A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction

Do not believe too quickly... What if Elizabeth Macarthur-wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in early Sydney-had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? In her introduction Kate Grenville tells, tongue firmly in cheek, of discovering a long-hidden box containing that memoir. What follo ws is a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented. Grenville's Elizabeth Macarthur is a passionate woman managing her complicated life-marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her own heart, the search for power in a society that gave her none-with spirit, cunning and sly wit. Her memoir reveals the dark underbelly of the polite world of Jane Austen. It explodes the stereotype of the women of the past- devoted and docile, accepting of their narrow choices. That was their public face-here's what one of them really thought. At the heart of this book is one of the most toxic issues of our times- the seductive appeal of false stories. Beneath the surface of Elizabeth Macarthur's life and the violent colonial world she navigated are secrets and lies with the dangerous power to shape reality. A Room Made of Leaves is the internationally acclaimed author Kate Grenville's first novel in almost a decade. It is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand that gives the past the piercing immediacy of the present.   ...Show more

Brisbane Houses with Gardens FIRST EDITION by Beth Wilson

$39.99 AUD

Category: Fiction

For decades now, Beth Wilson has been collecting material for her book Brisbane Houses with Gardens ... an unprecedented history of the Brisbane domestic landscape from pre-1823 to the present day. Drawing on her extraordinary knowledge of horticulture, her 50 years’ experience as a landscape architect working on some of Brisbane’s leading projects, a lifetime’s interest in historic gardens, and the extensive 120-year-old archives of Wilson Architects, Beth has brought together a fascinating and revealing history of the city through the evolution of its homes and gardens. ...Show more

The Dickens Boy by Thomas Keneally

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction

In the late 1800s, rather than run the risk of his under-achieving sons tarnishing his reputation at home, Charles Dickens sent two of them to Australia. The tenth child of Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, known as Plorn, had consistently proved unable ‘to apply himself ’ to school or lif e. So aged sixteen, he is sent, as his brother Alfred was before him, to Australia. Plorn arrives in Melbourne in late 1868 carrying a terrible secret. He has never read a word of his father’s work. He is sent out to a 2000-square-mile station in remotest New South Wales to learn to become a man, and a gentleman stockman, from the most diverse and toughest of companions. In the outback he becomes enmeshed with Paakantji, colonists, colonial-born, ex-convicts, ex-soldiers, and very few women. Plorn, unexpectedly, encounters the same veneration of his father and familiarity with Dickens’ work in Australia as was rampant in England. Against this backdrop, and featuring cricket tournaments, horse-racing, bushrangers, sheep droving, shifty stock and station agents, frontier wars and first encounters with Australian women, Plorn meets extraordinary people and enjoys wonderful adventures as he works to prove himself. This is Tom Keneally in his most familiar terrain. Taking historical figures and events and reimagining them with verve, compassion and humour. It is a triumph. ...Show more

The White Girl by Tony Birch

$29.95 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction | Reading Level: 1 Fiction

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their f amilies. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves. In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families. ...Show more

Coming Home to Self: The Adopted Child Grows Up by Nancy N. Verrier

$35.95 AUD

Category: Fiction

Coming Home to Self is a book about becoming aware. It is written for all members of the adoption triad: adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents as well as those who are in relationship with them, including professionals. It explains the influence imprinted upon the nuerological system and, thus, on future functioning. It explains how false beliefs create fear and perpetuate being ruled by the wounded child. It is a book which will help adoptees discover their authentic selves after living without seeing themselves reflected back all their lives. ...Show more

HANDWRITING CONVENTIONS QLD YEAR 3 by STEVE MURRAY ILLUSTRATOR

$13.95 AUD

Category: Fiction

Torched by Kimberley Starr

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction

If my son killed anyone, I’d know. I know him. A small Yarra Valley town has been devastated by a bushfire, and Reefton Primary School principal Phoebe Warton can’t sleep. She’s the single mother of eighteen­yearold Caleb who is accused of starting the fire – on purpose. Twelve people are dead, students from her school among them; only a monster would cause such carnage. But where was her son was that day? No one knows but Caleb, and he’s not talking. Against mounting community rage, Phoebe sets out to clear her son. But every avenue leads back to Caleb. Why did he vanish from his Country Fire Authority shift? Who else was at the abandoned goldmine that day? Why is Caleb refusing to speak? Phoebe will be forced to confront the nature of guilt and redemption, and decide what boundaries she is willing to cross to save the son she loves. Torched is an explosive, haunting and compelling crime novel about mothers and sons and the ties that bind them.   ...Show more

