The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- Dr Peggy Wong shares guidelines on living a balanced life
- Magic and mystery
- One Hundred Names: A beautiful tale
| Dr Peggy Wong shares guidelines on living a balanced life Posted: 26 Apr 2013 05:55 AM PDT AFTER years of being in the corporate world, global entrepreneur, economist and philanthropist Dr Peggy Wong decided to take a long, hard look at her successes and how she was living her life. "As I began to evaluate my life, I realised that God measures success differently. It became clearer and clearer to me that genuine success involved much more than power, wealth or status. To be truly successful we need to lead a balanced life," she writes in her book, Living A Balanced Life. The author proposes seven ingredients that make up a balanced life: Faith, Family, Finance, Fitness, Friends, Fun, and Food. She believes in a holistic approach to living life to the fullest and that the key to achieving balance is not so much about slowing down the pace than it is to lead a purposeful lifestyle. The 7Fs are meant as a guideline to achieve one's ultimate goal of living a balanced life. "If we keep the 7Fs in balance," Wong says, "we will find ourselves much happier and life will be more meaningful." All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the underprivileged children of Living Hope, a non-governmental organisation run by a group of volunteers that aspires to give a voice to poor, needy and marginalised children living in Malaysia and in other parts of the world. Living A Balanced Life is available at Canaanland Sdn Bhd (canaanland.com.my; 03-2166 2601); Focus on the Family (family.org.my; 03-7954 7920); Glad Sounds Sdn Bhd (gladsounds.com.my; 03-7958 7188); and Living Hope (livinghopeglobal.org; 03-7727 5887). – Rouwen Lin |
| Posted: 26 Apr 2013 01:32 AM PDT The Age Of Miracles ONE morning, Julia and her family wake up to discover that the earth's rotation has slowed down. Of course, the sudden change has grave effects like causing environmental chaos and altering the length of nights and days. As Julia struggles to adapt to this wild new situation, she also has to deal with her parents separating, losing old friends when they begin to behave strangely, and falling in love for the first time. Can Julia maintain her composure on earth's new normal while making sense of the problems around her? Wayne Rooney: My Decade In The Premier League ENGLISH footballer Wayne Rooney was only 18 when he became a coveted Manchester United player in 2004. At his debut against Turkish club Fenerbahçe, he became the youngest player to score a hattrick in the Champions League and his side won 6-2. My Decade In The Premier League details Rooney's personal experience and journey in football so far. He discusses everything from starting out as a footballer at 16 years old to lifting the Champions League trophy with Manchester United. He even opens up about the low points in his career, such as losing to rivals Manchester City in the 2011-2012 season. He also gives an insider's perspective on what goes on on the training pitch, inside the dressing room, and about his relationships with managers and coaches. The Tower (Sancti Trilogy # 3) FBI agent Joe Shepherd has been tasked with investigating the disappearance of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. The only clues left behind are a cryptic countdown clock and a chilling note that talks about the "End of Days". Joe also discovers that the scientist's disappearance is linked to a number of strange occurrences from eight months ago; these are the events in books one and two of the trilogy, Sanctus and The Key, respectively, involving Turkey's ancient and mysterious Citadel, journalist Liv Adamsen and ex-special forces operative Gabriel Mann. Now, everything is coming to a head as Liv and Gabriel struggle to stay alive in the Citadel and Joe digs from his end, uncovering a revelation that could spell the end of mankind. Words You Should Teach Your Children THIS is not a word book for teaching young children their first words. Instead, literary agent Paula Blazer (author of How To Sell Your Memoir) offers a simple, hands-on approach on how to instil a sense of worth, respect and perseverance in children. Blazer believes children will discover these qualities through certain words for which she provides definitions. She uses passages to explain how words like "achievements", "adventure" and "imagination" could have an impact on children's development. Blazer provides 200 words to choose from and highlights important discussion points to have with your children centred on these words. Citadel (Languedoc trilogy # 3) THE first two books in this trilogy of historical thrillers, Labyrinth and Sepulchre, moved from medieval and 19th century France to the modern-day country as an explosive ancient secret involving Tarot cards and a book of symbols is hunted down. In this final book, Kate Mosse takes readers into Nazi-occupied France during World War II where a resistance group called the Citadel fights to free the land. Sandrine, a member of Citadel, learns that there is a parallel struggle going on to unearth that ancient secret that has been protected through the centuries. She soon realises that the fight involves Raoul, the young rebel who saves her life during a demonstration, and a mysterious man named Leo Authié. Leo is convinced that Raoul and Sandrine hold the key to the location and activation of the Codex, a device with great power. Man 2.0: Engineering The Alpha FITNESS experts John Romaniello and Adam Bornstein believe that human beings were born to achieve greatness, physically and mentally. But somewhere along the way, so many of us fade into ordinary lives. Romaniello and Bornstein, however, claim that this book will help you re-design yourself. Want to lose body fat easily, get bigger muscles and be smarter? You can, they claim, by following the hormone optimisation-targeted system that they've developed. The experts provide a practical step-by-step guide to help you look your best and supercharge your fitness. This book also includes an introductory note by actor and former professional bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger. |
