Say You're One Of Them

 By: ryan    9:45 AM  Fiction - Uwem Akpan   No comments

Author : Uwem Akpan
Title : Say You're One Of Them

ISBN: 9780316086370
Publisher: Back Bay Books

Contents

..An Ex-Mas Feast
..Fattening For Gabon
..What Language Is That?
..Luxurious Hearses
..My Parents' Bedroom
..Afterword
..Acknowledgments
..Reading Group Guide

Back Cover Text

Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pay tribute to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances.

A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts to any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees - a microcosm of today's Africa - a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends, the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia become viscerally clear.

About the Author

Uwem Akpan was born and reared in Nigeria. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received his MFA in creative writing form the University of Michigan in 2006.

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See Inside The Book (Excerp From An Ex-mas Feast)

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The Time Traveler's Wife

 By: ryan    4:42 PM  Fiction - Audrey Niffenegger   No comments

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 9780099546184

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This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. In the face of this force, they can neither prevent nor control, Henry and Clare's struggle to lead normal lives is both intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.
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The Time Traveler's Wife movie will be released on 29 October 2009.

Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana.

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Velvet & Cinder Blocks

 By: ryan    9:33 PM  Short Stories   No comments

Title: Velvet & Cinder Blocks
Author: Ioannis Gatsiounis
Publisher: ZI Publications
ISBN: 9789675266041


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Ioannis Gatsiounis's debut collection of short stories brilliantly captures the spirit of the individual who struggles to define himself in a world where the idea of identity is both concrete and perpetually fleeting, a world where loyalties, frienships and family ties can alter in an instant. A young painter follows a false prophet deep into a desert. A pious rape victim struggles to see past her faith in the aftermath of a tsunami. A Chinese-American's Chineseness is put to the test in multi-racial Malaysia. A young Malay caretaker and his lone guest at a remote guest house struggle to find direction and compassion in an era of stark civilization divides.

With these ten beautifully imagined and decadently engrossing stories, Gatsiounis offers us a timely, penetrating meditation on intimacy, alienation and triumph in the post-9/11 world.


Beyond The Veneer also by Ioannis Gatsiounis.
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The Last Song

 By: ryan    7:25 PM  Fiction - Nicholas Sparks   No comments

Title: The Last Song
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 9780446555647

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In the tradition of his beloved novel A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks brings us a deeply moving story of a young girl's first encounter with heartbreak and love.

Seventeen-year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside down when her parents divorced and her father moved to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains alienated from her parents, particularly her father until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she and her brother spent the summer with him. Resentful and rebellious, Ronnie rejects her father's attempts to reach out to her and threatens to return to New York before the summer's end. But soon Ronnie meets Will, the last person she thought she'd ever be attracted to, and finds herself falling for him, opening herself up to the greatest happiness and pain that she has ever known.

An unforgettable story of love in all its myriad forms, The Last Song demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts and heal them.

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 See Inside The Book 

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The White Tiger

 By: ryan    11:41 AM  Fiction - Aravind Adiga   No comments

Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Publisher: Free Press
ISBN: 9781439137697

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Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life, having nothing but his own wits to help him along. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem, but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

Amoral, irrievant, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international sensation and a startling, provocative debut.

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 See Inside The Book (An Excerpt)

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What I Bought Today

 By: ryan    4:58 PM  Half-Broke   No comments

1. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
2. Ripples, Shih-Li Kow
3. Eight Jewels of The Phoenix, Tutu Dutta-Yean
4. Eight Fortunes of The Qilin, Tutu Dutta-Yean

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What Buddhists Believe

 By: ryan    11:50 PM  Religion - Buddhism   No comments

Title : What Buddhists Believe
Author : Dr K Sri Dhammananda's


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What Buddhists Believe answers many questions which are asked about Buddhism by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. there are so many misconceptions regarding superstitious and misinterpretations which are associated with this noble religion that it has become imperative to explain the Teachings in a manner which has contemporary relevance.

Venerable Dr K Sri Dhammananda's What Buddhist Believe is already a classic in that it has proved to be extremely popular not only with practicing Buddhists who are born into the religion, but also those who are really interested in knowing what the buddha taught. Its popularity can be attested into Spanish, Dutch, Singhalese, Nepali, Parshi, Burmese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian.

