FEBRUARY BOOK GIVEAWAY Win a copy of Advice to Young People on Leaving Home. What‘s the best, worst or most hilariously advice you‘ve been given on leaving home? more
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Barry Divola
Barry Divola‘s ‘Nineteen Seventysomething‘ is a requiem for bygone days. In the fictional suburb of Braithwaite, we meet Charlie during the listless weeks of his summer holidays. Told with humour, poignancy and authenticity, Barry Divola marks the familiar stages of teenage awakening - in friendship, desire and love.
‘Barry Divola hides meticulous attention to the detail of an era in prose that is disarming and real, and reads as though it came without effort. This is a book for anyone who ever owned a Dragstar bike or marvelled at a Valiant Charger‘ - Nick Earls
Paperback; ISBN 978-0-9806378-5-4; March 2010; $24.95
available now
Bob Franklin
Dip into the world of Bob Franklin‘s fiction at your own risk. The calm surface belies a swift undertow and snags galore. These are not horror stories in the traditional sense; they are more unsettling than that.
‘What a bruising collection this is ... Franklin turns a coolly amused and beautifully composed eye on the darkest, saddest, oddest and most ordinary corners of the world.‘ - Sonya Hartnett
Paperback; ISBN: 978-0-9806378-4-7; February 2010; $24.95
Grace Lax
‘Don‘t leave home without it‘ - The Age
If you or your spawn are looking for guidance about the right way to leave the family home, find ‘digs‘, make friends, influence people, express yourself artistically, eat, drink, procreate, get ahead and, finally, die and be buried... then this darling compendium will steer you through the rest of your days. It is the latest offering from world-famous knowist, Grace Lax, OBE.
‘You‘re in for a laugh‘ - Sunday Herald Sun
Mrs Lax, 107 if she is a day, has never let being entirely fictional get in her way. ‘You don‘t need to have a pulse,‘ she laughs, jangling her pearls, ‘to have your finger on it.‘
Hardback; ISBN 9780980637830; February 2010; $24.95
Mic Looby
There are precious few places still untouched by tourism. Paradise Lost? Chance would be a fine thing. More like Paradise Packaged, Marketed and Sold in Easy-to-Enjoy Portions. And if there’s money to be made shining light into the darkest corners of the world, SmallWorld wrote the book on it. Mic Looby’s masterful debut novel weaves a hilarious and hair-raising tale of compromised idealism and corporate skullduggery in the world of travel writing.
‘Mic Looby‘s Paradise Updated is my best rookie novel of the year - like early Waugh: comic with a sense of threat – Patrick McCaughey, Australian Book Review
ISBN 9780980374667; September 2009; $29.95
Beth Sometimes
Join postcard author Beth Sometimes on her postal crusade from Central Australia to create a world of rectangular emotions and cardboarderly camaraderie, where giant ideas roam miniature communiqués and the personal becomes public – just like the nature of a postcard itself.
‘Visual feast of handmade and shop-brought postcards with profound, bizarre and whimsical messages and delightful insights into other people‘s lives. Verdict: stamp of approval‘ – Herald Sun
ISBN 9780980637809; October 2009; $29.95
Fiona Scott-Norman
Throughout the ages, smoking has besotted and repulsed more people than porn on the Internet. One book with two covers, 50 Reasons to Quit/Keep Smoking is an audacious attempt to tackle the touchy subject with humour and logic. Quit, don’t quit – you decide.
ISBN 9780980374674; August 2009; $14.95
A beautician smuggles her family out of communist Hungary; a man steps off a train and gets his life on track; a Pitjantjatjara woman guards the secrets of a sacred women’s Dreaming. These are the stories of ordinary and elderly Australians, collected by young Australian writers over cosy cups of tea. It’s a celebration of life, a conversation across the generations and a reminder for us all to listen while we can.
ISBN 9780980374650; $39.95
Edited by Patrick Witton
A small book with its sights set on the big time, Lame Claims to Fame revels in and runs from the cult of celebrity. Everybody takes giddy delight in their real encounters with unreal people, but who’s got the lamest claim to fame?
ISBN 9780980374629; $14.95
Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody. Illustrated by kids from Gurindji Country, with paintings by Peter Hudson
Created in collaboration with the Gurindji people and independent publisher One Day Hill, this beautiful children’s book tells the inspirational Australian story of the Gurindji people’s fight for land rights. Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s much-loved lyrics are illustrated by Gurindji children from Kalkaringi in the Northern Territory and accompanied by paintings by renowned Australian artist Peter Hudson. All profits will go directly back into creating art and cultural facilities for youth in Kalkaringi. (This book is being distributed through Dennis Jones & Associates.)
ISBN 9780975770887; pbk $19.95; hbk $29.95
Anthologised by Michael Williams
A frenzied collection of creativity, this unique anthology gathers up the dynamism and raw talent of the young writers and artists who have contributed to the National Young Writers’ Festival (NYWF) over the past ten years. Includes everything from short stories, poetry, plays and memoir, to comics, artwork and political satire from emerging voices of Australia and many who are already well established.
ISBN 9780980374643; $27.95
Salve for the soul and a handbook for savouring life without spending, The Slow Guide to Sydney is an inspirational lifestyle guide for Sydneysiders who want to slow down and live it up. It celebrates all that’s local, natural, traditional, sensory and gratifying about life in Sydney – and is about as close you’ll get to a seachange without shifting postcode.
ISBN 9780980374612; $29.95
In a world spinning on the nexus between ‘now’ and ‘next’, The Slow Guide to Melbourne steps off the merry-go-round to celebrate all that’s local, natural, traditional, sensory and most of all gratifying about life in Melbourne. Live more, fret less we reckon.
ISBN 9780980374605; $29.95