Hello dear reader! Thank you for choosing this book. Was it the cover that piqued your interest? That luscious hair of mine streaming over my shoulder in the cover photo?Or … was it the title?But why? Because, after all, who really wants to be *selfish*? Being called selfish is hurtful. It implies that you’re toodemanding, inconsiderate of others’ needs, that you fail to put others first. It states that you’re taking up too much space.We’re told that being a good woman means being selfless. That we should give, care and carry without ever asking for rest or help.But what if those rules are breaking us?In Selfish, I flip the script on sacrifice, guilt and burnout. With honesty and humour (you know it’s true!) I explore thecost of being selfless – and what happens when we dare to put ourselves first. This isn’t a book about ‘having it all’. It’s about having yourself. If you’re resentful, burned out, sick of people pleasing or simply pissed off …This book is for you.

From acclaimed writer Kathryn Heyman comes a luminously beautiful and personal novel, Circle of Wonders. It is the story of two deaths, but more importantly, it is the story of the legacy of life that flows from them - an uplifting celebratory song to life, and a homage to human resilience. Roni is running out of time. As cancer claims her body, she begins a Book of Wonders, capturing the small, luminous moments she once overlooked. It's a final gift to the people she loves, and completing it means reckoning with both the flawed life she has lived and the fractured family she's about to leave behind. Over one charged lunar month, the women closest to her Belle, her daughter fresh from rehab and trying to stay upright; Anna, her brilliant sister returning from London with all her old certainties cracking; and Sylvie, her estranged mother, approaching her own death across the mountain ridge. Meanwhile, Roni's ex - the Drone, as she's dubbed him - refuses to leave the house, casting shade on the light Roni is fighting to keep burning. Each woman arrives wanting to protect Roni. But their clashing visions of what she needs threaten to tear them apart at the moment they should be closest. As tensions rise and secrets surface, Roni's Book of Wonders becomes the fragile thread that might hold them all together. Finishing it will demand she face not only her own life, but the complicated love binding these imperfect women to one another. For each of them, this month will change everything; it will teach them how to live. Extraordinary, luminous and heart-expanding, Circle of Wonders is about facing death while rediscovering life, and about the messy grace that emerges when people who've hurt one another choose to love anyway. 'A precious jewellery box of language, bravely capturing the imperfection of being human and probing the mysteries of what matters most - this courageous novel glitters with wonder itself.' Suzie Miller, Prima Facie 'Wondrous. Kathryn Heyman has mined the depths of human frailty and hit a seam of gold. Beautifully written, full of life and love, acceptance and forgiveness. I couldn't put it down.' Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho 'Beautiful and devastating. Luminous with death - and life. Circle of Wonders observes the complicated bonds of friendship and family among women, with a wisdom and tenderness that is deeply observed. It is a novel of wild power that reminds me of Katherine Mansfield and Claire Keegan. I gulped it in a day, then ached that it was over.' Nikki Gemmell, Wing 'It is breathtaking, ruthless and healing. Beautiful and profoundly moving and riveting. I think this will be a very important book. And enormously meaningful to many people. What a gift.' Jaclyn Moriarty, Gravity is the Thing 'A beautifully observed, funny and tender novel about letting love in, and letting love go.' Anna Funder, Wifedom 'The most seriously human book I've read in ages, a novel of deep courage and beauty, a serious act of witness to friendship, complexity, and the everyday wonders that sustain us.' Chris Cleave, Little Bee 'A bright flare. Heyman's writing makes us look up and savour life.' Chloe Hooper, The Mushroom Tapes

