Cross Roads

by W. Paul Young

Arrogant, self-made business man Anthony Spencer is at the top of his game when he suffers a cerebral haemorrhage that leaves him in a comatose state. Upon awakening, he finds himself in a world that he never thought to be part off. In this bizarre new world, Anthony finds himself examining his life – wondering if he has the guts to make a vital alteration that will revoke the unfairness he’s caused.

Flight Behavior: A Novel

by Barbara Kingsolver

Set in a small town in Tennessee, Flight Behavior sees a young woman who finds a valley filled with silent red fire. Amazed by this wonder, she tries to share her excitement with people around her. However, her efforts are put to waste as they get her into a disagreement with her family, town and with the world at large.

One Hundred Names

by Cecelia Ahern

Known for her novel P.S. I Love You, Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern returns with A Hundred Names. Taking a different approach from previous works, A Hundred Names tells the story of Kitty Logan, a journalist whose career is going downhill until she stumbles upon a list of one hundred names in a file. She starts to track those people down to write that one story that she’s always wanted to write.

Set Yourself Free

by Yap Ming Hui

Author, television personality, columnist and coach on money optimisation, Yap Ming Hui is back with his latest book Set Yourself Free. As the Managing Director of Whitman Independent Advisors, Yap assesses why middle class Malaysians have trouble achieving financial freedom in this book.

The Turn of The Screw

by Henry James

Most have forgotten that this terrifying tale of a governess trying to save her two charges from malevolent forces is set on Christmas eve where the tale is told by a narrator as a Christmas ghost story by the fireplace. Un-put-downable.

Holidays on Ice

by David Sedaris

A collection of six humorous and insightful essays from funnyman David Sedaris with highlights that include his short (though no less eventful) employment as a Christmas elf at Macy’s.

An Idiot Girl’s Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List

by Laurie Notaro

Another funny take on the holidays from humour writer Laurie Notaro, you’ll identify the sort of characters (Most unfun Christmas Party Guest, anyone?) and all-too-familiar X’mas situations we tend to throw ourselves into.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

by Agatha Christie

What’s Christmas without everybody’s favourite detective? As per typical Agatha Christie, an assortment of characters assemble at a prominent person’s house, only for said prominent person to be promptly murdered. Whodunnit? Read on and find out!

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

by Christopher Moore

This most unconventional take on Christmas has flesh-eating zombies, angels and dead Santas thrown into the mix. The novel, in short, is anything but dull.

Grand Pursuit

by Sylvia Nasar

Best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash, A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar is a German-born American economist turned author who is also a Professor of Business Journalism at Columbia University. Sylvia’s works have garnered critical praise and been published in the New Yorker and Newsweek amongst others. A Beautiful Mind informed the academy award-winning movie and was translated into thirty languages.

Her latest book, Grand Pursuit, is an ambitious work that traces the downward-spiraling path of modern economics to today`s financial mess. Highlighting the people who created modern economics, Sylvia sheds light on how the financial world has come to pass and cleverly brings to life the evolution of modern economics through the richly detailed stories of men and women who have unwittingly changed the lives of every person on the planet.

As a product of the 19^th century, Sylvia reveals that economics was not always associated with bankers and excess or recessions for that matter which only makes Grand Pursuit that much more intriguing.

Telegraph Avenue

by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon`s long-awaited novel, his first in five years, turns its attentions on the once ubiquitous, now fast-disappearing record store. When a celebrity entrepreneur Gibson Goode announce his plan to build a megastore on Telegraph Avenue, two friends and co-owners of the smaller Brokeland records find more than just their business tested to breaking point. A pop culture epic injected with heart and soul.

Asian Bar Culture Creations 101

by Yann Loh with Benson Wong

Asian cocktail creations have gotten a lot more creative than the standard Singapore Sling. This book is your guide to the most popular Asian cocktails, both classic and new, with recipes and instructions on how to make them by expert mixologists from Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Mixologists in the making can try their hand at exotic concoctions such as Roasted Pineapple Blossom and curiously named Smokey Robot Oil.

Start Something That Matters

by Blake Mycoskie

Blake Mycoskie shares the simple truth that what matters most to you would ultimately bring you more success. He presents six simple ways for creating or changing your own life and business, from uncovering your core story to being creative with your life. In Start Something That Matters, you`ll gain ideas, stories and practical tips that will help get you started in any kind of change you are considering.

The Black Isle

by Sandi Tan

The Black Isle is the debut novel for Singapore-born author Sandi Tan. A younger Sandi attended the University of Kent in the U.K. and went on to receive an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. She has directed short films which have shown at major festivals and museums around the world including the New York Film Festival as well as the Museum of Modern Art. Sandi’s novel tells the story of a young woman, Cassandra, who has left Shanghai with her father and twin brother. Cassandra finds the island to be a sharp contrast to the city of her childhood because it is an immigrant filled seaport. She also discovers that the Black Isle is swamped with ghosts. As she grows into a fearless young woman, the dark forces of the Black Isle refuse to let her go. She realises that war is approaching and wonders if her special gift is the only hope for salvation left for the island. The Black Isle allows its readers’ imagination to run wild with its surreal twist to the conventional colonial theme by taking them back to the 1920s and through the Japanese occupation during World War II to the Black Isle’s radical revolution into a beautiful cosmopolitan city.

Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know

by Jill Geisler

Management guru Jill Geisler provides a practical guide based on real-world experience, thorough research and lessons that will transform managers and their teams. Employing a workshop-in-a-book concept, Work Happy is designed to produce positive and lasting results. This is great tool for aspiring leaders and even an experienced manager as it takes management skills to the next level and proves that leadership and life at work can be made so much more fun.

Beautiful Disaster

by Jamie McGuire

In an effort to dispel the darkness in her past, Abby has sworn off drinking but the path to a new beginning is quickly challenged when she arrives at college and meets Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand, Travis. Handsome, lean and covered in tattoos, Travis is exactly what Abby wants but needs to avoid. Being the ultimate college charmer, he is intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal and tricks her into his life with a simple bet.

Destined to Play

by Indigo Bloome

If you haven’t gotten enough of 50 Shades and all manner of BDSM, no need to get your knickers in a twist. The craze has spawned a series of imitators including this book, an imagined voyeuristic look at doctors in love. Dr. Alexandra Blake reconnects with her ex-lover, Dr. Jeremy Quinn who provides an indecent proposal and an experience more sensual and extreme than any game they have ever played. This is strictly for rainy days in.

Up Your Value

by Wendy Lee and Wendy Liew

If you are interested in improving your overall appearance and building better self-esteem, then Up Your Value! is the book you will want to own. This easy-to-read book offers useful tips and practical advice on how to develop positive self-image via the way you dress and carry yourself. Consisting of 7 chapters – Approachability, Professionalism, Attractiveness, Being Dramatic, Authoritativeness, Elegance and Happiness-and brimming with pictures, how-tos, tips, interesting facts and quizzes, Up Your Value! aims to equip you with good grooming habits.

The End Of Everything

by Megan Abbott

Next-door neighbours Lizzie Hood and Evie Verver are inseparable best friends who seemingly keep no secrets from each other. One afternoon, Evie vanishes without a word, which causes panic through the suburban community and everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Driven by curiosity, Lizzie searches for the truth. Haunted by dreams of her missing friend, she uncovers secret after secret on her pursuit and starts to wonder if she knew anything at all about her best friend.

The Cat`s Table

by Michael Ondaatje

Sri-Lankan born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje is back with his newest book, The Cat`s Table. Set in the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England is seated at the “cat`s table” with two other boys during mealtimes. As the ship makes its way, the boys tumble from one adventure to another. The Cat`s Table is a mesmerising story another the discoveries of a childhood and a surprising lifelong journey that commences with an exciting sea voyage.

Questions without Answers: The World in Pictures

by the Photographers of VII

They say a picture paints a thousand words – so you can imagine what 450 powerful images have to say? Celebrating the 10thanniversary of the independent photo collective VII, Questions without Answers lays bare a powerful visual history of the past twenty years. Seven award-winning photojournalists that makeup VII demonstrate their dedication in chronicling the impact of unseen conflicts, humanitarian crises, and catastrophic events.

Shadow Play

by Barbara Ismail

Barbara Ismail, an American author who, in the 1970s and 80s, spent many years in Malaysia studying shadow puppetry and the Kelantanese dialect, has released her first book in the series of Kain Songket Mysteries. Set in 1970s Kelantan, Mak Cik Maryam is a smart go-getter who trades kain songket (woven silk) and discovers a murder in her own backyard, changing the idyllic ‘village world’ that she`s known and loved. Her attempt to solve the mystery lures her into the world of wayang kulit – a veiled world of shadows, drama and black magic.

The Lake

by Banana Yoshimoto

Yoshimoto`s 13th book of fiction draws on many of the author`s well-honed skills she has no doubt collected over the years. From vividly portrayed characters to words that are almost poetic, The Lake is about a young woman who, following the death of her mother, moves to Tokyo in the hope of finding success as a graphic artist. She finds herself staring out the window a lot – and notices that across the street, a man is doing just that, too. They embark on a journey of friendship, romance and discover layers of mysteries.

The Garden of Evening Mists

by Tan Twan Eng

The Malaysian-born, Booker Prize-longlisted author chats to MC about his second book The Garden of Evening Mists, his inspirations and his love for heritage buildings. The seed of the story was planted by a meeting I had with one of the gardeners of the Japanese emperor. We only met briefly during a social occasion. He was a polite and unassuming man, interested in everything around him. There wasn`t much communication, but just the description of the man itself, the Emperor`s Gardener, had such resonance to it that I decided to do something with it.

