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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5 September 2014


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812650-TheChildrenAct-9780224101998
The Children Act by Ian McEwan     $36.99
A legal challenge to the withholding of medical treatment of a minor for religious reasons forms the framework of McEwan's latest tightly written novel.
"Ian McEwan fails to disappoint with his latest novel. It is written with an economic but beautiful style, delving into individual lives while discussing wider issues." - Sarah
"Excellent." - Marie
>> Watch this trailer.
>> McEwan and Amis chat about their new novels here.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/808200-TheBoneClocks-9780340921616
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell        $37.99
 Mitchell's most ambitious novel yet. Long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
"600 pages of metafictional shenanigans in relentlessly brilliant prose. Death is at the heart of this novel, and there lies its depth and darkness, bravely concealed with all the wit and sleight of hand and ventriloquistic verbiage and tale-telling bravura of which Mitchell is a master. Whatever prizes it wins or doesn't, The Bone Clocks will be a great success, and it deserves to be, because a great many people will enjoy reading it very much." - Ursula K. Le Guin, Guardian
>> Here's an interview.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812070-SwimmingStudies-9781846144950
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton     $35.00
An account of the absorption and dedication of Shapton's teenage years in competitive swimming, and of her later years of recreational swimming and introspection. Includes artworks based on swimming spots and a catalogue of Shapton's swimming costumes and the memories they represent. A delight to read.
"Pure genius, gliding lyricism. It is, simply, a delight."- Independent in Sunday


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821711-NobodyIsEverMissing-9780374534493
Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey      $36.00
Without telling her family, Elyria takes a one-way flight to New Zealand, abruptly leaving her stable but unfulfilling life in Manhattan. As her husband scrambles to figure out what happened to her, Elyria hurtles into the unknown, testing fate by hitchhiking, tacitly being swept into the lives of strangers, and sleeping in fields, forests, and public parks. Her risky and often surreal encounters with the people and wildlife of New Zealand propel Elyria deeper into her deteriorating mind... 
"A searching, emotionally resonant novel. There’s significant talent at work here." - The New York Times
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/801872-EnglandandOtherStories-9781471137396
England, And other stories by Graham Swift        $39.99
Ordinary lives distilled in ordinary situations, captured with Swift's accustomed mastery.
"Heart-breaking, unadorned tales." - Telegraph
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/814164-ZealandiaOurContinentRevealed-9780143571568
Zealandia: Our continent revealed by Nick Mortimer and Hamish Campbell      $60.00
The definite book on the planet's seventh continent, some of which pokes above the ocean surface and forms New Zealand. This book is the result of a complete rethink of geology and natural history. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812662-VillageofSecretsDefyingtheNazisinVichyFrance-9780701188061
Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead       $39.99
"During the Nazi occupation, the inhabitants of a group of small villages in Fance's Massif Central were able to help about 3000 persecuted people, resisters, freemasons, escaped POWs, communists and Jews escape to Switzerland and Spain, and hid about 800 Jewish refugee children whose parents had been sent to the death camps.  Since the war many questions have arisen about this seemingly unremarkable place where remarkable things happened.  Caroline Moorehead, author of A Train in Winter, has unravelled a rich story of ordinary people responding to impossibly brutal events. This is an incredible book, both harrowing and uplifting, and I can't get it out of my mind." - Jan
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/796610-IDontWanttogotoSchool-9781877579080
I Don't Want to Go to School by Stephanie Blake      $19.99
Once upon a time, there was a mischievous little rabbit. Maybe you know him. When his mother said: "Tomorrow is your first day of school, little rabbit." he replied: "I'm not going!"
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821725-BigArtSmallArt-9780500239223
Big Art / Small Art by Tristan Manco     $85.00
Artists from around the world use extremes in scale to great and often surprising effect. It's hard to keep working when a book as browseably interesting as this arrives.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/804468-HardCountryAGoldenBayLife-9781775536635
Hard Country: A Golden Bay life by Robin Robilliard      $39.99
A fascinating memoir of sixty years of farming and living at Rocklands, on the fringe of the Takaka Valley.
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/812847-TheColourofFoodAMemoirofLifeLoveDinner-9781927249154
 The Colour of Food: A memoir of life, love and dinner by Anne Else      $35.00
Anne Else loved eating, but when she married at 19 she'd never cooked a meal. Despite a shaky start she became an enthusiastic cook - with a little help from Nancy Spain, Katharine Whitehorn, Elizabeth David and the Duchess of Windsor. In this captivating memoir, Else takes you inside her life, from marriage and motherhood through divorce, remarriage, discovery of her birth mother and enduring the heartbreaking deaths of family members, to making new friends through her food blog.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816433-ANewZealandNatureJournal-9781921977657
A New Zealand Nature Journal by Sandra Morris     $22.00
Have you ever noticed that ladybirds have different numbers of spots? Or that leaves can be pointed or round, long or short, soft or hard? There is so much to explore in the natural world. Keeping a nature journal is the best way to record all your amazing discoveries.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815856-J-9780224102056
J by Howard Jacobson      $36.99
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. 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.
