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.

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18 March 2016

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1007663-Besideherself-9781869408466
Beside Herself by Chris Price        $24.99
After the expected, the unexpected.
After the unexpected, the formal handrail
and the overflow.
Price plays with received notions of character, language, voice and intention in this mischievous collection. Illustrations by the incomparable Leo Bensemann. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1003636?barcode=9781776560547&title=ABeautifulHesitation
 A Beautiful Hesitation by Fiona Pardington         $69.99
A very desirable collection spanning three decades at the forefront of New Zealand art photography. Pardington's photographs are alluring and disquieting, and reward both browsing and intensive revisiting.
>> Visit the exhibition.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/998315?barcode=9781408866115&title=InOtherWords
 In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri         $32.99
 Although Lahiri had studied Italian for many years, true mastery  eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decided to move to Rome with her family, for 'a trial by fire, a sort of baptism' into a new language and world. There, she began to read and to write - initially in her journal - solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian and presented here alongside a translation into English by Ann Goldstein (who will be appearing at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, who will be talking with Kim Hill just after 9am on Saturday 18 March, and who is Elena Ferrante's translator), investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.
>> A linguistic orphan finds a home
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/998289-SummerBeforetheWar-9781743311288
 The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson        $36.99
 East Sussex, 1914. It's the end of an idyllic summer and Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha in the pretty coastal town of Rye. Casting aside the recent sabre rattling over the Balkans, Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master. When Beatrice Nash arrives, it is clear she is significantly more free thinking.and attractive.than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape, and the colourful characters that populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha's reassurances, the unimaginable is coming.
From the author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
 "Helen Simonson's characters enchant us, her English countryside beguiles us, and her historical intelligence keeps us at the edge of our seats." - Annie Barrows, author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1014912?barcode=9781877578717&title=InaSlantLight%3AAPoet%27sMemoir
 In a Slant Light: A poet's memoir by Cilla McQueen       $35.00
From her earliest memories, through childhood experiments with a shoe-X-ray machine, through the turbulence of teenagehood and motherhood, through her relationship with Ralph Hotere, McQueen's life is a rich source of poetic memory, all presented with her cherished lightness of touch and poignant wit.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1010886-ThreeWordsAnAnthologyofAotearoaNZWomensComics-9780994120502
Three Words: An anthology of Aotearoa/NZ women's comics edited by Rae Joyce, Sarah Laing and Indira Neville       $49.99
A stupendous compendium displaying a great richness and variety, much of which you will not have seen before.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/986733-BeingaBeast-9781781255346
Being a Beast by Charles Foster          $39.99
Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like to be a beast: a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, a swift. So he tried it out; he lived life as a badger for six weeks, sleeping in a dirt hole and eating earthworms, he came face to face with shrimps as he lived like an otter and he spent hours curled up in a back garden in East London and rooting in bins like an urban fox. This is a remarkable piece of work; Foster has captured for us the very different consciousness of wild animals in a thoroughly convincing and frequently disconcerting way. You will have a deeper appreciation for animals after having read this book. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/995670-TeIkaaMaoriTheStruggleforMaoriFishingRights-9781775501961
 The Struggle for Maori Fishing Rights: Te ika a Maui by Brain Bargh      $45.00
 Maori fishing rights were guaranteed by the Treaty of Waitangi, taken away by Crown actions, and, along with Maori land rights and other grievances, contested throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/997127?barcode=9781447293910&title=TheOtherMrsWalker
 The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis       $35.00
Somehow she'd always known that she would end like this. In a small square room, in a small square flat. In a small square box, perhaps. Cardboard, with a sticker on the outside. And a name...
