it's that painful

Another gem by Cathy Glass,
Author of the bestselling Damaged and Hidden
CUT
SOLD at RM28

Retails at RM44.90

Condition NEW

My thoughts
I don't know why but I've always been drawn to stories and true accounts of kids - especially those living in a dangerous environment. It makes me ache for them and teaches me to be grateful for what I have.

Synopsis
In her new book, the no.1 bestselling author of Damaged tells the story of the Dawn, a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl whose outward appearance masks a traumatic childhood of suffering at the hands of the very people who should have cared for her.

Read all about it

ROMANCE
Find a safe place
Sanctuary

Selling at RM25

SOLD

Retails at RM33.95

Condition NEW

Synopsis
Photographer Jo Ellen Hathaway thought she'd escaped the house called Sanctuary long ago. She'd spent her loneliest years there, after the sudden, unexplained disappearance of her mother. But now someone is sending her pictures; strange, candid close-ups, culminating in the most shocking portrait of all - a photo of her mother, naked, beautiful and dead. Jo decides she must return to face her bitterly estranged family: her father, who has never recovered from the loss of his wife, and her brother and sister. But while her presence stirs up old resentments, Jo finds solace with architect Nathan Delaney - who is also facing his own demons. But while Jo and Nathan look for a way to lay the past to rest, a more sinister presence is watching the Hathaway family with interest. It seems Sanctuary may be the most dangerous place of all...

FANTASY

Ooh the nutter
Good Omens

REDUCED to

RM20

(inclusive of postage)

Retails at RM35.90

Synopsis
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future - the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea.

CHIC-LIT

Yes, milady..

The Duke & I
Bridgerton series, Book 1

SOLD

Retails at RM34.90

Condition NEW

Synopsis
Simon Basset, the irresistible Duke of Hastings, has hatched a plan to keep himself free from the town's marriage-minded society mothers. He pretends to be engaged to the lovely Daphne Bridgerton. After all, it isn't as if the brooding rogue has any real plans to marry-though there is something about the alluring Miss Bridgerton that sets Simon's heart beating a bit faster.

And as for Daphne, surely the clever debutante will attract some very worthy suitors now that is seems a duke has declared her desirable. But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, she soon forgets that their courtship is a complete sham. And now she has to do the impossible and keep herself from losing her heart and soul completely to the handsome hell-raiser who has sworn off marriage forever!

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Crying for Constance
Buy both and have your postage FOC!

Ugly

SOLD
Selling at RM25

Retails at RM38.90

Condition Used (AS NEW)

Beyond Ugly

SOLD
at RM30

Retails at RM62.90

Condition Used (AS NEW)

My thoughts
Ugly and Beyond Ugly follows the story of Constance, who suffered abuse at the hands of someone who was supposed to give unconditional love - her mother.

It's heartbreaking, this story. At the same time, I found myself completely in awe of her determination to succeed in life, despite the many lemons life handed her. Read and be captivated by Constance.. who against all odds, have made herself a lady to be reckoned with.

She later filed a lawsuit against her mom and won. Read all about it here... http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article5275784.ece

Synopsis
'I would like some cosmetic surgery.'
'For what reason?'
'Because I'm ugly, ugly, ugly.'

It was Constance's mother who told her she was ugly. Over and over again. And that was just one strand of a childhood blighted by physical and emotional abuse. But the young girl had a strength and resilience beyond her years.

She put herself through university, financing her studies with several jobs-including one caring for the terminally ill in a hospice – and then fulfilled a lifelong ambition by joining a prestigious set of legal chambers. But Constance's troubles were not over...

Limited copies available
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Book rules!
the bibliotaph

Run away and hide...

On the Run
Greg and Gina Hill
SOLD
Condition Used - *AS NEW*

My thoughts
A very well-written and intriguing autobiography following the lives of Gregg and Gina Hill, children of the infamous mafia turncoat, Henry Hill. This book tells the tale from their viewpoint... of how they were swept into the witness protection programme and how each time their irresponsible father slips up, they have to start moving - just in case, the mob catches up with them and kills them. Gregg and Gina alternates telling their story. It's interesting to see how they recount and dealt with things differently.

