Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris

$37.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General | Reading Level: 1 Fiction

The sequel to the International Number One Bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, based on a true story of love and resilience. In 1942 Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, a nd forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival. After liberation, Cilka is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a desolate, brutal prison camp in Siberia known as Vorkuta, inside the Arctic Circle.  Innocent and imprisoned once again, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar. When she makes an impression on a female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under unimaginable conditions. Cilka finds endless resources within herself as she confronts death and faces terror, each day a battle for survival. And when she nurses a man called Aleksandr, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love. Based on what is known of Cilka’s time in Auschwitz, and on the experience of women in Siberian prison camps, Cilka’s Journey is the breathtaking sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. A powerful testament to the triumph of the human will in adversity, Cilka’s Journey will make you weep, but it will also leave you with the remarkable story of one woman’s fierce determination to survive, against all odds. 'She was the bravest person I ever met' - Lale Sokolov, The Tattooist of Auschwitz ...Show more

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

$55.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

In the bestselling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe. Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functi ons and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories The Body- A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again. ...Show more

The Book of Knowing: Know How You Think, Change How You Feel by Gwendoline Smith (Dr Know)

$25.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Written in an accessible and humorous style, this book teaches you to know what's going on in your mind and how to get your feelings under control. It'll help you adapt and feel better about your place in the world. Psychologist Gwendoline Smith uses her broad scientific knowledge and experience to exp lain in clear and simple language what's happening when you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious and confused. ...Show more

The Billion Dollar Bonfire: How Allan Hubbard and the Government Destroyed South Canterbury Finance by Chris Lee

$40.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

The collapse of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) is one of the biggest New Zealand stories of the last decade. The sweep of events, from Timaru to the Beehive, include some of the most revealing moments on issues critical to this country - everything from poor governance and systemic issues in the finance sector, through to the structural risks this exposed and the costs it ultimately presented to all New Zealanders. There has not yet been a book that has attempted to tell this story, certainly not one from an `insider' perspective. The Billion Dollar Bonfire by Chris Lee will be the first book to do both these things. Chris tells this fascinating story as both a long-standing New Zealand financial advisor and a protagonist in the narrative. As he writes in the opening chapter, he knew Alan Hubbard personally and, from the late 1990s, had clients invest with SCF. His main motivation for writing the book, made explicit throughout, is his overriding concern that this could all happen again without significant changes to our law and the culture of the capital markets industry. The book is underpinned by substantial research: thousands of documents - including new material from OIAs and other sources - and interviews, both public and anonymous, with many of the key figures. ...Show more

Tools and Weapons: Promise and Peril in the Digital Age by Brad Smith; Carol Ann Browne

$35.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

"A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today." - Bill Gates, from the foreword From Microsoft's President and one of the tech industry's wisest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. __________ Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: when your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. Now, though, we have reached an inflection point: Silicon Valley has moved fast and it has broken things. A new understanding has emerged that companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future. And governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation that is impacting our communities and changing the world. In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith takes us into the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no pre-existing playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of AI, big tech's relationship to inequality and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book opens up the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points, as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. Every tool can be a weapon in the wrong person's hands, and companies are being challenged in entirely new ways to embrace the totality of their responsibilities. We have moved from a world in which Silicon Valley could take no prisoners to one in which tech companies and governments must work together to address the challenges and adapt to the changes technology has unleashed. There are huge ramifications to be thought through, and Brad Smith provides a marvellous and urgently necessary contribution to that effort. __________ In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith takes us behind the scenes on some of the biggest stories to hit the tech industry in the past decade. From Edward Snowden's NSA leak to the NHS WannaCry ransomware attack, this book is essential reading to understand what's happening in the world around us. ...Show more

The Mah Jong Player's Companion by Patricia A. Thompson; Betty Maloney

$19.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

The essential companion for the dedicated Mah Jong player who also enjoys the social aspect of the game.   Since the arrival on the market of Patricia Thompson and Betty Maloney's two previous books, The Game of Mah Jong Illustrated and Improve Your Mah Jong, a wide range of hands from many part s of the world has been sent to them. In this player's companion, the authors have put together a cross-filed reference guide where more than 120 hands, illustrated in color, can be quickly identified by following the flip-top headings on each page. A full synopsis of each hand is included. The extra hands give an international flavor to the book, adding new interest and challenges. ...Show more

Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy and a Collision of Lives by Adam Makos

$45.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner's journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel--and forge an enduring bond with his enemy. When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to th e gunner's seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He's a natural-born shooter. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division--"Spearhead"--thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art "super tank," one of twenty in the European theater. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That's how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the "Fortress City" of Germany. Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans. As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time. Advance praise for Spearhead "The tension, death, and courage that were everyday experiences for American tankers fill the pages of Makos's book. This moving story of bravery and comradeship is an important contribution to WWII history that will inform and fascinate both the general reader and the military historian."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[Spearhead is] a compelling, exciting adventure . . . An in-the-moment re-creation of the Allied breakthrough of the West Wall into Nazi Germany by a remarkable cadre of tank crewmen of the 3rd Armored Division."--Kirkus Reviews ...Show more

The Note Through the Wire by Doug Gold

$37.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

An extraordinary true story of a love that emerged, against all odds, from the brutal war in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Elegant Sudoku

$15.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Brain Connections: How to Sleep Better, Worry Less and Feel Happier by Dr. Giresh Kanji

$35.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Learn why you develop insomnia, anxiety and depression. Discover why these three conditions occur together and how to alleviate them without reaching for pills. Fibromyalgia is also explained in this book. This book is full colour gloss and easy to read.

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

$38.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government's system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked th e world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it. Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online - a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet's conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic. ...Show more

In Praise of Walking - The New Science of How We Walk and Why It's Good for Us by Shane O'Mara

$40.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction General

Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species. It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking - yet how many of us know how we do that, o r appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane O'Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds. In Praise of Walking celebrates this miraculous ability. Incredibly, it is a skill that has its evolutionary origins millions of years ago, under the sea. And the latest research is only now revealing how the brain and nervous system performs the mechanical magic of balancing, navigating a crowded city, or running our inner GPS system. Walking is good for our muscles and posture; it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the ageing of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species. As our lives become increasingly sedentary, we risk all this. We must start walking again, whether it's up a mountain, down to the park, or simply to school and work. We, and our societies, will be better for it. ...Show more