| One Hundred Names: A beautiful tale Posted: 26 Apr 2013 01:20 AM PDT You don't need bombastic words to get a wise message across or tell a beautiful story. One Hundred Names AS A writer, one is expected to know as many words (and their meanings) as possible, and that's cool because it helps with the writing; I get that. But what is not cool is when some writers decide to use all the words in the world in one book and try to impress people with their vast vocabulary. What is up with that? Honestly, that just makes reading difficult for me because I don't even know most of the words out there, let alone their meaning. I found out just three days ago that obstreperous means difficult ... and that word has been around forever. Anyway, this is precisely why I love Cecelia Ahern, because her books are written in easy sentences for all to understand and, honestly, that it is a trait not seen in many writers today. Ahern knows exactly how to engage people with nothing but simple words, leaving the difficult ones where they belong – in the dictionary. And though you might deem her words fit only to educate a layman, the message she sends through them could enlighten the wisest person. Her message often holds such weight that dismissing Ahern as "just" another chick lit author is laughable. Ahern always has an interesting story to tell, and she often tells it well – and in One Hundred Names she tells the best one so far. In my review of one of Ahern's previous works, Thanks For The Memories, I wrote that most (if not all) of her female protagonists are "self-pitying, whiny, I-need-five-people-to-help-put-my-life-back-together sort of women". I wasn't wrong. The lead heroine in this book is one as well. (Hmm, OK, maybe Ahern needs to work on that a little bit.) In One Hundred Names, we have Katherine Logan, a young woman who has nothing going right in her life. She is fired as a television host and is facing a lawsuit after she mistakenly accused a teacher of impregnating his student on her show – which has also sparked protests in the form of paint and dog poop smeared on her front door every day. Her position as a writer for well-respected magazine Et Cetera is hanging by a thread. And she has been returning to an empty apartment ever since her boyfriend moved out quietly without even informing her of their break up. Feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, Katherine turns to her mentor, Constance Dubois, the editor of Et Cetera, for support. Even that turns out to be a disaster, though, because Constance is suffering from cancer and is on her death bed. Before she dies, however, she gives Katherine a list of 100 names with just one clue: the names are all connected to "the one story she had always wanted to write but never did". Excited again, Katherine pitches the idea to Peter, Et Cetera's acting editor, who decides to use it as the main piece in the magazine's tribute to Constance. Not that he's being nice about it – Peter actually expects Katherine to fail miserably. But the woman is hell bent on using the article to re-establish her career and keep her job at the magazine. With a list of names of people she has never heard of and no Constance to tell her what to do, though, Katherine finds herself facing one of the most difficult articles in her (possibly short-lived) career as a journalist. When she does manage to track down the people on the list, she realises that her real nightmare has just begun – because none of the folks has ever heard of Constance and no one has common stories to share. There is the personal shopper who buys perfect gifts for her clients, the old woman looking forward to her 85th birthday, an ex-convict who hears people's prayers, a beautiful young girl who gets fake proposals from her best friend every week, a middle-aged engineer who wants to enter his name in the Guinness World Record for pedalo racing (peddle-powered boat races), and a disfigured butterfly enthusiast who hides from the world. And that's just six out of the 100 folks she has to interview. With one week to work on the story, and no article to submit to Peter who is breathing down her neck, Katherine is at her wits' end as she races against time. So, does she find the missing link before the deadline? OK, I'll be nice here and tell you that she does. This is not a spoiler because, first of all ... duh, it's Ahern we're talking about. Does she ever have a sad ending to any of her stories? No. And secondly, what matters is not the fact that she finds the connection, but the connection itself. It is so beautiful that I wish everyone will learn what it is and will keep it in mind every time they see someone. It has the potential to forever change the way in which we all interact with people. |
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