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Fearless: My Life My Way


Gina Liano - 2015
    But few know the real-life story behind her rise to fame on reality TV and in Australia’s legal circles as a respected Melbourne barrister.Just like the woman herself, Fearless is up-front, inspiring and passionate.Born in Melbourne to Italian parents, Gina’s happy childhood turned sour when her parents’ business and marriage failed. Gina battled to finish her schooling, and while her ambition was to study law, she was a married mother of one by the time she was 23. Along with her talented sisters she would establish three highly successful fashion stores in stylish inner-Melbourne.But Gina never lost sight of her goal to study law and become a barrister, and at 33, after years of schooling, she was finally admitted to the bar. With a dream career, a new husband and a second child, she was ready to take on the world. But it was not to be; only four years later, she received a shock diagnosis of life-threatening cancer.With more twists and turns than any reality TV show, every step of Gina’s unique journey is intimately recounted in Fearless with the frankness and honesty that audiences have come to expect from the straight-talking star of the Real Housewives series. ‘Sassy and sophisticated. Tough and tender. Glamorous and gregarious. Everyone has an opinion of Gina Liano, but those who know even a little about her know she’s a survivor, then a thriver and always a winner … against all odds.’ Eddie McGuire

Roadies: The Secret History of Australian Rock'n'Roll


Stuart Coupe - 2018
    The roadies see it all, and now they are sharing their secrets. Roadies are the unsung heroes of the Australian music industry. They unload the PAs and equipment, they set it all up, they make sure everything is running smoothly before, during and after the gigs. Then they pack everything up in the middle of the night, put it in the back of the truck and hit the road to another town - to do it all over again. They know everything about the pre- and post-show excesses. They bear witness to overdoses, the groupies, the obsessive fans. They are part of - and often organise - all the craziness that goes on behind the scenes of the concerts and pub gigs you go to. From The Rolling Stones to AC/DC, Bob Marley to Courtney Love, Sherbet to The Ted Mulry Gang, INXS to Blondie - these guys have seen it all. And now they're stepping onto the stage and talking.The Roadies' Creed: If it's wet, drink it. If it's dry, smoke it. If it moves, **** it. If it doesn't move, throw it in the back of the truck. 'Fabulous . . . a bold portrait' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on Stuart Coupe's GUDINSKI

Waiting for the Thunder


Patricia Shaw - 2001
    But this year the ominous storm clouds only serve to remind them of trouble brewing - an Aborgine guerilla fighter in the district with some of his men is causing havoc indiscriminately and placing both Zack Hamilton and William Oatley in great danger. As the days drag on, the Aborigines' struggle for survival involves them all in a vicious waiting game until men with revenge in their hearts have to face the truth about themselves.

Locust Summer


David Allan-Petale - 2021
    Rowan’s brother Albert, the natural heir to the farm, has died and Rowan’s dad’s health is failing. Although he longs to, there is no way that Rowan can refuse his mother’s request as she prepares the farm for sale.This is the story of the final harvest – the story of a young man in a place he doesn’t want to be, being given one last chance to make peace before the past, and those he has loved, disappear.

Battle Scars


Stuart O'Grady - 2014
    But ‘Mr Indestructible’ – who had become the first Australian to win the Rock of Roubaix earlier that year – got back on his bike.By 2013 Stuart O’Grady had competed in 17 Tours; secured Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals; been named Australian Cyclist of the Year, and Australian Male Road Cyclist of the Year; won the inaugural Tour Down Under; and earned an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the sport. But then came the worst time of his life, when he announced his retirement after such an impressive cycling career and revealed that he had used the performance enhancing drug EPO before the 1998 Tour de France – a Tour marred by widespread doping.In this up-front and honest autobiography Stuey reveals all. This is his story: as candid and down-to-earth as the man himself.

Murder in Suburbia


Emily Webb - 2014
    Murder in Suburbia features the stories of more than 20 murder cases that have happened in the quiet streets of Australia's suburbs and small towns.Featuring contemporary cases as well as some shocking historical murders, Murder in Suburbia proves you should say "it could never happen here".

Back of Beyond: One woman's remarkable story of love, adventure, disasters and wonderful times in the Gulf Country


Jenny Old - 2018
    Often her only contact with the outside world was through her two-way radio. Stretched to the limits, she achieved more than she ever thought herself capable of. With every setback and in the toughest of times when the odds seemed insurmountable, she learnt to dust herself off, find a smile and just keep on going. For eighteen years Jenny and Rick battled flood, drought, cyclones and personal hardship. Yet their world was a big as the landscape in which they lived, filled as it was with generosity, wonderful characters and the joy of life. At McAllister they established an oasis for their family and friends.Jenny's motto is: life throws many curve balls at us, but it's how we deal with them that counts. This is the extraordinary story of a woman of the bush and her indomitable spirit.

Charlotte's Creek


Therese Creed - 2014
    So when she hears about a job teaching four children on a massive cattle property in North Queensland, she decides to throw caution - and her teaching job - to the winds.When Lucy arrives at Charlotte's Creek Station she finds a family in crisis. To make matters worse, the four children she's been charged with educating are very spirited, not always cooperative, and dismally behind in their schooling.To Lucy, the only person who seems to be keeping Charlotte's Creek afloat is the family's gruff stockman, Ted. With his support and encouragement Lucy throws herself into the day-to-day activities of the station and makes excellent progress with the children.Though Lucy and Ted's feelings for each other grow, Ted can't see any future for them because of his lack of prospects. As the family divisions at Charlotte's Creek prove insurmountable and the property looks set to be put on the market, Lucy faces returning to the city and leaving Ted behind. . .By the betselling author of Redstone Station, this is the story of a strong young woman stepping into the unknown, trying to make things work, and finding love.

