When she ran away in 1947, Jasmine Holmes was beautiful. Now she's back: sick, broke, divorced, her life in ruins-a perfect project for her aunt Emma Madison, master meddler. But small-town secrets live long in darkness, and the ones that Jasmine Holmes guards might be the darkest of all.How to fix Jasmine? True, her reputation as the town tramp was well deserved. When she fled tiny Medford for Las Vegas nine years ago, it was in a cloud of scandal. Once Emma rescues Jasmi...

'Children between the ages of twelve and 25 find parents embarrassing 95 per cent of the time. Any younger and they're so uncritical they think you look good in swimmers. Any older and they drop in just long enough to leave their laundry and borrow 50. If you want to embarrass your kids you have to strike when they're teenagers.'For 30 years, Pat McDermott's much-loved 'Family Matters' saga has unfolded on the last page of The Australian Women's Weekly. Her hilarious obser...

The eternal question 'Who am I?' must be weighed against an even deeper question: 'Who are we?' We are writing each other's stories as much as we are writing our own.In his bestselling book, The Good Life, Hugh Mackay argued that kindness and respect for others are the hallmarks of a life well lived. Now in The Art of Belonging Mackay shows how strong communities develop our moral sense and build our emotional security. H...

"No one can promise you that a life lived for others will bring you a deep sense of satisfaction, but it's certain that nothing else will."Hugh Mackay has spent his entire working life asking Australians about their values, motivations, ambitions, hopes and fears. Now, in The Good Life, he addresses the ultimate question: What makes a life worth living?His conclusion is provocative. The good life is not the sum of our security, weal...

Ten tried and true baking recipes from New Zealand's much loved home cooking expert. Ever since she published her first cookbook, Jo Seagar has been the byword for fabulous home baking. Her recipes are easy, tasty, quick to prepare, utterly delicious and turn out looking beautiful. In this hand-picked selection Jo shares her ten best all-time baking favourites.

Four friends, a sun-drenched escape, and a holiday that will change everything...THE VILLA GIRLS is the story of four young women who decide that wherever they are in the world and whatever they're doing they'll meet every few years for a holiday together somewhere sunny. Despite life taking them in very different directions, their snatched days in the sun in little hidden villas are crucial to them all. Escape, celebration, recovery - over the years the holidays c...

'At a time when the outback was still a forbidding, remote frontier, the Leyland brothers brought it into people's homes through their many documentaries and successful television series. In doing so they persuaded thousands of Aussies out on to the road, starting the four-wheel-drive revolution and contributing to a huge recreational industry.' Neil McDonald, Herald-SunMike and Mal Leyland's first step towards becoming beloved Aussie icons came with the screening of their...

'MR WIGG captivates to the end' Good Reading MagazineIt’s the summer of 1971, not far from the stone-fruit capital of New South Wales, where Mr Wigg lives on what is left of his family farm. Mrs Wigg has been gone a few years now and he thinks about her every day. He misses his daughter, too, and wonders when he'll see her again.He spends his time working in the orchard, cooking and preserving his produce and, when it's on, watching the cricket. It's a full life. Things are...

Love, life, friendship and Italian food...Raffaella Moretti, by far the most beautiful girl in the southern Italian town of Triento, is about to marry the only boy she has ever loved. It seems that nothing but happiness lies in store for her. Yet, just one year later, she is a widow, and has taken a job as housekeeper in the Villa Rosa, working for a young American.As Raffaella struggles to recapture her lost happiness she starts looking for ways to help th...

Escape to Italy with this sumptuous story of secrets and friendships under Mediterranean skies.A recipe for life should be a simple thing: love and happiness, family, friends and a little food. But life is rarely straightforward...Alice wants to make the most of life - after all, she knows how fragile it can be - and knows she never feels more alive than when she's cooking.Babetta has spent a lifetime tending the garden of her tiny house on the Itali...

Winner of 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award. A mesmerising literary novel, Questions of Travel charts two very different lives. Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events.Around these two superbly drawn characters, a double narrative assembles an enthralling array of people, places and stories - from Theo, whose life plays out i...

With the "intensity of a Jason Bourne adventure," this thriller about a spy racing to save the daughter he gave up is a "page-turner with unexpected heart" (Kirkus Reviews).Klara Walldéen was raised by her grandparents on a remote archipelago in the Baltic Sea, learning to fish and hunt and sail a boat through a storm. Now, as an EU Parliament aide in Brussels, she is learning how to navigate the treacherous currents of international politics: the lines between frie...