Welcome to Muirs Bookshop & Café

We are a large Independent bookshop in the Main Street of Gisborne offering a wide range of best-selling and eclectic, literary fiction, non-fiction and carefully selected children’s books. 

We have one of the most comprehensive collections of Maori books in print and most Maori children’s books too.

All Gisborne books, still in print, are on our shelves as well as a great range in the  New Zealand reference section.

We offer the full shopping experience, tremendous selection, great reading atmosphere, gift-wrapping and a beautiful range of cards and can even put things in the post for you.  The staff are all readers and only too willing to impart their knowledge and choices should you ask.

Our café offers delicious coffee, sun-soaked outdoor balcony overlooking Gladstone Road Gisborne, delicious cakes and slices and a lovely range of salads and savoury treats.

And we have Wi-fi, thanks to the local Gizzy-Fi wireless facility.

Good reads from our collection

A History of Loneliness by John BoyneHistory of lonliness

RRP $37

Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedicated to his studies and keen to make friends. Forty years later, Odran's devotion has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish people's faith in the church. He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks. But when a family tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in their propagation. It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and twelve novels to write about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now in his most powerful novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral courage, and about the dark places where the two can meet. At once courageous and intensely personal, A History of Loneliness confirms Boyne as one of the most searching chroniclers of his generation.

"An urgently compelling story of power, corruption, lies and self-deceits, the damage that happens when we turn our eyes from wrong. Anyone who wants to know what happened in the Irish Catholic Church needs to read this brave, righteously angry and stunning book. Some of us have long wondered what it would be like if a master storyteller turned his powers to this theme. Now we know." -- Joseph O'Connor "John Boyne has plunged into the dark and troubled history of the Catholic Church in our time and come up with a novel to treasure. Unflinching, moving and true" John Banville

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi KleinThis changes everything

RRP $37

Naomi Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate. Forget everything you think you know about climate change. It's not about carbon-it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better. We have been told that the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. We have been told it's impossible to get off fosssil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it - it just requires breaking every rule in the 'free market' playbook. We have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. In fact, all around the world, the fight back is already succeeding in ways both surprising and inspiring. It's all about changing the world, before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe. Either we leap - or we sink.

The Children Act by Ian McEwanchildren act

RRP $37

A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam. Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge, presiding over cases in the family court. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife. There is the lingering regret of her childlessness, and now, her marriage of thirty years is in crisis. At the same time, she is called on to try an urgent case: for religious reasons, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy, Adam, is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life, and his devout parents share his wishes. Time is running out. Should the secular court overrule sincerely held faith? In the course of reaching a decision Fiona visits Adam in hospital - an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. Her judgment has momentous consequences for them both.

The Bone Clocks by David MitchellTHe Bone Clocks

RRP $38

The dazzling new novel from the author of Cloud Atlas, at once the kaleidoscopic story of an unusual woman's life, a metaphysical thriller and a profound meditation on mortality and survival.

One drowsy summer's day in 1984, teenage runaway Holly Sykes encounters a strange woman who offers a small kindness in exchange for 'asylum'. Decades will pass before Holly understands exactly what sort of asylum the woman was seeking ...The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.  Here is fiction at its most spellbinding and memorable best. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014.

Something truly fantastical: an epic in many voices featuring supernatural beings, rips in reality and a global battle between good and evil. Yet Mitchell's superlative prose makes this much more than a tall tale: the novel also takes in family love and loss, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a horribly plausible near-future in which the end of oil is catapulting the world towards barbarism ... It's a globe-trotting, mind-bending, hair-raising triumph, already sitting pretty on the Booker longlist. Guardian

Plenty More by Yotam OttolenghiPlenty More

RRP $70

The hotly anticipated follow-up to 2010's bestselling, award-winning Plenty.

Vegetables have moved from the side dish to the main plate, grains celebrated with colour and flair. It's a revolution that is bold, inspiring and ever-expanding. Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty changed the way people cook and eat. Its focus on vegetable dishes, with the emphasis on flavour, original spicing and freshness of ingredients, caused a revolution not just in this country, but the world over. Plenty More picks up where Plenty left off, with 120 more dazzling vegetable-based dishes, this time organised by cooking method. Grilled, baked, simmered, cracked, braised or raw, the range of recipe ideas is stunning. With recipes including Alphonso mango and curried chickpea salad, Membrillo and stilton quiche, Buttermilk-crusted okra, Lentils, radicchio and walnuts with manuka honey, Seaweed, ginger and carrot salad, and even desserts such as Baked rhubarb with sweet labneh and Quince poached in pomegranate juice, this is the cookbook that everyone has been waiting for.

The Grass Catcher: A Digression About Home by Ian WeddeGrass Catcher

RRP $40

From early childhood in post-war Blenheim to the remote regions of Bangladesh, from an English boarding school to 1960s Auckland, from Jordan during the civil war of 1969-70 to family homes full of children, this dazzling book traces the many shifts in Ian Wedde's life. Haunted by the ghosts of his restless German and Scottish great grandparents, and of his wandering parents, Wedde is always looking over his shoulder as he writes. His companion throughout is his twin brother Dave, who shared their first home - their mother Linda's womb - and who, as the book ends, hosts a lunch where the brothers raise their glasses to the transit lounges of their lives. Affectionate, funny, sad, analytical, but above all honest, The Grass Catcher is at once a moving personal memoir and an engaging and reflective essay on the nature of memory.

Edge of Eternity by Ken FollettEdge of Eternity

Our Price $35

As the decisions made in the corridors of power bring the world to the brink of oblivion, five families from across the globe are brought together in an unforgettable tale of passion and conflict during the Cold War. When Rebecca Hoffmann, a teacher in East Germany, finds herself pursued by the secret police, she discovers that she has been living a lie. Her younger brother, Walli, longs to escape across the Berlin Wall to Britain to become part of the burgeoning music scene. In the United States, George Jakes, a bright young lawyer in the Kennedy administration, is a fierce supporter of the Civil Rights movement - as is the woman he is in love with, Verena, who works for Martin Luther King, Jr. Boarding a Greyhound bus in Washington to protest against segregation, they begin a fateful journey together. Russian activist, Tania Dvorkin, narrowly evades capture for producing an illegal news sheet. Her actions are made all the more perilous as her brother, Dimka, is a rising star in the heart of the Communist Party in the Kremlin. From the deep south of America to the vast expanses of Siberia, from the shores of Cuba to the swinging streets of Sixties London, Edge of Eternity is a sweeping tale of the fight for individual freedom in a world gripped by the mightiest clash of superpowers anyone has ever known. *Includes family tree*

In the ambitious, commanding capstone to his multigenerational Century trilogy (after Winter of the World), Follett expertly chronicles the pivotal events of the closing decades of the 20th century through the eyes of a vast array of deftly-drawn characters ... This mesmerizing final installment is an exhaustive but rewarding reading experience dense in thematic heft, yet flowing with spicy, expertly paced melodrama, character-rich exploits, familial histrionics, and international intrigue - Publishers Weekly

The Zone of Interest by Martin Amiszone of interest

RRP $38

There was an old story about a king who asked his favourite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn't show you your reflection. Instead, it showed you your soul - it showed you who you really were. But the king couldn't look into the mirror without turning away, and nor could his courtiers. No one could. What happens when we discover who we really are? And how do we come to terms with it? Fearless and original, The Zone of Interest is a violently dark love story set against a backdrop of unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey into the depths and contradictions of the human soul. 

"The Zone of Interest is a tour de force of sheer verbal virtuosity, and a brilliant, celestially upsetting novel inspired by no less than a profound moral curiosity about human beings. It's stunning." -- Richard Ford "Nasty, timely, as good as anything Amis has written since London Fields. He has done his subject justice." Spectator

Print by Simon Clarke

RRP $80Print

Print is an exciting and dynamic area of design, with new analogue and digital technologies opening up a wealth of creative possibilities for designers in textile and non-textile media. Witty, hyperreal and luxurious print designs are being used by fashion designers and in interiors, while artists are harnessing the technology in their work to stunning effect. This showcase of the best printed textiles from around the world is divided into three key areas: fashion, interiors and art. In fashion, the book features innovative printed textile designs in haute couture, pret-a-porter and accessories from companies including Prada, Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood. The interiors chapter shows surfaces and interior products such as wallpaper, upholstered furniture, fabric hangings and floor coverings, and features a wide range of designers from Marimekko in Finland to Anna Glover in the UK. Fine-art prints and experimental work from international artists and designers such as Cristian Zuzunaga and Liberty Art Fabrics are represented in the final section.

Dr. Simon Clarke is a practicing textile designer and artist, specializing in digital design, who has exhibited his work internationally. He is a Senior Lecturer in Printed Textile Design at Falmouth University in the UK, and has also lectured overseas at such institutes as Kenyatta University in Kenya and Savannah College of Art and Design. Dr. Clarke is also a leading authority on African textiles and on the subject of interchange between architecture and textiles.

Blood and Guts: Dispatches from the Whale Wars by Sam VincentBlood & Guts

RRP $37

Confrontations between Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd activists make for exciting news reports during the Australian summer. But the sensational headlines and dramatic footage - eco warriors pitted against the might of the Japanese state - fail to scratch the surface of the complex forces that drive each side's actions. In Blood and Guts, Sam Vincent provides an objective eyewitness account of the whale wars. What motivates Sea Shepherd to spend vast sums of money and risk the lives of its activists to pursue a relatively low-impact hunt in some of the most isolated and perilous waters on Earth? Why does a rich nation like Japan doggedly continue a practice it only started to feed its starving population in the wake of World War II? While the International Court of Justice has recently upheld Australia's claim that Japan must stop its 'research' whaling in the Southern Ocean, Japan is already planning to resume its whale hunt in 2015. Australia might have won the battle, but the whale wars seem set to continue. Blood and Guts is a vivid and definitive work of reportage that gets to the heart of this divisive issue.

Four Stories by Alan BennettAlan Bennett

RRP $30

A new hardback edition of Alan Bennett's four triumphantly reviewed and bestselling stories to celebrate his eightieth birthday

The Laying on of Hands, the painfully observant account of a memorial service for a masseur to the famous. The Clothes They Stood Up In, the comic tale of an elderly couple's trials after their flat is stripped completely bare. Father! Father! Burning Bright, the savage satire on the family of a dying man who rules over them from his hospital bed. The Lady in the Van, the true story of the eccentric old woman who is invited to live in a homeowner's front garden. She stays there, in her van, for fifteen years. The home is Alan Bennett's. It became a West End hit, starring Maggie Smith. Like everything Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. They all have brilliant twists, are immensely entertaining and highly moral. And all are modern classics.

Ten Conversations You Must Have With Your Son by Tim HawkesTen Conversations

$40

Every parent of a teenage boy knows there are certain conversations they must have with their son. But too often they put them off - or don't have them at all - because they simply don't know where to start. Internationally recognised in the field of raising and educating boys, Dr Tim Hawkes provides practical, accessible and invaluable advice about how to get these discussions started. Helping parents to negotiate their way through what can be difficult territory, Dr Hawkes explores the why, what and how of ten key topics: love, identity, values, leadership, achievement, sex, money, health, living together and resilience. For each topic, Dr Hawkes offers ideas about how parents can share their own experiences, values and knowledge with their sons. This book will help you prepare your son for adulthood.

