Category Archives: Travel Guides
Brighton Rock
Graham Greene`s Brighton Rock is the classic murder tale set in 1930s Brighton and which was made into a successful feature film in 1948. A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous,
Things I`ve Been Silent About
In Azar Nafisi`s personal story of growing up in Iran, she shares her memories of a life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a country`s political revolution. Nafisi`s intelligent and complicated mother, disappointed in her dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerising fictions about herself,
Plot Against America
When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide inthe1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh publicly blamed the Jews for pushing America towards a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but, upon taking office as the 33rd president of the
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is another collection of beautiful stories from the lyrically unconventional imagination of Haruki Murakami. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether in a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece,
Pomegranate Soup
For the inhabitants of the damp little Irish town of Ballinacroagh, the repertoire of gastronomic delights has never extended farther than the limp meals of the local inn`s carvery. But things are about to change when the beautiful Aminpour sisters – Marjan, Bahar and Layla – arrive, determined to share the magic of their kitchen
Shake Hands With The Devil
When Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire received the call to serve as force commander of the UN mission to Rwanda, he thought he was heading off to Africa to help two warring parties achieve a peace both sides wanted. Instead, he and members of his small international force were caught up in a vortex of civil
As I Lay Dying
The death and burial of Addie Bundren is told by members of her family, as they cart the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury her among her people. And as the intense desires, fears and rivalries of the family are revealed in the vernacular of the Deep South, Faulkner presents a portrait of extraordinary power
Rose for Winter.
Andalusia is a passion – and fifteen years after his last visit Laurie Lee returned. He found a country broken by the Civil War, but the totems of indestructible Spain survive: the Christ in agony, the thrilling flamenco cry-the pride in poverty, the gypsy intensity in vivid whitewashed slums, the cult of the bullfight, the
McMafia
When an appalling and seemingly inexplicable murder shattered the peace of a quiet English suburban street it revealed the extent to which organised crime has now seeped into our lives, often without our knowledge. In his groundbreaking book Misha Glenny takes us on a journey through the new world of international organised crime, from gun
French Women Don`t Get Fat
This is the book we`ve all (certainly every woman between 25 and 75) been waiting for. It is classy, chic, convincing, funny, wise, well-written and very timely. It`s the ultimate non-diet book, which nonetheless shows us how to eat with balance, control and above all pleasure. Chuck out all the radical diet books, think about
Stick Out Your Tongue
A Chinese writer whose marriage has fallen apart travels to Tibet. As he wanders through the countryside, he witnesses a sky burial, shares a tent with a nomad on a pilgrimage to atone for sleeping with his daughter, meets a silversmith who has hung the wind-dried corpse of his lover on the walls of his
Beijing Coma
Dai Wei lies in his bedroom, a prisoner in his body, after he was shot in the head at the Tiananmen Square protest ten years earlier and left in a coma. As his mother tends to him, and his friends bring news of their lives in an almost unrecognisable China, Dai Wei escapes into his
Daniel
Hans Bengler, a young entomologist, leaves Sweden for the Kalahari Desert, determined to find a previously undiscovered insect to name after himself and advance his career. Instead, he finds a young boy, whose tribe has been decimated by European raiders. Accustomed to collecting specimens, Bengler re-names the traumatised child Daniel and brings him home to
In The Time of Madness
In the last years of the twentieth century, Richard Lloyd Parry found himself in the vast island nation of Indonesia, one of the most alluring, mysterious and violent countries in the world. For thirty-two years it had been paralysed by the grip of the dictator and mystic General Suharto. But now the age of Suharto
To Sir with Love
When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Rick Braithwaite is saddened and angered by her prejudice. In post-war cosmopolitan London he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school the reactions are the same. Slowly and painfully some
The Orientalist
The Orientalist unravels the mysterious life of a man born on the border between West and East, a Jewish man with a passion for the Arab world. Tom Reiss first came across the man who called himself `Kurban Said` when he went to the ex-USSR to research the oil business on the Caspian Sea, and
Spanish Steps: Travels with my Donkey
Being larger than a cat, the donkey is the kind of animal Tim Moore is slightly scared of. Yet intrigued by epic accounts of a pilgrimage undertaken by one in three medieval Europeans, and committed to historical authenticity, he finds himself leading a Pyrenean ass named Shinto into Spain, headed for Santiago de Compostela.Over 500
Trespass
In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he`s become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister, Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight
Catch-22
With an introduction by Howard Jacobson. Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel`s strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller`s classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story
Learning to Breathe
At the age of sixteen, Andy Cave followed in his father`s and grandfather`s footsteps and became a miner – one of the last recruits into a dying world. Every day he would descend 3,000 feet into Grimethorpe pit. But at weekends Andy escaped from the pithead to a very different world – testing his nerve
