Canterbury Tales Guesthouse

[Daveo]

Bust: How the Courts Have Exposed the Rotten Heart of the Irish Economy by Dearbhail McDonald.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya....

 

Reader review;

I think it’s fair to say that I would have enjoyed this book a whole lot more had it documented the rotten heart of an economy other than the one in which I live.

Nevertheless Dearbhail McDonald utterly compelling and clear sighted exposé of the manner in which Ireland’s flimsy house of cards finally came tumbling down within the confines of our courtrooms is as enlightening as it is enraging.

As legal editor of the Irish Independent, McDonald has unique access to the high stakes and often shadowy realm of property investment and she renders its complex machinations accessible to us all

 

[Daveo]

Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, by Andrew X. Pham

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey, a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam, made by a young Vietnamese American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland.

 

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California.

His father had been a POW of the Vietcong, his family came to America as "boat people."

Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan and after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness."

In Vietnam, he is taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American.

A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.

 

[Daveo]

The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War; by Denise Chong.

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya....

On June 8, 1972, nine year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her blazing village in South Vietnam and into the eye of history. 
Her photograph; one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century was seen around the world and helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War.

This book is the story of how that photograph came to be and the story of what happened to that girl after the camera shutter closed. Award winning biographer Denise Chong's portrait of Kim Phuc who eventually defected to Canada and is now a UNESCO spokesperson, is a rare look at the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese point of view and one of the only books to describe everyday life in the wake of this war and to probe its lingering effects on all its participants.

 

[Daveo]

Good Cop, Bad Cop by Mike McAlary, Joseph Trimboli.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

Michael Dowd was every law abiding citizen's worst nightmare, a cop intoxicated by the power his badge conferred.

His fascination with drugs brought him wealth, at his first major bust, he stole stacks of $100 bills.

By 1987, in Brooklyn's crime ridden East New York, Dowd's elaborate system of bribery and extortion was providing shelter to local Dominican drug lords and netting him upwards of $15,000 per week.

He became the kingpin of the "Loser's Club, " a band of dirty cops who gathered by night at the shore of Jamaica Bay to drink, shoot their guns into the air, and plan illegal drug shakedowns.

And in 1991 Dowd and his crew began to deal stolen cocaine to suburban Long Island kids too afraid to venture into Brooklyn to buy it themselves.

 

[Daveo]

Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison

by David P. Chandler.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

The horrific torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the 1970's is one of the century's major human disasters. '

David Chandler, a world-renowned historian of Cambodia, examines the Khmer Rouge phenomenon by focusing on one of its key institutions, the secret prison outside Phnom Penh known by the code name "S-21."

The facility was an interrogation center where more than 14,000 "enemies" were questioned, tortured, and made to confess to counterrevolutionary crimes. Fewer than a dozen prisoners left S-21alive.

 

During the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era, the existence of S-21 was known only to those inside it and a few high ranking Khmer Rouge officials.

When invading Vietnamese troops discovered the prison in 1979, murdered bodies lay strewn about and instruments of torture were still in place.

An extensive archive containing photographs of victims, cadre notebooks, and DK publications was also found.

Chandler utilizes evidence from the S-21 archive as well as materials that have surfaced elsewhere in Phnom Penh.

He also interviews survivors of S-21 and former workers from the prison.

 

Documenting the violence and terror that took place within S-21 is only part of Chandler's story.

Equally important is his attempt to understand what happened there in terms that might be useful to survivors, historians and the rest of us.

Chandler discusses the "culture of obedience" and its attendant dehumanization, citing parallels between the Khmer Rouge executions and the Moscow Show Trials of the 1930's, Nazi genocide, Indonesian massacres in 1965-66, the Argentine military's use of torture in the 1970's, and the recent mass killings in Bosnia and Rwanda.

In each of these instances, Chandler shows how turning victims into "others" in a manner that was systematically devaluing and racialist made it easier to mistreat and kill them.

More than a chronicle of Khmer Rouge barbarism, Voices from S-21 is also a judicious examination of the psychological dimensions of state sponsored terrorism that conditions human beings to commit acts of unspeakable brutality.

 

[Daveo]

Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3) by E.L. James.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya......

 

When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably.

Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment.

Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.

 

Now, Ana and Christian have it all love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future.

But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate.

Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity and Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

 

Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.