Dr Tim Hawkes is the author of several books including Boy Oh Boy: How to Raise and Educate a Son and the Learning Leadership series. He has taught in England and Australia for over 35 years and been a headmaster for much of that time. A highly regarded educational resource, author and social commentator, Tim Hawkes is in demand as a conference speaker around the world. For more details visit timhawkes.com

J by Howard JacobsonJ

RRP $37

Set in the future, a world where the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited, J is a love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying. Two people fall in love, not yet knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Kevern doesn't know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a world starting with a J. It wasn't then, and isn't now, the time or place to be asking questions. Ailinn too has grown up in the dark about who she was or where she came from. On their first date Kevern kisses the bruises under her eyes. He doesn't ask who hurt her. Brutality has grown commonplace. They aren't sure if they have fallen in love of their own accord, or whether they've been pushed into each other's arms. But who would have pushed them, and why? Hanging over the lives of all the characters in this novel is a momentous catastrophe - a past event shrouded in suspicion, denial and apology, now referred to as What Happened, If It Happened. 

Howard Jacobson won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse award in 2000 for The Mighty Walzer and then again in 2013 for Zoo Time. In 2010 he won the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question.

Station Eleven by Emily St.John MandelStation Eleven

RRP $35

DAY ONE The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. WEEK TWO Civilization has crumbled. YEAR TWENTY A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild. STATION ELEVEN Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'. Thrilling, unique and deeply moving, this is a beautiful novel that asks questions about art and fame and about the relationships that sustain us through anything - even the end of the world.

Once in a very long while a book becomes a brand new old friend, a story you never knew you always wanted. Station Eleven is that rare find that feels familiar and extraordinary at the same time, expertly weaving together future and present and past, death and life and Shakespeare. This is truly something special. -- Erin Morgenstern, author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS 'Station Eleven is so compelling, so fearlessly imagined, that I wouldn't have put it down for anything. I think this one is really going to go places.' -- Ann Patchett, author of BEL CANTO and STATE OF WONDER A genuinely unsettling dystopian novel that also allows for moments of great tenderness. Emily St. John Mandel conjures indelible visuals, and her writing is pure elegance. -- Patrick deWitt, author of THE SISTERS BROTHERS (shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize)

Twelve Thousand Hours: Education and Poverty in Aotearoa New ZealandEducation and poverty

Edited by Vicki Carpenter and Sue Osborne                                     RRP $38

There is well-documented concern regarding the links between poverty and education; statistics demonstrate, over many decades, that the economically poorer the New Zealand child's family, the more likely it is the child will not reach her/his potential. The blame for such inequitable outcomes is variously placed on children's families and communities, on teachers and schools, and on wider structural and system injustices. The contributors to this book are key NZ writers and thinkers in the field of education and poverty. Reasons for our contemporary schooling's inequitable outcomes are examined and critiqued.

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret AtwoodStone Mattress

RRP $45

A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire, and a crime committed long ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatalite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood ventures into the shadowland earlier explored by fabulists and concoctors of dark yarns such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Daphne du Maurier and Arthur Conan Doyle - and also by herself, in her award-winning novel Alias Grace. In Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

How to be Both by Ali SmithHow to be both

RRP $37

Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith's novels are like nothing else. How to be Both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance. Please Note: This book has a dual structure and can be read in two ways. There are two stories in the book and they can be read in either order. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014.

The Tightrope Walkers by David AlmondTightrope walkers

RRP $30

A novel of young love and tragedy from the prizewinning author of Skellig. 'I was born in a hovel on the banks of the Tyne...' Dominic Hall grows up in the sixties on a brand-new estate, along with the other families who escaped the river. But the Tyne is still an overwhelming presence, and most of the fathers work in the shipyards. Dom is torn between his new mates: Holly Stroud, his enchanting neighbour, and Vincent McAlinden, who's something else altogether - a wild, dangerous boy with murderous instincts. After his mother's death, Dom has to decide who he is, what he wants to be - and then face up to the consequences. Deeply moving with a unique narrative voice, The Tightrope Walkers will be loved by fans of Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh and Ross Raisin, as well as readers familiar with David Almond's masterful novel The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, and the hugely popular Skellig.

"Almond is a master storyteller". (Independent). "Not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well-paced, as we might expect from a master storyteller". (John Burnside on The True Tale Of The Monster Billy Dean, Guardian).

A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand: Place and AdornmentPlace and Adornment

by Damian Skinner and Kevin Murray                      RRP $70

The first comprehensive history of contemporary jewellery in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. It tells the remarkable story of how two countries, far from the jewellery centres of Europe and North America, have managed to contribute to an international art form, transforming jewellery from an imitation of European taste into an original expression of place. In this richly illustrated book, authors Damian Skinner and Kevin Murray bring together detailed analysis of objects and historical sources to show how contemporary jewellery offered a way to negotiate relationships between settler and indigenous cultures, to find beauty in humble materials, to appreciate the natural environment, and to test conventions of art, gender and identity.

Rural Australian Homes by Leta KeensRural Australian Homes

RRP $60

Most Australians live in cities, clinging to the coast and looking outwards towards the ocean. Yet almost all  feel closely connected to the country, even if hardly ever visiting it. Many dream of moving to rural areas - there's a harshness to much of the Australian landscape and yet still a sense of romance about it. For Rural Australian Homes, Leta Keens travelled around Australia to find the 18 homes featured in the book - a wide-ranging and appealing selection that includes a sheep station that has been in the same family for 100 years, a converted general store, an adapted shed, and award-winning architect-designed contemporary houses. Covering every state and the Northern Territory, Rural Australian Homes gives a compelling insight into contemporary life in rural Australia, and offers a glimpse into some of the history that has defined it.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki MurakamiMurakami

RRP $45

Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning 'red pine', and Oumi, 'blue sea', while the girls' names were Shirane, 'white root', and Kurono, 'black field'. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it. One day Tsukuru Tazaki's friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again. Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.

"Murakami's prose seamlessly fuses folksiness and profundity... A harmonious blend of naivety and riddling sophistication'" -- Boyd Tonkin Independent "Neat, economical, even minimalist... surprisingly painful and poignant" Literary Review "Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers ... But while anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves" New York Times Book Review

How to Speak Money by John LancasterHow to speak money

RRP $35

Money is our global language. Yet so few of us can speak it. The language of the economic elites can be complex, jargon-filled and completely baffling. And we need to understand it because if we can't, then the elites will write their own rules. Now John Lanchester, bestselling author of Capital and Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay, sets out to decode it for all of us, explaining everything from high-frequency trading and the World Bank to the difference between bullshit and nonsense. As funny as it is devastating, How To Speak Money is a primer and a polemic. It's a reference book you'll find yourself reading in one sitting. And it gives you everything you need to demystify the world of high fiannce - the world that dominates how we all live now.

John Lanchester is contributing editor of the London Review of Books, and a regular contributor to the New Yorker. He has written four novels, The Debt to Pleasure, Mr Phillips and Fragrant Harbour, and Capital, and two works of non-fiction: Family Romance, a memoir; and Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay, about the global financial crisis. His books have won the Hawthornden Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Prize and been longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Perfidia by James EllroyPerfidia

RRP $40

It is December 6 1941. America stands at the brink of World War II. Last hopes for peace are shattered when Japanese squadrons bomb Pearl Harbor. Los Angeles has been a haven for loyal Japanese-Americans - but now, war fever and race hate grip the city and the Japanese internment begins. The hellish murder of a Japanese family summons three men and one woman. William H. Parker is a captain on the Los Angeles Police. He's superbly gifted, corrosively ambitious, liquored-up and consumed by dubious ideology. He is bitterly at odds with Sergeant Dudley Smith - Irish emigre, ex-IRA killer, fledgling war profiteer. Kay Lake is a 21-year-old dilettante looking for adventure. Hideo Ashida is a police chemist and the only Japanese on the L.A. cop payroll. The investigation throws them together and rips them apart. The crime becomes a political storm centre that brilliantly illuminates these four driven souls - comrades, rivals, lovers, history's pawns. Perfidia is a novel of astonishments. It is World War II as you have never seen it, and Los Angeles as James Ellroy has never written it before. Here, he gives us the party at the edge of the abyss and the precipice of America's ascendance. Perfidia is that moment, spellbindingly captured. It beckons us to solve a great crime that, in its turn, explicates the crime of war itself. It is a great American novel.

"A war novel like no other."Dark desires sizzle" and explode with a furious climax. Ellroy is not only back in form - he's raised the stakes." Kirkus Review (starred review) "James Ellroy is the best crime writer in the world." Irish Times "One of the most original and daring writers alive." Independent on Sunday

The World Atlas of Street Photography  Jackie Higgins (Edited by) Max Kozloff (Author)            RRP $65World atlas street photography

Focuses on the abundance of photography that has been created on street corners around the globe; it includes classic documentary street photography, as well as images of urban landscapes, staged performances, and sculptures. In so doing, this compelling reference book locates the meeting point between street photography and atlas, between artists and their personal understanding of our environment, not via a cartographic birds-eye view but through a more intimate, human-centred perspective. From New York to New Delhi, Beijing to Brighton, Havana to Hamburg, and Sydney to Seoul, this magnificently illustrated book presents an international cast of more than one hundred established and emerging contemporary photographers.

100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens by Fiona Eadie100 best native plants

RRP $45

Since its first publication, this book has been an indispensable guide for gardeners wishing to use New Zealand plants. Now extensively revised, it features inspirational and practical advice on 100 species that are easy to grow and maintain, across a range of climates. It lists each plant's likes and dislikes and gives sage advice for care and maintenace and for combatting pests and problems. It suggests how your soil can be best prepared for maximum growing results and gives creative landscaping tips for combining textures and forms to maximum effect. Engagingly written by the head gardener at Larnach Castle, whose gardens are world-renowned, it deserves a place on every gardener's book shelf.

The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate MosseTaxidermist's Daughter

RRP $38

Sussex, 1912. In a churchyard, villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will die in the coming year are thought to walk. Here, where the estuary leads out to the sea, superstitions still hold sway. Standing alone is the taxidermist's daughter. At twenty-two, Constantia Gifford lives with her father in a decaying house: it contains all that is left of Gifford's once world-famous museum of taxidermy. The stuffed birds that used to grace every parlour are out of fashion, leaving Gifford a disgraced and bitter man. The string of events that led to the museum's closure are never spoken of and an accident has robbed Connie of any memory of those days. The bell begins to toll and all eyes are fixed on the church. No one sees the gloved hands holding a garotte. As the last notes fade into the dark, a woman lies dead. While the village braces itself against rising waters and the highest tide of the season, Connie struggles to discover who is responsible - and why the incident is causing memories to surface from her own vanished years. Does she know the figure she sees watching from the marshes? Who is the mysterious caller that leaves a note without being seen? And what is the secret that lies at the heart of Blackthorn House, hidden among the bell jars of her father's workshop? The Taxidermist's Daughter is the stunning new novel from the multi-million copy bestselling author, Kate Mosse.

The Leftovers by Tom Perrottathe leftovers

RRP $25

From the author of 'Little Children' and now a major new HBO TV series, 'The Leftovers'  is a startling novel about love, connection and loss. 

Three years ago, 2 per cent of the Earth's population disappeared without a trace. Young and old, believers and sceptics - they vanished from every walk of life. Those left behind are still struggling to understand why their loved ones are gone - and why they themselves didn't make the cut. Mapleton's new mayor Kevin Carvey's life has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster. His wife has joined a cult, his son and daughter are beyond his comfort and their whole community is racked with grief, despair and terrible anger. The future looks bleak. But somehow, out of this desolation a new kind of hope awakens.

