Cirrus@Austlit

'In 2017 Vivienne Cutbush visited Rocky Cape for the first time. pinmatik. She stayed in a park ranger shack, took a bundle of books to read and sent postcards to old friends and new strangers. Fragments of text. A poesis of thought around language and writing and how place is felt where history and dirt gets under the skin. This is Postcards From Rocky Cape.'

Source: The People's Library.

'In 1805, Anglican minister and magistrate, Robert Knopwood, was granted 30 acres in Hobart’s Sullivan’s Cove. The land was subdivided into residential plots and with the building of Mulgrave Battery in 1818, the locality became known as Battery Point. From its beginnings as a home to a mix of wealth and poverty, wharf labourers, whalers, boat-builders, merchants and factory owners – more recently a pleasant, leafy suburb, Battery Point has been a vibrant and mostly close-knit community for over 200 years. Home And Hearth: Stories Of A Battery Point Cottage is a collection of fictional stories about the people and the place over those two centuries.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'‘If I had a wooden ruler I would write your name on it …’

'This collection of short poems by Shelley O’Reilly is about desire and infatuation, the vicissitudes of daily life, schooling, and the processes of mourning. Poems about obsession yield to revelations about the beauty found in everyday life which then give way to consideration of the common disasters that plague us. If I Had A Wooden Ruler And Other Poems are self-deprecating, humorous, sometimes plaintive, poems about love, death, yearning and the human condition. The tone is light and the experiences are universal but rendered in uniquely tender, wry and spiky verses.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Mark’s world is interrupted by a phone call and he soon finds himself sitting beside his grandmother in an intensive care ward, their time spent together reflecting on her life, people and places. Mona Jean traces the lives, challenges and relationships of this family and draws a distinctly different picture to that of the author’s protected childhood.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Rafting! A Wheelchair Won’t Stop Us! is for children from 10 years old up to young teenagers. The book is a fun story about friendship with Trent, a school kid who is in a wheelchair, and the challenges that the able-bodied friends face trying to include him in a rafting trip. All of the friends work together to help their friend with a disability to experience going rafting for the day.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When you’re motivated, an almost magical thing happens – you feel as if you can take on the world, and beat it too! Unfortunately, that sort of motivation can quickly evaporate. However, different people down the ages have discovered ways to not only get motivated, but most importantly, to stay motivated. In Motivation Checklist A–Z, Tony Stevenson reveals some of those people’s motivational secrets.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a series of ornate rustic recreational huts were built by enthusiastic young Hobart men and women on the lower slopes of kunanyi/Mount Wellington. They were artistically crafted and were further beautified by the addition rustic arbours, summer houses, bridges, gardens, and bush furniture, all built by the hospitable and generous hut owners.

'The Huts Of kunanyi/Mount Wellington draws on newspaper accounts, postcards, and photographs that still exist today. A testament to their short time of fame, Maria Grist has written this book in the hope that this romantic episode of our mountain’s history should not be forgotten.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Shooting From The Lip is a series of personal essays, poems and snippets of thoughts. In this book, Suzy let her mind loose to winnow through, worry about, obsess over, gloss over and double-back on any and every topic it fancied, and recorded it. It’s a kind of truth about daily things, cities, love, dogs, hair, dehydration, bodies, people and troubles. It’s unguarded and sometimes incomplete. These are some things the author felt she could tell you and some things she couldn’t.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Daisy struggled all her life to come to terms with the crime her father committed against her. She believed it started her on a roller coaster ride so frightening, she couldn’t get off. Finally, over 30 years later, she found the courage to tell her story. Crimes Of The Father is a true account of brutal assault hidden in a fictitious story to help battered women everywhere know they are not alone. They can survive.'

Source: The People's Library.

'2020 A Land Of Confusion is a dystopian future sci-fi, set in the year 2020. Amongst the action of a third world war, a rebel, wearing a demon mask uses guerrilla warfare across the globe to fight the oppressive faction known as the foundation. Can the rebel stop the war by inspiring masses of people to think for themselves and stand up for their own freedom? This futuristic book by Adam Brooks reflects many of the same themes as George Orwell’s 1984.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Set in contemporary times in far Western NSW and also southern Tasmania, Mercy is an exploration of human relationships, guilt and redemption, dementia and ageing through the voice of Bella Gordon. Bella relives her life, her loves, losses and her wrong turns in the confines of a nursing home. Mercy is a unique combination of rural and literary fiction which embodies the Australian landscape and the human condition.'

Source: A Published Event.

'Sifting through her father, artist Terry Woodward’s, studio, Margaret Woodward and her siblings found amongst the books, colour wheels, and jars of ‘wax vehicle’; the original drawings and writings from his 1976 self-published book, John Olsen’s Notebook. Terry and John Olsen met in Campbell Town, Tasmania, when in 1969, 1975 and 1976, John led residential Summer Schools for artists sponsored by Adult Education, Tasmania. Terry had an immediate affinity for John’s interest in eastern philosophy, knowledge of art, love of poetry, cooking and life in general. John Olsen's Notebook was based on Terry's notebooks, kept from the Campbell Town years.'

