"Tunggal Hulah-Duwa Sarah: Adat and Sharee-ah Laws in the Life of the Tausug’’ is a timely and pioneering work that discusses in great detail Islamic laws and tenets in various areas of family and community life. Educating non-Muslims about Islam, the book highlights the inclusion of Islamic values in the school curriculum in line with DepEd Order No. 51 s. 2004 (The Standard Curriculum for Elementary Public Schools and Private Madaris), which stresses Madrasah education as a vital component of the country’s educational system.

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Feng shui expert Lillian Too will sign copies of her new book ‘’Get Rich with Water’’ today, 1-to 1:45 pm, at National Book Store SM Mall of Asia. The book will be available at a special price on the day of the signing.

The event is in line with the "Getting Rich and Staying Safe in the Year of the Boar 2007" Feng Shui Extravaganza on Jan. 27-28 at the Premier Cinema of SM Mall of Asia Bay City and at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel. ‘’Get Rich with Water’’ is the perfect guide in creating the right kind of pond, pool, fountain, well, spring or flow of water that can attract increased income and wealth in life, quickly, easily and inexpensively.

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Powerbooks and the Read or Die organization hold the "READ or DIE: 1st Philippine Literary Convention’’ (RodCon) on Feb. 3 and 4, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City.

RodCon 2007 is a two–day literary convention that seeks to bring together readers, writers, publishers, government and school organizations and book dealers to highlight the importance of reading and literacy in building an open world for every Filipino through books.

Participants will get the opportunity to watch movies, join contests, buy books, win freebies, attend discussions and vote for the Pinoy Reader’s Choice Awards. The lineup of exciting activities also includes performances from some of the country’s top bands such as Radioactive Sago Project, UP Dharma Down, Paramita, and other musicians of Terno Records. For details, visit www.read-or-die.org/rodcon.

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Have you just gotten engaged? Have a magical wedding without hitches by reading from expert planner Rita Neri’s The Essential Wedding Workbook for the Filipina. Be well informed before you plunge into the elaborate preparations for the wedding mass and reception. Rita Neri shares valuable advice about how to select the venues, how to plan the wedding party, and how to prepare for invitations, bridal attire and coiffure, even some tips on how to behave with future inlaws.

The new edition also includes several articles Neri’s advice column that tackles other small but important details which are often overlooked but can cause wedding day disasters. There is also planner which is meant to guide the couple in their wedding preparations. A directory has also been included to assist the couple in selecting reliable suppliers.

Neri explains the importance of the book in her Introduction: "As much as a wedding fascinates us, planning and preparing for one can become an endurance test. It will definitely test one’s patience and at times one’s sanity…. Aside from being a ‘how-to’ guide book where all the elements needed to plan a wedding are enumerated and simplified, [the book] also provides you with enough information to form an overview of what preparing for a wedding entail ."

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A dazzling second novel from Kiran Desai (Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard) set in northeast India, where the borders of Himalayan states Bhutan and Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet meet; The Inheritance of Loss unfolds on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. At the head of the novel’s teeming cast is Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, who lives in Kalimpong (at the foot of the Himalayas) with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook.

The unlikely family’s neighbors include a circle of Anglophiles who seem unaware of how tenuous their own social standing is — until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also threatens the fledgling romance between 16year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. The cook’s son, Biju, meanwhile, lives miserably as an illegal alien in New York.

As these characters struggle with cultural identity and the forces of modernization, they determinedly try to maintain an emotional connection to each another. In this alternately comical and meditative novel, Desai skillfully moves between first and third worlds, elucidating on the ambiguities of postcolonialism, the pain of exile, and the yearning for a "better life," when one person’s wealth might mean another’s poverty.