Author: Jamie Oliver

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 360 pages

Price: Rm 40

Status: Available 

The incredible diversity in American cooking was a real revelation to me. So although I went looking for "quintessential American food," my conclusion is that there is no such thing; instead there's a huge wealth of seriously exciting dishes.

Many of us outside of America may think we already know all there is to know about it from movies or the occasional holiday, but the truth is that this doesn't even scratch the surface. In many ways, the country is still a bit of a mystery to us. This trip was my chance to explore the ingredients, food culture, and traditions within this incredible country.

I felt that I knew cities like New York and Los Angeles pretty well, but this time I ventured beyond the neighborhoods I was familiar with and into areas better known for their immigrant communities. I was rewarded with some of the most incredible food I've ever tasted.

The story was the same when I moved beyond the big cities. Whether it was Creole cooking in Louisiana or soul food in Georgia, the Mexican influences in Arizona or the hearty cowboy cuisine of Big Sky Country, every place I went had its unique treasures.

I came back with more recipes than I knew what to do with, and although it was tough, I managed to narrow this book down to 120 of my absolute favorites. These are my takes on some of the best food I came across, as well as a few things I made up along the way. I hope you enjoy them, and maybe even discover new and inspiring sides to America you've never seen before. Enjoy! source: http://www.amazon.com/Jamies-America-Twists-American-Classics/dp/140132360X

Author: Lois P. Frankel

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 279 pages

Price: Rm 20 

Status: Available 

The workplace is changing. From the boardrooms to non-profit organizations to the military, the typical male management style is now obsolete. There is a new generation of employees who reject hierarchical leadership and respond to the behaviors and characteristics that women traditionally exhibit. In other words, the time for woment to take charge is now! In SEE JANE LEAD, Dr. Frankel provides a blueprint for women who want to tap their natural leadership abilities and manage with greater ease and confidence in the business world, on the soccer field, at home, and beyond. With the same sharp insight that she demonstrated in Nice Girls Don't Get Rich and Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, Dr. Frankel shows women how they can overcome sabotaging childhood behaviors that hold them back, while offering practical advice and real-life examples of strong female leaders who have succeeded--in male dominated fields--beyond their wildest dreams.source:http://www.amazon.com/See-Jane-Lead-Women-Charge/dp/B003P2VDXI

Author: Steve Harvey

Year purchased: 2011

Length: 240 pages

Price: Rm 15

Status: Available 

Steve Harvey, the host of the nationally syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show, can't count the number of impressive women he's met over the years, whether it's through the "Strawberry Letters" segment of his program or while on tour for his comedy shows. These are women who can run a small business, keep a household with three kids in tiptop shape, and chair a church group all at the same time. Yet when it comes to relationships, they can't figure out what makes men tick. Why? According to Steve it's because they're asking other women for advice when no one but another man can tell them how to find and keep a man. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve lets women inside the mindset of a man and sheds lights on concepts and questions such as:

—The Ninety Day Rule: Ford requires it of its employees. Should you require it of your man?

—How to spot a mama's boy and what if anything you can do about it.

—When to introduce the kids. And what to read into the first interaction between your date and your kids.

—The five questions every woman should ask a man to determine how serious he is.

— And more...

Sometimes funny, sometimes direct, but always truthful, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is a book you must read if you want to understand how men think when it comes to relationships. source:https://books.google.com.my/books/about/Act_Like_a_Lady_Think_Like_a_Man.html?id=CfZMvlReQAkC&source=kp_cover&hl=en

Author: Jill Bolte Taylor

Year purchased: 2014

Length: 224 pages

Price: Rm 15

Status: Available 

The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone. source: http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0452295548

Author: Dr. Gillian Mckeith

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 224 pages

Price: Rm 15

Status: Available 

From the author of Gillian McKeith’s Food Bible and Slim for Life

With over 2 million copies sold worldwide, Gillian McKeith’s You Are What You Eat is a national bestseller that has changed the way people think about food and nutrition. You Are What You Eat features real-life diet makeovers and case studies, easy to use lists and charts, and beautiful full color photographs. By encouraging you to eat more nutrient-dense, flavorful whole foods, You Are What You Eat will teach you how to stay healthy and satisfied.

