American Book Store History

Gifted
Lalwani Nikita
Paperback $24.95
On a trip to India at the age of eight, Rumi Vasi's mathematical powers acquired almost supernatural significance. When she returned home to Cardiff her destiny was sealed: she was now, and would forever be, the town's 'maths prodigy'. But by the age of fourteen, after years of her father's determined tutoring, Rumi finds that numbers are beginning to lose their innocence. And, as her longing for love and her parents' will to succeed deepen, so too does the heartrending rift between them. In a voice that is by turns very funny and fiercely tender, Nikita Lalwani brings us a captivating story of high aspirations and deep desires, and of the sometime loneliness of childhood.

WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?
Kate Atkinson
Paperback $32.95
The third Jackson Brodie novel by the bestselling author of Case Histories and One Good Turn In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend Jackson Brodie himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

SIX SUSPECTS
Vikas Swarup
paperback $32.95
Vicky Rai, the playboy son of a prominent Indian Cabinet minister has been shot dead by persons unknown at his farmhouse (No. 6) outside Delhi. Six people were partying at his house immediately preceding his death - each one equally liable to have pulled the trigger. In this elaborate mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie, we the reader are the detective, as six suspects' lives unravel before our eyes - a bureaucrat, a cannibal, an idiot, an actress, a politician, and a nobody. Each character has their own chapter, three times over, the first being under SUSPECTS; the second under MOTIVES; the third - when all is revealed - under EVIDENCE. Vikas Swarup's finely schematic and audacious plotting wil delight the many fans of the acclaimed Q & A.

HOW TO BE SINGLE
Liz Tuccillo
Paperback $29.95
It's the most annoying question and they just can't help asking you. You'll be asked it at family gatherings, weddings, and on first dates. And you'll ask yourself far too often. It's the question that has no good answer. It's the question that when people stop asking it, makes you feel even worse: Why are you single? On a brisk October morning in New York, Julie Jenson, a single thirty-eight-yearold book publicist, is on her way to work when she gets a hysterical phone call from her friend Georgia. Reeling from her husband's announcement that he is leaving her for a samba teacher, Georgia convinces a reluctant Julie to organize a fun girls' night out with all their single friends to remind her why it is so much fun not to be tied down.

The Creator's Map
Emilio Calderón
Paperback $32.95
In his stunning first novel Emilio Calderón weaves a web of political intrigue, love and deceit involving a mysterious and fateful map. José María Hurtado is a Spanish student studying architecture in Rome. When he meets Montse, a seductive young librarian, they find themselves in possession of a book of immense value. Does it contain a map of divine origin—a map of great interest to the chief of the Nazi SS? Is Italian prince Junio Vivarini vying for the book, or is Montse the object of his desire? Set during the tumultuous 1930s and 40s, during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, The Creator’s Map recreates the dark intrigue, romantic entanglements and divided loyalties of a war-torn Europe, whose complicated, sinister repercussions will play out in the post-war lives of its characters.

The Dirty Beat
Armano Venero
Paperback $23.95
Now, in his coffin as his friends prepare to bury him, Max is surrounded by the ghosts of his life and the dreams that never faded. All the old music is back too - from raw seventies rock-and-roll to the type of cool jazz that made legends of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. In this sea of memory, Max recalls the tragedies, people and relationships that defined his life. From his first love Maree Kilmister he learned about sex; from his great love Debbie Canova he learned about loss; and from the enigmatic Laetecia Sparks, he learned about hope. As the players in his life gather for his funeral, he has one last chance to relive his past and see it for what it was. Driven by music and passion, The Dirty Beat shimmers with an electric intensity.

A Girl Made of Dust
Nathalie Abi-Ezzi
Paperback $27.99
Ten–year–old Ruba lives in a village outside Beirut. From her family home, she can see the buildings shimmering on the horizon and the sea stretched out beside them. She can also hear the rumble of the shelling – this is Lebanon in the 1980s and civil war is tearing the country apart. Ruba however has her own worries. Her father hardly ever speaks and spends most of his days sitting in his armchair, avoiding work and family. Her mother looks so sad that Ruba thinks her heart might have withered in the heat like a fig. Her elder brother, Naji, has started to spend his time with older boys – and some of them have guns. When Ruba decides she has to save her father, and when she uncovers his secret, she begins a journey which takes her from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood. As Israeli troops invade and danger comes ever closer, she realises that she may not be able to keep her family safe. This is a first novel with tremendous heart, which captures both a country and a childhood in turmoil.

Those Faraday Girls
McInerney Monica
Paperback $24.95
As a child, Maggie Faraday grew up in a lively, unconventional household in Tasmania, with her young mother, four very different aunts and eccentric grandfather. With her mother often away, all four aunts took turns looking after her - until, just weeks before Maggie's sixth birthday, a shocking event changed everything. Twenty years on, Maggie is living alone in New York City when a surprise visit from her grandfather brings a revelation and a proposition to reunite the family. As the Faradays gather in Ireland, Maggie begins to realise that the women she thought she knew so intimately have something to hide. Those Faraday Girls is a rich and complex story full of warmth, humour and unforgettable women. Spanning several countries and thirty years, it is a deeply moving novel about family secrets and lies - and how the memories that bind us together can also keep us apart.

