Jodi Picoult making a flying visit to NZ in July

HEAR JODI PICOULT IN HER ONLY NZ APPEARANCE On Monday 23 July 2012, the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival in association with Allen & Unwin and the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly is presenting the sole New Zealand performance by international best-selling author Jodi Picoult at Auckland’s Aotea Centre at 7pm.  She will be discussing her latest novel Lone Wolf, as well as a new work Between the Lines, co-authored with her teenage daughter Samantha van Leer. THE AUTHORS: JODI PICOULT, 44, is the bestselling author of eighteen novels including: Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992), Nineteen Minutes (2007), Change of Heart (2008), Handle With Care (2009), House Rules (2010), and Sing You Home (2011) — the last five of which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list – and her newest novel, Lone Wolf. www.jodipicoult.com.au SAMANTHA VAN LEER is a junior in high school. She conceived the idea for Between the Lines and pitched it to her mum, Jodi Picoult, who was in the middle of a book tour. In her spare time, Samantha can be found playing softball, doing contemporary dance, acting and singing in musicals, and cuddling her two dogs, Dudley and Oliver — for whom the prince in this fairy tale was named. Monday 23 July 7pm ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, The EDGE $30 Earlybird, $35 Standard $20 Under 18 years of age Book now on www.buytickets.co.nz (service fees apply)     QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST The AWRF team would like to extend our warmest congratulations to the New Zealanders who were appointed to The Order of New Zealand by Her Majesty the Queen during the Diamond Jubilee weekend including Sir Peter Jackson and Dame Malvina Major. A number of people were included into the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature or publishing. These include: As a Companion of the Order: Mr Owen Marshall Jones, ONZM, of Timaru - for services to literature As Officers of the Order: Mr Geoffrey John Chapple, of Auckland - for services to tramping, tourism and literature Ms Fiona Farrell, of Akaroa - for services to literature Mr John Puhiatau Pule, of Auckland - for services as an author, poet and painter Ms Bridget Rosamund Williams, MBE, of Wellington - for services to publishing As a Member of the Order: Ms Peta Christine Mathias, of Auckland - for services as an author and television presenter   RANDOM HOUSE'S BOOK OF THE MONTH Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother’s body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic, or is she what she claims to be: a grieving young sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? This heartbreaking and haunting novel takes a timeless tragedy and hurls it into present-day Afghanistan. Taking its cues from the Antigone myth, Roy-Bhattacharya brilliantly recreates the chaos, intensity, and immediacy of battle, and conveys the inevitable repercussions felt by the soldiers, their families, and by one sister. The result is a gripping tour through the reality of this very contemporary conflict, and our most powerful expression to date of the nature and futility of war. Click here to find out more about The Watch