Childhood obesity in America is a major concern and this book encourages children to be active and to eat healthy. The book includes nice illustrations that show Alfred gaining weight when he eats badly and also shows how he transforms into his alter egos by using his imagination. This story offers encouragement for children to play and be active; to use their imaginations, and to eat healthier in a fun and endearing way.
Christie - "The book also communicates a positive message for kids to see the value and reward in following their imagination and dreams. Alfred Spurlock - "I would recommend this book to anyone with kids or grandkids. Sam Nic - "There are great illustrations that really bring the story to life. I still remember my parents reading to me and I am sure your kid will remember too.
Hope I can help you make memories for your kid s. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Here's What People Are Saying Read more Read less. Kindle Edition File Size: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a product review. Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon. I bought this book for my niece who had her second child last year, and her little girl is all ready obese at 15 months old.
Thought this book would be a nice easy way to bring up the subject by giving it to her oldest child Jake who's 6 years old and doing fine health wise. You see my niece is very over weight and generally speaking I think kids become a product of their environment. As child, I had lived in a former fisherman's cottage in Dorset when self sufficiency was a matter of necessity.
My father was on the dole, of which there was not much in the 's, and my mother was in poor health. We lived on what we could grow or forage and if the tide was right what we could get out of the sea. I remember how a conger eel caught by my father would provide us with fish cakes for a week! But the book is also about more than the activities of a family and their animals. It is an attempt to make a small statement about people's relationship with the land they live on and the importance of that relationship.
I have long believed that the 'health' of a nation is better and its communities and their cultures stronger, the more it cleaves and values the land it lives on. April Book of the Month. The second book in The Austen Project. In Val's trademark style of great storytelling and suspense meet modern day Cat whose world is turned upside down and her innocence lost as she is taken from rural Dorset to experience the bright lights of Edinburgh and the festival.
Seamless prose complementing dialogue that's speckled with wit, it is clear that Val McDermid clearly relished the writing of this contemporary and page-turning take on Northanger Abbey. A message from Val McDermid: Northanger Abbey is the least read and the least well-known of Jane Austen's novels. But only because our reading interests have changed and we don't get the joke that underpins the book. April 'New Gen' Debut of the Month. Ava Lavender, a girl born with wings which cannot be explained or hidden, charts the history of her family from its origins in nineteenth century France to poverty in Manhattan before a long, long journey to Seattle and a new start for a new generation — all before Ava is even born.
Although Ava is the most unusual of her family there are many others who will surprise and entertain before the story is fully unravelled. A classically arresting mystery, overflowing with good old fashioned pluck, courage and perseverance. The third in the Mirabelle Bevan mysteries, this can also be read as a vintage standalone novel. In a bygone era, Mirabelle and her feisty cohort Vesta often outpace their male companions and are far ahead of their time. The author acknowledges how frustrating research and inquiries can be with the last piece of the jigsaw often remaining just out of sight.
With some formidable detective work as well as some particularly perilous moments, this is a first rate read. Buttoned-up, seedy, glamorous, rationed Sara Sheridan nails the era, and who wouldn't root for her cool and enterprising heroine, Mirabelle Bevan, and sidekick Vesta Churchill as they battle corrupt masons and solve a murder or three. A remarkable and thought-provoking debut novel, which immediately becomes a compulsive read. Written with great eloquence, the tale transports you into an everyday reality filled with exquisite loss and longing. The wonderfully wide range of interwoven characters become tangible living breathing people who entice you into the story and help you feel and empathise with their emotions.
The faded yet enchanting Delicatessen sits central in the story and binds together the disparate group. As you dance across the decades, the truth of the tales behind the characters slowly and tantalisingly reveals itself. The tortuous relationships take on a new energy and meaning and brings an understanding of deeper hidden thoughts and feelings. This is a book to cherish, to become friends with; the encounter leaves you thoroughly satisfied and yet still wondering… can the hope of something actually be more magical than the reality of it? Scroll down to read more reviews.
JoJo Moyes is an incredible writer whose ability to depict modern life in all its glorious complexities is second to none. March Debut of the Month. This is a delightful debut novel which takes a forgotten letter found in the pages of an old battered book as the start of a rich and enjoyable discovery of war time family secrets. This facet of the story — how we think about our parents and grandparents and how their lives have turned out gives a wonderful resonance to the story and makes it so much more than just a tale of a forgotten wartime romance.
Two main stories are disclosed in different time frames, the author cleverly separating the two eras; the first, in the present, is narrated by Roberta herself and the second, from the past is told on behalf of Dorothy. Both women appear outwardly strong, however one harbours a tortuous secret which has been her constant companion, while the other searches for answers from the past.
Walters does not sanction or encourage provocative thoughts of judgement but as echoes of sadness travel across the years, you are left with thought provoking questions about the necessity of secrets and the choices we make. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'Packed full of secrets and deceptions.
I wept my way through this deeply moving story of loss and soul searching. That could be quite a broad definition, because of course members of reading groups can read any book they choose to, but there seem to be certain key elements that make a book particularly suited for that kind of discussion. A young woman working in a bookshop — great, book-lovers like to read about books.
A second strand set in wartime, featuring her grandmother — fantastic, the smaller personal tragedies of war can make for a really compelling plot. I cried every time I read it, and as the editor I had to read it a lot! We are all very excited about this book, and were delighted when the US rights were bought by the editor who discovered The Help. I think this book has all the elements that made The Help such a success, and I very much hope you agree. A tale of spying and political machinations as a new British ambassador to Washington is about to be announced.
There are several candidates who must be whistle clean. A mid-ranking government minister with a past in the secret service is asked to look into their backgrounds. He has two brothers, one working for the American secret service. The tale is very convoluted, seeming unconnected and vague but does come together a little more than half way through with the resolve coming as a complete surprise at the very end. So keep your wits about you, stay with it and be enthralled.
In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for The Madness of July a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'Put your life on hold - this is a one sitting, page turning book that will keep you captivated. A 'Piece of Passion from the Publisher' Before I began reading it he warned me: You've got to approach it like you would Dickens. Like a proper novel. It is, of course a thriller about politics and espionage. A page turner if ever I read one. But it is also a wonderful, multi-faceted novel about a family where spying runs in the blood, with rich and vivid settings, ranging from London and Washington to the Highlands of Scotland.
