Best of
Australia

2016

The Hate Race


Maxine Beneba Clarke - 2016
    On the surface of my skin, a miracle was quietly brewing . . .'Suburban Australia. Sweltering heat. Three bedroom blonde-brick. Family of five. Beat-up Ford Falcon. Vegemite on toast. Maxine Beneba Clarke's life is just like all the other Aussie kids on her street.Except for this one, glaring, inescapably obvious thing.

Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family


Cameron Bloom - 2016
    People the world over have fallen in love with the stunning and deeply personal images of this rescued bird and her human family. But there is far more to Penguin's story than meets the eye. It begins with a shocking accident, in which Cameron's wife, Sam, suffers a near fatal fall that leaves her paralysed and deeply depressed.Into their lives comes Penguin, an injured magpie chick abandoned after she fell from her nest. Penguin's rescue and the incredible joy and strength she gives Sam and all those who helped her survive demonstrates that, however bleak things seem, compassion, friendship and support can come from unexpected quarters, ensuring there are always better days ahead. This plucky little magpie reminds us all that, no matter how lost, fragile or damaged we feel, accepting the love of others and loving them in return will help to make us whole.

A Drop in the Ocean


Jenni Ogden - 2016
    With her confidence shattered and her future uncertain, on impulse she rents a cabin for a year on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. However Turtle Island, alive with sea birds and nesting Green turtles, is not the retreat she expected. Here she finds love—for the eccentric islanders who become her family; for Tom, the laid-back turtle whisperer; and for the turtles whose ancient mothering instincts move her to tears. But Anna finds that even on her idyllic drop in the ocean there is pain, and as the months fly past her dream for a new life is threatened by a darkness that challenges everything she has come to believe about the power of love.

Grant & I: Inside and Outside the Go-Betweens


Robert Forster - 2016
    Grant McLennan didn’t want to be in a group, and couldn’t even play an instrument. That didn’t stop the singer-songwriter duo of Forster/McLennan becoming one of the most acclaimed partnerships in Australian music history.Just as The Go-Betweens always defied categorisation, Grant & I is like no other rock memoir. At its heart is a privileged insight into a prolific artistic collaboration that lasted three decades, and an extraordinary friendship that rode out the band’s break-up to remain strong until Grant’s premature death in 2006.Unconventional in lineup and look, noted for near misses and near hits, always a beat to one side of the mainstream – the band’s unusual beginnings were followed by twists that often confounded its members as well as fans and record companies. The story of The Go-Betweens is also the story of the times, and Grant & I is a wonderfully perceptive look at the music industry and a brilliantly fresh take on the sounds of the era.As distinctive a writer of prose as he is of songs, Robert Forster is wise and witty, intimate and frank, astute and knowledgeable. There could be no better tribute than Grant & I to this partnership and band who remain loved and revered.

Daughter of Australia


Harmony Verna - 2016
    It's a miracle that the little girl dressed in rags and abandoned in the sand is still breathing when an old miner discovers her. Even more so that he is able to keep her alive long enough to bring her to the town from which she'll take her name: Leonora. Sent to an orphanage, mute with grief and fear, Leonora slowly bonds with another orphan, James, who fights to protect her until both are sent away--Leonora to a wealthy American family, James to relatives who have emigrated from Ireland to claim him. Years later, Leonora is given a chance to return to her beloved Australia. There, in Wanjarri Downs, she will again come face to face with James, who's grown from a reticent boy into a strong, resourceful man. Only James knows the truth about Leonora--that her roots and her heart are here, among the gum trees and red earth. And they will fight to find a way back to each other, even as war, turmoil, and jealousy test their courage again and again. Sweeping in scale yet filled with intricately drawn characters and vivid details that conjure the fascinating setting, Daughter of Australia is storytelling at its most

The Dry


Jane Harper - 2016
    But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.

Young Dark Emu


Bruce Pascoe - 2016
    Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived – a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu - A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia’s history pre-European colonisation.

Everywhere I Look


Helen Garner - 2016
    It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.Everywhere I Look includes Garner's famous and controversial essay on the insults of age, her deeply moving tribute to her mother and extracts from her diaries, which have been part of her working life for as long as she has been a writer. Everywhere I Look glows with insight. It is filled with the wisdom of life.

The Bone Sparrow


Zana Fraillon - 2016
    Born in an Australian permanent detention center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant homeland, Subhi has only ever known life behind the fences. But his world is far bigger than that—every night, the magical Night Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. And as he grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of his containment.The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie—a scruffy, impatient girl who appears on the other side of the wire fence and brings with her a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it herself, she relies on Subhi to unravel her family's love songs and tragedies.Subhi and Jimmie might both find comfort—and maybe even freedom—as their tales unfold. But not until each has been braver than ever before.

White Spirit


Lance Morcan - 2016
    After escaping from the notorious Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Graham finds refuge with the Kabi, a tribe of Aborigines who eventually accept him as one of their own. Attempts to recapture Graham are orchestrated by a variety of contrasting characters working for the all-pervasive British Empire. They include Moreton Bay's tyrannical, opium-addicted commandant Lord Cheetham, the dashing yet warlike Lieutenant Hogan, native tracker Barega and the penal settlement's captain, Tom Marsden. Marsden's young daughter Helen, a progressive lady ahead of her time who is both an egalitarian and a feminist, boldly inserts herself into the clash between the Irish convict, her father and Moreton Bay's other iron-fisted rulers. Helen complicates things further when she finds herself in a Pride and Prejudice-style love triangle with men on opposite sides of the conflict.When Scottish woman Eliza Fraser is found shipwrecked and close to death in Kabi territory, Graham and his legion of pursuers, as well as the Irishman's adopted Aboriginal family, are all forced to navigate a multi-faceted rescue mission. The precarious rendezvous is made all the more dangerous by Helen Marsden's ethically-driven meddling that often outwits the men involved.WHITE SPIRIT is not only based on arguably the great Australian (true) story, a sweeping tale that encapsulates all the nuances of the southern continent's unique history, it also provides readers with detailed insights into the tribal life of First Australian (Aboriginal) peoples.

Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son


Mark Colvin - 2016
    He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy. Light and Shadow is the incredible story of a father waging a secret war against communism during the Cold War, while his son comes of age as a journalist during the tumultuous Whitlam and Fraser years and embarks on the risky career of a foreign correspondent. Mark was witness to some of the most world-changing events, including the Iranian hostage crisis, the buildup to the first Gulf War in Iraq and the direct aftermath of the shocking genocide in Rwanda. But when he contracted a life-threatening illness while working in the field, his life changed forever. Mark Colvin’s engrossing memoir takes you inside the coverage of major news events and gently navigates the complexity of his father’s double life.

The Rules of Backyard Cricket


Jock Serong - 2016
    The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game.Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety—one of those men who’s always got away with things and just keeps getting.Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged, cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow grave.

Indigo Storm


Fleur McDonald - 2016
    The only way to escape is to disappear and reinvent herself.Changing her name to Eliza and driving by night, she is drawn to the tiny rural town of Blinman. There she begins the long road to healing and regaining her self-confidence.Then one day, on an excursion to a ruined homestead in the area, Eliza becomes fascinated by a family who lived there during the nineteenth century. But just as she begins to unlock the secrets of her own past, Dominic arrives in town, determined to punish her ...With its fast-moving plot and nail-biting suspense, Indigo Storm is the story of a courageous woman fiercely determined to reclaim her life and her belief in herself.

Journey of a Thousand Storms: A Refugee's Story


Kooshyar Karimi - 2016
    Until he was kidnapped by the Intelligence Service.Behind his professional success, Kooshyar was a rebel on several fronts. Marginalised since boyhood as a Jew in a fundamentalist Islamic state, he was a member of a political group that opposed the government. He'd also been using his medical skills illegally, to save unmarried pregnant women from death by stoning.Snatched from the street, he was jailed and tortured and then forced to spy for the regime, before finally escaping to Turkey. There he faced a whole new struggle to keep his family safe while awaiting refugee status from the UN. He was forbidden to work and at the mercy of corrupt police, con men and red tape. Then life became more dangerous still, when the Intelligence Service tracked him down and used his mother, back in Iran, as blackmail.Kooshyar's inspiring story of how he managed to forge a new life in Australia is heightened by his largeness of heart, strength of character, and insight into human behaviour, from the unfathomably evil to the selflessly kind. With the skill of a natural storyteller, Journey of a Thousand Storms recounts a life of endurance, compassion and gritty determination.