Synopsis
By the son and daughter of Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas - On The Run is the harrowing account of a childhood spent coping with an explosive father whilst dodging Mafia payback. Henry Hill's business partner, Jimmy Burke has whacked every person who could possibly implicate him in the infamous Lufthansa robbery at JFK airport. On his way to prison, lifelong ganster Henry is given two options: sleep with the fishes, or enter the FBI's Witness Protection Program. Gregg and Gina are dragged along for the ride. Like nomads, they're forced to wander from state to state, constantly inventing new names and finding new friends, only to abandon them at a moment's notice. Living under constant fear of being found and killed. But Henry, the rock Gregg and Gina so desperately need, is a heavy cocaine user and knows only the criminal life. He is soon up to his old tricks and consistently putting their identities in jeopardy. And so it continues until the kids, now almost grown, can no longer ignore that the Mob might be less of a threat to them than remaining under the roof of their increasingly unbalanced father.
Source: http://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/772/On_The_Run-Gregg_Hill_and_Gina_Hill.html

Back by popular demand.... Cathy Glass

Damaged
Cathy Glass

Selling at RM35

Hardcover edition
SOLD
BRAND NEW!

My thoughts

An engaging and heartbreaking read.
Cry, be inspired, be caught up by the masterful way Cathy Glass tells a story so close to her heart. This book really made me stop and thank God for my family.

Synopsis
At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being put in an institution.

Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face.

Exploring her roots...

Throwaway Daughter
Ting Xing Ye
SOLD
Condition: Pre-loved - almost new condition

Buyer backed out
I give up waiting
So I'm releasing it for sale again

My thoughts
A girl's journey of discovery. It took me one sitting to finish the book. I was just curled up in my favourite reading comfy chair - reading from cover to cover, until I was all done.

Synopsis

Throwaway Daughter tells the dramatic and moving story of Grace Dong-mei Parker, a typical Canadian teenager until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen massacre on television. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby by a loving Canadian couple.

With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels back to China in search of her birth mother. She manages to locate the village where she was born, but at first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace never gives up and, finally, she is reunited with her birth mother, discovering through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years before.

Nothing above RM30

Reads to suit everyone
All books are BRAND NEW
See which one piques your interest
Write in to thebookaffair@gmail.com

TRUE STORIES

A Child Called 'It'
Dave Pelzer
Selling at RM25

REDUCED to

RM20

(inclusive of postage)

2 SOLD, 1 AVAILABLE
Retails at RM34.90

An inspirational story of resilience! Unforgettable.

Synopsis
Dave Pelzer shares his unforgettable story of the many abuses he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother and the averted eyes of his neglectful father. Someone with no one to turn to, his dreams barely kept him alive. Through each of his struggles, readers will find themselves enduring his pain, comforting his loneliness and fighting for his will to survive.

The Lost Boy
Selling at RM25

REDUCED to

RM20

(inclusive of postage)

1 SOLD, 1 AVAILABLE
Retails at RM34.90

The sequel to the previous book, this is a sad, heart-wrenching but amazing book.

Synopsis
Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just beginning -- he has no place to call home.

This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It". In The Lost Boy, he answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child (Foster Child), Dave is moved in and out of five different homes. He suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a "real" family.

Hidden
Cathy Glass
Selling at RM28
2 SOLD
Retails at RM44.90

A page-turner. Get ready to get so absorbed in the story, that you'd rather forfeit go without food and sleep, than put it down. That happened to me! :)

Synopsis
From the author of Number One bestseller 'Damaged' comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past.

Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank. Tayo has no past. Tayo is an 'invisible' child, kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria and brought illegally to the UK by his drink and drugs dependent prostitute mother, where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury and is no longer earning, he is cast out. When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months, often being left alone. Tayo lies, and manipulates situations to his own advantage and Cathy has to be continually on guard.Tayo's social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo -- he has only attended school for 3 terms and has never seen a doctor. He and his mother have been evading the authorities by living 'underground'. With his mother recently released from prison, Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria, but no one can track him down or even prove that he exists.

