Cirrus@Austlit

'When Joss sets off down the south coast, she is fleeing both a miserable marriage and her lonely childhood. At the same time, she is pursuing Karmi, a long-ago friend who once showed her another way to live. The magnetic, free-living Karmi embodies everything Joss wants to be.

Now Joss is fleeing to rebuild her life, she still believes Karmi has the key, but finding her proves not so easy.

The coastal region is facing changes, from forest logging to spreading urbanisation. Joss is thrust into town life in Mungabula, where she takes on Karmi's model of courage to absolve her past.

And not the least of her challenges is the laconic but disarming Fletch…' (Publisher's blurb)

'For a small group of teenagers in the English town of Sysmith, life couldn’t have been any more normal. After spending almost twenty years going through school, getting into arguments over the most pointless of things and randomly falling in love with people they had only just met, the individuals in this group were a shining example of how life should be lived, but soon this would all change.

'After watching a flashing comet fly across the night sky, the group slowly begin to realise that one by one they are starting to exhibit strange abilities that they soon begin to refer to as ‘the elements’. But this of course is only the beginning of the story.

'How will the group react to discovering their astonishing powers? Will they go mad? Will they use them for the greater good? And how will it change them from who they once were? Only one thing is certain, when the Elementals discover their powers, nothing will ever be the same again.' (Publication summary)

'Joan Katherine Isaacs is a wife, mother and doting grandmother. Born in 1953 into a Catholic family, Joan was the middle child of migrant parents. At the age of fifteen Joan’s normal and happy life changed irreparably when the chaplain at her school groomed her for his own sexual gratification.

'Despite the trauma of her teenage years, Joan became a teacher, initially working in primary schools and later focussing on children with special needs and learning difficulties.

'Silenced by her abuser and later by the Catholic Church through their Towards Healing program, Joan was finally able to speak in 2013 when she gave evidence at the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. “To Prey and to Silence” is Joan Katherine Isaacs own powerful account of her battle to be heard.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A spinal injury at a young age might have killed off a career in stand-up but it did not temper Ian Simpson's philosophy of not taking life too seriously. But will this mindset be strong enough to cope with the greatest medical crisis of them all? His story will have you laughing and crying-and often on the same page. Ian Simpson has spent most of his 49 years living in a wheelchair, giving him a different perspective on life to a lot of people.' (Publication summary)

'I know I'm a rotten kid. I fight. I argue. I am disobedient. But really - what is a kid growing up wild in a country town in the sixties supposed to do? Not get up to mischief? Ha! Just watch me!

'But now I am Daddy’s girl. I didn't know it was sex. I am struggling with my shame. I hate what I have become.

'A secret this big, once told, can't be untold. Who would believe me, anyway?

'I know I can never, ever tell. ' (Publication summary)

'A good Greek girl does not disobey her parents. She accepts the proxy marriage they arrange for her. She does not go to parties with her Australian girlfriends and then come home with a love bite! Above all, she does not lose her virginity! We have a saying in Greek which goes like this: Poutana zoe. Translated into English it means Life's a Bitch and what a filthy little bitch life can be if, like me, you were born female and Greek! Headstrong, opinionated and always at odds with my Greek parents, I left Australia at the age of twenty to travel to Greece, the country of my birth. There I started the long journey of reconciling the two aspects of me: my Greek tradition with my Australian way of life. Life's a Bitch is my story. It is about the dreams that go awry, the stumbles along the way and the events that can change life profoundly. It's about the Angels who mark my journey through life, protecting and rewarding me in the most extraordinary ways.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Spring in the Australian bush is an exciting time. In Australian Bush Medics, all the animals have gathered at a waterhole to prepare for their annual first aid check-ups and lessons. Bedlam reigns, and Ngangkari the traditional healer is kept busy dealing with the antics of his unruly animal patients whilst trying to prepare them for their first aid test. Australian Bush Medics is a humorous rhyming story with easily visualised characters and an original storyline that children and parents should find amusing and fun to share.' (Publication summary)

'Ex-DI Rick Dunlop is forced to write his memoir for his guidance counsellor after a certain case for the Victorian Police finds him "mentally unfit for active duty" and turns him into a social outcast.'

Source: Publisher's Blurb