Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

$19.99 AUD

Category: General

A New York Times bestseller, An Amazon.com Best Book of the Year -- An elegant and captivating debut novel, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent, a young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey Kontent embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of 1938 New York City society. ...Show more

Greeks Bearing Gifts (#13 Bernie Gunther) by Philip Kerr

$19.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller | Series: Bernie Gunther Ser.

A vicious murder puts Bernie Gunther on the trail of World War 2 criminals in Greece in this riveting historical thriller in Philip Kerr's New York Times bestselling series.   Munich, 1956. Bernie Gunther has a new name, a chip on his shoulder, and a dead-end career when an old friend arrives to repay a debt and encourages "Christoph Ganz" to take a job as a claims adjuster in a major German insurance company with a client in Athens, Greece.   Under the cover of his new identity, Bernie begins to investigate a claim by Siegfried Witzel, a brutish former Wehrmacht soldier who served in Greece during the war. Witzel's claimed losses are large, and, even worse, they may be the stolen spoils of Greek Jews deported to Auschwitz. But when Bernie tries to confront Witzel, he finds that someone else has gotten to him first, leaving a corpse in his place.   Enter Lieutenant Leventis, who recognizes in this case the highly grotesque style of a killer he investigated during the height of the war. Back then, a young Leventis suspected an S.S. officer whose connection to the German government made him untouchable. He's kept that man's name in his memory all these years, waiting for his second chance at justice...   Working together, Leventis and Bernie hope to put their cases--new and old--to bed. But there's a much more sinister truth to acknowledge: A killer has returned to Athens...one who may have never left. ...Show more

The Last Hours (#1 Last Hours) by Minette Walters

$16.99 AUD

Category: General

When the Black Death enters England through the port of Melcombe in Dorseteshire in June 1348, no one knows what manner of sickness it is or how it spreads and kills so quickly. The Church proclaims it a punishment from God but Lady Anne of Develish has different ideas. With her brutal husband absent, s he decides on more sensible ways to protect her people than the daily confessions of sin recommended by the Bishop. Anne gathers her serfs within the gates of Develish and refuses entry to outsiders, even to her husband. She makes an enemy of her daughter by doing so, but her resolve is strengthened by the support of her leading serfs... until food stocks run low and the nerves of all are tested by their ignorance of what is happening in the world outside. The people of Develish are alive. But for how long? And what will they discover when the time comes for them to cross the moat? Compelling and suspenseful, The Last Hours is a riveting tale of human ingenuity and endurance against the worst pandemic known to history. In Lady Anne of Develish - leader, saviour, heretic - Walters has created her most memorable heroine to date. ...Show more

The Reckoning by John Grisham

$19.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller

'I couldn't help thinking of Harper Lee's great American novel To Kill a Mockingbird while reading The Reckoning . . . [Grisham] knows how to spin a yarn' - Chicago Sun-Times 'May be his greatest work yet' - David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon Pete Banning was Clanton's favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family; a farmer, father, and a faithful member of the Methodist Church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the Church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'. What turned Pete from a pillar of the community into cold-hearted killer? And why won't he confide in anyone? All his closest family knows is that it must have been something devastating - and that the fallout will haunt them, and the town, for decades to come . . . Further praise for The Reckoning 'Beautifully constructed . . . weaves a truly magical spell' - Daily Mail 'In this saga of love and war, John Grisham has given us a sprawling and engrossing story about a southern family, a global conflict, and the kinds of secrets that can shape all of us. From the courtrooms and jails of rural Mississippi to the war-torn Pacific, Grisham spins a tale that is at once entertaining and illuminating' - Jon Meacham, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of America 'John Grisham is the master of legal fiction, and his latest starts with a literal bang - and then travels backward through the horrors of war to explore what makes a hero, what makes a villain, and how thin the line between the two might be' - Jodi Picoult, internationally bestselling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things 'When a master of storytelling and suspense takes on one of the most wrenching stories in history, the result is a book that will break your heart, set your blood pumping and your mind racing, and leave you gasping for breath by the final page. I'm still trying to recover from The Reckoning' - Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic ************ THE INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham is now a major six-part documentary series on Netflix ************ ...Show more

The Nutcracker (The Story Orchestra) by Jessica Courtney-Tickle

$27.99 AUD

Category: Christmas Books | Series: The Story Orchestra

Follow Clara on a magical Christmas adventure in this retelling of the classic ballet story. Watch the Nutcracker battle the Mouse King, meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and journey to the Land of Sweets, where wonder and excitement await... Including music from: 'The Dance of the Reed Flutes', 'The Waltz of F lowers' and 'The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'. ...Show more

Art and Australia Issue 5: Brutalism

$19.95 AUD

Category: Artists & Styles

Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned - Enchanted Stories from the French Decadent Tradition by Gretchen Schultz; Lewis Seifert

$44.99 AUD

Category: Classics | Series: Oddly Modern Fairy Tales Ser.

