Can You Hear The Sea

Sarah's grandpa gives her a special shell and says if she listens carefully she can hear the sea, but all she hears are everyday village noises.

‘An affectionate tribute to someone who quietly but firmly shaped her own place in the world.’ Books+Publishing Brenda Niall has turned her biographer’s eye to a personal subject—her grandmother, Aggie. She tells the story of a fiercely independent and intelligent woman who braved a new country as a single woman, teaching in a country school, before marrying a Riverina grazier, whose large powerful family was wary of the newcomer with ideas of her own. Aggie dealt with hardships and loneliness after the early and drawn-out death of her husband, and brought up her seven children to be happy—all with a calm determination. But it was the memory box and her longing for the sea that captured the imagination of her granddaughter. Brenda Niall is one of Australia’s foremost biographers. She is the author of five award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family. In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix. Brenda has degrees from the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and Monash University. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’. She frequently reviews for the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Book Review. ‘Can You Hear the Sea? creates a portrait, from other kinds of evidence, of a woman whose silence sealed her most intimate moments. With a light touch, Niall looks at her grandmother’s life through the prism of the imaginative world in which she was immersed...Aggie’s is a story of independence and grit: understated, necessary, uncelebrated.’ Australian ‘Aggies gift of the shell and the empty box put two questions to Brenda Niall. They also addressed her craft and her desire. Could she recreate the sounds and feel of the past out of unpromising materials, and could she fill the empty box while recognising that it remained empty? This book answers both questions with assurance. One might hope that among the next generation of Aggie’s descendants another young person will hear in it the sea that flows into story telling.’ Eureka Street ‘Niall’s beautifully told tale will have echoes in thousands of other Australian families.’ SA Weekend ‘Gentle and engaging biography...Aggie was undoubtedly a remarkable and intelligent woman, and this book is a lovely testament to her life.’ Good Reading ‘Insightful.’ Yours ‘[Niall] is clear about her process, asking questions, noting gaps, offering her own memories with an easy blend of intimacy and distance, in an authoritative yet conversational voice...Niall writes with respect for a woman who built a dynasty across centuries, was adventurous and stable, traditional and ahead of her time, English and embodied the best of Australia.’ Australian Book Review ‘Agnes’s story charts the changing role of women in the colonies, the impact of the world wars and the rise and fall of family fortunes...Niall’s beautifully told tale will have echoes in thousands of other Australian families.’ SA Weekend ‘Niall's skill is to listen with a discerning ear, to acknowledge the views and to seek always the social, political and historical context and influences. Her craft as a skilled biographer gives her grandmother a fresh life, one that will resonate with many in families of similar background, but wider than that, provide another piece in the picture of the European settlement of Australasia.’ Otago Daily Times ‘A fascinating subject...Hopefully people still find ways to write biographies that so adeptly capture the particularity of lived experience.’ Saturday Paper

David Jovane though he knew what the future held for him when he set sail for a country far from his homeland. But the Gods of the descendants of the Mrandau people had a different path for him to travel. A gentle Goaharan High Priest and the Chief of the Goaharan peoples, Hercylan saved him, but the Witchdoctor,Kuro of the Manlu, is a sadistic cruel man who ruled his people and their Chief, Faneo, with fear. Kuro being filled with hate and greed, causes jealousy to arise and the results were those neither could have foreseen

For fans of Alice Hoffman and Kate Morton, The White Hare is a spellbinding novel about mothers and daughters finding a new home for themselves, the secrets they try to bury, and the local legends that may change their lives. In the far west of Cornwall lies the White Valley, which cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea at White Cove. The valley has a long and bloody history, laced with folklore, and in it sits a house above the beach that has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation and a strange atmosphere, which is why mother and daughter Magdalena and Mila manage to acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954. Magda has grand plans to restore the house to its former glory as a venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for cocktails and for bracing walks along the coast. Her grown daughter, Mila, just wants to escape the scandal in her past and make a safe and happy home for her little girl, Janey, a solitary, precocious child blessed with a vivid imagination, much of which she pours into stories about her magical plush toy, Rabbit. But Janey’s rabbit isn’t the only magical being around. Legend has it that an enchanted white hare may be seen running through the woods. Is it an ill omen or a blessing? As Mila, her mother, and her young daughter adjust to life in this mysterious place, they will have to reckon with their own pasts and with the secrets that have been haunting the White Valley for decades.

