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Popular Books

Four Bestsellers of 2016

Book 1: The Girls by Emma Cline

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.

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Book 2: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K.Rowling

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on 30th July 2016. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places. This Special Rehearsal Edition will be available to purchase until early 2017, after which a Definitive Edition of the script will go on sale.

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Book 3: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

The Shadowhunters of Los Angeles star in the first novel in Cassandra Clare's newest series, The Dark Artifices, a sequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series. Lady Midnight is a Shadowhunters novel. It's been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn't lead her in treacherous directions...Making things even more complicated, Julian's brother Mark-who was captured by the faeries five years ago-has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind-and they need the Shadowhunters' help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn't recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it? Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare's Dark Artifices series.

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Book 4: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

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Prabir

Alibris/Amazon

Four Popular Books:

Peep in to History

Book 1: Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse
by H R Trevor - Roper


Hermit of Peking is one of the most remarkable pieces of literary detection of recent years.

It all began when Hugh Trevor-Roper acquired the voluminous memoirs of Sir Edmund Backhouse, uo till then known only as a distinguished Chinese scholar who had lived quietly until his death in 1944.

The memoirs depicted a very different person - a man who said that he had been 'intimate' with many nobles, from Lord Rosebery to Verlaine, and whose lovers had included the Dowager Empress of China. In fact, they were so fantastic that the author felt obliged to discover all he could about the man who had written them: and what he reveals here is the story of one of the most outrageous forgers, confidence tricksters and eccentrics of the century.

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Book 2: A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling account of how the modern Middle East came into being after World War I, and why it is in upheaval today

In our time the Middle East has proven a battleground of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and dynasties. All of these conflicts, including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis that have flared yet again, come down, in a sense, to the extent to which the Middle East will continue to live with its political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed upon the region by the Allies after the First World War.

In A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies came to remake the geography and politics of the Middle East, drawing lines on an empty map that eventually became the new countries of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all-even an alliance between Arab nationalism and Zionism-seemed possible he raises questions about what might have been done differently, and answers questions about why things were done as they were. The current battle for a Palestinian homeland has its roots in these events of almost 100 years ago.

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Book 3: White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India by William Dalrymple

James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of Hyderabad when he met Khair un-Nissa - "Most Excellent among Women" - the great niece of the Prime Minister of Hyderabad. He fell in love with her and overcame many obstacles to marry her, converting to Islam and according to Indian sources becoming a double-agent working against the East India Company. It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early 16th century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian Mutiny, the 'white Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassment to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who traveled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his templeful of idols; and Sir David Auchterlony, who took all 13 of his Indian wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant. In "White Mughals", William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of seduction and betrayal.

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Book 4: The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

"Mukherjee leaves you feeling as though you've just aced a college course for which you'd been afraid to register - and enjoyed every minute of it". (Andrew Solomon). The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history, from bestselling, prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee. Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function. The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a 'unit of heredity'. It intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms post-war biology. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds - from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes. This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life, by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene, like a red line, is also an intimate history - the story of Mukherjee's own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to "read" and "write" the human genome - unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children. Majestic in its ambition, and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity - and a vision of both humanity's past and future.

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Prabir

alibris/amazon

Four Must Read Books for Would be Parents

I am suggesting and recommending four landmark books for those parents who are planning to have a child in their family. These books reveal a wealth of highly valuable and less-known knowledge on the psychological growth and mentoring of children from their prenatal days. All these books are written by authors, who are acclaimed experts and highly knowledgeable in this area of science.

Book 1: The Secret Life of the Unborn Child: How You Can Prepare Your Baby for a Happy, Healthy Life by Dr. Thomas Verny, M.D. and John Kelly 

Thomas R. Verny is a psychiatrist, writer and academic. He has previously taught at Harvard University, University of Toronto, York University, Toronto, St. Mary’s University, Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.

In 1974 Verny wrote his first book, Inside Groups, for McGraw Hill. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (with John Kelly), Summit Books, 1981 followed this. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child has become an international bestseller published in 27 countries. The Secret Life has changed the pregnancy and childbirth experience for millions of mothers and fathers.

A pioneering physician, Dr. Thomas Verny, gives startling new evidence based on two decades of medical research.
 
Your unborn baby is:
• Capable of learning
• Able to warn you of medical problems you and your doctor may not be aware of
• Able to hear and respond to voices and sounds—including music
• Sensitive to his parents’ feelings about him
• Capable of responding to love
• An active, feeling human being.
 
The ways in which you respond to and care for your unborn child may affect his physical and emotional well-being for the rest of his life. The choices you make today about your child’s birth may make a vital difference for years to come. You can prepare your unborn baby for a happy, healthy life. This remarkable book will show you how!
 
