NBS recommends popular reads for women

Big Girl

By Danielle Steel

P1,175

MANILA, Philippines - After her sister gets engaged to a carbon copy of her narcissistic father, plus-size woman Victoria Dawson, who has fled L.A. for less-body-conscious New York City, must learn to love herself for who she is if she is every going to get on with her life.

Behind her is a lifetime of hurt and neglect she has tried to forget, and even ice cream can no longer dull the pain. Ahead is a challenge and a risk: to accept herself as she is, celebrate it, and claim the victories she has fought so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is terrific and discovers that herself

In this heartfelt and incisive new novel, Danielle Steel celebrates the virtues of unconventional beauty while exploring deeply resonant issues of weight, self-image, sisterhood, and family. 

House Rules

By Jodi Picoult

P675

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject — in his case, forensic analysis. He’s always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do... and he’s usually right. But then his town is rocked by a terrible murder and, for a change, the police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s — not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect — can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel. Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it’s a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it’s another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. And over this small family the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

Emotionally powerful from beginning to end, House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way — and fails those who don’t.

Shanghai Girls

By Lisa See

P335

In 1937, Shanghai — the Paris of Asia — 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree — until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that to repay his debts, and he must sell the girls as their wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America. Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. Along the way they make terrible sacrifices, face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are – Shanghai girls.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain To Get And Keep The Body You Have Always Wanted

By Daniel G. Amen, M. D.

P1,095

The key to a better body — in shape, energized, and youthful — is a healthy brain. Based on the latest medical research, as well as on Dr. Amen’s two decades of clinical practice at the renowned Amen Clinics, where Dr. Amen and his associates pioneered the use of the most advanced brain imaging technology, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body shows you how to take the very best care of your brain.

This book includes 15 practical, easy-to-implement solutions involving nutritious foods, natural supplements and vitamins, positive-thinking habits and, when necessary, highly targeted medication.