Source: A Published Event.

'In Waking The Past, ex-foreign correspondent Danni Knight has quit her job reporting from war zones around the world and is now happily settled into a restful life in Sydney. She has supportive friends, a loving boyfriend, and a stress-free job as a writer for a popular magazine. However, memories of her former traumatic life resurface after she discovers Sydney painter Brindsley Butterworth’s bloodied body in his studio. Danni becomes obsessed with researching the life and death of the charismatic self-centred painter and is in danger of losing both her sanity and her life before she discovers the murderer’s identity.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Megan and her friends are Branded, a group of people who have been marked for special powers they don’t know they possess. Away on an island, with the help of four trainers, they learn what their powers are and how to control them. Everything seem pretty okay, right? Wrong. On a government level, things have taken a turn for the worse concerning the ‘Branded’. Megan and her friends are stranded on yet another island when three undercover agents sabotage the base. With the help of Ryn, a tech genius and other friends, Megan prepares to battle for the ‘Branded’.'

Source: A Published Event.

'Reflecting on his school years in the late 1940s, his National Service in an infantry regiment of the British army and his time as a police constable with the Liverpool City Police (UK) from 1958 until he emigrated to Tasmania in 1970; the stories in I Remember When … encompass a lifetime of memories. The police stories are as true as Ken Baker can remember them. Some of the others are fiction.'

Source: The People's Library.

'A female body is washed up on a beach, alive but suffering from memory loss. She settles in a small coastal community begins to make a life for herself while waiting for memory to return. Following partial return of memory Jemima returns to her life as Althea St John but she has changed. The changes lead her to take steps to escape the constraints imposed by her husband. Reason To Believe explores themes of memory, physical, financial and emotional abuse, survival and personal discovery, as the reader follows Jemima/Althea from rock bottom to self realisation and independence.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In The Carnival: A Medley Of Short Stories, Gladys Conry knits together a lifetime of riches. Life, like a carnival, is full of ups and downs, laughter and fear. Sometimes almost spinning out of control, time stretches and time flies by.

'All stories have a beginning. But where does each start? One incidence influences the next and the next, and people react and adapt to the different circumstances. Most stories are just a chapter in this string of events. All of the people Gladys has met or heard about have touched her heart in some way, influencing how her fictional characters feel and react. In this book, no one is real, but a part of everyone is real. They are here to share their stories.'

Source: A Published Event.

'What Is A Disability? has been created for children in the 5–10 age group to get an insight into what a disability is, and to try and break some of the misconceptions and barriers about people with disabilities. The book talks to children about a range of different kind of disabilities and the way to treat people with disabilities. It is written in the hope that it will help to prevent bullying of children with disabilities in schools.'

Source: A Published Event.

'In The Stars In Her Hair, after her best buddies die in a suspicious fire, a geek girl goes interstellar to track down their killer and ends up saving the galaxy from his evil plans.'

Source: A Published Event.

