The Book Bird in Geelong West, Victoria, Australia | Book shop

The Book Bird

Locality: Geelong West, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 3 5224 1438

Address: 111 Pakington St 3218 Geelong West, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.thebookbird.com.au

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24.01.2022 The first thing to say about The Poison Principle is that it will permanently alter the way you feel about the colour green. The second thing to say is that it is very, VERY good - a blend of history, science, memoir and true crime for lovers of books like ‘The Trauma Cleaner’ by Sarah Krasnostein For many years Gail Bell knew her family had a secret. A secret double murder, by poisoning, a few generations back. In ‘The Poison Principle’, Gail Bell traces the history of poi...sonings both through her life and family, and, as an avid reader, through literature. She looks at various poisons and their properties, the effect they have on the body, and their decline in use (for murder!) over time. Poisons can also pop up in unexpected places, like green wallpaper and green dresses. Poison plays a central role in many myths, fables and lore, and Gail Bell takes this all in her stride, weaving together many threads in an elegant and engrossing way. ‘The Poison Principle’ is the culmination of TEN years of reading and research by Bell, who is herself a chemist and brings this scientific understanding to her writing. We highly recommend this unusual and blazingly intelligent book. See more

24.01.2022 Behold the gloriousness of The Dragon Ark There are some children’s books that are so stunning they make our jaws drop, and this is one of them. The artwork is exquisite (and INSANELY detailed), and the concept behind the book is genius. The Dragon Ark takes its reader on a quest to find and save the rarest dragon in the world, and in doing so communicates important messages about endangered animals and their need for protection. This would be a fabulous way to spark conversations with young people about animals and their environments, and the responsibilities we have as humans to look after these creatures and places. View on our online shop here: https://bookbird.circlesoft.net/p/children-s-non-fiction-th

24.01.2022 BIRTHDAY WEEK It’s our birthday this week, and today seems like a great day to celebrate as our Melbourne friends ease out of lockdown. Hooray for another day of zero cases and cautious steps towards normalcy. This week we are FIVE. Five whole years of providing Geelong with a home for booklovers and community of readers. To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with @thamesandhudsonau, who are celebrating their FIFTIETH birthday this year as well. We have an incredible stack of... T+H titles (and a puzzle!) to give away. Scroll through the gallery to take a closer look. To enter, spend $30 in store or via our online shop (in one transaction) between now and 5pm, Friday 6 November. The winner will be drawn Saturday 7 November. One $30+ purchase equals one entry. As always, this is a local giveaway and entrants must be able to collect the prize from the shop. Happy birthday to us! See more

23.01.2022 We are inclined to love all books about birds because - well, we reckon you can figure that one out . This loveliness by @mattottleyart and @megmckinlay, however, deserved its own special post for taking our adoration to the next level. ‘How to Make a Bird’ is a picture book about making, loving, and letting go. It’s about the creative process and how it transforms us and lifts us up. While categorised as a picture book for little people, ‘How to Make a Bird’ would put a smile on any artist’s face, and remind them why they do what they do.

21.01.2022 BOOK BIRD CHRISTMAS CARDS AND GIFT TAGS We know how much you loved the BB postcards, so we decided to make some special Chrissy cards and tags featuring the stunning festive illustration of our shop by @toyillustration. Tags are $1 and cards $3. In store now and coming to our online shop soon.

21.01.2022 There are plenty of books about beekeeping and the ecological importance of the honeybee, but what about their long and fascinating cultural history? Translated from the Swedish, author Lotte Moller enters the special place bees hold in our imaginations, from antiquity to the present, and guides us through that place with her encyclopaedic knowledge of her subject. Did you know, for instance, that in Ancient Greece and Rome, bees were thought to be messengers of the gods, able to slip between realms? Containing a plethora of images and beautifully presented as a hardback edition, Moller’s year-long investigation into the history of bees amounts to a very special catalogue of illuminations and encounters.

18.01.2022 Non-fiction Ideas Gallery It’s the time of year for wild and wonderful book ideas. Whether it’s the brother-in-law who loves golf, or your best friend’s neighbour who is really into science writing, we reckon there’s a book for them. So here’s a smattering of new release non-fiction books to get those cogs turning. For more info on each, just plug the titles into our online shop search bar to read the blurbs and review quotes :) In order of appearance: A Letter To Layla by Ramona Koval; English Pastoral by James Rebanks; Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter; General Sir Peter Cosgrove’s memoir; and The Second Life of Tiger Woods by Bamberger.