A newly translated collection of subversive French fairy tales by writers from the Belle poqueThe wolf is tricked by Red Riding Hood into strangling her grandmother and is subsequently arrested. Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella do not live happily ever after. And the fairies are saucy, angry, and capricio us. Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned collects thirty-six tales, most newly translated, by writers associated with the decadent literary movement that flourished in late nineteenth-century France. These enchanting yet troubling stories reflect the concerns and fascinations of a time of great political, social, and cultural change. Recasting well-known favorites from classic French fairy tales, as well as Arthurian legends and English and German tales, these decadent fairy tales feature perverse settings and disillusioned perspectives, underlining such themes as the decline of civilization, the degeneration of magic and the unreal, gender confusion, and the incursion of the industrial. Complete with an informative introduction, biographical notes for each author, and explanatory notes throughout, these subversive tales will entertain and startle even the most disenchanted readers. ...Show more

My First Pop-Up Dinosaurs by Owen Davey

$19.99 AUD

Category: Novelty (Pop Up, Lift the Flap etc)

Stylish artwork by award winner Owen Davey makes this 3-D introduction to dinosaurs a standout.   Watch long-extinct creatures spring to life in a striking first pop-up book for budding paleontologists. Showcased are fifteen dinosaurs and prehistoric reptiles, from Ankylosaurus to Velociraptor, e ach one accompanied by its name and pronunciation. At once simple and sophisticated, Owen Davey's striking pop-ups, with their geometric patterns of spiky scales, dramatic splotches, and dotted feathers, are sure to mesmerize dinosaur aficionados of all ages. ...Show more

Prussian Blue (Bernie Gunther 12) by Philip Kerr

$19.99 AUD

Category: Crime/Thriller | Series: Bernie Gunther Ser.

When his cover is blown, former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer Bernie Gunther must re-enter a cat-and-mouse game that continues to shadow his life a decade after Germany's defeat in World War 2...   The French Riviera, 1956: Bernie's old and dangerous adversary Erich Mielke, deputy head of the East German Stasi, has turned up in Nice--and he's not on holiday. Mielke is calling in a debt and wants Bernie to travel to London to poison a female agent they've both had dealings with. But Bernie isn't keen on assassinating anyone. In an attempt to dodge his Stasi handler--former Kripo comrade Friedrich Korsch--Bernie bolts for the German border. Traveling by night and hiding by day, he has plenty of time to recall the last case he and Korsch worked together...   Obersalzberg, Germany, 1939: A low-level bureaucrat has been found dead at Hitler's mountaintop retreat in Bavaria. Bernie and Korsch have one week to find the killer before the leader of the Third Reich arrives to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Bernie knows it would mean disaster if Hitler discovers a shocking murder has been committed on the terrace of his own home. But Obersalzberg is also home to an elite Nazi community, meaning an even bigger disaster for Bernie if his investigation takes aim at one of the party's higher-ups...   1939 and 1956: two different eras about to converge in an explosion Bernie Gunther will never forget. ...Show more

Grammar Geek by Michael Powell

$16.99 AUD

Category: Language Books

English is full of beauty and surprises, yet despite being the lingua franca of the globalization world, it has a reputation for being difficult to learn because its grammar has also so many quirks and contradictions. Did you know: - "Terry loves yogurt" is an example of illeism - preposition stranding is a bogus rule - sometimes it's acceptable to begin a sentence with "but" or "and" - "Could you pass the salt?" is "whimperative" - it's OK to boldy split infinitives. Many of us don't even know the basics, so not only does Grammar Geek reveal obscure grammar rules and bogus ones you can safely ignore, it's also a handy primer, so in the future you'll have no excuse for dangling a modifier or misplacing a semicolon. ...Show more

Word Nerd by Michael Powell

$16.99 AUD

Category: Language Books

The English language is full of beauty and surprises. If you're a lover of the weird and wonderful, from fascinating etymology to the ten most overused and useless English phrases, this book isn't averse to a peppering of persiflage! Did you know: - pilots and air traffic controllers at major air intern ational airports have to speak English - the hashtag symbol is an "octothorpe" - "bumfiddle" means to spoil a piece of paper or document - the word "noon" originally meant 3pm; the literal meaning of "bamboozle" is to make a baboon out of someone. This book contains a boatload of things you didn't know about the English language and it's a guaranteed prolix-free zone. ...Show more

The Gender Mosaic - Beyond the Myth of the Male and Female Brain by Prof. Daphna Joel; Luba Vikhanski

$22.99 AUD

Category: Sociology

This timely manifesto calls for a future free from gender-based assumptions about human potential. Written by the internationally renowned neuroscientist whose game-changing research debunks the myth of male and female brains. For generations we've been taught that women and men differ in profound wa ys. Women are supposedly more sensitive and cooperative, whereas men are more aggressive and sexual because this or that region in the brains of women is larger or smaller than in the brains of men, or because they have more or less of this or that hormone. This story seems to provide us with a neat biological explanation for much of what we encounter in day-to-day life. It's even sometimes used to explain why, for example, most teachers are women and most engineers are men. But is it true? Using the ground-breaking results from her own lab and from other recent studies, neuroscientist Daphna Joel shows that it is not. Instead, argues Joel, every brain - and every human being - is a mosaic, or mixture, of 'female' and 'male' characteristics. With urgent practical implications for the world around us, this is a fascinating look at gender - how it works, its history and its future - and a sorely needed investigation into the false basis of our most fundamental beliefs. Perfect for readers of Mary Beard's Women & Power, Cordelia Fine's Testosterone Rex, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists and Gina Rippon's The Gendered Brain. 'Brilliantly accessible. Gender Mosaic takes you on a fascinating scientific journey that will transform how you think about sex, gender and the brain.' Cordelia Fine, author of Testosterone Rex 'A power-packed manifesto that envisions what our world might look like if we let go of tired gender stereotypes.' - Sarah Richardson, author of Sex Itself 'Gender Mosaic is the book I've been waiting for! Enlightening, funny and never dogmatic, Joel plumbs the science, offering great insights into how moving beyond that stale story of the male and female brain could improve medicine, education, careers and relationships.' - Rebecca Jordan-Young, author of Brain Storm ...Show more