'Charles: A Children's Tale is an old-fashioned children’s fable. A story of redemption as Charles, our hero, once arrogant and proud, finds humility, maturity and love in the most unlikely places.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Missing and Other stories contains forty five stories with a rich variety of styles and subject matter. The book contains some speculative fiction set at various points in a possible future that often seems close to our present world. Meet a range of characters, Debenham’s Santa, Topper Taylor, and Gabriella Faveretto and believe every word of the MP for County Wexford.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Uncle is the story of five-year old Joe and his Great Uncle Henry. Suddenly banished to spend a summer with this unknown relative, Joe finds not the ‘mad’ man his mother predicted, but his first true boyhood friend. Over the next ten years Joe and Uncle enjoy superb summer holidays of fun, adventure, learning, inspiration and exploration, which act as a buffer to the other events happening in his life; the death of his Father, his mother’s remarriage and his long, lonely school years.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the dead of winter, you bear witness to an horrific event. For over a decade this story will possess you in ways you could never have imagined. With help, you realise you must write the ending of the story for yourself. Baby Steps is this story.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Have you ever lost your vehicle in a carpark or swum with the tide in Swansea? Reading Not Quite, Demelza’s first book of poems, is comparable to eating a bag of mixed lollies with your eyes closed – you can never be sure whether the next bite will be sweet or chewy. Her poems are not only eclectic in content but also in style. Demelza draws from personal experience to reflect her busy life with humour and heartache touching on many of the basic subjects which affect us all. From birth to burial there’s a poem in here for all ages.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Our world has lost its innocence. Kindness is now considered a weakness. Our earth is angry. Words And Thoughts is a book of poems by Mary Direen. Her powerful reflections might make you think, smile or even shed a tear. From innocent babblings to the collective thoughts of many, Mary’s poems resonate that power can be just a word.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Floundering is a collection of six short stories and one non-fiction piece, all inspired by Cradle Mountain in Tasmania’s World Heritage Wilderness Area. All of the stories are in some way about people floundering through life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Three strangers in the Solomon Islands, tracing three circles. A seafarer who reads the future from the stains of her menstrual blood. A writer haunted by botanical ghosts, living with her family in a lagoon. An ageing painter whose hair has a psychokinetic mind of its own. This is where they intersect, and form their Accidental Coven.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Naivety, ignorance, openness, call it what you will, there is always a degree of just that required to hear the call into the unknown of any great task or journey. In this beautiful collection of short stories evoked from memory, Naomi Howard pulls on one of the threads that make up the fabric of her extraordinary life. The journey is both literal and spiritual as she is led around the world by a tall ship, then brought home to the heart of her beloved country by those who became her Indigenous Australian family. All One is part ripping yarn of adventures on the high seas, part memoir and part spiritual journey in which one non-Indigenous Australian finds her sense of belonging and her way to live on Aboriginal land.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Because I Made Her Happy I Said is the first book of short stories by Australian poet, writer and psychologist Lyndon Walker. It traces the developmental narrative of a narrator who can change gender according to the needs of each story. From the age of four in The Drive; through adolescence, in According To Need; through young adulthood in Christmas On Mercy Street, The Factory, and Twistin’ By The Pool; to a supposedly wiser and more mature persona in the essay Alice Springs, Australia’s Irony Theme Park and the title story, Because I Made Her Happy I Said.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A Little Book Of Short Tall Stories is collection of short stories that blur the line between the world of the real and of the imagined. Drawing on the tradition of fairy tales, magical realism and science fiction, each story invites the reader to suspend their credulity and embark on a series of journeys that range from the conception of being to the end of life and of the universe itself. En route the reader will encounter infant angels, magic foxes, child prodigies, mischievous leprechauns and extra terrestrial shopkeepers. Warning: Happy-ever-afters may few and far between!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It is the morning of the Sculptor’s execution. The unnamed narrator has come for her heart, which she’s hidden in a glass jar beneath a loose floorboard in the local chapel. It still beats and seems to be growing. As the funeral procession winds through the city, the narrator recounts the story of her work at the city’s bathhouse, and the different kinds of love she holds for the Sculptor and the Gravedigger. All the while she asks: What is love? Against a backdrop of civil revolt against the city’s duplicitous mayor, The Fetish tells a story of love, ambition, art, loneliness and the eternal struggle between security and desire.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In A Mountain Life, author Rusty Rowsell describes a lifetime of mountain adventures. In his 21st year, relying on his natural instincts, Rusty began leading eager friends around the wild High Drakensberg of Natal, for which only the most meagre detailed information was available. He became active in the Western Cape ranges and the Transvaal. These accounts are detailed from an endless memory of passes, shelters, climbs from earliest days in South Africa, abroad, until his recent adventures in Tasmania. The author was an active member of the South African Mountain Club which was responsible for training and rescue and other mountain services.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Discover the keys to happiness and inner peace in A Soulful Journey. Ten chapters enriched with advice and shared stories of spiritual awakenings, miracles, discovering happiness and other soulful practices to be entertained by and to learn from. Learn how to live with happiness and peace in your heart, by integrating various practices in to your life. This self-help book is designed to give guidance to anyone who is questioning the meaning of life, wanting to discover their soul purpose, wanting to bring more happiness and meaning into their life, in a light, easy to read and likeable way. This book is your personal guide to finding the real you.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The earth is flooded with mysterious water full of time; every drop has centuries in it. Below the water millions of years have passed and a new world has evolved, where lovesnails play in clitaweeds, and merfolk live happily together. In Bone Harps, five human beings survive the floods and go on to weave their twisted tales across the universe, and beyond.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'They say Henry is a changeling. Through his synesthetic senses tumble a 1860s rioting with superstition, laced thick with the specters and jetsam of Old Hobart Town. When the barrister’s son Arthur comes into his life Henry learns that life can be dandelion yellow, cracking its way through the cobbled paths of gossip and hypocrisy. Through this arterial-deep friendship Henry will learn he is the rag and bone man, a collector of thought rags, a player upon hollow bones. Lee Morgan’s The Rag And Bone Man is an adult fairytale about the unfinished business of stories, and the people who get lost beyond the suspension dots of history.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Small thoughts rise swiftly, like sparks from a campfire, and soon disappear. Unless they are written down. On Living Joyfully is a book of small thoughts.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In Resurface, a troubled young woman struggles to adjust to the realities of adulthood, haunted by her beautiful, disastrous past. Memories flood back to her as she pieces together the dark fragments of herself and her childhood while attempting to discover meaning in an isolating city.

