Canterbury Tales Guesthouse

[Daveo]

[Daveo]

The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East by Alistair Urquhart.

 

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Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore.

He not only survived working on the notorious Bridge on the River Kwai , but he was subsequently taken on one of the Japanese 'hellships' which was torpedoed.

Nearly everyone else on board died and Urquhart spent 5 days alone on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a whaling ship.

He was taken to Japan and then forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki.

Two months later a nuclear bomb dropped just ten miles away, this is the extraordinary story of a young men, conscripted at nineteen and whose father was a Somme Veteran, survived not just one, but three close encounters with death, encounters which killed nearly all his comrades.

[Daveo]

Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre.

 

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One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War.

 

Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and certainly the strangest.

It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs, sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction, and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy before or since: he was dead.

His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily, the Allied armies planned to invade Greece.

 

The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer and a brilliant Jewish barrister, the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist, a gold-prospector, an inventor, a beautiful secret service secretary, a submarine captain, three novelists, a transvestite English spymaster, an irascible admiral who loved fly fishing, and a dead Welsh tramp.

Using fraud, imagination and seduction, Churchill's team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate and so convincing that they began to believe it themselves.

The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall.

It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany and it ended up on Hitler's desk.

 

Ben Macintyre, bestselling author of Agent Zigzag, weaves together private documents, photographs, memories, letters and diaries, as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 and Naval Intelligence, to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat.

[Daveo]

Railway of Hell: War Captivity and Forced Labour at the Hands of the Japanese; by Reginald Burton.

 

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A young captain in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, Reggie Burton was wounded in the closing stages of the disastrous defense of Malaya and Singapore.

He vividly, yet calmly and with great dignity, describes the horror of captivity at the hands of the Japanese.

After initial confusion, the true nature of their captors emerged as, increasingly debilitated, the POWs were forced into backbreaking work.

This was only a taste of what was to come.

After a horrific journey in overcrowded cattle trucks, Burton and his dwindling band of colleagues were put to work building the notorious Burma Railway.

Somehow he survived to tell this moving and shocking story.

[Daveo]

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max.

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

“My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole." 

[Daveo]

Victim Without a Face (Fabian Risk #1) by Stefan Ahnhem, 

In Now @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop, Pattaya.

The first book in the Fabian Risk series, Victim Without a Face is a chilling novel about the ultimate revenge.
Criminal investigator Fabian Risk has left Stockholm with his wife, Sonja, and their two children to start fresh in his hometown of Helsingborg. 
He has planned a six week vacation before he starts a new job at the Homicide Department. 
But after only a few hours in their new home, he is asked to investigate a brutal murder.
The body of Jörgen Pålsson, one of Risk’s former classmates, has been found with both hands missing. 
Soon the bodies of more old classmates are found and Risk finds himself in a race against time.
Can they find the murderer before the entire class is killed?

 

[Daveo]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

 

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Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world.

This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids.

Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.

No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way.

But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within.

Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

[Daveo]

These room's now available 600 baht per night; Includes A/C, Fan, fridge, kettle, free WiFi, en-suite hot shower, balcony, table/chairs, king bed, TV, electronic safe, many rooms for different budgets. Please see; www.canterburytalescafe.com  Rooms from 350 per night and deals for longer term.
 

[Daveo]

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.

 

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"This book is written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life."

 

The precursor to The Secret, The Power of Positive Thinking has helped millions of men and women to achieve fulfillment in their lives.

In this phenomenal bestseller, Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action.

With the practical techniques outlined in this book, you can energize your life and give yourself the initiative needed to carry out your ambitions and hopes.

 

You'll learn how to:

Expect the best and get it.

Believe in yourself and in everything you do.

Develop the power to reach your goals.

Break the worry habit and achieve a relaxed life.

Improve your personal and professional relationships.

Assume control over your circumstances.

Be kind to yourself.

[Daveo]

The 14th Colony by Steve Berry.

