Take your pick from these
NEW RELEASES
The Golden Cockerel, And other writings by Juan Rulfo $35
"A necromancer who is as surefooted among the dead as the living, the peerless Mexican legend Juan Rulfo made into book-flesh the elusive smoke and fire of his country, where the surreal is everyday, and the everyday is surreal: to read him is to imbibe Mexico. The legendary title novella - published here in English for the first time on the 100th anniversary of his birth - is a lost masterwork." - Barbara Epler
"To read Rulfo's stories is to inhabit Mexico and, in the process, to have Mexico inhabit you." - Oscar Casares
"You can read Rulfo's slight but dense body of work in a couple of days, but that represents only a first step into territories that are yet to be definitively mapped. Their exploration is one of the more remarkable journeys in literature." - The Guardian
"My profound exploration of Juan Rulfo's work was what finally showed me the way to continue with my writing." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Great Dixter Cookbook by Aaron Bertelsen $60
New Zealander Bertelsen is gardener and cook at Great Dixter, the house designed by Edwin Lutyens (upon a 15th century remnant) with gardens in the Arts and Crafts style by Christopher LLoyd. This book is a delight both to gardeners, with hands-on seasonal tips, and to cooks, with very appetising versions of classic dishes, many with a distinctly New Zealand flavour, using many of the ingredients you may have just harvested from the garden. The book is very attractively presented, with quietly beautiful photographs. One of the nicest cookbooks of the year.
Nowherelands: An atlas of vanished countries, 1840-1975 by Bjorn Berge $40
Where do countries go when they cease to exist? What are the histories of Biafra, New Brunswick, Labuan, Tannu Tuva, Inini and Eastern Karelia? Each of these defunct states issued their own stamps. Berge takes us to each and shows us some of the lesser-known dead ends of history.
Brewed: A guide to the beer of New Zealand by Jules van Costello $40
A new edition of the definitive guide to the plethora of excellent beers currently produced in New Zealand.
>>> Come and listen to Jules talk (and taste some beer): Monday 25th September, 1 PM @ VOLUME. See you then.
New 'Object Lessons'
This sharp and thoughtful series reveals the vast weights of meaning that pivot on everyday objects. We have just received six new titles:
Veil by Rafia Zakaria $22
Sock by Kim Adrian $23
Eye Chart by William Germano $21
Tumor by Anna Leahy $22
Jet Lag by Christopher J. Lee $22
Whale Song by Margaret Grebowicz $22
Two Kitchens: Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy $60
Very nicely written and full of insights into Italian culinary cultures, Roddy's book also contains 120 authentic and approachable recipes that are insights in themselves.
"Rachel Roddy describing how to boil potatoes would inspire me. I want to live under her kitchen table. There are very, very few who possess such a supremely uncluttered culinary voice as hers, just now." - Simon Hopkinson
>> Yum.
Melville: A novel by Jean Giono $38
A beautifully written mix of fiction, biography, philosophy and criticism, originally written to introduce French readers to the author of Moby-Dick, which Giono had translated for Gallimard, now at last translated into English.
>> Melville continues to inspire and fascinate other writers.
Egon Schiele: Drawing the world by Klaus Albrecht Schroder $95
As well as providing an excellent survey of the artist's distinctive work, Schroder helps the reader to decipher the allegorical nature of many of them and to appreciate the passions and ambivalences that drove the artist.
Universe: Exploring the astronomical world by Paul Murdin $90
A sumptuous collection of 300 images giving an overview of humanity's conceptions of the cosmos, from the earliest times to the latest discoveries and imaging techniques.
>> See some sample pages here.
Some possible Solutions by Helen Phillips $23
Stories in which the ordinary opens suddenly up into the surreal and in which the surreal opens up into the ordinary, from the author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat.
