The Radio Hour
by Victoria Purman

Martha Berry is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of an army of polite and invisible women in 1956 Sydney who go to work each day without fuss.

Working at the country's national broadcaster, she's seen highly praised talent come and go over the years but when she is sent to work as a secretary on a brand-new radio serial, she finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical and erratic producer, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word 'pregnant' and a motley cast of actors with ideas of their own.

When Martha is forced to rescue the serial from cancellation, she ends up ghost-writing scripts, causing mayhem with management, and creating storylines that resonate with their loyal female audience.

But when she's threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows, or to finally step into the spotlight.

The Studio Girls
by Lisa Ireland

It's 1955, and four young women are living at the Hollywood Studio Club, the famous boarding house for movie hopefuls.

As the 'new Grace Kelly', Julie Newman has been sent to the Club to keep her out of trouble.

For Peggy Carmichael, Julia's roommate, life is not so easy. She auditions constantly but her 'big break' remains out of reach.

Meanwhile, Vivienne Lockhart, the most talented actress of them all, is constantly reduced to 'sexpot' roles. But is she driven by ambition, or by a need to be loved?

Finally, there's aspiring scriptwriter Sadie Shore, who has little interest in fame. Particularly when she becomes the PA of a big studio boss and is exposed to the perils of her friends' dreams . . .   

Sister Viv 
by Grantlee Kieza

Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just twenty-six when Japanese soldiers marched her into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed.

Vivian would be the lone survivor - she commits the rest of her life to a peacetime career to live in tribute to her lost friends.

She would be the first woman honoured for her bravery and service - a country girl who became the highest-ranking women in the army.

For three and a half years Viv was a prisoner of war in a series of brutal Japanese camps where she helped other inmates survive the horror.

For her extraordinary efforts, Vivian was awarded numerous honours, but she never forgot her fallen colleagues, whose lives she paid tribute to with her service to nursing.

It Takes a Town
by Aoife Clifford

Everyone dies famous in a country town, but glamorous Vanessa Walton was a shining star.

A celebrity since she was a child, Vanessa is back on the front page for all the wrong reasons; after a terrible storm she has been found dead at the bottom of her stairs.
 
At first her death seems to be a simple accident, but anonymous letters suggest otherwise – and when 16-year-old Jasmine Langridge claims it is murder, she suddenly disappears.

As the police begin to investigate, secrets are exposed, and friendships unravel. 
 
What happens to a community when murders and abductions sit alongside petty workmates, teenage tribulations and longstanding friendships?

It will take a town to solve this crime, but what will be broken in the effort to piece together the truth?

The Story Thief
by Kyra Geddes

Her family's story made Henry Lawson famous. But was it his story to tell?

Lillian was born in 1892, the same year Henry Lawson wrote 'The Drover's Wife' and cemented his place in Australia's literary canon.

When Lillian reads the short story as a teenager, she is convinced that it is based upon her own family and becomes determined to prove it.

But as the years pass, the truth becomes more problematic, and Lillian must decide what is more important: holding onto the past or embracing the future.

The Story Thief is about mothers and daughters, love, loss and the power of words. Ultimately it is about how each of us must find our own way to live.

Hope
by Rosie Batty

On a warm summer's evening in February 2014, Luke Batty was killed by his father at cricket practice.

It was a horrific act of family violence that shocked Australia.

Following on from her runaway best-seller A Mother's Story, which detailed the lead up to her son's murder, Hope shares what happened to Rosie the day after the worst day of her life and how she reclaimed hope when all hope was lost.

She shares her struggles with anxiety, PTSD, self-doubt and self-loathing and confronting her grief.

She shares the stories of those who have inspired her and given her hope when she needed it most.

Rosie shares how she found light on her darkest days and the hope to carry on.

A Plant Based Farmhouse 
by Cherie Hausler

A book of delicious, nutritious and inventive plant-based savoury and sweet recipes set at Cherie's idyllic Barossa Valley farmhouse, celebrating her joyful approach to food.

Her passion grew when she returned home to the Barossa Valley to settle in an unrenovated 150-year-old stone farmhouse on KoonungaHill.

It's there that she tends a rambling edible garden, turns apples into cider vinegar, makes kombucha, tends her horses, and other animal friends, and nurtures connection through vegan food. 

A Plant-Based Farmhouse celebrates exactly that timelessness, with more than 80 whole food, dairy and gluten-free recipes based on traditional plant-based country foods, along with veg-centric riffs on familiar homestead favourites.

The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt shows how childhood and adolescence got rewired as teens traded in flip phones for smartphones with social media apps leading to time spent comparing oneself to a vast pool of others. 

This shift took place against a backdrop of declining childhood freedom and free-play, as parents over-supervised their children's lives offline, depriving them of the experiences they need to become self-governing adults.

Haidt makes a compelling argument that the loss of play-based childhood and its replacement with a phone-based childhood that is not suitable for human development is the source of increased mental distress among teenagers. 

Drawing on ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research, this eye-opening book is a life raft and a powerful call-to-arms.