Fifty Shades of Grey & Fifty Shades Darker also in stock @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop Pattaya.

 

[Daveo]

Thai Horse by William Diehl, T. Silver.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya....

 

"It's enough to make Ludlum seem humdrum."

 

Christian Hatcher, the licensed killer they call the Shadow Warrior, is out of jail and looking for the betrayer that got him there.

With his body wasted and his spirit nearly crushed, Hatcher returns to Hong Kong and Bangkok, deadly stops on the heroine pipeline and comes closer to a solution that he fears to discover . . . .

"Diehl knows how to tell a story, and his novel moves."

 

[Daveo]

Stalker by Faye Kellerman.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya......

 

L.A. Homicide Detective Peter Decker never wanted the perils of his job to touch his family.

But now his two worlds have collided.A first year rookie with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, Cynthia Decker became a cop against the wishes of her father, Peter Decker. But police work is in her blood and she's determined to make it on her own, even now, when her razor sharp instincts for danger are telling her that something is very wrong.

The signs are impossible to ignore, things being moved around in her apartment, the destruction of personal effects.

But it's a harrowing trip down a dark canyon road that confirms Cindy's worst fears, someone fiendishly relentless and with decidedly evil intentions, is stalking her.

And with Peter Decker isolated from her troubles by his own investigation into a disturbing series of carjackings, it's up to Cindy to find out who in her personal and/or professional life wants her frightened or harmed, or dead.

 

[Daveo]

Chelsea FC: The Official Biography: The Definitive Story of the First 100 Years. by Rick Glanvill.

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya....

One of the most successful, glamorous, and controversial soccer clubs in Great Britain, Chelsea is infamous for catching headlines on and off the field.
This comprehensive account walks through a century of soccer, highlighting the club’s star players past and present, the key games, and its rise to prominence. 
The controversies are addressed as well, including the club’s near collapse in the 1970's from lack of funds, its handling of issues relating to racism and the recent crackdown on the fans’ rampant hooliganism. 
Updated to include a discussion of the club’s recent seasons and its purchase by tycoon Roman Abramovich, this is the ultimate resource on the team in blue.

[Daveo]

Bali Raw: An Expose of the Underbelly of Bali, Indonesia Paperback

by Malcolm Scott.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya......

 

Considered one of the world's most popular holiday destinations, the tropical island of Bali in Indonesia has long been the site for Western fantasies about paradise.

Millions of tourists visit the Island of the Gods every year, from families treating the kids to a beach holiday to single men looking for cheap booze and sex.

And for many young Brits and Aussies, hardcore partying in Bali has become a rite of passage, but it is not without pitfalls.

Bali is a rough place, as dangerous a place as you will ever encounter.

What you don't see in the glossy brochures is the rampant prostitution, the prevalence of AIDS, the bloody turf wars waged between local gangs and the drug and alcohol-induced Western hooliganism.

Tourists are robbed, raped and murdered and Westerners get into vicious fights amongst themselves and with Indonesians on a regular basis.

In this extraordinary expose, Australian author and Bali resident Malcolm Scott reveals the raw underbelly of Bali.

He walks readers down Bali's mean streets with honesty, humour and gritty realism and offers up a Bali choking with violent street fights, cheap sex and aggressive crime. Bali Raw is a must-read for anyone who has visited, or is thinking of travelling to, Indonesia's Island of the Gods.

 

[Daveo]

Cecil B DeMille an uncensored biography by Charles Higham.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya....

 

READY WHEN YOU ARE, C. B. ? His movies were the most expensive epics of his age and the biggest money makers.

His rages on the set were the most towering that any cast and crew ever had to endure and his generosity was just as great.

His religious fervor was unsurpassed by anyone in Hollywood, yet his sexual life was unrivaled in its open flouting of his marital vows. He was more hated, more loved, more admired, more successful than any other movie maker ever managed to be.

If Hollywood in its Golden Age could be summed up by just one man, he would be Cecil B. DeMille.

This is his story, as sensational, spectacular and totally enthralling as any movie he ever made. 'DeMille was made for movies and vice versa.

DeMille was the American film? '

 

[Daveo]

No Safe House by Linwood Barclay.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya..

 

Seven years ago, Terry Archer and his family, who first appeared in No Time for Goodbye, experienced a horrific ordeal that nearly cost them their lives.

