Appearing at the 2016 Sydney Writer's Festival
In this extraordinary memoir, Magda describes her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood, haunted by the demons of her father’s espionage activities in wartime Poland and by her secret awareness of her sexuality, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself and her family. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties and fears, and asks the big questions about life, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass on.
Honest, poignant, utterly captivating, Reckoning announces the arrival of a fearless writer and natural storyteller. It will touch the lives of its readers...more
the Inside Story of Our Body's Most Under-Rated Organ.
The key to living a happier, healthier life is inside us. Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain or our heart, yet we know very little about how it works.
In Gut, Giulia Enders shows that rather than the utilitarian and - let's be honest - somewhat embarrassing body part we imagine it to be, it is one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy. And scientists are only just discovering quite how much it has to offer; new research shows that gut bacteria can play a role in everything from obesity and allergies to Alzheimer's... more
By popular demand, Australia's funniest and most famous mathematician is back with a brilliant new book. Adam Spencer's World of Numbers takes the reader on a fun-filled ride, explaining the crucial role numbers play in our understanding of sport and space, computers and cooking, and a whole lot in between.
With his trademark wit, Adam decodes barcodes, explains why we say 'as sixes and sevens' when we're discombobulated - and works out if there really a word in the English language with 189,819 letters!
This is a book for readers of all ages who love numbers, or just love to laugh and learn about the wonderful world we live in... more
In the summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton began an ambitious project -to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City.
Ever since Brandon began interviewing people on the streets of New York, the dialogue he's had with them has increasingly become as in-depth, intriguing and moving as the photos themselves. Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of people in stunning photographs, with a rich design and, most importantly, longer stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candour... more
On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles, in northern France. By the next day, no fewer than 5500 were wounded and just under 1900 were dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history.
This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry... more
Rosie’s story begins on the run from drug dealers whilst still floating in embryonic fluid and steadily gets worse from there. Constantly shifting from public housing, to rehab, to foster homes to a caravan stuffed with used porn and with toilet issues that follow her far too late in life, Rosie tries and fails to be cool at every chance. With a sister toted as Mariah Carey on a Best & Less budget, Rosie just has to look on, it seems, at other people’s success.
But somewhere between dropping out of acting school and gaining ninety kilos, she learns what it feels like to be okay yourself as you are and in that she becomes The Anti-Cool Girl. This deliciously black memoir will teach you her secret... more
Paul Keating is widely credited as the chief architect of the most significant period of political and economic reform in Australia's history. Twenty years on, there is still no story from the horse's mouth of how it all came about. No autobiography. No memoir. Yet he is the supreme story-teller of politics.
This book of revelations fills the gap. Kerry O'Brien, the consummate interviewer who knew all the players and lived the history, has spent many long hours with Keating, teasing out the stories, testing the memories and the assertions. What emerges is a treasure trove of anecdotes, insights, reflections and occasional admissions from one of the most loved and hated political leaders we have known-a man who either led or was the driving force through thirteen years of Labor government that changed the face of Australia... more
What is 'cluster deployment', and how can you be sure to 'engage multiple stakeholders through your strategic delivery channel'? What's the difference between 'backcasting' and 'backfilling' and could it ever matter? The language of business and work grows ever more depleted, barren and senseless.
Don Watson returns to the follies he described in Death Sentence and Weasel Words. With his trademark management-jargon mockery, he will make you cringe and laugh and possibly die of shame. But above all he will ask you to resist: to fight in the fields and in the streets and in the of offices and on the internet - and never surrender... more
'I grew up on the world's largest island.'
This apparently simple fact is the starting point for Tim Winton's beautiful, evocative and sometimes provocative memoir of how this unique landscape has shaped him and his writing.
For over thirty years, Winton has written novels in which the natural world is as much a living presence as any character. What is true of his work is also true of his life: from boyhood, his relationship with the world around him - rockpools, seacaves, scrub and swamp - was as vital as any other connection... more
Rosie knows pain no woman should have to suffer. Her son was killed by his father in a violent incident in February 2014, a horrendous event that shocked not only the nation, but the world.
Greg Anderson murdered his 11-year-old son Luke and was then shot by police at the Tyabb cricket oval. Rosie had suffered years of family violence, and had had intervention and custody orders in place in an effort to protect herself and her son. She believes the killing was Greg's final act of control over her... more
