The Rip by Mark Brandi

$30.00 AUD

Category: Crime

'It's funny how quick it happens and without you really noticing. Anton said once that it's like walking out into the sea, and you think everything's fine and the water's warm, but when you turn back you're suddenly miles from shore. I've never been much of a swimmer, but I get what he means. Like, bein g caught in a current or something. A rip.' A young woman living on the street has to keep her wits about her. Or her friends. But when the drugs kick in that can be hard. Anton has been looking out for her. She was safe with him. But then Steve came along. He had something over Anton. Must have. But he had a flat they could crash in. And gear in his pocket. And she can't stop thinking about it. A good hit makes everything all right. But the flat smells weird. There's a lock on Steve's bedroom door. And the guy is intense. The problem is, sometimes you just don't know you are in too deep, until you are drowning. ...Show more

In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy by Frederic Martel

$35.00 AUD

Category: Political

 In the Closet of the Vatican exposes the rot at the heart of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church today. This brilliant piece of investigative writing is based on four years' authoritative research, including extensive interviews with those in power.  The celibacy of priests, the condem nation of the use of contraceptives, the cover up of countless cases of sexual abuse, the resignation of Benedict XVI, misogyny among the clergy, the dramatic fall in Europe of the number of vocations to the priesthood, the plotting against Pope Francis all these issues are clouded in mystery and secrecy. In the Closet of the Vatican is a book that reveals these secrets and penetrates this enigma. It derives from a system founded on a clerical culture of secrecy which starts in junior seminaries and continues right up to the Vatican itself. It is based on the double lives of priests and on extreme homophobia. The resulting schizophrenia in the Church is hard to fathom. But the more a prelate is homophobic, the more likely it is that he is himself gay. 'Behind rigidity there is always something hidden, in many cases a double life'. These are the words of Pope Francis himself and with them the Pope has unlocked the Closet. No one can claim to really understand the Catholic Church today until they have read this book. It reveals a truth that is extraordinary and disturbing. ...Show more

The Border by Don Winslow

$33.00 AUD

Category: Crime | Reading Level: 2

The explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force. For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America's longest conflict: The War On Drugs. His obsession to defeat the world's most powerful, wealthy, and l ethal kingpin-the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera-has left him bloody and scarred, cost him people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But not just there. Barrera's final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by enemies-men that want to kill him, politicians that want to destroy him, and worse, the unimaginable-an incoming administration that's in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down. Art Keller is at war with not only the cartels, but with his own government. And the long fight has taught him more than he ever imagined. Now, he learns the final lesson-there are no borders. "One of the best thriller writers on the planet" Esquire "He's a master" Michael Connelly "Nobody understands the disaster of corruption like Don Winslow" Val McDermid ...Show more

The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan

$33.00 AUD

Category: Crime | Series: Cormac Reilly Ser. | Reading Level: 2

From the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Ruin comes a compulsive new crime thriller featuring DS Cormac Reilly. Being brilliant has never been this dangerous ... When Dr Emma Sweeney stumbles across the victim of a hit and run outside Galway University late one evening, she calls her p artner, Detective Cormac Reilly, bringing him first to the scene of a murder that would otherwise never have been assigned to him. A security card in the dead woman's pocket identifies her as Carline Darcy, a gifted student and heir apparent to Irish pharmaceutical giant Darcy Therapeutics. The multi-billion-dollar company, founded by her grandfather, has a finger in every pie, from sponsoring university research facilities to funding political parties to philanthropy - it has funded Emma's own ground-breaking research. The enquiry into Carline's death promises to be high profile and high pressure. As Cormac investigates, evidence mounts that the death is linked to a Darcy laboratory and, increasingly, to Emma herself. Cormac is sure she couldn't be involved, but as his running of the case comes under scrutiny from the department and his colleagues, he is forced to question his own objectivity. Could his loyalty to Emma have led him to overlook evidence? Has it made him a liability? ...Show more

Kit Kemp Design Thread by Kit Kemp

$60.00 AUD

Category: Interiors

In Design Thread Kit shares the inspiration behind her creative decisions: whether it's a house in town, a Piede a Terre, hotel suite or beach bar, her unique design shines through. Kit considers every element of her interiors in detail and, as always, creates personal, handcrafted rooms by be nding the rules and combining colour and wit. Alongside the stunning images of room sets and detailed close-ups will be the inspiration behind Kit's work, her design collaborations, hotels as well as her private residences. Interiors are meant for living in, and the key is to create a space that is comfortable, beautiful and reflects who you really are.  ...Show more

Lost in Florence by Nardia Plumridge

$30.00 AUD

Category: Travel Guides | Series: Curious Travel Guides

Florence is renowned for its Renaissance art, yet this celebrated city is more than just a tourist hub for galleries filled with gilt-framed paintings. Go beyond the facade of the palazzi and instead take a turn down the cobblestone side streets to discover vintage stores housing designer names, restaur ants offering farm-to-table dishes and boutique hotels in 16th-century buildings. Lost in Florence is the culmination of the author's popular blog by the same name and offers a comprehensive guide to the very best places to eat, drink, shop and explore in this magical Italian city. A series of itineraries mean you can get the most out of your visit, whether you have only a day or two or more, and daytrips to nearby places like Siena, Cinque Terre and the Chianti wine region are also included. Italians pride themselves on a quality of life - la dolce vita - and with this beautifully designed guidebook, you will discover those unique travel experiences beyond the tourist haunts. ...Show more

Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations by Toni Morrison

$35.00 AUD

Category: Essays

A vital new non-fiction collection from one of the most celebrated and revered writers of our time.‘Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference—the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.’- The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1993 Spanning four decades, these essays, speeches and meditations interrogate the world around us. They are concerned with race, gender and globalisation. The sweep of American history and the current state of politics. The duty of the press and the role of the artist. Throughout A Mouth Full of Blood our search for truth, moral integrity and expertise is met by Toni Morrison with controlled anger, elegance and literary excellence.The collection is structured in three parts and these are heart-stoppingly introduced by a prayer for the dead of 9/11, a meditation on Martin Luther King and a eulogy for James Baldwin. Morrison’s Nobel lecture, on the power of language, is accompanied by lectures to Amnesty International and the Newspaper Association of America. She speaks to graduating students and visitors to both the Louvre and America’s Black Holocaust Museum. She revisits The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved; reassessing the novels that have become touchstones for generations of readers.A Mouth Full of Blood is a powerful, erudite and essential gathering of ideas that speaks to us all.‘To what do we pay greatest allegiance? Family, language group, culture, country, gender? Religion, race? And, if none of these matter, are we urbane, cosmopolitan or simply lonely? In other words, how do we decide where we belong? What convinces us that we do?’- The Alexander Lecture series, 2002 ...Show more

The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia by Michelle Arrow

$35.00 AUD

Category: Australian | Reading Level: 4

In 1970 homosexuality was illegal, God Save the Queen was our national anthem and women pretended to be married to accessthe pill. By the end of the decade conscription was scrapped, tertiary education was free, access to abortion had improved, the White Australia policy was abolished and a woman read t he news on the ABC for the first time. The Seventies was the decade that shaped modern Australia. It was the decade of 'It's Time', stagflation and the Dismissal, a tumultuous period of economic and political upheaval. But the Seventies was also the era when the personal becamepolitical, when we had a Royal Commission into Human Relationships and when social movements tore down the boundary between public and private life. Women wantedchildcare, equal pay, protection from violence and agency to shape their ownlives. In the process, the reforms they sought -- and achieved, at least in part -- reshaped Australia's culture and rewrote our expectations of government. In a lively and engaging style, Michelle Arrow has written a new history of this transformative decade; one that is more urgent, and more resonant, than ever. 'At last, personal politics as national history. In lucid and nimble prose, Michelle Arrow demonstrates that -- in the 1970s at least -- it was about the relationships, stupid. A revelation.' -- Clare Wright ...Show more

The Capital by Robert Menasse

$33.00 AUD

Category: Crime

The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found, a History in Seven Cities by Violet Moller

$36.00 AUD

Category: European

'An epic treasure hunt into the highways and byways of stored knowledge across faiths and continents.' John Agard, poet and playwright In The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity - Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy - through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad, from Muslim Cordoba to Catholic Toledo, from Salerno's medieval medical school to Palermo, capital of Sicily's vibrant mix of cultures, and - finally - to Venice, where that great merchant city's printing presses would enable Euclid's geometry, Ptolemy's system of the stars and Galen's vast body of writings on medicine to spread even more widely. In tracing these fragile strands of knowledge from century to century, from east to west and north to south, Moller also reveals the web of connections between the Islamic world and Christendom, connections that would both preserve and transform astronomy, mathematics and medicine from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Vividly told and with a dazzling cast of characters, The Map of Knowledge is an evocative, nuanced and vibrant account of our common intellectual heritage. ...Show more

Bauhaus Imaginista by Marion von Osten (Editor); Grant Watson (Editor)

$80.00 AUD

Category: Design

Bauhaus Imaginista marks the centennial anniversary of this fascinating and popular school of art, which championed the idea of artists working together as a community. The Bauhaus reconnected art with everyday life and was active in the fields of architecture, performance, design, and visual art. Found ed by Walter Gropius, its faculty included such luminaries as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, La´szlo´ Moholy-Nagy, and Josef Albers. Placing emphasis on the international dissemination and reception of the Bauhaus, this book expresses the Bauhaus' influence, philosophy, and history beyond Germany. Rethinking the school from an international perspective, it sets its entanglements against a century of geopolitical change, as many of its artists fled World War II Germany. Bauhaus Imaginista takes readers on a global visual tour of Bauhaus influence from art and design museums to campus galleries and art institutes in India, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Berlin, and the United States. ...Show more

Machines Like Me (HB) by Ian McEwan

$45.00 AUD

Category: Fiction

Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda?s assistance, he co-designs Adam?s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever - a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan?s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions- what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control. ...Show more