Hot games

Another Sunday has rolled around, here's the bestselling video games at the various online retailers.

wolfenstein is kicking ass this week and its interesting to see the LEGO game franchise getting some play.

Take2
1. Guitar Hero 3 Stand Alone Guitar (Xbox 360)
2. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare GOTY (PC DVD-ROM)
3. Super Hits: Bioshock (PC DVD-ROM)
4. Wolfenstein (PC DVD-ROM)
5. Super Hits: Civilization IV Complete Collection (PC DVD-ROM)
6. Exclusive: Assassin's Creed (PC DVD-ROM) - Director's Cut
7. EA Classics: Mirror's Edge (PC DVD-ROM)
8. EA Classics: Crysis Warhead (PC DVD-ROM)
9. EA Classics: Mass Effect (PC DVD-ROM)
10. EA Classics: Dead Space (PC DVD-ROM)

Kalahari.Net
1. Wolfenstein - PC
2. Looney Tune: Acme Arsenal - PS2
3. Ashes Cricket 2009 - Nintendo Wii
4. The Sims 3 - PC
5. Fifa 10 with Adidas Kopanya Soccer Ball - PS3
6. Batman Arkham Asylum - PS3
7. Ashes Cricket 2009 - PS3
8. Lego Star Wars - PC
9. Singstar: ABBA - PS2
10. Lego: Batman - PS2

Amazon.com
1. Tales of Vesperia - Xbox 360
2. Wii Sports Resort - Nintendo Wii
3. Halo 3: ODST - Xbox 360
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum - PS3
5. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - Nintendo DS
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Xbox360
7. The Sims 3 - PC
8. Wii Fit - Nintendo Wii
9. EA Sports Active - Nintendo Wii

Bestsellers

As usual on a Sunday we take a look at the best-selling books on the various online retail platforms:

Two noticeable titles stood out for me this week:

First up was the third book in the Dean Koontz Frankenstein series which has been eagerly awaited after its release date was held back.

Secondly with Edward Kennedy departing the planet earlier this week, I see his memoirs were popular on Amazon

Take2
1. New Moon - Meyer, Stephenie
2. Eclipse - Meyer, Stephenie
3. Twilight - Meyer, Stephenie
4. Breaking Dawn - Meyer, Stephenie
5. Girl Who Played with Fire - Larsson, Stieg
6. Faefever - Moning, Karen Marie
7. Bengal's Heart - Leigh, Lora
8. Twilight - Meyer, Stephenie
9. Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - Book 3 - Koontz, Dean R.
10. Hidden Currents - Feehan, Christine

Exclusive Books
1. Architects of Poverty
2. Spud - Learning to Fly
3. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
4. New Moon
5. Breaking Dawn
6. Eclipse
7. Outliers
8. Twilight
9. Roadside Crosses
10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Amazon.com
1. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
2. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association - American Psychological Association
3. Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One (1) (Vol 1) - Julia Child
4. True Compass: A Memoir - Edward M.Kennedy
5. Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government - Glenn Beck
6. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
7. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
8. Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies - Michelle Malkin
9. The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships - Jerry Hicks
10. Sookie Stackhouse, Books 1-7 - Charlaine Harris

Kalahari.Net
1. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
2. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
3. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
4. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
5. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
6. Spud Learning to Fly - John Van de Ruit
7. Bittersoet - Natasha Sutherland
8. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
9. Thula-thula - Annelie Botes
10. Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage - Donald O. Clifton; Marcus Buckingham

How do you stack up?

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma-Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafo
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

We are All Made of Glue - Marina Lewycka

Every now and then I get e-mails from the team over at Fanatics with some of the new titles they are releasing and that book fans can pick up at Exclusive Books.

I received the following write-up on the book - We are All Made of Glue - and thought it looked like a potentially interesting read. Have fun:

Marina Lewycka, a previous Boeke nominee for A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian brings us her new novel, We are All Made of Glue. From bonding to bondage, from B&Q to Belarus, along with seven smelly cats, three useless handymen, two slimy estate agents, social workers, a bonker lady, this is the story of a very unlikely friendship.

