Bible to Men’s and Women’s Behavior

Another book from the Pease laboratory is Why Men Don’t Have a Clue & Women Always Need More Shoes. This book was once again co-authored by Allan’s wife, Barbara Pease and gives us a deeper insight on the Male and Female clockworks. We get a deeper insight on why men are so physically attracted to women and how women are attracted to men. In this book, the point scoring system of females is also introduced. This system distributed points to each activity done by the partner but women score differently than men. This book is a absolute must have if you want a extended peek into the male and female functioning.

Excerpt from Why Men Don’t Have A Clue & Women Always Need More Shoes:
Why Do Men Avoid Commitment?
Commitment: verb, female: A desire to get married and raise a family: verb, male: not trying to chat up other women while out with one’s wife or girlfriend.

Veronika Decides to Die

This book is one of my favorite Paul Coelho books. Veronika Decides to Die seems a very awkward title for a book, but in this case it just works out. The book tells the story of Veronika who is young, has everything in life, and decides to die because of the reason that everything in her life is the same every day. After she tried to kill herself with sleeping pills, she wakes up in a mental hospital called Villete. This was the last place she wanted to find herself, and as if it was not already bad enough having survived, she is being diagnosed with a weak heart due to the suicide attempt. She is only given a week at most to live. The story is wonderfully narrated and the surprise comes at last. His book is once again life affirming and brought even me to tears. I loved this book, and every girly girl should love this too, for we all have been, one way or the other, in situations like Veronika.

Excerpt from Veronika Decided to Die:

When they reached the ward, Eduard lay down on the bed. There were two other men waiting, with a strange machine and a bag containing strips of cloth. Eduard turned to Veronika and asked her to sit down on the bed. “In a few minutes the story will be all round Villete, and people will calm down again, because even the craziest of the insane feel fear. Only someone who has experienced this knows that it isn’t as terrible as it seems.”
The nurses listened to the conversation and didn’t believe a word of what the schizophrenic was saying. It must hurt terribly, but then, who knows what goes on inside the head of a lunatic? The only sensible thing the young man had said was about fear: The story would soon be all round Villete and calm would swiftly be restored.
“You lay down too soon,” said one of them.
Eduard got up again, and they spread a kind of rubber sheet beneath him.
“Now you can lie down.”
He obeyed. He was perfectly calm, as if everything that was happening was absolutely routine. The nurses tied some of the strips of cloth around Eduard’s body and placed a piece of rubber in his mouth.
“It’s so that he doesn’t accidentally bite his tongue,” said one of the men to Veronika, pleased to be able to give some technical information as well as a warning.

The Last Templar

The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury is another chase-to-the-trophy kind of story, very much in the style of Dan Brown. In this book though, the story revolves around and archeologist named Tess Chaykin and FBI agent Sean Reilly. After a museum in New York has been attacked by four horsemen dressed as knights templar, Sean and Tess are being called to solve the crime since they took an arcane medieval decoder. The case leads them to the mystery of the centuries; what was the secret of the templars, and who was the last one? Their journey leads them to several countries and in the end; they find the treasure and discover the love for each other. This book displays the stereotypical happy-ending with a twist that would devastate world history and world faith. Nevertheless Raymond managed to craft a well written story out of his idea.

Excerpt from The Last Templar:

Reilly did his best to avoid appearing conflicted. Much as he was enjoying sitting there with Tess. He couldn’t see the relevance of everything she’d just told him. A bunch of selfless knights grow into a medieval superpower only to get their wings clipped and disappear ignominiously into the annals of history. What did that have to do with a gang of armed robbers trashing a museum seven hundred years later?
‘You think the guys at the museum were wearing Templar outfits?’ he asked.
‘Yes. The Templars wore simple clothing, very different from the gaudy outfits other knights wore back then. Remember, they were religious monks, committed to poverty. The white robes symbolized the purity of life that was expected of them, and the red crossed, the color of blood, advertised their special relationship with the Church.’
‘Okay, but if you asked me to draw a knight, I’d probably come up with something that looks pretty close to that without consciously thinking about the Templars. It’s a pretty iconic look, isn’t it?’
Tess nodded. ‘Look, on its own, I agree, it’s not conclusive. But then there’s the encoder.’
‘This I the object the fourth horseman took. The one you were next to.’
Tess moved in a bit closer, seeming more driven now. ‘Yes. I looked it up. It’s far more advanced than anything that appeared for hundreds of years. I mean this thing is revolutionary. And the Templars were known to be masters of encryption. Codes were the backbone of their whole banking system. When the pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land deposited money with them, the receipts they were given were written in code, which could only be deciphered by Templars. That way, no one could forge a deposit note and cheat them. They were pioneers in this field and somehow, this encoder fits their sophisticated, secretive methods.’

Awesomely Wicked

I know it is already a very popular musical, but the original book is quite different and many shades darker than the musical. Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire is a story of the life of the future wicked witch of the west named Elphaba. Based on The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, Wicked tries to explain why Elphaba became so wicked and how everything was not as it seemed.
The writing style of Maguire seems often times confusing and I got lost in some descriptions, but he had a knack for making this wonderland of Oz a reality, with real people and real problems such as puberty, infidelity, love, and hate. It seemed as if we all are originated in this world. This book will clearly surprise you and confuse you at the same time, for most of the plot will be revealed in the end, so keep reading. I also loved the book design. It had the same cover as the musical and the pages were gilded in green.

Excerpt from Wicked:
She was hunched forward over a book, as usual, and her hair hung down like brackets on either side of her face. She looked to Galinda like one of those etchings-the natural history of books were full of them-of odd Winkie mountain women who hide their strangeness with a shawl over the head. Elphaba was munching on the pip of an apple, having eaten all the rest of it. “Well, you look cozy enough, Miss Elphaba,” said Galinda, challengingly. In three months it was her first social remark she had managed to make to her roomie.
“Looks are only looks,” said Elphaba, not looking up.
“Will it break your concentration if I sit in front of the fire?”
“You cast a shadow if you sit just there.”
“Oh, sorry,” said Galinda, and moved. “Mustn’t cast shadows, must we, when urgent words are waiting to be read?”

The Guide to The Core of Men and Women

This bestseller is truly something every modern woman should have in her bookshelf. Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps has the explanations for all the problems that were are facing. And trust me; you truly need this book if you are constantly shaking your head whenever a member of the opposite sex shows up. This book was authored by spouses Allan and Barbara Pease. Allan has been previously known for his bestseller Body Language, and his wife Barbara authored a series of books as well. Everything that has been puzzling you about the opposite sex is revealed and explained in this book. Imagine you are having a guide though the male and female body and mind. After having read this book, you will be able to understand why men are the way they are and why women can’t stop talking. This book comes with hilarious insights and excellent examples. You can only start to love this book. I’d give it five out of five starts for I truly learned a great amount, while still being entertained.

Excerpt from Why Men Don’t Listen & Woman Can’t Read Maps
Why Men Can’t Lie to Women

Our Body Language research reveals that, in face-to-face communications, non-verbal signals account for 60-80% of the impact of the message, while vocal sounds make up 20-30%. The other 7-10% is words. A woman’s superior sensory equipment picks up and analyses this information and her brain’s ability to rapidly transfer between hemispheres makes her more proficient at integrating and deciphering verbal, visual and other signals.
This is why most men have difficulty lying to a woman face-to-face. But, as most women know, lying to a man face-to-face is comparatively easy, as he does not have the necessary sensitivity to spot incongruencies between her verbal and non-verbal signals. Most men, if they’re going to lie to a woman, would be far better off doing it over the phone, in a letter or with all the lights off, and a blanket over their heads.

The Queen of the Sensual

Anne Rice has been the queen of vampires for me since I was a teenager. She succeeds in narrating sensual and erotic stories. Under her writing as A.N. Roquelaure she released three books, which I will be talking about now. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty’s Punishment and Beauty’s Release are all books published under her erotica series. The three books are a series of the life of Sleeping Beauty. Yes the one in the supposed fairy tale. Yet here Beauty is not only kissed by a prince but also claimed while she was waking up from her deep slumber. She then was deported to the Prince’s palace where she was held as a slave, naked and without belongings she was to serve as pleasure slave. These slaves are whipped and loved, until Beauty is expelled to the Village for misbehaving. In Beauty’s Punishment Rice portrays Beauty in the Village where public whippings take place and where she has to work on all fourths like an animal. The Village was soon to be overrun by Arabic people who stole slaves from the village; unfortunately Beauty was one of them. In the last installment, Beauty finds herself in the Harem of the Sultan. She then finds the prince of her dreams and is released as a slave.
The three books all describe very graphically what is happening to the lead characters. Some things may seem very deviant for many readers, since Rice’s sexual imaginations seemed to have roamed very far in these books. The book also talks about love and domination over another.

Excerpt of Beauty’s Punishment

And now Beauty thought she heard the barest tinge of real trepidation in his voice, but his face was almost hard when she looked up at him, only the beautiful eyes softening it just a little. She could see the slightest golden stubble of beard on his chin, and she wanted to kiss it.
“Will you watch for me after we’re separated, try to find me, if only to say a few words to me?” Beauty said. “O, just to know you are there… but I don’t think I will be good. I don’t see why I should be good any longer. We’re bad slaves, Tristan. Why should we obey now?”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “You make me afraid for you.”
From far away, there came the faint roar of voices, the sound of a large crowd carrying sluggishly over the low hills, the dim vibration of a village fair, of hundreds talking, shouting, milling.
Beauty pressed close to Tristan’s chest. She felt a stab of excitement between her legs, her heart knocking.

The Ultimate Desperate Girls Guide

He Just Thinks He’s Not That Into You, The Insanely Determined Girl’s Guide to Getting the Man She Wants is indeed an insanely long title for a book that has barely 150 pages. Anyways, the reason for introducing this book is not because it really works, but because with this book you can laugh at other women and yourself. And it was once again when the book cover caught my attention, not to mention that this book costs $10 (that’s P500). “Sniff Sniff”, but it was worth the laugh, at least. Well, let’s get started; the book which’s title is ridiculously long to name again was written by Danielle Whitman. It has adorable girly pictures in it and pages have different layouts with different fonts such as cursive. There are also little adornments on each page such as stars or hearts. It is overall a really cute book. The book, as the title already describes it, is about getting the man you want. The means which are described in this book are insane, intolerable and plain stupid, but at least this book gives hope to the desperate as to why he has not called yet. This book is hilarious if you see it as such and not as serious self-help literature.

Excerpts from He Just Thinks He’s Not That Into You
Reasons a Guy Doesn’t Call After You’ve Given him your Number:
© He lost it.
© His dog ate it.
© He washed his jeans with your number in the pocket and now it’s all smeared
© He’s scared because the chemistry between you was so intense.
© His phone is broken
© Your phone is broken
© He’s been injured in an accident.
© He’s been killed
© He’s just trying to figure out how to get out of another relationship so he can be with you.
© He’s incredibly busy at work and doesn’t want to call until he has the time to give you his full attention
© He was struck on the head and I wandering the streets with amnesia, only remembering your name and that he loves you.
Why Men Don’t Ask You Out:
10% Doesn’t want to ruin the friendship
8% Intimidated by how beautiful/wonderful you are
7% Doesn’t want to jeopardize work relationship
6% Intimidated by how smart you are
2% Concerned about your different socioeconomic backgrounds
67% Hurt by someone who looks exactly like you

Don’t Be a Negative Nelly
© “Please stop calling me” means “I want to see you in person.”
© “Leave me alone” means “I want you to be surprised when you see the gift I got you.”
© “I never want to see you again” means “until the ceremony, or it’s bad luck.”
© “I’m seeing someone” means “I’m seeing a therapist ‘cause I’m crazy in love with you”
© “Stop following me” means “I want you by my side!”
© “I’m calling the police” means “to arrest you for stealing my heart!”
© “I can’t breathe” means “You take my breath away.”
© “Stop telling everyone I’m your boyfriend” means “Start telling them I’m your husband!”

The Grand Master of Life

Paulo Coelho has clearly a simplistic writing style yet his way of sucking a reader into the world of his characters. The Alchemist has made it into the international bestseller list and is hailed by many as a truly inspiring read. I say it somehow is, but it has a concept that we all know. The concept of following your so-called personal legend is the general theme of the book, which means that you should follow what you have dreamt of. The Alchemist revolves around the character of a Sheppard named Santiago. One day he goes to a gypsy fortune teller to have his dream of a treasure near the pyramids analyzed. She tells him to pursue his quest and suddenly the course of things start to unfold. He travels from Andalusia to Egypt and during this time becomes rich, a tribesman and falls in love. Nevertheless he followed his original purpose which was the treasure. The book tries to teach you to follow your heart and your dream, for each dream has big obstacles and distractions which you have to overcome. People often describe this book as life-changing, but the change only comes when you also pursue your dream. This book merely serves as inspiration, but a truly good one.

Excerpt from the Alchemist:
“You are wise, because you observe everything from a distance,” the boy said. “But you don’t know about love. If there hadn’t been a sixth day, man would not exist; copper would always be just copper, and lead just lead. It’s true that everything has its Personal Legend, but one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new Personal Legend, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.”
The sun thought about that, and decided to shine more brightly. The wind, which was enjoying the conversation, started to blow with greater force, so that the sun would not blind the boy.
“This is why alchemy exists,” the boy said. “So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has not further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold.
“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
“Well, why did you say that I don’t know about love?” the sun asked the boy.
“Because it’s not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it’s not love to see everything from a distance, like you do. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”

Master of Mystery

Usually, Bestsellers have a reason why they are so popular. The so-called controversial novels of Dan Brown truly deserve their place in such a list of Bestsellers. Yes, they are over and over talked about, but still they should be worth mentioning especially in this list. From here on we can go either way; more into fiction or more into non-fiction. Anyways, this time I will present a synopsis of three novels of Dan Brown (although he only wrote four, but the first one was not my taste-too many numbers). These three are Deception Point, Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code. Let’s start with the earlier book Angels and Demons. Angels and Demons was published in 2000 and tells the early stories of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who is summoned to CERN in Switzerland to encrypt a symbol on a corpse’s chest. The story leads to a vendetta against the Catholic Church by an underground organization called the Illuminati. Langdon and scientist Vittoria Vetra both discover why and how the Pope was killed and who really is behind this evil plot to overthrow the Catholic Church.

