Canterbury Tales Guesthouse

[Daveo]

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz..

 

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Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before.

Two centuries after James Cook's epic voyages of discovery, Tony Horwitz takes readers on a wild ride across hemispheres and centuries to recapture the Captain's adventures and explore his embattled legacy in today's Pacific.

Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Confederates in the Attic, works as a sailor aboard a replica of Cook's ship, meets island kings and beauty Queens, and carouses the South Seas with a hilarious and disgraceful travel companion, an Aussie named Roger.

He also creates a brilliant portrait of Cook: an impoverished farm boy who became the greatest navigator in British history and forever changed the lands he touched.

Poignant, probing, antic, and exhilarating, Blue Latitudes brings to life a man who helped create the global village we inhabit today.

[Daveo]

Round the Bend by Jeremy Clarkson. . .

 

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Jeremy Clarkson gets really riled in Round the Bend. What's it like to drive a car that's actively trying to kill you? This and many other burning questions trouble Jeremy Clarkson as he sets out to explore the world from the safety of four wheels.

Avoiding the legions of power-crazed traffic wombles attempting to block highway and byway, he he: Shows how the world of performance cars may be likened to Battersea Dogs Home Reveals why St Moritz may be the most bonkers town in all of the world Reminds us that Switzerland is so afraid of snow that any flakes falling on the road are immediately arrested.

Argues that washing a car is a waste of time Funny, globe-trotting, irreverent and sometimes downright rude, Round the Bend is packed with curious and fascinating but otherwise hopelessly useless stories and facts about everything under the sun (and just occasionally cars).

[Daveo]

Sirens (Aidan Waits Thriller #1) by Joseph Knox

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop *-* Book exchange... This book UK costs 8.99 - from us 180 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

The mission is suicide.

Infiltrating the inner circle of enigmatic criminal Zain Carver is dangerous enough.

Pulling it off while also rescuing Isabelle Rossiter, a runaway politician's daughter, from Zain's influence? Impossible.

That's why Aidan Waits is the perfect man for the job. Disgraced, emotionally damaged and despised by his superiors. In other words, completely expendable.

But Aidan is a born survivor.

And as he works his way deep into Zain's shadowy world, he finds that nothing is as it seems.

Zain is a mesmerizing, Gatsby-esque figure who lures young women into his orbit, women who have a bad habit of turning up dead.

But is Zain really responsible?

And will Isabella be next?

Before long, Aidan finds himself in over his head, cut loose by his superiors, and dangerously attracted to the wrong woman.

How can he save the girl if he can't even save himself?

[Daveo]

Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon..

 

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Though there are some signs of a struggle, the medical examiner rules that a widow died of a heart attack.

Brunetti can't shake the feeling that something or someone may have triggered her heart attack.

With the help of Inspector Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra, perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth and find some measure of justice.

[Daveo]

 

Elmore Leonard's Dutch Treat: The Hunted, Swag, Mr. Majestyk - by Elmore Leonard. . . .

 

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[Daveo]

 

Never Fear - Phobias: Everyone fears something...

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For those who like their stories on the darker side ...

19 Stories of phobia from master suspense authors F. Paul Wilson and Heather Graham with a "krewe" of dynamic award-winning storytellers.

[Daveo]

The Scribe by David Young. . . .

 

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A novel of s*x, lies, and a-go-go...

 

Henry Russell has embarked upon a new career; he writes love letters on behalf of Bangkok working girls.

Henry’s promises of romance are sent around the world, convincing former customers that the one night stand they experienced in the City of Angels could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

And then he asks for money.

As the demand for Henry's services increases among the working girls of Bangkok, he finds himself questioning his morals.

Especially when his girlfriend, Fai is finding it difficult to break with her old circle of working-girl friends.

When Henry discovers that a foreigner she knew from her bargirl days wishes to make her his bride, Henry plots one last scam that could either make him a rich man or cost him everything.

 

[Daveo]

Choose Yourself! by James Altucher .

 

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The world is changing. Markets have crashed.

Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade before our eyes.

Everything we aspired to for “security,” everything we thought was “safe,” no longer is: College.

Employment. Retirement. Government. It’s all crumbling down.

In every part of society, the middlemen are being pushed out of the picture.

No longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you.

It’s on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself.

 

New tools and economic forces have emerged to make it possible for individuals to create art, make millions of dollars and change the world without “help.”

More and more opportunities are rising out of the ashes of the broken system to generate real inward success (personal happiness and health) and outward success (fulfilling work and wealth).