This seems really interesting, and has already been compared with 1984 and Brave New World.
Long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker prize.
"Perhaps the British dystopian novel of our time." - John Burnside, Guardian
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812602-TheZoneofInterest-9780224099752
The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis        $37.99
Does the banality of evil place it closer to clownhood than to monsterhood? Partly narrated by an Auschwitz commandant, this is an excoriating novel.
"The Zone of Interest is grubby, creepy - and Martin Amis's best for twenty five years. He has done his subject justice. The final release for the reader is an almost physical relief." - Spectator
>> Amis and McEwan chat about their new novels here.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822724-SleepingonHorseback-9780864739728
Sleeping on Horseback by Frances Samuel       $25.00
"I love the rich feel of Frances Samuel's poems. Strange things happen. People yearn for other times and places. Sometimes they even walk to the moon. Yet the poet's exotic elsewheres constantly dissolve into the local, into the day-to-day world where we also lead our lives. These poems - to steal Samuel's own words - are the work of a professor of the invisible who is also a pickpocket of reality." - Bill Manhire
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/796598-WhereisRusty-9781927271469
Where is Rusty? by Sieb Posthuma       $19.99
 Rusty goes to the department store with his mother and Henrietta and Toby. But his nose leads him astray and on a new adventure. Soon, everyone is looking for him. Where is Rusty? Can you help?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812596-SapiensABriefHistoryofHumankind-9781846558245
Sapiens: A brief history by Yuval Noah Harari       $37.99
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/805424-OutofTimeThePleasuresandthePerilsofAgeing-9781781682999
Out of Time: The pleasures and perils of aging by Lynne Segal     $29.99
Segal mixes memoir, literature and polemic to examine the inevitable consequences of staying alive. Who is that stranger who stares back from the mirror? What happens to ambition and sexuality? As baby-boomers approach their sixth and seventh decades, these questions are becoming increasingly urgent. Must the old always be in conflict with the young? How can we deal with the inevitability of loss and find satisfaction in survival? 
"Passionate, lucid, and shockingly candid ... a clarion call to those who see feminism as a redundant cause." - Helen Walsh
"A powerful manifesto for dealing with the march of time." - Observer
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821728-WhyYouCanGooutDressedLikeThatModernFashionExplained-9780500291498
Why You Can Go Out Dressed Like That: Modern fashion explained by Marnie Fogg         $34.00
All too often a lack of obvious fit or purpose has been mistaken for a lack of design sophistication. In an informed defence of innovative fashion, this book champions the improbable, the provocative, the uncomfortable and the seemingly ridiculous. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/802671-WithaZeroatItsHeart-9780007545513
With a Zero at its Heart by Charles Lambert      $36.00
24 themed chapters, each of 10 paragraphs, each paragraph bearing 120 words.
"With a Zero at Its Heart is elegantly written and carries considerable emotional clout. Lambert's approach means there's a real democracy of incident, and little observations stand alongside life-changing events in a parade that takes in tripe, chickenpox, funerals, cowboy films, pigeon feathers, great books and wild nights. His message is that a life is poorly served by conventional storytelling; his poetic, tender and funny novella provides a fine alternative." - Guardian
9780241003237
The Tightrope Walkers by David Almond    $30.00
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.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816431-TheNameattheEndoftheLadder-9781922244475
The Name at the End of the Ladder by Elena de Roo      $17.00
"Win the game to choose your name and free the players who remain." Twelve-year-old September is determined to choose an adventurous name for herself from the Name Bank - not like all her friends, who are named after flowers or trees. Soon she discovers that she has no choice, unless she wins an ancient and mysterious board game. And every roll of the dice leads her further into danger.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/775468-CatchHowFishingCompaniesReinventedSlaveryandPlundertheOcean-9781927249024
The Catch: How fishing companies reinvented slavery and plunder the ocean by Michael Field     $40.00You need to know this.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811669-PedroParamo-9781781253168
Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo       $25.00Swearing to his dying mother that he'll find the father he has never met, a certain Pedro Paramo, Juan Preciado sets out across the barren plains of Mexico for Comala, the hallucinatory ghost town his father presided over like a feudal lord. Between the realms of the living and the dead, in fragments of dreams and the nightly whispers of Comala's ghosts, there emerges the tragic tale of Pedro Paramo and the town whose every corner holds the taint of his rotten soul. A classic of magic realism and arguably the most important Mexican novel ever written, with a new foreword by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/809091-SingingHometheWhale-9781775536574
Singing Home the Whale by Mandy Hager        $19.99
 Will Jackson is hiding out, a city boy reluctantly staying with his uncle in small town New Zealand while he struggles to recover from a brutal attack and the aftermath of a humiliating YouTube clip gone viral. After he discovers a young abandoned orca whale his life is further thrown into chaos, when he rallies to help protect it against hostile, threatening interests.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816423-IsThereaDoginThisBook-9781406345612
Is There a Dog in this Book? by Viviane Schwartz      $29.99
Our three favourite picture book cats Tiny, Moonpie and Andre make a new furry friend...Something smells funny...what can it be? Wait, hang on a second, is it a DOG? Is there a dog in this book?! Oh no!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/809884-FallingIntoPlace-9780062367884
Falling into Place by Amy Zhang       $22.00
"On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton's Laws of Motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road." Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/812444-ItsBeenSaidBeforeAGuidetotheUseandAbuseofCliches-9780199315734
It's Been Said Before: A guide to the use and abuse of clichés by Orin Hargraves       $46.00
At what point does a phrase pass from being useful to being over-used? To what extent can a cliché make meaning clearer and to what extent can a cliché obscure meaning? Do clarity and style make different demands on the use of familiar phrases?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/809885-FoolsAssassin-9780007444199
Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb      $34.99
Robin Hobb returns to her best-loved characters in a brand new series! Once, there were three inseparable friends: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool. But one is long dead, and one long-missing. Then one Winterfest night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, but mysteriously disappears, leaving nothing but a blood-trail. What was the message? Who was the sender? And what has happened to the messenger? Suddenly Fitz's violent old life erupts into the peace of his new world, and nothing and no one is safe.
