Og Mandino - The greatest salesman in the world

A camel boy gets the opportunity of a lifetime and is allowed to sell robes for a wealthy man. The man tells him the secrets of being a good salesman, a secret handed to him in the form of ten scrolls. The boy becomes the owner of the scrolls, implement the secrets, and become the richest man in the world. In old age he waits for a professed follower to hand the scrolls down to. The secrets of the scrolls are shed, and contains very strong moral lessons.

The book is a combination of very high morals being professed in the scrolls, but the setting and support story is very motivating, and has an interesting twist. When the scrolls are read, the poetic euphoria is a bit dramatic, but forgiven in the setting. A highly recommended book for all readers.

Stephen King - The Bachman collection

The book contains four early stories of Stephen King under the alias, Richard Bachman.

• Rage - A teenager, Charlie Decker, looses control of himself and started killing people, and holding his classmates hostage. The unfolding events has long term consequences for many of them.

• The long walk - A games show requires volunteers to walk at a steady place with no rest until all but the last falls out. Consequences of falling behind are horrifying. The mental torture and tension between the contestants builds all the time as the tale is told by one of the contenders.

• Roadwork -A longtime worker at a laundry business, George Dawes, looses control of his life when a new road requires him to give up his home. He spirals down in his life, consulting the darkest corners of his mind, and looses all hope. He keeps on fighting the road construction as only touch with his old life.

• Running man - The story plays off in a deteriorated future society where pollution and joblessness changed the face of morals. A man, Ben Richards, enters a game show where he is fugitive with a prize on his head to earn some money for his family. His survival struggles enlightens him about the life they have through the people he meets.

The book gives an interesting insight in the early writings of Stephen King. All are easy flowing stories, but with a dark side exposed with no reserve, and extremely descriptive.

Paulo Coelho - The alchemist

A Spanish shepard boy explores his dreams and find himself on a journey across the Sahara desert to Egypt on a treasure hunt. He looses his belongings, and build a treasure, to loose it again. He gets confronted with incredible questions of life, but choose an uncharted path. He met the love of his life, and as the story of life, he finds himself soon at the beginning of the adventure, and facing death.


The book reads very easy, the turns the story takes is not completely unexpected, but the little life stories are very clear. A good read, and a fairy tale with life lessons in perseverance.

Arabella Boxer - The Hamlyn Spice Book

"The complete guide to culinary spices with over 170 recipes". It is a book full of refreshing and new ideas on using spices.

The book is divided into 2 sections, the spice directory and the recipes. In the directory the author analyses the origins and uses of both well-known and more unusual spices. Each spice is beautifully photographed for easy recognition. The spice directory also includes an exploration of various spice mixtures including dukkah, garam masala and za'atar.

There are 12 recipe chapters, soups, eggs, fish, poultry and game, meat, vegetables, pasta, potatoes, rice, pastry and grains, sauces, breads, biscuits and cakes, chutneys, pickles and relishes, desserts and drinks.

Every recipe is within the range of every cook but remains impressive, using easily obtainable ingredients. Fully illustrated with stunning photographs. It is a must for everyone interested in spices and their many uses.

Frances Mayes - Bringing Tuscany Home - Decorating Style

"Bringing Tuscany Home - sensuous style from the heart of Italy" is a lovely book with an insight into Italian life. The author guides the reader through her interpretation of Tuscan style and helping them bringing the spirit of Tuscany to their own homes. The author lived in Tuscany for very long periods of time and she also renovated property in Italy, which gives the book some authenticity. The book covers home decorating and gardening to cooking and entertaining. It shows the reader how to live the Tuscan life.

The book covers:

• Choosing a Tuscan palette
• Personalising a room with decorative door frames, murals and unique painted furniture.
• Cultivating a Tuscan garden adding fountains, pergolas and terracotta urns.
• Learn to select the best Italian wines
• Enjoy the abundant flavours and easy simplicity of Tuscan kitchen with details on olive oils to gnocchi. Also 28 recipes.

The books contains a large selection of full colour photographs of actual Tuscan life. Recommended to the person interested in Tuscan style and life.

Braam Kruger - Kitchenboy Provocative Cuisine

This is the debut cookbook by Braam Kruger a.k.a. Kitchenboy - well-known South African artist, provocative chef and fearless restaurant critic. A book filled with passionate food writing, philosophies and fresh insights into food.

This is really an alternative cookbook printed on black paper and filled with strange drawings and paintings by the author. Also included are many photo's of the author and friends and many intimate stories so that it almost seem like voyeurism. Interesting photo's on food preparation are also included. Reading through this book is like walking into a nightclub. Interesting mumblings and philosophies which I enjoyed will not be to everyone's taste.