Georgie Sinclair's husband has walked out; her sixteen-year-old son is busy surfing born-again websites; and, all those overdue articles for Adhesives in the Modern World are getting her down. So when Georgie spots Mrs Shapiro, an eccentric old Jewish emigrant neighbour with an eye for a bargain and a fondness for matchmaking, rummaging through her skip in the middle of the night, it's just the distraction she needs. And although they mistrust each other at first - Georgie doesn't like the look of that past-its-sell-by-date fish, while Mrs Shapiro thinks Georgie needs to smarten herself up and grab a new husband - a firm friendship is formed over the reduced-price shelf at the supermarket.

Then Mrs Shapiro is admitted to hospital and to Georgie's surprise, she is named as her next of kin. But sorting out Mrs Shapiro's semi-derelict mansion in Highbury, home to seven stinky cats with agendas of their own, is no easy job when the handyman called in to change the locks turns out to be not what he seems and his two assistants are doing more breaking than fixing. And what about the two slimy estate agents [one with a charming taste for bondage] who start competing to trick Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old house or the social worker determined to commit her to a nursing home? As Georgie steps in to help her new friend, she finds herself unravelling a mystery which takes her from Highbury to wartime Europe to the Middle East, and learning a bit about DIY along the way.

Marina Lewycka was born in Kiel, Germany at the end of the war and grew up in England. She is married with a grown-up daughter and lives in Sheffield. Her two previous novels, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans.

We are All Made of Glue is available to purchase or order at your nearest Exclusive Books.

Jim Collins - How the Mighty Fall

Considering the tough economic environment and the impact that this is having on peoples business and personal lives, this might be an interesting book to look at:

Decline can be avoided. Decline can be detected. Decline can be reversed. Amidst the desolate landscape of fallen great companies, Jim Collins began to wonder: How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom becomes inevitable and unshakable? How can companies reverse course? In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course. Collins' research project - more than four years in duration - uncovered five step-wise stages of decline: Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success; Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More; Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril; Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation; and, Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. By understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom. Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover. Every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline.

There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall and most eventually do. But, as Collins' research emphasizes, some companies do indeed recover - in some cases, coming back even stronger - even after having crashed into the depths of Stage 4. Decline, it turns out, is largely self-inflicted, and the path to recovery lies largely within our own hands. We are not imprisoned by our circumstances, our history, or even our staggering defeats along the way. As long as we never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.

About the author:
Jim Collins is a student of companies - great ones, good ones, weak ones, failed ones - from young start-ups to venerable sesquicentenarians. The author of the international bestseller Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last, he serves as a teacher to leaders throughout the corporate and social sectors. His work has been featured in Fortune, Business Week, The Economist, USA Today, and Harvard Business Review. You can find more information about Jim and his work at his e-teaching site, www.jimcollins.com.


Fanatics Members EARN 100 BONUS POINTS on the Jim Collins titles below, offer valid until 31 August!

• Good to Great
• Built to Last

www.fanatics.co.za

Deon Meyer - Dead at Daybreak

Until earlier this week I had never read a Deon Meyer book and truth be told I probably wouldn't have made much effort to do so.

Fortunately I was bored and there was a Deon Meyer book which materialised - I am still not entirely clear on how - on our bookshelf and I decided to give it a go...

... and I am glad I did.

To see a South African author putting out such good quality work impresses me.

The book was entitled: "Dead at Daybreak" and the synopsis reads:

An antiques dealer is burned with a blow torch, then killed. The contents of the safe are missing and the only clues are a scrap of blank paper and the unusual weapon used, the choice of mercenaries, not burglars. Now ex-cop Zatopek 'Zed' van Heerden has fourteen days in which to fill in the blanks in this dead man's past.

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The book itself had a distinctly South African feel to it and you got a good sense of real-life in South Africa. The one area I battled with was trying to place where in time the story was set (I think it had something to do with the jumping around in time and the small-towns which were mentioned) but it became clearer as the story went along.

I actually quite enjoyed the book and would definately go and see if I could pick up other titles by this author.