 "In today's crowded fantasy market Robin Hobb's books are like diamonds in a sea of zircons." - George R. R. Martin
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816437-QuestJourney2-9780763665951
Quest by Aaron Becker      $29.99
A king emerges from a hidden door in a city park, startling two children sheltering from the rain. No sooner does he push a map and some strange objects into their hands than he is captured by hostile forces that whisk him back through the enchanted door. Just like that, the children are caught up in a quest to rescue the king and his kingdom from darkness, while illuminating the farthest reaches of their imagination...
Another wonderful wordless story from the author of Journey.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816098-TheJewel-9781406347494
The Jewel by Amy Ewing     $19.99
A compelling new series. Imprisoned in the opulent cage of the palace, Violet learns the brutal ways of the Jewel, where the royal women compete to secure their bloodline and the surrogates are treated as disposable commodities. This book has been compared with both The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale.
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/814357-PlayintheGardenFunProjectsforKidstoEnjoyOutdoors-9781869664138
Play in the Garden: Fun projects for kids to enjoy outdoors by Sarah O'Neill       $35.00
 Beginning in the spring, children can get their hands dirty testing soil, fool the birds with stone strawberries, race Jack up the beanstalk, stir pots of stinky weed brew, grow plants for free, create a pirate map and find buried treasure, craft corn dolls, design their own stepping stones, and more. O'Neill is a New Zealand gardener and parent.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/798616-Memoriesofearlyyearsandotherwritings-9781927242476
Memories of Early Years, And other writings by Douglas Lilburn      $39.99
Important to the understanding of the development of the most outstanding and wide-ranging New Zealand composer.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/808472-TwelveThousandHoursEducationandPovertyinAotearoaNewZealand-9781927212172
Twelve Thousand Hours: Education and poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Vicki Carpenter and Sue Osborne       $39.99
The correlations are obvious but the mechanisms are a challenge. What are our priorities?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/806841-HuntingElephants-9781927242537
Hunting Elephants by Peter Bland       $22.00
"There's a remarkable consistency of voice and vision in Bland's work, and he remains the congenial, wry, and perceptive companion he has always been." - Hugh Roberts, New Zealand Books
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/804467-100BestNativePlantsForNewZealandGardens-9781775536512
100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens by Fiona Eadie       $45.00
Indispensable.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/811067-Construction-9781922077301
Construction by Sally Sutton        $29.99
You'll need a hard hat, preferably a yellow one, to read this book (we've got the hard hats, too).
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/806246-TheKingsCurse-9780857207579
The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory        $37.00
The story of Margaret Pole, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, and one of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses; from the author of The Other Boleyn Girl.
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/814396-TheDarkNet-9780434023172
The Dark Net: Inside the digital underworld by Jamie Bartlett       $39.99
The online world most of us inhabit represents only a small fraction of the internet. Beyond Google and commercial web browsers lies a parallel universe, a 'deep web' twenty-five times larger than the surface web: a world of private chat rooms, second lives and anonymous markets; places where people stretch freedom to its limits to be anything, and do anything, they want.
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/816107-SummerofMonsters-9781742032252
Summer of Monsters: The scandalous story of Mary Shelley by Tony Thompson      $19.99
A novel of Mary Shelley's life, leading up to the summer she spent with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori and Claire Clairmont, which inspired her novel Frankenstein.
https://pageblackmore.circlesoft.net/products/778866-EnglishEccentric-ACelebrationofImaginativeIntriguingandTrulyStylishInteriors-9781849755030
English Eccentric: A celebration of imaginative, eccentric and truly stylish interiors by Ros Byam Shaw       $85.00
Step inside and poke around.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815101-ToThisDay-9781925081510
To This Day by Shane Koyczan      $25.00
From acclaimed spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan, the rallying cry against bullying that became a viral video viewed over 12 million times. Now a dazzling illustrated book featuring the work of thirty artists from around the world, To This Day is a powerful expression of the lasting effects of bullying, and the inner strength that allows people to move beyond it.




Fathers are almost infinitely various, and so are books. We can help you match some up.
Fathers' Day: this Sunday.