He has sung with some of the biggest names in the music industry, appeared on Oprah’s show six times and just released his fifth album. But there is a lot more to Josh Groban than meets the eye. The 29-year-old Los Angeles-born singer, who got his break singing a duet of ‘The Prayer’ with Celine […]

If you answered in the bathroom cabinet or on top of the fridge, then you are probably compromising their nutritional value. According to a study from Purdue University, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, high humidity (which is certainly a common feature in bathrooms, but can also occur in “hot spots” in […]

“I had always been 15-20kg overweight, but the kilos really piled on while breastfeeding my youngest daughter, Hallie. But even when Hallie turned two, my weight wouldn’t shift. “Then in February 2009 my weight problems hit crisis point when I suddenly started to notice numbness in my hands and feet. I was chronically fatigued, couldn’t […]

“In the past six months I’ve lost 15kg – the last 4kg on the Woman’s Day diet, which I thoroughly enjoyed road testing. It’s really family-friendly, so I didn’t have to cook separate meals for the kids, and there was even a hamburger in one week. You can still enjoy a few wines and some […]

Their weight-loss achievements inspired us – now we catch up with past contestants to see how they’ve survived after the show. Many thought they’d go back to their old ways once they left the house, but all our contestants say there’s no way they’ll ever return to their former selves – unhealthy, unhappy and uncontrollable. […]

FOR THE LOVE OF NATURE: E. E. GOSTELOW’S BIRDS & FLOWERS BY CHRISTOBEL MATTINGLEY, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, $29.95. An unexpected gem of a book, not just for the delicate colour plates of Australian wildflowers and birds, but for the story of the man who painted them. Born in 1866, Ebenezer Edward Gostelow was a […]

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD BY HARPER LEE, RANDOM HOUSE, $21.95. Fifty years old. Thirty million copies sold. Does Harper Lee’s classic of injustice and courage in a small town in the Deep South really warrant this celebratory edition? Can it be as good as we remember from school? Yes and even better. The familiar tale […]

A TINY BIT MARVELLOUS BY DAWN FRENCH, PENGUIN, $32.95. Families are the current Big Subject in fiction, so I was interested to check out UK comedian Dawn French’s first novel, which arrives with the tag, “Everyone hates the perfect family. So you’ll love the Battles”. Well, I didn’t love them at first. Written in the […]

THE ROMANTIC: ITALIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS BY KATE HOLDEN, TEXT PUBLISHING, $32.95. Plot-wise, Kate Holden’s latest memoir is a bit like the very dark sister of Eat, Pray, Love. A woman heads to Italy in search of romance, adventure and knowledge. She eats well, struggles with the language, has lots of great sex and constantly […]

STORIES OF LOVE & WAR BY REBECCA BRITT, NEW HOLLAND PUBLISHERS AUSTRALIA, $35. The pain of longing for a loved one is exquisite. Yet when that emotion is set against the backdrop of war, it is almost too heart-wrenching to contemplate. In this beautiful collection of love stories from The Australian War Memorial, author Rebecca […]