Cirrus@Austlit

'Professor Terry Denton talks you through all you need to know about Earth, Life, the Universe and EVERYTHING (almost).

'Sure to engage anyone from the ages of 8 to 80 (and beyond), this is a funny, fascinating whistle-stop tour of the history and science of the universe, life on Earth, the ins and outs of biology, geography, geology and the weather, how life evolved and how it works, and how people use the forces of nature around us to create amazing things. There's even a chapter on time! Get ready to laugh and be amazed at the world around you and within you.' (Publication summary)

'The Bad Guys are about to have a VERY BAD DAY! Mr Wolf and his bad, bad buddies have messed with the wrong guinea pig. And this nasty little furball wants revenge! Will they survive? Will they be heroes? And will they just stop trying to eat each other? It's time to put on your baddest pair of chuckle-pants and find out!' (Publication summary)

'The answers to life's biggest questions can be found in the smallest places, once you're ready to look.

'Get set for an insightful (and hilarious) peek into what we can learn from the world of the ant.' (Publication summary)

'The Bad Guys are back with a daring plan to rescue 10,000 chickens from a high-security cage farm!

'But how do you rescue chickens when one of you is known as The Chicken Swallower? Join the Bad Guys as they return for more dodgy good deeds with a new member of the team. And watch out for the super villain who might just be the end of them!

'Good deeds. Whether you like it or not.' (Publication summary)

'They sound like the Bad Guys, they look like the Bad Guys . . . and they even smell like the Bad Guys. But Mr Wolf, Mr Piranha, Mr Snake and Mr Shark are about to change all of that!

'Mr Wolf has a daring plan for the Bad Guys first good mission. The gang are going to break 200 dogs out of the Maximum Security City Dog Pound.

'Will Operation Dog Pound go smoothly? Will the Bad Guys become the Good Guys?

'And will Mr Snake please spit out Mr Piranha?' (Publication summary)

'A highly adorable and addictive love story that explores whether "the stars" can or should be a guide through life and what happens when one woman tries to give "the stars" a little help. 

'When childhood sweethearts Justine (Sagittarius and serious skeptic) and Nick (Aquarius and true believer) randomly bump into each other as adults, a life-changing love affair seems inevitable. To Justine anyway. True, she hasn't seen Nick in thirteen years, one month and three weeks, but who's counting? She's pined after him all the same, and now that Nick lives in the same town, a struggling actor to her struggling magazine reporter, he'll surely realize his own unchanged feelings, take the reins and jump at the chance to rekindle their relationship. Right? Well, no. Nick, she learns, is an astrological devotee, and his decision-making, romantic and professional, is guided solely by the infallible horoscopes in his favourite magazine. The magazine Justine happens to work at. Perhaps the stars' guiding forces could use a little journalistic reimagining?

'It's only a few tweaks to the Aquarius column, just a little push to get him to realize they're meant for one another. It's nonsense in the first place, what could possibly happen? Aquarians everywhere are about to find out, when the doctored horoscopes, ostensibly published to steer Nick and Nick alone, end up reverberating in the lives of the column's devoted readers, showing the ripple effects of what can happen when one woman decides to take the horoscopes, and Fate itself, into her own hands.

'Spanning exactly one year, as the earth moves through all twelve stars signs, Star-Crossed is a delicious, intelligent and affecting love story about fate, chance and how we all navigate the kinds of choices that are hard to face alone.' (Publication summary)

'The (unauthorised) biography of you, and the story of all of us. Charting from the Big Bang to birth, Philip Bunting takes us on a journey back to the start of time (in about the time it takes to eat your breakfast!) A hilarious, and beautifully illustrated book, designed to raise more questions than it answers.'  (Publication summary)

'The Paladin are reunited in the Heartwood and the Trinity is revealed at last. But what is the key to the secret which will unlock their power? Tor and Alyssa are surrounded by danger. Their old enemy, Goth, is still free to cause pain and suffering wherever he goes, whilst Alyssa′s nemesis, Xantia, returns to haunt her. Meanwhile, the god Orlac has installed himself on the throne of Cipres and turns his attention to hunting down Tor, determined to kill him and those he loves. The battle lines are drawn for the final confrontation between the two most powerful sentients ever to walk the Land.' (Source: LibrariesAustralia)

