Eleven Seasons
Paul D Carter
Allen & Unwin, AUSTRALIAN LIT, PB, 9781742379715
The winner of this year’s Australian/ Vogel Literary Award for unpublished manuscripts by writers aged under 35, Eleven Seasons is a story of wayward youths, Aussie Rules football and the relationships of mothers and their sons.
Jeremy Deller: Joy In People
Jeremy Deller
Hayward Gallery Publishing, ART, HB, 9781853322945
Published on the occasion of Jeremy Deller's forthcoming survey exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, this is the first book to cover the career of this important British artist. Jeremy Deller was born in London in 1966 and studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art and Sussex University. He won the Turner Prize in 2004 for his installation Memory Bucket (2003) a documentary about Crawford, Texas the hometown of George W Bush, and the siege in nearby Waco. Acting as curator, producer or director, his expansive approach to making art is based on participation and collaboration often with groups outside of mainstream cultural and social activity. One of his most acclaimed projects, The Battle of Orgreave, recreated an important event during the 1984/5 miners strike with original participants and historical re-enactment societies. His work is represented by The Modern Institute, Glasgow and Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York.
Canada
Richard Ford
Penguin, LITERATURE, PB, 9781408815168
Set in 1950s Montana, this haunting and visionary novel by one of America’s best contemporary writers is about vast landscapes, complex identities and fragile humanity.
Bring Up the Bodies
Hilary Mantel
Fourth Estate, LITERATURE, PB, 9780007353583
The second volume of Hilary Mantel’s astounding account of the life of Thomas Cromwell was the first sequel to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson
Penguin, SCIENCE FICTION, PB, 9780241953198
The future is small. The future is nano ...And who could be smaller or more insignificant than poor Little Nell - an orphan girl alone and adrift in a world of Confucian Law, Neo-Victorian values and warring nano-technology? Well, not quite alone. Because Nell has a friend, of sorts. A guide, a teacher, an armed and unarmed combat instructor, a book and a computer: The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is all these and much much more. It is illicit, magical, dangerous. And it isn't Nell's. It was stolen. And now some very powerful people want to get their hands on this highly desirable object. Nell is about to discover that the world can feel very small indeed ...
What Makes A Good School?
Jane Caro & Chris Bonnor
New South Books, AUSTRALIAN STUDIES, PB, 9781742233291
How much of what you hear about schools can you trust? Can you believe the marketing hype about unsurpassed facilities, genius teachers and stellar academic achievement? Do you listen to neighbourhood gossip about your local school? Are government statistics the answer? School choice has become one of the most agonising issues of parenthood. Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro have no magic formula, and agree that complex factors come together to make a good school. But drawing on their own experiences and knowledge as school principal, parents and advocates they give parents the tools to do homework about schools themselves. They compare talk about schools - public, Catholic, private, selective, comprehensive - against the reality. They examine how good schools respond to the recurring crises in the lives of kids. They help navigate NAPLAN tests and the My School website. And they place their analysis squarely in the middle of the national discussion about education. Schools have to be good for students, for parents and for the nation. What Makes a Good School? will help you to cover all bases.
Zone One
Colson Whitehead
Anchor Books, LITERATURE, PB, 9780307455178
A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces stationed in Chinatown's Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street--aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units tasked with clearing lower Manhattan of the remaining feral zombies. Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong... At once a chilling horror story and a literary novel by a contemporary master, Zone One is a dazzling portrait of modern civilization in all its wretched, shambling glory.
The Bloody Chamber
Angela Carter
Vintage, LITERATURE, PB, 9780099588115
This title comes with an introduction by Helen Simpson. From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood , Bluebeard , Puss in Boots , Beauty and the Beast , vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.
One Under Bacchus
Duncan Bruce Hose
Self Published, AUST POETRY, PB, 9780987142306
Questions of Travel
Michelle de Kretser
Allen & Unwin, AUSTRALIAN LIT, HB, 9781743311004
$39.99 $32.95 inc
‘What is the modern age if not movement, travel, change?’ Michelle de Kretser asks in her new novel. She then deftly weaves twin narratives detailing the trajectories of two protagonists: nomadic, artistically inclined, Australian-born Laura; and Ravi, dreamer and mathematician, who grows up in troubled Sri Lanka. From Colombo’s beaches to London bedsits and backpacker haunts in Bali and Kerala, we journey across fi ve decades, to arrive in 21st-century Sydney. De Kretser’s exquisite prose, signposted with pop culture and historical references, illuminates the grand themes and incidental details of modern life. For anyone who has lugged a backpack or bunked in a youth hostel, this novel will evoke familiar sensations and emotions as it probes the restlessness and motivations of the traveller.
