spenson
Here is my list of great books you can borrow from the library. Email Suzanne to reserve your copy!
Make sure you continue onto page 2 and 3.
Love and redemption underscore the story of how an Australian soldier in World War II united Crete and King Island.
Life of Australian farmers revealed in Deb Hunt’s gripping tales
Greg Callaghan and Ian Cuthbertson AUD $29.99Discount: Price / COM_VIRTUEMART_UNIT_SYMBOL_: Quantity: Download cover The extraordinary story of how the gift of a heart gave meaning to a senseless tragedy and inspired a lifelong friendship between two families. When 20-year-old Australian Doujon Zammit was bashed by bouncers on a Greek island in July 2008, his tragic story made headlines in both Australia and Greece. Doujon had sustained terrible head injuries and would not recover. His grief-stricken parents, Oliver and Rosemarie, honoured Doujon's previous wish to be an organ donor, and Oliver became famous overnight in Australia and in Greece when he announced that Doujon's organs would be donated to Greek recipients.The day Doujon received his fatal injuries was also the day 31-year-old Greek-Australian journalist Kosta Gribilas was given a death sentence in a hospital in Athens. Critically ill with virus-induced heart failure, he was told he had only two weeks to live. Without an urgent transplant, Kosta knew he would soon die. He'd followed Doujon's story on TV, and even as he watched Oliver's emotional announcement, Kosta hadn't thought he might be saved - the doctors didn't want to give him false hope. On 2 August, after an emotional farewell to partner Poppy and his family and friends, Kosta drifted asleep for what he thought was going to be the last time. A day later he woke up with Doujon's heart beating in his chest and the life he'd longed for now ahead of him.Because of the public nature of Doujon's fatal attack, Kosta met Rosemarie and Oliver when they visited Athens. It was to be the beginning of an extraordinary, heartwarming friendship that would sustain both families through the dark days to come - a roller-coaster course of events neither family could have possibly predicted. Through all this, Kosta is constantly reminded of Doujon's remarkable gift: 'How can I ever forget Doujon, when every heartbeat reminds me how blessed I am?'A beautiful, inspiring story about two families united by tragedy and how a selfless and courageous gift of love keeps on giving to this day.
Meet Jake Lever, Peter Wright, Isaac Heeney, Tom Lamb and Clem Smith. In 2015, they played their first game. In years to come, they could become stars. But first they had to be drafted to a club.
I close my eyes and feel my heart begin racing Someone is coming They're going to find me A mother and her teenage daughter are found ...
Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow the...
'this book is very much plot-based, evading the trap of trying to be poetic 'good writing' at the same time as being a gripping, suspenseful thriller'
Three forgotten children are living in the depths of the lawless Walled City, a violent world where drugs, brothels, gangs and mysterious disappearances are the norm. All three are searching for both freedom, and something else very close to their hearts.Dai smuggles drugs for the local trafficker in the hope of an escape from his haunting past. Jin hides from gangs as she poses as a boy to search for her long-lost sister. Mei struggles to escape her brothel prison. Now all three must cooperate to stand any chance of escaping the dangerous city's walls.Before picking this up, I only read the tagline, 'Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife' and I was immediately hooked before opening the cover! As I expected from this, this book is very much plot-based, evading the trap of trying to be poetic 'good writing' at the same time as being a gripping, suspenseful thriller. Because that's what it is! I couldn't put it down from start to finish, despite its other shortcomings, and the tension was never let down at key moments like in many books.
However, I did feel the story was let down a little by the characters. They all had great potential to be really interesting and varied people, especially Jin, who could easily have been a fantastic strong female heroine, but to me the author completely failed to give them any personality. The narration is as a series of chapters told from the point of view of each character in turn, and I often had to turn back to the start of the chapter to find out who was narrating!What I did like, but didn't realise until after I'd finished, was how the Walled City is actually a real place in Hong Kong. I always find it interesting when authors set their stories in real horrific places, and this was no exception. It was well pulled-off too – I really enjoyed reading the cultural descriptions of the food and the city. In lots of books the setting is just a blank slate with a name, but here it felt really real.
Overall, a great thriller which makes a really enjoyable light read when you don't want anything too deep or complex. It's a shame though, since it could easily have been so much more…
The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All are ideas that have revolutionized science—and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven’t stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, bestsellin The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All are ideas that have revolutionized science—and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared.
