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The Opposite of Lonely (The Skelfs #5)
by Doug JohnstoneA body lost at sea, arson, murder, astronauts, wind phones, communal funerals and existential angst … This can ONLY mean one thing! The Skelfs are back, and things are as tense, unnerving and warmly funny as ever!The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers’ site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…Tense, unnerving and warmly funny, The Opposite of Lonely is the hugely anticipated fifth instalment in the unforgettable Skelfs series, and this time, danger comes from everywhere…
Mirror Image: The present mirrors the past in a chilling Varg Veum thriller (Varg Veum #0)
by Gunnar StaalesenAs Bergen PI Varg Veum investigates two different cases, it becomes clear that they are uncannily similar to harrowing events that took place thirty-six years earlier… A gripping instalment of the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir.Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers.Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide. As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost...A chilling, dark and twisting story of love and revenge, Mirror Image is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best.
The Thinking Man's Survival Guide to Managing a Menopausal Partner
by Tiggy BaileyMenopausal Ladies! Frustrated that your man doesn't understand you as you go through this uncomfortable stage in your hormonal journey? Allow some "lightening-up" to bridge the divide and help you get your point across. So much better than stony silences that the gentleman just can't understand, may misinterpret as companionable silence, or at worst, not even notice. An essential guide for you to leave "lying around" for your significant other to find (if your tidiness OCD allows). It may obviate the need for much nagging, misunderstanding and shrewish behaviour. It may not. But then at least you have tried, and things are explained and justified. We hope. There must always be hope. Gentlemen! Not sure how to weave your way through the menopausal minefield? Let us inject some humour here and provide you with a safe (or safer) pathway. Please be assured that you are not alone, but indeed are one amongst many. Your sufferings are recognised and acknowledged. As is the unfairness of it all. Help is out there, starting with this book.
Love Politics and Possibly Murder
by Jane IonsSally lives with husband Bill, adult son Dan and four of his friends. Her best friend Jan makes a shocking confession and alarmed Sally gives her some very bad advice.
Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions: THE TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK (Pizza Pete #1)
by Carrie SellonTwenty-five days ago, something awful happened, and I made a promise to myself. Never to leave home again.Pete loves the pizza shop, where he lives with his dad, and is terrified of the outside world. But when a new restaurant steals their customers, Pete and his friend Anna have to come up with an INGENIOUS plan to sell more pizzas, otherwise he’ll be forced to move.When they find a mysterious briefcase in the attic, they create the most extraordinary magical pizzas, and soon a queue of customers snakes down the road. But can they make enough money in four days to save Pete’s home?Throw in an exploding headmistress, a fire-breathing dog and a vengeful bully and Pete’s life soon ramps up from Margherita to Spicy Pepperoni!
In My Defence I Have No Defence: Catastrophes In Pursuing Perfection
by Sinèad StubbinsSinéad Stubbins has always known that there was a better version of herself lying just outside of her grasp. That if she listened to the right song or won the right (any) award or knew about whisky or followed the right Instagram psychologist or drank kombucha, ever, or enacted the correct 70-step Korean skincare regime, she would become her 'best self'. In My Defence, I Have No Defence raises the white flag on trying to live up to impossible standards. Wild and funny and wickedly relatable, it is one woman's reckoning with her complete inability to self-improve and a hilarious reprieve for anyone who has ever struggled to be better.
The Guy Who Decides: Australia's funniest social media sensation
by Jimmy ReesHave you ever wondered who made the call on imperial measurements, collective nouns for animals, horoscopes and Olympic sports? What were they thinking? And why do parents insist on naming their children after cities, cars and smoothie ingredients (Paris, Mercedes and Kale, we're looking at you...)?The Guy Who Decides, Jimmy's first book for adult readers, expands upon his hilarious videos lampooning the absurd conventions and rules of our modern world through the outlandish characters of The Guy Who Decides (who appears to be several martinis deep at all times) and his underling, Jason. Meanwhile, from Brighton to Byron Bay and beyond, prepare to meet a bunch of Australians who are as funny/scary as they are uproariously familiar!
