AustLit

'The name Gaze brings to mind one of Australia’s most successful sporting families. For decades Lindsay Gaze has been an integral part of Australian basketball, from player to coach, from rookie to seven Olympic Games campaigns. For the first time in Gaze, discover the man, the player and the coach in a memoir that reads as a tribute to the people, the basketball community, the local, national and global fans that supported Lindsay through the years. From his childhood, raised by a devoted mother who instilled in him an incredible work ethic and sense of duty, to a rebellious stint in the army, to his lifetime association with the Melbourne Tigers basketball team as a player and coach, including two National Basketball League titles in 1993 and 1997.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Joe Noonan’s 10 years in the Victoria Police culminated in being seconded onto the Investigation Team for the double slaying of two young policemen in Walsh Street South Yarra. The 1980s in Victoria were some of the most tumultuous years in Australia’s policing history. These stories give a vivid insight into the mind of a most different sort of crime fighter. A straight shooter who doesn't pull any punches and takes more than his fair share. His humour is at times irreverent and almost always self-deprecating but provides a front seat to some of the most dangerous and confronting stories you have read. His real-life description of both events and those involved create a channel to the past without losing any relevance to the present. His uniform years are peppered with some of the most hilarious, tragic and confronting stories of his life on the front line. His rapid rise to detective opened up new levels of danger, controversy and unbelievable tales of policing. Being in the thick of numerous police shootings including Jedd Houghton and Gary Abdullah, living through the aftermath of the Graeme Jensen shooting and life within the Walsh Street Task Force into the reprisal shootings of Constable Tynan and Eyre, Joe Noonan tells his story like none before.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Getting paid to watch sport from the best seats in the house and to chew the fat with sportsmen every day of the week can’t be called a real job — can it? Ron Reed has spent more than 50 years as one of Australia’s leading sports journalists. He has a fascination for the games people play and the people who play them. In particular, the Olympic Games became a passion.

'After attending his first Olympics in person in 1984, Ron decided to attend the Games one last time, in Tokyo 2020, to fulfil what had become a consuming private and personal interest. He had planned to visit the memorial to the victims and survivors of the atomic bombing of the southern city of Nagasaki, the catalyst for ending the Second World War. His father, Private William Cecil Reed, was a prisoner of war in Nagasaki and survived that horrific event when tens of thousands of others did not.

'War Games was to bookend the experiences of father and son in the country that held an unlikely connection for them. Despite the postponed Tokyo Olympics, the book still combines the remarkable war-time experiences of a soldier in World War II with the memorable events, people and sports that have formed the fabric of Ron’s working life. These stories are part of the vast sporting history of a sports-mad nation and while they reach well back into the past that doesn’t mean they are no longer interesting — some are utterly unforgettable.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'This is not a book you read once and toss in the cupboard. This book will become dog-eared and tattered as your re-read it and pass it around. It’s your go-to book to get a great big taste of Australia. And with Muz’s poetry the flavour is always spot on.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'James Kite is a Vietnam veteran. He’s alone and at the end of his life, haunted by his role in the death of a mentally disabled Vietnamese boy during the War.

'Grace Moore spent her teenage years hiding her body before becoming a plus size model and getting the attention she’d always craved. After she’s assaulted during a street robbery, she finds herself in a new battle, with depression. 

'The Soldier is a serving military professional. After a failed suicide attempt, he returns to duty in Afghanistan. One day while on patrol in the mountains, he cradles a local woman as she dies — an event that follows him home to his wife and newborn child.

'James, Grace and the Soldier meet on Anzac Day while watching the dawn service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. Has fate brought them together for one last chance at finding peace?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'After undergoing heart surgery in 2012 and facing his own mortality, Warren Mundine realised he might not get another chance to say what he thought. By that time he had already delivered dozens of speeches and written numerous newspaper articles but he began to write and speak more frequently and truly speak his mind.

'Speaking My Mind is a curated collection of Warren’s speeches and articles since 2012. His writings on Indigenous issues have an overriding theme: self-determination is best achieved when people either create or are given the opportunity to work.

'His writings and speeches cover some of the most controversial and polarising issues in Indigenous affairs including Indigenous recognition in the constitution, the role of education in Indigenous communities, Indigenous enterprises, and changing the date of Australia Day.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'The Forgotten explores an often-overlooked part of Australia’s rich and diverse history – the service and sacrifice of the Chinese Labour Corps who worked under the British and French on the Western Front during the First World War. It puts the story of the Chinese Labour Corps into the broader history of China’s encounters with western European nations since the 1700s.
'A part of that story includes the large numbers of Chinese people who immigrated to Australia during this period. It was the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of these Chinese settlers who volunteered to fight for Australia during the First World War. Those men are the Chinese Anzacs. The Forgotten celebrates the shared history between China and Australia and the combined efforts to promote peace.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'In the years she’s been in public life Christine Forster has stepped out of the shadow of a famous brother and emerged as a local councillor with a national voice.

