Humour
	700 Habits of Highly Ineffectual Parents Biggins, Jonathon MUP PB 9780522856538 $28.00 Following on from his The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People, funnyman Jonathan Biggins turns his attention to parenting. In describing the habits of the ineffective, he is, of course, actually providing advice. Given Philip Larkin’s premise that they f@#$ you up, your mum and dad, Biggins partly tells parents to relax about their effect on their children, but also gives common sense suggestions with a good dash of humour. And he’s so often right. Herbal lice treatments DO NOT WORK. Read in conjunction with Robin Barker’s nononsense approach, this will be a useful guide for soon-to-be parents. Those who already have progeny will enjoy recognising their own anxiety about their inadequacies, and even their anxiety about that anxiety.
	Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things BORDER, TERRY Running Press PB 9780762435623 $24.95 Blog to book is a growing trend in publishing – think ‘Julie & Julia’, winner of the inaugural Blooker Prize for books born of blogs. Terry Border’s Bent Objects is a great example of how blogging can open the door to book publishing. From picking up a piece of wire and bending it into shapes and letters, Border honed his wire-bending skills to include objects like pencils and brushes to form the bodies of bugs and creatures. Gradually, all manner of foodstuffs and throwaway small objects became integrated into the construction of his wire figures participating in comical vignettes. Border’s internet blog allowed him to share his wiry artworks with the outside world, and its success has resulted in a very unusual coffeetable pictorial.
	The Chaser Annual 2009 Chaser Text PB 9781921520808 $29.95 Despite the demands of successful ventures in stage, screen and their own richly rewarding fantasy lives, the Chaser team have found time to put together a new annual. As always, it will cause controversy. Critics will certainly wonder how grown men can continue to churn out offensive undergraduate claptrap at their age. But, as Australians have discovered over the years, no one can really understand current events, politics, popular culture or indeed anything else without a Chaser Annual at hand to help them appreciate its inherent stupidity. Sure to provide a good laugh and to aid informed (and laughter-filled) discourse.
	SPECIAL PRICE Handling Edna: The Unauthorised Biography Humphries, Barry Hachette HB 9780733624001 $42.95 Originally Devoted possums of the Dame from Moonee Ponds will love Barry Humphries’ unauthorised and salacious biography of a certain housewife superstar. Barry Humphries and Edna Everage first crossed paths via an innocent postcard (what collectors now call Ednabilia) in the mid 1950s, and their lives have been inextricably linked ever since. Humphries charts Edna’s course from shy housewife to megastar and beyond with disdain and scant disregard for privacy. From his revealing opening line ‘I wish I’d never met Edna Everage’ to Dame Edna’s threat to sue over this controversial and unauthorised biographical work, their relationship seems set to continue to be a very public and potentially even more volatile one.
	Why Steve Was Late: 101 Exceptional Excuses for Terrible Timekeeping Skinner, Dave and Parker, Henry Atlantic PB 9781848872455 $16.95 Comedian Dave Skinner and cartoonist/standup comedian Henry Parker have joined forces to create this pocket-sized book of cartoons about the habitually late Steve and his 101 exceptional excuses for terrible timekeeping. From the surreal ‘waking up with Magritte Syndrome’ (Steve at the bathroom mirror with an apple for a head) to having to attend a police line-up or accidentally selling himself on eBay, Steve’s excuses for being late and accompanying scratchy pen-and-ink cartoons are laugh-a-minute absurdist reasons for being late that you’d better not try at home.
	HIGHLIGHT The Best of Punch Cartoons Walasek, Helen Carlton PB 9781853757150 $59.95 A collection packed with magnificent gags and beautiful artwork by some of the finest cartoonists and illustrators of the past two centuries.
	SPECIAL PRICEHIGHLIGHT Hang the DJ: An Alternative Book of Music lists Cargill, Angus Faber HB 9780571241729 $14.95 Originally $29.95 Lists, top 10s and best-ofs have become de rigueur in recent years. Angus Cargill, fiction editor at Faber & Faber and self-confessed pop music junkie, has rounded up a posse of writers, journalists, musicians and friends, and asked them to compile a top 10 pop list that illustrates how and why music is important to them. The result is as disjointed, kaleidoscopic and anarchic a collection as any music list worth its salt should be. Contributors including photographer Kevin Cummins and music journalists and writers Nick Kent and Jon Savage delve into their own musical pasts with lists as diverse as the 10 greatest moustaches in rock (top rating goes to Nick Cave), 10 songs of heartache, misery and woe, and 10 songs about chickens.
	HIGHLIGHT More Things Like This: 289 Drawings with Funny Words also on the Same Drawing McSweeney's editors Hardie Grant HB 9780811867160 $59.95 This unconventional book explores the intersection of text, humour and illustration in art created by cartoonists, writers, musicians and fine artists.
	HIGHLIGHT Pocket Book of Boosh Barratt, Julian Text PB 9781921520891 $29.95 Join Howard Moon, Vince Noir, Naboo, Bollo, Bob Fossil, Old Gregg, the Moon and all your other favourite characters.
	HIGHLIGHT Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less Aciman, Alexander & Rensin, Emmett Penguin PB 9780141047713 $16.95 Twitterature presents 75 of the greatest works of Western literature – from Beowulf to Bronte, from Kafka to Kerouac, and from Dostoevsky to Dickens – each distilled through the voice of Twitter to its purest, pithiest essence. Including a full glossary of online acronyms and Twitterary terms to aid the amateur, Twitterature provides everything you need to master the literature of the civilised world, while relieving you of the burdensome task of reading it. Our favourites? From Oedipus: PARTY IN THEBES!!! Nobody cares I killed that old dude, plus this woman is all over me. Total MILF. Or from Paradise Lost: OH MY GOD I’M IN HELL.
	HIGHLIGHT Visual Aid 1: Stuff You've Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew & Lessons You Didn't Get Around to Learning Draft Associates Black Dog PB 9781906155483 $24.95 Do you sometimes find yourself pondering basic general-knowledge questions? If quizzed, would you be able to name all of the Italian wine regions or the sky’s constellations, explain what reflexology is or name the country where Xhosa is spoken? Subtitled ‘Stuff You’ve Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew and Lessons You Didn’t Quite Get Around to Learning’, these small and handy volumes are the perfect resource for those who don’t always know the answers and are too embarrassed to ask. Both volumes provide the answers to the little questions in life in a simple, colourful and engaging way. Their eclectic collections of illustrations and diagrams will get you up to speed on life’s basics without the need for extensive reading – or even your utmost attention.
	HIGHLIGHT Visual Aid 2: You Can Never Know Enough Stuff Draft Associates Black Dog PB 9781906155834 $24.95 Do you sometimes find yourself pondering basic general-knowledge questions? If quizzed, would you be able to name all of the Italian wine regions or the sky’s constellations, explain what reflexology is or name the country where Xhosa is spoken? Subtitled ‘Stuff You’ve Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew and Lessons You Didn’t Quite Get Around to Learning’, these small and handy volumes are the perfect resource for those who don’t always know the answers and are too embarrassed to ask. Both volumes provide the answers to the little questions in life in a simple, colourful and engaging way. Their eclectic collections of illustrations and diagrams will get you up to speed on life’s basics without the need for extensive reading – or even your utmost attention.
	HIGHLIGHT What Would Keith Richards Do?: Daily Affirmations with a Rock & Roll Survivor West, Jessica Pallington Bloomsbury PB 9781408802274 $20.00 Sage advice and insights from the legendary Rolling Stone and Rock’n’Roll survivor (‘I’ve never had a problem with drugs, only with policemen’).