An exploration of Australian fiction as "the most beautiful lies" through the eyes of modern Australian authors : Peter Mathers - Pater Carey - Gerald Murnane - Elizabeth Jolley - Nicholas Hasluck - David Foster - Murray Bail - David Ireland.

This book investigates the science behind “big liars”—those rare people who use lies as their principal way of navigating life. Most people are mostly honest, most of the time. And there aren't that many big, pants-on-fire liars in the population overall. But just a few big liars can have an outsized impact on the people around them--ruining personal relationships, bankrupting businesses, and even, when they attain political power, undermining the fabric of society. Big Liars explores this small but dangerous group through the lens of psychological science. Fascinating new research gives us insight into the nature of dishonesty and dishonest people, explaining who lies, what types of people lie a lot, how often people lie, how big liars are created, how they operate, how we can recognize them, and how we can avoid being victimized by them. This book has crucial implications for mental health treatment, as well as our efforts to grapple with the effects of big liars—and their big lies—on social movements and society as a whole.

This spine-tingling read includes two twist-filled thrillers by Amanda K. Morgan—Secrets, Lies, and Scandals and Such a Good Girl—in one heart-pounding collection! In Secrets, Lies, and Scandals, nothing ruins summer vacation like a secret—especially when it involves a dead teacher. When five teens find themselves with a dead body and no answers, they decide to make a pact to keep it a secret. With the police hot on the case, they don’t have much time to figure out how to trust each other. And one member of the group may decide the best way to protect themselves is to make sure someone else is found guilty… In Such a Good Girl, Riley Stone is just about perfect. (Ask anyone.) She has a crush on her French teacher, Alex Belrose. (And she suspects he likes her, too.) Riley doesn’t usually play games. (But when she does, she always wins.) She thinks a game with her teacher is about to start. Riley always has a plan…and she always wins. Will these teens come out on top, or will their tangled webs of deception and intrigue pull them under?

I may not survive my first semester spying on three ruthless cartel brothers—especially when it turns out they’re bullies in more ways than one. With my money-laundering father caught stealing from my mafia boss uncle, I’m given one chance to save my little sister and me from being forced to work off his debt in the brothels: Enroll at Silver Hills University, seduce the three cartel brothers, and uncover the truth behind their presence in the States...without getting caught and flayed alive. But when getting close to them requires my complete and total submission to dark desires that threaten my “good girl” image, I soon find my heart’s at risk of falling for not just one of them...but all three. Worse? To complete my end of the bargain, I have to kill them on my uncle’s command. Three lives for three lives. That’s the deal. Otherwise, my father’s dead, and my little sister and I will be reduced to serving an endless line of men for the next decade. I’m just not sure yet if that’s actually worse than what the Romero brothers have planned for me once they discover my betrayal... Fans of Zoe Blake, Rina Kent, and Penelope Sky will love this fresh take on enemies to lovers in a dark mafia romance. Scroll up and one click to start reading this mafia/cartel bully academy romance today! TW: Dark themes, cursing, graphic violence, arguable gaslighting and Stockholm syndrome scenarios, and a fight back against trafficking. Similar triggers to FSoG and Haunting Adeline. The existence of these themes within this novel are not an indication that these elements are romanticized; whether or not the reader finds them romantic is up to them.

They were born in the shadows. Schooled in espionage. Taught to kill and trained to disappear. In this captivating masterwork from bestselling author Taylor Stevens, elusive twins Jack and Jill take the global spy game to electric levels. The assassin broker is dead. The power void has left the network he controlled without restraints, and the world’s deadliest killers free to pursue their own vendettas and political agendas. The United States government, unwilling to risk upheaval and global chaos, has mobilized killers of its own to preemptively hunt down and destroy each potential threat. Among the most dangerous on that list are Jack and Jill. Often estranged—always connected by a legacy they can’t escape—the siblings have eluded many who want them dead. As they board a flight to Berlin hoping to meet the father they’ve never known, they suspect a trap. What they can’t predict is how far a high-level Russian operation will go to secure their skills, or how hard the U.S. operatives sent to stop them will fight to assassinate them first. For the twins, resistance and cooperation both mean death. Caught between two superpowers with unlimited resources and unable to trust each other, brother and sister will match wit against skill in a life-threatening chase across Europe, back to the United States, and into an unholy alliance that could change the balance of global power forever. Filled with pulse-pounding tension, blistering action, and intense human drama, Liars’ Legacy is world-class intrigue at its best.

We all do it - how to be a better liar, spot a charlatan and tell the difference between truth and fiction In Born Liars, Ian Leslie takes the reader on an exhilarating tour of ideas that brings the latest news about deception back from the frontiers of psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, and explores the role played by lies - both black and white - in our childhoods, our careers, and our health, as well as in advertising, politics, sport and war. Drawing on thinkers as varied as Augustine, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Joni Mitchell, the author argues that, far from being a bug in the human software, lying is central to who we are; that we cannot understand ourselves without first understanding the dynamics of deceit. After reading Born Liars you'll never think about lies - or life - in quite the same way again.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of the international phenomenon Surrounded by Idiots. Studies suggest two people who have never met before will tell three lies within the first five minutes. Astounding. But why? Why do we choose to lie even when we know it's wrong? To protect the people we love? To paint ourselves in a better light? To win short-lived praise? Or, are there simply far more obscure reasons behind why we lie? In Surrounded by Liars, international bestselling author and behavioural expert Thomas Erikson unpacks the psychological reasons behind why we lie, and reveals the impact lying has on our relationships. With the help of the behavioural model made famous in Surrounded by Idiots, discover how to detect the liars in your life and shatter their deception for good!

An age-old debt brings darkness to the world... Abandoned by his father, too proud to ask his brother for help, and lured by the promise of money, Lance gets on a bus that mysteriously appears outside his house in the middle of the night. It brings him and others to a dream-like land where anything can be bought and sold, even magic. When he returns home, he finds his family has changed, the world has moved on, and monsters from faerie tales overrun the town. Survival is paramount—but everything has a price. Keywords: dark fantasy, portal fantasy, fae, faeries, elf, magic, runes, spells, post apocalyptic setting

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling prequel, Family of Liars. A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. "Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart, We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable." —John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars