Thursday 1 April 2021

 NEW RELEASES

Baby Meets Bird by Kate Muir         $20
A beautiful high-contrast board book introducing various native birds of Aotearoa. 

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint            $35
As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur—Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother—demands blood every year. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods—drawing their attention can cost you everything. In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition? Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. 
Ghostland: In search of a country by Edward Parnell            $28
Parnell goes in search of the 'sequestered places' of the British Isles: lonely moors, moss-covered cemeteries, stark shores and folkloric woodlands. He explores how these landscapes conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema, from the ghost stories and weird fiction of M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to the children's fantasy novels of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper; from W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift's Waterland to the 'folk horror' film The Wicker Man.
Te Matau a Maui: Fishhooks, fishing and fisheries in New Zealand by Chris Paulin            $48
Te Matau a Maui discusses the form and function of the traditional Maori fishhook, customary fishing, and development of commercial fishing in New Zealand since European settlement (including the adoption of the rotating hook design as a re-discovery of the innovative and highly effective Maori hook design by present day commercial long-line fisheries), and changes in Maori lifestyle associated with the increasing availability of European agricultural cultivars and domestic animals in the nineteenth century, and urbanisation in the twentieth century that led to a decline in Maori fishing activity and the loss of indigenous knowledge.

The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, revolution and resilience, 500 years of women's self-portraits by Jennifer Higgie            $38
Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West have always made art was rarely cited as a possibility. Yet they have, often against tremendous odds, from laws and religion to the pressures of family and public disapproval.
"A bewitching, invigorating history of women artists, the work they've made and the impossibly hard conditions in which it was produced. I can't think of a more satisfying riposte to anyone who asks why there have been no great women artists than to present them with this incandescent book." —Olivia Laing
A History of Islam in 21 Women by Hossein Kamaly           $25
Khadija was the first believer, to whom the Prophet Muhammad often turned for advice. At a time when strongmen quickly seized power from any female Muslim ruler, Arwa of Yemen reigned alone for five decades. In nineteenth-century Russia, Mukhlisa Bubi championed the rights of women and girls, and became the first Muslim woman judge in modern history. After the Gestapo took down a Resistance network in Paris, British spy Noor Inayat Khan found herself the only undercover radio operator left in that city. 
Every Day : My Darling Lemon Thyme by Emma Galloway           $60
Spiced pumpkin snacking cake, Pea, mint + halloumi fritters, Mushroom + lentil lasagne, and Roasted strawberry + ginger 'ice cream' are among the 100 nourishing, simple-to-make, delicious vegetarian and gluten-free recipes celebrated in Emma Galloway's third book from her home kitchen.

The Invisible Land by Hubert Mingarelli           $28
Dinslaken, Germany. July 1945. The war is over, and the allied forces are beginning to assess the damage. Among them, is a war photographer. As the rest of the press corps return home, he finds himself reluctant to leave and, in the company of the young and sensitive driver he has been assigned, he sets out to photograph ordinary German people in front of their homes. As the pair continue their journey, it becomes clear that the young driver has his own reasons for not wishing to return home.

Aesthetics and Politics by Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Georg Lukács            $28
Key texts from the 1930s—1950s on the twentieth-century controversies over the place and interpretation of literature and art, with an afterword by Frederic Jameson showing their continued relevance today. 

Four Hundred Souls: A community history of African America, 1619—2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain           $40
A chronological account of four hundred years of Black America as told by ninety of America's leading Black writers. 

Black Hole Survival Guide by Janna Levin, illustrated by Lia Halloran          $37
Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit.
In 1945, Europe lay in ruins - its cities and towns destroyed by conflict, its economies crippled, its societies ripped apart by war and violence. In the years that followed, Europeans tried to make sense of what had happened—and to forge a new understanding of civilisation that would bring peace and progress to a broken continent. As they wrestled with questions great and small—from the legacy of colonialism to workplace etiquette—institutions and shared ideals emerged which still shape our world today. 
Asylum Road by Olivia Sudjic               $33
A couple drive from London to coastal Provence. Anya is preoccupied with what she feels is a relationship on the verge; unequal, precarious. Luke, reserved, stoic, gives away nothing. As the sun sets one evening, he proposes, and they return to London engaged. But planning a wedding does little to settle Anya's unease. As a child, she escaped from Sarajevo, and the idea of security is as alien now as it was then. When social convention forces Anya to return, she begins to change. The past she sought to contain for as long as she can remember resurfaces, and the hot summer builds to a startling climax.
"I will go wherever she takes me. A phenomenal book." —Daisy Johnson
"A brilliant, scalding novel: sharp, intricately layered, impossible to forget." —Megan Hunter
Box of Bones by Marina Cohen         $18
Twelve-year-old Kallie despises nonsense. She believes there's a rational explanation for everything, despite the good-natured prodding of her Grandpa Jess, who takes her to frivolous wastes of time like their town's local Festival of Fools. There, Kallie meets a faceless man (must be some kind of mask) who gives her an odd wooden puzzle box (must be some kind of gimmick). Intrigued, Kallie sets to work on unlocking its secrets and lets something out. From here Kallie's life begins to entangle with another world, a world where Liah, a young bone carver, journeys with her master to sell wares to a wicked Queen. The sights, sounds, and spells of Liah's world are beginning to leak into Kallie's, and if Kallie can't decipher the meaning of her own story, 'the end' might be far from happy.
Utsuwa: Japanese objects for everyday use by Kylie Johnson and Tiffany Johnson            $65
Behind the scenes in the studios of contemporary Japanese craftspeople who draw also on traditional practice. Nicely presented. 

Home Farm Cooking by Catherine Pawson and John Pawson        $70
Moving to the English countryside, and designing and building their house in bucolia, has made the Pawsons rethink and simplify their eating to match. Achieveable recipes for family eating and for entertaining, with beautiful photographs of the house. 

The Wilder Years: Selected poems by David Eggleton            $40
The Poet Laureate selects from his nine collections published over 35 years. A pleasing and substantial hardback, with a cover illustration by Nigel Brown. 

The Desolations of Devil's Acre ('Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children' #6) by Ransom Riggs        $30
The last thing Jacob Portman saw before the world went dark was a terrible, familiar face. Suddenly, he and Noor are back in the place where everything began—his grandfather's house. Jacob doesn't know how they escaped from V's loop to find themselves in Florida. But he does know one thing for certain: Caul has returned. After a narrow getaway from a blood-thirsty hollow, Jacob and Noor reunite with Miss Peregrine and the peculiar children in Devil's Acre. The Acre is being plagued by desolations—weather fronts of ash and blood and bone—a terrible portent of Caul's amassing army. Risen from the Library of Souls and more powerful than ever, Caul and his apocalyptic agenda seem unstoppable. Only one hope remains—deliver Noor to the meeting place of the seven prophesied ones. If they can decipher its secret location. Jacob and his friends will face deadly enemies and race through history's most dangerous loops in the final adventure in 'Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children' series.  
Together by Luke Adam Hawker         $40
"Dark clouds were looming in the distance. We watched them gather, and we wondered… When will it come? How long will it last?" A man and his dog face uncertain times. Together we will get through this. A beautifully drawn book about vulnerability and resilience, and about the bond strengthened when facing challenges together. A message of hope in the time of the pandemic. 
>>About the book. 
>>Hawker's instagram gallery





No comments:

Post a Comment