Readings.com.au: The Age Book of the Year Shortlist 2009 Non-Fiction

Down To The Crossroads: On The Trail Of The 2008 US Presidential Election

The surprise hit of last December was The Battle for Bennelong, Margot Saville’s on-the-road, campaign trail account of the nail-biting 2007 federal election. This year, Crikey correspondent Guy Rundle gives us the play-by-play scoop on America’s historic 2008 election. Read it and revel in Obama’s ousting of George W. Bush’s Republican party, as represented by John McCain and the ever-amusing (if horrifying) Sarah Palin. It’s the election that Aaron Sorkin couldn’t have scripted better, as observed by one of Australia’s savviest political tragics.

Gough Whitlam: A Moment In History

This moment was not his alone, nor could it ever have come about without him…Gough Whitlam turned to Graham Freudenberg, touched him lightly on the shoulder, saying, 'It's been a long road, Comrade, but we're there', and walked out to meet the spotlight

Acclaimed biographer Jenny Hocking's Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History is the first contemporary and definitive biographical study of the former Labor Prime Minister.

From his childhood in the fledging city of Canberra to his first appearance as Prime Minister (playing Neville Chamberlain), to his extensive war service in the Pacific and marriage to Margaret, the champion swimmer and daughter of Justice Wilfred Dovey, the biography draws on previously unseen archival material, extensive interviews with family and colleagues, and exclusive interviews with Gough Whitlam himself.

Hocking's narrative skill and scrupulous research reveals an extraordinary and complex man, whose life is, in every way, formed by the remarkable events of previous generations of his family, and who would, in turn, change Australian political and cultural developments in the twentieth century.

Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History is a magnificent biography that illuminates the path that took one man to power.

Darwin's Armada: How Four Voyagers to Australasia Won the Battle for Evolution and Changed the World

Charles Darwin, HMS Beagle, 1831-36 Sent to Cambridge to join the clergy, the young Darwin emerged with a passion for naturalism and an invitation to sail on a naval survey vessel to South America, New Zealand and Australia. That journey would change his life, and the course of modern science.

Joseph Hooker, HMS Erebus, 1839-43 Inspired by Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, assistant-surgeon Hooker undertook his own dramatic voyage of exploration, from the Cook Islands to the Antarctic via the high society of Hobart. His botanical research added critical evidence ti Darwin's developing ideas on evolution, and he became Darwin's closest ally.

Thomas Huxley, HMS Rattlesnake, 1846-50 'Darwin's Bulldog' would become evolution's most effective champion against the clergy (coining the term agnostic'). As a brilliant, ascerbic young man, Huxley was determined to make his name through discoveries in marine biology in the Southern Hemisphere – but his most improbable discovery was that in Sydney he fell in love.

Alfred Wallace, the Amazon and South-East Asia, 1848-66 The least celebrated but perhaps the most brilliant of the four. During his many years in remote jungles as a professional specimen collector, the largely self-educated Wallace arrived independently at a theory of evolution by natural selection. He sent his idea to Darwin, precipitating a dramatic moral crisis and the writing of On the Origin of Species.

Darwin's Armanda is both a gripping adventure story and a brilliantly enlightening work of history, for the first time portraying the Darwinian revolution as a collective enterprise forged in Australasia. These four remarkable men did what one alone could not – combed the world for evidence of evolution by natural selection, and then fought tirelessly in the social and intellectual battle that followed its famous publication 150 years ago.

Together they changed the world.

The Red Highway

A key to unlock the heart of the country.

This is the story of a quest – a journey down the red highway.

On returning from a war zone, Nicolas Rothwell begins to explore the deserts and towns, sleepy coastline and hidden worlds of Australia’s north. As he travels, his journey gathers momentum and finds a shape. He has unforgettable, even mystical encounters: with a priest, an explorer, a collector and a hunter. It becomes a quest – for knowledge and a sense of home – that builds to a stunning culmination. Nicolas Rothwell is among Australia’s most gifted writers, and The Red Highway is a one-of-a-kind book. It explores death, friendship, travel and art, and evokes a unique and mesmerising part of the country.

“Rothwell’s calm wondering at what he sees and hears on his travels left me with a feeling of enchantment.”—Robert Dessaix