This summer, discover new art, be inspired, add to your reference shelves; get your imagination fired up for your next building project or craft pursuit; or simply enjoy the sheer pleasure of leafing through a beautiful book filled with intriguing images and ideas.
This is your opportunity to pile up a selection of superb books on art, architecture, photography, craft, and design, from both Aotearoa and overseas — all at satisfyingly reduced prices.
Judging from previous years, our advice is: be quick — there are single copies only of most titles and many of them cannot be reordered (even at full price).
Build your art library or get someone a little inspiration for the coming year!
Read our latest newsletter. Find out about our new online book group. Stock up on some summer reading. Choose from excellent selection of art and architecture books at very reduced prices. Find out what we’ve been reading. Make your selections from new books that have just come out of the carton. Enter our giveaway competition.
12 January 2024
Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson
Reading aloud is always a pleasure and listening is even better, especially when you are revisiting a favourite book. I first discovered the Moomins in the sale bin of the Stoke Library (when it was housed in the little wooden building). It was a 5-cent book and I thought it was magical. I knew nothing at that time about the Moomin series nor the author Tove Janssen, and didn’t know I would meet someone who had grown up on these Finnish classics, and that then I would discover the rest of the Moomin books. My copy of Moominsummer Madness was a well-read paperback with the usual library markings of a deaccessioned book, some dog ears, a few pages taped in, and the usual library stamps declaring cancelled. The copies we keep in stock at VOLUME are lovely hardbacks with the original illustrations, wonderful Moomin Valley maps, and gorgeous endpapers. In Moominsummer Madness, the family wakes up to a flooded valley and the water keeps rising. They move to the roof and make a getaway in the boat, along with the table and chairs, a supply of tea, and a few provisions. Fortunately, they come across a new home to make into a temporary abode. It’s a rather strange place. One wall is missing. Here hallways come to dead ends and some doors open to nowhere. There are moving curtains and painted scenery that changes unexpectedly and mysterious rooms filled with things that don’t quite work as one would expect. There is a strange sound coming from one corner of the main room and the owner of the mumbling voice won’t show themselves. Despite all this, the Moomin family, along with the irrepressible Little My, her scolding sister the Mymble’s daughter, the lamentable Misabel, and the philosophical Womper, make the best of the situation. All is going along well, until Little My falls through the trapdoor and disappears into the water, Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden are left abandoned in a tree during an overnight camping expedition, and the strange building floats away after the contemptuous stage manager Emma heaves out the ‘anchor’. As the Moomins find out about theatres and acting and plan a play, Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden make their way to land, only to be arrested for a crime they didn’t commit. The culprit of this ‘crime’ has just taken on 24 small woodies and rescued Little My. The culprit being the freewheeling Snufkin. Keep an eye out for glowing Hattifattners, dramas on the water and on the stage, and wonderful characters who will become your best friends. If you haven’t read the Moomin stories yet, you are missing out. And yes, it all works out well for everyone, almost.
This summer discover new art, be inspired, and add to your reference shelves; get your imagination fired up for your next building project or craft pursuit; or simply enjoy the sheer pleasure of leafing through a beautiful book filled with intriguing images and ideas.
This is your opportunity to pile up a selection of superb books on art, architecture, photography, craft, and design, from both Aotearoa and overseas — all at satisfyingly reduced prices. Judging from previous years, our advice is: be quick — there are single copies only of most titles and many of them cannot be reordered (even at full price).
Build your art library or get someone a little inspiration for the coming year.
In our evocatively written Book of the Week, HELD by Anne Michaels (the author of Fugitive Pieces), the past irrupts into the present in ways that are generally but not always unwelcome, shunting the lives of its characters down paths that they had scarcely anticipated. How does this affect not only themselves but those around them, and those descended or who will descend from them? To what extent does memory keep us alive, and to what extent does it prevent us from healing? Can love hold us safe across generations?
A selection of books from our shelves for summer reading.
Click through to find out more:
Summer, Light, and Then Comes the Night
The Summer of Diving (not pictured)
Out of the carton and onto your shelf!
The Beach Activity Book: 99 ideas for activities by the water around Aotearoa New Zeland by Rachel Haydon, illustrated Pippa Keel $35
The 99 activities in this immersive book for children aged 7 to 14 range from experiments and observation to conservation and mindfulness. Developed to inspire curious young minds to explore and appreciate our beaches, lakes, rivers and streams, it is also designed to be taken out into natural environments and to be drawn and written in. Written by a children’s learning expert, all sorts of learning styles are recognised, with each activity being open to children who like to draw and those who like to write. The book’s journal-like format and activities that range across the seasons make it a long-term and much treasured companion. Mātauranga Māori concepts and the theme of nature connectedness are an integral part of the activities.
Titus Angus White and the Māori Captives on Waitematā Harbour, 1863/4 by Barbarar Francis $45
In November 1863 at the battle of Rangiriri, over 180 Māori defenders were taken prisoner. They were marched up the Great South Road to Ōtāhuhu, from where they were transferred onto the Waitematā Harbour. There they were held captive on the prison ship Marion for nearly eight months, supervised by their bilingual Pākehā Superintendent Titus Angus White, who was also sent to retrieve them after their subsequent escape from Kawau Island. This book is the story of Titus Angus White and the men he ended up supervising as they were imprisoned only 600 metres off the Port of Auckland. It is also the wider story of the invasion of the Waikato and the circumstances that led to the establishment of New Zealand’s largest ever floating prison.
“This work navigates the colonial propaganda and attempts to provide an objective perspective on a tumultuous time in New Zealand history – Barbara Francis has been meticulous in collecting, collating and connecting information to produce a detailed narrative around the work and thinking of Titus Angus White.” – Dr Mike Ross, Ngāti Hauā.
