The Gold Coast: City of the Future; metropolis of dreams. In less than fifty years a tiny holiday town of fibro shacks and mangrove swamps has grown to become a city of almost a million people and an embodiment of our unquenchable lust for surf, sun and sand. Set against a backdrop of marina developments for the near-dead, a rampant drug culture, the underground porn industry and the anarchy of schoolies week, The Secret Life of the Gold Coast is a disturbing but often comical expose that trawls the underbelly of Gold Coast life while pondering the elusive nature of Paradise and the unexpected consequences of our desires.

Fay Marles has lived a life of firsts. As Victoria’s first Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, she played an instrumental role in the landmark case that resulted in Ansett employing its first female pilot. Over the next decade, she battled discrimination on many fronts, overseeing the commission’s rapid development and expansion. She went on to found Australia’s first private equal opportunity consultancy, and made history again when she became the first woman Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in February 2001. But in these fascinating memoirs, Marles offers much more than an account of her many personal and professional achievements. She candidly explores the influences that helped to shape her outlook and interests, from her family background and schooling to her experiences as an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne in the 1940s, where she was one of Manning Clark’s first students. Her recollections of working as a young social worker in Brisbane in the 1950s, and later as a lecturer in social work at the University of Melbourne in the 1970s, offer a fascinating snapshot of the development of social work as a profession in Australia. She also describes the challenges of balancing her family life and career, and of pursuing postgraduate study as a mature-age student. Along the way, she charts her growing interest in women’s issues and Indigenous affairs. Throughout her remarkable life, Fay Marles has aimed for the skies. Through her commitment to justice and her firm belief in the value of education, she has helped and inspired many others to do the same.

1943: shopkeeper's son Brian Sherman is born into a tight-knit Jewish community in a small South African mining outpost. The Holocaust is raging in Europe and the Apartheid regime is at its height. In 1976, with only $5,000 to his name, he moves to Australia with his young family to start a new life. Nothing can prepare Brian for his meteoric rise or for the life-changing tests he will face. At his kitchen table he starts a fund management business with his friend Laurence Freedman. In 1986, they float a novel investment fund on the American Stock Exchange and raise over a billion Australian dollars. More billions follow, and opportunity flows. Brian goes on to direct the finances of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and together with Laurence, acquires an interest in Network TEN, taking it from receivership to record profits. He chairs the Australian Museum Trust and brings in a heist of priceless specimens. He and gallerist wife Gene become leading philanthropists in the arts, medical science and Jewish affairs while Brian mentors his son, Emile, now an Oscar-winning film producer. Prompted by daughter Ondine, he has an epiphany on animal suffering, and, with her, devotes himself tirelessly to ending factory farming. Triumphant highs are interwoven with profound lows. His beloved twin grandsons are born with a rare and devastating genetic disorder. Brian and his son-in-law, Dror, go all out in search of a cure. Facing his own health challenges, and a lifelong accumulation of unexplored grief, Brian will be tested to the limits of his being.

BESTSELLING author Martha Sweeney presents her first historical romance set in England during the 1800s when the steam engine was first made available for public use. At the age of twenty-four, Abigail becomes widowed and the sole survivor of the recently deceased Lord Quincy. Upon inheriting his estate, she becomes the first woman to own property. Having been brought up on a farm with three brothers, Abigail knows what it takes to keep the business profitable. Strong-willed and confident, Abigail is determined to prove herself capable. While trying to balance the Manor, the farm, an orphaned child, and her status in society, Abigail finds herself presented with love in the most unusual of places. Will she allow love into her life when it’s staring her in the face? A clean yet witty story about Lady Abigail Moss who is an independent woman every man desires and who every woman desires to be.

In May 2012 Kirstie Clements was unceremoniously sacked after thirteen years in the editor's chair at Vogue Australia. Here she tells the story behind the headlines, and takes us behind the scenes of a fast-changing industry. During a career at Vogue that spanned twenty-five years, Clements rubbed shoulders with Karl Lagerfeld, Kylie Minogue, Ian Thorpe, Crown Princess Mary, Cate Blanchett, and many more shining stars. From her humble beginnings growing up in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney to her brilliant career as a passionate and fierce custodian of the world's most famous luxury magazine brand, Clements warmly invites us into her Vogue world, a universe that brims with dazzling celebrities, fabulous lunches, exotic locales and of course, outrageous fashion. Amidst the exhilaration and chaos of modern magazine publishing and the frenzied demands of her job, Clements is always steadfast in her dedication to quality. Above all, she is always Vogue.

Village of Siam By: Emmett E. Kennedy Village of Siam is a love story that covers many years. Enjoy this work, for love never dies…

Offering a panoramic view of the history and culture of food and drink in America with fascinating entries on everything from the smell of asparagus to the history of White Castle, and the origin of Bloody Marys to jambalaya, the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink provides a concise, authoritative, and exuberant look at this modern American obsession. Ideal for the food scholar and food enthusiast alike, it is equally appetizing for anyone fascinated by Americana, capturing our culture and history through what we love most--food!Building on the highly praised and deliciously browseable two-volume compendium the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, this new work serves up everything you could ever want to know about American consumables and their impact on popular culture and the culinary world. Within its pages for example, we learn that Lifesavers candy owes its success to the canny marketing idea of placing the original flavor, mint, next to cash registers at bars. Patrons who bought them to mask the smell of alcohol on their breath before heading home soon found they were just as tasty sober and the company began producing other flavors.Edited by Andrew Smith, a writer and lecturer on culinary history, the Companion serves up more than just trivia however, including hundreds of entries on fast food, celebrity chefs, fish, sandwiches, regional and ethnic cuisine, food science, and historical food traditions. It also dispels a few commonly held myths. Veganism, isn't simply the practice of a few "hippies," but is in fact wide-spread among elite athletic circles. Many of the top competitors in the Ironman and Ultramarathon events go even further, avoiding all animal products by following a strictly vegan diet. Anyone hungering to know what our nation has been cooking and eating for the last three centuries should own the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. DT Nearly 1,000 articles on American food and drink, from the curious to the commonplace DT Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of historical photographs and color images DT Includes informative lists of food websites, museums, organizations, and festivals