Kirjahaku

Journalist Aaron Smith's new memoir holds up a unique mirror to Australia. What he sees is at once amazing, disturbing and revealing. The Rock explores the failings of our nation's character, its unresolved past and its uncertain future from the vantage point of its most northerly outpost, Thursday Island. Smith was the last editor, fearless journalist and the paperboy of Australia's most northerly newspaper, the Torres News, a small independent regional tabloid that, until it folded in late 2019, was the voice of a predominantly Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal readership for 63 years across some of the most remote and little understood communities in Australia. The Rock is a story of self-discovery where Smith grapples to understand a national identity marred by its racist underbelly, where he is transplanted from his white-boy privileged suburban life to being a racial and cultural minority, and an outsider. Peppered with his experiences, Smith gradually and sensitively becomes embedded in island life while vividly capturing the endless and often farcical parade of personalities and politicians including Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott. Smith pulls no punches while he reflects on the history of Terra Australis incognita, dissecting what is truly Australia, and its gaping cultural and moral divide. 'A credit to regional journalism, Aaron carried on the fine tradition of the Torres News holding governments to account and telling stories of everyday life in the Straits, never shying away from controversies, lifting all the rocks and even out foxing prime minister Tony Abbott on his visit to Mabo's grave.' - Stefan Armbruster, SBS 'Aaron Smith makes a huge and extremely valuable contribution to journalism in Australia. With insight and committment he brings issues of national and international significance to audiences in Australia and beyond.' - Dr Tess Newton Cain, Griffith Asia Institute 'Aaron's journalism has provided a rare and valuable insight into issues affecting the Torres Strait Islander community. Navigating cultural protocols and geographical challenges, he has given a voice to some of Australia's most marginalised people and shared important stories that would otherwise have gone unheard.' - Ella Archibald-Binge, Sydney Morning Herald

When a group of men and women throughout London begin exhibiting strangge psychotic behavior, Dr. John Seward, from the Dracula affair, is brought in on the case. Faced with a mystery beyond his realm of experiences, he turns to Sherlock HOlmes' trusted companion, Dr. Watson, for help.Together these two men of science must uncover the riddle behind a white powder drug with the ability to drive people mad before the entire population is infected.Her is an original, never-before-published mystery set against the backdropo f Victorian England by a master storyteller. Suspense and adventure await on every corner as two of literature's mos tfamous characters join forces to unravel a SEASON OF MADNESS.And as a bonus the first short-story in a brand new series starring her Majesty's Secret Service agent Hound Dog Harker: "The Electric Shark."

Winner of the 2004 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry PrizeBlue on Blue Ground is about the body, desire, anxiety, and obsession—how what we want redeems and isolates us (and is sometimes used against us). These poems are artful yet accessible, lyrical yet direct, strange but recognizable.Smith’s relentless self-examination, fear, sense of humor, and vulnerability are all laid to bare in crisp, precise language. From lonely observations, bizarre medical fascinations, emotion, loss, and honesty, Blue on Blue Ground constructs its internal and external worlds.The metaphorical city is also a “body,” a place of exile and restoration, a symbol of hope, a catalyst for connection. The urban landscape is often the background for the moment or is the moment itself—the world looked at and sorted into words.Though at times dark, there’s love to be found. Perhaps it’s what drives this collection, colors its observations, and leads it to finally announce: “Someone is putting the world back together.” Blue on Blue Ground wants to look at absolutely everything and believes that complete exploration of the physical and mental selves—fears and desires—is the key to moving and being completely alive in the material world.

Appetite is a book that explores our American Mythologies, particularly masculinity and film. Smith investigates our fascinations with the body, gender, and entertainment in poems that are critically observant, darkly funny, darkly angry, and, sometimes, heartbreaking.Whether he is cataloging shirtless men in films and bad television, lyricizing the anxieties of childhood, or redrawing the lines of cultural membership, Appetite attacks its subjects with wit, candor, and compassionate intensity. These poems announce their presence with a style that is as beautifully wrought as it is provocative.In the America of Appetite, the usual hierarchies are obliterated: the disposable is as valuable as the traditional, pop culture is on the same level as the sacred, and the pleasurable simultaneity of past and present are found in high art and the tabloid. Smith’s work engages our contemporary moment and how we want to think of ourselves, while nodding to rich poetic, cultural, and personal histories.

In his third poetry collection, Primer, Aaron Smith grapples with the ugly realities of the private self, in which desire feels more like a trap than fulfillment. What is the face we prepare in our public lives to distract others from our private grief? Smith's poetry explores that inexplicable tension between what we say and how we actually feel, exposing the complications of intimacy and the limitations of language to bridge those distances between friends, family members, and lovers. What we deny, in the end, may be just what we actually survive. Mortality in Smith's work remains the uncomfortable foundation at the center of our relationship with others, to faith, to art, to love as we grow older, and ultimately, to our own sense of who we are in our bodies in the world. The struggle of this book, finally, is in naming whether just what we say we want is enough to satisfy our primal needs, or are the choices we make to stay alive the same choices we make to help us, in so many small ways, to die.

