Inventing a Nation (Gore Vidal, foreword Bob Carr)

Inventing a Nation

Gore Vidal with a Foreword by Bob Carr

Blurb: Inventing a Nation is Gore Vidal's testament to the America he loves and mourns, to its continued promise and troubled future.

Vidal, a master stylist of American literature and one of the most acute observers of American life and history, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of the first three presidents of the United States, George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

Vidal's splendid and percipient prose animates key moments of decision in the birth of the American nation, and we come to know these men in new ways - their opinions of each other and the wider world, and their concerns about creating viable democracy. Vidal brings America's founding fathers to life and illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they gave, and the institutions of government they fashioned.

As one of Australia's leading politicians, Bob Carr, writes in the introduction to this special Australian edition: 'In these shining pages Gore Vidal answers a question that puzzled George Washington himself: what has gone wrong with America?'

ISBN: 052285138X (Paperback)

Year: 2003

Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Pages: 198 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Article on the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's Wikipedia page

4. Google books page

5. Article on the book

Razor: Underbelly (Larry Writer)

Razor: Underbelly

Larry Writer

Blurb: In the 1920s and '30s in inner Sydney, some of the most terrifying criminals in Australia's history waged war with razor and gun over the spoils of illegal drugs and alcohol, prostitution, gambling and extortion.

Ruling this savage nether world of ramshackle terraces, alleys, crime dens and nightclubs were the legendary vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, and gangsters Norman Bruhn, Frank Green, Squizzy Taylor, Guido Calletti, 'Snowy' Cutmore and Big Jim Devine. As gang fought gang, the streets ran with blood.

The award-winning Razor chronicles this dark past with vivid detail and a brilliantly compelling narrative.

ISBN: 9781742610702 (Paperback)

Year: 2001

Publisher: Pan

Pages: 419 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Official site for the TV series

2. Wikipedia page on the gangs from the book

3. Review of the book

4. Google books page

5. Buy the book from iTunes

Irons in the Fire (Russell Brand)

Irons in the Fire

Russell Brand

Blurb: '... the writings of a highly capricious and volatile witness to events at Upton Park and Soho Square...'

This is how Russell Brand describes this compilation of his Guardian columns that lead us from the disappointment of the World Cup through the following turbulent season for West Ham and England.

Brand writes about West Ham Football Club in a way that transcends club loyalties, and even a passion for football, to take us on the journey that 'Homer himself would regard as improbable.'

ISBN: 9780340961360 (Hardback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Pages: 152 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Fansite for the author

4. Goodreads page for the book

5. Buy from Play.com

Remember June (Damien Leith)

Remember June

Damien Leith

Blurb: Mattie Finch is a kid living with his aunt in Ireland in 1990.

He often talks to his mother, but he hasn't seen his father Dave for six months.

Dave's been trying to face his family, but there are just too many demons. He can't forget how he and his brother Stephen escaped the troubles of Northern Ireland ten years earlier. He is haunted by what happened when they met June and her sister Susan, and the irreversible changes the town of Stonebridge brought to their lives.

A shattering and redemptive story of fathers and sons, and the power of memory.

ISBN: 9780732286828 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 304 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page for the book

2. Author's Wikipedia page

3. Blog on the book

4. Author's official site

5. Author's Myspace

The Stallion (Harold Robbins)

The Stallion

Harold Robbins

Blurb: Continuing the phenomenal story in The Betsy, The Stallion reintroduces the Hardeman family and the cut-throat world of their vast automobile empire, where the stakes are high and everyman, and woman, is a gambler.

Loren Hardeman, known as 'Number One', is gradually transferring control of Bethlehem Motors to his grandson, Loren Hardeman III - a man possessed with his father's cunning, but sadly lacking in his ability to go for the kill. So when Angelo Perino, an outsider previously nurtured by 'Number One', threatens the position held by Hardeman III, what ensues is a battle of wills in which integrity takes a backseat to animal instinct, and in which there can only be one winner.

Bursting with huge ingredients of lust, greed, sex and intrigue - and a plot full of twists and double-crosses - this is Harold Robbins at his sizzling best.

