The latest trends can change at the drop of a hat-- or in some cases, a hit. While some literary genres are mainstays of the industry, a great number of them float in and out of the fickle publishing world like so many loose pages.
FOR two years, he hid behind the anonymity of the Internet to chronicle his sexual escapades with the women of Shanghai and comment on Chinese politics.His accounts drew angry reactions - one Chinese professor led an online campaign to expose him.But now the man who the world knows as ChinaBounder has stepped out and revealed himself as David Marriot.
The book is likely to further add to Chinese ire as it rubbishes their country's attempts to tout itself as a global force.Speaking exclusively to the Guardian from an undisclosed 'third country' in South-east Asia, Mr Marriott confirmed for the first time that his alter ego was ChinaBounder.'Modern China has displayed a history of over-reacting to any form of criticism, not just against the country or the Communist party per se,' he said.
A new study has some answers on what diets are best for shedding the most pounds.A recent study by the New England Journal Of Medicine compared a low fat diet, a low carb diet (such as the Atkins diet), and a Mediterranean diet, which includes lean protein and vegetables along with oil and nuts.
The study followed 322 obese patients who were randomly assigned to one of the diets. The patients were followed for two years. At the end of the study, weight loss on the low fat diet averaged a little more than seven pounds, while those on the Mediterranean diet averaged a loss of 10 pounds.Patients on the low carb diet averaged a loss of 12 pounds.
"It's not surprising that the low carbohydrate diet led to greater weight loss, because when you're eating protein and fat it makes you feel full so you don't want to eat as much," said Dr. Eric Westman of the Duke University Medical School.The low carb diet actually lowered cholesterol levels in most patients as well."A low carb diet -- one that forgoes rice and pasta, and bread, and potatoes -- works by lowering insulin levels in the body. And then with this lower insulin level, the body makes less of harmful cholesterol," said Westman.
I am useless at DIY. The reason is that, fundamentally, I am bored by it. Confronted by some fiddly task, I decide, like a petulant child, that I cannot be bothered. Many people feel that way about cooking. They may enjoy food, but they are not very interested in it as a subject.
Cookery books and television programmes are rarely of help to non-cooks. The conceptual leap from words on a page or pictures on a screen to their own culinary experience is too large. Perhaps what they need instead is a computer program, available in their own kitchens and talking them through recipes, step by step. The Nintendo cooking guide Can't Decide What To Eat? (for the Nintendo DS console) might offer the reassurance that even Delia cannot instil.
Los Angeles - With his shaggy beard and black garb Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is no-one's idea of a sex god. But for years the ultra-orthodox Jewish religious leader has been making headlines in the United States and around the world with his surprisingly candid sex advice. Often called the Love Rabbi, Boteach's books include such sizzlers as Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments and Kosher Sex, in which he introduces what he calls "Jewish relationship values" to the outside world.
Though a strict monogamist and believer in traditional female roles, he's never afraid to get into detailed discussions about sexual positions, masturbation and how to increase attraction and compatibility between partners. He has even registered a website called LoveProphet.com and is said to be working on his own branded online dating service.
If that idea doesn't grab you, you can taste a different flavour of Boteach on his cable TV show Shalom in the Home, in which he attempts to reconcile sparring couples, or catch one of his many appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The black talk show queen thinks so highly of him she even gave him his own show on her satellite radio channel.
TWENTY-FIVE or 30 years ago fans of Chinese food flocked to large groundbreaking books by authors like Irene Kuo and Barbara Tropp. Generally, the food was the cuisine of the dominant ethnic majority, the Han people.
But now Westerners are beginning to realize that China is far more complex than they might have once thought. This spring’s vexed journey of the Olympic torch through unfriendly territories within China’s own borders has awakened millions to the contradictions inherent in modern nations formed from sprawling ancient empires.
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There's a whole class of detective fiction in which a place, usually a city, is more the hero, more the key to the story, than any mere human. I'm thinking of the Sydney of Jon Cleary, the Victorian London of Anne Perry.
Having been to modern Istanbul, I can imagine, with its narrow ancient streets, its half-buried mysteries, its drifting glorious scents, that it would be a great setting. How much more so the Istanbul of Jason Goodwin's detective series featuring Yashim Togalu. This is Istanbul under the faltering Ottoman empire - the janissaries have been suppressed and the sultan is truly in control - or at least as much in control as any one man at the centre of an intrigue-ridden palace, in a fading empire - which has just lost the Crimea to the Russian, can be.
I was intrigued to see this detective series being advertised in a mass poster campaign on the London Tube - not something you see often for genre fiction - and after reading
The Janissary Tree I've no doubt this was a good investment by the publisher.