The surprises haven’t stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, bestselling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery. Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our story of how the cosmos came to be, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines how it’s time to redress the gender imbalance in clinical trials, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out whether the universe really is like a computer or if the flow of time is a mere illusion. (less)
Two buddies who have been throughtrauma together before find themselves with three relative strangers out on theopen Atlantic, where survival becomes extremely uncertain. Matt and John work at a state park,where they meet the three, and are working-class in a way that the others don’tunderstand. Stolid John is mechanically minded and still suffers from the deathof his father years earlier. Matt is determined to get into Yale and puts hisenergy toward saving and studying with that goal in mind. Dark, dreadlockedDriana is visiting the park with her cousin Estefania and Stef’s boyfriend,João. The latter two are from Rio de Janiero and have a carefree aura of entitlement—thoughStef was adopted from the favelas byDriana’s uncle after her mother was gunned down in front of her. Griffinexplores their individual psychologies and interactions with nuance. Stef has areckless streak, and her sudden jaunt on a windsurfer leads the others intodanger as they go to her aid with a small, open boat. With no radio or gear forthe open sea, the craft offers little help for survival as hours, then dayspass, the pressures mounting on each in ways designed to test their limits.While the danger is real, the book’s at its most riveting as the charactersinteract and implode.
Tom Griffiths reviews 'Atmosphere of Hope' (Text Publishing) by Tim Flannery in the 2015 October issue of Australian Book Review
Cowritten by Malcolm ’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook...
Chris Judd’s passion for playing football is something he says he never lost throughout his playing career.
Judd is what can be termed the ‘thinking person’s footballer’. Wh
The initial interest in Peter Garrett's memoir was sparked by the chance it offered to turn over the bones of the Rudd years, but it was music that first brought the author into the public realm, and almost certainly music for which he'll be remembered.
Vega Jane was always told no one could leave the town of Wormwood. She was told there was nothing outside but the Quag, a wilderness filled with danger and death...
It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the...
The Art of Travel Few things are as exciting as the idea of travelling somewhere else. But the reality of travel seldom matches our daydreams. The tragi-comic disappointments are well-known: the disorientation, the mid-afternoon despair, the lethargy before ancient ruins. And yet the reasons behind such disappointments are rarely explored. We are inundated with advice on where to travel to; … Read more
Following his successful Ashes Diary (2013) and bestselling Captain's Diary (2014). Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke presents his third book, .As before, Clarke starts his diary the day before flying out to England via West Indies, reflecting on the most tumultuous season of his life, in which he steered Australia to a World Cup triumph. He then quit as one-day captain and led the nation in its grief over the sudden death of Phil Hughes, the 25-year-old teammate Clarke called 'a brother'.The 2015 Ashes tour is no ordinary odyssey. For Clarke it will likely will be his final Ashes series in England. He is under pressure from selectors to retire and hand the reins to bold young deputy Steve Smith. But Clarke's best cricket has been played with his back against the wall so fireworks on the field and off are a sure thing in this Ashes series.Ashes Diary 2015 will take readers deeper into the inner sanctum than ever before - Clarke will record every day of the Ashes tour and compile a Captain's Dossier on each of the players. Visually this will be the most exciting Diary yet with more of Clarke's own photos in the text design and five pic sections - one for each Test.
is the moment when we do something that's purposeful, powerful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. This book is a...
Whether you are near the top of the ladder or still have a ways to climb, this book serves as an essential guide to help you eliminate your dysfunctions and...
This much-lauded psychological debut features a woman prone to blackouts and drunk dialling. By Suzi Feay
With a new preface by the author • As featured in the upcoming motion picture Everest, starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin...
The US rowing team's victory at Hitler's 1936 Olympics is charted in a dramatic Depression-era account destined for Hollywood, writes Jay Parini
Russell Eldridge's first novel, Harry Mac, is a moving coming of age story set against the turbulence of South Africa's apartheid writes Candida Baker.
Don Watson on the warpath against Worst Words
The compelling new standalone novel from the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of Unseen and Cop Town.With a missing girl in the news, Claire Scott canâe(tm)t help but be reminded of her sister, who disappeared twenty years ago in a mystery that was never solved. But when Claire begins to learn the truth about her sister, nothing will ever be the same.
