Item category 1: Biographies & Memoirs

The first woman to ascend to the most powerful legislative role in our nation, passing laws that save lives and livelihoods, tells the story of her transformation from housewife to House Speaker, becoming a prophetic voice on the major moral issues of the day who's not afraid of a good fight.

At the Edge of Empire is a dual narrative that tells the story of modern China by braiding an intergenerational family memoir with first-person contemporary reporting by the former New York Times Beijing bureau chief.

Falling in love with the city at a young age, Audrey returned to Paris again and again in some of her most celebrated films (Sabrina, Funny Face, How to Steal a Million, Charade) wearing outfits from her favourite Parisian couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, and creating some of the most significant f...

Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community. Born and bred to be devout, Heather...

Barbara Tucker: The Art of Being presents a multifaceted view of Tucker and the life she made with her artist husband Albert. Inspired by accounts of family, friends and admirers attending her memorial, it contains speeches, essays, memoirs and a photo journal. Her nephew Darren Jones and niece C...

Ina Garten, the author of thirteen cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and the cultural icon whose face has launched a thousand memes, shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table.

Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, Knott was forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency. Knott realized she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety th...

In Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, global superstar Dolly Parton shares, for the first time, the full story behind her lifelong passion for fashion, including how she developed her own distinctly Dolly style, which has defied convention and endeared her to fans around the world. Featuri...

Scion of the great Quaker chocolate dynasty, Adrian Cadbury (1929-2015) was educated at Eton and Cambridge, yet never quite fitted into the mould of the British establishment. As one of the most influential business personalities of the later 20th-century, he was a committed capitalist, but champ...

At age 18, Bariz Shah ended up in an Auckland prison. As an Afghan migrant who was deeply affected by 9/11, Bariz spiralled from schoolyard fights into crime and drugs - until prison made him rethink the story of his life. Years later, in Christchurch, Bariz had turned everything around when a te...

"Early in her radio career Susie Ferguson became a war correspondent. The only woman among hundreds of soldiers, in a helmet and flak jacket she was one of the boys. None of them knew she was taking fifteen painkillers a day and relying on opioids to stem the burning and stabbing pain in her uter...

In this unauthorised biography of our national team, Matt Logue goes back to the beginning - to the DNA of the Boomers - to tell the story of today's success and to honour the people, including Lindsay Gaze, who fought against the odds to make the fairy tale happen. The Boomers' leading scorer an...

Skin cancer is this country's most common cancer, and melanoma the deadliest form of it. Richard, together with his colleagues at Melanoma Institute Australia, has dedicated years to groundbreaking research and succeeded in transforming even the most advanced forms of melanoma into a largely cura...

An extraordinary family memoir from acclaimed newsreader and journalist, Mishal Husain, uncovering the story of her grandparents' lives amidst empire, political upheaval and partition. 'I witnessed the dwindling glow of the British Empire. I saw small men entrusted with great jobs, playing with t...

As a Spice Girl, TV talent show judge and Broadway star, Mel B aka Scary Spice, has been a global icon since her twenties. But behind the glittering facade of fame, the struggles and pain of this working-class, mixed-race girl from Leeds are laid bare in her critically acclaimed best-selling memo...

Kate Middleton's life's story seems like a modern-day fairy-tale: an attractive, clever, and ambitious girl from unexceptional beginnings meets and falls in love with a wealthy prince destined to be King when they are both university undergraduates. Now, with the British monarchy in transition, C...

By the acclaimed royal biographer and commentator Robert Hardman, Charles III is a brilliant and intimate portrait of the new monarch that draws on unrivalled access to the Royal Family, their close friends and staff, plus previously unseen papers from the Royal Archives. With damaging headlines ...

The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person... Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woma...

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called "an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor" (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netfli...

In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret and how she was terrified of being found out. She talks about the tremendous feeling of empowerment she experienced when she finally stood up for herself and her community and shrugged off the fake upper-caste i...

Is Daniel Ricciardo your favourite driver? Did you know that Daniel Ricciardo has won eight Grand Prix races and finished on the podium 32 times? Did you know he's entered more F1 Grand Prix than any other Australian driver? Did you know he can eat half a litre of ice-cream in one go? Daniel is a...

At seventeen, Anna Broinowski is precocious, naive and convinced she knows how the world works. But O-Week at Sydney University changes that. She's suddenly in a hyper-masculine caste system, where future captains of industry terrorise freshers and invade dorms in naked, screaming packs. Nothing ...

Ten days before Gwen Kingston turned twelve, her beloved mother - with whom she shared a birthday - died. She left behind two chests - one for Gwen and one for her brother - filled with lovingly wrapped presents and letters marking the milestones she would miss: driver's licences, graduations and...

Submariners are a special breed. Not for them a life on the ocean wave, the fresh air and sunshine of other naval sailors. With stealth and daring they go deep and dark, alone and unseen, in often dangerous waters. They sometimes call themselves the Silent Service, with good reason. Australian su...

The Doctor of Hiroshima is the extraordinary true story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya, whose hospital was less than a mile from the centre of the atomic bomb that hit on that warm August day. Somehow, in immense shock and pain and extremely weak, the doctor and his wife manage to drag themselves to the...

The Doctor of Hiroshimais the extraordinary true story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya, whose hospital was less than a mile from the centre of the atomic bomb that hit on that warm August day. In immense shock and pain, he and his wife Yaeko dragged themselves to the devastated hospital building and what...

A whirlwind of great stories and rock-solid life lessons, Just Don't Be a D**khead is Kasey Chambers at her most heartfelt and honest. From her childhood in the Australian outback to the heights of her chart-topping international success as a singer/songwriter, Kasey has trusted her gut, stuck to...

I'm always asked questions - by fans, by other actors and friends, by my grandchildren. They want to know how I've lasted so long, how I handle fame, why I chose to do some of my films, which films and actors I like best and so forth. They also want to know what makes me tick, what makes me get u...

A fourth-generation performer, Noni Hazlehurst has storytelling in her blood. She has graced our screens, stages and airwaves for fifty years - and won our hearts and respect in the process. She's had a remarkably diverse career. From presenting Play School for more than two decades, acting in fi...

A descendant of Afghan nobles, Tareq Azim's family was forced to flee their homeland in 1979. He assimilated in the United States through his love of sports but when he returned to his home country in 2004, he discovered countless children living on the streets, waiting for the inevitable recruit...