Canterbury Tales Guesthouse

[Daveo]

Big Deal: One Year in the Life of a Professional Poker Player by Anthony Holden

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The story of a year spent by biographer Anthony Holden in the tough world of the professional poker player.

He spent days and nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta and Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process.

Poker, Holden would insist, is not gambling. Like chess it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people.

Its heroes, its eccentrics and is comedians stalk the pages of this book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.

[Daveo]

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. . . . .

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Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos; exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors.

Exposing these global profiteers, Naomi Klein discovered information and connections that shocked even her about how comprehensively the shock doctors' beliefs now dominate our world - and how this domination has been achieved. Raking in billions out of the tsunami, plundering Russia, exploiting Iraq - this is the chilling tale of how a few are making a killing while more are getting killed.

[Daveo]

Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien

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Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked this strangest of wars. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris.

In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing from and meeting the demands of battle, Going After Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.

[Daveo]

Urban Grimshaw And The Shed Crew by Bernard Hare. . . . .

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Bernard Hare presents this shocking, heartbreaking, funny and inspiring memoir which exposes the ruinous legacy of the Thatcher years and makes an impassioned case for change before it's too late for the next generation.

[Daveo]

Crimelord: The Licensee: The True Story of Tam McGraw . . . .

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Crimelord is the gripping life story of elusive multimillionaire gangster Tam McGraw.

A notorious criminal kingpin, McGraw has risen from extreme poverty in the East End of Glasgow to become one of Scotland's wealthiest men. When hash started to flood into Scotland from the late 1980s onwards, suspicion centred on McGraw, leader of the infamous Barlanark Team.

After a two-year surveillance operation, police discovered the drug had been hidden in buses carrying young footballers and deprived Glasgow families on free holidays abroad.

It was a scam reminiscent of the movie The Italian Job, only this time Scots kids had been sitting on hash worth over £40 million.

Police claimed McGraw was the financier and mastermind but in 1998 a jury declared him innocent while other suspects were jailed. As McGraw refuses to discuss his life publicly, his remarkable tale is told through friends, fellow crooks and the occasional rival. It is an outrageous, often hilarious, true gangster story.

[Daveo]

Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson by Hunter S. Thompson,

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Bristling with inspired observations and wild anecdotes, this collection offers a unique insight into the voice and mind of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson. Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson's life: a savage beating at the hands of the Hells Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail ('the only time in twenty years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn't lying'), and his unlikely run for Sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson's voice at its fiercest. Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.

[Daveo]

Have a Little Faith: a True Story by Mitch Albom. . . .

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In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere.

Albom's first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom's old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.

Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he'd left years ago.

Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor - a reformed drug dealer and convict, who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times.

Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor's wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi's last request and writes the eulogy.

And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all.

It is one man's journey, but it is everyone's story.

Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless.

[Daveo]

Bush at War by Bob Woodward..........

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Award-winning author and journalist Bob Woodward turns his attention to the presidency of George W. Bush.

Before the acts of terrorism on 11 September, George W. Bush's presidency had been beset by numerous problems. Not only was it in many people's eyes invalid, very few people took him seriously as a world statesman.

Then following one violent mindless act of terrorism, George W. Bush became a president that his country could rely on, one they felt they could trust to lead them through these difficult times.

And the world saw a man who was decisive and resolute, a president who was seemingly determined to route out the people who had carried out the heinous acts.

But one year after the attacks how has the 44th President of the United States fared?

And what were the actual behind the scenes discussions that took place whilst the country was rocked by the crisis? Bob Woodward has been shadowing the President since those fateful events, he was allowed unprecedented access to closed-door meetings and briefings and this masterful book is a look at what really happened.

[Daveo]

Fans: The Mirror of Consumption by Cornel Sandvoss..

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In Fans: The Mirror of Consumption Cornel Sandvoss explores the social, cultural, and psychological premises and consequences of fan consumption.

The scope of the book is impressive - he looks not just at the nature and development of whole fan cultures, but also focuses on the experience and identity of the individual fan. In addition, the book proposes a new perspective on fans and popular culture, arguing that the modern self is reflected and constituted through media consumption.

In developing his account, Sandvoss draws on theoretical ideas in an original yet accessible way, and uses a wide range of examples, from Star Trek to Madonna to football, to illustrate his argument.

This makes 'Fans: the mirror of consumption' an ideal text for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students studying fans, audiences and consumption in all areas of contemporary culture.

It is the book's original contribution, combined with its student-friendly approach, that will make 'Fans: The Mirror of Consumption' a 'must read' text for students and scholars alike.

[Daveo]

The World As I See It by Albert Einstein

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To the majority of people Einstein's theory is a complete mystery.

Their attitude towards Einstein is like that of Mark Twain towards the writer of a work on mathematics: here was a man who had written an entire book of which Mark could not understand a single sentence.

Einstein, therefore, is great in the public eye partly because he has made revolutionary discoveries which cannot be translated into the common tongue.

We stand in proper awe of a man whose thoughts move on heights far beyond our range, whose achievements can be measured only by the few who are able to follow his reasoning and challenge his conclusions.

There is, however, another side to his personality. It is revealed in the addresses, letters, and occasional writings brought together in this book.

These fragments form a mosaic portrait of Einstein the man. Each one is, in a sense, complete in itself; it presents his views on some aspect of progress, education, peace, war, liberty, or other problems of universal...

[Daveo]

Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail by Robert Sabbag. . .

Traded in recently @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange.

Do you think you have the balls it would take to risk your life for a million dollars? Allen Long certainly did.

Balls like a bull elephant - with charisma and cunning in the same large measure.

But he needed to know that those around him could handle pressure, after all, they'd be violating Colombian and U.S. airspace in a dilapidated DC-3 and landing on Jungle mud-tracks in bandit country.

They'd have to avoid detection by America's most tooled-up law enforcement agencies and remain wired and vigilant at all times. They'd be pioneering dope smugglers - doing it with aplomb and panache like no one else, their leader, the irrepressible Long, was interested in only the best, Colombian Santa Marta Gold, the Beluga caviar of marijuana.

He and his merry band of smugglers were responsible for upping the quality and quality of weed smoked in North America for several halcyon years in the early '70s.

And they did so in the most outrageous and remarkable fashion. From the writer of the drug-smuggling classic Snowblind comes a true story more hair-raising, high-octane, and heart-pounding than any fictional adventure thriller, as he relates the high times and fast living of America's greatest marijuana smuggler. Take a seat and hang on for the ride of your life.

[Daveo]

Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

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Colombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam's hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off! At what point do these druggies threaten national security? When can a nation act against its enemies? These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line. Does anyone know who the real enemy is? How much action is too much? Which lines have been crossed? Ryan and his "dark side", a shadowy field officer known only as Mr. Clark, are charged with finding out. They expect danger from without... but the danger from within may be the greatest of all.

[Daveo]

Critical Judgment by Michael Palmer

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Dr. Abby Dolan was on the fast track at a major San Francisco hospital when she made a critical choice: to follow her fiance, Josh Wyler, to the picturesque California town of Patience, where he has a new job with manufacturing giant Colstar.

Working in a small-town emergency room, knowing that her every move sparks gossip, Abby nonetheless begins to feel at home - until the first undiagnosable patients start showing up.

Abby calls them NIWWs: No Idea What's Wrong.

And despite her considerable skills, she can't crack these baffling, seemingly random cases.

At the same time, Josh is experiencing blinding headaches and pain-driven episodes of manic, even violent, behavior.

Abby wonders whether Colstar could somehow be poisoning the town. Her suspicions are shared by ER colleague Dr. Lew Alvarez, whose investigating committee has shrunk from several dozen members to a cautious three.