CHICK-LIT

Did the Earth Move?
Carmen Reid
Selling at RM25
2 SOLD
Retails at RM35.90

For a night in, chick-lit is my guilty pleasure. Laugh, cry, sympathise, empathise ... there's just something about the light, hysterical and often stupid things the heroine does that keeps me so entertained. I guess I'm just a girl!

Synopsis
Eve Gardiner is a rather cool urban single mum who lives in a small North London flat with her four kids, Denny (22), Tom (20), Anna (9) and Robbie (2). She gardens and does yoga every day to keep herself sane, while holding down a stressful job as a probation officer. She is pretty content and her life is filled with her children, friends, work and occasional casual sex. Then suddenly Tom announces that his 20-year-old girlfriend Deepa is pregnant and that they want to get married, (her family deeply disapprove of the match). And things start to get really complicated when Tom decides to track down his father Dennis (who walked out of their lives when his business collapsed leaving them penniless) and invite him to the wedding. And if that's not enough to put the cat among the pigeons, Eve's alarmingly attrative, much-younger ex-boyfriend Joseph (and father of Anna and Robbie) appears on the scene again and they both begin to wonder whether they did the right thing when they split up...

ROMANCE

Blood Brothers
Selling at RM25

REDUCED to

RM20

(inclusive of postage)

Retails at RM33.95

I must admit. I'm not one for romance novels. I outgrew that when I turned 20. I remember reading Roberts and loving her books though. This is not her usual style... she has forayed into the supernatural realm. And it's actually quite interesting :)

Synopsis
In the small village of Hawkins Hollow, three best friends who share the same birthday sneak off into the woods for a sleepover the evening before turning 10. But a night of pre-pubescent celebration turns into a night of horror as their blood brother oath unleashes a three-hundred year curse. Twenty-one years later, Cal Hawkins and his friends have seen their town plagued by a week of unexplainable evil events two more times - every seven years. With the clock winding down on the third set of seven years, someone else has taken an interest in the town's folklore. Quinn is a well known scholar of local legends, and despite Cal's protests, insists on delving in the mystery. But when the first signs of evil appear months early, it's not only the town Cal tries to protect, but also his heart.

Butterfly tattoo

Papillon by Henri Charriere
Selling at RM25
SOLD
Retails at RM49.90
Condition: Pre-loved MINT CONDITION

My thoughts

I don't belong here, I'm only visiting - Papillon's reply to whoever asking him why he has always been trying to escape prison. An intriguing read.

Synopsis

Henri Charrière, called Papillon, for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 for a murder he did not commit. When he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, one thought obsessed him: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, Papillon was eventually sent to the notorious prison, Devil's Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped -- that was, until Papillon. His escape, described in breathless detail, was one of the most incredible tests of human cunning, will, and endurance.

I will survive

Sophie's Journey
Sally Collings

Selling at RM25

SOLD *restockable*
Condition: NEW

My thoughts
An amazing story of a little girl who was involved in not 1, but 2 accidents which made her lose her feet, some fingers, her right ear; and left her with bad burns and permanent scars. This story tells of her resilience and and how her family and an entire nation (Australia) rallied around her. When I first read this book, it brought tears to my eyes. Reading books like that always do that to me!!

Synopsis
Ten days before Christmas. A room of children, napping on mattresses in their day care centre, waiting for Santa to arrive. It’s a peaceful scene. Until a car crashes through the doors at head height, smashing into the midst of the sleeping children. The engine revs faster and faster; flames lick the ceiling. Incredibly, no child was killed at the Roundhouse Daycare Centre on 15 December 2003. But Sophie Delezio bears the legacy of that day written on her body. Sophie suffered third-degree burns to 85 per cent of her body in the fire. She lost both feet, some fingers, and her right ear.

Damaged - Cathy Glass

Selling at RM15

SOLD

Retails at RM39.90

Title:
Damaged: The heartbreaking true story of a forgotten child

Author: Cathy Glass

Pages: 352

Condition: Pre-loved - almost new condition

My thoughts

An engaging but heartbreaking read. I find myself crying at some instances. It really made me stop and thank God for my family.

Synopsis
At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being put in an institution.

Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face.