An old woman dies alone and unheeded in a cold Edinburgh flat, on a snowy Christmas night. A faded emerald dress hangs in her wardrobe; a spilt glass of whisky pools on the carpet. A few days later a middle-aged woman arrives back to the city of her birth, her future uncertain, her past in tatters. But what Margaret Penny cannot yet know is that in investigating the death of one friendless old lady, her own life will become enriched beyond measure.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1007039-Lover-9781447271307
 Lover by Anna Raverat      $34.99
 Home is where the heart is, and Kate thinks a lot about making people feel at home. She works for a global hotel corporation. She has two young children, and a husband of ten years. Now, both Kate's home and her heart are about to implode: she has discovered a series of emails from her husband Adam to another woman. Probing for answers, she realizes this not the worst possible discovery - in fact, it is only the beginning. As her family unravels, Kate's job becomes increasingly demanding - but how can she provide the perfect guest experience when her own foundations have been knocked away?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1014527-TheIceShroud-9780986456442
The Ice Shroud by Gordon Ell       $34.99
When a woman's body is discovered frozen in the ice of a river near the alpine resort of Queenstown, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Buchan faces both a mystery and a moral dilemma. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/765607-Freud-9781907704734
 Freud by Corinne Maier and Anne Winn       $29.99
As a boy Sigmund Freud dreamed of being an explorer, of discovering new lands and sailing the oceans. As an adult he set out to map a far stranger territory: the human mind.This stunning graphic novel by economist, historian, and psychoanalyst Corrine Maier explores the life and work of one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/994173?barcode=9781784297695&title=TheMadwomanUpstairs
The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell       $34.99
 Think you know Charlotte, Emily Anne? Think again. Samantha Whipple is the last remaining descendent of the illustrious Bronte family. After losing her father, a brilliant author in his own right, it is up to Samantha to piece together the mysterious family inheritance lurking somewhere in her past - yet the only clues she has at her disposal are the Brontes' own novels. With the aid of her handsome but inscrutable Oxford tutor, Samantha must repurpose the tools of literature to unearth an untold family legacy, and in the process, finds herself face to face with what may be literature's greatest secret.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1014207?barcode=9780992251758&title=LeavingtheRedZone%3APoemsFromtheCanterburyEarthquakes
 Leaving the Red Zone: Poems from the Canterbury earthquakes edited by James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston       $39.99
The tragic quakes released a flood of creativity. Poetry tells of the impact of trauma on the human mind and gives evidence of the first tentative healing of that trauma. This anthology of work by a wide selection of well- and less-known poets stands as a monument to tragedy and resilience.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/997284?barcode=9780500292266&title=ChineasyEveryday%3ATheWorldofChineseCharacters
 Chineasy Everyday: The world of Chinese characters by ShaoLan Hsueh     $49.99
Over 400 of the most used and useful Chinese characters, phrases and sentences, organized into eleven themes that reflect our daily lives, and bringing the stories and myths behind the characters to life. A unique perspective into Chinese history and culture (and lots of fun!).
>> A sample
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/765608?barcode=9781907704703&title=Neurocomic
 Neurocomic by Matteo Farinelli and Hana Ros       $27.99
 Do you know what your brain is made of? How does memory function? What is a neuron and how does it work? For that matter what's a comic? And in the words of Lewis Carroll's famous caterpillar: "Who are 'you'?" Neurocomic is a journey through the human brain: a place of neuron forests, memory caves, and castles of deception. Along the way, you'll encounter Boschean beasts, giant squid, guitar-playing sea slugs, and the great pioneers of neuroscience.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/998318?barcode=9781472916730&title=GordonBennettandtheFirstYachtRaceAcrosstheAtlantic
 Gordon Bennett and the First Yacht Race Across the Atlantic by Sam Jefferson       $36.99
 The dawn of ocean yacht racing can be pinpointed to a drunken night at the exclusive Union Club, on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, in October 1866. That evening, a group of super-rich playboys of the burgeoning New York yachting scene – Pierre Lorillard, George Osgood and James Gordon Bennett Jr – gathered to drink and brag about the performance of their respective schooners. Insults and challenges were swapped, and by the time the men staggered out into the dawn in an alcohol fug they had signed up to a dangerous race across the full width of the north Atlantic in midwinter. Each owner would stump up a $30,000 stake, and the winner would take all. Gordon Bennett's extravagances were so excessive that his name became a popular expression of incredulity. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/995005-GoodSimple-9781785031601
 Good + Simple by Jasmine Hemsley and Melissa Hemsley       $65.00
 "When it comes to healthy, nutritious, sustainable eating, they are quite simply hors pair."  - The Guardian
>> Which one of them is good (and which is simple)?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1007514?barcode=9780473326845&title=InDarkPlaces%3AConfessionsofTeinaPoraandanEx-CopsFightforJustice
 In Dark Places: The confessions of Teina Pora and an ex-cop's fight for justice by Michael Bennett      $34.99
 Teina Pora, a 17-year-old car thief, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Susan Burdett, who had been beaten to death with the softball bat she kept next to her bed for her own protection. Tim McKinnel, en ex-cop turned private investigator, discovered the long forgotten case 18 years later, saw an injustice had been done and set out to win Teina's freedom. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/962846-DisasterCapitalism-9781784781156
 Disaster Capitalism: Making a killing out of catastrophe by Antony Lowenstein         $32.99
Loewenstein travels across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia and discovers how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on organized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining. Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help corporations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local community that finds itself forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1000067?barcode=9781910192139&title=Hare
 Hare by Jim Crumley       $22.99
A charming little book, beautifully written, giving insight into the life of a hare. 
>> Midsummer madness.
>> The Shadow of the Hare.  
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/998058-ToExplaintheWorldTheDiscoveryofModernScience-9780141980874
 To Explain the World: The discovery of modern science by Steven Weinberg      $32.00
Moving from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad to Oxford, and from the Museum of Alexandria to the Royal Society of London, Weinberg shows that the scientists of the past not only did not understand what we understand about the world - they did not understand what there was to understand. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1008314-HereLiesHughGlassAMountainManaBearandtheRiseoftheAmericanNation-9780809054381
 Here Lies Hugh Glass: A mountain man, a bear and the rise of the American nation by Jon T. Coleman       $27.99
 In the summer of 1823, a grizzly bear mauled Hugh Glass. The animal ripped the trapper up, carving huge hunks from his body. Glass' companions slew the bear, but his injuries mocked their first aid. Two men would stay behind to bury the corpse when it finally stopped gurgling; the rest would move on. Alone in Indian country, the caretakers quickly lost their nerve. They fled, taking Glass's gun, knife, and ammunition with them. But Glass wouldn't die. He began crawling toward Fort Kiowa, hundreds of miles to the east, and as his speed picked up, so did his ire. The men who took his gear and left him to rot were going to pay!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/998722-OliviaSophia-9789814625272
 Olivia & Sophia by Rosie Milne       $27.99
A historical novel taking the form of two diaries of Sir Stamford Raffles' two wives: Olivia and Sophia. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/958969?barcode=9781617691751&title=TheModernNaturalDyer-AComprehensiveGuidetoDyeingSilk%2CWool%2CLinen%2CandCottonatHome
 The Modern Natural Dyer: A comprehensive guide to dying silk, wool, linen and cotton at home by Kristine Vejar       $45.00
Easy to follow and with excellent formulae and guides to achieving just the rights hues and shades.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/997135-ACuriousFriendshipTheStoryofaBluestockingandaBrightYoungThing-9781447245544
A Curious Friendship: The story of a Bluestocking and a Bright Young Thing by Anna Thomasson      $27.99
 The winter of 1924: Edith Olivier, alone for the first time at the age of 51, thought her life had come to an end. For Rex Whistler, a 19-year-old art student, life was just beginning. They were to start an intimate and unlikely friendship that would transform their lives. Gradually Edith's world opened up and she became a writer. Her home, the Daye House, in a wooded corner of the Wilton estate, became a sanctuary for Whistler and the other brilliant and beautiful younger men of her circle: among them Siegfried Sassoon, Stephen Tennant, William Walton, John Betjeman, the Sitwells and Cecil Beaton - for whom she was 'all the muses'. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/996483-Maestra-9781785760839
 Maestra by L.S. Hilton        $32.99
Judith Rashleigh works as an assistant in a prestigious London auction house, but her dreams of breaking into the art world have been gradually dulled by the blunt forces of snobbery and corruption. To make ends meet she moonlights as a hostess in one of the West End's less salubrious bars - although her work there pales against her activities on nights off. When Judith stumbles across a conspiracy at her auction house, she is fired before she can expose the fraud. In desperation, she accepts an offer from one of the bar's clients to accompany him to the French Riviera. But when an ill-advised attempt to slip him sedatives has momentous consequences, Judith finds herself fleeing for her life. Now alone and in danger, all Judith has to rely on is her consummate ability to fake it amongst the rich and famous - and the inside track on the hugely lucrative art fraud that triggered her dismissal.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1012210-ANationandNotaRabbleTheIrishRevolution1913-23-9781781250426
 A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution, 1913-1923 by Diarmaid Ferriter      $29.99
 Packed with violence, political drama and social and cultural upheaval, the years 1913-1923 saw the emergence in Ireland of the Ulster Volunteer Force to resist Irish home rule and in response, the Irish Volunteers, who would later evolve into the IRA. World War One, the rise of Sinn Fein, intense Ulster unionism and conflict with Britain culminated in the Irish war of Independence, which ended with a compromise Treaty with Britain and then the enmities and drama of the Irish Civil War.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/995452?barcode=9781604695533&title=PlantinginaPost-WildWorld
 Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West        $89.99
A guide to designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/1008796?barcode=9780473339630&title=GreatNewZealandBakingBook
 The Great New Zealand Baking Book      $49.99
Sixty bakers share their favourite recipes and reveal the sweet richness of New Zealand baking traditions.