If you are what you eat, then it’s time to get started on the best Melbourne has to offer!  The 2009 edition of The Age Good Food Guide is in store now.  Edited by John Lethlean and Necia Wilden, it’s the restaurant guide that the entire city awaits.

Links and Further Reading

• Age Good Food Guide Awards Video
• Winners and Losers

Order a copy of The Age Good Food Guide 2009 now! Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery and order more than one book.

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Thomas L. Friedman’s no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.

Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls “Geo-Greenism”—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.

As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era—the Energy-Climate era—through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted “green revolution” has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution—with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman—fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.

Links and Further Reading

• Book Discussion Guide
• Audio Preview

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When Margaret first meets Hadi at a party on Valentine’s Day, 1969, in Libya, she is entranced. Handsome and sophisticated, he is the classic romantic stranger; he sweeps her off her feet, marries her and they embark on an exotic life in Spain, where the fairytale continues. But with the birth of their child, Tanya, Hadi turns from an urbane charmer into a controlling tyrant. When Margaret flees to London, Hadi follows, snatches their now three-year-old daughter and disappears, telling the child her mother is dead.

Gone tells the dramatic story of Margaret’s long search to be reunited with Tanya, a journey that takes her all over the world and into the darkest corners of the human psyche. At every turn she is thwarted by uncaring bureaucracies and clumsy legal systems that insist when it comes to child custody, possession is nine-tenths of the law.

Inspiring, unforgettable and profoundly moving, this is the story of hope against reason, and the determination of a mother whose only dream is to once again hold her child in her arms.

Links and Further Reading

• ABC Interview with Margaret Wilcox

Order a copy of Gone now! Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery and order more than one book.

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We don’t want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterwards that is most important. Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Links and Further Reading

• Guardian Review
  

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The fantastic new collection of stories from the Pulitzer Prize wiining author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain.

Fine Just The Way It Is marks Annie Proulx’s return to the Wyoming of Brokeback Mountain and the familiar cast of hardy, unsentimental prairie folk. The stories are cast over centuries, and capture the voices and lives of the settlers this sagebrushed and weatherworn country has known, from the native Indian tribes to the modern day ranch owners and politicians, and their cowboy forebears. In ‘A Family Man’, an old man nearing the end of his life unburdens himself of the weighty family secrets that were his father’s unwelcome legacy. ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’ follows Archie and Rosie, a young pioneer couple, and their hardships in their attempt to homestead in the exposed wintry expanses of the prairie, and ‘Testimony of the Donkey’ finds a young international couple, Marc and Caitlin, struggling with much more modern concerns, and confronting uncertainty as their relationship comes to its end.

These are stories of desperation and hard times, often marked by an inescapable sadness, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent.Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming’s traditional character and attitudes - confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty - with the more benign values of the new west.

These are bold, elegant and memorable pieces, and once more confirm Annie Proulx as one of the most talented, unique short story writers in the language.

Links and Further Reading

• smh.com.au Review

Order a copy of Fine Just The Way It Is now! Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery and order more than one book.

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1. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

2. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

3. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

4. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

5. The Bourne Sanction - Robert Muchamore

6. 4 Ingredients - Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham

7. Line & Strength - Glen McGrath

8. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

9. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

10. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery and buy more than one book.

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George Gregan has made more appearances for the Australian rugby union team than any other player in the sport’s history. He captained the team to numerous victories and is respected throughout the rugby world not only as a great halfback, but for his tenacity, tactical skill, leadership ability and sportsmanship. It’s also fair to say he’s almost as well-known for his “talk-back” to referees and the strength and force of his character. In modern sport, where off-field blandness is too often the rule, George is an enigma – unusual, opinionated, polarising – yet one of the outstanding contributors to the rugby world for more than a decade.

He made his first appearance for the Wallabies in 1994 and ended his astonishing international career after the 2007 World Cup. His years at rugby’s highest level have seen extraordinary changes in the game as it moved from amateur to professional status and emerged as a truly global sport. George played in three World Cups, five Super 12 grand finals, and made an indelible mark on the game. As an Australian rugby player, he is unique.

Now, in George’s autobiography, he writes with honesty and insight about both his life and the game he loves. Full of highs and lows, great characters and – always – George’s forthright opinion, this is a book not just for rugby fans but for anyone who enjoys an inspiring tale.

Grab a copy of Half Back, Half Forward Now! Save a massive 29% only $35

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Here is an overview of the forthcoming book from the Publisher.

What if you could see around the corners of your life? Wouldn’t it help to know what the worst days of your life would be like BEFORE they hit?

There are certain days in life that stand out because they are among the toughest that you or someone you love will experience. Your quality of life and your experience on the journey through this world are a function of how you handle these days when they arrive. Will you be ready? Will you be strong? Will you survive and be better for it, or will you cave?

In Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Challenging Days of Your Life, bestselling author and talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is here to help you prepare to confront what he believes are the seven most common critical days that you or a loved one are likely to face. This book helps make it possible for you to be there for yourself or to be the calm in the middle of the storm for someone you love when any of these difficult days arrive.

• Loss — the day that you or someone you love has their heart shattered by death, divorce, or losing something of great value.
• Fear — the day that you realize you have lived your life as a sellout and that every choice you have made up until this point was dictated by other people’s expectations, not based on your own goals and desires.
• Adaptability Breakdown — the day that the pressures of balancing your responsibilities and needs, along with life’s demands, have become way too overwhelming, and you realize that you are in way over your head.
• Physical Health — the day that your body or that of someone you love breaks down because of illness, trauma, or disease.
• Mental Health — the day that the mind breaks down and betrays you or someone you love.
• Addiction — the day that addiction takes over, and you or your loved one look a powerful destroyer in the face and realize that you are not in control.
• Existential Crisis — the day that you or someone you love lose the purpose, compass, and connection to meaning in life and have no answer to the question “Why?”

Encountering these days can feel like hitting a brick wall. But while they will change your life, they do not have to ruin it. Dr. Phil’s step-by-step plan for getting through the worst days is designed to help you feel prepared when it really matters - in the midst of a crisis. Dr. Phil provides wisdom and resources that will guide you toward a solution that is right for you, showing you how to minimize disruption and maximize the recovery.

This book is not just about giving you a crisis-mode plan. It will also show you how to change your life now, before you get into a crisis, so that you are not behind the power curve when any of the seven days hit. You will be able to be a leader to someone you love during their crisis because you will know what to do. Dr. Phil says there are no exceptions: with the right attitude and the right information, every challenging day can be turned into a valuable life experience.

Links and Further Reading

• Read an Excerpt from the book

Order a copy of Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life now and save 14% off the RRP. Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery for an unlimited number of books and order more than 1 book.

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The Good Food Guide has been the Sydney food industry standard for 25 years. Order your copy now.

Links and Further Reading

• 2009 Winner Video
  
• Winners & Losers

Order a copy of Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 now Take advantage of $6 Flat Fee Delivery for an unlimited number of books and order more than 1 book.

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A rainy night in south London. A gun is fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement, killing the person standing at a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister…

One life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger; an ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. Two weeks away from giving birth, how will she deal with a world where death is an occupational hazard? In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, anything is possible.

Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the story’s final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come. Gritty, fierce and moving, it is a must-read for anyone who likes their crime fiction unflinching…and unforgettable.

Links and Further Reading

• smh.com.au Review (coming soon)

Buy a copy of In The Dark now! Take advantage of their Flat Fee Delivery for an unlimited number of books and order more than 1 book.

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