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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17 October 2014


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/839774-FrancisPlugHowToBeAPublicAuthor-9781922182623
How To Be a Public Author by Francis Plug       $37.00
NZ author Paul Ewen impersonates his fictional character, the puerile alcoholic gardener and would-be-author Francis Plug, and attends actual author events with a whole string of Booker winners (including Eleanor Catton) to collect trophy inscriptions (reproduced within).
"Idiotic, funny and surprisingly insightful, this satire on hopeless aspiration and the trappings of success is a unique and enjoyable book." - Thomas
>> Plug crashes the Booker shortlist.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/829656-1004-9781783781379
10:04 by Ben Lerner     $35.00
The narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child. Now, in a New York of increasingly frequent superstorms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water.
"Hilarious, cracklingly intelligent and original in every sentence." - Jonathan Franzen
"Frequently brilliant." - Hari Kunzru, The New York Times
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824528-TheRabbitandtheShadow-9780994109804
The Rabbit and the Shadow by Melanie Rutten     $34.99
An anxious stag cares for a rabbit who wants to grow up and who goes off on an adventure with a 'soldier' and a cat with a recurring dream. They meet a book who wants to know everything, and they notice a shadow lurking at the edge of sight.
"This is a beautifully illustrated and deeply thoughtful picture book, full of emotional resonance." - Thomas
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821957-Lila-9781844088812
Lila by Marilynne Robinson      $37.99
Another beautifully written novel from Robinson, evoking the inner lives, spiritual sensitivities and public difficulties of the rural community in Iowa in which her novels Gilead and Home are set.
"Robinson writes Lila in a mystifyingly impressive amalgam of recollection and spontaneously unfolding thought. Sometimes you feel the ideas are being born fresh on the page, and yet they also contain a depth of thinking and feeling that only years of work can summon. Robinson's books will surely be read and known in time as one of the great achievements of contemporary literature. An embarrassingly grand statement for such gentle, graceful work." - Guardian
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816992-Amnesia-9781926428604
Amnesia by Peter Carey     $40.00
When a young cyber-activist releases a piece of code that unlocks the prison doors not only of asylum seekers in Australia, but also of prisoners in 5000 institutions across America, the workings of power and the secrets of nations are revealed in both their subtlety and crudity. What is the enduring imprint of the CIA-induced removal of Gough Whitlam from the Australian Prime Ministership in 1975? Another intellectually engaging and deeply felt novel from this fine writer.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/825566-GrahameSydneyPaintings1974-2014StandardEdition-9781927213247
Grahame Sydney: Paintings, 1974-2014      $99.99
The most splendid book of Sydney's paintings ever published.
>> Find out why he doesn't like green.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815935-TheTruantfromMedicineAMemoir-9781775537359
A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson       $44.99
In A Sting in the Tale, Goulson alerted us to the wonders and precariousness of the bumblebee. This book is an account of how he bought 33 acres of French meadow as a place for his beloved bumblebees to thrive, and of he soon found there was a lot more there to be discovered.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824523-TheBigQuestion-9780994109842
The Big Question by Lee van den Berg and Kaatje Vermeire       $29.99
How can you tell if someone loves you? Elephant wonders. Everyone has a different answer ("'When  my sweetheart is lying next to me I feel nice and warm,' said the stone").
"This is a special and imaginative book with wonderfully fey illustrations from the illustrator of the much-admired Maia and What Matters." - Thomas
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821723-VivienneWestwood-9781447254126
Vivienne Westwood by Vivienne Westwood and Ian Kelly       $49.99
Fashion designer, activist, midwife of the punk, movement, global brand and grandmother, Westwood's career has successfully spanned five decades and her work has influenced millions of people across the world. Notoriously private, she has now written a personal memoir to describe the events, people and ideas that have shaped her extraordinary life. Full of surprising information, unexpected perspectives and great illustrations.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821751-TheInnovatorsHowaGroupofInventorsHackersGeniusesandGeeksCreatedtheDigitalRevolution-9781471138799
The Innovators: How a group of inventors, hackers and geniuses created the digital revolution by Walter Isaacson      $45.00
From Ada Lovelace in the 1840s, through Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page, Isaacson traces the minds who hosted the development of the digital age and the internet. From the author of Steve Jobs.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824199-DailyRituals-9781447271475
Daily Rituals: How great minds make time, find inspiration and get to work by Mason Currey     $24.99
Anthony Trollope wrote 3000 words every morning before heading off to his job at the Post Office. Toulouse-Lautrec did his best work at night, even setting up his easel in brothels, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas and a bathrobe. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process.
"Utterly fascinating." - Sunday Times

