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[Quick Public Speaking tip] Accepting an award? Shift the spotlight

ps_tip_award

It's very gratifying to be given an award ... or to win, to be given first prize.

The spotlight is on you - your achievements - your win - your prize - your award.

Shift that spotlight.

Humility is called for here, not crowing.

Obvious, isn't it?

You can thank the other team or the losers. Thank your parents, your friends, your dog, your kindergarten teacher.

Where is the spotlight?

On you, still. On you, surrounded by all your helpers to whom you are grateful, certainly.

Shift that spotlight.

Turn it right around and on to the presenter and the organisation or group or business that is presenting.

Be grateful to them. Laud them. Highlight their value and excellence. Establish your sense of belonging to them, but highlight them.

You have successfully established humility without any falseness, or compromising of your value.

You have created a valuable sense of community.

And you have made them feel good.

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A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting – Man Booker winner – “The Sense of an Ending”

WINNER 2011 - Man Booker Prize
LONGLIST 2013 – IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
A New York Times Notable Book

 

ISBN 9780224094153
Format Paperback
Publisher Jonathan Cape
Published United Kingdom, March 2012

 

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. 
 
This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

 

More details and readers guide here 

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Man-Booker winner – The Finkler Question – full of wit, warmth, intelligence, human feeling and understanding

finkler

The Finkler Question                            

Winner 2010 Man Booker Prize

~ Howard Jacobson

Full of wit, warmth, intelligence, human feeling and understanding. It is also beautifully written … Indeed, there’s so much that is first rate in the manner of Jacobson’s delivery that I could write all day on his deployment of language without once mentioning what the book is about.”—Edward Docx, Observer (UK)
It takes in the mysteries of male friendship, the relentlessness of grief and the lure of emotional parasitism.”—Alex Clark, Guardian (UK)
“The Finkler Question is characterized by [Jacobson’s] structuring skill and unsimplifying intelligence—this time picking through the connections and differences, hardly unremarked but given fresh treatment here, between vicariousness and parasitism, and between Jewishness, Judaism and Zionism.”—Leo Robson, New Statesman

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Bologna Book Fair Establishes New Prize

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and for the first time, BolognaFiere and the Italian Publishers Association will award the BOP – the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year.

The award will highlight creative editorial choices and innovations made during the previous year. => http://bit.ly/SOqOlv

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Breathtaking … Winner of the Orange prize – The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles
Winner of the Orange prize for Fiction 2012
Madeline Miller

A breathtakingly original rendering of the Trojan War - a devastating love story and a tale of gods and kings, immortal fame and the human heart => http://bit.ly/ScW9xS

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Award winner – Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray
Winner - Fiction - 2012 Golden Kite Awards for Children's Books


Ruta Sepetys
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, in 1941. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Between Shades of Gray is a riveting novel that steals your breath, captures your heart, and reveals the miraculous nature of the human spirit.
Includes discussion questions and a free excerpt ... => http://bit.ly/S31j0u

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” even in the perfect family, you never know what is going on behind closed doors”

The Neighbour         Winner:  Best Novel, 2010 Thriller Award

~ Lisa Gardner

From a master of suspense comes a chilling new novel that explores the dangers lurking closer than you think. Because even in the perfect family, you never know what is going on behind closed doors...  It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy--a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect. => http://bit.ly/UqfyNk

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Random House Awards for Teachers

Random House has announced the Random House Teacher Awards, which recognises "dynamic and resourceful teachers" who use their creativity to inspire and successfully instill a love of reading in their students". Open to full and part-time teachers in public schools, the awards will be presented by Crown author Jonathan Kozol at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention during the "Mentoring Matters" breakfast, held November 16 in Las Vegas.

Awards consist of a $10,000 first place grant, $5,000 second place grant and a $2,500 third place grant payable to each teacher's school. Book donations will be made to winners and runners-up. More information, including application guidelines, can be found here. http://bit.ly/TlaPX8

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Winners of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards

Older Readers Book of the Year 2011


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Younger Readers Book of the Year 2011

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Early Childhood Book of the Year 2011


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Picture Book of the Year 2011


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Eve Pownall Book of the Year 2011

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Winner of the Kate Greenaway medal 2011

Farther

Grahame Baker-Smith

EAN:978-1848771260
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Templar Publishing
Published in: United Kingdom
Published: July 2010

A young boy, bewitched by his fathers unrelenting passion to fly; a desperate craving that absorbs his every waking minute, finds himself entranced by the dream. When his father goes to war and does not return it seems the spell is broken . . Much later, the boy, now a young man finds himself drawn once more to his fathers drawings and failed experiments. Finally able to make his fathers dream a reality he flies. Will his own son be visited by this unrelenting passion?

Best price for Australian:

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