Walking the Line


Mandy Magro - 2016
    But when he discovers a shocking secret about his father on the same day Mick dies in a car accident, Dallas’s world is turned upside down. Now it’s up to him to protect his mother from the truth, and to keep the family farm Rollingstone Ridge afloat. And he will do everything in his power to do so.Charlize Dawson is a successful city journalist whose marriage is in tatters. Begrudgingly sent to the country to write about Dallas, she is surprised to find that he isn’t the arrogant cowboy she’d assumed he’d be. Instead she and Dallas and share an intense chemistry and deep connection that lead to a stolen kiss at the Rodeo Ball.But when Charlize’s research for her article puts her on the path of uncovering Dallas’s secret, he demands she stop or lose him forever. Dallas or her career, which should she choose? How can she turn her back on the people who have welcomed her into their lives with open arms, all in the name of her job? Her career is all she has left, and she has worked so very hard to be where she is. But how can she reveal what she knows, if it means losing the love of her life?

The Killing Season: Uncut


Sarah Ferguson - 2016
    This is the book that brings you the uncut version of The Killing Season, taking you behind the cameras to reveal the untold stories and candid moments that didn’t go to air. For the first time a more complete version of the truth is revealed.Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard dominate the drama as they strain to claim the narrative of Labor’s years in power. The journey to screen for each of their interviews is telling in itself. Rudd gives his painful account of the period and recalls in vivid detail the events of losing the prime ministership. Gillard is frank and unsparing of her colleagues.More than a hundred people were interviewed for The Killing Season—ministers, backbenchers, staffers, party officials, pollsters and public servants—recording their graphic accounts of the public and private events that made the Rudd and Gillard governments and then brought them undone. It is a damning portrait of a party at war with itself—of the personal rivalries and bitter defeats that have come to define the Rudd-Gillard era.It is also a remarkable insight into the work of Sarah Ferguson, one of Australia’s top journalists.

Breathing Under Water


Sophie Hardcastle - 2016
    On the official documentation, he is older . . . Although it really has nothing to do with age. What it really means is that I am, and have always been, second.Ben and Grace Walker are twins. Growing up in a sleepy coastal town it was inevitable they'd surf. Always close, they hung out more than most brothers and sisters, surfing together for hours as the sun melted into the sea. At seventeen, Ben is a rising surf star, the golden son and the boy all the girls fall in love with. Beside him, Grace feels like she is a mere reflection of his light. In their last year of school, the world beckons, full of possibility. For Grace, finishing exams and kissing Harley Matthews is just the beginning.Then, one day, the unthinkable. The sun sets at noon and suddenly everything that was safe and predictable is lost. And everything unravels.Breathing Under Water is a lyrical and emotionally powerful novel about life, death and learning to breathe in between.

Victory at Villers-Bretonneux


Peter FitzSimons - 2016
    If the Australians can hold this, the very gate to Amiens, then the Germans will not win the war.'It's up to us, then,' one of the Diggers writes in his diary. Arriving at Villers-Bretonneux just in time, the Australians are indeed able to hold off the Germans, launching a vicious counterattack that hurls the Germans back the first time. And then, on Anzac Day 1918, when the town falls after all to the British defenders, it is again the Australians who are called on to save the day, the town, and the entire battle.Not for nothing does the primary school at Villers-Bretonneux have above every blackboard, to this day, 'N'oublions jamais, l'Australie.' Never forget Australia.And they never have

The Drifter


Anthea Hodgson - 2016
    To escape her guilt and her parents' bitter disapproval, Cate leaves Perth for her aunt Ida's isolated farm in country Western Australia.Henry is a drifter, a young swagman-like character who wanders onto the Christie family property and takes up residence in a disused shed. With secrets of his own, the last thing he wants is to get tangled up in Cate and Ida's lives.Against their own better judgement, the fates of Cate and Henry and Ida inexorably intertwine and they learn to face the realities of life, death and letting go.A witty, charming and moving debut rural romance about what makes a good death and, more importantly, what makes a good life.

Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers


Ryan O'Neill - 2016
    Meet Rachel Deverall, who discovers the secret female source of the great literature of our time – and pays a terrible price for her discovery. Meet Rand Washington, hugely popular sci-fi author (of Whiteman of Cor) and holder of extreme views on race and gender. Meet Addison Tiller, the master of the bush yarn, “The Chekhov of Coolabah”, who has never travelled outside Sydney.Their Brilliant Careers is a playful set of stories, linked in many ways, which together form a memorable whole. It is a wonderful comic tapestry of the writing life, and a large-scale parody in which every detail adds to the humour of the overall picture.Unpredictable and intriguing, Their Brilliant Careers takes Australian writing in a whole new direction.

Carrying The World


Maxine Beneba Clarke - 2016
    A feisty young black girl pushing back against authority. The joy and despair of single parenthood. A love-hate relationship with words.This collection brings the best of a decade-long international poetry career to the page.

The Three Miss Allens


Victoria Purman - 2016
    It’s the last time they’ll spend summers as a family. Adeline is engaged, Ruby is weighing up an offer, and Clara is just eighteen and about to start her life. But by summer’s end, the lives they have known will change irrevocably and a mysterious secret will tear the family apart.Eighty-two years later, Ruby’s great-granddaughter Roma Harris moves to the now sleepy Remarkable Bay, retreating from tragedy. Roma’s distant cousin Addy arrives too, fleeing a life with too much drama. It’s only when the women discover an old guest book that they start asking questions about the mysterious third Miss Allen. Who was she? Why has she disappeared from the family’s history?If they solve this mystery from their past, could it change the women’s future?

Welcome To Country


Aunty Joy Murphy - 2016
    We are part of this land and the land is part of us. This is where we come from. Wominjeka Wurundjeri balluk yearmenn koondee bik. Welcome to Country.

Rose's Vintage


Kayte Nunn - 2016
    She isn’t sure what exactly she’s doing at Kalkari Wines in the Australian Shingle Valley – it’s the middle of winter and far from the lush, romantic vineyard setting she’d been expecting. Her brother thinks she’s spying for him, her bad-tempered new boss thinks she’s the au pair and the nanny can’t wait for her to clean the place up. Discovering pagan bonfire ceremonies, bizarre winemaking practices and a valley full of eccentric locals, Rose just wishes she’d ended up somewhere a bit warmer. But as the weather improves, the valley reveals its beauty, and Rose starts to fall in love: with the valley, the wines, the two children she’s helping to look after, and one of the men there. When her boss’s estranged wife returns and her brother descends, wanting answers, Rose is forced to make the hardest decision of her life.

Out of Alice


Kerry McGinnis - 2016
    As the family struggles to make a living from the drought-stricken land, everyone pitches in – and Sara finds herself letting people in to the empty spaces in her heart.But the longer she spends out bush, the more she becomes plagued by elusive visions of her dark and troubled childhood. The fragments of memory lead her deep into the red centre of Australia, where at picturesque Kings Canyon she must confront the horrifying secrets of her past.

The Cedar Cutter


Tea Cooper - 2016
    When Roisin Ogilvie moves to Wollombi her thoughts are only of protecting her illegitimate son, Ruan, from the grasps of his powerful and dangerous father. Posing as an impoverished widow, she settles into a quiet existence as a local dressmaker. She doesn’t expect to catch the attention of Irish champion cedar cutter Carrick O’Connor, or any other man for that matter.Carrick O’Connor may have won the coveted Wollombi Wood Chop, but his mind is on the beautiful seamstress and her son. Or rather, on who they remind him of. Determined to exact revenge for the horrors of his past, Carrick plans to return to Ireland to seek revenge on the land agent who was responsible for the death of his wife and child, and his transportation. Then, hopefully, he can return to Wollombi to start life afresh.But a murder charge, a kidnapping, a growing attraction, and a past that refuses to stay silent will turn both his and Roisin’s lives upside down and will lead them to a hard choice. Redemption? Or cutters’ justice?

Life As I Know It


Michelle Payne - 2016
    She and her 100-to-1 local horse Prince of Penzance took the international racing world by surprise, but hers was no overnight success story. Michelle was first put on a horse aged four. At five years old her dream was to ride in the Melbourne Cup and win it. By seven she was doing track work. All of the ten Payne children learned to ride racehorses but Michelle has stayed the distance. She has ridden the miles, done the dawn training, fallen badly and each time got back on the horse. So when she declared that anyone who said women couldn't compete in the industry could 'get stuffed', the nation stood up and cheered.Michelle has the audacity to believe she can succeed against all the odds. Her story is about hope triumphing over adversity, and how resilience and character made a winner.

