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Biography

Large 9781760879969

The Beauty of Living Twice by Sharon Stone

$29.99 AUD

Available Stock:
12

Category: Biography

In The Beauty of Living Twice, Sharon Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life, and the slow road back to wholeness and health. In an industry that doesn't accept failure, in a world where too many voices are silenced, Stone found the power to return, the courage to speak up, and the will to mak e a difference in the lives of women and children around the globe. Over the course of these intimate pages, as candid as a personal conversation, Stone talks about her pivotal roles, her life-changing friendships, her worst disappointments and her greatest accomplishments. She reveals how she went from a childhood of trauma and violence to a business that in many ways echoed those same assaults, under cover of money and glamour. She describes the strength and meaning she found in her children and in her humanitarian efforts. And ultimately, she shares how she fought her way back to find not only her truth, but her family's reconciliation and love. ...Show more

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Large 9781742706153

Good Muslim Boy by Osamah Sami

$32.99 AUD

Available Stock:
10

Category: Biography

Good Muslim Boy is Osamah Sami’s true depiction of his life as a young Muslim man. From his early life with his family in Iran during the Iran/Iraq war, to their migration to Australia, his tale is in turns comic and tragic, and explores the universal truths of growing up, falling in love and marriage, family and following one's dream. Osamah begins by recounting his youth under Islamic rule in Iran: the mischievous antics that he and his friends would get up to, and the lengths they would go to for a little contact with girls, including the subsequent (and hilarious) reprimands they'd receive from the ‘Piety Police’. Osamah also addresses the inescapable impacts of war: describing the trauma his family suffered from the violence in Iran — the death of his younger brother, his uncle’s suicide, and his mother’s displacement. The crux of the story takes place in Australia where Osamah pretends to attend university after lying to his family about his final high school results, afraid of the shame it will it cause to learn that their son didn’t make it into medical school. It is there that he falls in love with Dianne, who, unlike Osamah, is actually enrolled in the course. What ensues must be read to be believed, an arranged marriage is escaped; true love is embraced; and an acting career evolves, as Osamah goes on the road staging a show entitled ‘Saddam The Musical’. With a distinct authorial voice, Osamah Sami’s Good Muslim Boy unfolds and enchants us; both funny and entertaining, we are enlightened, shocked, saddened, made to laugh, and ultimately uplifted in a tale that couldn’t come at a more prescient time. ...Show more

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Large 9781922330208

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

$34.99 AUD

Available Stock:
9

Category: Biography

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

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Large 9781760859206

Turns Out, I'm Fine by JUDITH LUCY

$32.99 AUD

Available Stock:
9

Category: Biography

When the relationship Judith Lucy thought was The One broke down, her world fell apart. Not only was she single again and about to turn fifty but now that she didn't have a partner to buy gourmet sausages with at Farmers' Markets, she realised how much her relationship had enabled her to avoid dealing w ith: everything from her brother's death to her doubts about doing comedy in an increasingly serious world situation. Why was she so floored? Did all these problems have something in common? Judith went back to the start to try and work that out. In her most candid and insightful book yet, Judith looks at her family and relationships to understand how despite being a feminist, her hopes and expectations have been shaped by men – whether it was thinking that she needed Mr Right to 'complete her' or struggling for male approval in most aspects of her life, including her work. Having diagnosed the disease, Judith sets about healing. She explores other ways to get outside herself and make the most of the time she has left – community, volunteering, climate action and the natural world. And although things will doubtless keep going wrong (like covid!), it turns out she's fine. ...Show more

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Large 9780733340819

Lapsed by Monica Dux

$34.99 AUD

Available Stock:
8

Category: Biography

Losing your religion is harder than it looks ... From devout ten-year-old performing the part of Jesus in a primary school play to blaspheming, undergraduate atheist, Monica Dux and her attitude to the Catholic Church changed profoundly over a decade. Another ten years and she'd calmed right down. Now she was just 'lapsed'. Then, on a family trip to Rome, her young daughter suddenly expressed a desire to be baptised. Monica found herself re-examining her own childhood and how Catholicism had shaped her. Was Catholicism really out of her system or was it in her blood for life? In Lapsed, Monica sets out to find the answer. Her investigations lead her to test a miracle cure in Lourdes and to steal from a church. She visits the grave of a headless Saint who claimed to be married to Christ (and wore a wedding ring made of his foreskin to prove it), and speaks to cannon lawyers, abuse survivors and even a nun who insists that the Virgin Mary starts her car every morning. She ponders the big questions, such as would Jesus really make a great dinner party guest or would he end up calling Einstein a blasphemer? And, far more seriously, given what she now knows about clerical abuse and its extent, is it enough to turn her back on the Church, or did she have a deeper, more enduring obligation? With the wry humour of David Sedaris and the razor-sharp observations of Nora Ephron, Lapsed is the story of one woman's attempt to exorcise her religious upbringing, and to answer the question, is Catholicism like a blood group and, if so, is it possible to get a total transfusion? 'It made me laugh, cry and swear.' Jane Caro   ...Show more

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Large 9781529359107

Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner

$22.99 AUD

Available Stock:
7

Category: Biography

**International Bestseller** **The Times (UK) Memoir of the Year** **One of Newsweek's Most Anticipated Books of 2020** An extraordinary memoir of drama, tragedy, and royal secrets by Anne Glenconner--a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. As seen on Netflix's Th e Crown. Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact. A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne's life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her "mad blood"; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities. With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance. ...Show more

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Large 9781925713398

Monsters by Alison Croggon

$29.99 AUD

Available Stock:
6

Category: Biography

From award-winning writer and critic Alison Croggon, Monsters is a hybrid of memoir and essay that takes as its point of departure the painful breakdown of a relationship between two sisters. It explores how our attitudes are shaped by the persisting myths that underpin colonialism and patriarchy, how t he structures we are raised within splinter and distort the possibilities of our lives and the lives of others. Monsters asks how we maintain the fictions that we create about ourselves, what we will sacrifice to maintain these fictions - and what we have to gain by confronting them.   ...Show more

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Large temp img

Wild at Heart by Alienor le Gouvello

$35.00 AUD

Available Stock:
6

Category: Biography

From the moment French-born Alienor encountered a pair of wild horses in the Australian outback, she was transfixed. Fiercely loved by some and considered a scourge by others, brumbies have a complicated place in Australian culture and history. Inspired to celebrate their character, Alienor tamed thre e brumbies and teamed up with them to conquer Australia's longest trek. Wild At Heart follows Alienor and her horses on a three-year journey stretching an extraordinary 5330 kilometres from Healesville in Victoria to Cooktown in tropical Far North Queensland. Through her travels across some of Australia's most spectacular terrain, battling isolation and the elements, she built a profound bond with her horses and made life-changing discoveries where she least expected. Featuring stunning photography from world-renowned adventure photographer Cat Vinton, Wild at Heart is a quintessentially Australian story of breathtaking beauty and indomitable spirit.   ...Show more

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Large 9781760525767

Tea & Honesty: Heartfelt Conversations. Lessons Learned. Stories Shared. by Jules Sebastian

$32.99 AUD

Available Stock:
6

Category: Biography

Warm, heartfelt conversations with inspirational figures about the feelings and experiences common to us all, and a personal insight into one of Australia's most beloved celebrity couples, Guy Sebastian and Jules Sebastian. 'Jules is one of those people you meet & instantly love. She speaks from th e heart with such warmth & truth. A brilliant book!' - Sally Obermeder 'Jules writes with vulnerability and such a lovely honesty. Many people will cherish this book.' - Elyse Knowles, Model & Author, From Me To You On her much-loved Tea With Jules programme on Youtube, presenter, stylist and philanthropist Jules Sebastian captures beautiful conversations, many of them with Australian icons, women and men from all walks of life about their pivotal experiences. These stories range the full spectrum - covering motherhood, relationships, career, lifestyle, health and more - and are at times both raw, moving and poignant. These conversations have shaped Jules' own life, helping her navigate her role as a career woman, mother, daughter and wife of one of Australia's most popular musicians, Guy Sebastian. Like a good catch-up with your girlfriends, Tea & Honesty relays many of these conversations as well as sharing some of the most personal and vulnerable moments of Jules' own journey that she has kept close to her heart - until now. Inspired by these conversations, her book covers the knotty emotions of guilt, comparison and identity to passion, purpose, community, kindness and more. Offering snippets of heartfelt life advice from well-known contributors such as Kate Ritchie, Emma Isaacs, Camilla Franks, Rachel Finch and Neale Whitaker, with beautiful quotes and break out inspiration, this is the perfect treat to curl up on the sofa with, cup of tea in hand, or to give your favourite friend or family member to let them know that they are not alone.   ...Show more

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Large 9781460759110

My Year of Living Vulnerably by Rick Morton

$34.99 AUD

Available Stock:
6

Category: Biography

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

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Large 9781460759288

You've Got to Be Kidding: A Shed Load of Wine and a Farm Full of Goats by Todd Alexander

