If you are looking for a pocket sized book to guide you around Singapore on your lay over between Australia and Europe, there is much to recommend this new edition of Lonely Planet’s paperback guide to Singapore. This book is aimed at the independent traveller, looking to add Singapore to his itinerary. The visitor will find useful suggestions as to where tourists should shop, eat out, stay and socialise. It feels like a small telephone directory, that is packed full of useful background briefings and tips about the best sites to visit and enjoy. For those who want to have a real feel for the city the guided walks described in the guide, will certainly prove rewarding.

Vitali Vitaliev’s latest book ‘Life as a Literary Device’ can be best described as an unconventional, sometimes nostalgic description of his life, adventures and experiences from the closing stages of the former Soviet Empire to the present day. His career has included being a successful professional travel writer, author and international journalist.

Today, there is much discussion about the relative merits of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and Twitter, yet little practical advice on how to avoid the hazards that face a professional journalist. Such social networking sites are proving, for some journalists, a useful new source of story ideas and leads. Indeed, such virtual sites are being used by some reporters as the equivalent of overhearing a story on a bus or in a pub.

The problem Disaster is a regular topic in the news, whether man-made or natural, in recent years there have been earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. It would appear many disaster prone countries have failed to implement adequate pre-disaster risk assessment programs to mitigate the impact of such disasters. What is this book about? The authors of ‘The Asian Tsunami: Aid Reconstruction after a Disaster’ by Sisira Jayasuriya and Peter McCawley focuses on the events surrounding the Asian Tsunami of 26 December 2004. This book studies the rescue and rehabilitation efforts of local, national and international stakeholders