'A tight-knit coastal town. Relationships, disaster, laughter. Cigarettes and scars. Broken glass and broken hearts. A mysterious gypsy named Jupiter. A sun-kissed boy with wild dreams. Wood smoke, magic and the sea.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Studio Notes is a collection of short poetic prose writings and images that have emerged from Christl Berg’s arts practice. These texts and pictures do not want to be illustrative of each other, but rather speak in a relational manner – of observations, reflections and meanderings of body and mind.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Styx And Stones tells the story of Haedyn, the young leader of Styx, a thriving desert community beset by roaming violent gangs and rivers of lava. He’s sacrificed much to be a leader and keep his people safe, so he thinks he should be allowed to visit his sister in the land of Elend. On his return journey, he meets a runaway, and agrees to escort her back to Styx. But Vida is not an ordinary runaway and she will challenge everything Haedyn believes about being a leader, and the life he thinks he deserves to live.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'‘The whole thrust of this investigation is to go underground.

'I’m going underground

'The Ross Bridge in Tasmania, with its 186 voussoirs carved in high relief, is unique in the world. In 1842, 12 characters carved into the stone are seen through the eyes of ticket-of-leave lag, Tom Herbert. He has walked to Ross to celebrate legendary sculptor, Dan Herbert’s, freedom. Memory of master mason, James Colbeck is being cast off. Architect, artist and convict superintendent, Charles Atkinson is dead, scorned and forgotten. He had arrived in 1833, seeking fame. Perhaps the bridge is a monument to his grandiose gothic vision. In The Ross Bridge: A Cast Of Characters, author Jennie Jackson unfolds the place, art and mystery of an unconventional historical narrative.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Australia has experienced many tsunamis and one rolled across Sydney Heads 500 years ago. Add another 50 lesser ones since European settlement, and only the timing is uncertain for the next big one.

'Out Of Control is an extreme yachting story where romance meets a tsunami off southern Tasmania. An inheritance has enabled Tim Grantley to buy a small yacht and escape a rocky marriage. He is now also caught by the problems of survival. For Morris, a charter skipper, events spiral out of control in Port Davey.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Wildness is a collection of writings about wildness, from the author’s childhood until the present day.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ivory Black is a swatchbook, a checkerboard map in shades of black and white. It’s a travelogue and history, both natural and unnatural; a menagerie with elephants, zebras, penguins and polar bears. There are memories of ebony, bitumen and ‘blanje’. It’s a ‘how-to’ of drawing with charcoal on paper, of printing with bone black ink. You’ll find musings on Malevich and Rothko, and questions: is a panda black or white? Is there a blackest black? ... A whitest white? It’s a garden where willows and tea-trees grow, where ravens mock and doves purr. And there’s Liquorice and Moon Dust ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'How Sweet It Is invites a journey of self-discovery with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. This is a book for children and above. As this tale unfolds we travel from the world of the smallest creatures on the planet then cross over to a human environment. A story of friendships and sacrifice, focusing on the calm observation of nature with plenty of fun on the way. Plus a few surprises! Journey away from the intrusion of flickering screens and join me as we embark on a trip … to our own backyard!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Always on the lookout for a thread to be woven into a mystery story, the writer overhears a conversation on a train on her way to Cornwall. This is the beginning of the murder mystery which will be unravelled. Snooping is what the writer and her travelling companion do best. The quaint Cornish village of Redruth is the backdrop to a murder of which the residents are unaware, even the local police are sceptical of the facts before them. The true facts are revealed by the sleuthing duo.

'Double Trouble is just the beginning of more plans and plots to come, the writer has the ability to pick up on the scent of a story and leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of the truth.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In most tales of selkies it is a woman whose magical skin is stolen, who is forced to marry the lucky thief and live a life of misery, pining away for her home in the sea.

'But what if the stolen skin belongs to an infant, taken before they have memory of life under the waves?

'When Myna’s labour results in a disfigured infant, it doesn’t take much for the midwife to convince her husband the child needs to be dealt with. Years pass, and a healthy child is born. But just as Myna’s life is settling into place, she learns her first-born is still alive, that she and the child are selkies.

'Myna has a choice, retrieve her skin and return to the ocean, to the family she never knew and the daughter she’s long grieved for, or remain on land with the husband she loves, and the daughter who can never enter the sea.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Set in Tasmania, Jandy is a book of stories relating to the family of Jan Wilson, describing the events of their lives. Some stories date from an era when the world was a very different place to what it is now. There is sadness in some tales and comedy in others. This book is an attempt to record Jan’s memories for future generations.'

Source: The People's Library.