Granta 164: Last Notes edited by Sigrid Rausing $33
Generators, rockets, sirens and the clatter of chess – from war in Ukraine to construction booms in Phnom Penh and Cairo; from music to the experience of living in partial silence, this issue is an attempt to get at what we hear rather than what we see. Featuring non-fiction by Lydia Davis, Brian Dillon, Wiam El-Tamami, Peter Englund (tr. Sigrid Rausing), Diana Evans, Tabitha Lasley, Adam Mars-Jones, Maartje Scheltens, Anjan Sundaram, Y-Dang Troeung, Ed Vulliamy and Ada Wordsworth; Fiction by Nicola Barker, Mazen Maarouf (tr. Mazen Maarouf with Laura Susijn), Adèle Rosenfeld (tr. Jeffrey Zuckerman) and Brywan Washington poetry by Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Martha Sprackland; Photography by Suzie Howell (introduced by A.K. Blakemore), James Berrington and Sama Beydoun.
On the Tip of a Wave: How Ai Weiwei’s art is changing the tide by Joanna Ho and Cátia Chien $32
Told in Joanna Ho's lyrical writing, this is the story that shines a light on Ai Weiwei and his journey, specifically how the ‘Life Jackets’ exhibit at Konzerthaus Berlin came to be. As conditions for refugees worsened, Ai Weiwei was inspired by the discarded life jackets on the shores of Lesbos to create a bold installation that would grab the attention of the world. Cátia Chien portrays the intricate life of Ai Weiwei with inspirations from woodblock printing and a special emphasis on the color orange, the same color of the life jackets that became a beacon of hope. Through Chien’s dynamic illustrations, we see how Ai Weiwei became the activist and artist he is today while proving the power of art within humanity.
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li $27
Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnes, receives the news in America, far from the French countryside where the two girls were raised — the place that Fabienne helped Agnes escape ten years ago. Now, Agnes is free to tell her story. As children in a backwater town, they'd built a private world, invisible to everyone but themselves — until Fabienne hatched the plan that would change everything, launching Agnes on an epic trajectory through fame, fortune, and terrible loss. A dark, ravishing tale winding from the rural provinces to Paris, from an English boarding school, to the quiet Pennsylvania home where Agnes can live without her past. Now in paperback.
”Wonderfully strange and alive.” —Jon McGregor
”Li has become one of our finest living authors: Her elegant metaphysics never elide the blood and maggots . The most propulsively entertaining of Li's novels, an existential fable that illuminates the tangle of motives behind our writing of stories.” —New York Times
Barcode (‘Object Lessons series) by Jordan Bogost $25
Barcodes are about as ordinary as an object can be. Billions of them are scanned each day and they impact everything from how we shop to how we travel to how the global economy is managed. But few people likely give them more than a second thought. In a way, the barcode's ordinariness is the ultimate symbol of its success. However, behind the mundanity of the barcode lies an important history. Barcodes bridged the gap between physical objects and digital databases and paved the way for the contemporary Internet of Things, the idea to connect all devices to the web. They were highly controversial at points, protested by consumer groups and labour unions, and used as a symbol of dystopian capitalism and surveillance in science fiction and art installations. This book tells the story of the barcode's complicated history and examines how an object so crucial to so many parts of our lives became more ignored and more ordinary as it spread throughout the world.
Magazine (‘Object Lessons’ series) by Jeff Jarvis $25
For a century, magazines were the authors of culture and taste, of intelligence and policy - until they were overthrown by the voices of the public themselves online. Here is a tribute to all that magazines were, from their origins in London and on Ben Franklin's press; through their boom - enabled by new technologies - as creators of a new media aesthetic and a new mass culture; into their opulent days in advertising-supported conglomerates; and finally to their fall at the hands of the internet. This tale is told through the experience of a magazine founder, the creator of Entertainment Weekly at Time Inc., who was also TV critic at TV Guide and People and finally an executive at Condé Nast trying to shepherd its magazines into the digital age.
Dreamhome: Stories of art and shelter by Justin Paton $70
This book reveals how some of today's most exciting artists are reimagining the idea of home for our unsettled times. In his evocative style, Justin Paton investigates a place we all have a stake in — from houses of memory to upturned houses, from haunted houses to light houses, from intimate spaces of shelter to optimistic future communities. Richly illustrated, Dreamhome brings together artworks by twenty-six artists from around the world, as well as diverse contextual imagery that includes family photographs, film stills, architectural drawings, and historical records. Artists include: Michael Parekowhai (Aotearoa); Afshar (Iran/Australia); Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan; Philippines/Australia); Igshaan Adams (South Africa); Phyllida Barlow (UK); Zarina Hashmi (India/USA); Simone Leigh (USA); Tracey Moffatt (Australia); John Prince Siddon (Australia/Walmajarri)
The Wall Between Us by Dan Smith $22
BERLIN 1961. Anja and Monika live opposite each other. They play together every day, with Otto the cat. One night they wake up to bangs and shouts. Soldiers are building a huge barbed wire fence between them. A terrible forever wall that gets longer and higher until it divides the whole city. On the East side, Monika is scared — neighbours are becoming spies and there are secret police everywhere. It's Anja who spots that Otto has found a way across. If he can visit Monika, then perhaps she can too. But Anja gets trapped and there's no safe way back . . . From the author of She Wolf.
Edible Economics: Around the world in seventeen dishes by Ha-Joon Chang $30
For decades, a single, free-market philosophy has dominated global economics. But this intellectual monoculture is bland and unhealthy. Ha-Joon Chang makes challenging economic ideas delicious by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world, using the diverse histories behind familiar food items to explore economic theory. For Chang, chocolate is a lifelong addiction, but more exciting are the insights it offers into postindustrial knowledge economies; and while okra makes Southern gumbo heart-meltingly smooth, it also speaks of capitalism's entangled relationship with freedom. Myth-busting, witty, and thought-provoking, Edible Economics serves up a feast of bold ideas about globalisation, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation, and why carrots need not be orange. It shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: when we understand it, we can adapt and improve it — and better understand our world.
