Tales from the Ruakituri Valley by Dave Withers

$45.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

The Ruakituri valley is South East of Gisborne, and runs up to the Urewera National Park. The Ruakituri river emerges from the native bush of the park and tumbles through gulleys until it drops three levels over the spectacular 100 metre escarpment, and so down through the beautiful farming area that f orms the Ruakituri Valley of this book. Tales from the Ruakituri Valley is a collection of stories telling of life in the valley and the characters and events that are part of Ruakituri, and indeed typical of most remote farming communities in New Zealand. ...Show more

Many a Muddy Morning by Mark Warren

$37.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

The off-roading, hillseeking and muddymorning adventures of farming legend Mark Warren. Mark Warren is a larger-than-life character of rural New Zealand. He grew up with an obsession with Land Rovers, council tip trucks, bulldozers, hill-country tractors, snow-plows - basically anything with four wheels . Interwoven with his stories of working as a grease monkey, rallying in a purpose built Toyota Landy, rescuing ski-bunnies off icy mountain roads, is his tale of being thrust into single-handedly managing a muddy Hawke's Bay farm in his twenties, just as Rogernomics was introduced and the removal of subsidies that would change the face of farming forever. Many a Muddy Morning is a funny, original and affecting read that will appeal to petrolheads and farmers alike. Mark brings together the traits we love to celebrate in our rural heartland in a book that is a colourful addition to the Kiwi story. ...Show more

Ghost Riders - The Secret Wartime Mission to Save the World's Most Precious Horses by Mark Felton

$33.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

April 1945. As Alliedbombs rain down on Europe, a 400-year-old institution looks set to be wiped offthe face of the Earth. The famous white Lipizzaner stallions of the SpanishRiding School in Vienna, unique and precious animals representing centuries ofcareful breeding, are scattered across rural Austri a and Czechoslovakia inareas soon to be swallowed up by Soviet forces - there, doubtless, to becomerations for the Red Army.   Their only hope lies withthe Americans: what if a small, highly mobile US task force could be sent deepbehind German lines, through fanatical SS troops, to rescue the horses beforethe Soviets arrive. Just five light tanks, a handful of armoured cars and jeeps,and 300 battle-weary GIs must plunge headlong into the unknown on a rescuemission that could change the course of European history.   So beginsOperation Cowboy, the greatest Second World War story that has never been fullytold. GIs will join forces with surrendered German soldiers and liberatedprisoners of war to save the world's finest horses from fanatical SS and theruthless Red Army in an extraordinary battle during the last few days of thewar in Europe. ...Show more

World of Flowers - A Colouring Book and Floral Adventure by Johanna Basford

$28.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

An abundance of fascinating florals awaits in the gorgeous new colouring book from Johanna Basford. Join 'colourist queen' Johanna Basford on a floral adventure around the world and beyond, into the realms of fantasy and imagination. This sensational new colouring book is filled with countless new bloo ms and blossoms, from floating gardens of water poppies in South Africa to delicate cosmos in Japan, ready for you to discover and bring to life in colour. Get ready to show your colours! Johanna has picked a crisp ivory paper that accentuates and compliments your chosen colour palette. The smooth, untextured pages allows for beautiful blending or gradient techniques with coloured pencils, or are perfect for pens, allowing the nib to glide evenly over the surface without feathering. ...Show more

Milk! A 10,000 year old Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky

$35.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the bestselling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic, and culinary story of milk and all things dairy--with recipes throughout. According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk becam e our galaxy, the Milky Way. But while mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than 10,000 years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose-tolerant, milk itself. Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the nineteenth century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics. ...Show more

The New Silk Roads: the Present & Future of the World by Peter Frankopan

$30.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

'All roads used to lead to Rome. Today, they lead to Beijing.' When The Silk Roads was published in 2015, it became an instant classic. A major reassessment of world history, it compelled us to look at the past from a different perspective. The New Silk Roads brings this story up to date, addressing the present and future of a world that is changing dramatically. Following the Silk Roads eastwards, from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, The New Silk Roads provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected. In an age of Brexit and Trump, the themes of isolation and fragmentation permeating the Western world stand in sharp contrast to events along the Silk Roads since 2015, where ties have been strengthened and mutual cooperation established. With brilliant insight, Peter Frankopan takes a fresh look at the network of relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the Silk Roads today, assessing the global reverberations of these continual shifts in the centre of power all too often absent from headlines in the West. This important and ultimately hopeful book asks us to re-read who we are and where we are in the world, illuminating the themes on which all our lives and livelihood depend. ...Show more

The Good Mothers: The Story of Three Woman Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia by Alex Perry

