Review - Canterbury Tales Cafe

[Daveo]

[Daveo]

Shibumi: by Trevanian.

 

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Nicholai Hel is the world’s most wanted man.

Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master.

Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished and well paid assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi.

 

Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he’d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge.

It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy, a super monolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company.

The battle lines are drawn, ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . shibumi.

[Daveo]

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

 

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A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.

 

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha.

It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine year old girl with unusual blue gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house.

We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

 

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion.

It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction, at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful and completely unforgettable.

[Daveo]

A Fair Cop: The True Story of a Policeman's Struggle to Survive Prison by Michael Bunting.

 

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It was Michael Bunting's life ambition to follow in his father's footsteps and become a police officer.

But six years after his family watch him begin his life's dream, he is serving a sentence for a crime he didn't commit.

This is his story. Beaten almost senseless as he tried to arrest a violent criminal, the 23-year-old PC was left with head injuries and blurred vision that took him months to recover from.

Back at work he was astounded to learn that his attacker had filed a complaint against him and that the Police Discipline and Complaints Department were following up the allegation.

Two years later he was found guilty of common assault against his assailant and received a prison sentence that left him living his devastated life among the criminals he had previously sought to keep off the streets.

Hard Hitting and at times heartbreaking the book is a graphic account of life behind bars for a policeman in one of England's hardest prisons.

[Daveo]

The Gangs of Liverpool: From The Cornermen to the High Rip - The Mobs that Terrorised A City by Michael Macilwee.

 

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Victorian Liverpool was a city of abundant wealth and abysmal poverty.

By day the broad streets bustled with wealthy merchants making fortunes from the booming dock trade.

By nightfall they were taken over by fearsome gangs from the foul courtyards and overcrowded tenements.

Shrieks and screams cut the air, while brawls and brutal muggings were commonplace.

 

The Gangs of Liverpool is a fascinating tour through a long forgotten netherworld where armed ruffians fought for territory or pride and no man was safe after dark.

From warring Catholic and Protestant mobs of the 1850s with names like the Hibernians and the Dead Rabbits emerged the Cornermen, whose wicked exploits made them feared throughout the city.

 

Previously hidden in the shadows of their inner-city slums, the gangs now took center stage.

Most notorious of all were the High Rip, who announced themselves with the infamous Blackstone Street Murder and launched a vicious war against their sworn enemies, the Logwood Gang.

 

Author Dr. Michael Macilwee has conducted exhaustive research to portray the Victorian underworld in one of its most colorful periods, replete with Dickensian cutthroats, iron hard detectives, pitched battles, and draconian punishments.

 

From religious riots to bare knuckle brawls, The Gangs of Liverpool is a riveting journey into the dark but compelling criminal history of England’s toughest city.

 

Dr. Michael Macilwee has worked as a librarian in the Liverpool John Moores University library for eighteen years and has contributed to numerous academic journals.

The Gangs of Liverpool is his first book.

[Daveo]

Bushido: The Way of the Samurai by Tsunetomo Yamamoto.

 

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In eighteenth century Japan, Tsunetomo Yamamoto created the Hagakure, a document that served as the basis for samurai warrior behavior.

Its guiding principles greatly influenced the Japanese ruling class and shaped the underlying character of the Japanese psyche, from businessmen to soldiers.

Bushido is the first English translation of this work.

It provides a powerful message aimed at the mind and spirit of the samurai warrior.

With Bushido, one can better put into perspective Japan’s historical path.

[Daveo]

From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story by Alex Higgins.

 

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Considered by many to be a genius at his peak, Alex Higgins' unorthodox play and exciting style earned him the nickname 'Hurricane' and led to his immense popularity and fame.

He is credited with elevating the game of snooker from the backrooms to the world stage.

In 1972 he became the youngest winner of the World Championship, repeating his victory in emotional style in 1982.

The high life followed, with parties and prolonged drinking bouts accompanied by celebrities, including his close friend Oliver Reed. Higgins' story is so much more than just snooker.

Head butting tournament officials, threatening to have team mates shot, getting involved with gangsters, abusing referees, affairs with glamorous women, frequent fines and lengthy bans, all contributed to Higgins slipping down the rankings as he succumbed to drink and drug taking and lost his fortune.

After suffering two bouts of throat cancer, Alex Higgins reflects on his turbulent life and career in his first full autobiography,from the eye of the 'Hurricane'.