"This stunning collection establishes Helen Philips as one of the most interesting and talented writers working today. In atmosphere and setting, her stories are often reminiscent of Kafka and Atwood, yet her voice and style are entirely her own. A fascinating, unsettling, and beautifully written work." - Emily St John Mandel
"Comparisons to Margaret Atwood and Karen Russell would not be unjust, nor would they be helpful; Phillips is carving her own, messier territory. As beautifully as she embraces and executes the fantastical, she's even better when the surreal remains a mere lurking possibility." - New York Times
Crocodile Tears by Andre Francois $30
"Crocodiles have funny toothbrushes. And they love warm baths. They carry you out on the lake, pull you to town, and take you to school. They know how to tell good stories. But if you step on the tail of a crocodile, it will get terribly angry, and it will bite you. Then it will pretend to be very sorry."
>> The book described by Quentin Blake.
The Book of Emma Reyes, A memoir in correspondence by Emma Reyes $38
Reyes was born into extreme poverty in the slums of Bogota, escaped a convent for orphans at nineteen and became an artist and intellectual of the Kahlo/Rivera circle, and a writer much admired by Marquez.
"Some works of art feel more unlikely, more miraculous than others, and Emma Reyes' remarkable epistolary memoir is one of them. I don't think I've read many books of such power and grace, or that pack such an emotional wallop in so short a space. The very fact that this book exists is extraordinary. Everything about it . . . is astonishing." - Daniel Alarcon
"No other book I've ever read has left me so deeply involved with its author, and so grateful for that involvement." - Diana Athill
The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead $40
Moorhead tracked down her father's black-sheep cousin in Mexico and recorded much of the artist and writer's life about which information is not otherwise available. One of the key but woefully neglected Surrealists, Carrington took refuge in the Surrealist enclave in Mexico, where she was also involved in the women's liberation movement of the 1970s.
>> The lost Surrealist.
>> Carrington @ VOLUME.
The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins $33
Stories evoking the experience of prisoner, written by an author serving life imprisonment for murder (without parole).
"Compelling and real, remarkable for its modesty, realism and humanity. Dawkins has produced a book that is not only moving and genuine, but genuinely important; one that, without resorting to shock tactics, powerfully conveys the perverse inhumanity of mass incarceration." - Guardian
"Unlike any other short story collection I've ever read. The Graybar Hotel is not a 'prison-book.' It is a mirror, held up to our culture of incarceration. There is a current of electricity running through this book, a shocking voltage of truth." - Nickolas Butler
America: The cookbook by Gabrielle Langholtz $70
An encyclopedic survey of 50 states with contributions from over 100 chefs and food writers, absorbing and recombining countless ethnic cuisines into the vast panoply (and is there any panoply that is not vast?) of over 800 dishes of all sorts.
>> Have a look inside.
The Secret Life of the Pencil: Great creatives and their pencils by Alex Hammond and Mike Tinney $22
Is there a mainline from the fingers to the brain? The pencil is undergoing a resurgence in designer, artist and writer circles. This book is a collection of portraits of the very various pencils used by creative people.
Peggy Guggenheim: The shock of the modern by Francine Prose $33
Much insight into the defiantly unconventional art collector whose attention helped many the 20th century artists enter the modern canon and the galleries (often via her bed).
"Subtle and attentive." - Guardian
>> Art addict.
Apollo by Zack Scott $45
A splendid infographic guide to the programme of Apollo missions, their failures and triumphs.
The Freddie Stories by Lynda Barry $35
Tales of adolescence in all its awfulness and vulnerability, with Freddie's imagination providing the only escape, collected from Barry's ongoing 'Ernie Pook's Comeek'.
Acid Trip: Travels in the world of vinegar by Michael Harlan Turkell $50
Vinegar is all the rage, with an exciting repertoire of flavours and health benefits. This "richly narrated" cookbook is complete with recipes from chefs around the world, interviews with artisanal producers and instructions for making your own vinegar.
