Book of the Week – Vietnam Gunners

Vietnam Gunners

Lt SD Newman

This week’s Book of the Week is a wee bit different, but just as exciting, especially for those of you who are interested in New Zealand’s military history – in particular the Vietnam War.

We are very lucky to have a couple of copies of this special book in stock now. Due to the value of these books we have them stored away safely but can get them out for viewing by arrangement of course.

This book covers the history of New Zealand’s 161 Battery in the Vietnam War. A factual history of operations an insight into the lifestyle of the modern Kiwi Gunner at war – the human and humorous as well as the serious aspects of life on the field of battle.

What a great book to add to your collection, or to give to someone as a special gift. These books are fairly rare to get your copy now so you don’t miss out or before their value climbs even higher!!!

Happy reading book buddies!

Book Review – The Celestine Prophecy

The Celestine Prophecy

James Redfield

Choosing a book to review this week wasn’t very hard at all due to the amount of interest we have had in this particular book and the subject matter it covers.

The core of the book is based around nine insights which explain the theory and practices behind working with energies, universal laws, as well as the authors theory on the much talked about ‘ascension’ process.

The twist in this book is that the author has taken these ‘nine insights’ or spiritual concepts and has formed them into an adventure story. The story follows the main character into the rainforests of Peru where he puts his life in danger searching for, and ultimately saving, the manuscript (which contains the nine insights) from some in the Church who fear the revelations will undermine the Church’s teachings and power over its people. The Church also has the backing of the Peruvian Government and neither will stop at anything until they shut this thing down.

I had already read this book several years ago, but second time around I still really enjoyed it. There is a layering of concepts in this book which make it a great read for those who are just starting out on their spiritual journey as well as those who have been walking the path for a while.

If you were to read this book as a purely fictional story don’t expect too much. The concept, storyline and structure are done well but the execution of the story does let it down a bit. On the flip-side, as a spiritually, thought-provoking, boundary-pushing, mind-expanding and multi-million copy selling piece of writing I do rate this book highly.

Here’s the information from the book to give you a few more details and a better idea of what to expect….

An Ancient manuscript has been found in Peru. Its contents: nine insights the human race is predicted to grasp as we enter an era of true spiritual awareness.

In this gripping adventure-tale, James Redfield offers a compelling vision of the new spiritual understanding that is emerging in human culture. You will instantly recognize the coincidences – sudden unexplained events that, once interpreted correctly, serve to guide and direct our actions.

Join the adventure and let this synchronistic perception guide you through a daring search for the remaining insights. Each will be found in turn, and each will clarify how a growing link with the spiritual is relentlessly transforming human life.