'There are few writers more entertaining or adept than Tom Perrotta at explaining the frustrations, ennui and creeping darkness at the heart of American suburbia' Vogue Magazine 'The Steinbeck of Suburbia' Time 'Read The Leftovers. Don't get left behind' USA Today 'The champion of stateside suburbia' Observer

The Incarnations by Susan BarkerIncarnations

RRP $37

Beijing, 2008, the Olympics are coming, but as taxi driver Wang circles the city's congested streets, he feels barely alive. His daily grind is suddenly interrupted when he finds a letter in the sunshade of his cab. Someone is watching him. Someone who claims to be his soulmate and to have known him for over a thousnd years. More letters follow, taking Wang back in time: to a spirit-bride in the Tang Dynasty; to young slaves during the Mongol invasion; to concubines plotting to kill the emperor; to a kidnapping in the Opium War; and to the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution. With each letter, Wang feels the watcher in the shadows growing closer...

Sweeping between China past and present, The Incarnations illuminates the cyclical nature of history, and shows man's proclivity for repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

"An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, THE INCARNATIONS takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years." -- JOHN BOYNE "A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year" -- ADAM JOHNSON, WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013 "A brilliant, mind-expanding and wildly original novel" -- CHRIS CLEAVE

Why Aren't We Dead Yet?: The Survivor's Guide to the Immune System by Idan Ben-BarakWhy Aren't we dead yet?

RRP $35

Disease - specifically infectious disease - is what eventually kills the overwhelming majority of us. In fact, it's amazing that it doesn't get us sooner: we fight off millions of disease-causing germs every day. So how come we're not dead yet? In this lively and accessible book, Idan Ben-Barak tells us why. He explores the immune system and what keeps it running, how germs are destroyed, and why we develop immunities to certain disease-causing agents. He also examines the role of antibiotics and vaccines, and looks at what the future holds for our collective chances of not being dead. This is entertaining and thoughtful science writing to inspire the student interested in a career in medicine or immunology, or to inform the reader who just wants to understand more about their body while having a laugh along the way.

Tenderness: Stories by Sarah QuigleyTenderness

RRP $38

A superb collection of stories from a prize-winning writer - some short, some long, set in locations that span the globe, all exploring the theme encapsulated by the title: tenderness. Meet Sadie, the high-flying divorce lawyer who ends up putting marriages back together; the Ice Cream Girl, discovered in a superette and transplanted to Hollywood; the seven-year-old Prometheus, who faces death on a daily basis. With a mix of humour and compassion, each story carries the punch of a compacted novel, highlighting those illuminating moments of human connection. Sarah Quigley has an impressive track-record as a fiction writer, and these stories will not disappoint. Stylistically assured, emotionally resonant, they are guaranteed to capture minds and hearts. Quigley has won numerous awards for her short fiction, including the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Pacific Rim Short Story Award. Her best-selling novel, The Conductor, has sold throughout the world. It was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Femina.

The Emperor Waltz by Philip HensherThe Emperor Waltz

RRP $45

In a third-century desert settlement on the fringes of the Roman Empire, a new wife becomes fascinated by a cult that is persecuted by the Emperor Diocletian. In 1922, Christian, a young artist, travels to Weimar to begin his studies at the Bauhaus, where the avant-garde confronts conservative elements around it. With postwar Germany in turmoil, while the Bauhaus attempts to explore radical ways of thinking and living, Christian finds that love will change him for ever. And in 1970s London Duncan uses his inheritance to establish the country's first gay bookshop in the face of opposition from the neighbours and victimisation by the police. Delving deep into the human spirit to explore connections between love, sanctity, commitment and virtue, Philip Hensher takes as his subject small groups of men and women, tightly bound together, trying to change the world through the example of their lives. 'The Emperor Waltz' is an absorbing echo-chamber of a novel, innovative and compelling, that explores what it means for us to belong to each other.

'Complicated and important ... Glorious ... Beautiful because Hensher has an incredible eye for the things that make moments special ... he might have the iconoclastic temperament of a Kandinsky, but he is an old master when he glimpses the cat asleep under the table or the curve of a woman's neck' Melissa Katsoulis, The Times 'The author's exuberant humour and affection for language resonate throughout ... "The Empire Waltz" has the depth and pleasurable density of a 19th-century fiction; I loved it' Ian Thomson, Evening Standard 'Daring... funny, ingeniously observed and humming with revolutionary ideas' Hepzibah Anderson, Daily Mail 'Rich and captivating, dizzy with memorable characters' Ben Hamilton, Spectator.

South Sea Vagabonds by J.W.Wray(75th Anniversary Edition)South Sea

RRP $45

The timeless New Zealand classic of adventure at sea.  Johnny Wray's gripping and often hilarious account of his adventures around the South Pacific has inspired readers and changed lives since its first publication 75 years ago. Fired from his day job during the Great Depression, Johnny took it as sign from God, and taught himself how to build and sail a boat. Then, with some mates for company and a sextant to steer by, he set sail in his famous yacht Ngataki for the palm-fringed atolls and islands of his dreams - to discover they really did exist. But South Sea Vagabonds is much more than just a ripping yarn; it is a heartfelt hymn to the possibility of living a free life and truly being the master of one's own destiny.

The Naturalist by Thom ConroyThe Naturalist

RRP $38

A fascinating, moving novel based on the real life of Dr Ernst Dieffenbach: scientist, explorer, revolutionary, outcast. Dieffenbach arrived in New Zealand in 1839 as a naturalist. What he discovered was fascinating, but what his prescient records didn't reveal was his own intriguing story. This compelling novel turns the focus on Dieffenbach. As a young idealist, he had plotted a revolution in the name of equality. Imprisoned and then exiled, first from Giessen, then Strasbourg, then Zurich, he fled to London. He hoped to redeem his reputation by joining the expedition to New Zealand. But as he was to discover, the complexities of freedom, exile and equality could not be left behind. Featuring Darwin, Charles Heaphy and the notorious Maori chief Te Rauparaha, The Naturalist connects New Zealand's past with world history and brings alive the story of this remarkable man.

Luigi's Freedom Ride by Alan MurrayLuigi

RRP $30

A wholly charming, funny story of one young good-hearted Italian man. It's about life, bicycles, the joy of the journey and the simple beauty of a life well-lived. It is the small lives, tucked away, that reveal humanity in all its bigness. A charming treat of a novel - as sunny, light and enjoyable as a strawberry gelato eaten in an Italian piazza on a summer's day. Luigi is a young Italian boy growing up in Tuscany in the 1920s, dreaming of cowboys and adventure, when a young Englishman, passing through on his way to Rome, gives him his first bicycle, thus sparking a lifelong passion. When World War II begins, Luigi enlists with the Bersaglieri, the Italian Army Cycling Corps (naturally), before unexpectedly finding himself fighting alongside the Partisans. Despite encountering great sorrow and tragedy, Luigi's zest for life remains undiminished, and his next adventure sees him cycling through the Holy Land, Turkey and Sri Lanka before finding an unexpected home - and an extraordinary surprise - in Australia. An irrepressibly optimistic, sweetly funny story, Luigi's Freedom Ride is about life, bicycles and the joy of the journey - showing how even a small life, lived in the shadow of great events, can be rich in contentment and spirit.

In the Approaches by Nicola BarkerIn the Approaches

RRP $35

'Open yourself up again to all that terrible light and savage bliss and deafening reverberation ...' In the Summer of 1971, a charismatic family seeks refuge in the quiet, English coastal backwater of Pett Level. Bran Cleary is a controversial Irish muralist; his fractious and promiscuous wife (and muse) 'Lonely' Allaway is half Aboriginal; their strange, sickly daughter, Orla Nor, is almost a Saint. Thirteen years later, a shifty individual turns up in Pett Level, apparently determined to get to the bottom of the bizarre and ultimately tragic events which unfolded in the aftermath of that arrival. But does he really want to understand, or is he just way too close to the story to make any clear sense of it? And what of the locals who seem so determined to resist and undermine his investigations? 'In The Approaches' is a fabulously twisted comedy of very bad manners which starts out as a seaside idyll and ends up as a pilgrimage - sometimes sacred, sometimes profane, and frequently both at once. Set in a 1984 which seems almost as distantly located in the past as Orwell's was in the future, Nicola Barker's tenth novel offers a captivating glimpse of something more shocking than any dystopia - the possibility of faith.

'I have never read anything like it ... Barker is some kind of genius ... The book is textured, playfully philosophical and increasingly moving. I read the last 150 pages at a sitting with my heart and mind stirred... And yet it's also funny' Observer 'With her cast of extravagant characters, a refusal to be tied down to anything as parochial as a traditional plot or narrative arc, near-farcical humour and big ideas, Nicola Barker is an author who transforms the mundane into the magisterial ... Sounds a bit heavy going? Fear not, it's also a delightful romantic comedy ... More than the mere sum of its parts, it's a novel that propels you helplessly forward into the light' Independent

Wayfaring Stranger by James Lee BurkeWayfaring Stranger

RRP $38

James Lee Burke's new novel begins in West Texas in 1934, and the story begins with a fateful encounter between the narrator, Weldon Avery Holland, and the notorious Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker - a meeting which ends with the sixteen-year-old Holland putting a bullet through the windscreen of Clyde's stolen automobile. Weldon's education in the evils that men - and women - are capable of continues as we move to the Ardennes Forest and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, where Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland saves his sergeant, Hershel Pine, from death by suffocation when he is buried alive in his foxhole under the treads of a Waffen SS Tiger tank. Weldon and Hershel survive the executions of the wounded by the SS and escape on a freight train deep into Nazi Germany. There, they stumble into an extermination camp deserted by the SS, and discover among the stacked bodies a young woman named Rosita Lowenstein - the second woman to change Weldon's life. Weldon goes all the way to the Elbe River in the war's brutal climax, but afterwards he is determined to find Rosita - eventually tracking her down in Paris, where they get married. But Hershel has also found gold in the dross of conflict, claiming to have discovered the secret to the Tiger tank's indestructibility, its unique welding process - and on their return to the States, it looks as if the two friends have not merely survived; they're going to be rich. But as the two form a pipeline corporation and enter the oil business, they are about to encounter - amidst the super-rich of Huston - levels of greed and cruelty they thought they had left far behind in the blood and horror of war.

The Listener by Tove JanssonThe Listener

RRP $28

In her first ever story collection, Jansson revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark. From the good listener who begins to betray the secrets confided to her, to vignettes of a city storm or the slow halting of spring, these stories are gifts of originality and depth.

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is best known as the creator of the much loved Moomin stories for children. However, in her fifties she turned her attention to writing for adults, producing a dozen novels and story collections. Sculptor's Daughter, (to be published Nov 2013 - 9781908745330) was the first, in 1968, followed by The Listener, three years later.