Get Your Act Together, Doris Kozlowski
by Jo DabrowskiDoris Kozlowski's life is anything but normal. Her mum plays singing vegetables in TV commercials. Her little brother befriends pebbles and potatoes. And don't even get her started on her babcia.But Doris is good at pretending to be just like everyone else, and she has a plan to get through Year Six: keep her head down, keep her family away from the school, and keep her best and only friend, the perfect Felicity.So when Felicity ditches her for the popular girls before their first class even starts, Doris needs a new plan. She figures if she can win the talent show, Felicity will want to be friends again, and Doris can get her life back.That is, if her babcia stops trying to 'help'. And if her mum avoids more embarrassing commercials. And if her brother manages to keep her secrets.Who is she kidding? Doris is DOOMED.
The Lucky Country: Amazing Australian tales of fortune, flukes and windfalls
by Eamon EvansThe happy accident that created wi-fi. The well-placed piece of coral that saved the Endeavour from sinking. The karaoke night that launched Kylie's singing career.Australia may be known as 'the lucky country', but just how accurate is that description? Turns out, very. From the Gold Rush to Stephen Bradbury, our history is full of times when lady luck made a spectacular appearance. Now, Eamon Evans dives deep to deliver the most hilarious, fascinating tales of the Australians who were almost too lucky to be believed.
100 Funniest Moments in Australian Cricket
by Dan LiebkeFrom Alex Price's on-field karaoke session to Rob Quiney's resurrection of a dead seagull and Shane Watson's formidably funny front pad, these are the moments of physical slapstick and verbal repartee that make Australian cricket unique. Some moments are instant classics while some take decades to pay off and, naturally, some involve players getting hit in the nuts.In 100 Funniest Moments in Australian Cricket, sports journalist, comedy writer and well-known cricket tragic Dan Liebke takes us on a hilarious journey through cricket history, showing us that good cricket is good, but funny cricket is amazing.
The Pyramid of Needs
by Ernest PriceDarkly funny family drama about transphobia, political identity and family dynamics. Perfect for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and The Dinner by Herman Koch.Cover Blurb:Linda Taylor is livestreaming her glamourous life as an alternative health guru when she trips over in front of her followers ‑ and can't get up. When Linda's children, Jack and Alice, find out she's broken her hip and can't care for their ailing father or pay her bills, they decide to help. There's just one problem: Jack hasn't spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man over a decade ago.As the family gets together in Noosa and thunder clouds gather overhead, will family ties be enough to disentangle years of hurt, prejudice and pyramid-scheme brainwashing? Or will Jack have to cancel his mother for good?The Pyramid of Needs is a dark, wry and deeply illuminating examination of family dynamics in a world full of division and misinformation.
Mothering Heights: A year of joy and survival in the trenches of early parenthood
by Rachael Mogan McIntoshFollowing Rachael Mogan McIntosh over the year she gave birth to her third child and completed her shapeshift from wild to mild, Mothering Heights is a hilarious, moving celebration of early parenthood.The sudden and total identity theft of motherhood leftRachael with a kind of emotional whiplash. One day, she was wearing a funky outfit in a dark club, and the next she was performing 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' for an underwhelmed crowd of toddlers.Rachael adored all three of her tiny dictators and their non-stop comedy shenanigans, but the life of service was a tougher job than she had ever imagined. Through joyous heights and heartbreaking lows, motherhood cracked her heart wide open.
Hester and Harriet (Hester and Harriet #0)
by Hilary SpiersThe gentle humour and relaxed pace make this an enjoyable read. - Daily MailSisters Hester and Harriet are reluctantly driving to visit relatives when they come across a young woman hiding with her baby in a bus shelter. Seeing the perfect excuse for returning to their own warm hearth, the pair insist on bringing Daria and Milo home with them.But with the arrival of a sinister stranger looking for a girl with a baby, followed quickly by their cousins' churlish fifteen-year-old son, Ben, who also appears to be seeking sanctuary, Hester and Harriet's carefully crafted peace and quiet quickly begins to fall apart. And, perhaps, that's exactly what they need...
