The Co-op Book Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Co-op
Join the Co-op Podcast and explore the world of great books. The Co-op podcast is a series of interviews with the most popular authors about their work, life and new books.
A gorgeous multi-stranded love story set in Rome. One Day meets Roman Holiday!
'Absolutely enchanting, an ode to all the semi-magical towns and vibrant cities in the world where fate is decided. Love has many faces - and Lamprell knows them all. This is a book for those willing to travel the road of love from the beginning, across the long middle, to the end, over and over again. (And, by the way: you will discover the secret places of Rome in every chapter!)' NINA GEORGE, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Little Paris Bookshop
This is the place where passions are aroused, senses inflamed, and lovers fall into each other's arms. It all appears to unfold like magic - but I will tell you what really happens. Rome - glorious, eternal, intoxicating. Could there be a better place on earth to fall in love? Mark Lamprell works in film and television. He co-wrote the film Babe: Pig in the City and wrote and directed the award- winning feature My Mother Frank. His first novel, The Full Ridiculous, was published last year and has been sold to the United States, Canada, Poland and Israel. Mark has holidayed in Rome for many years. http://www.coop.com.au/the-lovers-guide-to-rome/9781760291266
he scandalous Australian woman who enchanted British society
Headstrong and beautiful, in 1905 Rosetta escaped her safe Melbourne life, deserting her respectable husband and five-year-old daughter to run away with Zeno the Magnificent, a half-Chinese fortune teller and seducer of souls.
The pair reinvented themselves in London, where they beguiled European society and risked everything for a life of glamour and desire. Rosetta said she was American; Zeno claimed to be a brilliant Japanese professor. Together they attracted the patronage of famous writers, inventors and scientists, lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses. Empress Eugenie, the widow of Napoleon III, and Princess Charlotte, sister of Germany's last Kaiser, were among their greatest devotees.
Rosetta revelled in a life few women of her time would have dared to embrace, yet all the while she hid her secret shame: the daughter she had left behind.
This is the compelling story of Alexandra Joel's quest to uncover the truth about her scandalous great-grandmother, and the shocking century-old secret she would discover at the heart of her family.
http://www.coop.com.au/rosetta/9780143780472
This meticulously researched biography tells the extraordinary story of Georgiana Molloy, one of Australia's first internationally successful female botanists.
From the refined beauty of 19th century England and Scotland, to the dramatic landscape of the West Australian coast, Georgiana Molloy: The Mind That Shines gives new insight into the life of this pioneering botanist. Following a swift marriage, Georgiana and Captain John Molloy, a handsome hero with a mysterious past, emigrated to Australia among the first group of European settlers to the remote southwest. Here, despite personal tragedy, Georgiana's passion for flora was ignited. Entirely self-taught, she gathered specimens of indigenous flora from Augusta and Busselton that are now held in some of the world's leading herbarium collections.
Using Georgiana's own writings and notes, accompanied by full-colour pictures of some of the stunning plants mentioned throughout, Bernice Barry reveals a resilient, independent woman of strong values, whose appreciation and wonder of the landscape around her become her salvation, and her legacy.
About the Author
Bernice Barry lives on WA's southwest coast near the place where Georgiana Molloy arrived in 1830. Bernice has been researching the lives of Georgiana and John Molloy for more than a decade, travelling throughout Australia and Europe to access original sources and historical sites.
http://www.redtube.com/1434070
An Isolated Incident is a psychological thriller about everyday violence, the media’s obsession with pretty dead girls, the grip of grief and the myth of closure, and the difficulties of knowing the difference between a ghost and a memory, between a monster and a man.
Emily Maguire is the author of the novels Taming the Beast (2004), an international bestseller and finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Kathleen Mitchell Award, The Gospel According to Luke (2006) and, most recently, the non-fiction work, Princesses & Pornstars (2008). Her articles and essays on sex, religion and culture have been published in newspapers and journals including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Review, The Age and the Observer. In 2007, the Women's Electoral Lobby awarded her the Edna Ryan Award (Media Category) for her writing about women's issues. She lives in Sydney with her husband.
This warm and engaging story, inspired by the author's own family, offers a glimpse into a life rich with tradition, celebration and love.
Based on the author's real family, the Rabinovitches dance, laugh and cook their way through an extraordinary life in 1920s Poland.