'An Extraordinary Excursion is author Lynne Maher’s reflections of a year’s volunteer teaching in a boarding school in the far‑flung east of Bhutan. Working in a village at the end of a road with more packhorse traffic than motor vehicles might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Bhutan, a country where Gross National Happiness and Buddhist principles underpin beliefs and routines, is capable of working its way into one’s psyche and establishing itself there. This is a very special country, capable of changing values and perceptions.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In Chaos in the Cookhouse, Tasmanian Kylie Whiddon, has just arrived in the outback as the newest recruit of the Outback Detective Police Department, formed by the conservative federal government to fight crime in remote Australia.
'Within minutes of arriving, Kylie is on her first case. Shearers' cook, Raelene MacKennel, has been found dead in the cookhouse at Desert Downs, her head caved in with a cast iron skillet. As the investigation progresses, Kylie struggles to find a motive. Roger the Rousie and Trevor the wool presser, appear to have been in the wrong place at the right time. But why would Frank the Barefoot Shearer want to kill Raelene? And what does property owner, Mitch have to do with the shearers' dead cook?' (Publication summary)

'The Snake Around My Heart: A Memoir Of Adoption And Rediscovery, is a moving and often humorous account of one woman’s reunion with her son, and with herself.

'Winter 1969: In Sydney, Lee contemplates her future as she sits in her high school hall watching Neil Armstrong take man’s first step on the moon. She hasn’t told her parents yet that she’s pregnant.

'Winter 1992: In Oyster Cove, Tasmania, Lee, now a single mother with a seven-year old daughter, is reeling from two recent setbacks in her life. She receives a late-night phone call that will shake up her world even further and make the next nine months of her life very interesting.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Short & Not Always Sweet reflects a lifetime of experiences through poetry and prose, of an 85 year-old woman who never intended to say, ‘if only …’ It was Gough Whitlam who gave Mary Jenkins a chance to be educated. She was in her 70s when she completed a PhD. This followed working as a model and brothel investigator in London; an au-pair in France; lover and mother in Sweden; associate builder: Cohousing, Hobart; a casual lecturer; and, finally, a home builder in Cygnet, Tasmania. These experiences have all affected her life and writing.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Life is a mixed salad, chopped, raw and bittersweet. Stories, like lettuces, unfurl to reveal their delicate hearts. Ensalada Mixta is a collection of short stories and vignettes from three Tasmanian writers.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Lou Cunningham lived with her family on a bush block by the sea in Tasmania, Australia. She worked as an early childhood teacher. When she was in her early 40s, after a traumatic divorce, and when her two sons left home, she changed direction and took up a teaching position in the jungle in Kalimantan, working for an Australian mining company. She worked overseas in international schools for 15 years living in Kalimantan, West Papua, Hungary, China and Germany. She travelled widely, often solo, always seeking adventure. After 15 years she returned to her home by the sea. Because I Can: One Woman’s Journey is the story of her journey.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Part deeply personal memoir and part social history, Firsthand is a story of the radical changes of our time from the viewpoint of a passionate partisan.'

Source: The People's Library.

'WHO! WHAT! WHEN! & WHY! Making Sense of Contemporary Art is a how-to book for anyone interested in art, but who may be confused, sceptical or downright dismissive of contemporary art’s more challenging manifestations. The book describes an easy-to-use ‘code’ for tackling contemporary art without the need for prior knowledge or lengthy artist statements. In doing so it provides an alternative to judgement that is often the endgame of looking at art but which doesn’t work for contemporary art that is a bit off putting at first glance. Readers can enact and test the code through the prisms of famous controversial artworks as well as works by significant Tasmanian artists.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Stewart Hiller was born in Devonport, Tasmania, on 18 July 1924. Some Lifetime Memories is the story of his life, intended to offer his descendants some idea of the living standards, social and technological changes experienced throughout the author’s lifetime.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'My House In Inveresk is a novella which tells the story of Launceston in the last century, full of history, adventure and fantasy.

'One day Polina finds a book in the old wash-house behind her home in Inveresk, Launceston. She starts reading it and falls asleep. When she wakes up, she finds herself at the end of 19th century, where her house belongs to someone else. Not far from the house is the Tasmanian Exhibition, where she meets Professor Seymour Hale, and his revolutionary Tellurian Machine which, as she soon discovers, can travel in parallel Universes.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Why did the old fairy pronounce to Sleeping Beauty’s folks that spinning would be the death of her? Did it have something to do with spinning hemp for merchant ship sails? What did cutting an apple in half and sharing it with a young woman really mean to Snow White’s step mother? What does climate change have to do with Hansel and Gretel? And hiding Rapunzel away in a tower might seem excessive to us, but was there another side to the story? Another side to history? Perhaps these yarns need to be spun again, and this time woven differently. Welcome to Reweaving The World.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Sammy The Seal has lived at the Hobart Constitution Dock for many years entertaining the locals and tourists and feasting on the fish thrown to him by local fisherman. He is both a friend and an icon. This is the story of his journey to Hobart and the legacy he has created for its people and surrounding sea-life.'

Source: The People's Library.

'The Red Beanie And Other Stories is a collection of tales of people at crossroads in their lives. A teenage boy who has, by default, the responsibility of caring for his mentally ill mother. A young woman who inherits upon the passing of her grandfather. A working man who’s facing the possibility of being an alcoholic. An ageing farmer having to decide what to do with the property after years of drought. What would you do?'

