The Scam - The fourth book in the fast-paced, action-packed Fox and O'Hare series

The Scam

The fourth book in the fast-paced, action-packed Fox and O'Hare series from Janet Evanovich, No. 1 bestselling author of the blockbuster Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author of the Monk series, and co-author of THE HEIST, THE CHASE and THE JOB.

Headline - Trade Paperback - $34.99
                  E Book  - $19.99

black eyed susans

Black-Eyed Susans

Author: Julia Heaberlin - Michael Joseph - $37.00

I am the star of screaming tabloid headlines and campfire ghost stories. I am one of the four Black-Eyed Susans. The lucky one.

Seventeen-year-old Tessa, dubbed a 'Black-Eyed Susan' by the media, became famous for being the only victim to survive the vicious attack of a serial killer. Her testimony helped to put a dangerous criminal behind bars - or so she thought.

Now, decades later, the case has been reopened and the black-eyed Susans planted outside Tessa's bedroom window seem to be a message from a killer who should be safely in prison.

Tessa agrees to help with the investigation, but she is haunted by fragmented memories of the night she was attacked and terrified for her own teenage daughter's safety. Can she unlock the truth about the killer before it's too late?

About the author:
Julia Heaberlin grew up in Decatur, Texas, a small town that sits under a big sky. It provided a dreamy girl with a great library, a character behind every door, and as many secrets as she'd find anyplace else. 
An award-winning journalist, she has worked as an editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and the Detroit News. Black-Eyed Susans is her third psychological thriller set in Texas. 
She lives near Dallas/Fort Worth with her husband and has a son who attends the University of Texas at Austin. 
She is currently at work on her next novel of suspense.

Launch | The Dreaming Land by Martin Edmond | Thursday 15th October 6pm - Unity Books, Wellington

Unity Books Wellington and Bridget Williams Books
warmly invite you to celebrate the launch of

The Dreaming Land

a new memoir by

Martin Edmond

Thursday 15th October 6.00-7.30pm
Unity Books
57 Willis St, Wellington

“So here I am walking again an old path made new by the very fact that I am upon it once more, accompanied by familiar hordes: the fecund majority of the dead, the myriad of the living in all of their many forms, defunct, mutant, revenant or otherwise, traversing memory’s infinite field.”

In the evocative prose that makes him one of our finest writers, Martin Edmond recalls his experiences of growing up in rural New Zealand in the 1950s and 60s. The son of schoolteachers, Edmond’s early life was shaped by his father’s developing career and the moves it dictated: from Ohakune, to Greytown, to Huntly, to Heretaunga.

The Dreaming Land shows us the making of a thinker and a writer. Edmond documents the people, locations, and events that made a lasting impression on him, and maps the development of his mental landscape – a landscape marked by curiosity, empathy and the capacity for acute observation.

It is a book that is at once personal and universal, charting formative moments yet filled with details that resonate more broadly. The Dreaming Land pushes at the boundaries of what can be remembered to create a narrative which absorbs, illuminates and enchants.

All welcome.

Guiness World Records 2016

The world's biggest-selling annual is back and bursting with thousands of amazing new records! Last year, the diamond anniversary edition was the Christmas #1. This year, the publishers are building on that success to bring an all-new design, thousands of exciting new and fully updated records, and exciting new photography from around the world. The 2016 edition is the most ambitious yet!

Pan Macmillan - Hardback - NZ$49.99

Julie Schumacher becomes first woman to win Thurber prize for humor writing

Schumacher won the comedy writing prize for her novel Dear Committee Members, becoming the first woman to win in its 20-year history 

Julie Schumacher: ‘I was somebody who thought books were hard and boring because I didn’t learn to read very easily.’ Photograph: Catherine Smith/Facebook

Elise Czajkowski in New York

Tuesday 29 September 2015  The Guardian

Julie Schumacher became the first female winner of the Thurber prize for American humor on Monday night, taking the prize for her epistolary novel Dear Committee Members. It was destined to be a historic night for the nearly 20-year-old award; all three of this year’s finalists were women.
The prize is award by the Thurber House, a literary center in James Thurber’s hometown that boasts the tagline “Where laughter, learning, and literature meet”. It is handed out at an annual ceremony at Carolines on Broadway in New York, one of the city’s best-known standup venues. (Past winners include Jon Stewart, David Sedaris, Christopher Buckley and Alan Zweibel.)

Schumacher’s winning novel depicts a midwestern professor whose life is glimpsed through the seemingly endless number of recommendation letters he is asked to write for colleagues, students and near strangers. While the book is technically fictional, Schumacher is herself a creative writing professor at the University of Minnesota, and, during her reading at the award ceremony, described the main character’s office as “bearing an odd resemblance to the building in which I work”.
More

From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle by Kate De Goldi

Meet filmmaker Barney Kettle, who liked to invent stories but found a real one under his nose.