A gift to every loving, caring parent. A book that will change the experience of pregnancy and childbirth forever!

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Book 2: Mind of Your New Born baby by David B Chamberlain, Ph.D

David Chamberlain is a California psychologist, author, and editor who has lectured on birth psychology in 20 countries. In landmark research with mother and child pairs in 1980, he demonstrated that birth memories were reliable memories. David served as President of APPPAH for 8 years. His The Mind of Your Newborn Baby (1986/1998) currently travels the world in 13 languages. 
This is the long-awaited tenth-anniversary edition of Dr. Chamberlain's 1988 classic, "Babies Remember Birth." In paperback format and enriched with a new last chapter, this book has the potential to revolutionize the way we look at babies, both before and after birth. Part I is filled with "user-friendly" information about the mind and abilities of newborns, as well as a thorough look at their development before birth. Parts II and III present evidence that babies do remember birth and are very much aware of the people around them at that time. Dr. Chamberlain writes compellingly about the newborn's sensitivity, awareness, and vulnerability. He emphasizes the importance and power of the infant-and-parent connection during pregnancy and after birth. When the information in this book becomes common knowledge, we will look at our children with new respect and understanding.

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Book 3: Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease by Peter W Nathanielsz, Ph.D., M.D. Sc.D.

Peter Nathanielsz holds three doctorates from Cambridge University, PhD, MD and ScD. He has taught at Cambridge University in England, and the University of California. He is James Law Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Cornell University.

Trained as an obstetrician, his research into the mysteries of life in the womb and the mechanisms of birth has been recognized by Fellowship ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians in England. He has lectured at many Universities and Medical Schools throughout the world. In 1998 he presented a series of lectures in Europe as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar.

Dr. Nathanielsz has developed a reputation as a communicator of science to high school students and general audiences in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, England, Holland, German, France, Scandinavia, Spain and Italy.

His work has been featured on British, American, and Canadian television and radio and extensively covered by national and international newspapers and magazines such as The Economist, American Scientist, Discover Magazine.

A story that will change your ideas about health and disease. Full of revolutionary and iconoclastic ideas impacting all our lives and the lives of generations of children as yet unborn.

* How we are ushered into life will affect how we leave it.

* Diseases such as diabetes can be passed trans-generationally from mother to daughter and from daughter to granddaughter by non-genetic mechanisms.

* The idea that our health is programmed in the womb is supported by life-time health records of babies born at the beginning of this century which show that birth weight is closely linked to health in later life.

This book, though bit of a heavy read, is packed with invaluable information.

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Book 4: How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb by Christopher Vaughan
     
From the moment of fertilization until the day of birth, the extraordinary life of a fetus is chronicled in this awe-inspiring volume drawn from the latest in pre-natal research. How Life Begins, taking advantage of the relatively recent advent of ultrasound technology and other imaging techniques, offers a month-by-month guide to what a developing baby is seeing, hearing, dreaming about, and how it is accomplishing the miracle of preparing to be human. Readers will discover:

How a fetus's eye movements work to "boot up" the computer that is its brain
How the hands and feet commit programmed suicide to create fingers and 
What role genetics plays in determining an infant's sexual identity and personality
How the baby becomes the choreographer of the mother's labor, and the director of his or her own birth

Interviews with leading researchers combine with truly remarkable photography to make How Life Begins an unforgettable journey marking the passage from single cell to bright-eyed baby.

Do not miss reading this book.
                                                                                                     

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Prabir

Alibris

Popular Books from Alibris

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Book 1: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

'Reader, I murdered him.' JANE STEELE is a brilliant Gothic retelling of JANE EYRE from Edgar-nominated Lyndsay Faye, for fans of LONGBOURN and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES. 'I loved it' - Elly Griffiths. Like the heroine of the novel she adores, Jane Steele suffers cruelly at the hands of her aunt and schoolmaster. And like Jane Eyre, they call her wicked - but in her case, she fears the accusation is true. When she flees, she leaves behind the corpses of her tormentors. A fugitive navigating London's underbelly, Jane rights wrongs on behalf of the have-nots whilst avoiding the noose. Until an advertisement catches her eye. Her aunt has died and the new master at Highgate House, Mr Thornfield, seeks a governess. Anxious to know if she is Highgate's true heir, Jane takes the position and is soon caught up in the household's strange spell. When she falls in love with the mysterious Charles Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him - body, soul and secrets - and what if he discovers her murderous past?