'This collection of previously published articles and speeches spans those years, starting with her appeal to local Liberal party members when seeking pre-selection to run for City of Sydney Council in 2012 and concluding with an address to the Sydney Institute in late 2019.

'Christine was a prominent campaigner in the battle for same-sex marriage in Australia, advocating from the conservative side of politics for a change which has made our country a fairer place for everyone. Her articles charting the course of what was a personal and hard-fought campaign speak from the heart and reveal that throughout, hers was a voice of reason, respect and empathy.

'Christine’s passion for Sydney and its people is expressed in the broad range of issues she has tackled in both print and in the Council chamber. They reflect her belief that local government must be transparent and accountable, listen carefully to its constituents and deliver good value infrastructure and services. This selection of pieces is testament to Christine’s commitment to ensuring that Sydney cements its place as the world’s best city to live, work and visit.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Welcomed by Phillip Adams as an important Australian memoir full of insight and humour, this is also a story about growing up. It’s the personal journey of a 16-year-old boy starting work in ‘the golden age of journalism’ when reporters worked with hard copy and hot metal and endured a mixture of instruction and reprimand that would be branded today as workplace harassment of the highest order.

'The book’s central theme is a young man’s growing friendship with an eccentric gay Englishman who found sanctuary among hard-nosed, cynical journalists and tough war-veteran printers in an era when intolerance was far more common than inclusion.

'The reader follows the progress of a boy gripped with an intense fear of failure in the first weeks of his probation, to the height of his career as a hardened and experienced newspaper editor confronting the Ku Klux Klan, being threatened by dangerously corrupt police, and breaking international news from the inner sanctum of the Chinese Communist Party.

'Many of the issues in the Colt’s story resonate today and mirror the problems still facing Australian society. Lessons from the past in a sparking narrative which has been endorsed across the political spectrum.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'The Inner Sanctum is a sample of Damon Kitney’s finest catch over a decade of working for The Australian newspaper. It is a product of his firm belief that behind the share prices, EBITDA and endless sanitised investor briefings, it is still human beings that are our leaders. From Mike Cannon-Brookes nursing his children or Malcolm Broomhead, Ray Horsburgh and Kathryn Fagg talking about their cancer battles, to Paul Anderson recalling his wife’s brush with death or Carol Schwartz or David Fox speaking affectionately about their beloved fathers, these are deeply personal stories that had never been told before. 

'Some of the subjects in this book may have more wealth than any of us can ever imagine, run the biggest companies or sit on the most powerful boards in the land, yet they still have their own failings, trials and triumphs. The Inner Sanctum offers a different perspective on some of the nation’s most celebrated leaders of the past decade. They are living proof that power and influence are one thing, but humanity conquers all.

'Damon Kitney has spent two decades in financial journalism, including 16 years at The Australian Financial Review in a variety of writing and editing roles in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth, including five years as a deputy editor of the newspaper.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Newspapers are daily miracles. They start as a book of blank pages and turn into a living, breathing organism full of life, drama, colour, revelation, information and entertainment by the end of the day. No day is the same as the one before.

'Beyond the Newsroom is a collection of Geoff Kitney’s work covering more than 50 years of his career in journalism with newly-written reflections. It starts with the most intimate end of the newspaper business, small, local news, to metropolitan daily news, to national political affairs, and to the great canvass of the world beyond our shores. The majority of his career was spent as a correspondent, remote from the head office, reporting on such events as the Kosovo War.

'Geoff’s career spanned arguably the greatest era of Australian newspaper journalism. A career path that is almost impossible to contemplate now in the changed and rapidly transforming media world. He is one of a dying breed.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'A poetic celebration of Australian Rules Football in all its glorious incarnations, from the tip of Tasmania to the Tiwi Islands, from the opening bounce of the season through to the seagulls descending onto the G at the conclusion of the Big Dance.

'It's all in here: the dashing half-back flankers, the crumbing forwards, the desert flyers and the mongrel punts. Damian Balassone casts his eye on the great Australian game with this quirky collection of quatrains and couplets.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''I'm just a prisoner of my past. I don't want to be a prisoner any more.'

'Natasa Christidou's earliest memory is of her father masturbating over her childhood bed. She was two. It was the start of a lifetime's physical abuse and psychological torture, which included long phases of sex slavery and sex work, institutional neglect and brutal imprisonment.

'Aged fifty, Natasa decided to tell her story. Gideon Haigh listened. The result is a compelling work of investigation and reportage of the silent crime of incest - usually so confronting, so taboo, that we prefer to look away, because of the social sanctity of 'the family'.

'Today, Natasa lives in a tiny unit in Morwell. She is agoraphobic, vision and hearing impaired, stricken with incontinence, insomnia, panic attacks and back pain as a result of her experiences. Only with the help of a dedicated group of care workers, counsellors and lawyers has she made it so far. She is also a warm, gentle and funny woman whose survival testifies to the resilience of the human spirit.