 

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Shot down over Siberia in what was to be a simple meet and greet mission, ex-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is forced into a fight for survival against Aleksandr Zorin, whose loyalty to the former Soviet Union has festered for decades into an intense hatred of the United States.

Before escaping, Malone learns that Zorin and another ex KGB officer, this one a sleeper still imbedded in the West, are headed overseas to Washington D.C. Inauguration Day-noon on January 20th-is only hours away.

A flaw in the Constitution, and an even more flawed presidential succession act, have opened the door to political chaos and Zorin intends to exploit both weaknesses to their fullest.

 

Armed with a weapon leftover from the Cold War, one long thought to be just a myth, Zorin plans to attack.

He's aided by a shocking secret hidden in the archives of America's oldest fraternal organization the Society of Cincinnati a group that once lent out its military savvy to presidents, including helping to formulate three covert invasion plans of Canada.

 

In a race against the clock that starts in the frozen extremes of Russia and ultimately ends at the White House itself, Malone must not only battle Zorin, he must also confront his deepest fear, a crippling weakness that he's long denied but one that now jeopardizes everything.

Steve Berry's trademark mix of fact, fiction, history and speculation, is all here, front and center, in this provocative new thriller.

[Daveo]

Tom Clancy's Under Fire (Jack Ryan Universe #19)

 

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On a routine intelligence gathering mission in Tehran, Jack Ryan, Jr., has lunch with his oldest friend, Seth Gregory, an engineer overseeing a transcontinental railway project.

As they part, Seth slips Jack a key, along with a perplexing message.

 

The next day Jack is summoned to an apartment where two men claim Seth has disappeared gone to ground with funds for a vital intelligence operation.

Jack’s oldest friend has turned, they insist.

 

They leave Jack with a warning: If you hear from Seth Gregory, call us immediately.

And do not get involved.

 

But they don’t know Jack, he will not abandon a friend in need.

 

His pursuit of the truth will lead him across Iran, through the war torn Caucasus, and finally deep into territory coveted by the increasingly aggressive Russian Federation. Along the way, Jack is joined by Seth’s primary agent, Ysabel, a enigmatic Iranian woman who seems to be his only clue to Seth’s whereabouts.

 

Jack soon finds himself lost in a maze of intrigue, lies, and betrayal where no one is who they seem to be not even Seth, who’s harboring a secret of his own that harkens back to the Cold War.

A secret that is driving him to the brink of treachery.

 

Racing against the clock, Jack must unravel the mystery: Who is friend and who is foe? Before it’s over, Jack Ryan, Jr., may have to choose between his loyalty to Seth and his loyalty to America.

[Cheongsam]

It's nice to see some books (even if on screen!) Thanks for posting these.

[Daveo]

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

 

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Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.

Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable.

As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

 

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless and heroic love.

[Daveo]

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‘It was the start of the third lap of the 2010 Senior TT, the last race of the fortnight.

The last chance to get a TT win for another year, and I was pushing hard.

 

Ballagarey, the kind of corner that makes me continue road racing, a proper man’s corner, you go through the right hander at something like 170mph, leant right over, eyes fixed as far down the road as I can see.

 

But this time something happened, this time the front end tucked …’

 

Guy Martin, international road racing legend, maverick star of the Isle of Man TT, truck mechanic and TV presenter, lives on the edge, addicted to speed, thoroughly exhilarated by danger.

 

In this book we’ll get inside his head as he stares death in the face, and risks his life in search of the next high.

 

We’ll discover what it feels like to survive a 170mph fireball at the TT in 2010, and come back to do it all again, he will sweep us up in a gritty sort of glory as he slogs it out for a place on the podium, but we’ll also see him struggle with the flipside of fame.

 

We’ll meet his friends and foes, his family, his teammates and bosses and we’ll discover what motivates him, and where his strengths and weaknesses lie.