”Excellent. Chang has been working hard at providing an alternative to neoliberalism for two decades; Now he's reached the summit of the profession.” —Dan Davies , Guardian
”Edible Economics is a moveable feast of alternative economic ideas wrapped up in witty stories about food from around the world. Ha-Joon Chang proves yet again that he is one of the most exciting economists at work today.” —Owen Jones
Appliance by J.O. Morgan $26
A highly inventive and and humane novel about our relationship with technology and our addiction to innovation. This is the tale of a new technology, an alternative history that unfolds over many decades. It is a fable told through a constantly shifting cast of characters, all drawn into the world of a machine that slowly alters every life it touches. But in this unending quest for progress, what will happen to the things that make us human- the memories, the fears, the love, the mortality? As we push towards a brave new world, what do we stand to lose? Now in paperback.
Solito by Javier Zamora $30
Young Javier dreams of eating orange sherbet ice cream with his parents in the United States. For this to happen, he must embark on a three-thousand-mile journey alone. It should last only two weeks. But it takes seven. In limbo, Javier learns what people will do to survive - and what they will forfeit to save someone else. This is a memoir of perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, and pointed guns. But it is also a story of tasting tacos for the first time, of who passes you their water jug in the crippling heat, and of longing to be in your mother's arms.
”I don't think I've ever read a memoir which captivated me in so many ways. It was a beautiful book about family, those that we have and those that we make, and the little family that they made on their journey, which was almost sort of Iliad-esque. An epic journey to their loved ones, because they had no choice.” —Jenna Bush Hager
”Crafted with stunning intimacy, you'll feel so close to the boy Zamora was then that you'll think about him long after the book is done. It's impossible not to feel both immersed in and changed by this extraordinary book.” —Los Angeles Times
”An important, beautiful work.: —New York Times Book Review
”Solito is at once blistering and tender, devastating and affirming — it is, quite simply, a revelation, a new landmark in the literature of migration, and in nonfiction writ large.” —Francisco Cantu
The Magic Place by Chris Wormell $20
Clementine works as a slave for her wicked aunt and uncle. But she dreams of a magic place, and she's determined to escape and find it. With the help of a very clever cat, she sets off on an adventure that might just make her dreams come true.
Once a Monster by Robert Dinsdale $38
London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges - searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone. But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It's not the first corpse she's encountered, but by far the strangest. Nearly seven feet tall, the creature has matted hair covering his legs, and on his head are the suggestion of horns. Nell's fellow mudlarks urge her to steal his boots and rifle his pockets, but as she ventures closer the figure draws breath and Nell is forced to make a decision which will change her life forever . A reimagining of the Minotaur legend, set in Victorian London.
Our first newsletter of the year.
Our best wishes to you for 2024! We hope that your coming year will be full of excellent books and other satisfactions (we can help at least with the first of these), and that we can find ways to work together to make the world a better place for all its people and for the children who come after us (books will help with this). We are now back on board and ready to supply all your summer reading requirements — just purchase your book from our website and we can have it ready to collect from our door, or dispatch it to you by overnight courier. Make 2024 a year of excellent reading! —Stella & Thomas
When it’s too hot to play outside, to garden, or walk yourself or your dog, what should one do? When a cool room beckons, but you have reached a point in your book where you need a pause, what is a good restful alternative? When the summer evening keeps you awake longer and the cooking and dishes are done for the day, and the relatives have gone home, what’s a relaxing, but also engaging, reward? When all the conversations are had and there is no more news to catch up on, the drinks are made — cool or hot (depending on your preference) — what’s an activity you can do alone or shared? A 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle!* Not any kind, but one that is interesting enough, well illustrated and designed, and one that preferably has a book theme, of course! Our summer evening activity throughout the busy festive season — not quite finished yet — has been In the Bookstore. It’s not too easy, nor frustratingly difficult. (These challenges are for other times in the year). A 1000-piece to me is perfect. The 500 never feel quite enough and are done before you know it; while the 2000 either have tiny pieces or they are too big for the puzzle cardboard which needs to be moved from room to room (i.e. has to fit through doorways) during the construction process due to the nature of small rooms in small houses. This puzzle is a delight. One, because it is a bookshop. Two, it is filled with a vast array of genres (fantasy, cooking, travel, art). Three, it has colour-coordinated bookshelves (something I would never have in reality, but love it in a puzzle). Four, book characters are popping up in their respective areas — a detective in a deerstalker solving a crime, a bard in the poetry section, Tintin and Snowy, as well as wizards and a happy prince — as well as some well-known writers checking the shelves. Five, the comic-style design is visually appealing and the illustrator’s humour peeks through. Six, it’s nicely made — nothing is worse than flimsy bending pieces or too many strange-shaped pieces. (The exception being my round childhood puzzle which I still think is wonderful. This is a themed stamps of the world jigsaw. Horses, of course!). Also available, Paperback Classics and In the Museum. And on the book theme, more amusement can be found in Classic Paperbacks Memory Game and for extra distraction, A Book of Surrealist Games.
*(Unfortunately most dogs can not participate successfully in this activity. Our cat attempts to help by skidding the pieces into place (!) when we are out of the room.)
Barley Patch by Gerald Murnane
This book begins with the question that prompted its author to stop writing for fourteen years: “Must I write?” In finally finding himself capable of addressing this question, Murnane also addresses its corollary: “Why had I written?" What follows is a subtle and often profound examination of the relationship between the ‘actual’ world and the image world from which fiction arises. Inverting the traditional Romantic model of fiction, Murnane disavows the so-called ‘imagination’ and instead stakes out the primary territory of his image world: “what I call for convenience patterns of images, in a place that I call for convenience my mind, wherever it may lie or whatever else it may be a part of”. By emphasising the porosity of a work of fiction, which is “capable of devising a territory more extensive and more detailed by far than the work itself”, Murnane shows that although the territory is landmarked by images introduced from the memory of events or fictions or artworks or other experiences, both author and reader inhabit the spaces between and surrounding these landmarks, find themselves exploring and enlarging the backgrounds of pictures and the spaces surrounding texts, and forming relationships with ‘personages’ who are both part of, and give rise to, the personages of both author and reader. Every region written about implies a further region not yet written about, “a country on the far side of fiction”, inhabited by personages who may be accessible to the personages in fiction but not yet to us. In tracing (and correlating) the memories of the personage of the narrator-Murnane and the memories of the main character in the book he abandoned when he stopped writing, Murnane gives an exacting topography of his mind (“so to call it”) and a precisely worded description of its operations, and of the yearning, distance and loneliness that both underlie and seek remedy in fiction.
