This is a memorial book on the death, wake, and phenomenal funeral of President Corazon Aquino. The 400 page, full color, hard-bound book is a multi-layered account comprising of images by a group of photojournalists organized by veteran Sonny Yabao; essays by Raul Rodrigo; and vignettes culled from e-mails, blogs, social networking sites, printed media, and verbal commentary from a wide range of citizens.

The book seeks to capture the recent upswell of People Power in all its immediacy. “Cory Magic” is a project that they hope will preserve the significance of the massive funeral, as this event retreats into history.

The vignettes are juxtaposed with the event’s touching images. The photojournalist’s eye is reiterated by the sense of history of eyewitnesses. The thousands of Filipinos in the images and vignettes assert a collective love and admiration for the dearly departed — President, mother, and exemplar of decency — that cannot be mistaken for blind hero worship. What instead emerges in the book’s pages is an unambiguous People Power message: a clear call for honesty and compassion in the public service.

The texts by Raul Rodrigo summarize interviews with individuals who journeyed with President Aquino through various phases of her life: Ballsy Aquino Cruz, Rapa Lopa, Bishop Soc Villegas, Teddy Boy Locsin, Alran Bengzon, Rene De Villa, Fr. Manoling Francisco, and Mar Roxas. Collectively, their recollections portray a woman and leader who sustained a penetrating clarity about democratic institutions. And because her life was single-mindedly given to democracy, the Cory that emerges from Cory Magic is the singular woman who held faith in the norms of decency, sense of responsibility, and “kagandahang loob” that the vast majority of Filipinos hold to be sacred elements of democracy.

Life Lessons for Mothers: Inspirations and Thought-Provoking Quotations for Mothers, offers relevant thoughts and reflections on topics that really hit home like worry, calmness, hope, joy, and prayer. It’s a great gift for every mom–a sage counsel–at her fingertips!

Being close to God begins with telling Him what’s on your heart in prayer. But are you able to hear Him respond? In these daily devotionals, bestselling author Dallas Willard shows you how to recognize the voice of God and act on it. As you draw into God’s presence, you may be surprised – and even transformed – by what you discover.

This gift book—for men—is designed to bring alive the timeless life principles woven within the Book of Proverbs. When you have wisdom, you have meaning, purpose, and true success. Proverbs for Life for Men gathers the most important lessons from the famed book of Proverbs and offers a never-ending source of time-tested wisdom that works. Also available: Proverbs for Life for Women and Proverbs for Life for You.

This book is a compilation of thought-provoking quotations, words of wisdom and scriptures to live by! Each thought is a stretching reflection on daily living, a lesson to start your day right. Good for one year, these “Text Thots” will surely inspire and motivate you each day to live life to the fullest.

These books are now available in National Bookstore, Powerbooks and other bookstores nationwide!

Single Servings: 90 Devotions to Feed Your Soul. Singles often struggle with loneliness, physical desires, longings, or expectations. And while many find short-term solutions in our postmodern culture, author Lee Warren, himself a thirty-something single, wants you to discover the lasting solutions that only God can provide.

A collection of ninety devotionals that offers an honest look at the struggles—and benefits—of the single life. Sharing both biblical and contemporary stories, Lee Warren encourages singles to find satisfaction in Christ. Whether you’re ready to settle down or are looking for something more out of life, Single Servings can help you face worldly pressures, focus on your future, and discover true community.

Dingdong Dantes is lending his service as the spokesperson of National Book Store’s foregoing Christmas campaign in favor of Project Aklat, a book drive that encourages loyal patrons of National Book Store to buy and donate books for as low as P30. This project is an endeavor of National Book Store Foundation and Dingdong’s Yes Pinoy Foundation to promote literacy among the youth.

The project aims on giving back to the community, getting damaged libraries rebuilt and giving the Filipino youth a chance to get an education.

National Book Store’s Project Aklat runs until Dec. 31 and books for as low as P30 may be purchased and donated at all National Book Store branches nationwide.

