eBook Listing

Charlie Lansdowne's life is going nowhere... fast. Trapped at home with his eccentric father, Roger, and his stroke-affected grandfather, Frank, he finds life a daily exercise in dysfunction as three generations of men strive to get along. But when Charlie meets the volatile and tempestuous Maxine - a surfer girl who works at the local abattoir - his life goes supernova. Friendships implode, passions ignite and death comes stalking in the night. Pulling Down the Stars is a story about the confusion of love, the longing for reconciliation and the need to pull our unrealistic dreams back down to earth.

Every year for over a decade Goldenberg, a white middle-aged doctor, has spent numerous periods working as a relieving doctor for Aboriginal communities in remote places.

On these visits he has observed and recorded Aboriginal Australians lives without resorting to simplification or glib solutions. Among his true stories we meet psychotic Elijah who believes he is Satan's boss and cannot die; a dehydrated baby whose mother gambles away money for food; an old lady who receives a gashed head while fending off a thief stealing her money - her husband. In the midst of tragedy, suffering and moral ambiguity, these stories also tell of cultural richness and common humanity.

Goldenberg writes: 'Aboriginal Australians are not at peace. They are variously unwell, underfed, overfed, afflicted excessively by our lifestyle diseases, confused by our drugs and drink, endowed with income but not with work, living in sickening poverty in paradisiacal places; and distracted from their serious cultural business by the trappings of our serious cultural emptiness.'

This ebook brings together two of Lurie's novels, the comic "Rappaport", which focused on a day in the life of a young Melbourne antique dealer and his immature friend, Friedlander, and "Rappaport's Revenge" where the characters, transplanted to London, were further chronicled. These are followed by several short stories: "Rappaport Lays an Egg", "The Death of Rappaport", "Dirty Friends", "Rappaport Dragged Over the Coals", "Rappaport Takes Lunch", and "Rappaport and Friedlander Meet in Heaven".

Lian Knight has recreated the amazing life of her grandfather, a war hero. What has been published about him is extraordinary – 2000 newspaper articles, many printed more than a century ago. Yet almost nothing written about him is consistent. The press varied his name, his age, his place of birth, where he lived and what he did. There were whispers that he emerged from poverty, delivering fish before dawn in London’s East End in the markets and laneways of Jack the Ripper’s local haunts, before joining the army at just thirteen. Averse to authority, he was a military superior’s nightmare. He served in South Africa and India before migrating to Australia.

When World War I broke out, he was despatched to the Western Front where, gassed, bombed and working against remarkable odds, he saved the lives of many and was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour. He became legendary, gaining medals and escaping death on numerous occasions. After the war he married and finally returned to Australia. He was famous in England and Australia for his bravery and kindness to his fellow man. Later as a movie star, a politician, a boxer, a celebrated Australian identity and a good Samaritan, his notoriety seemed to know no bounds. Which of these stories were real? A mixture of truth and fantasy has continued to be reported ... until now.

 

‘From page 1 of Ratbag, Soldier, Saint, I entered the magnificent maze of the life of Issy Smith, wonderfully led through that life by Issy’s granddaughter, Lian Knight.’ – General Sir Peter Cosgrove

‘This book brilliantly recounts the unusual life of Sergeant Issy Smith VC, a Jewish war hero of WWI, revealing the many challenges he and his family faced in Australia and England during the war and in the post-war years. A captivating read!’ – MAJGEN (Ret’d), Emeritus Professor Jeffrey V Rosenfeld

Who were the Reds under the bed? Why did ASIO snoop on several members of this migrant family struggling to set up a new life in Australia?

ASIO maintained a vast library of files on half a million citizens, most of whom were never a threat to Australia's security. Through meticulous research, Michael Komesaroff has been able to sift through a multitude of records which were kept on his family, and discover why. This is not only an account of one family's activities, but more broadly, a history of the widespread fear of the presence and influence of communist sympathisers in Australia in the twentieth century.

