SPECIAL PRICE Originally $89.99
The Australian War Memorial
Nola Anderson
Murdoch Books, HB, 9781742660127
$63.59 exGST $69.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
The Australian War Memorial in Canberra was opened in 1941 and has grown to become one of the most important symbols of our national identity. This book tells the story of the memorial and its artefacts – one of the most signifi cant collections of military history in the world. Drawn from the battlefields of Europe to peacekeeping operations and the current confl icts in the Middle East, these artefacts are brought to life here through both colour photographs and Nola Anderson’s accounts of the rich personal stories behind them.
The Best Australian Science Writing 2012
Elizabeth Finkel (ed)
NewSouth, PB, 9781742233482
$27.26 exGST $29.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Biochemist, journalist and author Elizabeth Finkel has, along with an impressive panel of advisors, put together this second volume of the best of Australian science writing, a rarely showcased genre. She values ‘clear explanation, storytelling and passion’, and contributors include Adrian Hyland on the aftermath of the Black Saturday fires, asking why Australia is the most fi re-prone nation on Earth; Jo Chandler on her journey to the Antarctic to experience climate science ‘in the raw’; and Wilson da Silva writing about the fulfilment of his lifelong dream to witness a space shuttle launch. This is a wonderful collection that is suitable even for those who are not scientifi cally minded because of its emphasis on writing that connects with ordinary human lives and experiences.
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $34.95
A Brush With Birds
Penny Olsen
National Library of Australia, PB, 9780642276803
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The Australian bird art featured in A Brush with Birds is drawn from the collection of the National Library of Australia. These works span the years from fi rst settlement to the 1970s, telling us about the times as well as the birds, and showing how bird art in this country has evolved. The book is lavishly illustrated with vibrant and luscious art, and includes the stories of the artists behind the paintings. Through it, you will be able to enter the colourful world of birds such as the king parrot, the yellow-tufted honeyeater, the satin bower bird and the red goshawk, and be inspired by their beauty.
Curious Minds
The Discovery of Australian Naturalists
Peter Macinnis
National Library of Australia, PB, 9780642277541
$36.35 exGST $39.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
The earliest European explorers came to Australia in search of riches and found an inhospitable, desolate land. So rather than taking treasure home, they took the first specimens of Australian wildlife and plant life. Peter Macinnis has written a wonderfully informative, entertaining and affectionate historical account of the adventurers and naturalists who documented our country’s unique and sometimes bizarre flora and fauna. There’s something of a boy’s own adventure in the way Macinnis portrays the historical figures, artists and botanists of the period, but there’s also plenty of well-researched historical clout to back up such playfulness. Free Gift: Purchase a copy of Curious Minds and you’ll receive a free copy of Penelope Hanley’s Creative Lives (National Library of Australia. PB. $34.99).
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $29.95
For the Love of Nature
Christobel Mattingley
National Library of Australia, HB, 9780642276964
$13.59 exGST $14.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Ebenezer Edward Gostelow (1866–1944) began his 50-year-long teaching career at the age of 15. A keen naturalist, he took every opportunity to study the flora and fauna of rural NSW and would liven up his classroom blackboards with captivating chalk drawings of birds, butterflies and flowers. More than 800 of Gostelow’s detailed and delicate watercolours are held in the picture collection of the National Library of Australia, and 80 are reproduced in this handsome publication, National Library alongside a short biography of the artist.
Hallucinations
Oliver Sacks
Picador, PB, 9781447224518
$27.26 exGST $29.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Giant spiders, phantom fingers, rancid stenches and lost loved ones – our minds can conjure an infinite variety of hallucinations, and they’re more common among the sane than you might think. In his 11 books, neurologist Oliver Sacks has recounted many of his fascinating, often bizarre case studies. Hallucinations doesn’t disappoint – and it’s oddly reassuring, in that many of us will hallucinate at some point in our lives, and this isn’t necessarily an ominous sign (if you wake to find a ghost by your bed, don’t worry – it’s probably a hypnopompic hallucination!). Sacks also details his own experiences with hallucinations, including 1960s LSD trips that make fascinating case studies, indeed.
December Release
How the Dog Became the Dog
Mark Derr
Scribe Publications, PB, 9781922070135
$25.41 exGST $27.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
It is an accepted fact of evolution and history that the dog evolved from the wolf. But the question of how wolf became dog has remained a mystery, obscured by myth and legend. Mark Derr argues that the dog was an evolutionary inevitability because humans and wolves were made for each other: both were social species that lived and hunted as family units, and cooperation was essential to their survival. The natural temperament of, and social structure surrounding, humans and wolves is so similar that as soon as they met, they recognised themselves in each other. Combining the most recent scientific research with stunning and original insights, this book shows that dogs made us human, just as humans changed dogs.
