Hilarious history

 

Mint condition. PB. 153pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A revised and expanded edition of the bestselling parody that includes thirty-pages of new text, photos, and contemporary subjects—a clever and fresh historical chronicle.

The Sun is now friends with Earth and 7 other planets

Pluto: Not cool.

What if Facebook had emerged with the Big Bang, and every historical event took place online? Imagine how we’d we see history if . . .

On April 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln updated his status: "Taking the missus to the theater"

God and Stephen Hawking trolled each other in a comment war over the creation of the universe?

Alexander the Great "checked into" all the countries he conquered

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin "Liked" each other's cryptic statuses

Irreverent and clever, The History of the World According to Facebook goes back through time, from the beginning of the world to the present, to cover all the major events and eras of human history, such as the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the Information Age. Wylie Overstreet brings the book up to date with three-dozen pages of additional material on contemporary figures and topics, from Caitlin Jenner to Deflategate to MAGA and Trump.

Filled with hundreds of actual figures from across the centuries and thousands of invented statuses, comments, and actions lampooning Facebook users’ penchant for oversharing, abbreviation, self-importance, and lazy jargon, The History of the World According to Facebook defies all attempts at taking the multi-billion user social media platform SRSLY. It is the funniest parody of history and the dawn of man since, well, the dawn of man.

About the Author

Wylie Overstreet, 26, has worked for Architectural Digest and GOOD Magazine, and has written satire for the website CoolMaterial.com.

He lives in Los Angeles.

Lonely Planet travel anthology

 

Ex-library. Excellent condition. HB. 271pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A collection of great travel writing by authors from around the globe, including original stories set in Scotland, Thailand, Malaysia, Moldova, Tanzania, Austria and beyond, edited by long-term Lonely Planet collaborator Don George.

The 35 impassioned stories included in this collection - of fortune tellers, tribal baboon hunters, a friendly Japanese family, and other notable characters - span a worldwide spectrum of themes, styles and settings, but all show how travel in its unexpected turns tests and teaches us, making us aware that we are resilient, that we are not alone, and that there is so much love and connection to be had if we open ourselves up.

This collection affirms that if we follow the compass of the heart, we will always find our way. Whether you read the book on the road or in an armchair at home, these tales are sure to entertain, amuse and inform you, and resonate long after the book is finished.

'As you travel through these pages, may your mind be widened, your spirit enlivened, and your own path illuminated by these worldly word-journeys.' ---Don George

With sparkling contributions from some of the most acclaimed names in contemporary fiction and travel writing plus some new voices from around the world, including:

Ann Patchett, Francine Prose, TC Boyle, Karen Joy Fowler, Pico Iyer, Torre DeRoche, Blane Bachelor, Rebecca Dinerstein, Jan Morris, Elizabeth George, Jane Hamilton, Alexander McCall Smith, Keija Parssinen, Mridu Khullar Relph, Yulia Denisyuk, Emily Koch, Carissa Kasper, Jessica Silber, Candace Rose Rardon, Marilyn Abildskov, Shannon Leone Fowler, Robin Cherry, Robert Twigger, Porochista Khakpour, Natalie Baszile, Suzy Joinson, Anthony Sattin, LH McMillin, Bridget Crocker, Maggie Downs, Bishwanath Ghosh, Jeff Greenwald, James Dorsey and Tahir Shah.

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, gift and lifestyle books and stationery, as well as an award-winning website, magazines, 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 they find themselves in.

Australian politics past and present through a Labor lens

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. PB. 212pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The book asks how a nation with the developed world's best economy has a dimmer view of its performance than some of the basket case economies of southern Europe have of their own, and how a country that escaped recession and mass unemployment despite the biggest global downturn since the Great Depression got so down on itself.

It is a Labor insiders' account of politics and policy in Australia during the global financial crisis, which finds in a lethal combination of right-wing hyper-partisanship and misaligned incentives in our politics the root causes of Australia's lack of confidence and its deficit of national self-esteem.

It provides a unique perspective on economics and national identity, concluding that if we don't choose a future less consumed by the poisonous politics of recent years we will squander our tremendous national advantages and momentum, and compromise our ability to tackle the socio-economic challenges of the coming decades as successfully as we have navigated those just past.

