Penguin Random House Australia: 1771 books

At thirteen, Jim McNeil quit school for good. At fourteen, he started an affair with a brothel madam and was introduced to Melbourne's underworld. Despite his love of reading and philosophy, McNeil relished his life among thugs, thieves and whores, becoming one of the city's most violent criminals. In...

Welcome to my library. Dog-eared paperbacks falling to pieces. Second-hand books from the stores and barrows of four continents. Modern first editions, some inscribed ... In My Reading Life, a personal investigation into the nature of democracy, dictatorship, decency and the hardwired human...

Comedian and writer Lily Bragge knows what it is to be a user and a taker, a liar, cheat and thief. It wasn't until she had lost everything - custody of her son, her friends, her career, her possessions and , almost, her sanity - that she was able to gain some kind of understanding of herself and...

February 1942. The Japanese invasion of Timor has begun and attempts to evacuate a group of 29 Australian airmen, charged with keeping an airfield operational until the last moment, are thwarted. Under the leadership of Bryan Rofe, a 24-year-old meteorological officer, the airmen make for remote jungle...

'Fly is an absorbing read thanks to the amazing and previously untold stories Veitch collected from aging pilots, navigators and gunners.' HERALD SUN All over the world during World War II, thousands of young men who had never so much as been near an aeroplane left offices, farms and classrooms...

This extraordinary first-hand account of Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop's experiences as senior medical officer in the infamous prisoner-of-war camps in Java and on the Burma-Thailand Railway, is not only an account of great historical significance but also a testament to the ability of the human spirit...

A tale of passion and pursuit, Fortune is the story of Don Spargo, a modern explorer who finds a sunken treasure ship off the West Australian coast and becomes a folk hero, a lover, and a hunted and haunted man. Suspenseful, satirical and deeply moving, this novel challenges the nature of reality...

'A very readable, occasionally apocalyptic, almanac of ''interesting times.''' The Age 'He writes beautifully and his ability to pick out the human stories among the headlines is what makes the book worth reading.' Weekly Times '????? He...write[s] like an angel, albeit an avenging one...

'You won't find a singsong entry in this book that says, 'Magic happens' or 'Climb a tree with a child.' There are no pictures of cuddly animals . . . It's the stuff I wish somebody, anybody, had told me twenty years ago.' No tattoos before you're thirty is a collection of witty, modern truths aimed...

When Miles Franklin-shortlisted novelist Brenda walker became sick she turned to two healers: doctors and books. This is the story of how she recovered. Packing her bag for hospital after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Brenda wondered which book to put in. As a novelist and professor of...

Sullivan Moss is useless. Once a charming underachiever, he's now such a loser that he can't even commit suicide properly. Waking up in hospital after falling the wrong way on a rooftop, he comes to a decision. He shouldn't waste perfectly good organs just because they're attached to his head....

'Hugely memorable, The Toymaker is an unflinching examination of the dark instinct for survival that lies in all of us.' Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites A person is defined by the secrets they keep . . . Adam Kulakov likes his life. He's on the right side of middle age; the toy company...

After growing up as a desert rat in the Coober Pedy outback, Terry Ledgard was no stranger to mischief and adventure. Having survived puberty unscathed, he joined the Army and rose through the ranks to become an SAS medic, and soon found himself heading for Afghanistan. Life in Afghanistan was hectic...

When a clairvoyant tells Gretel Killeen that she has only days to live, she is forced to look back on all the most important things in her life. High on her list is the man with whom she has shared her longest relationship, Jimmy. Theirs is a warts and all friendship - perhaps far more honest than...