You Are What You Eat also includes:

• Gillian McKeith’s “Diet of Abundance”
• A 7-Day jumpstart plan
• The Food IQ Test
• Complete shopping guide and meal plan
• Healthy and delicious Mediterranean-inspired recipes

You Are What You Eat is a clear, no-nonsense nutritional guide to a healthier life.

source: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-What-Eat-Change/dp/0452287170

Author: Christopher Ward

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 320 pages

Price: Rm 20

Status: Available

On 14th April 1912, when the Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, 1,500 passengers and crew lost their lives. As the order to abandon ship was given, the orchestra took their instruments on deck and continued to play as the ship went down. The violinist, 21 year-old Jock Hume, knew that his fiancée, Mary, was expecting their first child, the author's mother. A century later, Christopher Ward reveals a dramatic story of love, loss, and betrayal, and the catastrophic impact of Jock's death on two very different Scottish families. He paints a vivid portrait of an age in which class determined the way you lived—and died. This outstanding piece of historical detective work is also a moving account of how the author's quest to learn more about his grandfather revealed the shocking truth about a family he thought he knew, a truth that had been hidden for nearly 100 years. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11099863-and-the-band-played-on

Author: Dean Koontz

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 288 pages 

Price: Rm 15

 Status: Available

In each little life we can see great truth and beauty, and in each little life we glimpse the way of all things in the universe."DEAN KOONTZ thought he had everything he needed. A successful novelist with more than twenty #1 New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Dean had forged a career out of industry and imagination. He had been married to his high school sweetheart, Gerda, since the age of twenty, and together they had made a happy life for themselves in their Southern California home. It was the picture of peace and contentment. Then along came Trixie.

Dean had always wanted a dog--had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. Trixie had intelligence, a lack of vanity, and an uncanny knack for living in the present. And because she was joyful and direct as all dogs are, she put her heart into everything--from chasing tennis balls, to playing practical jokes, to protecting those she loved.

A retired service dog with Canine Companions for Independence, Trixie became an assistance dog of another kind. She taught Dean to trust his instincts, persuaded him to cut down to a fifty-hour work week, and, perhaps most important, renewed in him a sense of wonder that will remain with him for the rest of his life. She mended him in many ways.

Trixie weighed only sixty-something pounds, Dean occasionally called her Short Stuff, and she lived less than twelve years. In this big world, she was a little thing, but in all the ways that mattered, including the effect she had on those who loved her, she lived a big life. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5423030-a-big-little-life

Author: David Nicholls

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 437 pages

Price: Rm15

Status: Available

Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? 

Twenty years, two people, one day. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6280118-one-day

Author: Lindsey Kelk

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 326 pages

Price: Rm15

Status: Available

Celebs, sunshine and beautiful boys!enough to lead a girl astray? Angela Clark can't believe her luck! she's an English girl living in New York with a dream job at hip magazine The Look and a sexy boyfriend. Her latest assignment takes her to Hollywood to interview hot actor and fellow Brit James Jacobs.Thrown in at the deep end she heads west with best friend Jenny dreaming of Rodeo Drive and Malibu beach. Soon Angela discovers that celebrity life in Hollywood is not all glamour, gloss and sunshine. Despite his lady-killer reputation, the only person who seems genuine is James. Then a paparazzi snaps them in an uncompromising position and suddenly Angela is thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons! Can she convince all those close to her -- especially her boss and her boyfriend -- not to believe everything they read? And will Hollywood ever win Angela's heart? source: http://www.amazon.com/I-Heart-Hollywood-Lindsey-Kelk/dp/B005Q6DUGE

Author: Sophie Kinsella 

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 323 pages

Price: Rm10

Status: SOLD OUT

The irresistible heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot is back! And this time Becky Bloomwood and her credit cards are headed across the Atlantic.... 
With her shopping excesses (somewhat) in check and her career as a TV financial guru thriving, Becky's biggest problem seems to be tearing her entrepreneur boyfriend, Luke, away from work for a romantic country weekend. And worse, figuring out how to pack light. But packing takes on a whole new meaning when Luke announces he's moving to New York for business--and he asks Becky to go with him! Before you can say "Prada sample sale," Becky has landed in the Big Apple, home of Park Avenue penthouses and luxury boutiques. 
Surely it's only a matter of time until she becomes an American TV celebrity, and she and Luke are the toast of Gotham society. Nothing can stand in their way, especially with Becky's bills miles away in London. But then an unexpected disaster threatens her career prospects, her relationship with Luke, and her available credit line! Shopaholic Takes Manhattan--but will she have to return it? souce: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9418.Shopaholic_Takes_Manhattan

