Driving Stevie Fracasso

Driving Stevie Fracasso

Author: Barry Divola

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-03-01

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1460713087

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Two estranged brothers, one stolen car and a road trip from Texas to New York. What could possibly go wrong? For fans of Nick Hornby, David Nicholls and Jonathan Tropper. Jaded music journalist Rick McLennan knows his life is going south when he loses his job, his apartment and his long-term girlfriend all on the same day. But then he is thrown a lifeline – a commission to write the story of his ex-rock-star brother, Stevie, and drive him from Austin, Texas, to New York to play one final gig. One small problem: the brothers haven't spoken in thirty years. Rick knows it's a bad idea. But he's out of choices. So he gets behind the wheel of a beaten-up 1985 Nissan Stanza and drives towards his destiny. He's about to find everything he didn't know he was missing. It's September 2001. From award-winning journalist and author Barry Divola comes a glorious, music-infused, rollicking road-trip novel – think High Fidelity meets The Big Lebowski meets The Darjeeling Limited. A smart, funny and wholly endearing story about how, though we may at times lose ourselves along the way, the road always leads back to family and the things that bring us joy. 'Of course this road trip comes with a top-quality mix-tape – it's by Barry Divola – but it's the layers to this story, and its humour and its heart, that make this journey irresistible.' – Nick Earls 'This book is the super f***ing gnarly lead break of rock-lit novels.' – John Birmingham 'Driving Stevie Fracasso reads as great as the fifth Replacements album sounds. It's a New York–centric, music-obsessive tale of humour and poignancy, the literary equivalent of hanging with folks who think going to church is finding a record fair. A+' – Stuart Coupe An interpreter of the listening experience forced to listen to experience? This novel will be read in between flippin' records. Go for the ride. You'll be spent, you'll be grateful.' – Tim Rogers 'If I could go back in time and take a different fork in the road, I would have lived like Barry Divola. But poor choices can't be unmade, and if Driving Stevie Fracasso is the only ride available I'll take it. Damn you, Barry Divola, you've been having everyone else's fun.' – Malcolm Knox


Boy on Fire

Boy on Fire

Author: Mark Mordue

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Published: 2021-03-04

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 183895371X

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An intensely beautiful, profound and poetic biography of the formative years of the dark prince of rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story, a portrait 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. A powerful account of a singular, uncompromising artist, Boy on Fire is also a vivid and evocative rendering of a time and place, from the fast-running dark rivers and ghost gums of country-town Australia to the torn wallpaper, sticky carpet and manic energy of the nascent punk scene which hit staid 1970s Melbourne like an atom bomb. Boy on Fire is a stunning biographical achievement.


Locust Summer

Locust Summer

Author: David Allan-Petale

Publisher: Fremantle Press

Published: 2021-07-02

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1925816370

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Shortlisted for The Australian Vogel's Literary Award, Locust Summer celebrates the wide-open beauty of Australia's regions while exploring the heartbreaks that come from living on the land. On the cusp of summer, 1986, Rowan Brockman's mother asks if he can come home to Septimus in the Western Australian Wheatbelt to help with the harvest. Rowan's brother Albert, the natural heir to the farm, has died and Rowan's dad's health is failing. Although he longs to, there is no way that Rowan can refuse his mother's request as she prepares the farm for sale. This is the story of the final harvest - the story of a young man in a place he doesn't want to be, being given one last chance to make peace before the past, and those he has loved, disappear.


Nineteen Seventysomething

Nineteen Seventysomething

Author: Barry Divola

Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 9780980637854

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Barry Divola's Nineteen Seventysomething is a requiem for bygone days of nineteen-seventies Australia. In the fictional suburb of Braithwaite, we meet Charlie during the listless weeks of his sweltering summer holidays. Against a background of garage rock, transistor radios and a whole lot of vinyl, Barry Divola deftly evokes that awkward, exhilarating journey from childhood to adolescence. Told with humour, poignancy and authenticity, Nineteen Seventysomething marks the familiar stages of teenage awakening - in friendship, desire and love.


Other People's Houses

Other People's Houses

Author: Kelli Hawkins

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-03-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1460712943

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'A dark, twisting tale of guilt and obsession which will leave you gasping' Petronella McGovern, author of Six Minutes The stunningly tense, page-turning top 10 bestseller for all fans of The Woman in the Window and The Girl on the Train. The perfect house. The perfect family. Too good to be true. Kate Webb still grieves over the loss of her young son. Ten years on, she spends her weekends hungover, attending open houses on Sydney's wealthy north shore and imagining the lives of the people who live there. Then Kate visits the Harding house - the perfect house with, it seems, the perfect family. A photograph captures a kind-looking man, a beautiful woman she knew at university, and a boy - a boy that for one heartbreaking moment she believes is her own son. When her curiosity turns to obsession, she uncovers the cracks that lie beneath a glossy facade of perfection, sordid truths she could never have imagined. But is it her imagination? As events start to spiral dangerously out of control, could the real threat come from Kate herself? 'At times sad and moving [and] the twists come fast. This promising debut novel would be a good recommendation for fans of thrillers and is a confirmed quick and entertaining holiday read.' Books + Publishing 'A clever premise and a troubled narrator set this page-turner up beautifully. I really enjoyed the ride.' Sara Foster 'Taut, smart and immensely satisfying. I was addicted from the first page to the last.' Nicola Moriarty


Hare + Klein Interior

Hare + Klein Interior

Author: Meryl Hare

Publisher:

Published: 2020-05

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781760760441

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Distinguished by an aesthetic of understated luxury and attention to fine detail, Hare + Klein is synonymous with uncompromisingly comfortable, liveable interiors made exceptional by deceivingly effortless styling. Whether it's a stark inner-city warehouse brought to life by contemporary furniture and finishes or a rural idyll seamlessly linked to a gorgeous garden, Hare + Klein's style is unmistakeable. Hare + Klein Interior showcases the signature use of texture, colour and scale in responsive interior design that has defined their practice to date. Featuring alluring photography, architectural sketches, fabric swatches and mood boards for fourteen properties, this, their second book, offers further insight into their design decisions and the stunning, timeless homes that they produce.


