The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter        $29.99
In an attempt to save himself Matt Prior may end up destroying everything he cares about... A funny novel from the author of Beautiful Ruins.
"It made me laugh more than any other book this year." - Nick Hornby

Tove Jansson: Work and love by Tuula Karjalainen       $49.99
An illustrated biography revealing the life of the multifaceted, complex writer and artist best known and loved around the world for her Moomin series (we can't recommend them highly enough!).

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs      $35.00
A collection of some of Bangs' best pieces, from music hagiographies to excoriating reviews.
"Bangs was one of the best writers ever to appear on newsprint. When he died, American culture lost one its most astute, ornery, funniest and most soulful observers." - New York Times
"A superb collection: wild and funny and unpredictable. Lester Bangs was a great writer who happened to write about rock 'n' roll." - Rolling Stone .

Nunslinger by Stark Holborn         $29.99
At once a quintessential Western and a Western like no other, Nunslinger, is the tale of Sister Thomas Josephine, a nun who, falsely accused of murder, goes on the run through the American West and into the teeth of the Civil War, all the while chased by a man who has become dangerously obsessed with her.
"Witty and atmospheric, with a cliffhanger every few chapters, Nunslinger is thrilling stuff, even if - as I used to think - westerns aren't really your thing. I galloped through the book in one bumpy sitting." - The Observer
>> Who is Stark Holborn?

Chasing the Scream: The first and last days of the war on drugs by Johann Hari       $37.00
Drugs were first made illegal a century ago. This hard-hitting, myth-busting history shows that the 'war' on drugs has very different motives and results from the ones promulgated in the media.
"Wonderful." - Noam Chomsky
"Thrilling." - Naomi Klein

Akademie X: Lessons in life + art edited by Lisa Gabrielle Mark     $70.00
A wonderfully interesting (and instructive) assembly of wisdom from 36 legendary artists, critics and tutors, giving technical advice, assignments (some of which will take five minutes to complete, others five years), tips for avoiding creative ruts (including suggestions for mind-expanding materials to read, watch or listen to), principles of careful looking, advice on the daily practice of art (how to balance time alone in the studio with building an artistic community), career pointers (how to prepare for a studio visit from a curator or gallerist) and personal anecdotes. These lessons offer the reader a set of tools for thinking, seeing and living as an artist.

Octopus! The most mysterious creature in the sea by Katherine Harmon Courage      $29.99
Ancient, strange, intelligent. This book reveals that the oldest known octopus lived before the first dinosaurs; that two thirds of an octopus’s brain capacity is spread throughout its arms, meaning each literally has a mind of its own; and that it can change colours within milliseconds to camouflage itself, yet appears to be colourblind.

The Game of Lines by Herve Tullet        $17.00
We have a range of new titles from the ever-popular Tullet, perfect for preschoolers.

Mr Bones by Paul Theroux      $37.00
A family watches, horrified, as their patriarch transforms into the wise-cracking lead of an old-timey minstrel show. An art collector gleefully destroys his most valuable pieces. A young artist devotes himself to a wealthy, malicious gossip, knowing that it's just a matter of time before she turns on him. In this new collection of short stories, Paul Theroux explores the tenuous leadership of the elite and the surprising revenge of the overlooked.

The Bletchley Girls: The secret history of the women behind WW2's biggest code-breaking operation by Tessa Dunlop        $39.99
Interesting first-hand accounts of the secret operation that is estimated to have shortened the war by two years, and of re-entry to the civilian world retaining that secret.
>> Meet some 'Bletchley girls' here.

The King in the North: The life and times of Oswald of Northumbria by Max Adams       $29.99
A revealing portrait of Britain in the Dark Ages and a resuscitation of an outstanding early English monarch.

The Light of Truth: Writings of an anti-lynching crusader by Ida B. Wells        $35.00
Wells was a leader in the early civil rights movement in the United States, a suffragist, journalist and sociologist.

Banksy in New York by Ray Mock         $59.99
A day-by-day account of Banksy's 2013 New York residency, chronicling works that include 'Sirens of the Lambs' and the Central Park stand at which original works by Banksy were sold for only $60. Mock's work captures not only Banksy's artwork but the reactions of the public and media frenzies that often accompanied it.