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $29.95
Hung Like an Argentine Duck
A Journey Back in Time to the Origins of Sexual Intimacy
John Long
Harper Collins, PB, 9780732292737
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Interested in learning about about homosexual penguins, monogamous seahorses, the difficulties of dinosaur romance and how sexual organs in ancient shark-like fishes actually relate to our own sexual anatomy? Paleontologist John Long has all the answers! In Hung Like an Argentine Duck: A Journey Back in Time to the Origins of Sexual Intimacy, Long writes about his quest to uncover the paleontological and evolutionary history of copulation and insemination, in the process taking readers on an entertaining and lively tour through the sex lives of ancient fish and exposing the unusual mating habits of arthropods, tortoises and even a wellendowed (16.5 inches!) Argentine duck.
John Gould's Extinct and Endangered Birds of Australia
Sue Taylor
National Library of Australia, HB, 9780642277657
$45.41 exGST $49.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
In her third book about Australia’s feathered friends, Sue Taylor has selected 59 beautifully illustrated colour plates from the sevenvolume work The Birds of Australia (1848) created by the father of Australian ornithology, John Gould. Taylor’s selection covers birds that are already extinct and those that are currently threatened with extinction, and she has included a historical overview detailing Gould’s first encounter with each bird as well as chapters on naming, description, habitat, voice, diet, breeding and current threats. Poignant and saddening, Extinct and Endangered Birds of Australia only touches the surface of how vulnerable our birdlife is, leaving us with the hope that as many as possible on the list are saved from the fate of the aptly named paradise parrot – last seen in 1927.
The Joy of X
A Guided Tour of Mathematics, from One to Infinity
Steven Strogatz
Atlantic Books, PB, 9781848878440
$27.26 exGST $29.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Strogatz, a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, has put together a witty and fascinating account of maths’ most compelling ideas and how, so often, they are an integral part of everyday life. His ‘Guided Tour of Mathematics from One to Infinity’ answers plenty of questions: How should you flip your mattress to get the maximum wear out of it? How many people should you date before settling down? How does Google search the internet? Why does the stock market swing so often, and so wildly? As Strogatz makes clear, maths is everywhere – often where we don’t even realise. His explanations of the great ideas of maths – from negative numbers to calculus, fat tails to infinity – are offered with clarity, wit and insight.
A Little History of Science
William Bynum
Yale University Press, HB, 9780300136593
$29.95 exGST $32.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Science tells us about the infi nite reaches of space, the tiniest living organism, the human body, the history of Earth. From ancient Greek philosophers through Einstein and Watson and Crick to the computerassisted scientists of today, men and women involved in this field have wondered, examined, experimented, calculated and sometimes made discoveries so earthshaking that people were led to understand the world – or themselves – in an entirely new way. Emphasising surprising and personal stories of scientists both famous and unsung, this compact and accessible book traces the march of science through the centuries, opening a window on the exciting and unpredictable nature of scientific activity and describing the uproar that may ensue when scientific findings challenge established ideas.
Measurement
Paul Lockhart
Harvard University Press, HB, 9780674057555
$40.91 exGST $45.00 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
A book on the pleasures of … maths? The word itself is enough to strike fear into the hearts of many. But mathematician and teacher Paul Lockhart isn’t here to drill us with multiplication tables and the like. In fact, in his first book A Mathematician’s Lament (Bellevue Literary Press. PB. $24.99), he spoke out against the way maths is taught in high school. Now he demonstrates that maths is a challenging and rewarding form of art that anyone can appreciate and enjoy. His argument is creative, logical and accessible, exactly what you’d expect from a good mathematician. And not only is Measurement delightfully written, but it’s also a hardback of a rare quality and elegance. As Lockhart says in his introduction, ‘Have a wonderful time!’
The Medical Book
From Witch Doctors to Robot Surgeons, 250 Milestones in the History of Medicine
Clifford A Pickover
Sterling, HB, 9781402785856
$36.36 exGST $40.00 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Modern medicine can astonish us with its miracles. At the same time, we take much of it for granted – having a blood test, say, or popping an antibiotic, or getting stitches. This book reminds us that medical treatment today is the result of thousands of years’ worth of discoveries and inventions, each one a major achievement in human thinking, each one contributing to medical knowledge. Author and thinker Clifford Pickover writes intelligently and lucidly about 250 of the most important milestones in the development of medicine, starting with the witch doctors of 10,000 years ago and ending with human cloning. Following the interconnections between entries makes this an enjoyable as well as enlightening read.