SOLD History of modern conflict in Afghanistan

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 

Biography of Adele

 

Ex-library. Excellent condition. PB. 223pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The compelling life story of the Grammy-winning soul singer Adele's soulful voice, catchy hits, and vulnerable personality have won her critical acclaim and huge popularity.

She has topped the charts in 18 countries—but who is she? What is the truth of the tempestuous life that has so influenced her heartbreaking tracks? How did she overcome the challenges that threatened to derail her career?

This compelling book traces her story from her childhood in London, where she began singing at the age of four. During her teenage years she wrote her own music and attended the BRIT school, alongside the likes of Leona Lewis.

After posting demos on the MySpace website she earned a record deal and quickly captured hearts.

Adele remains an unlikely icon. Her looks are unusual in a formulaic world of celebrity image, she suffers badly with pre-stage nerves, and she once canceled a crucial promotional trip to the U.S. because she felt too down to travel.

This is a full, unflinching portrait of a genuine talent and inspiring, uncompromising woman—the curvy girl-next-door who conquered the world.

A tale of abuse of British children in Australia

 

Rare book. Ex-library. Mint condition. PB. 194pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

“From the 1860’s to the late 1960’s over 150,000 boys and girls “volunteered” to migrate from the United Kingdom to many colonies of the then British Empire, including Australia. The abolition of the slave trade in 1803 and the eventual emancipation of individual slaves in the 1830’s had left the colonies with a shortage of labour to be partially filled by these children.

“This diaspora of children rivalled the number of convicts sent to Australia. We were the unwanted generations; many of us were bastards/illegitimate by birth and/or from the lowest echelons of society. It was all quite “normal” and accepted practice; we were surplus to requirements. Once we were put into institutions we became “fillii nullius” the children of no one, to be done with as the authorities saw fit. Each of us has a story to tell; this is my story.”

Stories of forgotten Indian soldiers from WWII

 

Excellent condition. PB. 320pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Three young men gazed at him from silver-framed photographs in his grandmother’s house, ‘beheld but not noticed, as angels are in a frieze full of mortal strugglers’. 

They had all been in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India – and he thought that he had a good idea of both.

One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo-frames.

Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. 

Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront. 

The years 1939-45 might be the most revered, deplored and replayed in modern history. Yet India’s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself and from the world. 

In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family – a story of love, rebellion, loyalty and uncertainty – and with it, the greatest revelation that is India’s Second World War. 

Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India’s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. 

It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma – unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence.

SOLD Travel the world with one of Australia's finest travel writers

 

SOLD

Rare book. Very good condition. PB. 320pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Journey with Australia's favourite off-the-beaten-track travel writer to Hemingway's Havana haunts; chase the ghosts of Gauguin in French Polynesia; take a step back in showbiz history and legend at London's Savoy; join the Brotherhood of the Bear during the Arctic Circle summer; unfurl the sails of a classic clipper n the Andaman Sea; dance to the elated beat of freedom in East Timor with Xanana Gusmao; and rollick along Britain's rock/pop trail.

Memoir of an AFL legend

 

Mint condition. PB. 320pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

In my experience, a lot of young Muslims feel they have to stray from Islam to earn people’s respect. My belief, and my message, is the opposite: that doing the right thing and being proud of your identity and beliefs will bring you real success – and even more than that, respect for yourself and your faith.’ FAITH, FOOTBALL and FAMILY is the long-awaited autobiography from one of the AFL's most fascinating men.

Bachar Houli is as accomplished an AFL footballer as they come. He’s been part of three Richmond Premiership sides, he was an All-Australian in 2019, and with over 200 games to his name he remains a key part of a champion team.

Picked at number 42 in the 2006 National Draft by Essendon, Houli played 26 games for the Bombers before moving in late 2010 via the pre-season draft to Tigerland, where rookie coach Damien Hardwick was assembling the team that six years later would achieve the seemingly impossible and claim Richmond’s 11th Premiership. Another flag followed two years later, with Houli close to best on ground in both deciders.

Yet it’s as the AFL’s most prominent Muslim player that Houli is best known – and his strong Muslim values are at the heart of the man he is. Writing for the first time, Houli explores the experiences and beliefs that sparked his trailblazing success as a Muslim footballer, and that established him as a leading voice within the AFL community for inclusion, understanding and tolerance.