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake       $25.00
If the person who keeps you safe also tells you lies, who can you trust? Shelby's mother has always kept her safe. Too safe. When Shelby gets hit by a car, the lies upon which her life is built begin to unravel.

The Eight Curious Cases of Inspector Zhang by Stephen Leather      $25.00
Eight locked-room mysteries for the Singaporean Sherlock.

 

Raw Material by Jörg Fauser        $29.00
"One of the best German novels of all time." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Bukowski meets Withnail on schnapps. As beautiful a mess as the characters he wrote, Jorg Fauser's trawl through the anarchist squats of the 70s lays bare the seeds of Germany's new cool. While we were still making war films, Fauser ran with a generation intent on destroying the state and itself; through the voice of Harry Gelb his savage wit leaves no truth unturned in describing its most foibled and hopeless endeavour - decadent revolution. This book makes me wish I was there." - DBC Pierre

Here by Richard McGuire       $59.99
A beautifully drawn and deeply thoughtful and inventive graphic novel, moving through thousands of years of history and future without leaving the suburban sitting room in which it is set.
"Lush, overwhelming, complex, complicated yet unpretentious; it’s an amalgam of vibrant hues and textures, drawing approaches, narrative lines and surfaces that feels in its totality like the first successful attempt to visually recreate the matrix of memory and human understanding of time. An underlying thrum of the larger concerns of life – love, loneliness, sex, death – repeats, echoes, builds, and ultimately resolves into what is both a scientific apprehension and a poetic evocation of the mechanism that lends life its poignancy." - Chris Ware, Guardian

A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists by Jane Rawson        $39.99
An intriguing novel set in a dystopian Melbourne following environmental apocalypse.
"One of those wonderfully quirky novels that giddies with the quality of its imagination, A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists is reminiscent of early Paul Auster, most notably In the Country of Last Things. There's something too of the sheer storytelling joy that you find in Neil Gaiman, the meaning subsidiary to the narrative adventure. Rawson has taken risks with plausibility and triumphed." - The Australian

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard and the reinvention of American taste by Luke Barr     $35.00
In the winter of 1970, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today's tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew.

All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu      $28.00
Two young friends join an uprising against Uganda's corrupt regime in the early 1970s. As the line blurs between idealism and violence, one of them flees for his life. In a quiet Midwestern town in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, an African student falls for the woman who helps him settle in. Prejudice overshadows their relationship, yet it is equally haunted by the past. Both men are called Isaac. But are they one and the same?
"Fascinating." - Guardian
"Beautiful." - New York Times
"Desperately moving." - Sunday Telegraph

My History: A memoir of growing up by Antonia Fraser     $39.99
A vibrant account of childhood and the making of the great narrative historian.

If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck, Hitler's concentration camp for women by Sarah Helm         $39.99
For decades the story of Ravensbruck was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.
"A tremendous feat of historical rescue." - Anne Applebaum

The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed     $37.00
A desperate love story set in war-torn Kashmir.

"The effect of this tense novel is cumulative, its sense of dread rising until the nightmarish finale; a communal outpouring of grief in which Waheed locates an incredible defiance. Waheed writes about war with a devastating and unflinching calm, with the melancholy wisdom of someone attuned to but never hardened by its horrors." - Guardian

The Girl Who Wasn't There by Ferinand von Schirach      $38.00
"A thriller with a difference. Very cleverly written, it kept me intrigued as I surmised, predicted and analysed my way through each chapter. Not an easy read, I found myself re-reading often just to sort out in my mind the nuances and details. A very worthwhile read." - Lynn

Archibet: From Aalto to Zaha Hadid by Frederico Babina      $27.00
A book of 26 quirky postcards by the outstandingly wry architectural artist, each interpreting an architect's work as the letter of the alphabet with which her or his name begins. Perfect for modern architecturophiles.
>> Babina's other work is certainly work is worth perusing.

