Download or read book Postcards From Surfers written by Helen Garner and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-05-16 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short shot of brilliant storytelling one of the most celebrated modern Australian short stories is now available to read by itself, wherever you are. A young woman from Melbourne visits her parents, and Auntie Lorna, in Surfers Paradise. As she stays with them, and writes postcard after postcard home, she thinks back on relationships that have shaped her. Helen Garner's collection Postcards from Surfers heralded a new generation of Australian writing, and her beautifully detailed, honest and evocative prose is on perfect display in this the title story.
Download or read book A Selection of Smithereens Penguin Special written by Shaun Micallef and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-05-16 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feel that War and Peace went on a bit? Wish there were more laughs in Catcher in the Rye? Then A Selection of Smithereens is for you. These pieces from one of Australia's funniest men (no, not John Clarke) feature the Borgias, Winston Churchill and the history behind cornflakes – and so much more! Fresh from the updated 2011 edition of Smithereens, these six short essays are small, perfectly formed and easily digestible pieces of Shaun Micallef.
Download or read book Ahead of the Game Penguin Special written by Shaun Micallef and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-06-16 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Caspar Jolley is a thrillseeker with a gift for always staying one step ahead. Doctor Evelyn Flowers is a woman of science – and sensuality. Brought together by an off-street speedboat-racing catastrophe, will they be able to overcome a bizarre and confounding injury? Hilarious, inventive and ultimately moving, Ahead of the Game is a brilliant new story from one of Australia's most unique comic voices.
Download or read book A Story of Grief Penguin Special written by Michaela McGuire and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-09-21 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jill Meagher went missing and was then found murdered in 2012, the city of Melbourne was shaken to the core. Emotional responses ranged from grief to guilt to rage to defensiveness, but no one was left untouched. The media coverage was unrelenting and overwhelming, constantly updating readers and viewers on the latest awful details, and friends and neighbours couldn't help but discuss it. Here acclaimed writer Michaela McGuire eloquently describes how, as the story continued to unfold, it wove itself through the fabric of the city. A Story of Grief is a deeply moving examination of the act of grief and how the death of someone we don't know personally can still consume us. 'Affecting and thought-provoking.' Newcastle Herald
Download or read book The Element of Need Penguin Special written by James Bradley and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-08-16 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath its peaceful exterior, the city of Adelaide and its surrounding areas have a dark history. From the disappearance of the Beaumont children to the Snowtown killings in the 1990s, it has been home to a long series of brutal and baffling killings and abductions. In The Element of Need, acclaimed author James Bradley uses this long history of violence as the basis of a fascinating exploration not just of his own childhood and adolescence, but of the psychic landscape of this most haunted of cities.
Download or read book Starting Out Penguin Special written by Ita Buttrose and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her extraordinary career, spanning over fifty years, Ita Buttrose has been involved in every aspect of the media, from newspapers and magazines to television and radio and now, electronic publishing. Starting as a copygirl on The Australian Women's Weekly, by the age of sixteen her journalism career was well underway when she was granted a cadetship on the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs. In Starting Out Ita describes discovering her love of journalism and publishing, how she overcame the challenge of being a woman in the workplace in the fifties and sixties, and the excitement of seeing her first byline in print. Starting Out is an engaging and insightful account of the early days of Ita Buttrose's career, depicting events that have shaped one of Australia's most prominent and distinguished women.
Download or read book Squeaker s Mate Penguin Special written by Barbara Baynton and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Squeaker, a selector, is slowly clearing his piece of the Australian bush. However, lazy and shiftless, he leaves most of the work to his uncomplaining and hardworking mate. When she is crushed under a falling yellow gum, Squeaker responds only with selfish impatience. Taught to endlessly endure by her harsh surroundings, Squeaker's mate carries the burden of her injury quietly, with only her old dog for comfort. Published as part of Barbara Baynton's iconic collection Bush Studies in 1902, Squeaker's Mate is a visceral and lyrical story about the hostility faced by European settlers in the Australian bush during settlement. From an era when literature focused almost entirely on men and male experiences, Squeaker's Mate is an important depiction of the unique trials and strengths of women.
Download or read book The Simple Life Penguin Special written by Rhonda Hetzel and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rhonda Hetzel feels passionately that living simply leads to a richer, more fulfilling existence. Having made the decision to live frugally, embrace sustainability and opt out of the capitalist consumerist mindset, she set about working out how to achieve her goal, learning traditional skills, reducing her spending and environmental impact and focusing on the simple things that make life worth living: family, friends, and a home-cooked meal. This is the story of her journey and the lessons she has learned along the way. Rhonda relates why she wanted to change her lifestyle, what simple living means to her, and offers guidance to those thinking about taking the same path.
