classics.net.nz » Books

Sarah Thornhill

admnin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:13:05 +0000

Kate Grenville

Winner of the Orange Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Kate Grenville takes us back to the early Australia of The Secret River and the Thornhill family. This is Sarah’s story. It’s a story of tangled secrets, a story of loss and unlooked-for happiness, and a story about the silent spaces of the past.While Sarah Thornhill is billed as a sequel, anyone who hasn’t already read The Secret River should not be put off. This is a novel that stands by itself and that will be treasured, I’m sure, by generations to come. It is that rare book that manages to wholly engage both head and heart.

$38.99

The Buddha in the Attic

admnin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:59:28 +0000

Julie Otsuka

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka is a short (129 pages) beautifully written delight of a book. It is not a narrative story in the traditional sense as there is very little dialogue, but the story comes through nicely.

The story line deals with picture brides. These are women who traveled from Japan to San Francisco to marry Japanese men who were already working in the United States. These women came from small towns, farms, big cities. They were sent by families who could not afford to keep them, some came seeking adventure, some escaping or hiding from their past. Their lives are traced from their hopefulness at a fresh start and the excitement of being chosen, through the long, exhausting boat ride across the Pacific to their arrival in San Francisco and the reality of their new lives.

$37.99

The Prisoner of Paradise.

admnin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:33:32 +0000

Romesh Gunesekera

The book is set in 1825 in Mauritius. We meet 19yr old Lucy Gladwell, who as an orphan, has arrived from England to live with her Aunt and Uncle, in their grand plantation house.

This island is a melting pot of Africa and India, and under the surface there is growing unease. The age of slavery is coming to its messy end, word is lapping against the shores of the island, of revolts in Europe and the Americas, and of a charismatic new Indian leader who will shine the light of liberty. For everyone on the island a devastating storm is coming.

$35.00

The Hare with Amber Eyes.

admnin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:47:57 +0000

Edmund De Waal

Winner of the 2010 COSTA Biography award.

Part treasure hunt, part family saga, this richly original memoir spans nearly 2 centuries…..Combines all the charm of a personal memoir with the resonance of world history. A very recommended read.

$29.99

Little Shadows

admnin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:34:02 +0000

The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is sixteen when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is thirteen. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but Marina Endicott’s genius is to show how the three girls slowly and steadily evolve into true artists even as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters – some of them charming charlatans, some of them unpredictable eccentrics, and some of them just ordinary-seeming humans with magical gifts. Using her gorgeous prose and extraordinary insight, Endicott lures us onto the brightly lit stage and then into the little shadows that lurk behind the curtain, and reveals how the art of vaudeville – in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow – echoes the art of life itself.

$37.99

The Sense of an Ending

admnin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:14:21 +0000

Julian Barnes

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011

It is the story of a seemingly ordinary man who, when revisiting his past in later life, discovers that the memories he holds are less than perfect. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, this is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.

$34.99

As The Earth Turns Silver

admnin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:56:58 +0000

From the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, from Kwangtung, China to Wellington and Dunedin and the battlefields of the Western Front — a story of two families.Yung faces a new land that does not welcome the Chinese. Alone, Katherine struggles to raise her children and find her place in the world.In a climate of hostility towards the foreign newcomers, Katherine and Yung embark on a poignant and far-reaching love affair…He came from behind and held her in his arms, told her to look again at earth and sky and water. Could she see how the world turned silver?People died, he told her, because they were afraid. They did not go out at night on dangerous water. They did not see the earth as it turned overnight to silver.

$29.99

ANIMALS

admnin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:38:31 +0000

Packed full of information with more than 1200 colour illustrations and more than 400 colour photographs, ANIMALS is guarateed to appeal to any budding zoologist or animal enthusiast.

Features a diverse selection of more than 400 of the world’s animals drawn from all species and all climates,from apes to snakes,mammals to molluscs and toads to tropical fish. Packed with info on the anatomy,habitat,lifestyle and diet of each animal, and with special fact boxes and maps.

$65.00

New Zealand Motorhome & Camping Atlas

admnin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:28:18 +0000

This 4th edition combines both the popular and successful NZ Motorhome & Camping Atlas with the NZ Road Atlas.

Information on Camping Grounds, Motor Camps,Holiday Parks,Roadside rest areas,Te Araroa trail.

$44.99

2012…..NOT THE END.

admnin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:52:40 +0000

New Zealand ASTRONOMICAL YEARBOOK 2012

A Great read from the StarDome Observatory Planetarium in Auckland.

Read about the Transit of Venus…..watch Venus cross in front of the sun on June 6th, your last chance for 105 years!

Also ‘Mars Exploration’,….. and an article on the Solar Eclipse happening this November, and how you can get the best view of this rare event.

$22.99