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ID: 645754

Title: Carnage: A succulent Chinese meal, Mr Rent-a-Kill and the Australian Manson murders

Author: Mark Dapin

Narrator: Henry Nixon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:05:08

Language: English

Release date: 08-02-23

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

Genres: History, Biography & Memoir, Non-Fiction, True Crime, Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Law & Politics, Australia & Oceania

Summary:

Millions have been entertained by the viral video of a man being arrested after a ‘succulent Chinese meal’. But when Mark Dapin investigated, it emerged that this man's story went to the heart of the Australian underworld. A true crime cult classic in the making. 

Whether you know it as the ‘succulent Chinese meal’ video, or ‘democracy manifest’, chances are you have seen the video of baritone larrikin Jack Karlson getting arrested outside a Brisbane Chinese restaurant in 1991. The Guardian called it ‘perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the last 10 years’.

When Karlson called crime writer Mark Dapin out of the blue, though, Dapin hadn’t heard of him. But there was enough that intrigued him about this theatrical outlaw to continue the conversation. Over the following months emerged a dark and complex past. It turned out that Karlson had been in the background of many notorious incidents in late-twentieth century Australian crime, from collaborating with infamous prison-playwright Jim McNeil to befriending hitman Christopher Dale Flannery (Mr Rent-a-Kill).

But most shockingly of all, Karlson’s life story led Dapin to shed new light on a number of unsolved murders, by two serial killers.

The result is an extraordinary, deeply revealing portrait of Australian crime from the 60s to the 2010s – a portrait of carnage.

‘Mark Dapin could never be accused of glorifying crime, but he is guilty as sin for understanding it. Inhabited by flawed humans, filled with violence, humour, tears and dreams, Carnage is a classic Australian crime story.’ Gary Jubelin, author of I Catch Killers

'True crime at its grim and richly entertaining best, and – let’s face it – its truest.’ Robert Drewe, author of The Shark Net

‘If ever there was a book crammed with colourful villains who are “mad, bad and dangerous to know,” it’s definitely Mark Dapin’s extraordinary book, Carnage.’ Kate McClymont, author of He Who Must Be Obeid

‘Carnage is a window into Australian mayhem, killingly funny and beautifully told. Dapin finds pathos in a twisted world.’ Matthew Spencer, author of Black River

‘Carnage begins by probing what seems a minor curiosity – an internet meme centred on a colourful character – then takes a turn into the lives of traumatised youths hurled without care or thought into brutalising reformatories. From there they graduate to rorts, robberies, violence. Bleak lives interspersed with occasional forays into squaresville – spouses, kids, even jobs – and attempts at betterment via theatre and literature. A unique, deeply felt take on the Australian underworld.’ Peter Doyle, author of Crooks Like Us

​‘The moment I start reading anything by Mark Dapin I’m captivated, intrigued and engaged for the entire journey. There is no finer writer documenting the history and characters of Australian criminality.’ Stuart Coupe

 

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ID: 702263

Title: Cybersecurity First Principles: A Reboot of Strategy and Tactics

Author: Rick Howard

Narrator: Rick Howard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:15:05

Language: English

Release date: 08-02-23

Publisher: G&D Media

Genres: Business & Economics, Business Development

Summary:

The first expert discussion of the foundations of cybersecurity

In Cybersecurity First Principles, Rick Howard, the Chief Security Officer, Chief Analyst, and Senior fellow at The Cyberwire, challenges the conventional wisdom of current cybersecurity best practices, strategy, and tactics and makes the case that the profession needs to get back to first principles. The author convincingly lays out the arguments for the absolute cybersecurity first principle and then discusses the strategies and tactics required to achieve it.

In the book, you'll explore:

Infosec history from the 1960s until the early 2020s and why it has largely failed

What the infosec community should be trying to achieve instead

The arguments for the absolute and atomic cybersecurity first principle

The strategies and tactics to adopt that will have the greatest impact in pursuing the ultimate first principle

Case studies through a first principle lens of the 2015 OPM hack, the 2016 DNC Hack, the 2019 Colonial Pipeline hack, and the Netflix Chaos Monkey resilience program

A top to bottom explanation of how to calculate cyber risk for two different kinds of companies

This book is perfect for cybersecurity professionals at all levels: business executives and senior security professionals, mid-level practitioner veterans, newbies coming out of school as well as career-changers seeking better career opportunities, teachers, and students.

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 704788

Title: Flower in the River: A family tale, finally told

Author: Natalie Zett

Narrator: Natalie Zett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:40:18

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Findaway Voices

Genres: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction & Literature, Historical Fiction, Paranormal

Summary:

Martha Pfeiffer, age 19, was one of 844 persons who perished when a ship chartered for the Western Electric annual picnic capsized in Chicago in 1915. Martha's surviving family members never recovered from their grief. TheEastland Disasterhas been mostly overlooked in recent years.