Jim is one of the most observant writers I have ever published. He notices all kinds of things about people - things which bring a character instantly to life. And he has an unerring ear for dialogue. He is also absolutely brilliant at evoking the atmosphere of a place, whether it is the stifling claustrophobia of London in a melting hot week in summer, or the ravishingly beautiful hills and lochs of his beloved Scotland. I defy anyone not to want to live in the Flemyng family house.
It has been the most gorgeous book to edit and James Naughtie the best fun to work with. We have just signed him up for another two novels about the same characters and I can't wait to be spirited away into their world once again. The fourth in the series featuring Giordano Bruno, mathematician, philosopher, heretic and spy, and solver of murders in Elizabethan England.
A spirit of adventure and true love of the period infuses the prose.
Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. An exceptional and totally engrossing debut novel, viewing WWII from an unfamiliar perspective. We are introduced to an German ordinary family in extraordinary times; they make some perplexing and disturbing decisions, is this in order to prosper or survive? The understated and restrained writing style perfectly suits the complex subject matter, allowing you to become absorbed in the central characters lives.
At the beginning, while the war is at a distance and triumph seems inevitable, you are kept quite deliberately detached from Katharina and Peter but as the full horror of war gets ever closer, you discover just how much the human soul can endure. The author takes you on a journey, subtly and quietly introducing you to the Nazi party, where the family start to climb the career ladder of glamour and success. In the battle for Stalingrad, the writing is so simple yet stirring; hunger, loss, pain, cold, fear and ultimately survival all crying out from the page.
Towards the end, the final feelings of guilt and the search for absolution which were initially so conspicuously absent are written with great insight and consideration. February Debut of the Month. A challenging, big, historical novel steeped in fact and really quite an excellent history lesson. It seems Geoffrey Chaucer has lost an important book that has been tampered with and its content now treasonable.
It contains a secret some will murder for. But this is no Dan Brown. This is serious historical stuff, difficult to know where fact and fiction part. It concerns a plot against Richard II and if you are into medieval history it is superb, full of lovely names of different areas depicting the trades associated with it, like Gropecunt Lane!
In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for A Burnable Book a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'London A missing book filled with dark prophecy. A monarchy under threat. Murder, conspiracy and treason. A debut tour de force which will keep you hooked from the first page. This has all the ingredients required to curl up with and savour.
Compelling in its originality, heart-breaking in its sadness yet so uplifting it will also make your heart soar. The Memory Book is perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes. This is a long, involved, complicated and very violent, multi-faceted family saga of London gangland through several generations ruling Whitechapel. Full of sadistic violence, torture, murder, abortions, deceit and addiction, it is brilliant.
Underlying the disregard for others is the deep love and loyalty for family. Extraordinary people those East End gangsters. It continues the story which began in The Trap. February eBook of the Month. The game in question is chess, the board Constantinople and the prize, a broader education for Elizabeth I!
This imagines Princess Elizabeth, aged 13 being accompanied by her tutor, a chess master and an oversexed lady-in-waiting to a chess congress organised by the Sultan. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for The Tournament a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - ' An exciting historical whodunnit with a charismatic, resourceful main character. The descriptions of 16th century Constantinople are marvellous. February Non-Fiction Book of the Month. Particularly valuable is the insight you gain into the lives of musicians and an anecdote to the school of critics who would have us believe all music groups either win talent contests or just grab a guitar and start playing.
Like for Like Reading Dear Lupin This was her first novel published back in It showed enormous promise and maturity and if you have not read it, you should. He has left her a series of letters to help her move on. We follow her, supported by a great cast of family and friends, through each letter and each step in a sensitive, but not too schmaltzy, healing process.
A tender tale well told. January eBook of the Month. Young women are cut open and a plastic baby doll is sewn up inside them. Sometimes the women did not die but were obviously deeply traumatised. If you like your murder stories compulsive, inventive and gripping, McBride is your man. I think he is very good. The book uses the design examples from the series to give a complete guide to redesigning a home besides giving much practical advice on materials and techniques. Working as series companion and a stand-alone DIY guide to giving your home a new look this is a useful book, full of good ideas from the series participants, good design achieved without a huge budget.
Like for Like Reading.. Centred on the Wopuld family and their many skeletons in the closet, this is a tale of love, deceit and dark desires. There are some very interesting twists and despite the description about the family gaming business, the emphasis is firmly on the love story between Alban and his cousin Sophie. Well worth curling up with on a rainy day or any other day for that matter. This title is also available as an Audiobook on CD.
Click here to find out more. Lawyer Mickey Haller sees money and knows he will have to work at his highest level. It turns out the victim was a prostitute he had defended on several occasions, and she had a number of contacts who could have killed her. Weaving through the tense tale is more back story of Haller and his estranged teenage daughter. John Fitzgerald Kennedy led the United States for barely a thousand days, and yet he is regarded as one of the great Presidents of all time for his brave decisions on civil rights and international relations, and not merely as a consequence of his tragic fate.
Kennedy steered his nation away from the brink of nuclear war, initiated the first nuclear test ban treaty and launched his nation on its mission to the moon and beyond. JFK inspired a nation, particularly the massive generation of baby boomers, injecting hope and revitalising faith in the American dream at a time when it was badly needed. Kennedy will be the only book that focuses on letters both from and to Kennedy. Kennedy presents readers with a portrait of both Kennedy the politician and Kennedy the man, as well as the turbulent times he lived in.
The beginnings of American involvement in Vietnam, a touch-and-go Cold War relationship with the Soviet bloc and many other international controversies are intertwined with Kennedy's own hushed-up health problems, his renowned controversial personal life and his charismatic engagement with the world of presidential politics.
Letters to and from Martin Luther King, Jr. Each letter is accompanied by lively and informative contextualization and facsimiles of many of the letters will appear in the text, along with photographs and exclusive material from the Kennedy Library and Museum. The vast literature generated by President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November , and the search for who killed him, hinges on five uncontested facts: These are almost the only facts everyone agrees about the assassination.
To this day, many have expressed an opinion but nobody has conclusively proved who killed President Kennedy. The argument is between those who believe the official version - that Kennedy was murdered by Oswald - and those who believe that Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy. Chris Lightbown is an experienced investigative journalist who has worked for the SUNDAY TIMES, and his masterly book is the first to use the network of high-quality but unknown independent researchers whose conferences, internet sites, lectures and books have largely been ignored by the mainstream media.