Author: Robin Gerber

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 278 pages

Price: Rm15

Status: Available

Barbie and Ruth is the entwined story of two exceptional women. There's Barbie: the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fair who became the treasure of 90 percent of American girls and their counterparts in 150 countries. She went on to compete as an Olympic athlete, serve as an air force pilot, work as a boutique owner, run as a presidential candidate, and ignite a cultural firestorm.
And then there's Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator: the tenth child of Polish Jewish immigrants, a passionately competitive and creative business pioneer, and a mother and wife who wanted it all. After a business scandal that forced Ruth out of Mattel, the company she founded, she drew on her experience as a breast cancer survivor to start a business that changed women's lives. She was ultimately honored as a pioneer, humanitarian, and masterful entrepreneur.
Based on original research, extensive interviews, and previously unavailable material, Barbie and Ruth tells the fascinating story of how two women forever changed American business and culture. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5329124-barbie-and-ruth

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 289 pages

Price: Rm15

Status: SOLD OUT

With The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and his other beloved novels, #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks has given voice to our deepest beliefs about the power of love. Now he brings us the long-awaited follow-up to The Notebook-a story of an ordinary man who goes to extraordinary lengths to win back the love of his life... After thirty years, Wilson Lewis is forced to face a painful truth: the romance has gone out of his marriage. His wife, Jane, has fallen out of love with him, and it is entirely his fault. Despite the shining example of his in-laws, Noah and Allie Calhoun, and their fifty-year love affair (originally recounted in The Notebook), Wilson himself is a man unable to express his true feelings. He has spent too little time at home and too much at the office, leaving the responsibility of raising their children to Jane. Now his daughter is about to marry, and his wife is thinking about leaving him. But if Wilson is sure of anything, it is this: His love for Jane has only grown over the years, and he will do everything he can to save their marriage. With the memories of Noah and Allie's inspiring life together as his guide, he vows to find a way to make his wife fall in love with him...all over again. In this powerfully moving tale of love lost, rediscovered, and renewed, Nicholas Sparks once again brings readers his unique insight into the only emotion that ultimately really matters. source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wedding-Nicholas-Sparks/dp/0446615862

Author: Nicholas Sparks 

Year purchased: 2014

Length: 434 pages

Price: Rm 20

Status: SOLD OUT

One of America's bestselling authors delivers a story about the greatest commitment of all: loving someone forever. 
When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, volunteer fireman Taylor McAden feels compelled to take terrifying risks to save lives. But there is one leap of faith Taylor can't bring himself to make: he can't fall in love. For all his adult years, Taylor has sought out women who need to be rescued, women he leaves as soon as their crisis is over and the relationship starts to become truly intimate. When a raging storm hits his small Southern town, single mother Denise Holton's car skids off the road. The young mom is with her four-year-old son Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities and for whom she has sacrificed everything. Taylor McAden finds her unconscious and bleeding, but does not find Kyle. When Denise wakes, the chilling truth becomes clear to both of them: Kyle is gone. During the search for Kyle, the connection between Taylor and Denise takes root. Taylor doesn't know that this rescue will be different from all the others. source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Rescue-Nicholas-Sparks/dp/0446610399

Author: Nicholas Sparks 

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 368

Price: Rm20

Status: SOLD OUT

 

Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. As deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, he not only grieves for her and worries about their young son Jonah but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, Jonah's second-grade teacher. A young woman recovering from a difficult divorce, Sarah moved to New Bern hoping to start over. Tentatively, Miles and Sarah reach out to each other...soon they are falling in love. But what neither realizes is that they are also bound together by a shocking secret, one that will force them to reexamine everything they believe in-including their love. source: http://www.amazon.com/A-Bend-Road-Nicholas-Sparks/dp/1455574066

Author: Sophie Kinsella 

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 497 words

Price: Rm8

Status: SOLD OUT 

Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don't get visited by ghosts. Or do they?

