New books to hit the spot


TOUCHDOWN is a weekly selection of outstanding new titles: books either anticipated or surprising, just out of the carton! Follow the links for more information, to purchase these books or to have them put aside for you.

SORRY - THIS SITE AND FEED ARE NOW CLOSED.
Thank you for your support. {Thomas}


29 August 2014


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824321-HowToBeBoth-9780241146828
How To Be Both by Ali Smith       $37.00
This new novel from the wonderful Ali Smith comes in two versions, depending on the ordering of the text. Which will you get, and how will this affect your reading? Long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker prize.
"Its two overlapping plots both ask if it’s possible to be male and female, in the past and the present, to be present and absent, to appear one thing and mean another. Ali Smith’s writing often disrupts forms in a joyous, mind-expanding fashion, and in How To Be Both, she mischievously remodels the novel with both brazen ambition and sneaky subtly. Smith’s writing is smart, witty and arch, both utterly contemporary and vividly historical." - Independent
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812855-Shark-9780670918584
 Shark by Will Self       $37.00
Another literary tour de force from the inimitable Will Self. Shark turns upon an actual incident in WWII, when the ship which had delivered the fissile material to the south Pacific to be dropped on Hiroshima was sunk by a Japanese submarine with the loss of 900 men, including 200 killed in the largest shark attack ever recorded. When a resident in the 1970s at the therapeutic community in north London starts to tell rambling stories of thrashing about in the water while under attack from sharks, psychologist Zac Busner has to decide whether they are schizoid delusions or some sort of reality...
"Shark confirms that Self is the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation, a writer whose formidable intellect is mercilessly targeted on the limits of the cerebral as a means of understanding. Yes, he makes you think, but he also insists that you feel." - Guardian
>> Read this: "I had planned to write Jaws without the shark."
 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815181-AmericanSmokeJourneystotheEndoftheLight-9780241955819
American Smoke: Journeys to the end of the light by Iain Sinclair   $35.00
A literary road-trip through America on the trail of Beats Malcolm Lowry, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Charles Olson and Gary Snyder. 
"Iain Sinclair is brilliant, always coming out of left field with an unexpected idea. He is a psycho-geographer comparable with Sebald." - Jan
"A challenging, maddening, fascinating journey. Enjoy Sinclair's poetic language and subtly warped sense of humour." - Metro
"Beautifully crafted prose. Wonderful." - Daily Telegraph 
"Iain Sinclair has gone from cult author to national treasure." - Robert Macfarlane
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821629-StoneMattress-NineTales-9781408857168
 Stone Mattress: Nine tales by Margaret Atwood      $40.00
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.
"Margaret Atwood is the quiet Mata Hari, the mysterious, violent figure who pits herself against the ordered, too-clean world like an arsonist." -  Michael Ondaatje 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811656-LuckyUs-9781847089366
Lucky Us by Amy Bloom       $35.00
When Eva's mother abandons her on Iris's front porch, the girls don't seem to have much in common - except, they soon discover, a father. Thrown together with no mothers to care for them and a father who could not be considered a parent, Iris and Eva become one another's family. Iris wants to be a movie star; Eva is her sidekick. Together, they journey across 1940s America, stumbling, cheating and loving their way through a landscape of war, betrayals and big dreams.
"I loved this book." - Sarah
"I loved this book." - Stella


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812853-RichardSeddonKingofGodsOwn-9780143569671
 Richard Seddon, King of God's Own: The life and times of New Zealand's longest-serving Prime Minister by Rom Brooking     $65.00
"The life, the health, the intelligence, and the morals of the nation count for more than riches, and I would rather have this country free from want and squalor and unemployed than the home of multi-millionaires." - Richard Seddon, 1904
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/823823-TheWake-9781908717863
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth      $39.99
Set in the three years after the Battle of Hastings, The Wake tells the story of a fractured band of guerrilla fighters who take up arms against the invaders. Carefully hung on the known historical facts about the almost forgotten war of resistance that spread across England in the decade after 1066, it is a story of the brutal shattering of lives, a tale of lost gods and haunted visions, narrated by a man of the Lincolnshire fens bearing witness to the end of his world. Written in what the author describes as 'a shadow tongue' - a version of Old English updated so as to be understandable for the modern reader. Interesting.
Long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/788106-WhyIRead-9780374289201
Why I Read: The serious pleasure of books by Wendy Lesser      $35.00
“The truths in literature are incidental and cumulative, not global and permanent.”
"Lesser’s voice is so congenial, measured, authoritative and sane, it seems downright impervious to quarrel. In Why I Read she has written a necessary addition to the canonical titles of appreciation. Wendy Lesser is a serious reader — a quality reader — and this book is a serious pleasure. " - The New York Times

