Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.
Audiobooks Narrated by Jessica Douglas-Henry
Browse audiobooks narrated by Jessica Douglas-Henry, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
Over 500,000 years ago, a single gene mutated. It spread over time, becoming critical in the journey transforming our earliest ancestors into fully modern humans, capable of navigating the entire planet and beyond. Then just a few thousand years ago, humans gradually outsourced knowledge to writing, and we displaced art and music from the heart of learning.
This is the extraordinary story of the discovery of a supergene that makes us uniquely human. Dr Lynne Kelly recounts how a widespread congenital disorder was the critical clue she and her collaborators needed to identify the gene that has long eluded researchers into human cognition.
The knowledge gene supercharged our ability to learn and share knowledge with others, explaining the prodigious memories of Indigenous people the world over. The discovery of the knowledge gene unlocks many other puzzles too. It explains for the first time why humans are the only species to make art, offers new insights into the earliest music and storytelling, and into the cognitive strengths of neurodivergent people.
The Knowledge Gene shows that we can all access the full power of our memories, without giving up any of the advantages of writing and technology. The implications for learning and creativity at any age are profound.
Koalas regularly appeared in Australian biologist Danielle Clode's backyard, but it was only when a bushfire threatened that she truly paid them attention.
In vivid, descriptive prose, Clode embarks on a delightful and surprising journey through evolutionary biology, natural history, and ecology to understand where these enigmatic animals came from and what their future may hold. She begins her search with the fossils of ancient giant koalas, delving into why the modern koala has become the lone survivor of a once-diverse family of uniquely Australian marsupials.
Koala investigates the remarkable physiology of these charismatic creatures. Clode explores the complex relationship and unexpected connections between this endearing species and humans. She explains how koalas are simultaneously threatened with extinction in some areas due to disease, climate change, and increasing wildfires, while overpopulating forests in other parts of the country.
Deeply researched and filled with wonder, Koala is both a tender and inquisitive paean to a species unlike any other and a call to ensure its survival.
‘They should do something,' I groaned. Then a frightening prospect — they might be me! What the hell could I do?
In July 2016, inner-city resident Judy Ryan found a young man — one of ‘her regulars' — slumped and quiet at her gate. He had overdosed from heroin. Fortunately, that man lived. But Judy had reached breaking point. After four years in a ‘war zone', where children might encounter a body on the streets, enough was enough.
Knowing little about what she was getting into, but fired with resolve, Judy launched a grassroots campaign against apathy and prejudice. While the residents fought for their neighbourhood and for the right of those suffering from addiction to be treated with the needed care and respect, they would see three coroners' reports, two elections, a private member's bill, the police finally acknowledging that arresting their way out of the problem didn't work, and more unnecessary deaths before the trial of a safe injecting facility was agreed to.
A story of drugs, addiction, and a health crisis that touches people from all walks of life, You Talk, We Die is also a highly personal yet practical account of how an authentic local voice and an inclusive campaign can change the minds of business and political leaders to improve the lives of everyone in a community.
‘Anyone who cares about humanity should read this inspiring story.' JOHANN HARI
Ren lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup. High on the forested slopes, she survives by hunting and trading - and forgetting. But when a young soldier comes to the mountains in search of a legendary creature, Ren is inexorably drawn into an impossible mission. As their lives entwine, unravel and erupt - as myth merges with reality - both Ren and the soldier are forced to confront what they regret, what they love, and what they fear. A vibrant homage to the natural world, bursting with beautiful landscapes and memorable characters, The Rain Heron is a beautifully told eco-fable about our fragile and dysfunctional relationships with the planet and with each other, the havoc we wreak and the price we pay.
"The Rain Heron is genuinely and completely magnificent - a magical thing." ROBERT LUKINS
Scottish-born Robert Wales sailed into Sydney Harbour during WWII, but in 1953 he was choking in the city and doctors prescribed fresh country air. With no experience and only knowledge he'd picked up from a few books, he uproots his family and sets out to establish a sheep farm in the bush. When they arrive on a lonely hill in northern New South Wales, they have no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no choice but to make this their home. From Angela Wales, eldest of the five kids, comes this extraordinarily vivid and evocative account of the next ten years as they try to tame six thousand acres of bush and navigate the challenges of country life.
Filled with drama and hilarity, joy and back-breaking toil, Barefoot in the Bindis portrays a childhood spent in the outback, and is a sensational picture of Australia's past.
Author Deb Hunt sets out to discover what makes what makes our Australian farming families tick. Travelling to properties across the country - from a vast, dusty cattle run in outback Queensland to the wheat belt of Western Australia and dairy farms in Tasmania - and introducing us to eight different families who survive and thrive on the land, these stories provide a window into a way of life that defines the Australian spirit at its best.