In the classic tradition, this highly readable story is fascinating, engaging and as warm as freshly baked bread. Anna Ciddor has made her name as a versatile writer and illustrator of fiction, travel and historical books for primary school children and older readers. Her Viking Magic historical fantasy series has earned her fans throughout the world.
http://www.coop.com.au/the-family-with-two-front-doors/9781925266641
21 DAYS TO A HAPPIER FAMILY gives parents scientifically proven suggestions for making their family happier than ever, starting today! 'Parenthood can be a jungle, but Justin's advice and simple strategies will help you find that path back to sanity, stability and smiling kids.' - Lisa Wilkinson Everyone wants their family to be happy, but so much gets in the way - work stress, commitments and our children's challenging behaviour are some of the usual suspects. Less obvious obstacles are our own habits and expectations, a reactive parenting style, and even a lack of clarity about what makes a family truly happy. As a result, families often seem fragmented, stressed and out of control.
Kidspot parenting expert Justin Coulson knows how to make families happier. In this book, he combines cutting-edge insights from positive psychology with classic psychological research to help parents identify and develop habits that will strengthen their family. In his trademark warm and empathic style Justin covers topics like finding the most effective parenting style for your child, getting relationships right and how that leads to effective discipline, using mindfulness in parenting, being emotionally available to your children - and so much more.
http://www.coop.com.au/21-days-to-a-happier-family/9780733334818
City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or another country to build a new future in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stand them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the present day to the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s, and the author’s own mother’s experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast. City Girl, Country Girl is a compelling and fascinating account of these women’s journeys as they struggle through personal tragedy, hardship and self-doubt with grace, humour, perseverance and more than a little hard work. LIz Harfull is passionate about telling the stories of rural and regional Australia. An award-winning journalist and Churchill Fellow, she grew up on a small farm near Mount Gambier in South Australia, which has been in the family since the early 1860s http://www.coop.com.au/women-of-the-land/9781743433928
"Gripping and poignant ... a moving exploration of all the ways that love can hurt and heal." Kylie Ladd, author of Mothers and Daughters and Into My Arms
Kim Lock talks about her latest book that is filled with secrets and intrigue.
Scorchingly brilliant and brave, Summer Skin craftily balances a cutting exploration of contemporary sexual relationships and ugly, predatory and exploitative behaviour with the carefree hedonism and discovery of young adult life. Utterly compelling, raunchy and hilarious, this is the book to be reading this summer. There is even a scene in the Co-op bookstore at UQ. A great and compelling Young adult feature from Kirsty Eager - http://www.coop.com.au/summer-skin/9781925266924
An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture and national identity. In July 2015, as the debate over Adam Goodes being booed at AFL games raged and got ever more heated and ugly, Stan Grant wrote a short but powerful piece for The Guardian that went viral, not only in Australia but right around the world, shared over 100,000 times on social media. His was a personal, passionate and powerful response to racism in Australian and the sorrow, shame, anger and hardship of being an indigenous man. 'We are the detritus of the brutality of the Australian frontier', he wrote, 'We remained a reminder of what was lost, what was taken, what was destroyed to scaffold the building of this nation's prosperity.' Stan Grant was lucky enough to find an escape route, making his way through education to become one of our leading journalists. He also spent many years outside Australia, working in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, a time that liberated him and gave him a unique perspective on Australia. This is his very personal meditation on what it means to be Australian, what it means to be indigenous, and what racism really means in this country. TALKING TO MY COUNTRY is that rare and special book that talks to every Australian about their country - what it is, and what it could be. It is not just about race, or about indigenous people but all of us, our shared identity. Direct, honest and forthright, Stan is talking to us all. He might not have all the answers but he wants us to keep on asking the question: how can we be better? http://www.coop.com.au/talking-to-my-country/9781460751978
For many complaints and conditions, the benefits from surgery are lower, and the risks higher, than you or your surgeon think. In this book you will see how commonly performed operations can be found to be useless or even harmful when properly evaluated. That these claims come from an experienced, practising orthopaedic surgeon who performs many of these operations himself, makes the unsettling argument particularly compelling. Of course no surgeon is recommending invasive surgery in bad faith, but Ian Harris argues that the evidence for the success for many common operations, including knee arthroscopies, back fusion or cardiac stenting, become current accepted practice without full examination of the evidence. The placebo effect may be real, but is it worth the recovery time, expense and discomfort? Ian Harris is a leading orthopedic surgeon
http://www.coop.com.au/surgery-the-ultimate-placebo/9781742234571
Garry Wotherspoon’s Gay Sydney: A history is an updated version of his 1991 classic, City of the Plain: History of a Gay Sub-culture, written in the midst of the AIDS crisis. In this vivid book Wotherspoon traces the shifts that have occurred since then, including majority support for marriage equality and anti-discrimination legislation. He also ponders the parallel evaporation of a distinctly gay sensibility and the disappearance of once-packed gay bars that have now become cafes and gyms. This book also tells the story of gay Sydney across a century, looking at secret, underground gay life, the never-ending debates about sex in society and the role of social movements in the ’60 and ’70s in effecting social change.
http://www.coop.com.au/gay-sydney/9781742234830