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812092-The21stCenturyArtBook-9780714867397
 The Twenty First Century Art Book     $59.99
280 artists, 50 countries, a wide range of media: painting, drawing, sculpture, digital art, video installation, performance.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816004-UkraineDiaries-9781846559471
Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev by Andrey Kurkov      $28.00
Ukrainian Diaries is acclaimed writer Andrey Kurkov's first-hand account of the crisis in his country. Written from his flat in Kiev, just 500 metres away from Independence Square, Kurkov can smell the burning barricades and hear the sounds of grenades and gunshot. The diaries begin on the first day of the pro-European protests in November, and are a mix of commentary on current events, Ukraine's political past, and Kurkov's personal experience of living through a time of intense political unrest.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811645-AHistoryoftheBookin100Books-9781743317143
 A History of the Book in 100 Books: The complete story, from Egypt to e-book by Roderick Cave and Sara Ayad       $39.99
A lavishly illustrated trip along the temporal backbone of human culture. A lovely book.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/808789-MyGrandfathersGalleryAFamilyMemoirofArtandWar-9781922147288
My Grandfather's Gallery: A family memoir of art and war by Anne Sinclair        $40.00
Paul Rosenberg, one of Europe's leading art dealers, fled Paris with his family in 1940, leaving behind his paintings, which found their way into Nazi hands. More than half a century later, Sinclair found a box of correspondence between her grandfather and Picasso, Matisse, Braque and others, and set about reclaiming her family's history. 
Fascinating reading, and emblematic of the individual stories of Jewish lives overshadowed by the one story devised for them by the Nazis.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/814161-WeareNotOurselves-9780007559213
 We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas     $35.00
"Thomas's treatment of Ed Leary's early-onset Alzheimer's is extraordinary. It seems to come upon the reader with the same slow realisation as it comes upon his wife and son. It is clear that Thomas has quarried deep to discover emotional truth and a form and language in which to express it. We Are Not Ourselves took 10 years to write, and justifies every one of them." - Guardian
"Devastating." - The New York Times
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/694288-HelloWorldWhereDesignMeetsLife-9780241145302
 Hello World: Where design meets life by Alice Rawsthorn    $55.00
What demands does life make on design, and how does design affect the way we live? 
"Hello World is a new book by Alice Rawsthorn, the one and only, the best design critic in the entire world. She keeps the banner of design flying high. Irma Boom designed it, and Irma is simply the best book designer alive." - Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812091-WhattoBakeandHowtoBakeit-9780714867434
 What to Bake and How to Bake it by Jane Hornby     $55.00
The ultimate cookbook for amateur bakers looking to master the classics and expand their repertoires.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811648-HowtoSpeakMoney-9780571309825
 How to Speak Money: What the money people say - and what they really mean by John Lanchester       $35.00
A clear and entertaining guide to the world of finance from the perceptive author of Capital and Whoops!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/809667-TheImaginaryWorldofKeriSmith-9780141977805
 The Imaginary World of [your name here] by Keri Smith      $25.00
What kind of world would you like to inhabit? Keri Smith begins with a list. Writing down everything the reader is drawn to, from things they love or collect to things that fascinate and excite, including objects, colours, sounds, textures, memories, places and people, the list serves as the building block for the creation of a new world. This world is based entirely on who the reader is as an individual, and as such is completely unique. Prompted to think about landscape, place names, maps, currency and more. Another great interactive book from Keri Smith, encouraging everyone to push their imaginations to the limit.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/814500-ThePayingGuests-9780349004587
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters     $39.99
1922. An impoverished widow and her spinster daughter are obliged to take in lodgers. For with the arrival of a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', the routines of the house are shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be. 
From the author of Fingersmith, The Night Watch and The Little Stranger.
"Morally complex, atmospheric, romantic and psychologically deep. A triumph: spellbinding, profound and almost problematically addictive." - Express
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/801083-PersonalJackReacher19-9780593073834
 Personal by Lee Child       $37.99
Jack Reacher is back. Come and get him.
>> Watch Lee Child, here to say "Hi".
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/803343-Tuatara-9781927145449
 Tuatara: Biology and conservation of a venerable survivor by Alison Cree      $89.99
The long-awaited monograph on the Sphenodon
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/813887-TheRestorationofOttoLaird-9780751553055
 The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer          $37.99
An elderly architect, once renowned for his radical designs, comes out of peaceful retirement to fight the demolition of his most significant building. Can he keep the past where it belongs?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/766669-PingPongDiplomacyIvorMontaguandtheAstonishingStoryBehindtheGameThatChangedtheWorld-9780857207357
Ping-Pong Diplomacy: Ivor Montagu and the astonishing story behind the game that changed the world by Nicholas Griffin     $37.00
It was one of the most significant developments of the post-war era: China finally abandoning its close relationship with the Soviet Union to begin detente with the USA. Astonishingly, the man who helped make it happen was a British aristocrat, Ivor Montagu, a Soviet spy who dined with Stalin. Even more remarkably, the means to this rapprochement was table tennis, a sport loved by both Chairman Mao and Montagu. A story too improbable to be true - if it wasn't true!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811633-DressMemory-9781743311011
Dress, Memory: A memoir of my twenties in dresses by Lorelei Vashti     $35.00 
Lorelei started collecting dresses in her twenties and found that every time she wore one it became more significant to her. From falling in love for the first time to playing in a band, from starting a career to moving overseas, every dress soon had a memory stitched into it, and she became as attached to each one as if they were the events and people themselves...But what happens when the wardrobe gets full? Should you let go of the dresses you've outgrown, or try to hold on to them forever?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812542-The52-StoreyTreehouse-9781742614212
The 52-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths     $17.99
Andy and Terry's incredible, ever-expanding treehouse has 13 new storeys, including a watermelon-smashing level, a wave machine, a life-size snakes and ladders game (with real ladders and real snakes), a rocket-powered carrot-launcher, a Ninja Snail Training Academy and a high-tech detective agency with all the latest high-tech detective technology, which is lucky because they have a BIG mystery to solve - where is Mr Big Nose??? Well, what are you waiting for? Come on up!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812090-InternalMedicine-ADoctorsStories-9781863956901
 Internal Medicine: A doctor's stories by Terence Holt     $35.00
A collection of essays about life as a surgical intern.
"Terrence Holt is Melville + Poe + Borges, but with a heart far more capacious." - Junot Diaz 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811620-AttheEdgeofUncertainty11DiscoveriesTakingSciencebySurprise-9781781251270
 The Edge of Uncertainty: 11 discoveries taking science by surprise by Michael Brooks     $35.00
Our unshakable truths are being shaken apart. Fascinating!
"The canniest science writer around. He writes, above all, with attitude." - Independent