Lightbown's book is a brilliant piece of investigative reporting. It is also an utterly convincing and gripping narrative that provides the greatest clarity to the dark event that altered the 20th century. John Mitchinson, John Lloyd Format: Like for Like ReadingQI: John Lloyd and Jon Canter. The great thing about these jockey-turned-author books is that you know the racing content is authentic.
This one concerns up-and-coming jockey Duncan Claymore intent on getting his own back on the people who wronged his father, Charlie, a small-time trainer with a nose for a winner, now in a care home. Somewhere along the way Charlie made some enemies and was framed. Those, along with the skulduggery, the betting, the racing and the twists make for a good, fun read. A very promising debut which I understand launches a series. I look forward to his next effort.
Alistair Moffat, Andrew Crummy Format: Following on from the paperback guide to the Tapestry, this new hardback shows the Tapestry in full colour plates together with details of the project, explanations of the history depicted in each panel and how over volunteer stitchers created this vibrant new work of art. Like for Like ReadingHigh Light: November Travel Book of the Month.
Fully illustrated and replete with fascinating text boxes of trivia how should you address a husky in Alaska? From the bestselling wordmaster Mark Forsyth, an investigation into what makes a memorable phrase, what makes it stick in our minds and get quoted endlessly. Like for Like ReadingDamp Squib: Spanning fifty years and two continents, 'The Valley of Amazement' dramatises the collapse of China's imperial dynasty and the secret life of the courtesan house. Unfolding old family secrets, this novel returns readers to the compelling territory of 'The Joy Luck Club'. With her characteristic wisdom, grace and humour, she conjures a story of the inheritance of love, its mysteries and betrayals, and its illusions and truths.
In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for The Valley of Amazement a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'The Valley of Amazement is mesmerizingly beautiful, unbelievably sad and yet somehow hopeful at the same time. An evocative and absorbing read.
Classic recipes clearly explained, a guide to the glories of French provincial cuisine with the recipes replicating everything from the earthiest peasant dish to the highest of haute cuisine. Good food, the very best ingredients cooked as simply as possible, this is the food that Michel Roux Jr loves — and it shows. An easy read of fourteen short stories and a one act play, all with a mystical theme which Kate Mosse is so good at portraying. The title story tells of a young bride at her wedding feast who invites the younger guests to play hide and seek.
She is never found, why and what happens is very sad. From desperate Roman Soldiers pleading for warm socks to ordering the shopping on line via love letters, greetings, thank you letters and literary outpourings. A wonderful ramble through the art of written communication over the centuries from those first cold Roman soldiers stuck on guard-duty at Hadrian's wall to today's world of instant electronic communication from an author who excels at providing a detailed history of letter writing, why it matters and why we should buff up our writing skills before we lose them.
October Book of the Month. A time of high stakes and high risk; this dramatic period of English and French history is captivatingly brought to life as it is told through the love story of Yolande, daughter of the King of Aragon and Louis II of Anjou, first cousin of the King of France.
Sent away to be married at 19 to a young French Duke, with more than a hint of madness in the family, is a daunting prospect. Even more so as the union was supposed to end a bitter conflict but surprisingly true love prevailed and Yolande and Louis marriage set in train events that changed the course of history. Meticulous research and compelling writing make this a great read.
This clever book collects together hundreds of the most intriguing, surprising and little known histories and etymologies of a whole host of English words. From ancient place names to unusual languages, and obscure professions to military slang. It is a fascinating treasure trove of linguistic facts. Josie Lloyd, Emlyn Rees Format: No more bar-hunts again for these two!
The first in a new series of the Wars of the Roses. Conn creates a fictional character in Derry Brewer which shows how Henry was managed by those about him leading to the Wars of the Roses. Historical fiction master Conn Iggulden retells the gripping story of the English civil war in his new Wars of the Roses series. Stormbird is a fast paced and brilliantly weighted historical thriller. With its juxtaposition of characters from the high nobility and ordinary peasants, it gives a full flavour of the age. Whilst the key events are true, they are expertly blended with the fiction to create a three dimensional and absorbing portrait of the momentous events of the period.
The action shifts at a breath-taking pace between France and England, between the royal chapel, rural farmsteads and all manner of detailed locations in-between. The complex politics of the era are distilled down and accessible to all readers and with no faction given undue weight what emerges is a set of strong and believable characters all flawed in their own way. The mixture of fact and fiction is well balanced and the plot which emerges is engrossing and full blooded. Whilst it does not end on a cliff hanger it still hints at further turmoil to come, and we eagerly anticipate the sequel.
The first in the series, Stormbird is set to be a landmark piece of historical fiction writing. It's not published untill 10 October but you can read a extra long extract today. For more information about Conn Iggulden's Wars of the Roses series, direct from the publisher, click here. When a small town detective picks up a young female hitchhiker in a bad rainstorm, he inadvertently uncovers a whole snake's nest of intrigue, crime and deception which risks ruining his life, as if the recent accidental death of his own son wasn't already sinking his precarious marriage.
Barclay's thrillers are like precision machines, with plots within plots unfolding, red herrings and devastating revelations on every corner with a relentless Hitchcockian pace. What else can you ask for? Once again, bestseller Linwood Barclay grabs the reader from page one with his latest pulse-pounding hook and twist thriller.
On a rainy night, a man gives a teenage girl a lift home, but the girl he picks up isn't the same one he drops off - then she is found brutally murdered Author of the impressive The Thirteenth Tale with another powerful historical novel with a strange twist and a certain amount of mythology about rooks! The long-awaited new book from the author of The Thirteenth Tale is a macabre haunting Victorian story of love, loss and the mystery of death. A young boy by cruelly kills a rook with his catapult that sets off a tragic chain of events and a meeting in a graveyard with a mysterious stranger dressed in black.
A mysterious, dark read that will leave a lasting impression. Opening with the thoughts of a serial killer and then continuing with short chapters, this quickly draws the reader into the lives of the profiler Tony Hill, the victims, relatives of the victims and the other police officers interestingly mainly female. Val McDermid certainly knows how to keep the suspense going. The reader becomes caught up with the disturbed thoughts of the psychopathic killer, with the horror and pain of the victims and with the grief of the friends and relatives of the missing persons.
