Reminiscences of Arthur Dudley Dobson by Arthur Dudley Dobson

$85.00 NZD

Category: NZ Biography & Memoirs

Storyteller : The Many Lives of Laurens van der Post by J.D.F. Jones

$35.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs | Reading Level: very good

When he died in 1996, Laurens Van der Post had won renown in an astounding range of roles: as war hero, writer, explorer, mystic, environmentalist, Jungian, behind-the-scenes diplomat, and friend and confidant of the great - famously including both Mrs Thatcher and Prince Charles. He seemed to be one of the most remarkable men the 20th century had produced. His conversation influenced thousands, his ideas millions. But he discouraged biographers in his lifetime on the grounds that in his many books he had told his story himself. After his death doubts soon began to spread, however, as to whether this story presented a true picture. Was his knowledge of the Kalahari Bushmen, as extensive as he led us to believe, and did the Bushman stories he so loved to tell come mainly from books? His standing as some kind of secular saint certainly suffered with the emergence of an illegitimate daughter whose mother he had seduced when she was 15. And his claim to have effectively brokered the Lancaster House agreement on Zimbabwean independence was deflated by those who had actually been there. Nor was that all. Sir Laurens's famly authorized this biography, giving J.D.F. Jones exclusive access to the Van der Post papers and allowing him complete freedom. A completely different man from that portrayed by the media is presented. This biography looks behind the facade that Sir Laurens so skilfully created and suggests that he became to some extent a prisoner of it. The love he inspired was genuine, but the account of his life that he presented was in the end just another of his wonderful stories. Hardback ...Show more

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

$30.00 NZD

Category: Classic Non-Fiction

Volume 1 of The Complete Works of George Orwell Few authors can have striven so hard to make themselves professional writers as did George Orwell. As a child he talked of becoming a writer; he wrote for student publications at Eton; whilst serving in the Imperial Police in Burma he sketched out ideas f or Burmese Days; on returning to Europe, he spent two years in Paris struggling to write. Down and Out in Paris and London was the outcome of those years in Paris and of months tramping south-east England. Whilst not quite autobiography, it does give a vivid picture of the kind of life he led 'in the lower depths', and exemplifies his belief that 'The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty. ' Orwell thought of calling this first book 'Confessions of a Dishwasher', and he hesitated for some time over the pseudonym under which it was published, the name by which, in due time, he was to achieve worldwide fame- George Orwell. This edition of Down and Out in Paris and London differs in many ways from all earlier editions and retores material censored by its original publisher in 1933. ...Show more

How to Walk a Dog (PB) by Mike White; Sharon Murdoch (Illustrator)

$24.99 NZD

Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction

The highs and lows, joy and heartache of owning a dog are told in this beautifully written story of life in and around a dog park. 'The book of the year. THE book on dogs. And people.' Andrew Dickens, Newstalk ZB

The Seddons by T.E.Y Seddon

$26.50 NZD

Category: NZ Biography & Memoirs

Survival of the Friendliest - Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity by Brian Hare; Vanessa Woods

$43.00 NZD

Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction

A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique friendliness "Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring--and a riveting read. Hare and Woods have written the perfect book for our time."--Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens and co-aut hor of Nudge For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened? Since Charles Darwin wrote about "evolutionary fitness," the idea of fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human history. Advancing what they call the "self-domestication theory," Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed Homo sapiens to thrive. But this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is threatened by an "outsider." The threatening outsider is demoted to sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare's groundbreaking research, developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest. Survival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs. ...Show more

