Book Club

REVIEWS book club

The Feelgood Pack from Melbourne University Publishers

Melbourne University Press has curated a feelgood pack, filled with inspiring stories, nature, and steps to happiness. The individual RRP for the seven titles is $286 but is available for $160.

The Coast

Chris Hammer Melbourne University Press: ISBN 9780522865974

Chris Hammer travels the length of the east coast of Australia on a journey of discovery and reflection, from the Torres Strait to Tasmania; from an island whose beach has been lost forever to the humbling optimism of the survivors of Cyclone Yasi; from the showy beaches of Sydney to a beautiful village that endures despite the loss of its fishing fleet.

Eight Steps to Happiness

Anthony Grant and Alison Leigh

Melbourne University Press: ISBN 9780349003627 Based on the hit ABC TV series Making Australia Happy, this practical, everyday handbook shows you how to become a happier person in just eight weeks. The simple exercises and activities in 8 Steps to Happiness are profoundly effective and scientifically proven, and can lead to measurable physiological changes, from improved immune function to better sleep and increased physical strength. The 8 steps program gives you no-nonsense tools to make real change in your life.

John Perceval

Traudi Allen

Melbourne University Press: ISBN 9780522868609 In this fully revised and updated analysis of his art in the context of his life, Traudi Allen shows how, despite having been positioned as the younger follower of Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker and Fred Williams, he was, in fact, sometimes the mentor. The full complexity of his work and his personality is rigorously and engagingly analysed here, in a story that is as sweet and fascinating as it is tragic.

The Footy Lady

Stephanie Asher

Melbourne University Press: ISBN 9780522872576 When her first husband was killed by a truck, Susan Alberti took over their construction business, becoming a female pioneer in the building industry. When her daughter was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes she embarked on a mission to find a cure. When her beloved football club the Western Bulldogs was threatened with annihilation she worked as vice-president to bring home the 2016 premiership flag. Confronted with the exclusion of women from AFL, she battled to open the game to all and kept up the fight with money and on-ground support when others were ready to signal defeat.

A Hostile Beauty

Alistair Dermer and Danielle Wood

Melbourne University Press: ISBN 9780522855043 There are few places today that are truly wild. Macquarie Island is still one such place—a small, wind-blasted rocky outcrop between Tasmania and Antarctica. In exquisite pictures and words, A Hostile Beauty tells the story of this extraordinary Australian outpost teeming with life.

Mothermorphosis

Monica Dux

Melbourne University Press: ISBN: 9780522867831 In Mothermorphosis, some of Australia’s most talented writers and storytellers share their own experiences of motherhood. In telling their stories they articulate the complex internal conflicts, the exhilaration and the absurdity of the transformation that takes place when we become mothers.

Radical Heart

Shireen Morris

Melbourne University Press: ISBN: 9780522867831 Neither Indigenous nor white, Shireen Morris is both outside observer and instrumental insider in the fight for Indigenous rights. Shaped by her family's Indian and Fijian migrant story, Morris is a key player in what many consider the greatest moral challenge of our nation: constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. Radical Heart is a challenge for all Australians to dream together of a fairer future and work as one to make it happen.

All books can be ordered through the publisher or your local bookshop. Call 8595 1234 or 1300 367 962, or email library@nswnma.asn.au for assistance with loans or research. Books are not independently reviewed or reviewed using information supplied by the publishers.