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}


21 March 2014

 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/764872-TheFacades-9780715647677
The Facades by Eric Lundgren    $38.00
A disconsolate legal clerk sets out to investigate the disappearance of his wife, the city's most celebrated mezzo-soprano. To track her down, he must descend into the city's underworld and confront the menacing and bizarre citizens of his hometown: rebellious librarians, shifty music critics and the minister of an apocalyptic church who has recruited his teenage son.
"A fierce, funny examination of loss... not to be missed." - Publishers Weekly
 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/763399-TheLostASearchforSixofSixMillion-9780007550128
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn   $28.00
Upon discovering a cache of deperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939, Mendelsohn embarked on a hunt across a dozen countries for eyewitnesses to the fates of six relatives who disappeared during the holocaust. 
"A powerfully moving work, reminiscent of the richly expansive prose works of Proust and the elusive texts of W.G. Sebald. A remarkable achievement." - Joyce Carol Oates
"Epic and personal, meditative and suspenseful, tragic and at times hilarious. A wonderful book" - Jonathan Safran Foer
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/767636-AFirstPlace-9780857984050
 A First Place by David Malouf   $35.00
A wide-ranging collection of personal essays from this outstanding writer, examining (as does his fiction) the fraught functioning of the individual in society, place and history.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/770342-GeekSublimeWritingFictionCodingSoftware-9780571310302
Geek Sublime: Writing Fiction, Coding Software by Vikram Chandra   $35.00
The novelist on his twin obsessions: writing and coding. What is the relationship between the two? Is there such a thing as the sublime in code? Can we ascribe beauty to the craft of coding?
"A fascinating and often beautiful new book, a kind of techno-artistic memoir that is informed by his unusual double ability as both novelist and coder." - Guardian
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/765762-DowntotheSeainShipsOfAgelessOceansandModernMen-9780701183103
Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men by Horatio Clare   $49.99
Acclaimed nature writer Horatio Clare travels the great oceans on cargo ships, and witnesses the collision of two temperaments: man and the sea.
"Stupendous and extraordinarily exciting. What Clare demonstrates, even beyond his undoubted gifts as writer, is his basic humanity. I read his wonderful book with gratitude for his insight." - Philip Hoare (author of The Sea Inside and Leviathan)
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/683889-UnexpectedLessonsinLove-9781848547827
 Unexpected Lessons in Love by Bernardine Bishop   $39.99
Cecilia Banks has a great deal on her plate. When her son Ian turns up on her doostep with the unexpected consequence of a brief fling, she feels she has no choice but to take the baby into her life.
"This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. I found it completely gripping, frank, courageous and entertaining. I felt better for reading it. It's happy and it's cheering, with a beautiful warmth to it, achieved without a moment of sentimentality. I loved it." - Margaret Drabble [you can't ask for a more effusive recommendation that that!]


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/769545-TheLookofLoveRomanticIllustrationThroughtheAges-9780712357197
The Look of Love: Romantic Illustration Through the Ages   $39.99
A trove of illustrations, from the flirtatious to the kitsch, the charming to the ironic - from the eclectic collections of the British Library: fashion magazines, medieval illuminated manuscripts, book covers, paintings and cartoons. From exquisite depictions of courtly love in the Middle Ages to the pulp novels of the twentieth century, from elves in fairy-land to a honeymoon in space, love is everywhere.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/774121-Reckless-9781782066439
Reckless by William Nicholson   $38.00
A gripping novel woven into a world in crisis, from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dramatis personae include Lord Mountbatten, Christine Keeler and the Astors.
"Hard to put down." - Guardian
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/763453-TheLimits-9781869408060
 The Limits by Alice Miller   $25.00
The poems in this collection ask you to force yourself beyond your own boundaries. They are curious, restless, bold; they marry lyrical music and intricate metaphor as they search for other human voices beyond the rumblings of the apocalypse and the stubbornness of myth.
Interview here.
The poet reads here.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/770672-NorthofNowhere-9781444007930
 North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler   $19.99
Thirteen-year-old Mia tries to solve the mystery of her grandfather’s disappearance and make a friend in this time-travel adventure exploring the lasting bonds of family.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/770059-LaikatheAstronaut-9781743318935
 Laika the Astronaut by Owen Davey   $26.00
The true story of the first dog in orbit, with an (untrue) happy ending and lovely illustrations.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/763529-HowtoThinkAboutExerciseTheSchoolofLife-9780230767768
 How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young    $26.00
What is the mental value of exercise? Drawing on scholarship, great literature and pop culture, this book examines different forms of exercise and reveals how physical activity can be existential - a way of reclaiming and refining our selves.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/652423-ThePanicosaurusManagingAnxietyinChildrenIncludingThosewithAspergerSyndrome-9781849053563
The Panicosaurus: Managing anxiety in children, Including those with Asperger Syndrome by K.I. Al-Ghani   $31.95
This illustrated storybook will inspire children who experience anxiety, and encourage them to banish their own Panicosauruses. Parents and carers will like the helpful introduction, explaining anxiety in children, and the list of techniques for lessening anxiety at the end of the book.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/774093-AFortofNineTowers-9781447221753
A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar   $25.00
"A poetic, funny and terrifying memoir of life in Kabul between the Soviet Army's exit and the Taliban's retreat." - Economist 
"An extraordinary memoir. Even more haunting than The Kite Runner, because it's not fiction." - Philidelphia Inquirer
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/714265-MagnumStories-9780714865034
 Magnum Stories edited by Chris Boot   $75.00
A magnificent selection of the best photojournalism from around the world.
https://pageblackmore.beta.circlesoft.net/products/714362-DeceitandSelf-DeceptionFoolingYourselftheBettertoFoolOthers-9780141019918
Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling yourself the better to fool others by Robert Trivers    $35.00
We wouldn't be where we are today, either individually or as a species, without deceiving ourselves so successfully we don't even know we're doing it. 
"Original and important... remarkable, thick with ideas." - Financial Times
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/774910-TheLastAsylumAMemoirofMadnessinourTimes-9780241145098
The Last Asylum: A memoir of madness in our time by Barbara Taylor   $46.00
An insightful first-hand account of mental illness and the needs of its sufferers. 
"Eloquent, compassionate, and utterly absorbing. A book about family and friendship, about the complexities of memory, about care and the failure of care, The Last Asylum is the best sort of memoir, transcending the purely personal to confront a larger social history." - Sarah Waters
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/747694-BlitzkriegFromtheRiseofHitlertotheFallofDunkirk-9780007531196
Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to Dunkirk by Len Deighton    $35.00
A compelling history of Hitler's devastating 'Lightning War'.