The Holy And The Broken
$36.99
THE HOLY AND THE BROKENWhen dehumanisation and destruction become the norm, the cycle must be broken.For over twenty years, Ittay Flescher has worked as an educator, journalist and peacebuilder in Melbourne and Jerusalem. When he woke up on the morning of October 7, 2023 to the sounds of rocket sirens over Jerusalem and later saw the devastation of Gaza in response, the grief and sadness that engulfed him - and so many others - compelled him to ask: how can we find a way forward?Following years spent facilitating dialogue between Jews, Muslims and Christians, Ittay believes that peace can only be found if we are willing to empathize with the pain of others.<em>The Holy and the Broken</em> challenges Palestinian and Israeli leaders, citizens and their supporters across the world to imagine a different reality; to look at history with a different eye; and to search for moments of engagement rather than resentment in the narratives of the past that each side tells about itself.Ultimately, it is a story that aims to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable.<strong>Praise:</strong>'Courageous and considered. Ittay nurtures the tender, fragile shoots of peace. The world could do with more people like him' <strong>Paul Kelly, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist</strong>'A book of rare insight and compassion, <em>The Holy and the Broken</em> offers the one thing we thought we'd lost after October 7: a glimmer of hope for meaningful lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians' <strong>Bram Presser, author of <em>The Book of Dirt</em></strong>'This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, heartfelt and honest. You do not need to agree with everything Flesher has to say to find the book moving and challenging' <strong>Michael Gawenda, former editor in chief, <em>The Age</em></strong>'This ability to empathize with the suffering on both sides is a core value of Flescher's reconciliation work, and the underpinning to many of the options he outlines' <strong>Dr Anne Sarzin, Jwire</strong>'As challenging and as contemporary as it is compassionate. In a world broken by war and polarisation, Ittay offers peaceful possibilities and nuanced perspectives' <strong>Rabbi Ralph Genende OAM, author of <em>Living in an Upside-down World</em></strong><em>'The Holy and the Broken</em> breaks new ground. Yet what makes it truly singular is its consistent humanity, and its centring of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians' <strong>John Lyndon, executive director, Alliance for Middle East Peace</strong>'This account of the writer's devotion to peacebuilding in our war-torn region is a shining testament to what can and should be done by those who can imagine a future peace. It lights a candle in an age of darkness!' <em><strong></strong></em><strong>Sari Nusseibeh, author of</strong><em><strong> Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life</strong></em>'When you finish it, you will not only know more about what's happening between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but you will also know more about yourself' <strong>Maoz Inon, Israeli peacemaker and social entrepreneur</strong>'A powerful testament to the possibilities of reconciliation and mutual empathy during conflict, what sets this book apart is its commitment to showcasing the experiences of the diverse individuals involved - especially the integral, yet frequently overlooked, stories of women. By highlighting the gender dynamics at play, Flescher enriches our understanding of the conflict and underscores the importance of supporting a world where more voices are heard and valued' <strong>Sheila Katz, CEO, National Council of Jewish Women</strong>'When I picked this book up, I erroneously believed I already "understood" much about the ongoing, collective trauma of Palestinians and Israelis. But this thoughtful and deeply compassionate book shattered that illusion. By the time I put the book down, I was not the same person' <strong>Miriam Anzovin, creator of Daf Reactions and Jewish Lore Reactions</strong>
The Menzies Ascendency
$50.00
Menzies impact on Australian policy revolutionWas Menzies's unprecedented electoral success merely a matter of luck, or did he make fortune bend to his will? On 30 November 1954, Robert Menzies became Australia's longest serving prime minister. Between the closely fought 1954 and 1961 elections, the Coalition enjoyed a political dominance that allowed it to reshape the nation.The period saw the creation of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the signing of the landmark Commerce Agreement with Japan, vast investment in Australia's universities, the development of Canberra, the opening of Australia's first nuclear reactor, forgotten but transformative healthcare reforms, the abolition of the dictation test, forward progress on Indigenous policy, the signing of an enduring Antarctic Treaty, and more. Yet to critics this was a time when the opportunity for reform was wasted. Has Menzies's deliberate emphasis on continuity over change obscured his achievements? Is consolidated progress preferable to policy revolution? And what does the Australian public want from its leaders? All these issues are explored in the third of a four-volume history of Menzies and his world, based on conferences convened by the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne. Contributors include Robert Bowker, Andrew Bragg, Paul Brown, Elizabeth Buchanan, Selwyn Cornish, Damien Freeman, David Furse-Roberts, Anne Henderson, Paul Kelly, Sean Jacobs, David Lee, Ted Ling, Lyndon Megarrity, Greg Melleuish, Andrew Norton, Michael de Percy, Paul Strangio and Stephen Wilks.
