Avid Reader Events

Holly Ringland in conversation with Ashley Hay (journalist and award-winning author of many works of fiction and non-fiction including 'The Body In The Clouds', 'The Railwayman's Wife' and 'A Hundred Small Lessons') at the launch of 'The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart' The book is available here: http://avidreader.com.au/products/the-lost-flowers-of-alice-hart Flowers, fire and fairy tales are the elements that will forever shape nine-year-old Alice Hart's life, in this remarkable debut by Holly Ringland.Agnes loves flowers and teaches her daughter their hidden meanings, but when Agnes is killed in a fire, Alice is sent to live with her paternal grandmother, who she's never met before. There, Alice realises that her grandmother -- whose farm provides a refuge to women who, like Alice, are lost or broken -- also speaks the language of flowers, and Alice soon begins to do the same, using flowers to say those things that are otherwise too hard to speak. There are some things, however, that even flowers cannot say. As Alice grows older and flees her grandmother's home after discovering the truth about her past, she has to learn a new language -- the language of love, and loss -- for, if she's to find her place in the world, she must first start listening to her heart . . . This podcast was recorded at Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane as part of our year-round events schedule. For more information and to see what we have coming up, visit our website: http://www.avidreader.com.au

Karen Healy launches 'The Skilled Communicator in Social Work' launched by Christine Craik, National President of Australian Association of Social Workers. The Book is available HERE: http://avidreader.com.au/products/the-skilled-communicator-in-social-work A vital part of a social worker's role is to build strong relationships based on confidence and trust, with people across all stages of the life course and from a broad range of backgrounds, in what can be extremely challenging circumstances. In this, her latest collaboration with Palgrave, bestselling social work author Karen Healy turns her attention to the key topic of communication and the importance of developing into a skilled communicator across all areas of professional practice. Split into two distinct sections, the text provides a thorough exploration of: #65533; The foundations of effective communication in social work practice, focusing on the basic knowledge and skills that are essential to forming working alliances with service users in a broad range of practice situations; and #65533; The specialised communication skills required to work with people with specific capacities and needs - from children, young people and older adults to people from diverse cultures and linguistic groups, those who experience trouble with verbal communication and those with mental health challenges. With helpful learning features such as practice exercises and chapter summary questions to enable you to review and reflect on what you have learned, this is an essential resource for social work students new to this complex area of practice. This podcast was recorded at Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane as part of our year-round events schedule. For more information and to see what we have coming up, visit our website: avid reader.com.au/

Ann-Marie Priest talks about her new book, 'A Free Flame' with ABC Radio's Rhianna Patrick The book is available for purchase here: http://avidreader.com.au/products/a-free-flame HIGHLY COMMENDED IN THE 2016 DOROTHY HEWETT AWARD FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT 'I need to be a writer, ' Ruth Park told her future husband, D'Arcy Niland, on the eve of their marriage. 'That's what I need from life.' She was not the only one. At a time when women were considered incapable of being 'real' artists, a number of precocious girls in Australian cities were weighing their chances and laying their plans. A Free Flame explores the lives of four such women, Gwen Harwood, Dorothy Hewett, Christina Stead and Ruth Park, each of whom went on to become a notable Australian writer. They were very different women from very different backgrounds, but they shared a sense of urgency around their vocation - their 'need' to be a writer - that would not let them rest. Weaving biography, literary criticism and cultural history, this book looks at the ways in which these women laid siege to the artist's identity, and ultimately remade it in their own image. This podcast was recorded by Avid Reader Bookstore in Brisbane as part of our year-round events schedule. For more information and to see what we having coming up, visit our website: www.avidreader.com.au/

US Author Sarah Sentilles in conversation with Bri Lee about Sarah's fourth book, 'Draw Your Weapons'. This book is available for purchase here: http://avidreader.com.au/products/draw-your-weapons “Now more than ever, the world needs a book like Draw Your Weapons. With mastery, urgency, and great courage, Sarah Sentilles investigates the histories of art, violence, war, and human survival. In her haunting and absorbing narrative, the act of storytelling, itself, becomes a matter of life and death.”— Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being How to live in the face of so much suffering? What difference can one person make in this beautiful, imperfect, and imperilled world? In 'Draw Your Weapons', Sarah Sentilles offers an impassioned defence of life lived by peace and principle. Through a dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature and theology, Sentilles tells the true stories of a conscientious objector during World War II and a former prison guard at Abu Ghraib. In the process she challenges conventional thinking about how violence is waged, witnessed and resisted. 'Draw Your Weapons' stirs and confronts, disturbs and illuminates. A single book might not change the world, but this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world—and that makes all the difference. This podcast was recorded by Avid Reader Bookstore in Brisbane as part of our year-round events schedule. For more information and to see what we having coming up, visit our website: www.avidreader.com.au/