Horn Please: The graphic trucks of India by Dan Eckstein       $85.00
One unmistakable feature of the Indian highway is the presence of these brightly decorated trucks that ply the country's roads. The men who drive these trucks spend long hours on the road and can be away from their families for weeks at a time, so their trucks act as a second home and they take great pride in them. In Horn Please photographer Dan Eckstein travelled across India's byzantine and burgeoning road network documenting these elaborate trucks - representing a blinding mash up of new and old India.

The Art of Neil Gaiman: The visual story of one of the world's most vital creative forces by Hayley Campbell       $69.99
Novelist, comics writer, scriptwriter, poet, occasional artist - a master of several genres and inadvertent leader of many cults - there are few creative avenues Neil Gaiman hasn't ventured down. From unforgettable books like The Ocean at the End of the Lane and American Gods to ground-breaking comics and graphic novels like The Sandman and Violent Cases; from big screen fantasies like Coraline to small screen epics like Doctor Who; and from short stories to songwriting, stage plays to radio plays, journalism to filmmaking, and all points in-between, The Art of Neil Gaiman is the first comprehensive, full-colour examination of Gaiman's work to date.

No Regrets, Coyote by John Dufresne       $26.00
Wylie (Coyote) Melville, a therapist who serves as a “volunteer forensic consultant” for the Everglades County Police Department suspects an apparent family murder/suicide isn't at all what it seems...
"A ghoulishly funny crime novel. Dufresne is an original talent. His humor is frightfully dark, but it’s also quite dazzling. " - New York Times

On Tour With Leonard Cohen: Photographs by Sharon Robinson       $85.00
Documents the wildly successful Leonard Cohen World Tour through the eyes of his friend and long-time collaborator, who has been at his side for over 400 shows.

Novel Interiors: Living in enchanted rooms inspired by literature by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti and Ivan Terestchenko      $69.99
If you've ever wanted to live in Sense and Sensibility (or some other novel), now you can!

The Martini Shot, And other stories by George Pelecanos       $39.99
Gritty low-level crime stories set in Washington DC's meanest streets, from one of the writers of The Wire.

Herzl: Theodore Herzl and the foundation of the Jewish state by Shlomo Avineri       $35.00
A biography, drawing on Herzl's published works and diaries, of the man who founded the World Zionist Organisation in 1897, and who rejected Jewish integration or emancipation in favour of mass transportation to a yet-to-be-defined Jewish state.

The Bedside Guardian, 2014 edited by Becky Gardener       $37.00
The year-that-was as caught in the pages of this leading English-language newspaper.

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light under German occupation, 1940-44 by Ronald Rosbottom        $29.99

Moustaches, Whiskers and Beards by Lucinda Hawksley        $39.99
Taking as her starting point images from the holdings of the National Portrait Gallery, London, writer and art historian Lucinda Hawksley explores the history of facial hair, from prehistoric times to the present day. Entertaining and informative, this fascinating foray into our hairy past is the perfect gift for the pogonophile in your life or indeed anyone interested in the long and curly history of whiskers, beards and moustaches.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven       $18.99
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries. It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. For fans of John Green.
"I'm reading this right now and you are so going to love Finch & Violet." - Stella

Loitering: New and collected essays by Charles D'Ambrosio      $38.00
 'This powerful collection highlights D'Ambrosio's ability to mine his personal history for painful truths about the frailty of family and the strange quest to understand oneself, and in turn, be understood." - Publishers Weekly
"Charles D'Ambrosio’s essays are excitingly good. They are relevant in the way that makes you read them out loud, to anyone who happens to be around. Absolutely accessible and incredibly intelligent, his work is an astounding relief—as though someone is finally trying to puzzle all the disparate, desperate pieces of the world together again." - Jill Owens, Powell's

Waitangi Day, The New Zealand story: What it is and why it matters by Philippa Werry       $25.00
Aimed at younger readers, but excellent for the whole family, this book looks at the rich and fraught history behind our national day.

