Thai for Beginners

Undoubtedly one of the best learn Thai books on the market.   
An easy to use Thai language textbook designed for either self-study or classroom use great for any Thailand traveller be it holidays, volunteering or a Casanova into the bar girl scene.

This book teaches all four language skills speaking Thai, listening to Thai which can be challenging as the Thai language is tonal (when used in conjunction with the cassette tapes), reading and writing Thai. Offers clear, easy, step-by-step instruction, building on what has been previously learned.

In to days world Thailand sees millions of visitors each year from families visiting the famous Thai temples and culture, to food lovers that want to taste the exotic Thai meals.

Also hundreds of thousands of single men look to meet a special girl to share there life with these guys usually meet girls through the bar girl scene in Bangkok Chiangmai or Pattaya and Phuket. Meeting bar girls is easy but great communication and cultural understanding is not easy.

This book is a easy must for any budding guy looking for love although the bar girl s speak English there skills are limited, however combined with a good Thai language book such as this there is a much greater chance to find love as understanding becomes more clear on the Thai culture.

Being a ex-pat living in Thailand i see daily these very problems of guys that can not speak Thai looking for love in the bar girl scene and wondering why they never find someone genuine. I was in there very shoes some 10 years ago  but through the aid of great books such as this one i know speak fluent Thai and have learned about the culture, thus i meet a former bar girl whom i have lived with for the past 7 years but with out the Thai language skills would have certainly never got past 1 year. 

Thailand has a huge volunteer program mainly teachers of English to policing and aid workers, this Thai book would really aid volunteers with no Thai language skills with there students and people they come into contact with on a daily basis.

No matter what the reason you are visiting Thailand a small investment into this book allowing you to grasp some basic Thai language skills would be well worth your time. Also used by many Thai temples in America. Recommended books to be studied along with Thai for Beginners are Thai for Travellers (a practical Thai phrase book) and Speak like a Thai series by the same author.

About the Author:
Benjawan Poomsan Becker was born in Bangkok and spent her childhood in Yasothon, a small province in Northeast Thailand. Her family is ethnic Laotian, so she grew up speaking both Thai and Lao. She graduated from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 1990, with a B.A. in English. Benjawan gained extensive experience teaching Thai to foreigners while studying for her M.A. in Japan with the Japan-Thailand Trade Association and Berlitz Language School, and in the US with Thai temples, Stanford University and private students. She now resides in Berkeley, California where she continues to write and publish books on the Thai and Lao languages. Her books include "Thai for Beginners", "Thai for Intermediate Learners", "Thai for Advanced Readers", "Thai-English/English-Thai Dictionary for Non-Thai Speakers", "Improving Your Thai Pronunciation", "Practical Thai Conversation DVD Series", the popular "Speak Like a Thai Series" and many other titles on the Thai language.

Its a State of Mind

its a state of mind. an interesting short story for less that a pound.

from British Royal Marine Commando to Thailand undercover detective. 
This short story about Stan a former Marine Commando. this book will give you the fascinating insight in how he works as a foreign undercover detective in Asia. Stan spies undercover for a crack Royal Thai Police team infiltrating gangs with foreign connections or ran by foreigners. Drug trafficking and human trafficking is a real life problem that real people like Stan deal with day in day out. Dangerous is an understatement. 

The Author has pledged to Donate 10% of all income raised from sales of this short story to the injured Marines returning home from war thank you for your support.

Although this is a short story it has a great cause raising money for the injured marines. the money raise is split and sent to both US and UK charities aiding the injured marines so a purchase of this short story is very welcome. 

The author may not be a budding dickens but it is fairly well written even though his aim was to help a little.

Troops returning home from Afghanistan, troops such as the marines are raising in numbers fast now many thousands over the last ten years. Your support for the troops can be done in so many ways but what better than a purchase of a book for your enjoyment. 

in the top right corner of this blog you will find four books written by three different ex marines that have joined together by donating 10% of there book sales to aid the injured marines including a fast best selling book confessions of a royal marine commando now hovering around number 4000 of the amazon uk bestsellers rank   

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Crazy Love

God is love. Crazy, relentless, all-powerful love. Have you ever wondered if we’re missing it? It’s crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe--the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor--loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you’ve verbalized it yet or not...we all know somethings wrong. Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts--it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis Chan describes it, you will never be the same. Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.

Francis Chan is senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is the founder of Eternity Bible College and sits on the board of Children's Hunger Fund. His first book, Crazy Love, has sold over 175,000 copies in its first year. Francis and his family make their home in Southern California.

Mad River

Mad river is John Sandford s latest novel due for Amazon release on the 2nd of October 2012

John Sandford has a very unique writing style and always with a John Sandford book you will get great suspense so i am looking forward to this new release Mad river.

set in rural Minnesota this book tells a story of three teenagers on a crime spree.  

Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.

The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.

Mad River by John Sandford is already linked on Amazon for pre booking so be amongst the first to order and enjoy what is sure to be another John Sandford hit.

Now, Discover Your Strengths

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Now Discover your Strengths a self improvement book

Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our own talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them.

Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology's fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths and talents lie dormant and neglected.

Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance.

At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths.

The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.

So how does it work? This book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet.

This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes -- such as Achiever, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic, or Strategic -- you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results at three levels: for your own development, for your success as a manager, and for the success of your organization.

With accessible and profound insights on how to turn talents into strengths, and with the immediate on-line feedback of StrengthsFinder at its core, Now, Discover Your Strengths is one of the most groundbreaking and useful business books ever written.

(Please note that the code for the Online Strengths Finder Test is found on the inside of the dust jacket or in the sealed sleeve bound into the book just before the endpaper)

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Erik Larson—author of #1 bestseller In the Garden of Beasts—intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Review by: Brian D Rubendall
Author Erik Larson had set the bar pretty high for himself after his previous book, "Issac's Storm," was such a huge critical and commericial success. Surely, he couldn't top that, could he? Well, with "The Devil in the White City," Larson has produced a book at least the equal of, if not better than, his previous effort. As a work of history, this book has it all. It resurrects for the modern reader the memory of an all-too-forgotten historical event (the 1893 Chicago World's Fair) and combines it with the sensational and gruesome story of the firt American equivalent of Jack The Ripper.

The book is structured as a dual biography of Daniel Hudson Burnham, the steadfast architecht who was the prime mover in making the World's Fair an astounding succes; and of Dr. H.H. Holmes, the diabolical psychopath who operated his own killing chamber in a hotel he built not far from the fairgrounds. The two men never met, nor did they have any connection other than their contemporary existance, but weaving their stories together was a brilliant choice by Larson.

Larson provies plenty of colorful backdrop for his main story, vividly describing harsh life in 19th Century Chicago; the development of the first skyscrapers, the Charles Dickens-like ambiance of the streets and the colorful personalities that made it go. He also describes the amazing and lasting impact the Fair had upon America, the The Ferris Wheel, Cracker Jack and Shredded Wheat being but a few of the things that debuted there. And, of course, he graphically describes the Holmes murders and the investigation that finally brought him to justice. Larson is a diligent researcher in addition to being an excellent storyteller, and that's what makes this book so special.

Overall, an outstanding work of narrative history that is like to be high on most reviewer's lists of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2003.

The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment

Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment


Review from Amazon page by: Valerhon
Once upon a time, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy was one of the best kept secrets of novelist Anne Rice's body of work, published under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure. Any prolific reader of Rice's novels understands that when they open that cover, they are bound to enter a world so deeply conceived, so sumptuously described, that it takes on a life and plausibility all its own, and this series is no exception.

The tale begins with the awakening of Sleeping Beauty to ravishment by the Prince who breaks the spell of sleep on her kingdom. Indebted to the Prince, her parents consent to allow Beauty to be taken as tribute to the castle of the Prince's mother, Queen Eleanor, whose power dominates the surrounding kingdoms. Beauty is thereafter made to serve the erotic pleasures of the Queen's courtiers, male and female, who attempt to instill empathy and humility in her, and prepare her to be a wise ruler when she inherits her family's throne. This subtext of forging an entitled and spoiled aristocrat into an empathetic one is a clever and satisfying justification for the trials that Beauty must endure.

Unfortunately, Beauty and her fellow slaves Princes Alexi and Laurent, are rebellious. This results in deeper punishment, humiliations, and painfully pleasurable sexual torments. Their refusal to embrace the lessons of the Queen and her aristocracy prolongs their trials, leading to exile to a village of the common people. Here, their royal rank is meaningless and invites deeper, even resentful torments. When this also proves inadequate, they are exiled to a foreign land where they face the greatest trials of all.

To call the Beauty series pornography is to call a Rembrandt "just a painting". The eroticism is explicit, but never descends into psychological darkness. The trials are heady, playful at times, but never focused on the stereotypes of self-loathing submissives or egomaniacal dominants. The spanking, bondage and sex are a spice designed to season the characters, not destroy them. For the reader - straight, gay, or bisexual, there are characters and erotic scenes for everyone.

Another accomplishment of the series is the ambient bisexuality of all the characters that is devoid of faux moralizing. Beauty must serve the pleasure of men and women, and her male counterparts must do the same. Rice's medieval world doesn't judge orientations, but focuses like a laser on the universal pleasure of sexuality and mentoring. This gives the novels depth and an unexpected uplifting effect that lingers well beyond the turning of the final page.