Eighty percent of Filipinos eat unhealthy foods. Ninety percent of strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular diseases are preventable–in part through proper diet. It has been advised that we keep our fat calories per day to a maximum of 30 percent–and less than 30 is even better. The idea that low-fat lood can taste good has always seemed an impossibility–but it can taste just as good or better than fat-laden meals of days past.

Easy Low Fat Cooking will help you prepare healthy foods that can also please the taste buds. These books are packed with many delicious recipes, tips, and ideas for achieving body fitness, plus inspiration and information on how you can enjoy developing a healthy diet and lifestyle!

For only P150.00 each, Easy Low Fat Cooking Book 1 and 2 are now available in all branches of National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Philippine Christian Bookstore, NBS Book Express and Expressions.

The Lost Symbol is the third in a series (after The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons) that follows the adventure of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in a 12-hour race to finish a quest set in Washington, D.C.

Columbia Pictures is already preparing for the film adaptation with Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon. The previous films, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons already raked in a whopping $1.23 billion in worldwide box office.

Top 150 books of the last 15 years
(Rank. Title, Author)

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
2. Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins
3. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
10. Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson
11. The South Beach Diet, Arthur Agatston
12. Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom
13. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
14. What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, Sandee Hathaway
15. The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren
16. The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
17. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey
18. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
19. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, John Gray
20. The Secret, Rhonda Byrne
21. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
22. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
23. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… And It’s All Small Stuff, Richard Carlson
24. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
25. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
26. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
27. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
28. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards
29. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
30. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
31. A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
32. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss
33. The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz
34. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
35. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
36. Body-for-Life, Bill Phillips, Michael D’Orso
37. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
38. Night, Elie Wiesel
39. Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
40. The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw
41. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
42. The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
43. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
44. Good to Great, Jim Collins
45. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
46. Eragon, Christopher Paolini
47. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
48. Your Best Life Now, Joel Osteen
49. In the Kitchen With Rosie, Rosie Daley
50. Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach
51. A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer
52. A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
53. The Testament, John Grisham
54. Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger
55. Deception Point, Dan Brown
56. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
57. Marley & Me, John Grogan
58. Dr. Atkins’ New Carbohydrate Gram Counter, Robert C. Atkins
59. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
60. The Brethren, John Grisham
61. The South Beach Diet Good Fats Good Carbs Guide, Arthur Agatston
62. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, John Grisham
63. For One More Day, Mitch Albom
64. The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
65. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
66. The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
67. What to Expect the First Year, Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, Sandee Hathaway
68. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch, art by Sheila McGraw
69. Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss
70. A Painted House, John Grisham
71. The Rainmaker, John Grisham
72. Skipping Christmas, John Grisham
73. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
74. The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
75. Life Strategies, Phillip C. McGraw
76. Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand
77. The Summons, John Grisham
78. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
79. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
80. The Runaway Jury, John Grisham
81. Goodnight Moon Board Book, Margaret Wise Brown
82. The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger
83. Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
84. The Giver, Lois Lowry
85. Embraced by the Light, Betty J. Eadie
86. The Chamber, John Grisham
87. You: On A Diet, Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
88. The Prayer of Jabez, Bruce Wilkinson
89. Holes, Louis Sachar
90. Digital Fortress, Dan Brown
91. The Shack, William P. Young
92. The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
93. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
94. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
95. The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav
96. Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
97. The Partner, John Grisham
98. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
99. Eldest: Inheritance, Book II, Christopher Paolini
100. The Broker, John Grisham
101. The Street Lawyer, John Grisham
102. A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 1: The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket
103. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
104. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
105. The King of Torts, John Grisham
106. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
107. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
108. Hannibal, Thomas Harris
109. The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
110. Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
111. The Glass Castle: A Memoir, Jeannette Walls
112. My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult
113. The Last Juror, John Grisham
114. The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
115. Left Behind, Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
116. America (The Book), Jon Stewart and The Writers of The Daily Show
117. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
118. John Adams, David McCullough
119. The Christmas Box, Richard Paul Evans
120. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
121. Sugar Busters!, H. Leighton Steward, Sam S. Andrews, Morrison C. Bethea, Luis A. Balart
122. Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
123. The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
124. 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life, Don Piper, Cecil Murphey
125. The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
126. 1776, David McCullough
127. The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller
128. Where the Heart Is, Billie Letts
129. The Ultimate Weight Solution, Phillip C. McGraw
130. Protein Power, Michael R. Eades, Mary Dan Eades
131. Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
132. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
133. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
134. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
135. You: The Owner’s Manual, Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
136. 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List Patricia Schultz
137. Self Matters, Phillip C. McGraw
138. She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
139. 1984, George Orwell
140. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
141. The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko
142. The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
143. The Zone, Barry Sears, Bill Lawren
144. The Pilot’s Wife, Anita Shreve
145. The Lost World, Michael Crichton
146. Atonement, Ian McEwan
147. He’s Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo
148. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
149. The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
150. Cross, James Patterson

