MATESHIP WITH BIRDS
Carrie TiffanyPicador - $29.99
Here is the back cover blurb:
On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song. As Harry watches the birds, his next door neighbour has her own set of binoculars trained on him. Ardent, hard-working Betty has escaped to the country with her two fatherless children. Betty is pleased that her son, Michael, wants to spend time with the gentle farmer next door. But when Harry decides to teach Michael about the opposite sex, perilous boundaries are crossed.
Mateship with Birds is a novel about young lust and mature love. It is a hymn to the rhythm of country life – to vicious birds, virginal cows, adored dogs and ill-used sheep. On one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, a collection of misfits question the nature of what a family can be.
About the Author:
Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in the Red Centre and now lives in Melbourne, where she works as an agricultural journalist.
I do remember greatly enjoying her first novel, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (2005), which was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book (2006) and the 2006 Western Australian Premier's Award for Fiction. Mateship with Birds is her second novel.
This one is now in the bedside pile!
PASSIONATE MARRIAGE
Keeping Love & Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships
Scribe - $36.00
The publisher says:
The greatest sexual pleasure and emotional fulfilment in a person’s lifetime is possible in the middle and later years, when he or she has developed a mature sense of self and found genuine intimacy with another person. That’s the exciting message of this daring and pioneering work, which challenges couples to work together on the sexual and emotional blocks that hold them back from total satisfaction with each other.
As you open the pages of this book, you’ll meet couples who share the same predicaments and obstacles as you and your partner. With humour, compassion, and unusual candour, Dr Schnarch and the couples address the intimate secrets of their marriage, revealing ideas and techniques that are directly applicable to your own relationship.
With a new preface by the author for this updated edition,Passionate Marriage is a respectful, erotic, uplifting, and spiritual guide dedicated to making love and intimacy a reality for every couple. It’s a book to read and reread often for inspiration and enlightenment.
BRIEFCASE
John Adams
AUP - $24.99
From the publisher's website:
Briefcase, the first book of poetry by Judge and poet John Adams, is a mélange of poems – in traditional and experimental forms – and other texts: affidavits, police reports, a sudoku puzzle, court transcripts, a menu, wills and commentaries.
A disordered novella in legal documents, brutal and amusing by turns, Briefcase superbly explores the role of language as a vessel for truth and an implement of justice.
About the Author
District Court and Family Court judge at Auckland by day, John Adams also has a Masters in Creative Writing from The University of Auckland and is a poet by night. He is a long-time author of legal texts – such as the Butterworths Family Law series. The first draft of Briefcase was written during his Masters year in 2009.
SWITCHED
Amanda Hocking
TOR - $22.99
Praise for the Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking:
Named as one of the Guardian’s Book Power 100 2011About the author:
Amanda Hocking is twenty-six years old, lives in Minnesota and had never sold a single book before 15 April 2010. She has now sold her millionth. Her books have been a self-publishing phenomenon – according to the Observer, Amanda is "the most spectacular example of an author striking gold through ebooks". In her own words, Amanda is an Obsessive Tweeter. John Hughes mourner. Unicorn enthusiast. Red Bull addict. Muppets activist. Fraggin Aardvarks guitarist. Author of the USA Today bestselling books the Trylle Trilogy.
amandahocking.blogspot.com/
A LIVELY DEATH
Lessons from a son in spirit
Heather Carpenter - $24.99
Wooden Shed Publishing
To lose a child in this world is to suffer unfathomable grief, and when Heather Carpenter’s 24-year-old son, Kiet, died in a skateboarding accident, her life changed in an instant. Suddenly the ‘bottomless pit of despair’ opened up before her.
