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book review
The Bruneions Monthly Book Reviews features a list of book reviews of popular titles available from dBookHaus, Brunei.
This month we highlight six titles: The Accidental Billionaires, Does My Head Look Big in This?, Street Smarts, The Help, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and Fallen In Love.
TITLE . The Accidental Billionaires
AUTHOR . BEN MEZRICH
Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg - an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius - were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet all that changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university's entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students. Narrowly escaping expulsion, the two misfits refocused the site into something less controversial - 'The Facebook' - and watched as it spread like a wildfire across campuses around the country, along with their popularity.
Yet, amidst the dizzying levels of cash and glamour, with silicon valley, venture capitalists and reams of girls beckoning, the first cracks in their friendship started to appear, and what began as a simple argument spiraled into an out-and-out war. The great irony is that Facebook succeeded by bringing people together - but its very success tore two best friends apart.
An inspiring story nonetheless.
 | TITLE . Does My Head Look Big in This? AUTHOR . RANDA ABDEL FATTAH "It's mainly been the immigrants in my life who have inspired me to understand what it means to be an Aussie. To be a hyphenated Australian.“ Amal is a 16-year-old Melbourne teen with all the usual obsessions about boys, chocolate and Cosmo magazine. She's also a Muslim, struggling to honor the Islamic faith in a society that doesn't understand it. The story of her decision to "shawl up" and it's anxieties (like how much eyeliner to wear) is funny, surprising and touching by turns. Abdel-Fattah takes us into Amal’s world - a so-typically teen world that is filled with Arabic expressions, middle-eastern foods and Islamic practices. The attractive cover will easily pull teen readers into the story and give them a generally light read. This book is a good way to introduce teen girls to another culture. They’ll finish it and realize we’re all the same, but somehow different in some ways. |
 | TITLE . Street Smarts AN ALL-PURPOSE TOOL KIT FOR ENTREPRENEURS AUTHORS . NORM BRODSKY & BO BURLINGHAM People starting out in business tend to seek step-by-step formulas or rules, but in reality there are no magic bullets. Rather, says veteran company-builder Norm Brodsky, there's a mentality that helps street- smart entrepreneurs solve problems and pursue opportunities as they arise. Brodsky shares his hard-earned wisdom every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular "Street Smarts" column he co-writes with Bo Burlingham. Now they've adapted their best advice into a comprehensive guide for anyone running a small business. A great book for anyone interested in entrepreneurship. It has sound advice for every stage of running your own business. It may sound like common sense once you read it, but somehow we always need to be reminded. |
 | TITLE . The Help AUTHOR . KATHRYN STOCKET 'The Help' is Kathryn Stockett's story of three women in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. Not only was it a turbulent time in America's history with the beginnings of the civil rights movement, feminism, the rumblings of Vietnam, the assassination of Kennedy and more, all of this was even more tightly drawn in Mississippi. Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who's always taken orders quietly, but lately she's unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated from college. She's full of ambition, but without a husband, she's considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life in a small town... Kathryn Stockett has crafted a classic of the deep South and the black women who worked for, and raised, the white families in one of the most stormy moments in American history. |
 | TITLE . The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight AUTHOR . JENNIFER E.SMITH Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything? Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK airport, late for her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be step-mother that Hadley's never ever met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A. Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. If you have an ounce of romance in your soul, you'll love this book. The writing is flowing and beautiful, and it adds to the depth of the story - to the bittersweet moments that makes this book more than just a quick, fluffy read. |
 | TITLE . Fallen In Love AUTHOR . LAUREN KATE SOON TO BE RELEASED! RELEASE DATE : 24 JANUARY 2012 Set far back through the Announcers–somewhere between Passion and Rapture–Fallen in Love is a grand tour of romance that reaches through time and through hearts.. Just in time for Valentine's Day, it's FALLEN IN LOVE, four wholly original new stories collected in a new novel set in the Middle Ages by Lauren Kate. FALLEN IN LOVE gives fans the much-talked about but never-revealed stories of FALLEN characters as they intertwine with the epic love story of Luce and Daniel. The stories include: Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles , Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland; Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane; and Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda. |