Her prose is wondrous: it is clean, deliberate; an aesthetic so certain of itself, it's breathtaking-Daily Telegraph A unique and authentic voice that speaks to the reader across time and culture, heart to heart -- Boyd Tonkin (The Listener) is a masterpiece of subtlety and simplicitiy. The rest of the stories in this collection are every bit as crisp, ironic, elegant and ruthless-Saga Magazine

 

Missing Microbes: How Killing Bacteria Creates Modern Plagues by Martin BlaserMissing Microbes

RRP $37

A clarion call to save humanity's most essential fellow creatures - and our health Far beneath our skin exists an unfathomable, ancient universe - an internal ecosystem that is critical to our health. Dr Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human 'microbiome', unfurling its inner workings and evolution. For thousands of years, bacteria and human cells have co-existed in a relationship that has ensured the health and equilibrium of our body. But now, much like the natural world outside of us, our internal environment is being irrevocably destroyed. The culprit: some of our most revered medical advances - antibiotics - which appear to be linked to the epidemics of asthma, eczema, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and other diseases plaguing modern society. In a book that stands as the Silent Spring of its day, Blaser sounds a provocative alarm that we ignore at our peril.

Martin J. Blaser MD has studied the role of bacteria in human disease for more than thirty years. He is the director of the Human Microbiome Program at New York University, served as the chair of medicine at NYU and as the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and has had major advisory roles at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony DoerrAll the ligth we cannot see

RRP $35

The epic new novel, set during WW2, from Sunday Times Short Story Prize-winner Anthony Doerr. Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in. Doerr's combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric. As Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably, 'All The Light We Cannot See' is a captivating and devastating elegy for innocence.

'Far more than a conventional war story, It's a tightly focused epic revolving around two unusual main characters ... Doerr paints with a rich palette, using prose that resonates deeply and conveys the ephemera of daily existence along with high drama, sadness and hope ... A bittersweet and moving novel that lingers in the mind' Clifford Beal, Daily Mail 'This novel will be a piece of luck for anyone with a long plane journey or beach holiday ahead. It is such a page-turner, entirely absorbing... [Doerr's] attention to detail is magnificent' Carmen Callil, Guardian. 'This jewel of a story is put together like a vintage timepiece ... Doerr's writing and imagery are stunning. It's been a while since a novel had me under its spell in this fashion.' Abraham Verghese, author of 'Cutting for Stone'

Fourth of July Creek by Smith HendersonFourth of July Creek

RRP $37

This is a dark and powerful debut novel set in the hardscrabble American heartlands. 'If I knew for a certain'ty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life...' After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Jeremiah's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the centre of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. In this shattering and iconic novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting America's disquieting and violent contradictions. Fourth Of July Creek is an unforgettable, unflinching debut that marks the arrival of a major literary talent.

"This book left me awestruck; a stunning debut which reads like the work of a writer at the height of his power. Begins with the story of one struggling man and his family and soon seems to encompass and address all of modern America's problems. Fourth of July Creek is a masterful achievement and Smith Henderson is certain to end up a household name." -- Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Son.

Tigerman by Nick HarkawayTigerman

RRP $37

Lester Ferris, sergeant of the British Army, is a good man in need of a rest. He's spent a lot of his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. He has no family, he's nearly forty, burned out and about to be retired. The island of Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to serve out his time. It's a former British colony in legal limbo, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution - a down-at-heel, mildly larcenous backwater. Of course, that also makes Mancreu perfect for shady business, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, offshore hospitals, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester's brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye. But Lester Ferris has made a friend: a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comic book fixation who will need a home when the island dies - who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. Now, as Mancreu's small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer. In the name of paternal love, Lester Ferris will do almost anything. And he's a soldier with a knack for bad places: 'almost anything' could be a very great deal - even becoming some sort of hero. But this is Mancreu, and everything here is upside down. Just exactly what sort of hero will the boy need?

"Astonishing . Grahma Greene would have treasured this book . Nick Harkaway has all the writerly skills to pull it off. His Tigerman lives because of his wit and daring intelligence, and his empathy. Words quiver whenever he writes." Scotsman "Tigerman is equal parts eco-fable, comic-book caper, thriller and buddy novel. Gripping stuff." Financial Times

Seedtime: On the History, Husbandry, Politics and Promise of Seeds by Scott ChaskeySeedtime

RRP $30

Scott Chaskey--working farmer, poet, and spiritual father of the community farming movement--considers "the web of biodiversity and resilience at the heart of our cultural inheritance" by masterfully weaving history, politics, botany, literature, mythology, and memoir into a beautiful and instructive book.It's hard to think of a subject more fundamental to the sustenance of the human race than seeds. Having coevolved with the Earth's plants, insects, and animals, seeds are entwined with the core myths of ancient cultures and the development of human consciousness. Their story remains vitally important today, as the corporations that manufacture GMOs threaten our food security and the future of seed-cultivated agriculture.The stakes, for those concerned with preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity, are high.Balancing a wide view of politics and history, Chaskey alights from life on the farm he has cultivated for 25 years to conjure Gregor Mendel's breeding experiments that yielded our modern understanding of genetics; he also introduces us to several "bioneers," such as the geobotanist Nikolay Vavilov and agriculturalist Cary Fowler, who are preserving global biodiversity through seeds. Integrating scholarship with accessible storytelling, "Seedtime "is a celebration as well as a call to action urging us to renew our role as citizens of nature, in ecologist Aldo Leopold's phrase, not as conquerors of it.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina HenriquezBook of unknown americans

RRP $37

We had been planning our life here for so long. Filling out papers, hoping, praying, waiting. We had all of our dreams pinned on this place, but the pin was thin and delicate and it was too soon to tell whether it was going to hold much of anything at all. When Alma Rivera arrives in Newark, Delaware she is brim full of the promise and possibilities of her new American home. Hope that her luminous daughter Maribel will be helped by the specialist education the US can provide, and faith that her husband Arturo will flourish in a country that celebrates the hard-working and the talented. But the reality of life without status, money, family and friends soon becomes apparent. And when violence casts its shadow, Alma realizes that her biggest mistake was assuming that everything that could go wrong in their lives already had...In this tale of great imagination and grace, Cristina Henriquez gives voice to the stories of the displaced and unknown - the untold stories of our time that resonate for us all.

The Book of Unknown Americans is filled with the fiercest kinds of love - of a boy for a beautiful girl, of stricken parents for an injured daughter, of an immigrant community for an impossible America. In this powerful novel, Cristina Henriquez gives us unforgettable characters, whose destinies are shaped by forces - senseless, random, political - far beyond their control, and yet whose resilience yields a most profound and unexpected kind of beauty -- RUTH OZEKI author of A Tale for the Time Being


The Silkworm by Robert GalbraithThe Silkworm

RRP $38

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him. And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before ...A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

An unputdownable tale of malice and murder in a toxic literary world ... this almost preposterously compulsive page-turner is irresistible summer reading - Sunday Times  A superb and polished thriller ... an ingenious whodunit - Sunday Mirror.  An entertaining novel in which the most compelling characters are not the killer or the victim, but the detectives charged with solving the crime - New York Times A pacey detective story ... moreish - Independent.


The Bloomsbury CookbookThe Bloomsbury Cookbook - Recipes for Life, Love & Art 

by Jans Ondaatje Rolls             RRP $65

Here the Bloomsbury story is told in seven broadly chronological chapters, beginning in the 1890s and finishing in the very recent past. The Bloomsbury Group fostered a fresh, creative and vital way of living that encouraged debate and communication (only connect), as often as not across the dining table. Gathered at these tables were many of the great figures in art, literature and economics in the early twentieth century: E. M. Forster, Roger Fry, J. M. Keynes, Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, among many others. Each chapter comprises a series of narratives, many of which are enhanced with an appropriate recipe, along with sketches, paintings, photographs, letters and handwritten notes, and featuring original quotations throughout. Part cookbook, part social and cultural history, this book will appeal to lovers of food and lovers of literature alike.

The Claimant by Janette Turner-HospitalThe Claimant

RRP $35

A brilliant and compulsively readable story of truth, lies and identity from one of Australia's finest writers. 'So then, here it is. The unadorned, un-self-flattering gospel, the never-before-told story of our intricately intertwined lives ...Listen: I know things that no one else knows. Trust me. ' Manhattan, 1996: the trial of the Vanderbilt claimant is finally coming to an end. The case - long, complex, riven with unknowns, attracting huge media and social interest - has been seeking to establish whether or not a certain man is the son of the fabulously wealthy and well-connected Vanderbilt family. The son went missing, presumed dead, while serving in the Vietnam war. There is huge fortune, prestige and status at stake. But is the man - a handsome cattle farmer from Queensland - really the Vanderbilt heir? And if so, why does he seem so reluctant to be found? The Claimant is a compelling and ravishingly readable novel about the fluid, shifting and ultimately elusive nature of identity and the reasons why people seek to change their names, their identities or their personalities.

The Human Flies by Hans Olav LahlumTHe Human Flies

RRP $35

This is the first mystery in the hugely compelling, bestselling Norwegian crime series. Oslo, 1968. Ambitious young detective Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen is called to an apartment block, where a man has been found murdered. The victim, Harald Olesen, was a legendary hero of the Resistance during the Nazi occupation and at first it is difficult to imagine who could have wanted him dead. But as Detective Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen (known as K2) begins to investigate, it seems clear that the murderer could only be one of Olesen's fellow tenants in the building. Soon, with the help of Patricia - a brilliant young woman confined to a wheelchair following a terrible accident - K2 will begin to untangle the web of lies surrounding Olesen's neighbours; each of whom, it seems, had their own reasons for wanting Olesen dead. Their interviews, together with new and perplexing clues, will lead K2 and Patricia to dark events that took place during the Second World War...This gripping, evocative and ingenious mystery - the first in a series featuring K2 and Patricia - pays homage to the great Agatha Christie and will plunge readers into Norwegian history, and into a world of deceit and betrayal, revenge and the very darkest murder.

The Quest for a Moral Compass by Kenan MalikA Moral Compass

RRP $40

In this remarkable and groundbreaking book, Kenan Malik explores the history of moral thought as it has developed over three millennia, from Homer's Greece to Mao's China, from ancient India to modern America. Engaging and provocative, The Quest for a Moral Compass confronts some of humanity's deepest questions. It also brings morality down to earth, showing how, throughout history, social needs and political desires have shaped moral thinking. It is a history of the world told through the history of moral thought, and a history of moral thought that casts new light on global history at a time of great social turbulence and moral uncertainty.

Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He is a presenter of Analysis of BBC Radio 4, and a panelist on The Moral Maze. He has taught at universities in Britain, Europe, Australia and the USA, presented many TV documentaries and writes regularly for newspapers across the world including the New York Times, the Guardian, Goteborgs-Posten and the Australian. His books include Man, Beast and Zombie, Strange Fruit and From Fatwa to Jihad, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Orwell Book Prize.

Orfeo by Richard PowersOrfeo

RRP $37

Seventy-year old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police outside. His DIY microbiology lab - the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to extract music from rich patterns beyond the ear's ability to hear - has come to the attention of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid on his house, Els flees and turns fugitive, waiting for the evidence to clear him and for the alarm surrounding his activities to blow over. But alarm turns to national hysteria, as the government promises a panicked nation that the 'Bioterrorist Bach' will be found and brought to trial. As Els feels the noose around him tighten, he embarks on a cross-country trip to visit, one last time, the people in his past who have most shaped his failed musical journey. And through the help of these people - his ex-wife, his daughter, and his longtime artistic collaborator - Els comes up with a plan to turn this disastrous collision with national security into one last, resonant, calamitous artwork that might reach an audience beyond his wildest dreams.

Richard Powers has been a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, as well as a winner of the US National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of eight novels, including The Time of our Singing, Plowing the Dark, and Gain.

