BOOK OF THE WEEK with Linda Jennings. The Burn, Haylie Pomroy, ISBN 9780593075036 (Bantam) BD7.300 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
More diet books seem to be published on the first day of every year than at any other time. I’ve had a look at them all and it seems to me that this one contains good, easy-to-follow plans, credible explanations and recipes too. So if you need to trim down after the excesses of the Christmas season – why not try The Burn.
The book contains three unique weight loss plans to burn off the pounds and jump-start your metabolism:
The I-Burn plan; to lose up to 3lbs in three days through targeting the body’s inflammatory reactions to food and flush out toxins, producing prominent cheekbones and a glowing complexion;
The D-Burn plan; to lose up to 5lbs in five days through healing the body’s digestion, thus creating a flat belly with tighter hips and thighs;
The H-Burn plan; to lose up to 10lbs in 10 days by stabilising the natural hormone regulatory system, thus allowing your body to burn off unwanted fat.
Well known in Hollywood and in the medical community for her ability to effect rapid weight-loss by using foods to stoke up the metabolism, her thriving practices and celebrity client list are a testimony to how effective her diet plans can be – so let’s see how it works in Bahrain.
Email us on bookclub@gulfweekly.com and let us know how you get on!
* Read it now in paperback
The Murder Bag, Tony Parsons, ISBN 9780099591054 (Arrow) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.
The gripping first novel in an explosive new crime series by Tony Parsons, bestselling author of Man and Boy. If you like crime novels by Ian Rankin and Peter James, you will love this debut thriller introducing DC Max Wolfe.
Twenty years ago seven rich, privileged students became friends at their exclusive private school, Potter’s Field. Now they have started dying in the most violent way imaginable.
Detective Max Wolfe, single parent and defender of the weak has recently arrived in the Homicide division of London’s West End Central, 27 Savile Row (and home of the vice squad).
Soon he is following the bloody trail from the backstreets and bright lights of the city, to the darkest corners of the internet and all the way to the corridors of power.
As the bodies pile up, Max finds the killer’s reach getting closer to everything – and everyone – he loves.
Soon he is fighting not only for justice, but for his own life.
This novel has received much interest from critics and it seems that Wolfe is set to join the pack of famous fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Harry Hole. Lee Child said of The Murder Bag: “Spectacular! Tense but human, fast but authentic - maybe this is what Tony Parsons should have been doing all along.”
Great praise indeed from one of the world’s greatest crime writers.
* My favourite read-of-the-week
Wake, Anna Hope, ISBN 9780552779463 (Black Swan) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.
A powerful and moving debut novel by Anna Hope about the aftershock of the Great War, this beautifully written book is very impressive indeed. Unfolding over five days leading up to November 11, 1920, the tale is of three women who have lost loved-ones, set against the journey of the Unknown Soldier from Northern France to the Cenotaph.
The scene is Remembrance Day 1920 and a wartime secret connects three women’s lives: Hettie whose wounded brother won’t speak; Evelyn who still grieves for her lost lover; and Ada, who has never received an official letter about her son’s death, and is still waiting for him to come home.
As the mystery that binds them begins to unravel, far away, in the fields of France, the Unknown Soldier embarks on his journey home. The mood of the nation is turning towards the future – but can these three women ever let go of the past?
Anna Hope, educated at Oxford University and RADA, was inspired to write this novel after a visit to the Somme, where she was struck by the sight of so many rows of identical graves, and wondered at the grief of the women left behind.
It is an extraordinary debut novel from an author I have no reservations in recommending and of whom I am sure we will be hearing a great deal more in the future.