Dear Village
One Day At A Time
$35.99
One Day At A Time A treasured son. A rare condition. A memoir of loss and joy and everything in between. My mind is racing. I'm trying to make sense of what the doctors have told us, to understand what life is going to look like now, for Levi and for us. We need to tell our families, I think to myself. But Mum is so unwell - how are we going to tell Mum? On a Melbourne afternoon in the eerie early days of the pandemic, young parents Jordan and Gary Ablett finally learned why their beautiful baby boy, Levi, had not been hitting the milestones that most new parents celebrate and are reassured by. After months of concern and worry, the specialists' diagnosis gave them clarity, but with it came an overwhelming sorrow at the loss of the life they had imagined for their son, and for themselves as a family. In One Day at a Time, Jordan bravely shares how she struggled to come to terms with Levi's condition and the new, unexpected path her life had taken raising a child with a disability, while helping to care for her beloved mother as she lived through the final stages of cancer. Raw and honest, this is a story of devastating grief and pain, but it is also the story of how, with the love and unwavering support of her family, and with her faith as her anchor, Jordan and her AFL legend husband found the courage to go on and learned to celebrate every day with Levi as a blessing. It's about finding joy in what you have, even as you mourn what you have lost, and never taking life for granted.
Dear Village
Out Of The Blue
$34.99
A frank and open memoir from beloved Blue Wiggle and national treasure Anthony Field.
Dear Village
Outback Astronomer
$35.99
Outback AstronomerBorn and raised in remote Broken Hill, Trevor Barry left school after year ten to work in the mines. Years later, a single glimpse of Saturn through a colleague's telescope knocked Trevor's world completely off its axis, turning his whole life upside down.With his newfound passion and armed with decades of outback know-how, Trevor set about building an observatory in his backyard using bits and pieces from his shed, a second-hand washing machine motor, rainwater tank parts and an old catamaran wire. It took some canny negotiations with his wife, Cheryl, 'the Gorgeous and Adorable', whose prized garden took a battering - especially when he decided to add a second storey - but before long Trevor was not just gazing at the stars but capturing extraordinary images of the planets.Over the years, Trevor's love affair with Saturn, 'the ringed jewel of the solar system', only grew more passionate, and in his early fifties he did a degree in astronomy, topping his class. When he recorded a massive storm on Saturn from his backyard observatory, he alerted NASA. The world's greatest space agency took note and invited Trevor to contribute to its interplanetary research - leading to opportunities far beyond Broken Hill and even Trevor's wildest dreams.Today, when he's not tending the greens at his local bowls club, Trevor can usually be found in his backyard, collecting data for international research projects. His work is held in high regard by professional astronomers, and his observations are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals around the world.
Penguin Group
Patriot
$55.00
The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.<p>'A brave and brilliant book' Guardian'Charisma and courage dazzle on every page' Sunday Times'Patriot will be seen as a historic text' EconomistPatriot is the exhilarating life story of one of the most fearless and inspiring figures of our time, who became a beacon to millions and the sole political threat to Vladimir Putin.This is Alexei Navalny's life in his own words- his Soviet childhood, political awakening, his marriage and beloved family, his total commitment to taking on a corrupt regime and his enduring love of Russia and its people. His 2020 poisoning by the Russian security services was a global news event. In 2024 he died in a brutal Siberian prison. He began writing Patriot whilst recovering from his poisoning; it ends with his prison diaries, seen here for the first time.We witness the growth of his nationwide support. We see his many arrests and harassment and, in stunning detail, the attempt on his life. We understand why he felt he had to return to Russia. In prison, he shows a spirit and a sense of humour that cannot be crushed.Patriot is as dramatic as its author's life - passionate that good and freedom will prevail. It is Alexei Navalny's final letter to the world, a rousing call to continue his work, an unforgettably positive account of a life that will inspire every reader.'A worthy testament to Navalny's courage, defiance and humour' Financial Times'This book is a gospel' Vanity Fair'Inspiring, emboldening - a voice that will not be forgotten' New Yorker**A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2024**</p>
Dear Village
Patting The Shark
$34.99
Patting The Shark A surfer's journey learning to live well with cancerTim Baker was living the dream. A best-selling and award-winning surf writer with a beautiful family, a lifetime of exotic travel and a home walking distance to quality waves. That all changed on July 7, 2015, when he was diagnosed, out of the blue, with stage 4, metastatic prostate cancer. So began a descent into the debilitating world of aggressive cancer treatments and a fight for a survival as brutal as any big wave hold down.Tim writes candidly and with a raw vulnerability about this perilous journey through chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation and surgery, and his own determined lifestyle strategies to maintain mind, body and spirit. Happily, surfing provided one of his most powerful forms of therapy, and writing about his experiences has proven deeply cathartic. In 2020, 1.5 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer globally and 375,000 lost their lives. In Australia, one in seven men will develop prostate cancer. Yet mainstream oncology concedes its ability to keep men with prostate cancer alive has outstripped its ability to manage the often-devastating side effects of treatment. Men with prostate cancer are living longer but with a steadily declining quality of life.Patting The Shark documents Tim's efforts to navigate his way through the maze of conventional and supportive therapies - meditation, diet, exercise, emotional support, counselling. Ultimately, it is a desperate plea for a more integrative approach to cancer care, treating the whole person and not just the cancer, allowing cancer patients a sense of empowerment and agency in charting their path through treatment.This is a story about facing your mortality, staring down your fears, and working out what really matters in life, when so many elements of your identity are stripped away. It offers hope, comfort and empathy for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis and their loved ones.