Offshore: Behind the Wire on Manus and Nauru


Madeline Gleeson - 2016
    It explains why offshore processing was re-established, what life is like for asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru and Manus, what asylum seekers, refugees and staff in the offshore detention centres have to say about what goes on there, and why the truth has been so hard to find. In doing so, it goes behind the rumours and allegations to reveal what is known – and what still is not known – about Australia’s offshore detention centres.

The Crossroads


Pamela Cook - 2016
    But right now, the outback hotel she owns is falling down around her ears, her bank account is empty and family duty means she’s staying put.Drought is impacting hard on Stephanie Bailey and her husband. They’ve already been forced to sell almost all their cattle. The rains aren’t coming and her husband is growing more and more distant.Sydney girl Faith Montgomery, at the age of 31, has just discovered she is adopted. Furious at being lied to for her entire life, she lands a job at the Crossroads Hotel so she can track down her biological mother without revealing who she is.One family. Three women. Will the lies they tell and the secrets they hide lead to more heartache, or will fate bring them together before it’s too late?A story of deceit, betrayal and love that proves that in the end you can choose your family.

The North Wind


Bronwyn Parry - 2016
    Her life is elsewhere, and the ties that have for decades bound her family to the struggling town and its old hotel may soon be broken.But the arrival of two strangers in town – Owen Caldwell and his grandfather – along with the hot, dry north wind herald a time of challenge and unexpected change.Owen has no idea why his grandfather has quietly insisted on this Christmas visit to Dungirri, a town he's never been to. But the old doctor has a final quest, and as long-held secrets come to light and Owen and Angie use their skills to assist those in need, they both must decide where they belong, and where their future is.

The Drowned Man


Brendan James Murray - 2016
    Had a gay man been secretly murdered on HMAS Australia during the Second World War?The veteran he spoke to was certain. ‘I knew about it,’ he said. ‘We all did.’But was the story true? If so, who was the dead man? And why was it so hard to find out?The Drowned Man is a search for the answer, almost stymied by cover-up and silence. In the end, it brings us to the lies that have shrouded our understanding of war, and especially of war at sea. As one of the survivors poignantly says, ‘I want to pass it on to the next generation. What it was like. What it was really like.’This is a work of kaleidoscopic intensity by a strong new Australian voice.

Blue Dog


Louis de Bernières - 2016
    The cattle station is a tough place for a child, where nature is brutal and the men must work hard in the heat and dust. However, after a cyclone hits, things change for Mick. Exploring the floodwaters, he finds a lost puppy covered in mud and half-drowned. Mick and his dog immediately become inseparable as they take on the adventures offered by their unusual home, and the business of growing up, together.In this charming prequel to the much-loved Red Dog, Louis de Bernières tells the moving story of a young boy and his Granpa, and the charismatic and entertaining dog who so many readers hold close to their hearts.With illustrations by Alan Baker

Portable Curiosities


Julie Koh - 2016
    A young girl sees ghosts from her third eye, located where her belly button should be. A corporate lawyer feels increasingly disconnected from his job in a soulless 1200-storey skyscraper. And a one-dimensional yellow man steps out from a cinema screen in the hope of leading a three-dimensional life, but everyone around him is fixated only on the color of his skin. Welcome to Portable Curiosities. In these dark and often fantastical stories, Julie Koh combines absurd humour with searing critiques on modern society, proving herself to be one of Australia’s most original and daring young writers.

A Sunburnt Childhood


Toni Tapp Coutts - 2016
    But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.

The Shack by the Bay


Rhonda Forrest - 2016
    However, the discovery of family war relics, and a developing relationship with the beautiful Lily, connects family histories and reveals a story that threatens to destroy his chance at real happiness.Will the wartime secrets prove to be the breaking point for a beautiful romance? Or can two families put the deeds of the past behind them?Romantic and purely Australian, The Shack by the Bay captures the pristine beauty of the Whitsundays and the wartime memories of older Australians while introducing an eclectic blend of friends and family.

Staircase to the Moon


Elizabeth Haran - 2016
    She embarks on a ship to North-Western Australia to take up employment as a private seamstress for a large and rich farming family, who welcome her with open arms. Surrounded by the breathtakingly beautiful and remote landscapes of the Kimberly region, Emily starts to believe that happiness and love really are possible in her new life. But storm clouds are gathering, and as the men of Kimberley march off to war in Europe, Emily must step up to prove herself against all the odds. And that's when things start to turn out different than she ever could have imagined ... Additional titles of Elizabeth Haran, available as e-books: "River of Fortune," "Under a Flaming Sky," "Island of Whispering Winds," and "Flight of the Jabiru".For fans of adventurous romance novels set in exotic places, such as works by Sarah Lark or Rebecca Maly.About the author: Elizabeth Haran was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia and migrated to Australia as a child. She lives with her family in Adelaide and has written fourteen novels set in Australia. Her heart-warming and beautifully written books have been published in ten countries and are bestsellers in Germany.

MacKenzie Crossing


Kaye Dobbie - 2016
    He meets the beautiful Georgie Mackenzie and in an instant knows that she is the subject he has been looking for. As the heat intensifies, Georgie and Pom begin to wonder if they have a future together; but first, they must survive the blaze.Almost sixty years later, Sky Stewart returns to the area in search of her grandfather. Did he survive the Black Friday bushfires? Who is the exotic woman in the photograph she found? But when she arrives in Elysian, the closest town to where Mackenzie Crossing used to be, she finds more of her hidden past than she bargained for. A more recent past which she would prefer stayed forgotten…

Beyond the Orchard


Anna Romer - 2016
    She’s met her fiancé in London and has her life mapped out, but something is holding her back.Hoping to ground herself and find answers, Lucy settles into once familiar routines. But old tortured feelings flood Lucy’s existence when her beloved father, Ron, is hospitalised and Morgan – the man who drove her away all those years ago – seeks her out.Worse, Ron implores Lucy to visit Bitterwood Estate, the crumbling historic family guesthouse now left to him. He needs Lucy to find something– an old photograph album, the very thing that drove Ron and his father apart.Lucy has her own painful memories of Bitterwood, darkness that has plagued her dreams since she was young. But as Lucy searches for the album, the house begins to give up its ghosts and she is driven to put them to rest.And there, held tightly between the house, the orchard and the soaring cliffs, Lucy uncovers a long-hidden secret that shattered a family’s bond and kept a frightened young girl in its thrall ... and Lucy discovers just how fierce the lonely heart can be.

Position Doubtful: Mapping Landscapes and Memories


Kim Mahood - 2016
    It is well-used, creased, and folded, so that when you open it, no matter how carefully, something tears and a line that is neither latitude nor longitude opens in the hidden geography of the place you are about to enter.'Since the publication of her prize-winning memoir, 'Craft for a Dry Lake', in 2000, writer and artist Kim Mahood has been returning to the Tanami desert country in far north-western Australia where, as a child, she lived with her family on a remote cattle station. The land is timeless, but much has changed: the station has been handed back to its traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; and Aboriginal art has flourished.Comedy and tragedy, familiarity and uncertainty are Mahood’s constant companions as she immerses herself in the life of a small community and in groundbreaking mapping projects. What emerges in 'Position Doubtful' is a revelation of the significance of the land to its people — and of the burden of history.Mahood is an artist of astonishing versatility. She works with words, with paint, with installations, and with performance art. Her writing about her own work and collaborations, and about the work of the desert artists, is profoundly enlightening, making palpable the link between artist and country.This is a beautiful and intense exploration of friendships, landscape, and homecoming. Written with great energy and humour, Position Doubtful offers a unique portrait of the complexities of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.

Lemons in the Chicken Wire


Alison Whittaker - 2016
    At times sensual, always potent, Lemons in the Chicken Wire delivers a collage of work that reflects rural identity through a rich medley of techniques and forms.It is an audacious, lyrical and linguistically lemon flavoured poetry debut that possesses a rare edginess and seeks to challenge our imagination beyond the ordinary. Alison Whittaker demonstrates that borders, whether physical or imagined, are no match for our capacity for love."Lemons in the Chicken Wire is truly an astounding, proudly experimental, innovative, daring, disjunctive, playful and unique poetry debut" – Dr AJ Curruthers, Rabbit Poetry Journal

The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft


Tom Griffiths - 2016
    Historians scour their own societies for vestiges of past worlds, for cracks and fissures in the pavement of the present, and for the shimmers and hauntings of history in everyday action.In The Art of Time Travel, eminent historian and award-winning author Tom Griffiths explores the craft of discipline and imagination that is history. Through portraits of fifteen historians at work, including Inga Clendinnen, Judith Wright, Geoffrey Blainey and Henry Reynolds, he observes how a body of work is constructed out of a life-long dialogue between past evidence and present experience.Riveting, beautiful and elegantly written, this landmark book conjures fresh insights into the history of Australia and revitalises our sense of the historian’s craft – what Tom Griffiths calls “the art of time travel”.