Song for Night
Abani Chris
Paperback $22.95
Part Inferno and part Paradise Lost, Song for Night is the story of a West African boy soldier's lyrical, terrifying, yet beautiful journey through the nightmare landscape of a brutal war in search of his lost platoon. The reader is led by the voiceless protagonist who, as part of a landmine-clearing platoon, had his vocal chords cut - a move to keep these children from screaming when blown up, and thereby distracting the other minesweepers. The book is written in a ghostly voice, with each chapter headed by a line of the unique sign language these children have invented. The book is unlike anything else ever written about an African war.

I Dream of Magda
Stefan Laszczuk
Paperback $23.95
'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Tolstoy wasn't thinking specifically of the Harrison family when he wrote those words, but maybe he should have been. George Harrison is twenty-eight and afraid of the dark. His father is dead and his mother lives in la-la land. Reeling from a broken heart, and still coping with the trauma of a childhood home invasion, George works in a dead-end job in a bowling alley and finds rare solace in the giant painting of an alien that sits outside his room. His brother Matthew isn't much better off. After losing the love of his life in a traumatic car accident, he's retreated into a private world of sleep where he dreams about falling in love with comedienne Magda Szubanski.

My Name is Will. A novel of sex, drugs and Shakespeare
Jess Winfield
Paperback $32.95
'Utterly delicious, original, witty, hilarious and brilliant. Shakespeare in Love on magic mushrooms. The Bard has never been this much fun.' - Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You For Smoking Our hero, struggling California grad student Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, is trying to write his thesis about the Bard. Kind of. Having been cut off by his father for laziness and desperate for cash, Willie agrees to deliver a single, giant, psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector, only to find himself a target in Reagan's War on Drugs.

My Life
Fidel Castro & Ramonet Ignacio (Ed)
Paperback $26.95
He is the only world leader to have outlasted nine US presidents, has survived over 600 assassination attempts and remains one of the twentieth century's most controversial figures. Here Castro tells his story in full for the first time, speaking openly about everything from his parents and earliest influences to his imprisonment, guerrilla war and the Cuban revolution and on to the Bay of Pigs, the missile crisis and his relationship with Che Guevara. He also remembers the people he knew, from John F. Kennedy to Ernest Hemingway. Whatever your views on Castro are, this is an essential record of an incredible life - and even more extraordinary times.

Aspiring
Kieran Kelly
Paperback $35.00
Aged 54, Kieran Kelly, a man terrified of heights, decided to learn to climb mountains. It was a decision taken to ward off his fears of ageing, and to fill the void in his life left as his children grew up and moved away from home. On the perilous slopes of Mount Aspiring in New Zealand, Kieran was to discover more than just how to climb mountains. Forced by the brutal realities of the mountain to confront his real motivations for taking up such a dangerous sport, Kieran found himself reliving a past he would rather not have remembered. Aspiring is a book about what drives men, and how much our past shapes the people we are. It is also a thrilling account of the experience of climbing for the first time, with all its terror and elation. Gripping, stark and powerful, Aspiring examines the way we overcome our inner demons, as well as our outer fears.

The Other Country
Michael Whelan
Paperback $32.95
Michael and Helen Whelan believed that life after the birth of their first child would be the most amazing adventure. But at 14 months of age, their precious son Charlie's development seemed to stall and Michael and Helen began to realise that something was wrong. Referred to a paediatrician by their GP, they were given the shattering news: Charlie was autistic. For Michael and Helen, this diagnosis was bewildering, frightening and heartbreaking; neither was really sure what autism was or what it meant to Charlie's, and their family's, future. The Other Country is Michael Whelan's account of what happened next – the obstacles they faced, the treatments they tried and the people they met. The Whelans story is one of triumphs and setbacks, of tests and uncertainties, and above all, of dedication and love.

A Very British Coop
Mark Collings
Paperback $24.95
Meet Les Green. Head of the most potent pigeon racing team in the UK – known in pigeon racing circles as The Mafia. A sharp-tongued, quick-witted ex-gang member from Salford who now devotes his life to breeding and racing pigeons that are as swift and consistent as the expletives that fly from his own foul mouth. The RPRA (Royal Pigeon Racing Association) – an organisation filled with ex-brigadiers – sees Les and his lads as a bunch of Northern upstarts out to make trouble. Given the chance, and if they weren't so damn good, the RPRA would ban them from competing. This conflict forms the backdrop as we follow Les from his legendary coop in North Manchester to the National Pigeon Racing convention in Blackpool; on to the $250,000 Las Vegas classic; and finally to take part in the ultimate pigeon race – the $1 million bonanza in Sun City, South Africa. A Very British Coop is the story of Les and his team trying to defy the odds and drag pigeon racing into the 21st century, while pursuing the ultimate feathered flying prize. It is also the first insight into a global pursuit which blurs hobby and sport, sees pigeons flown first-class round the world before changing hands for over $100,000, and where grown men will stop at nothing to see their bird flying into sight first.

