A Hole in My Genes by Jodie Fleming

$27.95 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Dr Jodie Fleming, a clinical and health psychologist who previously specialised in the field of psycho-oncology - the human side of cancer - receives the terrifying news that she has two primary breast cancers. This becomes a frightening opportunity to practise what she preaches. The doctor becomes the patient. Having dedicated her career to helping others with cancer, and also caring for her husband with testicular cancer eight years prior, Jodie understands the role of caregiver on both a personal and professional level. The role of patient, however is another matter. Especially when the diagnosis comes exactly one month after the end of her marriage. What ensues is the epitome of complicated grief and a foray into the world of cancer from the other side of the desk. Jodie relocates interstate to her parents' home in country Victoria for a healthy dose of family dysfunction. Genetic testing and a prophylactic hysterectomy add salt to the open wound of infertility before viciously rubbing it in. Forced to draw upon the psychological strategies she'd previously taught her clients, Jodie begins her true education. A Hole in My Genes is Jodie's journey from that terrifying diagnosis to a cancer free future. ...Show more

Stories of Hope: Finding Inspiration in Everyday Lives by Heather Morris

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Heather Morris, author of the internationally bestselling novels The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey, grew up on a farm in rural New Zealand. On her way back across the paddocks from school, Heather would visit her great-grandfather and listen to his experiences of war - stories he told only Heather. From a young age Heather discovered that people would tell her their stories if she stopped and listened. In Stories of Hope, Heather Morris will explore the art of listening - a skill she employed when she met Lale Sokolov, the Tattooist of Auschwitz. It was her ability to listen that led him to entrust her with his story. Stories of Hope will examine Heather's extraordinary journey, in the form of a series of beautifully rendered tales of the people she has met, the remarkable stories they have shared with her, and the lessons they hold for us all.   ...Show more

My Year of Living Vulnerably by Rick Morton

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

From Rick Morton, the author of the bestselling, critically acclaimed memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt comes a dazzlingly brilliant book about love, trauma and recovery, My Year of Living Vulnerably. 'Wonderfully readable and wide-ranging exploration of the visible and invisible touchstones of our liv es ... this is nourishing reading for our lonely, frightening and fraught times. Part self-help book, part treatise on the importance of love, kindness and forgiveness ... Morton is a national treasure and we need more like him.' Books+Publishing In early 2019, Rick Morton, author of acclaimed, bestselling memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt, was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder - which, as he says, is just a fancy way of saying that one of the people who should have loved him the most during childhood didn't. So, over the course of twelve months, he went on a journey to rediscover love. To get better. Not cured, not fixed. Just, better. This is a book about his journey to betterness, his year of living vulnerably. It's a book about love. What love is, how we see it, what forms it takes, how we practice it in our lives, what it means to us, and how we really, really can't live without it, even if, like Rick for many years, we think we can. As he says: 'People think they want cars - and they do, to get to jobs and appointments in cities and regions where public transport has failed them. But what gets them into those cars, out of the house, out of bed for God's sake, is love.' 'Read this investigation because it will remind you of how optimism and love work together. Read it because your heart has been broken somewhere along the line and you need to know how to mend. Read this book because Rick Morton is the bloke we all need in our life to show us it is going to be okay.' Readings 'Wryly comic, hard-thought and deeply-felt ... It is a heartbreaking book, but a beguiling and necessary one. And a work far wiser than the modesty of its author would allow.' The Saturday Paper ...Show more

Jenny Chats with Mary - A Biography of Mary Fiorini-Lowell - Applauding Her Creative Life by Jenny Phillips (Original Author, Preface by, Interviewer)

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

How did a young Mary - from south west Victoria's country town of Koroit - attend a garden tea party at Buckingham Palace with the Queen; sing Waltzing Matilda at 2am with Al Grassby, the Minister for Immigration; gain employment dubbing for the famous Gina Lollobrigida; perform around 300 radio plays; and confidently hitchhike around Europe alone?Ahead of her time, how did she stay true to her creative path and achieve all these things, and more?These are the questions I pursue as I chat with Mary. ...Show more

