May Book Competition 2015

Be in to win some great books this May book competition

The Beachside Guest House
by Vanessa Green

A wonderful and heart-warming novel about female friendship, set on a beautiful Greek island, from the author of The Vintage Teacup Club and The Seafront Tea Rooms.

When Rosa and Bee get together in the run-up to Bee’s wedding, they reminisce about the holiday they took together as teenagers to the beautiful Greek island of Paros. They remember the sandy coves, the guest house in the converted windmill where they stayed with their friend Joanne, and the gorgeous local men. As memories resurface, they are forced to confront the turns their lives have taken – and the guilt they both feel about letting Jo slip away from them.

When they learn that the windmill guest house is going bust they formulate a plan to go back and take it over themselves. And so begins a lifechanging journey – because it turns out that opening a guest house and reliving their teenage dreams isn’t that easy…

Vanessa Greene’s perfect weekend would feature chocolate muffins, good friends and, of course, a perfect cup of tea. Her first novel, The Vintage Teacup Club, published to rave reader reviews and won an instant place in their hearts. She lives in North London with her husband and son.

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One Small Act of Kindness
by Lucy Dillon

What can you do to make the world a better place?

Libby helps a stranger, and transforms her life in the process. She and her husband Jason have moved back to his hometown to turn the family B&B into a boutique hotel. They have left London behind and all the memories – good and bad – that went with it.

The injured woman Libby finds lying in the remote country road has lost her memory. She doesn’t know why she came to be there, and no one seems to be looking for her.

When Libby offers to take her in, this one small act of kindness sets in motion a chain of events that will change many people’s lives… Lucy Dillon won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Novel of the Year Award in 2010 for Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, and is the bestselling author of four other novels: The Ballroom Class, Walking Back to Happiness, The Secret of Happy Ever After and A Hundred Pieces of Me.

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Peers Inc.
Robin Chase

How people and businesses are turning excess capacity into abundance.

Renting your spare room via Airbnb, selling jewellery you’ve made on Etsy, learning a new language on DuoLingo, sending a message with WhatsApp or finding a date on Tinder; these activities are all made possible by the new collaborative economy, and they are all examples of Peers Inc. companies.

A revolution has been happening in business. People are coming together with corporations to redefine how businesses work, transforming capitalism along the way. New web-enabled platforms (the Inc.) are making it possible for peers to realise the potential of their excess capacity (their spare rooms, smartphones, experiences, free time or networks) to

create exciting new ways to work and succeed.

In this path-breaking book Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar, shows how Peers Inc. companies are unlocking the power of the collaborative economy.

And further she demonstrates how this revolution is extending beyond business, changing government and legacy companies and its potential to help solve large scale social problems – from disappearing jobs to climate change.

Robin Chase is the co-founder and first CEO of Zipcar. She was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, a BusinessWeek Top Ten Designer, a Fast Company Champion of Innovation and has been featured in the New York Times.

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The Anxiety Toolkit
Dr Alice Boyes

Dr Alice Boyes translates powerful, evidence-based tools used in therapy clinics into tips and tricks you can employ in everyday life.

Do you overthink before taking action? Are you prone to making negative predictions? Do you take negative feedback very hard? Does anything less than perfection feel like failure? If any of these issues resonate with you, you’re probably suffering from anxiety. 

The good news: while reducing your anxiety level to zero isn’t possible or useful, you can learn to successfully manage symptoms. Whether you have a disorder, or are just anxiety-prone, you’ll discover strategies to help you cope and a confidence that you have all the tools you need to succeed in life and work.

Alice Boyes, PhD, is the Emotions Expert for Women’s Health Australia.

Her writing has been featured on Lifehacker and her research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. She’s a New Zealander who splits her time between Australia and New York.

Author Website: aliceboyes.com; twitter.com/DrAliceBoyes

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