PEELING THE ONION
Gunter Grass
Paperback $32.95
Peeling the Onion is a searingly honest memoir that evokes Grass' modest upbringing in Danzig, his time as a boy soldier fighting the Russians and concludes with the writing of his masterpiece, The Tin Drum, in Paris. Grass' parents ran a corner shop, but his mother, whom he adored, encouraged him towards books and music. Like most of his peers, he joined the Hitler Youth and in 1944, when he was just 17, he was sent to the Eastern front with the Waffen SS and found himself facing Russian tanks and machine guns. Recovering from shrapnel wounds in a military hospital, he had the good fortune to be taken prisoner by the Americans. In the aftermath of the war, following a stint as a miner, Grass survived by trading on the black market and resolved to become an artist, eventually enrolling at the Academy of Arts in Dsseldorf. While living as an artist in Berlin with his first wife Anna, a ballet dancer, he started to concentrate on writing poetry. It was after the couple moved to Paris that the first sentence of the novel he had been determined to write and that would make his reputation came to him: 'Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital'.

That'd Be Right
William McInnes
Paperback $35.00
William brings the World, or at least Australia, into our backyards as he writes about families and sport and politics and life in his familiar style that makes you feel as if he is sitting down talking to you. Both funny and insightful That'd Be Right is part memoir, part personal history of Australia over the last thirty years. It's a biographical trip told through sport, and families and William's own experiences. He writes: 'As with A Man's Got to Have a Hobby I weave in and around the events that have held such fascination for this country over the last thirty years or so, connecting them all with the progression of a life.' Some of these events would be considered momentous, some small and personal. And all are seen through William's eyes. They range from a day at the Melbourne Cup with his mother where too many champagnes and too few winners were picked; a swimming carnival early in the morning after a gloomy and long federal election the night before; watching truly surreal Grand Final moments in a pub with a group of odd and unknown bar companions. William also writes about a night at the cricket with his son, which shows how things can change and oddly come full circle.

Gentle Satan: My Father, Abe Saffron
Alan Saffron
Paperback $32.95
The inside story of Mr Sin and his families Growing up the son of Australia's kingpin of vice, Alan Saffron had little chance of a normal life. In the landmark nightspots of Kings Cross, his father pioneered the lucrative underworld business of girls, grog and gambling - and had Alan count the money after school. But the real trouble was at home. Abe Saffron ruled his family with the same ruthless authority with which he ruled the Cross. A tireless womaniser, he split his week between his wife and son and a series of mistresses, even starting a second family with one of them. His control over those around him continued until his death in late 2006 and beyond, through his surprising will. In Gentle Satan, Alan charts his father's rise to power and four-decade reign, made possible by corruption at the highest echelons of police and politics. He also offers the truth behind the infamous tragedies of Juanita Nielsen's murder and the Luna Park fire. But at its heart, this is an unforgettable story of a son struggling to win approval from a cruel father, one who at various times had him committed to the notorious Chelmsford psychiatric hospital and denied him access to his own children. With unabashed candour, Alan reveals the remarkable personal lives of those who lived with Mr Sin.

No Way Home: A Cuban Dancer's Story
Carlos Acosta
Paperback $35.00
Carlos Acosta's beginnings were humble (Acosta was the name of the plantation owner who employed his great grandfather as a slave) but his extraordinary talent was evident from a young age. His earliest dreams were of becoming a footballer but as a delinquent Havana schoolboy he found his earliest expression through break dancing, quickly developing into one the hottest contenders in the fiercely competitive street dance–offs, where dance was only a few degrees removed from the violence of the streets.

The Godfather. The life of Brian Burke
Quentin Beresford
Paperback $35.00
Once touted as a potential prime minister, former Western Australian premier Brian Burke has had a rollercoaster career. This is the first major biography of this charismatic and influential politician who even out of power and disgraced, pulled political strings in WA and beyond. The most popular premier in the nation in the 1980s, Brian Burke went to gaol twice after the scandals of WA Inc. His reputation was thought to be damaged beyond repair, but he became a successful lobbyist for some of the most powerful corporations in the country. As the Corruption and Crime Commission steadily closed in on him he was shown to be running a virtual shadow cabinet in his home state.