Defiant: A Broken Body Is Not a Broken Person


Janine Shepherd - 2016
    Whenever I was called upon to loosen my grip on some cherished part of my life, I was consequently given the opportunity to start again, to create anew something of value . . . every ending carried the seeds of possibility, a chance to start over." --Janine ShepherdDefiant chronicles the remarkable life of Janine Shepherd, an elite ski racer whose bid to represent Australia in the Olympics was cut short by a tragic accident. She recalls the ten days she hovered between life and death, faced with the difficult choice to let go or return to a body that would never be whole again. After six months in hospital battling to rehabilitate her permanent disabilities, she not only taught herself to walk again--she earned her wings as both a pilot and an aerobatics instructor. Happily married and raising three children, her life was again upended when she was forced to face a painful divorce, the loss of her home, and financial ruin. Undaunted, Janine persevered in managing her again-reinvented life as a single mom, as well as celebrated author and international speaker. Janine Shepherd shares with candor and compassion the practical lessons she has learned throughout her continuing journey. Defiant offers hope and encouragement for anyone facing a life challenge, sharing the author's hard-won wisdom and priceless advice for navigating one's way from loss to healing.

Music And Freedom


Zoë Morrison - 2016
    But other ideas like that,kindness, for example, I think that is fundamental. Resurrection;I like that too. And love, of course, love, love, love. Alice Murray learns to play the piano aged three on an orange orchard in rural Australia. Recognising her daughter's gift, her mother sends Alice to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the rest of her childhood. Then she's offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and on a summer school in Oxford she meets Edward, an economics professor who sweeps her off her feet.Alice soon finds that Edwards is damaged, and she's trapped. She clings to her playing and to her dream of becoming a concert pianist, until disaster strikes. Increasingly isolated as the years unravel, eventually Alice can't find it in herself to carry on. Then she hears the most beautiful music from the walls of her house … This novel's love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. Inspiring and compelling, it explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music and love.

Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling


Larissa Behrendt - 2016
    In this deeply personal book, Behrendt uses Eliza’s tale as a starting point to interrogate how Aboriginal people – and indigenous people of other countries – have been portrayed in their colonizers’ stories. Citing works as diverse as Robinson Crusoe and Coonardoo, she explores the tropes in these accounts, such as the supposed promiscuity of Aboriginal women, the Europeans’ fixation on cannibalism, and the myth of the noble savage. Ultimately, Behrendt shows how these stories not only reflect the values of their storytellers but also reinforce those values – which in Australia led to the dispossession of Aboriginal people and the laws enforced against them.

Rockhopping


Trace Balla - 2016
    Join Clancy and Uncle Egg on a rambling, rockhopping adventure in Gariwerd (the Grampians), to find the source of the Glenelg River. A story about following your flow, and the unexpected places you may go.

Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader


Troy Bramston - 2016
    Bramston has interviewed more than 100 people who know and worked with Keating, including his family, parliamentary colleagues, advisers, party officials, union leaders, public servants, and journalists. This book includes interviews with Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Doug Anthony, Bill Hayden, Andrew Peacock, Ian Sinclair, John Hewson, Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Cheryl Kernot, and Bob Carr. Bramston has secured access to Labor archives, and he also documents key debates in once-secret cabinet papers, reveals caucus minutes for the first time, draws on the unpublished diaries of Neal Blewett and Bob Carr, discloses meeting records from the archives of US presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, talks to former British prime minister Tony Blair, and shares his new discoveries from the personal files of Gough Whitlam, Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, and John Howard. Paul Keating saw political leadership as the combination of courage and imagination, a belief that powered his public career and helps explain his extraordinary triumphs and crushing lows. Keating blazed a trail of reform with a vision for Australia’s future that still attracts ardent admirers and the staunchest critics. This book chronicles, analyses, and interprets Keating’s life, and draws lessons for a Labor Party and a country still reluctant to fully embrace his legacy.

Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong


James Button - 2016
    One football club. One struggle for greatnessJames Button fell in love with the Geelong Football Club as a boy. It was a family affair. But as the years wore on and the defeats mounted, one nagging question became louder and louder: would his team ever win a premiership again?Comeback tells the Geelong story - how a town unloved by the big city up the road turned to football to show it was as good as anyone.It paints the characters - two Gary Abletts, 'Polly' Farmer, Bob Davis, 'Bomber'Thompson, Matthew Scarlett, Joel Selwood and many others - who helped to make Geelong a byword for excitement, and it explains how a bunch of talented but flashy individuals ended years of despair by finding the magic ingredient that makes a great team. More than a book about sport, Comeback shows how the history of a town and the spirit of a place can be funnelled through the fortunes of a football club

The Battle Of Long Tan


David W. Cameron - 2016
    The Australians had arrived at Nui Dat four months earlier to open up the province. While out on patrol, Delta Company of 6RAR, originally numbering just 105 Australians and three New Zealanders, collided with Viet Cong forces numbering around 2500 troops, ahead of a planned Vietnamese ambush. Completely surrounded, under heavy fire and short on ammunition, the Australians could only guess at the enemy's strength and number. Morning light revealed a shattered woodland, trees bleeding latex - and hundreds of dead enemy soldiers who had fallen in the numerous assaults against the small Anzac force. What was first thought by the Australians to be a significant defeat quickly turned out to be a major victory. Marking the battle's 50th anniversary, and drawing on unpublished first-hand accounts, David Cameron brings to life the events of this famous battle as it unfolded - minute by minute, hour by hour - and reveals the deeds of heroism and mateship now part of Australia's Vietnam War story. His compelling account commemorates the men who fought in the rubber plantation of Long Tan - and those who did not come home.

Dane Swan: My Story


Dane Swan - 2016
    Taken by Collingwood at pick 58 in the 2001 ‘super draft’, no one saw a future Brownlow medallist but the scruffy kid knew how to get the ball. Right from the start he made two things clear: he didn’t like training and his mates and social life came first. Swan made front page news in 2003, and faced the sack after playing only three senior games. The infamous Collingwood Rat Pack took him under their wing, he thrived under Mick Malthouse’s coaching, and grew into a talented and nerveless big-occasion player with an incredible mix of power and speed. Off the field, his tattoos, deadpan delivery, transgressions and blunt refusal to become an AFL robot meant he was often used as clickbait.Despite mastering the art of appearing not to care about anything, in Dane Swan: My Story, Swan – for the first time – reveals the pride that drove him to succeed, his loyalty to family, mates and the club that gave him many last chances, and how he worked hard, his way. He takes us inside the highs of the premiership, and through the tumultuous years of the transition from Malthouse to Nathan Buckley. Footy might be only a game, but it’s one hell of a ride with Dane Swan.There’s no one like him at all in this day and age.Nick MaxwellOne of the greatest players in the history of this club. He marched to the beat of his own drum, always, off the ground more so than on it, but I always liked the fact that he was an individual. And whatever he was doing, it worked.Eddie McGuireThe bigger the game, the more turned on he was, and that became evident at the peak of his career because he played his best footy on the biggest stages.Nathan BuckleyWhat made Swanny so good? It was talent, hard work and mental toughness to be that consistent.Ben JohnsonIt was quite extraordinary the way that he just got on with it. He loved winning, he loved the challenge and underneath it, he is a very proud person.Mick MalthouseAbout the author: Dane Swan played 258 games for Collingwood Football Club. He achieved the ultimate team success as a premiership player, and his haul of individual awards is impressive: a Brownlow Medal, three Copeland Trophies, five All Australians, an AFLCA Most Valuable Player award, a Jim Stynes Medal, a couple of Anzac Medals, as well as a swag of top-three finishes in many awards. His unbelievably consistent output meant he averaged 26.85 disposals across 15 seasons, second only to Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams. Swan’s career came to an untimely end in round 1 of 2016. He is acknowledged as one of the best modern midfielders and a one-of-a-kind champion of the competition.

Christmas Down Under (Single Wide Female: Happily Ever After, #1)


Lillianna Blake - 2016
    But after last year’s travel between hubby’s parents and my own relatives, we threw in the towel this year. A vacation away - that’s what we needed! It only took a little convincing for me to decide that Australia would be a good first international trip to attempt as a family. And with Abby’s current obsession with koala bears, I’m sure it will be a hit.

