Download or read book Found Wanting written by Natasha Sholl and published by . This book was released on 2023-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Valentine's Day, after a night of red wine and pasta and planning for their future, Natasha Sholl and her partner Rob went to bed. A few hours later, at the age of 27, his heart stopped. Found, Wanting tells the story of Natasha's attempt to rebuild her life in the wake of Rob's sudden death, stumbling through the grief landscape and colliding with the cultural assumptions about the 'right way' to grieve. It is a memoir about falling in love in the aftermath of loss, and what it means to build a life in the space that death leaves. Furious and passionate, bracingly honest and beautiful, Found, Wanting is above all, a memoir about living and making sense of the multitude of lives within us. PRAISE FOR FOUND, WANTING 'what she shares with the reader is profound, necessary and also, at times, funny and quite beautiful.' - Jason Steger, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald 'Forthright, compelling and at times darkly funny, it's a thoughtful and beautifully written reflection on the ways Sholl came undone' - The West Australian 'Sholl has given us a beautifully written memoir that powerfully delivers the wisdom each of us will need at some point about how a human life is spacious enough to accommodate both grief and joy.' - Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner 'Sholl is a stunning writer and observer of the human condition. Gripping, candid and tender, Found, Wanting is for anyone who knows the loneliness of loss.' - Jessie Stephens, author of Heartsick 'that's what makes this book such an unexpected pleasure to read. Natasha's attitude, her unique turns of phrase, and her deep honesty shine through, making a story that could be heavy with sadness, actually hope-filled and oftentimes funny.' - The Australian 'Sholl writes with dignity and thoughtfulness.' - The Sydney Morning Herald 'Sholl's forthright nature and hard-won wisdom is at the heart of why I was riveted by Found, Wanting. Her honesty is fearless and relatable, and there is something so heartachingly vulnerable about the unspeakable thoughts and undignified moments that she relates here' - Jackie Tang, Readings Monthly 'Found, Wanting's relentless and heartbreaking depiction of loss could've been unbearable were it not for the moving beauty of the writing.' - Allee Richards, Kill Your Darlings

Download or read book Adrift in Melbourne written by Robyn Annear and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a walk through Melbourne’s streets and discover a world of fascinating historical tidbits with renowned writer and history buff Robyn Annear.

Download or read book Son of Sin written by Omar Sakr and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poet Omar Sakr's debut novel is a fierce and fantastic force that illuminates the bonds that bind families together as well as what can break them. An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark. When every thread in life constricts instead of connects, how do you find a way to breathe? Torn between faith and fear, gossip and gospel, family and friendship, Jamal must find and test the limits of love. In this extraordinary work, Omar Sakr deftly weaves a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet's eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human.