Dear Village
Phosphorescence
$29.99
<p><strong>The national bestseller, <em>Phosphorescence </em>is a beautiful, intimate and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness – the 'light within' – which will sustain us even through the darkest times.</strong></p> <p>Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to the science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance of achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them?</p><p>And more than that, when our world goes dark, when we're overwhelmed by illness or heartbreak, loss or pain, how do we survive, stay alive or even bloom? In the muck and grit of a daily existence full of disappointments and a disturbing lack of control over many of the things that matter most – finite relationships, fragile health, fraying economies, a planet in peril – how do we find, nurture and carry our own inner, living light – a light to ward off the darkness?</p><p><strong>An intimate, achingly beautiful and inspiring exploration of the ways we can pursue awe, wonder and purpose, from one of our best, most perceptive writers.</strong></p><p>'Like spending an evening with a wonderful friend, with unlimited time and a glass of good wine in hand … A beautiful and rallying read' <em>The Australian</em></p><p>'Julia Baird's new, beautiful consideration of the things that glow through the murk … a book such as this one – one that aims to provoke delight and wonder and comfort, that is at its heart trying to find answers or modes of connection, or light – is of the moment in the best possible way' <em>The Guardian</em></p><p>'Intelligent and emotionally astute ... Many will find sustenance in reading it<em>' Sydney Morning Herald</em></p><p>'That is the beauty of this profound book. It transports you into all the deep, inner yearnings you've had for a long time, and then articulates them for you ... I could rave about this gem of a book forever. We need this book. You need this book. It is the perfect gift for us all right now. It is perfect' <em>Better Reading</em></p><p>'Julia Baird is an alchemist, turning the dross of her life's harshest blows into shimmering prose. Both timeless and timely, this is a book of wisdom and wonder.' Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>March </em>and <em>Caleb's Crossing</em></p><p>'This book is a love letter to the world by a brilliant writer who nearly left it. Julia Baird has gone into the depths of human experience-her own, and others'-and come back with this luminous and profound celebration of people and the planet. <em>Phosphorescence</em> is a treasure to read and re-read your whole life.' Anna Funder, author of <em>All That I Am</em> and <em>Stasiland</em></p><p>'I loved this book. A cupped hand full of light in a darkened world. A collection of glittering curios. I'll hold it close in trying times.' Cal Flyn, author of <em>Islands of Abandonment</em></p>
Dear Village
Plant Collecting In Another Planet
$49.99
Plant Collecting In Another PlanetErnest H. Wilson (1876-1930), trained at Kew Gardens, became Harvard’s most famous plant collector in the early decades of the twentieth century, and established his fame through travels in China and his superb photography. In 1920-21 Wilson collected in Australia, where he was astounded by the plants he found and thought them so different to anything in the Northern Hemisphere that it was like collecting in ‘another planet.’Wilson’s Australian journey was largely undocumented and the extent of his collection unknown until Margaret Grose unravelled his travels, scrawled pencil diary entries, images from the Arnold Arboretum, and the hundreds of plant specimens found in the Harvard Herbaria. In this book, Grose tells a tale of Wilson’s travels across Australia and the plants collected with insight into how the landscapes Wilson saw have since changed. Of note, Wilson appeared free to speak his mind on what he called the ‘arboricidal mania’ of Australia’s appalling treatment of its trees: ‘For God’s sake Stop!’ he said with mounting anger. Margaret Grose’s Plant Collecting in Another Planet presents fascinating new insights into the deeper thoughts of one of the world’s great plant collectors.