16.01.2022 This is a Beth O’Leary appreciation post! If Chief Book Bird Anna has talked to you about Beth O’Leary’s books, you’ve probably heard her describe them as the literary version of a big, warm hug. But we’re not talking your standard hug here. We mean the bookish equivalent of a hug from your sassy, hilarious, open-hearted best friend. Beth’s books are brimming with all that’s good in the world: love, friendship, humour, kindness, and empathy. The characters are imperfect and relatable, and the stories compelling. We loved Beth’s first two books, ‘The Flat Share’ and ‘The Switch’, and are excited for the release of her third, ‘The Road Trip’, early next year. We recommend Beth O’Leary for readers of romance and lighter fiction, but who still want substance and depth.

15.01.2022 NEW OPENING HOURS, AND PUBLIC HOLIDAY CLOSURES THIS WEEK From tomorrow, we will be reopening Tuesdays and extending our weekdays by an hour! Yay! So that’s Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, and Saturday 10am to 4pm However, this week has gifted us TWO public holidays, which we intend to take full advantage of. This means we will be CLOSED Wednesday and Friday the 21st and 23rd A slightly higgledy-piggledy week this week, then, but we’re just rolling with it .

15.01.2022 Plenty of customers have been chatting excitedly about ‘Lioness’, a new memoir by Sue Brierly. You may not recognise her name but you probably know of her adopted son, Saroo, who inspired the book and film ‘Lion’ a few years ago. ‘Lion’ tells the story of Saroo’s journey home to a tiny village in India using Google Earth. ‘Lioness’ is a deeply personal account of Sue’s traumatic childhood in Tasmania, half a world away, and her decision not to have biological children of her own, but rather to adopt. This memoir is an examination of family, motherhood, and hard-won principles for life. Now we’re a little bit excited too!

15.01.2022 Closed today for the public holiday but always open online! We’re so happy that ‘A Year of Simple Family Food’ by Julia Busuttil Nishimura (or Julia Ostro, as people like to call her) has finally arrived. We’ve all waited so patiently for this delivery and now we have STACKS! Phew! Link in bio

14.01.2022 The first thing to say about 'The Poison Principle' is that it will permanently alter the way you feel about the colour green. The second thing to say is that it is very, VERY good - a blend of history, science, memoir and true crime for lovers of books like ‘The Trauma Cleaner’ by Sarah Krasnostein. For many years Gail Bell knew her family had a secret. A secret double murder, by poisoning, a few generations back. In ‘The Poison Principle’, Gail Bell traces the history of po...isonings both through her life and family, and, as an avid reader, through literature. She looks at various poisons and their properties, the effect they have on the body, and their decline in use (for murder!) over time. Poisons can also pop up in unexpected places, like green wallpaper and green dresses. Poison plays a central role in many myths, fables and lore, and Gail Bell takes this all in her stride, weaving together many threads in an elegant and engrossing way. ‘The Poison Principle’ is the culmination of TEN years of reading and research by Bell, who is herself a chemist and brings this scientific understanding to her writing. We highly recommend this unusual and blazingly intelligent book. View on our online shop here: https://shop.thebookbird.com.au/p/biography-and-memoir-the-

12.01.2022 We love novels about books and writing, because we reckon it’s a fascinating world (of course we do!). What’s even MORE fascinating is taste: what’s considered good taste, bad taste, high-brow, low-brow, literary, commercial... you get the idea. So we are pretty enamoured with the concept behind @emilyhenrywrites’s latest book, ‘Beach Read’. ‘Beach Read’ is about two writers, January and Gus, who are on a retreat writing their next books. January loves a good rom com, where...as Gus considers himself a serious, literary fellow. Yet they have more in common than it seems: they’re both broke, they both have writer’s block, and they both need to write bestsellers before summer ends. To bust through their respective blocks, they decide to swap genres: January will try literary fiction, and Gus commercial... let the race (and risks) begin! We love this idea and are excited to start reading ‘Beach Read’. Who’s with us?? View on our website here: shorturl.at/bHKU8

10.01.2022 Can’t wait to welcome back our Melbourne book lovers when we reopen tomorrow. We’ve missed you!

08.01.2022 NAIDOC WEEK NAIDOC Week is a celebration of First Nations peoples, who have lived on and cared for Country for over 65,000 years. First Nations philosophy, art, language and culture informs many of the most vibrant books and writing in Australia, and it is a privilege to be able to connect readers with these stories every day in our little shop, which is situated on Wadawurrung (Wathaurong) Country. Pictured here is Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s art monograph, published this year by @thamesandhudsonau. Kngwarreye (1910-1996) was and is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. From Utopia in the Northern Territory, Kngwarreye came to painting later in life and produced over 3,000 works over an eight year period.