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824093-PoetryNotebook-9781447269106
Poetry Notebook, 2006-2014 by Clive James      $37.99
Clive James is a pre-eminent cultural critic and renowned poet. Here he applies his critical acumen to poetry and poets, with insightful results.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815893-ProfessorPenguin-9781775537250
Professor Penguin: Notes from a life in the field by Lloyd Spencer Davis       $39.99
Meet 'the Bill Bryson of Antarctica' in this engaging book by a world authority on penguins. The book gives a wonderfully readable insight into the research of a field biologist in Antarctica, the Galapagos, the deserts of Chile and Peru, the Falkland Islands, the wild coasts of Argentina and South Africa, and New Zealand. The reader learns a lot about penguins, too.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/837202-YouFittheDescription-9780473298036
 You Fit the Description: The selected poems of Peter Olds    $49.99
From the steam of Joe Tui's long-gone Dunedin fish-and-chip shop to a young possum clinging to a plum tree, via substance-fuelled manic narrative, Zen solitude and vivid evocations of childhood, by turns playful, anxious and outrageous, Peter Olds keeps watch with an always compassionate eye and with not too much thought about literature gets it all down with unpretentious drop-dead authenticity. 
Includes an extensive biographical introduction by Ian Wedde.  
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815862-HeartoftheMackenzieTheGlenmoreStationStory-9781775536055
Heart of the MacKenzie: The Glenmore Station story by Matt Philp       $49.99
There are two ways into the MacKenzie Country: via Fairlie and Burke's Pass or over the Lindis. Whichever way you drive, when you enter the MacKenzie you know you are somewhere very different and very special. It's a huge basin surrounded by sere hills, it's dry as a bone, and it feels ancient. In spring lupins blaze in the roadside ditches. In winter those hills are dusted with snow. This is where James McKenzie filched his sheep from the squattocrats, stealing through the night with his dog.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824202-LifeIsMealsAFoodLoversBookofDays-9781447254928
Life is Meals: A food lover's book of days by James Salter and Kay Salter      $39.99
A book of culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own stories of their triumphs - and catastrophes - in the kitchen.
>> Here they are (not for those allergic to enthusiasm).


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824527-FollowtheFireflyRunRabbitRun-9780994109828
Follow the Firefly / Run, Rabbit, Run! by Bernardo Carvalho       $19.99
Two wonderful wordless books in one. Follow the firefly on its search for a flashing light in one direction, and then start at the other end of the book and follow the story of the rabbit's escape. On each page the lively illustrations contain both stories - each moving in the opposite direction!
Lots of fun.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821628-Outline-9780571233625
Outline by Rachel Cusk       $36.99
A woman goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.
Shortlisted for the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822730-BellesandWhistlesFiveJourneysThroughTimeonBritainsTrains-9781781252123
Belles & Whistles: Five journeys through time on Britain's trains by Andrew Martin     $36.99
An idiosyncratic history of Britain's railways, combining humour, historical anecdote, reportage from the present and romantic evocations of the past.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/827429-TheWorldAtlasofCoffeeFrombeanstobrewing-coffeesexploredexplainedandenjoy-9781845337872
The World Atlas of Coffee: From beans to brewing; Coffee explored, explained and enjoyed by James Hoffmann     $49.99
Where a coffee comes from, how it is harvested, how it is roasted and how it is extracted all make a vital difference to the efficacy of the brown elixir. This beautiful book will show you everything you need and want to know, and includes a country-be-country guide to coffee characteristics.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815892-OurBigBlueBackyardNewZealandsMagnificentMarineReserves-9781775536543
Our Big Blue Back Yard: New Zealand's magnificent marine reserves by Janet Hunt      $55.00
This book, written by award-winning natural history writer Janet Hunt, examines New Zealand's 34 marine reserves, and the need to protect and preserve our seas and foreshores in their natural state. Each chapter contains features about outstanding plants, birds, fish, mammals, invertebrates and crustaceans as well as interviews and items of interest about people associated with marine conservation-divers, underwater camera operators, marine biologists.
 
