Cirrus@Austlit

'This ... collection of stories features a foreword by Dr Pam Johnston that places Ruby’s anecdotes in the context of a country which seems incapable of healing its past or of creating a better future for Indigenous people. Featuring the best stories from Ruby’s Real Deadly, plus many unpublished gems dating as far back as 1992, All My Mob’s portrayal of family life, ‘home’, and life as an Aborigine in today’s Australia is fascinating, often confronting and unforgettable.' (Source: UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)

Chrissy Amphlett is a legend in the world of Australian music - and now, for the first time, she tells her own story. From growing up in Geelong, Victoria, to being the lead singer in the iconic band The Divinyls, to living in New York and mixing with the likes of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, she has led an amazing life. In this book she tells of life on and off the road - and gives a unique account of a woman surviving in a male-dominated and drug-fuelled industry. Yet not only did she survive, she captivated her audiences with her empowered on-stage performances. From fury to soulful, brash to lecherous, Chrissy Amphlett's voice and character mesmerized all those around her. She talks of the early days when she was breaking into the music scene; of being arrested for busking when a teenager travelling in Spain; of how her angry and provocative stage act drew on her childhood and background - she wanted to shock and, above all, be in control. And she tells of what it was to be at the top, in those years of success and excess, both in Australia and in the United States. Chrissy has always lived life on her terms no matter what those around her wanted.

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Romulus Gaita fled his home in his native Yugoslavia at the age of thirteen, and came to Australia with his young wife Christina and their infant son Raimond soon after the end of World War II.

'Tragic events were to overtake the boy’s life, but Raimond Gaita has an extraordinary story to tell about growing up with his father amid the stony paddocks and flowing grasses of country Australia.

'Written simply and movingly, Romulus, My Father is about how a compassionate and honest man taught his son the meaning of living a decent life. It is about passion, betrayal and madness, about friendship and the joy and dignity of work, about character and fate, affliction and spirituality.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Text Publishing).

'Shelton Lea was born secretly, and adopted in the most bizarre circumstances into a high profile family. Growing up he was told he would never inherit the family fortune; that he had been adopted as a playmate for the natural children. Here began a life of extremes and excesses.

'Family dynamics produced disastrous outcomes and his adoptive mother placed him in a psychiatric institution at the age of three. He escaped from boys' homes, lived with gypsies, Aborigines, in doorways, in parks and went to prisons along the east coast of Australia. But genetics propelled his ascendance. He was born with tremendous gifts and when, as a teenager in a putrid lock-up, he discovered the writings of Ezra Pound, he knew the path his life would take.

'Reports of the legendary Shelton Lea spread. He was a romantic, bohemian outlaw - charming, insolent and contemptuous of authority. He stepped far beyond the bounds of propriety, encouraging comparisons to Rimbaud and Villon.

'When he died he took his wizard words, his mesmerising performance, his rabble rousing, and he was hailed as a seer of our age.' (Publisher's blurb)

Unpolished Gem tells the story of growing up with a Chinese-Cambodian family in Australia, Alice dives headfirst into schooling, romance and the getting of wisdom. Meanwhile, her mother becomes an Aussie Battler - an outworker, that is, her father starts up a chain of electrical appliance stores, and her grandmother blesses Father Government every day for giving old people money. (Back cover blurb).