MPH

“Is the mystery sometimes more pleasurable than the solution?” Told in alternating chapters, in alternating times, Graham Moore’s debut novel, The Sherlockian, is about two parallel lives. The first tale begins with Arthur Conan Doyle — the man himself, at odds with his own creation, resentful of the fame that his fiction has garnered (“My Mam speaks as if she’s Holmes’s mother, not mine”) — deciding one fateful day to murder his literary offspring. So he throws him off a cliff.

Read the rest of the review here.

Do you have a picky eater at home? This book has many useful tips and interesting recipes to get them eating healthy. Vegetable purees! That is the secret to gettting small children to eat their required portion of daily vegetables without them knowing and getting them to love it too. Read more of the review here.

Man argues that Genghis Khan might be the greatest leader of all time – and he might have a point. No doubt, many historians will debate about how an illiterate young man managed to achieve such a feat. Unlike these days, the path to becoming a leader is pretty straightforward – leave school with the best grades possible, gain acceptance into a good college before obtaining a discipline from a reputable university.

Read more here.

Non-Fiction
1) The Power
9781439181782          (Rhonda Byrne)
2) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything
9780747585664          (Elizabeth Gilbert)
3) Guinness World Records 2011: Exploding with Thousands of New Records
9781904994572          (Guinness World Records)
4) The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life
9780593058305         (Stephen Hawking;Leonard Mlodinow)
5) Have a Little Faith
9780786891344          (Mitch Albom)

Long before vampires were posing naked on the cover of the recent issue of Rolling Stones, they were vile, terrifying creatures that looked like rats, lived in crypts and hardly ever turned up at the gym. Fortunately for fans of the old school literary villains, writing partners Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan are determined to resurrect that archetype with a series of novels centered on the exploits of the Master, an imposing, murine-like figure with long talons, no ears and a hinged jaw that conceals a shooting stinger to extract his victims’ blood.

Read more here.

The Elements

• Keep books out of direct sunlight. Sunlight will cause the colors of the book’s dust jacket to fade.
• Keep your books dry. Humidity and dampness produce mold, which is a book problem that pretty much can’t be cured. Exposure to water will also ripple pages and deform the book.
• Extreme temperatures at either end aren’t good, but heat is worse, especially in a humid climate.

Creatures

• Keep bugs away from your books. Some bugs like to eat them; others will leave their marks.
• Keep cats away from your books. Cats also have a habit of leaving their mark on books. It’s hard to get rid of this damage. (You may be able to deodorize cat-or tobacco-befouled books by putting them in an airtight container with an air freshener for a day or two; of course, they may then smell like apple cinnamon.)
• Keep kids and other free spirits away from your books. Books should be handled carefully, with clean hands.

Storage

• Ideally, your books will be stored upright on your shelves. You want to be able to see them, maybe even read them occasionally.
• Don’t lay other books on top of them.
• If you have to store your books in a garage or attic, be aware of heat. Store them in airtight, acid-free containers.

Protection

• Read your books with clean hands, preferably not while you’re eating spaghetti or chocolate ice cream.
• Use bookmarks. Don’t fold the pages down; don’t leave the book open and upside-down; don’t mark your place with your sunglasses.
• Don’t write your name (or anything else) in your books. If you have to use bookplates, use nice, custom-made ones.
• Put your dust jackets in protective dust jacket covers. Dust jackets protect and improve the look (and value) of books.
• Use a feather duster to occasionally get the dust off of your books.
• If you loan your books, loan them to people who care about books as much as you do.

NEGOTIATOR, attorney, business owner, speaker and author Jim Thomas was recently here in Kuala Lumpur for a seminar on how to negotiate. Thomas says every one negotiates every day in the office and at home. It could be negotiating with the boss to get better pay, negotiating a deal for the company, or cajoling (a more gentle form of negotiating) the children to study harder to set a good foundation for their future.

Some of us do it better than others. Thomas tells us what negotiating is all about and why it is important. His book Negotiate to Win is a HarperCollins international bestseller. It was first published in late 2005 and was a Pulitzer Prize candidate in 2006. Read more here.

AS THE title suggests, this book takes you on a culinary tour through India, introducing to you the cuisine unique to each region.

It is a practical book, revealing to the reader what an Indian meal constitutes. It starts with a section on cooking techniques and equipment, which is always helpful, as different cooking styles tend to use different utensils to yield the best taste and results.

This is followed by a list of common ingredients used in Indian food, which takes the guesswork out of the recipes. Read more here.

The Women’s Institute of Management and MPH The Curve, would like to invite you for a cup of tea with friends to chat on the book titled, The Other Family by Joanna Trollope. Or expect Shakespeare’s OTHELLO out of the ordinary as Danish director Tage Larsen takes the actors and the audience on a journey where jealousy and greed with their twists and turns sweep up the characters into a turbulence beyond their control at MPH this month!

Plus, join VenusBuzz Caring Project with renowned ‘Drift Queen’ of Malaysia, Azrina Jane Abdullah as she talks about the basic maintenance of a car; facts every women auto know in order to ensure effective and safe driving on the road.

Kids, can get to Know Zany Zombie with author Malcolm Mejin, who will introduce the series’ amazing cast of characters. And come listen to stories brought to life by Usborne’s storytellers with some fun activities thrown in.

Other authors making an appearance at MPH this January 2011 include Russell Lee, Ho Chin Soon, Abooain, Zaid Mohamad & many others!

Click on the event leaflet below for full details.

Non-Fiction
1) The Power
9781439181782          (Rhonda Byrne)
2) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything
9780747585664          (Elizabeth Gilbert)
3) Have a Little Faith
9780786891344          (Mitch Albom)
4) Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock
9789675832000          (Alan Shadrake)
5) Guinness World Records 2011: Exploding with Thousands of New Records
9781904994572          (Guinness World Records)