Mr Chen's Emporium

Mr Chen's Emporium
Author: Deborah O'Brien
Publisher: Random House Australia
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1742755550

Perfect for book clubs, Mr Chen's Emporium is an enchanting historical love story, as East meets West in a sleepy NSW gold rush town. In 1872, seventeen-year-old Amy Duncan arrives in the Gold Rush town of Millbrooke, having spent the coach journey daydreaming about glittering pavilions and gilded steeples. What she finds is a dusty main street lined with ramshackle buildings. That is until she walks through the doors of Mr Chen's Emporium, a veritable Aladdin's cave, and her life changes forever. Though banned from the store by her dour clergyman father, Amy is entranced by its handsome owner, Charles Chen . . . In present-day Millbrooke, recently widowed artist Angie Wallace has rented the Old Manse where Amy once lived. When her landlord produces an antique trunk containing Amy's intriguingly diverse keepsakes - both Oriental and European - Angie resolves to learn more about this mysterious girl from the past. And it's not long before the lives of two very different women, born a century apart, become connected in the most poignant and timeless ways. Deborah O'Brien's fiction debut is a mesmerising story of forbidden love and following one's heart . . . 'A real charmer and a fine debut.' - Deborah Rodriguez, author of The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

The Trivia Man

The Trivia Man
Author: Deborah O'Brien
Publisher: Random House Australia
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2015-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0857988034

From the author of Mr Chen’s Emporium comes a quirky and heartwarming tale about finding your true place in the world, set against the backdrop of a weekly trivia competition. ‘Trivia is a serious business, not a social occasion’ Kevin Dwyer, the 'trivia man' Dubbed ‘brainbox’ by his peers and ‘weirdo’ by his sister, Kevin Dwyer is a middle-aged forensic accountant who has never had a real friend, other than his eight-year-old nephew Patrick. When Kevin joins the Clifton Park Sports Club trivia competition as a one-man team, and convincingly wins the first round, he is headhunted by the other contestants. But Kevin would prefer to be on his own. That is, until he meets Maggie Taylor . . . Maggie is a Latin teacher and movie buff, who’s good at her job but unlucky in love. In fact, she’s still besotted with the man who dumped her years ago. Nagged by her friend Carole about getting out and meeting people, Maggie reluctantly joins the trivia team founded by Carole’s husband Edward. Over a season of trivia nights, Kevin, Maggie and her team will experience arguments and crises, friendships and romances, heartbreaks and new beginnings. And maybe, just maybe, Kevin will find his happy ever after ...

A Place of Her Own

A Place of Her Own
Author: Deborah O'Brien
Publisher: Random House Australia
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2014-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0857982885

A compelling novel of starting over from the author of Mr Chen's Emporium. Eighteen months ago Angie Wallace thought her world had ended. Now she's fighting off suitors – and facing a crisis she never saw coming . . . ‘Unrequited love hurt like hell – whether you were fifteen or fifty-something.’ Following the death of her beloved husband Phil, Angie has made a new life for herself in the enchanting gold rush town of Millbrooke. The proud proprietor of the Old Manse B&B and a fierce protector of local history, her transition from ‘blow-in’ to bona fide Millbrooker is complete. She’s even fallen for the erudite but scruffy Richard Scott, owner of Millerbrooke House. But just as the relationship between Angie and Richard seems to be blossoming, a woman from his past arrives back in town – and turns their world upside down. Because Diana Goodmann isn’t all she seems, and when Angie vows to unearth the truth about her rival she finds herself a long way from home - and in very grave danger.

When We Were Orphans

When We Were Orphans
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2001-01-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0375412654

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day comes this stunning work of soaring imagination. Born in early twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age of nine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, more than twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents' alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own painful past, only to find that war is ravaging Shanghai beyond recognition—and that his own recollections are proving as difficult to trust as the people around him. Masterful, suspenseful and psychologically acute, When We Were Orphans offers a profound meditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibility of avenging one’s past.

The Last Chance Library

The Last Chance Library
Author: Freya Sampson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2021
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 059320137X

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick A Library Reads Pick June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way. Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother. Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer's feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won't believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way. To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she's determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.

Jade Widow, The

Jade Widow, The
Author: Deborah O'Brien
Publisher: Random House Australia
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1742755577

A captivating historical novel of pioneering Australian women finding their way in a man's world, from the author of the bestselling Mr Chen's Emporium. It is 1885, and Amy Chen is still in black, more than a decade after the death of her beloved husband Charles. But her widow's weeds belie a determined young woman with a big ambition- Amy is going to build the grandest rural hotel in the colony of New South Wales, complete with its very own 'ascending cabinet'. Meanwhile, her best friend, Eliza Miller, has dreams of her own - to become one of Australia's first female doctors. However when she returns to Millbrooke from her medical studies at the Sorbonne, she finds the job she thought was hers has been taken ... by a man. Over the course of two turbulent years both women will face difficult choices - love or duty? Career or marriage? Is it possible to have it all ...?

