Showing results by narrator "Des Fitzgerald" in All Categories

Jas saw the light when her ex dumped her treasured vintage fabric all over the street. She's back in her home town with a plan to launch her hat-making business at the Christmas market in the beautiful Georgian square. But the Ballyclane she returns to is not the one she left nine years ago. Her mother has a new man and Jas's old room is a walk-in wardrobe now. Her beloved gran has died and the house Jas hoped to work from is a bonanza for property developers instead.

Mary Brown is back to her mad and crazy best as she heads to Portugal for a weight loss camp and discovers it’s nothing like she expected. Mary wants to hide from the instructors and cheat the system. The trouble is, her mum is with her, and won’t leave her alone for a second...Then there's the angry instructor with the deep, dark secret about why he left the army. And what about Yvonne - the slim, attractive lady who sneaks off every night after dinner. Where's she going?

In this new collection of 33 stories, one of Korea's foremost Seon (Zen) masters introduces the richness and depth of Korea's Buddhist tradition. With humor and insight, Seon Master Daehaeng shows us our inherent potential and demonstrates how we can face the challenges of life with wisdom and vigor.

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made a speech to the Fort Worth, Texas, Chamber of Commerce; he was assassinated later that afternoon. Kennedy had traveled to the state to unite Texas Democrats where party leaders were feuding and extremists were contributing to political tensions. Kennedy knew an intra-party feud in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state for his 1964 re-election campaign.

In Invisible Strings, poet, professor, and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick Daugherty has brought together 113 contemporary poets, each contributing an original poem that responds to a specific Taylor Swift song.

Deaf PI Caleb Zelic has always been an outsider, estranged from family and friends. But when he receives a message that his brother, Anton, is in danger, Caleb sees it as a chance at redemption. He tracks Anton down to a small, wind-punished island, where secrets run deep and resentments deeper. When a sniper starts terrorising the isolated community, the brothers must rely on each other like never before. But trust comes at a deadly price …

Jock Serong reimagines in urgent, compelling prose the ill-fated exploits of George Augustus Robinson at the settlement of Wybalenna. On the windswept point of an island at the edge of van Diemen’s Land, the Commandant huddles with a small force of white men and women. He has gathered together, under varying degrees of coercion and duress, the last of the Tasmanians, or so he believes. His purpose is to save them—from a number of things, but most pressingly from the murderous intent of the pastoral settlers on their country.

When a recently widowed woman in rural Wisconsin notices her husband’s toolbox is missing, she calls the authorities—and unwittingly starts a chain of events that will forever change her community. What begins as a disarmingly simple mystery blooms into an exploration of loss, the fragility of the environment, and what it means to connect and heal.

The Devereaux siblings are talented entrepreneurs running a successful Insurance company. That success is tested as a series of unimaginable events surround them. London, her sister Remy, and their brother Luke evoke feelings of immense loyalty from those close to them. But some aren't loyalists and everyone isn't quite who they appear to be. Someone despises them enough to commit arson against their company. When that doesn't hurt enough the consequences turn deadly for one of them. The police are struggling to find the perpetrators, forcing the siblings to take matters into their own hands.

A definitive deep-dive into queer history and culture with hit reality show RuPaul's Drag Race as a touchstone, by the creators of the pop culture blog Tom and Lorenzo NPR's Best Books of the Year 2020 pick A New York Times New & Noteworthy book One of Logo/NewNowNext's "11 Queer Books We Can't...

Fitzgerald’s memoir-in-essays begins with a childhood that moves at breakneck speed from safety to violence, recounting an extraordinary pilgrimage through trauma to self-understanding and, ultimately, acceptance. From growing up in a Boston homeless shelter to bartending in San Francisco, from smuggling medical supplies into Burma to his lifelong struggle to make peace with his body, Fitzgerald strives to take control of his own story: one that aims to put aside anger, isolation and entitlement to embrace the idea that one can be generous to oneself by being generous to others.

1911, on a winter's night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a road that Hawkins should have been patrolling, had he not been busy bedding the local schoolteacher.

From the land of fantastical castles, vast lakes and deep forests, the Brothers Grimm collected a treasury of enchanting folk and fairy stories full of giants and dwarfs, witches and princesses, magical beasts and cunning children. From classics such as 'The Frog-Prince' and 'Hansel and Grettel' to the delights of 'Ashputtel' or 'Old Sultan', all hold a timeless magic which has enthralled children for centuries.

Mary Brown is the star of the Adorable Fat Girl series: she's gorgeous, curvaceous, and wants to find a boyfriend. But where's she going to meet someone new? She doesn't want to hang around pubs all evening (actually that bit's not true), and she doesn't want to have to get out of her pyjamas unless really necessary (that bit's true). There's only one thing for it - she will launch herself majestically onto the dating scene.

Shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, Work of State Significance and The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award Shortlisted for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Australian History Winner of the 2025 NSW History Award, Australian History Prize Winner of the 2025...

In the realm of Aethelgarde, where ancient ley lines hum with forgotten power and monsters stalk the shadows between worlds, three adventurers set out on a quest that will change more than just their stats. Elara, a quiet half-elf scholar, is captivated by the mysteries of magic and the logic of science. Kaelen, a brooding human ranger, guards his past as fiercely as he guards his companions. August, a charismatic halfling bard, lives for music, mischief, and the thrill of connection.

In Autumn of 1912, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins arrives at his new post in the fading gold town of Colley, NSW. On his first day, he is ambushed by a hidden gunman, his junior officer is killed before his eyes, and he escapes back to town to find the police station burning to the ground. Someone has it in for the mounted troopers. A traumatised veteran of the Boer War, and a stranger to Colley, Hawkins is deeply shaken and ill-equipped to solve the case. But with only green troopers and a drunken, incompetent detective available to hunt down the murderer, he is forced to take the lead.

Mary Brown is in lockdown. She’s all nothing for weeks, and is living on a diet of cake and wine. She’s really up before midday and spends her time eating every box that she can get her hands on. Then, she has an idea.... Instead of just eating the cake, why doesn’t she judge it? She should organize a World Cup of cakes. With Juan, her trusty sidekick, she sets up the competition with meticulous detail, and the whole thing goes viral. Featuring: home dyed hair, talking to potatoes, internet shopping, and birdwatching. And loads of cake.

On Tommy Llewellyn’s first birthday, his doting parents awoke in a home without baby blankets and bottles in the fridge, without the photos of their newborn once scattered about, and without any idea that the one-year-old sleeping in their home was their child. That’s because Tommy Llewellyn is a boy who, in the very cosmic sense of things, will never be remembered—stuck in a universal Reset that causes everyone to forget he exists when the clock strikes midnight on his birthday each year.

The Power of Suffering is psychologist David Roland’s personal investigation into the nature of human suffering. When our world is turned upside down, what does it do to us, how do we survive it, and, most importantly, how can we grow as a result? David takes the lived experience of eleven...