Categories range from Philosophy, Starters, Shellfish, Fish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables and Dessert. A range of interesting and alternative recipes are discussed and recorded.

Made for interesting reading and the insightful information on different food and dishes. Recommended to the person that likes alternative food stories.

Yann Martel - Life of Pi

The main character, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, is the son of a zookeeper in India. In his formative years, he explores various religions. When his family decides to migrate to Canada, disaster strikes, and the boy is shipwrecked. He finds himself a companion in a Bengal Tiger, Richard Parker, on a lifeboat for several months. Their relationship starts in fear and distrust, but the tiger soon becomes Pi's companion, and later reason to keep on living.

The book develops slowly from the background story about life in the house of a zookeeper, to the main story of survival at sea. The sea-faring adventures are chronologically described when the castaways are fresh to the experience, but unravels to a collection of memories of good and bad fortune as the book progress.  After washing out in Mexico, Japanese authorities questions Pi to understand what went wrong with the ship and captures his story.

"The life of Pi" presents an interesting life battle of will, that has to overcome unbelievable odds. The deterioration of the sea faring experience to description of events, is a personification of time's weakening grip on Pi's life, and allows the author to quickly move from uninteresting portions. From the start it is clear that both characters will survive, thus robbing the book from a final twist in the end, but it does not drain the book from creating tension and gripping the attention of the reader.

The book is a good read for the experience, and descriptive manner though of the castaway experience. It does succeed in drawing the reader in, asking if he would endure in these circumstances.  It also supply closure of the experience in the final interview.

Dan Ariely - The honest truth about dishonesty - Behavioral Science

Dan Ariely put to good use his background in psychology and behavioral economics to explore the source of dishonesty in human nature. He explains that the notion of being opportunistically dishonest after a crude risks assessment is the starting point, but soon concluded that this is not the sole motivator. If it was, then humans should be more dishonest than what they are, and dishonesty could be reduced by simple means. Through a number of behavioral experiments, he tested the motivators driving humans to be more, and less dishonest.

The book is very interesting and allows the layman to follow the technical considerations for the experiments as each step becomes more advanced. The writing style is very entertaining, and keeps their reader's attention through some of the tedious explanations of where the experiments are leading. The book is regarding human behavior, and thus not in a field that will draw the crowds, but the title is very catching. It will be however very rewarding for those who will work through the information, as it puts to words a great number of behavioral traits.

Paul Maier - The Constantine Codex - Fiction

A Harvard professor's wife, Shannon Weber, came across an old manuscript that referred to an addition to the current torrent of the bible, Acts II. With her husband, John, they plan to search for the missing relic. Before this adventure got off to a start however, John found himself in the midst of a religious outcry from Islamic activists due to an error in one of his publications. Their journey then sets off in strange directions with lead to going into hiding, searching archives, meeting the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, battle in words with Islamic religious groups, and breaking into ancient churches, which lead to changing the understanding of the christian scriptures. A fair amount of mystery and betrayal was sown on the way to give the story some interesting twists.

The book was written in dramatic fashion, and great care was taken not to offend religious groups through apologetic gestures, and elaborate addressing of dignitaries. This was a bit tedious, but understood in the current global environment. The book painted a very colorful picture of archaeology, and placed articles required in very close reach of searchers. The writer tried to post a competition between Islam and Christianity, which I thought was poorly adjudicated. The book offers some insights into religious history and understanding, as well as archaeology, but a tedious read.

Luciana Sampogna - Light of Lucia

"I aim to record and safeguard the Italian cooking heritage which has been lost in many misinterpreted recipes around the world." - Luciana Sampogna

A beautiful book about Italian cultural food traditions explained through different journeys in life:

• Baptism - focusing on antipasti recipes with descriptions about celebrating baptism in an Italian community.
• First Steps - basics and learning most important steps in Italian cooking (pasta, gnocchi, risotto and polenta).
• Festivals - descriptions about Italian feast days and special dishes to commemorate.
• Young Lady - easy to prepare dishes for the young lady with lots of friends but little time
• Falling in Love - heart-warming soups, homemade pizza and decadent dessert to win over your loved one.
• Wedding Day - explains the many customs and superstitions around as well as some of the author's family recipes.
• Mother-in-Law - more challenging recipes, like sharing the kitchen with your mother-in-law. Old Italian treasured recipes.

