Item category 1: Society & Culture

Women the world over are brought up to hope, even expect, to find the man of their dreams and live happily ever after. When Stephanie Wood meets a former architect turned farmer she embarks on an exhilarating romance with him. He seems compassionate, loving, truthful. They talk about the future. ...

In this guide, Lucinda Halpern, founder of Lucinda Literary, divulges what agents look for in authors and the industry shortcuts they use to get book deals. Using her 6-step method, learn answers to questions like: How do I make my book pitch marketable to agents and publishers?; What essential i...

A clear-eyed examination of how Australia should approach the complex security challenges at play in its maritime domain. Security starts at home ... Australia has drawn closer to many of its Asia-Pacific neighbours in recent years, but 'when push comes to shove, it continues to look well beyond ...

The first comprehensive biography of the godfather of Australian bushranging - Frank Gardiner - leader of the Lachlan gang and mastermind of the largest gold heist in Australian history. Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly - the ultimate outlaw - and just below him, the tr...

The Great Housing Hijack reveals how vested interests pull the strings on the property market in Australia, and offers a solution for genuinely affordable housing for those who need it.

Fishing quotas on Lake Constance. Common lands in the UK. The medieval answer to Depop in the middle of Frankfurt. These are all just some of the sustainability initiatives from the Middle Ages that Annette Kehnel illuminates in The Green Ages. From the mythical-sounding City of Ladies and their ...

A picture book is a book with pictures, but it's so much more than that! This A to Z guide helps you level up your picture book reading experiences, empowering yourself and the young readers in your world to dive deeper into what makes a great picture book great. With histories, insights and hand...

Forty years after its foundation, Lebanese Hezbollah remains an organization difficult to understand. An Islamist terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel or the first Arab national Resistance to have ever defeated Tel-Aviv's troops, a patriotic and respectable party or a fascist network ha...

Explore 50 of the most unique libraries located in unknown spaces across the world in this book for travel-loving bibliophiles. From China's lonely library on a secluded beach to a roving military tank filled with 900 novels in Buenos Aires, this inspirational guide celebrates the great lengths h...

A myth-busting book about how the world produces and consumes its food and how to do so without killing the planet. In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today: Why are...

In this fascinating & profoundly chilling account, Detective Kim Mager, a real-life version of Clarice Starling, reveals how she closed in on-and broke-one of Ohio's most infamous serial killers. On September 13, 2016, in the small town of Ashland, Ohio, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call ...

In 1811, when the self-schooled daughter of a carpenter pulled some strange-looking bones from Britain's southern shoreline, few people dared to question that the Bible told the accurate history of the world. But Mary Anning had discovered the 'first' dinosaur, and over the next seventy-five year...

A rare firsthand account of Vatican politics as Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis each endeavored to lead the Catholic Church into the modern world-from an accomplished diplomat, lawyer, and Harvard professor. "In my years of service to the Holy See, I was a stranger in a rather stran...

Explore the culture and spiritual practices of India and learn the origins and beliefs of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism with this elegantly designed guide. Nurture your well-being with the eye-opening beliefs of Indian Spirituality. The global historical, social, and cultural reach of ...

From its beginnings in 2000 to the impact of COVID-19, "Inside Stories" explores how MECO evolved from a project to a department and how, after two decades, it has become an influential research destination and a popular choice for domestic and international students. Written by MECO staff and st...

In the world of tattoo art, few traditions can rival the elaborate and refined artistry of Japanese tattoos. In this richly illustrated book, The Japanese Tattoo, by the French historian and journalist who specialises in Japan and Korea Phillipe Pons, readers will find a wealth of detailed inform...

This is a powerful analysis of a black working class woman who rose from a tenement slum in intensely racialized British Guiana to become a leading anti-colonialism, workers' rights and women's liberation activist in Britain. Tomlinson details Huntley's participation with actions such as the Inte...

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...

When Marion Barter disappeared in 1997, police initially dismissed it as the actions of a divorced mother abandoning her family. In this book, the creators of the podcast The Lady Vanishes detail the winding investigation into Marion's disappearance, from tentative early police efforts to her dau...

Australia has so many stories and statues 'lest we forget' our military past. But from Simpson's donkey to Ben Roberts-Smith, our history is full of events that didn't happen the way most people think they did. The first Anzac Day, for example, was far from being a solemn march -- it was a celebr...

Could Australia become a full-employment, renewable-energy superpower? Ross Garnaut says yes, and it starts with taxing carbon. A levy on the big polluters will help fund Australia to become a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut emissions. In this path-b...

Intelligence expressed through technology should not be mistaken for a magical genie, capable of self-directed thought or action. Rather, in highly original and effervescent prose with a generous dose of wit, Yi Tenen asks us to read past the artifice to better perceive the mechanics of collabora...

Face your fears and discover new ones: From chilling true-crime tales to unnerving everyday events, this satisfying feast for the morbidly curious is teeming with hundreds of terrifying facts. These cautionary tales might fuel your nightmares for years to come, but they could also save your life....

"At the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure: the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret ...

The complete backstory of Japanese cuisine explained in richly illustrated manga style! This book explores the fascinating history, lore and practice of Japanese cooking through the eyes of Manabu, a young man who aspires to become a professional Japanese chef. Each chapter presents a new set of ...

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...

In 2023 the curtain finally came down on Brian Houston. The rock star of Pentecostalism, former Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, was acquitted of concealing his father's sexual abuse of a minor, but it was too late. His glittering megachurch had disowned him. How had it come to this? And ...

In 1989, the cult Hong Kong writer Xi Xi was diagnosed with breast cancer, and began writing to make sense of her illness and its treatment. The book she wrote was heralded as the first Chinese-language work to cast off the stigma of speaking frankly about disease, a disarmingly honest and person...

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...

Generations raised after the Second World War took for granted a world of stability and prosperity, and with it the waning of ancient hatreds. Recent decades have been more sobering. Instability and extremism have returned in force. As Shalom Lappin explains in this worrying book, an upsurge of a...