Half Wild


Pip Smith - 2017
    After being hit by a car on Oxford Street, sixty-three-year-old Jean Ford lies in a coma in Sydney Hospital. Doctors talk across her body, nurses jab her in the arm with morphine, detectives arrive to take her fingerprints. She has £100 in her pocket, but no identification. Memories come back to her-a murder trial, a life in prison-but with each prick of the needle her memories begin to shift.Wellington, 1885. Tally Ho doesn't need to go to school because she is going to be a fisherman or a cart driver or a butcher boy like Harry Crawford. Wellington is her town and she makes up the rules. Papà takes her fishing, Nonno teaches her how to jump fences on his horse Geronimo-life gallops on the way it should, until a brother, baby William, is born. 'Go and play with your sisters,' Papà says, but wearing dresses and sipping tea is not the life for Tally Ho. Taking the advice of her hero, Harry Crawford, she runs away.Sydney, 1917. The burned body of a woman is discovered on the banks of the Lane Cove River. Was she a mad woman? A drunk who'd accidentally set herself on fire? Nobody knows, until-three years later-a tailor's apprentice tells police that his mother went missing that same weekend, and that his stepfather, Harry Crawford, is not who he seems to be. Who, then, is he?Based on the true lives of Eugenia Falleni, Half Wild is Pip Smith's dazzling debut novel.

To My Trans Sisters


Charlie Craggs - 2017
    Lambda Literary Award Finalist - LGBTQ AnthologyDedicated to trans women everywhere, this inspirational collection of letters written by successful trans women shares the lessons they learnt on their journeys to womanhood, celebrating their achievements and empowering the next generation to become who they truly are.Written by politicians, scientists, models, athletes, authors, actors, and activists from around the world, these letters capture the diversity of the trans experience and offer advice from make-up and dating through to fighting dysphoria and transphobia.By turns honest and heartfelt, funny and furious or beautiful and brave, these letters send a clear message of hope to their sisters: each of these women have gone through the struggles of transition and emerged the other side as accomplished, confident women; and if we made it sister, so can you!

One in Every Crowd


Ivan E. Coyote - 2012
    Coyote's wry, honest stories about gender and identity have captivated audiences everywhere. Ivan's eighth book is her first for LGBT youth, written for anyone who has ever felt different or alone in their struggles to be true to themselves. Included are stories about Ivan's tomboy youth and her adult life, where she experiences cruelty and kindness in unexpected places.Funny, inspiring, and full of heart, One in Every Crowd is about embracing and celebrating difference and feeling comfortable in one's own skin.Ivan E. Coyote was also featured in the anti-bullying anthology It Gets Better.

f2m:the boy within


Hazel Edwards - 2009
    Joining the punk/indie scene is easier than FTM (female to male) transitioning: from Skye to Finn, from girl to transman. 'f2m;the boy within' was the first YA novel about transitioning co-written by an ftm. It has also inspired a comic graphic novel 'The Boy Within' which is currently being created by two transmen Ryan Kennedy & Sam Orchard. 'F2m;the boy within' will be included in the Australian National Library exhibition on significant YA novels in September 2019.Alchemy has links to where Hazel Edwards' e-books are available.http://ebookalchemy.com.au/ByImprint....

Calvin


J.R. Ford - 2021
    He knows who he is in his heart and in his mind but he hasn't yet told his family. Finally, he can wait no longer: I'm not a girl, he tells his family. I'm a boy--a boy in my heart and in my brain. Quick to support him, his loving family takes Calvin shopping for the swim trunks he's always wanted and back-to-school clothes and a new haircut that helps him look and feel like the boy he's always known himself to be. As the first day of school approaches, he's nervous and the what-ifs gather up inside him. But as his friends and teachers rally around him and he tells them his name, all his what-ifs begin to melt away.Inspired by the authors' own transgender child and accompanied by warm and triumphant illustrations, this authentic and personal text promotes kindness and empathy, offering a poignant and inclusive back-to-school message: all should feel safe, respected, and welcomed.

Raven Falls


Suzanne Brandyn - 2017
     They organise to have an irrigation system installed but when the assessor arrives Samantha is shocked to find that it's Bradley Harper, the man who faked his way into her heart and broke it in the process. As the Osbornes' deal with encroaching cattle rustlers, an injured brother and with a near death experience, Samantha and Brad realise they cannot ignore their attraction any longer, except one thing stands in their way. Will it be enough to send them in opposite directions or unite them until the end?

The Final Siren


Nicki Edwards - 2020
    But after a devastating career-ending injury, he's faced with returning to the small town of Glengarrick to figure out what comes next.Georgina Purcell always wanted to leave Glengarrick, but ten years after Jed left town taking a secret with him and breaking her heart in the process, she's still stuck wondering what her future holds.When Jed walks back into her life acting like nothing has changed, sparks fly. But their feelings for one another can't change Jed's painful secret...that Georgie might be the reason for his retirement from the game he loves.Will the lure of a new opportunity within the AFL be too much for Jed to walk away from? Or can he leave it all behind for a chance of happiness with Georgie?