Hope Without Optimism by Terry Eagleton $33
What is the history of hope? What distinguishes hope from other positive-facing concepts? Eagleton considers Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope, and the various sub-species of hope prevalent in the Stoics, Aquinas, Marx and Kierkegaard. What are hope's prerequisites, and how can hope concepts help us understand ethics and religion?
The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis $60
150 varied, delicious and totally authentic dishes, from simple breakfasts and street food to celebratory feasts. Nicely presented.
>> Sample pages.
Huia Short Stories 12: Contemporary Maori fiction $30
Short stories and extracts from novels, from the Pikihuia Awards, showcasing a diversity of established and emerging talent.
Plywood: A material story by Christopher Wilk $65
Plywood is an astonishingly versatile material, made by gluing together layers of cross-grained veneers, creating a pliable board that can be stronger than solid wood. Stylish and practical, plywood offers huge possibilities for experimental design, and it has been used to make a wide range of products, from aeroplanes, boats and automobiles to architecture and furniture. This book traces the history of plywood from its use in 18th-century furniture, through its emergence as an industrial product in the 19th century, to a material celebrated by 20th-century modernists such as Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames. An ideal material for the digital age, plywood has become popular again in recent years and is widely used in contemporary design and manufacture.
A People's History of the French Revolution by Eric Hazan $28
A bottom-up history highlighting the struggle for emancipation and the transformative ideals that underpinned the Revolution.
Also new: The French Revolution, From enlightenment to terror by Ian Davidson (also $28). How can idealism go wrong?
The Tunnel Through Time: A new route for an old London journey by Gillian Tindall $38
The modern Crossrail system is just one of the ways London has been crossed from East to West. Tindall makes the journey through many centuries of construction, destruction and renewal.
Venice: A traveller's reader edited by John Julius Norwich $30
It is impossible to visit Venice without writing about it. The writers here selected have, being rather good writers, written about it rather well. A place-by-place tour with Byron, Goethe, Wagner, Casanova, Jan Morris, Robert Browning, Horace Walpole, Mark Twain, Henry James and a host of others for company.
The Econocracy: On the perils of leaving economics to the experts by Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins $30
"Our democracy has gone profoundly wrong. Economists have failed us. Politicians have lied to us. Things must change. This fearless new book will help make it happen." - Owen Jones
International Indigenous Rights in Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Erueti $40
In 2010 New Zealand endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. What are the implications of this for the rights of tangata whenua?
Truth to Power: An inconvenient sequel by Al Gore $40
An urgent call to action to counteract climate change, and also a message of hope. More urgent, even, than An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
Both are also films:
>> An Inconvenient Truth.
>> Truth to Power.
Alcohol/Алкоголь by Damon Murray $45
A compilation of Soviet counter-alcohol propaganda posters and graphic design. How does the vilification of alcohol differ from society to society?
>> Back in the USSR.
The Sleepy Book by Charlotte Zolotow and Vladimir Bobri $33
All animals, and all people, sleep in their own way. This gentle, poetic book is perfect for creating the perfect conditions for a good sleep.
NEW RELEASES
"A necromancer who is as surefooted among the dead as the living, the peerless Mexican legend Juan Rulfo made into book-flesh the elusive smoke and fire of his country, where the surreal is everyday, and the everyday is surreal: to read him is to imbibe Mexico. The legendary title novella - published here in English for the first time on the 100th anniversary of his birth - is a lost masterwork." - Barbara Epler
"To read Rulfo's stories is to inhabit Mexico and, in the process, to have Mexico inhabit you." - Oscar Casares
"You can read Rulfo's slight but dense body of work in a couple of days, but that represents only a first step into territories that are yet to be definitively mapped. Their exploration is one of the more remarkable journeys in literature." - The Guardian
"My profound exploration of Juan Rulfo's work was what finally showed me the way to continue with my writing." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
New Zealander Bertelsen is gardener and cook at Great Dixter, the house designed by Edwin Lutyens (upon a 15th century remnant) with gardens in the Arts and Crafts style by Christopher LLoyd. This book is a delight both to gardeners, with hands-on seasonal tips, and to cooks, with very appetising versions of classic dishes, many with a distinctly New Zealand flavour, using many of the ingredients you may have just harvested from the garden. The book is very attractively presented, with quietly beautiful photographs. One of the nicest cookbooks of the year.