In 1997, Pearl Pospisil, a retired Chicago writer, and third-generation Pfeiffer, composed a family history and delivered it to her niece, Zara Vrabel, in St. Paul, who was completely unfamiliar with its contents. Pearl had one request: 'Do something with this.'

Zara, also a journalist, was cut off from her family and had no interest in genealogy. However, learning of her great-aunt's death on theEastland Disastermade Zara's heart sink.

Zara's life unravels as she becomes entangled in the plot and realizes that she and her great-aunt shared more than blood. After discovering that the accident was preventable, Zara initially seeks redress. And the release of anotherTitanicmovie poured salt on a fresh wound. So why was theEastlandconsigned to oblivion while theTitanicgot all the glory?

Flower in the Riverinterweaves the past and present of four generations of an Eastern-European immigrant family. It suggests that even an unknown trauma can affect a family for generations.

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 667587

Title: Sit, Stay, Love

Author: Amy Hutton

Narrator: Emma Leonard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:18:38

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

Genres: Romance, Rom-Com, Contemporary

Summary:

The most uplifting rom-com you’ll read this year – a fresh take on the friends-to-lovers trope, brimming with heart, joy and puppies!

Sera loves owning a pet shelter – even if it’s often tricky to make ends meet, and her mother thinks she's wasting her life. Thankfully, she can always rely on her steadfast best friend, Toby, who just happens to be the local vet.

And then famous actor Ethan James enters the scene. After Sera 'saves' Ethan from a friendly German Shepherd, he confesses to a terrible fear of dogs. A canine co-star is all that stands between Ethan and the role of a lifetime – and he wants Sera to help him overcome his fear. As they bumble through a series of training sessions together, sparks fly and Sera's surprised to find herself falling for Ethan. But not half as surprised as she is when Toby starts acting like a jealous boyfriend.

Now Sera's juggling six dogs, a litter of kittens, a horse, a sheep, and two men intent on outdoing each other. But she'll have to figure out what her heart truly wants ... before her life goes completely to the dogs.

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 703735

Title: Hero Maker

Author: Tom Starace

Narrator: Nick Abeel

Format: Unabridged

Length: 06:37:05

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Findaway Voices

Genres: Teen, Paranormal, Tough Topics, LGBTQ+

Summary:

Adam is an ordinary 16-year-old with extraordinary powers. All his life he has been haunted by dreams that leave him exhausted and confused. When the memory of a long-forgotten experience comes back to him, tying him to a boy named Jamie's perilous escape from fire, Adam's reaction is dramatic and immediate. He faints.

Adam learns what he thought were dreams are actual experiences. Adam has a special power which enables him to help others who are in some sort of danger. He jumps into their bodies and becomes them, feeling their fear and their pain. He helps them perform the brave acts that they thought they couldnt do. The people Adam helps dont know that he has helped them. All they know is that they have done something brave. They feel like heroes.

Adam is initially excited about his new power, but complications arise. Jamie, the boy in the fire, suddenly reappears in his life, now with new problems. In addition, Adam gets involved with a boy who is kidnapped by his dangerous stepfather, a girl who is cruelly bullied by the 'mean girls' at her high school, and an actor with crippling stage-fright. In his attempts to use his power to help them, Adam is supported by his cousin and best friend Chris, his world-weary aunt Rose, and a wise family friend, Deputy Sam.

HERO MAKERis a story of fathers and sons, of family and friends, of bravery and decency, and apple pie.

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ID: 650632

Title: Don't Want to Be Your Monster

Author: Deke Moulton

Narrator: Davin Babulal, Noah Beemer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:03:47

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Tundra Books

Genres: Kids, Religious & Inspirational, Mystery & Fantasy

Summary:

A 2024 Sydney Taylor Honor Book!

Two vampire brothers must set aside their differences to solve a series of murders in this humorous and delightfully spooky novel for young readers. For fans of Too Bright to See.

Adam and Victor are brothers who have the usual fights over the remote, which movie to watch and whether or not it's morally acceptable to eat people. Well, not so much eat . . . just drink a little blood. They're vampires, hiding in plain sight with their eclectic yet loving family.

Ten-year-old Adam knows he has a better purpose in his life (well, immortal life) than just drinking blood, but fourteen-year-old Victor wants to accept his own self-image of vampirism. Everything changes when bodies start to appear all over town, and it becomes clear that a vampire hunter may be on the lookout for the family. Can Adam and Victor reconcile their differences and work together to stop the killer before it’s too late?