Every Day is for the Thief by Teju ColeEvery day is for the thief

RRP $30

A young man returns to Nigeria after fifteen years in New York. Like him, the country of his childhood has grown up quickly: found fast-food restaurants, email cafes, contempt for authority; the all-consuming draw of 'money for nothing'. From the consulate in Manhattan to the dusty streets of Lagos, life in modern Nigeria runs like clockwork - as long as you pay the fee. A bribe for the visa clerk, a 'Christmas gift' at immigration, cash - no receipt - at the unofficial tollbooth. Petrol pumps are rigged to overcharge and internet cafes overflow with career scammers ('Dear friend...'), but the police are too busy doling out bogus fines to care. In a country routinely plundered of its oil and ancient treasures, who is to say who can thieve and who can't? As our narrator makes the difficult journey back to his family house and its memories, he is confronted by the paradox of a country he wants to love, as burdened by its impoverished past as it is blinded by the spoils of the future. Every Day is for the Thief - now published for the first time outside Nigeria - is a candid tale of political and spiritual corruption, and a moving account of what it means to go home.

Teju Cole was brought up in Nigeria and moved to the USA in 1992. He is a writer, photographer and professional historian of early Netherlandish art. His novel Open City won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York City Book Award for Fiction and the Internationaler Literaturpreis, and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Literature.

Flash Boys by Michael LewisFlash Boys

RRP $50

Michael Lewis, the Master of the Big Story, is back with Flash Boys. If you thought Wall Street was about alpha males standing in trading pits hollering at each other, think again. That world is dead. Now, the world's money is traded by computer code, inside black boxes in heavily guarded buildings. Even the experts entrusted with your cash don't know what's happening to it. And the very few who do aren't about to tell - because they're making a killing. This is a market that's rigged, out of control and out of sight; a market in which the chief need is for speed; and in which traders would sell their grandmothers for a microsecond. Blink, and you'll miss it. In FlashBoys, Michael Lewis tells the explosive story of how one group of ingenious oddballs and misfits set out to expose what was going on. It's the story of what it's like to declare war on some of the richest and most powerful people in the world. It's about taking on an entire system. And it's about the madness that has taken hold of the financial markets today. You won't believe it until you've read it.

"I read Michael Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods. I'll never play like that. But it's good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like". (Malcolm Gladwell). "Probably the best current writer in America". (Tom Wolfe). " This book has the potential to spark a cultural uprising ... More than five years on from the Lehman collapse, Lewis has lit the touch paper on the mother of all debates about Wall Street and global finance" -- Liam Halligan Spectator

Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical MarvelStruck by Genius

by Jason Padgett and Maureen Seaberg   RRP $40

Jason Padgett was an ordinary, not terribly bright, 41-year-old working in his father's furniture shop when he was the victim of a brutal mugging outside a karaoke bar in 2002. That same night his stepfather died of cancer, and two weeks later his only brother went missing (his body was discovered three years later). The combined traumas of these three events proved, unsurprisingly, too much for Jason and he withdrew from life completely, living as a hermit for four years, suffering with agrophobia and the onset of OCD. During this time he developed a fascination with the principles of the physical universe, devouring mathematics and physics journals. He also started to see intricate webs of geometric forms in his head and discovered that he could draw these by hand. A chance encounter in a mall pointed him in the direction of college. Here his extraordinary mind was recognised, and he was set on a path in which his drawings were identified as mathematical fractals and neuroscientists diagnosed him as having Acquired Savant Syndrome and synesthesia

Maureen Seaberg is a science journalist, and as a synesthete herself focuses on writing about synesthesia. She met Jason as a result of Google alert on the subject and introduced him to the neuroscientist that diagnosed his condition.

Fallout by Sadie JonesFallout

RRP $37

As read on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Luke is a young playwright: intense, magnetic and hungry for experience. Fleeing a disastrous upbringing in the North East he arrives in London and shares a flat with Paul, an aspiring producer, and beautiful, fiery Leigh. The three of them set up a radical theatre company, their friendship forged in rehearsal rooms above pubs, candlelit power cuts, and smoky late-night parties, part of a thrilling new generation of writers, directors and rising voices. When Nina, a fragile actress, strays towards their group, Luke recognises a damaged soul and the balance between the friends is threatened. Luke is torn between loyalty, desire and his own painful past, until everything he values, even the promise of the future, is in danger. Suddenly the fallout threatens to be immense.

Sadie Jones won the Costa First Novel Award with her debut The Outcast ('Riveting', Lionel Shriver; 'Devastatingly good', Daily Mail; 'Gripping', Harper's Bazaar). It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Reads Number One bestseller. Her second novel, Small Wars ('Outstanding', The Times; 'Compelling', Daily Telegraph; 'One of the best books about the English at war ever', Joel Morris) was longlisted for the Orange Prize and her third, The Uninvited Guests was described by the Financial Times as 'dazzlingly well-written... a midsummer night's dream of a book... Unforgettable'.

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel DickerThe Truth about the Harry Quebert

RRP $35

August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence. That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect. Marcus Goldman - Quebert's most gifted protege - throws off his writer's block to clear his mentor's name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of 'The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America'. But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.

Winner of Prix Goncourt des Lyceens 2012 and Grand Prix du Roman de l'Academie Francaise 2012.

War: What is it good for?: The role of conflict in civilisation, from primates to robotsWar What

by Ian Morris                                                                 RRP $40

War is one of the greatest human evils. It has ruined livelihoods, provoked unspeakable atrocities and left countless millions dead. It has caused economic chaos and widespread deprivation. And the misery it causes poisons foreign policy for future generations. But, argues bestselling historian Ian Morris, in the very long term, war has in fact been a good thing. In his trademark style combining inter-disciplinary insights, scientific methods and fascinating stories, Morris shows that, paradoxically, war is the only human invention that has allowed us to construct peaceful societies. Without war, we would never have built the huge nation-states which now keep us relatively safe from random acts of violence, and which have given us previously unimaginable wealth. It is thanks to war that we live longer and more comfortable lives than ever before. And yet, if we continue waging war with ever-more deadly weaponry, we will destroy everything we have achieved; so our struggles to manage warfare make the coming decades the most decisive in the history of our civilisation. In War: What Is It Good For? Morris brilliantly dissects humanity's history of warfare to draw startling conclusions about our future.

Ian Morris is Willard Professor of Classics, Professor of History and a fellow of the Archaeology Centre at Stanford University. He is the bestselling author of Why the West Rules - For Now and has appeared on a number of television networks, including the History Network and PBS.

Remodelista by Julie CarlsonRemodelista

RRP $75

Remodelista.com is the go-to, undisputed authority for home design enthusiasts, remodellers, architects, and designers. Unlike sites that cater to all tastes, Remodelista has a singular and clearly defined aesthetic: classic pieces trump designs that are trendy and transient, and well-edited spaces take precedence over cluttered environments. High and low mix seamlessly here, and getting the look need not be expensive. Remodelista decodes the secrets to achieving this aesthetic, with in-depth tours and lessons from 12 enviable homes; a recipe-like breakdown of the hardest-working kitchens and bathrooms; dozens of do-it-yourself projects; "The Remodelista 100," a guide to the best everyday household objects; and an in-depth look at the ins and outs of the remodelling process. In a world of design confusion, Remodelista takes the guesswork out of the process.

The Moth: This Is a True Story introduced by Neil GaimanThe Moth

RRP $35

Before television and radio, before penny paperbacks and mass literacy, people would gather on porches, on the steps outside their homes, and tell stories. The storytellers knew their craft and bewitched listeners would sit and listen long into the night as moths flitted around overhead. The Moth is a non-profit group that is trying to recapture this lost art, helping storytellers - old hands and novices alike - hone their stories before playing to packed crowds at sold-out live events. The very best of these stories are collected here: whether it's Bill Clinton's hell-raising press secretary or a leading geneticist with a family secret; a doctor whisked away by nuns to Mother Teresa's bedside or a film director saving her father's Chinatown store from money-grabbing developers; the Sultan of Brunei's concubine or a friend of Hemingway's who accidentally talks himself into a role as a substitute bullfighter, these eccentric, pitch-perfect stories - all, amazingly, true - range from the poignant to the downright hilarious.

Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human experience they showcase.

Brilliant and quietly addictive ... crammed with personality ... full of colour and life- Guardian One of the hottest events in town ... enthralling, funny and moving- The Times New York's hottest and hippest literary ticket- Wall Street Journal The stories not only maintain their oral integrity but take on new dimensions, allowing you to ponder a turn of events or swirl the language around in your head without missing the next part of the story-New York Times

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds by Carmine GalloTalk like Ted

RRP $30

TED talks have redefined the elements of a successful presentation and become the gold standard for public speaking around the world. TED and associated Tedx conferences are held in more than 130 countries and are being viewed at a rate of 1.5 million times a day. These are presentations that set the world on fire, and the techniques that top TED speakers use are the same ones that will make any presentation more dynamic, fire up any team, and give anyone the confidence to overcome their fear of public speaking. Communications coach and bestselling author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Carmine Gallo has broken down the top TED talks and interviewed the most popular TED presenters as well as the top researchers in the fields of psychology communications to get their cutting-edge insights and to reveal the 9 secrets of all successful TED presentations. From 'Unleashing the Master Within' and 'Delivering Jaw Dropping Moments' to 'Sticking to the 18-minute Rule' Gallo provides a step-by-step method that makes it possible for anyone to create, design, and deliver a TED-style presentation that is engaging, persuasive, and memorable. Ideas are the true currency of the 21st century, and Carmine Gallo's Talk Like TED gives readers a way to create presentations around the ideas that matter most to them, presentations that will energize their audiences to spread those ideas, launch new initiatives, and reach their highest goals.

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True InspirationCreativity Inc

by Ed Catmull  RRP $40

As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the world's first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream first as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged an early partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later and against all odds, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. Since then, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner twenty-seven Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Now, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques, honed over years, that have made Pixar so widely admired - and so profitable. Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation Studios - into the story meetings, the postmortems, and the 'Braintrust' sessions where art is born. It is, at heart, a book about how to build and sustain a creative culture - but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, 'an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.'

Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics. He earned a B.S. degrees in computer science and physics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah.

Part autobiography, part history of Pixar, part business book, Creativity Inc is an inspiring look at the role creativity plays in one of the most successful media businesses the world has ever seen. www.CreativityIncBook.com@DisneyPixar

"Many have attempted to formulate and categorize inspiration and creativity. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience that creativity isn't strictly a well of ideas, but an alchemy of people. In Creativity, Inc. Ed reveals, with commonsense specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way and realize a creative coalescence of art, business and innovation." George Lucas

         

CapitalCapital: A Portrait of Twenty-first Century Delhi by Rana Dasgupta

RRP $45

At the turn of the twenty-first century acclaimed novelist Rana Dasgupta arrived in the Indian capital with a single suitcase. He had no intention of staying for long. But the city beguiled him - he 'fell in love and in hate with it' - and, fourteen years later, Delhi has become his home. Capital tells the story of Delhi's journey from walled city to world city. It is a story of extreme wealth and power, of land grabs and a cityscape changed almost beyond recognition. Everything that was slow, intimate and idiosyncratic has become fast, vast and generic; every aspect of life has been affected - for the poor, the middle classes and the super-rich. Through a series of fascinating personal encounters Dasgupta takes us inside the intoxicating, sometimes terrifying transformation of India's fastest-growing megacity, offering an astonishing 'report from the global future'.