You Shouldn't Have Joined... by Peter Cosgrove

$44.99 AUD

$49.99 (10% off)

Category: Biography & Memoir

General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK AC (Mil) CVO MC (Retd) is one of Australia's most significant public figures. As a soldier he saw action in Vietnam, winning the Military Cross, and rose to the very top of his profession, becoming Chief of the Defence Force. Soon after his retirement from the Army, he was invited to take charge of the huge relief and rebuilding operation in Queensland after the devastation of Cyclone Larry. In 2014, Cosgrove became Australia's Governor-General. As Governor-General he travelled far and wide, supporting Australians in times of crisis, sadness, joy or celebration, representing us on the world stage with humour, intelligence and a force of personal magnetism that was felt by everyone from prime ministers to presidents. When he retired in July 2019, it was as one of the most beloved and respected governors-general in Australia's history. Cosgrove embodies the traits we truly value: warmth, humanity, toughness and loyalty. His humour and empathy shone through the pomp and ceremony, and his time as Governor-General will be remembered as much for his laughter as for the usual dignities of the office. You Shouldn't Have Joined ... (an expression much used during his days as a soldier) is the story of Cosgrove's extraordinarily full and eventful life. It is also the story of those who have shared it with him, in particular his wife Lynne. His memoir allows us an incredible insight into the role and world of Australia's Governor-General. He was there as two prime ministers were toppled by their own party. He was there through disasters both natural and man-made, such as the destruction of MH17. He was there for world leaders, and for ordinary Australians. You Shouldn't Have Joined ... is a true reflection of the man himself, filled with intelligence, forthrightness, compassion and a brilliant eye for a telling anecdote. ...Show more

Walk Like a Cow: A Memoir by Brendan Ryan

$25.00 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Australian poet Brendan Ryan speaks about his life in this memoir of "the child, the youth and the young man finding his footing amidst the mysteries of cows and the ruthless cycles of the farm, the dry-eyed melancholy of the milking-shed and the mercy of the weather. Here also are the puzzles of existe nce contained in parents and siblings, in small things and small talk, and the revelations of the school bus and the school. This is a classic memoir: Brendan Ryan's words come at us directly, and often with startling intensity, from indelible experience. And we feel his need to return." (Don Watson, 2020) ...Show more

Turns Out, I'm Fine by Judith Lucy

$27.99 AUD

$32.99 (15% off)

Category: Biography & Memoir

Judith Lucy was just Great! Sure, the last remaining member of her immediate family had died, she was menopausal, she suspected her career was in the shitter and it seemed like the world was going to hell in a handbasket – but she was about to move in with the love of her life! Everything would wo rk out because SHE HAD A MAN. Then, in the space of twenty-four hours, her relationship came apart and so did she. A broken heart became the catalyst for a complete existential melt down. She was nearly fifty, suddenly alone and unsure about every aspect of her life. How had this happened? Should she blame one of her four parents? What part had the comedy world played and was her disastrous history with men about more than just bad taste? In her most candid and insightful book yet, Judith figures out what went wrong and then turns her attention to finding out what her life might look like if it went right. She tries everything from dating a tree to getting a portrait of her vulva done to swimming with a whale shark. Thanks to a series of revelations and a slight drowning experience, Judith slowly starts to realise that her life is still full of possibilities and despite death, heartache and a dry vagina. It turns out … she’s fine. ...Show more