Reading like a story of high adventure, but having the in-depth effect of a spiritual parable, The Celestine Prophecy will take you on a journey that will lighten your soul, and connect you with a vision and an experience that is already changing the world.

~~~

Are three decades of interest in modern physics, ecology, mystical religion and interpersonal psychology finally synthesizing into a new spiritual “common sense”?

Are we now beginning to live this new common sense?

Can it become the dominant paradigm of the next century?

If this sounds good and you feel like these questions you would like to contemplate then head to our website and grab your copy.

You’ll also be pleased to know that The Tenth Insight is the sequel to The Celestine Prophecy and following the same theme furthering explores the other dimensions, the nature of intuition, synchronicity and visualisation.

After reading these two books, if you feel as though you want to explore these concepts further in your own life, you’ll be able to move onto the next book The Celestine Prophecy: An Experiential Guide.

So there we go, this week’s book review is all wrapped up. I would love to hear from you if you have any comments or questions about this book.

Until next time … happy reading my book-loving buddies!

Helen – Book lover extraordinaire!  

Here’s Your Chance!

Hello Bookwormers friends!

I am changing things up a bit and today and instead of putting up our Book Review and Book of the Week, I just wanted to have a bit of a chat with you! It won’t hurt at all I promise!

With an Australasian book giant gone into voluntary administration and the strong growth of e-books it’s a sobering reminder that we all need to support each other to keep our much loved boutique book stores in business. If these giants are falling then we independent sellers have a big job ahead of us. Here at Bookwormers we have experienced steady growth in our first three years of business and with the help of you we are able to continue to grow and expand our services, so we are constantly improving ourselves for you! Part of our approach is one of good quality and range of products, great service and being as eco-friendly as possible. For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of visiting our Warkworth store, you would have missed out on the fact that our store always smells great (we clean and repair every single used book that is in stock), that all the books are in easy-to-find locations, that there are signs to tell you If you like….this author then you may like…these authors, that we have customers that call in (in between taking their bags of books) just to sit on our counter stool and say hello! I know, how lucky are we to get to meet these wonderful people (you) every day and share our love of books. It is a little harder to reproduce this in the world of the internet but we are continuing to improve our website to try and achieve this, and while this seems to be working well for us, we also know that there is always room for improvement.

So that’s where you come in, we would love to hear from you with your ideas and comments about what would make your perfect bookstore (whether you came in to see us or ordered online) so we can continue to make visits to Bookwormers you’re perfect experience.

And should we take any of these ideas, and action them due to the comments and ideas that you have left then we’ll have one of our prize books on its way to you!

So what are you waiting for? Leave your comments and ideas here so you can help us to make Bookwormers even better for you!

We look forward to hearing from you,

You’re book-loving buddy Helen.

Book of the Week – Sahara

Sahara

Clive Cussler

This is a great book for readers who love action and adventure!

You can either read it as a great novel on its own, or if you have already started reading Clive Cusslers great adventures then you can add this book into your collection as Book Eleven in the Dirk Pitt Series.

This book is all about Dirk Pitt, while deep in the African desert, discovering that a top-secret scientific installation is leaking a lethal chemical into the rivers, threatening to kill thousands of people – and to destroy all life in the world’s seas. To warn the world of the catastrophe, Pitt must escape capture and death at the hands of a ruthless West African dictator and French industrialist and undertake a long, perilous journey across the merciless Sahara…

A quick note about the author…

Clive Cussler is the founder of the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) a non-profit organisation that dedicates itself to American maritime and naval history. Clive Cussler and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered over 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites. All this action and adventure during his daily adventures makes definitely makes its way into his books, along with his great knowledge.

Clive Cussler is definitely one of our best-selling books and we usually find that if someone reads one of his books that they always come back for more! Particularly popular with our gentleman readers but we have noticed more women enjoying the action and adventure.

You can pick up your copy of this great book here!

Happy reading….into the wee hours of the night…when you can’t put this book down (he, he he),

Helen – you’re book loving buddy! 

Book Review – Time of the Wolf

Time of the Wolf

Elizabeth Harris

Keeping with the theme of the title, this book really is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. After reading the back of the book I wasn’t really interested. Then someone came into the shop and recommended it to me, but hhhmmm I still wasn’t really interested. Then I read the first chapter, and you got it… still not that interested. However, once I made it to chapter two the wolf (aka awesome story) leaped out, grabbed me and I couldn’t get away until I had finished this book.

This novel is a great mix of mystery, romance and drama. The author weaves the past and the future together to create a great plot – but due to the nature of the story I’m not going to tell you anymore as I don’t want to give anything away. What I will say is that it’s a great read, an easy read and highly enjoyable.

The back of the book…

The evil had lasted two thousand years  – only love could break it…

