The Best of Me: Ultimate Short Story Collection by David Sedaris

$32.99 AUD

Category: Biography and Memoir

A lavish gift edition of David Sedaris's best stories, spanning his spectacular bestselling career. Hand-picked by David himself, these are stories that will make you laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time, from "the funniest man alive" (Time Out New York). What could be a more tempting Christmas gif t than a compendium of David Sedaris's best stories, selected by the author himself? From a spectacular career spanning almost three decades, these stories have become modern classics and are now for the first time collected in one volume. For more than 25 years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is a so highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence, and it is almost impossible to read without laughing. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say 'give it to me' in five languages and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird. But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. ...Show more

Love Clancy: A Dog's Letters Home, Edited and Debated by Richard Glover by Richard Glover

$29.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Heartfelt and hilarious, this is a book for anyone who has tried to imagine what their dog was thinking. Human beings often write about their dogs, but the dogs don't usually get a right of reply.  In Love, Clancy, Richard Glover has collated the letters sent by Clancy to his parents in the bush. T hey are full of a young dog's musings about the oddities of human behaviour, life in the big city, and his own attempts to fit in. You'll meet Clancy as a puppy, making his first attempt to train his humans, then see him grow into a mature activist, demanding more attention be paid to a dog's view of the world. Along the way, there are adventures aplenty, involving robotic vacuum cleaners, songs about cheese, trips to the country and stolen legs of ham - all told with a dog's deep wisdom when it comes to what's important in life. With delightful illustrations by cartoonist Cathy Wilcox. PRAISE FOR RICHARD GLOVER The Land Before Avocado 'This is vintage Glover - warm, wise and very, very funny. Brimming with excruciating insights into life in the late sixties and early seventies, The Land Before Avocado explains why this was the cultural revolution we had to have' Hugh Mackay 'Hilarious and horrifying, this is the ultimate intergenerational conversation starter' Annabel Crabb Richard Glover's just-published The Land Before Avocado is a wonderful and witty journey back in time to life in the early 1970s' Richard Wakelin, Australian Financial Review Flesh Wounds 'A funny, moving, very entertaining memoir' Bill Bryson, New York Times 'The best Australian memoir I've read is Richard Glover's Flesh Wounds' Greg Sheridan, The Australian ...Show more

Glass. Half. Full - Looking on the Bright Side of Life by Rachael Flynn (Editor, Illustrator)

$26.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Illustrated book of positive quotations

Fair Dinkum ! Aussie Slang by H. G. Nelson

$19.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour | Reading Level: very good

Australian slang unites the true blue and the dinky-di and separates the cheeky little possums from the happy little Vegemites. When we use slang, we're connecting with the diggers in the villages of France ordering a vin blanc ('plonk') and the Indigenous Dharug-speakers of Sydney locating one another with a familiar cry ('within cooee'). In this attractive and educational new pictorial guide, readers will be ably led through the world of Aussie slang by the great H.G. 'battered sav' Nelson. ...Show more

Behind the Lines: the Year's Best Political Cartoons 2020 by Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (Produced by)

$19.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

A companion to the Museum of Australian Democracy's Behind the Lines exhibition.

Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts by Ben Pobjie

$32.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Ned Kelly’s tin helmet looms large over Australia’s bushranging past, but what about all the unsung outlaws of the Australian bush? What about Black Caesar, who escaped his tyrannous British overlords four times and indeed invented the great Australian tradition of bushranging? Or Mad Dog Mo rgan who set out to write his name in blood on history’s ledger, the dynamic Captain Thunderbolt and his loyal wife Mary Ann Bugg, bushranging’s greatest queen, and Matthew Brady, the gentleman bushranger, who showed us all the cilivised side of armed robbery? In Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts Ben Pobjie celebrates the derring-do and revolutionary passion of all the wild colonial boys and girls who raided our towns and stole our hearts, all while wearing sensible headgear. ...Show more

Dave O'Neil's Parenthood by Dave O'Neil

$19.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Ah, parenting. After 200,000 years of keeping kids alive, you'd reckon we'd have it nailed. But, as the decades roll on, it seems we're as clueless as ever. In the great tradition of mums and dads throughout history, we're still making it up as we go along. Hopscotch may have given way to Xbox and fish fingers to quinoa-kale organic nuggets, but, when it comes to parenting, some things never change. A laugh-out-loud look at parenthood through the ages. Humorous commentary by Dave O'Neil accompanies photographs of parents, families and children from the National Library of Australia's Pictures Collection. ...Show more

A Moveable Feast 2e by Lonely Planet Food Staff; Anthony Bourdain; Matthew Fort; Stefan Gates; Don George; Mark Kurlansky; David Lebovitz; Matt Preston; Andrew Zimmern

$24.99 AUD

Category: Lonely Planet | Series: Lonely Planet Travel Literature Ser.

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher* Life-changing food adventures around the world. From bat on the island of Fais to chicken on a Russian train to barbecue in the American heartland, from mutton in Mongolia to couscous in Morocco to tacos in Tijuana - on the road, food nourishe s us not only physically, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually too. It can be a gift that enables a traveller to survive, a doorway into the heart of a tribe, or a thread that weaves an indelible tie; it can be awful or ambrosial - and sometimes both at the same time. Celebrate the riches and revelations of food with this 38-course feast of true tales set around the world. Features stories by Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mark Kurlansky, Matt Preston, Simon Winchester, Stefan Gates, David Lebovitz, Matthew Fort, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and Pico Iyer. Edited by Don George. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source: Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013 ...Show more

You're Smarter Than You Think - Sessions in Rural Counselling by Rachael Flynn (Illustrator)

$26.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Quotation book illustrated by Rachael Flynn

Toilet Trivia: On This Day by Australian Geographic (Editor)

$19.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Be Glad of Life Celebrating the simple things

$26.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour

Kitty Flanagan's 488 Rules for Life by Kitty Flanagan

$29.99 AUD

Category: Gift Books and Humour | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

RICHARD GLOVER: ''You won’t agree with all her rules – I, for one, am a great believer in the word “pash” – but there is a good laugh, and a lively argument, to be had on every page.'' 488 Rules for Life is Kitty Flanagan's way of making the world a more pleasant place to l ive. Applying truth and wit to modern problems. An antidote to stupidity. 488 Rules for Life is not a self-help book, because it's not you who needs help, it's other people. Whether they're walking and texting, asphyxiating you on public transport with their noxious perfume cloud, or leaving one useless square of toilet paper on the roll, a lot of people just don't know the rules. But thanks to Kitty Flanagan's comprehensive guide to modern behaviour, our world will soon be a much better place. A place where people don't ruin the fruit salad by putting banana in it … where your co-workers respect your olfactory system and don't reheat their fish curry in the office microwave ... where middle aged men don't have ponytails … What started as a joke on Kitty Flanagan's popular segment on ABC TV's The Weekly, is now a quintessential reference book with the power to change society. (Or, at least, make it a bit less irritating.) What people (okay, Kitty Flanagan) are saying about this book: 'You're welcome everyone. Thank god for me.' 'I'd rather be sad and lonely, but right.' 'There's not actually 488 rules in here but it sure feels like it'. ...Show more