A Mouthful of Petals by Wendy Scarfe and Allan Scarfe

$29.95 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

A Mouthful of Petals is a nonfiction account of three years working in an Indian village in the early 1960s. Previously published, it became a minor classic among good samaritans, particularly in Britain, and was reviewed by The Times, New Statesman and such like. At the invitation of India's venerated political leader and activist Jayaprakash Narayan, Wendy and Allan Scarfe, two dedicated but far from solemn young Australian teachers, travelled to the remote village of Sokhodeora in Bihar in 1960. They had been asked to take charge of the educational activities of his ashram, but over the three years they lived there, their activities extended far beyond that. This humane and important book recounts their efforts in helping local people counter the misery, poverty and ignorance that afflicted so much of the region. By the time they left, the Scarfes had succeeded in teaching both children and adults much that would help them to lead better and fuller lives. And they left behind, for the young at least, something to hope and work for. This new edition of A Mouthful Of Petals includes an account of Wendy Scarfe's return trip to Sokhodeora during a famine in the late 1960s, and how those who live in Bihar state fare in the early twenty-first century. ...Show more

Untwisted: The Story of My Life by Paul Jennings

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Honest, insightful, funny - a brilliant memoir about writing and teaching and life from one of Australia's most loved children's authors. Sometimes, rather than making you laugh or cry out in surprise, a story will instead leave you wondering about human fragility. In the telling of his own tale, childr en's author and screenwriter Paul Jennings demonstrates how seemingly small events can combine into a compelling drama. As if assembling the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, he puts together fragments, memories and anecdotes to reveal the portrait of a complex and weathered soul.Untwisted is revealing, moving and very funny.   ...Show more

One Italian Summer by Pip Williams

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Pip and Shannon dreamed of living the good life. They wanted to slow down, grow their own food, and spend more time with the people they love. But jobs and responsibilities got in the way: their chooks died, their fruit rotted, and Pip ended up depressed and in therapy. So they did the only reason able thing – they quit their jobs, pulled the children out of school and went searching for la dolce vita in Italy. One Italian Summer is a warm, funny and often poignant story of a family’s search for a better way of living in the homes and on the farms of strangers. Pip sleeps in a woodshed, feasts under a Tuscan sun, works like a tractor in Calabria and, eventually, finds her dream – though it’s not at all the one she expected.   ...Show more

From Snow to Ash: One Man's 500-Kilometre Trek Through an Iconic Australian Landscape by Anthony Sharwood

$32.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

The incredible, inspiring story of a solo journey through Australia's toughest and most beautiful hiking trail - the Australian Alps Walking Track - for fans of INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer or Cheryl Strayed's WILD and anyone who dreams of iconic wilderness walks. At the start of the hellish, fiery Au stralian summer of 2019/20, Walkley Award-winning journalist and suburban dad Anthony Sharwood set off on a journey. Abandoning his post on a busy news website to clear his mind, he solo-trekked the Australian Alps Walking Track, Australia's most gruelling and breathtakingly beautiful mainland hiking trail, which traverses the entirety of the legendary High Country from Gippsland in Victoria to the outskirts of Canberra. The journey started in a blizzard and ended in a blaze. Along the way, this lifelong lover of the mountains came to realise that nothing would ever be the same - either for him or for the imperilled Australian Alps, a landscape as fragile and sensitive to the changing climate as the Great Barrier Reef. ...Show more

The Believer: Encounters with Love, Death and Faith by Sarah Krasnostein

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography & Memoir

This book is about ghosts and gods and flying saucers and certainty in the absence of knowledge. From award-winning author Sarah Krasnostein comes an exploration of the power of belief. Weaving together the stories of six extraordinary ordinary people, The Believer looks at the stories we tell ourselve s to deal with the distance between the world as it is, and the world as we’d like it to be. How they can stunt us – or save us. Some of the people you will meet believe in things most people don’t. Ghosts. UFOs. Heaven and the Devil. The literal creation of the universe in six days. Others believe in things most people would like to. Dying with autonomy. Facing one’s own transgressions with an open heart. In this intensely personal and gorgeously written new book Krasnostein talks with her characteristic compassion and empathy to these believers – and finds out what happens when their beliefs crash into her own. ...Show more