woa bookshelf

JULIA GREGSON’S ‘EAST OF THE SUN’ WINS ROMANTIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD

 Orion author Julia Gregson beat out stiff competition to take away the Romantic Novelists Association’s annual prize for the best romantic novel. EAST OF THE SUN, her tale of the last days of the British Raj, was described by one of the competition’s judges as ‘a novel to cherish’.  The prize is designed to award novels which ‘explore the deep mysteries of the heart’. The story centres on three women hunting for husbands in 1920s India. From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites, to the ragged orphans on Tamarind Street, EAST OF THE SUN is an utterly engaging novel that that has captivated readers everywhere. Julia Gregson worked as a model for Hardie Amies before becoming a journalist. She was posted to Vietnam and India, and then worked for Rolling Stone in New York. She has interviewed Muhammad Ali, Buzz Aldrin, Ronnie Biggs and Hollywood royalty. Married with one daughter and four step-children, she lives in Wales with two Welsh cobs, a Shetland and two dogs. EAST OF THE SUN ($27.99 RRP, published by Orion) is available now at all good bookstores. Julia’s next offering, THE WATER HORSE, will be published in March 2009.

UFO In Her Eyes
Xiaolu Guo
Silver Hill Village, 2012. On the twentieth day of the seventh moon Kwok Yun is making her way across the rice fields on her Flying Pigeon bicycle. Her world is upturned when she sights a UFThing - a spinning plate in the sky - and helps the Westerner in distress whom she discovers in the shadow of the alien craft. It's not long before the village is crawling with men from the National Security and Intelligence Agency armed with pointed questions. And when the Westerner that Kwok Yun saved repays her kindness with a large dollar cheque she becomes a local celebrity, albeit under constant surveillance. As UFO Hotels spring up, and the local villagers go out of business, Xiaolu Guo's startling parable of change imagines an uneasy future for rural China and its relations not only with Beijing but the wider world beyond.

The Other Half Lives
Sophie Hannah
Ruth Bussey knows what it means to be in the wrong - and to be wronged. She once did something she regrets, and was punished excessively for it. Now Ruth is trying to rebuild her life and has found a love she doesn't believe she deserves. Aidan Seed is a passionate, intense man who has also been damaged by his past. Desperate to connect with the woman he loves, he confides his secret: he killed a woman called Mary Trelease. Through her shock, Ruth recognises the name. And when she's realised why it's familiar, her fear and revulsion deepen. The Mary Trelease that Ruth knows is very much alive...

‘Management is just like any other skill. It’s about using a range of techniques and methods to make sure you and your team achieve what’s needed. Dealing with people is a huge part of management, but so is putting in place good systems and processes.’ — Angela Atkins

 Management Bites is cut into 24 bite-sized pieces so it is easy to work through, with practical suggestions and exercises to make the reader actually practise what he or she is reading. It is an excellent tool for tertiary students studying management or recent graduates who aspire to a career in managing people and gives ideas and techniques that get you thinking, talking to your team, dealing with problems and putting in place processes that make managing your job easier.

Eighty Eight Dates
Rachel Goodchild
Internet dating.  Everyone's doing it.  Maybe even you?

Whether it's to find true love, a bit of romance or just a good time, using a computer to connect with other people is now part of everyday life.

The hilarious, painfully embarrassing and poignant stories in this book with remind you to be prepared to kiss a few frogs before you meet the perfect internet date.  But the commonsense dating guidelines will help you avoid disasters.

Eighty-Eight Dates is a fun collection of anecdotes and advice for anyone interested in what it's really like to date online.

Return for the Gold
Margaret Hall
‘I’ll come for the gold, and I’ll come for you, Mary, when you’re alone … all, all alone.’ It was nine months since the two men had robbed our small beach settlement and taken all the gold we had mined over six months: gold and valuables that had never been traced.

Seventeen-year-old Mary is feisty and quick tongued. She’s engaged to be married to Nik but is harried by a fearful nightmare. In her remote South Westland community, a handful of pioneering families share what they have. Here farms are carved from the bush and houses built from scratch. Cattle are herded, and gold is dredged from the beach. Storms and floods, gains and losses, are faced together. But a ruthless robber is biding his time: to return for the gold he’s hidden and — if he can find her alone — for Mary. Return for the Gold is a nugget plucked from our shared past, and polished bright.