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

$32.99 AUD

Category: International Fiction

The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of CLOUD ATLAS and THE BONE CLOCKS, 'one of the most brilliantly inventive writers of this, or any country' (Independent). Utopia Avenue are the strangest British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967 and front ed by folksinger Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet and blues bassist Dean Moss, Utopia Avenue released only two LPs during its brief and blazing journey from the clubs of Soho and draughty ballrooms to Top of the Pops and the cusp of chart success, to glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968. David Mitchell's new novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue; of riots in the streets and revolutions in the head; of drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder. Can we change the world in turbulent times, or does the world change us? Utopia means 'nowhere' but could a shinier world be within grasp, if only we had a map? ...Show more

When She Was Good by Michael Robotham

$32.99 AUD

Category: Crime Fiction

From the bestselling author of The Secrets She Keeps and Good Girl, Bad Girl comes a new thriller featuring the brilliant forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven as he becomes embroiled in an explosive murder case with disturbing origins. Criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in this mesme rizing new thriller from internationally bestselling author Michael Robotham, a writer Stephen King calls "an absolute master...with heart and soul." Who is Evie, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in Good Girl, Bad Girl. Now, the closer Cyrus gets to uncovering answers about Evie's dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named... ...Show more

Belgravia (TVTI) by Julian Fellowes

$22.99 AUD

Category: Historical Fiction

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's now legendary ball, one family's life will change for ever... ...Show more

Beneath the Fig Leaves by Olympia Panagiotopoulos

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction

 In 1955, in a village in Greece that was marred by war and poverty, Giannoula and Fotios Panagiotopoulos dreamed of providing a better life for their children. Australia, it was rumoured, was a land of opportunity where hard work brought reward. Leaving behind family and friends, they set off to make a new home on the other side of the world. Half a lifetime later, under the shade of a fig tree and in the dappled Melbourne sunlight, Giannoula regales her youngest daughter, Olympia, with stories of her homeland and journey. An evocative exploration of the ties that bind, Beneath the Fig Leaves weaves an irresistible tapestry of family, food and history to stir the heart and senses.   ...Show more

Better Luck Next Time by Kate Hilton

$29.99 AUD

Category: International Fiction

A brilliant generational family comedy for fans of Curtis Sittenfeld and Nora Ephron, and television's This Is Us, Offspring and Parenthood. An iconic feminist leader, elderly, powerful and respected, is mother to three adult daughters in various stages of self-destruction. Their whole life they've bee n told they could have it all, but why are their lives falling apart? The choices they've made over their adult years are coming back to haunt them. And how do they start again?Over the course of an eventful year, the Hennessey children contend with the big struggles of midlife: aging parents, raging teens, crumbling marriages and bodies, new loves, and the choice between playing it safe or taking life-altering risks. And as they inch toward a new definition of happiness, they might even persuade their parents - and themselves - that they're all grown up. Lydia Hennessey, feminist icon, presides over a family of three adult daughters who should have it all, if only they'd stop self-destructing. Her eldest, Mariana, is throwing away her talent and her marriage. Her middle daughter, Beata, has a hostile teenaged son who just discovered the existence of a father who didn't know about him either. And her youngest, Nina, has returned from a medical mission overseas as a changed woman but won't discuss it. Meanwhile, her niece Zoe is making divorce look like a death-match, while her nephew Zack is grappling with the fallout from his popular television dramedy, based far-too-closely on Lydia herself. Lydia's relentless optimism and shared wisdom/unsolicited advice aren't enough to make the younger generation pull themselves together, and she's just about ready to wash her hands of them. But first they have to march with her in the biggest political demonstration of her career.Praise for Kate Hilton:'Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious, captivating novel for fans of Where'd You Go, Bernadette and The Nest. If you've ever been part of a family, or wished perhaps you weren't, you'll adore this tender, wise novel about the ways that love imprisons and liberates?.' - Elizabeth Renzetti, author of Based on A True Story'With Better Luck Next Time, Kate Hilton has crafted a novel that will make you belly laugh, tug at your heartstrings, and fall in love with the Hennessey-Goldstein families. Full of charm and depth, I loved this quirky family saga!' - Karma Brown, bestselling author of Come Away With Me'Hilton reaches right into the hearts, minds and insecurities of women and let's them know they are not alone in their struggles. . . . So beautifully depicted you will want to read it again to pick up the wisdom you missed the first time through.' - Romantic Times on The Hole in the Middle (starred review)'Hilton captures and distils the slight but constant ripping at the seams that can happen in a marriage when there is simply no time to nurture it. She writes about matrimony with rare honesty.' - The National Post on The Hole in the Middle ...Show more