The recipes provide enough guidance for the novice and are well written and easy to read. The book is loaded with tips on preparation methods - almost like a master class in Italian cooking. This is a heavy book loaded with full colour photographs in beautiful traditional Italian settings. The old family pictures of the author give the recipes context. Interesting food stories are also shared with the reader. The "conversations" of the author and her Nonna (grandmother) are very sweet and inspirational.

Recommended to the food person interested in food stories that wants to know more about the Italian cooking heritage and authentic Italian recipes.

Chris Ewan - A good thief's guide to Vegas - Fiction

Taking a break in Las Vegas with his publisher after recent events in Paris, Charie Howard, indulge in a bit of recreational thievery.  Through a series of unintended events he finds himself again the center of attention as primary murder suspect, and a load of other crimes.  He pulls on all his resources to get out of this, not playing by the rules at all times.  In the end he figures out who the real killer is, and does an exceptional job of exposing the scoundrel.  It is a complete mystery up to the end with our man, Charlie, staying on top of events, all the time.

He did it again, Chris Ewan managed to hide the killer in plain view up to the end.  I was sure the third book in the series, after Amsterdam and Paris, I would be able to get around his thinking, not so.  I am starting to suspect Chris Ewan of being a writer/thief, with all the detail he describes.  This is a highly recommended series, and next we are off to Venice.  A must read!

Chris Ewan - A good thief's guide to Paris - Fiction

Our writer/thief, Charlie Howard, finds himself in Paris, and has to steal a painting for a commission.  The painting is however not what the people are after, and through another series of misfortune that leads to killings and alienation of anyone who can help him, he figures out what the real treasure is.  He also found a way of benefiting from it, before pointing out the killer, although his survival is nothing short of miraculous.

Another excellent book in the series from Chris Ewan.  A must read for anyone who read the first in the series, "A good thief's guide to Amsterdam".  The book is gripping, descriptive and impossible to guess where it will lead.

Gennaro Contaldo - Gennaro's Italian Year

Based on a culinary year Gennaro guides the reader through his childhood memories of growing up in Minori on the beautiful Amalfi coast remembering all the feasts and festivals they use to celebrate. Gennaro visits each season, starting at autumn through to summer, and describes the cooking of seasonal dishes. Life in Italy comes alive though the different tales of Italian traditions and stories about food.

A very insightful and interesting book which will hold the readers attention. It reads more like a story than a cookbook. This is a cookbook with a lot of background about the dishes and puts the recipes into perspective. There are also lots of descriptions about ingredients that is very traditionally Italian. The recipes are well written and accompanied by beautiful colourful photo's.

This book is recommended to the food person enticed by food stories who would like to know more about Italian culture and tradition.

Chris Ewan - A good thief's guide to Amsterdam - fiction

The main character Charlie Howard is a writer and a thief, writing about thievery.  He is tasked by another thief, fresh out of prison, to steal some figurines.  The story play out in Amsterdam, and quickly unravels into a web of lies, spree of murders, and additional thievery.  It is impossible to figure out who the real killers are, and as soon as you are sure about a suspect, their undisputed innocence become clear.  In a final scene all the characters are gathered in a single room and after an elaborate circus of events, the true killer is revealed.

A true gripping story with a stone cold, calculated, main character with enough wit about him to keep any reader intrigued.  Recommended for all book lovers, and the first in this series from Chris Ewan.

John Gray - Men are from Mars, women are from Venus - Relationships

Male and female behavior is analysed from the perspective that the two groups met on different planets, and then met each other here on earth.  Since their survival on their own planets required a different set of skills than required in a relationship here on earth, they have to learn to understand each other.  The brilliant comical descriptions and examples for the behavior are analysed to give the "natural response" in relationship misunderstandings, and the "new required response", and it makes sense.

A highly recommended book for people in relationships.  If you do not have an open mind, you will be more the personification of the absurd metaphors and hence enriched.  You are guaranteed to learn something, and laugh at yourself in the process.

David Lewis - The man who invented Hitler - History

The book describes the early history of Adolf Hitler's life.  A specific incident involving Hitler, hysterical blindness after a mustard gas attack at the end of World War I causes him to meet a psychiatrist, Edmund Foster.  Foster had a profound impact in changing Hitler's personality as part of his treatment required intense focus on his love for his country and nationality.  This came into play later in Hitler's life when he started his reform of his beliefs, party and country.

It was highly entertaining and at times tiring due to historical facts being transferred by the author.  What was very interesting was the descriptions of the times and hardships described.  Historical progression allows these details to deteriorate in the mist of time.  My realization was, those were very different times to what we live in.  The psychological facts were presented in understandable terms as the book wants to be an intertwining diary of the two main characters, but somewhat distant to my field of interest.