Download or read book Australia Day written by Melanie Cheng and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, Prize for Fiction, The 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards ‘Melanie Cheng is an astonishingly deft and incisive writer. With economy and elegance, she creates a dazzling mosaic of contemporary life, of how we live now. Hers is a compelling new voice in Australian literature.’ Christos Tsiolkas Australia Day is a collection of stories by debut author Melanie Cheng. The people she writes abut are young, old, rich, poor, married, widowed, Chinese, Lebanese, Christian, Muslim. What they have in common—no matter where they come from—is the desire we all share to feel that we belong. The stories explore universal themes of love, loss, family and identity, while at the same time asking crucial questions about the possibility of human connection in a globalised world. Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger is her first novel. ‘A stunning debut that takes its place among Australian short story greats.’ AU Review ‘The book bears witness to the author’s empathetic eye, multicultural characterisation and easy facility with dialogue...This short story collection explores what it means to belong, to be Australian; its insight from different vantage points and its photo-realistic narrative make it an exciting and impressive debut.’ Judges’ Report, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, 2018 ‘All of her characters—a diverse cast of difference races and faiths—are searching for connection or a sense of belonging, and coming up short. Despite its title the focus of this collection is not explicitly on that increasingly controversial public holiday. Rather, it is on the struggles, internal and external, that occur when people from different backgrounds meet by chance or are brought together...Australia Day is a bittersweet, beautifully crafted collection that will be much admired by fans of Cate Kennedy and Tony Birch.’ Books+Publishing ‘Melanie Cheng’s voice is strong, compassionate and embracing in these 14 stories that reflect the diversity of Australians and the starkness of human frailty. The recurring theme in all these stories is the ability to re-form lives that, at first, might seem to be shattered beyond repair.’ Good Reading, FOUR STARS ‘The different cultures, the intriguing characters all left me wanting more. I’d love to see some longer fiction from Melanie Cheng in the future but I’ll happily accept anything and everything she writes. A fantastic talent who has nailed the art of the short story.’ Sam Still Reading ‘What a wonderful book, a book with bite. These stories have a real edge to them. They are complex without being contrived, humanising, but never sentimental or cloying—and, ultimately, very moving.’ Alice Pung ‘In each story, Melanie Cheng creates an entire microcosm, peeling back the superficial to expose the raw nerves of contemporary Australian society. Her eye is sharp and sympathetic, her characters flawed and funny and utterly believable.’ Jennifer Down ‘Melanie Cheng’s stories are a deep dive into the diversity of humanity. They lead you into lives, into hearts, into unexplored places, and bring you back transformed.’ Michelle Wright ‘The characters stay in the mind, their lives and experiences mirroring many of our own, challenging us to think how we might respond in their place. An insightful, sometimes uncomfortable portrayal of multicultural Australia from an observant and talented writer.’ Ranjana Srivastava ‘A bittersweet, beautifully crafted collection.’ Books+Publishing ‘Australia Day is an absorbing panorama of contemporary Australia...These are 14 powerfully perceptive stories, written with love, humour, realism, and a distinct edginess. While the terrain covered might be familiar, Cheng’s take on our treasured multiculturalism feels fresh... It’s necessary reading, not only because it’s a microcosm of who we are, but because each story is a gem, and a joy to behold.’ Simon McDonald ‘If only the PM might pick up a copy, even by mistake.’ Saturday Paper ‘A wonderful feat of storytelling...Melanie Cheng is an exciting new writer.’ Readings ‘A sumptuous collection of fourteen short stories, which are disparate but with modern Australia or Australians at their heart, exploring issues of racism, infidelity, grief, parenthood, children and ageing...they are heartfelt and Melbourne-based Cheng paints the characters beautifully.’ Herald Sun ‘A panorama of contemporary multicultural Australia that explores each and everyone’s desire to belong.’ Book Bonding ‘A diverse, captivating collection of short stories.’ Better Read Than Dead ‘The happy surprise of Cheng’s work as a collection lies in her resolute grasp of the absolute normalcy of a culture that not so many years ago was divided and dually suspicious. The census gives us the facts but it takes fiction to make reality three-dimensional.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘The author’s empathetic eye and easy facility with dialogue make the anthology a strong debut, with the longer stories in particular offering breadth and depth...It feels like Cheng has taken a wide sample from the census to craft this inclusive portrait of contemporary Australia.’ Big Issue‘Cheng’s work is polished and affecting. Australia Day is that thing we all chase: a complex, engaging and timely read.’ Lifted Brow ‘Cheng paints a holistic snapshot of Australian life, with the result being a collection of stories that are simultaneously cynical and hopeful...The ambiguity inherent in labelling something “Australian" is also manifest in Cheng’s characters, prompting the reader to interrogate their own definition of what it means to be Australian.’ Kill Your Darlings ‘Melanie Cheng writes prose that gets straight to the heart of the matter and tells it how it is...The more I sit here and reflect on each story in this collection, the stronger and more powerful they become.’ Sam Still Reading ‘Wonderful.’ Christos Tsiolkas, Sydney Morning Herald’s Year in Reading ‘Melanie Cheng’s Australia Day brought this prodigal reader of short fiction back into the fold. And what better return than through Cheng’s creation of illuminated characters of colour—young, old, rich, poor, married, widowed, Muslim, Chinese...Cheng’s Australia Day explores the density and difficulty inherent in being culturally and physically different and serves to remind me that when our six families of adopted children from China gather in Queenscliffe on Australia Day each year, raising two flags on the pole instead of one that we, like all of Cheng’s characters, are restoring belonging from our individual and collective loss.’ Wheeler Centre, 2017 Favourites ‘This smart, engaging short story collection offers fresh perspectives on what it means to be Australian today. The stories also explore identity and belonging in a variety of other ways, delving into family, love, class and education. Big themes aside, every story is beautifully written and a total pleasure to read.’ Emily Maguire, Australian Women’s Weekly ‘The stories are unpretentious, diverse, and a lot of the time, disconcertingly real. Cheng’s characters are just as well realised; they live on in your head long after you’ve put her book down.’ Lifted Brow, Favourite Books of 2017 ‘Offering a fresh viewpoint on modern Australia, debut author Cheng is a significant new voice on the literary scene.’ PS News '[Cheng’s] individual characters suggest the ways in which we might move forward...Australia Day imagines a tomorrow where we can love our communities, our celebrations and our food, without leaving behind critical good taste.’ Sydney Review of Books