Wooden Shed Publishing Services Ltd
9 John Road, Stanmore Bay, Auckland 0932 NZ
09 424 7272 • 021 607 694
www.woodenshed.co.nz / email: shedpub@gmail.com
GIFFITH REVIEW 35
Surviving - Random Acts of Nature and Man
Text-Griffith University - $36
NZ contributors in this latest edition of Australia's literary journal include:
Nic Low with a perceptive look at shifts in Christchurch, from the built environment to community and family dynamics
Lloyd Jones captures a Christchurch moment in his poem 'Suddenly'
Sydney Smith pieces together her family's Moriori heritage and the fall-out from generations of conflict and reconciliation
Other major contributors include Tom Griffiths on a new language for disaster prevention and management; Mara Bún discusses designs for sustainable recovery; Michael Gawenda on the media's responsibilities; and Kathy Marks reflects on the trials of Pitcairn Island.
OTAGO CENTRAL RAIL TRAIL - an easy guide
Brian & Diane Miller
Lifelogs Ltd. $15.00
Over 10,000 people complete the trail each year, (and over half of them are Aucklanders), but too many ride each section without stopping to enjoy the side-trips. This compact illustrated guide packed with useful facts, cross-sections, easy-to-digest information and suggested side trips will enhance your experience on the trail.
This pocket-sized guide is so full of useful facts and easy-to-digest information that it should find a home in the pocket of every track visitor.
A book to buy before the trip and to use as you do the trail.
The first section explains why Central Otago is so special, with an overview of natural history – geology, climate, plants and animals. Photos help bikers identify the common plants and animals. The human history is equally fascinating – the first travellers, the squatters, the discovery of gold and the building of the Otago Central Railway on which the trail is built.
The cross-sections of each part of the trail along with maps of main towns and surrounding areas make it easy for ‘trail trippers’ to plan their movements. Includes tips for good lunch spots, fun quiz questions to enliven these breaks, locations of ‘loos.’…. Also web-site links, an “Events Calendar” for those who want to link their trip to regional activities, hints for taking better photos and biking tips.
Lifelogs Ltd.,
PO Box 39
Dunedin 9054
Ph 03 4761 453
Fax 03 4761 454
brian@brianmiller.co.nz
PRIVATE GAMES
James Patterson and Mark Sullivan
Century - $37.99
Private, the world’s most renowned investigation firm, has been commissioned to provide security for the 2012 Olympic games in London. Its agents are the smartest, fastest, and most technologically advanced in the world, and 400 of them have been transferred to London to protect over 10,000 competitors who represent more than 200 countries.
Young Spot fans (aged say 2-4 years) will love sliding the colourful pictures to show the words underneath.
THE FIELD
Bill Nagelkerke
ACHUKA Books
Digital List Price $0.99c
Admired children's writer and former librarian Bill Nagelkerke has this time written a work of speculative fiction aimed at upper primary, intermediate and early high school students. I guess you would call it a novella. I read it on my Kindle, (the first time I have reviewed an e-book by the way), in a bit over an hour. It has a strong religious theme,(think Marian apparitions),which might be off-putting for some but it is well written and compelling as you would expect from a writer of this calibre.
Achuka Books is the brainchild of Michael Thorn, a foremost commentator on children's literature, and a highly rated blogger, and I gather this is the first title contracted and published on his newly launched Achuka e-books.
Here is the back cover blurb:
On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song. As Harry watches the birds, his next door neighbour has her own set of binoculars trained on him. Ardent, hard-working Betty has escaped to the country with her two fatherless children. Betty is pleased that her son, Michael, wants to spend time with the gentle farmer next door. But when Harry decides to teach Michael about the opposite sex, perilous boundaries are crossed.
Mateship with Birds is a novel about young lust and mature love. It is a hymn to the rhythm of country life – to vicious birds, virginal cows, adored dogs and ill-used sheep. On one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, a collection of misfits question the nature of what a family can be.
About the Author:
Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in the Red Centre and now lives in Melbourne, where she works as an agricultural journalist.
I do remember greatly enjoying her first novel, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (2005), which was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book (2006) and the 2006 Western Australian Premier's Award for Fiction. Mateship with Birds is her second novel.
This one is now in the bedside pile!
