Fans of the Twilight series will recall Bree Tanner was introduced on page 504 of Eclipse and killed just nine pages later. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner tells the story of the newborn vampire and the darker side of the world the characters inhabit.

“I’m as surprised as anyone about this novella,” said Stephenie Meyer (pictured). “When I began working on it in 2005, it was simply an exercise to help me examine the other side of Eclipse, which I was editing at the time. I thought it might end up as a short story that I could include on my website. Then, when work started on The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, I thought the Guide would be a good fit for my Bree story. However, the story grew longer than I anticipated, until it was too long to fit into the Guide.”

In less than five years, Stephenie Meyer has become a worldwide publishing phenomenon. The four books which make up the Twilight saga (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and more than 3.5 million copies in Australia alone.

As a special thank to fans of the Twilight saga, Stephenie Meyer is giving them access to the novella on a dedicated website www.breetanner.com, where they can read the book online in English for free up until 5th July 2010.

“I’ve always considered The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner as something for the fans,” said Stephenie Meyer. “They have been so supportive of all things Twilight.”

The character of Bree Tanner features prominently in the upcoming movie The Twilight Saga: Eclipse from Summit Entertainment, which will be released in Australian cinemas on 1st July 2010.

The Director of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, David Slade said, “Stephenie was gracious enough to let me read a draft of the novella while we were prepping for the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and it gave us great insight and inspired location choices and the tailoring of scenes. I think fans are going to love the fascinating details involved in the loves, fears and actions of an emerging vampire.”

Stephenie Myer said she was pleased that the characters Bree, Riley and Victoria (the newborn vampire army) made it into the film.

The character of Bree Tanner will be played in the film by fifteen year old Canadian Jodelle Ferland, who has appeared in TV series such as Smallville and Dark Angel, as well as many feature films including Case 39 with Renee Zellweger, Wonderful World with Matthew Broderick and the lead role in Tideland. You can watch an interview with Jodelle on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9lQv7f5WIQ&feature=player_embedded

THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER by Stephenie Meyer is published in hardcover by Atom, an imprint of Hatchette (RRP. AU$22.99).

For more information about the author visit the official Stephenie Meyer website: www.stepheniemeyer.com

YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE AT:

• Amazon.com – US$7.54*

• Angus and Robertson Online – AU$14.99*

• QBD The Bookshop – AU$16.99*

• Fishpond.com.au – AU$19.97*

• The Nile – AU$20.49*

Rachael Treasure doesn’t just write about rural Australia, she lives it. Born and raised in rural Victoria, she now lives on a farm in Tasmania with her husband John and their two children. I spoke to Rachael by phone during her brief stop over in Melbourne, on her way on to the Deniliquin Ute Muster in New South Wales, where she would be signing books and chatting to the rural characters who feature so prominently in her novels.

Rachael Treasure has spent her whole life in rural Australia. After graduating from high school she studied agriculture at Orange and Bathurst before heading to Queensland to work on a cattle station.

It should come as no surprise then, to know that when it came to affairs of the heart, Rachael Treasure fell in love with a farmer. It was love a first sight for Rachael the night she met John at a pub in Gippsland, Victoria.

Whilst a country pub is not everybody’s idea of a romantic setting, Rachael told me, “A pub is my favourite place in the world apart from a paddock.”

Rachael and John married in 2002 but the couple have been together for almost eleven years. “We’re really well suited and I was very lucky to find him,” she said.

Rachael began her writing career working as an agricultural journalist at the Tasmanian Country, a statewide rural publication, before accepting a job offer with ABC rural press in Victoria.

“Because I’ve been a journalist I’ve learnt to be quite diverse in my writing style,” she said. “Not many people in the country read a lot, so when I set out to write in this genre I wanted a book that would really engage my peers – young jackaroos and jillaroos who haven’t seen their world represented in fiction.”

Rachael Treasure found an audience for her fiction almost immediately and has since inspired other women in rural Australia to put pen to paper, including Fiona Palmer, author of The Family Farm.

“When Penguin told me about Fiona I was on the email straight away because I’ve got a lot of women writer friends in Hobart – really successful writers like Katherine Scholes and Danielle Wood – but there isn’t that farming connection. With Fiona, she’s living a similar life to mine and it was really flattering to have inspired her into writing.”

