Book picks similar to
Shout Out to the Girls: A Celebration of Awesome Australian Women by Penguin Random House
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kids
australia
australian
Out of the Woods: A True Story of an Unforgettable Event
Rebecca Bond - 2015
"Inspired by the author's grandfather's experiences living in a lodge in the woods, a story of how people and animals survive a forest fire in a small Canadian town"--
The Christmas Truce
Carol Ann Duffy - 2011
Belief was in the air. Then the soldiers ceased fire and the magic of Christmas took hold.Carol Ann Duffy’s brilliant new poem celebrates the miraculous truce between the trenches, when enemy shook hands with enemy, shared songs, swapped gifts, even played football, and peace found a place in No Man’s Land.
Murder on Easey Street: Melbourne’s Most Notorious Cold Case
Helen Thomas - 2019
Two young women are brutally murdered. The killer has never been found. What happened in the house on Easey Street?On a warm night in January, Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were savagely murdered in their house on Easey Street, Collingwood – stabbed multiple times while Suzanne’s sixteen-month-old baby slept in his cot. Although police established a list of more than 100 ‘persons of interest’, the case became one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Melbourne.Journalist Helen Thomas was a cub reporter at The Age when the murders were committed and saw how deeply they affected the city. Now, forty-two years on, she has re-examined the cold case – chasing down new leads and talking to members of the Armstrong and Bartlett families, the women’s neighbours on Easey Street, detectives and journalists. What emerges is a portrait of a crime rife with ambiguities and contradictions, which took place at a fascinating time in the city’s history – when the countercultural bohemia of Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip brushed up against the grit of the underworld in one of Melbourne’s most notorious suburbs.Why has the Easey Street murderer never been found, despite the million-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest? Did the women know their killer, or were their deaths due to a random, frenzied attack? Could the murderer have killed again? This gripping account addresses these questions and more as it sheds new light on one of Australia’s most disturbing and compelling criminal mysteries.‘An overdue examination of the Easey Street murders that adds tantalising new information to known and forgotten facts.’ Andrew Rule, journalist and co-author of UnderbellyHelen Thomas has been a journalist for more than forty years. In 2005, Thomas spent months researching the Easey Street murders for Radio National’s Background Briefing, shedding new light on the investigation. She is the manager of ABC News Radio and author of five books, including Moods: The Peter Moody Saga (2016).
Say Hello
Carly Findlay - 2019
Say hello to Carly.'In fairytales, the characters who look different are often cast as the villain or monsters. It's only when they shed their unconventional skin that they are seen as "good" or less frightening. There are very few stories where the character that looks different is the hero of the story ... I've been the hero of my story - telling it on my own terms, proud about my facial difference and disability, not wanting a cure for my rare, severe and sometimes confronting skin condition, and knowing that I am beautiful even though I don't have beauty privilege.'This honest, outspoken and thought-provoking memoir by award-winning writer and appearance activist Carly Findlay will challenge all your assumptions and beliefs about what it is like to have a visibly different appearance. Carly lives with a rare skin condition, Ichthyosis, and what she faces every day, and what she has to live with, will have you cheering for her and her courage and irrepressible spirit. This is both a moving memoir and a proud manifesto on disability and appearance diversity issues.'Believe the hype - by turns frank, funny, and fearsome, Findlay's extraordinary memoir is an early contender for 2019's best Australian non-fiction ... a powerful and moving invitation to examine the structures of privilege and dehumanisation that we so desperately need address in this country.' Better Read Than Dead
Boss the Bestseller List Like J.K. Rowling
Caroline Moss - 2019
Be inspired by her remarkable story, and learn 10 key lessons from her life and work. Featuring inspiring quotes and mantras, this is a book for all girls wanting to forge their own career path.
Sex, Lies and Question Time
Kate Ellis - 2021
They cop scrutiny over their appearance, their sex lives, their parenting and their portfolios in a way few of their male colleagues do. It’s time to call bullshit on the toxic Canberra culture.Alongside her own experiences from fifteen years in parliament, Kate Ellis reveals a frank and fascinating picture of women across Australian politics, including Julia Gillard, Julie Bishop, Linda Burney, Sussan Ley, Penny Wong, Sarah Hanson-Young and Pauline Hanson. Kate explores issues like sexism, motherhood, appearances, social media, the sisterhood and, of course, sex. But she also celebrates everything Australian female politicians have achieved.Wry, candid and provocative, Sex, Lies and Question Time is a powerful call to demand more of our leaders and our institutions. It reminds us we need greater diversity to shape a fairer Australia, where ‘women’s issues’ are everyone’s issues. A better parliament means a better Australia. The stakes are high, and the standards should be too.
Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives
Holly Gleason - 2017
From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates.Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly’s Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn’s girl-power anthem “The Pill”; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt’s unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it.Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America’s most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
Malala Yousafzai - 2014
Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.
And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles
Ken McNab - 2019
Ken McNab's And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles is an in-depth look at the Fab Four's acrimonious final year...