She also deals with the difficult relationship between Hill and his ex-partner Carol Jordan. Although the book has many dark and horrific moments, it is also about relationships all of which are believable and some are rewarding. It is a very compulsive read indeed. Rachel Khoo leaves Paris for an exploration of regional France. She tours the countryside and villages, towns and seashore and shares some of the gorgeous food she found along the way. Celebrating French cooking with her own modern twist, Rachel has shown the world that recreating the French culinary experience doesn't have to be difficult - or traditional.
Using the classic recipes that have made France home to the best culinary experience, Rachel is an expert at recreating those dishes we know and love, with a fresh and modern take. You'll also discover other exciting uses for muesli: Including ideas for children and for those with gluten allergies, this is a unique collection of recipes that will inspire you to start your day with a little bit of Paris. Martha Swift, Lisa Thomas Format: Learn how to throw parties Primrose Bakery-style with this collection of brand new recipes from Primrose Bakery.
Eight themed celebrations cover every age group and event, with sweet and savoury treats for small children, cocktail-laced cupcakes for grown-ups and inspiring ideas for everything in between. As always, the recipes are simple to make, easy to source, thoroughly tested and utterly delicious, with plenty of Primrose Bakery wit and creativity thrown in. Each one features quirky recipes for centre piece cakes, cupcakes, drinks and other delectable treats, plus brilliant ideas for how to accessorize the perfect celebration. The perfect cookbook for parties or simply for treats to make humdrum days that little bit special.
Alexander Armstrong, Richard Osman Format: From the top BBC comedy show Pointless here are the absolutely most pointless arguments to rot your brain. Quickly brushing aside the Why are we here question and that old favourite, Does God exist - yes or no -they get to the hardcore stuff and the debate over ballet or darts which is the more pointless and what element of a cooked breakfast could you leave out.
Pointless to continue, pointless to point out that this is ideal Christmas gift potential too! I've never worried about life's big questions. People at my age sit about pondering why are we here? The only time I ever asked myself that is when Suzanne booked us a surprise holiday to Lanzarote. He's not married, he doesn't have kids, and he's got a job where he's known as an 'idiot'.
It's time for him to take stock and face up to life's big question - what does it all mean? Karl is no stranger to travel, and now he's off on a series of adventures around the globe to find out how other cultures approach life's big issues. Travelling from far-flung tribes to high-tech cities, Karl experiences everything from a drive-thru wedding in Las Vegas to a vocational theme park in Japan, he meets a group of people in Mexico who find happiness through pain, undergoes a plastic surgery procedure in LA, and even encounters a woman in Bali who lets him help deliver her baby.
Have his experiences changed him? You can find out in this hilarious new book where Karl shares his stories and opinions in his inimitable style. Karl Pilkington is back on the road, and this time he's on a journey of self-discovery Simmons is one of the most protean of writers, equally excelling in science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime. This time around, his doorstopper of a book further challenges expectations and proves a gripping historical thriller, set on the brutal North East Ridge of Mount Everest. It's and two famous adventurers have vanished into the snow-whipped night.
A valiant explorer embarks in their footsteps and the expedition sets out for the heart of darkness. Atmospheric, scary, evocative and unputdownable, this is storytelling at his best, and will bring the cold into your living room to unsettling effect. Not to be read at night, either. A book about a mountain and a mountain of a book, Dan Simmons is a master of the slow-build thriller. The charming prologue states that he, Dan Simmsons, once met the hero of this book and inherited some of his papers, here transcribed.
So in effect, the author wishes us to believe this book is true. It is certainly possible. It centres around an attempt to climb Everest in but it is so much more than that. Espionage, politics, prejudice, notions of sexual equality, the horrors of the First World war and the rising shadow of the Second. It is huge in scope.
The detail of period and climbing technique is exquisite. The characters are wonderful, the plot compelling. If you love good food and want to eat the best British ingredients — then this is the book to keep by your side. If you look at books such as this; large hardback volumes by leading chefs, they can be daunting. You could learn to cook with this book, learn to appreciate British ingredients, expand your repertoire to include razor clams or teal or even learn to enjoy the humble turnip. There's an epidemic sweeping the nation Symptoms include: There is no known cure.
Michael Jones, Philippa Langley Format: October Non-Fiction Book of the Month. She hopes to present a complete re-evaluation of this controversial monarch, refuting the Tudor propaganda that sought to blacken his name. To make this a complete book of family entertainment there are added quizzes and fact sections — all being sold to aid the NSPCC. This may not be food you can do in 15 minutes and you may have to shell out a bit for the finest ingredients but these are recipes scaled for the domestic kitchen and the domestic cook therein.
The world would have been a very different place if Churchill had changed his approach to the nuclear challenge. The story of the post-war period and the Cold War is a complex one — here it has been rendered understandable — a revelatory history of science and politics. Our crowded little country still has the power to amaze as the views chosen by Simon Jenkins shows so well.
With his usual flair, Simon looks — very carefully — at one hundred of the very best views from every region in the country, and explains the history, geography, botany and architecture behind them; some are iconic, such as Gold Hill, as used in the Hovis advert, but with stories behind them that may not be known to everyone, and some may be entirely unfamiliar, such as the view in Dorset that he spotted while waiting to go into bat one day.
Most of the views are landscapes, but there are seascapes and cityscapes too, and underlying the whole project is another view: November Non-Fiction Book of the Month. There is as much stupidity as bravery on show with a plentiful leavening of derring-do and madness-with-a-purpose, the rewards great, failure deadly.
Like for Like Reading Packing for Mars: Tracie Young, Katie Hewett Format: Subtitled 50 fantastic facts for kids of all ages and is an attempt to convince non-Mathematicians that Maths can be exciting, great brain exercise and even — Fun. Cool Maths aims to show you how Maths is the mainstay of modern life and can be encountered in all sorts of unusual places solving all sorts of problems. Lots of examples, puzzles and tips and tricks to get you involved.
A Journey into Mathematics, David Acheson. These are not the manners of Emily Post but a guide — and a reminder- that manners make for a civilised society. There are the things we should know and do — queuing without shoving, no spitting in the street or no littering and then there is the advice on what to do in awkward situations and how to avoid social pitfalls. Like for Like Reading Strictly English: The Correct Way to Write This book presents a treasure trove for our most requested and most listened to poems of all time. An in-the-round history of Britain during the first world war examining the experience of a country fighting a world war from humble factory worker to soldier to politician and journalist.
