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Happy May Booklovers,
There may be a chill in the air but this newsletter is coming in HOT! First thing’s first, shout out to all the mum’s out there, your day is almost here. Mother’s Day is this Sunday (May 12th) and if you’d like some advice on what to buy for mum, read on for our reviews below or check out our top picks here. We also have a beautiful selection of Mother’s Day cards and offer a gift wrapping service to make your life easier!
Another awesome pressie for the Booklover Mother would be tickets to the Auckland Writer’s Festival! It starts next week and we could not be more excited for this incredible line up of both international and local authors. To make it to all our favourite events we have had to adjust our hours ever so slightly:
Closing early on Friday May 17th: 9am - 4:30pm
Opening later on Saturday May 18th: 11:30am - 4:00pm
Did you know Olivia is speaking at the festival too? Classic Liv she’s kept it pretty hush hush but she’s speaking on a panel with Lauren Keenan and Barbara Sumner to discuss the detailed research process behind their books, and the craft of bringing history thrillingly to life in fiction. We'd love to see you there, maybe you'll even hear a lil sumthin' about her next book ;)
We have taken the opportunity of having a lot of booklovers in one place to line up some interviews for our Booklover Banter podcast. We’ll be chatting with Renee Rowland (Association Manager at Booksellers Aotearoa NZ), Freddie Gillies (author of Because All Fades) and Suzanne Heywood (author of Wavewalker) on upcoming episodes! Don’t forget Freddie will also be joining us at the shop Thursday night for the NZ Launch of his book.
Our bookclub is growing very popular, don’t forget to check out which books we’re discussing each month on our Bookclub Page and grab a ticket if you like the sound of it. June’s book is Earth by John Boyne - we expect we’ll have some hard hitting discussions about this title!
Until next month, happy reading xx
- The Booklover Team (Olivia, Rachel & Laura)
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Long Island $38
Colm Tóibín
Due into store any day now:
PREORDER HERE
Some of you may remember Colm Tóibín's wonderful novel, Brooklyn (which I loved!). In Long Island we revisit Eilish Lacey 20 years on. She’s settled on Long Island with her husband, Tony and their two children, surrounded by Tony’s Italian family. But when Eilish receives shattering news, she returns to her hometown in Ireland and tries to work through the difficult choices she must make. Most of the book is set in Ireland and Tóibín treats us to a masterful story filled with longing and regret. I enjoyed the book immensely but struggled a little with the change in tone. While Brooklyn was infused with hope and love, Long Island has grown up and become disillusioned. It is less-romantic and more cynical, consequently destroying my dreams of Eilish heading off into the sunset (yes I’m a dreamer and a romantic). You don’t have to have read Brooklyn first but I recommend you do.
- Olivia
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Table for Two $38
Amor Towles
PUBLISHED MAY 14th - PREORDER NOW
The man’s a genius. He’s done it again. He’s written a masterpiece. Or several masterpieces as this is a book of six short stories and a novella called Eve in Hollywood that continues the story started in Rules of Civility. But don’t worry, you don’t need to have read Rules of Civility to read this story. Or you could read the short stories, buy a copy of Rules of Civility and then go back to Table for Two for the novella. The short stories, all set in or on the way to New York, are divine and so finely observed and funny, really funny. I think the smiley lines round my eyes have increased while reading this book. Again, the man’s a genius.
- Laura
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You Are Here $38
David Nicholls
I was enjoying this book so much that by the end I began to ration out the chapters because I didn’t want it to stop. This is the story of Marnie and Michael, who have been brought together on a group walking holiday by their friend Cleo, because she thinks Marnie does nothing but work and Michael is miserable after the split from his wife. Cleo thinks a bit of a walk across Cumbria will do them all good. So as a group they walk and they talk, and they talk and they walk, and things happen along the way, some quite dramatic, but you are left at the end of this gentle novel with the feeling that “all’s right with the world”.
- Laura
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The Librarians of Rue de Picardie $38
Janet Skeslien Charles
I pushed this author’s previous novel The Paris Library into many customer’s hands. It was a bestseller for us and I’m eager to read Janet Charles’s new novel. In 1918, Jessie Carson leaves her job at the New York Public library and travels to France, helping to set up libraries in ambulances close to the front line. Consider me sold!
- Olivia
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Caledonian Road $40
Andrew O'Hagan
I’m only about 50 pages in but I’m already enjoying this latest novel from the author of Mayflies. It’s May 2021. London. Campbell Flynn - art historian and celebrity intellectual - is fuelled by an appetite for admiration and the finer things, controversy and novelty. He doesn't take people half as seriously as they take themselves. Which will prove the first of his huge mistakes. This is the story of one man’s epic fall from grace. Great contemporary literary fiction.