Smokey Robinson: Grateful and Blessed
Smokey Robinson - 2020
His career is filled with so many “he was there” moments it’s a wonder he doesn’t recall them with the swagger of a conquering hero: songwriting and singing as a teenager in Detroit; co-founding Motown Records with Berry Gordy; creating 26 Top 40 hits with his group The Miracles; helping to spark racial integration of popular music in the 1960s; discovering hitmakers like Diana Ross and the Supremes; penning tunes for a jaw-droppingly diverse group of artists including Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, The Jackson Five, Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt; and releasing smash hits as solo artist well into the 1980s.But surprisingly, and delightfully, Robinson is as awed by his success as we are listening to him describe it. He guides us through his extraordinary career with the same giddy sense of discovery and delight that music fans recall the first time they heard one of his infectious tunes.He takes us back to his group’s first, disastrous performance at the Apollo Theater, opening for a brilliant and generous Ray Charles. He describes daily life at the famed Hitsville studio in Detroit, where a young Diana Ross or Martha Reeves could be found working as the receptionist. He shares his pride in being an influence on the Beatles and hearing his songs on their album - a transforming moment for the Motown sound. “I ain't never heard no popular white boys say anything like that ever. For them to come out and tell the world? They were my guys from then on.”And, of course, he takes us inside his songs. He describes where he was - shaving in the mirror at home - when “The Tracks of My Tears” finally came together. He remembers taking the wheel on the last 150 miles back to Detroit after a tour, humming the melody that would become the Temptations hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” He recalls being floored by the way a 10-year-old Michael Jackson brought a depth and soul to “Who’s Loving You.” And he explains where the term “Quiet Storm” originated, a song title that went on to become an entire musical genre.It’s a journey Robinson revisits with a grateful, humble heart. He has no agenda to push, no axes to grind, no scores to settle. He reflects on the ups as well as downs, and looks back with appreciation for the people who put love in his life. That makes listening a distinct pleasure: You get to spend time with a hugely influential artist who is warm, upbeat, and proud to have built a life and career through his art.
Almost Famous Women: Stories
Megan Mayhew Bergman - 2015
Now Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, resurrects these women, lets them live in the reader's imagination, so we can explore their difficult choices. Nearly every story in this dazzling collection is based on a woman who attained some celebrity—she raced speed boats or was a conjoined twin in show business; a reclusive painter of renown; a member of the first all-female, integrated swing band. We see Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter, Allegra; Oscar Wilde's troubled niece, Dolly; West With the Night author Beryl Markham; Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma. These extraordinary stories travel the world, explore the past (and delve into the future), and portray fiercely independent women defined by their acts of bravery, creative impulses, and sometimes reckless decisions.The world hasn't always been kind to unusual women, but through Megan Mayhew Bergman's alluring depictions they finally receive the attention they deserve. Almost Famous Women is a gorgeous collection from an "accomplished writer of short fiction" (Booklist).
Ruby's Wish
Shirin Yim Bridges - 2002
Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family. Based upon the inspirational story of the author's grandmother and accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, Ruby's Wish is an engaging portrait of a young girl who strives for more and a family who rewards her hard work and courage.
The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos
Carmen Navarro Pedrosa - 1969
As late as 1953, she was a starry-eyed, penniless, provincial lass in search of a good fortune in Manila. Then came Ferdinand E. Marcos, literally a knight in shining armor who rescued her from poverty and misery. "I will make you the First Lady of the land," he promised her.Complete, detailed replete with facts and documents which have been painstakingly hidden from the public by the administration's image-makers, her life story as told in generations. It explains Imelda's much vaunted charisma which in President Marcos' own words garnered one million votes in the 1965 elections.She is a person who is difficult to be indifferent to. This book tells us why.
No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure
Susan Hughes - 2008
Appearances can be deceiving ...Based on legends, poems, letters and first-hand accounts, these seven biographical tales tell of women who disguised themselves as men. From ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages to the 19th century, this historically accurate graphic treatment is perfect to transport readers back to bygone eras. The lives of these daring women were often filled with danger and the fear of discovery. However, for the sake of freedom, ambition, love or adventure, these women risked everything. No Girls Allowed brings a contemporary edge to a part of history largely untold - until now.
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet
Claire L. Evans - 2018
But they've often been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize.Author Claire L. Evans finally gives these unsung female heroes their due with her social history of the Broad Band, the women who made the internet what it is today. Learn from Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, who wove numbers into the first program for a mechanical computer in 1842. Seek inspiration from Grace Hopper, the tenacious mathematician who democratized computing by leading the charge for machine-independent programming languages after World War II. Meet Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler, the one-woman Google who kept the earliest version of the Internet online, and Stacy Horn, who ran one of the first-ever social networks on a shoestring out of her New York City apartment in the 1980s. Evans shows us how these women built and colored the technologies we can't imagine life without.Join the ranks of the pioneers who defied social convention and the longest odds to become database poets, information-wranglers, hypertext dreamers, and glass ceiling-shattering dot com-era entrepreneurs.