SUMMER READING

GORGEOUS GIFTS FOR BOOK LOVERS

Selected by Carole Beu from The Women’s Bookshop, located opposite Ponsonby Central.

FOR LITERATURE LOVERS Hamnet – This illuminating novel by Maggie O’Farrell won the 2020 Women’s Fiction Prize. Based on the death from the plague of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son, it creates a vivid picture of life in Stratford-on-Avon in 1596 and the bard’s brilliant, eccentric wife. Wonderful! $38.

Remote Sympathy – The new novel from award-winning New Zealander Catherine Chidgey explores wilful obliviousness. In her luxurious new home in Buchenwald, can Frau Hahn remain naïve about what is going on around her. Do we all ‘look the other way’? Intense and deeply moving. $35.

FOR COMMITTED COOKS Hiakai: Modern Maori Cuisine – Time Magazine named Hiakai Restaurant in Wellington as one of the 100 places in the world to visit. The book is as gorgeous as the restaurant. History, tikanga, Monique’s personal journey, foraging, breath-taking recipes. $65.

FOR FEISTY FEMALES Goddess Muscle – This brilliant poetry collection, both personal and political, from award-winning Pasifika poet Karlo Mila, explores issues of racism, poverty, climate, as well as relationships, identity and community, in a bold and compelling voice. $35.

Gift-wrapped Books

for Christmas

105 Ponsonby Rd Auckland 09 376 4399 books@womensbookshop.co.nz online shopping womensbookshop.co.nz Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World – The third in this wonderful series reveals through women who have left their birth countries that no matter your origins or ethnicity you can become chef, surgeon, musician, politician, judo champion – and break down barriers. $50.

FOR CURIOUS KIDS I Am the Universe – Local artist and author Vasanti Unka takes small children on a glorious, colourful, starlit journey through glittering galaxies and back to precious planet earth, brimming with all kinds of life. Beautiful! $25.

Counting Creatures – This delightful interactive counting book, from Julia Donaldson and Sharon King-Chai is full of gorgeous baby animals with cut-outs and lots of lift-up flaps. A work of art! $30.

FOR THE SOCIALLY AWARE Cohousing for Life: A practical & personal Story of Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood – Architect Robin Allison inspires us with her story of a group of ordinary people coming together to create an eco-village here in Ranui, Auckland, with the complexities and the community decision-making that has resulted in this stunning cooperative endeavour. $50.

This Pakeha Life: An Unsettled Memoir – In this timely and perceptive memoir, award-winning author and academic Alison Jones wrestles honestly with questions of identity in Aotearoa. She has spent a lifetime exploring Maori and Pakeha worlds and offers important insights. $40.

Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World – Layla F Saad challenges us to begin with ourselves; understanding our own privilege and the ways we are complicit, often unconsciously, in upholding white supremacy. $38.  PN

THE WOMEN’S BOOKSHOP, 105 Ponsonby Road, T: 09 376 4399, E: books@womensbokshop.co.nz www.womensbookshop.co.nz

THE DOROTHY BUTLER BOOKSHOP SUMMER READING LIST

Mophead Tu by Selina Tusitala Marsh – $24.99 In Mophead Tu, Selina is crowned Commonwealth Poet and invited to perform for the Queen. But when someone at work calls her a ‘sellout’, Selina starts doubting herself. Selina has to work out where she stands and how to be true to herself. This book is colonialism 101 for kids. It will make you laugh and make you think.

subversively playful. Mihi by Gavin Bishop (Board Book) – $17.99 Mihi is a simple

edition, perfect for sharing and gift-giving. Ages 8-12. book to share with babies - a way to talk about their whanau and place in the world. Repeating colours and shapes show the connections between waka, mountain, iwi through to mama, papa and the little reader. A gorgeous introduction for children of any age to their own pepeha/mihi.

Jeffers – $29.99 What shall we build, you and I? I’ll build your future and you’ll build mine. We’ll build a watch to keep our time. From renowned, internationally bestselling picture-book creator and visual artist, Oliver Jeffers, comes this rare and enduring story about a parent’s boundless love, life’s endless opportunities, and all we need to build a together future. Egg and Spoon by Alexandra Tylee and Giselle Clarkson – $39.99 Alexandra Tylee’s lively inner ten-year-old knows exactly what food appeals to children and how to talk to kids about food. She trusts them to choose flavours and handle equipment in this joyful book that will set them on a lifetime love of healthy cooking and eating. Giselle Clarkson’s illustrations are salivatingly delicious and

The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling – $50 The Ickabog is coming; a mythical monster, a kingdom in peril, an adventure that will test two children’s bravery to the limit. Discover a brilliantly original fairy tale about the power of hope and friendship to triumph against all odds from one of the world’s best storytellers. A beautiful hardback What We’ll Build: Plans for Our Together Future by Oliver

The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Rauf – $18.99 From Onjali Q. Rauf, the award-winning and best-selling author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, comes another incredible story told with humour and heart. Told from the perspective of a bully, this book explores themes of bullying and homelessness, while celebrating kindness, friendship and the potential everyone has to change for the good. Ages 8-12.