- Olivia
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With Winter Comes Darkness $37
Robbi Neal
A terrible accident burns down a family's life on the same day a murder is committed. From the ashes of these acts comes revelation, darkness, and the truth.
It's very rare as a bookseller to start reading a book with no expectations. Usually I've already read a review, spoken to someone about it, or seen it posted all over social media and opinions cloud my mind as I start to read. I had seen that we had ordered a nice stack of With Winter Comes Darkness by Robbi Neal (author of The Secret World of Connie Starr) for the shop so I have been waiting for it but other than that it hasn't come up on my radar so I wasn't sure I was going to add it to my ever-growing list of books to read right now! So, I actually started listening to it on Libro.fm but now I'm addicted and I need to own a physical copy and finish it (because listening is great but I can tell her writing is fantastic and reading it will be so much better).
- Rachel
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Sometimes it is hard to find a book for male readers, especially older teenagers ready for adult books. Well look no further. My 16 year old son enjoyed both Whalefall - a thriller about a young diver who gets swallowed by a whale and has one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out, and Dragon Rider - an epic fantasy where dragons fly and empires fall. He says Dragon Rider in particular is one of his favourite reads of all time and he’s devastated he has to wait so long for the next book in the series to be published!
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Need help choosing a book for mum? Check out our top picks here!
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The Last Secret Agent $38
Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson
This book has been so popular that we’ve run out of copies but we’ve got plenty more on order you can PREORDER NOW!
Fittingly, I finished reading this book on Anzac Day and gave quiet thanks to this brave woman who died only recently in New Zealand at the age of 102. The last surviving of the SOE women parachuted into Europe during WWII, Pippa Latour’s childhood was peppered with loss and sadness but instead of succumbing to pity she went out and did something extraordinary and selfless with her young life.
- Laura
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Everest, Inc. $40
Will Cockrell
When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest it was a pristine mountain. It must have been amazing. Not for them the rubbish and queues to the top that are part of today’s experience. This book explains just how Everest changed from one of the loneliest places on earth to the thriving business hub that it is today. Base camp is full of clients just waiting to make their push for the top, anticipating a weather window. But who is responsible for them all? The companies, the guides, the Sherpas or the individuals? It’s not particularly clear and moral conundrums abound in the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, particularly when things go wrong. It’s a fascinating read.
- Laura
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Nothing Significant to Report $40
Dario Nustrini
Laugh-out-loud yarns from a soldier in the New Zealand Army.
When new recruit Dario Nustrini's head was freshly shaved in preparation for the army, he knew nothing about what training to fight, kill and die for New Zealand would look like. Since leaving high school the year before, he had been on a steady diet of spliffs, Speights and the occasional sandwich from the cafe he worked at as a waiter. He weighed about as much as an empty pillowcase, with slightly less insulation from the cold. Nothing Significant to Report is the brilliantly entertaining and unvarnished truth of what life is like in the New Zealand Army.
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Magic Pill $39
Johann Hari
The bestselling author of Lost Connections and Stolen Focus takes a revelatory look at the new drugs transforming weight loss as we know it sharing his personal experience on Ozempic and examining our ability to heal society's dysfunctional relationship with food, weight and our bodies. Can these drugs really be as good as they sound? Are they a magic solution or a magical illusion? Finding the answer to this high-stakes question led Johann Hari on a journey from Iceland to Minneapolis to Tokyo, and to interview the leading experts in the world on these issues. These drugs are about to change our world, for better and for worse. Everybody needs to understand how they work scientifically, emotionally and culturally. Magic Pill is an essential guide to the revolution that has already begun and which one leading expert argues could be as transformative as the invention of the smartphone.
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A History of the World in 47 Borders $40
Jonn Elledge
People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very different if a war or treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling the stories of these borders, we can learn a lot about how political identities are shaped, why the world looks the way it does - and about human folly.
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Populus $40
Guy de la Bédoyère
Through the words of Tacitus, Seneca, Martial, and a host of others including ordinary Romans, Guy de la Bédoyère takes the reader into a world of violent politics, civil disorder, unspeakably brutal entertainments, extravagance, decadence, eroticism, exotica, and staggering inequality, participated in daily by the Roman people from the hyper-rich elite to the lowliest slaves. |
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Mickey $40
Helen Brown
It was 1966 and the times they were a-changing, even in the provincial New Zealand coastal town of New Plymouth. Twelve-year-old Helen was living in a crumbling castle overrun by nature, and overshadowed by the majestic Mount Taranaki. On the eve of puberty, everything suddenly is uncomfortable and unfamiliar to Helen. She feels lonely and lost, adrift in this new turbulent sea. That is, until her father gifts her a tiger-striped kitten with extra toes on each paw. Noticing an M on the cat's forehead, Helen names her new companion Mickey. Inquisitive, clever and skittish, Mickey disrupts the already rambunctious household with his mischief. But as it turns out, he's just the ally Helen needs to explore the new world waking up around her. A warm, wistful coming-of-age true story about the transition from childhood to adolescence, and the small stray cat who helped guide the way.
