Item category 1: Biographies & Memoirs

A raw and unflinching look at the objectification and misogyny of the Playboy mansion, a woman's stolen young adulthood and her journey to self-acceptance, and a rare look inside Hugh Hefner's final days. Crystal offers a vulnerable and clear-eyed look at how her experience with Hugh Hefner catal...

For 10 years Crystal Hefner lived at the Playboy mansion, sacrificing her body and agency to satisfy the desires of its owner, Hugh Hefner. Having obtained the status, love and acceptance she'd been taught to crave when she became the 86-year-old's wife at just 26, she thought she'd finally 'made...

From trailblazing athlete Ronda Rousey, an unfiltered and entertaining chronicle of her last decade, tackling not only UFC and WWE but also parenthood, overcoming adversity, and finding meaning in life's journey. From the moment she burst onto the MMA scene, Ronda Rousey was unbeatable. She repea...

"From the moment she burst onto the MMA scene, Ronda Rousey was unbeatable. She repeatedly strung together back-to-back flawless victories, racking up a collection of records and forever changing the face of sports as the UFC's first female champion. A superstar in her sport, she transcended athl...

As the founder and CEO of a multi-million-dollar brand that caters to curvy women of all shades, worn by the likes of Kim Kardashian and championed by Beyonce, Ciera has rallied the very women the fashion industry is designed to ignore around the radical idea that what makes you different is actu...

Posthumous autobiography of Keith Bradshaw, the first Australian to be secretary and chief executive of Marylebone Cricket Club. It was compiled in the years before he died at the age of 58 and details the struggles he had and and the characters he encountered as an outsider trying to implement c...

""I have three strikes against me. I'm a woman, I speak out for women, and I'm Hazara, the most persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan." Dr. Sima Samar has been fighting for equality and justice for most of her life. Born into a polygamous family, she learned early that girls had inferior status,...

Patty Mills: Beyond Basketball explores the Indigenous Australian athlete and trail blazer - the first Indigenous Australian to win an NBA Championship in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs. He continues to break records and inspire with his achievements, all of which are covered in this tribute to ...

This beautifully illustrated full-colour hardback explores the life and work of one of the leading lights of Post-Impressionism, Paul Gauguin, alongside a selection of his incredible artwork. Paul Gauguin's mature oil paintings, with their brilliant hues and strong outlines, are among the most be...

How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? In this long-awaited autobiography, you will learn that it's okay not to have a linear path through life, and that by following our curiosities and our passion...

Beginning at a love hotel by Japan's Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, "Question 7" is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. By way of H.G. Wells and Rebecca West's affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan's father working as a slave laboure...

Woman. Athlete. Daughter. Sister. Wife. Mother. 'The Race To Be Myself' is an intimate exploration of Caster Semenya's many identities, told for the first time by Caster herself. In her own words, Caster takes the reader through key moments that defined her story, sharing her journey from childho...

For decades, Rebel Wilson had single-mindedly focused on her career, making a name for herself through her iconic roles in Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids, and Isn't It Romantic. Now, she's ready to chronicle the emotional and physical lessons she learned, as well as her most embarrassing experiences....

Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett is best known as the Australian commander of the Royal Air Force's elite Path Finder Force in the Second World War. His drive, determination and passion for excellence saw him play a principal role in prosecuting the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. Yet, the ful...

Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, spearheaded the The New Yorker's popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where sh...

In 1939, when John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published, it became an instant bestseller and a prevailing narrative in the nation's collective imagination of the era. But it also stopped the publication of another important novel, silencing a gifted writer who was more intimately connect...

What started out as a great adventure turned into a terrifying nightmare when Nick Stride and his family were forced to flee for their lives from one of the richest, most powerful men in the world. Nick moved to Russia in 1998 to help build the British Embassy in Moscow, but ended up on the run w...

"To be a bookseller or librarian... You have to play detective. Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. An advocate. A visionary. A person who creates a kind of magic by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, "You've got to read this. You're going to love it." In this love let...

An odyssey of drive-offs, spiked slurpees, stale sausage rolls and sleep-deprived madness. Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his loc...

A moving and inspiring memoir of families lost and rediscovered, by a founding member of legendary band Midnight Oil. For fifty years, songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player Jim Moginie was a driving force behind the startling rise and global success of one of Australia's most powerful, influe...

Bangka Island, 1942. Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just 26 when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed. Miraculously, Vivian would be the lone survivor. The Lieutenant-Colonel would also be the first woman to be h...

Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodia refugee who lost everything and everyone -- her house her country, her parents, her siblings, her friends -- everything but the memories of her mother's kitchen, the tastes and aromas of the foods her mother made before the dictator Pol Pot tore her c...

It's Broome, 2010. Nyikina man Wayne Bergmann has just received a death threat. His wife has watched a friend cross the road to avoid speaking with her. His children are subject to intense schoolyard bullying. Bergmann, a boilermaker by trade and lawyer, is chief executive of the Kimberley Land C...

Be inspired by the amazing life of Stan Lee, the comic book genius who created Spider-Man, The Hulk and Iron Man! Little Stan grew up in New York City. As a child, he loved reading books, poems and newspaper strips. And when he didn't have his head in a book, he was writing stories of his own. Af...

'Some smuggle cigarettes, others alcohol - or weapons. Our contraband, being invisible, is more dangerous. Our contraband is undetectable by scanners. What we carry as concealed excess baggage is stories.' In this exquisite literary gem, Georgi Gospodinov, winner of the International Booker Prize...

In the 80s and 90s, surf culture was toxic, especially towards women. But Pauline Menczer - a dirt-poor, chronically ill, freckle-faced teen from Bondi - defied insults and intimidation to ride the waves. The reason: she simply loved to surf. But when Pauline's determination propelled her onto th...

The story of the groundbreaking Dance Theatre of Harlem, established by the first Black principal of the NYC Ballet, Arthur Mitchell, and five Black ballerinas who excelled despite the odds. Harlem 1969; it's the height of the Civil Rights era and the community is still reeling from the assassina...

Taylor Swift is so much more than a pop star: she has more number one albums than any other female performer in history and The Eras Tour has filled stadiums across the world. Her influence on our culture seems to know no bounds. With more than 100 amazing photos, this book immerses you in Taylor...

From country boots to bejewelled body suits, explore the wardrobe of the girl-next-door-turned-superstar, who connects with fans the world over with her ever-evolving attire, eye-catching looks and signature pieces. Taylor's relatability, integrity and sartorial storytelling mean this fearless fa...

Robert Falcon Scott's 1910 attempt to reach the South Pole is placed in jeopardy when Edward Evans joins as his second-in-command. A clash of personalities between the two men almost prevents the Terra Nova from sailing, but they forge ahead, conscious of competing expeditions racing to the pole....