Want to hear a funny story or go on a wild quest with Satyajit Das?

Born into a polygamous family, Simar learned early that girls had inferior status, and she had to agree to an arranged marriage if she wanted to go to university. By the time she was in medical school, she had a son, Ali, and had become a revolutionary. After her husband was disappeared by the pro-Russian regime, she escaped. With her son she went to the rural areas to treat people who had never had medical help before. Samar's wide-ranging experiences both in her home country and on the world stage have given her inside access to the dishonesty, the collusion, the corruption, the self-serving leaders, and the hijacking of religion.

Satyajit Das. Monash University Publishing. $34.99.

Subtitled "Journeys into Ecotourism and the Future for Animals", this book chronicles Das's life-changing trips to Africa and the Antarctic 30 years ago and the ecotourism adventures that resulted. Over time, during his encounters with remarkable wild animals in continents across the world, he came to question the underlying preoccupations and tensions in humans' complex and troubled relationship with nature. What lies at the heart of our fascination with wild animals and our attempts to pursue an "experience"? During a time of ecological emergency and habitat destruction, what responsibility does the ecotourist have to the natural world?

Jules Robinson. Simon & Schuster. $29.99.

Since finding love on Married at First Sight, Jules Robinson has had a whirlwind five years - she got married (for real), had a baby, and became a purpose-driven entrepreneur through setbacks and challenges. Here, she shares her personal experiences, expert tips, and empowering lessons on style, family, motherhood, self-love, wellbeing, manifesting and practicing gratitude. Jules's mission is to give you the tools you need to go after the life you've always dreamed of, and to feel good about yourself while you're doing it - exactly as you are, right now.

Natasha Swingler. Penguin. $39.99.

Instagram's Swingler takes you around the home and shares her hacks from the kitchen to the bedroom via the bathroom and entranceway. Never again will you need to step over your "floordrobe", rifle through the shoe rack, or spend 10 minutes searching for keys. Applying her "house rules" to every room, drawer and cupboard, you'll learn to ditch the complex systems, keep things where you use them and set all-important boundaries throughout your home. With photos and step-by-step diagrams for everything from folding towels and T-shirts to gift-wrap, the system for creating a serene home can be applied to any space, large or small.

Nicci French. Simon & Schuster Australia. $32.99.

In 1990, Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec's 50th birthday party. Her kids are worried, but Alec is not. As the days pass, the kids struggle to come to terms with her disappearance but as the time goes by, they can't. After years away, daughter Etty returns to the village she grew up in to move her father, who has dementia, to a care home. When the Salter kids' childhood friends, Greg and Morgen Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlotte's disappearance, it seems like the town's buried secrets - and the Salters' - might finally come to light.

Victoria Purman. HarperCollins. $32.99.

In Sydney in 1956, Martha Berry is sent to work as a secretary on a new radio serial. She finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical producer without a clue, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word "pregnant", and actors with ideas of their own. Martha is forced to step in to rescue the serial and ends up secretly ghost-writing scripts, creating mayhem with management, and coming up with storylines that resonate with the serial's growing, loyal audience of women. When she's threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows, or to finally step into the spotlight.

Emily Henry. Penguin. $34.99.

Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story - until it became the prologue to his actual love story with his childhood bestie, Petra. Daphne ends up rooming with her total opposite and the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra's ex, Miles. One night, they form a plan. And if it involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together, well, who could blame them? But it's all just for show, of course, because there's no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé's new fiancée's ex - right?

Cameron Stewart. Allen & Unwin. $32.99.

In all weather and across all kinds of terrain, Ingvar walks until he can go no further, then gets up and does it again. For three years he doesn't know why he keeps going, or whether he is walking towards something or away from it. Until he comes to a remote tropical valley harbouring secrets and misfits. There, a recently widowed woman, Hilda, allows Ingvar to live in a shed on her property. He hasn't spoken for three years and Hilda chats frequently with her dead husband, but somehow they tolerate each other as they both struggle with the haunting impact of their pasts and grief that won't let them go.

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