Download or read book Writing the Australian Beach written by Elizabeth Ellison and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-02 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing the Australian Beach is the first book in fifteen years to explore creative and cultural representations of this iconic landscape, and how writers and scholars have attempted to understand and depict it. Although the content chiefly focuses on Australia, the beach as both a location and idea resonates deeply with readers around the world. This edited collection includes three sections. Forms of Beach Writing examines the history of beach writing in Australia and in a number of forms: screenwriting, social media writing, and food writing. In turn, Multiplicities of Australian Beach Writing examines how forms of writing—poetry, travel writing, horror film, and memoir—engage with some specific beaches in Australia. And, finally, Reading the Beach as a Text considers how the beach itself functions in cultural narratives: how we walk the beach; the revealing story of beach soccer; and the design and use of ocean baths. Given its scope, the collection offers a unique resource for scholars of Australian culture and creative writing, and for all those interested in Australian beaches.
Download or read book A Writing Life written by Bernadette Brennan and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘This is literary critique and biography at its finest. Australian Financial Review Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most important and most admired writers. She is revered for her fearless honesty in the pursuit of her craft. But Garner also courts controversy, not least because she refuses to be constrained by the rules of literary form. She has never been afraid to write herself into her nonfiction, and many of her own experiences help to shape her fiction. But who is the ‘I’ in Helen Garner’s work? Bernadette Brennan’s A Writing Life is the first full-length study of Garner’s forty years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life. Brennan has had access to previously unavailable papers in Garner’s archive, and she provides a lively and rigorous reading of the books, journals and correspondence of one of Australia’s most beloved women of letters. Dr Bernadette Brennan is an academic and researcher in contemporary Australian writing, literature and ethics. She is the author of a number of publications, including a monograph on Brian Castro and two edited collections: Just Words?: Australian Authors Writing for Justice (UQP 2008), and Ethical Investigations: Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics (Vagabond 2008). She lives in Sydney. Garner has always been a boundary-crosser. Refusing the constrictions of literary genre she has sought to write across and craft her own versions of them. She readily admits to a ‘me’ character in all her work. That character is a carefully constructed self. In her fiction, she unsettles her readers’ assumptions about protagonists by creating ‘Helen’ characters, most blatantly in ‘Little Helen’s Sunday Afternoon’, ‘Habe Dank’ and The Spare Room. In so doing, she demonstrates the complexity of a constructed fictional self. ‘Billed as “the first full-length study of Garner’s 40 years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life”. Well, who wouldn’t want to read that?’ Australian ‘Bernadette Brennan’s ingenious A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work, which gets around the subject’s resistance to biography by viewing her life through her writing, as Garner herself does.’ Susan Wyndham, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review ‘Brennan’s depiction of Garner’s fearless approach to the very difficult subjects of The First Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation and This House of Grief is beautifully modulated and a real triumph. She has captured and interpreted an important writer and her work beautifully.’ Books + Publishing ‘Brennan has produced a literary portrait that more than does its subject justice. It is not a biography; Garner was quite clear that she didn’t want that, but because Garner is so often present in her own writing, it’s inevitable that her life is reflected in the discussion of her works. This helps put her works in context, and a picture emerges of an amazing writer...Bernadette Brennan has done us all a great favour in delivering this immensely enjoyable book.’ Mark Rubbo, Readings ‘Brennan is an astute and sensitive reader of Garner’s work.’ Big Issue ‘The writing is clear, measured, and graceful throughout...The readings of the fiction are astute and straightforward, tracing Garner’s development from the allegedly unstructured Monkey Grip, which in fact offers a formal equivalent to the push-me pull-you vagaries of love and junk, through the perfection of The Children’s Bach and the experiments in voice and style in Postcards from Surfers, to the late-style bareness and hardness of The Spare Room.’ Sydney Morning Herald 'This book offers an illuminating discussion of Garner’s boundary crossing work. Its own magic lies in bringing elements of memoir and criticism into an absorbing conversation that begins with a rich contextualisation of Garner’s work, and extends into the literary and ethical questions with which Brennan has long been concerned.’Australian ‘Absorbing, informative and engaging read.’ Conversation ‘Brennan examines both assumptions by tracing Garner’s steps to becoming a full-time writer in a style that is both thoughtful and readable.’ Australian Book Review ‘Bernadette Brennan brings a calm eye and an easy grace to her descriptions of Garner’s life, literature and impact on Australia’s cultural and socio-political landscape...She draws a more complex picture of one of our best known and most skilled writers than we’ve enjoyed in a full-length volume before.’ A Bigger Brighter World ‘Probably my favourite book so far [this year]. A marvellous tribute to one of Australia’s great writers.’ Mark Rubbo, The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings ‘Bernadette Brennan’s first full-length study of Helen Garner’s work, A Writing Life, has inspired me to pile Garner’s books on my bedside table, and to look at each of them again with fresh eyes.’ The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings ‘A remarkably shrewd study of Garner’s work knitted with a tender representation of her personal life.’ Mascara Literary Review ‘Brennan performs a kind of call for literature, its criticism as well as creation.’ Sydney Review of Books ‘You might also include academic Bernadette Brennan’s superb literary portrait of Garner, A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work, which combines a close analysis of Garner’s work with illuminating insights into her life. Garner gave Brennan unprecedented access to her archives and spent long hours in conversation with her. It shows.’ Sydney Morning Herald, Can’t-Put-Down Titles for Summer ‘A book for those who want to understand Garner’s work more. But, it is also a book which makes clear the significant contribution Garner has made to Australian literature. And, in doing that, it is itself a significant book.’ Whispering Gums
Download or read book Adam s Bride Penguin Special written by Elizabeth Jolley and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-09-14 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a small Australian country town, a young woman is accused of the murders of her own daughter and the local rat catcher's wife. As she stands to face the charges in court, a stranger enters, determined to explain her crimes. This masterly story from Woman in a Lampshade perfectly displays Elizabeth Jolley's remarkable talent for character and story.