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811639-FiftyWeaponsThatChangedtheCourseofHistory-9781743319956
Fifty Weapons that Changed the Course of History by Joel Levy    $39.99
A fascinating and pictorial guide to the arms and armaments that have had the greatest impact on the development (and destruction) of human civilization.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812966-HeirloomVegetables-9781921383069
Heirloom Vegetables: A guide to their history and varieties by Simon Rickard    $65.00
How often do you hear someone complain that tomatoes don't taste like they used to? It's becoming a common concern, as food production is increasingly controlled by multinational corporations more interested in profit than flavour. People who care about their food are growing their own vegetables in droves - and especially heirlooms for their wonderfully diverse flavours, shapes and colours (not to mention their rich history and weird and wonderful names).
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812878-TheSnowKimono-9781922182340
 The Snow Kimono by Mark Henshaw       $37.00
Paris: 1989. Recently retired Inspector of Police Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman who claims to be his daughter. Two days later, a stranger comes knocking on his door. Set in Paris and Japan, The Snow Kimono tells the stories of Inspector Jovert, former Professor of Law Tadashi Omura, and his one-time friend the writer Katsuo Ikeda. All three men have lied to themselves, and to each other. And these lies are about to catch up with them.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/813025-TheRealmofPossibility-9781922182357
 The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan      $26.00