 

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816861-FrogandToadAllYear-9780007512911
 Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel      $18.00
The adventures of anxious Toad and enthusiastic Frog are thoughtful and delightful.
"One of my all-time favourite children's books, re-issued at last." - Thomas
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815935-TheTruantfromMedicineAMemoir-9781775537359
Truant from Medicine: A memoir by Ivan Donaldson     $39.99
The intriguing story of how a leading neurologist started making wine at home and ended up establishing and developing the Pegasus Bay winery (while still researching the workings of the human brain).
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815936-TheVintnersTableRecipesandstoriesfromPegasusBayWines-9781775537212
 The Vintner's Table: Recipes and stories from Pegasus Bay Winery    $65.00
Featuring mouth-watering recipes from the winery restaurant.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822725-The13thLabourofHerculesInsidetheGreekCrisis-9781846275739
The 13th Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek crisis by Yannis Paliologos       $36.99
What are the forces, both within and beyond Greece that led to the current financial and political crisis, and how is this crisis transforming the way Greeks see themselves and conduct their lives?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/816812-AllThoseVanishedEngines-9780765375407
All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park       $38.00
An extraordinary, intense, compressed SF novel in three parts, each set in its own alternate-history universe. The sections are all rooted in Virginia and the Battle of the Crater, and are also grounded in the real history of the Park family, from differing points of view. 
"A challenging and multilayered tour of an alternate history America. Park handles multiple viewpoints, time lines, and story lines masterfully in this dense, philosophically provocative story." - Publishers' Weekly

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/823035-JimmyPagebyJimmyPage-9781905662326
 Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page     $75.00
 The photographic autobiography and visual history of the iconic guitar player.


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/825248-FatalRivalryFlodden1513HenryVIIIJamesIVandtheBattleforRenaissanceBritain-9781780221366
 Fatal Rivalry: Flodden, 1513; Henry VIII, James IV and the battle for Renaissance Britain by George Goodwin     $29.99
The fateful battle between Scotland and England left the fields so soaked with blood that they have been uncommonly fertile ever since. 


http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822733-TheCompletePoemsofPhilipLarkin-9780571240074
The Complete Poems by Philip Larkin     $59.99
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821673-TheMemoryPalace-ABookofLostInteriors-9781846273261
The Memory Palace: A book of lost interiors by Edward Hollis      $29.99
The rooms we live in are always more than just four walls. As we decorate these spaces and fill them with objects and friends, they shape our lives and become the backdrop to our sense of self. One day, the houses will be gone, but even then, traces of the stories and the memories they contained will remain. In this dazzling work of imaginative re-construction, Edward Hollis takes us to the sites of five great spaces now lost to history and pieces together the fragments he finds there to re-create their vanished chambers. 
Winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822757-TravelswithaMexicanCircus-9781408853610
Travels With a Mexican Circus by Katie Hickman      $25.00
Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus - Big Top, clowns, elephants and all - where cheap, torn materials and tarnished sequins are transformed into nights of glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus's nomadic lifestyle, she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new world, at first as a foreigner but later as 'La Gringa Estrella', a performer in her own right. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/799227-FingersContemporaryNZJewellery-9781869538620
Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand by Damien Skinner   $59.99
Since 1974 the Fingers collective and gallery have been at the forefront of contemporary jewellery practice in New Zealand.  
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821950-GutenbergsApprentice-9781472220172
Gutenberg's Apprentice by Alix Christie      $37.99
In the middle of the 15th century, scribe Peter Schoeffer is dismayed to be instructed by his father to give up his beloved profession of illuminating texts in Paris. Instead he is to travel to Mainz in Germany to be apprenticed to Johann Gutenberg, an entrepreneur who has invented a new process for producing books: the printing press.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822022-TheArrivalPB-9780734415868
The Arrival by Shaun Tan     $22.00
This amazing wordless book about displacement and creating a new life is now in paperback. Repays many repeated readings for both children and adults.
**** Buy any Shaun Tan book or journal before 20 December and go in the draw to win an amazing limited edition suitcase containing a special edition of The Arrival and a print.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821722-FloralContemporary-TheRenaissanceofFlowerDesign-9780500517437
 Floral Contemporary: The renaissance of flower design by Oliver Dupon    $120.00
This large and lovely volume is an inspiration, and a delight in itself.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/827348-EverythingINeverToldYou-9780349134284
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng        $27.99
"A deep, heartfelt portrait of a family struggling with its place in history, and a young woman hoping to be the fulfillment of that struggle. This is, in the end, a novel about the burden of being the first of your kind - a burden you do not always survive." - New York Times
"A breathtaking triumph, reminiscent of prophetic debuts by Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee and Chimamanda Adichie, whose first titles matured into spectacular, continuing literary legacies." - Library Journal