Rana Dasgupta won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book for his debut novel, Solo. He is also the author of the highly praised story collection Tokyo Cancelled. Capital is his first work of non-fiction.

'A beautifully written portrait of a corrupt, violent and traumatised city growing so fast it is almost unrecognisable to its own inhabitants. An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers.' -- William Dalrymple 'The interviews at the core of the book are a cleverly tangential way to investigate a city that is among the world's largest - about 22m people live in and around Delhi - and has been made a microcosm of India by the hundreds of thousands who arrive each year as migrants.' Financial Times

The Collected Works of A.J.Fikry by Gabrielle LevinCollected Works of AJ Fikry

RRP $30

AJ Fikry owns a failing bookshop. His wife has just died, in tragic circumstances. His rare and valuable first edition has been stolen. His life is a wreck. Amelia is a book rep, with a big heart, and a lonely life. Maya is the baby who ends up on AJ's bookshop floor with a note. What happens in the bookshop that changes the lives of these seemingly normal but extraordinary characters? This is the story of how unexpected love can rescue you and bring you back to real life, in a world that you won't want to leave, with characters that you will come to love.

With over eight novels for adults and young people, Gabrielle Levin has written about female soldiers in Iraq, mafia princesses in retro-future New York City, teenage girls in the afterlife, talking dogs, amnesiacs, and the difficulties of loving one person over many years. She is probably best known for her first novel, Elsewhere, which has been translated into 25 languages. She is also the screenwriter of the cult hit Conversations with Other Women.

Arctic Summer by Damon GalgutArctic Summer

RRP $37

In this literary tour de force, twice Booker shortlisted novelist Damon Galgut evokes the life and work of EM Forster, his travels to India, and the freedom and inspiration he found there. In 1912, the SS Birmingham approaches India. On board is Morgan Forster, novelist and man of letters, who is embarking on a journey of discovery. As Morgan stands on deck, the promise of a strange new future begins to take shape before his eyes. The seeds of a story start to gather at the corner of his mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. It will be another twelve years, and a second time spent in India, before A Passage to India, EM Forster's great work of literature, is published. During these years, Morgan will come to a profound understanding of himself as a man, and of the infinite subtleties and complexity of human nature, bringing these great insights to bear in his remarkable novel. At once an exploration of the life and times of one of Britain's finest novelists, his struggle to find a way of living and being, and a stunningly vivid evocation of the mysterious alchemy of the creative process, Arctic Summer is a literary masterpiece, by one of the finest writers of his generation.

          

Carthage

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates

RRP $35

A young girl's disappearance rocks a community and a family, in this stirring examination of grief, faith, justice and the atrocities of war, from literary legend Joyce Carol Oates. Zeno Mayfield's daughter has disappeared into the night, gone missing in the wilds of the Adirondacks. But when the community of Carthage joins a father's frantic search for the girl, they discover instead the unlikeliest of suspects - a decorated Iraq War veteran with close ties to the Mayfield family. As grisly evidence mounts against the troubled war hero, the family must wrestle with the possibility of having lost a daughter forever. 'Carthage' plunges us deep into the psyche of a wounded young Corporal, haunted by unspeakable acts of wartime aggression, while unraveling the story of a disaffected young girl whose exile from her family may have come long before her disappearance. Dark and riveting, 'Carthage' is a powerful addition to the Joyce Carol Oates canon, one that explores the human capacity for violence, love and forgiveness, and asks if it's ever truly possible to come home again.

'Her characters are created with a Dickensian sharpness of detail, and their relationships with one another are often involving; her language is rough-hewn and lovely; her plots are suspenseful and artfully made ... Her new novel is her most substantial in some time' Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times

The World We Made: Alex McKay's Story from 2050 by Jonathon PorrittWorld We Made

RRP $55

Our planet's environmental future is usually described in terms of doom and despair. But now, for the first time, The World We Made presents a credible, positive vision of our planet that is green, fair, connected and collaborative. Part history, part personal memoir, The World We Made reveals how it is possible to reach a genuinely sustainable world by 2050; describing the key events, technological breakthroughs and lifestyle revolutions that will transform our planet. Packed with images that bring to life this exciting, high-tech and human world, featuring futuristic photographs, graphics and hand-drawn sketches, The World We Made covers topics as wide-ranging as the 'energy internet' to slow travel airships; 3D printing to robotics; and personal genomics to urban agriculture - all grounded in cutting edge technological insights. Providing all the tools and advice to prepare yourself for what is ahead, the book is essential reading for everyone interested in a positive future for our planet. All royalties will go to support the work of Forum for the Future, one of the world's leading sustainable development non-profits.

Jonathon Porritt has been a renowned figure in the world of sustainable development for the last 40 years. A former Director of Friends of the Earth, he is the founder director of Forum for the Future, and eminent commentator, author and broadcaster. He has been closely involved in developing the sustainability strategies for companies like Unilever, Nike, Pepsi, M&S, Telefonica and Carillion, and is an advisor to the Prince of Wales and many other leaders in the field.

Out Of The Ordinary

The House of Twenty Thousand Books - $3820,000 books

This is the story of Sasha Abramsky's grandparents, Chimen and Miriam Abramsky, and of their unique home at 5 Hillway, around the corner from Hampstead Heath. In their semi-detached house, so deceptively ordinary from the outside, the Abramskys created a remarkable House of Books. It became the repository for Chimen's collection of thousands upon thousands of books, manuscripts and other printed, handwritten and painted documents, representing his journey through the great political, philosophical, religious and ethical debates that have shaped the western world. Chimen Abramsky was barely a teenager when his father, a famous rabbi, was arrested by Stalin's secret police and sentenced to five years hard labour in Siberia, and fifteen when his family was exiled to London. Lacking a university degree, he nevertheless became a polymath, always obsessed with collecting ideas, with capturing the meanderings of the human soul through the world of great thoughts and thinkers. Rejecting his father's Orthodoxy, he became a Communist, made his living as a book-dealer and amassed a huge, and astonishingly rare, library of socialist literature and memorabilia. Disillusioned with Communism and belatedly recognising the barbarity at the core of Stalin's project, he transformed himself once more, this time into a liberal and a humanist. To his socialist library was added a vast trove of Jewish history volumes. Chimen ended his career as Professor of Hebrew and Jewish studies at UCL, London and rare manuscripts expert for Sotheby's.Their house became a focal point for left-wing intellectual Jewish life: hundreds of the world's leading thinkers, from Isaiah Berlin to Eric Hobsbawm, dined at their table. The House of Twenty Thousand Books brings alive this latter-day salon by telling the story of Chimen Abramsky's love affair with ideas and with the world of books.  In this extraordinary elegy to a lost world, Sasha Abramsky's passionate narrative brings to life once more not just the Hillway salon, but the ideas, the conflicts, the personalities and the human yearnings that animated it.

What We See When We Read - $35What we see

A unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading--how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader. What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a page--a graceful ear there, a stray curl, a hat positioned just so--and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our beloved--or reviled--literary figures. In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf's Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature--he considers himself first and foremost as a reader--into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.

The Life-changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever - $30Magic of Tidying

Transform your home into a permanently clear and clutter-free space with the incredible KonMari Method. Japan's expert declutterer and professional cleaner Marie Kondo will help you tidy your rooms once and for all with her inspirational step-by-step method. The key to successful tidying is to tackle your home in the correct order, to keep only the things you really love and to do it all at once - and quickly. After that for the rest of your life you only need to choose what to keep and what to discard. The KonMari Method will not just transform your space. Once you have your house in order you will find that your whole life will change. You can feel more confident, you can become more successful, and you can have the energy and motivation to create the life you want. You will also have the courage to move on from the negative aspects of your life: you can recognise and finish a bad relationship; you can stop feeling anxious; you can finally lose weight. Marie Kondo's method is based on a 'once-cleaned, never-messy-again' approach. If you think that such a thing is impossible then you should definitely read this compelling book. Kondo runs a highly successful business in Tokyo helping clients transform their cluttered homes into spaces of beauty, peace and inspiration.

Your Chinese Horoscope: What the Year of the Goat Holds in Store for You: 2015 - $20Chinese Horoscope 2015

The year 2015 is the Chinese Year of the Goat and this complete guide contains all the predictions you will need to take you into the year ahead - an interesting year offering scope, awareness and much possibility. The ancient art of Chinese astrology, which predates the Western zodiac, is a detailed system of divination that has been in use in the Orient for thousands of years. The depth of its wisdom and the accuracy of its character analysis and prediction has caught the imagination of the Western world in recent years and led to a rapid rise in its popularity. This bestselling guide - now in its 28th year - includes: * Everything you need to know about the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac * An explanation of the Five Elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth, and which one governs your sign * Individual predictions to help you find love, luck and success * What the Year of the Goat has in store for you, your family, your loved ones and friends. Neil Somerville has been writing the 'Your Chinese Horoscope' series since 1987 and, as his readers have discovered, these are no ordinary Horoscope books. Although they do contain predictions they also give much encouraging advice and this is what attracted Neil to Chinese horoscopes so many years ago. They are a great indicator of trends to come and, once aware of these, it is possible to adapt and benefit from this knowledge.

Creativity: The Perfect Crime - $37Creativity

Since well before his epic 1974 walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Philippe Petit had become an artist who answered first and foremost to the demands of his craft - not only on the high wire, but also as a magician, street juggler, visual artist, builder and writer. A born rebel, he is self taught, cultivating the attitudes, resources and techniques to tackle even seemingly impossible feats. His outlaw sensibility spawned a unique approach to the creative process, an approach he shares with the reader, revealing unconventional ways of creating art.

Philippe Petit has performed on the high wire more than eighty times around the world; he is also a magician, street juggler, visual artist, builder, lecturer, and writer. A frequent contributor to TED and other national venues, he is the author and illustrator of several books, including "To Reach the Clouds," the basis of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary "Man on Wire."

Churchill: The Power of Words - $35Power of Words

Winston Churchill understood and wielded the power of words throughout his six decades in the public eye. His wartime writings and speeches revealed both his vision for the future and his own personal feelings, fascinating generation after generation with their powerful style and thoughtful reflection. In this book Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, has skilfully selected 200 extracts from his entire oeuvre of books, articles and speeches that reflect his life story, career and philosophy. From intimate memories of his childhood to his contributions to half a century of debates on war and social policy, we see how Churchill used words for different purposes: to argue for moral causes; to advocate action in the national and international spheres, and to tell of his own struggles, setbacks and achievements. Martin Gilbert's informed choice of extracts and his illuminating explanations linking them together create a compelling biography of Churchill as recounted in the great man's own inimitable words.

The Digested Twenty-first Century - $37The Digested 21st Century

John Crace's Digested Read first appeared in the Guardian in February 2000 and has been running ever since. Each week Crace reduces a new book - anything from a Booker Prize winner to a Nigella cookery book is fair game - to 700 words in a parody of the plot, style, dialogue and themes. Or lack of them. The Digested Read has not just become an institution for readers; it is read and enjoyed by publishers and authors too. So long as it is not their book being digested. A few years ago Crace wrote Brideshead Abbreviated, A Digested Read of the 20th Century. This is the 21st Century. So far.