New books for a new year! Click through for your copies:
Taranga by Reina Kahukiwa, illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa $38
Taranga is the mother of Māui, the cultural hero in the Māori creation narrative. Here Reina Kahukiwa recounts the birth of Māui seen through the eyes of Taranga. Exquisitely llustrated throughoutby Reina's mother, the artist Robyn Kahukiwa. This is a beautiful book that will be especially treasured by mothers and mothers-to-be.
”Inā te ātaahua o tēnei pukapuka. Recommending this reo rua book by Reina Kahukiwa and illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa. Taranga's story of birthing Māui tikitiki a Taranga, from her perspective is powerful and empowering.” —Stacey Morrison
Articulations by Henriette Bollinger $28
A well-known writer, activist, and disability rights advocate, Henrietta Bollinger’s debut essay collection speaks to their experiences as a queer, disabled person, and as a twin. Articulations is a timely, personal, and poignant appraisal of life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Soundtracked by the Topp Twins, Anika Moa, Woody Guthrie and more, Bollinger’s essays take us on a journey from first crushes and first periods to parliamentary reform and Disability Pride. They challenge the norms of our ableist society, asking us to consider better ways of being with each other and ourselves.
White Holes by Carlo Rovelli $40
Let us journey, with beloved physicist Carlo Rovelli, into the heart of a black hole. Let us slip beyond its boundary, the horizon, and tumble - on and on - down this crack in the universe. As we plunge, we'll see geometry fold, we'll feel the equations draw tight around us. Eventually, we'll pass it - the remains of a star, deep and dense and falling further far. And then - the bottom. Where time and space end, and the white hole is born .
”Reading it is akin to the final psychedelic sequence in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey: you're not sure where you're heading but it feels bloody exciting. If you want to remember why you once fell in love with the idea of the cosmos, or want to fall in love with that idea for the first time, then this book is for you.” —Kevin Fong, Observer
”It is always worth reading Rovelli. He writes like he believes you are as learned and clever as he is. Yet he also writes with such care for your ignorance that it feels every page is urging and coaxing you — a non-physicist — to see what he can see.” —Tom Whipple, The Times
”Possibly the most charming book by a mainstream scientist this year. Carlo Rovelli is a maestro of imaginative science writing. The book's structure and language have a charm that I found irresistible. No one else matches the way Rovelli describes the creative and imaginative thinking behind theoretical physics .” —Clive Cookson, Financial Times
The Dead Are Always Laughing at Us words by Dominic Hoey, design by Trudi Hewitt $35
The Dead Are Always Laughing At Us is a collaboration between Dominic Hoey and designer Trudi Hewitt.
“Accessibility has shaped the way I write and perform. I’ve always resisted the idea that poetry should be a puzzle you need a 50k education to unlock. Early on I knew I wanted this to be the kind of poetry collection anyone could pick up and be drawn into immediately. With that in mind it was really important to add a visual element to the text.” — Dominic
“I saw this project as an opportunity to experiment. To rethink the rules we set for consistency and to challenge typesetting conventions of literature and poetry. Ultimately I wanted to give each of Dominic’s poems their own sense of identity by playing with pace, space, size and tension. An awesome collaboration with a very talented friend.” — Trudi
Edmonds Taku Puka Tohutau Tuatahi $28
Edmonds My First Bookbook in te reo Māori! I te ahua o nga pikitia, me te takoto o te hatepe tohutohu, ka mama noa to ako ki te tunu i enei kai e hangai pu ana ki Aotearoa. Kia tu koe hei toa ki te tao panikeke, hei toki ki te tunu potaka tiakarete, hei rehe ranei ki te mahi pihapiha. Mai i te kai ata, ki te purini, tae ana ki nga kai me nga timotimo katoa i waenganui, ka noho ko tenei kohinga, kei koni atu i te 90 ona tohutao, hei kaiwhakato i te ngakaunui mauroa o te tangata ki te tunu me te tao kai. Tirohia nga tohutao hou me te rarangi kupu e reorua ana. With an illustrated, step-by-step layout, you'll find it super easy to learn to cook these classic New Zealand recipes — and to learn te reo! Become a champion-pikelet-maker, an expert-afghan-baker or an award-winning-pizza-creator — and a fluent speaker. From breakfast through to dessert and all the meals and snacks in between, this collection of over 90 recipes will be the beginning of a life-long love of baking and cooking. Check out the new recipes and bilingual glossary. Every home needs a copy.
Little Green Fingers: Easy peasy gardening activities by Claire Philip $45
These inspiring, creative and simple activities are possible whether you have a backyard, a balcony or even just a windowsill - everyone is welcome to get their hands dirty. Growing fruits and vegetables, creating fun art projects with nature, learning about the natural world and how plants grow, learning to observe the green spaces around us — all this and more can be found in Little Green Fingers.
Atua Wāhine: A collection of writings by wāhine Māori edited by Ataria Sharman, Cassie Hart, Stacey Teague, Sinead Overbye and Faith Wilson $34
A collective of wāhine Māori writers and their pieces, versions and stories of Atua Wāhine from Papatūānuku to Hineahuone, all the way down to our grandmothers. Contributors include Jessica Maclean, Ariana Sutton, Ataria Sharman, Cassie Hart, Ruby Solly, Nicole Titihuia Hawkins, Isla Martin, Ariana Sutton, Miriama Gemmell and Saskia Sassen.