Barney Kettle knew he would be a very famous film director one day, he just didn't know when that day would arrive. He was already an actual director – he'd made four fifteen-minute films – but so far only his schoolmates and the residents of the High Street had viewed them. Global fame was a little way off. It would come, though. Barney was certain about that ...

So begins the manuscript written from the hospital bed of an unnamed man.

He has written it over many months as he recovers from serious injuries sustained in a city-wide catastrophe.

He has written so he can remember the street where he lived, home to a cavalcade of interesting people, singular shops, and curious stories.

He has written so he can remember the summer before he was injured, the last days of a vanished world.

Above all, he has written so he can remember the inimitable Barney Kettle, filmmaker, part-time dictator, questing brain, theatrical friend; a boy who loved to invent stories but found a real one under his nose; a boy who explored his neighbourhood with camera in hand and stumbled on a mystery that changed everything ...

Longacre- $30.00


About the author:

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most loved authors, whose short fiction, novels and picture books engage children, teenagers and adults alike. The author of the phenomenal The 10 PM Question, which has been published extensively overseas, she is a two-time winner of the New Zealand Post Children's Book of the Year Award. The 10 PM Question won Book of the Year and Best Young Adult Fiction in the 2009 New Zealand Post Children's and Young Adults' Book Awards, was a runner-up in the 2009 Montana NZ Book Awards, and won the Readers' Choice Award. It was a finalist in the LIANZA Children's Book Awards for the Esther Glen Award, was shortlisted for the Nielsen BookData NZ Booksellers' Choice Award, and was selected for the 2009 edition of the prestigious international catalogue The White Ravens. In 2010 De Goldi was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship to research and write a book on children's book collector, Susan Price. She has a regular spot reviewing children's books on Saturday Mornings with Kim Hill on National Radio.

De Goldi has won numerous awards, including the Katherine Mansfield and American Express awards for short stories. She has held several major fellowships, including the 2010 Michael King Fellowship, and in 2001 was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. In 2011 she was winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award, which is awarded for an outstanding contribution to children's literature. That same year she won the 2011 Corine International Book Prize Young Readers Award, which is awarded to German and international authors 'for excellent literary achievements and their recognition by the public'. 

Hairy Maclary Treasury

Hairy Maclary Treasury: The Complete Adventures of Hairy Maclary

Lynley Dodd, Puffin Hardback - $50.00

Out of the gate and off for a walk went Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy . . .

Ever since Hairy Maclary first trotted out of the gate and off for a walk, he has been adored by millions of children and adults all over the world.  For the very first time, Lynley Dodd's ten classic stories starring Hairy Maclary are brought together in this treasury.  It also includes a CD with each tale specially introduced by Lynley Dodd herself. 

The Hairy Maclary Treasury is the complete collection of Hairy Maclary's mischievous and mad adventures, which children will love to read and listen to over and over. It is a stunning hardback, a real treasure indeed.

The complete collection of Hairy Maclary stories is as follows:

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy; Hairy Maclary's Bone; Hairy Maclary Scattercat; Hairy Maclary's Caterwaul Caper; Hairy Maclary's Rumpus at the Vet; Hairy Maclary's Showbusiness; Hairy Maclary, Sit; Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack; Hairy Maclary's Hat Tricks; Hairy Maclary, Shoo.

Pukeko Dancing on the old dirt track

Christmas is coming and the Sanderson kids are wrapping presents and decorating the tree with angels and shells. Meanwhile, a miracle is unfolding in their back yard. Behind the Sanderson's house two busy pukekos go largely unnoticed as they build a nest and tend to their precious eggs. On Christmas day six fluffy pukeko chicks arrive and Christmas day is a celebration for all.
Beautifully illustrated, great fun.

About the author:

Writer and illustrator Lotte Wotherspoon has had a varied and colourful background in the arts. She has worked as a set designer on music videos and theatre, run her own illustration practice, participated in stone sculpture symposiums and taught interior design at Unitec, Massey and Victoria University. Lotte's passion for language and design has seen her completing the Bill Manhire short story writing course in 2002 which lead to her work being published in a Harper Collins 'new writers' collection. Her illustrations for children have appeared in the Puffin Books 'Kiwi Bites' series.

Clay Press - Hardback $25.00 Paperback $19.95

Mister Spears and his Hairy Ears

I trim and I trim and still the hair growsway past my knees, down to my toes ...Nothing that Mister Spears tries can stop his ear hair growing - not even wearing a motorcycle helmet! Then a flash of inspiration brings the answer, one that leads to a big change in life for him and his cute cat Tiger. 