A swift kick up the backside to some of modern literature's most iconic works. Accurate, merciless and very, very funny. -- Sarah Waters I've read all these books at least twice - and now I've read John Crace's digested versions I wonder why I bothered. -- Will Self

The Road Cyclist's Companion - $33Cyclists companion

As the inexorable rise of the bicycle continues, many casual cyclists are moving into a more serious brand of cycling, riding in road races, groups or in cycle clubs--and stumbling straight into a minefield of etiquette. From how to wear your socks, to the position of your tan-line, to the eternal quandary of leg-shaving, there are things that any serious cyclist should know. "The Road Cyclist's Companion" covers all this and more. Divided into chapters covering kit, bike, group riding and training, it imparts all the essential knowledge that those who have grown up in clubs instinctively know. Peter Drinkell, author of "The Bike Owner's Handbook," writes clear, accessible text, which is accompanied by beautiful photography and illustration. Interviews with pro-cyclists, clothing designers and established figures in the field add further attractions for the true enthusiast.

Deep: A Sea Odyssey: Freediving, Renegade Science and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves - $35Deep

Covering a diving championship in Greece on a hot and sticky assignment for Outside magazine, James Nestor discovered free diving. He had stumbled on one of the most extreme sports in existence: a quest to extend the frontiers of human experience, in which divers descend without breathing equipment, for hundreds of feet below the water, for minutes after they should have died from lack of oxygen. Sometimes they emerge unconscious, or bleeding from the nose and ears, and sometimes they don't come up at all. The free divers were Nestor's way into an exhilarating and dangerous world of deep-sea pioneers, underwater athletes, scientists, spear fishermen, billionaires and ordinary men and women who are poised on the brink of some amazing discoveries about the ocean. Soon he was visiting the scientists who live 60ft underwater (and are permanently high on nitrous dioxide), swimming with the notorious man-eating sharks of Reunion and descending thousands of feet in a homemade submarine. And on the way down, he learnt about the amazing amphibious reflexes activated in the human body under deep-water conditions, why dolphins were injected with LSD in an attempt to teach them to talk, and why sharks like AC/DC. The sea covers seventy per cent of Earth's surface, and still contains answers to questions about the world we are only beginning to ask: Deep blends science and adventure to uncover its amazing secrets.


The Bookshop That Floated Away - $25The Bookshop that Floated

In early 2009 a strange sort of business plan landed on the desk of a pinstriped bank manager. It had pictures of rats and moles in rowing boats and archaic quotes about Cleopatra's barge. It asked for a GBP30,000 loan to buy a black-and-cream narrowboat and a small hoard of books. The manager said no. Nevertheless The Book Barge opened six months later and enjoyed the happy patronage of local readers, a growing number of eccentrics and the odd moorhen. Business wasn't always easy, so one May morning owner Sarah Henshaw set off for six months chugging the length and breadth of the country. Books were bartered for food, accommodation, bathroom facilities and cake. During the journey, the barge suffered a flooded engine, went out to sea, got banned from Bristol and, on several occasions, floated away altogether. This account follows the ebbs and flows of Sarah's journey as she sought to make her vision of a floating bookshop a reality.

A Short History of Nuclear Folly: Mad Scientists, Dithering Nazis, Lost Nukes, and Catastrophic Cover-Ups -$35Short History of Nuclear Folly

In the spirit of Dr. Strangelove and The Atomic Cafe, Rudolph Herzog has here created a bleakly sardonic catalogue of atomic blunders and nuclear near-misses revealing the hushed-up and forgotten episodes in which the great powers have gambled with catastrophe.

"The author and son of filmmaker Werner Herzog presents a sardonic, little-known history of misguided, accidental and irresponsible uses of nuclear technology."--"Los Angeles Times"  "It is arguably not possible to imagine human stupidity on a grander scale than what Rudolph Herzog has stockpiled in his new book." "--The Brooklyn Rail ""A well-written, if tragic, account of how little nuclear weapons testers knew or were willing to account for." "--Vice  "Herzog's study is a shocking and vitally important reminder that we live in an unsteady nuclear age." "--Publishers Weekly "   "Darkly funny low points in our nuclear past as well . . . more of-the-moment prognostications of what we can expect from our nuclear neighbors." "--Toronto Star  "Meticulously researched and thrillingly told--reading this is as informative as it is spine-chillingly entertaining." "--Die Zeit ""A haunting and well phrased warning." "--Focus Online"

Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in the Badlands of India - $25Pink Sari

Sampat Pal was married at twelve, essentially illiterate. Today she leads a vigilante group fighting for women's rights: the Pink Gang. When Sheelu was arrested for stealing from a powerful politician, she was sure that she would be forced to accept a prison sentence, not least because she alleged that she had been abused b y a man in the politician's household. But then Sampat Pal heard word of the charges, and the formidable commander of the pink-sari-wearing, pink-baton-wielding, 20,000-strong 'Pink Gang' decided to shake things up. In the story of Sampat Pal and the Pink Gang's fight for Sheelu, as well as others facing injustice and oppression, Amana Fontanella-Khan delivers a riveting portrait of women grabbing fate with their own hands - and winning back their lives.

'Pink Sari Revolution often reads more like a novel than reportage. Her talent for storytelling and her detailed, sometimes poetic, descriptions of events and places, combined with helpful explanations of customs and politics, draw the reader in to create a fascinating portrait of a country in flux.' New Statesman


Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on it -$30Curious

'I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious' Albert Einstein. Everyone is born curious. But only some retain the habits of exploring, learning and discovering as they grow older. Which side of the 'curiosity divide' are you on? In Curious Ian Leslie makes a passionate case for the cultivation of our desire to know. Curious people tend to be smarter, more creative and more successful. But at the very moment when the rewards of curiosity have never been higher, it is misunderstood and undervalued, and increasingly practised only by a cognitive elite. Drawing on fascinating research from psychology, sociology and business, Curious looks at what feeds curiosity and what starves it, and uncovers surprising answers. Curiosity isn't a quality you can rely on to last a lifetime, but a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise. It's not a gift, but a habit that parents, schools, workplaces and individuals need to nurture if it is to thrive. Filled with inspiring stories, case studies and practical advice, Curious will change the way you think about your own mental life, and that of those around you.

Ian Leslie writes about ideas, culture, and politics for a wide range of publications including Intelligent Life, the New Statesman, and the Guardian, and is the creator and presenter of the BBC radio comedy, Before They Were Famous.

  Woodsman - $23Woodsman

Ben Law's incredible sense of the land and his respect for age old traditions offers a wonderful insight into the life of Prickly Nut Wood. Having travelled to Papua New Guinea and the Amazon, observing age-old techniques for living in, working in and preserving forests and woodland, Ben Law felt compelled to return home and apply his learnings to a 400-year-old plot of woodland near where he grew up - Prickly Nut Wood, West Sussex. This is the story of how he came to know and love his woodland, how he lived off the land, how he coppiced and hedged and created charcoal, how he puddled and built shelter, and finally how he carved out his famous, characterful woodland home that Kevin McCloud has cited as his favourite Grand Design and viewers voted the most popular Grand Design ever.

The Wandering Mind: What the Brain Does When You're Not Looking - $35The Wandering Mind

While psychologists write bestsellers about humans' smarter side - language, cognition, consciousness - and self-help gurus harangue us to be attentive and mindful, we all know that much of the time our minds are just goofing off. So what does the brain do when you're not looking? Rooted in neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology but written with Corballis' signature wit and wisdom, The Wandering Mind takes us into the world of the 'default-mode network' to tackle the big questions. What do rats dream about? What's with our fiction addiction? Is the hippocampus where free will takes a holiday? And does mind-wandering drive creativity? In Pieces of Mind, Michael Corballis took 21 short walks around the human brain. In The Wandering Mind he stretches out for a longer hike into those murky regions of the brain where dreams and religion, fiction and fantasy lurk.

Michael C. Corballis is professor emeritus at the University of Auckland. An outstanding science communicator, reviewers have hailed him for his ability to tell 'a captivating story' and writing that is 'informative and entertaining'. He is author, most recently, of The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought and Civilization and Pieces of Mind: 21 Short Walks around the Human Brain, which was translated into three languages and published in three English-language editions.

 Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis - $25Cities are good

The 21st century will be the age of the city. Already over 50% of the world population live in urban centres and over the coming decades this percentage will increase. But an urban future is not necesarily a bleak one. Blending anecdote, fact and first hand encounters - from exploring the slums of Mumbai, to visiting roof-top farms in Brooklyn and attending secret dinner parties in Paris, to riding the bus in Latin America - Leo Hollis reveals that we have misunderstood how cities work for too long. Upending long-held assumptions and challenging accepted wisdom, he explores: why cities can never be rational, organised places; whether we have the right solution to the problem of the slums; how ants, slime mould and traffic jams can make us rethink congestion. And above all, the unexpected reasons why living in the city can make us fitter, richer, smarter, greener, more creative - and, perhaps, even happier. Cities Are Good for You introduces dreamers, planners, revolutionaries, writers, scientists, architects, slum-dwellers and emperors. It is shaped by the idea that cities are the greatest social experiment in human history, built for people, and by the people. Leo Hollis writes regularly for the New Statesman, the TLS and the Daily Telegraph. His blog can be found at www.citiesaregoodforyou.com and tweets at @leohollis.

'A comprehensive overview of the state of the city and contemporary thinking about urbanism' - Guardian  'Beautifully written and absorbing book ... This is an inspiring, richly illustrated, and thoroughly enjoyable read'- Good Book Guide .

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good - $29Cracked

Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed - 47 million antidepressant prescriptions in the UK alone last year - and why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in 1952 to 374 today? The everyday sufferings and setbacks of life are now 'medicalised' into illnesses that require treatment - usually with highly profitable drugs. Psychological therapist James Davies uses his insider knowledge to illustrate for a general readership how psychiatry has put riches and medical status above patients' well-being. The charge sheet is damning: negative drug trials routinely buried; antidepressants that work no better than placebos; research regularly manipulated to produce positive results; doctors, seduced by huge pharmaceutical rewards, creating more disorders and prescribing more pills; and ethical, scientific and treatment flaws unscrupulously concealed by mass-marketing. Cracked reveals for the first time the true human cost of an industry that, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself. James Davies obtained his PhD in medical and social anthropology from the University of Oxford. He is also a qualified psychotherapist (having worked in the NHS), and a senior lecturer in social anthropology and psychology at the University of Roehampton, London.

'[Cracked] should be read by every doctor ... by everyone in politics and the media, not to mention any concerned citizen.' -- Peter Hitchens Mail on Sunday 'Chilling reading' -- Will Self Guardian 'Davies's book is a potent polemic' -- Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times 'If, in the world of psychiatry, the DSM is Holy Scripture, Cracked is set to become a heretical text.' -- Robert Crampton The Times Magazine 'A profoundly disturbing look at the world of Big Pharma ... This is an important book for anyone who has an interest in mental health.' Daily Mail 'Builds a disturbing picture of a profession that is in thrall to pharmaceutical companies' -- Michael Mosley BBC Focus

Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights - $35Seeing What Others

Insights - like Watson and Crick's breakthrough discoveries about the structure of DNA - can change the world. We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed - or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don't, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery. Klein is a keen observer of people in their natural settings - scientists, businesspeople, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, family members, friends, himself - and uses a marvelous variety of stories to illuminate his research into what insights are and how they happen. How did Dr. Michael Gottlieb make the connections between different patients that allowed him to publish the first announcement of the AIDS epidemic? What did Admiral Yamamoto see (and what did the Americans miss) in a 1940 British attack on the Italian fleet that enabled him to develop the strategy of attack at Pearl Harbor? How did a "smokejumper" see that setting another fire would save his life, while those who ignored his insight perished? How did Martin Chalfie come up with a million-dollar idea (and a Nobel Prize) for a natural flashlight that enabled researchers to look inside living organisms to watch biological processes in action? Klein also dissects impediments to insight, such as when organizations claim to value employee creativity and to encourage breakthroughs but in reality block disruptive ideas and prioritize avoidance of mistakes. Or when information technology systems are "dumb by design" and block potential discoveries. Both scientifically sophisticated and fun to read, in Seeing What Others Don't insight is revealed as not just a "eureka!" moment but a whole new way of understanding.