“When I sat down to write my first book in 1999, I was hoping that more female writers would come on to the Australian bookshevles because I found as a reader, it was really hard for me to find books that accurately represented my world. When I read Fiona’s book, I really related to the characters she has brought to life.”

“One of my passions is to inspire people into agriculture because if we don’t look after our food source in this country and attract young people into our industry, then we don’t have such a vibrant future. So what I want to do is inspire kids in the city to head bush and I’ve had email from young people to say that my books have done just that. Even working for a year in the country can give you life long skills. There’s also a whole different style of humour to be learned and enjoyed, which makes you a little more easy going.”

In her fourth novel, Rachael Treasure again writes about the issues confronting farming families like hers. After seeing her own family deal with the impact of alpine grazing bans, Rachael has written a thought-provoking story aimed at reconciliation and finding balance in land management.

“My family has a spirtual connection with the land they have lived on for generations. My children would have been the sixth generation but because there was such a shadow over the future of grazing, it meant we couldn’t see a way forward in Victoria and so we’ve chosen to move to Tassie and haven’t regretted that in any way,” said Rachael.

“The sense of community in the district is absolutely incredible and that’s helped me as a working mum because there are always women about to pick the kids up from the school bus if I can’t make it – there’s a real network of supportive women.”

Rachael’s husband John, teaches part-time at the local primary school where the couple’s children attend along with just 13 others. Like many schools scattered throughout rural Australia, it is operating under the constant threat of closure by the state government.

“We’ve had a campaign to rejuvenate our little school because it was looking like it was going to be closed by the government. It’s not just about educating our children – that little school was a place for me to go and see other mums in the district. We may have only four kids in a play group session but it’s an outlet.”

“We need to listen more to the landscape and to actually see what is happening rather than get caught up in the ‘them and us’ attitude. In The Cattleman’s Daughter I didn’t want to just say the cattlemen are good and the bureacrats are bad. I resist saying the conservationist are bad because as farmers we are conservationists, there’s no them and us on that front. We are active conservationists. We’re not in a city saying that we’re conservationists, we’re out there doing it and treating our land with respect.”

“So with The Cattleman’s Daughter I wanted a book that would not only make city people more aware of the experience our family has been through with the very political decision to not renew grazing licenses, I also wanted the cattlemen to have a think about how they’re approaching the whole thing and rather than debate the issue, have a dialogue about the issue and discuss it.”

“I wanted readers to be left with the sense that we’re not here for a long time on this earth but the earth is still here and if we can have dialogue that isn’t caught up in conflict, we can start to look after that earth a lot more effectively than what we have been doing.”

“We’re making progress on our own farm and Dad works beautifully with John. We’ve had four years of drought and recently we had floods, so we’ve gone from one extreme to the other. But in answering mother nature we’ve built a hydroponic fodder shed that will produce two and half tonne of grain feed a day and it’s on a reticulated water system. As sustainable farmers we don’t graze our paddocks bare anyway and this technology will lesson the need to use water on paddocks and to plough really fragile soils. So some of the issues I’m actually talking about in my book, I’m actually living in my life. We’re putting in place this fodder shed so we can look after our land better.”

“Our lives are totally connected with mother nature and when you live in the city and you’re not producing food for yourself you can lose touch with that and so I’m hoping that my books can help bridge the gap between the urban and the rural landscape, so people start to understand that we are all one with mother nature and we’ve got to look after her.”

For more information about Rachael Treasure and her books visit the author’s website at www.rachaeltreasure.com

The Cattleman’s Daughter by Rachael Treasure is published by Michael Joseph (an imprint of Penguin) and is available at book retailers now, RRP AU$32.95 – Click Here to Read an Extract on the publisher’s website.

YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE AT:

Fishpond.com.au – AU$23.95

QBD The Bookshop – AU$24.99

SeekBooks.com.au – AU$26.90

Suze Orman’s story is truly inspirational. Born with a speech impediment and unable to read as well as her class mates, Orman struggled through school and then college – dropping out of university before graduation when she was unable to fulfill the language requirement. In 1980 the then 29 year old Orman, was working as a waitress earning just $400 a month and dreaming of opening a restaurant, when something quite extraordinary happened. Upon learning that she was unable to borrow the money she needed to follow her dream, customers at the restaurant where she had waitressed for the past six years, loaned Orman $50,000 to open a restaurant.

