Ed Cowan, opening left-hand batsman for Tasmania, has always been a bit of a scribbler. It started with to-do lists and notes to self, but then he started keeping a cricket diary a batting bible with thoughts on the game, other players, motivational philosophies and records of performances. The diary has become so much a part of his routine that he admits to being a little upset if he cant see it in his cricket bag. Other cricketers have found the habit a little odd. But for Cowan its been a way of keeping an uncluttered head and making sense of the game. In the Firing Line, based on the diary Cowan kept while playing his second season for Tasmania over the summer of 2010-11, reveals with intelligence and a touch of humour the excruciatingly shaky position of the domestic cricket player. Its far from the glamour of playing for Australia and uncomfortably close to the long drop to amateurism, yet every match is rife with the possibility of being discovered and propelled into international stardom in the baggy green.                                  

It was love at first sight when horseless carriages began smoking and spluttering across the dirt and dust of 19th century Australia. Since then, Australia has been infatuated with the automobile, the motorcar, the car. The story of the car in Australia is the story of our heroes, our eccentrics, our parents, our mates - our lives. Wide Open Road, the companion volume to the forthcoming ABC -TV documentary series, is a spectacular tribute to the car's limitless possibilities. From the trail-blazing Francis Birtles criss-crossing the deserts, to the era of homebuilt cars and early petrol heads who raced between our cities; from pioneering Australian inventions - including the ute and the four-wheel drive - through to the fraught but triumphant birth of our own Holden. There's the heat and passion of Moffat and Brock's rivalry at Bathurst; the ingenuity of Brabham's world-beating F1 car; the magnificent failure of the P76; and fifty years of the Falcon. Share the memories of more than forty motor enthusiasts - including Jack Brabham, Reg Mombassa, Paul Keating, Jean Kittson, Jac Nasser, Bev Brock, Allan Moffat, Vince Sorrenti, Colin Bond, John Bowe - as they rationalise, ruminate, reminisce and occasionally rave on about our enduring love affair with the car.

The Wave is a collection of world-class surfing images from acclaimed surf photographer and writer David Sparkes. Capturing the fleeting instant of a wave, recording a particular surfing location at a precise moment and following a surfer as they try to ride their perfect wave. Dave brings together these unique experiences in a form we can all share.The Wave enables us to take an armchair ride with surfers like Stephanie Gilmore, Tom Curren, Mick Fanning and Kelly Slater; travel to the landscapes where the best waves are found; and witness the quirky sights and fascinating people who are all part of the quest to find the perfect wave.

Author Biography: Dave Sparkes is a highly respected surf photographer and writer. His first published photographs appeared in the SURFING WORLD PHOTO ANNUAL in 1984, and he has since had photographs in many publications all over the world. He has been a full-time professional surf photographer/journalist since 1996, and has completed assignments worldwide for TRACKS, WAVES and ASL magazines, Rip Curl clothing, Billabong clothing and numerous other clients. His photos also featured in the bestselling book THE MOMENT by Sean Doherty. This is his first book.                                            

All surfers dream of shedding responsibilities and answering the siren song of the ocean swells. For most, it is an ideal that recedes as age advances - as family, career and provider commitments overwhelm the wanderlust of youth. But what if you could defy the slow march of age? Shelve all your worldly pressures, pack up the family and a few trusty surfboards and hit the open road for the Great Australian surfing road trip? Tim Baker is doing just that. Inspired by the dreams of his youth, and in the face of looming middle-age, Baker is embarking on the Big Lap, with his wife Kirsten and two children, Vivi, 8, and Alex, 4. Starting in late January 2011, the family will set out from their home in Currumbin, Queensland, heading south down the east coast. Over the next six to eight months, they will circumnavigate the country, as Baker documents the state of surf culture and our coastline, and the array of colourful characters encountered along the way. Surfari will evoke all the magic and charm, the challenges and perils of the Australian coastline and the curious variety of human sub-species who inhabit it. The result will be a lively, colourful handbook on how to trade your life for another variety, the delights and dangers that lay in wait for those who dare to chase their dreams.

Author Biography: Tim Baker is the best-selling author of Bustin' Down the Door, High Surf, Occy and Surf for Your Life. He has surfed and traveled throughout Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, Central and South America, North America, Europe, South Africa, Fiji, Tahiti, and Sri Lanka.                                            

In Ghost Wave, Chris Dixon dives deep into the fascinating history of Cortes Bank and the motley brotherhood of argumentative, damaged, brave and quirky margin walkers who discovered and scaled the tallest mountain in the sea. Along the way, he'll show how these pioneering wave-addicts changed our very understanding of the science of surfing, while giving sea-level credence to environmentalists' fears that the weather is indeed going haywire.Ghost Wave is the result of extensive interviews not only with these surfers and those close to them, but also with psychologists who provide insights into their strange addiction to deadly waves. Dixon draws on the knowledge of oceanographers and meteorologists as well as emulating his own experience as a lifelong surfer.'The object of my obsession for the past few years has been a sunken island 100 miles off the southern California coast called the Cortes Bank. On just the right swells, in just the right conditions, the three foot deep summit of this mile-high mountaintop produces the biggest surfable wave on the face of the earth...'