Details
Title: Dead at Daybreak Author: Deon Meyer ISBN-13: 978-0-340-73943-3

Rated the book a 3 and half out of 5 - an entertaining crime / action read

Hot video games - Sunday 9 August 2009

Another Sunday is here so let's see what video games are selling well on the various online retailers.

We have added the EDreams platform for a bit of variety to our listing. Let us know if any of these game titles catch your eye.

I know I have said it before but I find it interesting to see how often the Amazon platform is dominated by Nintendo and Xbox360 titles while PS2 and PC are still very popular locally. Not sure what to make of that??

Edreams
1. Nintendo Wii Fit
2. Grand Theft Auto IV - XBOX 360
3. Guitar Hero Aerosmith Bundle - Xbox 360
4. Soul Calibur IV - Xbox 360
5. Star Wars The Force Unleashed - PS2
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 09 - PS3
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - PC
8. Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle
9. Singstar Ledgends Stand Alone - PS2
10. NBA 2K9 - PS2

CNA:
1. The Sims 3 - PC
2. EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis - Nintendo Wii
3. Wii Sports Resort - Nintendo Wii
4. God of War II - PS2
5. Gran Turismo 4 - PS2
6. Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs - PS2
7. Medal of Honor: 10th Anniversary Edition - PC
8. Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen - PS2
9. UFC2009 Undisputed - PS3

Amazon.com
1. Wii Sports Resort - Nintendo Wii
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum - PS3
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Xbox360
4. Madden NFL 10 - PS3
5. Wii Fit - Nintendo Wii
6. Madden NFL 10 - Xbox360
7. Halo 3: ODST - Xbox360
8. Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel - Nintendo Wii
9. EA Sports Active - Nintendo Wii
10. Wii Rock Band 2 Special Edition - Nintendo Wii

Take2
1. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare GOTY (PC DVD-ROM)
2. Super Hits: Bioshock (PC DVD-ROM)
3. Exclusive: Assassin's Creed (PC DVD-ROM) - Director's Cut
4. Super Hits: Civilization IV Complete Collection (PC DVD-ROM)
5. Prince Of Persia 4 (PS3)
6. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC DVD-ROM)
7. Sam & Max - Season 1 (PC)
8. Prince Of Persia 4 (Xbox 360)
9. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) In Stock
10. Exclusive: Tom Clancy's: Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PC DVD-ROM)

Kalahari.net
1. Wii Sports Resort and Motion Plus - Nintendo Wii
2. The House of the Dead: Overkill - Nintendo Wii
3. The Sims 3 - PC
4. Looney Tune: Acme Arsenal - PS2
5. Golden Compass - PS2
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Nintendo Wii
7. Wolfenstein + Free T-Shirt in Wolfenstein Bag (While Stocks Last) - PC
8. Final Fantasy X2 Platinum - PS2
9. Age of Empires Collector's Edition - PC
10. Devil May Cry 4 - PS3

Bestsellers - Sunday 9 August 2009

Another Sunday is here so let's see what books are selling well on the various online retailers:

For those who love cricket the Graeme Smith "A captains diary" should make for some very interesting reading considering the way he is either loved or hated despite being one of the most successful captains in history.

Just looking through the Amazon list, there some very interesting looking titles there - particularly if you have an interest in American politics.

Exclusive Books:
1. Spud - Learning to Fly
2. Graeme Smith: A Captain's Diary
3. Outliers
4. New Moon
5. Breaking Dawn
6. Eclipse
7. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
8. Twilight
9. Architects of Poverty
10. Spud

CNA:
1. A good woman - Danielle Steele
2. A new earth - Tolle, Eckhart
3. Eat, pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
4. Obama: From Promise to Power - David Mendell
5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Lechter, Sharon L Kiyosaki, Robert
6. Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell
7. The Love Dare - Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick
8. The secret - Byrne, Rhonda
9. The Shack - William P Young
10. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski

Amazon.com
1. Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One - Julia Child
2. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
3. Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine - Glenn Beck
4. Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies - Michelle Malkin
5. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
6. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
7. South of Broad - Pat Conroy
8. In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect - Ronald Kessler
9. The Shack - William P. Young
10. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power - Jeff Sharlet