[Daveo]

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

 

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The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.

A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley.

The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920's Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates.

It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

[Daveo]

Welcome to Hell: One Man's Fight For Life Inside The Bangkok Hilton by Colin Martin.
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Written from his cell and smuggled out page by page, Colin Martin’s autobiography chronicles an innocent man’s struggle to survive inside one of the world’s most dangerous prisons. After being swindled out of a fortune, Colin was let down by the hopelessly corrupt Thai police. Forced to rely upon his own resources, he tracked down the man who conned him and, drawn into a fight, he accidentally killed that man’s bodyguard. Colin was arrested, denied a fair trial, convicted of murder and thrown into prison, where he remained for 8 years. Honest and often disturbing, but told with a surprising humour, Welcome to Hell is the remarkable story of how Colin was denied justice again and again.

 

[Daveo]

The Longest Kill: The Story of Maverick 41, One of the World's Greatest Snipers by Craig Harrison.

 

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It takes a tough mindset to be a successful sniper, to be able to dig in for days on your own as you wait for your target, to stay calm on a battlefield when you yourself have become the target the enemy most want to take out.

Craig Harrison has what it takes and in November 2009 in Afghanistan, under intense pressure, he saved the lives of his comrades with the longest confirmed sniper kill, 2,475 meters.

 

In this unflinching autobiography, Craig catapults us into the heat of the action as he describes his active service in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, and gives heart stopping accounts of his sniper ops as he fought for his life on the rooftops of Basra and the barren hills of Helmand province.

Craig was blown up by an IED in Afghanistan and left battling severe PTSD.

After his identity was revealed in the press he also had to cope with al Qaeda threats against him and his family.

For Craig, the price of heroism has been devastatingly high.

 

Powerful and compelling, The Longest Kill is a must read for fans of military memoirs.

 

[Daveo]

Rooms available, contact me for a deal.

[Daveo]

Only to Die Again: by Patrick Lee.

 

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A DESPERATE PLEA FOR HELP

The middle of the night, Sam Dryden takes a call from an old friend from his days in the military, she needs his help, urgently, there's no further explanation.

 

A RACE AGAINST TIME

Two hours later, Dryden and his former teammate smash their way into a remote desert shack, inside they discover four young girls, caged and threatened with death by their abductor, Dryden acts.

 

AN IMPOSSIBLE SECRET

But how had Dryden's friend known what about to unfold? Why was it so important that they flee the scene before the police arrive? Only one thing is certain: Dryden is now facing a ruthless enemy that always seems to be one step ahead . . .

[Daveo]

The Mermaids Singing (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, Book 1)

by Val McDermid.

 

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In this special 20th anniversary edition, Lee Child introduces the Gold Dagger award winning serial killer thriller that began the Number One bestselling crime series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill, hero of TV’s much loved Wire in the Blood.

 

You always remember the first time.

Isn’t that what they say about sex?

How much more true it is of murder…

 

Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars.

This one’s different, this one’s on the loose.

 

Four men have been found mutilated and tortured.

As fear grips the city, the police turn to clinical psychologist Tony Hill for a profile of the killer.

But soon Tony becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional nerve to survive.

 

A tense, beautifully written psychological thriller, The Mermaids Singing explores the tormented mind of a serial killer unlike any the world of fiction has ever seen.

[Daveo]

Power Down by Ben Coes.

 

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"Introducing a major new thriller writer in the vein of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor and an electrifying character, Dewey Andreas "

 

A major North American hydroelectric dam is blown up and the largest offshore oil field in this hemisphere is destroyed in a brutal, coordinated terrorist attack.

But there was one factor that the terrorists didn't take into account when they struck the Capitana platform off the coast of Colombia slaughtering much of the crew and blowing up the platform and that was the Capitana crew chief Dewey Andreas.

Dewey, former Army Ranger and Delta, survives the attack, rescuing as many of his men as possible. But the battle has just begun.

 

While the intelligence and law enforcement agencies scramble to untangle these events and find the people responsible, the mysterious figure of Alexander Fortuna an agent embedded into the highest levels of American society and business sets into play the second stage of these long-planned attacks.

The only fly in the ointment is Dewey Andreas who is using all his long dormant skills to fight his way off the platform, then out of Colombia and back to the U.S, following the trail of terrorists and operatives sent to stop him.