Review: Tracks Magazine - Australia's premier surf mag - will run an extract and reader offer. Also expect to see reviews mentions, Q&A's, slots etc by Chris Dixon in the men's monthly and weekly magazines. There are as many surfing bloggers as there are mummy bloggers (what this tells us I am still trying to decode) so expect lots of online chatter - and that will feed through into the Deus, Billabong, I





Author Biography: Chris Dixon was the founding online editor at Surfer magazine and has been a writer or correspondent on roughly 200 assignments for The New York Times, a features writer for Men's Journal, and he has written an online travelogue for Jimmy Buffett. This is his first book.                                            

 Ron Barassi is an iconic figure in Australian sporting culture, with a record of personal and team success that is unrivalled. Beyond sport, he has become a greatly respected elder in our broader society.

In Wisdom, he shares with us 31 maxims and quotations that he has collected and which have been integral in forging that reputation. Ron reflects on each and explains their importance in delivering ideas, motivation and inspiration and how he applied them in sport and in life - words of wisdom, indeed. Containing beautiful illustrations from artist James Money, Wisdom is a book to come back to time and again.

The history of Australian surfing has been full of pioneers, outlaws, hooligans and mavericks. This lavishly illustrated book, with profiles of 100 legends of Australian surfing from 'ancient history' (pre-1950s) to the current day, is the perfect gift for any surfer or surf aficionado. Featuring many rare and archival images, along with hundreds of gorgeous contemporary surf shots, Australia's Hottest 100 Surfing Legends is a feast for the eyes. Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from insider author Phil Jarratt, this is a riveting account of the pioneers behind Australian surfing's past, and the mavericks who are now moulding its future.

Author Biography: Phil Jarratt is the author or co-author of some twenty books, and has published books and magazines through his own Australian imprint, Blue Group. His biographies, Home: The Evonne Goolagong Story and Mr Sunset, have won international acclaim. His most recent books are Salts and Suits, Kelly Slater: For the Love and The Surfing Year Book.                                            

The view atop the cycling world from the winner of the 2011 Tour de France"" ""My mind took control of my body. I had nothing left in the legs, but as a cyclist, you just keep going until the finish. I kept reminding myself that I had to get to the finish."" Filled with never-before-seen pictures and revealing insights into the thoughts of the champion, this book celebrates in words and photographs Cadel Evans's indomitable will and champion's heart. Evans's hard-fought triumphs and equally challenging disappointments--in the bicycle races that are thought to be the most grueling endurance test in sports--are a tribute to his strength of spirit. He discusses his inspiring and heroic battle to be the first Australian to win the biggest cycling race in the world, the Tour de France. This is a rare and fascinating look at the way a top rider races both mentally and physically.

Author Biography: Cadel Evans is arguably Australia's greatest cyclist but he is no typical sporting hero. A master of one of the most solitary sports, Evans has contested the most sophisticated cycling team sport in the world, finishing second by less than a minute in the 2007 and 2008 editions of the Tour de France. Uncomfortable with media attention throughout his extraordinary career, Evans nevertheless became an ambassador for his sport and helped inspire the new popularity of cycling in Australia, a long way from Europe, the cycling continent, where the sport is lost and won. Evans was born with an incredible gift: a physiology, an aerobic capacity, that from youth, set him apart from the rest. This is a story of someone who climbs mountains in agony, for the bliss of the release at the top - in a sport of great ascents and descents, and Evans knows them all. Cadel talks candidly and philosophically about his sport, with love and respect and frustration too - that it is not perfect. His drive and focus and frustrations are as candid as his love of his sport.                                            

       An homage to the beauty of two wheels, "Cyclepedia" is a celebration of the best bicycles designed over the past 90 years. Among this unique selection of exemplary bicycles are classic racing bikes that been in such events as the Tour de France, high-tech machines that use the latest in material science and aerodynamics, eccentric bikes designed for specific purposes such as cycling on ice, and rarities that are coveted by serious collectors. Gift book, reference, inspiration, fun, "Cyclepedia" will inspire lust and envy in bike nuts, commuting cyclists and design aesthetes everywhere.

More than ever before, bicycle culture is everywhere: from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, city planners are making big changes to city infrastructure for the increasing numbers of people who are leaving their cars at home and upgrading to two wheels. Biking in the city is no longer just for bike messengers with a death wish. Quarry's The Urban Biking Handbook is a hardworking, illustrated guide to the cycling lifestyle. Not only does it teach tons of repair and maintenance techniques, it shows such popular skills as converting a multiple-gear bike into a fixed-gear bike (or fixie) and how to build a Frankenbike from parts scavenged from several bikes. All techniques and projects are framed by spotlights on urban bike culture worldwide: profiles of bike mechanics, bike builders, bike artists, and more.

Author Biography: Charles Haine has been a bicycle mechanic for over a decade. He learned to fix bikes at a bicycle co-operative at Oberlin College. He is currently the chairman of the Bicycle Kitchen, a non-profit bicycle education space in Los Angeles, California. He has taught beginning and advanced bicycle mechanics to countless people.