Take2
1. New Moon (Paperback) - Meyer, Stephenie
2. Twilight (Paperback) - Meyer, Stephenie
3. Breaking Dawn (Trade Paperback) - Meyer, Stephenie
4. Eclipse (Paperback) - Meyer, Stephenie
5. Faefever (Paperback) - Moning, Karen Marie
6. Hidden Currents (Paperback) - Feehan, Christine
7. Bengal's Heart (Paperback) - Leigh, Lora
8. Girl Who Played with Fire (Paperback) - Larsson, Stieg
9. Promises in Death (Paperback) - Robb, J. D.
10. Spud Learning to Fly (Paperback) - John Van De Ruit

Kalahari.net
1. Spud - Learning to fly - John Van De Ruit
2. Nuwe Kinderverseboek - Riana Scheepers; Suzette Kotze-Myburgh
3. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment - Steve Harvey
4. Brock Biology of Microorganisms - John M. Martinko; Thomas D. Brock; Michael T. Madigan; David P. Clark; Paul Dunlap
5. Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
6. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
7. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
8. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
9. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell
10. The Host - Stephenie Meyer

Literary Award Winners

South African literature was recognised and praised at this year’s Sunday Times Literary Awards held at the stylish Summer Place, Hyde Park, Johannesburg on Saturday, August 1. In a Different Time by Peter Harris claimed the prestigious Alan Paton Award for non fiction to mark the 20th anniversary of the prize, while Anne Landsman’s The Rowing Lesson was honoured with this year’s Fiction Prize. The two authors received R75 000 each for their wins.

In a Different Time
In a Different Time tells the story of four young South Africans who embark on a mission that will ultimately take them to Death Row. They are a highly trained and experienced assassination squad reporting directly to Chris Hani. The narrative details their infiltration into the country, their operations, arrest and subsequent trial. These men are the foot soldiers who sacrificed everything. As their trial unfolds with their attorney fighting to save them from the gallows, so too does the story of their own lives and the choices they make. The story is set in a South Africa gripped by unrest and political tension, when the ANC was in exile and repression at its height.

Peter Harris was born in Durban, and grew up in Eastern Cape, and was educated at Michaelhouse, Rhodes and Warwick (UK). He practised law at JNB Bar for 15 years and was legal counsel to Cosatu. Involved in Peace Accord in the early 90s. Head of Monitoring Directorate of IEC in 1994.

"Many people have said that what they enjoyed about the book was that it made them remember a time of hope and ideals and horror and heroism, a time they had forgotten in a kind of cultural amnesia. I didn’t want to write a protest book about protest politics. I wanted to make it a book about ordinary people who ended up doing some horrible things; I wanted to understand what drove them to that point without casting judgment," says Harris.

The Rowing Lesson
Pregnant with her first child, Betsy Klein is summoned from her home in New York to her father’s hospital bed in Cape Town. Once caregiver and physician to a whole community, her father is now slowly slipping to the other side. As Betsy sits and waits for him to stir from his coma, she is compelled to imagine what his life had been like as a young Jewish man, surrounded by farmers on the South African platteland, only a decade since the Second World War. The Rowing Lesson is an utterly convincing and vivid portrait of one man’s life, and also that of a daughter, recapturing the dreams and longings of a father and husband.

Anne Landsman was born and raised in Worcester in the Western Cape and received degrees from the University of Cape Town and Columbia University. Her first novel, The Devil's Chimney, which was nominated for four awards including the M-Net Prize. She lives in New York City with her husband and children.

"In a lesser writer’s hands, this kind of shifting narrative could be problematic, but through the fluidity and sheer inventiveness of her prose, Landsman pulls it off… You finish The Rowing Lesson feeling as if you too have lived through Harold’s last hours. It has the surreal, visceral quality of a life flashing before the eyes – a final montage of an ordinary existence, made extraordinary through the power of imagination." -Irish Times, Catherine

Both books are available from Exclusive Books