In 1972, following the huge success of Run Silent, Run Deep, Edward L. Beach's second novel of submarine warfare was published to great acclaim. Like its predecessor, Dust on the Sea was lauded for its authentic portrayal of what it meant to be a submariner during the desperate years of World War II. Tense, dramatic and rich in technical and tactical detail, the book draws on Beach's experience as a submariner in the US Navy to describe the commander and crew of the fictitious USS Eel as they battle overwhelming odds to destroy Japanese ships and save American lives. With no margin for error, the men withstand storms, depth charges and even hand-to-hand combat to defend their boat and themselves. Mistakes, as the title reminds us, result in the debris which serves as a brief grave maker for sunken ships: dust on the sea.

Eve Sawyer is expecting a fun summer vacation until the chef at a popular food truck is attacked. But he’s not the only victim … Chef Blake Conway has been stirring up the locals with his campaign for a plastics ban on the quaint town’s littered beach. When Eve’s friend Cassie takes her to visit Blake’s crêpe food truck and they discover he’s being rushed to the hospital, the college journalism student can’t just stand by, especially after Cassie’s beach house is burglarized. Beach Beat reporter Jake Thorne, who takes Eve on as an intern, mentors her while they race to find the answers. The fuse is running short on suspects who oppose Blake’s proposed ordinance. And a killer is lurking at the small town’s quiet beach, where murders are practically unheard of. As more suspects are embroiled in this web of mystery and crime, what dark secrets will come to light? Murder at Lolly Beach is the second book in the Eve Sawyer mystery series. It can be read as a standalone. ** Audiobook available **

Discover the wonder of ancient sea gardens on the Northwest Coast Sea gardens have been created by First Peoples on the Northwest coast for more than three thousand years. These gardens consist of stone reefs that are constructed at the lowest tide line, encouraging the growth of clams and other marine life on the gently sloped beach. This lyrical story follows a young child and an older family member who set out to visit a sea garden early one morning, as the lowest tides often occur at dawn. After anchoring their boat, they explore the beach, discover the many sea creatures that live there, hear the sputtering of clams and look closely at the reef. They reflect on the people who built the wall long ago, as well as those who have maintained it over the years. After digging for clams, they tidy up the beach, then return home. An author’s note provides further information about sea gardens (also known as clam gardens), which yield a reliable food source and have been traditional places of learning. They have been found along the Pacific coast, from Alaska to British Columbia to Washington State, and some of these gardens are being restored today. The manuscript has been vetted and approved by the scientists of the Clam Garden Network and Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla Clan Chief Adam Dick. Roy Henry Vickers, whose ancestry includes the Tsimshian, Haida and Heiltsuk First Nations, has created hauntingly beautiful images to accompany the text. Key Text Features author’s note Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.2 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.6 Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016 A richly mythic, colour-saturated tale from the Man Booker-shortlisted author of Swimming Home—Deborah Levy explores the violently primal bond between mother and daughter. Two women arrive in a Spanish village—a dreamlike place caught between the desert and the ocean—seeking medical advice and salvation. One of the strangers suffers from a mysterious illness: spontaneous paralysis confines her to a wheelchair, her legs unusable. The other, her daughter Sofia, has spent years playing the reluctant detective in this mystery, struggling to understand her mother's illness. Surrounded by the oppressive desert heat and the mesmerising figures who move through it, Sofia waits while her mother undergoes the strange programme of treatments invented by Dr. Gomez. Searching for a cure to a defiant and quite possibly imagined disease, ever more entangled in the seductive, mercurial games of those around her, Sofia finally comes to confront and reconcile the disparate fragments of her identity. Hot Milk is a labyrinth of violent desires, primal impulses, and surreally persuasive internal logic. Examining female rage and sexuality, Deborah Levy's dazzling new novel explores the strange and monstrous nature of motherhood, testing the bonds of parent and child to breaking point.