 

For the first time, here is the full story in Guy’s own words. From the boy who learned to prep bikes with his dad, to the spirited team mechanic, paying his way by collecting beer glasses in pubs, to the young racer at the start of his first race and the buzz he’s been chasing ever since.

 

This thrilling autobiography is an intense and dramatic ride.

[Daveo]

The Hunted by Elmore Leonard.

 

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In Elmore Leonard’s The Hunted, “crime fiction’s greatest living practitioner” carries the action far from his usual Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles milieus, all the way to the Middle East.

There no lack of excitement and suspense and the trademark Leonard dialogue in this superior tale of a fugitive hiding under the radar in Israel, until a well-publicized Good Samaritan act attracts the unwanted attention of well-armed Motown mobsters who are now coming to get him.

The author who introduced the world to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (in his novels Pronto and Riding the Rap, before the lawman became the star of the hit TV drama Justified), the Grand Master shows why they call him “the all-time king of the whack job crime novelists,” and goes on to say that “Elmore Leonard tops them all”…including John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert B. Parker, and quite possibly every major mystery writer the U.S. has ever produced.

[Daveo]

The Field of Swords by Conn Iggulden.

 

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From the author of the bestselling The Dangerous Book for Boys

 

With his acclaimed Emperor novels, author Conn Iggulden brings a dazzling world to life, the rich, complex world of ancient Rome as seen through the eyes of one extraordinary man: Julius Caesar.

Now Iggulden returns to the story of Julius Caesar and a realm that stretches from the sands of North Africa to the coast of Britain.

Against this magnificent backdrop, Caesar, his first victories under his belt and a series of key alliances in place, makes his move toward power and glory and commands his famous legions on one of history’s bloodiest and most daring military campaigns.

 

It is the heart of the first century B.C. For Julius Caesar, the time has come to enter the treacherous political battleground that has become Rome.

Having proved his valor in the slaves’ revolt, Caesar is strengthened by the love and vision of a beautiful older woman, and by the sword of his loyal friend, Marcus Brutus. And when he is appointed to a new position of power, Caesar manages to do what none of the other great figures of his time could: capture the hearts of the Roman people themselves. Crushing a rebellion, bringing order to the teeming city, Caesar then makes the move that will change history.

He leaves Rome for the foothills of the Alps.

And with an army made in his own image, he begins a daring charge through Gaul, across the English Channel, and to the wilds of tribal Britain.

 

Here, in a series of cataclysmic clashes, the legend of Julius Caesar will be forged.

And while Caesar and Brutus pit their lives and those of their men, against the armies of the wilderness, their political adversaries in Rome grow at once more fearful and more formidable.

So when the fighting at the dominion’s edge is over, the greatest danger to Julius Caesar will await him on the Tiber with a man who wants Rome himself.

 

From the clash of armies to the heat of a woman’s seduction, from the thunder of battle to the orgies of pleasure and plunder that follow in a warrior’s wake, Emperor:

The Field of Swords captures in riveting detail a world being shaped by a brilliant civilization.

And in this extraordinary novel, the fate of Rome is being driven by the ambitions of a single man.

A man with an unmatched genius for power.

[Daveo]

The Rise and Fall of John Gotti by Jerry Capeci.

 

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He was the most famous and infamous mobster since Al Capone: the handsome, expensively groomed Godfather who beat rap after rap to become a folk hero to the masses and a nightmare to the forces of law and order.

He was also a vicious killer, a ruthless manipulator, a Machiavellian master of intrigue and double cross, and an ardent womanizer, whose rise to the head of America's most powerful crime family was marked by corpses, lies, and betrayals.

By using FBI tapes and a host of sources on both sides of the law, star organized crime reporters Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain tell the whole, true, uncensored story of John Gotti. With scores of fearfully fascinating characters, brutal vignettes of life and death inside the Cosa Nostra, tense courtroom dramas, and ominous answers to the question of how much power Gotti still wields, this is a great gangster story and the definitive account of John Gotti's rise and fall.