A tour de force, Aaron Smith’s fourth collection of poetry, The Book of Daniel, resists the easy satisfactions of Beauty while managing the contemporary entanglements of art, sex, and grief. Part pop-thriller, part queer rage, and part mourning, these poems depict not only the complications of representation in the age of social media but a critique of identity. Taking on subjects as diverse as the literary canon, his mother’s incurable cancer diagnosis, gay bashing, celebrity gossip, bigotry, violence on TV, and Alexander McQueen’s suicide, Smith proves that the confessional lyric is not dead. In tangents as wild as they are reigned, with his characteristic blend of directness, vulnerability and humor, these poems take on the world as it is, a world we love even as it resists all intimacy.

Stop Lying is Aaron Smith’s most personal and vulnerable work yet. Revolving around the death of Smith’s mother and how the poet, a gay man, faces his upbringing where his sexuality was viewed as sinful and unnatural, these poems plumb the complexities of what families say and choose not to say. How does one grieve when a relationship will forever remain unresolved? What does it mean to both regret and not regret one’s decisions? What if survival doesn’t look like what we're told it should? This is the story of a poet pushing through present-day grief and the shame of the past to find the buried truths, the ones that are hardest to tell.

A fictional tale grounded in pure reality. Blank Check, an intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel, that takes place on a fictional U.S. island. After serving his country as an Army Ranger, high school principal Josiah Rollins quits in disgust over the broken educational system he can no longer serve. Little does he know this impulsive act would lead him to an unbelievable opportunity to change everything and serve his country and students in the way he had always dreamed. Inspired and funded by a now billionaire war buddy, Josiah tests his educational theories in a place with low standards and poor student performance: the American Caribbean Islands. The mission is simple: give teachers autonomy and freedom to teach and provide the community the power to make schools the center of their community. But many on the Island are not happy about the project, nor do they trust the white man selling them new ideas. Within Blank Check, learn how Josiah wins over the people and the students, transforming the community and the economy into the American Dream.

"What a read A warts-and-all depiction of the amazing journey of the KX brand."Melanie Gleeson, Founder & CEO, Endota SpaWhat happens when passion, purpose and business collide?A global fitness franchise is born.After discovering dynamic reformer Pilates in a boutique London studio, Aaron Smith brought the concept back to Australia under his own KX brand, disrupting the fitness industry and building a formidable franchise. But success doesn't come to those who aren't willing to sweat.Define Yourself is a dynamic journey through the history of KX Pilates that will show you: ● How a simple idea can become a BIG business● Why KX became an unstoppable force in the fitness industry● The value of travel and seeing the world● The ins and outs of franchising as both a franchisor and franchisee● What it really takes to succeed in business and in lifeKX's purpose is clear: "We change lives for the better."Join Aaron on a trip through KX Pilates history. Witness a raw account of every tough decision, every success, every failure. Be inspired to chase your dreams, put in the hard work, and Define Yourself."Aaron has captured invaluable truths behind building a successful company in Define Yourself. Treat this as a blueprint that you can follow."Jack Delosa, Founder, The Entourage

This book is intended to meet the need for a resource on urban ministry that is hopeful. Scripture's record of the transformation of urban wastelands is a spring of hope that change is possible. This book is mainly for those already involved in urban ministry, but it can also be useful for anyone desiring to become more involved in ministry in their communities. Lasting improvement in the lives of a city's residents, particularly the most vulnerable in society, does not usually happen by addressing single issues. The issues of the city are so extensive they must be addressed holistically.When thousands of small acts of love are combined, a movement begins that has the power to transform society. The prophetic passages reflected upon in this book are meant to put flesh and bone on understanding urban transformation and ways in which we can honor God by faithfully loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Natural Born Circus, Sideshow and the Art of Being Human by Aaron Smith, with a foreword by Lisa B. Lewis, explores the lives of contemporary sideshow and circus performers born with disabilities, known as "naturals" within their community. The book is based on interviews with approximately 20 of these performers, who share their reasons for choosing to exhibit their talents in venues like Coney Island and Omnium Circus. Smith, a non-disabled author, aims to present the perspectives of these "naturals" in their own words and to highlight sideshow and circus as modern art forms for disabled performers who actively choose to exhibit themselves. The book delves into the significance of the term "natural born" within sideshow culture, where it denotes a higher status than non-disabled performers. It examines the complex relationship between sideshows and exploitation, contrasting historical perceptions with the self-determination and agency of present-day performers. Through individual stories, the book explores themes of artistic expression, personal empowerment, and the evolving nature of sideshows as a positive force for disabled artists who are reclaiming and reinventing the art form. The author emphasizes that this book is not a historical account but a 21st-century story of resilience and self-definition