On the advice of Fred, the customer who had rallied the other customers to advance the money to Orman, she decided to deposit the money in a money market account. Knowing nothing about money markets, Orman fell victim to an unscrupulous employee at Merill Lynch who had convinced her to invest the money in a high risk investment strategy. Needless to say, when the stock market tanked a short time later, she lost all of the money loaned to her by customers at the restaurant where she was still worked as a waitress.

Feeling like she had let everybody down, Orman complained to Merill Lynch and when they refused to take any action against the rogue employee, she sued them, but not before convincing the financial institution to give her a job. Although her plans for opening a restaurant had gone up in smoke, the experience had taught Orman a valuable lesson, she was capable of much more than she had been doing with her life since leaving college. Eventually she settled with Merill Lych (which was now her employer) and used the settlement to repay all the money loaned to her by those who had shown such faith in her. By 1983 Orman had become a top performing broker at Merill Lynch and a passion for educating others about money was born!

When Suze Orman talks about money it isn’t a dirty word. When I was growing up in the 1970′s and 80′s, I was taught that money was a necessary evil. I knew I needed money to survive, but I also felt that I had to keep it at a distance or risk becoming ‘corrupted’ by it. I grew up poor and I remained poor well into adulthood, and like many others, I still have a somewhat dysfunctional relationship with money to this day. We’ve all heard the cliché ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ but I can tell you from personal experience, poverty only breeds misery. So when I read ‘nothing more directly affects your happiness than money‘, on page 14 of Women & Money, I was hooked!

From birth, women are socialised to put the wants and needs of others before themselves. When we enter the workforce we undervalue the work that we do. Whether negotiating a wage increase, running a business, or managing a household as a stay-at-home mum, women often grossly undervalue the contribution they make to the world. Even when we discover our true worth to the company or the household, we lack the confidence to ask for fair compensation.

Orman says women have to realise that they are ‘not on sale’ and encourages all of us to “Set your value, communicate that value to the outside world, and then not settle for less” because the truth is, if we do not value ourselves, neither will our employers, our customers, or our partners.

Whether you are single, married, divorced, every woman needs to educate herself about money and take control of her own financial destiny. Although there are some valid reasons for the lower economic status of women, it is within the power of every woman to change her financial destiny. To help us on our merry way, Orman has developed ‘The Save Yourself Plan’, a five month program that promises to deliver long-term financial security. From savings accounts, to credit cards, to superannuation and more, ‘The Money Lady’ will be your guide towards financial security.

Thanks to Hay House, the publisher of the Australian edition of Women & Money by Suze Orman, we have 3 copies of this life changing book to give away at Australian Women Online – CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE
Australian retailer: QBD The Bookshop – AU$26.95 (Australian Edition)
International retailer:  Amazon.com – US$12.25 (US Edition)

When I told my friends that I would be interviewing Gretel Killeen this week, no mention was made of her most recent TV appearance as host of the Logies, or the years she spent as the host of Big Brother. Instead, the conversation that ensued focused on her comedic talent and her abilities as a strong role model for women, particularly working mothers. Although not a representative survey by any means, I’m not surprised by this response – I have long suspected that this hard working single mother of two, has at least as many fans as she does critics.

Perhaps it is her ability to withstand a barrage of criticism time and time again, without sinking to the level of the lowest common denominator as her fiercest critics have done, that has earned Gretel Killeen the respect and admiration of both sexes. But we will never know how much the vilification of Gretel has hurt her, as in the public sphere at least, she is always smiling. Even her recently released memoir, The Night My Bum Dropped, offers very little in the way of insight. Described as ‘a gleefully exaggerated memoir’, Gretel’s latest book entertains much more than it informs.

When asked why she didn’t write a straight memoir, Gretel Killeen told Australian Women Online, “I think there is a line that needs to be drawn between your right to write about your own life and your right to discuss the lives of other people. Just because people are in your life it doesn’t mean you have access to open their lives up to public scrutiny.”

In an attempt to protect the privacy of family and friends, Gretel created pseudonyms and omitted all other identifying information from The Night My Bum Dropped. In the book she affectionately refers to her children as ‘Frog’ and ‘Tadpole’. Unfortunately, all her efforts came to nought last week when a journalist writing for the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend Magazine, published the names of her two children in a brief but revealing biography of the author.

Gretel also expressed her concerns about the ways in which the media often distorts the public’s perception of celebrities – and much of what appears on the pages of her book, more closely resembles the everyday challenges faced by women, than the surreal life of a celebrity.

“I think people who are in the public eye are presented as somehow different to everybody else and that sets an unnatural benchmark for people who are leading day-to-day existences because they compare themselves to high profile people, when the fact is that a lot of those images are fictitious,” said Gretel. “I wanted to protect everybody but still get to the truth of motherhood and singledom and being a female. I wanted to entertain, but also to share that sentiment that life gets hard for all us.”

It must also be remembered that at the time when Gretel Killeen was hosting Big Brother she was also raising two children by herself – which goes along way to explaining why she has remained relatively unaffected by the fame and notoriety.

“I couldn’t concentrate on the accessories of being in the public eye. It was more important to me to be at home helping my kids with their homework, cooking their meals and being with them.”

So if you were hoping just to get some behind-the-scenes gossip about Big Brother, The Night My Bum Dropped will surely disappoint. The closest thing you’ll find to Big Brother in this book is some references to a fictitious TV program Gretel calls Loopy Cupid.

“I didn’t write about Big Brother at all and none of what I wrote about [Loopy Cupid] ever happened. I’ve worked on a lot of television shows over the years and I just wanted to write about the ridiculousness of [television] and the camaraderie,” said Gretel. “Big Brother was a great show to work on and there’s no way in the world I would want to criticise it. So I just decided to stay completely clear of it.”

In her latest book, Gretel Killeen makes light of the public perception that she is an unemployed ‘has been’. But the truth is in the eighteen months since she left Big Brother, Gretel has traveled to 13 countries, played the narrator in the theatre production of the Rocky Horror Show, written two books and started a third, written a film and is currently writing a dance.

“I certainly haven’t been wallowing since Big Brother finished,” she said. “Sometimes people think that if you’re not on television and they can’t actually see you, then you’re doing nothing.”

Despite her numerous television appearances, Gretel says she’s first and foremost a writer. “I’ve always written. Writing has launched my whole career – I wrote my stand-up, I wrote comedy for radio and television and I got into voice-overs that way. So to be able to go back to it now that my kids are older is fantastic and luxurious because I can travel and write at the same time – and I don’t have to put on all that make-up.”

The author of more than twenty books, including books for children, her next book due for release is a love story for teenagers and she is hard at work on a sequel to The Night My Bum Dropped.

“I’m faithful to writing because writing has been good to me. I think it’s really important that if you have any sort of ability to spend the time to pursue it.”

The Night My Bum Dropped by Gretel Killeen is published by Penguin and is available now at bookstores for AU$29.95 (recommended retail price).

You can also read an extract of The Night My Bum Dropped and view a video interview with Gretel Killeen at the Penguin Australia website http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670072958

YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK ONLINE
Australian retailers:
Fishpond.com.au for AU$25.96
SeekBooks.com.au for AU$26.96
QBD The Bookshop for AU$29.95

All we can share at the moment is that the story takes place over a 12-hour period in the life of THE DA VINCI CODE’S protagonist, Robert Langdon.

In an official statement Dan Brown (pictured) said: “This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey, weaving five years of research into the story’s 12-hour time frame was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine.”

The highly anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, one of the most thrilling bestsellers of all time, THE LOST SYMBOL is finally available to pre-order from book shops, including the following online retailers who have heavily discounted the price in the lead up to the book’s release:

Australian Retailers:

• QBD The Bookshop for AU$29.99

• The Nile for AU$31.99

• Fishpond.com.au for AU$32.99

International Retailers:

• Amazon.com for US$16.17

If you would like to receive updates about Dan Brown’s new book THE LOST SYMBOL? Sign up to the Random House newsletter for the latest news, updates about any competitions, exclusive stuff or promotions that we will be running for THE LOST SYMBOL and other Random House books!

This story is set in Australia, the Pacific Islands, Japan and Indonesia during the latter half of the twentieth century. Nick Duncan is an ingenuous male with a great deal more female on his hands than he can possibly hope to understand.

