Jul 24 2012.
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“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” ― Marilyn Monroe
Micro
By Michael Crichton
Fiction
An instant classic in the vein of Jurassic Park, this boundary-pushing novel has all the hallmarks of Michael Crichton's greatest adventures with its combination of pulse-pounding thrills, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research.
Three men are found dead in a locked second-floor office in Honolulu. There is no sign of struggle, though their bodies are covered in ultra-fine, razor-sharp cuts. With no evidence, the police dismiss it as a bizarre suicide pact. But the murder weapon is still in the room, almost invisible to the human eye. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up company.
Nanigen Micro Technologies sends them to a mysterious laboratory in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open up a whole new scientific frontier. But this opportunity of a lifetime will teach them the true cost of existing at the cutting-edge..
The group becomes prey to a technology of radical, unimaginable power and is thrust out into the teeming rainforest. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, the young scientists face a hostile wilderness that threatens danger at every turn. To survive, they must harness the awe-inspiring creative – and destructive – forces of nature itself.
Rs. 1,200/- Available at Serendib Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd Mount Lavinia
The Theory of Everything (With Free CD)
By Stephen Hawking
Science
Stephen Hawking is widely believed to be one of the world’s greatest minds: a brilliant theoretical physicist whose work helped to reconfigure models of the universe and to redefine what’s in it. Imagine sitting in a room listening to Hawking discuss these achievements and place them in historical context. It would be like hearing Christopher Columbus on the New World.
Hawking presents a series of seven lectures—covering everything from big bang to black holes to string theory—that capture not only the brilliance of Hawking’s mind but his characteristic wit as well. Of his research on black holes, which absorbed him for more than a decade, he says, “It might seem a bit like looking for a black cat in a coal cellar.”
Hawking begins with a history of ideas about the universe, from Aristotle’s determination that the Earth is round to Hubble’s discovery, over 2000 years later, that the universe is expanding. Using that as a launching pad, he explores the reaches of modern physics, including theories on the origin of the universe (e.g., the big bang), the nature of black holes, and space-time.
Rs. 900/- Available at Serendib Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd Mount Lavinia
A Dance With Dragons : Book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire
By George R. R. Martin
Fantasy/Fiction
The fifth volume in the greatest epic work of the modern age The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance. In the east, Daenerys, last scion of House Targaryen, her dragons grown to terrifying maturity, rules as queen of a city built on dust and death, beset by enemies. Now that her whereabouts are known many are seeking Daenerys and her dragons.
Among them the dwarf, Tyrion Lannister, who has escaped King's Landing with a price on his head, wrongfully condemned to death for the murder of his nephew, King Joffrey. But not before killing his hated father, Lord Tywin. To the north lies the great Wall of ice and stone -- a structure only as strong as those guarding it.
Eddard Stark's bastard son Jon Snow has been elected the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but he has enemies both in the Watch and beyond the Wall, where the wildling armies are massing for an assault. On all sides bitter conflicts are reigniting, played out by a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skin changers, nobles and slaves. The tides of destiny will inevitably lead to the greatest dance of all!
(Rs.990/=) Available at Makeen Books, Col 3
The Summer of Living Dangerously
By Julie Cohen
Fiction
A gorgeously warm, funny and heartbreaking story about facing up to your past and finding out what - and who - you really want...Alice Woodstock has her life under control. She's successful and she's happy - as long as she continues to ignore the hurt from her past.
But when said past walks back into her life in the shape of Leo - the man who broke her heart - Alice is desperate for an escape route.
She finds the perfect thing - a new job as a tour guide in a Regency stately home. But as she immerses herself in acting out the stories of the house, Alice begins to see parallels with her own life, forcing her to confront her feelings about what she wants and, finally, live in the real world.
(Rs.644/=) Available at Makeen Books, Col 3
Short & Sweet SMSs
Non fiction
The advancement of technology has brought people closer. With cell phones coming in affordable ranges, almost every other person on the street seems to carry this tool in his pocket that would enable him to contact other mobile users across the globe. SMS, one of the hottest trends of the day, is the shortest and quickest way of communication within a span of seconds.
People across the globe find in convenient to get their message across by sending an SMS that is just a button away. This book, Short and Sweet SMSs, is a comprehensive collection of popular SMSs. The book consists of messages on all topics, ranging from popular jokes to romantic messages.
Some boast of philosophical thought, while some convey wisdom in just a few words. On the whole, the book has something or the other for people of all age groups.
Rs. 330/= Available at Vijitha Yapa Bookshop
What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
By Michael Sandel
Economics
Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale?
In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life-medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.
In "What Money Can't Buy", Sandel examines one of the biggest ethical questions of our time and provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy?
Rs.4,700/- Available at www.books.lk
Heaven’s Price
By Sandra Brown
Romance/ Fiction
Blair Simpson embraces a life most people merely dream about. Devoting her nights—as well as her days to dancing in the chorus line of Broadway musicals and in occasional TV commercials, she has never considered another career. But when an injury sends her to a small town for six long months of recuperation, she finds herself surrounded by couples who are raising families and building dreams together. And there she meets a man who forces her to come to terms with a part of herself she has long denied.
From Blair’s first encounter with her new landlord, Sean Garrett, the powerful sexual attraction between them catches her off guard. For the first time she’s unable to lose herself in dancing, as Sean’s passion and tenderness urge her to open her life to him. More than anything, Sean wants to build a future with fiery, raven-haired Blair.
But Blair’s own passion for dance has ruled her for so long, she may not be able to break its hold—even if it costs her the love she had thought she’d never find.
Rs. 640/= Available at Sarasavi Bookshop Nugegoda
The Copper Beech
By Maeve Binchy
Contemporary Women/ Fiction
Thus, the allegedly stolen jewels that are discovered and stolen again in one early chapter become significant in later chapters. Long after two adulterous characters sneak into a Dublin hotel, it emerges that they were spotted by a small soul from Shancarrig, who passes on the information--with unforeseen consequences.
A priest's dalliance with the sweet young schoolteacher is shown to have been suspected by others in the village. The result is a charming and compelling series of interlocking stories about ordinary people who are given dimension through Binchy's empathetic insight.
Rs. 640/= Available at Sarasavi Bookshop Nugegoda
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