Jun 06 2012.
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“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
Oscar Wilde
Ecological Intelligence: The Coming of Age of Radical Transparency
By Daniel Goleman
Business/Philosophy
Although we all want to help the environment, our knowledge of what are 'green' choices is often so limited that we can do more harm than good. But now a new phenomenon, 'radical transparency', the availability of complete information about all aspects of a product's history, is about to transform the power of consumers and the fate of business.
"Ecological Intelligence" shows you: Why a T-shirt that claims it is '100% organic cotton' may be in fact no such thing; Why it's good to buy tulips from Kenya and drink from France; and, That even the type of shampoo you use could affect the future of the planet. Knowledge is power.
By discovering how to tune your eco intelligence, Daniel Goleman shows, you can make better decisions, and a better world.
(Rs. 1,200/=) Available at Serendib Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd Mount Lavinia
My Family and Other Animals
By Gerald Durrell
Nature/Travel Writing
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu.
My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell’s family’s experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.
(Rs. 1,100/=) Available at Serendib Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd Mount Lavinia
Fifty Shades Freed
By EL James
Fiction
Romantic, liberating and totally addictive, the "Fifty Shades" trilogy will obsess you, possess you and stay with you forever. When Ana Steele first encountered the driven, damaged entrepreneur Christian Grey, it sparked a sensual affair that changed both their lives irrevocably.
Ana always knew that loving her Fifty Shades would not be easy, and being together poses challenges neither of them had anticipated.
Ana must learn to share Grey's opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own integrity or independence; and Grey must overcome his compulsion to control and lay to rest the horrors that still haunt him.
Now, finally together, they have love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of infinite possibilities. But just when it seems that they really do have it all, tragedy and fate combine to make Ana's worst nightmares come true...
(Rs. 750/=) Available at Makeen Books, Col 3
I Am Number Four
By Pittacus Lore
Fiction
'In the beginning we were nine. We left when we were very young, almost too young to remember. Almost.
And now ...Three are gone. We are here to keep our race alive, which was almost entirely obliterated. We're just trying to survive.
Six are left. But we are hunted, and the hunters won't stop until they've killed us all.
They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. I am Number Four. I know that I am next.’
(Rs. 1,647/=) Available at Makeen Books, Col 3
How to be a woman
By Caitlin Moran
Self-help
It's a good time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain...
Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should we use Botox? Do men secretly hate us? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby?
Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin answers the questions that every modern woman is asking.
Available at Chapters bookstore, #35 Staple Street Colombo 2. www.digitalchapters.net. Facebook.com/Chapters.SL
Horton Plains
By Rohan Pethiyagoda
Sri Lankan/Environment
With an average elevation of 2,100 metres (6,900 feet), Horton Plains is Sri Lanka’s loftiest national park. It is also part of the recently-declared UNESCO Central Highlands World Heritage Site. Bordered by Kirigalpotta and Totupolakanda, Sri Lanka’s second and third-highest peaks, the Park offers unparalleled scenery and opportunities for trekking through a pristine tropical montane cloud forest.
Despite its small size (just 31 square kilometres ― 12 square miles), its unique landscape and attractions such as the World’s End escarpment and Baker’s Falls, have made it Sri Lanka’s most-visited national park. Horton Plains, however, offers more than just scenery. It is a centre of remarkable biological richness and endemism even within Sri Lanka, which itself is part of a Global Biodiversity Hot-spot.
Dozens of plants and animals found here can be seen nowhere else. Although big-game abounds (night-time sightings of leopards are commonplace), what make the site special are its smaller, more subtle rarities, both plant and animal.
This book is intended to help you identify all the animals and most of the plants you are likely to see in and around Horton Plains and to find others that demand more effort or keener eyes.
It is also intended to help readers understand the history of this remarkable plateau and the fragility of its ecosystem; and appreciate the urgent need for science-based conservation actions that alone can save it from the multitude of threats that confront it.
(Rs.4,300/= Pre-publication until 11th June) and Rs.5,800/- thereafter. Available at www.books.lk
Tears of the Desert
By Halima Bashir & Damien Lewis
Memoir
(Winner of the Elle Magazine Grand Prix 2008) Halima Bashir was born into the remote western deserts of Sudan. She grew up in a wonderfully rich environment and later went on to study medicine. At the age of twenty-four she returned to her tribe and began practising as their first ever qualified doctor. But then a dark cloud descended upon her people...
Janjaweed Arab militias began savagely assaulting her people. At first, Halima tried not to get involved. But in January 2004 they attacked people in her village. Halima treated the traumatised victims and was sickened by what she saw. She decided to speak out in a Sudanese newspaper and to the UN charities. Then the secret police came for her.
For days Halima was interrogated and subjected to unspeakable torture. She finally escaped but the nightmare just seemed to follow her... This inspiring story tells of one woman's determination to survive and her passion to defend her people. For the first time, we can truly understand the personal horrors of Darfur from someone who lived through it.
(Rs. 1090/=) Available at Lake House Bookshop, Colombo 2
Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure
By Joanne Harris
Fiction
A welcome return to Lasquenet, the small town in rural France that was the setting for Joanne Harris's remarkable number one bestseller Chocolat.
Vianne Rocher is called back to Lasquenet by a letter from beyond the grave...
(Rs. 1220/=) Available at Vijitha Yapa Bookshop
I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
By Nujood Ali
Memoir/Non-fiction
Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse.
Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.
Her story incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces. Recently honoured alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time.
(Rs. 1320/=) Available at Sarasavi Bookshop Nugegoda
Burned Alive
By Souad
Autobiography
When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family - a dishonour punishable by death. This was her crime, and her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment.
One morning he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. Miraculously, Souad survived, rescued by the women of her village, although she suffered horrific burns. It was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled her to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed.
She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty that speaks of amazing courage and of one woman's determination to survive.
(Rs. 953/=) Available at Sarasavi Bookshop Nugegoda
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