Good Reading Podcast

Lizzie, Megan and Sam became accidental friends over good coffee, banter and wrong-world jokes at school drop off. Lizzie is a part-time midwife with four kids and a secret past. Sam is an ex-chef and stay-at-home dad with an absent, high-flying corporate wife. Megan is an ex-model single mum with a thriving online business and no time for loneliness. None of them have much interest in their school community, but when tragedy deals Baytree Primary's reputation a potentially crippling blow, this unlikely trio have to step up. Forced out of their respective comfort zones, Lizzie, Megan and Sam learn more about each other, the school and themselves than they thought possible.Beginning as a short-form web series, 'The Drop-Off' by performing/writing duo Fiona Harris and Mike McLeish has been adapted to a full length novel. Max chatted about the journey from screen to page, and working together as a married couple. Grab a copy: https://bit.ly/2VGjAoZ

[CONTENT WARNING: This podcast features discussions of homophobia, mental health and suicide. Furthermore, the intro contains homophobic slurs/language, violence and references to suicide. If you'd like to skip this section, skip to 1:20 in the podcast.]The debut book of Sydney-based Journalist and reporter Shannon Molloy, 'Fourteen' is a story about his fourteenth year of life as a gay kid at an all-boys rugby-mad Catholic school in regional Queensland. It was a year of torment, bullying and betrayal – not just at the hands of his peers, but by adults who were meant to protect him.Shannon joined Max Lewis to chat about the cathartic process of writing the book, the unfortunate fate of Safe Schools and how it may have helped a teenager like him, and the best pop bangers of the late 90s. Grab a copy of Fourteen: http://bit.ly/2VYGEjj

From the author of 'The Lace Weaver' comes a new historical fiction novel, drawing from the unseen character of a Jonathan Swift's classic 'Gulliver's Travels'. London, 1702. When her husband is lost at sea, Mary Burton Gulliver, midwife and herbalist, is forced to rebuild her life without him. But three years later when Lemuel Gulliver is brought home, fevered and communicating only in riddles, her ordered world is turned upside down.Grab a copy of Gulliver's Wife: http://bit.ly/3adcZH4

[CONTENT WARNING: This podcast contains descriptions of war and mental illness that may upset listeners. Discretion is advised. In addition, the intro contains descriptions of violence against a child; skip to 1:34 in the podcast if you'd like to avoid this.]As a boy living in the Dinka tribe in what is now South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, Ayik Chut Deng was a member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). During his time as a child soldier, he witnessed unspeakable violence and was regularly tortured by older boys. At age nineteen, he and his family escaped the conflict in Sudan and resettled in Toowoomba, Australia. Overcoming a childhood filled with torture and war was a process of lifelong learning, choices and challenges that included a remarkable chance encounter with a figure from his past, and an appearance on national television.In this episode, Ayik Chut Deng joined Max Lewis to chat about the writing of his memoir 'The Lost Boy: Tales of a Child Soldier', and how he overcame unimaginable trauma to become the man he is today. Grab a copy: https://bit.ly/2UutFVx

Prague, 1943. Taken from her home in Prague, Hana Lederova finds herself imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto of Theresienstadt, where she is forced to endure appalling deprivation and the imminent threat of transportation to the east. When she attracts the attention of the Czech gendarme who becomes her guard, Hana reluctantly accepts his advances, hoping for the protection she so desperately needs.Sydney, 2010. Manipulated into a liaison with her married boss, Tessa knows she needs to end it, but how? Tessa's grandmother, Irena, also has something to hide. Harkening back to the Second World War, hers is a carefully kept secret that, if revealed, would send shockwaves well beyond her own fractured family.In this episode, Suzanne Leal joins Max Lewis to share the true story of wartime betrayal that inspired the decade-spanning twists and turns of her latest novel, 'The Deceptions'. Out now via Allen & Unwin: https://bit.ly/2UrR8qi

In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme seizes the word and hides it in an old wooden trunk that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.In this episode, Pip Williams joins Greg Dobbs to share the true stories (and real women) behind the first Oxford dictionary, and how it informed her latest book. Grab a copy: https://bit.ly/2vWWQHg

Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals — first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin.In this episode, Laura Jean McKay joins Max Lewis to chat about the process behind her apocalyptic/speculative fiction debut, and what animal she'd most like to talk to. Grab a copy: https://bit.ly/2QX1Pzb

When investigative journalist Chrissie O’Brian lands a senior job at The Argus, she is desperate to escape the nightmares of her past. Her life has become a daily battle to numb the pain. But her job is something she can do better than anyone else – and the only thing that keeps the memories at bay.A face-off on the waterfront between the unions and big business is just the kind of story to get her career back on track. But after a dockworker who confided in her turns up dead, Chrissie becomes obsessed with unravelling the truth. When a gruesome threat lands on her desk, it's clear someone is prepared to do anything to stop her. In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to Karina Kilmore about how she weaved her decades of experience as a journalist, and her family history of unions and dock workers, into her debut crime novel 'Where the Truth Lies'. Out now via Simon & Schuster. Where the Truth Lies: https://bit.ly/2Wxs0jv

In 'When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains', Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father’s past: years spent hiding in plain sight in wartorn Berlin, the annihilation of dozens of family members in the Holocaust, and the courageous choice to build anew.Ariana Neumann joined Gregory Dobbs to chat about how the process of uncovering her father's past.Grab a copy of When Time Stopped: http://bit.ly/3cmDsUB

John Kinsella's memoir of his rural life takes us deep into the heart of what it means to belong and unbelong. The joys and travails of childhood, adult addictions, missteps and changing directions are acutely captured in poignant and poetic detail. In his most intimate prose work to date, Kinsella never shies from writing about the violence and intolerance of those scared of difference, and the ways in which his ethics have sometimes been met with disdain or outright hostility. But with nuance and humour he also celebrates rural community and its willingness to lend a hand.In this episode, John joins Max Lewis to chat about belonging, creating a dialogue, decolonisation and anti-consumerism, and the best vegan meal. Grab a copy of Displaced: http://bit.ly/3bOlIku