Where do countries go when they cease to exist? What are the histories of Biafra, New Brunswick, Labuan, Tannu Tuva, Inini and Eastern Karelia? Each of these defunct states issued their own stamps. Berge takes us to each and shows us some of the lesser-known dead ends of history.
A new edition of the definitive guide to the plethora of excellent beers currently produced in New Zealand.
>>> Come and listen to Jules talk (and taste some beer): Monday 25th September, 1 PM @ VOLUME. See you then.
This sharp and thoughtful series reveals the vast weights of meaning that pivot on everyday objects. We have just received six new titles:
Veil by Rafia Zakaria $22
Sock by Kim Adrian $23
Eye Chart by William Germano $21
Tumor by Anna Leahy $22
Jet Lag by Christopher J. Lee $22
Whale Song by Margaret Grebowicz $22
Very nicely written and full of insights into Italian culinary cultures, Roddy's book also contains 120 authentic and approachable recipes that are insights in themselves.
"Rachel Roddy describing how to boil potatoes would inspire me. I want to live under her kitchen table. There are very, very few who possess such a supremely uncluttered culinary voice as hers, just now." - Simon Hopkinson
>> Yum.
A beautifully written mix of fiction, biography, philosophy and criticism, originally written to introduce French readers to the author of Moby-Dick, which Giono had translated for Gallimard, now at last translated into English.
>> Melville continues to inspire and fascinate other writers.
As well as providing an excellent survey of the artist's distinctive work, Schroder helps the reader to decipher the allegorical nature of many of them and to appreciate the passions and ambivalences that drove the artist.
A sumptuous collection of 300 images giving an overview of humanity's conceptions of the cosmos, from the earliest times to the latest discoveries and imaging techniques.
>> See some sample pages here.
Stories in which the ordinary opens suddenly up into the surreal and in which the surreal opens up into the ordinary, from the author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat.
"This stunning collection establishes Helen Philips as one of the most interesting and talented writers working today. In atmosphere and setting, her stories are often reminiscent of Kafka and Atwood, yet her voice and style are entirely her own. A fascinating, unsettling, and beautifully written work." - Emily St John Mandel
"Comparisons to Margaret Atwood and Karen Russell would not be unjust, nor would they be helpful; Phillips is carving her own, messier territory. As beautifully as she embraces and executes the fantastical, she's even better when the surreal remains a mere lurking possibility." - New York Times
"Crocodiles have funny toothbrushes. And they love warm baths. They carry you out on the lake, pull you to town, and take you to school. They know how to tell good stories. But if you step on the tail of a crocodile, it will get terribly angry, and it will bite you. Then it will pretend to be very sorry."
>> The book described by Quentin Blake.
Reyes was born into extreme poverty in the slums of Bogota, escaped a convent for orphans at nineteen and became an artist and intellectual of the Kahlo/Rivera circle, and a writer much admired by Marquez.
"Some works of art feel more unlikely, more miraculous than others, and Emma Reyes' remarkable epistolary memoir is one of them. I don't think I've read many books of such power and grace, or that pack such an emotional wallop in so short a space. The very fact that this book exists is extraordinary. Everything about it . . . is astonishing." - Daniel Alarcon
"No other book I've ever read has left me so deeply involved with its author, and so grateful for that involvement." - Diana Athill
Moorhead tracked down her father's black-sheep cousin in Mexico and recorded much of the artist and writer's life about which information is not otherwise available. One of the key but woefully neglected Surrealists, Carrington took refuge in the Surrealist enclave in Mexico, where she was also involved in the women's liberation movement of the 1970s.
>> The lost Surrealist.
>> Carrington @ VOLUME.