USA TODAY’s list is based on sales at 4,700 chain, independent, discount and online booksellers. Unlike other national lists, it combines fiction, non-fiction, hardcover, paperback or other categories on a single list.

Source: USA Today

FICTION

DANGEROUS LAUGHTER
Thirteen Stories
By Steven Millhauser.
Alfred A. Knopf, $24.

In his first collection in five years, a master fabulist in the tradition of Poe and Nabo­kov invents spookily plausible parallel universes in which the deepest human emotions and yearnings are transformed into their monstrous opposites. Millhauser is especially attuned to the purgatory of adolescence. In the title story, teenagers attend sinister “laugh parties”; in another, a mysteriously afflicted girl hides in the darkness of her attic bedroom. Time and again these parables revive the possibility that “under this world there is another, waiting to be born.”

A MERCY
By Toni Morrison.
Alfred A. Knopf, $23.95.

The fate of a slave child abandoned by her mother animates this allusive novel — part Faulknerian puzzle, part dream-song — about orphaned women who form an eccentric household in late-17th-century America. Morrison’s farmers and rum traders, masters and slaves, indentured whites and captive Native Americans live side by side, often in violent conflict, in a lawless, ripe American Eden that is both a haven and a prison — an emerging nation whose identity is rooted equally in Old World superstitions and New World appetites and fears.

NETHERLAND
By Joseph O’Neill.
Pantheon Books, $23.95.

O’Neill’s seductive ode to New York — a city that even in bad times stubbornly clings to its belief “in its salvific worth” — is narrated by a Dutch financier whose privileged Manhattan existence is upended by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. When his wife departs for London with their small son, he stays behind, finding camaraderie in the unexpectedly buoyant world of immigrant cricket players, most of them West Indians and South Asians, including an entrepreneur with Gatsby-size aspirations.

2666
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, cloth and paper, $30.

Bolaño, the prodigious Chilean writer who died at age 50 in 2003, has posthumously risen, like a figure in one of his own splendid creations, to the summit of modern fiction. This latest work, first published in Spanish in 2004, is a mega- and meta-detective novel with strong hints of apocalyptic foreboding. It contains five separate narratives, each pursuing a different story with a cast of beguiling characters — European literary scholars, an African-American journalist and more — whose lives converge in a Mexican border town where hundreds of young women have been brutally murdered.

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
By Jhumpa Lahiri.
Alfred A. Knopf, $25.

There is much cultural news in these precisely observed studies of modern-day Bengali-Americans — many of them Ivy-league strivers ensconced in prosperous suburbs who can’t quite overcome the tug of traditions nurtured in Calcutta. With quiet artistry and tender sympathy, Lahiri creates an impressive range of vivid characters — young and old, male and female, self-knowing and self-deluding — in engrossing stories that replenish the classic themes of domestic realism: loneliness, estrangement and family discord. (Excerpt)

NONFICTION

THE DARK SIDE
The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
By Jane Mayer.
Doubleday, $27.50.