Ever, Manning
Selected letters of Manning Clark, 1938-1991
Edited by Roslyn Russell
Hardback $65.00
Correspondence between the famous historian Manning Clark and other key public figures reveals much about 20th century Australia. Manning Clark is Australia's most influential historian, and his work continues to set agendas and generate debate long after his death. This selection of his letters offers an unparalleled view of the complex intellectual and emotional life of this controversial figure.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Tim Weiner
Paperback $27.95
All-powerful, brilliant, decisive, ruthlessly effective...this is the image of the CIA as portrayed in countless films and novels. It is wrong. This shocking book, based on thousands of declassified documents and interviews with agents at all levels, shows the reality behind the glamorous myth: a blundering, chaotic and dangerously incompetent organization, so ineffective it was nicknamed 'Can't Identify Anything' by Nato forces. In a story of botched coups, missed targets, lost operatives and fatal errors, Tim Weiner shows how the CIA now poses a threat not only to the security of the US, but the world.

Comrades
Robert Service
Paperback $29.95
Robert Service's critically-acclaimed and compellingly readable history of world communism Almost two decades have passed since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Robert Service, one of our finest historians of modern Russia, sets out to examine the history of communism throughout the world. His uncomfortable conclusion – and an important message for the 21st century – is that although communism in its original form is now dead or dying, the poverty and injustice that enabled its rise are still dangerously alive. Unsettling, compellingly written and brilliantly argued, this is a superb work of history and one that demands to be read.

Tour To Hell: Convict Australia's Great Escape Myths
David Levell
Paperback $34.95
Vivid and barely believable stories of courage and foolhardiness in colonial Australia. Tour to Hell tells the riveting and often tragic stories of the convicts who escaped, or tried to escape, Australia's early penal settlements. With the continent a blank slate to the newcomers, a 'convict escape mythology' developed, suggesting sanctuaries in the bush and short overland journeys to other countries. One of the incredible myths that spread was that China was just north of New South Wales, separated only by a large river. Until this mythology swept through the convict ranks, the bush had made a very effective prison wall. Once it did, however, the fear of the unknown became a liberating (but mostly misplaced) faith in the bush. With an engaging and fast-paced narrative, Tour to Hell is Australian history at its rollicking best. It graphically brings to life the adventures of absconding sanctuary-seekers and their opponents.

Showtime: A History of the Brisbane Exhibition
Joanne Scott & Ross Laurie
Paperback $39.95
Showtime captures the history, colour and life of a significant event in Queensland history: Brisbane's annual show, popularly known as the 'Ekka'. First held in 1876, the Brisbane Exhibition is Queensland's premier annual event and one of the largest annual events in Australia. Showtime explores everything from the entertainment and food of the main ring and sideshow alley to what it's like to work at the 'Ekka' and what happens when the 'country comes to town'. With research drawn from records of the Royal National Association from 1875 onwards, published and unpublished government sources, newspapers, memoirs, interviews, photographs, films and artefacts, Showtime offers an illustrated and in-depth look at a much-loved event in Queensland. Wonderful anecdotal and personal stories feature alongside the broader history. Through the window of the 'Ekka', Showtime provides a fascinating sense of Queensland's history and development over time.

Gallipoli Sniper
John Hamilton
Paperback $34.95
The Anzac battlefield on Gallipoli was made for snipers. Scrub, cliffs, spurs and hills meant that both Anzac and Turkish positions often overlooked one another. The unwary or unlucky were prey to snipers on both sides, and the sudden crack of a gunshot and instant death were an ever-present menace. The most successful and most feared sniper of the Gallipoli campaign was Billy Sing, a Light Horseman from Queensland who was almost unique among the Australian troops in having a Chinese-born father. A combination of patience, stealth and an incredible eye made him utterly deadly, with the incredible – and horrifying – figure of over 200 credited "kills".

THINK ONE TEAM
WINTER
Paperback $24.95
Graham Winter weaves a fascinating and entertaining business story that reveals an engagingly simple and powerful model to free organisations of 'silo thinking' and empower them to fulfil the possibilities that come from thinking and acting as one team. Think One Team has been specifically designed to help readers, and everyone in their organisation to create and sustain the teamwork across boundaries that will enable them to experience the rewards of working as one team. Beginning with the fable of the big jelly bean team, the readers join one company’s engaging, enlightening and at times funny journey from silo-afflicted to one team. From their experiences you will learn the five practices that define the difference between ‘think silos’ and ‘think one team’, and see what these practices mean for leaders and employees across an organisation In an increasingly networked world, there is much to be said for giving business units the sort of focus that comes from being a ‘silo’, however few if any, can genuinely succeed without the ability to open the doors and windows of their silo to collaborate with others on problems and opportunities.

Wild: An Elemental Journey
Jay Griffiths
Paperback $26.95
'I took seven years over this work, spent all I had, my time, money and energy. Part of the journey was a green riot and parts a deathly bleakness. I got ill, I got well. I went to the freedom fighters of West Papua and sang my head off in their highlands. I met cannibals infinitely kinder and more trustworthy than the murderous missionaries who evangelise them. I anchored a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept; ate witchetty grubs and visited sea gypsies. I found a paradox of wildness in the glinting softness of its charisma, for what is savage is in the deepest sense gentle and what is wild is kind. In the end - a strangely sweet result - I came back to a wild home ... '

Hot, Flat, and Crowded Why the world needs a green revolution - and how we can renew our global future
Thomas Friedman
Hardback
Thomas L. Friedman’s no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy — both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all who are concerned about the state of the world in the global future. Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy — which he calls “Geo-Greenism” — is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make us all healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure. As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era — the Energy-Climate era — through an illuminating account of recent events. He sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs the world will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution — with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation. Hot, Flat and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman - fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.

