Great new reads to please even the pickiest of bookworms.
George: A Magpie memoir
Frieda Hughes | Allen & Unwin, $40
From the painter/poet daughter of (in)famous writers Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, who lives in the Welsh countryside with 14 owls, two rescue huskies, an ancient Maltese terrier, five chinchillas, a ferret called Socks, a royal python and her collection of motorbikes, comes this endearing true tale of “miniature magpie fury” George, who Frieda rescues after a storm and becomes besotted by.
Dice
Claire Baylis | Allen & Unwin, $37
The first novel from New Zealand-based writer (and former law lecturer) Claire Baylis, Dice is an incredibly compelling courtroom drama, told through the eyes of each juror as the trial unfolds and evidence is presented, withheld, fragmented and retold by different witnesses. “Dice achieves what the best fiction achieves: it draws us into the story on a deeply personal level, coaxing us to consider what we would do in the same situation,” says award-winning Kiwi author Catherine Chidgey.
What About Men?
Caitlin Moran | Penguin, $40
So, what about men? Why do they only go to the doctor if their wife or girlfriend makes them? What is porn doing for young men? Is their fondness for super-skinny jeans leading to an epidemic of bad mental health? Are men allowed to be sad? Are men allowed to lose? Have men’s rights activists confused ‘power’ with ‘empowerment’? A frank, funny and galvanising exploration of masculinity, and a manifesto for male allyship, from million-copy bestseller and feminist powerhouse Caitlin Moran.
Wavewalker: Breaking free
Suzanne Heywood | HarperCollins, $38
A 7-year-old girl on a 70-foot yacht, for 10 years, over 50,000 miles of sailing… This memoir covers Suzanne’s astonishing upbringing living entirely on her family’s boat, Wavewalker, through storms, shipwrecks, emergency hospitalisations, isolation, being abandoned in New Zealand and very limited schooling. From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape.