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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Royal Wedding - William and Kate

Wasn't the Wedding beautiful! Everyone looked so happy and the dress was fantastic. Now in theme with the Royal Wedding, we have in stock a few books on the Royal couple.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Gardener's Guide to Growing Money Trees - Dave Bell

The gardener’s guide to Growing Money Trees is the first in a series of books by author Dave Bell, which combines his deep love of nature, with a lifelong fascination with life, business and ‘what we learn along the way’.
The book is a photographic journey looking at the ‘big picture’ … a journey laced with humour, to reflect our observation that life seems to have a way of gently laughing at us all, even in our darkest moments.
It was produced in collaboration with photographer and award-winning landscaper James Morcom, who has been described by some as a ‘nature paparazzo’ to all our feathered and furry friends. 

A big congratulations to Dave for winning a Bronze Award in the 'Living Now Book Awards.'

Dave Bell is an Adelaide author and after a rather rocky start to his working life, Dave finally graduated from the school of financial hard knocks in 2000, majoring in ‘the art of working really hard, while going broke slowly’.
Through the help of a share market savvy friend, and aided by a ‘never say die’ attitude, Dave was eventually able to turn his financial fortunes around and rise above the poverty trap.
To celebrate this achievement, he quit his day job to do something really creative. So was born ‘The gardener’s guide’, a book which took two years of blood, sweat, and fun to finish!
If you would like to know more, then visit Dave's site 
 

Best Sellers 1/04/2011 - 23/04/2011

  1. Earth's Children #1 Land of Painted Caves - Jean Auel (FIC)
  2. Mortal Instruments #4 City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare (TEEN)
  3. Black Dagger Brotherhood #9 Lover Unleashed - J R Ward (PAR)
  4. Specky Magee #8 And the Best of Oz - Felice Arena (CHJ)
  5. Troubled Man - Henning Mankell (CRM)
  6. Sweet #5 Sweet Possession - Maya Banks (ERO)
  7. Kelly Group #3 Hidden Away - Maya Banks (ROM)
  8. Demonwar Saga #2 At the Gates of Darkness (FAN)
  9. Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus (MANGA)
  10. Black Jewel #8 Twilight's Dawn - Anne Bishop (FAN)

Happy Easter






                        Happy Easter!!!!!

We hope everyone has a lovely holiday. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you after!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Vote for us!

                                                                   VOTING PAGE
Okay details have been updated and now you can vote for Castle Plaza Bookshop with the above link!! Please vote for our blog and help us make a name for ourselves. Support the indie stores!! There are also a few other great blogs to vote for at the same time!!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

LinkedWithin Not Working

I just want to apologise if some of the links on the LinkedWithin don't work. Due to the name change of the blog some of the links do not work by using the LinkedWithin. If you have a look on the side of the blog where the labels are, you will find these links ARE working.

I will try and fix this asap.

Tarran

Guardian Angel’s Journal - Carolyn Jess-Cooke

If you could go back and give your younger self a few words of advice, what would they be, what would you change if you could?


The Guardian Angel’s Journal
Carolyn Jess-Cooke


‘The new Audrey Niffenegger’
Company Magazine  
‘Examining the meaning of fate, the existence of free will, and the consequences of every decision, The Guardian Angel’s Journal is a modern fable determined to remind us that we are not alone’
Booklist
 
‘Jess-Cooke is one to watch’
Publisher’s Weekly

Friday, April 15, 2011

Billionaire's Curse - Richard Newsome




Gerald Wilkins has just become the richest 13-year-old on the planet.

His great aunt has left him a fortune valued at $30 billion. But she has also left him a mystery; and a host of villains who are intent on hunting him down and doing him in.
 
I had a copy of this book in my library at home and I kept meaning to read it. Something always came up. The other day I picked it up and thought 'Hmm I might read this now.'
I am glad I did!
Richard Newsome has written a great adventure story for kids aged 9+. The story is this, Gerald's Great Aunt has just died and his parents interuppt his promised vacation with friends to take him to London for the funeral of a woman he has never met. 
He is not happy! Gradually though he finds clues about his Aunt's death and a greater mystery is unfolded to do with his lineage and why his Aunt died. 
The author has included scenes that are a realistic portrayal of what villians do, without it becoming too gruesome. If you have a child at home who wants a good read, then go and get them a copy of this book. I think they would enjoy it.
 
Richard Newsome was born in a modest-sized town in the north island of New Zealand, a little place called Wanganui on a great roiling river, and lived the first few years of his life on an even more modest-sized farm outside of town. His family migrated to Australia when he was two and a half and graciously agreed to take him along. If you want to know more about the author, then here is his website

The Billionaire’s Curse won the inaugural Text Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Writing in 2008, and was awarded the Esther Glen Medal in 2010, New Zealand’s oldest literary prize.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide

Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide
Fans of the #1 New York Times bestselling Twilight Saga will treasure this definitive official guide! This must-have hardcover edition--the only official guide--is the definitive encyclopedic reference to the Twilight Saga and provides readers with everything they need to further explore the unforgettable world Stephenie Meyer created inTwilight, New Moon, Eclipse,andBreaking Dawn. With exclusive new material, character profiles, genealogical charts, maps, extensive cross-references, and much more, this comprehensive handbook is essential for every Twilight Saga fan.
IN STORE NOW!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Book Review - Emerald Atlas - John Stephens




They were taken from their beds one frozen night, when the world was covered in snow. The silhouette of a tall, thin man has haunted Kate ever since.