Viewing Velocities: Time in contemporary art by Martin Verhagen $40
Viewing Velocities explores a contemporary art scene caught in the gears of 24/7 capitalism. It looks at artists who embrace the high-octane experience economy and others who steer closer to the slow movement. Some of the most compelling artworks addressing the cadences of contemporary labour and leisure employ distinct, even contradictory conceptions of time.
From Danh Vo's relics to Moyra Davey's photographs of dust-covered belongings, from Roman Ondak's queuing performers and Susan Miller's outdoor sleepers to Maria Eichhorn's art strike and Ruth Ewan's giant reconstruction of the French revolutionary calendar, artists have drawn out aspects of the present temporal order that are familiar to the point of near invisibility, while outlining other, more liberating ways of conceiving, organising and experiencing time. Marcus Verhagen builds on the work of theorists Jonathan Crary, Hartmut Rosa and Jacques Rancière to trace lines of insurgent art that recast struggles over time and history in novel and revealing terms.
”Compelling and groundbreaking. These analyses point toward imaginative possibilities beyond the dispiriting neoliberal imperatives now increasingly imposed on us.” —Jonathan Crary
History’s Angel by Anjum Hasan $37
Alif is a middle-aged, mild-mannered history teacher, living in contemporary Delhi, at a time when Muslims in India are seen either as hapless victims or live threats. Though his life's passion is the history he teaches, it's the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India's history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself. And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a student goads him and, in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. His job suddenly on the line, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos. Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence. In this darkly funny, sharply observed and deeply moving novel, Anjum Hasan deftly and delicately explores the force and the consequences of remembering your people's history in an increasingly indifferent milieu.
”A seething seismic tale about the disturbing times the Muslims of India are living through, in ever growing dread of worse to come. Told in a subdued, sad, ironical tenor, it is compassionate without being sentimental. The novel asserts humanity and hope in the face of widening fissures through its main protagonist who, drawing sustenance from a deep historical perspective, refuses to play the victim and negotiates the situation empathetically.” —Geentanjali Shree
The Book of Wilding: A practical guide to rewilding, big and small by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell $75
The Book of Wilding is a compendious and beautifully produced handbook for how we can all help restore nature. It is ambitious, visionary and pragmatic. The book has grown out of Tree’s and Burrell’s mission to help rewild Britain, Europe and the rest of the world by sharing knowledge from their pioneering project at Knepp in Sussex. It is inspired by the requests they receive from people wanting to learn how to rewild everything from unprofitable farms, landed estates and rivers, to ponds, allotments, churchyards, urban parks, gardens, window boxes and public spaces.. The Book of Wilding has the answers.
”A deep, dazzling and indispensable guide to the most important task of all: the restoration of the living planet.” —George Monbiot
Dream Girl by Joy Holley $30
Alice wants a heart-shaped bed. Mary, Genevieve and Angelica want to know the future. June says she wants Lena to rescue her from a rat, but really she wants Lena to make out with her. Eve wants to get Wallace alone at the strawberry farm. Olivia just wants to leave the haunted boarding school and go home. Bittersweet and intimate, comic and gothic, Dream Girl is a collection of stories about young women navigating desire in all its manifestations. In stories of romance and bad driving, ghosts and ghosting, playlists and competitive pet ownership, love never fails to leave its mark.
”Dream Girl is a winning concoction – sweet, heady, funny, tight, sharp – wittily charting the lightweight antics of “unattainably hot” girls, wearing its love-bites saucily and watching its crushes play out with wry sidelong glances. Its stories start as they mean to go on – with charm, chic, laughter, skill and sting.” —Tracey Slaughter
”These funny, original stories are the new cool girls of fiction. You’ll want to sit next to them.” —Emily Perkins
”I imagine travelling back in time and giving myself this book, Dream Girl. At sixteen. At twenty. What a world-changing read it would be to me then.” —Naomi Mary Smith, Takahē
”'Dream Girl by Joy Holley might just be Aotearoa's sexiest, dreamiest, most swoonsome book.'“ —Donna Robertson
”A tender and liberating book.” —Emma Hislop, RNZ
Saga by Hannah Mettner $25
In Saga, the permafrost is melting and the secrets frozen within are emerging. Nothing is spared, from the old family recipe for pineapple cheesecake to the portrait of an ancestor, from the wife who sleeps with an axe under her bed to the tough heart of a man that beats beneath the skin. With an uneasy grace, these poems explore questions of love, sexuality, family, friendship and politics. They visit a childhood playground in a storm, women painted on the walls of churches, and the fjords and riot grrrls of Hannah Mettner’s history. They are woven through with wild blackberry and everyday magic.
‘Hannah Mettner’s poems are funny and clever and lusty. They make me want to go out and look at the world again, to conjure up eternal life, and to dip my toe into the lake of flame.’ —Morgan Bach
'The poetry here is full, the lines long, not pared back to a minimal bleakness but more maximal and exuberant, like a river in flood, gushing and tumbling along freely, going in multiple directions effortlessly.' —Piet Nieuwland, Landfall
'Give me true art, real desire, genuine darkness, or nothing. Even if the replicated cavern with its faux-dankness ultimately didn’t trigger the hairs at the narrator’s nape, this book reeks of realness. I’d give it five stars on Fragrantica.' —Rebecca Hawkes, Newsroom
How Life Works: A user’s guide to the New Biology by Philip Ball $40
Biology is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Several aspects of the standard picture of how life works—the idea of the genome as a blueprint, of genes as instructions for building an organism, of proteins as precisely tailored molecular machines, of cells as entities with fixed identities, and more—have been exposed as incomplete, misleading, or wrong. In How Life Works, Philip Ball explores the new biology, revealing life to be a far richer, more ingenious affair than we had guessed. Ball explains that there is no unique place to look for an answer to this question: life is a system of many levels—genes, proteins, cells, tissues, and body modules such as the immune system and the nervous system—each with its own rules and principles. How Life Works explains how these levels operate, interface, and work together (most of the time). With this knowledge come new possibilities. Today we can redesign and reconfigure living systems, tissues, and organisms. We can reprogram cells, for instance, to carry out new tasks and grow into structures not seen in the natural world. As we discover the conditions that dictate the forms into which cells organize themselves, our ability to guide and select the outcomes becomes ever more extraordinary. Some researchers believe that ultimately we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs, and perhaps even create new life forms that evolution has never imagined.