Incredible Dog Journeys


Laura Greaves - 2016
    Determined dogs from around the world travel vast distances and overcome unbelievable odds. Meet Bonnie, the kelpie blue heeler cross, who led her owner to safety through one of the deadliest bushfires in Australia’s history; Penny, a Hungarian vizsla, who was dognapped and found 3800 miles from where she was taken; and Inka, the friendly bull-mastiff cross, who made her way back to her owner after ten years, and just in time for Christmas. From heartwarming tales of canine loyalty to mysterious cases of dogs turning up thousands of miles away, these are the incredible true stories of how sixteen remarkable dogs found their way home.

Little Book of Wonders: Celebrating the Gifts of the Natural World


Nadia Drake - 2016
    Each striking image will allow readers to appreciate the wonder and beauty of the world around us.

Error Australis: the reality recap of Australian history


Ben Pobjie - 2016
    In Error Australis, TV columnist, comedian and history buff Ben Pobjie recaps the history of Australia from its humble beginnings as a small patch of rapidly cooling rock, to its modern-day status as one of the major powers of the sub-Asian super-Antarctic next-to-Africa region. Pobjie recognises that history can be as gripping as any reality show – as thrilling as it is to see Delta Goodrem’s chair turn around, there is an argument that the Second World War was even more exciting – and like any good recapper, he provides an immediate, visceral sense of what it was like to be there in the moment at our nation’s defining events. All historians know that it is only by looking at where we have been that we can understand who we are, what we stand for, and why nothing seems to work. Error Australis is a scholastic and side-splittingly funny account of a young nation that has spent many years seeking its place in the world, and almost as many years not liking what it has found.

What is Past is Dead


Mohammed Massoud Morsi - 2016
    Today, only one man stands. He tells the tale of joining his childhood friends in the passionate appeal for Palestinians against Israel's forceful occupation. After all these years, his diaspora eyes continue to be haunted by the realities his compatriots face. What is past is dead is a fictional journey into the contentious issue of Palestine and Israel, written with depth of feeling and character. Mohammed Massoud Morsi is an award winning photojournalist his fictional pieces have won recognition worldwide.

Good Intentions: A Georgie B. Goode Australian RV Mystery


Marg McAlister - 2016
     A cold-hearted criminal and a woman on the run. A bushfire, racing across the Australian bush, eating up everything in its path… None of this is quite what Georgie B. Goode, 8th generation gypsy, expected in her first month in Australia! After telling Georgie that 'one day' he will take her to visit all the places he has told her about in Australia, Scott Mowbray has finally persuaded her not only to visit, but also to spend a year exploring the country with him. But...well, you know Georgie. She couldn't leave her crystal ball behind, and just because she's way 'Down Under' in the southern hemisphere, that doesn't mean that she will stop attracting trouble! People who need Georgie and her special skills always seem to find her, wherever she is. Georgie is visiting Scott’s parents on the Gold Coast Hinterland in Queensland, Australia, in a little place called Canungra, near Tamborine Mountain. It’s an idyllic place, cool and green and beautiful. There, Scott’s parents, Louise and Tony Mowbray, have established a private campground for RVers on their family property. As an act of kindness, they let a lone traveller called Shirley stay on as their caretaker. But Shirley has a secret. She's running from something in her past, and her past is about to catch up with her…just as everyone else is running from the bushfire that threatens to take away everything the Mowbrays have worked for.

Desert Lake: The Story of Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre


Pamela Freeman - 2016
    Water is flooding into empty riverbeds and swirling down towards the lake.Soon everything will change.A Nature Storybook series title.

Georgiana Molloy: The Mind That Shines


Bernice Barry - 2016
    Following a swift marriage, Georgiana and Captain John Molloy, a handsome hero with a mysterious past, emigrated to Australia among the first group of European settlers to the remote southwest. Here, despite personal tragedy, Georgiana's passion for flora was ignited. Entirely self-taught, she gathered specimens of indigenous flora from Augusta and Busselton that are now held in some of the world's leading herbarium collections.Using Georgiana's own writings and notes, accompanied by full-colour pictures of some of the stunning plants mentioned throughout, Bernice Barry reveals a resilient, independent woman of strong values, whose appreciation and wonder of the landscape around her become her salvation, and her legacy.

Red Dust Dancer


Eva Scott - 2016
    Tamsin Cooper's career as a Parisian showgirl is coming to an end. Nearly thirty, with no boyfriend and no prospects of a family of her own, she decides to take up her inheritance–her Uncle Ted's cattle farm in Queensland.Farm life seems to be suiting her until Tamsin discovers that Uncle Ted had a secret–and her sexy neighbour Angus Walker helped him keep it. Faced with losing her farm and her heart, Tamsin returns to what she knows best, dancing, and starts teaching the residents of Elliott's Crossing how to get in touch with their inner showgirl. She may have the dance moves, but can she shimmy past a forty–year–old lie and a betrayal of lost love to find her place–and rediscover love–in this country town?

Look What You Made Me Do: Fathers Who Kill


Megan Norris - 2016
    But for some women there is a punishment more enduring than injury or their own death. This book is a timely exploration into the evil done by vengeful fathers who kill their own flesh and blood in order to punish wives who have chosen to end abusive relationships.Focussing on seven different but equally harrowing cases of ‘spousal revenge’, author Megan Norris draws on her own observations as a former court and crime reporter, examining the murders of thirteen innocent children who became collateral damage in callous crimes committed by angry dads whose real targets were the children’s mothers.From the harrowing 1993 kidnap and murder of three-year-old Kelly East in WA, to the chilling murder of Darcey Freeman whose dad hurled her from Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge in 2009, these stories highlight the chilling connection between intimate partner abuse and retaliatory homicide. They show it’s not only mothers who are in danger when domestic violence turns deadly.

The Curious Story of Malcolm Turnbull, the Incredible Shrinking Man in the Top Hat


Andrew P. Street - 2016
    You know, again.

Cotter


Richard Begbie - 2016
    Instead, he was transported to NSW for life.The story that follows will subvert popular notions of the convict experience. Cotter's alliance with a fierce Aboriginal leader conspired with his second 'crime' to introduce him to a world understood by few Europeans.The novel points to a haunting moment in Australia's story, when white humility and aboriginal knowledge might have combined to produce a kinder stewardship across the ancient land. Few invaders experienced that fleeting possibility as intimately as Garrett Cotter.This is a story of power and exploitation, of betrayal and uncertain redemption. It offers a vivid reimagining of real events in the far wilds of a high country 'beyond the limits'. 'An important story of banishment, displacement, and crucial first contact, Cotter also tells of a moving and unlikely friendship between two outcasts. Here is beautiful, assured writing about people and place. A novel for readers of Kate Grenville's The Secret River - Clara Finlay

Outback Cop


Neale McShane - 2016
    Neale McShane The Birdsville police posting is one of the most remote in Australia. It can be extremely lonely and incredibly busy at the same time. Nothing might happen for weeks or months, then problems come crawling out of the woodwork.There aren't many who can handle the job for long - unless you're Senior Constable Neale McShane, who has single-handedly taken care of this beat the size of the UK for the past ten years. Recently retired from this 'hardship posting', Neale now has a stock of stories and adventures from his life and colourful times living with his family in Birdsville.In recounting these tales to his good friend and bestselling author Evan McHugh, Neale delights us with yarns that could only come from the furthest corner of our country. Here are stories of desert dangers, dead bodies, droughts and floods, drinkers and dreamers - and, of course the infamous Birdsville Races, when the town's population swells from 50 to 500.So if Birdsville has remained just a little too far off the beaten track for you, sit back and let Birdsville come to you.

Ora's Gold


Charlotte Young - 2016
    When Ora moves in with her, in the middle of nowhere, she discovers the B&B is in fact, a highly illegal birthing centre. Ora doesn’t know where to turn; sooner or later someone is going to die and Dione just won’t listen.After an anonymous tip-off, Dione goes missing and Ora narrowly misses being locked up by the Special Investigation Force forever. The beach is her only sanctuary and it’s here that she meets Jake, thoughtful and experienced, who encourages her to live a little. So why is it that as soon as she starts to have some fun, everything goes dangerously wrong?"Ora’s Gold" is a gripping, coming-of-age, dystopia whose female characters are a refreshing mix of strength, vulnerability and wisdom. “It covers the big issues: sex, love, death, birth and it does so with sensitivity and an open heart.” Missshady, Goodreads. Pick up "Ora’s Gold" to discover this exciting new story today!"Ora's strength on her journey of self-awareness and self-determination is enough to take your breath away."Bashi Hazard, Human Rights in Childbirth

Dark & Twisty: A Twisted Anthology of Short Stories


Rachel McGrath - 2016
    All net profit generated from sales of the paperback and ebook will be donated directly to Worldwide Cancer Research. https://www.justgiving.com/darktwisty/ Additionally, should you want to directly support this fund you can via the just giving link above.