Rose Garden Reverie

Rose Garden Reverie
Author: Michelle Endersby
Publisher:
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2020-10-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781922465283

Fans of 'The Alchemist' will enjoy reading this uplifting story of hope, friendship and resilience. It will delight anyone who has ever yearned to find a secret garden or searched for the elusive sensation of contentment.

On Gold Mountain

On Gold Mountain
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 394
Release: 1999
Genre: California
ISBN: 9780099409823

When she was a girl, Lisa See spent summers in the cool, dark recesses of her family`s antiques store in Los Angeles' Chinatown. There, her grandmother and great-aunt told her intriguing, colourful stories about their family`s past - stories of missionaries, concubines, tong wars, glamorous nightclubs, and the determined struggle to triumph over racist laws and discrimination. They spoke of how Lisa`s great-great-grandfather emigrated from his Chinese village to the United States, and how his son followed him. As an adult, See spent fives years collecting the details of her family`s remarkable history. She interviewd nearly one hundred relatives and pored over documents at the National Archives, the immigration office, and in countless attics, basements, and closets for the initmate nuances of her ancestors` lives. The result is a vivid, sweeping family portriat that is att once particular and universal, telling the story not only of one family, but of the Chinese people in America - and of America itself, a country that both welcomes and reviles its immigrants like no other culture in the world.

On Their Own Terms

On Their Own Terms
Author: Benjamin A. Elman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 606
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674036476

In On Their Own Terms, Benjamin A. Elman offers a much-needed synthesis of early Chinese science during the Jesuit period (1600-1800) and the modern sciences as they evolved in China under Protestant influence (1840s-1900). By 1600 Europe was ahead of Asia in producing basic machines, such as clocks, levers, and pulleys, that would be necessary for the mechanization of agriculture and industry. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Elman shows, Europeans still sought from the Chinese their secrets of producing silk, fine textiles, and porcelain, as well as large-scale tea cultivation. Chinese literati borrowed in turn new algebraic notations of Hindu-Arabic origin, Tychonic cosmology, Euclidian geometry, and various computational advances. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, imperial reformers, early Republicans, Guomindang party cadres, and Chinese Communists have all prioritized science and technology. In this book, Elman gives a nuanced account of the ways in which native Chinese science evolved over four centuries, under the influence of both Jesuit and Protestant missionaries. In the end, he argues, the Chinese produced modern science on their own terms.

Surrender to Summer 2

Surrender to Summer 2
Author: Alison Booth
Publisher: Random House Australia
Total Pages: 752
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0857981595

Soak up the summer sun while enjoying 3 heart-warming Australian bestsellers that transport you to a tiny coastal village in the 1950s, to a nostalgic waterside idyll and to a dusty gold rush town in the 1870s. Stillwater Creek It's 1957 and widow Ilona Talivaldis and her daughter Zidra travel to the remote coastal town of Jingera in NSW. Ilona, a concentration camp survivor, plans to set herself up as a piano teacher in her beautiful vine-covered cottage. The weeks pass, and mother and daughter get to know the townsfolk - including kind-hearted butcher George Cadwallader; Peter Vincent, former wartime pilot and prisoner-of-war; and Cherry Bates, the publican's wife who is about to make a horrifying discovery... And at risk is the one thing Ilona holds dear... The Briny Cafe Ettie Brookbank is the heart and soul of Cook's Basin, a sleepy cluster of dazzling blue bays where the only way home is by boat. However, as idyllic as her surroundings are, she yearns for excitement, the chance to live dangerously while her blood still runs hot. Then fate offers her a lifeline - breathing new life into a beloved local landmark. Ettie's salvation, it seems, is a lopsided little cafe on the water's edge ... Mr Chen's Emporium In 1872, 17-year-old Amy Duncan arrives in the Gold Rush town of Millbrooke, daydreaming about glittering pavilions and gilded steeples. What she finds is a dusty main street lined with ramshackle buildings - until she walks through the doors of Mr Chen's Emporium, and her life changes forever. In present-day Millbrooke, Angie Wallace rents the Old Manse where Amy once lived. When her landlord produces an antique trunk of Amy's keepsakes – both Oriental and European – Angie resolves to learn more about this mysterious girl from the past.