Books of the Month - Non-Fiction

Find the motivation to live your best life and get into your best shape with social media influencer Zac Perna Consider this your own personal (and hilarious) road map to becoming a lean and happy good influence in your own life. Let's begin. People worldwide know fitness guru Zac Perna for his informative, motivating, curious and very funny social media content. In this book Zac goes deeper, wider and more intimate than ever before. With lots of information about diet, nutrition, exercise and fitness, Zac also reflects on pivotal lessons he's learned about confidence, resilience and what it takes to create something tangible out of your dreams. Zac has done the hard work so you don't have to struggle through the same journey - he has great insights and a host of practical tips learned through perseverance and keen observation. Drawing on his experience establishing a mega social media brand, a hugely success ful fitness-coaching business, the Slouch Potato pyjama brand and his extensive health knowledge, Zac offers life lessons through intimately personal and at times unbelievable anecdotes that will make you laugh, reflect on your own life, then laugh some more. Perfect for fans of James Smith and Ant Middleton, Good Influence is here to help you create healthy habits and to live your best life.234.

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last. About the Author: Multi-platinum, Grammy Award–winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in music history, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. In 2021, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Spears’s album Blackout was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives in 2012.

This is the powerful, untold inside story of Silverchair, Australia's most awarded musical act, told by two of its three members. From their beginnings in Ben Gillies' garage, this trio of high school kids from Newcastle, New South Wales, became famous with their smash-hit single 'Tomorrow', setting them on a path to domination of the Australian charts, worldwide touring and fame. So much has been written about Silverchair over the years but very little has been said by the band's members. In Love & Pain, childhood friends Ben Gillies (drummer) and Chris Joannou (bass player) tell us the tales that Silverchair's fans have never heard, about how the band started, how they worked together and how they ended up. There are some funny, unforgettable rock 'n' roll stories, along with all the love and pain that came with being in the band: the cost of fame and intense pressure on teenagers who had no way of preparing for it; the navigation of their friendships with each other and their relationships with friends and family members; the mistakes they made and the successes they cherished. Gillies and Joannou write with vulnerability and blistering honesty, making this an extraordinary account of a band adored by so many.

Jamie's most popular cookbook goes Mediterranean in this mouth-watering follow-up People keep asking Jamie for another 5 Ingredients book and this is the answer. Over 120 utterly delicious, easy-to-follow recipes, this time inspired by Jamie's travels to the Mediterranean. It's all about making every day cooking super-exciting, with minimal fuss, while transporting you to sunnier climes. Recipes that empower you to make big-flavour food, but without copious amounts of ingredients, long shopping lists or loads of washing up. 65% of the recipes are meat-free and all offer maximum flavour. With chapters on Veg, Pasta, Fish, Seafood, Pies and Parcels, Soups and Sarnies, Meat, Chicken and Sweet Things, it will have readers coming back for more, seven days a week..

A daily devotional full of inspiring quotes and advice for fathers - from the bestselling author of The Daily Stoic 'Make this book a morning ritual.' - Matthew McConaughey 'A simple way to ground us, to force a reflection on the choices we're making, and the ones we want to make. And it's not just for dads.' - Emily Oster, author, Cribsheet What does it mean to be a great father? And how do you become one? Parenting is a role filled with meaning and purpose, but every dad needs guidance: because fatherhood is not a one-off, it is something you do every day. Instead of a parenting book you read once as a sleep-deprived new parent, The Daily Dad provides 366 accessible meditations on fatherhood, one for each day of the year. Drawing quotes from history, literature and psychology, bestselling author Ryan Holiday - a father of two himself - has crafted a daily practice that will help dads old and new to find inspiration and advice. Each entry offers a memorable lesson on being the role model your child needs, rooted in timeless principles. From Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., ancient philosophy to contemporary figures, The Daily Dad collates wisdom from around the world to help every dad face the day-to-day challenges in the lifelong job of parenting, and ultimately become the best father they can be.

How do you begin your life again when you’ve lost everything you’ve worked for and your dreams have been shattered? That was the question beloved Australian author Belinda Alexandra faced one freezing winter night when she ran from her home in terror, clutching only her wallet, her phone and her latest manuscript on a USB stick. To pull herself up from rock bottom, Belinda drew strength from the real life women who had inspired her bestselling historical fiction: her mother, Tatiana Morosoff, a White Russian who had fled a home more than once due to wars and revolutions; Virginia Hall, an American who lost her leg in an accident but went on to become one of the most revered Allied agents in World War II France; Carmen Amaya, who despite being born into abject poverty in Barcelona rose to become the greatest Flamenco dancer of all time; Edna Walling, who lost her own dream home in a freak fire but created garden designs that made her one of Australia’s most celebrated landscape designers. They were women who had faced seemingly insurmountable challenges and found ways to forge ahead on their own terms. In a compelling and exquisite blend of memoir and history, Belinda shows readers that, no matter what challenge they might be facing, there is always the possibility of building a bold life full of meaning again from the ashes.

In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world's most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island, but young Sam was sent away to boarding school in Christchurch, where he was hopeless at sports and discovered he enjoyed acting. But how did you become an actor in New Zealand in the 1960 and 1970s where there was no film industry? After university he made documentary films while also appearing in occasional amateur productions of Shakespeare. In 1977 he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade, a project that led to a major role in Gillian Armstrong's celebrated My Brilliant Career. And after that Sam Neill found his way, sometimes by accident, into his own brilliant career. He has worked around the world, an actor who has moved effortlessly from blockbuster to art house to TV, from Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movies to The Piano and Peaky Blinders. Did I Ever Tell You This? is a joy to read, a marvellous and often very funny book, the work of a natural storyteller who is a superb observer of other people, and who writes with love and warmth about his family.