NEW RELEASES

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval         $23
A young exchange student in a seaside university town moves into a greenhouse-like apartment with a roommate who pushes all boundaries. As mushrooms sprout in the bathroom and apples rot throughout the hallways, Jo finds herself drawn closer to her strange new roommate and their lives and thoughts twist together in exhilarating, terrifying ways. Jo’s sensitivity and all her senses become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh.
>>Read an excerpt. 
>>Jenny Hval's playlist for the book. 
>> Hval in conversation.
>>Conceptual romance. 

The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy       $25
A fable in which a young girl befriends the snake that travels the world shortening people's lives. As the world around her becomes grimmer, what insights can she gain from this relationship?
"Kennedy manages the considerable feat of touching freshly and often amusingly on friendship, love, honesty, education, hunger, greed, aging, war, courage, and displacement without getting preachy or patronizing. Her own voice recalls Lewis Carroll and his gift for taking children and their challenges seriously while using language and logic to have fun in the process. A delightful read with the earmarks of a classic." - Kirkus

E.E.G. by Daša Drndić       $35
Drndić's final novel follows Belladonna as her fictional character Andreas Ban catalyses an excoriating indictment of the legacies of twentieth century European historical brutality, especially of the involvement of Drndić's native Croatia in the Holocaust. 
"Daša Drndić was incapable of writing a sentence that was not forceful, fierce or funny – or all three simultaneously." - Amanda Hopkinson, Guardian
>> Read an excerpt. 
>>"There are no small fascisms."

Beneath the Skin: Great writers on the body       $33
Includes A.L. Kennedy on the nose, Philip Kerr on the brain, Naomi Alderman on the intestines, Ned Beauman on the appendix, Imtiaz Dharker on the Liver, William Fiennes on the bowel and Patrick McGuiness on the ear.

Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights: A journey deeper into dining hell with Jay Rayner         $15
You aren't really interested in glorious prose poems celebrating the finest dining experiences known to humanity, are you? You want a food reviewer to suffer abysmal cooking, preferably at eye-watering prices, so you can gorge on the details and luxuriate in vicarious displeasure. You're in luck.
>> Also by Jay Rayner. 

The Pine Barrens by John McPhee         $23
In the centre of New Jersey lies a vast wilderness of dense forest. McPhee takes us there and introduces us to its history and the people who live there. Interesting and well-written. 

The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand poems edited and introduced by Steve Braunias          $25
An excellent selection of poems that have appeared weekly in The Spinoff, including established names and new voices. 

The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories edited by Jay Rubin, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami         $65
A remarkably varied and often surprising collection, spanning the nineteenth century to the present.

Navigators and Naturalists: French exploration of New Zealand and the Pacific, 1769-1824 by Michael Lee      $70
Drawing on primary sources, many of which have not appeared in English, Lee provides an account of French presence in the half century in which French and British interests jostled over exploration of the Pacific. Accounts by de Surville, du Fresne, La Perouse, d'Entrecasteaux, Duperrey, Freycinet, d'Urville and Lesson, including descriptions of New Zealand and interactions with Maori, are particularly interesting. 

Beyond the Shadows: The Holocaust and the Danish exception photographs by Judy Glickman Lauder, text by  Michael Berenbaum, Judith S. Goldstein and Elie Wiesel      $85
Over the past thirty years Glickman Lauder has captured the intensity of the death camps in Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in dark and expressive photographs, telling of a world turned upside down. In contrast, the redemptive and uplifting story of the "Danish exception" is told through portraits of Danish Jewish survivors and Danish rescuers. Over the course of a few intense weeks in 1943, the vast majority of Denmark's Jewish population, seven thousand people, along with nearly seven hundred non-Jewish spouses, were hidden in boats and carried to safety in Sweden. 