The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life - $40The Unexpected Professor

Best known for his provocative take on cultural issues in The Intellectuals and the Masses and What Good Are the Arts?, John Carey describes in this warm and funny memoir the events that formed him - an escape from the London blitz to an idyllic rural village, army service in Egypt, an open scholarship to Oxford and an academic career that saw him elected, age 40, to Oxford's oldest English Literature professorship. He frankly portrays the snobberies and rituals of 1950s Oxford, but also his inspiring meetings with writers and poets - Auden, Graves, Larkin, Heaney - and his forty-year stint as a lead book-reviewer for the Sunday Times. This is a book about the joys of reading - in effect, an informal introduction to the great works of English literature. But it is also about war and family, and how an unexpected background can give you the insight and the courage to say the unexpected thing.

Humans of New York - $45

Humans of New York

An instant Number One New York Times bestseller, Humans of New York began in the summer of 2010, when photographer Brandon Stanton set out on an ambitious project: to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City. Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in his attempt to capture ordinary New Yorkers in the most extraordinary of moments. The result of these efforts was "Humans of New York," a vibrant blog in which he featured his photos alongside quotes and anecdotes. The blog has steadily grown, now boasting nearly a million devoted followers. Humans of New York is the book inspired by the blog. With four hundred colour photos, including exclusive portraits and all-new stories, and a distinctive vellum jacket, Humans of New York is a stunning collection of images that will appeal not just to those who have been drawn in by the outsized personalities of New York, but to anyone interested in the breathtaking scope of humanity it displays. Heartfelt and moving, Humans of New York is a celebration of individuality and a tribute to the spirit of a city.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas -$39A More Beautiful Question

In this groundbreaking book, journalist and innovation expert Warren Berger shows that one of the most powerful forces for igniting change in business and in our daily lives is a simple, under-appreciated tool-one that has been available to us since childhood. Questioning-deeply, imaginatively, "beautifully"-can help us identify and solve problems, come up with game-changing ideas, and pursue fresh opportunities. So why are we often reluctant to ask "Why?" Berger's surprising findings reveal that even though children start out asking hundreds of questions a day, questioning "falls off a cliff" as kids enter school. In an education and business culture devised to reward rote answers over challenging inquiry, questioning isn't encouraged-and, in fact, is sometimes barely tolerated. And yet, as Berger shows, the most creative, successful people tend to be expert questioners. They've mastered the art of inquiry, raising questions no one else is asking-and finding powerful answers. The author takes us inside red-hot businesses like Google, Netflix, IDEO, and Airbnb to show how questioning is baked into their organizational DNA. He also shares inspiring stories of artists, teachers, entrepreneurs, basement tinkerers, and social activists who changed their lives and the world around them-by starting with a "beautiful question." Berger explores important questions, such as: - Why aren't wenurturing kids' natural ability to question-and what can parents and schools do about that? - Since questioning is a starting point for innovation, how might companies and business leaders begin to encourage and exploit it? - And most important, how can each of us re-ignite that questioning spark-and use inquiry as a powerful means to rethink and reinvent our lives? A More Beautiful Question outlines a practical Why / What If / How system of inquiry that can guide you through the process of innovative questioning-helping you find imaginative, powerful answers to your own "beautiful questions."

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - $30Daring Greatly

Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brene Brown offers a powerful new vision in this number 1 New York Times Bestseller, Oprah pick, and TED talk hit that encourages us to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly and courageously. Every time we are introduced to someone new, try to be creative, or start a difficult conversation, we take a risk. We feel uncertain and exposed. We feel vulnerable. Most of us try to fight those feelings - we strive to appear perfect. But  Brene Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability, and dispels the widely accepted myth that it's a weakness. She argues that vulnerability is in fact a strength, and when we shut ourselves off from revealing our true selves we grow distanced from the things that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Daring Greatly is the culmination of 12 years of groundbreaking social research, across the home, relationships, work, and parenting. It is an invitation to be courageous; to show up and let ourselves be seen, to explore our full potential, even when there are no guarantees. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.

Brene Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her groundbreaking work was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday, NPR, and CNN. Her TED talk is one of the most watched TED talks of all time. Brene is also the author of The Gifts of Imperfection and I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't).

Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings - $37Skyscrapers

Unique in scale and design, this book features more than 60 buildings including the One World Trade Centre, Burj Dubai, Shanghai World Financial Centre, the Petronas Towers, the Tribune Tower, the Lipstick Building and the Phare Tower. New buildings include the London Bridge Tower (2012, Renzo Piano), the International Commerce Tower (Hong Kong, 2010, Kohn Pederson Fox), the Shanghai Tower (2014, Gensler Architects) and the Kingdom Tower (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2018, Adrian Smith), which will be the tallest building in the world when completed. Arranged chronologically by the date the building was built, the book includes features on such topics as the ancient roots of skyscrapers and visionary cities of the future, as well as a fascinating interview with Philip Johnson and other profiles. New topics include the era of the Megatall buildings, the building of a skyscraper and the explosion of skyscrapers in Dubai and China. With each informative spread Judith Dupre has included photos of the building from various angles, building plans, diagrams, the building's historical background, technological information and more. "Unique in scale and design, and packed with eye-popping photographs --Richard Helm "The Edmonton Journal "

 

Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing - $65Walk the Line

Drawing has always been a fundamental skill and good drawing skills allowed artists to grasp the reality around them. At the turn of the millennium, however, the general impression was that with the wide availability of computers, scanners, digital cameras and image software, drawing would dwindle into a marginal activity. In fact, the opposite happened: the enthusiasm for digital imagery died down and the ability to draw has become a treasured skill. In the art world, attitudes to drawing have also changed. Drawing became a way of making a statement as an artist, of showing masterly skill something that up to then had been most commonly associated with painting. After centuries in the shadow of its more illustrious fine art relatives, drawing started to be appreciated for its own sake, as an art discipline, an end in itself, an art form. Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing includes interviews with the international selection of artists, as well as examples of their work. It will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary art and illustration.

Author Biography: Ana Ibarra graduated in Philosophy in Spain, where she was born. She came to London to study Product Design. She is currently one of the editors of Elephant magazine. Marc Valli is the co-founder of retail and book-selling company Magma in the UK, and of visual art magazines Graphic and Elephant. He is the author of RGB (Reviewing Graphics in Britain) and co-author of Microworlds (Laurence King).

 

You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life - $25You Learn by Living

One of the most beloved figures of the twentieth century, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remains a role model for a life well lived. At the age of seventy-six, Roosevelt penned this simple guide to living a fuller life. Now back in print for this 50th edition, "You Learn by Living" is a powerful volume of enduring commonsense ideas and heartfelt values. Offering her own philosophy on living, Eleanor takes readers on a path to compassion, confidence, maturity, civic stewardship, and more. The following are her keys to a fulfilling life: Learning to Learn; Fear - the Great Enemy; The Uses of Time; The Difficult Art of Maturity; Readjustment is endless; learning to Be Useful; the right to Be an individual; how to Get the Best out of People; Facing responsibility; how everyone Can take Part in Politics; and, learning to Be a Public servant. Informed by her personal experiences as a daughter, wife, parent, and diplomat, this book is a window into Eleanor Roosevelt herself and a trove of timeless wisdom that resonates in any era.

Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. After her husband s death in 1945, Roosevelt continued in her role as an internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist. This year marks the 125th year since her birth

The Almost Nearly Perfect People -$40

Almost Perfect People

The whole world wants to learn the secrets of Nordic exceptionalism. Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians, on and off, for over ten years, perplexed by their many strange paradoxes and character traits and equally bemused by the unquestioning enthusiasm for all things Nordic that has engulfed the rest of the world, whether it be for their food, television, social systems or chunky knitwear. In this timely book he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success and, most intriguing of all, what they think of each other. Along the way a more nuanced, often darker picture emerges of a region plagued by taboos, characterised by suffocating parochialism and populated by extremists of various shades. They may very well be almost nearly perfect, but it isn't easy being Scandinavian.

Kombucha!: The Amazing Probiotic Tea that Cleanses, Heals, Energizes, and Detoxifies- $26      5th edition

Kombucha

Kombucha is lauded worldwide by healers, athletes, yogis and other health-conscious souls and is now going mainstream. Kombucha, a fermented tea beverage, has many cleansing, healing and detoxifying effects. Eric and Jessica Childs, founders of Kombucha Brooklyn and experts on the wonders of kombucha, share their knowledge in this complete guide to kombucha. In addition to the science and culture of 'buch, KOMBUCHA! includes recipes and reveals inventive uses for the beverage in cooking, cocktails and beauty products, tapping the benefits of probiotics for radiant rejuvenation.

 

The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Mathematics, from One to Infinity - $29

Joy if X

Maths is everywhere, often where we don't even realise. Award-winning professor Steven Strogatz acts as our guide as he takes us on a tour of numbers that - unbeknownst to the unitiated - connect pop culture, literature, art, philosophy, current affairs, business and even every day life. In The Joy of X, Strogatz explains the great ideas of maths - from negative numbers to calculus, fat tails to infinity - with clarity, wit and insight. He is the maths teacher you never had and this book is perfect for the smart and curious, the expert and the beginner.    'A delightful exploration into the beauty and fun of mathematics...The Joy of X will entertain you, amaze you and make you smarter' Steven Pinker

The Society of Timid Souls - $35

An inspiiSociety of timid soulsng investigation of courage in all its forms, from battlefields and bullrings to earthquakes and opera houses. In 1942, a pianist from Manhattan convened the inaugural meeting of an extraordinary new fraternity of musicians called The Society of Timid Souls, which promised to inocculate stage fright sufferers. The venture was an astonishing success. Seventy years later, with global anxiety levels at an all-time high, Polly Morland reconvenes the Society, and sets out to discover the real meaning of courage and how a Timid Soul can become a brave one. From frontline to skyscraper, mountain peak to suburban street, hospital ward to blazing inferno, the journey takes in philosophy, literature, propaganda and popular culture.

'Warm yet very smart, and tells some cracking good stories' - Lionel Shriver

Information is Beautiful - $45

Information Is Beautiful

A visual guide to how the world really works, through stunning infographics and data visualisations, thoroughly revised, recalculated and reimagined for this new edition. We are overwhelmed by information - from our phones, our televisions, our computers, our newspapers. This new edition has been revised throughout with over 20 updates and 20 new visualisations. It offers shelter from the flood by visualising data in a new way that blends facts with their connections, their context and their relationships - making information meaningful, entertaining and beautiful. This is information like you have never seen it before - easy to flick through but also engaging enough to study - information that comes to life in your hands and your eyes.

David McCandless is an award-winning writer and journalist. His work has appeared in over 30 magazines in the UK and the US and all over the web. He currently works as creative consultant for Orange and the BBC and writes about the Internet, underground culture and 'anything interesting' for Wired and The Guardian.


 
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