She Is Haunted

She Is Haunted

Author: Paige Clark

Publisher: Two Dollar Radio

Published: 2022-05-17

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1953387217

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* Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist * 2022 Stella Prize, Longlist "A Best Book of the Year" —The Guardian "A Most Anticipated book of 2022" —Entertainment Weekly With an unforgettable voice and exuberant wit, She Is Haunted is a masterful debut exploring issues of identity, connection, and loss, told with remarkable grace and assurance by Chinese/American/Australian author, Paige Clark. In stories charged by the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, grief, exes, and the profundities of friendship, She Is Haunted features injured ballerinas, cloned dogs, and competitive call centers in settings as far ranging as future and present Australia, New York City’s Chinatown, and suburban California. A mother cuts her daughter’s hair because her own hair begins falling out; a woman attempts to physically transform into her dead husband so that she does not have to grieve; a woman undergoes brain surgery in order to live more comfortably in extreme temperatures. Braiding the real and the surreal, both playfully witty and deeply insightful, these stories show us characters striving to make sense of the grand themes of family, love, death, and our changing world. She Is Haunted flags Paige Clark as a wondrous and wise new literary talent.


The Bondi Lifesaver

The Bondi Lifesaver

Author: Craig Griffiths

Publisher:

Published: 2019-12-20

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9780648701309

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The story of a rock and roll fun park, much loved by the famous and not-so-famous, told by those who were there, which is tricky because they partied non-stop, rarely slept and brutalised their brain cells. From Bondi Beach to Kings Cross and the CBD there was just too much music to play or hear, too much excess to exceed and too much indulgence to overindulge in. But too much was never enough, and the Bondi Lifesaver was their clubhouse.


The Hush

The Hush

Author: Sara Foster

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 1665106875

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Everything can change in a heartbeat ... The pulse-pounding new thriller from the bestselling author of You Don’t Know Me Lainey’s friend Ellis is missing. And she’s not the only one. It’s been six months since the first case of a sudden epidemic—when a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth—and the country has been thrown into turmoil. The government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens. And several young pregnant women have vanished without trace. As a midwife, Lainey’s mum, Emma, is determined to be there for those who need her. But when seventeen-year-old Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real. The one person who might help is Emma’s estranged mother, but reaching out to her will put them all in jeopardy ... The Hush is a new breed of thriller, an unflinching look at a society close to tipping point and a story for our times, highlighting the power of female friendship through a dynamic group of women determined to triumph against the odds. Book discussion questions are available here: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/www.blackstoneaudio.com/The_Hush_Discussion_Questions.pdf


The Truth About Her

The Truth About Her

Author: Jacqueline Maley

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1460712900

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How can you write other people's stories, when you won't admit the truth of your own? A critically acclaimed, absorbing, moving, ruefully tender, witty and wise novel of marriage, motherhood and the paths we navigate through both, for fans of Ann Patchett and Anne Tyler. 'I loved The Truth About Her. It's an intelligent, compelling, nuanced tale of guilt, culpability, pride, shame and atonement. But most of all, it's a love letter to daughters, from the mothers who raise them. An astoundingly good debut.' Annabel Crabb Journalist and single mother Suzy Hamilton gets a phone call one summer morning, and finds out that the subject of one of her investigative exposes, 25-year-old wellness blogger Tracey Doran, has killed herself overnight. Suzy is horrified by this news but copes in the only way she knows how - through work, mothering, and carrying on with her ill-advised, tandem affairs. The consequences of her actions catch up with Suzy over the course of a sticky Sydney summer. She starts receiving anonymous vindictive letters and is pursued by Tracey's mother wanting her, as a kind of rough justice, to tell Tracey's story, but this time, the right way. A tender, absorbing, intelligent and moving exploration of guilt, shame, female anger, and, in particular, mothering, with all its trouble and treasure, The Truth About Her is mostly though a story about the nature of stories - who owns them, who gets to tell them, and why we need them. An entirely striking, stylish and contemporary novel, from a talented new writer. PRAISE FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT HER 'Heartfelt, funny and will resonate with many readers. This tender, witty and beautifully written novel is for fans of Georgia Blain, Charlotte Wood and Ann Patchett.' Books+Publishing 'An intimate world filled with characters I could have lived with a great deal longer... rewarding, enjoyable and utterly addictive.' Readings 'A stunning novel, sharply observed, beautifully written, enthralling.' Julia Baird 'Read the first sentence of Jacqueline Maley's debut novel, and you will be in it until the end. Electrifying, deeply unsettling and so, so satisfying. And, if you've ever tried to manage the sharp end of a career with the blunt demands of parenthood, fiercely recognisable.' Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss 'I loved The Truth About Her. I could not put it down - whip-smart, sexy and with so much heart - and god, that ending packed a punch. The sort of book that all mothers need to read.' Eliza Henry- Jones, author of In the Quiet and Ache