When Abby finds herself playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Colstar's steely head of security, Lew warns her that her predecessor in the ER, a Colstar detractor, died in a dubious climbing accident.

But Abby cannot back off. She loses a patient in the ER, the victim of a murderous rage in a normally easygoing man.

Another patient nearly dies during a routine diagnostic test. And Abby starts to question everyone and everything in the now hostile town of Patience - while her most dangerous enemy is far closer than she thinks.

[Daveo]

The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players by Stephen Cooper. . .

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe / Guesthouse...

This is the story of fifteen men killed in the Great War. All played rugby for one London club; none lived to hear the final whistle. Rugby brought them together; rugby led the rush to war. They came from Britain and the empire to fight in every theatre and service, among them a poet, playwright and perfumer. Some were decorated and died heroically; others fought and fell quietly. Together their stories paint a portrait in miniature of the entire war. Founded in 1879, when British soldiers fought in Afghanistan as they do today, Rosslyn Park has no war memorial. An old press cutting gave numbers – 350 served, 72 died – but no names.

So began a quest to rediscover these men and capture their lives, from their vanished Edwardian youth and vigour, to the war they fought and how they died.

[Daveo]

Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton

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FUNERAL IN BERLIN is a spellbinding tale of espionage and its counter in which double and triple crosses are common.

Berlin with its infamous wall symbolized the Cold War as did no other place. It was like theatre, but is war for real. "Len Deighton has always been fascinated with the Cold War in a way that could be called scholarly...one always feels that the intricacies of espionage and of the Soviet Union's spy apparatus rest on serious research.

[Daveo]

Maverick One by David Blakeley

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For the first time ever an elite British operator tells the gruelling story of his selection into the Pathfinders, Britain's secret soldiers.

Pathfinder selection is a brutal physical and psychological trial lasting many weeks.

It rivals that of the SAS and takes place over the same spine-crushing terrain, in the rain-and-snow-lashed wastes of the Welsh Mountains.

For two decades no one has been able to relate the extraordinary trials of British elite forces selection, until now.

Captain David Blakeley goes on from completing selection to serve with the Pathfinders in Afghanistan post 9/11, where he had a gun held to his head by Al Qaeda fighters. From there he deploys to Iraq, on a series of dramatic behind-enemy-lines missions wherein he and his tiny elite patrol are outnumbered, outgunned, and trapped. 

This is a unique and extraordinary chronicle of the making of a warrior. It culminates in Blakeley fighting back to full recovery from horrific injuries suffered while on operations in Iraq, to go on to face SAS selection.

[Daveo]

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith. . . .

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'The World According To Bertie' is the fourth in the series and revolves around the many colourful characters that come and go at No. 44 Scotland Street.

McCall Smith handles the characters with his customary charm and deftness.

[Daveo]

Behind Enemy Lines by Tommy MacPherson.

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With three Military Crosses, three Croix de Guerre, a Legion d'honneur and a papal knighthood for his heroics during the Second World War, Sir Tommy Macpherson is the most decorated soldier in the history of the British Army.

Yet for 65 years, the Highlander's story has remained untold.

Few know how, aged 21, he persuaded 23,000 SS soldiers of the feared SS Das Reich tank column to surrender, or how Tommy almost single-handedly stopped Tito's Yugoslavia annexing the whole of north-east Italy.

Still a schoolboy when war broke out, Tommy quickly matured into a legendary commando.

Twice captured, he escaped both times, marching through hundreds of miles of German-held territory to get home.

[Daveo]

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess ...

Asia books 565 baht our price 200 baht plus 50% trade in for credit when returned to us @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange.

"Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds."

The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court.

There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II.

Her husband Nol, Palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank, struggles to keep her devotion. This lovingly crafted first novel by former Washington Post correspondent John Burgess revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the Jungle.

In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China.

She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery - why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

[Danolo]

An awesome collection @Daveo, I wish I was there to get some of those books.

I humbly offer an author for your consideration that you may enjoy.

Ted Allbeury

Theodore Edward le Bouthillier Allbeury (24 October 1917–4 December 2005) was a British author of espionage fiction.^[1][2][3] He served as an intelligence officer in the Special Operations Executive between 1940 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is believed to be the only British secret agent who parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war, and he remained there until the Allied armies arrived. During the Cold War he was captured and tortured when running agents across the border between East and West Germany. After running his own advertising agency, he became the managing director of the seafort-based pirate radio station Radio 390 in 1964, later moving to the ship-based Radio 355 (see under Swinging Radio England for details) until its closure in August 1967.^[4][5]

His first novel, A Choice of Enemies, was published in 1972.^[6] Allbeury went on to publish over 40 novels, under his own name as well as Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler.^[7]

 

^{I have many of his books and continue to look for more.}

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Danolo

[Daveo]

Careless Love by Peter Robinson

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A young local student has apparently committed suicide. Her body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road.

She didn't own a car.

Didn't even drive.

How did she get there?

Where did she die?

Who moved her, and why? Meanwhile a man in his sixties is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland.

He is wearing an expensive suit and carrying no identification.

Post-mortem findings indicate he died from injuries sustained during the fall, but what was he doing up there? And why are there no signs of a car in the vicinity? As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries proliferate, Annie's father's new partner, Zelda, comes up with a shocking piece of information that alerts Banks and Annie to the return of an old enemy in a new guise.

This is someone who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants - and suddenly the stakes are raised and the hunt is on.

[Daveo]

2 hours ago, Danolo said:

An awesome collection @Daveo, I wish I was there to get some of those books.

I humbly offer an author for your consideration that you may enjoy.

Ted Allbeury

Theodore Edward le Bouthillier Allbeury (24 October 1917–4 December 2005) was a British author of espionage fiction.^[1][2][3] He served as an intelligence officer in the Special Operations Executive between 1940 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is believed to be the only British secret agent who parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war, and he remained there until the Allied armies arrived. During the Cold War he was captured and tortured when running agents across the border between East and West Germany. After running his own advertising agency, he became the managing director of the seafort-based pirate radio station Radio 390 in 1964, later moving to the ship-based Radio 355 (see under Swinging Radio England for details) until its closure in August 1967.^[4][5]

His first novel, A Choice of Enemies, was published in 1972.^[6] Allbeury went on to publish over 40 novels, under his own name as well as Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler.^[7]

 

^{I have many of his books and continue to look for more.}

 

I will see if we have any and thanks for the recommendation.

All the best Dave

[Daveo]

Murder Mile by Lynda La Plante

Just in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange.

Prime Suspect meets Ashes to Ashes as we see Jane Tennison starting out on her police career . . . The fourth in the Jane Tennison thrillers, MURDER MILE is set at the height of the 'Winter of Discontent'. Can Jane Tennison uncover a serial killer? February, 1979, 'The Winter of Discontent'. Economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain. Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London's toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days. There are no suspects and the manner of death is different in each case. The only link between the two victims is the location of the bodies, found within a short distance of each other near Rye Lane in Peckham.

Three days later another murder occurs in the same area. Press headlines scream that a serial killer is loose on 'Murder Mile' and that police incompetence is hampering the investigation. Jane is under immense pressure to catch the killer before they strike again.Working long hours with little sleep, what she uncovers leaves her doubting her own mind.

[Daveo]

Tales of Power (The Teachings of Don Juan #4) by Carlos Castaneda. . . .

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Don Juan concludes the instruction of Castaneda with his most powerful and mysterious lesson in the sorcerer's art -a dazzling series of visions that are at once an initiation and a deeply moving farewell.

[Daveo]

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail - Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. . .

 

We have a good selection from Bill @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange.

 

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine.

The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

 

For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk.

Despite Katz's overwhelming Desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters.

But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike.

Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness.

An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods has become a modern classic of travel literature.