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Book 2: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ..The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that's little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, exes Kady and Ezra - who are barely even talking to each other - are forced to fight their way onto the evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit...But the warship is the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results. The fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what the hell is going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again...Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth and the courage of everyday heroes

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Book 3: Run Fast. Eat Slow: Nourishing Recipes for Athletes by Shalane Flangan, Elyse Kopecky

From world-class marathoner and 4-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan and chef Elyse Kopecky comes a whole foods, flavor-forward cookbook that proves food can be indulgent and nourishing at the same time. Finally here's a cookbook for runners that shows fat is essential for flavor and performance and that counting calories, obsessing over protein, and restrictive dieting does more harm than good. Packed with more than 100 recipes for every part of your day, mind-blowing nutritional wisdom, and inspiring stories from two fitness-crazed women that became fast friends over 15 years ago, Run Fast Eat Slow has all the bases covered. You'll find no shortage of delicious meals, satisfying snacks, thirst-quenching drinks, and wholesome treats all made without refined sugar and flour. Fan favorites include Can't Beet Me Smoothie, Arugula Cashew Pesto, High-Altitude Bison Meatballs, Superhero Muffins, Kale Radicchio Salad with Farro, and Double Chocolate Teff Cookies.

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Book 4: Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family by Ina Garten

In "Barefoot Contessa Family Style", Ina Garten explains that sharing our tables with those we love is too essential to be saved just for special occasions - and it's easy to do if you know how to cook irresistible meals with a minimum of fuss. For Ina, the best way to make guests feel at home is to serve them food that is as unpretentious as it is delicious. So in "Family Style" she's collected the recipes that please her friends and family most - dishes like East Hampton Clam Chowder, Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, Linguine with Shrimp Scampi and Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash. It's the kind of fresh, accessible food that's meant to be passed around in big bowls or platters and enjoyed with warm conversation and laughter. Packed with fabulous colour photographs, as well as menu suggestions and practical wisdom on what to do if disaster strikes, this is the must-have guide to the joy of everyday entertaining.

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Prabir

Alibris

Popular Books from Alibris

Four Books that taste different

Book 1: Plain Tales from the Hills: Rudyard Kipling

"Plain Tales from the Hills", Rudyard Kipling's first collection of short stories, established his reputation and brought India to the British imagination. Including the stories "Lispeth", "Beyond the Pale" and "In the Pride of His Youth", they tell of soldiers, wise children, exiles, forbidden romances and divided identities, creating a rich portrait of Anglo-Indian society. Originally published for a newspaper in Lahore when Kipling was a journalist, the tales were later revised by him to re-create as vividly as possible the sights and smells of India for readers at home. Far from being a celebration of empire, these stories explore the barriers between races, classes and sexes, and convey all the tensions and contradictions of colonial life. These stories were mostly written before Kipling turned 22. Glimpses of his literary genius are visible in these stories written at such a young age!

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Book 2: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: Carol Dweck

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her research has focused on why people succeed and how to foster success. She has held professorships at Columbia and Harvard Universities, has lectured all over the world, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dweck, in this book, explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success—but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals—personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

I recommend this books very strongly to the most important mentors in the world - the parents.

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Book 3: The Phantom of Manhattan; Frederick Forsyth

It was 1882 when Antoinette Giry, Maitresse du Corps de Ballet at the Paris Opera House, took her small daughter to the funfair at Neuilly. And there, in a cage, she saw a filthy manacled creature whose tormented eyes shone from a grotesquely deformed face. It was Antoinette Giry who saved him, freed him, cured his wounds and finally let him find a dwelling place in the labyrinthine depths of the Opera House. The creature - Erik - whose hideous face hid a brilliant brain of near-genius, was to become the Phantom of the Opera - magician, artists, musician, and lover. When he tried to lure the object of his adoration to his underground domain - it was to end in tragedy. It was Madame Giry who saved him once more, set him on a ship to the New World - and there Erik Muhlheim began a new and secret life, a life that began in misery and poverty but in which his incredible skills finally carved out an unexpected kingdom of power. And there it was he learned again of Christine, whose life had changed dramatically since that night in the Paris Opera House. Inevitably, their paths must cross again in the old sequence of tragedy and triumph. The Phantom, one of the most mysterious and romantic figures ever created, soars again in a world of his own making. Frederick Forsyth's magnificent and evocative story adds a new dimension to the legend of the Phantom

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Book 4: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script): The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production; J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on 30th July 2016. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places. This Special Rehearsal Edition will be available to purchase until early 2017, after which a Definitive Edition of the script will go on sale.