"Power Down " is a gripping, compelling debut thriller from a powerful new author, an amazing talent certain to join the ranks of the genre's finest writers."

[Daveo]

Heist: The True Story of the World's Biggest Cash Robbery

by Howard Sounes.

 

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On 22 February 2006, £53 million was stolen from a cash warehouse belonging to the Securitas company in Tonbridge, Kent. In terms of value, the robbery puts previous British capers, such as the Great Train Robbery, in the shade.

This was a crime notable for its audacity, carried out by an unlikely crew of players that included a used car salesman, two Albanian casual workers and a roofer.

Five men were convicted at the Old Bailey in January 2008, which attracted nationwide media coverage.

A sixth man, Paul Allen, was sentenced in October 2009 for his part. Having become close to the Tonbridge gang and the police during three years of research, Sounes relates a classic crime caper in irresistible, almost forensic detail.

After the robbery comes the exciting, sometimes comical story of the getaway.

Money is found and arrests are made but key characters slip out of the country, and millions of pounds are still missing.

HEIST is the definitive account of these compelling events, is wildly entertaining, and a must for all fans of well written true crime.

Since the book has been written, Darren Aronofsky (director of The Wrestler) has announced he will direct a British made film about the robbery.

 

[Daveo]

Midnight (Nightingale) by Stephen Leather.

 

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Your sister is going to hell, Jack Nightingale.

Somehow, variations of that line keep former police negotiator Nightingale’s life careening in wild, unforeseen directions.

This time, it is uttered by a dead woman hanging over a staircase, her neck broken by the laundry cord she tied around it before tossing herself over the banister.

But Jack and his sister have been separated since birth.

How can he save someone he’s never met?

Nightingale goes on the hunt for the sister he never knew, but everyone he talks to about her dies horribly. It’s as if someone or something is determined to keep them apart.

If he's going to save her, he's going to have to do what he does best: negotiate.

But any negotiation with the forces of darkness comes at a terrible price, and first Jack must ask himself a question: is every soul worth saving? Sharp and intense, UK master Stephen Leather’s second book in The Nightingale Trilogy is a taut, relentlessly paced thriller as terrifying and dark as midnight itself.

[Daveo]

The Blackpool Rock by Steve Sinclair.

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To the police he was public enemy number one. 
To drunken gangs of yobs intent on trouble, he was a nightmare come true. 
Steve Sinclair was the toughest doorman in the wildest resort in Britain and if you crossed him, payback was swift and certain. 
The Blackpool Rock is a candid insight into the dangerous world of the modern doorman and of the extreme methods he sometimes employs to defend himself and his customers and to uphold his hard won reputation.

[Daveo]

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Enigma by Eric Van Lustbader.

 

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On the eve of Russian general Boris Karpov's wedding, Jason Bourne receives an enigmatic message from his old friend and fellow spymaster.

In Moscow, what should be a joyous occasion turns bloody and lethal.

Now Bourne is the only one who can decipher Karpov's cryptogram.

He discovers that Karpov has betrayed his sovereign to warn Bourne of a crippling disaster about to be visited on the world. Bourne has only four days to discover the nature of the disaster and stop it.

The trail Karpov has been following leads Bourne to Cairo and the doorstep of Ivan Borz, the elusive international arms dealer infamous for hiding behind a never ending series of false identities, a man Bourne has been hunting ever since he abducted former Treadstone director Soraya Moore and her two year old daughter and brutally murdered Soraya's husband.

Bourne must travel to war torn Syria and then Cyprus as he chases the astonishing truth.

The clock is ticking, and Bourne has less than four days to solve Karpov's riddle and hunt down Borz if he hopes to prevent a cataclysmic international war . . .

[Daveo]

The Iron King (The Accursed Kings, Book 1) by Maurice Druon.

 

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‘This is the original game of thrones’ George R.R. Martin

 

From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin’s epic work.

 

“Accursed? Accursed?

You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation?”

 

The Iron King, Philip the Fair, is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue.

He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.

 

A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty.

[Daveo]

The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen.

 

Traded In at the weekend @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya..*****60 baht*****

 

The Average American Male: A Novel

[Daveo]

The Last Boat To Samui: A Short Story by William Peskett.

 

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Numchai is the most experienced ferry captain on the short route from the Thai mainland to the tourist island of Koh Samui.

