Don’t be lonely by a poolside or beachside somewhere this summer. Make sure you’ve got a good book in your hands…

We’ve picked out a bunch of the best books from 2018 to keep you company this summer – here’s a few to check out, or come visit us in store for the full selection!

Jinxed
by Amy McCulloch
RRP $17.99 | OUR PRICE $14.39 (20% OFF)

Lacey Chu has big dreams of working for the company behind the ‘baku’ – a customizable smart pet that functions as a phone but makes the perfect companion for its user. The only problem is, she’s just been rejected from Profectus Academy – the elite academy for cutting-edge tech.

Then Lacey meets Jinx… Jinx is an incredibly advanced cat baku who opens up a world that Lacey never new existed, including entry into the hallowed halls of Profectus. But what is Jinx, really? His abilities far surpass anything written into his coded. He seems to be more than just a robotic pet.
He seems… real.

Sketch Now, Think Later
by Mike Yoshiaki Daikubara
RRP $21.99

Everyone wishes they could sketch stylish scenes, but busy lives leave almost no room for sitting down with a pad and pen to practicing. Many people give up on their potential hobby (and artistic outlet) because they feel they just don’t have the time to lay the groundwork. Here’s a secret though: you do! All you is a strategy for incorporate sketching into your daily life.

Sketch Now, Think Later covers the tools, techniques and tips that author and Urban Sketching Correspondent of Boston Mike Daikubara has developed in his more than 15 years as a practicing artist, and will show you how to fully dive into any sketching situation with limited time and tools, and still be able to produce memorable, great looking, fun sketches!

Killing Commendatore
by Haruki Murakami
RRP $45.00 | OUR PRICE $36.00 (20% OFF)

A thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a strange painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors.

A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art – as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby – Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.

Heart
by Sandeep Jauhar
RRP $29.99

Practising cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar beautifully weaves his own experiences with the defining discoveries of the past to tell the story of our most vital organ. He looks at some of the pioneers who risked their careers and their patients’ lives to better understand the heart.

Amid gripping scenes from the operating theatre, Jauhar interweaves stories about the patients he’s treated with the moving tale of his family’s own history of heart problems, from his grandfather’s sudden death in India – an event that sparked his life-long obsession – to the ominous signs of how he himself might die.

He also confronts the limits of medical technology and argues that future progress will be determined more by how we choose to live rather than by any device we invent.

Civilization : The Way We Live Now
by William A. Ewing and Holly Roussell
RRP $74.99 | OUR PRICE $59.99 (20% OFF)

Every day and every hour, human civilization expands, evolves, and mutates. These universal movements are chronicled by prestigious curator William A. Ewing in this stunning photographic exploration, Civilization. Ewing illuminates how contemporary photography, notably art photography, is fascinated by, and attempts to decode, the way we live today. This landmark publication is accompanied by an internationally touring exhibition produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography – a global cultural event for a global subject.

Navigating the Stars
by Maria V. Snyder
RRP $19.99 | OUR PRICE $15.99 (20% OFF)

Year 2471. A new discovery. Those three words thrill my parents – the galaxy’s leading archaeologists – but for me, it means another time jump to a different planet. One so big, my friends will be older than my dad when we arrive. And I’ll still be seventeen. Thanks, Einstein.

A page–turning story of courage and determination in the face of the unknown.

Unsheltered
by Barbara Kingsolver
RRP $32.99

Brilliantly executed and compulsively readable, Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerising story told in alternating chapters, the international bestselling author of The Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible returns with a timely novel that interweaves past and present to explore the human capacity for resiliency and compassion in times of great upheaval.

Unsheltered recalls George Eliot in its blend of warmth and wisdom, fearlessness and political acuity: a novel that speaks truly to our times.

Any Ordinary Day
by Leigh Sales
RRP $34.99

In this wise and layered book, Leigh talks intimately with people who’ve faced the unimaginable, from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour. Leigh brilliantly condenses the cutting-edge research on the way the human brain processes fear and grief, and poses the questions we too often ignore out of awkwardness. Along the way, she offers an unguarded account of her own challenges and what she’s learned about coping with life’s unexpected blows.

Warm, candid and empathetic, this book is about what happens when ordinary people, on ordinary days, are forced to suddenly find the resilience most of us don’t know we have.

The Women’s Atlas
by Joni Seager
RRP $29.99 | OUR PRICE $23.99 (20% OFF)

The Women’s Atlas illustrates the status of women worldwide today. Through cutting-edge infographics, the atlas portrays how women are living across continents and cultures, showing: levels of Gender Equality, LGBTQIA+ Rights, Literacy and Information Technology, Feminism, Domestic Violence, Work and the Global Economy, Government and Power, and much more. The result is the most comprehensive and accessible global analysis of key issues facing women: the advances that have been made and the distances still to be travelled.

The Bullet Journal Method
by Ryder Carroll
RRP $34.99 | OUR PRICE $27.99 (20% OFF)

Like many of us, Ryder Carroll tried everything to get organised – countless apps, systems, planners, you name it. Nothing really worked. Then he invented his own simple system that required only pen and paper, which he found both effective and calming.

The system combines elements of a wishlist, a to-do list, and a diary. It makes it easy to get thoughts out of your head (an unreliable witness) and onto paper, to see them clearly and decide what to do about them. It helps you identify what matters, and set goals accordingly. By breaking long-term goals into small actionable steps, users map out an approachable path towards continual improvement, allowing them to stay focused despite the crush of incoming demands.

But this is much more than a time management book. It’s also a manifesto for what Ryder calls “intentional living”: making sure that your beliefs and actions align. Even if you already use a Bullet Journal®, this book gives you new exercises to become more calm and focused, new insights on how to prioritise well, and a new awareness of the power of analogue tools in a digital world.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky
by Patrick Ness and Rovina Cai
RRP $24.99

“Call me Bathsheba.”

The whales of Bathsheba’s pod live for the hunt. Led by the formidable Captain Alexandra, they fight a never-ending war against men. Then the whales attack a man ship, and instead of easy prey they find the trail of a myth, a monster, perhaps the devil himself… With their relentless Captain leading the chase, they embark on the final hunt, one that will forever change the worlds of whales and men.

From Patrick Ness, the multi-award-winning author of A Monster Calls, and CBCA Crichton Award-winning Australian artist Rovina Cai comes a haunting tale of power and obsession that turns the story of Moby Dick upside down.