Flavour by Sabrina Ghayour $50
'Sabrina Ghayour's Middle-Eastern plus food is all flavour, no fuss — and makes me very, very happy' —Nigella Lawson
Over 100 new, authentic and appraocahble recipes from the author of Persiana. Recipes include: Zaatar onion, tomato and aubergine tartines with labneh; Chicken shawarma salad: Herb koftas with warm yoghurt, mint amd pul biber; Ras el Hanout and orange lamb cutlet platter; Mama ghanoush; Pan-fried salmon with barbary butter; Nut butter noodles; Lime, coconut and cardamom loaf cake; Tea, cranberry, orange and macadamia shortbreads.
Stay True by Hua Hsu $40
When Hua Hsu first meets Ken in a Berkeley dorm room, he hates him. A frat boy with terrible taste in music, Ken seems exactly like everyone else. For Hua, who makes zines and haunts indie record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to – the mainstream. The only thing Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, and Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the US for generations, have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them. But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet. Capturing a coming-of-age cut short, and a portrait of a beautiful friendship, Stay True is a deeply moving and intimate memoir about growing up and moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.
”One of the best nonfiction books about friendship ever, right up there with Patti Smith’s Just Kids.” —The Atlantic
Wellness by Nathan Hill $40
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the 90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to married life, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other. Moving from the gritty 90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection.
”Wellness is one of the funniest, saddest, smartest novels I've ever read. It's a flat-out masterpiece.” —Anthony Marra
The Price of Time: The real story of interest by Edward Chancellor $32
In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn't always popular — in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk. All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the ‘price of money’, but it is better called the ‘price of time’: time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield-starved investors to take on excessive risk.
Godfather Death by Sally Nicholls, illustrated by Júlia Sardà $33
When a poor fisherman chooses Death to be godfather to his son, he’s sure he’s made a good choice – for surely there’s no-one more honest than Death? At the christening, Death gives the fisherman a gift that seems at first to be the key to the family’s fortune, but when greed overcomes the fisherman, he learns that nobody can truly cheat Death.
More stock of Prophet Song has arrived. Order it now to read it in time for our discussion at the first Book Group session. VOLUME Book Group will meet online on Tuesday 13th February at 7 pm.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is the winner of the 2023 Booker Prize. Here’s why, according to Esi Edugyan, Chair of the judges: “From that first knock at the door, Prophet Song, forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism. We felt unsettled from the start, submerged in – and haunted by – the sustained claustrophobia of Lynch’s powerfully constructed world. He flinches from nothing, depicting the reality of state violence and displacement and offering no easy consolations. Here the sentence is stretched to its limits – Lynch pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness. He has the heart of a poet, using repetition and recurring motifs to create a visceral reading experience. This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave. With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment. Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.’”
A selection of books to begin the year, from our shelves and available now.
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22 December 2023
Best wishes to you all for a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season. Whether you are celebrating or not celebrating; whether you are spending time with family or friends, or taking the opportunity to just spend some quiet time with a book; whether you are travelling or staying home, we wish you good health and good books.
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm for interesting books — this is what makes interesting books possible. Order from our website or send us an e-mail anytime — we will be back on board from the 3rd of January and get your orders ready for dispatch or collection, and reply to your e-mails then. —Stella & Thomas
A small selection of books from our shelves.
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The Association of Small Bombs
A new book is a promise of good times ahead.
Read our #360th NEWSLETTER and find out which books were our reading highlights this year. Also get your seasonal gift-choosing done!
15 December 2023
Some books this year have been surprising; others unsurprising, sometimes in a good way. Here are a few that have stood out (ask me tomorrow and you will get a different list), numbered but not in any particular order (except maybe size):
1. Lori and Joe by Amy Arnold: The mind (so to call it) can maintain its claustrophobia even in the most wide-open spaces. Amy Arnold compellingly captures the way her protagonist’s thoughts swarm and cluster, accumulate in ruts and run thin over past traumas, stuttering in proximity to the unfaceable that yet shapes everything it underlies.
2. I, Object by Stella Chrysostomou: I read this book many times preparing it for publication and my enjoyment of it was undiminished: the objects who find voices in these texts reveal surprising perspectives in seemingly quotidian object-human relations (so to call them) and ask us to re-examine our interactions with our physical world and with each other, challenging our preconceptions of motivation and value.
3: Wall by Jen Craig: All accumulations — things crammed into houses, thoughts crammed into minds — are hoarded and dispersed in similar ways, are susceptible in similar ways to our sifting and sorting and also to our failure or refusal to sift and to sort. Jen Craig’s syntactically superb sentences are the best possible intimations of the ways in which thoughts remain stubbornly embedded in their aggregate when we attempt to bring them into the light.
4: The Plague by Jacqueline Rose: What happens when even the great occlusions of culture can no longer hide the fact that our lives are contained in a matrix of death? Could a new recognition and accommodation with our mortality help us to address some of our personal and collective traumas and tensions?
5: The Planetarium by Nathalie Sarraute (translated from French by Maria Jolas): A new edition of Sarraute’s remarkable work comprised entirely of voices, in which the discourse itself is the protagonist; in which there are no static persons, just impulses caught in language. Readers (and writers) denied the usual novelistic props and crutches will find there are other, more interesting ways of moving along.