'Kate Byrne is having an affair with the father of her most gifted pupil, Lucien. Unnervingly, her lover's wife has just published Murder at Black Swan Point, a true crime novel about the brutal slaying of a young adulteress. Suspecting the adult account of Black Swan Point's murder to be wrong, Kate imagines her own version of the novel, for children, narrated by Australian animals. But has her obsession with the crime aligned her fate with that of the murdered adulteress?

'Compelled by the lives of her nine-year-old students, Kate is a misfit among their parents. And though, in scenes of escalating eroticism, Lucien's father brings her to life sexually, he does nothing to penetrate her obsession with the past. Kate is fixated on the crime of passion that occurred years earlier, less and less aware of her own reputation in the present.' (Synopsis)

'Rome, 97 BC:

'Gaius Marius is triumphant. Under his command, Rome has conquered the Western world, weathered invasion and crushed its enemies. There is just one prize left to him: an unprecedented seventh consulship.

'But the greatest prize demands the highest price. Marius, now aging and ailing, is pitted against a new generation of assassins, power-seekers, and Senate intriguers. There are many who would like to see him fail, not least Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once his closest ally, now his most dangerous rival.

'Sulla and Marius' contest can only be won through treachery and blood. As a deadly enmity engulfs both men and plunges them towards madness, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'With incomparable storytelling skill, New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough brings Rome alive in all her majesty—and illuminates the world of those favored by the gods at birth.

'In a time of cataclysmic upheaval, a bold new generation of Romans vied for greatness amid the disintegrating remnants of their beloved Republic. They were the chosen...and the cursed—blessed with wealth and privilege yet burdened by the dictates of destiny in a savage struggle for power that would leave countless numbers crushed and destroyed. But there was one who would tower above them all—a brilliant and beautiful boy whose ambition was unparalleled, whose love was legend, and whose glory was Rome's: a boy they would one day call "Caesar."' (Publication summary)

'Aakash, venerated sage and healer, is the founder of Prakriti – an abundant farm in the Himalayas. From this soulful mountain home, his children embark on the journeys that will sway the destinies of future generations: gentle son Ram, whose fierce search for enlightenment will force him to choose between his family and his soul; daughter Tulsi Devi, whose convent schooling provides an unexpected, brutal education forever altering her life; Tulsi Devi's beloved first child, Jivan – born in the waters of the Ganges, cruelly separated from his mother; and Aakash's granddaughter Rohini, who travels across the world on a painted bus to a new land and a new kind of freedom, immersing herself in the London of the 1960s.

'With Rohini's daughter, Saakshi, the search for enlightenment comes full circle, and the great-granddaughter returns to her spiritual home – the holy mountains of Prakriti, where their family story first began. Both magical and utterly compelling, this spellbinding novel interweaves family sagas with the richness of Indian mysticism, creating an intimate portrait of an unforgettable family.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Distress is 'set in 2055 when the centre of Sydney is virtually deserted, as most work and entertainment is conducted at home via broadband optical fibre networks. Egan's main character, science journalist Andrew Worth, is sent to 'Stateless', a bioengineered Pacific coral island to interview a South African Nobel Prize winner who is intending to reveal a major breakthrough in human comprehension techniques. Various competing interests, however, descend on the island and Worth becomes an unwitting agent of change. Biotechnology implants, quantum physics, voluntary autism and mutant cholera are just some of the ingredients mixed into the mystery of who wishes to kill the Nobel Laureate, and for what purpose' (Colin Steele, SF Commentary No 77, p.54).

'Presents the stories of Marius, wealthy but lowborn, and Sulla, penniless though aristocratic and debauched - men of vision whose ambitions will lay the foundations of the most awesome empire ever known.' (Publication summary)