Psychotherapist and author of Already Enough, Lisa Olivera blends her own personal experience of living with depression with therapeutic wisdom in a moving exploration of the emotional pain each of us lives with to offer readers guidance on holding the ache alongside the beauty Emotional pain, of all kinds and magnitudes, is part of life. We’ll never be able to find ourselves free of it; no meditation or amount of therapy will cure us of the harder parts of being alive. The practice of turning toward the ache with care – reverence, even – might be one of the most meaningful gifts we can give ourselves. It might even save us. Lisa Olivera has confronted this reality for years as a therapist, weaving her exploration of it throughout her popular newsletter, Human Stuff. She asks questions like, how do we confront and tend to the painful parts of being human without letting that pain entirely overtake us? How do we find joy even when depression visits, even when we lose someone we love, even when the hurt of the world is ever-present? How do we cultivate aliveness in the midst? When the Ache Remains explores these questions for readers in a tender and wise exploration of how ache shapes life, how we can alchemize our pain into medicine, and how presence is accessible even in the midst of difficulty. Blending deeply personal narrative, humanistic psychology, lessons from nature, words of nourishment, and her naturally poetic undertone, Lisa invites readers on a journey alongside her as she explores the impact of depression and the process of learning to tend to it, and all of our aches, in more open, integrative, and loving ways.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

This is the Discworld's last continent, a completely separate creation. It's hot. It's dry... very dry. There was this thing once called The Wet, which no one now believes in. Practically everything that's not poisonous is venomous. But it's the best bloody place in the world, all right? And it'll die in a few days, except... Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Champion sheep shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober? A man in a hat, whose Luggage follows him on little legs, who's about to change history by preventing a swagman stealing a jumbuck by a billabong? Yes... all this place has between itself and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, the inept wizard who can't even spell wizard. He's the only hero left. Still... no worries, eh?

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard. With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is not an identification guide, nor is it a scientific treatise. Rather, it is a series of linked personal essays that will lead general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings, from salmon and hummingbirds to redwoods and rednecks. Kimmerer clearly and artfully explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.Drawing on her diverse experiences as a scientist, mother, teacher, and writer of Native American heritage, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.Gathering Moss will appeal to a wide range of readers, from bryologists to those interested in natural history and the environment, Native Americans, and contemporary nature and science writing.

From acclaimed writer Kathryn Heyman comes a luminously beautiful and personal novel, Circle of Wonders. It is the story of two deaths, but more importantly, it is the story of the legacy of life that flows from them - an uplifting celebratory song to life, and a homage to human resilience. Roni is running out of time. As cancer claims her body, she begins a Book of Wonders, capturing the small, luminous moments she once overlooked. It's a final gift to the people she loves, and completing it means reckoning with both the flawed life she has lived and the fractured family she's about to leave behind. Over one charged lunar month, the women closest to her Belle, her daughter fresh from rehab and trying to stay upright; Anna, her brilliant sister returning from London with all her old certainties cracking; and Sylvie, her estranged mother, approaching her own death across the mountain ridge. Meanwhile, Roni's ex - the Drone, as she's dubbed him - refuses to leave the house, casting shade on the light Roni is fighting to keep burning. Each woman arrives wanting to protect Roni. But their clashing visions of what she needs threaten to tear them apart at the moment they should be closest. As tensions rise and secrets surface, Roni's Book of Wonders becomes the fragile thread that might hold them all together. Finishing it will demand she face not only her own life, but the complicated love binding these imperfect women to one another. For each of them, this month will change everything; it will teach them how to live. Extraordinary, luminous and heart-expanding, Circle of Wonders is about facing death while rediscovering life, and about the messy grace that emerges when people who've hurt one another choose to love anyway. 'A precious jewellery box of language, bravely capturing the imperfection of being human and probing the mysteries of what matters most - this courageous novel glitters with wonder itself.' Suzie Miller, Prima Facie 'Wondrous. Kathryn Heyman has mined the depths of human frailty and hit a seam of gold. Beautifully written, full of life and love, acceptance and forgiveness. I couldn't put it down.' Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho 'Beautiful and devastating. Luminous with death - and life. Circle of Wonders observes the complicated bonds of friendship and family among women, with a wisdom and tenderness that is deeply observed. It is a novel of wild power that reminds me of Katherine Mansfield and Claire Keegan. I gulped it in a day, then ached that it was over.' Nikki Gemmell, Wing 'It is breathtaking, ruthless and healing. Beautiful and profoundly moving and riveting. I think this will be a very important book. And enormously meaningful to many people. What a gift.' Jaclyn Moriarty, Gravity is the Thing 'A beautifully observed, funny and tender novel about letting love in, and letting love go.' Anna Funder, Wifedom 'The most seriously human book I've read in ages, a novel of deep courage and beauty, a serious act of witness to friendship, complexity, and the everyday wonders that sustain us.' Chris Cleave, Little Bee 'A bright flare. Heyman's writing makes us look up and savour life.' Chloe Hooper, The Mushroom Tapes

