The new year always brings requests for diet and fitness books from patrons (and librarians) looking to shed those extra holiday pounds. Here’s a quick roundup by resident expert Susan B. Hagloch of books to recommend and avoid.
Longlisted for the Australia Asia Literary Award
by J. M. Coetzee
Novelist Coetzee's 19th book features a stand-in for himself: Señor C, a white 72-year-old South African writer living in Australia who has written Waiting for the Barbarians. C falls into a metaphysical passion for his sexy 29-year-old Filipina neighbor, Anya, and quickly plots to spend more time with her by offering her a job as his typist. C's latest project is a series of political and philosophical essays, and Coetzee divides each page of the present novel in three: any given page features a bit of an essay (often its title and opening paragraph) at the top; C's POV in the middle; and Anya's voice at the bottom.
Diary of a Bad Year is an ingenious work that rivets the reader's attention, and it cannot have been easy to write.
It turns out in the end that Coetzee has written a sometimes sentimental love story that plays out nicely to the legato accompaniment of his pronouncements, political and cultural, some of which hit the bull's eye while some come to the verge of pomposity. I said "his pronouncements," but of course they are JC's essays, which is a reminder that not everything in Coetzee's novel is as it seems. Except this: Lovely Anya has her heart in the right place, and JC is lucky enough to understand that. Is the experimental form the story took a success? I was amused and at the same time hoped that the marvelously inventive Mr. Coetzee will move beyond it.
Winner: Man Booker Prize 2008
by Aravind Adiga
In this darkly comic début novel set in India, Balram, a chauffeur, murders his employer, justifying his crime as the act of a "social entrepreneur." In a series of letters to the Premier of China, in anticipation of the leader’s upcoming visit to Balram’s homeland, the chauffeur recounts his transformation from an honest, hardworking boy growing up in "the Darkness"—those areas of rural India where education and electricity are equally scarce, and where villagers banter about local elections "like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra"—to a determined killer. He places the blame for his rage squarely on the avarice of the Indian élite, among whom bribes are commonplace, and who perpetuate a system in which many are sacrificed to the whims of a few. Adiga’s message isn’t subtle or novel, but Balram’s appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling.
for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block!
This small colorful book tells you very simply which food choices are the right ones. It not only tells you, but also shows you with hundreds of color photos. Although it is supposedly for kids, the information is useful -- and fascinating -- for anyone.
Click here for more about the book and how to get it for free
by Patricia Cornwall
Past and present collide with deadly force when Winston Garano investigates the murder of a blind woman in Patricia Cornwall's taut suspense.
.. or request it free*
by Danielle Steel
In Danielle Steel's story of public figures and private heartbreak, disaster inspires a celerity to count her blessings and recapture lost love.
Best Price $11.98
or Buy New
. .. or request it free*
by Barbara Vine
Ruth Rendell's alter ego, Barbara Vine crushes a sleazy politician down to size in this dramatic story a bout a ex game that backfires
Best Price $19.95
or Buy New $24.00
by Kathy Lette
When Lucy's husband of eighteen years runs out on her, she'll do anything to win him back...
Jasper has left Lucy for her best friend, the chic and thin interior decorator Renee. To make matters worse, her teenage daughter Tally, blames her Mum. "Dad left because you've let yourself go, you're overweight and you nagged him. No wonder he buggered off."
Although a signed-up member of Underachievers Anonymous, in Lucy's quest to win back her husband she learns to be a surf life saver, loses weight and gets a job. She also falls in lust, finding herself torn between an older and a much younger man... But it's not until Lucy makes the Freudian discovery that her toy boy is also dating her daughter - and that he's been paid to do so by her conniving ex as ammunition for a custody battle, that she finally learns to stand on her own two stilettos.
£14.99 £7.52
... or request it free*
by Sue Gaulke
There's nothing worse than sitting in the audience while an inept speaker stumbles through an ill-conceived business presentation-- unless, of course, you're the one floundering in the spotlight. In 101 Ways to Captivate a Business Audience, Sue Gaulke, founder of the Speaker's Training Camp, strips the mysteries from the process by showing how to prepare and present an effective address that will successfully involve your audience and deliver your message. (more …)
Buy it from Amazon or request it for free if you are a Pivotal Gold member