The Most Interesting Book In The World
$39.99
THE MOST INTERESTING BOOK IN THE WORLD 'Charming, hilarious, and guaranteed to make you the most interesting person at any party. Or the most annoying' - Adam Rutherford‘Weird and wonderful facts you didn’t know you needed. Full of quirky nuggets of information and trivia’ - Sun‘Joyously bizarre facts in a new book from a QI brainbox’ - Daily MailDrawn from a former BBC QI Elf's lifetime’s search for the weird and the wonderful, The Most Interesting Book in The World is a miscellany of things too strange to be true, yet somehow are.This remarkable treasury of tales and trivia will whisk you on a jaw-dropping journey through time and space, stopping off to marvel at only the obscure, the startling and the straight-up weird.In it, Edward Brooke-Hitching considers questions such as:- Why is a cat technically a liquid and a solid?- How did nineteenth-century scientists attempt to signal aliens?- Why did the Dutch once eat their prime minister?Nowhere else will you find woven together the stories of the religious leader who attempted to build a robot messiah from a dining table, the anti-gravity ‘air-walkers’ of Victorian London, and the pirates who rode sheep; or practical advice for correctly exorcising a house and casting ancient love spells, along with recent scientific discoveries like the mould that can navigate a maze and that humans can glow in the dark.A unique hybrid of encyclopaedia, trivia and drunken-bar raconteur, all stitched together in one colossal Frankenstein volume packed full of images and photographs - this is the ultimate must-read for anyone looking to tickle the cortex of their curiosity.
The Unknown Warrior
$36.99
The unprecedented scale and destruction of the First World War meant that hundreds of thousands of soldiers perished without being properly identified in death. Over 300,000 names were left without bodies to match; bodies, or fragments of bodies, were left without names. Three hundred thousand families waiting in vain to know what happened to their loved ones. In response to this devastation, an idea was born. A single tomb in Westminster Abbey, housing the remains of an unidentified soldier, to commemorate every one of the missing alongside the nation’s poets, artists, scientists and kings. In The Unknown Warrior, Sunday Times-bestselling author John Nichol embarks on a quest to tell the history of this idea and how it came to be realised. Along the way, he uses diaries, archives and interviews with the descendants of that lost generation to unearth the stories of some of those who died on the battlefield, and their friends who survived, often struggling with the memories of their fallen comrades and the horrors of war. He talks to contemporary experts in battle-field recovery, organising state occasions, and what it's like to lose someone you love in combat and have no body to bury. Drawing on Nichol’s own experience of combat, The Unknown Warrior is above all a search for the true meaning of camaraderie, sacrifice and remembrance.
The Vietnam War
$55.00
A dramatic chronicle of America's longest and most controversial war This revised and updated guide to the Vietnam War charts the unforgettable story of America's longest and most controversial conflict, 50 years on from its end.Hundreds of insightful images and a compelling narrative combine to chronicle this catastrophic war. From 1955, the communist government of North Vietnam waged war against South Vietnam and its main ally, the USA. Over the course of two decades of hostility and warfare, the number of casualties reached an incomprehensible three million people.Detailed descriptions of every episode, including Operation Passage to Freedom and the evacuation of the American embassy in Saigon, tell the stories in iconic photographs and eyewitness accounts. Discover the real people behind the conflict, with gripping biographies of key figures, including Henry Kissinger, General Thieu, President Nixon, and Pol Pot. This incredible visual record is supported by locator maps, at-a-glance timelines, archive photography, and key quotations to ensure an all-encompassing experience.The Vietnam War is an essential historic reference to help humanity learn the lessons of suffering and sacrifice from one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century.
The Wager
$24.99
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION* 'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read' Guardian ‘The greatest sea story ever told’ Spectator 'I cannot think of anyone who would not love this book . . . It is an extraordinary true story, beautifully written' Richard Osman ‘A cracking yarn… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, the Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
Twenty-first Century Tolkien
$45.00
An engaging and original celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien, which reveals how his visionary creation of Middle-Earth is more relevant now than ever.