$37.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

You are born into it or marry in. Loyalty is absolute, bloodshed revered and you kill or go to your grave before betraying The Family. This code of omerta is how the 'Ndrangheta became the world's most powerful mafia. The Good Mothers is the story of the women who broke the silence. We live in their bui ldings, work in their companies, shop in their stores, eat in their restaurants and elect politicians they fund. Founded more than 150 years ago by shepherding families in the toe of Italy, the 'Ndrangheta is today the world's most powerful mafia, with a crushing presence in southern Italy, a market-moving size in global finance and a reach that extends to fifty countries around the world. And yet, remarkably, few of us have ever heard of it. The 'Ndrangheta's power rests on a code of silence, omerta, enforced by a claustrophobic family hierarchy and murderous misogyny. Men and boys rule. Girls are married off as teenagers in arranged clan alliances. Beatings are routine. A woman who is `unfaithful' - even to a dead husband - can expect her sons, brothers or father to kill her to erase the `family shame'. In 2009, when abused wife Lea Garofalo `disappears' after giving evidence against her mafiosi husband, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti realises the 'Ndrangheta's bigotry may be its great flaw. The key to bringing down this criminal empire is to free its women and allow them to speak out and testify. When Alessandra finds two collaborators inside Italy's biggest crime families, she must persuade them to cooperate, and save themselves and their children. The stakes could not be higher. Alessandra is fighting to save a nation. The mafiosi are fighting for their existence. The women are fighting for their lives. Not all will survive. ...Show more

Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

$25.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

WINNER OF THE SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS LITERATURE AWARD 2018 A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR * A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR * A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR * A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A masterpiece' Mail on Sunday 'I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me dropped his sandwich' Observer She made John Lenn on blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine and Pablo Picasso lusted over her. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. Ma'am Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a kaleidoscopic biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society. ...Show more

Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick by David Frye

$45.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

For thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. Great Walls have appeared on nearly every continent, the handiwork of people from Persia, Rome, China, Central America, and beyond. They have accompanied the rise of cities, nations, and empires. And yet they rarely appear in our history books. Spanning centuries and millennia, drawing on archaeological digs to evidence from Berlin and Hollywood, David Frye uncovers the story of walls and asks questions that are both intriguing and profound. Did walls make civilization possible? Can we live without them? This is more than a tale of bricks and stone: Frye reveals the startling link between what we build and how we live, who we are and how we came to be. It is nothing less than the story of civilization. ...Show more

Thirty Days Has September: Cool Ways to Remember Stuff by STEVENS, CHRIS (ILLUSTRATOR)

$15.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Saving Mona Lisa: The Battle to Protect the Louvre and Its Treasures During World War II by Gerri Chanel

$33.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

In late August 1939, as war loomed over Europe, curators at the Louvre nestled the world's most famous painting into a special red velvet-lined case and spirited her away to the Loire Valley. Thus began the biggest evacuation of art and antiquities in history. A small army of workers swiftly emptied the Louvre's cavernous galleries of all but the most cumbersome and fragile pieces and tucked away the displaced treasures in the chateaux of the Loire countryside. As the Germans neared Paris in 1940, the French raced to move the masterpieces still further south, then again and again during the war, crisscrossing the southwest of France. At times, Mona Lisa slept at the bedside of curators who were painfully aware of their heavy responsibility. Throughout the German occupation, the Louvre's staff fought to keep the priceless treasures out of the hands of Hitler and his henchmen and to keep the Louvre palace safe, many of them risking their jobs and their lives to protect the country's artistic heritage. Saving Mona Lisa is the sweeping, suspenseful narrative of their battle. Superbly researched and accompanied by riveting photographs of the period, it is a compelling story of art and beauty, intrigue and ingenuity, and remarkable moral courage in the face of one of the most fearful enemies in history. ...Show more

The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain by Steven R. Gundry (As told to)

$35.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

"I read this book... it worked. My autoimmune disease is gone and I'm 37 pounds lighter in my pleather." --Kelly ClarksonMost of us have heard of gluten--a protein found in wheat that causes widespread inflammation in the body. Americans spend billions of dollars on gluten-free diets in an effort to pro tect their health. But what if we've been missing the root of the problem? In The Plant Paradox, renowned cardiologist Dr. Steven Gundry reveals that gluten is just one variety of a common, and highly toxic, plant-based protein called lectin. Lectins are found not only in grains like wheat but also in the "gluten-free" foods most of us commonly regard as healthy, including many fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and conventional dairy products. These proteins, which are found in the seeds, grains, skins, rinds, and leaves of plants, are designed by nature to protect them from predators (including humans). Once ingested, they incite a kind of chemical warfare in our bodies, causing inflammatory reactions that can lead to weight gain and serious health conditions.At his waitlist-only clinics in California, Dr. Gundry has successfully treated tens of thousands of patients suffering from autoimmune disorders, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases with a protocol that detoxes the cells, repairs the gut, and nourishes the body. Now, in The Plant Paradox, he shares this clinically proven program with readers around the world.The simple (and daunting) fact is, lectins are everywhere. Thankfully, Dr. Gundry offers simple hacks we easily can employ to avoid them, including: Peel your veggies. Most of the lectins are contained in the skin and seeds of plants; simply peeling and de-seeding vegetables (like tomatoes and peppers) reduces their lectin content.Shop for fruit in season. Fruit contain fewer lectins when ripe, so eating apples, berries, and other lectin-containing fruits at the peak of ripeness helps minimize your lectin consumption.Swap your brown rice for white. Whole grains and seeds with hard outer coatings are designed by nature to cause digestive distress--and are full of lectins.With a full list of lectin-containing foods and simple substitutes for each, a step-by-step detox and eating plan, and delicious lectin-free recipes, The Plant Paradox illuminates the hidden dangers lurking in your salad bowl--and shows you how to eat whole foods in a whole new way. ...Show more