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $35.00
The Mind's Eye
Oliver Sacks
Picador, PB, 9780330513999
$11.77 exGST $12.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks has written several bestselling books of mind-boggling case histories, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador. PB. $27). In this new collection, Sacks himself is one of the patients he discusses. He was diagnosed with a malignant eye tumour in 2005, and in ‘Persistence of Vision: A Journal’, he includes entries he wrote during his recovery process, involving musings (and fascinating sketches) on his altered perceptions, but also – poignantly – his fears and hopes. Another quite personal essay concerns his prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, while the others look at patients who are experiencing various neurological deficits, but who’ve found amazing ways to adapt and get on with their lives.
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $34.95
The Quintessential Bird
Viola Temple Watts
National Library of Australia, HB, 9780642277312
$13.59 exGST $14.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Betty Temple Watts (1901–92) developed an interest in birds in her early married life while living in Iran and Papua New Guinea. Although she had studied art formally as a 19-year-old, it was not until she was 48 and settled in Melbourne that she decided to immerse herself in her bird art. Watts received her first commission in 1952, going on to provide bird illustrations for numerous publications until she was in her late eighties. The Quintessential Bird allows readers a glimpse into Betty’s joyous world of birds, reproducing many of her works in full along with 60 closeups of individual birds.
SPECIAL PRICE Originally $34.95
Women of Flowers
Botanical Art in Australia from the 1830s to the 1960s
Leonie Norton
National Library of Australia, PB, 9780642276834
$15.41 exGST $16.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Renowned botanical artist Leonie Norton pays tribute to those who came before her in this beautiful full-colour book, illustrated with over 100 exquisite botanical paintings. Ten Australian women artists are showcased here, their lives and work dating from Mary Morton Allport (who moved from a refined English life to a bark humpy in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831) to Ida McComish (who travelled the Pacific with her botanist husband to collect, paint and record unique flora, and died in 1978). The paintings are accompanied by biographical essays on each artist documenting their lives and their approach to art – all of them have been little known until now. This book has clearly been a labour of love, as shown in its stunning production values and depth of research.
Zombie Tits, Austronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals
Becky Crew
NewSouth, PB, 9781742233215
$22.72 exGST $24.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Science blogger Becky Crew’s fascination with the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit the animal kingdom led to her award-winning blog, Running Ponies, being invited into the Scientific American Blog Network (blogs. scientificamerican.com/running-ponies). In her first book, she continues the theme with a celebration of the remarkable, quirky and at times gruesome in-laws that inhabit the animal world. Crew’s mix of scientific facts, gob-smacking strangeness, witty observations and through-the-looking-glass anthropomorphic vignettes make for a lighthearted read, without straying too far from the subject matter at hand. There are no spoiler alerts here, so you’ll have to read the book to find out what zombie tits and astronaut fish get up to, but as a teaser, we’re sure fruit-bat fellatio needs no explanation.
Highly Recommended
Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs
Marc Lewis
Scribe Publications, PB, 9781921844607
$27.23 exGST $29.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
In this mesmerising memoir, a neuroscientist recounts his relationship with drugs from the inside out, giving a revelatory analysis of the chemical changes in his brain that sustained his addiction.
Highly Recommended
Quiet
The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Susan Cain
Viking, PB, 9780670916764
$27.23 exGST $29.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestselling The Happiness Project, describes Quiet as ‘an extraordinary book that will change forever the way society views introverts’.
Highly Recommended
The Red Book
A Reader's Edition
C G Jung
Norton, HB, 9780393089080
$43.59 exGST $47.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
A complete facsimile and translation of one of the most influential unpublished works in the history of psychology. Edited and with an introduction by Sonu Shamdasani, professor at the UCL Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London.
Highly Recommended
Thinking Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Penguin, PB, 9780141033570
$20.86 exGST $22.95 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
Kahneman reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and offers practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking.
Highly Recommended
The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young
Harper Collins, PB, 9780732292393
$27.26 exGST $29.99 incGST ADD TO TROLLEY
The founder of the Arrowsmith School in Toronto is a passionate advocate of neuroplasticity (the capability of nerve cells to change) and here extols its efficacy in overcoming learning difficulties.