![Rebel Rising: A Memoir, by Rebel Wilson. Rebel Rising: A Memoir, by Rebel Wilson.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/d224504a-bd79-4b3f-a7da-8f524c1861b4.png/r0_0_1152_648_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Rebel Rising: A Memoir
Rebel Wilson. HarperCollins. $49.99.
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For decades, Wilson focused on her career, making a name for herself through her roles in Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids. Now she's ready to chronicle the emotional and physical lessons she learned, as well as her most embarrassing experiences. A malaria-induced hallucination? An all-style-martial arts fighting tournament? Junior handling at dog shows? And this was all before she moved to Hollywood! She writes about her most personal and important moments - fertility issues, weight gain and loss, sexuality, overcoming shyness, rejections and at least one story about Brad Pitt.
![Mickey, by Helen Brown. Mickey, by Helen Brown.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/8db5e485-d9f8-4997-ae69-3d7b04d0f1c7.png/r0_0_6551_3683_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mickey
Helen Brown. HarperCollins. $34.99.
It's 1966 in the New Zealand coastal town of New Plymouth. Twelve-year-old Helen, the youngest daughter of an eccentric engineer and a musical theatre fanatic, is living in a crumbling castle overrun by nature, and overshadowed by the majestic Mount Taranaki. On the eve of puberty, everything suddenly is uncomfortable and unfamiliar to Helen. She feels lonely and lost until her father gifts her a tiger-striped kitten with extra toes on each paw. Noticing an M on the cat's forehead, Helen names her new companion Mickey, and he disrupts the already rambunctious household with his mischief. But as it turns out, he's just the ally Helen needs to explore the new world waking up around her.
![Finding Your People: The Ultimate Guide to Friendship, by Alexandra Hourigan & Sally McMullen. Finding Your People: The Ultimate Guide to Friendship, by Alexandra Hourigan & Sally McMullen.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9gmjQxX8MpSQh6J68NHMnY/fb501226-a1bf-48ab-b106-822ac6f58c04.png/r0_0_4914_2763_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Finding Your People: The Ultimate Guide to Friendship
Alexandra Hourigan & Sally McMullen. Allen & Unwin. $34.99.
Despite living in a world where instant communication is at our fingertips, it sometimes feels harder than ever to make meaningful connections. There's an overwhelming focus on romantic partners, but why do platonic relationships miss out on the hype? Friendships are some of the most significant relationships you'll ever have, and navigating conflict, miscommunication and new life phases is part and parcel of holding on to really good mates. After seven years in an unholy union as best friends, twin flames and platonic soulmates, Sal and Al from Two Broke Chicks share what they've learned to help you find, keep and say goodbye to the friendships in your life.
![Fragile Creatures: A Memoir, by Khin Myint. Fragile Creatures: A Memoir, by Khin Myint.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/2393ecb5-2644-4ce5-9024-bf3cb1acb9db.png/r0_0_2457_1381_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Fragile Creatures: A Memoir
Khin Myint. Black Inc. $34.99.
Khin's sister Theda has a strange illness and a euthanasia drug locked in a box under her bed. Her doctor thinks her problem is purely physical, and so does she, but Khin is not so sure. He knows what they both went through growing up in Perth - it wasn't welcoming back then for a Burmese-Australian family. With Theda's condition getting worse, Khin heads off to the United States. He needs to sort things out with his ex-partner. Once there, events take a very odd turn, and he finds himself in court. This family story is about care, truth and the hardest choices - and what happens when realities clash. How do we balance responsibility for others with what we owe ourselves?
![Shining Like the Sun, by Stephen Orr. Shining Like the Sun, by Stephen Orr.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/6a6cbb5b-1a79-4420-9dcc-82e9b87f431e.png/r0_0_4912_2762_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Shining Like the Sun
Stephen Orr. Wakefield Press. $34.99.
Wilf Healy lives in the wheatbelt town of Selwyn, works in Monk's Irish pub, delivers letters, drives the school bus, holds the place together. But he's had enough and wants to retire - to forget his nephew Connor, at war with the world, his brother Brian, visiting from America, his niece Orla, sick with blood cancer. Although he plans, and tries, he can't leave. Something is holding him back. As the young people flee, the old people die, the drugs arrive in Selwyn, and Wilf has to decide what's important. This book is about the value of promises, of words and actions that might save a failing community. In the process, Wilf learns there's no such thing as retirement.
![Queen Macbeth, by Val McDermid. Queen Macbeth, by Val McDermid.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/a090ecd8-2371-4892-acfc-dca2d705e8c0.png/r0_0_5333_2998_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Queen Macbeth
Val McDermid. NewSouth. $29.99.
This historical novella is set a thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape where a woman is on the run with her three bosom companions. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in on the queen, we discover a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong charismatic woman who survived loss and jeopardy to finally outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and ambitious men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
![A Language of Limbs, by Dylin Hardcastle. A Language of Limbs, by Dylin Hardcastle.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/31128989-4078-4156-a6bb-44bc0cd64559.png/r0_0_8889_4998_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Language of Limbs
Dylin Hardcastle. Picador. $34.99.
The first love of a teenage girl is a powerful thing, particularly when the object of that desire is her best friend, also a girl. On a quiet summer night in Newcastle, 1972, a choice must be made: to act upon these desires, or suppress them? To live an openly queer life, or to try desperately not to? Over the following three decades, two lives almost intersect in pivotal moments, the distance between them at times drawing so thin they nearly collide. Against the backdrop of an era including Australia's first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, we see these two lives ebb and flow, with joy and grief and loss and desire.
![Why Do Horses Run? by Cameron Stewart. Why Do Horses Run? by Cameron Stewart.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9gmjQxX8MpSQh6J68NHMnY/3d8f6cac-0c4a-497c-8671-9eb106e74487.png/r0_0_4907_2759_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Why Do Horses Run?
Cameron Stewart. Allen & Unwin. $32.99.
Missing in every sense of the word, a man walks into the landscape and doesn't stop. In all weather and across all kinds of terrain, Ingvar walks until he can go no further, then gets up and does it again the following day, week after week, month after month. Until he comes to a remote tropical valley harbouring secrets and misfits. Steeped in mystery and foreboding, this novel asks crucial questions about love and loss, and what might make a person never want to be found. It explores the propensity of the natural world to both heal and harm, as well as the ineradicable power of kindness and community.
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