Pamper Me to Hell & Back


Hera Lindsay Bird - 2018
    This pamphlet of poetry by Hera Lindsay Bird is a startling departure from her bestselling debut Hera Lindsay Bird by defying convention and remaining exactly the same, only worse. This collection, which focuses on love, childish behaviours, 90’s celebrity references and being a woman, is sure to confirm all your worst suspicions and prejudices.

What the Fat?: Fat's IN: Sugar's OUT Practical guide and recipes


Grant Schofield - 2015
    For good. Low carb healthy fat eating has never been so easy. Welcome to the ultimate practical "how to" and scientific guide.

The Necessary Angel


C.K. Stead - 2017
    With a surprising twist at the end, this book is gripping and hugely satisfying.It can be read on many levels - as a story of people grappling with love and fidelity; as a story about the importance of books in everyday life; as a commentary on living in complex modern-day Europe; and as a page-turning mystery.Peopled mainly by lecturers and students of the Sorbonne The Necessary Angel touches on the machinations of various players as they position for power. Written against the wider backdrop of the political turmoil of 2014 - ISIS, Syria and the threat of Brexit - these themes become global. One of the characters quotes Flaubert: 'There is no truth, there is only perception', and this thread runs throughout.This is a sophisticated novel that shows CK Stead writing at the height of his powers.

I Am Not Esther


Fleur Beale - 1998
    Her name is changed to the biblical Esther, and she is forced to follow the severe set of social codes of the order. Soon, Esther begins to lose her own identity.

Bow Down, Shadrach


Joy Cowley - 1992
    When Hannah discovers that Shadrach has been sold to a dog food factory, she decides to mount a heroic rescue and enlist the help of her two younger brothers.From the beginning, their plans go seriously wrong. By the time they've argued with the repulsive Wuff Stuff man, hidden Shadrach in a church and in a caravan, and floated him on a mussel barge, they're in desperate need of rescuing themselves.

Driving to Treblinka: A long search for a lost father


Diana Wichtel - 2017
    Her mother was a New Zealander, her father a Polish Jew who had jumped off a train to the Treblinka death camp and hidden from the Nazis until the end of the war. When Diana was 13 she moved to New Zealand with her mother, sister and brother. Her father was to follow.Diana never saw him again.Many years later she sets out to discover what happened to him. The search becomes an obsession as she painstakingly uncovers information about his large Warsaw family and their fate at the hands of the Nazis, scours archives across the world for clues to her father’s disappearance, and visits the places he lived.This unforgettable narrative is also a deep reflection on the meaning of family, the trauma of loss, and the insistence of memory. It asks the question: Is it better to know, or more bearable not to?

The Bone Tiki


David Hair - 2009
    His father's important new client wants it. Badly. And he has some very nasty friends. When Mat is forced to flee for his life, an unexpected meeting with a girl called Pania sets his world spinning. Suddenly he's running through the bush with a girl-clown, a dog who is way too human, and a long-dead warrior. Fearful creatures from legend are rising up around him, and Mat faces a terrifying ordeal.

The Promise Between Us


Barbara Claypole White - 2018
    Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind—to change her name and never return.But when she and Maisie accidentally reunite, Katie can’t ignore the familiarity of her child’s compulsive behavior. Worse, Maisie worries obsessively about bad things happening to her pregnant stepmom. Katie has the power to help, but can she reconnect with the family she abandoned?To protect Maisie, Katie must face the fears that drove her from home, accept the possibility of love, and risk exposing her heart-wrenching secret.

Remember Me


Charity Norman - 2022
    Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman's disappearance twenty-five years ago.After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time - and to glimpse shattering truths about his past. Truths she'd rather were kept buried.From the author shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Crime Fiction, and for Best International Crime Fiction in the Ned Kelly AwardsA heartfelt, page-turning suspense novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets of Strangers - ideal reading-group fiction, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult and Liane Moriarty.

Flight of the Fantail


Steph Matuku - 2018
    Only a few of the teenagers survive; they find their phones don’t work, there’s no food, and they’ve only got their wits to keep them alive. There’s also something strange happening here. Why are the teenagers having nosebleeds and behaving erratically, and why is the rescue effort slow to arrive? To make it out, they have to discover what’s really going on and who or what is behind it all.

Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley


Danyl McLauchlan - 2013
    A sleepy bohemian neighbourhood.An ancient legend from the ancient past.A brilliant but troubled young writer.A voluptuous healer.A shadowy cult and its sinister leader.A trail of riddles; a hidden artefact.An explicit sex scene, then a struggle for ultimate power.And a final, unspeakable secret.Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley is a dark and hilarious odyssey through Wellington’s underbelly.

Season Of The Jew


Maurice Shadbolt - 1986
    A shrewd mission-educated Maori, Coates/Kooti, perceived as a thorn in the colonial flesh, escapes imprisonment and returns to Poverty Bay with a small band of followers. Kooti becomes the ruthless leader of a considerable native army, his Bible studies leading him to see himself and his people as latter-day Israelites. The story of what follows is told through the eyes of Captain Fairweather, a British army officer turned artist, an eminently humane man whose attempts to mend relations between natives and settlers meet with signal failure; while his wryly professional view of the beleaguered colony changes after a brutal attack on the half-Maori women he loves and her family. All main characters in this strange but true novel are historical and the tragic climax occurred in 1869 with the execution of a harmless and uncomprehending young Maori - an example.

The Lobotomist's Wife


Samantha Greene Woodruff - 2022
    Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy. Ruth believes in it as a miracle treatment and in Robert as its genius pioneer. But as her husband spirals into deluded megalomania, Ruth can’t ignore her growing suspicions. Robert is operating on patients recklessly, often with horrific results. And a vulnerable young mother, Margaret Baxter, is poised to be his next victim.Margaret can barely get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diagnoses her with the baby blues and proposes a lobotomy, she believes the procedure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her—and scores of others—from the harrowing consequences of Robert’s ambitions.Inspired by a shocking chapter in medical history, The Lobotomist’s Wife is a galvanizing novel of a woman fighting against the most grievous odds, of ego, and of the best intentions gone horribly awry.

Sydney Bridge Upside Down


David Ballantyne - 1968
    Summer has come, and those who can have left the bay for the allure of the far away city. Among them is Harry's mother, who has left behind a case of homemade ginger beer and a vague promise of return.Harry and Cal are too busy enjoying their holidays, playing in the caves and the old abandoned slaughterhouse, to be too concerned with her absence. When their older cousin-the beautiful, sophisticated Caroline-comes from the city to stay with the Bairds, Harry is besotted. With their friend Dibs Kelly, the boys and Caroline spend the long summer days exploring the bay and playing games.But Harry is very protective of Caroline and jealous of the attention she receives from other men. And what looked to be a pleasurable summer is overshadowed by certain 'accidents' in the old slaughterhouse and a general air of suspicion and distrust.There was a simple country boy who lived on the edge of the world, and his name was Harry Baird. That is not the whole story.First published in 1968, Sydney Bridge Upside Down has long been considered a New Zealand literary masterpiece. Published now for the first time in Australia, this brilliant tale, told in an entirely distinctive voice, deserves a place on the bookshelf alongside period classics like Wake in Fright and My Brother Jack.

After Alice Fell


Kim Taylor Blakemore - 2021
    Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder.Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief—to let go of the dead and embrace the living. But that’s not easy in this house full of haunting memories.Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.Now Marion is more determined than ever to find out what happened that night at Brawders, and why. With no one she can trust, Marion may risk her own life to uncover the secrets buried with Alice in the family plot.