Fire: A World of Flavour (Christine Manfield)

Fire: A World of Flavour

Christine Manfield

Blurb: Christine Manfield is one of Australia's most celebrated chefs. A perfectionist inspired by strong flavours, her successful series of books have spiced up the lives of keen cooks everywhere. 

Her three restaurants give her motivation to broaden her global food interests.

ISBN: 9781921382857 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 60 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Angus and Robertson

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Goodreads page

Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden? (Morgan Spurlock)

Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden?

Morgan Spurlock

Blurb: With a baby on the way and a need to make the world safe for infantkind, an unassuming film-maker from West Virginia employs his complete lack of experience, knowledge and expertise to find the most wanted and dangerous man on earth.

Beginning his epic quest in New York City, Morgan Spurlock zigzags the globe in search of the bearded man: to Britain, France, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, drawing ever closer to the heart of darkness in the tribal regions of Pakistan. Along the way he interviews experts and imams, breaks the Ramadan fast with Muslim families, identifies the surprising similarities between Osama Bin Laden and Keyser Soze, helps disarm bombs with an Israeli squad, accompanies the British and US Armies in Afghanistan, and much, much more... all in an attempt to understand the Muslim world and the roots of the conflict overshadowing the globe today.

He emerges with a much deeper knowledge of the world into which his child will be born, and of the roots of fundamentalism and the 'war on terror'.

ISBN: 9781846552212 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Harvill Secker

Pages: 305 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Film of the book

2. Wikipedia page for the film/book

3. Buy the book from Amazon

4. Review of the book

5. Another review

The End of the World - Skulduggery Pleasant #6.5 (Derek Landy)

The End of the World - Skulduggery Pleasant #6.5

Derek Landy

Blurb: Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: sorcerer, detective, warrior. Oh yes, and dead.

Ryan is an ordinary boy living in an ordinary world.

Or so he thought.

Pursued by a gang of insane sorcerers who want to destroy the planet, Ryan's only chance for survival rests with skeleton-detective Skulduggery Pleasant and his teenage partner Valkyrie Cain. They have one day to save Ryan. One day to save the world. The clock is ticking...

ISBN: 9780007466788 (Paperback)

Year: 2012

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 127 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wiki for the book and series

2. Wikipedia page for the series

3. Author's blog

4. Buy from the Book Depository

5. Review of the book

Dead to the World - Sookie Stackhouse #4 (Charlaine Harris)

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4)

Charlaine Harris

Blurb: Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She's pretty. She does her job well. But she has only a few close friends, because not everyone appreciates Sookie's gift: she can read minds. That's not exactly every man's idea of date bait - unless they're undead; vampires and the like can be tough to read. And that's just the kind of guy Sookie's been looking for. Maybe that's why when she comes across a naked vampire on the way home from work, she doesn't just drive on by. He hasn't got a clue who he is, but Sookie has: Eric looks just as scary and sexy - and dead - as the day she met him. But now he has amnesia, he's sweet, vulnerable, and in need of Sookie's help - because whoever took his memory now wants his life.

Sookie's investigation into what's going on leads into a battle between witches, vampires and werewolves. But there could be even greater danger - to Sookie's heart - because the kinder, gentler Eric is very hard to resist.

ISBN: 9780575089426 (Paperback)

Year: 2005

Publisher: Gollancz

Pages: 321 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Review of the book

3. Author's official site

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Good reads page

Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World At Large (William Shatner with Chris Regan)

Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World At Large

William Shatner with Chris Regan

Blurb: You love William Shatner.

You admire his many varied talents.

You appreciate his creativity and willingness to take risks.

You want to learn his master negotiation techniques.

You wish you could hang out with him.

Admit it. You want to BE William Shatner.

And now...you can (almost)

To be Shatner, you must follow the rules included in the lively, entertaining, and thoughtful volume you now hold in your hands. This collection of rules, illustrated with stories from Bill's illustrious life and career, will show you how Bill became William Shatner, larger than life and bigger than any role he ever played.

Shatner rules is your guide to becoming William Shatner. Or, more accurately, beautifully Shatneresque. Because let's face it...Shatner does rule, doesn't he?