The Governesses by Anne Serre     $28 In a large country house shut off from the world by a gated garden, three young governesses responsible for the education of a group of little boys are preparing a party. The governesses, however, seem to spend more time running around in a state of frenzied desire than attending to the children's education. One of their main activities is lying in wait for any passing stranger, and then throwing themselves on him like drunken Maenads. The rest of the time they drift about in a kind of sated, melancholy calm, spied upon by an old man in the house opposite, who watches their goings-on through a telescope. What is going on?
"A cruel and exhilarating book. Colourful, by turns elegant and violent, it provokes that enchantment borne out of an unbridled imagination." - Paula Jacques
"Told in surrealist bursts, this novella combines the dreaminess of Barbara Comyns, Aimee Bender, and Kathryn Davis with the fairy-tale eroticism of Angela Carter. Each sentence evokes a dream logic both languid and circuitous as the governesses move through a fever of domesticity and sexual abandon. A sensualist, surrealist romp." - Kirkus

City Quitters: Creative pioneers pursuing post-urban life by  Karen Rosenkranz     $60
Is it possible to lead a creative post-urban existence? A wave of creatives is opting out of increasingly regulated and pressured urban spaces that leave little freedom to explore and experiment. But what lies beyond the romanticized image? Does the reality of rural living fulfil the craving for a better, simpler life? Individual stories of creative professionals who have settled in the countryside touch on themes such as creativity, community, work, lifestyle, sustainability, art, design, food and nature. Well illustrated. 

Pictures by #The Stormpilot by Santiago Borja        $70
Storms are seen quite differently from the air from on the ground. Borja has captured a range of them in these stunning images. 

>> Some storms. 

Tropisms by Nathalie Sarraute         $23
Tropism  is a botanical term for the turning of a plant towards external stimuli. Sarraute's book, first published in 1939 and later acclaimed as a precursor of the nouveau roman, portrays the subtle ways in which humans respond on a subconscious level to social stimuli. 

Slippery Jim or Patriotic Statesman? James Macandrew of Otago by R.J. Bunce         $45
When James Macandrew arrived in Dunedin from Scotland in 1851, other settlers were impressed by his energy and enthusiasm for new initiatives. With his finger in a lot of commercial pies, he set about making himself a handsome income which he eventually lost, declaring himself bankrupt and ending up in a debtors prison for a time. Politics became another enterprise at which he threw himself with a passion. Macandrew was a member of Otago Provincial Council for 10 years, during which time he held almost all the elected positions in that body. He was superintendent of Otago for a further decade, and at the same time he was a member of parliament for 29 years.

Heart: A history by Sandeep Jauhar        $30
Tracing the evolution of humanity 's medical knowledge from Ancient Greece to modern times, delving into religion and spirituality, exploring art and poetry, Jauhar tells the story of the heart's centrality to thought and culture as well as in the body. 

Legacy: Generations of creatives in dialogue edited by Lukas Feireiss     $65
Brings the legacy of architects, artists and designers that have influenced the creative discourse over the last fifty years into critical dialogue with a young generation of upcoming influencers in the respective fields. The publication doesn't regard the legacy of an individual architect, artist or predecessor as an end point but as a simple moment in an infinite chain of contributions and inspirations that naturally extends and transforms through its successors. The creative conversations illustrated in this title reflect the inspirational vision of personalities such as Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Yona Friedman, Charlie Koolhaas and Rem Koolhaas, Rachel Libeskind and Daniel Libeskind, Gianfranco Bombaci, Matteo Costanzo and Gian Piero Frassinelli, Aric Chen and Arata Isozaki, Liz Diller and ElizabethLeCompte, Sophie Lovell, Dieter Rams and Olafur Eliasson. 

Ocean by Hélène Druvert and Emmanuelle Grundmann     $45
A stunning, beautiful exploration of the ocean, from the shoreline to the depths, presented in this large-format volume with die-cut pages and flaps to lift. 
>> Other books by Hélène Druvert.

Women Photographers: From Julia Margaret Cameron to Cindy Sherman by Boris Friedewald          $55
A well selected survey, featuring the work of 55 photographers.