Source: The People's Library.

'An Alphabet Of Banksia serrata is part of an art-based research project on and around the Banksia serrata population in the Rocky Cape National Park, on the north coast of Tasmania. The writing is drawn from the author’s field observations of Banksia serrata, the environment they live in, and of herself coming into relation with the trees through drawing and writing.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Isaac knows his world is slowly dying, but being recruited by a band of outlaw activists relying on the theories of a potential madman proves it’s not the only thing to know.

'An Aptitude For Error reveals a world plagued by the mistakes of humanity. Countries that can afford to do so, have taken their resolve to ignore the problem of climate change a step further. For the sake of lifestyle, some put in place a ban against seeking solutions to global warming, and even talking of it is risky. As younger generations are brought into a blindfolded society, deceit becomes fact.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Veil Of Iron begins with the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. A group of friends hurry to volunteer. War takes Svetlana on a bloody road to fame as a sniper. Stepan joins Stalin’s NKVD, already known for its enforcement of communist rule. For Valentina war means a posting as a medic to Murmansk in Arctic Russia, where she has a wartime romance with Ronnie, a British Royal Navy officer. Victory, when it finally comes does not mean peace for the survivors. As the Iron Curtain descends across Europe and former allies become enemies, friends and lovers will be divided.'

Source: The People's Library.

'‘Live for today and not for tomorrow and remember that life is but a moment so make it one hell of a ride.’

'In Here And Now, Farah falls through the Underground, setting in motion a love story made for the big screen but with a twist. Ana must choose between the life she knows and one of mystery. Ray’s life is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a letter on his daughter’s first birthday. In light of this collection it is easy to see life really does look better in the here and now.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Wit’s End is a recollection of 40 years of holidays enjoyed by four generations of family and friends at a family shack situated in the Bay of Fires on Tasmania’s beautiful East Coast. Built in 1963, this quaint, humble abode provided a treasured haven to unwind and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, away from the stresses of everyday existence. Without the distractions of modern technology, precious times were spent enjoying the stunning natural wonders of this unique part of the world. Leonie Crowden’s book is an attempt to ensure memories remain for all who had the pleasure of holidaying within the comforting walls of Wit’s End.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On Southern Islands consists of over 60 small stories and a large number of black and white photos, sketches, and a few lino-cuts. They are souvenirs of times spent on three subantarctic islands; Macquarie, Heard Island and South Georgia; over three and a half decades between 1979 and 2014. The stories appeared from the author’s head, referring only to her field notebooks, diaries and journals later to get the chronology of her visits to the islands in the correct order. These memories had been sitting there in her head all along, waiting to come out.'

Source: The People's Library.

'After his family is murdered for reasons unknown to him, amidst the return of a life-altering storm, William becomes determined to kill the man that robbed him of everything. Carry Me West is the story of William’s vendetta, leading him far from the normality of his childhood town and throwing him deep into the turbulent atmosphere of the American Midwest. His horse Sadie and a like-minded stranger as his only company, town after town, they are met with trial and tribulation. Through every dance with death they survive, they draw nearer to the age-old culmination and clash between fated enemies.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Solitude founds and fuels these poems. In Peopling The Dirt Patch, each poem traces a crisis of isolation out into the dearth of words, the deforestation of ideas, the die-back of things, conjuring masks for company, worrying a patch of earth for a time, never long, before retreating snailwise into the safety house of itself – to write. It’s a cycle only you, dear reader, can break.'

Source: The People's Library.

'PLATFORM Youth Culture is a bi-annual magazine publication delivered regularly through the City of Hobart’s Youth Arts & Recreation Centre. Every edition is created by local young artists aged 12 to 25. PLATFORM Youth Culture Anthology is a special assemblage of some of the works from every edition since its conception in 2013.

'This is a five year snapshot of youth culture in Hobart, created especially as a time capsule for The People’s Library. PLATFORM is a magazine that lives up to its name, providing a platform for young people to communicate what is most important to them and within these pages, you will find exactly that.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Sandcastles, Family And Hailstones represents memories triggered by people, places and events, which have been etched into the persona of author, Libbie Davies. Captured through poetry and short story, these memories are based around three recurring themes; sandcastles – symbolizing childhood, holiday fun and the natural landscape; family – signifying the indelible impact family members have had on her life; and hailstones – portraying the myriad of life’s challenges.'

Source: The People's Library.

'SK, a score for Sisters Akousmatica, is an investigation of mysterious broadcasts called The Silent Key on the longest terrestrial shortwave relay on earth.