Today, the echoes of that fateful night are still audible. Terry’s wife, Cynthia, is living separate from her husband and daughter after her own personal demons threatened to ruin her relationship with them permanently.

Their daughter, Grace, is rebelling against her parents’ seemingly needless overprotection.

Terry is just trying to keep his family together. And the entire town is reeling from the senseless murder of two elderly locals.

But when Grace foolishly follows her delinquent boyfriend into a strange house, the Archers must do more than stay together.

They must stay alive, because now they have all been unwillingly drawn into the shadowy depths of their seemingly idyllic hometown.

For there, they will be reconnected with the man who saved their lives seven years ago, but who still remains a ruthless, unrepentant criminal.

They will encounter killers for hire working all sides and they will learn that there are some things people value much more than money and will do anything to get it.

Caught in a labyrinth between family loyalty and ultimate betrayal, Terry must find a way to extricate his family from a lethal situation he still doesn’t fully comprehend.

All he knows is that to live, he may have to do the unthinkable....

 

[Daveo]

Port Mortuary (Kay Scarpetta) by Patricia Cornwell.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya..

 

Patricia Cornwell's compelling 18th Kay Scarpetta novel (after The Scarpetta Factor), her strongest work in years, involves the chief medical examiner in a case that's both far reaching in its national security implications and deeply personal.

The story begins at the real Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where Scarpetta is assisting in developing techniques for virtual autopsies, then shifts back to her recently adopted home at Boston's Cambridge Forensic Center (CFC).

A young man's mysterious death becomes even stranger after full body scans reveal destruction so extensive it's as if a bomb went off inside his body.

Scarpetta and husband Benton Wesley along with her niece, Lucy Farinelli, and ex cop turned CFC investigator Pete Marino discover links not only to a government project with the ability to cause mass casualties but also to another grisly case currently under investigation.

As Scarpetta's military past rears its head, the emotional damage the investigation of the cases is bound to wreak on Cornwell's steadfast heroine will leave readers eager for the next installment. Long time fans will welcome the return after a decade to a first person narration with direct access to Scarpetta's thoughts.

 

[Daveo]

August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya..

 

The first of a series of interlinked novels whose grand theme is the birth of modern Russia, this book describes the advance by the Russian army into East Prussia at the outbreak of World War I, and its virtual annihilation at the hands of the Germans.

The author uses the techniques of non fiction within a fictional framework and evokes not only the military campaign but also the experience of the men and women caught up in the events

 

[Daveo]

River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt & Eagle in the sky

by Wilbur Smith.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya..

 

For Tanus, the fair-haired young lion of a warrior, the gods have decreed that he will lead Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shared halves. But Tanus will have to defy the same gods to attain the reward they have forbidden him, an object more prized than battle's glory: possession of the Lady Lostris, a rare beauty with skin the color of oiled ceder--destined for the adoration of a nation, and the love of one extraordinary man.

 

International bestselling author Wilbur Smith, creator of dozens of highly acclaimed novels, draws readers into a magnificent, richly imagined saga. Exploding with all the drama, mystery and rage of an ancient and bygone time, River God is a masterpiece from a storyteller at the height of his powers.

 

Eagle in the Sky;

With a dull but awful roar, the Mirage bloomed with dark crimson flame and sooty black smoke, the wind ripped flames outwards in great streamers and pennants that engulfed all around them and David staggered onwards in the midst of the roaring furnace that seemed to consume the very air.'

Drawn to the sky as though to his natural element, young David Morgan spurns the boardroom future mapped out for him by his family for the life of a jet pilot.

Then he meets Debra, the beautiful Israeli writer for whom he will fight, in another country's war, at the controls of his Mirage.

Yet the breathless action which brings them together is also the very tragedy that will threaten to tear them apart.

 

[Daveo]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya.....

Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self discovery, 
The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure.
His quest will lead him to riches far different and far more satisfying than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

 

[Daveo]

One Woman Army: The Life of Claire Culhane by Mick Lowe.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya.....

 

Claire Culhane: Canadian Peace Activist and Humanitarian

 

Canada’s foremost peace activist during the Vietnam War was an unlikely figure, a 50 year old hospital records librarian and grandmother whose first hand experiences in Vietnam propelled her into an eight year public battle with the Canadian government.

Peace activism in North America was utterly transformed in the 1960's and 1970's during the years of the Vietnam War.

