Thursday, 30 June 2016
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Ripper by Isabel Allende
Paperback: For Amanda Martín and her friends, Ripper started off as just a game.
The Jackson women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Though their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda's father, she is reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her - Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco's elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL.
While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature - as is her father, the SFPD's deputy chief of homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior Amanda is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and to Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.
The murders begin to mount up and the Ripper players, free from moral and legal restraints, may pursue any line of enquiry. When Amanda's mother suddenly vanishes, the case becomes all too personal. Could her disappearance be linked to the serial killer? And will Amanda and her online accomplices solve the mystery before it is too late?
About the author: Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a bestselling author based in California. All her books are written in her native Spanish and have been translated into more than 35 languages and have sold more than 67 million copies. Her works both entertain and educate readers by weaving intriguing stories with significant historical events. Settings for her books include Chile throughout the 15th, 19th and 20th centuries, the California gold rush, the guerrilla movement of 1960s Venezuela, the Vietnam War, and the slave revolt in Haiti in the 18th century.
Allende, who has received dozens of international tributes and awards over the last 30 years, describes her fiction as “realistic literature,” rooted in her remarkable upbringing and the mystical people and events that fuelled her imagination. Her writings are equally informed by her feminist convictions, her commitment to social justice, and the harsh political realities that shaped her destiny.
In addition to her work as a writer, Allende also devotes much of her time to human rights. Following the death of her daughter in 1992, she established in Paula’s honour a charitable foundation dedicated to the protection and empowerment of women and children worldwide. She says she lives with one foot in California and the other in Chile.
Rating: 5/5
Sunday, 26 June 2016
Dark Spell: Surviving The Sentence (True Crime) by Mara Leveritt with Jason Baldwin
Paperback: A prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate. This responsibility carries with it specific obligations to see that the defendant is accorded procedural justice, that guilt is decided upon the basis of sufficient evidence and that special precautions are taken to prevent and to rectify the conviction of innocent persons. - American Bar Association
Falsely accused, Jason Baldwin summoned courage facing death, hope entering prison and peace kicking Hacky Sack.
Devil's Knot (2014), the first book in the Justice Knot Trilogy, explored how prosecutors won convictions of the West Memphis Three for murder, virtually without evidence.
In Dark Spell (2014), part two of Mara Leveritt's Justice Knot Trilogy, Jason relates how he was abducted at sixteen from his family, disappeared into the nightmare of his prison and held there by the intransigence of the criminal legal system. His insightful, upbeat persona brightens the harshness of what he endured.
Jason's story illuminates the many ways America's justice system can go wrong and fight - often with a vengeance - to sustain that wrong. It celebrates the ordinary heroes who rose up, using art and new technology, to challenge trials they saw as mockeries of justice. At heart, it shows how an innocent man trapped in prison managed to forge a life of honour by sticking to personal integrity, education and play.
"This case deserves such attention because, in its complexity, it represents so many of the individual problems that plague American courts. A forthcoming book will conclude this Justice Knot Trilogy," wrote Mara Leveritt on her Author's Note's page.
About the authors: Contributing editor to the Arkansas Times and past Arkansas Journalist of the Year, has reported for almost three decades on police, courts and prisons. Mara has written three nonfiction books about crime and public corruption and she is working on a fourth - the third book in the Justice Knot trilogy about the West Memphis Three.
The Boys on the Tracks (1998) is about murder and prosecutorial corruption in Saline County. Devil’s Knot (2002/2014) is about the deeply problematic trials of the teenagers who became known as the West Memphis Three. Dark Spell (Bird Call Press) is about Jason Baldwin’s post-conviction ordeal. The first two of these were awarded Arkansas’s prestigious Booker Worthen Prize.
Mara is the 2014 recipient of the Porter Prize. Established in 1984, the Porter Fund Literary Prize is a non-profit organization supporting Arkansas writers and poets. The Porter Prize was founded in honour of Dr. Ben Kimpel. In May 2014, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock awarded Mara an honorary PhD, hooding her as a “doctor of humane letters.”