'Radio: drag the dial across frequencies at any given time, any given place and you will hear a cacophony of sounds. Static, pops and crackles, whistles, the tap, tap tap of the universe going about its electromagnetic business. In between those sounds are stations: broadcasts that are music, news, chatter, cryptic messages and espionage. Stretching out around the world in a network of terrestrial communication, bouncing off the heaviside and landing back again to be collected by radio-listeners.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Get Fat is set in 2009, in the heart of the global financial crisis. Tasmanian Hans Brady, hard on his luck returns to his old haunt of Ladbroke Grove, West London, where he hits on the idea of a get rich quick plan. In search of old acquaintances, and easy money, he slips into a world of borderline criminality, drugs, and violence, that threatens to spin out of control, and bring him down with the city. A tapestry of characters: a DJ fixated on murder, the last child of the Spanish Republic of 1939, the gigolo son of diehard Ulster dissidents, and the untameable charlatan and chancer Hans Brady, reveal life on the periphery of tough times.'

Source: The People's Library.

'War Correspondence is a story based upon the letters sent between my mother and father during WWII and the diaries she kept during this time while she was a nurse at Camperdown Hospital for Children.

'Based upon the two crises that were simultaneously occurring, one; the war in North Africa (and subsequently the Pacific) involving my father; and the other, the distress my mother faced as a young nurse confronting young children dying of whooping cough and her concern for my father’s welfare.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Beach Report is the journal of one family’s long summer beginning with an extraordinary and momentous day when a Southern Right Whale visited Kingston Beach, Tasmania. After seeing the immense and exotic, it felt right to make note of the familiar and reflect on the domestic. This diary captures a future memory of this place, this time and this life.'

Source: The People's Library.

'After 40 years living in Tasmania, Nancy Jiracek returns to her former home in Wisconsin, to find it has been transformed into a menagerie taken over by rabbits. Building Up: Tales From Below steps back 50 years telling the story of a young girl and her family’s life in a basement house. Building Up: Tales From Below blends in events of the times such as local babysitters who mysteriously disappear, and the macabre behaviour of an infamous local who becomes the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s horror film ‘Psycho’. This extraordinary book offers a voice from an underrepresented culture and overlooked layer of history.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A young girl lies in her bed each night and wonders how to go to sleep. She knows to close her eyes, but what else must she do to make sleep happen? With the help of a fairy, the girl discovers her imagination – a place full of adventures and wonder. Exploring the land of imagination is fun – and often leads effortlessly to dreamland. Listen to tales of dragons, fairies, animals and nature in the delightful, A Magical Bedtime Collection. Just as the little girl in the book learned to love bedtime, so too will your children.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Joan Webb’s anthology, Spilt Milk And Curdles is a controversial collection of poems presented in sections, as they relate to social values, and the author’s conviction that war is a travesty of human achievement.

'Webb captures the reader with her inimitable wicked humour, as she interprets aspects of the family unit and other conventions. Her writing entertains with twists of humour in her deconstruction of familiar situations. This blend of fun, humour and passionate conviction make this powerful anthology one which challenges thought and touches the heart.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Views From Mt Algebra is about the process of doing science, doing art, and what goes on inside the head. It’s about misconceptions, similarities, differences, and communication within and between science and art. The book grew out of a series of conversations between the authors. Both have worked as scientists for decades and one is now a full-time artist.'

Source: The People's Library.

'The People’s Park is a gathering of stories from the Queen’s Domain, Hobart, as seen through news coverage over two centuries. The Queen’s Domain is parkland close to the city centre of Hobart, Tasmania. Like other parks in urban settings across the world, it offers ready access to nature that keeps human-induced pressures at bay. These stories offer snapshots of the love for a city park, distinctive for the gentleness and proximity of its nature.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Other Places is a collection of travel stories drawn on journeys taken over a period of 25 years. Whilst these stories are based on actual events, the author has fictionalised freely. The author’s intention was to capture apparently insignificant moments which revealed as much about herself as the place she was visiting. The unnamed ‘I’ in these stories is the author as a ‘stranger’ who was changed through the revelation of foreign travel.'

Source: The People's Library.

'How To Exploit People is a collection of short stories about relational and cultural exploitation.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Only one thing is certain: We all die.

'But in our world of privilege and plenty we do not expect our children to die. This book is a conversation between a mother and daughter Scarlet, a young woman of 20, who died in 2012, just ten days before she turned 21. Stray Pages is a mash-up of random, non-linear thoughts and feelings spread across 13 months and spanning ten years or more.

'Stick Chart is an attempt to document something of an ongoing conversation between two artists which occurs on a daily basis via texts, emails and phone calls. It is a capturing of ideas and experience in fragments, throughout days interrupted and split between different geographic locations. A process of mapping an exchange of ideas which incorporates the im/possibility of continuous or coherent lines of thought. An exploration of the body and device as hinge and studio, where thoughts, ideas and shared points of reference are bounced back and forth within time and space.'

Source: The People's Library.

'In Walking On Sunshine Rhys Anderson is quite the nicest man Kate has met. He’s drop-dead gorgeous, funny and great company. He’s also the partner of Jennifer Layton, her arch-nemesis. So when he asks her out, is it just out of pity or is there a genuine spark between them?'