6: Little Doomsdays by Nic Low and Phil Dadson: What Walter Benjamin calls “the struggle against dispersion” that underlies collecting and archiving may be ultimately doomed to failure in a world that is undergoing loss at a faster and faster pace ('accelerated decumulation) but this is what makes that struggle more meaningful, not less. This beautifully presented book is a kōrero between Phil Dadson’s vigorously textured artwork and Nic Low’s incantatory texts evoking objects and containers akin to waka huia throughout history that contain and preserve the experience of being human (so to call it).
My reading in any given year will include novels, short stories, and children's books, as well as essays and specific non-fiction, so the pool to select highlights from is wide-ranging. Two standouts in my children's reading were the excellent YA novel Between the Flags by Rachel Fenton and the charming The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo. It's always hard to whittle down the novels, as there are many worthy contenders, but these three all stood out. Starting from the most recently read, Prophet Song — intense and furious; followed by two brilliant Aotearoa authors, Thomasin Sleigh's The Words for Her — intelligent and gripping, and the beguiling Bird Life by Anna Smaill — a novel of quiet unease like a bird furiously flapping its wings against a glass pane, but you're inside and you can't hear it. And finally, I am always on the lookout for interesting craft theory writing, so was pleased to find (and be able to source) EP3 - Post Craft — specific!
Edited by Carlos Lehnebach, Claire Regnault, Rebecca Rice, Isaac Te Awa, and Rachel Yates
This sumptuous book from Te Papa Press is beautifully designed and produced. It’s this year’s gem: a fine example of cultural history as told through objects. The essays, which are wide-ranging and contextually interesting, add that layer that makes this publication a standout. For both lovers of art and of plants, Flora is a visual treat underpinned by intelligent essays that explore our wider relationship with nature in Aotearoa.
A new book is a promise of good times ahead. Click through for your copies:
Compound Press Poetry Calendar 2024 $20
Poets believe in 2024. The text-positive high-manilla Compound Press Poetry Calendar has a poem for each month, and marks Aotearoa poet birthdays, like alternative saints feast days. In the spirit of poetry, it contains virtually no useful information such as public holidays. The poets are: Chris Tse, Renae Williams, Richard von Sturmer, Craig Foltz, David Merritt, Ana Iti, Hera Lindsay Bird, Cadence Chung, Amber Esau, Dominic Hoey, Rebecca Hawkes, and Ya-Wen Ho.
1 2 3 What Will We See? by Sarah Pepperle $30
Count with me! What will we see? Lift the flaps to discover a joyful selection of artworks curated especially for young children in this lively new book. Children will learn to count from 1 to 10 in English, te reo Māori and sign language while looking at delightful works of art. A short read-aloud rhyme accompanies each artwork. The artworks include sculpture, painting, tukutuku, linocuts and woodcuts, tapestry and photography by artists from Aotearoa and abroad. Warm, fun and stylish, this book will delight young minds. Artists include Edith Amituanai, Alice Coats, Ruth Dean, Lonnie Hutchinson, Jack Knight, Gottfried Lindauer, Michael Parekowhai, Juliet Peter, Cyril Power, Philip Trusttum, Ōtautahi Weavers, Robin White and Carolyn Yonge.
See also: A Is for Art.
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi $40
Anisa Ellahi spends her days writing subtitles for Bollywood films in her London flat, all the while longing to be a translator of 'great works of literature'. Her boyfriend Adam's extraordinary aptitude for languages only makes her feel worse, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only programme that guarantees total fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre's strange and rigorous processes. But as she enmeshes herself further within the organisation, seduced by all that it's made possible, she soon realises the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.
”I am obsessed with this book and you will be too! A brilliant meditation on language and translation and the most gripping novel I've read in forever. I'm in awe.” —Jennifer Croft
Ayesha Green — Folk Nationalism and Other Stories edited by Ayesha Green and Moya Lawson $30
Working across painting, drawing and sculpture, Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Kāi Tahu) examines histories of Māori and Pākehā representation. Green’s work focuses on imagery where intercultural relationships intersect, overlap or diverge—from Māori pūrākau, such as the separation of Rangi and Papa, to the signing of the treaties of Waitangi, to Prince William meeting Buzzy Bee. Her exhibition Folk Nationalism traces and contests the ways these images pervade our daily lives and shape our sense of nationhood. Folk Nationalism and other stories is the first publication dedicated to Ayesha Green's practice. It features texts by nine writers who take different routes to and through her work. Through subtle acts of mirroring and repositioning, Green refracts the often-simplified way that images from the history of Aotearoa have been read. Like Green, the writers in Folk Nationalism and other stories demonstrate how numerous, diverse and contradictory meanings converge within these images. With contributions by Francis McWhannell, Elle Loui August, Hanahiva Rose, Madison Kelly, Jess Nicholson, Moewai Marsh, Matariki Williams, Lachlan Taylor and Sarah Hudson.
A History of the Barricade by Eric Hazan $25
In Eric Hazan's native Paris, barricades were instrumental in the revolts of the nineteenth century, helping to shape the political life of a continent. The barricade was always a makeshift construction (the word derives from barrique or barrel), and in working-class districts these ersatz fortifications could spread like wildfire. They doubled as a stage from which insurgents could harangue soldiers and subvert their allegiance. Their symbolic power persisted into May 1968 and, more recently, the Occupy movements.
”I feel like quoting endlessly from this revealing compact book, which, on top of everything else, is beautifully written and no-less beautifully translated. The idea of tracing centuries of tempestuous European history by looking just at one significant engineering object strikes me as brilliant. “ —Vitali Vitaliev
A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (translated from Albanian by John Hodgson) $40
In June 1934, Joseph Stalin allegedly telephoned the famous novelist and poet Boris Pasternak to discuss the arrest of fellow Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam. In a fascinating combination of dreams and dossier facts, Ismail Kadare reconstructs the three minutes they spoke and the aftershocks of this tense, mysterious moment in modern history. Weaving together the accounts of witnesses, reporters and writers such as Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova, Kadare tells a gripping story of power and political structures, of the relationship between writers and tyranny. The telling brings to light uncanny parallels with Kadare's experience writing under dictatorship, when he received an unexpected phone call of his own.