The contest he is called upon to referee is the clash between the two great loves of his life: the seductive Anna Til, and the older, equally fascinating Marg Hamilton. Nick struggles between their worlds: one exploiting the world’s riches for profit, the other fighting to save the environment and its creatures, large and small.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 40% at QBD The Bookshop

2. Cross Country by James Patterson. Published by Century, RRP $32.95
Alex Cross is drawn into a bitter personal battle against corruption, conspiracy and savage violence in a chase that takes him through a vast and uncompromising landscape. When Cross is called to investigate a massacre-style murder scene, he is shocked to find that the victim is an old friend. Angry, hurt and more determined than ever, Cross begins the hunt for the perpetrators of this cruel crime.

When Cross is called to investigate a massacre-style murder scene, he is shocked to find that the victim is an old friend. Angry, hurt and more determined than ever, Cross begins the hunt for the perpetrators of this cruel crime.

He is drawn into a dangerous underworld right in the heart of Washington DC that leads him on a life threatening journey to the Niger Delta where heroin dealing, slave trade and oil and gas theft are rife.
At the centre of this terrifying world, Cross finds the Tiger, the psychopathic leader of a fearsome gang of killers who are not what they seem.

When the Tiger is on the prowl, he shows no mercy to others. But Alex Cross is hot on his heels in a heart-stopping chase that takes him across Africa and finds him not only hunting for a horrific killer but also fighting for his own survival.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

3. The Islands by Di Morrissey. Published by Macmillan, RRP $32.99
It’s the psychedelic 70s and social conventions are being challenged. When Catherine Moreland from rural Australia goes on her first trip abroad, a handsome American naval officer sweeps her off her feet and she goes to live in beautiful, romantic Hawaii with her new husband.

At first, the magic and loveliness of the Islands lead Catherine to believe she is living in paradise. She befriends Kiann’e, a traditional dancer; Eleanor, the owner of the legendary Palm Grove Hotel; Lester, a reclusive old surfer; and royal Beatrice, leading the fight to maintain Hawaii’s heritage and culture.

However, as Catherine learns more about the Islands, she begins to discover that paradise has a darker side. And when she meets a mystery man of the sea, as though hit by a tsunami, her life is turned upside down and changed forever.

BUY THE BOOK
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

4. The Private Patient by P.D.James. Published by Faber and Faber, RRP $32.95
When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, booked into Mr Chandler-Powell’s private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week’s peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset’s most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life. She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive.

Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which are to raise even more complicated problems than the question of innocence of guilt.A new detective novel by P.D. James is always keenly awaited and The Private Patientwill undoubtedly equal the success of her world-wide bestseller, The Lighthouse.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

5. Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy. Published by Hachette, RRP $35.00
Clara Casey has more than enough on her plate. Her daughters Adi and Linda were no problem at all during the usually turbulent teens. Now in their twenties, Adi is always fighting for or against something: the environment or the whale or battery farming; while Linda lurches from one unsatisfactory relationship to the next. As if this wasn’t enough, Clara, a senior cardiac specialist, has a new job to cope with.

For Anya, meeting Clara Casey is a miracle: she had never intended to leave her beloved Poland, but after the love of her life has turned sour, her world seems rather empty. Perhaps a new job in a new country will mend her broken heart?

Declan is looking forward to joining the clinic – but the six-month posting brings him much more than he expected. Then there’s Father Brian Flynn, who finds his doubts about his calling are assuaged by work in his new parish. But when an acquaintance turns into a nightmare he needs help to rescue his reputation.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 29% at QBD The Bookshop

6. The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. Published by Allen & Unwin, RRP $32.95
A bullet speaks louder than words . . . when Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch team up in the new novel by Michael Connelly.

Things are finally looking up for defence attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent’s killer may be coming for him next.

Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent’s killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realise their only choice is to work together.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

7. A Good Woman by Danielle Steel. Published by Bantam, RRP $32.95
Nineteen-year-old Annabelle Worthington was born into a life of privilege, raised amid the glamour of New York society, with glorious homes on Fifth Avenue and in Newport, Rhode Island. But everything changed on a cold April day in 1912, when the sinking of the Titanic shattered her family and her privileged world forever. Finding strength within her grief, Annabelle pours herself into volunteer work, nursing the poor, igniting a passion for medicine that would shape the course of her life.

