Books

This autobiography by Leanne Benjamin with Sarah Crompton reveals the extraordinary life and career of one of the worldmost important ballet dancers of the past fifty years. The book takes you behind the scenes to find a real understanding of the...

An immersive journey into the underwater world that holds transformative lessons for us allCraig Foster and Ross Frylinck regularly dive together in the awe-inspiring kelp forests off South Africa, without wetsuits or oxygen tanks. Craig had dived this...

With clarity and passion, Pearson inspires readers to see difficult and controversial issues in new ways.Mission traces a life of politics, ideas and inspiring words.Whether he is recalling his boyhood in Hope Vale, Queensland, making the case for...

The saga of Australia continues with... GIRT NATIONDavid Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia's transformation from aspiration to nation - an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of...

Winner of the 2022 Walkley Book Award. The gripping, deeply moving account of a terrifying fire - among the most ferocious Australia has ever seen'A vivid and terrifying glimpse of not just our future but our present. Every Australian should read this...

Featuring gardens of the Great Ocean RoadSoulscape- Connecting Gardens to Landscape takes readers on a journey through ten gardens located along the world-famous Great Ocean Road. It illustrates the challenges and outcomes of creating a garden by the...

I Am Melba - how a Melbourne girl defied her father and left her husband to become the most famous singer of the age. Growing up in Melbourne, Nellie Mitchell showed musical promise and dreamed of fame, but her father had more orthodox plans in mind...

How do you find yourself without losing your family? A memoir about growing up, breaking the rules and negotiating culture, from a new Australian voice.'Sara El Sayed has written a book both confident and delicate that will leave you eagerly awaiting her...

Seeking ways to understand her chosen continent better, Belinda Probert bought a rural property outside of Melbourne to observe the land more closely and learn how to garden differently.How do we understand a country? At a time when many easy...

Become your own mental health expertMental illness is too often portrayed with a sense of despair, as if it's a life sentence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Virtually everyone improves with help, and most of the help is relatively easy to...

'The demise of Fitzroy is a deep wound rather than a scar. A tear in the fabric of the game that will never truly repair' -Foreword by Gerard WhateleyMERGER tells the story of the Fitzroy Football Club's 1996 season in the Australian Football League, a...

From award-winning writer Erik Jensen comes a tender and involving narrative sequence of short love poems.'These poems were intended first as gifts. They are the story of falling in love . . . and realising that rejecting the gender binary is not one...

A visionary book for our wild times.A visionary book for our wild times. Scott Ludlam draws on his experience as a senator and activist to capture our world on a precipice and explore what comes next.One way or another, we are headed for radical change...

A gripping account of the paths that led postwar Russian migrants to Australia - and what they found when they arrived.More than 20,000 ethnic Russians migrated to Australia after the Second World War - yet we know very little about their experiences...

Melbourne Books is proud to add Open Table Byron Bay to its' range of cookbooks that includes bestselling titles such as Moroccan Soup Bar, Sweet Greek and Sweet Greek Life and Sicilano.Ronit Robbaz and her popular Open Table cooking school and catering...

How three female journalists- including Australian Kate Webb -broke into the male world of war reportage and transformed it forever.The never-before-told story of three women who courageously reported from the frontlines of the Vietnam War. One spent...

This book illuminates the art of architectural drawings.The best trained and most experienced librarian or curator is likely to confront difficulties in dealing with architectural drawings. Even an architect will be unable to understand some aspects of...

I'll Be Gone tells the story of a song that captured the imagination of a generation of young Australians.It reveals the musical and personal journey of Michael Rudd a national treasure, even though he's a New Zealander! The book traces Rudd's musical...

A definitive anthology that captures the masterful Don Watson at his best - powerful, insightful and funny.No other writer has journeyed further into the soul of Australia and returned to tell the tale ... Watsonia collects the fruits of a writing life...

Around every bend, as the climate and the colour changes within a few short kilometres, the Adelaide Hills holds surprises even for those who have lived in the region most of their lives.For visitors, the experience is breathtaking as these low-lying...

Ninety years after her drowning, the true story of Australia's first woman pilot reveals a pioneer in life as well as the sky.In Australia in the mid 1920s, flight was still new, dangerous and glamorous - and aviators were all men. That was until a...

This sumptuously produced coffee table book captures the essence of the fairy tale that is Chalet Monet.Situated in a dress circle position on the slopes of the village of Les Avants, overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Chalet Monet is the...

A better way to think about foreign influence and the nation's futureIn 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping said there was an 'ocean of goodwill' between our country and his. Since then, that ocean has shown dramatic signs of freezing over. Australia is...

What would equality look like when it comes to gender and work? An updated edition of Annabel Crabb's acclaimed Quarterly Essay.When New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced her pregnancy, the headlines raced around the world. But when...

Spy vs Spy examines the newest threats and vulnerabilities Australia faces from espionage and foreign spies.'As its strength has increased, it has become clear that China has it own preferred set of rules. And that is as true in espionage as it is in...