ISBN: 9780525952510 (Hardback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Dutton

Pages: 252 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Google books page

2. Good reads page

3. Buy from Amazon

4. US Publisher's page

5. Review

The Wide World of Ken Sutcliffe (Ken Sutcliffe with Ian Heads)

The Wide World of Ken Sutcliffe

Ken Sutcliffe with Ian Heads

Blurb: He's been a fixture in Australian lounge rooms for decades - the face of sport on the Nine Network for 30 years. He's presented the sports report on the evening news, been the long-time host of The Wide World of Sports and acted as the network's anchorman at many of the world's biggest sporting events, including the Winter Olympics, The Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon and the US Masters.

He has been a legendary survivor in an industry notorious for its fickleness and has worked closely with some of the biggest names in Australian television and sport. Who could forget his almost nightly fits of giggles as Graham Kennedy's 'straight man' co-host?

He is Ken Sutcliffe, much-loved journalist, sportscaster and personality.

The story of Ken's life also takes in many landmark events in Australian sport and television, and it is told with characteristic good humour and larrikin charm. His firmly help opinions on all things sport are fascinating and insightful, and included here is his insider's view on the Matthew Johns and Cronulla Sharks scandal that threatened to blow rugby league apart.

How a boy living in a tent beside a railway line grew to become one of our most familiar faces and respected names makes for an entertaining and revealing read. He is the man behind the face of Australian sport and his is a great Australian story.

ISBN: 9781741757903 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Pages: 289 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page for the book

2. PDF file of the first chapter of the book

3. Nine News page on the author

4. Wikipedia page on the author

5. Buy the book from Angus and Robertson

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism (Ron Suskind)

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism

Ron Suskind

Blurb: From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America and the West lost their way and at our governments' struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which their survival depends.

In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how the West relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of 'The Armageddon Test' - a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world's nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the Blair-Bush coalition.

The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters around the world who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate - and often daring - brand of human salvation. They include a striving, 24-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor's son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she's been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing Western values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions - human solutions - to so much that has gone wrong.

ISBN: 9781847374486 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 415 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Wikipedia page for the book

3. Google books page

4. Author's official page

5. Review of the book

Weapons of Choice - World War 2.1 (Axis of Time #1) (John Birmingham)

Weapons of Choice - World War 2.1 (Axis of Time #1)

John Birmingham

Blurb: A near-future military experiment thrusts a multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding towards Midway Atoll - and what was to be the most spectacular Allied triumph of World War II.

ISBN: 0330421891 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Pages: 673 (Fiction)

Links

1. Google books page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Publisher's page on the author

5. Wikipedia page for the series

Turning The Tide: Decisive Battles of The Second World War (Nigel Cawthorne)

Turning The Tide: Decisive Battles of The Second World War

Nigel Cawthorne

Blurb: The Second World War was the final global conflict of the twentieth century. It involved more combatants, and a wider range of battlefield terrain than any other conflict in history, from the frozen plains of Russia to the baking Libyan desert, and from the atolls of the Pacific to the skies over Britain.

In Turning the Tide, Nigel Carthorne has taken a fresh look at the crucial battles which decided the outcome of the Second World War, beginning with the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, a feat that boosted the morale of a nation during its darkest hour, and reaching a climatic end with the final bloody reckoning between the Red Army and the Third Reich amongst the ruins of Berlin.

ISBN: 1841931128 (Paperback)

Year: 2003

Publisher: Capella

Pages: 240 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Google books page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Buy from Book Depository

4. Author's official site

5. Author's wikipedia page

Step into the World of Ancient Egypt (Robert Frederick)

Step into the World of Ancient Egypt

Robert Frederick

Blurb: Mummies, tombs, treasures, kings and queens - enter the fascinating kingdom of ancient Egypt! Travel back in time to learn about the many bizarre beliefs and the interesting innovations of the ancient Egyptians. Witness their art, crafts and healing practices. This illustrated book takes you on a virtual tour of the great pyramid-tombs and temples, the process of mummification, and daily life in ancient Egypt. From all-important priests and pharaohs to sports and school life, this volume has interesting write-ups as well as informative questions and answers, to unearth the age-old secrets of the Egyptians. So turn the pages of history and bring the past alive like never before!

ISBN: 0755433890 (Hardback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Robert Frederick

Pages: 44 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Publisher's page

3. British Museum page on Ancient Egypt

4. Wikipedia page on Ancient Egypt

5. BBC Page on Ancient Egypt