Good Reading Podcast

Please note: This podcast contains discussions of sexual abuse. Bri Lee is the author of ‘Eggshell Skull’, a bestselling memoir about Bri's time as a Judge's Associate in Queensland, witnessing institutional injustices faced by women, children and minorities in sexual assault trials. The book is also a devastating coming-of-age story, as Bri’s recounts her own journey through the legal system as a plaintiff in her own case. In this episode, Bri talks to Good Reading about the frustrations and triumphs of writing such a book, the ongoing fight for legislative change, and ‘f***ing chickpeas.’Books mentioned:Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee: http://bit.ly/2vqmjVvBeautiful Revolutionary by Laura Elizabeth Woollett: http://bit.ly/2OvSHi2Night Games by Anna Krien: http://bit.ly/2KgSKLd

In Australia, judges are legally obliged to take a person’s apparent remorse into account when formulating their sentence, and yet how remorse is measured remains unclear. Kate Rossmanith’s new hybrid memoir, 'Small Wrongs: How We Really Say Sorry in Life, Love and Law', investigates legal, cultural, religious understandings of remorse and how they play out both in courtrooms and our personal lives. In this podcast, Kate tells Emma Harvey - a former writing student of hers - about comportment and composure in the courtroom, interviewing Supreme Court judges, and why we expect apologies, and ask for redemption, in our everyday lives.Get the book here: http://bit.ly/2uX9FO8

'Scrublands' by Chris Hammer begins with a young priest, Byron Swift, shouldering a high-powered hunting rifle and opening fire on his congregation in the tiny, drought-stricken town of Riversend. Martin Scarsden, a Sydney Morning Herald journalist, is sent to profile the town a year on from the massacre and discovers that there's far more to the killings than was initially reported.Here Chris talks about his 30-year career as a journalist, his investigation into the families affected by the Millennium Drought, which influenced his choice of setting, and copping tough love from Australian crime writing legend Peter Temple, who lectured Chris at university.Books mentioned in this podcast:Scrublands by Chris Hammer: http://bit.ly/2uOwsvtThe River by Chris Hammer: http://bit.ly/2mFKoDCThe Broken Shore by Peter Temple: http://bit.ly/2v1JGEATruth by Peter Temple: http://bit.ly/2NDa1QMInto the Night by Sarah Bailey: http://bit.ly/2JS0Ppv

Besides gambling destinations like Macau or Monaco, Australia has the highest amount of poker machines per capita in the world. New South Wales was the second jurisdiction - just behind Nevada in the US - to legalise pokies, and a Sydney manufacturer continues to be at the forefront of pokie machine design and production. Drew Rooke's 'One Last Spin: The power and peril of the pokies' is a shocking investigation into the gambling's industry's power over politicians. It lays out how governments line their pockets with the billions fed to poker machines while gambling addicts' lives fall apart, and how the industry uses NRA-style techniques to block legislation that would help addicts, yet stem their profits.In this podcast, Drew talks about the techniques poker machines use to beguile gamblers, the science of pokie addiction, and how his faith in the government to protect Australia's most vulnerable has been lost.Get the book here: https://bit.ly/2KR6a5ZListen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/good-reading-podcast/id1402922430?mt=2

What happens when a burgeoning movie star is killed on the set of a blockbuster zombie flick? Melbourne crime writer Sarah Bailey is back with her unforgettable character, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock, who has left her small regional town in favour of the big smoke. Sarah talks to Angus Dalton about women in the police force, books for boys, and why she's drawn to crimes on display.Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/good-reading-podcast/id1402922430?mt=2

For the launch of Good Reading's new podcast, sponsored by Pantera Press, we're joined by author of the Rowland Sinclair mystery novels, Sulari Gentill. She tells Angus Dalton about being turned away by the White Australia Policy, finding stories in the stars, her dapper amateur detective and the unsolved mystery of the Pyjama Girl Murder.Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/good-reading-podcast/id1402922430?mt=2