Stories evoking the experience of prisoner, written by an author serving life imprisonment for murder (without parole).
"Compelling and real, remarkable for its modesty, realism and humanity. Dawkins has produced a book that is not only moving and genuine, but genuinely important; one that, without resorting to shock tactics, powerfully conveys the perverse inhumanity of mass incarceration." - Guardian
"Unlike any other short story collection I've ever read. The Graybar Hotel is not a 'prison-book.' It is a mirror, held up to our culture of incarceration. There is a current of electricity running through this book, a shocking voltage of truth." - Nickolas Butler
An encyclopedic survey of 50 states with contributions from over 100 chefs and food writers, absorbing and recombining countless ethnic cuisines into the vast panoply (and is there any panoply that is not vast?) of over 800 dishes of all sorts.
>> Have a look inside.
Is there a mainline from the fingers to the brain? The pencil is undergoing a resurgence in designer, artist and writer circles. This book is a collection of portraits of the very various pencils used by creative people.
Much insight into the defiantly unconventional art collector whose attention helped many the 20th century artists enter the modern canon and the galleries (often via her bed).
"Subtle and attentive." - Guardian
>> Art addict.
A splendid infographic guide to the programme of Apollo missions, their failures and triumphs.
Tales of adolescence in all its awfulness and vulnerability, with Freddie's imagination providing the only escape, collected from Barry's ongoing 'Ernie Pook's Comeek'.
Vinegar is all the rage, with an exciting repertoire of flavours and health benefits. This "richly narrated" cookbook is complete with recipes from chefs around the world, interviews with artisanal producers and instructions for making your own vinegar.
What is the history of hope? What distinguishes hope from other positive-facing concepts? Eagleton considers Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope, and the various sub-species of hope prevalent in the Stoics, Aquinas, Marx and Kierkegaard. What are hope's prerequisites, and how can hope concepts help us understand ethics and religion?
150 varied, delicious and totally authentic dishes, from simple breakfasts and street food to celebratory feasts. Nicely presented.
>> Sample pages.
Short stories and extracts from novels, from the Pikihuia Awards, showcasing a diversity of established and emerging talent.
Plywood is an astonishingly versatile material, made by gluing together layers of cross-grained veneers, creating a pliable board that can be stronger than solid wood. Stylish and practical, plywood offers huge possibilities for experimental design, and it has been used to make a wide range of products, from aeroplanes, boats and automobiles to architecture and furniture. This book traces the history of plywood from its use in 18th-century furniture, through its emergence as an industrial product in the 19th century, to a material celebrated by 20th-century modernists such as Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames. An ideal material for the digital age, plywood has become popular again in recent years and is widely used in contemporary design and manufacture.
A bottom-up history highlighting the struggle for emancipation and the transformative ideals that underpinned the Revolution.
Also new: The French Revolution, From enlightenment to terror by Ian Davidson (also $28). How can idealism go wrong?
The modern Crossrail system is just one of the ways London has been crossed from East to West. Tindall makes the journey through many centuries of construction, destruction and renewal.
It is impossible to visit Venice without writing about it. The writers here selected have, being rather good writers, written about it rather well. A place-by-place tour with Byron, Goethe, Wagner, Casanova, Jan Morris, Robert Browning, Horace Walpole, Mark Twain, Henry James and a host of others for company.
"Our democracy has gone profoundly wrong. Economists have failed us. Politicians have lied to us. Things must change. This fearless new book will help make it happen." - Owen Jones
In 2010 New Zealand endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. What are the implications of this for the rights of tangata whenua?
An urgent call to action to counteract climate change, and also a message of hope. More urgent, even, than An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
Both are also films:
>> An Inconvenient Truth.
>> Truth to Power.
A compilation of Soviet counter-alcohol propaganda posters and graphic design. How does the vilification of alcohol differ from society to society?
>> Back in the USSR.
All animals, and all people, sleep in their own way. This gentle, poetic book is perfect for creating the perfect conditions for a good sleep.