Along with widespread student protests and sit ins, many self-dubbed “non political” individuals held protest signs for the first time as they joined grass-roots movements to stop the war.

In Canada, protesters also wanted the government to reveal the complete nature of their country’s role in the conflict.

Why was Canada, known widely for its peacekeeping efforts, selling war materials to the U.S.?

How could the government explain eyewitness reports of compromised Canadian relief efforts and collusion between aid workers and the U.S. military and CIA in Vietnam?

Claire Culhane was born Claire Eglin on 2 September 1918 in Montreal.

The daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, she was married for a time to Gerry Culhane, with whom she had two daughters. By the late 1960's, she was already a seasoned social activist.

She had been involved as an adolescent with the relief movement in Quebec during the Depression.

As a young woman she had joined the Communist Party of Canada, participating in the youth movement striving to end the Spanish Civil War.

These activities earned her the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: with some pride, she would state in later life that her RCMP file spanned nearly fifty years.

 

[Daveo]

The Winter Walk: A Century-Old Survival Story from the Arctic

by Loretta Outwater Cox.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya.....

 

The tragic yet triumphant story of a young mother's winter journey to the Bering Sea coast with her two young children. This powerful narrative will haunt readers.

 

[Daveo]

WHATS SEX GOT TO DO WITH IT ? by DENNIS DEWSNAP.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya........

 

This book is a hilarious, candid, portrait of a Gay relationship which spanned forty years.

The true story of two working class Yorkshire lads who pulled themselves off, then up by their boot strings, made several fortunes and lived happily ever after until Death did them apart.

 

[Daveo]

A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia, a racially mixed, late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily politicians.

The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late middle aged Atlanta conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last hit up against reality.

Charlie has a 29,000 acre quail shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife, and a half empty office complex with a staggering load of debt.

 

Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland and finds himself spiraling into the lower depths of the American legal system.

 

And back in Atlanta, when star Georgia Tech running back Fareek “the Canon” Fanon, a homegrown product of the city’s slums, is accused of date raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment, upscale black lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon and help keep the city’s delicate racial balance from blowing sky high.

 

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate syndicates, Wolfe shows us contemporary America with all the verve, wit and insight that have made him our most admired novelist.

Charlie Croker’s deliverance from his tribulations provides an unforgettable denouement to the most widely awaited, hilarious and telling novel America has seen in ages.

Tom Wolfe’s most outstanding achievement to date.

 

[SirL]

Hi Daveo,

 

What times are you in your bookshop please?  I'm interested in renting one of your rooms and went around in person, but you weren't there and the Thai guy on the counter didn't seem to have much of a clue about the rooms or speaking English.

[Daveo]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

The extraordinary Number one bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

 

It is 1939. Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath, death has never been busier and will become busier still.

 

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist books.

With the help of her accordion playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

 

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

 

[Daveo]

Seals by T.L. Bosiljevac.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

 

For the most detailed account ever written of SEAL involvement in Vietnam check out SEALs."

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE

In January 1962, two Sea, Air, and Land Teams were formed. Commissioned to operate up to twenty miles inland in enemy territory, they would act as naval commandos whose functions were to gather intelligence, raid, ambush, capture prisoners, and created havoc in enemy territory.

This book recounts the many daring missions that the SEALs undertook to serve their country. It was during the Vietnam War years that their Special Warfare reputation was built, and the heroism of the few brave men detailed here shows why.

In the Huge war section at Canterbury Tales Bookshop Pattaya.

 

[Daveo]

We have a good selection of the Krays @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya... this is not all of them.

[Daveo]

Creole Belle: by James Lee Burke.

 

@ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe, Pattaya...

Set against the events of the Gulf Coast oil spill, rife with “the menaces of greed and violence and man-made horror” (The Christian Science Monitor), Creole Belle finds Dave Robicheaux languishing in a New Orleans recovery unit since surviving a bayou shoot-out.

The detective’s body is healing, it’s his morphine addled mind that conjures spectral visions of Tee Jolie Melton, a young woman who in reality has gone missing.

An iPod with an old blues song left by his bedside turns Robicheaux into a man obsessed and as oil companies assign blame after an epic disaster threatens the Gulf’s very existence, Robicheaux unearths connections between tragedies both global and personal and faces down forces that can corrupt and destroy the best of men.