A Beginner's Goodbye
Anne Tyler
Chatto & Windus, LITERATURE, PB, 9780701187200
When Dorothy came back from the dead, Aaron noticed that some people simply ignored the fact; some seemed to have forgotten she'd died in the first place; and others just walked straight on by. The accident that killed Dorothy - involving an oak tree, a sun porch and some elusive biscuits - leaves Aaron bereft and the house a wreck. As those around him fuss and flap and bring him casserole after casserole, Aaron ploughs on. He busies himself with work at the family firm, a publisher with a successful line in 'Beginner's Guides' to every stage and aspect of life. But then Dorothy starts to materialize in the oddest places. At first, she only comes for a short while, leaving Aaron longing for more. Gradually she stays for longer, and as they talk they also bicker ... The cracks that start to reappear in their perfectly normal marriage are as well worn and familiar to Aaron as Dorothy herself. As Aaron starts to emerge from his grief, they are also a reassuringly poignant reminder that life may move on, but some things will forever remain the same.
The Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope
Penguin Classics, LITERATURE, PB, 9780141199115
'What! to come here a stranger, a young, unknown, and unfriended stranger, and tell us, in the name of the bishop his master, that we are ignorant of our duties, old-fashioned, and useless!' Trollope's comic masterpiece of plotting and backstabbing opens as the Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed. Soon a pitched battle breaks out over who will take power, involving, among others, the zealous reformer Dr Proudie, his fiendish wife and the unctuous schemer Obadiah Slope. Barchester Towers is one of the best-loved novels in Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, which captured nineteenth-century provincial England with wit, worldly wisdom and an unparalleled gift for characterisation. This is the second book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
The Yellow Birds
Kevin Powers
Sceptre, LITERATURE, PB, 9781444756135
Kevin Powers served in the US Army in Iraq, and his powerful and haunting debut novel captures the impact of war on those who have been sent there to fight. John Bartle befriends the young Daniel Murphy while still training in New Jersey, and promises his mother that he will take care of him when they go to Iraq. Ten months later, Murphy, aged only 18, is dead. What were the real circumstances surrounding Murphy’s death in Iraq? How will Bartle face Murphy’s mother? And how will Bartle honour this deep bond, formed amidst violent conflict? Moving and beautifully subtle, The Yellow Birds is also astonishingly vivid, taking the reader to the action in Iraq and into the mind of one who has seen the horror.
The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Jonas Jonasson
Allen & Unwin, LITERATURE, PB, 9781743311271
These days, it’s a novelty to come across a best-selling Scandinavian novel that doesn’t feature serial killers. But over 2.5 million readers internationally have read Jonas Jonasson’s charming tale about Alan Karlsson, a centenarian who escapes through a nursing-home window and embarks on a picaresque journey that leads him into the orbit of bikie gang members, a hot-dogstand operator called Benny, an elephant called Sonya and a detective chief inspector determined to track them all down. Alan’s journey is interspersed with vignettes from his past, where his Zelig-like ability to insert himself in the company of famous men during historically important moments in time supplies a second, equally quirky, storyline.
The Testament of Mary
Colm Toibin
Picador, LITERATURE, HB, 9781742611044
Here, Tóibín remains faithful to the Gospel stories but takes advantage of the lack of a narrative from Christ’s mother to deliver a thoughtful reimagining of her voice and experiences. Her son has been lost to the world, and now, living in exile and in fear, Mary tries to piece together the memories of the events that led to his brutal death. To her he was a vulnerable fi gure, living in a time of turmoil and change and surrounded by men who could not be trusted. Reviewing the book in The Observer, Naomi Alderman said ‘Tóibín’sweary Mary, sceptical and grudging, reads as far more true and real than the saintly perpetual virgin of legend. And Tóibín is a wonderful writer: as ever, his lyrical and moving prose is the real miracle.’ We can only concur.