The Atlas of Disease: Mapping deadly epidemics and contagion from the plague to the zika virus by Sandra Hempel         $50
50 maps mot only show the spread of diseases but ways in which cartography can be used to combat contagion. 

Women in Battle: Freedom, equality, sisterhood by Marta Breen and Jenny Jordahl      $17
A young person's graphic novel celebrating feminism around the world. 

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton        $23
Sweetness! Tragedy! How could these not be synonyms in anything touched by Tim Burton? 23 illustrated gothic tales. 

The Mental Road: A feminist comic by Emma      $42
French comic artist Emma takes on issues that weigh disproportionately upon women and gives them a feminist twist. Emma's cartoons have appeared in The Guardian. This is her first book in English. 
"Funny and relevant, this is a book to slip on all your colleagues' desks" - Elle
>> You should've asked. 

A Life in Pictures by Steve McCurry         $90
Forty years of superb journalistic photography. The most comprehensive volume of McCurry's work yet. 

Nine Pints: A journey through the mysterious, miraculous world of blood by Rose George     $33
Most humans contain between nine and twelve pints (five to seven litres) of blood. Rose George, who probably contains nine pints, tells nine different stories about the liquid that sustains us, discovering what it reveals about who we are. In Nepal, she meets girls challenging the taboos surrounding menstruation; in the Canadian prairies, she visits a controversial plasma clinic; in Wales she gets a tour of the UK's only leech farm to learn about the ancient art of blood-letting and its modern revival in microsurgery; and in a London hospital she accompanies a medical team revolutionising the way we treat trauma.

At Home: Middle Eastern recipes from our kitchen by Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer (Honey & Co.)      $55
The recipes from Honey & Co. are always both reliable and delicious, and their books are beautifully presented. 
>> The other Honey & Co. books. 
>> Visit Honey & Co. 
>> The 5 best ingredients. 

I Can't Remember the Title But the Cover is Blue: Sketches from the other side of the bookshop counter by Elias Greig         $23
We didn't write this book so you do not personally appear in it. 

Lost Kingdom: A history of Russian nationalism, from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin by Serhii Plokhy     $28
 Russian leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve or attempt imperial supremacy.

Wine Reads: A literary anthology of wine writing edited by Jay McInerney       $40
Includes essays and excerpts from novels, short fiction, memoir and narrative nonfiction.

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot          $24
Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands - Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie's mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

Weaving: Contemporary makers on the loom by Katie Treggiden      $60
Examines the work and work processes of two dozen leading weavers from around the world. Very nicely presented. 
>> Find out more. 

The Snooty Bookshop: Fifty literary postcards by Tom Gauld       $28
Funny, sad, insightful, subtle, Gauld's cartoons are loved by all literary types. 
>>Keep up with Tom Gauld. 

BOOKS @ VOLUME #103 (24.11.18)

Our latest newsletter!

In Call Them by Their True Names, this week's Book of the Week, Rebecca Solnit 'calls out' lazy thinking of all stripes in the current political and social landscape, and provides new insight into topics about which our understanding is often limited by our own reaction. 
>> Read Stella's review. 
>> The collection includes 'The Loneliness of Donald Trump.' (And here in audio.)
>> Visit Solnit's website. 
>> "I think the revolution is to keep the world safe for poetry."
>> Other excellent books by Solnit at VOLUME. 
>> City of Women. 
>> 'Hope is an embrace of the unknown.'
>> Interview with Astra Taylor. 
>> 'Fuck yeah, Rebecca Solnit.'
>> Follow Rebecca Solnit. 
>> Call them by their cellphones. 

Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin    {Reviewed by STELLA} Tamara Shopsin has written a personal and lively memoir about growing up in New York in the 1970s, specifically, about growing up in Greenwich Village in the shadow, or more precisely in the arms, of The Store. The Store was famous in spite of itself, and still is an iconic New York institution. What started solely as a grocer became a restaurant of repute in the 1970s, a place with its very own style and culture and a centre of the conversation, happenings and relationships of a neighbourhood. Tamara’s father Kenny Shopsin was a New York personality running The Store with his partner Eve. The five children grew up on the street and in the restaurant - on the sawdust floor, beside the freezer that gave electric shocks, in the arms of regulars, and under the feet of customers. Each had their shop chores and all chipped in as needed. Tamara Shopsin’s memoir is a homage to New York City, a New York that she sees as under threat from developers, increased housing prices and homogenised culture. It’s a homage to her eccentric father who had his own style, constantly changing the vast menu (especially if a dish became too popular) and making crazy customer rules - rules that made his place even more attractive to some and completely repellent to others: no phones, parties of no more than four people (don’t even try to sneak in with a three and a two and then pretend it is a coincidence), and no copying what someone else has just ordered. You could be a friend for life or blacklisted by putting a foot wrong with Kenny. The book is a homage to friends, family, and the importance of neighbourhood. Shopsin recalls the famous and the ordinary, drawing out the stories of those closest to her, particularly her father’s friend Willy, who in his unusual way sees them all through some sticky situations. There is a fascinating account of the development of the crossword puzzle and Margaret Petherbridge’s role in this at the New York Times. Kenny sometimes submitted puzzles and kept up a correspondence with Margaret over numerous years. There are numerous asides and insights making reading this memoir a delight. Arbitrary Stupid Goal is arranged as small pieces loosely connected, pieces that scoot from present day to a Tamara of age five and back, into times before her birth and retold stories. Over the course of the book she shapes a conversation that gives you an insight to her and her siblings’ childhood, the bohemian nature of The Village, the quirks of her father's cooking practices and temperament, the significance of the seemingly ordinary, and the importance of place. The Store was a meeting place that attracted celebrities, eccentrics and local, a place that accepted people for who they were but brokered no quarter for fakes or demanding clientele. In fact, Kenny feared success (and having to work too hard) and shrugged off reviewers and interviews, even going as far as to tell guidebook publishers that the restaurant had closed or that The Store was now a shoe shop. Tamara Shopsin’s writing style is quirky and idiosyncratic. She writes from the point of view a middle child, a keen observer with an agile mind, the point of view of a woman still very much connected to the place that made such an impact on her. Tamara Shopsin cooks weekends at The Store and is passionate about its legacy and the New York City she believes in. Touchingly personal and endlessly fascinating, this is a memoir which moves from hilarious to tragic and back again in a half a breath.

The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza   {Reviewed by THOMAS} “Disappearance is contagious. Everyone knows this.” The underlying, or overarching, crisis in Cristina Rivera Garza’s The Iliac Crest is one of authenticity. What is known, what is written, what is uttered, what is achieved immediately begins to be eroded through that onslaught of words, thoughts and experiences that constitutes what we think of as the passage of time. To hold on to one’s identity is, in such circumstances, a neurotic tendency, the invocation of a threat. “We are always prepared for the appearance of fear. We lie in wait for it. We invoke it and reject it with equal stubbornness.” The narrator in The Iliac Crest is a doctor in a hospital, situated on the border of land and sea as it is on the border of life and death, which expedites the deaths of incurables, completing, as thoroughly as possible, their disappearances as individuals. Disappearance is here both a medical and a political condition. After working at the hospital for 25 years, the doctor’s home is effectively colonised, almost simultaneously, by an ex-lover, who immediately falls ill and becomes effectively inaccessible to the doctor for the rest of the novel, and by a woman claiming to be the (actual) Mexican author Amparo Dávila, who is writing 'the story of her disappearance' in a notebook. From the evening of their intrusion upon his previous routine, from the intrusion upon his habitual life of both memory and imagination, the doctor’s world begins to become destabilised, ultimately threatening his identity and sanity. Language is the way in which borders and distinctions are maintained, but language is also the way in which borders may be destabilised and subverted. The book displays constant tension between language and bodies, between the conceptual and the physical, between construction and erosion. There is an emphasis on borders and distinctions, especially spurious borders and distinctions, and on the subversion of these borders and distinctions. On a conceptual field there is more distance within a category than between one category and another, but the distance within categories is invisible to those intent upon borders between them. But all borders are arbitrary and therefore spurious: male/female, reality/fiction, desire/fear, fascination/repulsion, eros/abjection - these pairings are not dichotomies but overlays, more similar than they are different. Maintaining these distinctions is a compulsive act that reveals the neurotic bases of language. Rivera Garza has a lot of fun undermining distinctions, dragging the contents of her novel over them in one direction or another, or, especially, leaving them suspended on the polyvalent point of maximum ambiguity, “this threshold where one state ended and the next is unable to begin.” The characters show themselves to be, and discover themselves to be, copies, false copies, copies separated from their originals by time or by the meanings attributed to them by others. Amparo Dávila, transgressing the border between fiction and actuality, is forced to defend her authenticity and authorship when made aware of another, older, ‘truer’ Amparo Dávila (who eventually reveals herself to be dead, to be Disappearance itself). The narrator is told by the women who are staying in his house that they know his secret: that he too is a woman. He strenuously denies this but is compelled to keep checking his genitals to reassure himself, increasingly unconvincingly he tries and fails to defend his masculinity, and eventually ceases to deny her femaleness. The narrator is pushed by the events of the novel into an ambiguous zone in which distinctions do not apply, a zone which is both hazardous and liberating. “We live on terrain that bore only a very remote resemblance to life. Our irreality and our lack of evidence not only constituted a prison but also a radical form of freedom.”

NEW RELEASES

Blush by Jack Robinson, with photographs by Natalia Zagórska-Thomas     $36
A blush is a gulp, a glitch, a stammer, a flutter, a flinch. A blush is hot. A blush is an index of confusion. A blush, according to Darwin, is "the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions". This essay by Jack Robinson, exploring the cultural and social history of the blush from the 18th century to the present, is illustrated with witty and often unsettling images by Natalia Zagórska-Thomas.
>> See some of Zagórska-Thomas's work. 

Māui Street my Morgan Godfrey           $15
"Everyone lives a messy, unusual life. There is no normal. The sooner our politics understands this, the better off we will all be." Morgan Godfrey's incisive thinking and eschewing of easy label-based thinking has brought him to the forefront of rethinking our social and political paradigms. This book brings together some of the sharpest and best of his writing. 

Just Kids (Illustrated edition) by Patti Smith       $78
Smith's revered account of living in New York with Robert Mapplethorpe as the 1960s pushed itself into the 1970s is here presented in a beautiful hardback edition, full of fascinating photographs and illustrations.

 Fight for the Forests: The pivotal campaigns that saved New Zealand's native forests by Paul Bensemann         $70
The greatest success stories of the modern environmental movement in New Zealand were the public campaigns to save our native forests, beginning in the 1960s with the battle to stop Lake Manapouri being drowned. By 2000, all the significant lowland forest in South Westland had become part of a World Heritage Area, the beech forests of the West Coast had largely been protected, Paparoa National Park had been established, the magnificent podocarp forests of Pureora and Whirinaki in the central North Island had been saved from the chainsaw, and many other smaller areas of forest had been included into the conservation estate. Fight for the Forest tells how a group of young activists became aware of government plans to mill vast areas of West Coast beech forest, and began campaigning to halt this. From small beginnings, a much larger movement grew, mainly centred around the work of the Native Forests Action Council, who drew public support and changed the course of environmental history. 

Emmett and Caleb by Karen Hottois and Delphine Renon     $28
Emmett and Caleb and different creatures and they like to do things in different ways, but they live next door to each other and they are the best sort of friends. This book is about the experiences they share in just one year. "Emmett slid a single sheet of blank paper under Caleb's door. He whispered through the keyhole: 'My poem is invisible to the eye!' Caleb read Emmett's invisible poem. There were no crossings out, no spelling mistakes."