The Truth About Max by Alice and Martin Provensen $35
Have you met Max?
Max is a cat who lives on a farm.
Max is always hungry.
Max is very clever.
Max is full of mischief.
But what is the truth about Max?
Read this book and you’ll find out!
Inspired by the Provensens’ real life cat, who lived with them in their home on Maple Hill Farm, this charming picture book offers a window into life on the farm, living in harmony—and good humour!—with animals and nature. It also celebrates the fundamental mystery of the inner life of others. Never before published.
India After Gandhi: A History by Ramachandra Guha $60
An extended new edition of this remarkable work, with new material that explains the major events, policy shifts and controversies of the past decade, placing them in their proper sociological and historical context and setting out the author's justifiable concerns for the decline of democracy in India. Born against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. Ramachandra Guha's acclaimed book tells the full story — the pain and the struggle, the humiliations and the glories — of the world's largest and least likely democracy. While India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is also the most interesting. Ramachandra Guha writes of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. Moving between history and biography, the story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights into the lives and public careers of those long-serving Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. But the book also writes with feeling and sensitivity about lesser-known (though not necessarily less important) Indians — peasants, tribals, women, workers and musicians. Massively researched and elegantly written.
”Finally, here is a history of democratic India that is every bit as sweeping as the country itself. A magisterial work.” —Financial Times
Warhol After Warhol: Power and money in the Modern Art world by Richard Dorment $40
Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003 art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector. He was ringing at the suggestion of David Hockney, his neighbour in Malibu. A committee of experts called the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board had declared the two Warhols in his collection to be fake. He wanted to know why and thought Dorment could help. This call would mark the beginning of an extraordinary story that would play out over the next ten years and would involve a cast of characters straight out of fiction. From rock icons and film stars; art dealers and art forgers; to a murdered Russian oligarch and a lawyer for the mob; from courtrooms to auction houses: all took part in a bitter struggle to prove the authenticity of a series of paintings by the most famous American artist of the 20th century. Part detective story, part art history, part memoir, part courtroom drama, Warhol After Warhol is a spellbinding account of the dark connection between money, power and art.
Mexico (‘The Passenger’) $40
Once synonymous with escape and freedom, Mexico is now more frequently described as a place plagued by widespread violence, drug trafficking, endemic corruption, and uncontrolled migration. Under the patina of a tourist paradise — with its beaches, its ancient ruins, its tequila — lies a complex, dynamic country trying to carve out a place for itself in the shadow of its powerful neighbour. The most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, Mexico is also home to 89 indigenous peoples and languages: one of the many contradictory legacies of the country's colonial past, which still permeates its politics, society, religion, food, and culture. With a fifth of the population identifying as indigenous, the issue of rediscovering and revaluing the country's pre-Columbian roots is at the center of the public debate. The controversial Mayan train project, which would connect Mexico's Caribbean resorts with the South's archaeological sites, crossing (and endangering) communities and forests, is a perfect example of the opposition between the two souls of the country. The attempts to resolve this contradiction, or better still to learn to live with it, will define the Mexico of the future. Only by recognising equal status to ethnic and linguistic minorities will the country be able to reconcile its fractured identity. IN THIS VOLUME: Underground Tenochtitlan by Guadalupe Nettel * Crime and (No) Punishment by Juan Villoro * The Birth of Fridolatry by Valeria Luiselli * plus: the cocaine that washes in from the sea and the pearl of the west, the jungle train and the last stop on the line, femicide and TikTok politics, mole, rice, the Virgin of Guadalupe and more ...
Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto $33
In Hawaii, a cast of women reckon with physical and emotional alienation, and the toll it takes on their psyches. A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (boar) on the haunted Pali highway portends one woman's increasingly fraught relationship with her body during pregnancy. A woman recalls an uncanny experience, in which Elvis impersonators take centre stage, to an acquaintance who doesn't yet know just how intimately they're connected. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in the giant corpse flower a mourner has gifted her. Centering native Hawaiian identity, and how it unfolds in the lives, mind and bodies of kanaka women, the stories in Kakimoto's debut collection are speculative and uncanny, exploring themes of queerness, colonisation and desire. Both a fierce love letter to mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory simmering with tension, Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare takes seriously the superstitions born of the islands.
Slow Drinks: A field guide to foraging and fermenting seasonal sodas, botanical cocktails, homemade wines, and more by Danny Childs $50
Organised by season, Slow Drinks demonstrates how to make drinks that tell a story of botany, history, culture, and terroir, while honoring beverage traditions both old and new. Each season will highlight eight new ingredients with recipes that build on a basics chapter and teach readers how to interchangeably use master recipes to make their own meads, country wines, beers, sodas, tinctures, shrubs, and more. This book is for bartenders, do-it-yourselfers, foodies, homesteaders, homebrewers, food activists, and anyone looking to dive into the world of botanical drink making. Slow Drinks teaches home cooks, industry pros, homebrewers, and foragers how to transform botanical ingredients—whether foraged or purchased from the store—into unique beverages and cocktails.
ZigZag by Julie Paschkis $40
There's nothing ZigZag enjoys more than tasting his words as he uses them, plays with them, and enjoys them, for ZigZag is a lover of words! But one day, excited and energized, he gulps down all his vowels while exploring and enjoying the word "tambourine." Without A, E, I, O, and U, ZigZag's life is turned upside-down: no more lovely tambourines, only tasteless and dull tmbrns; no more tart green apples, only disappointing ppls. Poor ZigZag can't even get any sleep in his comfy, cozy bed, which is now a too short bd. But vowels are all around ZigZag, from his grandmother's satisfied "Aaahs" to his best friend Beanie's amazed "Ooohs." Can you help ZigZag find his vowels again?