Mayer’s meticulously reported descent into the depths of President Bush’s anti­terrorist policies peels away the layers of legal and bureaucratic maneuvering that gave us Guantánamo Bay, “extraordinary rendition,” “enhanced” interrogation methods, “black sites,” warrantless domestic surveillance and all the rest. But Mayer also describes the efforts ofunsung heroes, tucked deep inside the administration, who risked their careers in the struggle to balance the rule of law against the need to meet a threat unlike any other in the nation’s history.

THE FOREVER WAR
By Dexter Filkins.
Alfred A. Knopf, $25.

The New York Times correspondent, whose tours of duty have taken him from Afghanistan in 1998 to Iraq during the American intervention, captures a decade of armed struggle in harrowingly detailed vignettes. Whether interviewing jihadists in Kabul, accompanying marines on risky patrols in Falluja or visiting grieving families in Baghdad, Filkins makes us see, with almost hallucinogenic immediacy, the true human meaning and consequences of the “war on terror.”

NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF
By Julian Barnes.
Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95.

This absorbing memoir traces Barnes’s progress from atheism (at age 20) to agnosticism (at 60) and examines the problem of religion not by rehashing the familiar quarrel between science and mystery, but rather by weighing the timeless questions of mortality and aging. Barnes distills his own experiences — and those of his parents and brother — in polished and wise sentences that recall the writing of Montaigne, Flaubert and the other French masters he includes in his discussion.

THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING
Death and the American Civil War
By Drew Gilpin Faust.
Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95.

In this powerful book, Faust, the president of Harvard, explores the legacy, or legacies, of the “harvest of death” sown and reaped by the Civil War. In the space of four years, 620,000 Americans died in uniform, roughly the same number as those lost in all the nation’s combined wars from the Revolution through Korea. This doesn’t include the thousands of civilians killed in epidemics, guerrilla raids and draft riots. The collective trauma created “a newly centralized nation-state,” Faust writes, but it also established “sacrifice and its memorialization as the ground on which North and South would ultimately reunite.”

THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS
The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
By Patrick French.
Alfred A. Knopf, $30.

The most surprising word in this biography is “authorized.” Naipaul, the greatest of all postcolonial authors, cooperated fully with French, opening up a huge cache of private letters and diaries and supplementing the revelations they disclosed with remarkably candid interviews. It was a brave, and wise, decision. French, a first-rate biographer, has a novelist’s command of story and character, and he patiently connects his subject’s brilliant oeuvre with the disturbing facts of an unruly life.

Source: NYTimes.com

Since it was released on December 4, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” has also topped the USA Today and Daily Telegraph charts raising 6.5 million U.S. Dollars for charity.

Proceeds from sales of the book, with 8 million copies in print worldwide, will go to the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG), a charity for vulnerable children in Eastern Europe co-founded by Rowling.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five fairy tales as mentioned in the final Potter book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” According to the story, the said book was left to Hermione by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school.

Last year, the fastest selling book was “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” which is also authored by J.K. Rowling. The book has sold 8.3 million copies during the first 24 hours or release in U.S. alone.

The winner of Simple Little Words is:
Ericson Cabrera

The winner of Basta Lovelife is:
Wilrose

The winner of Easy Low Fat Cooking Book 2 is:
Jan Alvin

Congratulations guys! Please check your email and reply with your corresponding shipping address so i can send your books asap.

Special thanks to KuyaKevin.com and Lifebooks for the prizes. Simple Little Words, Basta Lovelife and Easy Low Fat Cooking Book 2 are now available in National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches nationwide!