Another hilarious story from McMillan and Kinnaird Mister Spears and his Hairy Ears blends rhyme, humour and (hint) the birth of a rock star with delightful colour illustrations.

About the author & Illustrator

Dawn McMillan is a much-loved writer of children's books and educational readers, who lives north of Thames. She has enjoyed a number of successful collaborations with Ross Kinnaird, an internationally recognised illustrator who lives in Birkenhead, Auckland. Their 2012 book I Need a New Bum! continues to be a New Zealand bestseller, and their 2014 book Doctor Grundy's Undies reprinted even before it was published.

Libro International - $19.99

Being Magdalene - Fleur Beale's gripping sequel to the award-winning YA novels I Am Not Esther and I am Rebecca.

The gripping sequel to the award-winning and bestselling YA novels I Am Not Esther and I am Rebecca.

In this breathtaking follow-up to I am not Esther and I am Rebecca, Fleur Beale revisits the Pilgrim family and its closed religious community, The Children of the Faith.

Four years have passed since Rebecca ran away. The community simmers with tension and rumours of an approaching split, and life has become terrifying for Rebecca's remaining siblings as Elder Stephen seizes any chance to take revenge on them. Twelve-year-old Magdalene lives in fear that her strong-willed little sister, Zillah, will be his next target.

The girls have run out of people who can protect them. To Zillah their path is clear but Magdalene is torn. How can she cause more hurt and shame for her parents? But, equally, how can she face a life with no freedom to be herself?

And another question scares her most of all. Without the elders' suffocating rules that tell her how to live, who would Magdalene be?

About the author:

Fleur Beale is the author of many award-winning books for children and young adults — she has now had more than 40 books published in New Zealand, as well as being published in the United States and England. Beale is the only writer to have twice won the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book:with Slide the Corner in 2007, and I Am Not Esther in 2009. 

She won the Esther Glen Award for distinguished contribution to children's literature for Juno Of Taris in the 2009 LIANZA Children's Book Awards. Fierce September won the YA category in the 2011 NZ Post Children's Book Awards and the LIANZA Young Adult Award in 2011. 

In 2012 she won the Margaret Mahy Medal for her outstanding contribution to children's writing and in 2015 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 1999, Beale was Dunedin College of Education's Writer in Residence. A former high-school teacher, Beale lives in Wellington.

UBUD Writers & Readers Festival

Dear Friends, "Magical." It's the single word we keep hearing in relation to Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, and it's something we've captured a little taste of in our teaser video. Watch, and enjoy. This week's eNews focuses on our unmissable array of Special Events, the most satisfying way to spend quality time with our stellar line-up of sweet talkers and smooth writers. Sit down with the likes of Mpho Tutu, Michael Chabon, Anuradha Roy, Nia Dinata, Christina Lamb, Teju Cole, Anchee Min, Xinran, Eka Kurniawan, Álvaro Enrigue, Seno Gumira Ajidarma, The Wheelers and many, many more. With just under a month till the Festival kicks off, don't forget to purchase your 4-DAY PASS and gain access to 85+ Main Program sessions;1-DAY, Student, KITAS and for the first time ASEAN discount Passes are also available.

Pulitizer Prize Winner Heading to Christchurch and OCTOBER WRITING WORKSHOPS

Pulitizer Prize Winner Heading to Christchurch AN EVENING WITH GERALDINE BROOKS

WORD Christchurch and Bookenz, in association with Hachette NZ, are proud to present an evening with Pulitzer prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks, in conversation with Morrin Rout. With more than two million copies of her novels sold, Australian-American author and journalist Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. She has worked for the Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In 2006 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel March, which imagines the life of the patriarch of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, who leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. Full of drama and richly drawn detail, Brooks’ new novel The Secret Chord is a vivid story of faith, family, desire and power that brings the legend of King David magnificently alive. More information.   Wednesday 18 November, 7.30pm Merivale Lane Theatre (Rangi Ruru School) Book now

OCTOBER WRITING WORKSHOPS

Need to brush up your writing skills, or work out what to do with what you’ve written? The New Zealand Society of Authors Canterbury branch is holding a series of workshops this month on both the craft and the business of writing, featuring:   Editing, Distribution and Publishing with Melanie Mayell and Amy Paulussen Jillian Sullivan on Fiction Soraya Lane on Romance Jenny Haworth on Non-fiction Kyle Mewburn on Children’s Literature Zana Bell on World Building Carl Nixon on Dialogue Frankie McMillan on Short Stories   15 & 16 October South Library $20 per workshop/$60 for a weekend pass   For more information visit NZSA Canterbury and to book, visit Dash Tickets.