ISBN: 9781849835404 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Pocket Books

Pages: 364 (Fiction)

Links

1. Google books page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's Wikipedia page

4. Review of the book

5. Another review

King of the Cross (Mark Dapin)

King of the Cross

Mark Dapin

Blurb: 'Think Nick Hornby on a meth binge and you've got the style. Think Underbelly 2, but so much more real, and you've got the content...fun and compelling and just thinly veiled enough to make it so real.' Melbourne Times

'A fantastic work of crime fiction... a brilliantly funny yet violent and intriguing novel.' Launceston Examiner

'Will have you rolling in laughter... an outrageously uninhibited account of Sydney's most infamous nether world.' Sun-Herald

'...punctuated by lacerating comic dialogue and scenes of explosive violence, full of the kind of inventive word play and thinly veiled social commentary that makes Florida-based crime author Carl Hiaasen so much fun to read - and, as with Hiaasen, there's ample substance beneath the dialogue.' The Age

'Violent funny and poignant by turn; if you liked Underbelly, you'll love this.' Grazia Magazine

'I laughed out loud... the publisher's blurb says the book is 'crime fiction as it's never been written before', and that is a fair call. Dapin brings to the book the quirky, insightful turn of phrase that makes his newspaper columns for Good Weekend mandatory readying.' Stephen Romei, Australian Literary Review

'Dapin is a writer who punches with both hands and winks at the crowd while he's at it. His protagonist is part punk, part pug, part poet - an anti-hero who reveals his own back story as he gets the King of the Cross to unravel the eerily familiar tale of his unlikely rise.' Andrew Rule, author of Underbelly.

'Explosive, gritty, hilarious and - best of all - truly origianly. This book detonates while you're reading it.' Robert Drewe

ISBN: 9780330426121 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Pan

Pages: 311 (Fiction)

Links

1.Author's official site

2. Author's Wikipedia page

3. Blog on the book

4. Buy from Readings

5. Review of the book

The Water Room (Christopher Fowler)

The Water Room

Christopher Fowler

Blurb: An oasis in the heart of Kentish Town, Balaklava Street is ripe for gentrification. But then the body of an elderly woman is found at No. 5. Her demise seems to have been peaceful but for the fact that her throat is full of river water...

For the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit, led by London's longest-serving detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, this curious death marks the beginning of a distinctly sinister investigation. And the new owner of No. 5 is understandably unsettled by the damp in the basement of her home, some particularly resilient spiders and the ghostly sound of rushing water.

Unearthing hitherto undiscovered secrets, the two octogenarian policemen learn that, in a London filled with the rich, the poor and the dispossessed, there's still something a desperate individual is willing to kill for. And kill again to protect.

Armed only with their wits, their own idiosyncratic practices and a plentiful supply of boiled sweets, Bryant and May come face to face with madness, greed and revenge in a wickedly sinuous mystery that goes to the heart of every London home.

ISBN: 9780553824681 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 430 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Another review

5. Blog on the book

A Time to Sow - Star Trek (Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore)

A Time to Sow - Star Trek

Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Blurb: On the cusp of their epic battle with Shinzon, many of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's long-time crew were heading for new assignments and new challenges. Among the changes were William Riker's promotion to captain and his new command, Riker's marriage to Counselor Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher's new career at Starfleet Medical. But the story of what set them on a path away from the Starship Enterprise has never been told.

Until now.

More than two centuries ago, the Dokaalan sent an unmanned probe into the void, bearing a distress call for anyone who could save their doomed world. But the message reached Federation space too late to save the planet or its people. Or so it was believed...

Generations later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E are stunned to discover the last of the Dokaalan - now only a colony, fighting to stay alive in a decrepit asteroid mining complex. Although their home planet was destroyed long ago, the survivors hope to someday transform a nearby planet into a new home for their people. But bitter divisions exist among the Dokaalan, sowing seeds of sabotage and terrorism - and placing Picard and the Enterprise in the middle of an escalating crisis that can only lead to total destruction!

ISBN: 0743482999 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Pocket Books

Pages: 316 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Wiki for the book

4. Review of the book

5. Another review

Middle School - The Worst Years of My Life (James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts)

Middle School - The Worst Years of My Life

James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts

Blurb: This is the totally insane story of how I, Rafe Khatchadorian,

-fought and overcame a diabolical teacher called Dragon Lady,

-sold my soul to the school bully, a dollar at a time,

-wrestled with a real live bear; repeatedly,

-fell kind of in 'like' with the most popular girl in school,

-went into the soda business and went bust,

-and accidentally-on-purpose hurt all the people I care about.