Ten years on, Kate, Michael and Emma have grown up in a string of miserable orphanages, and all memories of their parents have faded to a blur. Arriving at Cambridge Falls, where the rolling fog distorts their sense of time and the town is eerily silent, the children quickly realise there is something different about this place – and Kate feels sure she has seen the dark, crooked house before.

Exploring the house, they discover an old, empty leather book. The moment they touch it, an ancient magical prophecy is set irrevocably in motion, and the children are thrown into a dangerous alternate reality of dark enchantments, terrifying monsters, noble dwarves and entire cities buried beneath the earth. Only they can prevent the terrible event that will ruin Cambridge Falls – and stop the world from falling into complete devastation.
 
Emerald Atlas was well written and a good adventure. It is definatley a teenage novel but it does have some adult phrases. I think the author was trying to make a teen book adult friendly.
The characters are well defined and you really feel for them as they are thrown into situations that are beyond their control.
The plot does seem a little contrived in places but it moves the story along so it doesn't make you want to put the book down. As the book progresses it gets better and the text flows well.
I like how the author makes the characters face things and it helps them grow as a person- it is important to have ever growing characters that make you see things from their point of view. The plotline is a great story! It has aspects of World of Warcraft, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Ranger's Apprentice. 
All in all a good book and I will be buying the second book.
 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Author Signing - Sean Williams & Garth Nix - Troubletwisters

*Drum roll* Sean William and Garth Nix will be signing at Castle Bookshop on the 27th May at 3:30pm!! They have a new teenage book due for release called Troubletwisters. It is a brilliant book that any fans of Key's to the Kingdom Series, Percy Jackson and Skulduggery Pleasent will like!!
 The first book of a major fantasy series from New York Times bestselling authors Garth Nix and Sean Williams, in which twins find that they must act as wards against a threatening evil.

'Come to us, Troubletwisters, join us ... welcome, most welcome!'
When their home mysteriously explodes around their ears, twins Jack and Jaide are sent to stay with a grandmother they have never met, in a town they have never heard of. Portland might seem boring and quiet, but it soon becomes apparent that Grandma X is more than a little eccentric, and there are very strange happenings in the town. Talking cats, swarms of cockroaches, a miniature tornado trashing their room - the twins are about to find out what it means to be a troubletwister!
Something growing
Something read
Something living
Someone dead

Come meet the authors of brilliant series such as 'Keys to the Kingdom' 'Books of Change' 'Old Kingdom' and 'Star Wars'

Such a fun event, we hope to see you all there!!!
Read my review on the book HERE
 

Book Review - Road to the Soul - Kim Falconer


Through darkness, the heart will find a way
A mysterious artefact leads Jarrod back to Gaela′s lost southern continent where he discovers a sentient being like himself.
Ruthless and extremely dangerous, this other version has captured Janis Richter.Luka Paree and Janis′ daughter, Ruby, are playing a dangerous game with Earth′s dictatorship. They have laid their escape plans, but the hunters are closing in. If ASSIST discovers the portal to Gaela, all is lost ...

Now I loved Path of the Stray but I will say this book was better. The story pick up a few months after the ending of POTS and you are thrown back into the world. Brilliant character development - I loved Tryn and Quillian. The plot line flowed really well, there were a few things that I didn't see coming. Strong battle scenes and vivid discriptions are fantastic. Only problem now is that Bk 3 won't be out till later in the year.


 Brilliant writing!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Book of Beginnings #1 The Emerald Atlas John Stephens


They were taken from their beds one frozen night, when the world was covered in snow. The silhouette of a tall, thin man has haunted Kate ever since.

Ten years on, Kate, Michael and Emma have grown up in a string of miserable orphanages, and all memories of their parents have faded to a blur. Arriving at Cambridge Falls, where the rolling fog distorts their sense of time and the town is eerily silent, the children quickly realise there is something different about this place – and Kate feels sure she has seen the dark, crooked house before.

Exploring the house, they discover an old, empty leather book. The moment they touch it, an ancient magical prophecy is set irrevocably in motion, and the children are thrown into a dangerous alternate reality of dark enchantments, terrifying monsters, noble dwarves and entire cities buried beneath the earth. Only they can prevent the terrible event that will ruin Cambridge Falls – and stop the world from falling into complete devastation.

Castle Bookshop Press Release


Angus and Robertson Edwardstown has become an independent bookstore.

