Pieces of Blue

Another great autobiography, one that you won’t want to put down. Kerry MacGinnis at the age of six lost her mother. Her father, left with four young children to raise, gathers up his family and leaves the city to go droving. For the next fifteen years, the McGinnis clan travels the continent, droving, horse breaking and living off the land

Eoin Cameron. Memoirs of a ratbag child.Packed with childhood adventures, from riding on a lino polisher to home made rocket launcher, Actavite to Biggles. These are Cameron's experiences growing up in an expanding Catholic family in the 1950s & 60s

Romulus Gaita fled his home in his native Yugoslavia at the age of thirteen, and came to Australia soon after the end of World War Two.  A story of passion, betrayal, madness, friendship, joy, dignity, character and fate. Set in the Maldon/Maryborough area of Victoria. 210 pp.

Rough Diamonds and Real Gems

RM Winn.  This inspiring collection features nine captivating stories about ordinary bush men and women who lead extraordinary lives. There’s the island cattleman who swims his herd past toothy sharks and beady-eyed crocs; the pineapple grower who builds a stone church for his community; the timber worker who becomes a champion woodchopper; and a dairywomen who at eighty-eight is still rescuing birthing cows from the brink of death.  246pp. 

From prolific writer Hector Holthouse, this is the story of a well to do English girl arriving in Northern Australia in 1912 to marry into the rough and ready lifestyle of an Australian cattle station.

She came to Mount Mulgrave in the Mitchell River country, amid comments of 'she'll never stick it out'. But stick it out she did, through months in wet seasons while the station was cut off from the outside world, through severe illness and marauding Aborigines.

This is an enthralling story about a pioneer woman's life in Northern Queensland.

Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city – and proud of it. This sun-baked coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquillity and friendliness.

Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew. The murderer randomly killed eight strangers – variously shooting, strangling, stabbing, bludgeoning and hacking his victims and running them down with cars – an innocent Perth was changed forever.

In the middle-class suburbs which were the killer's main stalking grounds, the mysterious murders created widespread anxiety and instant local myth. 'The murders and their aftermath have both intrigued me and weighed heavily on me for three decades. To try to make sense of this time and place, and of my own childhood and adolescence, I had, finally, to write about it.' The result is The Shark Net, a vibrant and haunting memoir that reaches beyond the dark recesses of murder and chaos to encompass their ordinary suburban backdrop

Gail Bell. When Gail Bell was 17 she was shot in the back. The shooter was never found. An astonishing memoir. 248 pp.

Sister Elizabeth Kenny             Maverick heroine of the polio treatment controversy

Sister Kenny (1880–1952) struggled her whole life to have her unique treatment for the crippling disease of polio accepted by conservative medical authorities in Australia and in the USA.

Wade Alexander tells of Sister Kenny’s service in WWI and her struggle for recognition resulting in the government’s Townsville test of her work in 1934. Challenging the Queensland health official’s report, she carried on her crusade to help polio patients. In 1940, Kenny went to America, where she helped thousands of children and adults overcome the effects of this crippling disease.

Her method involved the use of hot compresses combined with remedial exercises for early stage polio, and hydrotherapy and muscle re-education for chronic paralysis, at her clinic in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Sister Kenny Institute for Rehabilitative Care is her enduring legacy.

Sister Kenny became an American celebrity, featured in Time, Life and Newsweek. In 1951 she shared the title of Most Influential Woman in America with Eleanor Roosevelt. Alexander offers new insight into the cause of Sister Kenny’s feud with Basil O’Connor, President of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and his behind-the-scenes preparation for Kenny’s June 1943 luncheon with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kenny’s treatment continued in use until the advent of the Salk vaccine.

Mary Durack. A sequel to Kings in Grass Castles.

The second generation of Durack men were not only hardy pioneers, droving cattle through untamed territory, they were also educated and well travelled in the world of commerce and politics.

Through diaries, letters and legal documents, Mary tells the story of her father Michael and Patsy Durack's vigorous family

Sheryl McCorry's memoir Diamonds and Dust was a runaway bestseller in 2007. Now, in Stars over Shiralee, Sheryl brings her story up to date, picking up from the death of her husband Bob McCorry.

Having moved from the Kimberley to a property called the Shiralee, Sheryl is rocked by the death of her ex-husband. While continuing to run the Shiralee, Sheryl at first leans on her parents and her children for comfort. But soon, she meets a new man – one who pursues her with ardour and is seemingly a wonderful match for her. Sheryl agrees to marry him, but not before she is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Moving and inspirational, Stars over Shiralee is the million acre cattle queen's surprising memoir of what happened next.