 

This book will teach you to do just that.

With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples–including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher’s own heartbreaking and inspiring story–Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.

[Daveo]

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History by David Enrich . . .

 

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This book US costs $16.99 - from us 180 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

 

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated administrators, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it fractions of a percent to suit their trading portfolios.

Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that included a prickly French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a nervous Kazakh chicken farmer known as “Derka Derka”; a broker known as “Village” (short for “Village Idiot”) who racked up huge expense account bills; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose” who had once been a semi-professional boxer.

This group generated incredible riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.

 

With exclusive access to key characters and evidence, The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout.

[Daveo]

 

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly...

 

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop *-* Book exchange... This book US costs $15.99 - from us 180 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles.

President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society.

But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.

In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.

A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices.

The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions, including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

[Daveo]

House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke..

 

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James Lee Burke returns with his latest masterpiece, the story of a father and son separated by war and circumstance-and whose encounter with the legendary Holy Grail will change their lives forever.

From its opening scene in revolutionary Mexico to the Battle of the Marne in 1918, and on to the bordellos and saloons of San Antonio during the reign of the Hole in the Wall Gang, House of the Rising Sun is an epic tale of love, loss, betrayal, vengeance and retribution that follows Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland on his journey to reunite with his estranged son, Ishmael, a captain in the United States Army.

After a violent encounter that leaves four Mexican soldiers dead, Hackberry escapes the country in possession of a stolen artifact, earning the ire of a bloodthirsty Austrian arms dealer who then places Hack’s son Ishmael squarely in the cross hairs of a plot to recapture his prize, believed to be the mythic cup of Christ.

Along the way, we meet three extraordinary women: Ruby Dansen, the Danish immigrant who is Ishmael’s mother and Hackberry’s one true love; Beatrice DeMolay, a brothel madam descended from the crusader knight who brought the shroud of Turin back from the Holy Land; and Maggie Bassett, one-time lover of the Sundance Kid, whose wiles rival those of Lady Macbeth. In her own way, each woman will aid Hackberry in his quest to reconcile with Ishmael, to vanquish their enemies, and to return the Grail to its rightful place.

[Daveo]

A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré. .

 

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"A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night.

He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim.

Or is he?

He says his name is Issa." "Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation, Soon her client's survival becomes more important to her than her own career, or safety.

In pursuit of Issa's mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Freres, a failing British bank based in Hamburg.

" Annabel, Issa and Brue form an unlikely alliance and a triangle of impossible loves is born.

Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the "War on Terror," the rival spies of Germany. England and America converge upon the innocents.

[Daveo]

Peter Carey - My Life as a Fake....

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop *-* Book exchange - Cafe - Guesthouse.....

Melbourne, the late 1940s. A young conservative Australian poet named Christopher Chubb decides to teach his country a lesson about pretension and authenticity. Choosing as his target the most avant-garde of the literary magazines, he submits for publication the entire oeuvre of one Bob McCorkle, a working-class poet of raw power and sexual frankness, conveniently dead at twenty-four and entirely the product of Chubb's imagination.

Not only does the magazine fall for the hoax, but the local authorities also sue its editor for publishing obscenity.

At the trial someone uncannily resembling the faked photograph of the invented McCorkle, leaps to his feet.

At this moment a horrified Chubb is confronted by the malevolent being he has himself manufactured...

[Daveo]

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop *-* Book exchange - Cafe - Guesthouse.....

 

[Daveo]

The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh..

 

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This book UK costs 8.99 - from us 140 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

 

From Victorian lndia to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes readers on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life.

When Antar discovers the battered I.D. card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.

[Daveo]

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[Daveo]

 

Right as Rain (Derek Strange & Terry Quinn #1) by George Pelecanos..

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A couple of ex-policeman turned private detectives are hired to investigate the death of a black policeman at the hands of a white one.

The two detectives soon find themselves up against institutionalised racism and the worst killers in the USA.

[Daveo]

 

The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot...

Traded in @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop *-* Book exchange... This book UK costs 10.99 - from us 140 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

The national folk epic of Finland is here presented in an English translation that is both scholarly and eminently readable.

The lyrical passages and poetic images, the wry humor, the tall-tale extravagance, and the homely realism of the 'Kalevala' come through with extraordinary effectiveness.

[Daveo]

 

The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder #1) by Lawrence Block...

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The pretty young prostitute is dead.