When the spirit of Lara's great-aunt Sadie-a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance-mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie's possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie's necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different "twenties" girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6063187-twenties-girl

Author: Jane Green 

Year purchased: 2013

Length: 373 pages

Price: Rm15

Status: Available

Jemima Jones is overweight. About one hundred pounds overweight. Treated like a maid by her thin and social-climbing roommates, and lorded over by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented but better paid) at the Kilburn Herald, Jemima finds that her only consolation is food. Add to this her passion for her charming, sexy, and unobtainable colleague Ben, and Jemima knows her life is in need of a serious change. When she meets Brad, an eligible California hunk, over the Internet, she has the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself–as JJ, the slim, beautiful, gym-obsessed glamour girl. But when her long-distance Romeo demands that they meet, she must conquer her food addiction to become the bone-thin model of her e-mails–no small feat. 
With a fast-paced plot that never quits and a surprise ending no reader will see coming, Jemima J is the chronicle of one woman's quest to become the woman she's always wanted to be, learning along the way a host of lessons about attraction, addiction, the meaning of true love, and, ultimately, who she really is. source: http://www.amazon.com/Jemima-Novel-About-Ducklings-Swans/dp/0767905180

Author: Gail Carson Levine 

Year purchased: sometime ago

Length: 239 pages

Price: Rm10 

Status: Available

At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent young fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem to be in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery as she tries to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you'll ever read. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24337.Ella_Enchanted

Author: Sarah Webb

Year purchased: 2012

Length: 358 pages

Price: Rm18

Status: Available

Always the Bridesmaid 
Amy's life is not working out the way she always dreamed it would. She's about to turn the dreaded 30, her career is going nowhere fast and her love life is not exactly flourishing.
To make matters worse, while things are falling apart for Amy, they seem to be coming together for everyone else in her life...
Visiting her friend, Jodie. Amy finds that she and Jack, the man she once thought she might marry, have spent the night together.
Her younger sister Suzi has just arrived home with her 'Golden Delicious' Australian fiance in tow and announced their May wedding. Also, Amy discovers that her best friend Beth is also planning on tying the knot and Amy is asked to be bridesmaid.
With a sinking heart, she remembers that old saying - always the bridesmaid, never the bride...Surely it can't be true? 

It Had to be You 
A fabulous new novel of love, life and romance from a No 1 bestselling author In the Irish village of Burnaby. Life is about to change for three very different women. 
Molly Harper is the long suffering manager of Ireland's only dedicated romance bookshop - 'Happily Ever After'. She can't stand Milo Jones, the super-smooth new owner but he does have a rather attractive son, Sam. Should she stay, or should she walk? 
Her best friend, Paige Brady, has problems of her own. She has just launched a general election campaign and is astonished when another woman on the ballot sheet, Annette Higgins, starts to attack her in a very personal way. Paige is determined to stay in the race. 
Kate Bowan, shop assistant in the trendy Burnaby designer shoe shop, 'Baroque' by day, runs the popular dummy dating service 'Test-Crash Dates' by night. But one particular client is proving to be more than a handful.
All's fair in love, business and politics as the three friends are about to find out. Enter the world of Burnaby Village, and you'll be glad you stayed... source: http://www.booktopia.com.au/always-the-bridesmaid-it-had-to-be-you-sarah-webb/prod9780330517676.html

Author: Cecily Von Ziegesar

Year purchased: 2006

Length: 218 pages

Price: Rm8

Status: Available

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I get everything -- and everyone -- we want. Snagging the latest Marc Jacobs bag or your best friend's boyfriend isn't pretty, but it's always hot...It's almost graduation and our lives are really heating up. Everybody's into college and it's obviously time to party -- as if we hadn't been doing that already! Will Blair and Nate's love affair continue? More importantly, will Blair finally get into Yale? Or will Nate and Serena hook up in New Haven and leave Blair alone in the city?And as for the juiciest scoop of all, what's this we hear about Jenny leaving Constance Billard to go to boarding school? Only time will tell how everyone will end up, but one thing's for sure: love is in the air, and it smells a lot like Gucci Envy. source: http://www.amazon.com/Gossip-Girl-No-Nothing-Together/dp/0316735094

Author: Cecily Von Ziegesar 

Year purchased: 2007

Length: 229 pages

Price: Rm8

Status: Available

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where the girls are dazzling, the guys are gorgeous, and the summer heat is the perfect excuse to throw a fabulous roof-deck pool party. As if we need a reason!It's our last summer together before heading off to college, and things are sizzling—no, it's not just the weather. Despite that steamy kiss on graduation night, Blair, Serena, and Nate have gone their separate ways...though not for long. Blair is off to London with her English Lord boyfriend, Serena's about to become a movie star—as if she wasn't a star already!—and Nate's rolling up his well-worn khakis and heading to the Hamptons. Back in New York, Dan and Vanessa are rekindling their love. Fiery! Watch out, this summer is going to be hotter than ever. source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/726458.Only_in_Your_Dreams