But while nothing has gone wrong before, tonight the ferry is drifting in mid-channel with no power.

At head office, Eek is manning the phones, learning of the ferry’s predicament, he anticipates a crisis whose resolution is above his pay-grade.

He calls the ferry company’s managing director at home, what ensues is a sensitive negotiation between the depressed sea-captain and an increasingly irate managing director, with Eek as the hapless go between.

As relations between Numchai and his boss go from bad to worse, the captain threatens to scuttle his ship.

Eek is not one to listen to rumours, but during the long stand off he realises that the stories he has heard about Numchai’s wife’s infidelity are true.

If the passengers are to be saved from drowning Eek must summon all his powers of diplomacy to resolve the source of Numchai’s distress and bring the ferry safely to dock.

[Daveo]

The Money-Changers by Arthur Hailey.

 

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It was on Tuesday that old Ben Rosselli, president of First Mercantile American Bank and grandson of the bank's founder, made an announcement, startling and somber, which reverberated through every segment of the bank and far beyond.

And the next day, Wednesday, the bank's “flagship” downtown branch discovered the presence of a thief, beginning a series of events which few could have foreseen and ending in financial wreckage, human tragedy and death.'

 

The genius of a master story teller combines money, people and banking in a tense and absorbing story of the financial and personal crises behind the solemn bronze doors of a major bank.

 

Interwoven with the employees' dreams, passions, rivalries and Secrets, are currency, credit frauds, embezzlement, a prison gang-rape, the mafia and call-girl sex to sweeten even the most irregular business deals.

 

The Money Changers blends action, suspense, mystery and torrid love scenes in a powerfully entertaining novel that is one of Arthur Hailey's best.

[Daveo]

Thailand Fever by Chris Pirazzi & Vitida Vasant.

 

Traded In today @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya. New condition *****180 baht*****

 

You've met the perfect Thai woman. You're dizzy with joy as her exotic world swirls around you.

You've heard so many horror stories, but your heart tells you that she's for real.

You want to understand her mysterious ways, and you wish she could understand yours.

Now, there's help.

Thailand Fever is an astonishing, one of a kind, bilingual expose of the cultural Secrets that are the key to a smooth Thai-Western relationship.

Whether you met in a bar, in a university, or at work, and whether you met last night or decades ago, Thailand Fever covers your issues:

 

* Trusting Each Other

* Sex * It's My Money!

* The Parents * The Dowry

* Privacy * Independence

* Saving Face

* Living in "Paradise"

 

Thailand Fever is the must-have relationship guidebook which lets each of you finally express complex issues by just pointing across the page? Everything in the book is in both Thai and English on facing pages.

Thailand Fever teaches each of you about your loved one's values and culture.

So is your girl different, is she the one, check it out now at Cantebury Tales Bookshop Pattaya.

[Daveo]

Sins Of The Night by Devyn Quinn.

 

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Once, Adrien Roth was a Shadow Stalker, a hunter of vampires called the Kynn.

Captured, he was forced to pay a devastating price and become the very thing he despised.

Almost a century has passed since that time and Adrien's quest for justice has not ended.

But only one woman can redeem his soul: a beautiful mortal named Cassie Wilson.

In Adrien's arms, Cassie will experience the ultimate sexual awakening, for her demon lover is a master of pleasure.

Together at last, lost in a shadow world of unusual Desire and risking their very lives for love, She and Adrian are compelled to surrender to the powerful passion that consumes them.

[Daveo]

Daughters Of Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera.

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'I listen to those stories ' told by women who have been drugged, beaten, imprisoned, raped and terrorised within the walls of the homes they grew up in.
I listen and I am humbled by their resilience.' Jasvinder Sanghera knows what it means to flee from your family under threat of forced marriage' and to face the terrible consequences that follow. 
As a young girl that was just what she had to do. 
Jasvinder is now at the frontline of the battle to save women from the honour-based violence and threat of forced marriage that destroyed her own youth. 
Daughters of Shame reveals the stories of young women such as Shazia, kidnapped and taken to Pakistan to marry a man she had never met; and Banaz, murdered by her own family after escaping an abusive marriage.
By turns frightening, enthralling and uplifting. 
It reveals Jasvinder as a woman heedless of her own personal safety as she fights to help these women, in a world where the suffering and abuse of many is challenged by the courage of the few.