“‘Oh! How adorable! I didn’t know you had a cat!’ she exclaimed. I am always surprised how many people make this observation. Why should His Holiness not have a cat? ‘If only she could speak,’ continued the actress. ‘I’m sure she’d have such wisdom to share.’ And so the seed was planted . . . I began to think that perhaps the time had come for me to write a book of my own—a book that would convey some of the wisdom I’ve learned sitting not at the feet of the Dalai Lama but even closer, on his lap. A book that would tell my own tale . . . how I was rescued from a fate too grisly to contemplate to become the constant companion of a man who is not only one of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate but also a dab hand with a can opener.”   Starving and pitiful, a mud-smeared kitten is rescued from the slums of New Delhi and transported to a life she could have never imagined. In a beautiful sanctuary overlooking the snow-capped Himalayas, she begins her new life as the Dalai Lama’s cat. Warmhearted, irreverent, and wise, this cat of many names opens a window to the inner sanctum of life in Dharamsala. A tiny spy observing the constant flow of private meetings between His Holiness and everyone from Hollywood celebrities to philanthropists to self-help authors, the Dalai Lama’s cat provides us with insights on how to find happiness and meaning in a busy, materialistic world. Her story will put a smile on the face of anyone who has been blessed by the kneading paws and bountiful purring of a cat.

This is the Discworld's last continent, a completely separate creation. It's hot. It's dry... very dry. There was this thing once called The Wet, which no one now believes in. Practically everything that's not poisonous is venomous. But it's the best bloody place in the world, all right? And it'll die in a few days, except... Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Champion sheep shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober? A man in a hat, whose Luggage follows him on little legs, who's about to change history by preventing a swagman stealing a jumbuck by a billabong? Yes... all this place has between itself and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, the inept wizard who can't even spell wizard. He's the only hero left. Still... no worries, eh?

Throughout her life Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings around half past ten Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has. A mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Western Australia, 1958. A truck rumbles along a lonely outback road. A moment’s inattention, and in a few muddled seconds the lives of the MacBride family are shattered.Instead of leaving them to heal, fate comes back for them in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child.Set in the expanse of a vast and flat landscape, where the weather is a capricious god and a million-acre sheep station is barely a dot on the map, A Far-flung Life explores the hearts of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.Capturing a family, a community, A FAR-FLUNG LIFE tells of the many ways humans can do each other wrong and how we move on when things can’t be put right. With shimmering prose and a delicious wit, the mysteries of being human are laid bare in this hopeful meditation on time and resilience and the lengths we go to to protect what we love.

An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family—or to her own heart It’s New Year’s Day in Tasmania, and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out she’s in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she’s about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack—when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother’s right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi’s grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne—a role she has publicly disavowed. Returning to London as the heir apparent Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself. Her recent life—and Jack—grow ever more distant as she feels the tug of tradition, of love for her grandmother, and of obligation. When her grandmother grants her one year to decide, Lexi must chart her own will it be the one determined by an accident of birth, or by her own heart?

A story of scorned witches, sinister curses, and resurrection, The Bone Witch is the start of a dark fantasy trilogy.When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother, Fox, from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha—one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice. The Bone Witch Trilogy:The Bone Witch (Book 1)The Heart Forger (Book 2)The Shadowglass (Book 3)

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”