Enter The Realm of Possibility and meet a boy whose girlfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield; a girl who loves the boy who wears all black; two boys pondering their first anniversary; and a girl who writes love songs for a girl she can’t have. These are just a few of the captivating characters readers will get to know in this intensely heartfelt new novel about those ever changing moments of love and heartbreak that go hand-in-hand with high school. 
 "David Levithan is one of my favourite young adult authors." - Sarah
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/758359-HappyCityTransformingOurLivesThroughUrbanDesign-9781846143205
 Happy City: Transforming our lives through urban design by Charles Montgomery     $37.00
The solutions to this century's problems - from climate change to overpopulation - lie in unlocking the secrets to great city living.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812872-AcademyStreet-9781922182449
Academy Street by Mary Costello      $35.00
"With extraordinary devotion, Mary Costello brings to life a woman who would otherwise have faded into oblivion amid the legions of the meek and the unobtrusive." - J.M. Coetzee
"Intensely moving but never sentimental, Academy Street is a profound meditation on what Faulkner called 'the human heart in conflict with itself'. In Tess Lohan, Mary Costello has created one of the most fully realized characters in contemporary fiction. What a marvel of a book." - Ron Rash
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/814167-ConfessionsofaPeopleSmuggler-9781925106091
 Confessions of a People-Smuggler by Dawood Amiri      $35.00
A first-hand account of the hidden face of humanitarian crisis.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812075-OrlandotheMarmaladeCatACampingHoliday-9780723294375
Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A camping holiday by Kathleen Hale       $19.99
He may be seventy years old now, but Orlando, his wife Grace and their kittens Blanche, Pansy and Tinkle are still off to the country for their fun-filled camping adventure. Hale's first 'Orlando' book is now reissued.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/808867-TheBeastofMonsieurRacine-9780714860817
 The Beast of Monsieur Racine by Tomi Ungerer       $29.99
Ungerer is one of the most esteemed and influential illustrators. Monsieur Racine wakes up one day to find his precious pear tree looted of all the award-winning fruit. When he discovers that the culprit is funny-looking beast, his anger gives way to curiosity and two become friends.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/803076-TheBookofFate-9780349138770
The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee      $28.00
This novel, spanning five turbulent decades of Iranian history (from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic and up to the present) was a runaway best-seller in Iran before it was banned by the government. 

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815742-TheBookofDays-9781742614175
The Book of Days by K.A. Barker      $19.99
Most people believe the best way to forget someone is to throw them down a well. Or lock them in a room with eight keys, or bury them at a crossroad in the thirteenth hour. But they're wrong. The best way to forget someone is for them never to have existed in the first place. When sixteen-year-old Tuesday wakes from sleep for the first time, she opens her eyes to a world filled with wonder - and peril. Left only with a letter from the person she once was, Tuesday sets out to discover her past. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/809691-TheIncorrigibleOptimistsClub-9781848875418
 The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia     $35.00
Paris, 1959. As dusk settles over the immigrant quarter, 12-year-old Michel Marin is drawn to the local bistro. From his usual position at the football table, he has a vantage point on a grown-up world. But as the sun sinks and the plastic players spin, Michel's concentration is not on the game, but on the huddle of men gathered in the shadows of a back room. Past the bar, behind a partly drawn curtain, the Incorrigible Optimists Club introduces Michel to a world beyond the boundaries of his childhood experience, a world of history, ideas and politics shaped by their own personal experiences.
"A masterpiece." - La Parisienne