Source: The People's Library.

'In 1960s Australia, an unnamed child is born. Her family is not of that continent, but has travelled from the other side of the world for work, and to escape conflict in Ireland. While the child’s father immerses himself in science, her mother discovers how food and the yearning for family can unite people who find themselves far from home. Pathways follows women and men from different generations and cultures, and explores the things that matter to us all: a safe haven, friends and family around us, and what makes a home.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Sue leaves London to help the poor in a remote village in South India, but while there her life turns upside down and she takes the new name Chando, starts wearing beads and red clothes, and sets out on the inner journey, the search for the ultimate truth of her being.

'In her memoir, Meeting Osho, Chando recounts the whirlwind events that led her in 1978 to become a devotee of the controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, now known as Osho.'

Source: The People's Library.

'The Call Of Aurora was initially inspired by the tale of Douglas Mawson’s intrepid Antarctic solo journey back to base camp, following the tragic deaths of his two companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz. It was never intended to be a re-telling of the conventional early 20th Century hero’s tale, but an investigation into what might have sustained one individual against the indifference of nature. But in the end, The Call Of Aurora is as much about Sydney Jeffryes, the mad wireless operator who, during the winter of 1913 begins to believe he is Jesus Christ, and a reminder of how history favours the heroes and victors, and discards or silences those that threaten its autonomy.'

Source: The People's Library.

'And It’s All Just Paper Thin is a series of extended prose vignettes that conspire with memory to fictionalise lives. The vignettes are dispersed throughout the text, intermingling to create a non-linear narrative that reads in a similar vein to a series of recollections encapsulated within a nostalgic mindset.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Double the Nonsense: It’s A Family Thing is a collection of humorous stories and rhyming verse that carry a similar hallmark of storytelling, from a father and son, yet written 50 years apart. Enriched and embellished through a prosodic structure that aims to heighten and position the reader within a world of farce, carry-on, and almost super human ingenuity, they tell of situations that feed off a comedic structure born from within a world of the absurd. Carrying unintentional overtones of Spike Milligan and Roald Dahl, a delicious palette of language, rhyming couplets and nonsense awaits.'

Source: The People's Library.

'The Creative Mind: A Literary Cornucopia Compiled From The Sum Of Its Collective Parts is an eclectic mix of short story-telling and a sumptuous example of the uninhibited expressionism unique to 15 of the Huon Valley’s most gifted writers.

'Collated from the nine years of the Huon Valley Writers Group’s existence, this unique anthology reveals engaging narratives from many literary genres. Its observations, delivered through the mediums of prose, poetry, and rhyming verse are poignant, reflective, local and global. This entertaining anthology of works just goes to prove that no matter what the publication … fifteen into one really can go!'

Source: The People's Library.

'In a small town with a public hospital and a real estate boom, Ella starts an internship as a doctor. That same year, her and Tom – the dashing Mr Fox – buy a house. Ella’s job is overwhelming, sublime and ridiculous. The sale of the house and the events that follow are completely unexpected.

'Of Our Own Making is the mapping of that year, filled with the naïve, the joyous, the humiliating and charming moments of Ella’s coming-of-age.'

Source: The People's Library.

'A rare handfish’s growing concern for the environment sees him make an arduous journey from the Derwent River. Through whimsical rhyming verse and beautifully hand-drawn illustrations, this story highlights many of the island’s lesser-known rare and endangered species. Fat Chance is a poignant reminder for children of all ages, as to the importance of preserving Tasmania’s wildlife. Despite the dire circumstances the animals find themselves in, there is an engaging and positive message of hope for young and old alike.'

Source: The People's Library.

'Through My Eyes reveals the author’s perceptions of living and working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between 2003 – 2006. The words that Helen Parker has compiled are not without complexity, humour and a diverse perception of an unreal world. There are those that wilt like a desert rose, and there are those that walk in the shadows of the desert sands, striving to survive like desert roses in this intense culture controlled by religion and males. Living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has given the author insight and a disturbing exposure of the dilemmas facing both expatriates and young Saudi’s [sic] today. Writing this book has been both compelling and rewarding.'

Source: The People's Library.

'The Trifecta Club is an adventure story for high school students. Set in Victoria and centred on the week of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, three high-school boys known collectively as The Trifecta Club, due to their frequenting of racetracks, stumble on a plan by the criminal underworld. The criminals’ plot is to make a huge financial killing by illegal activity at the races. The Trifecta Club, against a background of rural depression, bullying and an attempted suicide, decide to try and expose this nefarious conspiracy. The result triggers an unexpected turn of events.'

Source: The People's Library.

'In Thinking Making Being, Irene Briant writes about everyday things, explores small bits of her immediate world and through writing, examines the making processes of her visual arts practice. This series of recent writings are part autobiography and part musings on artworks. Often these musings act as triggers for making, or the means of discovering or coming to terms with the meaning of a work.'

Source: The People's Library.