PASSIONATE MARRIAGE
Keeping Love & Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships
Scribe - $36.00
The publisher says:
The greatest sexual pleasure and emotional fulfilment in a person’s lifetime is possible in the middle and later years, when he or she has developed a mature sense of self and found genuine intimacy with another person. That’s the exciting message of this daring and pioneering work, which challenges couples to work together on the sexual and emotional blocks that hold them back from total satisfaction with each other.
As you open the pages of this book, you’ll meet couples who share the same predicaments and obstacles as you and your partner. With humour, compassion, and unusual candour, Dr Schnarch and the couples address the intimate secrets of their marriage, revealing ideas and techniques that are directly applicable to your own relationship.
With a new preface by the author for this updated edition,Passionate Marriage is a respectful, erotic, uplifting, and spiritual guide dedicated to making love and intimacy a reality for every couple. It’s a book to read and reread often for inspiration and enlightenment.
About the author: Dr. David Schnarch is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist, and the author of numerous books and articles on intimacy, sexuality, and relationships. He is the director of the Crucible Institute, and his work has attracted clients and students from across the globe.Passionate Marriage is a perennial bestseller, offering the general public his revolutionary approach in a pragmatic and easy-to-understand form. Dr Schnarch lives and works with his wife, Dr Ruth Morehouse, in Colorado.Website:http://desirebook.com/
BRIEFCASE
John Adams
AUP - $24.99
From the publisher's website:
WARNING: contains legal documents and poems.
After an argument with his wife, Verity, Jason Button threw a stapler which struck her on the face. Is he guilty of violent assault? Or was it just a matter of bad luck?Briefcase, the first book of poetry by Judge and poet John Adams, is a mélange of poems – in traditional and experimental forms – and other texts: affidavits, police reports, a sudoku puzzle, court transcripts, a menu, wills and commentaries.
A disordered novella in legal documents, brutal and amusing by turns, Briefcase superbly explores the role of language as a vessel for truth and an implement of justice.
About the Author
District Court and Family Court judge at Auckland by day, John Adams also has a Masters in Creative Writing from The University of Auckland and is a poet by night. He is a long-time author of legal texts – such as the Butterworths Family Law series. The first draft of Briefcase was written during his Masters year in 2009.
SWITCHED
Amanda Hocking
TOR - $22.99
Praise for the Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking:
Named as one of the Guardian’s Book Power 100 2011
Amanda Hocking is twenty-six years old, lives in Minnesota and had never sold a single book before 15 April 2010. She has now sold her millionth. Her books have been a self-publishing phenomenon – according to the Observer, Amanda is "the most spectacular example of an author striking gold through ebooks". In her own words, Amanda is an Obsessive Tweeter. John Hughes mourner. Unicorn enthusiast. Red Bull addict. Muppets activist. Fraggin Aardvarks guitarist. Author of the USA Today bestselling books the Trylle Trilogy.
amandahocking.blogspot.com/
A LIVELY DEATHLessons from a son in spirit
Heather Carpenter - $24.99
Wooden Shed Publishing
To lose a child in this world is to suffer unfathomable grief, and when Heather Carpenter’s 24-year-old son, Kiet, died in a skateboarding accident, her life changed in an instant. Suddenly the ‘bottomless pit of despair’ opened up before her.
At the same time, however, she received a gift – she realised she could embrace the wonderful possibility that her son was alive in spirit and reaching out to provide comfort and love. Drawing on the lessons learnt, and on Heather’s personal reflections and observations, A Lively Death charts a journey of the heart and of the spirit, articulating a relationship without boundaries and a love that transcends death.
About the author
Heather Carpenter PhD lives on a small vineyard in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, with her husband Brett. They have four children, aged 28–34 years. Heather is a career consultant, counsellor and educator with a strong interest in exploring human potential, and writes whenever possible.
