Buyers' Choice

June 2009

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Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Cocktail dress by Laird Borrelli-Persson.
"This book will contain an informative, fun introduction chronicling the history of cocktail dress throughout fashion history, a wealth of images including fine art and photography, film stills, fashion editorial and runway photography, vintage ads, magazine covers, and illustrations by the world's foremost fashion designers, artists, and photographers. Examples range from the hot pink number Audrey Hepburn made famous in Breakfast at Tiffany's to the best contemporary renditions...Detailed captions at the back of book provide historical information for the reader that places the dresses in historical context." (Product Description, Amazon UK)

The least worst place by Karen J Greenberg.
"Ever since its foundation in 2002, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility has become the symbol for many people around the world of all that is wrong with the 'war on terror'. Secretive, inhumane, and illegal by most international standards, it has been seen by many as a testament to American hubris in the post-9/11 era. Yet until now no one has written about the most revealing part of the story - the prison's first 100 days. It was during this time that a group of career military men and women tried to uphold the traditional military codes of honour and justice that informed their training in the face of a far more ruthless, less rule-bound, civilian leadership in the Pentagon. They were defeated. This book tells their story for the first time. It is a tale of how individual officers on the ground at Guantanamo, along with their direct superiors, struggled with their assignment from Washington, only to be unwittingly co-opted into the Pentagon's plan to turn the prison into an interrogation facility operating at the margins of the law and beyond." (Product Description, Amazon UK)

Lance : the making of the world's greatest champion by John Wilcockson.
"No champion has astonished the world quite like Lance Armstrong. A cancer survivor who went on to win the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times, he is an inspiration to millions. Yet few know the complete story of this brash, smart, and fiercely competitive Texan who battled to the top of his sport, overcame the most rampant case of testicular cancer doctors had seen, and then conquered cycling's Holy Grail time after time. In Lance: The Making of the World's Greatest Champion, John Wilcockson draws on dozens of interviews with those who know him best to trace Armstrong's remarkable, yet controversial journey in vivid detail." (Product Description, Amazon US)

The rite : the making of a modern exorcist by Matt Baglio.
"The Rite provides fascinating vignettes from the lives of exorcists and people possessed by demons, including firsthand accounts of exorcists at work casting out demons, culminating in Father Gary's own confrontations with the Devil. Baglio also traces the history of exorcism, revealing its rites and rituals, explaining what the Catholic Church really teaches about demonic possession, and delving into such related topics as the hierarchy of angels and demons, satanic cults, black masses, curses, and the various theories used by modern scientists and anthropologists who seek to quantify such phenomena. Written with an investigative eye that will captivate both skeptics and believers alike, The Rite shows that the truth about demonic possession is not only stranger than fiction, but also far more chilling." (Product Description, Amazon US)

God bless America by Piers Morgan.
"Piers Morgan never really got on with America. And America had never really got on with him. But flitting between British shores and the Land of the Free, he discovers his burgeoning celebrity as the 'nasty Brit' on a top-rated US TV series gives him unprecedented access to people, places and parties on both sides of the pond - from chinwags with Gordon Brown to a cigar-smoking session with Arnold Schwarzenegger; chatting with the Queen to going head to head with America's most popular redneck on "Celebrity Apprentice". Not to mention hilarious tete-a-tetes with Boris Johnson and frequently revealing, sometimes bizarre, encounters with the likes of everyone from Donald Trump to Paris Hilton, Tony Blair to Alistair Campbell, Jay-Z to Jerry Springer. It's not all plain sailing, though, as Piers finds himself snubbed by the paparazzi, subjected to national ridicule by Alan Sugar and, foolishly, embarking on a visit to the Playboy Mansion with his girlfriend." (Product Description, Amazon UK)

The classic era of American comics by Nicky Wright.
"The world had never seen the like of the American comic book. The best of the comics attracted superb artists who could create characters and tell stories as memorable as those in any movie or popular novel. There were superheroes with bulging biceps and superheroines with buxom bosoms, funny men and funny animals, war comics, comics that retold the classics and comics that revelled in crime, horror, the supernatural and sex - eventually attracting the censorious eye of the social reformers. Taking us from the 1930s right through to the 1950s, in The Classic Era of American Comics Nicky Wright tells the fascinating story of the publishers, the artists and the industry itself. He describes its successes and its disasters, its worth as an art form, and the decline that set in once Congress and the churches began to impose censorship." (Product Description, Amazon US)

How God changes your brain : breakthrough findings from a leading neuroscientist by Andrew Newberg.
"God is great for your mental, physical, and spiritual health. That's the finding of this startling, authoritative, and controversial book by the bestselling authors of Born to Believe. Based on new evidence culled from their brain-scan studies on memory patients and meditators, their Web-based survey of people's religious and spiritual experiences, and their analyses of adult drawings of God, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, therapist Mark Robert Waldman, and their research team have concluded that active and positive spiritual belief changes the human brain for the better. What's more, actual faith isn't always necessary: atheists who meditate on positive imagery can obtain similar neurological benefits. Written in an accessible style with illustrations highlighting how spiritual experiences affect the mind." (Product Description, Amazon UK)

Think!: Before It's Too Late by Edward De Bono.
"The world is full of problems and conflicts. So why can we not solve them? According to Edward de Bono, world thinking cannot solve world problems because world thinking is itself the problem. And this is getting worse: we are so accustomed to readily available information online that we search immediately for the answers rather than thinking about them. Our minds function like trying to drive a car using only one wheel. There's nothing wrong with that one wheel - conventional thinking - but we could all get a lot further if we used all four...De Bono examines why we think the way we do from a historical perspective and uses some of his famous thinking techniques combined with new ideas to show us how to change the way we think. If we strengthen our ability and raise our thinking level, other areas of our life - both personal and business success - will improve. De Bono is the master of the original big 'concept' book and his enticement to us to use our minds as constructively as possible should appeal to a whole new generation of fans." (Book Description, Amazon US)

Third man factor: true stories of survival in extreme environments by John Geiger.
"The Third Man Factor tells the revealing story behind an extraordinary idea: that people at the very edge of death, often adventurers or explorers, experience a benevolent presence beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive. If only a handful of people had ever experienced the Third Man, it might be dismissed as an unusual delusion shared by a few overstressed minds. But the amazing thing is this: over the years, the experience has occurred again and again, to mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, solo sailors, aviators, astronauts and 9/11 survivors. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having experienced the close presence of a helper or guardian. The mysterious force has been explained as everything from hallucination to divine intervention. Recent neurological research suggests something else." (Product Description, Amazon US)

Sewing green :25 projects made with repurposed & organic materials by Betz White.
"By its nature, do-it-yourself sewing is environmentally friendly. In Sewing Green, Betz White takes stitching to an even higher level of sustainability, presenting 25 projects made from "repurposed" thrift-store and back-of-the-closet finds and organic fabrics. White's whimsical yet practical designs include an apron constructed from men's dress shirts (and a wallet from the shirts' cuffs!), a soft blanket pieced from secondhand cashmere sweaters, and even a tote bag refashioned from used Tyvek envelopes. Along the way, White dispenses tips on everything from how to deconstruct old garments for reuse in new creations to how to wrap gifts with resusable fabric scraps instead of paper." (Product Description, Amazon US)

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