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Big Gorilla $30
Anthony Browne
Learn all about opposites through internationally renowned master picture book-maker Anthony Browne's beloved primates.
What's the opposite of old? Young! What's the opposite of sad? Happy! But what's the opposite of opposite...?
Featuring a range of exquisite primates, from gorillas to chimpanzees, white-faced capuchins to orangutans, Anthony Browne has created a wonderfully unique first book of opposites, with his striking palette and quirky flair for facial expressions sure to charm readers of all ages.
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Groosham Grange $22
Anthony Horowitz
"It's funnier than Harry Potter, and sillier than David Walliams. If you want to read something hilariously horrible and horribly hilarious, this is the book for you"
I mean, that really sums this graphic novel up quite nicely! This is such fun! Graphic novels/comics are becoming more and more popular in recent days (is it our short attention spans?) and I definitely think you should add this to your collection. The illustrations are frightfully cool and the story is a creepy delight. There are so many details in the pictures that you'll discover something new each time you re-read it. I'd honestly recommend this to Harry Potter fans young AND old. - Rachel
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Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie $20
Shelley Burne-Field
Poto is the perfect fledgling – the apple of her father's eye and a natural at hunting and flying. Anything a kāhu is supposed to be good at, Poto can do best of all. She can't understand why her sister Whetū gets cross with her – it's not her fault she's good at everything! As for her baby brother Ari, he's so weird and annoying...
An exciting and action-packed animal story featuring two kāhu sisters who must save their injured baby brother - before a coming flood destroys their home.
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Brown Bird $20
Jane Arthur
Eleven-year-old Rebecca tries to make herself invisible so people won’t call her weird. Resigned to spending the holidays by herself in a new neighbourhood while her mum works long hours at the supermarket, she meets Chester, who has come to stay for the summer. He is loud and fun and full of ideas. But will Rebecca be able to cope with being taken so far from her quiet comfort zone? A gentle, warm-hearted novel about leaving the comfort of your shell and making friends, for fans of Judy Blume, Jacqueline Wilson, Kate DiCamillo and Kate de Goldi. |
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The Apprentice Witnesser $20
Bren MacDibble
Bastienne Scull is an orphaned girl who works with Lodyma Darsey, a witnesser of miracles. The two of them put on shows at the local market to make a living and entertain a small village of women and girls. They live in a post-apocalyptic world where men are forced to live in the hills and stay on the run from a terrible disease that kills most men. I quite liked the fact that it is all about taking the time to look at the good things in life and to enjoy what you can and to be kind to others.
- Booklover Bookworm Lev (age 11)
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Nine Girls $22
Stacy Gregg
Titch is half Māori and half Pākehā and when she moves from Remuera to Ngāruawāhia, her mum’s home town, she is told about a chest of gold buried in the farm land of her tīpuna so she and her friends and whānau plan to dig up the gold but they are warned that it has tapu on it. Thus adventure ensues. I really liked this for a multitude of reasons, some of which being the fact that it does not feel like a little kid book which I love! Also a side note this is my favourite book that I have gotten to review this year so far.
Very high praise from our Booklover Bookworm Lev (age 11)! Lev has a HUGE range of interests when it comes to reading, there really isn't a book that he won't at least try!
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Skandar and the Chaos Trials $21
A. F. Steadman
BOOK THREE IS FINALLY HERE! I made the mistake of reading Book 2 in one sitting and then crying that it was over and I had to wait another year for the next adventure so I haven't finished Book 3 yet because I want to spend more time with these characters. I missed Skandar, Bobby, Mitchell, Flo and their unicorns so much.
It's third year at the Eyrie and their unicorns are all acting up - it's time for the Chaos Trials. The Weaver is still lurking and everyone is on edge because the unicorn eggs are missing! This cover really shows how badass these unicorns are - Scoundrel's Luck is looking armoured-up and majestic and Kenna on her wild, decaying and decrepit unicorn - I've got chills. I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is the best children's magical series since Harry Potter. If you haven't read it yourself or given it to your children or grandchildren yet what are you doing!? Ages 9+
- Rachel
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Join us for the launch of Because All Fades and listen to Freddie talk about his inspiration, writing process, and what comes next!
Thursday, May 16th - 6:00pm.
Free event, RSVP now.
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