Women and Leadership by Julia Gillard; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

$34.99 AUD

Category: Politics

Due for release 12th July 2020 An inspirational and practical book written by two high-achieving women, sharing the experience and advice of some of our most extraordinary women leaders, in their own words. From their broad experience on the world stage in politics, economics and global not-for-profits , Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Julia Gillard have some strong ideas about the impact of gender on the treatment of leaders. Women and Leadership takes a consistent and comprehensive approach to teasing out what is different for women leaders. Almost every year new findings are published about the way people see women leaders compared with their male counterparts. The authors have taken that academic work and tested it in the real world. The same set of interview questions were put to each leader in frank face-to-face interviews. Their responses were then used to examine each woman's journey in leadership and whether their lived experiences were in line with or different from what the research would predict. Women and Leadership presents a lively and readable analysis of the influence of gender on women's access to positions of leadership, the perceptions of them as leaders, the trajectory of their leadership and the circumstances in which it comes to an end. By presenting the lessons that can be learned from women leaders, Julia and Ngozi provide a road map of essential knowledge to inspire us all, and an action agenda for change that allows women to take control and combat gender bias. Featuring Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Clinton, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Theresa May, Michelle Bachelet, Joyce Banda, Erna Solberg, Christine Lagarde and more. ...Show more

Colourful Life by Sharon Bech

$25.00 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

Ten Feet Tall and Not Quite Bulletproof: Drug Busts and Helicopter Rescues: One Cop's Extraordinary True Story by Cameron Hardiman

$32.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir | Reading Level: near fine

Cameron Hardiman lived a life most young boys could only dream of. Every morning he put on a navy blue police flight suit, grabbed his flight helmet, and prepared to work on the police helicopter. He could be called to anything during a shift, to search for a missing child, to pull an injured driver fro m a wrecked car, or a dangerous sea rescue. He saw his fair share of trauma and dealt with it like most coppers would: he quickly put each dangerous job out of his mind as soon as it was over. But one particular rescue job in Bass Strait brought about a reckoning - and Cameron was never the same again. This is the brilliantly told, white-knuckle story of one cop learning every lesson the hard way - and coming to find out that being not quite bulletproof doesn't mean that you're not a good cop. ...Show more

ICE

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

Spinoza's Overcoat - Travels with Writers and Poets by Subhash Jaireth

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

'It starts to rain as I step out of my hotel ....' So begins Subhash Jaireth's striking collection of essays on the writers, and their writing, that have enriched his own life. The works of Franz Kafka, Marina Tsvetaeva, Mikhail Bulgakov, Paul Celan, Hiromi Ito, Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and othe rs ignite in him the urge to travel (both physically and in spirit), almost like a pilgrim, to the places where such writers were born or died or wrote. In each essay a new emotional plane is reached revealing enticing connections. As a novelist, poet, essayist and translator born into a multilingual environment, Jaireth truly understands the power of words across languages and their integral connections to life of the body and the spirit. Drawing on years of research, translation and travel Spinoza's Overcoat - and its illuminations of loss, mortality and the reverie of writing - will linger with readers. 'Eloquent and original, Jaireth's meditations on the lives-of-poets are full of astonishing details, tender connections and the magnificent melancholy of devotion to words. Encompassing matters of translation, love, mortality and homage, this is a rare model of what might be called "literary philosophy" and an utter joy and surprise for anyone interested in the reading and writing life ?' GAIL JONES, author of The Death of Noah Glass ...Show more

Reveal: Robbie Williams by Chris Heath

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

It's a diary of a very modern entertainer and his ever-changing thoughts, the story of somebody who escaped Butlins, and the tale of a pop star trying to find his feet again after coming out of early retirement. It's true, and funny, and occasionally sad, and well-written, and very entertaining. I hope people enjoy it.' RobbieMore than twelve years ago, Robbie Williams and Chris Heath published a ground-breaking memoir, Feel, about Robert P. Williams' rise to fame; a book that was met with worldwide acclaim, from critics and fans alike.Since that time, Robbie has released six solo albums, reunited with his old band Take That and, in the wake of his twelfth UK number-one album, has returned to the stage with a sold-out run at Wembley Stadium.In Reveal, bestselling author Chris Heath has been working closely with Robbie for many years to create a personal and raw account of fame, fortune, family and music; a vivid and detailed story of the real highs and lows as Robbie has found his way forward, that is unprecedented in its intimacy and honesty. ...Show more

Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs: She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse by Paul Carter

$24.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

A take no prisoners' approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Amazingly, he's survived (so far) to tell these stories from the edge of civilization, and reason.

