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Father's Day Gift Guide

Father's Day is fast approaching! We have something for every dad in this gift guide from NewSouth Publishing.

9781742238067
Border Crossings: My Journey as an Outsider by Mohammad Chowdhury (RRP$34.99, available now)

Border Crossings is a thrilling ride from the city of minarets to the heights of picture-perfect skyscrapers. A journey of finding one’s own identity, it is the story of a British born, Bangladeshi man of Muslim faith, trying to reconcile his western and eastern identities and the inconsistencies between the two.

Hustling his way through days and nights negotiating one cultural micro-adjustment after another, Chowdhury’s story reflects our own struggles to find a place where we truly belong.

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Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at Home by Sam Twyford-Moore (RRP$34.99, available now)

The larger-than-life personalities that form the heart of this book — Errol Flynn, Peter Finch, David Gulpilil and Nicole Kidman — have dominated cinema screens both locally and internationally and starred in some of the biggest films of their eras — including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Network, Crocodile Dundee and Eyes Wide Shut among others.

From the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s to the streaming wars of today, the lives of these four actors, and their many cast mates, tell a story of how a nation’s cinema was founded, then faltered, before finding itself again.

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Everything You Need to Know about the Voice by Megan Davis and George Williams (RRP$27.99, available now)

Everything You Need to Know about the Voice, written by co-author of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Cobble Cobble woman Megan Davis, and fellow constitutional expert George Williams, is essential reading on the Voice to parliament and government, how our Constitution was drafted, what the 1967 referendum achieved, what it left unfinished and the Uluru Statement. It charts the journey of this nation-building reform from the earliest stages of Indigenous advocacy, explores myths and misconceptions and, importantly, explains how the Voice offers change that will benefit the whole nation.

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The Chipilly Six: Unsung heroes of the Great War by Lucas Jordan (RRP$34.99, available now)

On 9 August 1918, at Chipilly Spur overlooking the Somme River, an entire British Army Corps is held up by German machine gunners.

The battle has raged for 30 hours and more than 2000 men have fallen. Then, two Australian sergeants, Jack Hayes and Harold Andrews, go absent without leave and cross the Somme ahead of British lines. Seeing that the British advance is stopped, they re-cross the river, gather four mates and return to drive the Germans off the spur.

Historian Lucas Jordan weaves a compelling tale of the lives of the soldiers, chronicling their return home and years after service, through a pandemic, the Great Depression, another world war and the very first Anzac Day dawn service.

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Tiwi Story: Turning history downside up by Mavis Kerinaiua and Laura Rademaker (RRP$39.99, available now)

Tiwi Story is a powerful collection of pieces written by Tiwi people about their experiences of colonisation. Their recounts are an important telling of past and present issues confronting Tiwi people and their culture, shining a necessary spotlight on a history of forced assimilation and suppression of Indigenous culture and language. This book is a testament to the strength of the Tiwi people and provides insight into the ongoing impact of colonisation on Indigenous cultures.’ — Terri Janke

‘The writers’ deep connection to the people and places involved adds extra poignancy to each story and moment. Tiwi Story is a brilliant contribution to the history we tell about Australia.’ — Vuma Phiri, Books+Publishing

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Beldam at Botany Bay by James Dunk (RRP$34.99, available now)

What happened when people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this important new history, we find out through the tireless correspondence of governors and colonial secretaries, the delicate descriptions of judges and doctors, the brazen words of firebrand politicians, and the heartbreaking letters of siblings, parents and friends. We also hear from the mad themselves. Legal and social distinctions faded as delusion and disorder took root — in convicts exiled from their homes and living under the weight of imperial justice, in ex-convicts and small settlers as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, and in government officers and wealthy colonists who sought to guide the course of European history in Australia.

These stories of madness are woven together into a narrative about freedom and possibilities, unravelling and collapse. Bedlam at Botany Bay looks at people who found themselves not only at the edge of the world, but at the edge of sanity. It shows their worlds colliding.

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Sydney: a biography by Louis Nowra (RRP$39.99, available now)

In Sydney, acclaimed playwright and writer Louis Nowra — author of Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo — expands his gaze to explore the dynamism and pulsating sense of self-importance of his adopted city. This big, bustling portrait of Sydney is told through profiles of people high and low — a cast of criminals and premiers, ordinary folk, entertainers, artists, writers, thieves and visionaries.

Along with its people, Nowra surveys the city’s landscape, its architecture and its global identity. And as Sydney’s history unfolds throughout the twentieth century and beyond, Nowra revels in its neon lights, music, skyscrapers, sense of optimism and the many disparate elements that shape Sydneysiders’ view of themselves.

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Revealing Secrets :An unofficial history of Australian Signals intelligence & the advent of cyber by Clare Birgin and John Blaxland (RRP$49.99, available now)

Revealing Secrets is a compelling account of Australian Signals intelligence, its efforts at revealing the secrets of other nations, and keeping ours safe. It brings to light those clever Australians whose efforts were for so long entirely unknown or overlooked. Blaxland and Birgin traverse the royal commissions and reviews that shaped Australia’s intelligence community in the 20th century and consider the advent and the impact of cyber. In unearthing this integral, if hidden and little understood, part of Australian statecraft, this book increases our understanding of the past, present and what lies ahead.

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