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821961-Malice-9781408705858
Malice by Keigo Higashino     $37.99
Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is brutally murdered in his home on the night before he's planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, in a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.
From the "Japanese Steig Larsson." (The Times)
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/833679-100ThingsYouWillNeverFindLostCitiesHiddenTreasuresandLegendaryQuests-9781848663749
100 Things You Will Never Find: Lost cities, hidden treasures and legendary quests by Daniel Smith     $39.99
What happened to Amelia Earhart's aeroplane, Van Gogh's painting of Dr Gachet and the crew of the Mary Celeste? Although it will not help you find your spectacles or that paper napkin with the important phone number on it, this fascinating book unlocks the world's lost property cupboard and sifts through buried treasure, mysterious disappearances and unknown locations, examining the evidence - and the conspiracy theories - surrounding the world's most legendary lost objects. 
 
 

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815871-Depot-9781775537199
Depot by Al Brown      $70.00
Depot has been one of Auckland's favourite restaurants since the day it opened, and now here is its stunning cookbook. Depot is not overly precious or pretentious - it reflects perfectly Al Brown's attitude towards food: in season, beautifully cooked, to be enjoyed with friends.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/815711-SuperBoys-9781250049681
Super Boys: The amazing adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster - the creators of Superman by Brad Ricca       $25.00
The first full-length biography.

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/836636-MeteorOverMarlboroughTheGaryBartlettStory-9780994114006
 Meteor Over Marlborough: The Gary Bartlett story by John Alexander    $49.95 
Gary Bartlett burst onto the international cricketing stage like a meteor blasting through the atmosphere. Blistering speed, brilliant athleticism and movie star looks thrust the shy Blenheim teenager into the limelight and he did not disappoint, stunning Ian Craig's 1960 Australian team in his debut international series with hostile, skilled fast bowling. In a career tragically cut short by a series of crippling injuries, he put 42 first-class batsmen in hospital, all victims of the lightening speed generated from a short rhythmical run.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/821012-TheEmptyThrone-9780007504176
The Empty Throne by Bernard Cornwell    $34.99
The new novel in Bernard Cornwell's series 'The Warrior Chronicles', on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The forces of Wessex and Mercia have united against the Danes, but instability and the threat of Viking raids still hang heavy over Britain's kingdoms...
9780330531511
The Ancient Paths: Discovering the lost map of Celtic Europe by Graham Ross      $24.99
This book will change the way you see European civilization. Inspired by a chance discovery, Robb became fascinated with the world of the Celts: their gods, their art, and, most of all, their sophisticated knowledge of science. His investigations gradually revealed something extaordinary: a lost map, of an empire constructed with precision and beauty across vast tracts of Europe. The map had been forgotten for almost two millennia and its implications were astonishing. 

http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/824206-YouSayPotatoABookAboutAccents-9781447249696
You Say Potato: A book about accents by Ben Crystal and David Crystal        $35.00
English is a spoken language - why and how does it vary?
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822029-TheMapmakerChroniclesRacetotheEndoftheWorld-9780734415776
The Race to the End of the World ('Mapmaker Chronicles' #1) by A.L. Tait        $19.99
The King is determined to discover what lies beyond the known world, and has promised a handsome prize to the ship's captain who can bring him a map of the whole globe. To do that, they'll need mapmakers - and 14-year-old Quinn is shocked to be one of the chosen. 
An exciting new series!
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/822031-ASongforEllaGrey-9781444919547
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond     $29.99
I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both...knew how they lived and how they died. Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. 
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/833985-IllDrinktoThat-NewYorksLegendaryPersonalShopperandHerLifeinStyle-WithaTwist-9780349006017
I'll Drink to That: New York's legendary personal shopper and her life in style - with a twist by Betty Halbreich      $39.99
Betty Halbreich is a true original. Now in her eighties, she has spent nearly forty years at the luxury store Bergdorf Goodman, working with socialites, stars and ordinary women. She has led many to appreciate their real selves through clothes, frank advice and her unique brand of wisdom; she is trusted by the most discriminating persons - including Hollywood's top stylists - to tell them what looks best. But her own transformation from cosseted girl to fearless truth-teller is the greatest makeover of all.
http://www.pageandblackmore.co.nz/products/832368-GoodnightMalaysian370-9780473288679
Goodnight Malaysian 370: The truth behind the loss of flight by Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson      $35.00
Was the missing aeroplane shot down?