Maid In God's Image
Verena Wright
Verena Wright is a writer, radio presenter, Diocesan Link on the National Board of Catholic Women and commentator on Catholic issues in the UK. She lectured for many years in English Literature and Women’s Studies at Portsmouth and Sussex Universities and in adult education. Verena delights in her 3 children and 4 grandchildren. She first visited Aotearoa New Zealand in 1987 when she accompanied her sister, who won first prize in a women’s magazine competition. While in Christchurch she found her way to the Aranui sisters’ home (after reading Pauline O’Regan’s A Changing Order!). She returned in 1999 for a six-month stay with them and became involved with the Burwood parish and Catholic Women Knowing Our Place. Here now on her sixth visit, Verena describes Aotearoa New Zealand as ‘the country of my heart’ – where she has found inspiration, creative energy and support

The Reader
Bernard Schlink
Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.

When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

Sink or Swim
Shelley Hanna
An inspirational story of a cancer survivor, whose common sense and optimistic approach has a message for us all. Shelley Hanna was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, at the age of 41, and underwent a double mastectomy followed by three months of aggressive chemotherapy. After her treatment she resumed swimming with a local masters club, which proved to be a huge step towards her mental and physical fight back to health. Shelley went on to win 3 gold medals in her age group at the 2004 NZ masters Games and went on to train as an Encore Instructor with the YWCA. To celebrate her fifth year in remission, Shelley cycled 5000km through Vietnam and Cambodia with her husband, in a fundraising venture for Oxfam NZ. Sink or Swim is her poignant, inspiring and highly entertaining story of her journey from cancer victim to cancer survivor.

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite
Beatrice Colin
As the clock chimed the turn of the twentieth century, Lilly Nelly Aphrodite took her first breath. Born to a cabaret dancer and soon orphaned in a scandalous murder-suicide, Lilly finds refuge at a Catholic orphanage, coming under the wing of the, at times, severe Sister August, the first in a string of lost loves. There she meets Hanne Schmidt, a teen prostitute, and forms a bond that will last them through tumultuous love affairs, disastrous marriages, and destitution during the First World War and the subsequent economic collapse. As the century progresses, Lilly and Hanne move from the tawdry glamour of the tingle-tangle nightclubs to the shadow world of health films before Lilly finds success and stardom in the new medium of motion pictures and ultimately falls in love with a man whose fate could cost her everything she has worked for or help her discover her true self. Gripping and darkly seductive, The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite showcases all the glitter and splendor of the brief heyday of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of Hollywood to its golden age.

On Zealand's Hills
Where tigers steal along
Janet Holm
Who was… given the seemingly impossible task of mapping Fiordland?
    the Premier who retired to England to write poetry, and was friends with Browning and Tennyson?
    the early feminist writer who was a Wellington retailer in the 1850s?
    the geologist lacking in formal education who rose to become “a legend in his own lifetime”?
    accused of indulging in rude romps on the Blue Jacket?
These characters and many more feature in On Zealand’s hills, where tigers steal along. This book brings to life memorable men and women who left the old world to begin a new life in 19th-century New Zealand. Many endured extreme hardship as they struggled with the remoteness of the country, and the difficulties of life in the bush or high country. Overcoming daunting obstacles and striving to keep intellectual pursuits alive, they accepted the challenge to venture among Zealand’s hills, leaving us stories of courage and fortitude.
 

MASTER YOUR INNER CRITIC - RELEASE YOUR INNER WISDOM
MELANIE GREENE
Do you …. lose sleep worrying about what you haven’t done? …. find it difficult to list your achievements?  ….allow criticism to get you down? …. feel terrible when you make a mistake?
The inner critic is the little (or sometimes big) voice in your head that says: ‘You’re not good enough’ or “Why did you do that?” or “Nobody will want to be friends with you” … This negative voice can have a profound effect in personal relationships or professional situations.  In this book, Melanie Greene shows you how, step-by-step, you can transform your thoughts, feelings and behaviour by celebrating your strengths and recognising the positive. Master your inner critic and release your inner wisdom to become more confident, successful and content in all aspects of your life.