A Very Rude Awakening

In May of 1942, the war seemed very far away to most Sydneysiders - until the night the three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour and caused an unforgettable night of mayhem, high farce, chaos and courage. A ground-breaking new look at one of the most extraordinary stories of Australia at war. On the night of 31 May 1942, Sydney was doing what it does best: partying. The theatres, restaurants, dance halls, illegal gambling dens, clubs and brothels offered plenty of choice to roistering sailors, soldiers and airmen on leave in Australia's most glamorous city. The war seemed far away. Newspapers devoted more pages to horse racing than to Hitler. That Sunday night the party came to a shattering halt when three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour, past eight electronic indicator loops, past six patrolling Royal Australian Navy ships, and past an anti-submarine net stretched across the inner harbour entrance. Their arrival triggered a night of mayhem, courage, chaos and high farce which left 27 sailors dead and a city bewildered. The war, it seemed, was no longer confined to distant desert and jungle. It was right here at Australia's front door. Written at the pace of a thriller and based on new first person accounts and previously unpublished official documents, A Very Rude Awakening is a ground-breaking and myth-busting look at one of the most extraordinary stories ever told of Australia at war.

The reporters said it was a sexy story—church, money, greed, adultery, blood, a defenseless child with profound disabilities, and a good man who never saw it coming, all the elements that garnered column inches and high ratings. The main players on the stage included a talented journalist who played the organ at church, a cunning narcissist who hid behind a pretty face and a sweet demeanor, and a respected businessman and father. The plan, her plan, unfolded in the early morning hours of June 8, 1994, when a flyspeck of a man dressed in black, covetous and possessed by passion, clutched a large knife in his gloved hands and stood above his sleeping prey. He could not know, as the blade arced toward its target, how many lives would be forever changed by their crimes.

We live in the Golden Age of publishing for spiritual, esoteric, and new age books of all conceivable stripes (and then there is the Internet). Amongst this wild proliferation of available information there has occurred a cheapening effect, in which many teachings have been watered down to make them palatable for a public with diminishing attention spans and suffering from information overload. For the sincere spiritual seeker there needs to be an awareness of the various ways we can go astray on the path, or fall off the path altogether. The whole idea of spirituality is to be awake, yet it is all too easy to simply end up in yet another dream world, thinking that we have found some higher truth. Rude Awakening: Perils, Pitfalls, and Hard Truths of the Spiritual Path is dedicated to examining, under a sharp light, the many ways our spiritual development goes wrong, or disappears altogether in the sheer crush of books and the routine grind of daily life.

Drawing on the experoence of hundreds of past and present GM insiders, filled with inttrigue and humor, dramatic moments, and vivid personalities, top industry analyst Maryann Keller brings her hardhitting insight to the once-unparalleled leader of an industry--General Motors.

Half down-and-dirty adventure and half inspirational memoir, this title documents an unusual pilgrimage taken by earthy scientist Nick Scott and fastidious Buddhist monk Ajahn Sucitto, who together retraced the Buddha's footsteps through India.

One man, one woman...both having a rude awakening. Will Ruby's ex—Master succeed in his kidnap plan? Harry Knowles has taught subs for years but hasn't found a subservient woman he'd like to spend the rest of his life with...until the beautiful Ruby comes into his life, stumbling onto his property in the snow and collapsing from exhaustion. He takes her into his home and nurtures her, showing her that the BDSM lifestyle she'd previously been living wasn't what BDSM is all about. Ruby has run from an abusive relationship. Having shared the past few years with a sadistic man, she's skittish and unsure of herself, but Harry encourages her to blossom. He teaches her not only the true meaning of BDSM but also to love herself—something she's failed to do in the past. Their life has the promise of being idyllic, but her former lover, a man known only as Master, has other ideas on that score...

Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter in 1813 England, has long wished to escape a life in which career choices are limited to wife or maiden aunt. But awakening one morning in twenty-first-century Los Angeles - in the body of someone called Courtney Stone - is not exactly what she had in mind. Jane must quickly get to grips with a world in which everyone thinks she is Courtney Stone: a dizzying world of horseless metal carriages, unrestricted clothing, tiny apartments, all manner of flirting,and unheard-of liberties for womankind. The only thing Jane appears to have in common with Courtney is a love for the novels of Jane Austen. But are the wise words of her favourite novelist enough to guide her through this bewildering new world? And what is she to make of Courtney's attentive friend Wes, who is as attractive and confusing as the man who broke her heart back home? As Courtney's romantic entanglements become her own, Jane wonders: Would she actually be better off back in Regency England - and will she ever be able to return?