Best Non-Fiction of 2011
The Psychopath Test
$0.00 – Paperback book / Macmillan
This is a story about madness. It all starts when journalist Jon Ronson is contacted by a leading neurologist. She and several colleagues have recently received a cryptically puzzling book in the mail, and Jon is challen... Buy or find out more →
Kinglake-350
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Text Publishing
Read Adrian Hyland's interview with Meg Mundell about Kinglake-350.
Kinglake-350 to VKC. Urgent, do you read me?
The fire’s here now. God help us.
Kinglake-350 is a masterpiece of writing about family, community, coun... Buy or find out more →
Melbourne
$29.95 – Hardcover book / New South Books
Read our Q&A with Sophie Cunningham about Melbourne.
Sophie Cunningham writes a year in the city’s life, a year that takes us from the heatwave that culminated on Black Saturday when temperatures soared to 47 degree... Buy or find out more →
Good Living Street: The Fortunes Of My Viennese Family
$35.00 – Trade paperback / Allen & Unwin
From high society in Vienna to a small flat in Sydney; from patrons of the arts to refugees from the Holocaust; this is the enthralling story of three generations of women spanning a century of upheaval.
In 1900 Vienna w... Buy or find out more →
Franklin And Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage
$36.99 – Paperback book / Melb Univ Press
Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage is one of the most celebrated and scrutinized partnerships in presidential history. It raised eyebrows in their lifetimes and has only become more controversial since thei... Buy or find out more →
The Biggest Estate On Earth
$49.99 – Hardcover book / Allen & Unwin
Explodes the myth that pre-settlement Australia was an untamed wilderness revealing the complex, country-wide systems of land management used by Aboriginal people.
Across Australia, early Europeans commented again and ag... Buy or find out more →
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
$29.95 – Hardcover book / Jonathan Cape
In 1985 Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents. The girl is supposed to grow up and be a missionary. Instead she... Buy or find out more →
Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Scribe Publications
When Lindsay Tanner resigned in 2010 as the ALP’s federal minister for finance and member for Melbourne, having had an 18-year career as an MP, he notably managed to retire with his reputation for integrity intact. In Si... Buy or find out more →
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
$45.00 – Hardcover book / Hachette
An extraordinary book which gives a unique insight into the life and thinking of the man who has single-handedly transformed the world.
Written from hours of interviews with Steve Jobs himself, family, friends, colleague... Buy or find out more →
Women's Stuff
$59.95 – Hardcover book / Penguin Books
Whether you're starting or ending a relationship, a friend has found a lump in her breast, you're in debt, your partner's lost interest in sex or you don't know whether to believe the moisturiser label, Women's Stuff is ... Buy or find out more →
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
$19.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited... Buy or find out more →
A Train In Winter
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Chatto & Windus
On January 24, 1943, 230 women were placed in four cattle trucks on a train in Compiegne, in northeastern France, and the doors bolted shut for the journey to Auschwitz. They were members of the French Resistance, rangin... Buy or find out more →
1835: The Founding Of Melbourne And The Conquest Of Australia
$44.95 – Hardcover book / Black Inc
In 1835 an illegal squatter camp was established on the banks of the Yarra River. In defiance of authorities in London and Sydney, Tasmanian speculators began sending men and sheep across Bass Strait – and so changed the... Buy or find out more →
Is That A Fish In Your Ear? Translation And The Meaning Of Everything
$39.95 – Hardcover book / Penguin Group Uk
People speak different languages, and always have. The Ancient Greeks took no notice of anything unless it was said in Greek; the Romans made everyone speak Latin; and in India, people learned their neighbours' languages... Buy or find out more →
Boomerang
$39.95 – Hard back / Penguin Group Uk
Iceland, Greece and Ireland we know about. On Spain, Portugal and Italy we've heard the warnings. Britain is a fear rumbling in the distant background of precarious triple-A ratings. But surely Germany is safe. Isn't it?... Buy or find out more →
Quarterly Essay 41: The Good Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World
$0.00 – Paperback book / Black Inc
In the first Quarterly Essay for 2011, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life?
With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways ... Buy or find out more →
1001 Australian Nights
$29.95 – Paperback book / Affirm
Legendary rock showman Dave Graney takes us on a journey about self- discovery. As a young man fired up by punk rock he sets off on a road-trip from small-town Australia, outside of life and looking for a way in. When he... Buy or find out more →