Scott Snair, Stop the Meeting, I Want To Get Off!
Allen & Unwin. RRP: $24.95

Today’s business managers spend between one quarter and three-quarters of their workday attending meetings. At least half of all meeting time is unproductive, if not destructive. And the problem is getting worse. The amount of collectively wasted time and lost opportunity in any organization due to meetings is staggering – and yet somehow accepted. Containing a guide for managers at all levels to purge themselves of unnecessary get-togethers, Stop the Meeting introduces alternatives to meetings, such as one-on-one management, delegating and strong hands-on leadership.

Scott Snair – a successful businessman and business professor who lives in the United States – is a proven military and corporate team leader who has managed groups of people from seven to 70. He boasts that he can count on one hand the number of meetings he has convened over the years.

Rosemary Neill, White Out: How Politics is Killing Black Australia
Allan & Unwin. RRP: $$22.95

A controversial call for debate about Australia’s failure to improve the lives of Aboriginal people. Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy almost 20 years lower than that of other Australians and remain more likely to suffer chronic unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, imprisonment and low levels of education. The ideal of Aboriginal self-determination, despite billions of dollars of government funding, has not been very successful.

Walkley Award-winning journalist Rosemary Neill argues that meaningful debate over indigenous issues has been paralysed by political expediency and censorship. The Left treat the notion of self-determination as beyond scrutiny. The Right cynically uses its weaknesses to call for a return to past, discredited policies.

Nicolas Rothwell, Wings of the Kite-Hawk
Picador / Pan Macmillan Australia. RRP: $30.00

Funny and observant, Wings of a Kite-Hawk is a set of linked journeys into the Australian landscape: its past and present, its people and its half-remembered secrets. Rothwell, a leading journalist from The Australian, follows in the footsteps not only of the great explorers of the past (Leichhardt, Sturt, Strehlow and Giles), but also of anthropologists, Hell’s Angels, rodeo riders and Aboriginal artists, to give us a rich perspective of our diverse country.

Ruth Peters, Laying Down the Law: The 25 Laws of Parenting
Pan Macmillan Australia. RRP: $25.00

This handbook offers ways to bring effective, consequence-based discipline to every home. With nearly three decades of family counselling experience to draw upon, Dr Peters has seen it all, from unruly toddlers to out-of-control teens.

This book addresses parents’ most important problems and common mistakes, showing them how to set and enforce loving laws of discipline and respect and how to avoid futile and counter-productive nagging.

John W. English, Barry Hicks, Sue Hrasky & Nicole Gyles, Personal Financial Management
Allen & Unwin. RRP: $35.00

From bestselling author John W. English and an experienced team of taxation and finance consultants, comes this fully updated and completely indispensable guide to managing the money you already have.

Clive James, Even As We Speak: New Essays 1993 – 2001
Picador / Pan Macmillan Australia. RRP: $22.00

An illuminating and sometimes hilarious collection of essays by popular Australian writer, TV personality and raconteaur, Clive James. He looks at Australian poetry, contemporary television, and the rise and fall of celebrities. There is a provocative piece on the death of Princess Diana, and some reflections on the culpability of ordinary Germans in the Jewish Holocaust.

Annette Conn, It’s A Dog’s Life
Pan Macmillan Australia. RRP: $30.00

This is the book to find out everything you need to keep your pooch happy, healthy and well behaved. From advice on what kind of dog to choose to guidelines on diet, health, exercise regimes, bathing, grooming and pampering, as well as lots of practical tips on training, It’s a Dog’s Life is a must-have, one-stop bible for all busy dog owners.

Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Picador / Pan Macmillan Australia. RRP: $19.95

Introduced by British comedian Stephen Fry, The Salmon of Doubt comprises 10 chapters of the novel on which Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame) was working at the time of his death in May 2001, along with an astonishing collection of pieces recovered from his beloved Macintosh computer. This collection is a hilarious smorgasbord of Adams’ offbeat outpourings on the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

M.J. Simpson, Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams
Hodder & Stoughton. RRP: $35.00

Douglas Adams led an extraordinary life: struggling as a comedy sketch writer, he was catapulted to stardom by the overnight success of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. This honest and revealing portrayal provides a fascinating insight into the life of a man of many passions and talents, cut tragically short in May 2001.