The Porangi Boy by Shilo Kino – $25 Niko lives in a small, rural town with a sacred hot spring and a taniwha named Taukere. When his grandfather dies it’s up to Niko to convince his community that the taniwha is real and stop a prison from being built on the taniwha’s sacred spring. Niko must unite his whanau, honour his grandfather and stand up to his childhood bully. Ages 9-12. Hollowpox, The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend – $19.99 A strange illness, the Hollowpox, has taken hold of Nevermoor and as victims multiply, panic spreads. With the city she loves in a state of fear, Morrigan quickly realises it is up to her to find a cure for the Hollowpox, even if it will put her - and the rest of Nevermoor - in more danger than ever before. Ages 8-12.

THE DOROTHY BUTLER BOOKSHOP, 1 Jervois Road, Ponsonby T: 09 376 7283, E: shop@dorothybutler.co.nz, www.dorothybutler.co.nz

DEAR READER CHRISTMAS BOOK GIFT LIST

Here is a selection of some of our favourites.

‘Shuggie Bain’ by Douglas Stuart Winner of the 2020 Booker Award, this novel is gritty, at times funny, and very poignant. Set in Thatcher’s 1980s, it is a tale of poverty, violence and Catholic/Protestant tensions in Glasgow. Shuggie witnesses his mother’s gradual disintegration as she becomes increasingly addicted to alcohol. Stuart clearly draws from his own childhood as he conveys with moving, heartfelt prose, the love, yet powerlessness of children. ‘The Morbids’ by Ewa Ramsey

‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell This is a stunningly written, intimate weaving of fact and fiction about Shakespeare’s wider family, notably his wife Agnes and their son Hamnet. Through Agnes – a gifted herbalist - we experience not only the joys of motherhood and love, but also the enormous sadness of loss. The descriptions of daily life, including the spread of the plague, are vivid. A beautiful and profound novel. ‘A Promised Land’ by Barack Obama

‘Trio’ by William Boyd Boyd’s latest novel set in the 1960s, follows the machinations of three characters connected by the production of a film. Actress Anny Vicklund has various dalliances while dealing with the reappearance of her terrorist ex-husband. Elfrida Wing, wife of the film’s director, is an alcoholic novelist who plans to write about Virginia Woolf’s last day. Talbot Kydd, the film’s producer is coming to terms with his sexuality. clever and insightful.

‘Islands of Mercy’ by Rose Tremain Set in the 1900s, Jane, the daughter of a successful doctor in Bath, rejects the marriage proposal of Valentine, her father’s assistant. She then meets the beautiful Juliette, and what follows is a voyage of self-discovery. Meanwhile in Borneo, Valentine’s brother has contracted malaria and is being looked after by a British landowner. A novel where actions have far-reaching consequences and characters struggle to find their purpose in life. Eloquent, elegant writing.

Caitlin has suffered a trauma that has unravelled her life. She joins a self-help group – “the morbids” – where members obsess about their impending death and the various forms it is likely to take. Although Ramsey writes with dry humour, she also treats her characters with empathy and warmth. She shows an understanding of mental illness – the effects on all involved – and the work it takes to recover.

It is a delight to read, with fantastically drawn characters – hilarious, The book takes us from Obama’s childhood to the killing of bin Laden in 2011. Obama questions decisions – his own and historical – musing on other possible choices and outcomes. His examination of history is insightful, and we are made aware of the antipathy and underlying racism towards his presidency. He believes the rise of Trump was inevitable. Obama’s writing is informative, self-reflective, restrained and stylish.

‘Mophead Tu: The Queen’s Poem’ by Selina Tusitla This book, for four-year-olds and above, is a sequel to ‘Mophead’. When Selina is invited to read a poem to the Queen, someone calls her a sell-out. An hilarious, intriguing look at colonialism, and Selina’s efforts to bridge the gap.  PN

DEAR READER, 436 Richmond Road, T: 09 360 0383, www.dearreader.co.nz