To celebrate the release of the February 2019 issue of Australian Foreign Affairs 5, Are We Asian Yet? join contributing author Linda Jaivin as she looks at how we ought to be able to relate better to Chinese culture than we do given there are 1.2 million residents or citizens who identify as ethnic Chinese in Australia and Mandarin is the second-most commonly spoken language after English. Geography, trade and investment, geopolitics and climate change are among the things that bind Australia to the People’s Republic of China, sometimes to our advantage, sometimes to our discomfort. The obstacles to greater cultural engagement range from language barriers and the politics of fear to simple perplexity at some of the Communist Party’s soft power efforts. Should we try harder? What is at stake if we don’t? Just as important: what do we gain if we do?

Do you accidentally get turned-on while watching a nature documentary? Are you dating someone whose tattoos are the worst but you’re having the best sex of your life? Are you feeling emasculated because your girlfriend has had more one-night stands than you? Never fear: the world’s first mother-son sex and relationships advice duo is here to save you from yourself. Hilarious, rude and surprisingly heart-warming, Law School covers the practical and ethical dilemmas of sex and relationships from two generational and cultural perspectives. Ben and his mum Jenny challenge the way we think and talk about the intimate, and all in funny, earnest and blunt banter. Their advice will either save your sex and love life, or ruin you forever.

The Western Bulldogs’ fairytale 2016 was a distant memory by the time Richmond raised the trophy in 2017. Both would rather forget 2018. Legendary Bulldogs’ Captain Bob Murphy and Richmond tragic George Megalogenis discuss the highs and lows of an AFL-suffused life, as detailed in Bob’s entertaining memoir Leather Soul, and consider the unexpected thesis of George’s The Football Solution: that Richmond’s 2017 premiership could help save Australia.

It is beguiling to read one great writer exploring the work of another. To read a thoughtful account of a writer’s life, of their writings, and the impact they have had, is illuminating. Bernadette Brennan’s award-winning biography of Helen Garner provides a rich literary portrait of her much loved subject.  Ceridwen Dovey’s intimate account of her – and her mother’s - deep engagement with J.M. Coetzee’s work is lucid, learned and revealing.

Powerful accounts of lives straddling countries tell of the dislocation of life in a state of exile, and the courage of imagining a new home. Moreno Giovannoni writes tales of leaving and returning home in The Fireflies of Autumn. Sisonke Msimang tells of growing up in exile from apartheid-era South Africa in her memoir Always Another Country. Future D. Fidel describes fleeing war to find sanctuary but strangeness in Prize Fighter.

2062 is the year by which we will have built machines as intelligent as us. So says Professor of Artificial Intelligence Toby Walsh and the majority of his colleagues. What will society look like in this Brave New World? Described as one of the rockstars of the digital revolution, Toby brings a deep knowledge of technology to argue the future can be bright tomorrow if we get the settings right today.

David Marr is one of Australia’s most respected and beloved journalists and commentators.  In this first major retrospective of his body of work, we are reminded of the breathtaking range of his interests and expertise.  Ranging across the literary, political, biographical and historical, David’s deep curiosity, fierce intellect, lively wit and generosity of spirit are omnipresent in this impressive collection.

The Bookshop at Queenscliff presents Guy Rundle in Queenscliff just days after the publication of his new book Practice: Journalism, Essays and Criticism.

Guy is one of Australia's leading critics, commentators and writers.

Practice: Journalism, Essays and Criticism (Black Inc.) is a collection of his best writing on politics, culture, class and more.

Currently writer-at-large for Crikey, Guy is a former editor of Arena Magazine, a writer and producer for television and stage, and the author of books including two essays in Black Inc.'s agenda-setting Quarterly Essay series.

We think Guy's Down to the Crossroads (Penguin Books Australia) was the best book published on the 2008 US presidential election campaign.

On 10 March Guy will be in conversation with The Bookshop's Mathew Jose.

Tickets $12 (includes a glass of wine or sparkling water on arrival)