Item category 1: Society & Culture

True tales of crimes so bizarre you won't believe them. True tales of crimes so bizarre you might not believe them. The mysterious disappearance of thousands of false teeth, international travel via the postal system, doughnut delivery heists, clowns terrorising a neighbourhood, the theft of a th...

One hundred years ago, Gabriel Wells, a New York bookseller, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world's greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages. This is the story of an Australian man's hunt for those fragments and his family's debt to an act of lit...

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future. These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-sa...

We live busy lives in busy times. Anxiety, depression and discontent are on the increase. There is no quick fix for the woes of modern living. We are born, and we die, but in between can be glorious this is the way of Zen. Zen is NOT a religion, it is NOT a dogma, it is a way of life that is extr...

Hardly a day goes by without mention of Islam. And yet, for most people, and in much of the world, Islam remains a little-known religion. Whether the issue is violence, terrorism, women's rights or slavery, Muslims are today expected to provide answers and to justify what Islam is - or is not. Bu...

"The Bhagavad Gita," a wisdom classic from India, was written down 3,000 years ago from an even older oral tradition. It has been translated from the original Sanskrit into over 75 languages worldwide, and into English in more than 300 editions. Ranchor Prime, an author of several books on Indian...

Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Muhammad. There is alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma w...

Stacey and Paul Martino are finally releasing their book to share their unique Relationship Development Methodology with the world. The surprising paradigm the Martinos' have uncovered has been The Missing Piece in our knowledge of human relationships. They demonstrate why the old relationship pa...

"While travel was once a marker of sophistication, tourists now face tough questions: When does economic opportunity become exploitation? How do we justify the use of climate-changing jet fuel? And can we be sure our vacations aren't propping up corrupt and brutal regimes? In Reservations, avid t...

We all feel it -- the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they're us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel t...

Belle Gibson convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet. She built a global business based upon her claims. There was just one problem: she'd never had cancer. Written by the same journalists who uncovered the details of Gibson's lies, this book trac...

Wedding toasts, website copy, social media posts, even holiday cards - you'll become a sharper everyday writer with this witty and comprehensive guide to clearer, better communication. You'll never write an email the same way after reading Everybody Needs an Editor, a game-changing guide to sharp...

As a White House speechwriter, Terry Szuplat helped craft hundreds of speeches for President Obama. But when it came to public speaking himself, Szuplat -- like many people -- was gripped by anxiety and preferred to stay in the shadows. When he was invited to give the first major speech of his li...

Never be at a loss for words again! Perfect your people skills with his fun, witty and informative guide, containing 92 little tricks to create big success in personal and business relationships. In How To Talk To Anyone, bestselling relationships author and internationally renowned life coach Le...

Online romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously. This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon. No other woman has had so many online romances...

Subject: Fine tea leaves and resplendent utensils are only two elements of what is a dynamic process to fully enjoy tea. However, without skill in steeping tea, without a suitable environment to drink tea, without good spring water, without proper fire to boil water, without an understanding of t...

Curious about the culture around drinking tea? Perfect for travel and history lovers, Why We Love Tea dives into the practice of tea ceremony and meditation in different cultures. From the origins of tea to drinking etiquette in other parts of the world, this guide illuminates tea's important his...

Abstract: Icelanders believe in elves. Why? Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art - from ancient times to today - Nancy Marie Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has it...

The food system is no longer simply a means of sustenance. It is one of the most successful, most innovative and most destructive industries on earth. It sustains us, but it is also killing us. Diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world, ...

Imagine a deadly pathogen that, once created, could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers, trains, or air traffic to spread it, all you need is an internet connection. In this gripping investigation, James Ball decodes the cryptic language of th...

Meet the Murdochs and the disastrously dysfunctional family of Fox News. Until recently, they formed the most powerful media and political force in America. Now their empire is cracking up and crashing down. In his irresistible trilogy on the chaotic Trump presidency - Fire and Fury, Siege, and L...

Gripping and darkly comic, Breaking Twitter takes readers inside the battle between one of the most intriguing, polarizing, influential men of our time - Elon Musk - and the company that owns our world's best hope for a shared global conversation. From employee accounts within Twitter headquarte...

A social history that reveals the roots of AI in the spatial computation of industrial factories and the surveillance of collective behaviour.

The psychology and biology behind what we find cute, and how cuteness has shaped cultures around the world. Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to Disney characters? Cuteness is an area w...

Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor--The Next Trump. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we...

Hollywood starlet Lana Turner was one Tinseltown's most recognizable faces in the 1940s and 50s. But, when the Academy Award-winning actress began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato -- a thug for west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen -- all the lights and glamor of Hollywood did not brighten the darknes...

New Orleans has long been America's most magical city, inhabited by a fascinating visible and invisible world, full of mysteries, known for its decadence and haunted by its spirits. If Salem is famous for its persecution of witches, New Orleans is celebrated for its embrace of the magical, mystic...

Ghostly encounters, alien abduction, reincarnation, talking to the dead, UFO sightings, inexplicable coincidences, out-of-body and near-death experiences. Are these legitimate phenomena? If not, then how should we go about understanding them? In this book, Chris French investigates paranormal cla...

Three years on, COVID is clearly here to stay. So what do we do now? Drawing on his expertise as one of the world's top virologists, Dr. Paul Offit helps weary readers address that crucial question in this brief, definitive guide. As a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee and a former mem...

In a world full of negative influences, Lads is a toolkit for teenage boys on respect and consent, helping them call out bad behaviour and giving them the confidence to be their best selves. Have you ever been in a situation where there's a loud guy making dodgy comments, cracking jokes that only...