Error Australis
by Ben PobjieWe’re engrossed with reality TV these days, yet we so often neglect the greatest reality of all: the reality of our nation and how it came to be. In Error Australis, TV columnist, comedian and history buff Ben Pobjie recaps the history of Australia from its humble beginnings as a small patch of rapidly cooling rock to its modern-day status as one of the major powers of the sub-Asian super-Antarctic next-to-Africa region. As thrilling as it is to see Delta Goodrem’s chair turn around, there’s an argument that World War Two was even more exciting and, like any good recapper, Pobjie provides an immediate, visceral sense of what it was like to be there in the moment at our nation’s defining events. It is only by looking at where we have been that we can understand who we are, what we stand for and why nothing seems to work. Error Australis is a scholarly and hilarious account of a young nation that has spent many years seeking its place in the world, and almost as many years not liking what it has found.
Tanked
by Eamon EvansVikings were on mushrooms. Booze may have cost us Gallipoli. The Nazis loved meth, and the Stone Age was more like the 'stoned age'. We tend to see the past as a dull, sober place - as a time of stiff collars and straight-laced conformity, when people's bodies were as pure as their minds. We need to think again. It turns out that many of the great events in history wouldn't have happened if someone hadn't got smashed. From presidents and prime ministers, soldiers and scientists, to explorers, writers, musos and more, many of mankind's great movers and shakers might have been better off having a quiet lie-down. And there's no one better placed to shine a light on their secrets than the ever-witty - and occasionally coherent - Eamon Evans. Substance by substance and binge by binge, Tanked is your guide to all the trashy little moments that have helped change the course of our world.
The Tea Chest
by Josephine Moon'I loved it - a perfect blend of sweet and spice.' Jenny ColganKate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she'd be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family's future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down.Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to start again.When the three women's paths unexpectedly cross, they throw themselves into realising Kate's magical vision for London's branch of The Tea Chest. But every time success is within their grasp, increasing tensions damage their trust in each other.With the very real possibility that The Tea Chest will fail, Kate, Leila and Elizabeth must decide what's important to each of them. Are they willing to walk away or can they learn to believe in themselves?An enchanting, witty novel about the unexpected situations life throws at us, and how love and friendship help us through. Written with heart and infused with the seductive scents of bergamot, Indian spices, lemon, rose and caramel, it's a world you won't want to leave.
And Then You're Dead: A Scientific Exploration of the World's Most Interesting Ways to Die
by Paul Doherty"Entertaining - if harrowing." - New York Times Book ReviewWhat would happen if you took a swim outside a deep-sea submarine wearing only Speedos? How long could you last if you stood on the surface of the sun? How far could you actually get in digging a hole to China?And Then You're Dead offers serious answers to these horribly interesting questions. Paul Doherty and Cody Cassidy explore the real science behind these and other fantastical scenarios, offering insights into physics, astronomy, anatomy and more along the way. Illustrated with straightforward technical art and leavened by small doses of dry humour, And Then You're Dead is both scientifically informative and gruesomely entertaining.
Close Enough to Touch: A Novel
by Colleen OakleyOne time a boy kissed me and I almost died...And so begins the story of Jubilee Jenkins, a 28-year-old woman with a unique and debilitating medical condition - she's allergic to other humans. After a humiliating, near-death experience in high school, Jubilee has become reclusive in her adulthood, living the past nine years in the confines of the Victorian house her unaffectionate mother deeded to her when she ran off with a wealthy businessman. But now, her mother is dead, and without her financial support, Jubilee is forced to leave home and face the world - and the people in it - she's been hiding from.One of those people is Eric Keegan, a man who just moved into town for work. With a daughter from his failed marriage no longer speaking to him, and a brilliant, if psychologically troubled, adopted son who believes he has untapped telekinetic powers, Eric's struggling to figure out how his life got so off course, and how to be the dad - and man - he wants so desperately to be. Then, one day, he meets a mysterious woman named Jubilee...
