Available as: Pocket Paperback - eBook (PDF) - Amazon Kindle
As events reveal more about himself than he bargained for, an Englishman's spontaneous midwinter break in the Egyptian Red Sea with two beautiful Russian strangers produces an unexpected Christmas gift.
Ten Technologies to Save the Planet, by Chris Goodall
Why not attempt to be positive in the face of multiple indicators of our imminent global extinction? This book (Guardian extract here) caught my eye for providing optimism where it's most needed.
I am no engineer and despite my passion for the living environment find these kinds of books usually impenetrable, but Chris Goodall has a clear and lucid style which comprehensively explains diverse subjects as the renewable energy sources of wind power, wave power, solar, as well as carbon capture, passivhaus insulation concepts, bio-fuels, and even solid-oxide fuel cells, as well as providing an illuminated and unsentimental political and social context. Invaluable.
The Other Side of Israel, by Susan Nathan
Moving, informative and compassionate, easy to read but hard to forget, this book is the one I recommend to people who don't understand why middle-eastern peace is so elusive.
Written by a Jewish women from England who became an Israeli citizen, but then chose to live in an Arab town, The Other Side of Israel unpicks the state of Israel and reveals the institutional racism and the injustices of the present system, which fosters continuing conflict. Susan Nathan describes the Israeli attitude to their Arab neighbours and non-Jewish citizens of Israel, and does so convincingly by telling her fascinating personal story.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks
Blurb: Oliver Sacks' compassionate tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we understand our own minds. In "Musicophilia", he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians and everyday people - those struck by affliction, unusual talent and even, in one case, by lightning - to show not only that music occupies more areas of the brain than language does, but also that it can calm and organize, torment and heal.Always wise and compellingly readable, these stories alter our conception of who we are and how we function, and show us an essential part of what it is to be human. 'Fascinating. Music, as Sacks explains, "can pierce the heart directly". And this is the truth that he so brilliantly focuses upon - that music saves, consoles and nourishes us'
