Showing results by publisher "Penguin Random House Australia Audio" in All Categories

Some advice suits certain people more than others. Some advice is...redundant waffle. And Nat's What I Reckon refuses to let it slide! Ya see, Nat's got a loud mouth and a taste for taking the piss out of stuff—it's how he lives, laughs and loves. Now, his target's the tired old life advice he's had enough of: Man up. Good vibes only. No pain no gain. Carpe diem. What a punish! Buckle up for Nat's unrequested take on pushing back against expectations and rolling through life with some laughs and kindness like a real, righteous ratbag!

In a near-future Australia, the death penalty is reinstated. The catch: the family of the victim must carry out the sentence. One family member gets twenty-four hours in a room with the condemned. No cameras. No microphones. They can dole out whatever punishment they decide. The only rule: at the end of the twenty-four hours, the criminal must be dead. When ten-year-old Lucy is murdered, her family is doubled over with grief. While her killer waits them to decide on his fate, psychologist Octavia Tate is assigned to guide the family through their decision.

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules. She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir's Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardian to come.

Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance. Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs at 14. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and a porn stash for them to meet again.

When Christine Courtenay began penning her own life story in lockdown last year, she found herself increasingly drawn into the story of her late husband and bestselling author Bryce Courtenay. The manuscript that evolved is the memoir his listeners have longed for, and is the first biographical work of one of Australia's most beloved authors. Bryce Courtenay: Storyteller is a personal memoir and tribute, featuring untold stories, original insights, extracts from his personal letters and previously unpublished photographs - from the woman who knew and loved him dearly.

It's been more than 10 years since Maddy Locke left Spinifex, the small outback town where she gave birth to her daughter, Bridget. Now she's back to prove she's got what it takes to run the medical centre and face the memories of that challenging time in her life. But everything's changed - the old pub is gone, her new colleagues aren't pleased to see her and it's drier and hotter than ever.

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the British asked Australia for help. With some misgivings, the Australian government sent five destroyers to beef up the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. HMAS Vendetta, Vampire, Voyager, Stuart and Waterhen were old ships, small with worn-out engines. Their crews used to joke they were held together by string and chewing gum; when the Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels heard of them, he sneered that they were a load of scrap iron.

The Arsonist takes listeners inside the hunt for a fire-lighter. After Black Saturday, a February 2009 day marked by 47 degree heat and firestorms, arson squad detectives arrived at a plantation on the edge of a 26,000-hectare burn site. Eleven people had just been killed and hundreds made homeless. Here, in the Latrobe Valley, where Victoria's electricity is generated, and the rates of unemployment, crime and domestic abuse are the highest in the state, more than 30 people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn't know.

We are living amid a mental health epidemic. Clinical depression has devastated the lives of countless people, sending families into crisis and weakening the ties that hold communities together. But there is hope. Informed by internationally renowned psychiatrist Ian Hickie's 35 years of clinical experience and extensive case studies, The Devil You Knew explores the inner workings of the depressed mind and the myriad influences - environmental, physiological, social - to guide us towards the right diagnosis and offer pathways to healing.

Authenticity coach Kat John finds many of her clients reach out for advice in their thirties, forties and beyond, feeling lost and unable to recognise themselves. When work, families, relationships and trauma have sent their lives in a direction that makes them wake up and wonder, How did I get here? They want, and need, to find the path back home to their authenticity. Having overcome her own struggles, from eating disorder and drug addiction to chronic pain and an unexpected brain surgery, Kat has walked the talk of learning how to live a life of connection and fulfilment as her real self.

In this ground-breaking book, award-winning leadership expert and business leader Kirstin Ferguson upends the traditional notion of a strong leader. Everyone, she argues, is a leader. YOU are a leader. Whether you are the head of one of the largest companies in the world, supervising a small team or working from home you impact people through the words you use, the choices you make and the behaviours you role model to others.

Lenny Marks is good at not remembering. She has spent the last twenty years not thinking about the day her mother left her when she was still a child. Her stepfather's parting words, however, remain annoyingly unforgettable: 'You did this.' Now thirty-seven, Lenny prefers contentment and order over the unreliability of happiness and the messiness of relationships. She fills her days teaching at the local primary school, and her nights playing Scrabble with her pretend housemate, watching reruns of Friends and rearranging her thirty-six copies of The Hobbit.

Living by his own rules has always been the way of Phil 'Ugly' Mawson. A boxer, a soldier, a bikie, a killer, he has played many roles in his life. After a yearlong stint in Vietnam, he returned to Australia feeling let down by the military and society at large. Seeking brotherhood and belonging, he found what he was looking for when he founded the first Australian chapter of the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle club. In his own words, Ugly explores the ups and downs of a life lived on the fringe and spent chasing the freedom of the open road.

For years the firefighters of New York's Engine 99 have rushed fearlessly into hot zones, saving countless lives and stopping devastating blazes in their tracks. They've also stolen millions from banks, jewellery stores and art galleries. With their inside knowledge and specialist equipment they've become the most successful heist crew on the East Coast. Their newest member, Andrea 'Andy' Nearland, is not what she seems either. She's an undercover operative, hunting the men of Engine 99 for a host of crimes - including the murder of an off-duty cop and the disappearance of a mother and child.

In Graft, Maggie MacKellar describes a year on a Merino wool farm on the east coast of Tasmania, and all of life - and death - that surrounds her through the cycle of lambing seasons. She gives us the land she knows and loves, the lambs she cares for, the ewes she tries to save, the birds around her, and the dogs and horses she adores.

Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby's speech doesn't exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair, and reads to the audience the evidence she found on his phone that very morning.

India, monsoon season. Connor, an Australian expat with a brutal past, spends his time running low-stakes scams on tourists in a sleepy beachside town. Sasha, an American in search of spiritual guidance, heads to an isolated ashram in the hope of mending a broken heart. When one of Connor's grifts goes horribly wrong, it sets in motion a chain of events that brings the two lost souls together - and as they try to navigate a world of gangsters, gurus and secret agendas, they begin to realise that within the ashram's utopian community, something is deeply, deeply wrong.

Saima knows that she's a great matchmaker. She has the weekly wedding invitations to prove it. So why has her community started turning against her? The desi community in Sydney has eyes, ears and mouths everywhere, and Saima's feeling firsthand the impact gossip can have. Too modern, too focused on compatibility instead of class and everything else that's meant to matter. She's about to pack it all up and move back in with her Ammy when an eligible bachelor's wealthy parents show up at her door.

Local vet Jana Malinski is content with her quiet life in Rivertown helping her sister run a wombat sanctuary on their family's serene property by the Murray River. But Jana's routine is up-ended after a chance encounter with handsome lawyer and single dad Mark - the man who broke her heart in high school. Jana has never forgiven him for the tragic consequences of his betrayal, and when it turns out he doesn't remember her at all, she hates him even more.

The pressure's really piling up on Greg Heffley. His mom thinks video games are turning his brain to mush, so she wants her son to put down the controller and explore his 'creative side'. As if that's not scary enough, Halloween is just around the corner, and the frights are coming at Greg from every angle. When he discovers a bag of gummy worms, it sparks an idea. Can Greg get his mom off his back by making a movie...and will he become rich and famous in the process? Or will doubling down on this plan just double Greg's troubles?