The Boy Behind the Curtain


Tim Winton - 2016
    A chronicler of sudden turnings, brutal revelations and tender sideswipes, Tim Winton has always been in the business of trouble. In his novels chaos waits in the wings and ordinary people are ambushed by events and emotions beyond their control. But as these extraordinarily powerful memoirs show, the abrupt and the headlong are old familiars to the author himself, for in many ways his has been a life shaped by havoc.In The Boy Behind the Curtain Winton reflects on the accidents, traumatic and serendipitous, that have influenced his view of life and fuelled his distinctive artistic vision. On the unexpected links between car crashes and religious faith, between surfing and writing, and how going to the wrong movie at the age of eight opened him up to a life of the imagination. And in essays on class, fundamentalism, asylum seekers, guns and the natural world he reveals not only the incidents and concerns that have made him the much-loved writer he is, but some of what unites the life and the work.By turns impassioned, funny, joyous, astonishing, this is Winton’s most personal book to date, an insight into the man who’s held us enthralled for three decades and helped us reshape our view of ourselves. Behind it all, from risk-taking youth to surprise-averse middle age, has been the crazy punt of staking everything on becoming a writer.

#SaveOzStories


Geraldine BrooksKate Grenville - 2016
    Jackie French, David Malouf, Tim Winton and many more of our best writers have come together to issue a clarion call to all Australian citizens to defend writers and writing. If politicians have their way we will be the only nation to give away our right to tell our own stories. If you think a world without the next Richard Flanagan, Andy Griffiths or Monica McInerney will be a poorer one, then read this collection of impassioned arguments from our most esteemed wordsmiths.

The Prodigal Son


Sulari Gentill - 2016
    and dull. He longs to return to the bright lights of Europe.Until an old friend persuades him to join Sydney Art School. There, under the tutelage of the renowned Julian Ashton, Rowland learns to paint and finds himself drawn into the avant-garde world of Sydney’s artistic set. But murder rears its ugly head and Rowland must decide who his friends really are.www.RowlandSinclairNovella.com

The Wrong 'Un: The Brad Hogg Story


Brad Hogg - 2016
    During a seven-year gap between his first and second Test appearances, he turned his hand to a variety of jobs, most famously hitting the streets as a postie. Through persistence and enthusiasm he won his way back into the national team, and was twice part of Australia’s champion World Cup sides. After retiring prematurely in 2008, he returned with a bang in 2011, starring in the BBL and once again being selected for Australia. For the first time, Brad reveals his remarkable journey – from the bush to the MCG and beyond, and from crippling insecurity to hard-won self-acceptance – all with the self-deprecating humour and honesty for which he is known and loved.

Down the Dirt Roads


Rachael Treasure - 2016
    . .'Country girl and bestselling novelist Rachael Treasure seemed to have it all, a long-dreamed-of lifestyle on her own patch of dirt in Tasmania's rugged and beautiful wilderness. But through the breakdown of her marriage, Rachael lost her family farm and, in her words, lost her way in life.Discovering an all-new compass to live by, she took her two kids and her dogs and left the beaten path. Mass production, intensive farming, men on the land and women in the home - everywhere Rachael looked she saw ongoing harm to the soil and the foodchain. By going down the dirt roads and getting back to grassroots, she discovered another set of stories about country life in Australia, and a different way to live on the land. From her rebel granny to pioneering farmers and passionate animal handlers, Rachael became inspired by fresh ways to do things.Down the Dirt Roads starts as a heartfelt and moving insight into the life of a single mother displaced from her home, and becomes a groundbreaking and powerful book about healing, health and hope. Nourishing and sustaining, it presents a practical and positive vision of what life on our land could become.

Gay Sydney: A History


Garry Wotherspoon - 2016
    In this vivid book Wotherspoon traces the shifts that have occurred since then, including majority support for marriage equality and anti-discrimination legislation. He also ponders the parallel evaporation of a distinctly gay sensibility and the disappearance of once-packed gay bars that have now become cafes and gyms.This book also tells the story of gay Sydney across a century, looking at secret, underground gay life, the never-ending debates about sex in society and the role of social movements in the ’60 and ’70s in effecting social change. ‘The original and the best.’ DAVID MARR

B.U.G.


T.J. Slee - 2016
    is the first of three volumes in the Charlie Jones series. Volume II, Cloister, just won the Publishers Weekly BookLife Fiction Prize Mystery/Thriller category.BUG is no longer available on Amazon but you can get a print on demand paperback copy here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/tj-slee/bug/...

Cyanide Games


Richard Beasley - 2016
    Melissa’s phone call takes Tanner away from drug dealers and crooked property developers into the highest end of corporate corruption – mining companies trying to cover up environmental disasters and families at the top of the rich list who think they’re above the law.As he pursues those who had Cheung incarcerated, Tanner unearths cover-up after cover-up, putting his life and those of others in danger as he tries to bring the perpetrators to justice.A tough, gritty legal thriller from the bestselling author of Hell Has Harbour Views

After the Bloodwood Staff


Laura E. Goodin - 2016
    He’s spent his entire life reading vintage adventure action, and thinks he knows how these things should go.In the mountains west of Sydney, his expectations are almost immediately derailed, as nobody – not Sybil, and certainly not the irrepressible Ada Drake, stand-in for the obligatory plucky urchin – behaves the way they’re supposed to.As they gradually realise that their lighthearted adventure has put themselves and their loved ones in dire peril, Hoyle is forced to face the fact that he is woefully unsuited to be the stereotypical hero.

Changing the Game: Football in Australia Through My Eyes


Ange Postecoglou - 2016
    In this book, he shows us the game through his eyes, from the changing room to the boardroom, to reveal how Australia must boldly reimagine its place in the world. From his playing days with South Melbourne in the 1980s to coaching the Socceroos to victory in the 2015 Asian Cup, Ange Postecoglou's uncompromising commitment to success has coincided with the incredible rise of football in this country.He won the old National Soccer League as a player and a coach. Now that Australian football is reaching new heights, Ange is again at the forefront: he's won back-to-back A-League titles, led the Brisbane Roar to the longest unbeaten run in any code, and the national team to the winner's podium. He's a man with strong opinions about how to play and lead.Ange's story is one of fostering a culture of success, and turning history - or precedent - on its head. He candidly relays key moments and meetings in his life, reflecting on how these have shaped his beliefs and practices, and gives frank views on where the current game is going right and wrong. What's revealed is a bold and impassioned account of the game he loves.

Jewel Sea


Kim Kelly - 2016
    I read this book in just two sittings, which is testament to my unwillingness to put the book down.' - Mrs B's Book Reviews'a many layered, little gem of Australian historical fiction. I could feel, hear and smell the isolated, underpopulated coastal towns of the early 1900's and the cruise liner Koombana in which it is set.' - DM Cameron, acclaimed author of Beneath the Mother Tree.The whole of the harbour was touched with gold - the tops of the quiet waves, warehouse roofs, the bulging folds of sails at rest, the tips of seagull wings - giving him one sweeping glimpse of beauty just as he was leaving, a vision of things as they ought always to be just as they were not...March, 1912. A sultry Indian summer hangs over the west coast of Australia and aboard the luxury steamship SS Koombana, three tales entwine.Irene Everley longs to leave her first-class fishbowl existence, secretly penning a gossip column as her life spirals out of control into soulless liaisons and alcohol, the long shadow of a tragedy clouding her view.James Sinclair, an investor on his way to Broome is not the man he says he is but can he be trusted?Abraham Davis, a wealthy dealer whose scandalous divorce is being dragged through the press, prepares to take the gamble of his life: to purchase an infamous, stolen pearl along the journey north.Perfectly round, perfectly pink, this pearl comes with a curse and with a warning - destroying all who keep it from returning to the sea.

