The Chipilly Six: Unsung Heroes of the Great War
Lucas Jordan. NewSouth. $34.99.
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Australia's fascination with World War I has not abated. This book tells an overlooked story from that conflict. On August 9, 1918, British forces were held up by German machine gunners and suffering heavy casualties. Two Australian sergeants, Jack Hayes and Harold Andrews, went AWOL, crossing the Somme ahead of the British lines then returning with four mates to take on the Germans. Jordan continues the story of the men's lives after the war, with a pandemic, the Depression, and then another war among the challenges they faced.
Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl: a city doctor goes bush
Sonia Henry. Allen & Unwin. $34.99.
Henry's story, previously told in the autobiographical novel, Going Under, about a young Sydney doctor's struggles, continues as a memoir. To start afresh, she answered an ad for a GP in a tiny mining town in the desert of Western Australia. Henry planned to stay for a month but instead spent two years travelling around the country working in remote areas, meeting an eclectic bunch of people, having novel experiences and making discoveries about Australia, both good and bad, especially the significant medical gap between major cities and regional areas.
Tremendous: The Life of a Comedy Savage
Joey Diaz with Eric Florentine. Penguin. $65.
Cuban-American comedian and actor Joey "Coco" Diaz tells the story of his rise to success in this memoir. Diaz credits his success to his "immigrant mentality," the work ethic his mother modelled for him and on which countless others have depended to survive the harsh landscape of being an outsider. When he was young he was helping his mother in her bar, held a gun for the first time at the age of six, and later he dealt drugs and served time. Addiction and depression were also elements of his life. But he survived and has been in films, on TV and hosted podcasts.
Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at Home
Sam Twyford-Moore. UNSW Press. $34.99.
This book focuses on four Australian movie talents who made a name for themselves internationally from the 1930s up until the present: Errol Flynn, Peter Finch, David Gulpilil and Nicole Kidman. But the book is not just biographical or a look at how they became international stars. It deals with other actors and filmmakers as well and encompasses the film cultures of Australia, Britain and the US. Twyford-Moore discusses how these actors shaped Australian films and perceptions both here and internationally and how film culture rose, faltered, and recovered.
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Snapshots from Home
Sasha Wasley. Pantera Books. $29.99.
In 1917, Edie is a teacher in the small Australian town of York. Her brother has died in World War I, her father wants her to marry, but she keeps herself busy. One of her activities is taking part in a comfort scheme sending photos to the troops. But this embroils her in family secrets, scandals and the class system of the town. And there's a handsome, exasperating man her father wouldn't like. Edie's world keeps getting more complicated and her choices more weighty.
In a thousand different ways
Cecelia Ahern. HarperCollins. $39.99.
Irish writer Ahern's books have sold many millions of copies. Her latest is the story of Alice, who sees both the best and the worst in people through colours - literally: she knows what everyone around her is feeling every single day. It might sound like a gift, but it can also be a curse, with the rush of feelings, especially the dark ones - sadness, rage - overwhelming her. Growing up with her two siblings and erratic mother, Alice blocks herself off from people but as she gets older the loneliness gets to her and she has to learn to accept her gift, live with it, and live with other people too.
Roseghetto
Kirsty Jagger. UQP. $32.99.
Shayla is on a newspaper assignment when she returns to the public housing estate where she grew up and finds it demolished. The locals have been evicted, their homes erased. Standing among the rubble of Rosemeadow, Shayla is assailed by her memories of living there. The bad secret Daddy asked her to keep. Mummy rekindling a dangerous romance. Making friends with "the gutter kids". Surrounded by poverty, confronted by domestic violence, Shayla found her escape in reading. Now it's time to tell the stories of Rosemeadow, including her own.
Do Tell
Lindsay Lynch. Hachette Australia. $32.99.
This debut novel is set during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Character actress Edie O'Dare has finished the final year of her contract with FWM Studios and is looking for a new gig after an undistinguished screen career. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist. When an up-and-coming starlet hands Edie a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party, Edie helps get the story into print and gains a new career. But publishing the secrets of her former colleagues has repercussions and she finds herself having to make a choice that could ruin more than one life.
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