Green Kiwi by Temple Sutherland

$20.00 NZD

Category: NZ Biography & Memoirs

Let's Learn Maori - A Guide to the Study of the Maori Language by Bruce Briggs

$18.50 NZD

Category: Learning Te Reo Maori

The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama

$35.00 NZD

Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction

A LANDMARK WORK OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. A GLOBAL BESTSELLER. STILL AS RELEVANT TODAY. With the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 the threat of the Cold War which had dominated the second half of the twentieth century vanished. And with it the West looked to the future with optimism but renewed uncertainty. The End of History and the Last Man was the first book to offer a picture of what the new century would look like. Boldly outlining the challenges and problems to face modern liberal democracies, Francis Fukuyama examined what had just happened and predicted what was coming next. Now updated with a new afterword, Fukuyama shows how the central issue today remains the same. Have any political and economic models arisen that could challenge liberal democracy as the best way of organizing human societies? He remains unconvinced. Tackling religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes and war, The End of History and the Last Man is as compelling today as it was when it was written - and just as provocative too. 'Awesome . . . a landmark . . . profoundly realistic and important . . . supremely timely and cogent' Washington Post 'Clearly written, immensely ambitious' New York Times 'Clever, important, teeming with original ideas' Mail on Sunday 'We are indebted to Fukuyama for such an ambitious work of political philosophy' Foreign Affairs ...Show more

Love, Kurt - The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945 by Kurt Vonnegut; Edith Vonnegut (Editor)

$70.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

A never-before-seen collection of deeply intimate love letters from Kurt Vonnegut to his first wife, Jane, compiled and edited by their daughter and reproduced in gorgeous full color. "If ever I do write anything of length--good or bad--it will be written with you in mind." Kurt Vonnegut's oldest daug hter, Edith, was cleaning out her mother's attic when she stumbled upon a dusty box. Inside were more than two-hundred love letters written by Kurt to Jane, spanning the early years of their relationship- from 1941, when nineteen-year-old Kurt heads off to college, to his deployment to Europe in 1944 and the couple's marriage in 1945. The letters are full of the humor and wit that we have come to associate with Kurt Vonnegut. But they also show more private corners of his mind- Passionate and tender, the letters form an illuminating portrait of a young soldier's life in World War II as he attempts to come to grips with love and mortality. And they expose the origins of Vonnegut the writer, when Jane was the only person who believed in and supported him, and they had no idea how celebrated he would become. A beautiful full-color collection of handwritten letters, notes, sketches, and comics, interspersed with Edith's insights and family memories, Love, Kurt is an intimate record of a young man growing into himself, a fascinating account of a writer finding his voice, and a moving testament to the life-altering experience of falling in love. ...Show more

The Undying - A Meditation on Modern Illness by Anne Boyer

$24.00 NZD

Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2020 WINNER OF THE WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2020 FINALIST FOR THE PEN / JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD 2020   'Profound and unforgettable' Sally Rooney 'A classic . . . I have long thought of Boyer as a genius' Patricia Lockwood 'An outraged, beauti ful, and brilliant work of embodied critique' Ben Lerner 'Some of the most perceptive and beautiful writing about illness and pain that I have ever read' Hari Kunzru Blending memoir with critique, an award-winning poet and essayist's devastating exploration of sickness and health, cancer and the cancer industry, in the modern world A week after her 41st birthday, Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living payslip to payslip, the condition was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. In The Undying - at once her harrowing memoir of survival, and a 21st-century Illness as Metaphor - Boyer draws on sources from ancient Roman dream diarists to cancer vloggers to explore the experience of illness. She investigates the quackeries, casualties and ecological costs of cancer under capitalism, and dives into the long line of women writing about their own illnesses and deaths, among them Audre Lorde, Kathy Acker and Susan Sontag. Genre-bending, devastating and profoundly humane, The Undying is an unmissably insightful meditation on cancer, the cancer industry and the sicknesses and glories of contemporary life. ...Show more

Sapiens: A Graphic History - The Birth of Humankind - Volume 1 by Yuval Noah Harari; David Vandermeulen, Daniel Casanave

$48.00 NZD

Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction

A hardcover edition of the first volume of the graphic adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari's smash #1 New York Times and international bestseller recommended by President Barack Obama and Bill Gates, with gorgeous full-color illustrations and concise, easy to comprehend text for readers of all ages.One hund red thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?In this first volume of the full-color illustrated adaptation of his groundbreaking book, renowned historian Yuval Harari tells the story of humankind’s creation and evolution, exploring the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens challenges us to reconsider accepted beliefs, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and view specific events within the context of larger ideas. Featuring 256 pages of full-color illustrations and easy-to-understand text covering the first part of the full-length original edition, this adaptation of the mind-expanding book furthers the ongoing conversation as it introduces Harari’s ideas to a wide new readership ...Show more