Dear Village
Quentin Bryce: The Authorised Biography
$55.00
Quentin Bryce: The Authorised BiographyFascinating, candid and insightful, Quentin Bryce- The Authorised Biography tells the remarkable story of one of Australia's most impactful changemakers.When Quentin Bryce was sworn in as Australia's first female governor-general in 2008, she made history. It was one of many firsts in a trailblazing career dedicated to reform and serving community.Her early childhood in a western Queensland bush town shaped her sense of self and her destiny. Young Quentin dreamed of changing the world and then set out to do it. She was the first from her school to go to university and among the first women admitted to the Queensland Bar. In revolutionary times her advocacy for human rights - especially for women, children and First Nations Australians - underpinned her every role, which included teaching in the male-dominated university law faculty, federal sex discrimination commissioner, CEO of the National Childcare Accreditation Council, principal of Sydney's Women's College, governor of Queensland and Australia's governor-general.This biography traces the triumphs and the barriers as Quentin shattered glass ceilings and reveals the woman behind the high offices she held. Mother of five and grandmother to twelve, it is her partnership with soulmate Michael Bryce and the love of family, enduring friendships and belief in community that have sustained her. Her passion for the arts and elemental connection to Australia's ancient landscape feed her soul.Fascinating, candid and insightful, Quentin Bryce- The Authorised Biography tells the remarkable story of one of Australia's most impactful changemakers.
Dear Village
Ride On
$34.99
A decade after her dramatic launch into fame, celebrated jockey Michelle Payne reflects on what she's learned about love, loss, courage and kindness.
Dear Village
Ringo
$39.99
Ringo A Mojo Book of the Year 2025“A must for any discerning Fab shelf” Record Collector“A charming biography. Resolutely fab” Mojo“A beautiful read” Samira Ahmed, BBC Front Row“The definitive biography” iRingo Starr’s eventful and remarkable life laid bare in a first-of-its-kind mosaic biography of one of the greatest musicians of all time.Often overshadowed by his former bandmates, Starr’s remarkable story is no less compelling. ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ highlights a life so jaw-droppingly eventful that one is left wondering how he also had time to become one of the best musicians on the planet.Through an episodic, mosaic format, critically acclaimed author Tom Doyle takes readers through the ride of a lifetime, from Starr’s brushes with death as a child raised in poverty, through to dizzying heights of fame and success with The Beatles and beyond. By examining pivotal moments, anecdotes, and cautionary tales, we see Starr soar as part of the biggest band in the world - and then try to cope with life outside of it: a film career, misadventures with friends, children’s TV narrator, furniture designer, marriage to a Bond girl, before eventually finding peace and sobriety as one of the elder statesmen of rock.So much more than another Beatles related biography, we follow Starr’s career far beyond the rose-tinted sixties, through the various addictions and career left turns in the seventies and eighties, before reaching the 1990’s, his legacy and reputation intact.The life of Richard Starkey is long overdue a proper inspection and this book - with exclusive new interviews conducted by Doyle with, amongst others, Starr himself - provides a never-before-seen level of detail that will delight hardcore fans and curious readers alike.Ringo: A Fab Life - hilarious, moving, insightful, and constantly surprising - is the definitive account of one of the greatest living musicians and the uncontested best drummer in The Beatles.
Dear Village
Role Model
$34.99
A story of resilience, hope and how a mother's love fuelled the ascent of Australia's first Indigenous supermodel.
Dear Village
Rose
$34.99
RoseThe voyage of Rose de Freycinet, the stowaway who defied the French for love.In 1814, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, nineteen-year-old Rose Pinon married handsome naval officer Louis de Freycinet, fifteen years her senior. Three years later, unable to bear parting from her husband, she dressed in men's clothing and slipped secretly aboard his ship the day before it sailed on a voyage of scientific discovery to the South Seas. Living for three years as the sole female among 120 men, Rose de Freycinet defied not only bourgeois society's expectations of a woman in 1817, but also a strict prohibition against women sailing on French naval ships.Whether dancing at governors' balls in distant colonies, or evading pirates and meeting armed Indigenous warriors on remote Australian shores, or surviving shipwreck in the wintry Falkland Islands, Rose used her quick pen to record her daily experiences, becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the world and leave a record of her journey.Suzanne Falkiner tells this story of courage, enduring love, curiosity and a spirit of adventure - and of the pivotal voyages that led to it - while revealing a uniquely female view into the hitherto largely male world of 19th-century life at sea.PRAISE'A beautifully written, heart-lifting saga of adventure and romance' Grantlee Kieza'A leisurely, thoughtful work, richly and broadly detailed, quietly absorbing' Helen Garner