In this new book, Simple Little Words (SLW), Michelle Cox and John Perrodin have collected dozens of powerful true stories about lives completely changed by hearing a few simple little words. Click here to watch video
clip, read a sample chapter, get inspired by our SLW tips, or explore our free Study Guide. You
can also sign up for our newsletter.

Contributors in Simple Little Words include novelist Karen Kingsbury, Left Behind author Jerry B. Jenkins, Chik-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, artist Ron DiCianni, Hollywood producer Ken Wales, Dove winner Brandon Heath, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, and many other wonderful folks like you.

Get your copy of Simple Little Words: What You Say Can Change A Life now. It’s now available at all branches of National Bookstore and Powerbooks. It’s perfect for bedtime reading — and any time you need a little lift.

Buy this book online at 25% off in the Gift Alley.

But before we proceed, let me just congratulate “Harry Potter“, “Bakekang” and “Neolexis” for winning a copy of Lifebooks’ “Today’s the Day” in our previous contest. Harry Potter won by posting the correct ISBN of Today’s the Day in our forums. However, no one was able to guess the correct price of “Today’s the Day.” It’s retail price in National Bookstores is P 170.00 per copy. So, i picked the two people with the nearest price. Neolexis‘ guess was P168.00 while Bakekang’s guess was P180.00, so each of them won a copy of the book.

Now for our new set of freebies. The first one is from Kuya Kevin. The title of the book is Basta Lovelife. The author of this book is Kuya Kevin himself. This book is filled with relationship advices in a “non-preachy” kind of way.

The second book is from Lifebooks. The title of the book is “Easy Low Fat Cooking Book 2.” The author of the book is Beverly Chesser. It’s a recipe book for the health-concious.

The third book is from Lifebooks again. The title of the book is “Simple Little Words.” It’s an inspiring collection of true stories about lives completely changed by hearing a few simple little words. The authors of this book are Michelle Cox and John Perrodin.

These books are now available in all branches of National Bookstore and Powerbooks nationwide!

Here are the contest mechanics:

1. Simply post in the comments section below which book do you want to win. Be sure to indicate only one title and don’t forget to include your email address. One entry per one email address is allowed.

For example: I want the book “Simple Little Words!”

2. We will raffle three entries for the 3 books (1 for each title) at random to pick the 3 winners. You can only win once. Entries with two or more titles indicated in their comments are disqualified. Also, entries without corresponding email addresses are also disqualified.

3. We will contact the selected winners by email to ask for the shipping address so we can send the free books right away.

The autobiography was conceptualize by one of his sons, Eric Quizon and written by Bibeth Orteza. It’s basically the life story of the Comedy King with a list of women linked to him alphabetically arranged from Alma to Zsa Zsa.

On July 29, Tuesday, ABS-CBN will hold a special tribute titled “The King of Comedy at 80” to be held at the Meralco Theater. It will be aired on August 3 on Sunday’s Best.

Former wife Alma Moreno and current wife Zsa Zsa Padilla were absent in the said event.

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

Is Harry Potter going to die or not? The world is anticipating for the answer to this question in the conclusion of the massive bestseller of the first billion dollar author J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series. The seventh and last in the series is entitled “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“. The said book has already shattered the pre-order record as people are eager to know the fate of the beloved wizard.

Reuters. He is not expected to ride his flying broomstick into bookstores for 100 more days, but already British boy wizard Harry Potter is whipping up some magic at bookstore chain Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble Inc. on Thursday said advance orders for author J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” have topped 500,000 copies, breaking the bookseller chain’s record for the most advance requests in its history.

“Deathly Hallows” is the seventh book in the series of hit novels that have thrilled readers and been made into big-budget Hollywood movies.

Speculation has been rife that Rowling, who became the world’s first billion-dollar author on the success of the Harry Potter books and films, may kill Harry off in book seven, but confirmation of Harry’s possible demise awaits publication.

“Deathly Hallows” officially goes on sale on July 21.

Watch the HQ teaser trailer of the upcoming HP flick “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” after the jump…