A multi-award-winning French bestseller that brings poetry to the factory floorFactory you shall never have my soul I am here And I count for so much more than you And I count so much more because of you Thanks to youUnable to find work in his field,...

Since childhood, Mark Carr wanted to and fly he did...firstly as a naval aviator, a jet instructor and then pilot for Cathay Pacific Airlines.This 'techno-biography' is written for those who, like him, have hydraulic oil flowing through their veins...

When veteran Australian educator Michael Lawrence visited Finland to take a look at their world-leading education system, he came away in a state of shock."Finnish teachers looked at me as if I was a child molester when I described the NAPLAN tests given...

The fascinating story of an international icon - one of the world's most inspiring, progressive leaders.She is a progressive and a social democrat. A millennial woman in leadership. Only the second elected leader in the world to give birth while in...

Charles Troedel (1835-1906) was a master printer and lithographer, and the face behind the production of most of Australia's early advertising posters, product labels, and other print ephemera, as well as the iconic Melbourne Album.This book provides a...

Award-winning journalist Margaret Simons journeys through the troubled Murray-Darling Basin exploring the politics of water, drought and food.The Murray-Darling Basin is the food bowl of Australia, and it's in trouble. What does this mean for the future...

Some Brains is the latest heartwarming and funny picture book by Melbourne comedian and author, Nelly Thomas.It starts from the premise that neurodiversity (conditions like Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and the like) is a normal, essential part of human...

How teenager Greta Thunberg began a global movement to fight climate change - for readers aged 9 to 12Greta's story is about hope, courage and determination. You are never too young to make a difference. It's 20 August 2018, late summer in Stockholm,...

Come behind the scenes at an Australian zoo as the zookeepers share amazing stories, for children aged 9 to 12.Why are 1000 trees needed for every koala in a zoo?How do you check a tree-kangaroo's pouch for joeys?Why is a wombat's poo square-shapped?And...

A blueprint for harnessing Australia's renewable energy potential to become a global economic superpower.'The fog of Australian politics on climate change has obscured a fateful reality- Australia has the potential to be an economic superpower of the...

Lavishly illustrated with many never-before-seen photographs, 25 Years of Grace takes a fresh look at the making and legacy of Jeff Buckley's classic album, making a magnificent gift for fans.Acclaimed photographer Merri Cyr and music biographer Jeff...

A book about the background to the memorable 2015 Melbourne Cup ... from the perspective of those behind the triumph and how they experienced the race that stopped two nations!24 horses lined up for the running of the 155th Melbourne Cup. At 100-1 Prince...

The book includes essays by the prominent art academics and gallerist, Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA, Dr Patrick Hutchings and Guy Abrahams.Thornton Walker is a mid-career Melbourne-based artist whose work is represented in collections in the British...

In a world where our every minute is captured, optimised or appropriated, How to Do Nothing offers a much-needed action plan for slowing down and living more responsively.A galvanising critique of the forces vying for our attention - and our personal...

One of Australia's most revered environmental scholars, and its most distinguished landscape essayist.George Seddon was renowned for championing a 'sense of place', giving that phrase a uniquely Australian substance. He was a connoisseur of landscapes,...

The quirky, powerhouse chestnut that forged history.A champion racehorse, Manikato won races at the elite level over six seasons through the late 1970s and early 1980s and became the first Australian sprinter to earn $1 million in prize money.But once...

From an award-winning author comes an electrifying story of fear and sacrifice, and what people will do to outrun the shadows.Iraqi aspiring pianist Nasim falls from favour with Saddam Hussein and his psychopathic son, triggering a perilous search for...

A passionate, illuminating tribute to one of Australia's greatest writers, by Miles Franklin-winning author Michelle de Kretser.'Hazzard was the first Australian writer I read who looked outwards, away from Australia. Her work spoke of places from which...

Nellie Kerrison's first book Relish Mama is now being re-released by Melbourne Books.This bestselling cookbook now joins Melbourne Books' growing collection, alongside Moroccan Soup Bar, Sweet Greek, Sweet Greek Life, Hungry and Fussy, Naked for Satan...

The home ownership dream might look different today, but there are inventive ways to make it a reality.'Buying a property isn't easy. It's not meant to be. It's one of the biggest financial decisions you'll make in your life. But it is worth it . . ...

Set in an impressive array of locations, these superbly crafted stories examine people caught between places, on the cusp of departure or return.A masterful collection of heartbreak, travel and seduction from an internationally acclaimed Australian...

An unflinching portrait of talent and addiction, now an award-winning feature film.In 2008, the artist Adam Cullen invited journalist Erik Jensen to stay in his spare room and write his biography. What followed were four years of intense honesty and a...

The true story of Victoria's goldfields catastrophe.SludgeThe fascinating, troubling legacy of the gold rushEveryone knows gold made Victoria rich. But did you know gold mining was disastrous for the land, engulfing it in floods of sand, gravel and silt...