'A well researched and absorbing record of a respected family, highlighting its pursuit by ASIO. A great read.' - Bernard Rechter, former director of the Monash University Centre for Jewish Civilisation

'Michael Komesaroff's painstakingly researched but entertainingly written book dives deeply into two intriguing worlds - that of his Lithuanian/Ukranian Jewish migrant family, and that of the intelligence bureaucracy that conducted substantial surveillance on a generation of family members. Its focus illuminates - more clearly than many encyclopaedic accounts of the secret world - the dangers of mistaking dissent for disloyalty.' - Rowan Callick, author of 'Party Time: Who Runs China, and How'

An educated girl from a prosperous family in Iraq finds her world turned upside down by circumstances arising from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.

With her young husband she flees first to Iran, then Turkey, experiencing the humiliation, discomfort and powerlessness of being a refugee. She gives birth to a baby boy, lives in a tiny hut with no electricity or running water, tries to protect her baby from hungry rats and attempts again and again to get approval from the UN to migrate.

After years of hardship and persistence, Ibtihal and her small family arrive in Australia, where her youthful ambition leads her to study and later teach art as therapy for trauma.

The book includes photos of the author's story and art work.

John Coleman was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease while studying to be a naturopath, and banished all the frustrating symptoms of this cruel condition from his body ... naturally!

 

His new book equips those diagnosed with the knowledge needed to reverse their Parkinson's disease symptoms and even recover, using completely natural means.

 

Rethinking Parkinson's Disease traces known pathways leading to a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, together with strategies to reverse each pathway. It includes the best evidence from Western allopathic medicine and complementary/alternative medicine in discovering how and why people with Parkinson's develop symptoms, the diagnostic process, standard treatments and prognoses offered by expert practitioners, and ongoing research.

 

The book presents strategies that have been shown, clinically or in research, to improve the health of people with Parkinson's, with the possibility of reversing symptoms. A major section of this work details strategies to create wellness, many available to patients at little or no cost. There are sections on symptom control, complementary medical treatments and therapies to avoid.

 

The book is aimed primarily at people with Parkinson's, families and supporters, and may be used as a self-help book, including advice on building a team of supportive practitioners. There are also suggestions and advice for both Western allopathic medicine and complementary/alternative medicine practitioners to enhance their care of patients with a Parkinson's disease diagnosis, so it may be used as a handbook for practitioners wishing to move away from the standard conservative view of Parkinson's disease as an "incurable" disease.

Ireland, early 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars have ended, leaving an already disjointed country in peril. Maurice O'Dwyer, a young Irishman, considers the lifeless body of an English tithe-collector slain under a rain-filled sky. From that moment it seems his fate is sealed: he and his young simpleton brother, Padraig, are exiled to Australia, An Astráil, to the convict-filled island of Van Diemen's Land - leaving behind his love, his land, and his liberty. However, in the bush Maurice discovers that there are allies in the most unlikely of places.

"With the passion of an activist and the ear of a poet, John Tully constructs his novel out of the differing perspectives of the colonial project, weaving Irish lives and English lives, black experiences and white experiences into a dense tapestry of oppression and the many little resistances it fostered. This is an account of settlement in all its complexity, a multilayered book written with a deep sympathy for ordinary people coping with the collision of very different worlds. It's a text built from parallels, echoes and resonances, a much-needed excavation of a past that still haunts us." - Jeff Sparrow, co-author of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History

This entertaining, quirky yet profound quasi-memoir is full of delightful stories about a determined and loving young English girl who marries a larrikin boy from Bondi. He tells her:

'You'll like it, Rosa, St Kilda's by the beach, we can go swimming. And we can go on picnics, take the Lambretta to visit the Dandenongs.'

Rosa assumed the Dandenongs were 'Mr and Mrs', another of these weird Australian names, didn't sound like a Jewish family ...

As British as Earl Grey tea, Rosa has spent most of her life in Melbourne. Her children and grandchildren are all Australian-born, as was Alan, her writer husband. But Rosa is hesitant about an unconditional commitment to Vegemite, mateship and the ANZAC legend; she remains a perennial migrant, often amused by her memories, here presented with a deliberate overlay of lies and licence.

Her family's history is nearer to Dickens than the shtetls of Eastern Europe; Rosa herself recalls Dunkirk and the Blitz. Beyond the conservatism of 1950s London that she escaped, Rosa flings open the windows and doors to invite the reader into her Anglo-Australian-Jewish family. She refrains from delving into deep psychological examinations of what it means to be an only child, an only grandchild, a reluctant Jewish teenager, and muse to a man whose terrible childhood scarred him for life; the 'clues' are all there for the curious reader to discover.