The Post-American World
Zakaria Fareed
Paperback $34.95
'This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.' Following the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria describes a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the 'rise of the rest' - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others - as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.

Standard Operating Procedure
Philip Gourevitch
Paperback $32.95
Standard Operating Procedure is an utterly original collaboration by the writer Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families) and the film-maker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War). They have produced the first full reckoning of what actually happened at Abu Ghraib. Standard Operating Procedure reveals the stories of the American soldiers who took and appeared in the haunting digital snapshots from Abu Ghraib prison that shocked the world – and simultaneously illuminates and alters forever our understanding of those images and the events they depict. Drawing on more than two hundred hours of Errol Morris' startlingly frank and intimate interviews with Americans who served at Abu Ghraib and with some of their Iraqi prisoners, as well as on his own research, Philip Gourevitch has written a relentlessly surprising account of Iraq's occupation from the inside-out – rendering vivid portraits of guards and prisoners ensnared in an appalling breakdown of command authority and moral order. This is a book that makes you think, and makes you see – an essential contribution from two of our finest non-fiction artists working at the peak of their powers.

Trade Unionism in Australia A History from Flood to Ebb Tide
Tom Bramble
Paperback $49.95
In the late 1960s Australian unionism was on the flood tide: growing in strength, industrially confident and capable of shaping the overall political climate of the nation. Forty years on, union membership and power is ebbing away despite community support for trade unionism and the continuing need for strong unions. Even the unprecedented mobilisation against WorkChoices, which defeated a government and lost the prime minister his own seat, has done little to turn the tide. With compelling rigour, Tom Bramble explores the changing fortunes of what was once an entrenched institution. Trade Unionism in Australia charts the impact on unions of waves of economic restructuring, a succession of hostile governments and a wholesale shift in employer attitudes, as well as the failure of the unions’ own efforts to boost membership and consolidate power. Indeed, Bramble demonstrates how the tactics employed by unions since the early 1980s may have paradoxically contributed to their decline. Ultimately this timely book traces union-led action from the workplace to the political sphere over a period of significant change, and concludes by pointing to strategies for a renewal and revival of Australian unions.

A Question of Power: The Geoff Clarke Case
Michelle Schwarz
Paperback $29.95
Both a thrilling courtroom drama and a fearless work of investigative journalism, A Question of Power tells the story of the trial that found Geoff Clark guilty and its aftermath. Clark was once regarded as the most powerful Aboriginal man in Australia. Michelle Schwarz goes back to his home-town and tracks his early life. She interviews all the key players in the case, from Clark and his lawyers to the women involved and the key media players. Schwarz weaves all of this material into the compelling story of a man who spent his life gaining power only to be found guilty of the ultimate abuse of power.

Unfinished Business: Paul Keating's Interrupted Revolution
David Love
Paperback $32.95
In the early 1980s, Paul Keating set out to reinvent the Australian economy. He floated the Australian dollar, liberated banking and finance from its regulatory shackles, and - most significantly - introduced a universal superannuation scheme. The results were astounding growth in the value of our national economy and in the personal wealth of ordinary Australians. Keating's revolution was based on his insight that, by encouraging all of us to save for retirement, a huge pool of investment capital would be created that would help enrich the nation. But the fulfilment of his vision was denied by his political opponents after the Australian people voted Keating out in 1996. In this book, David Love, a veteran economic and financial observer, explores the story of Keating's revolution - a story that has never before been fully told - and sounds a timely warning that the failure to finish the job Keating started has left our new-found prosperity vulnerable, particularly in the current climate of international economic uncertainty. The revolution, it turns out, is at least as relevant to the future as it has been to the past.

Running the War in Iraq
Jim Molan
Paperback $32.95
It's the most controversial conflict of our time: a war which has divided citizens, politicians, and militaries, resulted in headlines about torture and suicide bombings, death and destruction. There's no single identifiable enemy and no exit strategy. So how will the war in Iraq be won? What will victory look like? In 2004, when Australian Major General Jim Molan was deployed to the war to oversee a force of 300,000 troops, including 155,000 Americans, he faced these and other questions on a daily basis. In Running the War in Iraq he gives a gripping insider's account of what modern warfare entails – the ghastly body count, the complex decisions which will mean life or death, the divide between political masters and foot soldiers – and the small, hard–won triumphs.

