadowed by the bloody saga of his six marriages, his reign has left a lasting legacy. An absolute monarch, Henry’s quest for fame was as obsessive as any modern celebrity. His fierce battles against Papal authority mark one of the most dramatic and defining moments in the history of Britain.Yet his early life was insecure. The Tudor regime was viewed by many as rule by usurpers and the dark shadows of the Wars of the Roses often threatened to tear England apart once more. The culmination of a lifetime’s research, David Starkey gives a radical and unforgettable portrait of the man behind the icon; the Renaissance prince turned tyrant, who continues to tower over history.
Jack Canfield (born August 19, 1944) is an American motivational speaker and author. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, which currently has nearly 200 titles and 112 million copies in print in over 40 languages. According to USA Today, Chicken Soup for the Soul and several of the series titles by Canfield and his writing partner, Mark Victor Hansen, were among the top 150 best-selling books of the last 15 years (October 28, 1993 through October 23, 2008).
In July 2004, The Jack Canfield founded the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of thought leaders, speakers, authors, coaches, trainers, researchers, consultants, and other leaders in the fields of personal and professional development. The members of TLC meet semi-annually to network, connect, and learn from each other, to enhance members’ effectiveness and contribution in the world. As of January 2009, membership numbered 99.
Canfield has worked as a teacher, a workshop facilitator, and a psychotherapist. He is a Democrat and a follower of “the secret” and the Law of Attraction, and his hobbies include tennis, travel, skiing, running, billiards, reading, and guitar. In 1962, he graduated from high school at Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia and he received a BA in Chinese History in 1966 from Harvard University and an MEd at University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1973. In 1971 he married Judith Ohlbaum, with whom he had two children. In 1978 he was named Outstanding Young Man of America by the U.S. Jaycees. On September 9, 1978, he married Georgia Lee Noble, with whom he had a son. They divorced in December 1999. On July 4, 2001, Canfield married for a third time to Inga Marie Mahoney. In the recently released Long Past Stopping Canfield’s first son, Oran, details a troubled childhood with a distant father, as well as his skepticism of the entire self-help genre in which his father became famous.
In 1990, Canfield shared with Mark Victor Hansen the idea for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and after three years, the two had compiled sixty-eight stories. Canfield has appeared on numerous television shows, including Good Morning America, 20/20, Eye to Eye, CNN’s Talk Back Live, PBS, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Montel Williams Show, Larry King Live, and the BBC.
Canfield is the founder of “Self Esteem Seminars” in Santa Barbara, and “The Foundation for Self Esteem” in Culver City, California. One of Canfield’s most recent books, The Success Principles (2005), shares 64 principles that he claims can make people more successful. In 2008, he wrote The Success Principles for Teens with Kent Healy, as a result of the success of his original book. In 2006, he appeared in the DVD, “The Secret”, and shared his insights on the Law of Attraction and tips for achieving success in personal and professional life. In the summer of 2004 Canfield founded The Transformational Leadership Council (TLC), a closed membership, invitation only members’ club.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of books, usually featuring a collection of short and dense inspirational stories and motivational essays. The 101 stories in the first book of the series were compiled by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.
There have been numerous volumes of Chicken Soup issued. As of January 2006, there were over 105 titles. Many of the books are directed at specific groups of people, e.g. Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Grandparent’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul, etc.
The first book sold over 2 million copies and launched the series. There are now over 100 million copies in print and in 54 languages worldwide. The Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul series, consisting of over over 14 titles, is one of the first series of non-fiction books which have sold directly to teens in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
The series has spawned a number of imitators and parodies including Chicken Soup for the Vegetarian’s Soul and MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head: Chicken Soup for the Butt, as well as a line of licensed products, including greeting cards, calendars, gift products, pet food, CDs, DVDs, and nutritional supplements. A parody can also be found within the PC game A Vampyre Story; a book titled Chicken Soup For Those Without A Soul can be found in the library.
The name “Chicken Soup” was chosen for this series because of the use of chicken soup as a home remedy for the sick.
From 1993 to 2008, Chicken Soup for the Soul was published by Health Communications, Inc.
For Dummies is an extensive series of instructional books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered. Despite the title, their publisher takes pains to emphasize that the books are not literally for dummies. The subtitle for every book is “A Reference for the Rest of Us.” To date, over 1,700 For Dummies titles have been published. The series has been a worldwide success with editions in numerous other languages.
The books are an example of a media franchise, consistently sporting a distinctive cover — usually yellow and black with a triangular-headed cartoon figure known as “Dummies Man”, and an informal, hand-writing style logo. The icons and much of the design was originally done by University Graphics, a Palo Alto design firm. Prose is simple and direct; bold icons, such as a piece of string tied around an index finger, are placed in the margin to indicate particularly important passages.
Almost all Dummies books are organized around sections called “parts,” which are groups of related chapters. Parts are almost always preceded by a Rich Tennant comic that refers to some part of the subject under discussion. Sometimes the same Tennant drawing reappears in another Dummies book with a new caption, but based on the group of readers, it is not expected to be noticed.
Another constant in the Dummies series is “The Part of Tens”, a section at the end of the book where lists of ten items are published. They are usually resources for further study and sometimes also include amusing bits of information that don’t fit readily elsewhere.
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