How did people cope both physically and mentally and perhaps the biggest question of all is why, why did the British people go into the war and why did they endure? Jeremy Paxman has a sure grip on the facts revealing the mood and feelings of the period, you may think you know the answers to the questions he poses but be prepared to be challenged and corrected. Now in a new fully illustrated format could there be any better book to inspire the historians of tomorrow? And not to leave out historians of today or us lesser cousins, the mere history lovers, we will all want this elegiac, deceptively simple and elegant history.
The new format is a lovely piece of book production in size, shape and weight — not too big, not too small — and it even smells beautiful. Presented in a cloth binding, the illustrations are well-chosen and with the addition of good, clear maps it all fits into a well-designed whole. A trip back to Bombay, the place where Cyrus Todiwala grew up and learned to cook. Together with his wife Pervin, they uncover memories, seek out the food they loved and recreate the recipes ranging through street food, home cooking and high end dining.
Beautifully illustrated this is both memoir and cookery book, showing us the excitement of Bombay food culture and how it can be made at home. Dealing with Christmas food can be a nightmare so why not let Mary Berry take the strain? Stay calm this Christmas, get it sorted with Mary! Facts, anecdotes, history and humour, an up-close look at the world of the rugby Lions, with Matt Dawson looking back at years of Lion history.
Like for Like ReadingLion Man: The master storyteller is back with a vengeance. Two main characters dominate with various sub plots involving Somali pirates and the like but this is in essence traditional Forsyth, a classic cat-and-mouse thriller. And yet outside the greater New England area, Middlebury is mostly known for its incomparable language study. Chinese, French, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish.
During the Cold War, legions of patriotic polo-shirted Americans came here to learn Russian. Later, when the economies of the Far East were booming, many came to learn Japanese and Chinese. Year after year, hundreds of bushy-tailed and many Bush-supporting Orientalists, some more seasoned than others, make their way to this remote location.
Here, among the fresh-faced, flip-flopped masses that give this part of the world its discrete charm, students learn the finer points of grammar, elocution, and execution. For those in the know, the pilgrimage to Middlebury is a rite of passage, a… bar mitzvah? It is difficult, having given up undergraduate life some years ago, to accept that to master Arabic one must live in a dorm.
We sleep in narrow beds, for which one must buy special sheets. Those of us who refuse to buy special sheets on principle are left to make do with cold, itchy, inhospitable vinyl. Most students have roommates, too. Out of fear of being assigned one, I had every medical doctor in my family pen a note attesting that I am an insomniac, that I have been known to walk in my sleep, that I can be abusive in the night. We take our placement exam today. In the gymnasium-sized cafeteria, minutes before the exam, dozens of students have their heads buried deep in their Arabic books.
Others are stuffing bananas and Power Bars into their backpacks as provisions for the hours to come. I force myself to look away but must admit to having pangs of anxiety as we walk toward the testing hall. Where is my Xanax when I need it? Though the sky looks grey and ominous as we set out on our school-provided bicycles, we decide to chance it and forego umbrellas. H does laps while I do the sidestroke like my grandmother does it. We shower, and as we prepare to return, we find that the lobby of the athletic complex has been flooded by torrential rain.
We turn and run, only to find that we are trapped by water on every side. Finally, a kind man leads us out to his pickup truck and drives us back to the dorm. H has an Arabic dictionary with him, and we look up the following words: Noah, ark, flood, hero. For the record, it rained all summer, and I never went back to the gym. Today we sign the Language Pledge. The Pledge is one of the defining elements of the Middlebury experience. Its foundational philosophy is that one should be so intensely committed to learning a language that one can and will, for the period of six to nine weeks, forego any contact with the world in any other language but the one under study.
As we prepare to sign, I overhear the boy behind me tell the story of an especially serious student who broke her leg the previous summer. Even in the emergency room, he says, she spoke only in Arabic. In celebration of our last night of freedom, we walk into Middlebury, an irregularly shaped village with one central street running through it, featuring an abundance of shops devoted to both gift cards and athletic goods.
There is a single bar, a sort of pub with thumping hip-hop emerging from its basement depths. You know, Prince of Arabic pop! Today is the first day of class. My teachers hail from Iraq and Sri Lanka. I am very stupid, and they are both very kind to humor me. We are to introduce ourselves, going around the room one by one. We are especially urged to explain why we are studying Arabic. The motivations are legion. There is a graduate student with severe, asymmetrical dark hair who plans to write the definitive take on the politics of garbage collection in Palestine.
There is an aspiring foreign correspondent prone to wearing a kaffiyeh about his neck. He writes everything down in a black Moleskine and often throws sympathetic glances at me, the lone brown person in the class. She spent a previous summer copy writing for Al-Hurra, the American-funded television station in Baghdad. She makes me nostalgic for Cold War cultural diplomacy, when they used to send black people to play jazz in faraway places. At times he makes Alden Pyle look like Edward Said. I move on to the next table, where a doctoral student studying political science tells me he has spent some time walking the Arab Street.
Blogging is the future! We must support dissidents! He wags a drunken index finger furiously around my face. As I look down at the table, I realize that he has made a map of the Greater Middle East out of peanuts. I am to perform a skit with one of my classmates, using as much vocabulary as we can cram into ten minutes. Being vain and not belonging to any identifiable clique, I wait until someone invites me.
Finally, Joe FBI asks me to be his partner. At his suggestion, we attempt to create a coffee-shop encounter between an American photographer who has just come back from Iraq him and a journalist of Iraqi extraction me. I beg the director of the program, a cheery Egyptian man who always speaks into a microphone, even in the intimate space of his own office, to allow me to go away for a mere forty-eight hours on the condition that I not fall behind on any of my homework.
And who would have thought that in the miserable Arabs would be building the tallest building in the world? We should be proud! After much equivocation, he consents. This being Dubai, no one speaks Arabic. As I return to Middlebury, I find that the entire Arabic School is abuzz with an article that was published in the Washington Post some days before, about Arabic language study in America — specifically, about our textbook, the same book most institutions use: Al Kitab , the author continues, contains subliminal messages littered throughout the text about the wonders of Pan-Arabism.
