Eyes & Ears
Books and podcasts to enjoy while you’re travelling with Journey Beyond.
The Thursday Murder Club
By Richard Osman
(Viking Press)
What would a British whodunnit set in a retirement village look like? It would look like Richard Osman’s debut The Thursday Murder Club. It’s the first in a series of novels about four amateur detectives who meet once a week in their fancy English retirement village to solve crimes and implicate those who got away with murder. An ideal travel companion, this reads like ‘cosy crime’, there’s no gristle or grit, just some curious characters getting to the bottom of things.
Daisy Jones and the Six
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
(Penguin)
Recently adapted as a TV mini-series, Daisy Jones and the Six charts the rise and eventual fall of a fictional 70s rock band, which author Taylor Jenkins Reid says was inspired by iconic British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. There’s a love triangle, a band breakdown, and a wild ride of rock ‘n’ roll antics. Read the book for a first taste, then watch the show to see it come to life.
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
By Holly Ringland
(HarperCollins Australia)
When young Alice loses both her parents in a tragic event, she moves in with her grandmother on a flower farm. Here, she grows up exploring the language of native Australian flora as a way of expression when things were too hard to say. Holly Ringland writes Alice across two decades of settings as she is forced to learn how to navigate her dark childhood secrets as an adult.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
By Emma Carey
(Allen & Unwin)
In 2013, while on a European holiday, Emma Carey experienced a skydiver’s worst nightmare: her parachute failed to open. Miraculously, Emma survived the accident but was left paralysed from the waist down. Defying the odds, Emma learnt to walk again and through that experience, has figured out a way to live life to the fullest. In her moving memoir, Emma details her story of resilience, courage, hope and finding lightness after the heaviest of landings.
Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia
By David Graeber
(Farrar Straus & Giroux)
American anthropologist David Graeber’s fascinating ethnographic study into Madagascar’s politics and history of slavery and magic, and essentially the birth of the Enlightenment as he tells it, was posthumously published this year. Legends of pirates take on a different tone in Graeber’s retelling of the Golden Age of Piracy. An addictive deep-dive into the myths and truths of history and the present.
The Trojan Horse Affair
(Serial)
In 2014, a whistle-blower leaked a copy of a letter that supposedly revealed an Islamist plan to take over schools in Birmingham, England. This podcast, from the makers who gave us the award-winning Serial crime series, unravels the mystery behind the fake document. Each episode delves deeper into the cause and effect as nationwide panic over Islamic extremism infiltrates schools and beyond.
The Moth
(The Moth)
Following in the footsteps of ancient storytelling practices, the worldwide phenomenon of The Moth takes the concept of oral storytelling and turns it into an addictive, humorous, tragic, and vivid account of the tapestry of many lives lived across the globe. Listen to an assortment of people get up on stage and tell their tales of heartbreak, joy, suffering and hope.
The Imperfects
(iHeart)
Founder of The Resilience Project, Hugh van Cuylenburg taps into what makes humans vulnerable and insecure, to affirm that imperfection and struggling is as common across the human experience as anything else. Along with his brother, Josh van Cuylenburg, and good friend Aussie comedian Ryan Shelton, he chats in good humour with a host of interesting people about how imperfection connects us all.
Oprah’s Super Soul
(OWN Podcast)
Listen to Oprah’s curated picks of her most enriching interviews with thought-leaders, writers, health experts, and spiritual guides, from Michelle Obama and Dr Maya Angelou to civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson and singer/songwriter India Arie. Each episode highlights Oprah’s synonymous soul-searching, dig-deep conversational style that we’ve all grown to know and love.
Mississippi River Playlist
The Mississippi River is an American icon. Like New York City, it has inspired songwriters to reach for their pencils, pens and laptops to create. To recognise the world’s most musical river, we’ve compiled a playlist of songs inspired by, about or created alongside America’s “Great River”.