Snow on the Lindis

Snow on the Lindis

Madge Snow with Bee Dawson

Published 2 October 2015; $40.00; Random House NZ

Pop in unexpectedly for a piece of her legendary shortbread and you won’t find this feisty octogenarian sitting with her feet up.

Rather, you’re far more likely to find the formidable Madge Snow poking about her beloved, four-acre Wanaka garden with just her trusty walking stick for company.

One of life’s great enthusiasts, gardening has remained Madge’s grand passion and she's certainly not planning on hanging up her garden trowel any time soon.

‘I love it. I'm obsessed with it. It takes a brave person to try and prise me away from my garden,’ laughs Madge.

In her charming new memoir, aptly titled Snow on the Lindis, Madge Snow reflects on her wonderful and long life in the historic and majestic Lindis Pass — the main inland route to the dry Mackenzie Basin, running between Central and North Otago. It’s a part of the country which is never far from the weather headlines in winter for its snow and in summer for the severe droughts.

Morven Hills is one of New Zealand's most well-known high-country stations — once an enormous 400,000 acres. The great stone woolshed is one of New Zealand's instantly recognisable farm buildings and is one of the largest shearing sheds in the country at a whopping 34 stands.

Madge grew up on Malvern Downs, her parents’ 14,500 hectare station which was once part of the great Morven block. As a young school leaver, Madge met Max ('it was love at first sight') and they married soon after she returned from a trip abroad with her mother.

Together, Madge and Max took over the running of modern-day Morven Hills Station where they raised their three children.

Unlike station wives today, the roles between husbands and wives of Madge’s generation were clearly divided between things domestic and beyond the garden gate.

Madge commanded the home front as efficiently as the men ran the station. Her kitchen was her kingdom. She loved being in there and her life-long

preoccupation, apart from her garden, was to make sure there was always plenty of wonderful home-grown and deliciously hearty homemade food to fuel her family and hardworking musterers and shearers working the station. 

After 30 happy years together running Morven, it was time for the next generation of Snows to take over the station. Madge (right- photo: Ruth Brown) and Max retired to Wanaka in 1982

This is Madge's delightful and very personal story of domestic station life ruled by the changing seasons and cycles, how the times have changed, and of fond memories that will never fade.

Children's Books Roundup with PW

Honoring Picture Book Champions at the 2015 Carle Awards
The Eric Carle Honors – the annual awards ceremony and art auction – turned 10 this year. The occasion was also an opportunity for guests and presenters to reflect on the life of Barbara (Bobbie) Carle, who founded the museum with her husband, Eric. The evening, which honored four individuals who help encourage a love of picture books, was dedicated to her memory.

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera
Signs with Candlewick Juan Felipe Herrera, the current (and first-ever Latino) U.S. Poet Laureate, has signed a four-book deal with Candlewick Press. The deal includes a picture book, board books, and a middle-grade book that charts Herrera’s writing process and the act of walking. more

'Goosebumps' Children of the 1990s can rejoice: popular series Goosebumps is finally headed to the silver screen. The movie from Columbia Pictures, starring Jack Black, Odeya Rush, and Halston Sage, releases on October 16. PW has more details on the road to the big screen for the phenomenally successful horror series. more

IN THE MEDIA

From the Washington Post: Jacqueline Woodson: "It's Banned Books Week again. Can we stop yelling at each other about it?" Click here From the Huffington Post: This Is Why You Should Celebrate Banned Books Week. Click here From Pottermore: J.K. Rowling reveals that the play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' will be staged in two parts. Click here From the Huffington Post: Six Things You Didn't Know About The Giving Tree Author Shel Silverstein. Click here From the Wrap: Why Hollywood Isn't Buying YA Movie Fatigue. Click here From NPR: The Golden Compass turns 20. Click here From Bustle: What Your Favorite Harry Potter Book Says About You. Click here

From BuzzFeed: Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, Pledges to Donate $1 Million to Planned Parenthood with His Wife. Click here From the Guardian: Lauren Myracle to overprotective parents: stop banning books. Click here From Time: Baby-sitters Club author Ann M. Martin will reboot Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for a new generation. Click here From the Guardian: Soman Chainani: "I felt like fairy tales had been hijacked so thoroughly by Disney." Click here From the Hollywood Reporter: The Scorpio Races Adaptation Finds Its Director. Click here From the Guardian: The top 10 villains in YA fiction. Click here From BuzzFeed: 49 Awesomely Clever Halloween Costumes for Book Lovers. Click here