That part is true: Her father, a sympathetic man with thick eyebrows, works at the United Nations, while her mother works at the Office of Admissions at NYU. Over the course of twelve chapters, Maha tells us she has few friends, feels neither American nor Egyptian, and is very often lonely.
Khaled, like Maha, is attractive; he also seems always to have an erection, visible through his too-tight gym pants. In fact, my only critique of the book is that one learns that there are no negatives in Arabic! Come to think of it, what they do opt to include in that first book is curious.
There is a CIA recruitment session on campus. We receive many circulars and announcements and are given all manner of options as to informational sessions and one-on-one meetings with recruiters. I must go, I tell myself. I am a budding anthropologist, after all. I pull out my pair of khaki pants and hang my BlackBerry around my neck like a fetish. As it happens, there is no room at the secret service — the sessions are already booked up. I see Abu Ghraib M in line for one of the meetings and bunch up my eyebrows, shooting her my meanest glare.
Week Six is trying. I am up many nights until 2 am working mostly shuffling flashcards made minutes before and taking long circuitous walks to the library bathroom. Time for socializing is rare. And besides, one can only handle so many parties built around a game of beer pong — even if it is called Beirut. I am reduced, for the purposes of entertainment, to making eye contact with a Lilliputian boy from the Russian school at the cafeteria salad bar. As I reach over for a boiled egg one day at lunch, I let my hand brush against his. He says something to me in Russian.
I am certain that we have connected. He repeats the mysterious utterance with even more Slavic oomph. I am certain he is visually frisking me. That weekend, H and I decide to go to a party organized by the Spanish School. He puts on his black dancing pants, and I wear the same thing I always wear but spray some Chanel No.
We arrive at the party to find that all of the Arabic School teachers are there, including the tightly veiled Egyptian. She is dancing to Shakira, her body gyrating in a way that makes us blush. Confused, we go back to Little Gaza to drink. There is a showdown in soccer between the Hebrew School and the Arabic School.
Abu Ghraib M is playing goalie. Our weekly guest lecture is by a liberal university professor of Arab provenance. I hear short intakes of air from the State Department contingent in the front row. Many, many disapproving heads. The end of Arabic School is marked by a talent show. Our class performs a musical, with the FBI guy playing Muammar al-Qaddafi, the hack journalist playing Amr Diab, Clare the pothead playing Margaret Thatcher, the socialists playing themselves. We take first prize. Or I studied more for the final exam. I do know that I used the word batfakkar at least three times that afternoon.
And that I will never be so good a grammarian in my life, in Arabic, as I was that day. In those days, Heshmatiye was a beautiful place, with flocks of birds and tall trees. It was not at all like a POW camp as you might imagine it, not least because the soldiers had not been specially trained to deal with prisoners of war, which seems to have made it easier for friendly relationships to develop between guards and captives.
Among the early arrivals was an artist named Ostad Monghaz. Monghaz had been a professor of sculpture and painting at a university in Italy. During his initial interrogation at Heshmatiye, it became clear that he had no political record in Iraq and had simply been caught by accident. But war has its own rules, and the professor had entered the camp as a prisoner. Still, Monghaz managed to make art in the camp, thanks to the martyr Mohammad Ali Nazaran, for whom the base is now named. At the time, Nazaran was the head of the Prisoners of War Commission and, he created an uncommonly pleasant atmosphere for the captives.
Fun & Endearing Story For Kids
Despite the ongoing war, Nazaran somehow secured the necessary permission for the families of many of the captives to come and visit their sons and husbands in Iran. This was exceptional not only in the context of this war, but also in the history of war. His compassion gave the Iraqi captives hope. Even after his death, his memory was kept alive in the minds of Iraqis. This was a great victory for the captives who came to this camp in their youth and now had to leave it.
The new museum would showcase the creativity and humanity of the captives — and also of the captors. The camp itself was part of the exhibition. One of the former captives, an aging engineering graduate named Medhat Hosseini, stayed on, building delicate life-size sculptures from available materials — construction plaster, sometimes even dental plaster. These figures recreated life in the camp for visitors. But in the decade and a half since the end of the war, the museum had few visitors beyond Red Crescent representatives, the occasional politician, and tours of distracted schoolchildren on the anniversary of the Iraqi invasion.
Most people were unaware of its existence. Over time the number of staff at the museum was cut to a minimum. Soldiers took over the job of cleaning and maintenance, and many of the most powerful works made by the captives were damaged or simply suffered because of poor preservation. These days, Hosseini wanders around repairing sculptures, kept company by an old cat. In , a huge highway project was announced that would run straight through the museum site. A concrete wall was erected on the eastern part of the base for security purposes.
Gone were the beautiful pine trees that surrounded Heshmatiye. Already a large part of the camp is used to collect urban and industrial waste. Soon after, the Tehran city council passed a law requiring all military camps to be removed from the immediate area. Today the museum is awaiting its destruction. Soon, beneath a mass of dust and concrete and the yellow lights of the highway billboards, the stories of 57, Iraqi soldiers who once lived on these grounds will lie buried and forgotten.
Since then he has published a book of tableaux featuring his vinyl figures, ToyGiants , with photographers Daniel and Geo Fuchs, and created a roving conceptual gallery, artempus, to showcase his collections and enthusiasms, which are legion. When I was six years old, I was completely blown away by the first Star Wars movie. We were on our yearly holiday trip to Turkey — I was born in Izmir, but we moved to Germany when I was two — and my parents took me to an old-school open-air double feature.
The second movie was Alien. I remember running away during the first creepy scene. It must have had some effect because to this day I have lots of Star Wars and Alien toys. But not the original ones, right? Yeah, I came home one day, entered my bedroom, and all my childhood heroes were gone. This was it — time to grow up.
I think I was twelve years old, and I can remember that moment like it was yesterday. I proceeded to buy back all of my favorite pieces, one by one, over a period of time. And then I kept going. By the time I realized what I was doing, I was well into my long completist period. Which might entail running to every flea market in town, or driving to toy conventions, or flying to toy conventions. Looking back, that completist period was the most boring time of my life.
It was like I had a full-time job as an archivist. Today I only buy things that I like and that somehow round out my collection as a whole. No, my parents never collected anything. Both of my parents were working hard. Not to psychoanalyze you or anything, but where did this obsession come from? Were you particularly alienated as the child of guest workers?