Inside Kevin 07
Christine Jackman
Paperback $34.95
Inside Kevin 07 takes readers into the extraordinary campaign that put Kevin Rudd in the Lodge. Labor's 2007 victory was historic, not only in numerical terms, but also in what it represents about the party itself, and its future. Among other things, the 2007 campaign showed the emergence of a new kind of Labor leader in Kevin Rudd, who had neither a factional powerbase nor close ties with the unions. It also showed the return of the positive campaign, and the ALP's strategic use of modern media, from YouTube to the catchphrases that we heard during the course of 2007. "Working families", anyone? Christine Jackman has had the full cooperation of all the key Labor players in the campaign, including Kevin Rudd and Tim Gatrell, and the book is written from her exclusive access to research and files from the Labor camp. Inside Kevin 07 is an unprecedented revelation of how a modern political party works-and succeeds.

Griffith Review 21: Hidden Queensland
Julianne Schultz (Ed.)
Paperback $19.95
Exploring the most remarkable transition in Australian political history: the people, the politics, the policies behind it and the lingering impact of secrets. The election of the Rudd Government signals a momentous change in Australia: real political power moved north for the first time. Modern Queensland is a product of its past as well as the profound transformation and rapid population increase of the past two decades and this issue explains how it happened and what it means.

The Lap Band Solution
Paul O'Brian
Paperback $24.95
Obesity has become a major problem in our society and is the major health challenge of the 21st century. We need a solution. Diets, exercise programs, tablets and behavioural changes have not stopped the rise in weight in spite of huge spending. Other surgical treatments, such as stomach stapling or bypass, are not acceptable to most obese people because of their risks and complexities. The LAP-BAND™ is a potential solution for the community. It is an adjustable band that is placed around the very top of the stomach by keyhole surgery. It is very safe, requires minimal change to the body, can be done as day surgery, and most importantly, the LAP-BAND™ takes away hunger, the seeking of food, and the focus on food, so that you do lose weight. This book tells you about the LAP-BAND™ solution, procedure and aftercare, as well as about obesity and the problems it creates, the benefits of weight loss, and the options you have.

WHY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
Stephen Post
Paperback $24.95
Dr. Stephen Post has been making headlines by funding studies at the nation's top universities to prove once and for all the life-enhancing benefits of caring, kindness, and compassion. The exciting new research shows that when we give of ourselves, especially if we start young, everything from life-satisfaction to self-realization and physical health is significantly affected. Mortality is delayed. Depression is reduced. Well-being and good fortune are increased. In their life-changing new book, Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Dr. Post and journalist Jill Neimark weave the growing new science of love and giving with profoundly moving real-life stories to show exactly how giving unlocks the doors to health, happiness, and a longer life. The astounding new research includes a fifty-year study showing that people who are giving during their high school years have better physical and mental health throughout their lives. Other studies show that older people who give live longer than those who don't. Helping others has been shown to bring health benefits to those with chronic illness, including HIV, multiple sclerosis, and heart problems. And studies show that people of all ages who help others on a regular basis, even in small ways, feel happiest.

The Sexual Paradox: Troubled Boys, Gifted Girls and the Real Difference Between the Sexes
Susan Pinker
Paperback $32.95
Why do girls do so increasingly well at school, yet men still dominate senior positions in adult life? In this strikingly thought-provoking and original book, Susan Pinker takes a hard look at how fundamental gender differences play out at school and at work. By comparing the lives of troubled schoolboys who later succeed, with those of high-achieving girls who later opt out, Pinker turns several assumptions upside down: that women and men are biologically equivalent, that intelligence is all it takes to succeed, and that men and women want the same things out of work and life. Drawing on both the experiences of individuals and on scientific research, Pinker walks us through a series of minefields; Are males the more fragile sex? Which sex is happiest at work? Why do some male school drop-outs earn more than the bright, motivated girls who sat beside them at school? What does science tell us about competition? After four decades of women's educational achievements, why do men still outnumber women in corporate law, engineering, and politics? Men and women are not mirror images of each other, Pinker argues, and discrimination is not the only reason for the persistent gender gap. As entertaining as it is provocative and enlightening, The Sexual Paradox reveals how fundamental sex differences influence male and female ambition and career choices, and lend new meaning to the phrase `the opposite sex'. 'The Sexual Paradox highlights some central puzzles about exceptional men and women. Why did Cavendish, Faraday, Darwin and Bill Gates never complete their degrees? And why do high-flying business women not behave like their male counterparts? Susan Pinker's wide-ranging look at the nature of the sexes is a highly readable and welcome contribution to this perennial debate.' Professor Simon Baron-Cohen

God is Not Great How Religion Poisons Everything
Christopher Hitchens
Paperback $26.95
'This is easily the most impressive of the present crop of atheistic and anti-theistic books: clever, broad, witty and brilliantly argued.' - Sydney Morning Herald . Christopher Hitchens has been hailed as 'one of the most brilliant journalists of our time' (UK Observer ). Here he makes the ultimate case against organised religion.