In 2012, Mara was awarded a Laman Fellowship to continue work on Justice Knot, her trilogy about the West Memphis case and the questions it raises about the adequacy of judicial processes in the US. That year, the Southeast Region of the American Board of Trial Advocates named her its Journalist of the Year, “in recognition of her years of unbiased reporting of the facts and legal arguments in many high-profile court proceedings and her persistent efforts to explain to the public the reasoning underlying sometimes controversial court decisions.”
Jason Baldwin's sentence to life in prison at the age of sixteen in 1994 for a crime he did not commit, ultimately spending eighteen years of his life in prison as a minor, has since been ruled unconstitutional. Since he was released in 2011, he has travelled the country advocating for criminal justice reform and also earned his Associate of Arts degree.
"My life has been one filled mostly with heartache, pain, injustice and the worst people have to offer. But it is also one of perseverance, hope, love and our capacity to rise above - I have seen, too, the best humanity has to offer. The truth is, without the kindness of others, I would still be in prison today," said Jason.
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (True Crime) by Mara Leveritt
Paperback: Were the West Memphis trials witch trials?
Had a jury sentenced someone to death based on nothing more than children's accusations, confessions made under pressure and prosecutors' arguments linking the defendants to Satan?
Were the 1994 trials in Arkansas like those in Salem three centuries ago?
There were the questions that gave rise to this book. The West Memphis Three. Accused, convicted...and set free. Do you know their story?
For weeks in 1993, after the grisly murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stumped. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers - alleged members of a satanic cult - with the killings. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in their home state - even upheld on appeal - and all three remained in prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011.
In Devil's Knot (2014), now a major feature film starring Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon, award-winning investigative journalist Mara Leveritt presents the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on this story and unravels the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case. It is the first time all elements of the case have been assembled in one narrative. More importantly, Devil's Knot is an indictment of a culture and legal system that failed to protect children as defendants or victims. It is a highly recommended read.
About the author: Contributing editor to the Arkansas Times and past Arkansas Journalist of the Year, has reported for almost three decades on police, courts and prisons. Mara has written three nonfiction books about crime and public corruption and she is working on a fourth - the third book in the Justice Knot trilogy about the West Memphis Three.
The Boys on the Tracks (1998) is about murder and prosecutorial corruption in Saline County. Devil’s Knot (2002/2014) is about the deeply problematic trials of the teenagers who became known as the West Memphis Three. Dark Spell (Bird Call Press) is about Jason Baldwin’s post-conviction ordeal. The first two of these were awarded Arkansas’s prestigious Booker Worthen Prize.
Mara is the 2014 recipient of the Porter Prize. Established in 1984, the Porter Fund Literary Prize is a non-profit organization supporting Arkansas writers and poets. The Porter Prize was founded in honour of Dr. Ben Kimpel. In May 2014, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock awarded Mara an honorary PhD, hooding her as a “doctor of humane letters.”
In 2012, Mara was awarded a Laman Fellowship to continue work on Justice Knot, her trilogy about the West Memphis case and the questions it raises about the adequacy of judicial processes in the US. That year, the Southeast Region of the American Board of Trial Advocates named her its Journalist of the Year, “in recognition of her years of unbiased reporting of the facts and legal arguments in many high-profile court proceedings and her persistent efforts to explain to the public the reasoning underlying sometimes controversial court decisions.”
Sunday, 19 June 2016
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Friday, 17 June 2016
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger with Peter Petre
Hardback: "It's not what you get out of life that counts. Break your mirrors! In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. You'll get more satisfaction from having improved your neighbourhood, your town, your state, your country and your fellow human beings than you'll ever get from your muscles, your figure, your automobile, your house or your credit rating. You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, speech at Yale University, 1994.
Here is Arnold, with Total Recall (2012).
His story is unique and uniquely entertaining and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.
He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star.
By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr Universe.
Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.
Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.
Within twenty years, he was the world's biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family.
Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow bodybuilders as the Austrian Oak was elected Governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world.
He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms and bipartisan solutions.
With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together.
Total Recall is the full story of Arnold's life, in his own voice.
About the author: Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, in 1947, and served as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he had a long career, starring in such films as the Terminator series: Stay Hungry, Twins, Predator and Junior. His first book, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a bestseller when published in 1977 and along with his Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding, has never been out of prince since.
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