The worst days of my life were good sometimes.

Bad sometimes.

But mostly they were hilarious.

See for yourself.

ISBN: 9780099543992 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Young Arrow

Pages: 283 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Official page for the book

3. Author's official site

4. Blog on the book

5. Google books page

It's True! It's True! (Kurt Angle with John Harper)

It's True! It's True!

Kurt Angle with John Harper

Blurb: 'This book is a recounting of my life and how I see it. It is how life's triumphs and shortcomings affected me.'

A real American story from one of World Wrestling Entertainment's biggest superstars.

ISBN: 0007145071 (Paperback)

Year: 2001

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 367 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Google books page

5. Fan site for Kurt Angle

Outside In (Insider #2) (Maria V. Snyder)

Outside In (Insider #2)

Maria V. Snyder

Blurb: Me? A Leader?

Okay, so I did prove that there's more to Inside than we knew. A whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion between worker scrubs like me and the snobby Uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we're free. I thought that meant I could go off on my own again - while still touching base with Riley, of course. He's the one Upper I think I can trust.

But then we learn that there is an Outside. And something from Outside wants in.

ISBN: 9781921794834 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 326 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Blog on the book

3. Wikipedia page on the author

4. Review of the book

5. Buy from Amazon

Shadows in the Mist (Brian Moreland)

Shadows in the Mist

Brian Moreland

Blurb: Germany 1944: The Hurtgen Forest is a killing field. But there is something worse than the enemy in the shadows: An ancient power is waiting to be unleashed upon those who oppose the Third Reich - and then the world...

World War II hero Jack 'Grim Reaper' Chambers survived the war, but he still has nightmares about Hurtgen - and the unholy horrors he battled there. Now, he is determined to reveal the truth behind his platoon's massacre...

His grandson, Sean, is given the task of carrying Jack's message. But Sean's quest pulls him into a deadly race against those who wish to bury the truth forever - and those who wish to use it to unleash hell on earth...

ISBN: 9780425224335 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Berkley Books

Pages: 356 (Fiction)

Links

1. Reviews of author

2. Review of book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Author's blog

5. Q & A with author

Mr. Nobody (Roger Hargreaves)

Mr. Nobody

Roger Hargreaves

Blurb: Mr. Happy finds someone who is nobody. But can anyone be nobody?

ISBN: 9781846467110 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Penguin Books

Pages: 36 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wiki page for Mr. Nobody

2. News article on Mr. Nobdoy

3. Penguin page for Mr. Men

4. Wikipedia page for the series

5. Buy from Amazon

Quarantine (Alone #3) (James Phelan)

Quarantine (Alone #3)

James Phelan

Blurb: What is left for Jesse to lose?

Jesse lost his friends in the destruction of New York.

Now he's endangered the survivors.

He's shown the Chasers where Rachel and Felicity have taken refuge. He's pushed Caleb to the edge - and watched him pay the price. The people at Chelsea Piers seem Jesse's only hope for escape.

But will they move before it's too late?

And when the quarantine is lifted, what hope will the authorities bring? A vaccine? A cure?

Who will be saved - and who will be left to battle on... ALONE?

ISBN: 9780733624810 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Lothian

Pages: 263 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Official site for the series

3. Buy from Borders

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Wikipedia page for the author

Orion's Hounds (Star Trek: TITAN) (Christopher L. Bennett)

Orion's Hounds (Star Trek: TITAN)

Christopher L. Bennett

Blurb: As the U.S.S. Titan ventures beyond the outermost reaches of known space, the telepaths in her crew - including Diplomatic Officer Deanna Troi - are overwhelmed by an alien cry of distress, leading the ship to the scene of a shocking act of carnage: a civilisation of interstellar 'whalers' preying upon and exploiting a familiar species of sentient spaceborne giants.