Wooden Shed Publishing Services Ltd
9 John Road, Stanmore Bay, Auckland 0932 NZ
09 424 7272 • 021 607 694
www.woodenshed.co.nz / email: shedpub@gmail.com
GIFFITH REVIEW 35
Surviving - Random Acts of Nature and Man
Text-Griffith University - $36
Nic Low with a perceptive look at shifts in Christchurch, from the built environment to community and family dynamics
Lloyd Jones captures a Christchurch moment in his poem 'Suddenly'
Sydney Smith pieces together her family's Moriori heritage and the fall-out from generations of conflict and reconciliation
Other major contributors include Tom Griffiths on a new language for disaster prevention and management; Mara Bún discusses designs for sustainable recovery; Michael Gawenda on the media's responsibilities; and Kathy Marks reflects on the trials of Pitcairn Island.
OTAGO CENTRAL RAIL TRAIL - an easy guideBrian & Diane Miller
Lifelogs Ltd. $15.00
Over 10,000 people complete the trail each year, (and over half of them are Aucklanders), but too many ride each section without stopping to enjoy the side-trips. This compact illustrated guide packed with useful facts, cross-sections, easy-to-digest information and suggested side trips will enhance your experience on the trail.
This pocket-sized guide is so full of useful facts and easy-to-digest information that it should find a home in the pocket of every track visitor.
A book to buy before the trip and to use as you do the trail.
The first section explains why Central Otago is so special, with an overview of natural history – geology, climate, plants and animals. Photos help bikers identify the common plants and animals. The human history is equally fascinating – the first travellers, the squatters, the discovery of gold and the building of the Otago Central Railway on which the trail is built.
The cross-sections of each part of the trail along with maps of main towns and surrounding areas make it easy for ‘trail trippers’ to plan their movements. Includes tips for good lunch spots, fun quiz questions to enliven these breaks, locations of ‘loos.’…. Also web-site links, an “Events Calendar” for those who want to link their trip to regional activities, hints for taking better photos and biking tips.
Lifelogs Ltd.,
PO Box 39
Dunedin 9054
Ph 03 4761 453
Fax 03 4761 454
brian@brianmiller.co.nz
PRIVATE GAMESJames Patterson and Mark Sullivan
Century - $37.99
Private, the world’s most renowned investigation firm, has been commissioned to provide security for the 2012 Olympic games in London. Its agents are the smartest, fastest, and most technologically advanced in the world, and 400 of them have been transferred to London to protect over 10,000 competitors who represent more than 200 countries.
The opening ceremony is still hours away when Private investigator and single father of twins, Nigel Steele, is called to the scene of a ruthless murder. A high-ranking member of the games’ organizing committee and his mistress have been killed. It’s clear that it wasn’t a crime of passion, but one of precise calculation and execution.
Private Games is an action-packed 422 page thriller that brings the splendour and emotion of the Olympics to a wildly powerful climax. If you are still at the beach be sure to grab this one, the perfect holiday or plane read.
About the author:
James Patterson is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade — the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Detective Michael Bennett novels — and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.
James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books specifically for young readers. James has formed a partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy. In 2010, he was voted Author of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards in New York.
SPOT'S FUN FIRST WORDS - a slide-and-see book
Eric Hill
Board Book - Frederick Warne - $17.99
Eric Hill
Board Book - Frederick Warne - $17.99
Young Spot fans (aged say 2-4 years) will love sliding the colourful pictures to show the words underneath.
THE FIELDBill Nagelkerke
ACHUKA Books
Digital List Price $0.99c
Admired children's writer and former librarian Bill Nagelkerke has this time written a work of speculative fiction aimed at upper primary, intermediate and early high school students. I guess you would call it a novella. I read it on my Kindle, (the first time I have reviewed an e-book by the way), in a bit over an hour. It has a strong religious theme,(think Marian apparitions),which might be off-putting for some but it is well written and compelling as you would expect from a writer of this calibre.
Achuka Books is the brainchild of Michael Thorn, a foremost commentator on children's literature, and a highly rated blogger, and I gather this is the first title contracted and published on his newly launched Achuka e-books.