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New collection of essays on the relationships between humans and animals, by Vanessa Berry, author of Mirror Sydney, and the memoir of adolescence Ninety9. Gentle and Fierce focuses on the world of animals, and the way their presence has shaped the author’s attitudes and her sense of self. Having spent her life in city environments, Vanessa Berry’s experiences with animals have largely been through encounters with urban creatures, representations of animals in art and the media, and as decorative ornaments or kitsch. The essays suggest that these mediated encounters, rather than being mundane or removed from nature, provide meaningful connections with the animal world, at a time in which...
Throughdelicately wrought essays and hand-drawn illustrated maps, Mirror Sydney chartsan alternative view of the harbour city, to show a place of suburban mysteries,hidden stories, and anachronistic sites. Vanessa Berry, one of Australia's mostacute observers of the urban landscape, casts an attentive eye upon overlooked,odd, and seemingly mundane places, tracing their connections and theirsignificance to the city as a whole. As developmentshadows every aspect of the city's life, Mirror Sydney documents, in avery personal way, the fast-vanishing traces of the recent past, finding newmeaning in minor landmarks and uncelebrated sites. From abandoned amusementparks to mysterious traffic islands...
Over two years, writer Nick Gadd and his wife Lynne circled the city of Melbourne on foot, starting at Williamstown and ending in Port Melbourne. Along the way they uncovered lost buildings, secret places and mysterious signs that told of forgotten stories and curious characters from the past. Soon after they completed the circle, Lynne passed away from cancer. Melbourne Circle is the story of their journey, a memoir, and a stunning meditation on personal loss. ‘What a gem this book is! Oddity, wonderment, weirdness: these splendid essays reveal a marvellous Melbourne most of us have never encountered before. This is a psychogeography dense with vernacular history, humane detail, and from ...
In the 1990s, when music was recorded on cassettes and movies on VHS, Vanessa Berry was reacting to the loneliness of life in the suburbs by constructing imaginary worlds and identities from video hits, late-night music programs, band t-shirts, mixtapes and zines, and the ‘dark energy’ of the Goths. A memoir in essay form,Ninety9 is about the loneliness of adolescence, the importance of friendship, and the magical enclaves to be discovered in the city. Illustrated with the author’s drawings and photos, it provides a guide to the end of the millennium for those who were too young to be there, and vivid memories for those who were.
We all come from different cultures and practice different spiritual traditions, but we have one thing in common: we are all of the earth. Vanessa Chakour, founder of the rewilding programme Sacred Warrior, takes us on a journey to deepen our relationship with ourselves and the environment. Awakening Artemis is her love letter to the earth. Sharing her personal journey of rewilding, her stories act as tools, both practical and inspirational, to encourage growth, healing and reconnection to the regenerative power of the natural world. Vanessa will help you embrace the strength and beauty in the wild, the weeds, and the unsavoury parts of yourself in order to grow and heal. By allowing yourself and the earth to flourish and awakening your inner Artemis, Chakour promises that you will find joy, peace, compassion for yourself, others, and the planet.
Celebrate the love of food in this charming picture book that teaches kids not only to try new foods but to brush up on their colors, too! Frankie the Flamingo loves food but she's tired of eating the same thing day after day: shrimp. So Frankie decides to expand her palate by trying exciting new foods—with some colorful consequences! But as Frankie's food world expands, her friends can't quite seem to understand what's gotten into her. Until they spy on Frankie cooking up something special and decide that they, too, might want to go on a food adventure of their own. Learn all about becoming a foodie with Frankie in this delightful story about being brave and trying new foods.
The Idea of Home is a collection of five autobiographical essays, in which John Hughes reflects on growing up in the Hunter Valley coal-mining town of Cessnock, in a household ruled by memories of the Ukraine, from which his mother’s family fled during the Second World War.
Young women’s bodies are relentlessly scrutinised and judged, so for most, the appearance of facial hair is a traumatic experience – unnatural, unfeminine, unwanted. But what happens when a female-assigned person decides to embrace their facial hair? In How to Be Between, Bastian Fox Phelan explores how something as seemingly trivial as facial hair can act as a catalyst for a never-ending series of questions about the self. What happens when we accept our bodies as they are? What freedoms are gained by deciding to pursue an authentic sense of self, and what are the costs? As Bastian navigates adolescence and young adulthood, they meet many people who ask, ‘Who, or what, are you?’ 'Ho...
An instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 DYLAN THOMAS AWARD 'A package of dynamite' Stephen King ‘Powerful, compulsive, brilliant’ Marian Keyes An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher
From the discomfort of my own home I buy dresses, look up recipes, do online surveys. In Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life, an unnamed young woman in her late twenties navigates unemployment, boredom, chronic illness and online dating. Her activities are banal -- applying for jobs, looking up horoscopes, managing depression, going on Tinder dates. 'I want to tell someone I love them but there is no one to tell,' she says. 'Except my sister maybe. I want to pick blackberries on a farm and then die.' She observes the ambiguities of social interactions, the absurd intimacies of sex and the indignity of everyday events, with a skepticism about the possibility of genuine emotion, or enlightenment. Lik...