A special woman had filled Henry’s and Thea’s childhood with colour and mystery – Henry’s grandmother, Florence. The stories she told them,  of Dark-Age passion as and betrayals, fascinated them and yet they knew that, through the stories, Florence was trying to tell them something else; and that her interest in their growing love for each other seemed to have another dimension…

For, unknown to them, their passions has an extraordinary power – to reawaken the ghosts of an evil that has survived the passing of the centuries. Tormented by visions if the past, knowing the future is not theirs, Henry and Thea are thrown back to the Dark-Age world of The House of the Wolf and a destiny from which only one person can save them…

That’s it from me today, not much else to say except I give it a well deserved 7/10 and you should go and get your copy here!

Until next week…happy reading,

Helen

Book of the Week – Dark Lover

Dark Lover

JR Ward

Book one in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series 

This weeks Book of the Week are for those of you that are loving  the vampire based novels that are so popular at the moment and want another great author to read.

The first book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is about Wrath, the only purebred vampire left on earth, who has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But, when one of his most trusted fighters is killed – leaving his half-breed daughter unaware of his existence or her fate – Wrath must usher her into the world of the undead – a world beyond her wildest dreams…

If you are already one of the lucky ones who have read this book, we would love to know what you thought about it, all your favourite bits, whether you have read the whole series yet? Let us know in person, by phone or e-mail, or perhaps send in your review!

To get your own copy you can come into our Warkworth store or jump online and secure your copy now – Dark Lover  

If you fall in love with this series and want to learn more, share, compare and hear with like-minded people go to JR Wards website for lots of links to discussion groups and information sites. 

Because you won’t be able to stop after reading Dark Lover here is the list of the other books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series:
1. Dark Lover

2. Lover Eternal

3. Lover Awakened        

4. Lover Revealed

5. Lover Unbound           

6. Lover Enshrined       

7. Lover Avenged 

8. Lover Mine

9. Lover Unleashed

Book Review – Garden Spells

Garden Spells

Sarah Addison Allen

Being a keen gardener and one who likes a touch of magic and fantasy in the stories I read, it took me a whole 3 minutes to get this book ordered and on its way to me after a lovely lady came into our shop and recommended it. And I’m so pleased I did, this was such a lovely wee story and the perfect Sunday-morning read.

The author’s writing style lets you smell the food cooking in Claire’s kitchen, see the beauty of her magical garden and feel the purple sparkles that emanate from her rather cute neighbour. This book is great if you are just wanting a light read with a sweet story and a touch of magic. As I read through this book it was fairly obvious how the story was going to pan out, but the journey through the authors words still meant it was thoroughly enjoyable ride.

One thing that the author does really well is to weave magic into the story so it sounds like it is a completely normal thing to have an apple tree that throws apples at people, that is completely normal to make your neighbour a snap-dragon casserole in an attempt to re-direct his amorous attentions, that it is completely normal to have an old lady, who rather enjoys the athletic ‘back view’ of the male runners, as she travels around the town, giving items to people without knowing what they are for, but knowing that they are needed.   

Here is the info from the back cover – see if this pulls you into its magic spell like it did to me:

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence tucked away behind a small house in the smallest of towns, is an apple tree rumoured to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of the enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. A successful caterer, Claire prepares dishes made with her mystical plants – from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbour. Meanwhile, her cousin, Evanelle, distributes unexpected presents whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys – except for Claire’s sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down. Together again in the house they grew up in, the sisters soon realize they must deal with their common legacy – if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom…or with each other.

***

Yip – it looks pretty good doesn’t it (this is where you nod you’re head, wiggle your nose and see sparkles appear)!

My score for this book would be a 6/10. And like the Katie Fforde book I recently reviewed, it received this rating, not because it wasn’t great but because it’s so light and fun. And once again, if I was scoring on a summer/holiday reading scale it would be much higher up. Magic, love, food and family is a great recipe that you’ll want to try!

Happy reading my book-loving friends and I’ll be back again next week.

Book Review – Doctor From Lhasa

Doctor From Lhasa

T. Lobsang Rampa

The Second Book in the Dr Tuesday Lobsang Rampa Series

When reading this book you are not only getting to share in the story of a man who lived in Tibet, you are getting a bit of history, a glimpse into another culture, and even perhaps some controversy too.

I don’t think it really matters whether you read this book as fact or fiction, either way it’s a really interesting read. The controversy may even also add a certain quality to this book and made me think that perhaps this is all part of the authors objective to our expand our minds?

For those who don’t know of this author or his writing I’ll give you a brief background. Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was a writer who claimed to have been a lama in Tibet. During this book he shares with you all about his spiritual training as a lama and how he also trained and became a doctor and pilot for the Chinese regime, before becoming a Japanese prisoner of war for many, many years. The third book in this series (The Rampa Story) then moves onto the controversial part of the story where he tells how his physical body gives up (after years of torture as a prisoner of war) and he takes over the body of a man called Cyril Henry Hoskin (8 April 1910 – 25 January 1981).  This mutual take-over happened when Cyril fell out of tree, while photographing owls, and becomes severely concussed. As a man who wasn’t happy with his life or where it was going he agreed to let Lobsang take over his physical body. Now you can see why there was a bit of controversy aye?