Travels and commentary on the Sunshine State

 

Rare book. Very good condition. PB. 300pp. $30 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Funny, personal and completely unexpected, Mango Country explores the notion that the further you venture from a nation's capital, the likelier you are to encounter its culture in the raw.

Journeying around North Queensland, jungle tour guide turned gonzo-journalist John van Tiggelen lingers in places that tourists are ill-advised, disinclined or simply unable to visit. He goes crocodile hunting, shoots a nude calendar for charity, joins the world's wildest cricket carnival, attends the opening of the Big Mango and flits around the Torres Strait on a wing and a prayer.

En route he is harassed by cassowaries, bush poets, thong collectors, falling coconuts, Bob Katter, and the alien commander of 18 million spaceships, among others. But he also harasses them.

Mango Country goes beyond the travel brochures to offer an irreverent profile of a province, and an insight into Australian life away from the big city lights.

Political biography of Jacinda Ardern

 

Mint condition. PB. 320pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

She is a progressive and a social democrat. A millennial woman in leadership. Only the second elected leader in the world to give birth while in office. But who is the real Jacinda Ardern? And why does she inspire such global admiration?

New Zealand's prime minister has been hailed as a leader for a new generation, tired of inaction in the face of issues such as climate change and far-right terrorism.

Her grace and compassion following the Christchurch mosque shooting captured the world's attention. Oprah Winfrey invited us to 'channel our inner Jacindas' as praise for Ardern flooded headlines and social media. The ruler of this remote country even made the cover of Time.

In this revealing biography, journalist Madeleine Chapman discovers the woman behind the headlines. Always politically engaged and passionate, Ardern is uncompromising and astute. She has encountered her fair share of sexism, but rather than let that harden her, she advocates 'rising above' disparagers. In her first press conference, she announced an election campaign of 'relentless positivity'. The tactic was a resounding success- donations poured in and Labour rebounded in the polls.

But has Ardern lived up to her promise? What political concessions has she had to make? And beyond the hype, what does her new style of leadership look like in practice?

An important message from the Premier of Western Australia

 

My fellow West Australians.

As you all know, people over east look down on us. They accuse us of being uneducated, of being a bunch of bogans and of having the worst newspaper in Australia.

The time has come to prove them wrong. Let's show them we know how to read, that we also love books.

I'm therefore pleased to tell you all that Planet Irf Books are extending their sale beyond the end of the last financial year. Indeed, the sale will continue until the end of the Sydney lockdown. The way they manage Covid over there, I estimate that will likely be the year 2,956.

That allows us Westies to grab books at $5 off the marked price. And because the books are second hand, there's no GST. Which makes sense because we never seem to get enough GST anyway.

Plus those Easties at Planet Irf Books will be paying all the postage. That means some Aussie Post truckie will be driving across the Nullarbor to deliver our books at no extra cost.

But most of all, you'll be helping Irf, an otherwise proud Eastie, to raise some much needed dosh so he can move over here, jump into the 50 metre Aqua Jetty pool and do some laps and shed some kilos in my Covid-free electorate. 

So let's take advantage this opportunity to prove our literacy and simultaneously rip off the Easties by buying heaps of books cheaper than the chips at said Aqua Jetty.

Simultaneously. Now that's a big word.

Mark

SOLD Taking the piss of travel writers in this sort-of-memoir

 

SOLD

Rare book. One of Paul Theroux's finest and funniest books. PB. 456pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia. Theroux literally takes the piss of himself and the whole profession of travel writing.

In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called this exuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention and confession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writer can bring us to a world beyond." 

The book spans almost thirty years in the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs, and employment, and between continents. It's a wry, worldly, erotic, and deeply moving account of one man's first half century - "among the strongest things Theroux has ever written" (New York Times Book Review).

Jon Lee Anderson reports from Afghanistan

 

Rare book. PB. Excellent condition. 224pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The New Yorker correspondent and author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life shares a series of reports from Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, describing a dangerous world of violence, feudal society, conspiracy, religious fanaticism, hardship, and war.

Lonely Planet's travel anthology

 

Rare book. Excellent condition. PB. 271pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia

Lonely Planet believes good travel writing travels beyond facts and maps - there are stories and inspirations to be shared. This title includes stories from popular Lonely Planet anthologies such as 'On The Edge', 'By The Seat Of My Pants', 'The Kindness of Strangers', 'Tales From Nowhere', and others.