Download or read book The Cane written by Maryrose Cuskelly and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nail-biting, atmospheric, and unputdownable, the brilliant new thriller for fans of Wimmera and The Dry. ONE MISSING GIRL. NO SUSPECTS. A TOWN ABOUT TO IGNITE. Quala, a North Queensland sugar town, the 1970s. Barbara McClymont walks the cane fields searching for Janet, her sixteen-year-old daughter, who has been missing for weeks. The police have no leads. The people of Quala are divided by dread and distrust. But the sugar crush is underway and the cane must be burned. Meanwhile, children dream of a malevolent presence, a schoolteacher yearns to escape, and history keeps returning to remind Quala that the past is always present. As the smoke rises and tensions come to a head, the dark heart of Quala will be revealed, affecting the lives of all those who dwell beyond the cane. The Cane is an evocative and atmospheric thriller, and announces an exciting new voice in Australian crime writing. 'A fine, brave, perceptive writer.' - Mark Dapin, journalist and author of Public Enemies 'A stunning piece of Australian rural noir.' - Mark Brandi, bestselling author of Wimmera and The Rip

Download or read book On a Wing and a Prayer written by Di Websdale-Morrissey and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrilling tale of an aviation escapade dreamed up by Melbourne’s Lord Mayor in the 1930s: a London to Melbourne air race that captured the world’s attention and told a remarkable Australian story.

Download or read book The Sidekicks written by Will Kostakis and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ryan, Harley and Miles are very different people—the swimmer, the rebel and the nerd. All they’ve ever had in common is Isaac, their shared best friend. When Isaac dies unexpectedly, the three boys must come to terms with their grief and the impact Isaac had on each of their lives. In his absence, Ryan, Harley and Miles discover things about one another they never saw before, and realize there may be more tying them together than just Isaac. In this intricately woven story told in three parts, award-winning Australian author Will Kostakis makes his American debut with a heartwarming, masterfully written novel about grief, self-discovery and the connections that tie us all together.

Download or read book I Ask You to Pray for Me Opening a Horizon of Hope written by Pope Francis and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inspirational little book that is a collection of homilies, addresses, and audiences given by Pope Francis in the days following his election on March 13 up until Easter Monday, April 1, 2013.

Download or read book Found in Melbourne written by Joanne O'Callaghan and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2018-03-28 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is so much to do in marvellous Melbourne - places to see and new friends to meet. Found in Melbourne is a counting book, a story of friendship, and so much more. Whether you live in Melbourne, are planning your first visit, or are just curious - what will you find in this vibrant city?

Download or read book The Boat written by Nam Le and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1979, Nam Le's family left Vietnam for Australia, an experience that inspires the first and last stories in The Boat. In between, however, Le's imagination lays claim to the world. The Boat takes us from a tourist in Tehran to a teenage hit man in Colombia; from an ageing New York artist to a boy coming of age in a small Victorian fishing tow...

Download or read book Say Hello written by Carly Findlay and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A forthright, honest and rousingly triumphant memoir from a woman who has to live with a highly visible different appearancedue to a rare skin condition. Say hello to Carly. 'In fairytales,the characters who look different are often castas the villain or monsters. It's only when they shed their unconventional skinthat they are seen as "good" or less frightening. There are very fewstories where the character that looks different is the hero of the story ... I've been the hero of mystory - telling it on my own terms, proud about my facial difference anddisability, not wanting a cure for my rare, severe and sometimes confrontingskin condition, and knowing that I am beautiful even though I don't have beautyprivilege.' This honest, outspoken and thought-provoking memoir by award-winning writer and appearance activist Carly Findlay will challenge all your assumptions and beliefs about what it is like to have a visibly different appearance. Carly lives with a rare skin condition, Ichthyosis, and what she faces every day, and what she has to live with, will have you cheering for her and her courage and irrepressible spirit. This is both a moving memoir and a proud manifesto on disability and appearance diversity issues. 'Believe the hype - by turns frank, funny, and fearsome, Findlay's extraordinary memoir is an early contender for 2019's best Australian non-fiction ... a powerful and moving invitation to examine the structures of privilege and dehumanisation that we so desperately need address in this country.' Better Read Than Dead 'A proud celebration of appearance difference ... a valuable read.' Herald Sun 'Defiant, unsettling and thought-provoking' The Age