An Untamed State by Roxanne Gay     $36.99
The kidnapping of a young woman in Haiti releases the brutality not only of her kidnappers but of a society riven with inequality and abuse.
"Breathless, artful, disturbing and original. I won't ever forget it." - Meg Wolitzer (author of The Interestings)    
"An Untamed State is a gem, blasted into beauty by the world's harshest conditions." - Bookforum
"Gripping and brilliant." - John Green
"Unflinching." - Guardian

Love, And other perishable items by Laura Buzo        $25.00
From the moment 15-year-old Amelia gets an after-school job at the local supermarket she is sunk, gone, lost, head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies - but he's 21 and in his final year at university. The six- year age gap may as well be a hundred. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien, but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to?

Love in Small Letters by Francesc Miralles      $25.00
When Samuel wakes up on 1st January, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing exciting or unusual - until a strange visitor bursts into his flat, determined not to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a young stray cat, leads Samuel to a strange encounter with Valdemar and his neighbour Titus, with whom he had previously never exchanged a word, and is the beginning of the incredible transformation that is about to occur in the secluded world he has built around himself.

Humans: An A-Z by Matt Haig       $17.00
Make the most of your time on Earth. This book will show you how to make the best of everything from high-level interactions to casual visits.
"Astonishing." - Stephen Fry
Did you read The Humans?

Under Suspicion ('Friday Barnes' #2) by R.A. Spratt      $19.99
Friday Barnes, girl detective, is back, with more mysteries and perplexities to solve! Perfect school holiday reading.

Where Chefs Eat: A guide to chefs' favourite restaurants, 2015 by Joe Warwick      $39.99
More than 600 of the world's leading chefs list their favourite places to eat, from neighbourhood eateries to high-end restaurants.

Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleave     $38.00

Back in the police force and with his wife Bridget out of hospital, Tate looks to be getting his life on track. Meanwhile, his former detective partner Carl Schroder is finding life a little more challenging. The bullet he took in the head six months ago hasn't killed him...but it's left him with time on his hands. When the body of a convicted rapist is found, obliterated by an oncoming train, and other criminals begin to disappear, it seems somebody might be helping their victims exact revenge...

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart      $19.99
Tells of the life and transformation of Frankie Landau-Banks who began her teenage years as a quiet member of the Debate Club and grew to become a sixteen-year-old criminal mastermind with an attitude to match.
From the author of the excellent We Were Liars.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins      $37.00
Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train.
"The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl." - The New York Times

Radio Benjamin by Walter Benjamin     $39.99
An excellent introduction to this hugely influential critic, essayist and philosopher (1892-1940): an eclectic collection of texts written for radio broadcast.

Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar by Emily MacKenzie     $19.99
Some rabbits dream about lettuces and carrots, others dream of flowering meadows and juicy dandelions, but Ralfy dreams only of books. In fact, he doesn't just dream about them, he wants to read them ALL THE TIME. Soon his obsession sends him spiralling into a life of crime.

The Paris Review, 211     $29.99
Includes an interview with Austrian filmmaker Michael Hanneke and a tantalising excerpt from the forthcoming fourth volume of Karl Olaf Knausgaard's self-obsessed epic 'My Struggle'.

Epilogue: A memoir by Will Boast     $35.00
When Will Boast's father dies he is alone in the world: an American with distant English roots, orphaned, and derailed by grief. Everything he thought he knew about his parents unravels when he discovers he has two half-brothers living in England. Boast sets about piecing together a new sense of himself, attempting as he does to understand, forgive and heal the mistakes of his father's past.
“Family tragedy leads to almost unbearable darkness but also renewal and hope for a young man in this excellent memoir… Boast writes with unsparing clarity, in precisely observed domestic scenes that reveal mountains of unspoken feeling. A finely wrought, wrenching yet lyrical study of a family that lives on past its seeming end.” - Publishers Weekly

Knit Your Own Farm by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne    $25.00
Useful.