What do you do when the love you've been searching for your whole life suddenly disappears? You know you’re loved, but you ask yourself, is your lover crazy? Or is it you?

 

Searching for Sophia is a beautifully composed, wonderfully compassionate, and often laugh-out-loud story about two veterinarians operating their practice in a prestigious eastern suburb of Sydney whose lives are turned upside down when an internationally acclaimed violinist from Romania enters their surgery.

 

This is a love story with a difference, leading the Jewish Dr Joe Franken into a dangerous search for love across the world, while his partner, the Anglo Dr Tim Wilde, finds love at home.

 

Searching for Sophia really stands out for the quality of its writing and that all-too-rare gift for comedy that is both humorous and humane.

This is a memoir about the Australian film industry, with inside stories about how films are funded and made, and the problems facing a producer. Sue met and worked with some unforgettable characters, including Sidney Nolan, George Johnston and Charmian Clift, Frank Thring, John Meillon, Graham Kennedy, John Hargreaves, Bryan Brown, Graeme Blundell and Barry Humphries. The book includes a number of black-and-white photos, and a foreword by well known director Bruce Beresford, who has worked closely with Sue.

 

As an adult, Jane Sinclair discovered the exchange of letters from 1961 to 1962 between her parents Jean Langley, artist, and John Sinclair, music critic. Jane was five years old when Jean left her husband and took her to London to be close to her lover.

 

Set in England and Australia, at a time when their friends John and Sunday Reed were high-profile arts patrons at their property Heide during a period of sexual liberation and a flowering of the arts, the complex relationship between Jane’s parents emerges through an exchange of long, often heartbreaking letters and journal entries.

 

The powerful words are strengthened by photographs from that period. The distinctive cover design was painted by the author.

 

Letter from Jean to John, 18 Oct 1961: There is no news except that a shocking little upstart called Brett Whiteley won an important art prize in Paris. There is a beautiful Nolan exhibition on (American Sketch Book). Also on show are some pages of his writings and I was most moved. Charles Blackman has his show in about two weeks.

From the busy marketplaces of pre-war Krakow, Poland, to the horror of the Holocaust and the haven of Schindler's factory, to the apparent peace and safety of a suburban backyard in Melbourne, Australia, this is the story of two sisters who miraculously survived.

Their extraordinary life stories are interwoven with the childhood and later memories of the narrator, Anna, daughter and niece of the two sisters, Hela and Janka.

Through the recollections and dreams of these three voices we learn of worlds and people forever lost, of shattered hopes, of the fragility of survival, and of the power of the human spirit.

Sister Sister was shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Award and the New South Wales Premiers Award in 1998.

All children will be ‘hard work’, ‘difficult’ or ‘challenging’ at times. This book is intended to give you the tools you need to navigate your way through your child’s middle years (ages six to twelve) and beyond with assertiveness, decisiveness, confidence, empathy and compassion.
You will learn how to be a skilful parent and be provided with strategies that have been proven to work. They are not the magic solution to all your difficulties, but rather, a solid set of tools to help you create structure, peace and stronger outcomes for your child over time.

In 2004 the author found a little diary of 386 pages written by a 62-year-old man in a nursing home. This story is inspired by that diary.

E=mc2? Jack Smythe thinks Einstein is wrong and he has a theory to prove it. But he's no physicist. Instead, he's been a homeless kid, a palmreader, a cosmic theorist, a father of two (who probably aren't his) and a devoted companion to his sister Kitty who has her own demons. But now at 62, he wakes after an operation to find he's been placed at Eden, a below-average nursing home.

Here he is confronted by Nurse Stinson, Collier the Hun, Pistol Pete, Skeleton Joe, Dooley the publican, Jim the ex-politician and Jim's rebel granddaughter, among others. He wants nothing to do with any of them.

Instead, with wry wit Jack begins a story about Kitty starting with the day they ran away from home for good. It seems Jack is always running away and ultimately there's a daring escape at Eden. But unknown to Jack, it's the "muddle of geriatrics" at Eden that eventually put meaning in his life.