Breath – Tim Winton – Paperback
The paperback edition of Breath, announced last night as the 2009 Miles Franklin Award winning novel from multi-award winning Australian author Tim Winton is out now.
Breath opens with Bruce Pike, now a paramedic, arriving too late to save a teenage boy’s life. Pike’s partner wonders why the boy killed himself. Pike knows he didn’t. He [...]
On a family sheep station in western New South Wales, a brother and sister work the property while their reclusive brother, Wesley Antill, spends years toiling away in one of the sheds, writing his philosophy.
Now he has died. Erica, a philosopher, is sent from Sydney to appraise his life’s work. Accompanying her is Sophie, who needs distracting from a string of failed relationships. Her field is psychoanalysis.
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The pages Wesley wrote lie untouched in the shed, just as he left them. What will they reveal? Was he a genius? These turn out to be only a couple of the questions in the air. How will the visit change the lives of Erica and Sophie?
The Pages is a beguiling meditation on friendship and love, on men and women, on landscape and the difficulties of thought itself, by one of Australia’s greatest novelists, the author of the much-loved Eucalyptus.
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- Tags: 9781921520457, Murray Bail
Soups & Stews is the latest cookbook from the Country Women’s Association of Australia
The Country Women’s Association of Australia has long been renowned for its work in support of rural families and communities, and for its members’ cooking and catering. Their baked and bottled goods are must-see exhibits at local shows, and there are always long queues for the ‘tea and scones’ and other treats they serve up at many public functions. Their catering activities have made a huge contribution to the CWA’s fundraising efforts.
Now the CWA is sharing its secrets, in this brand new series of cookbooks. There are tried-and-true recipes from CWA branch members all around Australia, so you too can turn simple ingredients into delicious and nutritious dishes that will please everyone at your table.
Royalties from this series will help the CWA continue to fund a postgraduate scholarship for a health-care worker in a rural or remote area.
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TRADITIONAL DELIGHTS FROM THE NATION’S FAVOURITE COOKS
The cooking skills of CWA members are legendary and Country Women’s Association Soups and Stews includes more than 80 of their recipes for classic, country-style comfort food. Ranging from hearty to dinner-party fare, many of the recipes are favourite from CWA branch gatherings as well as family tables.
All the recipes use simple ingredients and are simple to make, yet have the indelible stamp of CWA sense and sensibility. Now you can learn from the experts!
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The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by UNSW history lecturer Grace Karskens is a groundbreaking history of the colony of Sydney in its early years, from the sparkling harbour to the Cumberland Plain, from convicts to the city’s political elite, from the impact of its geology to its economy.
The Colony is the story of the marvelously contrary, endlessly energetic early years of Sydney. It is an intimate account of the transformation of a campsite in a beautiful cove to the town that later became Australia’s largest and best-known city.
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From the sparkling beaches to the foothills of the Blue Mountains, Grace Karskens skilfully reveals how landscape shaped the lives of the original Aboriginal inhabitants and newcomers alike. She traces the ways in which relationships between the colonial authorities and ordinary men and women broke with old patterns, and the ways that settler and Aboriginal histories became entwined. She uncovers the ties between the burgeoning township and its rural hinterland expanding along the river systems of the Cumberland Plain.
This is a landmark account of the birthplace of modern Australia, and a fascinating and richly textured narrative of people and place.
‘This is a spellbinding saga of the beginnings of modern Australia. The Colony is a stunning achievement. It will change the way you feel about Australian history.’ – Professor Tom Griffiths, Australian National University.
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In 10 Songs that Changed the World by music author June Skinner Sawyers look into 10 influential songs of our time.
The effect that a simple song can have on the world is real and tangible. The power of words, whether sung or spoken, can change minds and can move people to action. Great songs can crystallise a moment in time, or encapsulate transition in culture. They influence events and alter the course of history. The ten songs in this book have changed the way people think and act and in so doing have changed the world. Music author June Skinner Sawyers explores the social and cultural legacy of each song.
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UK Child education expert Sue Palmer looks at some of the unique challenges to bringing up boys in our technology-saturated modern world in 21st Century Boys: How Modern Life is Driving Them Off the Rails.
What’s happening to our boys? At home, they sprawl before a flickering screen, lost in a solitary, sedentary fantasy world; at school, the choice of role seems limited to nerd or thug, bullied or bullying. By the time they reach their teens, the chances of depression, self-harm, drug or alcohol abuse grow each year. In such an environment, raising boys has never been more difficult.
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For the sake of their sons, parents need to know the facts about how boys develop and how best to protect them from the damaging effects of modern life. For the sake of our future, we all need to recognise the problems of 21st century boys and to support parents in stemming the growing tide of detachment and disaffection. In this hugely important book, Sue Palmer assesses the issues currently confronting boys from birth to when they leave school and explains how we can all help to ensure they emerge as healthy, normal adults.
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- Tags: 9780752890111, Sue Palmer
As seen in todays Sydney Morning Herald – God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith Will Change the World by Economist magazine head John Micklethwait & Washington bureau chief Adrian Wooldridge is a rebuttal of the idea that religion is incompatible with the modern world and the future will be secular.