Peace and Conflict by Irene Sabatini      $26.00
Ten-year-old Robert has questions. Is his neighbour, Monsieur Renoir, really evil? Why did he leave a Victoria Cross medal on Robert's doorstep? And why has his Zimbabwean Auntie Delphia disappeared?
"One of the most engaging novels about inter-racial love to be published this century. Entertaining, ambitious and packed with news from elsewhere, leavened by the precious optimism of youth. Don't miss it." - Independent

Far As the Eye Can See by Robert Bausch      $37.00
A heart-stopping epic journey across the Great Plains during the events that led up to Custer's Last Stand.
"Robert Bausch has produced a funny, intelligent, poignant novel that courageously explores the fundamental truths in all our lives." - New York Times

Taming the Tiger Parent: How to put your child's well-being first in a competitive world by Tanith Carey     $35.00
A welcome corrective to the parent-driven hyper-achievement trend afflicting modern childhood.

Life on the Edge: The coming of age of quantum biology by Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden       $38.00
"Life on the Edge gives the clearest account I've ever read of the possible ways in which the very small events of the quantum world can affect the world of middle-sized living creatures like us. With great vividness and clarity it shows how our world is tinged, even saturated, with the weirdness of the quantum." - Philip Pullman

See You in Paradise by J. Robert Lennon      $25.00
Bizarre, darkly funny and disconcerting, this collection of stories explores the surreal that lurks in everyday life. Deftly blending the everyday at its most uncanny with smatterings of sci-fi, these fourteen stories probe moments when family members move apart, or drift back together, when dreams crumble and convictions falter, moments when suddenly things fall in to place from a new perspective.
From the author of the excellent Familiar.

First They Killed My Father: A daughter of Cambodia remembers by Loung Ung       $35.00
Until age five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of an educated, high-ranking government official. When the Kymer Rouge stormed the city in 1975, the young girl and her family fled from village to village. Fighting to hide their identity, the Ungs eventually were forced to separate to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans. Half her family died in labour camps by execution, starvation, and disease.

Five Billion Years of Solitude: The search for life among the stars by Lee Billings      $26.00
"Graceful. The best book I have read about exoplanets, and one of the few whose language approaches the grandeur of a quest that is practically as old as our genes." - New York Times

Rush Hour: How 500 million commuters survive the daily journey to work by Iain Gately     $37.00
Interesting study of the commuting phenomenon and its subcultures. (How many commuters don't survive the journey?)

The Pearl That Broke its Shell by Nadia Hashimi        $25.00
“Nadia Hashimi has written, first and foremost, a tender and beautiful family story. Her always engaging multigenerational tale is a portrait of Afghanistan in all of its perplexing, enigmatic glory, and a mirror into the still ongoing struggles of Afghan women.” — Khaled Hosseini, author of And the Mountains Echoed and The Kite Runner

Train: Riding the rails that created the modern world, from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief by Tom Zoellner        $26.00
"Highly entertaining, lucid and perceptive....It's a train lover's celebration of the great epic story of rail travel itself."- Los Angeles Times

Stuffocation: Living more with less by James Wallman      $37.00
Materialism makes us unhappy. What to do?
>> Wallman here.

Chickens by Ernest Goh         $49.99
"The experience of photographing these birds made me realise how our perception of animals could be changed simply by getting to know them as individuals." - Ernest Goh

The State vs. Nelson Mandela: The trial that changed South Africa by Joel Joffe        $29.99
On 11 July 1963, a seemingly harmless dry cleaning van drew up outside a rural farm near Johannesburg, South Africa. Within seconds, heavily armed police had burst out and arrested the entire high command of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Together with the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela, they were put on trial and charged with conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government by violent revolution. Their expected punishment was death. In this compelling book, their defence attorney, Joel Joffe, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important trial in South Africa's history.

Bizarre Scotland: Discover the country's secrets and surprises by David Long       $37.00
The world's longest man-made echo, a city where aliens are welcome, what the Royals really think of it, Britain's weirdest wig, the worst Scottish accents ever, the tallest hedge and oldest tree, Loch monsters nastier than Nessie, a road you can roll up, Scots in Space, Ruthven or Ruthven? Britain's loneliest bus stop (and its loveliest), a school for spies, the cost of burning witches, an aeroplane made from seaweed, and why the Queen needs rubber gloves.