Like Linus and his security blanket? To be honest, I never had big problems being a foreigner in Germany. It was more a question of money, I think. There was a kid in the neighborhood named Oliver who had all the Star Wars toys. That was something my parents just could not afford. Could this sustained infatuation with toys be characterized as an attempt to reclaim your lost youth? I just truly believe that playing keeps you creative, young, and sociable. So in addition to your toy collection, you have a sizable collection of contemporary art.
How did that happen? The transition was pretty easy. But I think the urge to make art and the urge to make toys are the same. The new medium of easy-to-sculpt materials, like vinyl, just accelerated this phenomenon, in that it made it affordable for everyone to work on small sculptures on a larger scale. If you happen to find yourself on a Tehran avenue in the coming months, you may notice a passenger with a video camera in the backseat of a motorcycle taxi, interviewing the driver. A teacher draws a large ear on a chalkboard. While his back is to the classroom, a student talks out of turn, disrupting the lesson.
The teacher demands that the student identify himself, and when no one comes forward, he removes seven students from the class for further questioning. The film then presents two scenarios — cases, as it were — one in which the students refuse to name the guilty party and are all punished by being kept out of the classroom, and another in which one student identifies the culprit and is allowed to rejoin the class. Kiarostami interwove these two staged scenes with documentary footage of interviews in which he fielded reactions to the two cases from various adults, including newly minted officials of the revolutionary government.
In spite of these anti-Shah interpretations, the film was banned by the new regime for its allegedly subversive content and for representing the opinions of figures from banned political organizations, such as the Communist Party. Following a logic of substitution, he proposes the very same ethical classroom scenario, dramatized in First Case, Second Case , to motorcycle taxi drivers ferrying him around the city of Tehran. Perhaps that is part of the point. Precisely for its lack of information, its refusal to state a clear political agenda, and its insistence on occupying time, this video, on completion, was a glimpse of power lying in wait.
Fotouhi plans on continuing to hail motorcycle taxis until he has enough footage to match the running time of First Case, Second Case. He tells me that he will also be shooting static shots of the drivers waiting to pick up fares, to intercut with the interviews. It began as a love story. As with the best romances, they meet at a barbecue in Paris. They fall in love, and it is terribly passionate. He is a sort of polymath who has studied Russian literature and architectural theory. She is a graphic designer. They collaborate on a project or two — the kind that mixes art and politics, art and design, highbrow and low, and everything in between — but eventually break up over the question of what to name their first child he insists on Genghis, she will not have it.
The Pole moves to Holland to attend a prestigious design academy, Dexter Sinister went there, too, and meets a man of Belgian and American extraction — he is also a designer — named Boy. His middle name is Wyatt. The Pole and Boy begin to date. They fall in love. Then, strangely, they get together with the Iranian a chaste threesome , and they start to produce work together. Their concerns are wide-ranging and occasionally somewhat vague.
It is that vagueness, that pleasantly exotic whiff of je ne sais quoi that is precisely the point. I first heard about Slavs and Tatars from a guy called Payam Sharifi. I got an email from him about an exhibition that his mother, a photographer, was in. Kasia Korczak is the Pole. She has bangs that look like they have been trimmed with a hacksaw and a flat voice that is sexy in a way. Names are really, really hard. Slavs and Tatars does have a pleasing iconicity about it.
Slavs, the linguistic and ethnic group from whence a third of Europeans derive — but with which, somehow, they rarely identify — seems a reminder that Europe was once more Eastern than the average European knows or cares to remember. The land of the Slavs was rough and distant, somewhere near Ukraine or, say, Belarus. Which brings us to the Tatars. For most of us, the term evokes images of faraway lands, thick curly mustaches, maraudings, spearings, beheadings, treacherous Great Games — or, alternately, mayonnaise sauce for fish.
Tatars ride horses and wear funny felt hats. In spite of them being Turkic peoples from greater Eurasia, they might as well be Philistines. The Tatars rolled through Poland in the thirteenth century, the grand dukes of then — Lithuania encouraging them to do so because of their reputation as skilled warriors. She grew up under Communist rule in Lodz, Poland, a Manchester-esque industrial town known for its film academy, which produced both Roman Polanski and Andrzej Wajda. Payam, in the meantime, was a long-haired jockish teenager in Houston, Texas.
Like many middle-class Iranians, his parents had come to the States in the s to become engineers. He spent his junior year studying in St. Petersburg and, a decade or so later, has made the city of Moscow his home. I can buy books in Farsi. I eat sabzi khordan Iranian green herbs. It also explains why Payam has a Tatar friend named Rostam a name from the classic tenth-century Persian epic the Shahnameh who is a billionaire.
Or that people in Tbilisi love Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But that confusion is also, in a way, counterintuitive. After all, as the East turns West by dint of late globalization, NATOization, even taste, it may seem retrograde to want to name your child Genghis. The Azeri separatist movement wants to Latinize its alphabet. Croatia and Ukraine want to join the European Union. For Slavs and Tatars, geography becomes a metaphor for something bigger, something unwieldy — lost histories, accidents, oversights, mistakes. Geography can also be a provocation, an occasion to think again.
Slavs and Tatars love the Kurds, the original castaways. They are less sure about where they stand on the Turks. In the peculiar club they have crafted for themselves, Tamerlane, Alexander Griboyedov, and Ali G are all honorary members. In over thirty-two pages, in bastardized calendar format, Slavs and Tatars tell us stories — all polemical, all curiously intriguing.
This thirteenth month — part accident, part culled from history — is not only a lexical drift but also a call for leisure. An extra month is a space in which to think. And so, we have calendar days devoted to a mosque in Tatarstan; an ode to the rear guard the left is too hip! Le Figaro over Liberation! They also urge us all to glean leadership secrets from Attila the Hun. In an earlier project entitled Drafting Defeat , Slavs and Tatars were equally interested in occupying spaces of officialdom, in the form of mysteriously beautiful maps.
Carefully reprinted and true to their originals were a series of intricate maps from the tenth century, drawn by Al-Istakhri born Ibn Khordadbeh or Al Farsi. Both Istakhri and Khosrow were itinerant Persian bureaucrats-cum-poets.
