Cirrus@Austlit

'Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the Australian commandos.

'Garry made a report on the radio: 'I see around 200 women and children heading north up the valley.' Less than 400 metres below us, a steady stream of women and kids were hurrying away in single file.
'Where are all the men?' I asked Garry. 'Waiting for us,' he responded, with a look of concern I had not seen on his face before. My heart skipped a beat—we were on.

'From the age of 12, Scott Ryder knew he wanted to join the army, and he signed up as soon as he could. After serving as a paratrooper and in East Timor with 3 RAR, he wanted more. He trained all summer and took the gruelling selection course for the commandos, earning the prized green beret on his second attempt.

'Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the commandos. Ryder shares battlefield stories from his tours to Afghanistan, where his regiment saw some of the heaviest fighting Australian forces have experienced since the Vietnam War. After being seriously injured in a shocking Black Hawk helicopter crash in Kandahar, he was the only survivor to return to active service.

'Frankly written, with self-deprecating humour, it reveals the qualities of strength and mental resilience that characterise special forces operators.' (Publication summary)

'The inside story of the global megachurch and its charismatic leader, Brian Houston.

'In 2023 the curtain finally came down on Brian Houston. The rock star of Pentecostalism, former Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, was acquitted of concealing his father's sexual abuse of a minor, but it was too late. His glittering megachurch had disowned him. How had it come to this? And how did Hillsong, the brightest star of international evangelical Christianity, fall to earth so spectacularly?

'Following in his father Frank's footsteps, Brian led Hillsong to become the nation's biggest and loudest Pentecostal church, built on the millions donated by its followers. He would hold audiences of 20,000 in the palm of his hand with a powerful message from God: You need more money.

'Houston took his church worldwide, and even made it into the White House. Justin Bieber and several Kardashians were Hillsong regulars. Politicians courted Hillsong, with its magnetic appeal to aspirational Australians, and the church's story became entwined with that of Australia's first Pentecostal prime minister, Scott Morrison, who looked to Brian Houston as a key spiritual influence.'

But just as Houston's kingdom was at the very height of its powers, it dramatically fell apart when the church's dirty secrets came tumbling out. Behind the scenes a secret insurrection, led by young Christian women, had mobilised. Journalist David Hardaker had been investigating the Hillsong phenomenon for several years, gaining unparalleled access to former insiders, when he received a tip-off. Something big was going down . . .' (Publication summary)

'With a Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry, Ben Roberts-Smith was the most highly decorated Australian soldier, the best of the best. When he returned to civilian life, he became a poster boy for a nation hungry for warrior heroes. He embodied the myth of the classic Anzac, seven-foot-tall and bulletproof. But as his public reputation continued to grow, inside the army rumours were circulating. Gold Walkley Award winning journalist Chris Masters was the first to investigate the rumours of summary executions, bloodings and bullying, and began to examine more closely the man we wanted to hero-worship. When the stories hit the headlines and with a billionaire media baron's backing, Ben Roberts-Smith sued. So commenced the defamation trial of the century, a courtroom contest of tightrope tactics and fierce wit. Chris Masters tells the extraordinary story of Ben Roberts-Smith, the man at the centre of this de facto war crimes trial, from the battlegrounds of Afghanistan to the front lines of the Federal Court.'

(Publication summary)

'A stunning memoir of one man's search for his birth parents, which uncovered an astonishing global scandal at the heart of the Catholic Church.

'When Brendan Watkins was eight years old, his parents told him he was adopted. In his late twenties, he discovered the identity of his birth mother—a woman who had been a Catholic nun when he was born—but she wanted nothing to do with him. For thirty years he only managed limited communication with her, and had no clues to the identity of his birth father.

'In 2018, a DNA test led him to the truth: he was the son of a celebrated missionary priest. His father had studied in a Trappist monastery in Ireland, had a career as a builder, was a Bondi Lifesaver, a trophy-winning ballroom dancer, was a landscape painter, a fine chocolate maker, met Mother Teresa and toured the world. An astounding story had been uncovered which simply had to be told.

'After decades of searching, Tell No One explores the questions, anxieties and reflections arising from this hidden past.'(Publication summary)

'Elizabeth posts a 'room for rent' notice in Trevor's bookshop and is caught off-guard when Trevor answers the ad himself. She expected a young student not a middle-aged bookseller whose marriage has fallen apart. But Trevor is attracted to Elizabeth's house because of the empty shed in her backyard, the perfect space for him to revive the artistic career he abandoned years earlier. The face-blind, EH Holden-driving Elizabeth is a solitary and feisty book editor, and she accepts him, on probation...

'In this poignant yet upbeat novel the past keeps returning in the most unexpected ways. Elizabeth is at the beck and call of her ageing mother, and the associated memories of her childhood in a Rajneesh community. Trevor's Polish father disappeared when Trevor was fifteen, and his mother died not knowing whether he was dead or alive. The authorities have declared him dead, but is he?

'The Returns is a story about the eccentricities, failings and small triumphs that humans are capable of, a novel that pokes fun at literary and artistic pretensions, while celebrating the expansiveness of art, kindness and friendship.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Maori cop Tito Ihaka, “unkempt, overweight, intemperate, unruly, unorthodox and profane “, is a cop unable to play the police politics necessary for promotion, but a man who has a way with women, and he's a stubborn investigator with an uncanny instinct for the truth.
'Ihaka is in the wilderness, having fallen foul of the new regime at Auckland Central. Called back to follow up a strange twist in the unsolved case that got him into trouble in the first place, Ihaka finds himself hunting a shadowy hitman who could have several notches on his belt.
'His enemies want him off the case, but the bodies are piling up. Ihaka embarks on a quest to establish whether police corruption was behind the shooting of an undercover cop and--to complicate matters-- he becomes involved with an enigmatic female suspect who could hold the key to everything.'

Source : publication summary

'Pirate, a lost kookaburra, befriends a colourful bunch of dogs and a cat. His sense of fun turns their life upside down. At the same time, the dog's survival skills and the cat's wisdom take Pirate on a journey that changes his life for ever.' (Publication summary)

'Across the Tasman Sea, the Aotearoa Peoples Army is waging a bizarre offensive. A redneck broadcaster is forced to walk the plank, fifteen storeys up. A crusading journalist gets his neck wrung. A diehard monarchist MP is slow-cooked and his bodyguard fed to a pitbull terrier. But is there more to the shadowy and sinister APA that meets the eye? The counter-terrorism experts think theyre on top of things, but maverick cop Tito Ihaka reckons they couldnt catch a terrorist if someones life depended on it. Pretty soon, Ihaka is in grave danger of being proved dead right.'

Source: Libraries Australia