Download or read book Melbourne Circle written by Nick Gadd and published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-23 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over two years, writer Nick Gadd and his wife Lynne circled the city of Melbourne on foot, starting at Williamstown and ending in Port Melbourne. Along the way they uncovered lost buildings, secret places and mysterious signs that told of forgotten stories and curious characters from the past. Soon after they completed the circle, Lynne passed away from cancer. Melbourne Circle is the story of their journey, a memoir, and a stunning meditation on personal loss. ‘What a gem this book is! Oddity, wonderment, weirdness: these splendid essays reveal a marvellous Melbourne most of us have never encountered before. This is a psychogeography dense with vernacular history, humane detail, and from beneath the shadow of grief, love.’ –­ Gail Jones, author of Five Bells and The Death of Noah Glass ‘‘‘Psychojogging”’ and the pleasures of walking.’ – interview with Hilary Harper on Radio National, Life Matters ‘Marvellous Melbourne: the books that capture our city and its life.’ – The Age/Sydney Morning Herald ‘Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss is a very special book. Just read it, and then take to the streets and walk with the same spirit of enquiry.’ – Sophie Cunningham, The Age ‘A beautiful meditation on the streets in which we live, ghosts, love and loss … While there is sadness in this book, Gadd writes with warmth, humour and a generosity of spirit.’ – Stephen Romei, The Weekend Australian ‘An endearing book about enduring love and serendipitous discoveries; of remnants of the past pasted onto old buildings, and the way these ghost signs are portals into another time.’ – The Saturday Paper

Download or read book Solitary Walk on the Moon written by Hilde Hinton and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Evelyn went to the third drawer down in her dresser. It was her drawer of things past ... she had an item from each of her previous lives. Evelyn was good at reinventing herself, becoming who she was going to be next, but she still kept one thing from each life. Never two.'For Evelyn, mornings pass as mornings always do. She ticks off the jobs at the laundromat and gives welcoming smiles to those who come in. If they've earned one.Evelyn knows what is going on in her community because she pays attention. She sees the weariness of the frazzled shop owners, the woman with the nasty boyfriend, the nice man with the curly-topped dog, the car parking war and the forgetful man. The community might not notice Evelyn, because it is easy to overlook the seemingly ordinary. But Evelyn is far from ordinary. She isn't afraid to put things right, and is always ready to find lost property or lost people - even if that means breaking the rules.For a boy with a struggling mum, and a lonely man with a smile in his eyes, Evelyn is going to make a difference, whether they like it or not. She will teach them that you don't have to be blood to be family. And they will remind her of what comes from loving someone. It is up to Evelyn if she can pay the price.With a joyous and unique touch, Hilde Hinton's extraordinary novel A SOLITARY WALK ON THE MOON gives us an insight into the people we pass on the street. In detailing their rich lives, she breaks then mends our hearts with her wisdom, her insight and her unforgettable characters who remind us what can happen if we stop and say hello. Praise for Hilde Hinton'Hinton has an ear for dialogue and an eye for detail, but her work's greatest asset is its heart. Her moving, well-realised debut [The Loudness of Unsaid Things] introduces a promising Australian writer. - Australian Book Review

Download or read book How We Love written by Clementine Ford and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply personal exploration of love in all its forms from a feminist icon and bestselling author of Fight Like a Girl and Boys Will Be Boys. There is love in this place, just like there is love everywhere we care to look for it. There is beauty and there is hope and there is a boy and there is a mother and there is the past and there is the future but most importantly there is the now, and everything that exists between them that has got them from one moment to the next. The now is where we find the golden glow where, for the briefest of moments, the sky rips open and we see what it is we are made of. Tell me a story, he asked me. And so I began. Clementine Ford is a person who has loved deeply, strangely and with curiosity. She is fascinated by love and how it makes its home in our hearts and believes that the way we continue to surrender ourselves to love is an act of great faith and bravery. This tender and lyrical memoir explores love in its many forms, through Clementine's own experiences. With clear eyes and an open heart, she writes about losing her adored mother far too young, about the pain and confusion of first love - both platonic and romantic - and the joy and heartache of adult love. She writes movingly about the transcendent and transformative journey to motherhood and the similarly monumental path to self-love. 'We love as children, as friends, as parents and, yes, sometimes as sexual beings, and none of it is more important than the other because all of it shows us who we are.' How We Love is heartfelt, funny, confessional, revelatory, compassionate - and essential reading. It shows us to ourselves in moments of unwavering truth and undeniable joy. 'Sensitive, soulful and utterly captivating.' -Jamila Rizvi, author and editor of The Motherhood 'Such gorgeous and powerful storytelling your heart will feel tender, shattered, and whole-all at once.' -Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald, Shameless podcast 'Clementine Ford is a phenomenon, unmatched in her fearlessness. Every time I read her work, it feels like I'm putting on armour.' -Benjamin Law, author of The Family Law 'Ford reminds us that, even when they hurt, our feelings are the very meat of life.' -Yves Rees, author of All About Yves: Notes from a Transition 'Everything in How We Love pierced me as I read - the humour, the honesty, the blistering detail. I laughed, and my heart ached.' -Alice Robinson, author of The Glad Shout