On April 5, 2011 at 10.00 am today a new bookstore brand opened at Castle Plaza – Castle Books. This store was previously known as Angus and Robertson but due to uncertain conditions at A&R head office the owners Jo Patritti and Sonia Patritti have made the choice to be independent of the franchise. The Franchisees have exercised their right to terminate as a result of Angus & Robertson’s continued breach of the franchise agreement. This includes Angus & Robertson’s failure to provide the services and benefits it is obliged to provide pursuant to the franchise agreement. 

Long serving franchisees and those who have recently joined the company are saddened by the demise of the iconic Angus & Robertson brand. 

‘We are saddened by everything that has happened as we loved A&R – but things had to change. We couldn’t cope with the way things were going. We are in this industry because we love books and our customers and we want to be able to provide the best service we can. That wasn’t happening.’

Castle Books is at the same location with the same phone number. Same Staff, Same Great Service, New Name - Great Books

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Guest Post - Tansy Rayner Roberts - Why the Creature Court

With the release of The Shattered City due for April, I have asked Tansy to give us a glimpse of why she chose to write about the Creature Court and where she got her sources for it. Tansy's first book 'Power and Majesty' had a different style of writing that took your breath away. Here is her answer:

Why the Creature Court, and what sources did I use to come up with the whole idea?

Magical courts have been a long part of the fantasy tradition - Titania and Oberon’s courts in A Midsummer Night’s dream, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and of course the many formalities of well-dressed vampires.  Camelot and the court of King Arthur is one of the central hubs around which fantasy orbits.  Hierarchy allows for all kinds of delicious plots to enfold, whether they are about thwarted ambition, or the heaviness of the crown.

The historical courts which are most firmly lodged in my own creative subconscious are those of Imperial Rome, brought to us by such ancient scholars as Suetonius, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger, and by modern historical novelists such as Robert Graves and Lindsey Davis.  I have a deep love of Roman history, which has brought us such wild and improbably crazy characters as Livia, Caligula, Agrippina and Nero.  It’s entirely possible that none of these people lived nearly as melodramatic lives as the historians suggest, but I choose to believe otherwise.  They now form part of an epic myth cycle all about blood and poison, sex and death, love gone wrong and families torn apart by distrust and betrayal.

I love stories about broken people who form their own dysfunctional stories, and I love court politics, and I love magic that is dark and wild and doesn’t entirely make sense.  I poured all of these things into the books that make up the Creature Court trilogy.

The Creature Court themselves are a dangerous bunch, deeply attached to their hierarchy.
The lowest are the courtesi, who can change into their animal and only have lesser powers. They cannot stay in the Court without being under the protection of a Lord.  The Lords can change into two magical forms: their animal and a more powerful, glowing version of themselves.  They can fly and fight in both forms.  The most powerful of all are the Kings, who have a third magical form, the mighty chimaera.  When Lords become Kings, they are supposed to leave behind all previous allegiances and friendships and be completely independent.  But only one King can be Power and Majesty over the whole Court, and the others are supposed to serve him.

That’s where it start getting messy.  Because the best thing about rules is the breaking of them, and it doesn’t matter how formal the structure is supposed to be, once people and their emotions get involved, messiness always ensues.

The Power and Majesty may be the leader and ruler of the Creature Court, but he also has the greatest amount of animor, a magic which can be used for great feats, but also has a tendency to push people towards corruption and emotional instability.  The most powerful are often the most paranoid... and the most damaged.  

You might have noticed a lot of male pronouns in my description!  One of the things I love to do, particularly with stories that deal with traditional fantasy tropes, is to challenge old words, and make them work differently.  In the Creature Court trilogy I have, for example, written three books about magic battles that only happen at night, without using the words ‘magic’ or ‘night’.  I also wanted to address the use of the word ‘king.’  I’m all for warrior queens in fantasy and history, but there’s no denying that the word ‘queen’ has completely different connotations to the word ‘king.’  One of the things I wanted to do with these books was to pull some of the gender associations away from the word ‘king’ so that when a woman steps up into that role, there isn’t a different word for what she is.

Girls can be kings too!  And in Shattered City (Creature Court Book Two) that’s where things really start to get complicated...

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http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/">Tansy Rayner Roberts is the author of Power and Majesty (Creature Court Book One) and The Shattered City (Creature Court Book Two, April 2011) with Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three, coming in November 2011) hot on its tail. Her short story collection Love and Romanpunk will be published as part of the Twelfth Planet Press “Twelve Planets” series in May.

This post comes to you as part of Tansy’s Mighty Slapdash Blog Tour, and comes with a cookie fragment of new release The Shattered City:

The blood did not hurt her, but Velody could feel it sticking to her fur, twitching against her nose.  She couldn’t smell anything but the blood, which was how she ended up surrounded by cats, black and silent, without warning.  She shaped into lord form, fast and fierce, glowing brightly as she hovered naked only a few inches from the rooftop.    

Ashiol changed a beat after her, hovering there with that look on his face, the one he always got soon after they had faced each other as cats and mice - as if he was reminding himself that he wasn’t allowed to eat her.

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