Tom Clancy: The Teeth of the Tiger
Michael Joseph / Penguin Australia. Hardback: $49.95.
A man named Mohammed
sits in a café in Vienna, about to propose a deal to a Colombian.
Mohammed has a strong network of agents and sympathizers throughout
Europe and the Middle East, and the Columbian has an equally strong
drug network throughout America. What if they were to form an alliance,
to combine all their assets and connections? The potential for profits
would be enormous – and the potential for destruction unimaginable.
In the brave new world of terrorism, anybody with a spare AK-47,
a knowledge of kitchen chemistry, or simply the will to die, can become
a player…
R L Trask, Mind the Gaffe: The Penguin
Guide to Common Errors in English. Penguin paperback: $24.
Studying English grammar can be a bore, but it need not be so – as
this book amply shows.
“We live in an age”, writes American linguist Dr Larry Trask, “when
jargon-ridden, buzzword-laden, content-free writing surrounds us and
almost drowns us. Advertising, junk mail, gushing celebrity pieces,
the tracts distributed by assorted religious sects, all kinds of New
Age dross, and the public statements of politicians and military men
are just a few of the most obvious examples.”
In this straight-talking and highly entertaining book, Trask gives
forthright advice on how to write simply and effectively, highlighting
pretentious words that should be avoided at all costs (synergy,
interface, feedback…), and suggesting guidelines for the use of
e-mail.
Previous books by Trask include The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
(1997) and The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar (2000).
Kathy Chater, Tracing Your Family Tree.
Lorenz / Pan Macmillan. $45.
Trying to find out about
your lineage can be a daunting task. Where do you start? This invaluable
reference work takes you step-by-step through the whole process, from
interviewing living relatives to identifying uniforms from old photographs,
to looking up old wills and church records.
There is useful information on using the Internet, newspapers and
record offices. The book also discusses researching before the 1550s,
the problems that may arise, and how to decipher heraldic crests and
palaeography. This book will arm you with everything you need to become
your family history detective. Kathy Chater has written widely, worked
for the BBC, taught genealogy, and traced her own family back to the
1600s.
David Alterton, Illustrated Encyclopedia
of Caged & Aviary Birds. Lorenz / Pan Macmillan. $17.95
This comprehensive
full-colour guide to pet birds features more than 250 species from
the major bird groups of the world. Waxbills, weavers and whydahs,
canaries and related finches, quails and pheasants, softbill parakeets,
cockatiels, cockatoos, lories and lorikeets, parrots, doves and pigeons
are listed, directory-style, with breed boxes giving information on
their plumage, natural distribution and size.
Vibrant close-up photography shows off the sheer brightness of the
birds, and the clear, concise text ensures that this is an invaluable
directory for all bird-keepers. David Alderton, who has been breeding
and keeping birds for over 30 years, is an internationally best-selling
authority on pets and their care.
Peter Grant, Habitat Garden: attracting
wildlife to your garden. ABC Books. Paperback: $27.95
Habitat Garden shows
you how to design and create a garden full of Australian native plants
that, in turn, will encourage Australian insects and animals to thrive.
Imagine watching a honeyeater hover over a grevillea, or a bandicoot
sneaking under a bush. Or listen to the sound of a pond filled with
tadpoles and frogs. This book also shows how habitat gardens can best
be established in various climate, water and soil conditions around
Australia.
Delicious – Let’s Entertain: Easy menus
for every occasion. ABC Books. Paperback: $35
The team from Delicious
magazine show you how to create the perfect menu for a variety of
“entertaining” occasions with special tips on table settings, events
planning, sourcing foods and other tricks of the trade. You can impress
your friends with fabulous recipes from celebrity chefs Maggi Beer,
Nigella Lawson, Rick Stein, Ainsley Harriot, Delia Smith, Antonio
Carluccio and others. Learn how to make the perfect menu for a seafood
barbecue, weekend dining, a breakfast by the pool and much more. Recipes
include chocolate raspberry cake, fish tagine, panzanella, banana
chocolate bread, chilli mussels and teriyaki salmon.
Andrew Howey, What’s it like Mate? Australian
Expressions. Brolga / Pan Macmillan. $19.95
This delightful book
is in the style of the Blue Day Book, but in full colour and
with the focus entirely on our Australian slanguage and expression.
Great colour photographs illustrate our most treasured Aussie-Strine
sayings, such as: like a bandicoot on a burnt bridge, raining
cats and dogs, all alone like a country dunny, Buckley’s
chance, a fly in the ointment, and many more…
Toby Creswell, Love is in the Air: Stories
of Australian Pop Music. ABC Books. Paperback: $29.95
This book is a tie-in to the ABC TV series screening this month,
which looks at Australian popular songs from Waltzing Matilda
to Shaddup You Face. Many of the legendary characters who helped to
create a vibrant pop scene here lend their voices to this fascinating
trip through the backrooms of three decades of Australian popular
song.
Toby Creswell was the editor of Australia’s Rolling Stone
magazine from 1985 to 1992 and was the co-founder of Juice
magazine.
Ian Rankin, A Question of Blood.
Orion/Allen & Unwin. $29.95
A shooting incident
at a private school north of Edinburgh leaves two 17-year-olds dead
– killed by an ex-army loner who has gone off the rails.
The investigation takes Scottish detective John Rebus into the heart
of a shattered community, but the killer had friends and enemies to
spare – ranging from civic leaders to the local Goths – and has left
behind a legacy of secrets and lies.
Special Book Offer
For your chance to win one of two copies of Ian Rankin’s A
Question of Blood, put your details on the back of an envelope
and send it to Book Comp, SA Police Journal (168).
