Guinness World Records 2020 by Guinness World Records

$37.99 AUD

Category: Reference

Celebrate the dawning of a new decade with the fully revised Guinness World Records 2020. To kick off the '20s, we've created an electrifying new cover and curated a record-breaking edition packaged with thousands of new, updated and classic superlatives, hundreds of never-before-seen images, and a sele ction of eye-opening photo-composites that put a new spin on record-breaking... A new decade means it's time for a fresh approach, so starting with our front cover, we've re-booted record-breaking with an all-new design. There's a new look inside, too, and thanks to our team of digital artists, we've created mind-blowing poster pages that will reveal some of our classic record holders in a whole new light. Our ever-expanding pool of international consultants and experts help us make sense of the world around us, so join us as we explore the vast spectrum of record-breaking in 11 superlative-packed chapters. As always, we're committed to bringing you record-breaking from the cutting edge of science, and this year we've produced a feature chapter on remarkable robots with the help of award-winning tech blogger Evan Ackerman. We've also been out on the road, adjudicating records at events as diverse as the UK National Pet Show, Skill Con in Las Vegas and BubbleFest in Wales. Guinness World Records is nothing without its dedicated record-breakers, so we've also selected the best of the newly approved claims from the 50,000 applications received from the public over the past 12 months. If you want to be one of those lucky few, look out for the Do Try This At Home challenges in the VIRAL SPORTS chapter - you might even make it into next year's edition! ...Show more

The Second Adventures of Princess Peony by Nette Hilton

$19.99 AUD

Category: 6-9 Years Younger Readers

Princess Peony has zero interest in waiting for a unicorn, a fairy princess or a silly prince until the Troll (her brother) tells her she'll never get one because she's not even a real princess. Then, The lovely Princess decides a Prince on a horse, with a big JUMPING LEAPING HOUND AND A SAVAGE LION OR TWO would be VERY handy. Trolls are to be ignored but sometimes they’re ASKING for it, if you really want to know. As only she can, Princess Peony manages to prove that she's a Princess and make her brother think he's a Prince, which he absolutely doesn't want to be. Of course, only she can turn him back into a Troll and restore order to the kingdom. This will involve some kissing, some frogs and a lot of surprises. ...Show more

The Postmistress by Alison Stuart

$32.99 AUD

Category: General

Knife (Harry Hole #12) by Jo Nesbo

$32.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller | Series: Harry Hole Ser.

The brand new Harry Hole thriller from Sunday Times number one bestseller Jo Nesbo. 'Nesbo is one of the best thriller writers on the planet' Daily Express A man like Harry had better watch his back...Following the dramatic conclusion of number one bestseller THE THIRST, KNIFE sees Harry Hole waking u p with a ferocious hangover, his hands and clothes covered in blood. Not only is Harry about to come face to face with an old, deadly foe, but with his darkest personal challenge yet. The twelfth instalment in Jo Nesbo?s internationally bestselling crime fiction series. ...Show more

Slapstick (#5 Funny Kid) by Matt Stanton

$14.99 AUD

Category: 6-9 Years Younger Readers | Series: Funny Kid

Every kid wants to laugh, but Max is the boy who can make it happen. Only now he's been forced to join the local ice-hockey team, and there's nothing funny about slipping over and getting a frozen bum. Or is there? Max is the funny kid ... and this time he's skating on thin ice! Epic fails, a wrestling rhinoceros called Roxanne, fake news, locker rooms filled with popcorn and the dreaded return of Mr Armstrong are just some of the things in store for Max and his friends in this brand-new Funny Kid adventure. FUNNY KID is the mega-bestselling series from author-illustrator Matt Stanton that's got everyone laughing! ...Show more

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

$32.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: near fine

The major new novel from David Nicholls. One life-changing summerCharlie meets Fran... In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thin ks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread. Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope. But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling. The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare. Poignant, funny, enchanting, devastating, Sweet Sorrow is a tragicomedy about the rocky path to adulthood and the confusion of family life, a celebration of the reviving power of friendship and that brief, searing explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly after it has burned out. ...Show more

The Chain (PB) by Adrian McKinty

$32.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller | Reading Level: 2 Crime

You just dropped off your child at the bus stop. A panicked stranger calls your phone. Your child has been kidnapped.The stranger then explains that their child has also been kidnapped, by a completely different stranger. The only way to get your child back is to kidnap another child - within 24 hours. Your child will be released only when the next victim's parents kidnap yet another child. And most importantly, the stranger explains, if you don't kidnap a child, or if the next parents don't kidnap a child, your child will be murdered. You are now part of The Chain. ...Show more