The book is recommendable to people with an interest in history, and especially so to those with an interest in the life of Adolf Hitler

Roald Dahl - Switch Bitch - Fiction

Switch Bitch is an album of 5 unrelated stories, well 2 of them is related to some extend.  In typical Roald Dahl style, the stories are very entertaining and delightfully described to the finest detail.  The twist in the end leaves a very sour taste in the mouth as you reflect on the tale told, only the realize that it presents a very natural ending.

The book is a masterful collection, highly recommended to readers of all ages.  Especially people that struggles to read will find it useful to improve their skill as the short stories are very gripping and over before interest is lost.

Micheal Tellinger - Slave species of god - Religion

A presentation is made of the Annunaki, an extraterrestrial species, which came to earth about 200,000 years ago.  They required gold to save their planet, Nubira, which was seemingly ejected from their solar system and passing earth every fee hundred years.  They grew tired of the labor, and thus intervenes in the Human genome to create a species that can labor in the mines for them, this is the Human race.  The book presents very believable ideas which touch sides with biblical versions of ancient tales, and in some cases present a believable back-story for the events described in the bible.  The supposed source is translated clay tablets from Sumerian libraries, which precedes biblical writings.

The book is written extremely entertaining and gripping with no doubt that Tellinger believes it all at heart.  It is a comprehensive summary of previously translated tales on the Sumerian tablets, and many of them universal religious tales from a forgotten age.

A very interesting, very different philosophy, some if could be true, I suppose.  A must read, but have an open mind and strong belief system.

Lee Strobel - The Case for a Creator - Religion

A journalist investigates the existence of a creator.  The books starts with his declaration of atheism, and his investigation is sparked by his wife's conversion to Christianity.  He states the base of his atheism, and then continues to interview experts in the scientific realm, experts in their field, on the specific items.  He dismisses all his original believes one-by-one and then conclude that there must be a creator.  Although the approach seems very authentic, it is utterly flawed.  This becomes clear as the author discovers that there is a creator, and the one described by Christianity fits the bill.  Disappointingly, all the field experts are from the Christian belief system and thus robs the reader from a real argument when it comes to fundamental questions, like, evolution through natural selection, and backward regression to original cause.

I found the book very interesting as the author put on a charade of honest journalistic inquiry once he meets with his interviewee, with philosophical ideas presented, but the ultimate flaw is the inevitable set up outcome due to the selection of interviewees.  Were this a true battle with open ending, it would be a much better investment of time.

The book should be read with caution as a lot of after reading is required to fill in the gaps left by the author in the principal flaw as described.

Jeremy Clarkson - The world according to Clarkson - Comedy

82 essays by Jeremy Clarkson on random topics.  The stories vary from mildly interesting to outrageously funny.  This lighthearted approach from Clarkson does post some questions on how we look at life, but most important, it is his views.  The book succeeds in entertaining the reader through the same type of off-the-point entertainment presented in the BBC's Top Gear; another of Clarkson's endeavors.

The book is highly recommended to people that does not have time to invest in long tales, but like to get to the punchline.  Another attribute is, if an essay is not for you, get out of it and enjoy the next one.

Tessa Kiros - Venezia food and dreams - Cooking

A wonderful book revealing the tastes and views from Venice, Italy. The author takes the reader on a journey through the back streets of Venice, cooking authentic meals. She gives us an inside view into the lives of people living in this water kingdom with very visual encounters and observations. The reader will yearn for a life of shopping at these sumptuous markets and seeking out quirky restaurants. This will get you into the kitchen and cooking. And after that, you will be packing your bags for a trip to Venice. One can only resist for so long...

The recipes are easy to understand and follow. The categories of the recipes are logical ranging from drinks and antipasto through to mains and dolci. Highly recommendable.

Stephen King - The girl who loved Tom Gordan - Fiction

The book describes how a nine year old girl who got lost in the woods when her family went for a hike.  The story line revolves around the thoughts the girl has during her lonesome days, and her ever growing detachment from reality.  She grows closer to her baseball hero, Tom Gordan, in the process and he starts leading her through the experience.  Not to spoil the read, I reveal no more at his stage of the ending.  Is she saved or not?  This is for you to discover, through this whirlpool of bad luck and uncertainty.

The book is written in an exceptional descriptive style that draws the reader into the experience.  The woods and swamps become clear, and feelings and smells are equally well transferred.  The thoughts of the girl, and her inner struggle is however most catching.  You will her on to survive, but understand the odds are against the poor girl all the time, and part of you want the agony to end.