The Prisoner: How One Woman's Jail Term Was The Making Of Her


Kerry Tucker - 2018
    When her offence was discovered it was reported to be the biggest white-collar crime committed by a female in Victoria, and she was sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security prison, alongside the state's most notorious criminals. Being incarcerated with drug dealers and murderers, however, was not nearly as daunting as having to tell her two young daughters why she was leaving them. The shame was almost unbearable. As Kerry adjusted to life behind bars, she began to see her fellow inmates as more than simply 'murderers' and 'drug dealers' - they became real people with names and broken dreams. And as they opened up to her, she realised that many of these women had violent home lives and were not getting parole simply because they couldn't fill out the paperwork. Horrified, Kerry set about using her skills to represent them. She also began to study. Today, Kerry has a PhD, advocates for women prisoners, and has been reunited with her daughters. In her inspiring memoir, filled with fascinating stories of life behind bars and shot through with wry humour, she reveals how one woman's darkest hour can become a turning point in her life. And how, just perhaps, it can even be the making of her.

Becoming A Lion


Johnny Sexton - 2013
    As of May 2009, Johnny Sexton was the little-known backup fly-half for Leinster, the chronically underachieving Irish province. But when Felipe Contepomi went down with an injury early in the Heineken Cup semi-final against a dominant Munster team, Sexton came on, nailed a penalty with his first touch of the game, and helped Leinster to a crushing victory. Four years, three Heineken Cups later and one British and Irish Lions tour victory later, Sexton is by some distance the leading fly-half in the northern hemisphere. When the 2013 Lions squad was selected, there was almost universal agreement that Sexton was the most important single player heading to Australia. And over the course of the Lions' first victorious Test series in sixteen years, Sexton was the man pulling the strings. His try in the third test was the decisive blow, and his joyous celebrations after scoring were echoed in homes across Britain and Ireland. Becoming a Lion is an intimate portrait of life at the highest levels of the professional game - at Leinster, with Ireland, and on tour with the Lions.

More Confessions of a Hostie: The Second Sector


Danielle Hugh - 2013
    In this sequel to bestselling "Confessions of a Hostie," international flight attendant Danielle Hugh entertains and shocks in equal measure with more turbulent tales of life in the sky. Intense shopping, jetlag, poltergeist passengers, mile-high-club contenders and sick bags all put in an appearance, as do Danielle's 'earthling' boyfriend, Dean, her best friend, Helen, and her promiscuous fellow hostie, Mary-go-round. So, fasten your seatbelts, ensure your seat is fully upright, your tray-table stowed and join Danielle on her (sometimes) glamorous journey through life and relationships high above the clouds.

Return to the Big Fancy: A Riotous Descent Into the Depths of Customer, Corporate, and Coworker Hell


Freeman Hall - 2012
    But instead of fame and fortune, he found himself stuck behind a wall of script-killing rewrites, unable to make a living.In Return to the Big Fancy, Freeman shares his wildly entertaining journey back through the fiery gates of Retail Hell. He thought he had seen it all in his day, but with the bar set higher than ever before, employees are now graciously bowing before Corporate as they climb over fellow salespeople, and even friends, to earn enough transactions and commissions to actually survive. As he learns more of the wretchedness that has befallen the sales floor, he realizes that The Big Fancy has its customers and its employees on a short leash. But leave it to Freeman and the threat of disappearing commissions to rally the retail slaves and show Corporate who's really in charge!

The Lies They Told


Jay Nadal - 2019
     When a notorious criminal is found dead in his own home, his clothes soaked with blood, Detective Inspector Karen Heath is one of the first at the crime scene. For Karen, this is personal. She has a point to prove. Having returned from suspension, the eyes of the force are watching her every move, and some aren’t pleased to see her back. Never far from her thoughts is the burning desire to find those who were responsible for the fateful day that led to her suspension. But, when another vengeful killing comes to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work. Detective Inspector Karen Heath of the London’s Met police face a race against time to track down a killer who’s bold, relenting and dangerous. A story about greed, power, brutality - and fractured lives...