Download or read book Cooper Not Out written by Justin Smith and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I’m calling it...this is THE book of summer.' GOOD READS In the Australian summer of 1984, in the small country town of Penguin Hill, Sergeant Roy Cooper is making a name for himself. He’s been batting for his local cricket club for decades — and he’s a statistical miracle. He’s overweight, he makes very few runs, he’s not pretty to watch, but he’s never been dismissed. When local schoolgirl Cassie Midwinter discovers this feat, she decides to take the matter further. The remarkable story finds its way into the hands of Donna Garrett, a female sports columnist who’s forced to write under a male pseudonym to be taken seriously. That summer, the West Indies are thrashing Australia, and the Australian people’s love of cricket has never been lower. But Donna’s columns on Roy Cooper capture the imagination of a nation, and soon there’s pressure to select him for the national team. This would see him playing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, carrying the spirit of every small country town in Australia along with him. Could such a miracle actually happen? This is sport, after all, and who doesn’t love a good story? COOPER NOT OUT is a funny, heart-warming novel set within real events. It is a moving and highly original tale about friendship and belief, and the joy of discovering your greatest potential. 'Cooper Not Out is the story Australia needs right now. This beautifully written book highlights life's simple pleasures, like a game of country cricket, but its emotional complexity is what makes it really sing. Justin Smith deftly handles issues of class, pride, gender, machismo, and social norms around sexuality. Frankly, it's a ripping read that will make your heart swell. Roy Cooper is a hero for our times.' Tracey Spicer 'An uplifting, inspiring, fun story, to make our hearts sing.' Canberra Times ‘I am gobsmacked. I love cricket. I love stories. I love books so I have just won the trifecta! Think The Castle, think Phar Lap, think Rocky all rolled into one. I laughed, I cried, I couldn’t put it down. This beautifully written tale has everything – it’s funny, heartwarming, nostalgic and most importantly manages to brilliantly create an atmosphere of anticipation that keeps you coming back for more. I’d give it 6 stars if I could!’ Better Reading

Download or read book A Country Too Far written by Rosie Scott and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I don't think I've seen a more impressive collection of Australian writers in a single book.' Stephen Romei, The Australian One of the central moral issues of our time is the question of asylum seekers, arguably the most controversial subject in Australia today. In this landmark anthology, twenty-seven of Australia's finest writers have focused their intelligence and creativity on the theme of the dispossessed, bringing a whole new perspective of depth and truthfulness to what has become a fraught, distorted war of words. This anthology confirms that the experience of seeking asylum – the journeys of escape from death, starvation, poverty or terror to an imagined paradise – is part of the Australian mindset and deeply embedded in our culture and personal histories. A Country Too Far is a tour de force of stunning fiction, memoir, poetry and essays. Edited by award-winning writers Rosie Scott and Tom Keneally, and featuring contributors including Anna Funder, Christos Tsiolkas, Elliot Perlman, Gail Jones, Raimond Gaita, Les Murray, Rodney Hall and Geraldine Brooks, this rich anthology is by turns thoughtful, fierce, evocative, lyrical and moving, and always extraordinarily powerful. A Country Too Far makes an indispensable contribution to the national debate.

Download or read book An Awesome Book of Love written by Dallas Clayton and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2012-12-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This heartwarming follow-up to An Awesome Book! explores the many faces of love, from self-published sensation Dallas Clayton Take a walk on the loving side as each page of An Awesome Book of Love perfectly details just how your heart feels in loving moments. There are so many different kinds of love—the way you love your husband or wife, the way you love your child, the way you love your parents—and Dallas Clayton knows just how to describe them all. Filled with colorful and vivacious illustrations, this hardcover is a perfect gift for Valentine's Day—or really for any day you'd like to tell someone special how much you care.