On the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging worldwide. From Russia to Turkey to India, nations that swore off faith in the last century or even tried to stamp it out are now run by avowedly religious leaders. Formerly secular conflicts like the one in Palestine have taken on an overtly religious cast. God is Back shines a bright light on this huge, hidden world of faith, from exorcisms in Sao Paulo to religious skirmishing in Nigeria, to televangelism in California and house churches in China.
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Many things have helped spark the global revival of religion, including the failure of communism and the rise of globalism. But, above all, twenty-first century religion is being fuelled by an emphasis on competition and a customer-driven approach to salvation. These qualities have characterised this country’s faith ever since the Founders separated church and state, creating a religious free market defined by entrepreneurship, choice, and personal revelation. As market forces reshape the world, the tools and ideals of evangelism are now spreading everywhere.
Links and Further Reading
- Michael Duffy In the Sydney Morning Herald
- Watch John Mickelthwait interviewed by David Frost
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Killing: Misadventures in Violence – Jeff Sparrow
Jeff Sparrow, the editor of the Australian literary journal Overland and a writer for Crikey, new book – Killing: Misadventures in Violence journeys into the macabre.
Ninety years after the First World War, police in a Victorian country town uncovered, inside a velvet-lined display cabinet, the mummified head of a Turkish soldier a bullet-ridden souvenir brought home from Gallipoli by a returning ANZAC.
The macabre discovery launched Jeff Sparrow on a quest to understand the nature of deadly violence. How did ordinary people whether in today’s wars or in 1915 learn to take a human life? Was it hard to kill another person or was it terrifyingly easy? And what happened afterwards? What did war do to soldiers to make hoarding a human head seem normal, even necessary?
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The questions lead Sparrow on a journey through history and across the USA, talking to veterans and slaughtermen, executioners and academics about one of the last remaining taboos. Compassionate, engaged and political, Killing takes us up close to the ways society kills today, in a prolonged meditation on what violence means, not just for perpetrators but for all of us.
Links and Further Reading
- Listen to an ABC interview with Jeff Sparrow
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- Tags: 9780522856347, Jeff Sparrow
Cooking With Baz: Getting to Know My Dad by Australian comedy writer & noted bird-watcher Sean Dooley is a moving memoir about fathers and sons, filled with great characters, plenty of hilarity and some quiet tears.
‘Baz and my culinary tastes had, like virtually everything in our lives, moved in different directions. He was a meat and three veg kind of bloke. Me, well, I didn’t know what kind of bloke I was.’
Sean’s dad, Baz, believes in making the most of the good things in life – beer, races and footy. Sean is a studious, birdwatching kind of guy. When Sean’s mum, Di, starts treatment for cancer, it is cooking, of all things, that brings father and son together. Baz starts whipping up Japanese fish parcels and braised lamb shanks with polenta to tempt Di’s flagging post-chemo appetite and Sean is impressed.
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When Baz gets the bad news that a lifetime of drinking and smoking has caught up with him, it’s suddenly Sean’s turn in the kitchen . . .
As much about the changing landscape of Australian male culture as it is about losing loved ones, Cooking with Baz will make you laugh and get a lump in your throat, often at the same time. And you’ll think about what ‘family’ really means.
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- Tags: 9781741752731, Sean Dooley
As seen in this weekends Spectrum, This Is How is Irish author M J Hyland’s third powerhouse novel.
This Is How tells the story of Patrick Oxtoby, an outsider longing to fit in. When his fianc Sarah breaks off their engagement, Patrick leaves home and moves to a boarding house in a seaside village a few hours away. In spite of his hopes for a new and better life, Patrick struggles to make friends or make the right impression. He can’t shake the feeling that his new acquaintances are conspiring against him, further fracturing his fragile personality and prompting him to take a course of action that alters the course of his life.
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This Is How is a mesmerizing and meticulously drawn portrait of a man whose unease in the world leads to his tragic undoing. M. J. Hyland as shortlisted for the Man Booker prize with her previous novel Carry Me Down. With breathtaking wisdom and penetrating insight into the human mind, she has now given us a masterpiece that arouses horror and sympathy in equal measure.
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- Tags: 9781921520532, M J Hyland
The Black Book of Hollywood Pregnancy Secrets by Kym Douglas & Cindy Pearlman spills the beans on how the stars manage to look absolutely fabulous and flawless during their pregnancies and then go for a stroll in their skinny jeans just weeks after giving birth?
Hollywood moms have got it going on from Halle Berry to Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie to Katie Holmes. Now the authors of The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets and The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets are here to reveal how the stars do it and how any mom can too.
Kym and Cindy once again got the insider beauty secrets from A-List celebrities, asking what they did to look fantastic during pregnancy and after childbirth. The stars talk openly about weight gain, cravings, acne, thinning hair, and feeling sexy. How did they lose the baby fat? What are the best makeup and hair routines? What are the fashion do’s and don’ts?
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With tips from Hollywood beauties Kate Hudson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Milla Jovovich, Helena Bonham Carter, and many more, The Black Book of Hollywood Pregnancy Secrets is the ultimate guide for moms who want to look and feel fabulous.
‘These women know from access.’ – The New York Times on The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets
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