Fifteen Young Men


Paul Kennedy - 2016
    Few people know an Australian soccer team drowned in 1892. Yet the boat disaster still ranks alongside the Manchester United plane crash (1958) as one of the world’s greatest sporting tragedies. Lost were 15 men and boys from one town—brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, and best mates—"youths that might have made the best colonists Australia ever had." Only one or two members of the team were spared: the captain, who at the jetty had a strange sense of impending danger, and gave away his ticket before the voyage, and one other. For the first time in 122 years, journalist Paul Kennedy reveals why the Mornington Football Club never made it home. In doing so, he brings to life 19th-century Australia during depression and its first banking crisis, a period of trauma, resilience, friendship, love, and grief for a generation of settlers’ children.

Fracture


Heleyne Hammersley - 2016
    She's horrified to see a body on the beach. However the 'body' is the very much alive and enigmatic Alfie. The two women become friends and spend time together in Sydney where Alfie's wild nature becomes apparent. When Alfie is attacked the situation takes a turn for the worse and they decide to leave the city.It's a road trip that ends in murder...Who is Alfie? What is Rosie hiding?Detective Sergeant Pete Norton wants answers to these questions.What he will discover is that this case is a killer.

Our Magic Hour


Jennifer Down - 2016
    And without her, Audrey is thrown off balance: everything she thought she knew, everything she believed was true, is bent out of shape.Audrey’s family—her neurotic mother, her wayward teenage brother, her uptight suburban sister—are likely to fall apart. Her boyfriend, Nick, tries to hold their relationship together. And Audrey, caught in the middle, needs to find a reason to keep going when everything around her suddenly seems wrong.Evocative and exquisitely written, Our Magic Hour is a story of love, loss and discovery. Jennifer Down’s remarkable debut novel captures that moment when being young and invincible gives way to being open and vulnerable, when one terrible act changes a life forever.

Clarrie's Pig Day Out


Jen Storer - 2016
    Clarrie also gets his worms, no! he means his words, mixed up.So when Clarrie and Bert head out in his jar, whoops, he means car, it turns out to be a day filled with fun and surprises.Young children will love seeing how Clarrie mixes up his words - and will enjoy correcting them, as well!Ages: 3 years +

First Person Shooter


Cameron Raynes - 2016
    He stutters and is addicted to video games.His best friend Shannon knows how to handle a rifle. When her mum is released from prison, the town waits to see whether her sociopathic stepson Pete will exact revenge for the manslaughter of his father.Caught with ammunition at school and suspended, Jayden's world disintegrates. As a drug war erupts, Pete gears up for his violent assault.Will it be left to Jayden to stop him?

Gay and Lesbian, Then and Now: Australian Stories from a Social Revolution


Robert Reynolds - 2016
    Once viewed as criminals, sinners or sick, lesbians and gay men are increasingly accepted as equal, and the majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. This rapid transformation in social attitudes has widened the space for lesbians and gays to live ordinary and visible lives in ways that were once barely imaginable.Through the intimate life stories of thirteen gay and lesbian Australians ranging in age from twenty to eighty, Gay and Lesbian, Then and Now reveals the remarkable shifts from one generation to the next. From the underground beats of 1950s Brisbane and illicit relationships in the armed services, to Grindr, foster parenting and weddings in the twenty-first century, Robert Reynolds and Shirleene Robinson trace the intimate personal impact of this quiet revolution in social attitudes.Gay and Lesbian, Then and Now reveals the legacies of homophobia, the personal struggles and triumphs involved in coming out, the inconsistent state of social progress, and the many different ways of being gay or lesbian in Australia – then and now.

The Hounded


Simon Butters - 2016
    Ignored by his parents, bullied at school, and with a brain that’s prone to going walkabout, he’s all by himself.Until he meets the black dog for the first time.It’s just like any other dog, except that only Monty can see it. And it talks. And Monty’s not sure whether it’s a friend – or a foe.The black dog gets him talking to pretty, popular Eliza Robertson for the first time. It takes him to places he’s never been.Eventually it will take Monty, and the people around him, to the very edge.

Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story


Elizabeth Tynan - 2016
    The atomic weapons test series wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities and turned the land into a radioactive wasteland. In 1950 Australian prime minister Robert Menzies blithely agreed to atomic tests that offered no benefit to Australia and relinquished control over them – and left the public completely in the dark. This book reveals the devastating consequences of that decision. This book is the most comprehensive account of the whole saga, from the time that the explosive potential of splitting uranium atoms was discovered, to the uncovering of the extensive secrecy around the British tests in Australia many years after the British had departed, leaving an unholy mess behind.

Beth: The Story of a Child Convict


Mark L. Wilson - 2016
    Through Beth's story, we discover the unbearable hardships those first convicts suffered, not only on the long journey to Sydney Cove but also in the two years of near-famine following their arrival. The story also explores the new arrivals' relationship with the Indigenous population, and the devastation that the Europeans brought with them.But through Beth's experiences we also see the sense of hope that many in the new colony held for the future, and how they survived - and in some cases thrived.This moving story, illustrated with Mark Wilson's beautifully crafted and evocative artwork, was inspired by the experiences of Elizabeth Hayward, the youngest female convict with the First Fleet, and the journals of naval officer William Bradley and Arthur Bowes Smyth, the surgeon and artist from the First Fleet vessel 'Lady Penrhyn'.

Part an Irishman (The Regiment #1)


T.S. Flynn - 2016
    How can he retain the respect of his sons and restore his honor? The new Governor learns his “sinecure” is a “poison chalice” as the Colony’s bankrupt and his reform agenda unworkable. The new police chief, Frank Burgess is worried; he’s supposed to clean up a force that’s manned by serving convicts and brutality and graft is a way of life. Long serving colonial auditor, George Boyes is fed up with the worse thieves in the Colony; the Men at the Top. Bushrangers, Marty Cash and Lawrie Kavenagh pace the death cell dreading the gallows. They broke out of Port Arthur Prison, went on a rampage but now they must pay. Lawrie says he only escaped to go to Mass. Convicted Irish Patriot, Richard Jones is a man the System can’t break. His plan to seize the prison ship and to sail to New York, would have worked but for betrayal. He faced trial for piracy in Hobart but out-witted “the System” and beat the charge. However, he must finish his original sentence and he’s now in solitary and recovering from a savage flogging inflicted for leading a protest about the absence of Catholic prison chaplains. Dreams of liberty and dignity in America are the only thing keeping him going. Pub owner and widow, Mary Anne Smith is a beautiful, passionate but brutalized former convict; she’s lonely and yearns for a strong but gentle man. The only person who’s had a good day is magistrate, John Giles Price. He’s a man with a very dark past and he’s planning an even darker future… “Part an Irishman” represents the first installment of the Regiment Trilogy and is based on records and newspaper articles from the time. The book’s for adults as it contains a lot of sex and violence. How the Story Came About. "John Turner Flinn" dropped into my lap one Christmas holiday in Alice Springs NT. It was too hot to do anything but watch videos and we became engrossed in a crime series set in the 1920’s. My girlfriend’s granddad was a gangster in Melbourne in that era so we looked him up on “Trove”. After seeing his many press cuttings, we decided to dig into earlier generations and uncovered an array of petty thieves, Swing Rioters, ships’ captains, a Chinese gold miner and a lot of wayward women. I became jealous as my own family tree yielded a staid collection of Lancashire refugees from the Irish “Great Hunger” of ‘47. Envy led to a series of “jokes” about “checking change” and “watching pockets”; the response went from polite smiles to “probably a lot of your bloody relatives came here in chains as well!” I decided to check this and the first “Flynn” I saw on a convict list became my hero; John Turner Flinn. His record revealed he’d been an “officer and gentleman” in the Navy and contained a strange reference to the “Regiment” so I “Googled” further and found : His case was in the “Newgate Calendar” so his trial was big news. He gave evidence at Queen Caroline’s trial for adultery in 1820.

Flames of Rebellion


Warwick O'Neill - 2016
    Then he heard the call that reverberated around the world. Gold! Leaving Moreton Bay behind, he jumps aboard The Cumberland to work for his passage to the goldfields. On the voyage he befriends Fergus, an old sailor at the crossroads of new technology. Together the pair jump ship in Melbourne and head towards the Ballarat Goldfields to make their fortune. But, their dreams of easy riches are soon shattered as they not only battle the elements and the elusive nature of the gold, but also corrupt administrators and brutal law enforcement officers of the Colony, including an old acquaintance of Patrick's. As the group struggle to make a living from the unforgiving earth, events move inexorably towards a fateful collision between the authorities and goldminers, testing the loyalties of the group and finding Patrick on the frontline facing Government forces as they emerge from the early morning mist.