But for Annabelle, first love, and a seemingly idyllic marriage, will soon bring grief – this time caused by the secrets of the human heart. Betrayed and pursued by a scandal she does not deserve, Annabelle flees New York for war-ravaged France, hoping to lose herself in a life of service. There, in the heart of the First World War, in a groundbreaking field hospital run by women, Annabelle finds her true calling, working as an ambulance medic on the front lines, studying medicine, saving lives. And when the war ends, Annabelle begins a new life in Paris – now a doctor, a mother, her past almost forgotten. . . Until a fateful meeting opens her heart to the world she had left behind. Finding strength in the most unlikely of friendships, pulling together the broken fragments of her life, Annabelle will return to New York one more time – this time as a changed woman, a woman of substance, infused with life’s experience, building a future filled with hope . . . out of the rich soil of the past.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

8. The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver. Published by Hachette, RRP $32.95
A spring night in a small town in Wisconsin. A call to police emergency from a distant lake house is cut short. A phone glitch or an aborted report of a crime?

Off-duty deputy Brynn leaves her family’s dinner table and drives up to deserted Lake Mondac to find out. She stumbles onto the scene of a heinous murder. Before she can call for backup, though, she finds herself the next potential victim. Deprived of her phone, weapon and car, Brynn and an unlikely ally – a survivor of the carnage – can survive only by fleeing into the dense, deserted woods, on a desperate trek to safety and ultimately to the choice to fight back. The professional criminals, also strangers to this hostile setting, must forge a tense alliance too, in order to find and kill the two witnesses to the crime.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

9. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Published by Atlantic, RRP $32.95
Winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
Balram Halwai is the White Tiger – the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi.

The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India – by murdering his master.

The White Tiger presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking – from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator – amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Available at QBD The Bookshop

10. Divine Justice by David Baldacci. Published by Macmillan, RRP $32.99
Known by his alias, “Oliver Stone,” John Carr is the most wanted man in America. With two pulls of the trigger, the men who hid the truth of Stone’s past and kept him in the shadows were finally silenced.

But Stone’s freedom has come at a steep price; the assassinations he carried out have prompted the highest levels of the United States Government to unleash a massive manhunt. Joe Knox is leading the charge, but his superiors aren’t telling him everything there is to know about his quarry-and their hidden agendas are just as dangerous as the killer he’s trying to catch.

Meanwhile, with their friend and unofficial leader in hiding, the members of the Camel Club must fend for themselves, even as they try to protect him. As Knox closes in, Stone’s flight from the demons of his past will take him far from Washington, D.C., to the coal-mining town of Devine, Virginia-and headlong into a confrontation every bit as lethal as the one he is trying to escape.

BUY THE BOOK
International retailer: Amazon.com
Australian retailer: Save 24% at QBD The Bookshop

Data supplied by Nielsen BookScan’s book sales monitoring system from retailers nationwide four weeks ending 21/12/08

The lexicon is based on entries posted on a website www.lp-lexicon.com created by librarian, Steve Vander Ark. The publisher will argue in court that the lexicon provides fresh insights (and criticisms) of Rowling’s popular series.  But Lawyers for the author called the lexicon a ‘rip-off’ and want the court to issue an injunction preventing the release of the book.

According to a New York Times article published on 14 April 2008, Rowling was close to tears as she gave evidence at Manhatten Federal Court.

“These characters meant so much to me, and continue to mean so much to me, over such a long period of time. It’s very difficult for someone who is not a writer to understand. The closest I can come is to say to someone, ‘How do you feel about your child?” she said.

The New York Times has quoted Rowling as saying that the release of the lexicon by RDR Books will interfere with her own plans to publish an encyclopedia on the Harry Potter series and donate the proceeds to charity.

In a statement released to the media today, Rowling said:

“It gives me no pleasure to take legal action, but I am here today because I feel very strongly about an important issue that affects everyone and not just me. If books that plagiarise other works are permitted, authors, fans and readers stand to lose. There are lots of books in many languages that comment on or criticize Harry Potter, and that’s fine. But the book in this case is different. It provides no analysis and virtually no commentary. It takes far too much and it offers precious little in return. I would just like to add that I am extremely grateful for the incredible support of Harry Potter fans everywhere.”

The court case will last until Thursday and a verdict in the case could take several weeks.