Greenlights (PB) by Matthew McConaughey

$32.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

From the Academy Award-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction. 'I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clue s to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me. Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life's challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call 'catching greenlights.' So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops. Hopefully, it's medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot's license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears. It's a love letter. To life. It's also a guide to catching more greenlights-and to realising that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too. Good luck.'         ...Show more

Loud - A life in rock'n'roll by the world's first female roadie by Tana Douglas

$34.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

 What goes on tour stays on tour - unless you're the the first woman roadie in the world At just fifteen, Tana Douglas ran away to the circus that was rock 'n' roll in the 1970s, taking a job with a young and upcoming band called AC/DC. While still a teenager she headed to the UK and later the US to wor k for a who's who of bands and artists. Life on the road was exhilarating, hard work, occasionally surreal but never dull, particularly when you're the only woman in the road crew and the #metoo movement is still 40 years away.   ...Show more

Paul Kelly: the Man, the Music & the Life in Between by Stuart Coupe

$35.00 AUD

Category: Entertainment

Renowned music journalist Stuart Coupe examines the life of an Australian music icon - honest, revealing and a must-read for Paul Kelly fans and music lovers alike. He's been called Australia's Bob Dylan and likened to Springsteen and Neil Young, but Paul Kelly stands alone as a chronicler of his and ou r times. He is Australia's best-loved singer, songwriter, author and poetic observer and though he has written his own stories, no one has captured the broader life and times of Paul Kelly - until now. Renowned music journalist, author and for many years Kelly's manager, Stuart Coupe takes us from Kelly's family life as the sixth of nine children in Adelaide to his life today. With Paul's blessing and access to friends, family, band mates and musical collaborators, Coupe shows Paul's evolution from a young man who only really picked up a guitar in his late teens, to an Australian music icon. Through hundreds of interviews, Coupe details the way Paul juggled the demands, temptations and excesses of rock'n'roll with real life. Revealing Paul Kelly's personal relationships, his friendships, his generosity and support of other artists, such as Archie Roach, Kasey Chambers, Kev Carmody, Vika and Linda Bull and Courtney Barnett, the force of Kelly's powerful storytelling, his musical creativity, his activism and his work ethic also shines through. ...Show more

A Restless Hungry Feeling: The Double Life of Bob Dylan Vol. 1: 1941-1975 by Clinton Heylin

$65.00 AUD

Category: Entertainment

In 2016 it was announced that Bob Dylan had sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million (and $64 million in tax relief). As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin - author of the acclaimed Dylan behind the Shades (199 1; rev. 2011) and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' (Rolling Stone) - to assess the material that they had been given. What he found in Tulsa - as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office - so changed his understanding of the artist, in particular of his creative process, that he became convinced that his biography needed to be completely rewritten. It turns out that most of what we thought we knew is wrong - and in particular, that Dylan is the notoriously unreliable narrator of his own story. With fresh and revealing information on every page, the first volume, A Restless Hungry Feeling, tells the story of Dylan's meteoric rise to fame- his arrival in New York in early 1961, where he is embraced by the folk scene; his elevation to spokesman of a generation whose protest songs deliver the soundtrack for the burgeoning Civil Rights movement; his alleged betrayal when he 'goes electric' at Newport in 1965; his subsequent controversial world tour with a rock 'n' roll band; and the recording of his three undisputed masterpieces- Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Dylan is at the peak of his fame when in July 1966 he reportedly crushes his motorbike in Woodstock, upstate New York, and disappears from public view. When he re-emerges, he looks different, his voice sounds different, his songs are different; he would not tour again until 1974. There is unlikely to be any more 'autobiography' after Chronicles, and Dylan is never going to authorise an official biography; Clinton's meticulously researched, all-encompassing and consistently revelatory account is the closest we will ever get to a definitive life. ...Show more

Somebody That I Used to Know - Love, Loss and Jack Thompson by Bunkie King

$32.95 AUD

Category: Entertainment

In 1969, when Bunkie King was a wide-eyed Sydney schoolgirl from a troubled family, she met Jack Thompson, struggling actor, soon to be Australia's biggest screen star. He was also romantically involved with Bunkie's older sister, Leona. The relationship lasted 15 years. But it really took another lifet ime - a failed marriage, motherhood, her own breakdowns and breakthroughs - for her to find the voice in which to describe her journey to true independence. The first book to reveal the truth about one of the country's most whispered-about love triangles. Bittersweet, laced with all-too-real experiences - the true story of their fifteen year love affair and its aftermath. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and a complicated power struggle as a young woman strives to find her independence. ...Show more