$34.99 AUD

Available Stock:
6

Category: Biography

The steep-climb highs and free-fall lows of my rollercoaster rural life They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a new skill. Well, seven years (60,000 hours) since former city boys Todd and Jeff moved to the country they should have nailed this whole farming gig, right? Yes, they make lovely wine and have built beautiful accommodation, and they've even learnt how to look after their rescued farm animals. But they didn't really count on Mother Nature getting involved. Drought, bushfires, sick animals, failed crops, heatwaves, enormous changes in the two industries they rely on to make a living, snakes, the unstoppable breeding of peafowl, insurmountable debts and broken machinery ... Just when they think they're on top of things, the land throws another few hurdles their way. But with fierce determination to succeed, willingness to evolve and their ever-present senses of humour, these boys might be down for the count but they aren't quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. PRAISE FOR Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig Called Helga 'Never before have I felt the responsibility for someone's tree change ... Todd and Jeff's ups and downs made me laugh out loud, and "verjuice schmerjuice" says it all' Maggie Beer 'This joyously honest account will make you laugh till it hurts, and you'll shed more than a few tears . . . it's The Birdcage meets A Country Practice' Bradley Trevor Greive AM, internationally bestselling author of The Blue Day Book and Penguin Bloom 'Every man, woman and child on earth has toyed with this fantasy. Todd and Jeff are living the dream. And have not murdered each other . . . yet' Stephan Elliott, writer and director of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 'This book has it all - humour, heart, wine and crazy animals . . . A rollicking read for anyone looking to shake things up a little in their lives' Rachael Johns, internationally bestselling author 'If you're looking for a book that will make you chuckle, while challenging you and making you think differently about your life and your goals, then look no further - this is the book for you' Better Reading LONGLISTINGS 2020 Indie Non-fiction Book Award 2020 Booksellers' Choice Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year ...Show more

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Large 9781742236599

Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates by Eleanor Hogan

$34.99 AUD

Available Stock:
5

Category: Biography

An original and riveting biography of two of the most singular women Australia has ever seen.Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill were bestselling writers who told of life in the vast Australian interior. Daisy Bates, dressed in Victorian garb, malnourished and half-blind, camped with Aboriginal people in Wes tern Australia and on the Nullarbor for decades, surrounded by her books, notes and artefacts. A self-taught ethnologist, desperate to be accepted by established male anthropologists, she sought to document the language and customs of the people who visited her camps. In 1935, Ernestine Hill, journalist and author of The Great Australian Loneliness, coaxed Bates to Adelaide to collaborate on a newspaper series. Their collaboration resulted in the 1938 international bestseller, The Passing of the Aborigines. This book informed popular opinion about Aboriginal people for decades, though Bates's failure to acknowledge Hill as her co-author strained their friendship.Traversing great distances in a campervan, Eleanor Hogan reflects on the lives and work of these indefatigable women. From a contemporary perspective, their work seems quaint and sentimental, their outlook and preoccupations dated, paternalistic and even racist. Yet Bates and Hill took a genuine interest in Aboriginal people and their cultures long before they were considered worthy of the Australian mainstream's attention. With sensitivity and insight, Hogan wonders what their legacies as fearless female outliers might be.'I responded to this book with every cell in my body, neuron in my brain and beat of my heart. A stunning achievement of epic storytelling, historical enquiry and elegant analysis. Eleanor Hogan has resurrected Hill and Bates as Australian icons, women as complex, compelling and deeply flawed as the nation itself.' — Clare Wright 'A meticulous unveiling of the enigmatic Daisy Bates and her writing companion Ernestine Hill. Tracking her subjects across the Nullabor, Hogan strips away layer after layer of dissimulation as she unpicks their writing partnership.' — Bill Garner'Into the Loneliness is a fascinating biographical study of two significant and intriguing women who were in many ways ahead of their time, yet reflective of it in their artistic endeavours. Using a sophisticated structure and interconnected narratives, this impressive biography reconceptualises the shifting, complex, relationships between Daisy Bates, Ernestine Hill and Indigenous Australians.' — Jenny Hocking'Into the Loneliness presents a relationship between two remarkable but flawed women, one with profound, ongoing consequences for Indigenous people. It's a book about sexism, about writing, and the nature of friendship. It's a study of white Australian attitudes that persist to this day. And it's an astonishing true story that leaps off the page.' — Jeff Sparrow ...Show more

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