Thirty Australian Poets
Felicity Plunkett editor
Uni. Of Queensland Press, AUST POETRY, PB, 9780702239144
This groundbreaking anthology captures the spirit of a generation that has made the renaissance of Australian poetry impossible to ignore. 'Freed from the need for strict form, there is a surprising amount of rhyme and formality in this lively collection . . . And look at the range of characters you meet in these poems: Patrick White, John Forbes, John Milton, John Lewis, Krishna, Hamlet, Mallarmé, god, Mother Doubt, the Queen of Sheba, Groucho Marx, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, André Citroën, the Holy Spirit, the Fried-Egg Plant, ectoplasm, Ray Martin, a sibyl, the Sibyl, Doctor Who, the Aztecs and Daffy Duck. What more could you want?'
High Line: The Inside Story Of New York City's Park In The Sky
Robert Hammond
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, ARCHITECTURE, HB, 9780374532994
How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict elevated railway into a grand--and beloved--open space
The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior experience in planning and development collaborated with their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space.
Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line became obsolete. By century's end it was a rusty, forbidding ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty.
David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an opportunity to create a new way to experience their city. Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring book-- lavishly illustrated--they tell how they relied on skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg, the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now the High Line--a half-mile expanse of plants, paths, staircases, and framed vistas--runs through a transformed West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are possible when creative people work together for the common good.
Bauhaus: Art As Life
Walter Konig, ART, HB, 9783863351632
This book explores the diverse artistic production and turbulent 14-year history of the modern world's most famous art school. Accompanying the biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the United Kingdom in more than 40 years, this catalogue features a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation, ranging from the school's Expressionist beginnings to its pioneering utopian model of uniting art and technology in order to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Exemplary works from such Bauhaus masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stolzl are presented alongside works by lesser-known artist masters and Bauhaus students. Through a range of specially commissioned essays, "Bauhaus" traces the life of the school from its founding by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919 to its relocation to its newly built campus in Dessau in 1925 under the direction of Gropius and then Hannes Meyer, and finally its brief period in Berlin, under the leadership of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and through its dramatic closure in 1933 by the Nazis. The catalogue also includes a series of original writings by Bauhaus artists, drawn from previously published texts and personal correspondence.
The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes The Mind
Bloomsbury, SCIENCE, HB, 9781608190904
Every day, we are beset by millions of sounds-ambient ones like the rumble of the train and the hum of air conditioner, as well as more pronounced sounds, such as human speech, music, and sirens. But how do we process what we hear every day? This book answers such revealing questions as: Why do we often fall asleep on train rides or in the car, and what does it have to do with hearing? What is it about the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard that makes us cringe? Why do city folks have trouble sleeping in the country, and vice versa? Why can't you get that jingle out of your head? Starting with the basics of the biology, neuroscientist and musician Seth Horowitz explains how sound affects us, and in turn, how we've learned to manipulate sound: into music, commercial jingles, car horns, and modern inventions like cochlear implants, ultrasound scans, and the mosquito ringtone. Combining the best parts of This is Your Brain on Music and How We Decide, this book gives new insight into what the sounds of our world have to do with the way we think, feel, and interact.
Swimming Studies: A Memoir
Leanne Shapton
Particular Books, BIOGRAPHY/AUTO, HB, 9781846144943
As a teenager, Leanne Shapton trained for the Olympic swimming trials; now an artist, she is still drawn inexorably to swimming, in pools and on beaches across the world. What do you with an all-absorbing activity once it's past its relevance, and yet you can't quite give it up? Is it possible to find a new purpose for its rigors and focus? Swimming Studies is an original, meditative work that explores what it is like to move from a world of competition and discipline to one of recreation and introspection. Giving a fascinating glimpse into the private realms of swimming, and drawing, Shapton tells an intimate story of suburban adolescence, family ties, and the solitary underwater moments that now ground her artistic habits.
A Storm of Swords: Blood & Gold: 3 Song of Ice & Fire
George R R Martin
Voyager Classics, SCIENCE FICTION, PB, 9780007119554
The third volume, part two of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. GAME OF THRONES is now a major TV series from HBO, featuring a stellar cast. The Starks are scattered. Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa Stark remains their captive. Meanwhile, across the ocean, Daenerys Stormborn, the last heir of the Dragon King, delivers death to the slave-trading cities of Astapor and Yunkai as she approaches Westeros with vengeance in her heart.