And then I found me by Noel Tovey

$33.00 AUD

Category: Biography

Noel Tovey’s previous memoir, Little Black Bastard ( Hodder Headline Australia 2004, shortlisted Victorian Premier’s Prize for Indigenous Writing, Australian Human Rights Award) chronicled his extraordinary life – from a childhood lived in poverty, through to his international stage career, return to Au stralia and eventual reconciliation with his past. In this uplifting new work, Tovey crafts a tale that reveals a creative and sensitive spirit. And Then I Found Me is the triumphant story of his stellar career in London as an actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, director and curator. For more than 30 years, his stage productions reached audiences across Europe, South Africa and Australia. Martin Luther King’s assassination, the dismantling of apartheid, the criminalisation of homosexuality and the rise of AIDS create a backdrop to this bold recollection of glamour and politics. As a trailblazer for Indigenous people and an advocate for underpriviledged artists, Tovey’s new memoir is both moving and timely. ...Show more

Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir | Reading Level: 3 Biography

ARIA Award-winning singer and actress Clare Bowditch confronts her inner critic in this no-holds-barred memoir. This is the story I promised myself, aged twenty-one, that I would one day be brave enough - and well enough - to write. Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories. Through her music and performing, this beloved Australian artist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' only begins once you're thin or beautiful, that good things only happen to other people.YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL reveals a childhood punctuated by grief, anxiety and compulsion, and tells how these forces shaped Clare's life for better and for worse. This is a heartbreaking, wise and at times playful memoir. Clare's own story told raw and as it happened. A reminder that even on the darkest of nights, victory is closer than it seems.With startling candour, Clare lays bare her truth in the hope that doing so will inspire anyone who's ever done battle with their inner critic. This is the work of a woman who has found her true power - and wants to pass it on. Happiness, we discover, is only possible when we take charge of the stories we tell ourselves. ...Show more

Incidental Inventions (HB) by Elena Ferrante; Ann Goldstein (Translator); Andrea Ucini (Illustrator)

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

"This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me." With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian. For a full year she penned short pieces, the subjects of which were suggested by edit ors at the Guardian, turning the writing process into a kind of prolonged interlocution; the subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the adaptation of her novels to film and TV. As she said in her final column: "I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that--if I have the will and the time--I'd like to develop within real narrative mechanisms." Here, then, are the seeds of possible future novels, the ruminations of an internationally beloved author, and the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called "one of the great novelists of our time" (the New York Times). Gathered here in a beautiful gift edition and accompanied by a new, original introduction by the author and Andrea Ucini's intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this is a must for all Ferrante fans. ...Show more

The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

$23.00 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

Stella Prize 2019 Dark, sharp, blackly funny and powerful, this is memoir, wielded as weapon. Telling the story of a splintered family, a mother who is unlike any other, and her daughters who have no choice but to come to the rescue, The Erratics has the tightly compressed energy of an explosive device. This is quite simply an outstanding piece of writing. We've been disowned and disinherited: there's not changing it, I say. When something bad happens to them, we'll know soon enough and we'll deal with it together. I don't realise it at the time, but when I say that, I imply I care. I imply there may be something to be salvaged. I misspeak. But I'm flying out anyway. Blood calls to blood; what can I tell you. This is a memoir about a dysfunctional family, about a mother and her daughters. But make no mistake. This is like no mother-daughter relationship you know. When Vicki Laveau-Harvie's elderly mother is hospitalised unexpectedly, Vicki and her sister travel to their parents' isolated ranch home in Alberta, Canada, to help their father. Estranged from their parents for many years, Vicki and her sister are horrified by what they discover on their arrival. For years, Vicki's mother has camouflaged her manic delusions and savage unpredictability, and over the decades she has managed to shut herself and her husband away from the outside world, systematically starving him and making him a virtual prisoner in his own home. Vicki and her sister have a lot to do, in very little time, to save their father. And at every step they have to contend with their mother, whose favourite phrase during their childhood was: 'I'll get you and you won't even know I'm doing it.' A ferocious, sharp, darkly funny and wholly compelling memoir of families, the pain they can inflict and the legacy they leave, The Erratics has the tightly coiled, compressed energy of an explosive device - it will take your breath away. Winner of the Finch Memoir Prize in 2018, and Winner of the Stella Awards in 2019. ...Show more

Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

$24.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir | Reading Level: General Adult

Oliver Sacks died in August 2015 at his home in Greenwich Village, surrounded by his close friends and family. He was 82. He spent his final days doing what he loved: playing the piano, swimming, enjoying smoked salmon - and writing. As Dr Sacks looked back over his long, adventurous life his final thou ghts were of gratitude. In a series of remarkable, beautifully written and uplifting meditations, Dr Sacks reflects on and gives thanks for a life well lived, and expresses his thoughts on growing old, facing terminal cancer and reaching the end. I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and travelled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. ...Show more