Inspiring Stories

Swimming Sydney: A tale of 52 swims by Chris Baker

Swimming Sydney is a tale of 52 swims in and around Sydney that take place over a calendar year. Taking his weekly plunges, Chris Baker reflects on friendship, history and family, and how swimming can help us better understand ourselves. It’s a book for everyone who loves swimming, who loves Sydney, and who understands that storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.

Take Flight: Incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky by Kathy Mexted

From balancing on a wingtip to circling with eagles, Take Flight tells the stories of Australian women who have leapt, tumbled and dived, and reached for the stars. Author and pilot Kathy Mexted celebrates the determination, skill and expertise of ten women who have beaten the odds to find success and joy in our skies.

Travelling to Tomorrow: The modern women who sparked Australia’s romance with America by Yves Rees

A century ago, ten Australian women did something remarkable. Throwing convention to the wind, they headed across the Pacific to make their fortune. In doing so, they reoriented Australia towards the United States years before politicians began to lumber down the same path. They were rebels, they were trailblazers, they were disruptors. Individually, they have extraordinary stories; together, they change the narrative of Australian history.

Understanding Our World

Why Are We Like This?: An evolutionary search for answers to life's big questions by Zoe Kean

In Why Are We Like This? science journalist Zoe Kean takes us behind the scenes of the evolutionary paradoxes that make up life on this planet. Exploring with scientists, from freezing in Tasmanian sleet to a laboratory of sleeping sharks in North Queensland, we see how these evolutionary mysteries might just uncover the secrets of a better life for humans and the creatures we share the planet with.

The Best Australian Science Writing 2024 edited by Jackson Ryan, Carl Smith, foreword by Corey Tutt

What lurks in a house of slime hidden in the middle of a forest? Why are AI scientists talking about the formula p(doom) – and what does it mean for humanity? Is there a place for psychedelics in our medicine cabinets? With a foreword by DeadlyScience founder Corey Tutt OAM, this much-loved anthology covers an extraordinary year filled with major moments in science.

Humpback Highway: Diving into the mysterious world of whales by Vanessa Pirotta

In Humpback Highway, acclaimed wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta dives beneath the surface to reveal the mysterious world of humpback whales — from their life cycle and the challenges humans present, to why whale snot and poo are important for us and the ocean. Whether you’re a whale lover or you’re simply curious about the underwater world, this book will inspire and give you a new respect for these majestic, marine giants.

A Different Take on History

Australia in 100 Words by Dr Amanda Laugesen

What words would you select to tell the story of Australia? Perhaps you’d choose some from iconic Australianisms like mateship, fair dinkum, and bogan or maybe you might reach for words you hear in the street like no worries, yeah nah, bin chicken and budgie smugglers. In Australia in 100 Words, historian, lexicographer and author Amanda Laugesen reveals some of the ideas, events and values that have shaped Australia’s history by providing fascinating insight into the evolution of Australian English.

Remember When … Snapshots of Australia from the ’50s to the ’90s by Bob Byrne

Packed with over 180 photographs, Remember When … is a sugar hit of nostalgia that reminds us of the bits of Australia we loved, the bits we’ve forgotten, and the unforgettable local identities and landmarks of yesteryear.

Beyond The Broken Years: Australian military history in 1000 books by Peter Stanley

In Beyond The Broken Years provocative military historian Peter Stanley argues why it’s vital for Australians to understand how our military past has been created. By whom, how and with what consequences. He explores military history and the storytellers, and grapples with what it means to write military history, its different approaches, the rise of popular writers and much more.

Yirranma Place: Stories of a Darlinghurst corner by Alana Piper

The many transformations of 262 Liverpool Street, lying at the corner of Forbes Street in Darlinghurst, reflect the long and layered history of Sydney. Now named Yirranma Place, it’s a site that has been constantly recreated. Bringing together local and social history, this visually rich exploration of a corner in Darlinghurst combines deep research with revealing stories.

Helpful Guides

The Family History Book: How to trace your ancestors in Australia by Cassie Gilmartin and Shaun Gilmartin

The Family History Book takes you through the steps of researching and building a family tree, finding records of births, deaths and marriages, looking up newspaper archives and probate records, researching immigration and shipping, examining military records, as well as discovering your story through DNA testing. Whether you’re just beginning or have already made a start, this book guides you through all the places you can learn about genealogy in Australia.

2025 Australasian Sky Guide by Nick Lomb

Featuring monthly sky maps, with details of the movement of the planets, stars and constellations, the 2025 Australasian Sky Guide is a must-have handbook to the year’s most exciting celestial events. Opening with an essay by Gadigal woman Aunty Joanne Selfe on First Nations understandings of the cosmos, the book offers the latest information on the solar system and its history, as well as tips for optimal viewing.

Getting to Know the Birds in Your Neighbourhood: A Field Guide by Darryl Jones

Getting to Know the Birds in Your Neighbourhood is the first complete beginners’ field guide to the birds you are most likely to see in the towns and cities of Australia. Much more than an identification tool, though, it opens the door to understanding the habits and behaviours of your suburb’s feathered locals.

Literary Fiction and Nonfiction

The End of the Morning by Charmian Clift, edited by Nadia Wheatley

The End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmian Clift. Published here for the first time, it is the book that Clift herself regarded as her most significant work. Although the author did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift’s essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley.

Hazzard and Harrower: The letters edited by Brigitta Olubas and Susan Wyndham

Edited by Brigitta Olubas, Hazzard’s official biographer, and Susan Wyndham, who interviewed both Hazzard and Harrower, this is an extraordinary account of two literary luminaries, their complex relationship and their times.

Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging by Cher Tan

Cher Tan’s essays are as non-linear as her life, as she travels across borders that are simultaneously tightening and blurring. In luminous and inventive prose, they look beyond the performance of everyday life, seeking answers that continually elude. Paying homage to the many outsider artists, punks, drop-outs and rogue philosophers who came before, this book is about the resistance of orthodoxies — even when it feels impossible.

Art and Memory

marramarra: Indigenous artists making history visible a collaboration by Brook Garru Andrew and Jessica Neath

marramarra (a Wiradjuri word meaning to create, make or do) explores how contemporary Indigenous artists and their communities are revealing hidden histories and finding pathways to healing. Led by Indigenous voices and presenting ground-breaking artworks from the Pacific, Turtle Island (North and Central America), Brazil, Finland, Taiwan, Afghanistan and beyond, marramarra provides new ways to think about the past and imagine a planet that is bright for Indigenous futures – a place that is better for all.

Imagining a Real Australia by Stephen Zagala

Australian documentary photography was at its height from the 1950s to 1970s. A time when the gritty documentary photography that emerged in the US after World War II, hand-held film cameras, instamatic colour film, Polaroid cameras and the arrival of television all pushed photography in a revolutionary new direction. Imagining a Real Australia is a stunning testament to a time when photographers turned their lenses on real people living real lives.

James Fairfax: Portrait of a collector in eleven objects by Alexander Edward Gilly

James Fairfax was one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists, collectors and champions of Australian art. In this evocative biography his nephew, Alexander Gilly, pieces together Fairfax’s life through the prism of his art collection and reveals the complex private and public lives of a man at the centre of a media dynasty.