This revised and enlarged volume covers almost every aspect of Buddhism, and is written in clear and precise language which will appeal not only to the casual reader but also to the intellectual student of Dhamma. Directed mainly to an average person, this book adopts a non-textual approach to explain the Buddhist viewpoint on a wide range of doctrinal and contemporary topics, including those not normally touched upon by traditional buddhists writers.
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This is a very very good book indeed. It touches many topic regarding questions that Buddhist's normally asked. This book can be downloaded for free, yes for free, from Ven. K Sir Dhammananda's website (http://www.ksridhammananda.com) or you can go to Brickfield Maha Vihara temple to puchase the book. I already bought a few copies for my friends and family members. All the money goes to the donation. So I recommend that you purchase and get merit by reading the book and making donations to the temple.

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Nothing Changes Everything Changes

 By: ryan    11:35 PM  Religion - Buddhism   No comments

Title : Nothing Changes Everything Changes
Author: Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
Publisher: Kechara Publications


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It is a simple truth by just changing our perspective about things and people around us, nothing changes and yet, everything in our world changes.

In this collection of animated, lively teachings, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche shows us how the simple transformation of our perspectives can shed entirely new light on what we often regard as unbearable, painful, or just plain irritating. He speaks of problems we struggle with and offers brighter, lighter ways of looking at life, love and its difficulties so tha each new perspectives transforms an entire reality within us.

Though his talks are drawn from ancient teachings of a Buddhist tradition, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche shrus off the robes and queitness of spirituality, bringing a fresh, funny, gregarious approach that strikes at the heart of comtemporary life and its challenges.

It's about time we stop sitting in a corner bellyaching! Find your own new window of looking out to the world within these pages. It could make all the difference.
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For more info about the book, please log onto kechara.com You can purchase it at any Kechara outlet or major bookstores mainly MPH, Kinokuniya and Borders.

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You've Got To Read This Book!

 By: ryan    11:36 PM  Non-Fiction   No comments

Title: You've Got To Read This Book!
Author: Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780060891695


Back Cover text
Q: Can a book really change your life?
A: Absolutely!

In You've Got To Read This Book!, 55 people from all walks of life share their stories of the life-changing power of books:

• Dave Berry relates his story of the book that, at the tender age of ten, set him on the path to becoming one of America's best-loved humorist.
• Bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard tells why she has read her life-changing book eleven times, before each book she writes and explains the impact this special book has had on her family.
• Stephen Covey reveals the book that helped to shapehis uniquely powerful approach to success and effectiveness in life.
• kenny Loggins narrates how a book spurred his recovery from an emotional breakdown and inspired many of his most popular hits.
• Environmentalist Diane Wilson, sometimes called the "Southern Erin Brockovich," shares story about the book that gave her the strength to do what it took to clean up a polluted Texas bay.
  

Read about the book that powerfully affected a long list of memorable people, including an award-winning teacher, one of America's top trial lawyers, an octogenarian political activist, a Holocaust survivor, a radio show host, a fourteen-year-old millionaire from inner-city Chicago, a congresswoman, a world-renowned artist, and two Internet legends, as well as a number of successful businessmen and women, sports figures, philanthropists, and others.

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The Power Of Now

 By: ryan    2:13 PM  Body and Spirit, Mind   No comments

Title: The Power of Now
Author: Eckhart Tolle
Publisher: Adam Publication
ISBN: 9781444700848

Back Cover text
Hugely Successful author Eckhart Tolle guides us through a challenging but extraordinary rewarding journey to find The Power of Now. We learn that we can find our way out of psychological pain; authentic human power is found by surrendering to the Now; the silence and space all around us is one of the keys to entering the inner peace. In the Now, the present moment, problems do not exist. In the Now, we discover that we are already complete and perfect.

Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany, graduated from the University of London and worked at Cambridge University. When he was twenty-nine, a profound spiritual transformation virtually dissolved his old identity and radically changed the course of his life. He is now a counsellor and spiritual teacher.

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