SOLD More humorous travel writing from Eric Newby

 

SOLD

Good condition. Cover looks like it has been bent and straightened. PB. 288pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Here, in this selection of the best of Eric Newby's published writings, we learn how to clean out a pigsty in a gale near Cape Horn; what it is like to row 1200 miles down the Ganges, or live behind German lines in occupied Italy; how to brave dress buyers in post-war Edinburgh and in the wilds of Mayfair; deal with terrifying conductresses on the Trans-Siberian Railway; and cycle round Ireland in what was optimistically described as summertime - it actually rained for five months.

'Eric Newby still holds the laurels as the country's wittiest travel writer . . . "A Merry Dance Around the World" is a collection of all the master's best traveller's tales extracted from a lifetime's travel writing. It is an astonishing catalogue of disasters and misunderstandings, but it had me laughing so uncontrollably my wife eventually forbade me from reading it in public' "Sunday Times"

'In the increasingly populous realm of travel writing, Eric Newby has acquired Homeric status . . . The extract from "Love and War in the Apennines," arguably one of the best travel books ever written, shows Eric Newby at his most scintillating, and the chapter from "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" includes the most luminous moment in modern travelling history' "Daily Telegraph"

'Whatever Eric Newby writes I read with uncritical pleasure. The Newby travels are classics of their time' "Financial Times"

'Keeping up with Eric Newby, every breathless puff and pant of it, is worth it all the way. His vitality, which was always more than most people's, gets bigger and his writing richer and funnier' " Observer"

'Newby is an incomparable, shrewd and witty travel writer . . . Immensely enjoyable' John Mortimer, "Mail on Sunday"

'Newby has quite rightly established himself as one of the sharpest, funniest and most boisterously entertaining of all travel writers' " Sunday Telegraph"

SOLD Eric Newby - travel writing at its best

 

SOLD

Good condition. PB. 302pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A chronicle of travels, some homely some exotic, from the man who can make a schoolboy holiday in Swanage as colourful as a walk in the Hindu Kush.

Eric Newby's life of travel began in 1919, on pram-ride adventures with his mother into the dark streets of Barnes and the chaotic jungles of Harrods, and progressed to solo, school-bound adventures around the slums of darkest Hammersmith. His interest piqued, Newby's wanderlust snowballed, and his adventures multiplied, as he navigated the London sewer system, bicycled to Italy and meandered the wilds of New York's Broadway. Whether travelling abroad as a high-fashion buyer for a British department store or for pure adventure as a travel writer, even when reluctantly participating in a tiger shoot in India, Newby chronicles his adventures with verve, humour and infectious enthusiasm.

After nine years as the travel editor for the Observer, Newby reluctantly gave up the post, eschewing the new form of human-as-freight travel. However, this change was certainly no pity for his readers, as the latter-day Newby continued on his unwavering quest for fascinating detail and adventure wherever he roamed, whether on two feet or two wheels. ‘A Traveller's Life’ chronicles the incredible adventures of one of the best-loved tour guides in the history of travel writing.

Holocaust tale from the Netherlands

 

Mint condition. PB. 176pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A story of the Holocaust but with a twist that the victim apparently converted to some kind of evangelical Christianity. Here is the publisher's blurb:

This book reads like a novel, but the riveting story it tells is true. Journey with Ernest and Elisabeth from the horror of the Holocaust to salvation in Jesus the Messiah. Not only is this a powerful testimony of how God sustained several Jewish families during the worst nightmare of our time, it is also a tender love story. You won't be able to put it down! 

In case you still believe people who come to Australia on boats are queue-jumpers ...

 

Mint condition. PB. 332pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia. 

An excellent antidote to the hatred too often directed at "boat people". 

A family's sacrifice - A nation's struggle 

In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families set out on perilous journeys in rickety boats to escape communist rule and seek out a better life. Kim Huynh's family was one of them. 

In this unique memoir, Kim traces his parents' precarious lives, from their poor villages in central and southern Vietnam, through relative affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975, which led them to a new life in Australia. 

As Kim explores his parents' stories, he unveils the tragedy and inner strength of ordinary Vietnamese people struggling to survive in a country beset by colonisation and ravaged by war. this gripping story is not only an invaluable piece of political history, but a moving tribute from a son to his parents. 