Download or read book One Person One Value Penguin Special written by Bob Brown and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The former leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown has long been one of Australia's most influential and admired environmental thinkers. Here he outlines the importance of a global, humane approach to the issue of overpopulation. At once compassionate, intelligent and straightforward, this is a valuable and significant extract from Brown's memoir, Memo for a Saner World.
Download or read book The Darkling Sisters Penguin Special written by Dorothy Hewett and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A big old Victorian terrace in Jersey Road, Woollahra, is thought to be haunted by the two Darkling sisters from the 1920s. When a young family moves in, dark images of these sisters, and of relationships closer to home, hang over them. Beautifully crafted and keenly observed, this story from Dorothy Hewett's acclaimed collection A Baker's Dozen is a stunning evocation of family, memories and neighbourhood.
Download or read book Life in Ten Houses Penguin Special written by Sonya Hartnett and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed author Sonya Hartnett is firmly Melburnian but has restlessly moved from suburb to suburb in her search for the 'Last House' – that special corner of the world in which to settle and find contentment. Viewing her life and work through the lens of real estate, she vividly recalls the places she has passed through on her way to finding home. Expanding on her 2010 Redmond Barry lecture, this short memoir is a beautifully atmospheric exploration of the idea of home and what it means to be a writer in a City of Literature.
Download or read book Upside Down Zen written by Susan Murphy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-11-13 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Upside-Down Zen" invites readers to explore the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism in fresh ways. Recalling, in another vein, the warm, lyrical style of Lin Jensen's "Bad Dog!, " author Susan Murphy offers a multifaceted take on the spiritual, grounded in the everyday. She uses her skills as storyteller, filmmaker, and poet to uncover the connections between Zen and Western cinema, as well as between Zen and traditions as diverse as Australian aboriginal beliefs and Jewish folktales. In the process, she finds spirituality where it has always belonged -- wherever life is happening. Murphy helps readers make sense of Zen koans, the often oversimplified and misunderstood teaching stories of the tradition, and highlights their wisdom for any reader on the spiritual path. A strong new voice in Western Buddhism, Murphy speaks for the many "unrecorded" women of Zen while bringing a lively, literate approach to a sometimes daunting genre.
Download or read book By the Book written by Patrick Buckridge and published by Univ. of Queensland Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "By the Book is an indispensable history of the literature of Queensland from its establishment as a separate colony in the mid-nineteenth century through major economic, political and cultural transformations to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Queensland figures in the Australian imagination as a frontier, a place of wild landscapes and wilder politics, but also as Australia's playground, a soft tourist paradise of warm weather and golden beaches. Based partly on real historical divergences from the rest of Australia, these contradictory images have been questioned and scrutini.
Download or read book Is There No Place for Me Making Sense of Madness Penguin Special written by Kate Richards and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost half the Australian population will experience some form of mental illness in their lifetime yet it is still difficult to find the right treatment and stay well. Kate Richards is well positioned to ask the hard questions about our mental health system. She experienced episodes of depression and psychosis well into her adult life and is a trained doctor. Kate argues for empowering patients and their families to be active members of treatment teams. She challenges the common belief that patients are responsible – even somehow to blame – for the existence of their illnesses and makes a plea for mental health professionals to reach out across the patient–therapist divide and find a human connection. When mental health patients are heard, respected and understood, sustained healing can begin. Kate's experiences are detailed in the critically acclaimed Madness: A Memoir, winner of the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 2014 nonfiction prize. She is now a full-time writer, working part-time in medical research, and has learnt how to live a happy and productive life with a chronic mental illness. 'With swift, bold brushstrokes she plunges us into [these] fractured worlds . . . These powerful vignettes show those suffering mental illness as ordinary people rather than as statistics or ''patients''.' The Saturday Age