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812487-ViolinsofHopeViolinsoftheHolocaust--InstrumentsofHopeandLiberationinMankindsDarkestHour-9780062246837
Violins of Hope, Violins of the Holocaust: Instruments of hope and liberation in mankind's darkest hour by James A. Grymes     $29.99
The violin has been part of Jewish culture for centuries, but during the Holocaust, the violin assumed extraordinary roles within the Jewish community. For some musicians, the instrument was a liberator; for others, it was a savior that spared their lives. For many, the violin provided comfort in mankind's darkest hour, and, in at least one case, a violin helped avenge murdered family members. Today, these instruments serve as powerful reminders of an unimaginable experience - they are memorials to those who perished and testaments to those who survived.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811801-Bistronomy-9781743361009
 Bistronomy: French food unbound by Katrina Meynink     $59.99
The new wave of cuisine represented by the bistronomy movement is led by young chefs who create phenomenally clever food without the pomp and circumstance of high-end restaurants. This is haute cuisine for the people - served in convivial surrounds, where food and community, rather than the thread count of the tablecloth, are what matters.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/793660-Politics-9781781252574
 Politics by David Runciman       $29.99
Politics: what is it, why we do we need it and where, in these turbulent times, is it heading? Runciman's comprehensive short introduction is invaluable to those studying politics or those who want to know how life in Denmark became more comfortable than in Syria. 
A joy to read.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815562-TheInheritorsPowderACautionaryTaleofPoisonBetrayalandGreed-9781780222226
 The Inheritor's Powder: A cautionary tale of poison, betrayal and greed by Sndra Hempel       $29.99
In this account of one of history's most notorious poisonings, Hempel tells the story of the birth of toxicology and of a mystery which gripped a nation.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815685-StationEleven-9781447268987
Station Eleven by Emily St John Handel        $34.99
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 is so compelling, so fearlessly imagined, that I wouldn't have put it down for anything." -  Ann Patchett


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/764886-EmptyMansionsTheMysteriousLifeofHuguetteClarkandtheSpendingofaGreatAmericanFortune-9781782394761
 Empty Mansions: The mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending of a great American fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell    $39.99
Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had Huguette Clark, who died aged 104, lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?
 "An exhaustively researched, well-written account, a blood-boiling expose that will make you angry and will make you sad." - The Seattle Times

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/814370-WhiteCrocodile-9780571310753
 White Crocodile by K.T. Medina        $35.00
When emotionally damaged mine-clearer Tess Hardy travels to Cambodia to find out the truth behind her ex-husband's death, she doesn't know much about the country or its beliefs. On arrival, she finds that teenage mothers are going missing, while others are being found mutilated and murdered. As local superstitions breed fear, Tess is drawn into a web of lies that stretches from Cambodia to another murder in England, and a violent secret twenty years old.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812952-GoodMorningMrMandela-9780241004012
 Good Morning, Mr Mandela by Zelda la Grange     $35.00
The autobiography of the white Afrikaner who became a close assistant to Nelson Mandela.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812993-PercyJacksonandtheGreekGods-9780141355207
 Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods by Rick Riordan      $26.00
If you like horror shows, blood baths, lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on...Who could tell the origin stories of the gods of Olympus better than a modern-day demigod? In this whirlwind tour of Greek mythology, Percy Jackson gives his personal take on the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece - and reveals how they came to rule the world. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811798-AppleandRain-9781408857717
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan     $22.00 
When Apple's mother returns after eleven years of absence, Apple feels whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question - why did you go? And she will have someone who understands what it means to be a teenager - unlike Nana. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother's homecoming is bitter sweet, and Apple wonders who is really looking after whom. It's only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811636-FaberFaberPoetryDiaryGreen2015-9780571311583
 The diaries are coming! (Luckily - so is 2015 (Eek!)).
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812977-OurAgingBrain-9781925106114
 Our Aging Brain by AndrĂ© Aleman    $35.00
We all worry occasionally that our brains - particularly our memories - just don't work as well as they used to. In this groundbreaking book, André Aleman shows that though the decline in our mental capacities begins earlier than we think, this is not such a bad thing. In fact, older people are more resistant to the effects of stress, cope better with their emotions and with complex situations, and are - generally speaking - happier than their younger counterparts.