This is the story of Tom Wills - flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader and agitator, and the man most often credited with creating the game we now know as Australian Rules football.Sent to the strict British Rugby School in 1850 at fourteen, Tom returned as a worldly young man whose cricket prowess quickly captured the hearts of Melburnians. But away from the adoring crowds, in the desolation of the Queensland outback, he experienced first-hand the devastating effects ...

The updated edition of the definitive biography of the visionary sportsman who brought us Australian Rules football and was the greatest cricketer of his era.SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARDThis is the story of Tom Wills - flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader and agitator, Australia's first great cricketer - the man most often credited with creating the game we now know as Australian Rules football.Sent to ...

Shortlisted for the Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH) Biennial Book PrizeUnlike every other sport that has captured the nation’s interest, Australian football is not a copy, a clone, or a hand-me-down of European culture. Rather, it is a game with special qualities, which arose from a distinctive series of events in the fledgling colony of Victoria, grew rapidly, and is now the most dominant sport in the country: a social, commercial, cultural and—for ma...

The first biography of the ground breaking Australian doctor who discovered the first pharmacological treatment for mental illness.For most of human history, mental illness has been largely untreatable. Sufferers lived their lives - if they survived - in and out of asylums, accumulating life's wreckage around them.In 1948, all that changed when an Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused kitchen, set about an exper...

For most of human history, mental illness has been largely untreatable. Sufferers lived their lives – if they survived – in and out of asylums, accumulating life's wreckage around them. In 1948, all that changed when an Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused kitchen, set about an experimental treatment for one of the scourges of mankind – manic depression, or bipolar disorder. That doctor was John Cade and in that small kitchen he stirred up a m...

The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.Spanning five d...

**"The narration by Wariner compliments the candid nature of her story...A captivating and emotional story delivered in a straightforward way without an ounce of self-pity." — Library JournalA riveting, deeply-affecting audiobook memoir of one girl's coming-of-age experiences in a polygamist cult.**Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-two children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turned a blind eye to the practices of her ...

A first-date dud, socially awkward, and overly fond of quick-dry clothes, genetics professor Don Tillman has given up on love, until a chance encounter gives him an idea.He will design a questionnaire - a 16-page, scientifically researched questionnaire - to uncover the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker or a late-arriver. Rosie is all these things. She is also fiery and intelligent, strangely beguiling, and looking for her biological fa...

The day that turns a life upside down usually starts like any other, but what happens the day after?Dual Walkley Award-winner Leigh Sales investigates how ordinary people endure the unthinkable.As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for ...

Solomon Northup was born in the early 1800s in New York, and was born as a free man. He lived as a free man for over 30 years, until he was tricked into moving to Washington, D.C. by men offering him a job as a musician. Once he made it to D.C., he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana, where he was forced to work on a plantation until he could make his escape. His family had no way of knowing where he was or if he was safe – he was on his own with no hope of escaping the circum...

**The unforgettable, New York Times bestselling family saga from Markus Zusak, the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary bestseller THE BOOK THIEF, lauded by the New York Times as "the kind of book that can be life-changing."NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY • THE WALL STREET JOURNAL****"One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family’s experience in the most profound way....

* #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD!A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.Jennette McCurdy was six years old when s...