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton

$59.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is a landmark celebration of the remarkable life and career of a country music and pop culture legend. As told by Dolly Parton in her own inimitable words, explore the songs that have defined her journey. Illustrated throughout with previously unpublished imag es from Dolly Parton's personal and business archives. Mining over 60 years of songwriting, Dolly Parton highlights 150 of her songs and brings readers behind the lyrics. Packed with never-before-seen photographs and classic memorabilia - Explores personal stories, candid insights, and myriad memories behind the songs Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics reveals the stories and memories that have made Dolly a beloved icon across generations, genders, and social and international boundaries.   ...Show more

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

$49.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy. Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub Catch a Rising Star as a twenty-one-year-old student in autumn of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved ever ything. 'Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas - the big yellow legal pad - I kept it in one of those old-school accordion folders,' Seinfeld writes. 'So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.' For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favourite material, organised decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.   ...Show more

Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave by Mark Mordue

$39.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

 The first volume of the long-awaited, near-mythical biography of Nick Cave, by award-winning writer, Mark Mordue. A deeply beautiful, profound, profane and poetic biography of the early formative years of the dark prince of Australian rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story. This is th e story of the artist first as a boy, then as a young man. A deeply insightful work which charts his family, friends, influences, milieu and, most of all, his music, it reveals how Nick Cave shaped himself into the extraordinary artist he would become. As well as a powerfully compelling biography of a singular, uncompromising artist, Boy on Fire is also a fascinating social and cultural biography, a vivid and evocative rendering of a time and place, from the fast-running dark river and ghost gums of Wangaratta, to the nascent punk scene which hit staid 1970s Melbourne like an atom bomb, right through to the torn wallpaper, sticky carpet and the manic, wild energy of nights at the Crystal Ballroom.  Boy on Fire is a stunning biographical achievement. ...Show more

Just Ignore Him by Alan Davies

$32.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

The story of a life built on sand. In the rain. In this compelling memoir, comedian and actor Alan Davies recalls his boyhood with vivid insight and devastating humour. Shifting between his 1970s upbringing and his life today, Davies moves poignantly from innocence to experience to the clarity of hindsi ght, always with a keen sense of the absurd. From sibling dynamics, to his voiceless, misunderstood progression through school, sexuality and humiliating 'accidents', Davies inhabits his younger mind with spectacular accuracy, sharply evoking an era when Green Shield Stamps, Bob-a-Job week and Whizzer & Chips loomed large, a bus fare was 2p - and children had little power in the face of adult motivation. Here, there are often exquisitely tender recollections of the mother he lost at six years old, of a bereaved family struggling to find its way, and the kicks and confusion of adolescence. Through even the joyous and innocent memories, the pain of Davies's lifelong grief and profound betrayal is unfiltered, searing and beautifully articulated. Just Ignore Him is not only an autobiography, it is a testament to a survivor's resilience and courage.   ...Show more

Dear Girls - Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

$22.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so strongly that she even became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mum comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads. The sharp insights and humour are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life offstage, including the brutal single life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and gross) for all. ...Show more

The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower: My Life -- Without the Boring Bits (HB) by Paul Hogan

$40.00 AUD

$45.00 (11% off)

Category: Entertainment

The icon and legend at last tells his story his way - without the boring bits Paul Hogan first appeared on our screens in 1971 as a 'tap dancing knife thrower' on channel 9's New Faces. The then father of four and Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger from Granville did it as a dare, but when the network's switc hboard lit up, he was invited back. So popular was he with viewers, Hogan became a regular on Mike Willesee's A Current Affair. The rest, as they say, is history. In collaboration with his business partner and best friend John Cornell (who played his sidekick, Strop), he went on to become Australia's favourite TV comedian. His hugely popular comedy shows and appearances in unforgettable and ground-breaking ads for cigarettes, beer and tourism, came to personify Australia and Australians here and overseas, helping to change the perception of who we are as people and as a nation. Then, in 1986, Crocodile Dundee, the movie he conceived, co-wrote and starred in, became an international smash, grossing more than a billion dollars in today's money and earning its star an Oscar nomination. Despite the fact Hoges claimed to be 'retired', many more movies followed, including Crocodile Dundee II, Lightning Jack, Almost an Angel and Charlie & Boots. But even as his star rose ever higher, he always expected someone to grab him by the arm and say, 'What are you doing here? You're just a bloody rigger!' The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower is a funny and candid account of the astonishing life of 'one lucky bastard', as Hoges describes himself. Full of countless stories never previously shared and told in the comedian's inimitable, funny and self-deprecating style, The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower is Paul Hogan's story told his way - 'without the boring bits'. ...Show more

Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Philippe Margotin

$69.99 AUD

Category: Entertainment | Series: All the Songs Ser.

Bob Dylan: All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind all the 525 songs he released. Organized chronologically by album, Margotin and Guesdon recount th e details that led to the composition of Dylan's recorded songs, what went on in the recording studio, what instruments he used, and behind-the-scenes account of the great artists that Dylan worked with. ...Show more