 Generally the works of Lobsang Rampa are read by those who have an interest in the metaphysical and for those who do this book won’t disappoint. But, for those who may still have the jury out on these realms, but are happy to keep an open mind, you still should enjoy this book as the story he tells is full of adventure and is definitely thought-provoking. The story follows Lobsang as he travels from his beloved Tibet, through to China and then onto Japan, and he tells of his stories and on how his training as a lama helped him through each challenge that he was faced with – and he was faced with more than most people could ever handle! He covers subjects like clairvoyance, the miracle of the breath and takes us into the realms of the ‘old earth’ when giants walked the planet and technology allowed people to travel via craft we now only dream of.

I really enjoyed this book and its glimpse of our world history, its metaphysical aspects and also the humour. The biggest thing I took from this book was the authors acceptance for taking whatever life through at him and seeing everything as an opportunity…even when the only possible outcome seemed to be death. This book is really easy and a pleasure to read so I gave it an overall rating of 7/10, so definitely worth a read.

Until next week my book-loving friends….

Helen

Book of the Week – Sea Swept

Sea Swept

Nora Roberts

 This book has the honour of being our first Book of the Week! The reason why we chose this book is that it’s just been so popular over the holidays, and people kept asking for it (after being recommended it by friends), so we thought that this many people can’t be wrong!

The first book in the Chesapeake Bay series, Sea Swept is about about Cameron, Ethan and Philip who were all troubled young boys who were rescued and adopted at difficult periods in their lives by Raymond and Stella Quinn. Sea Swept is Cameron’s story. Cameron has lived the reckless life of a daredevil since leaving the quiet community of Chesapeake Bay. But when his dying father calls him home to care for Seth, a troubled young boy not unlike Cameron once was, his life changes overnight. Cameron has to learn to live with his brothers once again, and rivalries and resentments flare between them whilst they try to care for Seth. Only Seth’s fate is in the hands of a tough but beautiful social worker. She alone has the power to bring the Quinns together – or tear them apart…

If you are already one of the lucky ones who have read this book, we would love to know what you thought about it, all your favourite bits, whether you have read the whole series yet?

Let us know in person, by phone or e-mail, or perhaps send in your review!

 To get your own copy you can come into our Warkworth store or jump online and secure your copy now www.bookwormers.co.nz/estore/style/fvpnrss.aspx

Book Review – Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die

Paulo Coehlo

Ok, so the title looks a little depressing and you’re thinking why would I want to read that? So I’m here to tell you that this book is far from depressing, it is actually inspiring, life-enhancing and gives you plenty to think about as you go through your daily routines.

It’s such a great story I just want to sit here and tell you all about it, but because I’m the lovely person that I am, I won’t tell you too much about the stories plot as I don’t want to spoil it for you. But what I will say is that the author puts across his lessons about living each day to the full, seizing life and living in a way that is true to you, in a wonderful way that we can all relate to. He does this through the main character Veronika, a young woman with lots of opportunities and a loving family, who one day decides that her best future lies in death.

The story also takes you to a Slovenian mental institution called Villete where you are taught a lot about life through the eyes of the people that society calls mad. About how the rich hide out in the security of its walls so they can do whatever they like, under the pretence of madness, while escaping the usual responsibilities of adulthood. And how by trying to save themselves from the scary outside world, human nature is mirroring itself but just in disguise….waiting for every opportunity to rear its scary head.

And of course, being a book by Paulo Coelho, there are many more lessons, and points of interests for you to think about while reading this book, and woven into a story that will have you reading the book from front to back in one sitting.

“Madness freed me” and “I need to run the risk of being alive” are a few of the great statements that stuck with me right to the end of this book. As well as a really interesting paragraph about the correlation between the story of Adam and Eve, and today’s judicial system that had never even crossed my mind before, but is something else that put a piece of my puzzle together in how spirituality, science and society fits together. And just when you thought what else could possible fit into this small novel…..you’ll also get the story behind the QWERTY keyboard system that I’m using right at this moment, and that you probably would have never known if you hadn’t read this book!

So, if you have got to this point in my review and want to know more, here is the blurb from the book:

Veronika has everything she could wish for – young and pretty, with plenty of attractive boyfriends, a steady job, a loving family. Yet Veronica is not happy and one winter’s morning she takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up sometime later in the local hospital. There she is told that she is alive, her heart is now irreparably damaged and she has only a few days to live…

This story follows her through these intense days as she starts to question all her ideas about life. Soon she comes to realise that every second of existence is a choice we all make between living and dying. This is a moving and uplifting song to life, one that reminds us that every moment in our lives is special and precious.

I know, it sounds pretty awesome doesn’t it! Well it is, and so is getting my highest review score yet – a 9/10. This small compact book weaves a great story, great lessons and in a writing style that is pure poetry to my ears (I would say music to my ears but I’m completely tone deaf so wouldn’t really be a much of a compliment) .