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Prabir

Alibris

Poular Books from Alibris

Four Must Read Books 

Book 1: When Breath Becomes Air; Paul Kalanithi

"Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option...Unmissable' New York Times"

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor making a living treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. Just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air, which features a Foreword by Dr. Abraham Verghese and an Epilogue by Kalanithi’s wife, Lucy, chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a young neurosurgeon at Stanford, guiding patients toward a deeper understanding of death and illness, and finally into a patient and a new father to a baby girl, confronting his own mortality.
 
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
 
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

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Book 2: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo; Amy Schumer

The Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star of Inside Amy Schumer and the acclaimed film Trainwreck has taken the entertainment world by storm with her winning blend of smart, satirical humor. Now, Amy Schumer has written a refreshingly candid and uproariously funny collection of personal and observational essays.

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is—a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh. 

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend—an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. Whether she’s experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line, sharing her own views on love and marriage, admitting to being an introvert, or discovering her cross-fit instructor’s secret bad habit, Amy Schumer proves to be a bighearted, brave, and thoughtful storyteller that will leave you nodding your head in recognition, laughing out loud, and sobbing uncontrollably—but only because it’s over. She brings a twinkle in the eyes even when she is recounting serious events. I think this is one of those books that bring joy and happiness to you even when the world is tumbling.

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Book 3: The Fall of Heaven; Andrew Scott Cooper

It almost seems as if Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, aka the Shah of Iran, wasn’t ruling a great nation so much as auditioning for a blockbuster miniseries. He had it all: a beautiful queen, mistresses galore, absolute power, corrupt kin, and a hedonistic daughter turned Islamic fanatic.

The archvillain in this drama, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made Lex Luthor look like a milquetoast.

In reality, the Shah, who fled Iran in 1979 and died the following year, was a serious ruler whose successes and failures have had a profound effect on the world right up to the present. He was instrumental in turning oil into a geopolitical weapon and bringing the bugaboo of nuclear power to Iran. Had he staved off Khomeini, the Middle East might be far less tumultuous today.

In The Fall of Heaven,  Andrew Scott Cooper brings the Shah, along with his colorful retinue and turbulent times, back to life. It is revisionist history in parts — and mostly sympathetic to the king and his queen Farah. She was among the many people the author interviewed for this thoroughly researched and richly detailed account.

The Shah, according to Cooper, was nothing like the blood-soaked tyrant portrayed by the Western media in the 1970s. Rather he was a predominantly beneficent autocrat whose White Revolution raised his people’s incomes and expanded literacy and women’s rights.

There clearly were abuses, including the torture and death of political opponents, but they were substantially less than were claimed by regime opponents and reported by many journalists. The author cites investigations by the Red Cross and the Islamic Republic of Iran itself to support his thesis. He also points out that the ruthless Khomeini made the Shah look like a piker when it came to human rights violations.

In fact, the Shah was something of an old softy according to many observers: reluctant to unleash his security forces on violent protesters not just before his fall, but also during previous uprisings in 1953 and 1963. He repeatedly offered concessions to Khomeini and his rampaging mobs.

In late 1978, King Hussein of Jordan flew to Iran to buck up his fellow royal, even volunteering to lead the fight against Khomeini’s followers. The Shah politely declined the offer. He would not slaughter his people to save his throne.

Earlier, in August, an even more astounding offer came from none other than Saddam Hussein, a true tyrant if there ever was one. He told the Shah to just give him the word and he would kill Khomeini, then in exile in Iraq. The Shah said no thanks.

Two years hence, Saddam’s Iraq and Khomeini’s Iran would fight a brutal eight-year war that killed an estimated 1 million people on both sides.

America was largely clueless about Iran. The CIA had not listened to the tapes of Khomeini’s virulent sermons that were on sale in Tehran. “The Americans were sure that Khomeini was a moderating influence over the leftists and radicals in his entourage,” Cooper writes.

Compounding this intelligence failure was President Jimmy Carter’s preoccupation with brokering peace between Israel and Egypt and the Shah’s reluctance to use the overwhelming power of his security forces to stay in power.

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Book 4: Harmony; Carolyn Parkhurst

How far will a mother go to save her family? The Hammond family is living in Washington DC, where everything seems to be going just fine, until it becomes clear that the oldest daughter, Tilly - a mix of off-the-charts genius and social incompetence - is on the autistic spectrum. Once Tilly is kicked out of the last school in the area, her mother Alexandra is at her wits' end. The family turns to Camp Harmony and the wisdom of child behaviour guru Scott Bean for a solution. But what they discover in the woods of New Hampshire will push them to the very limit. Told from the alternating perspectives of Alexandra and her younger daughter, eleven-year-old Iris, this is an un-putdownable story about the strength of love, the bonds of family, and how you survive the unthinkable

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