The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a global world by Maya Jasanoff        $28
Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, and a communications revolution: Conrad's portrayal of these forces the dawn of the twentieth century make him, in this new interpretation, a prophet of globalisation. 
"An extraordinary and profoundly ambitious book, little short of a masterpiece." - Guardian

Dante's Divine Comedy: A journey without end by Ian Thomson         $40
A very enjoyable survey of the ongoing life of Dante's masterpiece and its influence on literature, art, film, &c. Well illustrated, too. 
>>Inferno (1911).

Landfall 236              $30
Results and winning essay from the Landfall Essay Competition 2018; Results from Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize 2018; ARTISTS: John Z Robinson, Justin Spiers, Susan Te Kahurangi King; WRITERS Philip Armstrong, Jane Arthur, Tusiata Avia, Antonia Bale, Tony Beyer, Victor Billot, Madeleine Child, Thom Conroy, Jodie Dalgleish, Doc Drumheller, Breton Dukes, Ciaran Fox, David Gregory, Michael Hall, René Harrison, Siobhan Harvey, Trevor Hayes, Kerry Hines, Joy Holley, Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, Megan Kitching, Jessica Le Bas, Therese Lloyd, Jess MacKenzie, Frankie McMillan, Alice Miller, Michael Mintrom, Lissa Moore, James Norcliffe, Heidi North, Jilly O’Brien, Vincent O’Sullivan, Aiwa Pooamorn, John Prins, Lindsay Rabbitt, essa may ranapiri, Sudha Rao, Richard Reeve, Harry Ricketts, Alan Roddick, Derek Schulz, Di Starrenburg, Jillian Sullivan, John Summers, Jasmine Taylor, Angela Trolove, Iain Twiddy, Bryan Walpert, Susan Wardell, Rose Whitau, C.A.J. Williams, Briar Wood, Helen Yong; reviews.

Granta 145: Ghosts        $28
Ghosts: the ghosts of our past selves, the shadows of past injuries, the ghosts of history, the ghosts in the machine. André Aciman remembers Rome. Ahmet Altan writes from prison in Turkey. Bernard Cooper on Ambien and sleep-eating. Maggie O’Farrell on living with chronic back pain. Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad, a companion to his epic Life and Fate. Amos Oz in conversation with Shira Hadad. Inigo Thomas on the fall of Singapore. PLUS  NEW FICTION from Anne Carson, Steven Dunn, Sheila Heti, Eugene Lim, Sandra Newman, Maria Reva and Jess Row; POETRY from Cortney Lamar Charleston and Jana Prikryl; PHOTOGRAPHY from Monika Bulaj, with an introduction by Janine di Giovanni.

Japan Story: In search of a nation, 1850 to the present by Christopher Harding         $60
A fascinating, surprising account of Japan's culture, from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid 19th century to the present, through the eyes of people who always had their doubts about modernity, who greeted it not with the confidence and grasping ambition of Japan's familiar modernisers and nationalists, but with resistance, conflict, distress. 

Insomnia by Marina Benjamin          $35
Instead of viewing insomnia as a disorder, Benjamin sees it as an existential state, a state with experiences and accomplishments and possibilities that could not otherwise be reached. 
>>How she learned to stop worrying and love insomnia. 
>> Siding with the dark.

Brick Who Found Herself in Architecture by Joshua David Stein and Julia Rothman      $25
When Brick was just a baby, tall buildings amazed her. Her mother said, "Great things begin with small bricks. Look around and you'll see." Brick sets off to visit famous brick buildings around the world. Where will she find her place?

 The Penguin Classics Book by Henry Eliot          $75
Since 1946 the Penguin Classics series have provided affordable access to 4000 years of world literature in accessible but authoritative editions. This book is a sumptuous guide to the range, its contributors and the designs. 

