Friday July 10, 2009
Emotionally estranged
Compiled by ROUWEN LIN
Fathers And Sons
Author: Richard Madeley
Publisher: Pocket Books, 293 pages
SEVEN years before the Great War, a little boy stays overnight with his parents and siblings on his uncle’s farm. He wakes up the next morning to an empty house. His family has fled the country, leaving him behind. He struggles through a difficult childhood, grows up, gets married and has a son. To his frustration, he realises that his lack of positive parenting roles in his younger days is affecting his relationship with his son. Not knowing how to cope, he sends the boy away to boarding school.
Ufo In Her Eyes
Author: Xiaolu Guo
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 200 pages
KWOK Yun has no great plans for the future and drifts through life aimlessly. While riding on her Flying Pigeon bicycle one day, she spots a UFThing in the sky and helps the man in distress whom she discovers near the alien craft. He rewards her with a large cheque and she becomes a celebrity overnight. UFO hotels start springing up, the local villagers go out of business, and it isn’t long before men from the National Security and the Intelligence Agency start snooping around.
My Sister’s Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Hodder, 407 pages
THERE is no donor match for Kate Fitzgerald’s bone marrow transplant. Kate was diagnosed with a rare type of leukaemia at age two, and the only way out is for her parents to have another baby, conceived specifically to provide genetically compatible body parts to save Kate. But when younger sister Anna grows up and is told that Kate needs one of her kidneys, Anna hires a lawyer and sues her parents for the rights to her own body. She doesn’t want to help Kate live any longer, and it’s a decision that threatens to tear the family apart.
Tales Of Freedom
Author: Ben Okri
Publisher: Rider Books, 197 pages
AN old couple finds themselves lost in a clearing, with only their slave-boy, Pinprop, for company. Little do they know that he holds the keys to the universe in his hands. In the aftermath of war, orphans paint mysterious shapes of birds, bulls, and hybrid creatures. A silent woman presses a tiny flower into the palm of a little boy on the bus, and disappears from sight. A beautiful Russian dressed in black helps to film a new version of Eugene Onegin. These tales, combining story and poetry in a fascinating new form, presents a series of images that offers a different perspective of looking at our gritty world.
You Or Someone Like You
Author: Chandler Burr
Publisher: Harper Collins, 319 pages
ANNE lives a privileged life as the wife of Hollywood executive Howard Rosenbaum. She attends halogen-lit movie premieres on the arm of her husband, but her heart lies in devouring books in her sunny garden.
When she is solicited to compile a book list for a huge company, it morphs into an exclusive book club, with Anne at the helm. When Anne and Howard’s only child, Sam, is rejected for a study programme in Jerusalem because he is not officially Jewish, Howard undergoes an identity crisis and lapses back into the orthodoxy that he had left behind as a young man.
Dexter By Design
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Publisher: Orion Books, 290 pages
DEXTER’S homicidal activities seem to be nicely under control and he has his mind set on settling into blissfully married life. But old habits die hard, and when his path crosses with a man who creates masterpieces out of dead bodies and blood, Dexter is back in business.
But the tables turns quickly, and Dexter finds himself next on the list to be carved up as an exhibit. He needs to find somewhere to run and hide, but this time it seems even as though the dark passenger (the voice that guides him on his deadly outings) cannot do much to help.
I-Ching Management
Author: Joseph Wong
Publisher: Asiapac Books, 160 pages
THE Yijing was conceived 5,000 years ago in ancient China. Also known as the I-Ching, it has been influential in shaping the management and philosophical principles that Chinese emperors applied to govern the Chinese empire. Yijing refers to the three aspects of change: intrinsic change, uniformity, and simplicity. The book presents a simplified version of these concepts, complete with illustrations by Wee See Heng, and approaches them from a modern business angle. It teaches how to examine the development cycle of a business and how it can move ahead in challenging times.
Heart Health Revolution
Author: Arthur Agatston
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks, 340 pages
ALMOST one million people will have a new or recurrent heart attack this year. Another 700,000 will have a stroke. This book is a compilation based on years of research in cardiology which suggests that the majority of heart attacks and strokes can be prevented. Divided into two sections, the author discusses, among other things, why cholesterol levels might not be an accurate indication of a heart-attack risk, how you can have a negative stress test and still be at risk for a heart attack, and how a simple non-invasive heart scan can reveal if you are a cardiac time bomb.
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