[Daveo]

Under The Knife & Whistleblower; by Tess Gerritsen.

 

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For David Ransom, it begins as an open and shut case. Malpractice.

 

As attorney for a grieving family, he's determined to hang a negligent doctor.

Then Dr. Kate Chesne storms into his office, daring him to seek out the truth, that she's being framed.

First, it was Kate's career that was in jeopardy.

Then, when another body is discovered, David begins to believe her.

 

Suddenly, it's much more.

Somewhere in the Honolulu hospital, a killer walks freely among patients and staff.

And now David finds himself asking the same questions Kate is desperate to have answered.

 

Who is next? And why?

[Daveo]

Bold Sons of Erin by Owen Parry.

 

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A Union general's senseless murder is swiftly cloaked in lies and the evidence points to Irish laborers struggling to find a place in their new homeland.

But the turmoil of war hides layers of dangerous Secrets, and a Welsh immigrant nursing wounds old and new must overcome ancient hatreds to honor justice.

 

Thousands of Irishmen serve valiantly on the fields of battle, yet others deny that the South's rebellion is any concern of theirs.

Amid maddening rumors and lingering superstitions, an effort to draft more Irishmen into the army leads to a violent confrontation.

A local death threatens to become an international crisis.

 

At the request of President Lincoln, Union Major Abel Jones follows the trail of guilt from a windswept graveyard to the killing fields of Fredericksburg and soon learns that no one really wants to know the truth behind the general's murder. While heartbreaking revelations tear at his own family, Jones must work his way through encounters with Irish secret societies and past the distrust of men and women for whom starvation and oppression are recent memories.

Political agendas disregard mere facts, and even the dead general might not be the man he first seemed.

 

In this gripping novel, Washington intrigue and industrial corruption collide with hints of rural witchcraft and the sorrows of political exile.

A wandering beauty who may be made a priest with an unbearable secret, revolutionary assassins, and a genuine Irish hero, Meagher of the Sword, are but a few of the vivid characters who rise full-blooded from these pages.

At once swift of pace and poetic, ablaze with suspense and rich with insights into the human heart, Bold Sons of Erin continues Owen Parry's tradition of bringing America's past to life with unrivaled storytelling ability, extraordinary historical accuracy, and a disarming sense of our common humanity.

[Daveo]

The Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Denis O. Smith.

 

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These are stories of the sort loved by true fans of the greatest of all detectives, in which a client tells Holmes a strange tale, drawing him into a baffling mystery.

Whether in fogbound London or deep in the English countryside, these action-packed stories, set during the 1880's and early 1890's, before Holmes's disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls, faithfully recreate the atmosphere of Conan Doyle's early Holmes stories.

 

This wonderful anthology brings together the best work of Denis O. Smith, much admired for his new Sherlock Holmes stories, including 'A Hair's Breadth', 'The Adventure of the Smiling Face' and 'An Incident in Society'.

Ten of these stories have never previously been published in book form.

[Daveo]

Life by Keith Richards.

 

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The long-awaited autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones.

Ladies and gentlemen: Keith Richards.

 

With The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life.

Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane.

Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones.

The Rolling Stones first fame and the notorious drug busts that led to his enduring image as an outlaw folk hero.

Creating immortal riffs like the ones in "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women."

His relationship with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones.

Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the U.S., isolation and addiction.

Falling in love with Patti Hansen.

Estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Marriage, family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes on forever.

 

With his trademark disarming honesty, Keith Richard brings us the story of a life we have all longed to know more of, unfettered, fearless, and true.

[Daveo]

The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die by Niall Ferguson.

 

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The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied.

Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, ageing populations.

But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization?

The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is that the institutions that were once the four pillars of Western society, representative government, the free market, the rule of law and civil society are degenerating.

The Great Degeneration is a powerful indictment of an era of negligence and complacency.