Overcoming Childhood Obesity In America
Here, they play the hijackers. In this form, in a Europe that is still fitfully defining what it is and, even more so, what it is not — the lyrics ran:. Here, in the heart of Europe, the banner seemed to symbolize a public celebration of contention. Which brings us to their latest project. The Pantheon of Broken Men and Women will take the form of a book and exhibition.
There is beauty in bad luck. This is an ode to beautiful losers. One could, of course, take Slavs and Tatars to task. Their quest to recapture the East just as the East is becoming more Western is, perhaps deliberately, perverse.
- The Bad Breath Vampire (The Curse of Bed Breath Book 2)!
- Cédric - 25 - Quest-ce quil a ? (French Edition).
- Buy for others.
Certainly, they have sold their work at Colette! Payam collects fancy limited-edition Nikes! They all look like supermodels! Still, the West has had a worse-than-usual decade, what with environmental lameness, wrong-headed wars, and plain bad style. Contrarianism is not unwelcome, even if it is radically chic. And perhaps in times of pathos and apathy, as we sleepwalk through another set of wars, a bit of pamphleteering, however posh, is not a bad thing.
When Slavs dream, it is a heavy, almost catatonic dream. One so removed from reality that it redeems the very radicality of what a dream originally suggested: And challenge them if you wish, because they can take it. It just kind of crept up. I guess the parents were taking all the responsibility for themselves. We still had to go to school, except during bombardments. If it was more than a week, we would pack up the car and go up to the mountains and ski.
It just kept escalating. Every year at Christmas, everybody went to church and prayed for the end of the war. We lived on the east side of Beirut, the Christian side. The interesting thing was that we are Christian Palestinian, and the first war that started was between Muslims and Palestinians.
Later on it became a war between Muslims and Christians. So even though we were Christians in the Christian part of town, we still felt like outsiders. It was very confusing. But mostly we were fine. We were kind of like, cool, so the kids around us were smarter, more intellectual people. They looked at our being Palestinian as a funny thing. They always made fun of us, behind closed doors, but never in public. There were a lot of crazy people out on the street. You know, we spent a lot of time on the street.
We had a crew that did a lot of graffiti. The name of our gang was Strangers, but with dollar signs. And we were five kids who actually were strangers. And then there was Congo, who was just incredibly hairy. Well, that, and because his dad owned a plant that turned animal skin into leather.
And he had a pickup truck, which we would use sometimes, and it stank like hell from all the fresh skins in the back. So that was why we called him Congo — that truck reminded us of Africa and safaris, and him being hairy like a monkey. We were like a family, a bunch of kids huddled together. As soon as he heard gunshots, he would run up the stairs. Our parents were strict, too, but we kind of molded them.
We had certain whistles that we would use to signal that we were there, or to get someone to come out. And we had our own dialect — we would reverse the words so that nobody would understand what we were saying, not even our parents. We had the whole deal, you know. We were doing graffiti at the same time New York was doing it, at the start of the eighties. That definitely had an impact on our behavior. We would walk around with black T-shirts with white writing. Nobody in the Middle East did graffiti, ever. It was inconceivable — what is this craziness?
Everybody wanted our —. We were very tight. There were parties every weekend, girls from our school, girls from the neighborhood, girls from the next neighborhood. Everybody wanted to have us at their party. We would always dress the same. At one point we had these space suits, white overalls, like in car racing, that were flame-repellant, and we would wear them around town to parties. We had so much freedom. Sometimes I feel sorry for any kids I might have one day, as there is no way they will have the kind of experience we had in Lebanon.
As teenagers we did everything. Was there anything you did then that you look back on now and say, How the hell were we allowed to get away with that? Well, we had all kinds of games with guns. Not real guns — BB guns — but still. We spent hours and hours on the balcony, shooting.
FREE Bonus - Audio Version of the Book!
We were so good! We also used to hide in the bushes at night and throw glass bottles at cars that were driving by on the road at the bottom of the hill near our house. When I think about it now, I am furious at myself, you know. But at the time it was a game, and when you heard the bottle hit the car, it was — instant celebration. In Beirut there was no sense of fear. You never had to watch your back.
You just had to keep your ears open for bombs or gunshots that might come your way. A lot of the time it was quiet. And on top of all this, Lebanon is such a small country. Everything was so accessible. Depending on the season, you would go skiing or go to the beach or go to the river for a picnic. But we did get involved in one street fight. Like, twenty-five people against twenty-five people. But it started out twenty-five against five. We were surrounded by all these bad-ass motherfuckers. But we were in our neighborhood, and in our neighborhood there were some really bad-ass motherfuckers.
One moment, we were scared shitless. I was shitting my pants. But the moment that we had these real fighters show up — these guys killed like five people a day — and they were with us , and all of a sudden —. And if it had gone the other way, it would have been us with our heads being banged against the sidewalk. The war really taints your perceptions toward life. You are like any other person who was at that moment dying right around the corner.
A bomb could drop on your head at any second, or you could be kidnapped, or shot by mistake, or have a stray bullet in your head. You could be sitting in your house and a bomb could just go through the house. There was no place that was safe, except down in the shelter. One time we were at home and I was with my dad making a salad, and a bomb exploded really close to our building. I was standing there with my dad at the salad bowl, and the shrapnel from the bomb went right through it.
Not to mention the car bombs — there were so many car bombs that would just wipe out half of a building. Sometimes you would see remnants and blood on another building. But for us, it was fun. It was like watching a movie of war, but we actually lived it. It was just a typical afternoon. My mom was making lunch and a bunch of kids were hanging out in the street playing soccer, and at one point we started hearing all these bullets.
The next thing I know, someone is telling me that my arm is bleeding and I look down — and I started to feel that it was heavy, and I realized there was a bullet in my arm.
15 best Giggle Book Awards images on Pinterest | Childrens books, Baby books and Children's books
A sniper had caught us at just that moment. Of course, it was the talk of the neighborhood. One of my friends took me to the hospital, and I got the bullet removed and my arm stitched up. And of course my mom found out, and she was freaked out and she came to the hospital. It was nothing in the end, the bullet went straight through the muscle between the bones, no arteries, no blood vessels, no nerves. The funny thing is, throughout the war, I had always wanted to get shot in the arm, I wanted to get a bullet in the arm, and then it happened.