Last Day in the Dynamite Factory


Annah Faulkner - 2015
    If nobody asks, you never have to tell.'Christopher Bright is a well-respected conservation architect, good neighbour and friend. He has a devoted wife, two talented children and an old Rover. He plays tennis on Saturdays and enjoys a beer with his business partner after work.Life is orderly, yet an unresolved question has haunted him for as long as he can remember: Who was his birth father?Devotion to his adoptive parents has always prevented Chris from enquiring too deeply, but when his mother dies, information emerges that becomes the catalyst for changes he has never imagined.As light is cast on his father, attention turns to his birth mother, but when he goes in search of the person behind the photo, he encounters a conspiracy of silence. His quest for information, however, reveals not only the truth about his mother's life but exposes the fault lines in his own, and Chris finds the price of knowledge increasingly heavy. Nevertheless, the truth must be told ...Or must it?

Diamonds and Dust


Sheryl McCorry - 2008
    When she was 18 her family moved to Broome, and it was the first time she'd ever used a telephone or seen a television.A year later, only hours after being railroaded into marriage by a fast-talking Yank, Sheryl locked eyes with Bob McCorry, a drover and buffalo shooter. When her marriage ended after only a few months, they began a love affair that would last a lifetime and take them to the Kimberley's harshest frontiers.Sheryl became the only woman in a team of stockmen. She soon learned how to run rogue bulls and to outsmart the neighbours in the toughest game of all – mustering cattle. The playing field was a million acres of unfenced, unmarked boundaries.Sheryl went on to become the first woman in the Kimberley to run two million-acre cattle stations, but her life was not without its share of tragedy. Her story is an epic saga of life in one of the toughest and most beautiful terrains in Australia – a story of hardship, drought, joy and triumph.

Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way


Gideon Haigh - 2018
    Y’know, it's not within the spirit of the game.’ Steve Smith was not to know it at Cape Town on 24 March 2018, but he was addressing his last press conference as captain of the Australian cricket team. By the next day morning he would be swept from office by a tsunami of public indignation involving even the prime minister. In a unique admission, Smith confessed to condoning a policy of sandpapering the cricket ball in a Test against South Africa. He, the instigator David Warner and their agent Cameron Bancroft returned home to disgrace and to lengthy bans. The crisis plunged Australian cricket into a bout of unprecedented soul searching, with Cricket Australia yielding to demands for reviews of the cricket team and of itself to restore confidence in their ‘culture’. In Crossing the Line, Gideon Haigh conducts his own cultural review – ‘less official and far cheaper but genuinely independent’. Studying the cricket team across a decade of radical change, he finds an accident waiting to happen, and a system struggling to cope with self-created challenges, on the field and in the boardroom. And he wonders: is there even any longer a spirit of the game to be within? Crossing the Line is the first instalment in Slattery Media Group’s Sports Shorts collection, a new series of sports essays published as small-format books. Sports Shorts has been created as a home for ambitious, lively and engaging writing and journalism on sport—work of a scale and scope not suited to the confines of day-to-day journalism. Every instalment will illuminate or entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

Love in a Cloud


Lucy Walker - 1960
    Now she thought she knew who her hidden benefactor was -- John Grant, whom she loved at her first sight of him. But her heart betrayed her into a torment of indecision...of clouded love.

White Gum Creek


Nicole Hurley-Moore - 2018
    On the occasional trip into nearby White Gum Creek he keeps to himself and that's the way he likes it. And though over the last six years the townsfolk have tried to reach out to Nick, he's pushed them all away.Whenever Nick comes into the Gumnut Bakery, Natasha Duroz tries to engage him in conversation when she serves him. There's something about him that intrigues Tash, but she's not sure if it's because she feels sorry for him or there's something more.At last encouraged by the warmth of a few old and new friends, Nick gradually begins to re-engage with the outside world. Then, suddenly some minor vandalism on his farm escalates and odd things begin to happen on Winters Hill. Is someone out to hurt Nick or have his years of solitude been playing tricks on his mind? This entrancing novel is about overcoming heartache and loss through the power of friendship and love.

Almost Sincerely


Zoe Norton Lodge - 2015
    God’s country. Heartland of the Inner West. Because of its location an always fertile mix of working-class, migrant, genteel, intellectual and eccentric residents. As she got older she noticed Annandale was changing, and she started hearing new words like ‘architect’ and ‘labradoodle’, and eventually entire weeks would go by with no backyard bomb explosions.These stories about neighbourhood warfare, wacky relatives, quashed dreams and facial disfigurement are told with Norton Lodge’s characteristic comic verve and eye for absurdity and menace, inspired by her family, friends, acquaintances and nemeses. Their highlights include Greek grandparents who have lived in mutual resentment for decades and beat each other up with colanders, children who dabble in amateur porn and are sent to school with cat-food sandwiches, ‘distressed’ furniture, rampaging eczema, flying babies and other suburban wonders.

A Gorgeous Sense of Hope: A Love Fable


Emma Magenta - 2006
    Determined to save her love, she sets out on a love expedition, where she learns that the road to love can be rocky and full of twists and turns, but if we have the courage to stick with it, or perhaps even to forge our own path, it might just lead us to exhilarating heights and astonishing synchronicity in love. Through all the seasons of the heart, this beautifully illustrated book candidly relates the "exquisite bubble" of new love, followed by the perils of "the insidious zone of complacency" where the shower of passion dries up and silence ensues. Finally, the girl realizes that the only guarantee of keeping the love she wants is to create the map for it herself.A Gorgeous Sense of Hope is a quirky and profound keepsake for new, promising relationships, for tired, troubled relationships, and for anyone who appreciates the fragility of love. It's for everyone who has been in love and those who might be, someday. After all, couldn't everyone use a gorgeous sense of hope?