'This Is How I Will Strangle You takes the reader behind the headlines and hysteria around child sex abuse, and reinforces an uncomfortable truth: that women and children are sometimes safer on the street than in their own homes.'

Source: publisher's blurb

'Including Rain From Nowhere and Turbulence

'Muz Hartin takes the Australian craft of bush poetry and catapults it into the 21^st century. This collection of poems and newspaper columns will have you laughing one minute and choking back tears the next. But mostly you’ll be laughing – a lot.

'As a jockey, Joe Agresta only had 15 rides. Although he was a selfdescribed 'terrible jockey', he loved horses and felt he had plenty left to offer the racing industry. He started to ride quarter horses and became a champion and a legend in that sport. In 1980 he started working for Bart Cummings.

'There have not been many horsemen with the talent of Bart Cummings. Joe worked at his stable for 34 years and witnessed the master at work. His job was to ride Bart's horses in work, follow his or his foreman's instructions, and report back on how they were handling. Occasionally he was asked for his two cents worth; sometimes he gave his opinion for free. But he must have done something right, because he outlasted just about everyone else who ever worked for Bart. This is his story.

'Trackrider is a glimpse behind the stable door, full of Joe's stories of the day to day life of a trackrider, as well as the lessons Joe learned from Bart and his fellow riders, including Roy Higgins, Harry White and Robert (Bob) Ball. Charting the ups and downs of three decades in racing with Bart, from being broke to winning Melbourne Cups, Trackrider is an ode to one of the sport's most enduring partnerships and is an intimate look at Joe's career and his life with one of horse racing's greats.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When Darren Hodge was a kid, a big, white, sleek ambulance squatted like a lion in the driveway next door, always ready to go, and sometimes it did, roaring down the street. Today, he is a MICA Flight Paramedic with decades of varied experience in ‘a life of extremes’ in an Australian ambulance service. He does shifts at base on-call, and teaches another generation of paramedics now. He loves his job.

'A list of well-known events that includes Victoria’s Black Saturday Fires and the 2005 Bali Bombing – he was trying to get married when that call came in – marks two dark extremes. Technical matters – trauma treatment decisions, and the limits of aviation, for example, are explained. And this book includes the little things like the time the supermarket aisle was alive with the sound of music from an ex-patient’s kid’s lips: ‘Thanks for looking after Daddy.’ Darren couldn’t have put it better himself, and it made his heart sing.

'Collected here is the living history of the Vietnam War; the stories, yarns, reflections, anecdotes and more of the men and women who experienced the war firsthand. It was the war that divided not just South East Asia, but also the United States, Australia and other allies. Vietnam: Our Stories tells the history of the war through the eyes of those who lived it, and includes funny, wry, sombre and powerful memories, insights, untold tales and thoughts that reflect what the 50,000 Aussies who went to Vietnam went through.

'Many histories are told through the memories of top brass but Vietnam: Our Stories is a dinkum account that as near as possible captures the spirit of Vietnam Diggers as the war retreats from the memory of some people, but remains alive to so many others. Ken Foster and Kevin Childs want to preserve those memories and the spirit of Aussie mateship in the best way possible in this tribute.' (Publication summary)

'Smart, idealistic and motivated, Jen the law student intends to make a big splash as a criminal lawyer. A bit of upmarket prostitution pays her way through University and leads her to Harry, cannabis dealer and playboy who turns her world upside down. When Harry’s multi-million-dollar payout is ripped off by corrupt cop Roger “Raindrops” Reiner, Jen becomes his willing ally chasing the cash.

'Together they must deal with the vicious Reiner; sleazy middleman Charlie Prentice; powerful Chen; erotic Jasmine; nightclub artist Eduardo; and Chatabul, the charismatic master crook. The money trail leads from Sydney’s streets to a secret estate on the North Queensland coast, and finally Hong Kong. Meanwhile, their relationship blossoms – and stumbles.

'The stakes are high and the adrenalin turns Jen’s idealism to pure ambition as she learns her biggest lesson: everyone is a liar, a user – and morality is highly subjective.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Torch Collection showcases extraordinary artworks by Indigenous men and women who have come in contact with the criminal justice system in Victoria. The artworks express resilience, strength, the importance of cultural connection and the hope of a better future.

'This collection of artworks confirms the transformative effects and healing power of art and culture for Indigenous offenders and ex-offenders.

'The focus of The Torch is the role of culture and cultural identity in the rehabilitative process of Indigenous offenders. With its focus on cultural strengthening and building sustainable post release pathways, The Torch hopes to address the disproportionately high rates of Indigenous recidivism by increasing the participation of prisoners and former prisoners with the arts industry. The Torch plays a signifi cant role in reconnecting Indigenous prisoners with their culture through art. The program recognises Indigenous people's wisdom and knowledge and encourages self-determination and autonomy. The Torch is helping to realise the changes necessary to break the cycle of reoffending.'  (Publication summary)