The Avoidable Orphan


T.M. Clark - 2015
    He’s a man of the African bush, and coping with ‘girlie feelings’ was always Helene’s department, not his. When an orphaned baby elephant is found, Rodger sees an opportunity that might help him reconnect with his children. But interfering with the orphan goes against his usual conservation methods. It will require a new approach to save both the baby and his family.

Back to Blue Gum Flat


Tea Cooper - 2015
    When the corporate rug is pulled from under her Maddison Markham heads back home – back to Blue Gum Flat. It won’t be for long, just time to regroup and get her life back on track. But Blue Gum Flat is not the sleepy little town she remembers from her childhood. New people, new attitudes and even a coffee machine. Cameron Dean has every intention of making his dream of a rural life a reality and when Maddison arrives in town it seems his stars have finally aligned. But he hasn’t considered the impact their relationship will have on his son and after the mistakes he has made family comes first.

Tranny 911


Shay Hunter - 2013
    After going to a party, which left him damaged physically, he desires transformation even more. He gets his chance when an unlikely visitor offers to teach him the tricks of the highly lucrative, and illegal trade of body pumping, using liquid silicone. With his new skills in play, Charles rises to the top and before long is given the name, Tranny 911. Although he tries to be happy with his new found fame and love interests, his jealous friend Dixon Wood does all he can to bring him down. Tranny 911 is a novel that will have you screaming at the pages and demanding justice, from beginning to end.

No Room for Regret


Janeen Ann O'Connell
    He could be sailing anywhere, anytime, but he’s not, he’s going to the other side of the world. He could be anyone, but he’s not, he’s the son of a respectable London businessman. His crime? An error of judgement.In England, in 1812, there is no forgiveness. As the ship sails, eighteen-year-old James Tedder’s seven-year sentence to Van Diemen’s Land begins.Rescuing her eldest son from slave traders in Rio de Janeiro is the most difficult thing Sarah Blay has done in the last two years. Leaving England, her life, her mother, to follow her convict husband James to the other side of the world not knowing if he lives, pales in comparison. Will lives rebuild? Will love survive?

The Frankston Murders: 25 Years On


Vikki Petraitis - 2018
    The spate of murders in 1993 touched many more lives than just the three victims. All of Melbourne was gripped with fear, as Frankston and surrounding suburbs were flooded with police hunting the serial killer of three young women. It began on June 11 when Elizabeth Stevens was murdered on her way home from the library. On July 8, Debbie Fream who'd left her 12-day-old baby with a friend while she dashed out for milk, was abducted and killed. Three weeks later, Year 12 student, Natalie Russell, was brutally murdered on her way home from school. When Paul Denyer, an odd young man, was arrested the day after Natalie's body was found, the police and public were shocked by his lack of emotion. Denyer, who was only 21-years-old, spoke of the three young women with contempt as he described their final moments. Their deaths had simply fuelled his bloodlust. Eleven years later, just as the public's memory of the Frankston murders began to fade, convicted serial killer, Paul Denyer, made front-page news with his quest to become a woman. The Frankston Murders: 25 years on details the shocking crimes and explores the lingering effects of what Denyer did. Now 25-years-old, Debbie Fream's son Jake speaks for the first time about the loss of his mother. And Carmel and Brian Russell share their dream for Denyer's ongoing incarceration, as the killer of their child will be eligible to apply for parole for the first time in 2023.

The Pom Pom Fortress


Alecia Snowfall - 2015
    Young Kyle struggles to make it through the school day without being noticed, but others intend to make him the center of attention.

Becoming Robin: A Tale of Self Discovery


Zoe Taylor - 2017
    A cross-country move away from everything Robert has known followed by a chance encounter trigger a different sort of existence. Can "Robin" adapt or will it all come tumbling down?

The Coffin Confessor


William Edgar - 2021
    That the man in the coffin had a few things to say.’Imagine you are dying with a secret. Something you’ve never had the courage to tell your friends and family. Or a last wish – a task you need carried out before you can rest in peace. Now imagine there’s a man who can take care of all that, who has no respect for the living, who will do anything for the dead.Bill Edgar is the Coffin Confessor – a one-of-a-kind professional, a man on a mission to make good on these last requests on behalf of his soon-to-be-deceased clients. And this is the extraordinary story of how he became that man.Bill has been many things in this life: son of one of Australia’s most notorious gangsters, homeless street-kid, maximum-security prisoner, hard man, family man, car thief, professional punching bag, philosopher, inventor, private investigator, victim of horrific childhood sexual abuse and an activist fighting to bring down the institutions that let it happen. A survivor.As a little boy, he learned the hard way that society is full of people who fall through the cracks – who die without their stories being told. Now his life’s work is to make sure his clients’ voices are heard, and their last wishes delivered: the small-town grandfather who needs his tastefully decorated sex dungeon destroyed before the kids find it. The woman who endured an abusive marriage for decades before finding freedom. The outlaw biker who is afraid of nothing . . . except telling the world he is in love with another man. The dad who desperately needs to track down his estranged daughter so he can find a way to say he's sorry, with one final gift.Confronting and confounding, heartwarming and heartbreaking, The Coffin Confessor is a compelling story of survival and redemption, of a life lived on the fringes of society, on both sides of the law – and what that can teach you about living your best life . . . and death.