Her alleged murderer, a minister's son hanged himself in his jail cell.

The case is closed.

But the dead girl's father has come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

[Daveo]

Step on her Crack (Michael Bennett #1) by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge....

 

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Patterson and Ledwidge introduce a new hero in an exciting thriller set in the heart of Manhattan.

NYPD detective Michael Bennett is concentrating on getting his family through a particularly difficult Christmas: he and his 10 adopted children are facing the loss to cancer of his brave wife, Maeve.

But a major crisis calls him away: the funeral of a former First Lady at St. Patrick's Cathedral goes horribly awry when men storm the church and take hundreds of attendees hostage.

Michael is asked to try to reason with a sinister man named Jack. Jack releases all but the most famous people, and makes his demands: he wants several million dollars from each celebrity hostage, including the mayor, a popular comedic actor, a beloved talk show host, and a pop starlet. Once Jack starts killing, Michael realizes he's up against a truly diabolical foe.

Patterson has a knack for creating genuinely likable heroes, and Michael fits the bill.

As readers rapidly turn the pages to learn how the tense hostage drama plays out, they will also be sympathizing with Michael as he faces the agonizing loss of his wife. Totally gripping and downright impossible to put down, this is a promising start to a potential new series.

[Daveo]

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb..

 

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Dark mysticism and primordial natural magic clash with the ever-expanding boundaries of the "civilized" world in the second volume of Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy, Forest Mage.

The sequel to 2005's Shaman's Crossing finds protagonist Nevare Burvelle, the second son of a nobleman and destined for a career in the military, with his world turned upside down.

After surviving a plague that wiped out many of the students and instructors at the king's military academy, Nevare returns home for his brother's wedding, only to learn that he has been medically discharged from the school.

The plague usually leaves its survivors skeletally thin, but Nevare, inexplicably, has begun to gain massive amounts of weight.

With his family believing he's a glutton, Nevare is disowned by his father and eventually ends up finding work as a lowly cemetery guard in a frontier town near the border with the Specks, a race of dapple-skinned forest dwellers who possess powerful natural magic.

But in a world where technology never stops advancing, can the Specks survive?

And what does the suddenly bloated Nevare have to do with their struggle?

 

Set in a sprawling, vividly described realm that is as majestic as it is menacing, and powered by some extremely topical themes (environmentalism, cultural homogenization, human rights, religious persecution, etc.), the Soldier Son trilogy is easily Hobb's most significant work to date.

[Daveo]

Four Dominions by Eric Van Lustbader...

 

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A new, pulse-pounding thriller from author of the Jason Bourne series and The Testament.

The End of Days has been predicted for the last two thousand years, but now it is upon us.

Emma and Bravo Shaw have rescued the Testament of Lucifer from nefarious hands, but despite their efforts Lucifer's Fallen have already woken, including the four thrones of legend, and their corruption reaches to the highest ranks.

Even the Shaws are not immune, as Leviathan is coming, and no one is safe.

Following his internationally bestseller The Testament, Lustbader delivers an action-packed, globe-spanning new trilogy that explores religion, politics, and civilization.

[Daveo]

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess..

 

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This book US costs $16.95 - from us 180 baht - plus you receive 50% in credit off your next book when you have finished with it...

 

"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.

[Daveo]

A History of Thailand 2nd Edition

by Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit ..

 

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In A History of Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit reveal how a world of mandarin nobles and unfree labour evolved into a rural society of smallholder peasants and an urban society populated mainly by migrants from southern China.

They trace how a Buddhist cosmography adapted to new ideas of time and space, and a traditional polity was transformed into a new nation-state under a strengthened monarchy.

The authors cover the contests between urban nationalists, ambitious generals, communist rebels, business politicians, and social movements to control the nation-state and redefine its purpose.

They describe the dramatic changes wrought by a booming economy, globalization, and the evolution of mass society. Finally, they show how Thailand's path is still being contested by those who believe in change from above and those who fight for democracy and liberal values.

[Daveo]

Looking Death in the Eye by ว. วชิรเมธี ..

 

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Why does Buddha teach his followers to “Look death in the eye” while the whole world seems to want to look the other way?

Why does Buddha advise his followers to contemplate death constantly, so much so that He lays down a practice in meditation called “Contemplation on death.”

According to Buddhism, learning about death is regarded as one of the auspicious activities of life and a boon to the present living.

Constant awareness of our mortality will make us unafraid of death.