Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature.

Best selling author of children's books and books for adults, Jack Heath interviews Dani Vee about 100 episodes. They chat about small beginnings, the process of podcasting, interviewing favourite authors and fangirl moments. There is so much laughter, it's hard to keep a straight face with this one. Jack and Dani reflect on the authors interviewed, no one is safe! Listen in and have a laugh!

A hilarious and heart-warming debut that captures the dramas, delights and delirium of modern parenting. This is Marian Keyes meets Allison Pearson, with a dash of Caitlin Moran.

Going from one child to two is never all that easy for a family, but when Emma's husband simultaneously fathers a third child three doors up the street, things get very tricky, very fast.

No longer is it enough for Emma to be the best wife and mother - now she's trying to be the best ex-wife, and the best part-time parent to her ex's love child, and that's before she even thinks about adding a new bloke to the mix.

Set in an upwardly mobile, ultra-competitive suburb, this is a funny, biting, heartwarming modern comedy that looks at the roles we play, how we compete, and what happens when we dare to strive for second-best.

'Jessica Dettmann is a fine comic writer. She has an eye for the small details, irritations and inspirations of life which coupled with a truly original turn of phrase and great way with a gag makes for sparkling and heart-warming reading.' Ben Elton

'Sharp and crisp and funny. I was dazzled.' Mia Freedman

'A refreshing and honest depiction of the delirium of modern family life ... while it is undeniably laugh-out-loud funny, it is also incredibly heartwarming and real' Better Reading

'Heartwarming yet biting' Sunday Telegraph

'Full of funny moments, this debut takes a wry look at parenthood, divorce and the messy reality of blended families. ∗∗∗∗' Who Weekly

SM Matthews discusses his important novel The Skinny Girl, a novel inspired by a true story about a woman suffering domestic violence. Through a series of diary entries, SM Matthews tells this fictionalised story to tell her story but to create awareness for domestic violence.

This episode may act as a trigger from some listeners. If you, or you know someone, experiencing domestic violence please seek help or go to www.theskinnygirl.com.au for more links.

The Skinny Girl

Leah Kaminsky chats about The Hollow Bones, she is also appearing at the Williamstown Literary Festival in June.

‘I remember you once told me about mockingbirds and their special talents for mimicry. They steal the songs from others, you said. I want to ask you this: how were our own songs stolen from us, the notes dispersed, while our faces were turned away?’

Berlin, 1936. Ernst Schäfer, a young, ambitious zoologist and keen hunter and collector, has come to the attention of Heinrich Himmler, who invites him to lead a group of SS scientists to the frozen mountains of Tibet. Their secret mission: to search for the origins of the Aryan race. Ernst has doubts initially, but soon seizes the opportunity to rise through the ranks of the Third Reich.

While Ernst prepares for the trip, he marries Herta, his childhood sweetheart. But Herta, a flautist who refuses to play from the songbook of womanhood and marriage under the Reich, grows increasingly suspicious of Ernst and his expedition.

When Ernst and his colleagues finally leave Germany in 1938, they realise the world has its eyes fixed on the horror they have left behind in their homeland.

A lyrical and poignant cautionary tale, The Hollow Bones brings to life one of the Nazi regime’s little-known villains through the eyes of the animals he destroyed and the wife he undermined in the name of science and cold ambition.

By the time she was eleven and living in the Soviet Union, Lee Kofman had undergone several major operations on both a defective heart and injuries sustained in a bus accident. Her body harbours a constellation of disfiguring scars that have shaped her sense of self and her view of the world. But it wasn’t until she moved to Israel and later to Australia that she came to think these markings weren’t badges of honour to flaunt but were, in fact, imperfections that needed to be hidden away.

In a captivating mix of memoir and cultural critique, Kofman casts a questioning eye on the myths surrounding our conception of physical perfection and what it’s like to live in a body that deviates from the norm. She reveals the subtle ways we are all influenced by the bodies we inhabit, whether our differences are pronounced or noticeable only to ourselves. She talks to people of all shapes, sizes and configurations and takes a hard look at the way media and culture tell us how bodies should and shouldn’t be.

Illuminating, confronting and deeply personal, Imperfect challenges us all to consider how we exist in the world and how our bodies shape the people we become.

Lee Kofman will be appearing at the Williamstown Literary Festival in 2019.

'Smart, harrowing, heart-warming, and very funny, Alisa Jones has created a book that should be read by anyone who doesn't mind a few tears, and moments of stinging human insight.' James Patterson

Alisa talks about living with epilepsy and how this has impacted her life and her relationships. An inspiring story with wry humour.

Honest, inspiring and funny.

Caro Llewellyn was living her dream life in her adopted home of New York, directing an international literary festival. Then one day, running in Central Park, she lost all sensation in her legs. Two days later she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Caro was no stranger to tragedy. Her father Richard contracted polio at the age of twenty and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Dignified, undaunted and ingenious, he was determined to make every day count, not least seducing his nurse while still confined to an iron lung, then marrying her.

But when Caro was herself blindsided by illness, cut loose from everything she depended on, she couldn’t summon any of the grace and courage she’d witnessed growing up. She was furious, toxic, humiliated. Only by looking back at her father’s extraordinary example was she able to rediscover her own grit and find a way forward, rebuilding her life shard by shard.

An emotionally brutal memoir of family, vulnerability and purpose, Diving into Glass is a searing, often funny portrait of the realities of disability and an intimate account of two lives filled with vigour and audacity.

'Caro Llewellyn's portrait of her father is a tour de force. It is entirely unpredictable and consistently exhilarating. I read it in one transfixed sitting.’ Janet Malcolm

Kirsten Alexander chats about her haunting book Half Moon Lake, set in 1913, Louisiana exploring prejudice, history, privilege & the lengths one will take to find their child.

Kirsten explores moral ambiguity and the impact that one's privilege has on others. A haunting read that will keep you awake at night.

In 1913, on a summer's day at Half Moon Lake, Louisiana, four-year-old Sonny Davenport walks into the woods and never returns.

Felicity McLean chats about her debut novel The VanApfel Girls Are Gone, a wonderful book of mystery and intrigue. Felicity tells the story of Bryan Brown and his influence towards the finished product, ghost writing and childhood.

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone has been described as Picnic At Hanging Rock meets Jasper Jones meets The Virgin Suicides.

Enjoy the episode.

Andy Muir, screenwriter, researcher and author, chats about his humorous crime fiction novel Hiding To Nothing. Set in Newcastle amidst criminals, friends and an estranged father.

Andy explores the complexity of family relationships, friendship and trying to be an ordinary guy in a complex world.