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

$32.99 AUD

Category: Sociology | Reading Level: near fine

Over the past eight years, journalist Lisa Taddeo has driven across the country six times to embed herself with ordinary women from different regions and backgrounds. The result, Three Women, is the deepest nonfiction portrait of desire ever written and one of the most anticipated books of the year. We begin in suburban Indiana with Lina, a homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. She passes her days cooking and cleaning for a man who refuses to kiss her on the mouth, protesting that “the sensation offends” him. To Lina’s horror, even her marriage counselor says her husband’s position is valid. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks. When she reconnects with an old flame through social media, she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota we meet Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student who finds a confidant in her handsome, married English teacher. By Maggie’s account, supportive nightly texts and phone calls evolve into a clandestine physical relationship, with plans to skip school on her eighteenth birthday and make love all day; instead, he breaks up with her on the morning he turns thirty. A few years later, Maggie has no degree, no career, and no dreams to live for. When she learns that this man has been named North Dakota’s Teacher of the Year, she steps forward with her story—and is met with disbelief by former schoolmates and the jury that hears her case. The trial will turn their quiet community upside down. Finally, in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, we meet Sloane—a gorgeous, successful, and refined restaurant owner—who is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women. He picks out partners for her alone or for a threesome, and she ensures that everyone’s needs are satisfied. For years, Sloane has been asking herself where her husband’s desire ends and hers begins. One day, they invite a new man into their bed—but he brings a secret with him that will finally force Sloane to confront the uneven power dynamics that fuel their lifestyle. Based on years of immersive reporting, and told with astonishing frankness and immediacy, Three Women is a groundbreaking portrait of erotic longing in today’s America, exposing the fragility, complexity, and inequality of female desire with unprecedented depth and emotional power. It is both a feat of journalism and a triumph of storytelling, brimming with nuance and empathy, that introduces us to three unforgettable women—and one remarkable writer—whose experiences remind us that we are not alone. ...Show more

Squidge Dibley Destroys the School by Mick Elliott

$14.99 AUD

Category: 9-12 Years Middle Readers

 Things are going downhill fast for class 6PU at Craglands South Primary School. They've changed teachers more times than most kids change their socks, and their latest one is so strict they aren't even allowed to sneeze. But just when it seems like the school term has been turned into a prison ter m, a new kid arrives. A kid unlike any other kid at Craglands South. A kid named Squidge Dibley. He's small, quiet and strangely ... squidgy. And he's about to change everything. SQUIDGE DIBLEY DESTROYS THE SCHOOL is book one in a hilarious new series by Mick Elliott, author of THE TURNERS, and features his unforgettable cartoon-style illustrations on every page. ...Show more

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

$32.99 AUD

Category: General

RICHARD GLOVER: "Someone told me this is “Philip Roth meets #MeToo” which had me reaching for a copy. It’s hilarious, bleak, oddly sexy, wonderfully satiric. If you’ve been divorced it may explain why; if you are still together, it proves congratulations are in order." Leigh Sa les:  "You will not be able to put this down!  A forensic dissection of a marriage breakdown." Finally free from his nightmare of a marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of Tinder dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future of few responsibilities, his life turns upside-down as his ex-wife Rachel suddenly disappears. While Toby tries to find out what happened - juggling work, kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity - his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if he ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place . . . A BLISTERING SATIRICAL NOVEL ABOUT MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND MODERN RELATIONSHIPS, BY ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING NEW VOICES IN AMERICAN FICTION 'A marvel, full of shrewd observations, barbed wit, and deep insight . . . a remarkable debut novel from one of the most distinctive writers around' TOM PERROTTA 'Firing on all circuits, from psychological insight to cultural acuity to narrative strategy to very smart humor. Quite a debut!' KIRKUS (STARRED REVIEW) ...Show more

One Good Deed by David Baldacci

$29.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller | Reading Level: 2 Crime

Murder and family secrets, a touch of romance and deeply-felt revenge - with the twist of all twists - make up the ingredients of One Good Deed. A gripping page-turner for all those who love mystery, crime, Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie from one of the world's favourite thriller writers, David Ba ldacci. In 1949, Aloysius Archer arrives in the dusty Southern town of Poca City. He has nothing but a handful of dollars, the clothes he's wearing and an appointment with his new parole officer. After his wartime experiences in Italy and a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit, Archer is looking for a fresh start and a peaceful life. On his first night of freedom, Archer meets local business tycoon Hank Pittleman, who promises Archer handsome compensation to work as his debt collector. Yet Archer takes on more than he bargains for, as he becomes embroiled in a long-running feud between the drought-struck town's most dangerous residents. When one of them dies, the authorities label Archer as their number one suspect A bloody game is being played above and below the law. Everybody playing has a deeply buried secret, and Archer must uncover them all - if he's to avoid going back behind bars. ...Show more

The Sunday Story Club by Kerry Cue; Doris Brett

$32.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry. But the salons have given me the opportunity to look back and think about my life . . . I don't talk to anyone about these feelings outside of the salon.' A book club without books. A key to the stories we all carry within us - wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, lac ed with unexpected and hard-won wisdom. These are the stories that women tell each other when they gather for a deep and structured conversation - once a month in a suburban living room - about the things that really matter. They discover that life can be a heartbeat away from chaos; that bad things happen to good people; that good people do outrageous things; that the desire for transformation is enduringly human - painful and yet possible. A mother tells of the heartbreaking loss of control when her daughter develops anorexia. A sister reveals the high psychological cost of being hated by a sibling over the course of her life. Husbands leave wives; wives take lovers; friendships shatter; finances collapse; children defy parents; wrong choices turn out to be right ones; agency is lost and re-claimed. Profound, layered and clear-sighted, this collection of real-life stories reveals the emotional untidiness that lies below the shiny surface of modern life and reminds us of the power of real conversation to enlighten, heal and transform. ...Show more