Deception Point was Dan Brown’s third novel and was published in 2001. Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton is being called to a NASA discovery on arctic ice in order to analyze and verify the finds to the public. But as she and a group of other researchers slowly discover that there is a major fraud going on, they are turning into targets of this deception and soon flee for their lives.

And of course, what would Dan Brown’s success be without his international hit The Da Vinci Code. Before you start thinking about the blasphemy and so on and so forth, let me remind you that the book is purely fiction. It is based on other books who claim to have discovered significant details about Jesus’ life. Nevertheless The Da Vinci Code remains the interesting and unique story that kept everybody buzzing.

Despite the attention-grabbing plots, the only thing that seems to annoy is the pace in which everything is going. I would like to see him write a novel where the characters are finally allowed to rest for a bit instead of being chased all over the story.

A truly Charmed Book

From the bible of woman hood to another chick flick which serves as a truly inspirational read for modern women. This book is called “Charmed Thirds,” and is written by Megan McAfferty. This book comes in third place of its series, thus the name charmed thirds. The previous books were Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.
The story revolves around the college life of Jessica Darling, who decides to study at Columbia University as a working student with no scholarship. As if student life was not enough already, her relationship with her boyfriend Marcus falls apart. Jessica struggles through college life, which seems like a stereotypical story, yet Megan McAfferty successfully imbibes her character with plenty of wit, cynicism and frankness. Jessica’s insights are so unique and irrational sometimes that we wonder how we can relate, but upon seeing the bigger picture, you will slowly realize that Jessica is a little character in all of us. This book is a must read, which tells a real story with real characters, love, and sometimes sex. I am already all excited about the next installment Fourth Comings.

Excerpts of Charmed Thirds:

Freshman Summer June 2003
The Twenty-Second
Oh thank God. Mr. Flutie got off the couch. And Marcus and I finally fucked. Would you prefer a prettier phrase, like made sweet love? Well, that’s not what we did. Marcus might argue that we’re in love, so we’re always making love – even when we’re just plain ol’-fashioned fucking. Yes, even with my limited experience, I know there’s a difference. And if you don’t know what it is, well, I feel sorry for you.

Graduation December 2005
The Twenty-Fifth
In my younger days, I would have begun this entry with a string of exclamation points. But I’m too old for that sort of thing now. Unfortunately, now that I’m stripped of this youthful shorthand, I’m finding it impossible to express what I’m feeling.
Oh, fuck it.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Queen-B of Books or The Modern Woman's Bible

I stumble on this book by accident. Usually it's the book cover that first attracts me to books. Many of my books, even if some are still unread, have the most interesting covers. Well let's not get into that yet. So I have seen this book a several times and thought to myself that I should get it sometime, and sooner than I thought I grabbed the book and hoped that it would worth it.....Well let's just say I have discovered the How-To Bible of the Century. This book is truly an eyeopener and makes you want to go out to the next store and shop for improvement. The book "How to Walk in High Heels" by Camilla Morton is truly the Bible of the Modern Woman. It has everything a girly-girl could wish for; a guide on how to walk high heels of course, the bliss of the perfect shoe, how to apply make-up, how to be knowledgeable and even how to plant flowers and screw on a light bulb. This book is adorned with quotes and anecdotes of different celebrities and fashion designers. Camilla Morton succeeds to impress the readers with her knowledge and entertains the readers with her wit and charm. A truly amusing and educating read. A must have for all girly girls and women of all walks of life.

How to Walk in High Heels excerpt:

How to Unblock Drains

Unblocking drains is really yuk. This is definitely not for you, so get someone else to do this. Go out for the day and hope that the problem has been 'resolved' by the time you return.

How to blow your nose gracefully

Practically impossible. You can't.

So if you need to blow your nose, excuse yourself and leave the room. Always carry tissues with you to avoid the shame and discomfort of having to blow your nose on a bus ticket or having to ask someone for a tissue. Most unglamorous.

If you must put tissues up your sleeve, fold them; you don't want to ruin the line of the top.

If you have a streaming cold, it's very simple: don't go out. STAY IN.

Girly Girls

The girly girl bookclub is a club where even girls who hate to read about complicated things will find books of that are interesting yet somehow remain very feminine and girly. Some books are stereotypical female literature and some others will just simply stun you without a complicated vocabulary. Then of course there are the "must reads" that every girl should read if they still want to be part of heated discussions about God and the World. The bookclubs focus ranges from fiction to poetry, to non-fiction and self-help books and those which contain a little bit of everything. Enjoy reading the summaries and comments and of course the book itself if you feel ispired enough to grab a copy.

TaTa