Showing results by narrator "Melissa" in All Categories

ABIA AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 - HIGHLY COMMENDED LONGLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS CHRISTINA STEAD PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 A SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2021' 'In this novel, the project of living is...

Imagine searching your whole life for answers, and then finally finding them. A part of you is excited to know the truth. Another part of you is damaged, because you realize why it was so hard to learn answers. Secrets aren't usually very pretty. In the midst of all of it, the four monsters I've gotten too attached to are about to be reunited with the one woman they all once loved so deeply that they sacrificed everything for an eternity with her. They said they hated Arion, but I never see hatred when they're around him. I see frustration, resentment, anger, and pain, never hatred.

'A truly delightful debut novel. Funny, moving, tender and wise, I ate up every delicious word' LIANE MORIARTY 'Warm and profound. I can't wait for everyone to read it' SALLY HEPWORTH 'A delectable fusion of comedy, hope, loss, and great food' Weekend Australian 'An insightful, emotionally...

We may not realize it consciously, but negative feelings can be as toxic as physical poisons, wearing on us and causing depression, illness, and burnout. But how can we keep ourselves safe in a world too often ruled by resentment, jealousy, rage, and stress? 

'THE MOTHERHOOD COMPLEX does for mothers in particular what INVISIBLE WOMEN did for women as a whole: exposes the myriad ways in which the system is stacked against us, while celebrating the strengths and successes we achieve in spite of it all' Leah Hazard 'A welcome, refreshing and clear-eyed...

Being a female mechanic has it’s flaws. The sweet-talking hockey player who thinks I’m here to flirt with him instead of fix his car is proof. Thanks to my broken heart, Chance McLanely’s crystal blue eyes and charming smiles don’t—ahem—barely affect me. I fix his flashy Lamborghini, drop him off and expect to never see him again. Except he’s at my garage the next day, asking me to jumpstart his career instead of his car.

After spending the vast majority of my life lonely, I came to this town to find answers about my mother, and instead, stumbled upon a secret society full of monsters I never knew existed outside of dark tales. Now I've built a sanctuary, gotten in the middle of an ages-old feud between various monster factions, and somehow ended up with an ancient, queen-like tyrant targeting me, because my life sucks sometimes. For now, hoping for the best is all I have. Well, I guess that's a lie too. Hope's not all I have.

Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of control by way of obsessive food rituals. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Then Rachel meets Miriam, a young Orthodox-Jewish woman intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam - by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family - and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk and honey.

Withdrawal episodes. That’s what the therapist says when my six year old starts disconnecting from everyone and it destroys my entire world. When I gave up professional hockey, signed my divorce and determined to raise my baby girl on my own in Lucky Falls, I swore I’d be everything my daughter needed.

Bella: Meeting him was a fluke. Dating him was a mistake. Watching him become a drug addict put me through hell. Running was my only option. Jackson: I'm running from my demons and when I find out she's trying to escape her past, I know what I have to do. One broken cop. One woman fighting for her life. A fragile love. Sinister secrets that threaten to tear them apart. They've been to hell. The hard part will be finding their way back together.

"Sing, gypsies, sing of your lies." That old song plays in my head as the world turns around me faster than it has ever turned. Monsters and mayhem. That's become my life. Fear and apprehension. That's become the normal for those around me. Dread and distraction. That's what has interrupted my own personal romance story with my mon-star quad. Vengeance and retribution. That was the theme of the monster world long before I landed in it, and it's starting to heat up more than ever. I guess it's time to see if I can handle being in the middle, because that's where I'm about to put myself.

* THE NEW FIENDISHLY CLEVER MYSTERY FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SMASH-HIT BESTSELLER THE APPEAL * 'Brims with Hallett's signature wit. Her best book yet' - PETER SWANSON 'Devilishly additive. I loved every line' - LOUISE CANDLISH 'The modern Queen of Crime does it again' - IAN MOORE The answer is...

"This story does not begin on a boat." So commences Alice Pung’s memoir. This is an original take on a classic story - how a child of immigrants moves between two cultures. In place of piety and predictability, however, Unpolished Gem offers a vivid and ironic sense of both worlds. It combines the story of Pung’s life growing up in suburban Footscray with the inherited stories of the women in her family - stories of madness, survival, and heartbreak. Original and brave, this is a girl’s own story that introduces an unforgettable voice and captures the experience of Asian immigrants to Australia.

Libby Tebbit had absolutely had her fill of big-city life. So, when presented with the opportunity to take over her gran’s shop, The Bookshop by the Beach, she’d have been crazy to turn it down, right? Idyllic notions of lazy days by the ocean shore, shooing away the surplus eligible bachelors circling around her like squawking gulls, filled her head. These things were certain to await her, she felt confident, in this next glorious chapter of her life - this wonderful seaside adventure on the Isle of Man.

Fake dating the town’s grumpiest hockey player wasn’t part of my plan. Neither was falling in love with him for real. Gunner Kinsey’s piercing blue eyes and rock-hard abs have all the women of Lucky Falls fooled. But I know the truth. He’s a six-foot-five ice king who freezes out anything that isn’t hockey. And the first thing he let go was me… his childhood best friend. I spend the next decade studying to be a mechanic and pretending he doesn’t exist.

Melissa Lucashenko is one of Australia's most admired and awarded novelists. She is renowned for writing about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead. This timely collection of essays and journalism - published together for the first time - spans two turbulent decades. With her trademark wit and wisdom, Lucashenko reflects on being caught in a siege, on the marginalised lives of prisoners and the urban poor, on Blak identity, Australian literature and on meeting her writing idol.

You'd think that basically being in charge of love would be an epic job, right? Wrong. Sure, I can blow some Lust into people's faces and watch the show, but I can't actually participate. It gets old, trust me. Same goes for love. I can pass it out like sugar-free lollipops at a dentist's office, but I can't get any love for myself. It totally sucks. I used to consider myself a hopeless romantic, so why wouldn't I choose to become a cupid? Sounds like a good idea, right? Wrong again. They don't call us stupid cupids for nothing.

Aldo Moretta has always been the hero. The strongest, the fastest, the bravest. He fought for his country and built a thriving business in his hometown. With friends and family never more than a few blocks away, there was just one thing he was missing. The right girl. She’d fallen for the wrong guy. The bad guy. But now that she’s finally free, Aldo isn’t going to miss his second chance. Not until his last deployment goes horribly wrong. He was prepared to give his life, but he wasn’t ready for an injury that takes a piece of him. How can he be her hero now?

The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece. Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S. M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Colas, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved.

What do you get when you have four mates, one psychotic prince, a horde of rebels, and a cupid who just got yanked out of the realm? A big freaking problem, that’s what. I was supposed to take on my first real mission as a spy. I was supposed to go find my missing mate and discover who our real allies are for the war that’s brewing in the fae realm. Instead, I’m thrown back to where I was first created, Cupidville. And, judging by the look I’m getting from the Head of all Cupidity, and the big Terminate button that he's holding, this problem is about to get much worse.