This is the first in the series. Goodwin is a historian who has specialised in the period, so he obviously seriously knows this almost-lost city, but he's got a novelists' eye for detail he's particularly good on smells, and is clearly a man who loves to cook and a fine line in elaborate plotting.
Two more of the books I read while off would make great summer reading.
"The Law of Second Chances"
By James Sheehan
A tightly written mystery featuring Florida trial lawyer,Jack Tobin, a character Sheehan first featured in his book "The Mayor of Lexington Avenue."
I didn't read the first book, but I think I'm going to go get it because I loved the Tobin character.
The story opens with Tobin racing to prove a man on death row should not be executed. While he is working on the case 24/7 he is also dealing with the news that his beloved wife is terminally ill.
Meanwhile, a small-time thief named Benny ends up committing a robbery that ends in murder and soon Tobin is working on Benny's case. Benny turns out to have a connection to Tobin's past that you won't see coming.
There are enough flashbacks to what must have been the first book to make me feel like I understand Tobin, but it also makes me want to read the first book.
This is a courtroom lawyer with a heart and soul, and a sharp-edge brain. If you like mysteries and courtroom dramas, with a little romance, this fits the bill.
Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe (and What You Need to Know to End the Madness)
Summing up the Republican Party's defensive strategy, Ariana Huffington cites an old lawyer's adage: "When the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law. And when the law and the facts are against you, attack the plaintiff." That's how an entrenched White House survived criticism for the past eight years, despite a record that reads like the logbook of the Titanic. Huffington's book is both a polemic and a memory refresher. Years of exposure to the 24-hour-news cycle on TV tends to weaken the process of recollection. Here, then, the author rosters every debacle, from the anti-SCHIP propaganda campaign to the blackout of info on global warming, from the poisoning of pets and children by missing-in-action regulatory officials to the monumental mess of Katrina, Medicare reform, Walter Reed, the selling and bungling of the war in Iraq, et al. Taking on fellow members of the punditocracy, Huffington devotes special sidebars to the toothless Tim Russert and Bob Woodward's supine writing about W: "Praising Woodward for his very-late-to-the-party Iraq pile-on [namely the book Plan of Attack] was like a music critic writing a rave of "Let It Be" and getting credit for discovering the Beatles." Huffington laments John McCain's evolution from watchdog to lapdog, particularly in his latest incarnation as salesman for the war, retrieving McCain's 2003 comment that "there's not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias. So I think they can probably get along." Considering the provocation, Huffington is one of the most amiable of the left-wing pundits. She avoids personal attack in favor of a sober listing of quotes and deeds. Getting personal isn't a strategy she needs, anyway, considering these bad years behind us and before us. (By Ariana Huffington; Knopf; 390 pages; $24.95 hardback)
Image Comics, which began as a superhero-oriented alternative to DC and Marvel, has in recent years become a more diverse publisher, offering something for almost every genre. I recently discovered a gem of a book that blends elements of horror with mystery and police procedurals. The result is the very satisfying Proof, written by Alexander Grecian, illustrated by Riley Rossmo and colored by Tyler Jenkins.
Proof is the story of John Prufrock, a Bigfoot who is searching for others of his kind while working for The Lodge, a government organization that specializes in cases involving Cryptids. Cryptids are creatures who are considered by the general populace to be myths or urban legends, but are, in fact, very real. The Lodge is home to the Dover Demon, several surprisingly ferocious fairies, dodo birds, gnomes, jackalopes and other theoretical creatures. Prufrock's supporting cast includes his new, somewhat reluctant partner Ginger Brown, his best friend and Lodge keeper Wayne, Lodge overseer Leander Wight, and former sheriff and Lodge newcomer Elvis Chestnut.
The book will inevitably draw comparisons to Mike Mignola's Hellboy, not because of Rossmo's art but rather the use of a "monster" working for the government to find other "monsters." Grecian's first arc, "Goatsucker," feels a little closer to The X-Files than Mignola's B.P.R.D. I don't think the comparisons are necessarily a bad thing, because a lot of folks enjoy Hellboy and I believe those same folks will also enjoy Proof. Rossmo's art seems at times a little frenetic, but I don't find it distracting. The antagonist in the "Goatsucker" tale, a Chupacabra who calls itself Nadine, is suitably scary, and Rossmo's fairies are downright nasty! I hope they get featured in an upcoming arc. Jenkins' colors are suitable atmospheric, perhaps even understated. Everyone loves color comics but sometimes I think certain comics suffer because a garish coloring job distracts the eye from the actual linework. You shouldn't necessarily recognize the colorist by the pages themselves, because that often means the colors are taking over the art. Yes, it means being unheralded the bass player to Rossmo's lead guitar but it's no less crticial to the success of the group, and Jenkins does a fantastic job of giving this world a depth of color and visual warmth without beating your senses into submission in the process.
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