Cirrus@Austlit

'The inspiration for a Netflix series starring Celeste Barber, Wellmania is an in-depth, entertaining, laugh-out-loud-funny exploration of wellness culture.

'Now with a new preface by the author.

'Cold-pressed juices, quitting sugar, Paleo, hot yoga, mindfulness … if you embrace these things you will be happy, you will be well – just ask Instagram. Wellness has become a global mega-industry. But does any of this stuff actually work?

'Feeling exhausted, anxious and a bit flabby, journalist Brigid Delaney decides to find out – using herself as the guinea pig. Starting with a brutal 101-day fast, Brigid tests things that are meant to make us clean, lean and serene. Travelling the world, she tries colonics, meditation, silent retreats, group psychotherapy and oodles of yoga, working out what is helpful and what is just expensive hype.

'In monasteries and health farms, on hiking trails and massage tables, she asks, she asks, why do so many of us swing from indulgence to detox and back again? Is it possible to integrate good habits into your daily life? What does our obsession with wellness say about us? And why do you smell so bad when you haven’t eaten in seven days?

'Wellmania is the highly entertaining and occasionally dangerous exploration of one of the most fascinating trends in our culture.'(Publication summary)

'Aaron Blabey decided to improve the boring books his son was bringing home: now his bestseller series is a starry Hollywood animation' 

'Lockdown forced the Australian author to contemplate both his interior life and the big picture. The result is 7½, a work of autofiction that ‘just poured out’'

'The series transports viewers to a place of beauty – as its star-studded ensemble casts treks a dark path to health' 

'In the 1960s she would have been celebrated by the counterculture – but a decade earlier, Rosaleen Norton was shunned and mocked.'

'Life in my 20s was a whirlwind of McJobs, casual sex, insane crushes, share houses, and intense friendships. I was trying to start a career, trying to write the great Australian novel, always poor, making bad choices while drunk, and somehow had hours and hours in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, to just … hang out.' (Introduction)

.As I saw the people vs the pollies vs the press I realised no one controls the narrative any more.'

'The thought of killing, particularly poisoning, an animal seems incredibly cruel. But it’s different for rodents,'

'I’m driving up a corrugated red dirt track, hours from Broome, with two architects and three builders, into a remote part of the Kimberley. We are visiting a traditional owner, Bruno Dann, to help build him a shed. The Nyul Nyul elder won his native title claim recently, and it means he can finally build on his land.'  (Introduction)

'I learn about the future on a mysterious retreat but it’s what happens after that throws me.' (Introduction)

'When I checked into the hotel, the ‘writing desk’ – the epicentre of my endeavour – was sawn in half. But that was not all.'

'Australia’s government tries to stop stories from being told but a new wave of authors are rallying against injustice.'

'As society shifts towards talking more openly about mental illness, readers are hungry for answers and authenticity.' (Introduction)