08.01.2022 BOOK WEEK BLOG POST Jump across to our blog for a THOROUGH run down of our best picks to match this year’s Book Week theme, ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds.’ We had such fun matching books to the theme. Perhaps you’ll find some Christmas gift ideas for the young people in your life... Happy Book Week readers! Read the post here: ... https://www.thebookbird.com.au//book-week-2020-our-top-re/

07.01.2022 OCTOBER IS THE NEW DECEMBER Christmas shopping will look a little different this year. As much as possible, we wish to avoid mosh-pits and scrums in the shop, even though we’ve enjoyed this high-energy, festive time in the past. In 2020, we’re aiming for spaciousness and flow, so that everyone can remain comfortable.... Remember that we have our online store now and you can opt for delivery, postage or collection from the shop. In store, numbers will still be capped and patience required. So, to make things as stress-free as poss, come do your Chrissy shopping this month and next. Let’s be organised, readers! Thanks so much.

03.01.2022 Gary Ablett is off the field and onto the shelves! The recently retired Geelong Cats player, who played his last game at the Grand Final last week with a BROKEN SHOULDER (ouch!), has just released his autobiography. In his book, Ablett talks about his journey to football stardom, the triumphs and trials along the way, as well as his family, father (the famous Gary Ablett Senior) and personal life. Definitely one for the footy fanatics out there.

02.01.2022 New in music While driving home from the shop one day, we heard the inimitable @stevewide interviewed on @3rrrfm about his two latest books, ‘A Field Guide to Punk’ and ‘A Field Guide to Post Punk & New Wave.’ Steve Wide is the man behind those excellent A to Z illustrated music books (‘The Beatles A to Z’, ‘Bowie A to Z’ and so on) that have been a hit in the shop In this new series, however, Steve turns his attention from individual artists to genres. He looks at what ...defines Punk, Post-Punk and New Wave, who their key influencers, practitioners and innovators were, and what their look, lifestyle and philosophy was and is. We love this idea so much. Music books can often be dominated by biographies and autobiographies, and music photography compilations, which all have their place, but these books - field guides to movements - offer something unique. We’re crossing our fingers that there’s more to come! What do you say @stevewide, perhaps ‘A Field Guide to Shoegaze’ next?? See more

02.01.2022 2021 ART CALENDARS We’re big lovers of the @blueislandpress_au art calendars. These calendars are designed and printed in Australia on super thick, archive-quality paper, which means you can cut out your favourite works and frame them once the month/year is over. Artists in our range include: Henri Matisse, Sandi Rigby, Kit Hiller, Margaret Olley, Paloma White, Delvine Cockatoo-Collins, Annie Franklin, and more. ... View the full range on our online shop here: https://shop.thebookbird.com.au/c/2021-calendars__4

02.01.2022 Eek!! This is the cutest. ‘All About Fairies’ contains EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about Fairies. Where the fairies come from? What do they do all day? What on earth do they eat?! This book follows on from ‘All About Mermaids’, and is great for the 5-8 age range. Beautiful illustrations and easy-to-follow writing, these books make mythical creatures EVEN more magical.

01.01.2022 ON THE BLOG A short while ago we ordered a copy of Stephen Shore’s photography book, Uncommon Places, because one of our Book Birds is a fan of his work. It seemed a bit random, but we thought, ‘alright, let’s give it a go.’ Little did we know that this book would be our first step towards building a vibrant collection of titles on the history of photography. Today on the blog, photography enthusiast Charlotte takes you through our newly acquired titles in this category, ...giving you the lowdown on what’s special about each of these handpicked books. It seems there is a real appetite for big, beautiful photography art books, and we hope to continue to grow this section of our shop. So go have a read, and tell your mates! Read the post here: https://www.thebookbird.com.au//new-and-noteworthy-in-pho/

01.01.2022 In the first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama charts his meteoric rise from obscurity to leader of the free world. Obama brings his characteristic insight and even temperament to his highly-anticipated reflections on global politics and the functions of democracy. A tonic of a book after the chaos of the recent American election...