We`ll Always Have Summer

by Jenny Han

Belly has only ever loved two men, both with the last name Fisher. She`s been with Jeremiah for the last two years, and is almost positive he`s the one. However, her ex, Conrad, still holds onto hopes and memories, so when Belly and Jeremiah decide to make things forever, Conrad knows he needed to confess his true feelings before he loses her for good. For Belly, she`s also forced to face her true feelings and choose between the two Fishers.

The Social Animal

by Davis Brooks

The author tells the story of Harold and Erica whose journeys start from infancy to school and their ‘odyssey years’ that have come to define young adulthood. He reveals the deeply social aspect of our minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.

The Vanishers

by Heidi Julavits

Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, refuses to pass the torch to her young disciple and instead subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother`s suicide when Julia was an infant. As the two lock horns and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment. Julia retreats to a faceless job in Manhattan and sifts through ghosts and astral clues, discovering that her ability to know the minds of others—including her own—goes far deeper than she ever imagined. The Vanishers is a stunning meditation on grief, female rivalry, and the power of a mother-daughter bond.

Rainshadow Road

by Lisa Kleypas

Lucy Marinn, a glass artist living in beautiful Friday Harbor, Washington, has been stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal: her fiancé Kevin has left her to be with her younger sister. To diffuse Lucy and her parents’ anger, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to ‘romance’ Lucy. But when Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretences, she is forced to confront her assumptions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings.

This Is a Love Story

by Jessica Thompson

Boy meets girl and girl falls for boy—that’s how it’s supposed to be, right? Not so in Sienna and Nick’s case. The debut novel by Jessica Thompson follows Nick and Sienna who fall in love at first sight, but instead of starting a relationship, they become best friends. Told from both Nick and Sienna’s point of view, it documents their roller-coaster relationship throughout five years and their ultimate struggle to try to keep their true feelings hidden.

Enchantments

by Kathryn Harrison

Following the death of her father, Rasputin, 18-year-old Masha is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. As Russia prepares for war, the royal family is placed under house arrest. Masha, who has been put in charge of looking after Prince Aloysha who suffers from hemophilia, finds solace in her charge’s company, escaping grim reality by telling each other stories about the past, future and imagined.

A Perfect Proposal

by Katie Fforde

Sophie Apperly swaps Little England for the Big Apple where she meets Matilda, a spirited grande dame of New York society who invites her to Connecticut for Thanksgiving – though her handsome grandson Luke, couldn’t be less welcoming. So when Luke visits England a few weeks later, Sophie hardly expected him to seek her out. But Matilda has hatched some complicated plans of her own – and so Luke has a proposal to make…

What The Night Knows

by Dean Koontz

A ghost story unlike any you have read, minus anything campy, Koontz’s latest thriller surrounds John Calvino, a detective who at the age of 14 killed a psychotic serial killer who murdered Calvino’s family at the end of a savage killing spree. Two decades later, the exact same murders resurface, and Calvino fears his family will again be targeted. Koontz, in his signature style, intertwines your heart with the fate of the Calvino family in a suspenseful page turner.

Stay Awake

by Dan Chaon

Critically acclaimed author Dan Chaon (Await Your Reply, You Remind Me of Me and Among the Missing) combines his expert storytelling with suspenseful tales of individuals struggling between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. The characters include scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls who are disturbed by their thoughts, expectations and the constraints that life has dealt them.

Bird On Fire: Lessons from the World`s Least Sustainable City

by Andrew Ross

Phoenix, Arizona is one of America’s fastest growing metropolitan regions. It is also its least sustainable one, sprawling over a thousand square miles, with a population of four and a half million, minimal rainfall, scorching heat, and an insatiable appetite for unrestrained growth and unrestricted property rights. Author and cultural analyst Andrew Ross discusses the prospects for sustainability in Pheonix, offering a compelling take on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Lemons and Lavender: The Eco Guide to Better Homekeeping

by Billee Sharp

Lemons and Lavender is an inspiring and instructive guide to living the handmade life by consuming less and creating more. Practical and profound, this handy how-to covers every area of life and offers easy-to-do tips recipes, and advice for saving money and the planet. Learn how to ditch your lawn and raise organic vegetables, cook healthy meals for pennies, cure minor maladies from the kitchen cabinet, save big dollars with small repairs and eco-clean your house with lemons and lavender.

Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet

by Kendra Pierre-Louis

Think your cartfull of green/eco/ environmentally friendly groceries and household items will help pave the way for a greener, more sustainable future? Not so much. According to author and environmental researcher Kendra Pierre-Louis (she’s worked with United Nations and various NGOs under Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm), while consumers are avidly joining in the march to a more sustainable consumption by altering the contents in their shopping cart, she questions if it is really any better. Though greener alternatives are important, she explains that we cannot simply buy our way to sustainability.