Appalled but reluctant to rush to judgment, Captain William Riker and his crew investigate, discovering a cosmic spawning ground in a region of active star formation - the ecosystem for a bewildering array of diverse but similarly vast life-forms. While attempting to negotiate an end to the victimisation of these creatures, Riker's crew inadvertently grants them the means to defeat their hunters' purpose... only to learn that things are not exactly as they seem.

ISBN: 9781416509509 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Pocket Books

Pages: 379 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Publisher's page for the book

3. Review of the book

4. Annotations of the book

5. Wiki page on the book

American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Blurb: Patrick Bateman is handsome, well-educated, intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom. He is twenty-six years old and living his own American Dream.

ISBN: 0307278638 (Paperback)

Year: 1991

Publisher: Vintage

Pages: 399 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official page

4. Google books page

5. Quotes by the author

2nd Chance (Women's Murder Club #2) (James Patterson and Andrew Gross)

2nd Chance (Women's Murder Club #2)

James Patterson and Andrew Gross

Blurb: A CRAZED GUNMAN

I moved closer and knelt over the body. Tasha's blouse was soaked with blood, mixed with falling rain. Just a few feet away, a rainbow-hued knapsack still lay on the grass. Bullet holes were everywhere, splintered glass and wood. Dozens of kids had been streaming out onto the street... All those shots, and only one victim.

THE WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB IS BACK

The tragic end of the honeymoon murder case left Lindsay Boxer, San Francisco's only woman homicide detective, unsure if she could ever return to work. But when a little girl is shot outside a San Francisco church, she knows it's time to reconvene the Women's Murder Club.

Working with reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant DA Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay starts to track a mystifying killer who quickly turns his pursuers into his victims.

ISBN: 9780755349272 (Paperback)

Year: 2002

Publisher: Headline

Pages: 401 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Review of the book

3. Author's official site

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Blog on the book

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street (Michael Davis)

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

Michael Davis

Blurb: One evening in early 1966 a group of friends were gathered at a Manhattan dinner party, where the conversation turned to a subject a number of them had been thinking about: Why couldn't television be used to teach children? Suddenly, one of the most influential, durable, and beloved shows in the history of broadcasting was born.

Michael Davis's Street Gang unfolds the never-before-told saga behind Sesame Street: the miraculously improbably alchemy that brought a passionate team together, and kept them going through four decades of social change and the backstage dram behind a television show that had always appeared effortless. Street Gang is a story of a crusade, one that has already influenced four generations of children - and one that will remain a part of childhood for generations to come.

ISBN: 9780143116639 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Penguin Books

Pages: 380 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Official site for the book

3. Wikipedia page for the book

4. Google books page

5. Wiki page for the book

The Book, the Film, the T-Shirt (Matt Beaumont)

The Book, the Film, the T-Shirt

Matt Beaumont

Blurb: What does a successful adman do when he realises the stars of his new commercial want to kill each other, his director has walked off the set and his client has turned up in the wrong T-Shirt?

How does one of those stars react when he's asked if it's true that he's packing salami into his shorts?

Why on earth does the other one think that dueting with a Chinese Elvis impersonator on the Old Ken Road could possibly be a smart career move?

What does the successful adman's pregnant, swollen-ankled wife do when she realises the cheating bastard just happens to be shooting an ad with a rubber-clad Hollywood nymph?

And how could any of the above possibly have a connection to the world's most useless drug smuggler?

All these questions and more are answered in The Book, the Film, the T-Shirt, a novel that hilariously describes the making of a tyre ad and the destruction of several careers.

ISBN: 000714878X (Paperback)

Year: 2002

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 306 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Review of the book

3. Another review

4. Another review

5. Author's Wikipedia page

Disco Mystery - Moshi Monsters Pick Your Path #1 (Lauren Holowaty)

Disco Mystery - Moshi Monsters Pick Your Path #1

Lauren Holowaty

Blurb: There's something strange going on in Monstro City. The Underground Disco has gone eerily silent...

One of the fangtastic Fizzbangs has gone missing and the other bands are refusing to perform until their friend has returned! Will you see if you can find them, or seek your own monSTARdom in Rockstar Reef?

Pick your path and decide

ISBN: 9781409390770 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Sunbird

Pages: 77 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from the Moshi Monsters store

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of book

4. Blog on Moshi Monsters

5. Quiz on Moshi Monster books