China Dream by Ma Jian        $37
In seven dream-like episodes, Ma Jian, the 'Chinese Solzhenitsyn', charts the psychological disintegration of a Chinese provincial leader who is haunted by nightmares of his violent past.

The Oblique Place by Caterina Pascual Söderbaum     $35
The discovery of photographs in an album ­- of her Spanish grandfather who joined Hitler's Wehrmacht and her father in the uniform of Franco's army - led Caterina Pascual Söderbaum to explore her family's links to - and involvement in - some of the most abhorrent passages of twentieth-century history. What was the extent of her family's involvement, and what what the extent to which this involvement was hidden after the fact? Why do the threads she follows lead to the Austrian Schloss Hartheim extermination 'clinic'. 
>> A dark Nazi past. 

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, And other arguments for economic independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee        $40
The book suggests that unregulated capitalism is bad for women, and that, if we adopt some ideas from socialism, women will have better lives. If done properly, socialism leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance, and, yes, even better sex. If you like the idea of such outcomes, this book will show how we might change things. If you are dubious because you don't understand why capitalism as an economic system is uniquely bad for women, and if you doubt that there could ever be anything good about socialism, this book will provide some illumination. 

Little Wise Wolf by Gijs Van der Hammen and Hanneke Siemensma      $28
Little Wise Wolf is so busy learning from books that he hasn't time for others. When the king falls ill and Little Wise Wolf is called to his bedside, he will need not only his book learning but the help of others if he is to travel to the capital and provide a cure. 

Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau       $28
On the edge of Fort de France, the capital of Martinique, squats a shanty town. It goes by the name of Texaco. One dawn, a stranger arrives - an urban planner, bearing news. Texaco is to be razed to the ground. And so he is lead to Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the ancient keeper of Texaco's history, who invites her guest to take a seat and begins the true story of all that is to be lost.
"One of the major fictional achievements of our century." - The Times

Middle England by Jonathan Coe         $37

A sharp, bittersweet novel set in the Midlands in the approaches to Brexit. 

It All Adds Up: The story of people and mathematics by Mickael Launay       $37
"Fascinating." - Simon Winchester

Filming the Colonial Past: The New Zealand Wars on screen by Annabel Cooper        $50
Representation of defining events in New Zealand's history have changed in parallel with other cultural and political developments. 

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon          $40
A young woman at an elite American university is drawn into a cult's acts of terrorism.
"A dark, absorbing story of how first love can be as intoxicating and dangerous as religious fundamentalism." - New York Times Book Review

"Religion, politics, and love collide in this powerful novel reminiscent of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, with menace and mystery lurking in every corner." - People Magazine

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham           $40
Now a graphic novel!

Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro's Cuba by Sarah Rainsford        $43
Sixty years ago, Graham Greene watched as the Cuban revolution unfolded and Batista's regime collapsed. Now, as the Castro era comes to a close, Sarah Rainsford, formerly the BBC's 'woman in Havana', reports on the lives shaped by Fidel's giant social experiment and the feelings of a nation as his brother Raul steps down.

In the Restaurant by Christoph Ribbat      $25

The deliciously cosmopolitan story of the restaurant, from eighteenth-century Paris to El Bulli. What does eating out tell us about who we are?

The Crimes of Grindelwald: The original screenplay by J.K. Rowling       $40

Fantastic. 

A New Way of Seeing: The history of art in 57 works by Kelly Grovier       $65

How can small details 'open' works of art for the viewer? 

Rage Becomes Her: The power of women's anger by Soraya Chemaly     $38

Why repress it? 

Nothing is Real: 'The Beatles were underrated' and other sweeping statements about pop by David Hepworth         $40

Why do we like pop music? Just what is our relationship with it? Can we take pop seriously without draining the life out of it? Of all unimportant things, is pop music the most important? 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A puzzle adventure by Aleksandra Artymowska      $40
Underwater puzzles! Underwater mazes! Shipwrecks! Submarines! Giant squid! A huge amount of fun (even on dry land).