Other books that might interest you

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  Raised By Wolves

  Jess Ho

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  Growing up Cantonese in the racist outer suburbs was hard enough for Jess Ho, but add in a dysfunctional family who only made peace over food, and it was clear that a normal life was never on the menu. Jess emerged from childhood with a major psychological complex and a kick-arse palate, traits that would help them fit right in to the messy world of Melbourne’s food scene. 
   
  In hospitality, Jess found a new family of outsiders who shared their lust for life and appetite for destruction. As the Australian food scene exploded, fuelled by the kinds of ‘exotic’ foods Jess had grown up on, they became one of the most influential voices in Australia’s bar and restaurant scene. But the industry Jess loved had its own dysfunctions: greed, ego, sexual harassment, exploitation and a never-ending fetishisation of Asian food culture. And Jess wasn’t one to hold their tongue. 
   
  Raised by Wolves is a fierce, funny and razor-sharp coming of age story from a savage new voice. 
   
  ‘Jess Ho’s Raised by Wolves is a cutting memoir full of joy and tragedy. This is a life in the Melbourne hospitality industry that deserves a place on your shelf’. JASON STEGER, The Booklist

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  Iron Dad - A Cancer Survivor's...

  Paul Weigel

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  A powerful memoir about a dad navigating loss, fighting cancer, surviving, and thriving alongside the most important person in his life—his daughter. 
    
  Paul Weigel’s life always felt hard. Throughout his isolated childhood, with distant and detached parents, losing his college sweetheart in a horrible tragedy, and enduring the unexpected death of his father, Weigel spent his life in despair. It all just hurt. 
    
  Everything changed when his daughter was born. 
    
  From day one, Weigel and his daughter shared an incredible bond. She was a constant source of peace and inspiration to him, and he was determined to give her the love and security he’d never had. His life and the family that he’d dreamed about seemed to be finally getting on track—that is, until a devastating cancer diagnosis threatened that future. 
    
  But this time around, Weigel chose hope. If you believe in the impossible, he told himself, the incredible can come true. Using this mantra, Weigel pushed forward, determined to show his daughter true strength and power. Facing the ups and downs of his illness and treatment with courage, he trained for and completed an Ironman triathlon within six months of finishing chemotherapy, and he continued to be a dedicated father. 
    
  In Iron Dad, Weigel celebrates the unique bond between fathers and daughters and shares an inspiring story of finding and clinging to the joy in life, no matter the odds. 
   

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  Finding Mary Smith - A Memoir of...

  Al Isaacs

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  What if one phone call revealed that everything you knew about your family—and yourself—was built on a secret? 
  At age 52, Al Isaacs learned by accident that he had been adopted. His adoptive parents, both suffering from dementia, could no longer give him answers, and nearly everyone else who had known the truth was gone. All he had was a startling revelation, incomplete records, and one tantalizing clue: his birth mother had been an entertainer in New York. 
  What followed was a remarkable DNA and genealogy detective story. 
  Using DNA testing, genetic genealogy, old records, newspaper archives, and help from search angels, Al began unraveling the circumstances of his gray market adoption. The search led to biological relatives he never knew existed, including a half-sister who had spent years looking for him, and eventually to Mary Smith—a teenage folk singer from Flint, Michigan, whose extraordinary journey took her to New York's Greenwich Village music scene before their lives were separated for more than five decades. 
  Finding Mary Smith is an award-winning memoir about adoption, family secrets, identity, DNA, genealogy, and the complicated meaning of family. Told with warmth, humor, and honesty, it follows a late-discovery adoptee's search for the truth, from a shocking phone call to an emotional reunion that once seemed impossible. 
  Part mystery, part family history, and part love letter to the people who help us discover who we are, Finding Mary Smith asks a deceptively simple question: 
  How much of your life can change when you finally learn where you came from?

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  16 Weeks & Everything After - A...

  Paul Whymark

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  Updated 2024 to include significant additional material from 2018 to 2024.
  At the 16 week foetal stage, Paul Whymark's brain development was frozen as a consequence of the drug, Thalidomide. His journey is one of considerable self discovery, but also reveals greater societal insights. "16 Weeks and Everything After..."uncovers the remarkable fact that over the last 50-60 years the establishment has failed to genuinely independently review Thalidomide, and as a consequence, harms on developing life continue to have the potential to occur into the future. Worse is that the insidious nature of many of the unacknowledged harms of Thalidomide are still not related to the drug. Hence such consequences are unrecognised and are at odds with official and textbook accounts even over 50 years on. Therefore, as well as appealing to general readers and other professionals, this book urgently needs to be on every medical personnel's (or trainee personnel's) required reading list.
  "16 Weeks and Everything After…" manages to communicate the minutia of subtle but all-important detail to uncover a quite different picture to that has been reported thus far. It has been written in an uplifting and heart-warming way, with the attitude of turning negatives into positives, but without losing sight of the underlying issues. The author has sought to stand up for his late mother, who like all mothers of children harmed by drugs consumed during pregnancy, carry the resulting additional challenges. This has sustained Paul's drive through the years of both official impasse and life's ups and downs. The book comprises a set of micro-narratives, but join together to reveal a significant personal journey in addition to a much larger and wider untold picture.

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  Assemble Artifacts Short Story...

  Artifacts Magazine, Nick...

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  Assemble Artifacts 
  A short story magazine that assembles a thrilling new mix of stories from genres including horror, science-fiction, comedy, and suspense. Buried at the heart of every story in the magazine is a unique artifact, an object that has inspired our storytellers to create a big idea, an irresistible question, a new immersive world, or a sense of wonder. Unearth your next great read with Assemble Artifacts. 
  “The Faithful” by Nick KolakowskiHoping to flip an aging house and fund their dream home, a couple faces more than renovation challenges. Outside, faithful fans of a decades-old horror film lay siege, while inside, buried secrets threaten to turn their dream into a true renovation nightmare. 
  “The Muse” by Lindz McLeodSeduced by stardom, a struggling actress lands her dream role but falls prey to the star of the film’s dark mentorship. Soon, her coveted big break spirals into a nightmarish reality, threatening to devour her. 
  “Blanks” by Jason PinterA year after the residents of Bailey’s Island lose their memories, they mysteriously resurface. But as they grapple with their returned memories under a watchful organization, one woman’s unsettling discovery sparks a desperate search for the truth. 
  “Malevolent Mindy” by Elizabeth DavisA play-by-the-rules lawyer, fed up with life’s injustices, is endowed with the devil’s powers to serve cosmic justice but soon discovers her newfound abilities might not be worth the price of her heart and soul. 
  “Walled In” by Clara MadriganoWhen a struggling writer finds an arcane puzzle, her mundane world spirals into a series of malevolent labyrinths. Now, ensnared in a realm of her darkest fears, she must confront them head-on or be consumed by them.

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  Cleopatra's Daughter - Egyptian...

  Jane Draycott

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  The first biography of one of the most fascinating, and unjustly neglected, female rulers of the ancient world: Cleopatra Selene. Princess, prisoner, African queen – and surviving daughter of Cleopatra VII. 
   
  In 1895, archaeologists excavating a villa outside Pompeii unearthed a hoard of Roman silverware. Among the treasures was a bowl featuring a female figure with thick, curly hair, deep-set eyes, a slightly hooked nose and a strong jaw, and sporting an elephant scalp headdress. Modern scholars believe this woman to be a depiction of Cleopatra Selene, daughter of the infamous Cleopatra and Mark Antony. 
   
  Using this discovery as her starting point, Jane Draycott recreates the life and times of a remarkable woman. Unlike her siblings, who were either executed as a threat to Rome's new ruler, Augustus, or simply forgotten, Cleopatra Selene survived and prospered. She was a princess who became a prisoner; a prisoner who became a queen; an Egyptian who became a Roman; and a woman who became a powerful ruler in her own right at a time when women were marginalized. Her life shines new and revelatory light on the politics and culture of Rome and Egypt, as well as on the relationship between Rome and Mauretania, one of its most significant allied kingdoms.

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