To stop us frittering away the institutional inheritance of centuries, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform.

[Daveo]

About a Boy by Nick Hornby.

 

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Will Freeman may have discovered the key to dating success: If the simple fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women, women who would not ordinarily look twice a Will, might not only be willing, but enthusiastic about dating him, then he was really onto something.

Single mothers, bright, attractive, available women, thousands of them, were all over London.

He just had to find them.

 

SPAT: Single Parents, Alone Together, it was a brilliant plan and Will wasn’t going to let the fact that he didn’t have a child himself hold him back.

A fictional two year old named Ned wouldn’t be the first thing he’d invented and it seems to go quite well at first, until he meets an actual twelve year-old named Marcus, who is more than Will bargained for…

[Daveo]

The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker.

 

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Some say that outlaws no longer exist, that the true spirit of the American West died with the legendary bandits of pulp novels and bedtime stories.

Charlie Hood knows that nothing could be further from the truth.

These days he patrols vast stretches of the new American West, not on horseback but in his cruiser.

The outlaws may not carry six-shooters, but they're strapped all the same.

Along the desolate and dusty roads of this new frontier, Hood prefers to ride alone, and he prefers to ride at night.

At night, his headlights illuminate only the patch of pavement ahead of him: all the better to hide from the demons and the dead outlaws receding in his rearview mirror.

But he doesn't always get what he wants; certainly not when he's assigned a partner named Terry Laws, a county veteran who everyone calls Mr. Wonderful.

And not when Laws is shot dead in the passenger seat and Hood is left to bear witness by someone who knew that Mr. Wonderful didn't always live up to his nickname.

As he sets out to find the gunman, Hood knows one thing for sure: The West is a state of mind, one where the bad guys sometimes wear white hats and the good guys seek justice in whatever shade of gray they can find it.

[Daveo]

In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead

by James Lee Burke.

 

Traded in recently @ Canterbury Tales Bookshop / Book exchange / Cafe / Guesthouse, Pattaya, Thailand............

 

The 6th, and maybe the best, in the Dave Robicheaux series thus far.

Dave is returning from the scene of a particularly gruesome murder of a young prostitute when he pulls over a drunk driver and a series of events are set in motion.

The driver, Elrod Sykes, is in New Iberia to star in a Civil War movie.

He tells Dave about a skeleton he saw in the Atchafalaya Swamp while filming, the same location where, in 1957, Robicheaux witnessed the killing of a chained black man by two white men.

Soon the body of another young woman is found in a barrel. Haunted by the past and confronting the present day apparent serial killing of young prostitutes Dave partners with FBI agent Rosie Gomez to try and apprehend the psycho.

Their investigation connects the recent murders to mobster Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni who has a partnership in the movie production.

A movie that is bringing a lot of money and jobs to New Iberia. In fact the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce put pressure on the sheriff to try and get Robicheaux ease up on "Baby Feet".

There is also the cold case from 1957 that some would prefer remain in the past, is there a connection between the murder of a black man in 1957 and the serial killing of prostitutes today?

One thing is sure ... Dave Robicheaux will not quit the investigation of either.

 

Throughout the story Dave is haunted by a series of dreamlike encounters with General John Bell Hood and a troop of Confederate soldiers.

What is the meaning behind these dreams?

Is there a message?

If so what is it?

And Dave is not the only character in the story to have encounters with the Confederate dead.

 

In previous books in the series Dave struggled with sobriety. Often times having relapses.

In this story his sobriety is strong and he works to help Elrod Sykes get sober.

They say the key to sobriety is to help another alcoholic and in helping Sykes, Dave has his work cut out for him.

At first Sykes is not very likable but this changes as the story progresses.

 

I always enjoy the close relationship between Dave and Alafair, his adopted daughter and of course Tripod, Alafair's three legged pet racoon.

The conversations between Dave and Alafair usually add some levity to an otherwise dark story.