"By day, we were at school learning logarithms, but by night in the back of cars, under the bowling alley, on Cronulla Beach, or, if you were lucky, in a bed while someone's parents were out, you paid off your friendship ring." For Deb and Sue, life is about surfies, panel vans, straight-leg Levis, nicking off from school, getting wasted, friendships and fitting in. But why should guys have all the fun? When Deb and Sue decide to take to the waves on boards, a whole culture is upturned. Puberty Blues is raw, humorous and painfully honest. An Australian classic that has been reimagined in film and on TV and shocking, exercising, empowering and entertaining readers for more than four decades.

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence. Woman or man? Thats the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist 60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early 70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.

Until recently, Jonah’s life has been wonderfully simple: school, partying and surfing with his mates. It’s been uncomplicated — like riding the perfect wave. But that’s all about to change. With the stress of year 12 looming, Jonah’s mission to have sex before his eighteenth birthday is not going well. Jonah’s lack of self-confidence is fuelling his fear that he’s destined to live in the shadow of his legendary older brother, Link. And just when he thinks that things couldn’t get any more complicated his brother drops a bombshell on his unsuspecting family. But life has a funny way of sorting out the big issues from the small. And Jonah discovers that sometimes the answers you’re looking for are right in front of you … Measuring Up is a fresh and funny story of friendship, surf and raging hormones.

In 1981, fifteen-year-old Nikki McWatters is living in a Gold Coast suburb, dragging herself through humdrum schooldays and dreaming of losing her virginity to a rock star. With three friends she starts the Vulture Club for aspiring groupies – and so begins a festival of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. As Nikki gets older, her conquests get bigger and the stakes get higher. From Australian Crawl to INXS, Pseudo Echo to Duran Duran, she is living her teenage dream – but is the groupie life all it’s cracked up to be? One Way or Another is an irresistible romp through a world of pub rock, big hair, wild nights and mornings after. With irrepressible humour and a bulging little black book, Nikki McWatters recalls an age when everything seemed possible – even if everything wasn’t such a good idea. ‘A vivid, heartfelt trip into the human side of rock ’n’ roll ... Painfully honest and insightful, this is a Puberty Blues for the ’80s generation.’ —Richard Lowenstein, director of Dogs in Space and He Died with a Felafel in His Hand ‘McWatters renders her story with skill, sensitivity, wit and honesty ... a fascinating look into some of rock’s seedier aspects.’ —Bookseller+Publisher ‘A great Australian rock ’n’ roll read’ —Steve Kilbey

Layla is only 14. As she sits in bed with a laptop, her mother Margot sleeps in the next room. But, what separates them is more than just a wall. It's every mother's nightmare. Layla cruises online. She catches trains to meet strangers. And Margot never suspects. Not even when Layla brings a man into their home. Margot's caught in her own web: an evangelical church and a charismatic pastor. Pastor Bevan preaches to the faithful, reeling them in to his tangled conceits with podcasts and twitter. Meanwhile, downtown, a man opens a suitcase and tenderly places his young lover inside. just_a_girl tears into the fabric of contemporary culture. It's a Puberty Blues for the digital age; a Lolita with a webcam. It's what happen when young girls are forced to grow up too fast. Or never get the chance to grow up at all....Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

Fiction. A bestseller in New Zealand and winner of the prestigious Commonwealth Prize, Sia Figiel's debut marks the first time a novel by a Samoan woman has been published in the United States. Figiel uses the traditional Samoan storytelling form of su'ifefiloi to talk back to Western anthropological studies on Samoan women and culture. Told in a series of linked episodes, this powerful and highly original narrative follows thirteen-year-old Alofa Filiga as she navigates the mores and restrictions of her village and comes to terms with her own search for identity. A story of Samoan PUBERTY BLUES, in which Gauguin is dead but Elvis lives on -- Vogue Australia. A storytelling triumph -- Elle Australia.

Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby’s speech doesn’t exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair. Saving the best till last, Ruby lambasts her octogenarian mother for a lifetime of playing her three daughters against each other. It’s blisteringly brutal. As the stunned gathering gawks at Ruby, the birthday girl concludes her bravura monologue with the throwaway comment that she has terminal cancer. She has cashed in her life savings and plans on taking her two sisters cruising into the sunset for a dose of Husband Replacement Therapy. Courageous? Or ruthlessly selfish? But, do they even want to go with her now that she's cast herself off into social Siberia?