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 691351

Title: Jali

Author: Oliver Twist

Narrator: Oliver Twist

Format: Unabridged

Length: 07:43:16

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia Audio

Genres: Biography & Memoir

Summary:

Comedian Oliver Twist was four years old when he and his family fled the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda for Malawi, their exile for the next fourteen years.

Twist has turned the turmoil he and his family endured into a thrilling adventure of a hero's journey. A natural born storyteller, propelled from the cold alleys of a Malawian refugee camp to the warm spotlight of the Australian stage, he vividly describes what it's like to leave your homeland behind and to have to wait your whole childhood for life to begin.

Powerful, heartbreaking and full of humour, Jali marks the arrival of a dazzling new voice.

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 673813

Title: Against the Water: A surfing champion's inspirational journey to Olympic glory

Author: Owen Wright

Narrator: Barton Welch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:20:11

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

Genres: Biography & Memoir, Sports, General

Summary:

The gut-wrenching story of how one of Australia’s finest surfers overcame a brain injury and despair to win an Olympic medal.

On the morning of 10 December 2015, Owen Wright entered the water at Pipeline, Hawaii, determined to become a world champion. But after being pounded by a set of monstrous waves, he ended up fighting for life and facing extensive brain trauma. In this inspirational memoir, Wright chronicles the events leading up to that fateful day, as well as the months and years that followed as he battled to regain basic functioning, and eventually the capacity to compete again at the apex of surfing.

Against the Water carries the reader back to Wright’s boyhood in the tiny town of Culburra, where his father, determined to raise champions, turned family life into a kind of boot camp. While eccentric, his father’s methods bore fruit: the Wrights of Culburra would become Australian surfing royalty. Owen’s story lays bare the complex relationship with his father – the adoration, the fight for independence, the fallings out, and the reconciliations.

Told in a spare, intimate style, Against the Water is the moving account of an athlete who refused to accept that his best days were behind him and raises fundamental questions around family and competition. What, ultimately, is our duty to our children? At what point does bravery become folly? And how much should we sacrifice for the sake of another?

‘Owen was a childhood phenom who grew into the ultimate family man. In between this transition, he took on the world, charged crazy waves, suffered a huge brain injury, and finished off with the all-time sporting comeback!’ Mick Fanning, three-time world champion surfer

 

‘Whatever it is that Owen is getting himself into, he seems to do it with little to no fear and a massive smile on his face. He’s an inspirational guy, to put it lightly. Owen is one special human!’ Liam Hemsworth, actor

 

‘Owen Wright has to be the most inspiring person I’ve ever met. His story is one of a childhood prodigy, to facing a near-death experience, to Australian hero . . . This book will inspire and motivate anyone who has had

to face adversity whilst following their dreams.’ Kita Alexander, singer-songwriter

 

‘[A] true fighter’s spirit!' Luke Rockhold, UFC middleweight champion, two-time jiu-jitsu world champion, three-time strikeforce middleweight champion

 

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ID: 683883

Title: Secrets and Lies: A story of justice, perseverance and the life that comes after

Author: David Meagher

Narrator: David Meagher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 07:43:47

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia Audio

Genres: Biography & Memoir, Non-Fiction, True Crime, Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Health & Wellness, Marriage & Family

Summary:

For forty years David Meagher harboured a secret. Then in mid 2018 a text message from an old school friend forced him to confront his past and finally deal with it.

Secrets and Lies is a story about child sexual abuse. The culture that enabled it. How the perpetrator groomed his victims. How it finally came to an end. And how four decades after the crimes were committed his victims embarked on a successful two-year journey to bring the offender to justice.

David Meagher delivers an intimate account of the lasting impact of child sexual abuse on survivors. From growing up gay in a censorious and very Catholic suburban environment to struggles with mental health and substance use - Secrets and Lies tells the full account of child sexual abuse. Meagher's story, however, is ultimately one of hope and even a bit of humour. After all it has a happy ending, or as near to one as is possible under the circumstances.

Contact: [email protected]

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ID: 683880

Title: But the Girl

Author: Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

Narrator: Nikita Waldron

Format: Unabridged

Length: 06:33:27

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-23

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia Audio

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Literary Fiction

Summary:

'I used to have this line I saved and brought out for grant applications and writers festivals - that having been Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina and Esther Greenwood all my life, my writing was an opportunity for the reader to have to be me.'

Girl is spending the summer at an artist's residency in Scotland. Far from her home in Australia and her tight-knit Malaysian family, she is meant to be writing a postcolonial novel and working on a PhD on the poetry of Sylvia Plath. But she can't stop thinking about her upbringing and the stories of her parents and grandmother who raised her. How can she reconcile their dreams for her with her lived reality? Did Sylvia Plath have this problem? What even is a 'postcolonial novel'? And what if the story of becoming yourself is not about carving out a new identity but learning to understand the people who shaped you?

Contact: [email protected]