Minding Her Own Business: Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney


Catherine Bishop - 2016
    These women have been hidden in the historical record but were visible to their contemporaries. There are few memorials to colonial businesswomen, but if you know where to look, you can find many traces of their presence as you wander the streets of Sydney. This book brings the stories of these entrepreneurial women to life, with fascinating details of their successes and failures, their determination and wilfulness, their achievements, their tragedies and the occasional juicy scandal. Until now we have imagined colonial women indoors as wives, and mothers, domestic servants or prostitutes. This book sets them firmly out in the open.

Captain Sneer The Buccaneer


Penny Morrison - 2016
    He’s BRAVE and BOLD. He SAILS the SEAS in SEARCH of GOLD!

Reinventing Emma: The Inspirational Story of a Young Stroke Survivor


Emma Gee - 2016
    With a background in Occupational Therapy and as a Stroke Survivor, Emma is a renowned expert and a living example of what it takes to step in another's shoes and truly bounce back in life. Through her inspiring presentations, Emma is able to both captivate and challenge her audiences to consider what IS possible in their own lives. Learning to speak again post-stroke, and realising the importance of sharing her story to help others, were the catalysts for Emma taking on speaking professionally. Today, and thousands of presentations later, Emma as an Inspirational Speaker has incredibly broad client group: from healthcare (associations, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities); businesses and corporate events; community organisations; through to educational facilities. 'Reinventing Emma' is her first book. Emma is passionate about enhancing client-centred service delivery and resilience in the lives of all she works with and promises to leave her audiences inspired to bounce back and step up. Emma Gee's signature phrase 'it's not what happens to you that matters, it's how you choose to deal with it!' will see her audiences moving past life's hurdles to what's possible.

The Death of Holden: The End of an Australian Dream


Royce Kurmelovs - 2016
    The closure of the Holden factory in Adelaide is not just the end of a business - it's the end of an era, of a story, and of a great Australian dream.When Holden signalled that it would close its Adelaide factory, it struck at the very heart of Australian identity. Holden is our car made on our shores. It's the choice of patriotic rev heads and suburban drivers alike. How could a car that was so beloved - and so popular - be so unprofitable to make?The story of the collapse of Holden is about the people who make and drive the cars; it's about sustaining industry in Australia; it's about communities of workers and what happens when the work dries up. And if it's not quite about the death of an icon - because Holdens will remain on Australian roads for a long time to come - then it's about what happens when an icon falls to knees in front of a whole nation.

One


Patrick Holland - 2016
    In One, troops cannot pull the Kenniff Gang out of the ranges and plains of Western Queensland – the brothers know the terrain too well, and the locals are sympathetic to their escapades. When a policeman and a station manager go out on patrol from tiny Upper Warrego Station and disappear, Sergeant Nixon makes it his mission to pursue the gang, especially, Jim Kenniff, who becomes for him an emblem of the violence that resides in the heart of the country.From the award-winning author of The Mary Smokes Boys, One is a novel of minimalist lyrical beauty that traverses the intersections between violence and love. It asks what right one man has to impose his will on another, and whether the written law can ever answer the law of the heart?

The Ties That Bind


Lexi Landsman - 2016
    One by the smallest bruise. The other by a devastating bushfire. And both by a shocking secret . . .Miami art curator Courtney Hamilton and her husband David live the perfect life until their ten-year-old son Matthew is diagnosed with leukaemia. He needs a bone-marrow transplant but, with Courtney being adopted, the chances of finding a match within his family are slim. Desperate to find a donor, Courtney tracks the scattered details of her birth 15,000 kilometres away, to the remote town of Somerset in the Victorian bush. Meanwhile Jade Taylor wakes up in hospital in Somerset having survived the deadly bushfire that destroyed the family home and their beloved olive groves. Gone too are the landmarks that remind her of her mother, Asha, a woman whose repeated absences scarred her childhood.As Jade rallies her fractured family to rebuild their lives, Courtney arrives in the burnt countryside to search for her lost parents - but discovers far more . . .

Gold (Wanted: Miss Jane Mutta Book 1)


Ryn Shell - 2016
     Receive complimentary instalments of Jane Mutta’s escapades when you join the author’s mailing list at www.RynShell.com. Amidst the dangers Jane encounters on her journey to bring dentistry skill to the Victorian era, Australian colony, there is humour and a touching love story..Meet Douglas Fife, adventurer, and a man who believes in everything but love—until he meets Jane. In this coming-of-age, action-and-adventure novel, bushrangers, gold, and the old Port Adelaide, all play roles in this adventure, crime, and romance story. Reader Guide, to ensure you choose a book you will enjoy: This series contains Australian English spelling and words consistent with Australia in the 1800s. This is witty, unsophisticated rural-lit, is nothing at all like an English aristocracy historical romance. Sensuality rating is 2-3 heat level out of 5, variable with each episode from subtle to warm. Scroll up and grab a copy of Gold, Novella length episode 2 of Wanted: Miss Jane Mutta by Ryn Shell.

The Selected Adventures of Bottersnikes and Gumbles


S.A. Wakefield - 2016
    They have green wrinkly skin, cheese grater noses and long, pointed ears that go red when they are angry. Which is most of the time.Giggling Gumbles live in the bush, too. They are cheerful little creatures who can be squashed into all sorts of shapes, but cannot pop back into their proper shape unless helped. This makes the friendly Gumbles useful to the lazy Bottersnikes, who have some very nasty plans ...The Bottersnikes may have some tricks up their sleeves, but so do the resourceful Gumbles.The battle has begun!Ages: 8+

The Politics of Identity: Who Counts as Aboriginal Today?


Bronwyn Carlson - 2016
    Drawing on a range of historical and research literature, interviews and surveys, The Politics of Identity explores Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal understandings of Aboriginality and the way these concepts are produced and reproduced across a range of sites and contexts. Carlson discusses the multiple, yet narrow definitions of Aboriginal identity that have existed throughout Australia’s colonial history and its continuing impact upon contemporary Aboriginal identities. Emphasizing Indigenous debates and claims about Aboriginality, the work explores both the community and external tensions around appropriate measures of identity and the pressures and effects of identification.

Our Vietnam Nurses


Annabelle Brayley - 2016
    But if you're working in a war zone, the challenges are much harder. When Australia joined the Vietnam War, civilian and military nurses were there to save lives and comfort the wounded. With spirit and good humour, they worked hard and held strong, even though most of them were completely unprepared for the war before they landed in the middle of it.Working incredibly long hours and surrounded by chaos and turmoil, these brave nurses and medics were integral to our war effort. These fifteen stories show a side to the Vietnam War that has received little recognition but played an important part in shaping Australia's presence in the war. From flying with critically wounded Australian soldiers out of turbulent war zones, to being held at gunpoint, the compassion, courage and grace under fire in Our Vietnam Nurses will inspire and astound.

Something Missing


Glenice Whitting - 2016
    Their pen-friendship changes both their lives. Everything, from age, class and nationality seems to separate them but both are struggling to cope with personal issues. Maggie is trapped in a marriage involving infidelity and rape, as well as grieving for her eldest daughter Anna. Diane unconsciously yearns for the same opportunity of an education given to her brother but denied to her. This is a story of two unfulfilled women finding each other when they need it most.

Full Bore


William McInnes - 2016
    His trademark humour and anecdotes litter this collection, making it a true delight.These are truly Aussie stories: about us, and about the things - and the people - in our lives.**Includes BONUS CHAPTERS of two William McInnes classics: A MAN'S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY and HOLIDAYS**PRAISE FOR WILLIAM McINNES' WRITING'warm, nostalgic, funny and undeniably Australian' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD'a natural storyteller' SUN-HERALD'If there is a quintessence of Australianness at its best, William McInnes has distilled it.' THE AGE

The Lucky Country? Reinventing Australia


Ian Lowe - 2016
    The good fortune continued when our wide brown land proved to contain bountiful resources of saleable minerals, allowing successive generations of second-rate leaders to create an illusion of economic progress by liquidating those assets. But a crisis is approaching, driven by irresponsible encouragement of population growth rates typical of poor developing countries. In this polemic work, Ian Lowe will assess the state of Australia and whether we can retain our status of the Lucky Country.

Spidion World


Mark McKenzie - 2016
    A meld of spider and scorpion is successfully bred - spidion. But things are not all they seem when this new creature escapes into the outside world to wreak havoc. Was the breakout accidental or intentional and what is the real story behind the creation of such a ferocious creature? Who is controlling them and is the controller being controlled?