When it’s cold outside, curling up with a cup of something hot and a good book is sheer heaven. Here are some new releases to help get you inspired.
The Family Remains
Lisa Jewell
Penguin Books
RRP $37.00
Early one morning in June 2019, a bag of human bones is found on the foreshore of the River Thames. DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene, and forensic examination reveals the bones to be that of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, including the seeds of a rare tree, which leads DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, thirty years prior, three people lay dead and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up. More clues point to a brother and sister in Chicago, searching for the only person who can make sense of their past. Four deaths, an unsolved mystery and some family secrets that can’t stay buried forever…
Birdgirl
Mya-Rose Craig
Penguin Books
RRP $40.00
Author Maya-Rose Craig – otherwise known as Birdgirl – is a passionate young environmentalist, birder and diversity activist who to date has seen over five thousand different types of bird – that’s half the world’s species. ”Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up or put down, but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there’s no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact,” she says. She has visited every continent to pursue her passion, and at the same time has seen some of the horrendous damage we’re doing to our planet, and she’s determined to campaign for all our survival. Birdgirl follows Mya-Rose and her family as they travel the world in search of rare birds and incredible landscapes. For Mya- Rose, every single bird is a treasure; each sighting a small step in her family journey, a collective moment of joy. But within their adventures, the family is dealing with her mother’s deepening mental health crisis, and the family again turns to nature to find stillness, comfort and meaning.
It seems like any normal day. You wake up, make yourself a coffee and head out. But today, when you open your front door, there’s a small wooden box waiting for you. Inside the box is your fate: the answer to the exact number of years you’ll live. From the wilds of the jungle to a suburban bungalow and every other place anyone over the age of 22 calls home, everyone in the world receives the same box. No-one knows where they’ve come from, what they mean or whether there’s any truth in the promise. As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone in the world faces the same shocking choice: do you open the box? The Measure is a book that will make you think, essentially a story of love and relationships. The book’s characters have some big decisions to make; those who received a ‘short string’ had a chance to talk to loved ones and say their goodbyes, or just take matters into their own hands. Knowing you’ll be gone sooner rather than later definitely makes people choose to live life differently. This unique storyline is enchanting, uplifting and compelling.
Cats Work Like This
David St.John Thomas & Gareth St John Thomas
Exisle Publishing
RRP $34.99
Kiwis are among the world leaders in pet ownership, with cats coming in at number one – 44 per cent of New Zealand homes have one or more kitty furbabies. That’s a lot of ailurophiles, all of whom know that even after 10,000 years of living with cats, we still have absolutely no idea what these puzzling and hilarious animals are thinking. Cats Work Like This is a funny romp through the fundamentals of cat behaviour and motivation, offering insight into how they get what they want from us, their human slaves…sorry, owners. This insider’s guide comes from a cat’s eye point of view, based on the observations of the Kiwi father and son authors over two generations of watching their own cats. Chapters include Habits, an insight into how cats train you to have the right ones; and The Scientific Cat, with observations and empirical learning following classic scientific methods, as cats don’t listen well enough to be subjects in any other kind of experimentation. If you want to know what your cat gets up to when you sleep, and get insight into some cat politics, this is the book for you.
One afternoon, journalist Hazel Phillips closed her laptop and headed for the hills. She spent the next three years living in mountain huts and tramping alone for days at a time – all the while holding down a fulltime job. She ranged from Arthur’s Pass and the Kaimanawa Forest to the Ruahine Range and Fiordland, facing unknown challenges and discovering more about both herself and the past. In Solo, Hazel explains how being alone in the mountains was the perfect life for her. “Initially there’s a mental hurdle of tramping alone, particularly the first time you spend a night at a hut property by yourself and you have to go outside to the long drop in the dark,” she says. “But soon enough it becomes your new normal; I think for women particularly, it can be incredibly empowering.” Hazel honed her skills, and found courage as as she traversed New Zealand, gaining both knowledge and confidence. Absorbing and humorous, Solo is a rich seam of inspiration and adventure.