For fans of Ahn Do's 'the Happiest Refugee' and Pauline Nguyen's 'Secrets of the Red Lantern'.

Indigenous history and governance in one slim volume

 

Rare book. Ex-library. Very good condition. PB. 169pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Examination of political base for protest and action; discusses government and non government institutions and organisations including NAC, NACC, DAA and ATC; land councils and land rights; government policy, including citizenship; race relations from colonization to the present; community development and autonomy.

Traveling through warzones in Africa

 

Rare book. Good condition. PB. 240pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

For ten years Andrew Buckoke wrote articles about Africa for many of the major newspapers including "The Guardian", "The Times" and "The Observer". 

He brings his experience and knowledge of the African continent to bear in a book which attempts to open up this often romanticized and little understood land to the general reader. 

"Fishing in Africa" concentrates interest on the people of the continent rather than the animals, while looking at the ways in which these peoples are governed. 

The author follows the antics of governments, rebels, aid agencies and fellow journalists and while persuing his interest in fishing, travels to areas where few Westerners had ventured.

Travels in Russia's dark heart

 

Mint condition. PB. 352pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Road of Bonesis the story of Russia's greatest road. For over 200 years, the route of the Vladimirka Road has been at the centre of the nation's history, having witnessed everything from the first human footsteps to the rise of Putin and his oil-rich oligarchy. Tsars, wars, famine and wealth: all have crossed and travelled this road, but no-one has ever told its story.

In pursuit of the sights, sounds and voices both past and present, Jeremy Poolman travels the Vladimirka. Both epic and intimate, The Road of Bones is a record of his travels - but much more. It looks into the hearts and reveals the histories of those whose lives have been changed by what is known by many as simply The Greatest of Roads.

This is a book about life and about death and about the strength of will it takes to celebrate the former while living in the shadow of the latter.

Anecdotal and epic, The Road of Bones follows the author's journey along this road, into the past and back again. The book takes as its compass both the voices of history and those of today and draws a map of the cities and steppes of the Russian people's battered but ultimately indefatigable spirit.

About the author

Jeremy Poolman is a British novelist, biographer and artist. His first novel, Interesting Facts about the State of Arizona, won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, best first book, UK.

He studied at University College School, and Oxford Brookes University.^[1] His work has appeared in The Guardian.^[2] He lives in Cornwall.^[3]

SOLD Diaries of an Indian official in the British Raj

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 656pp. $50 including postage anywhere in Australia.

An engrossing narrative of a colonial subjects life contemplating his Imperial masters at the height of colonialism in India; based upon the first eight years of his life-long diary. 

Amar Singh, a Rajput nobleman and officer in the Indian Army, kept a diary for 44 years from 1898, when he was twenty, until his death in 1942. 

In it he writes about the Jodhpur court, the Imperial Cadet Corps, and the British Expeditionary Force in China during the Boxer rebellion. 

A century before hybridity, he constructs a hybrid self, an Edwardian officer cum gentleman and a martial Rajput cum manor lord. 

With the diary acting as alter ego and best friend, Amar Singh resists becoming a coolie for the raj when he finds the British to be racist masters as well as friends. 

He writes and reads extensively to keep himself amused, he says, and to avoid the boredom of princedom and raj philistinism. 

Here the authors focus on the first eight years of Amar Singhs diary (1898-1905), offering a rare and intimate glimpse into British colonialism from the point of view of a colonial subject. Illustrated with fifty photographs and facsimiles from Amar Singhs readings.

SOLD An hilarious travelogue of modern Turkey

 

SOLD

OK folks. I have read this book twice. It is hilarious and irreverent. At the same time, it is also very respectful of Turkish culture whilst poking fun at its political elite. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Rare book. Very good condition. PB. 306pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Inspired by a dusty fez in his parents' attic, Jeremy Seal set off in 1993 to trace the astonishing history of this cone-shaped hat. 

Soon, the quintessentially Turkish headgear became the key to understanding a country beset by contradictions.

About the author

Jeremy Seal is a writer and broadcaster. His first book, A Fez of the Heart, was shortlisted for the 1995 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. He is also the author of The Snakebite Survivors' Club and The Wreck at Sharpnose Point, and presenter of Channel 4's ‘Wreck Detectives’. He lives in Bath with his wife and daughters.