The Glasgow Curse


William Lobban - 2013
    Writing in his own words, William Lobban tells how he was born in Exeter Prison to a violent, schizophrenic mother. His upbringing in the East End of Glasgow was just as bleak, and he ended up in care at an early age, destined for a life of violence and insecurity. At a mere 15 years old, he masterminded a daring break-in to a Glasgow pub, and many years of armed robberies, dealing class-A drugs, and gang fights followed. When he wasn’t causing mayhem on the streets, Lobban was serving terms in various high-security prisons, where he was the ringleader and instigator of two of the most serious prison riots of recent years at Perth and Full Sutton and where he took prison officers hostage on two other occasions. In the course of his criminal career, Lobban became enmeshed with the infamous Paul Ferris, who later incriminated him as the murderer of fellow gangster Arthur Thompson Jr. Police also believed that Lobban was the man behind the brutal double killing of Bobby Glover and Joe ‘Bananas’ Hanlon, but none of these charges held up. Finally released from prison in 1998, Lobban decided to walk away from a life of crime, but personal tragedy led to a dependence on alcohol and drugs, which nearly killed him. Only in recent years has he found a measure of peace and stability. He has finally decided to set the record straight, and in this searing exposé of the Glasgow underworld he reveals the true facts behind the crimes that he really committed and those of which he is falsely accused.

Starting Out In the Afternoon


Jill Frayne - 2002
    She decided to pack up her life and head for the Yukon.Driving alone across the country from her home just north of Toronto, describing the land as it changes from Precambrian Shield to open prairie, Jill finds that solitude in the wilds is not what she expected. She is actively engaged by nature, her moods reflected in the changing landscape and weather. Camping in her tent as she travels, she begins to let go of the world she’s leaving and to enter the realm of the solitary traveller. There are many challenges in store. She has booked a place on a two-week sea-kayaking trip in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia; though she owns a canoe, she has never been in a kayak. As the departure nears, she dreads it. Nor does it work any miracle charm on her, as she is isolated from her fellow travellers; yet the landscape and wild beauty of the old hunt camps gradually affects her. Halfway, as she begins to have energy left at the end of the day’s exertions, she notes: “This is as relaxed as I have ever been, as free from anxious future-thinking as I have ever managed.”From there she heads north, taking ferries up the Inside Passage and using her bicycle and tent to explore the wet, mountainous places along the way. Again, she feels self-conscious when alone in public, but once she strikes out into nature, the wilderness begins to work its magic on her, and she begins to feel a bond with the land and a kind of serenity. Moreover, she comes to realize that this self-reliance is an important step. Many travel narratives involve some kind of inner journey, a seeking of knowledge and of self. Set in the same part of the world, Jonathan Raban’s A Passage to Juneau ended up being “an exploration into the wilderness of the human heart.” Kevin Patterson used his months sailing from Vancouver to Tahiti to consider his life in The Water in Between, while the Bhutanese landscape worked a profound transformation on Jamie Zeppa in Beyond the Sky and the Earth. In This Cold Heaven, Gretel Ehrlich chose not to put herself into the story, but described the landscape with a similar hunger and intensity, while Sharon Butala has written deeply and personally about her physical and spiritual connection with the prairies in The Perfection of the Morning and other work.In Starting Out in the Afternoon, Frayne struggles to come to terms with her vulnerabilities and begins to find peace. In beautifully spare but potent language, she delivers an inspiring, contemplative memoir of the middle passage of a woman’s life and an eloquent meditation on the solace of living close to the wild land. Eventually what has begun as a three-month trip becomes a personal journey of several years, during which she is on the move and testing herself in the wilderness. She conquers her fears and begins a new relationship with nature, exuberant at becoming a competent outdoorswoman. “Despite a late start I expect to spend the rest of my life dashing off the highway, pursuing this know-how, plumbing the outdoors side of life.”