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

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.

Jesse Blackadder

COUNTRY GIRL A memoirby Edna O'Brien

The Storm hold on in a tight encounter against the Dragons to win 16-14 in Wollongong, as both sides struggle to cover for their missing State of Origin stars.

Disability advocates renew their push for local councils nationwide to ensure that new housing is universally accessible to address what they describe as a critical shortage of accommodation.

An educator on the New South Wales south coast hopes to have all the region's school children fluently speaking their local Dharawal language in the next 10 years.

A former ABC journalist, who pressed assault charges after her elderly mother was allegedly hit by a carer, urges Australians with family members in aged-care to install personal surveillance equipment.

A braille teacher says technology is causing a decline in literacy among people who are vision-impaired, prompting her to bring the tactile language into the mainstream.

MORNING BRIEFING: NSW police hunt for Sunjay Dayal, who escaped while undertaking maintenance work in Mount Kiera, while three cars set alight in a garage triggers the fire alarms inside a Liverpool unit block.

An inmate from a prison once touted as housing criminals with "no escape risk" is on the run after he fled into bushland while on a work assignment.

The Panthers thrash the Dragons 40-18 to stretch their winning streak to seven matches, while the Warriors enjoy a 19-18 victory over the Sharks in Wellington as the race for the NRL finals heats up.

The rugby league player is slapped with an extra charge which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison as he is committed to stand trial in August over the alleged aggravated sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman in Wollongong.

Jobs growth versus environmental concerns reignite with a coal company's proposed expansion under Sydney's water supply.

An Adelaide judge remains tight-lipped on his reasons for declaring a mistrial in the case of a woman accused of poisoning her partner with a cocktail of dangerous medication.

Lorelei and Peter Murko, and other members of their family, have taken an incredible journey together because of problems they have faced with their kidneys.

Authorities say a man had been trying to land a light aircraft near Braidwood, one hour east of Canberra, when he was killed in a crash this morning.

A plan to shore up New South Wales's energy supply suffers a setback amid concerns about aircraft safety.

Cronulla moves into eighth place on the NRL ladder after a hard-fought win over the Dragons, after the Roosters made light work of the Warriors in an ominous performance ahead of finals.

MORNING BRIEFING: Kaila Murnain is back in front of ICAC after telling the inquiry she was advised to "forget" about alleged illegal donations which led to her suspension yesterday.

Winds of up to 90 kilometres per hour leave a trail of destruction across Sydney, with rescue crews pushed to their limits and warnings still in place for southern parts of NSW.

Sydney's drinking water catchment is under threat from longwall mining with upland swamps and streams drying out as a colliery pushes to expand.

A New South Wales man claims he has been "deceived" by the state's public trustee after his elderly mother's will was allegedly changed without his knowledge.

A former Special Forces soldier says it's time for the ADF to "modernise" its internal legal system and start footing the bills for members who want to use civilian lawyers.

Lance Daly has been through a heroin addiction, multiple stints in jail and gang violence and now wants to help people remove the marks of the past that are stifling their futures.

Shopping these days is no private affair as shopper surveillance ramps up towards the Christmas period. What you might not be aware of is that traders and their employees are also being keenly observed.

Illawarra is not a hotbed of top NBA talent, but LaMelo Ball has already done enough in the NBL preseason to rocket to the top of NBA mock drafts.

It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.

Energy Australia has apologised to a customer for issuing him multiple bills that 'did not make sense' despite his repeated complaints.

Stephen Grimmer, the brother of murdered toddler Cheryl Grimmer who disappeared in 1970, pleads guilty to indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Australia's Jillaroos maintain their three-year dominance of New Zealand's Kiwi Ferns with a 28-8 triumph in their Test match in Wollongong.

Australia's next generation of rugby league stars land their first blow against New Zealand, bouncing the Kiwis 26-4 in Wollongong.