The Lovers' Guide to Rome: A Novel Full of Heart and Romantic Delight
by Mark LamprellThis gorgeous novel set around the beautiful sights of Rome tells the story of three couples and their adventures with love in the eternal city.Young artist Alice has come to Rome for adventure and inspiration before settling down. Is there such a thing as love at first sight and how will she know if it's happening to her? Middle-aged Meg and Alec have come to Rome to rekindle their love affair, which has faded over the years. Constance and Lizzie are here to scatter the ashes of Constance's beloved husband, Lizzie's brother Henry. Rome will play a part in the lives of all these characters to make sure they find the happiness they deserve.
China Rich Girlfriend: There's Rich, There's Filthy Rich, and Then There's China Rich... (Crazy Rich Asians #2)
by Kevin KwanFrom the bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians (Soon to be a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh and Gemma Chan) comes a deliciously fun story of family, fortune, and fame in Mainland China. It's the eve of Rachel Chu's wedding, and she should be over the moon. She has a flawless oval-cut diamond, a wedding dress she loves, and a fiancé willing to give up one of the biggest fortunes in Asia in order to marry her. Still, Rachel mourns the fact that her birth father, a man she never knew, won't be there to walk her down the aisle.Then a chance accident reveals his identity. Suddenly, Rachel is drawn into a dizzying world of Shanghai splendor, a world where people attend church in a penthouse, where exotic cars race down the boulevard, and where people aren't just crazy rich... they're China rich.
The Haters: A Band. A Road Trip. A Gig That Maybe Doesn't Suck.
by Jesse AndrewsA wry and witty new coming-of-age story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, now an award-winning film.A band. A road trip. A gig that maybe doesn't suck. Corey and Wes are convinced nothing cool can come of their lame summer at jazz camp, when along comes Ash - all blonde hair and brash words - who cracks their world wide open. Finally, something they can't seem to hate. Convinced that a great musician is made on the road, the three friends flee camp and begin the epic, hilarious road trip: The Haters Summer of Hate Tour.Amidst sneaking into seedy bars, evading their parents and the police, and spending every minute together in a makeshift tour bus, romance blossoms and bursts and hygiene takes a back seat. Wes begins to realize the limitations of hating everything: it keeps you at a convenient distance from something, or someone, you just might love.
Guinea Pig in White Wine Sauce
by Alan RochfordAlan Rochford was living the dream when he started Stone Cottage, an idyllic French restaurant nestled in the Adelaide Hills. He had everything going for him apart from experience, money, and the first idea about what he was doing. After two years and one divorce, he began to see the funny side, fed on an endless diet of characters and occurrences so crazy that you couldn’t make them up. Australia’s answer to Basil Fawlty, Alan serves up a degustation of lip-smacking anecdotes, from his side-line in snail trading across the French countryside, to the time two customers got a touch too ‘intimate’ in the middle of his dining room. Guinea Pig in White Wine Sauce is the tale of one man trying to keep his head in the certifiably insane world of fine dining.
Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts
by Ben PobjieNed Kelly’s tin helmet looms large over Australia’s bushranging past, but what about all the unsung outlaws of the Australian bush? What about Black Caesar, who escaped his tyrannous British overlords four times and indeed invented the great Australian tradition of bushranging? Or Mad Dog Morgan who set out to write his name in blood on history’s ledger, the dynamic Captain Thunderbolt and his loyal wife Mary Ann Bugg, bushranging’s greatest queen, and Matthew Brady, the gentleman bushranger, who showed us all the cilivised side of armed robbery? In Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts Ben Pobjie celebrates the derring-do and revolutionary passion of all the wild colonial boys and girls who raided our towns and stole our hearts, all while wearing sensible headgear.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark TwainSequel to Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a strong candidate for the Great American Novel. Huck and his friend Jim, an escaped slave, travel down the Mississippi together, having adventures and meeting interesting people, in this satire of the antebellum South. A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul.