Cardinal George Pell could be released from custody, ordered to face a new trial or sent back to prison when the Court of Appeal hands down its ruling next Wednesday. We explain the possible outcomes and what will happen next.

As urban sprawl puts pressure on the food bowl on Melbourne's fringes, and as water becomes increasingly scarce, one council has a bold idea that might just catch on.

Garry Lyon pays an emotional tribute to former AFL star Danny Frawley as he returns to his radio show, speaking of the "utterly, impossibly heartbreaking" reality of his friend and former colleague's death.

A ratepayers advocacy group says a damning report into the risk of corruption within local government in Victoria highlights the need for greater scrutiny of regional councils.

Twelve years ago Paul Preusker was disqualified for possessing an electronic jigger. Now he's back, training the Melbourne Cup favourite and insisting he's a changed man.

Sheena Roberts and Rachel Fuller

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader. You can hear Dan Gardner being interviewed by Warren Boland on Sunday 13th Weekends with Warren.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekend with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekend with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

It's 'Koori chick lit' for the very first time; A romantic romp in the vein of Sex and the City with some big plusses - a little reluctance for love and an Indigenous Australian central character in the international art world.

Kari Gislason concedes it would have been very easy to write a sad memoir about his relationship with his dad - but he made a concerted effort not to go down that track.

Author Mary Groves has lived the great outback dream and knows how tough it can be.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Gordan Lomas

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull is an avid reader, and the producer of Weekends with Warren Boland.

Rob Minshull is an avid reader, and the producer of Weekends with Warren Boland

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Making the right choice in life is never straightforward but is one of the main reasons we find ourselves and each other so fascinating. Three Dollars is the story of Eddie Harnovey, a honest, compassionate man with a brilliant wife, Tanya, and a beautiful, if possibly epileptic, daughter Abbey. Eddie's life revolves around work and the three women in his life; the third is Amanda, a childhood sweetheart who re-appears in his life with mathematical precision every nine-and-a-half years. Eddie has a lovely house in the suburbs, he has a strong moral conscience, he's intelligent and witty, and the world around him is falling apart. On the brink of bankruptcy with just $3 to his name, has he made the wrong choices?Perhaps a large part of the answer lies in the speed with which we live our lives. It is easy to feel sympathy for Eddie as he bemoans the pace of change: "Everything happens too quickly to be understood while it is happening. Analysis is impossible until the event is over."A more likely cause of Eddie's predicament may lie in the fact that his wife is about to lose her teaching position at the university and Eddie, an engineer working for the Department of Environment, has been asked by his wife's former lover to falsify a report to allow a smelting plant to be built by Amanda's father.The depth of these relationships is explored with insight and great wit, unpicking those worries that come to us at night while, like Eddie, we lie and notice (and usually ignore) the cracks and flaking of paint on the bedroom ceiling. For Eddie, it is a time to rank debts and what has become the persistence and tyranny of the day-to-day struggle to financially survive.Three Dollars was written in 1998, but set in the times of Australia's introduction to what the surely misnamed 'economic rationalism'. The obsession with material goods and the soulless never-ending pursuit of profit are both a target for Eddie's scorn as well as a source of hilarious black comedy. Written with great humour and prose which at times may seem just a little too deliberate, Three Dollars is as pertinent today as it was in the 1990s.There are times, however, when the characters' tendency to editorialise or sermonise is a touch overwhelming, even if the sentiments seem sound or relevant to Australian politics today. Take this monologue from Eddie's wife, Tanya:"People's fear of change and their despair at the lack of certainty in any area of their lives, particularly where the social and the personal meet, that is with respect to their jobs and income, if it lasts long enough, will lead them to abandon reason, to be suspicious of it and to look for scapegoats and simplistic solutions. The wisdom or correctness of a government's decision will scarcely be discussed but instead attention will be focused on the strength with which the decision was made, the apparent certainty, the conviction with which it was implemented."Admittedly, Tanya is a university politics lecturer, but the moral hectoring in the novel can easily distract from the plot and soon become tiring.Ignoring the occasional sermon, however, Three Dollars an entertaining read, beautifully written and extremely funny. It sat on my bookshelf for over a decade and was rescued only because the mixed reviews for Perlman's latest novel, The Street Sweeper, made me curious. No ambiguity about Three Dollars though: compelling, dramatic and a disconcertingly humorous reflection of the way so many of us live our lives. In 2005, Three Dollars was made into an Australian movie, starring David Wenham. A superb interpretation of the novel, both film and book are highly recommended.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Tim Baker

Katherine Howell

Marion von Adlerstein

Jesse Blackadder

Chloe Maxwell

Andy Griffiths

Gold Coast author Richard Davis says the time is ripe to re-evaluate the life of Australian opera singer, Marjorie Lawrence.

Sitxteen-year-old Silvermay is in love with a wizard called Tamlyn - who comes from a race that only care about themselves.

Patti Miller

This year's NAIDOC Week theme is Voice. Treaty. Truth. But the truth is that many Indigenous people feel voiceless when it comes to expressing where Australia stands on treaty today.

University researcher Katie Gaskin has completed a detailed study into breast anatomy that could bring far-reaching benefits for fields like cancer treatment, cosmetic surgery, and even bra design.

The graves of five young WWII servicemen have been destroyed at a NSW cemetery in what has been described as a "disgraceful" act of vandalism.

Police evidence presented to Wollongong Local Court reveals allegations of violent physical abuse against a 12-week-old baby.