My Dog Eats Better Than Your Kids ...and what you can do to change this
Dr Peter Dingle
Hardback $24.95
The foods we feed our children and what we eat now will determine disease patterns in the future. Most of the chronic illnesses of today were either rare or unheard of just 100 years ago and still doesn't exist in many countries where people live on traditional diets. The scientific literature is now abundant with evidence showing how changes in lifestyle and diet not only reduce the chances of these chronic diseases but also, in many cases, reverse these conditions without the use of prescription drugs. Unless we change now the current generation of children will be the first to die at an earlier age than their parents. This colourfully illustrated book written in an easy to understand manner tells the story of what we should be eating and why and how we can all reach our optimal health.

The James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2009
James Halliday
Paperback $29.95
James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion is the No.1 bestselling guide to wineries and wine in Australia. Keenly anticipated by winemakers, faithful collectors and wine lovers alike, the 2009 edition has been completely revised and updated to bring you up-to-the-minute information. Halliday shares his extensive knowledge of wine via detailed tasting notes, each of which includes vintage-specific ratings and advice on optimal drinking, as well as each wine?s closure, alcohol content and price. He provides important details on wineries - including opening times, contact details and web addresses - in addition to biographies on each, and information about the winemakers. An indispensable reference for all enthusiasts of Australian wine, the Australian Wine Companion is a must-have for anyone planning to visit a wine-growing region or to replenish their cellar or wine rack.

James May's Magnificent Machines
James May
Paperback $24.95
Our world has been transformed beyond recognition, particularly in the twentieth century, and so were our lives and our aspirations. Throughout JAMES MAY'S MAGNIFICENT MACHINES James May explores the iconic themes of the past hundred years: flight, space travel, television, mechanised war, medicine, computers, electronic music, skyscrapers, electronic espionage and much more. But he also reveals the hidden story behind why some inventions like the Zeppelin, the hovercraft or the Theremin struggled to make their mark. He examines the tipping points - when technologies such as the car or the internet became unstoppable - and gets up close to the nuts and bolt of remarkable inventions. Packed with surprising statistics and intriguing facts, this is the ideal book for anyone who wants to know how stuff works and why some stuff didn't make it.

My Dad Wished He Had One of Those
Porter & Chapman
Paperback $29.95.95
You've test-driven CRAP CARS and MY DAD HAD ONE OF THOSE: now here comes the luxury model ... When you were growing up your Dad might have seemed like a man of simple pleasures, such as a pint of bitter, a new power drill and a home cooked meal on the table when he got home. But your Dad had dreams too. Yes, he loved your Mum but if Diana Dors came knocking he'd have been out of his armchair in a flash. And don't think he was entirely content with that Ford Cortina or Austin Princess on the driveway either. In quiet moments Dad was dreaming of Ferrari Daytonas, Lamborghini Miuras and countless other shiny wedges that in truth he could never afford. MY DAD WISHED HE HAD ONE OF THOSE celebrates those objects of desire that gave your Dad a faraway look in his eyes.

Don'ts for Golfers 1926
Sandy Green
Hardback $7.95
A fascinating pocket sized nostalgic insight into sports etiquette in the 1920's. Don'ts for Golfers was first published in 1925, as part of a series that included Blanche Ebbutt's Don'ts for Husbands and Don'ts for Wives. This pocket-sized edition contains hundreds of tips for golfers of all abilities. The advice, ranging from technique and fashion to etiquette on the course and in the Club House, provides an entertaining snapshot of life in 1920s Britain. Tips include such gems as: Don't irritate your opponent by wearing jazzy colours. To dazzle his eyes with a multi-coloured pull-over or peace-disturbing golf stockings is to take a mean advantage

The Eat-clean Diet Cookbook Great-tasting Recipes That Keep You Lean
Tosca Reno
Paperback $33.95
Tosca Reno is not only a health and fitness expert, but also a fabulous cook. Who better to write a stunning cookbook that everyone will love? Get: * 150 beautiful food photographs * Delectable low-fat beef, pork, chicken and fish dinners * Protein-rich meat-free recipes * Gluten-free meals * Tips on eating clean in difficult situations * Timesaving one-dish meals for busy moms * Great recipes on the go * How to prepare an elegant clean-eating event.

Sprays
H G, Nelson
Paperback $32.95
Undiluted, unfiltered, unfettered HG Nelson – that celebrated and revered Australian icon – has had a long and illustrious career on our television screens and radio waves. Both a sports commentator and social commentator, his searing insights into the national character have long enthralled audiences around our fair country, and his opinions on everything from the Festival of the Boot, to Olympic glory, to going the grope are highly prized. Sprays is a marvellous collection of the very best of HG's rants, gathered from speeches, articles and even Lachlan Murdoch's bucks night. They're some of his very best serves on such diverse topics as sport, music, politics and art. Whether dispensing advice on how newly married blokes can overcome first-night yips, showing how kiddies can fight the flab through the fun of fishing, or speculating whether having a punt on the Archibald Prize could solve the funding crisis in the Arts community, Sprays shows HG at his irreverent, hilarious best.

A GUINEA PIG'S HISTORY OF BIOLOGY
Jim Endersby
Paperback $27.95
One of the great untold scientific stories; the history of modern biology through the animals and plants that made it happen. The triumphs of recent biology - understanding hereditary disease, the modern theory of evolution - are all thanks to the fruit fly, the guinea pig, the zebra fish and a handful of other organisms, which have helped us unravel one of life's greatest mysteries - inheritance. Jim Endersby traces his story from Darwin hand-pollinating passion flowers in his back garden in an effort to find out whether his decision to marry his cousin had harmed their children, to today's high-tech laboratories, full of shoals of shimmering zebra fish, whose bodies are transparent until they are mature, allowing scientists to watch every step as a single fertilised cell multiples to become millions of specialised cells that make up a new fish. Each story has - piece by piece - revealed how DNA determines the characteristics of the adult organism. Not every organism was as cooperative as the fruit fly or zebra fish, some provided scientists with misleading answers or encouraged them to ask the wrong questions.

THE HORSE IN AUSTRALIA
Fiona Carruthers
Hardback $49.95
From Phar Lap to Makybe Diva, Garryowen to Picasso, and Our Solo to Peppermint Grove, Australians adore their horses. Be it a pony club mount, an Australian Stock Horse descendant of the mighty Waler or a Snowy Mountains brumby, such is our love for the horse, we have virtually granted him honorary native status. When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, they brought a collection of rough pony-sized horses purchased at South Africa's Cape of Good Hope. In 1810, the Colony's first official social gathering took the form of a three-day race meet in Sydney's Hyde Park. By 1813, hardy pack horses were part of the critical crossing of the Blue Mountains, and from the early 1800s, impressive breeding operations of Thoroughbred and Arabians were underway with imported blood horses such as Rockingham and Saladin. The horse has remained fundamental to our sense of national identity. Despite urbanisation, we retain one of the world's highest rates of horse ownership. Through the stories of our most iconic horse events - such as the Melbourne Cup, the Golden Slipper, the Inter Dominion, the Garryowen Perpetual Trophy, the Warwick Gold Cup, the Tom Quilty Endurance Ride and the Pony Club movement in Australia - Fiona Carruthers captures how we have embraced the horse. This comprehensive, beautiful book rattles to the pounding of hooves, exploring the much-loved Australian Light Horse, the all-Australian sports of campdrafting, polocrosse, bush polo and picnic racing and the evolution of the Australian Stock Horse.

The Upside of Down: The End of the World as We Know It, And Why That MayNot Be Such a Bad Thing
Thomas Homer-Dixon
Paperback $26.95
Everyone with a concern for the future of humanity must read this book. Environmental disasters. Terrorist wars. Energy scarcity. Economic failure. Is this the world's inevitable fate, a downward spiral that ultimately spells the collapse of societies? Perhaps, says acclaimed author Thomas Homer-Dixon-or perhaps these crises can actually lead to renewal for ourselves and our planet. The Upside of Down takes the reader on a mind-stretching tour of societies' management, or mismanagement, of disasters over time. From the demise of ancient Rome to contemporary climate change, this spellbinding book analyses what happens when multiple crises compound to cause what the author calls 'synchronous failure'. But, crisis doesn't have to mean total global calamity. Through creative, bold reform in the wake of breakdown, it is possible to reinvent our future.

The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head
Raymond Tallis
Hardback $49.95
The Kingdom of Infinite Space is a journey around the part of our anatomy to which we feel most attached: our heads. In this unique combination of biological science and philosophical interrogation, Raymond Tallis takes the head apart, piece by piece, in search of the place where our souls, and consciousness, reside. From the act of blushing and the amount of manganese in our tears (tears of pain contain more than tears of distress) to the curiousness of a kiss, The Kingdom of Infinite Space explores the astonishing range of activities that go on inside our heads, most of which are entirely beyond our control. After escorting his readers on a fantastic voyage through every chamber of the head and brain, Raymond Tallis demonstrates that not only does consciousness not reside between our ears, but that our heads are infinitely cleverer than we are.

This Is Your Brain On Music: Understanding a Human Obsession
Daniel Levitin
Paperback $26.95
This is the first book to offer a comprehensive explanation of how humans experience music and to unravel the mystery of our perennial love affair with it. Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience. Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand it, and its role in human life.

The Family That Couldn't Sleep: Unravelling a Venetian Medical Mystery
D T Max
Paperback $26.95
The first symptoms begin after just a few sleepless nights, with shaking, sweating and overwhelming anxiety. They end only after months of agonising open-eyed deterioration when the victim finally falls into a coma-like state of exhaustion and then dies. Fatal Familial Insomnia is a rare, inherited disease that has afflicted one noble Venetian family for centuries, striking at random and passing from generation to generation like a deadly dynastic curse. The cause? A rogue protein called a prion, which is impossible to destroy and is also responsible for Mad Cow Disease and scrapie in sheep. In this ground-breaking work of scientific detection, D. T. Max pins down this most mutable and maddening of enemies and tells a story that is at once enlightening and spell-binding.