This month's must read:
Necessary Secrets
Greg McGee $38
Den’s 70th birthday family get-togerther does not go to plan for any of the family. Den, struggling with devastating news about his health, was considering it as his farewell gathering. Will, his eldest son in the midst of a drug-fuelled mid-life crisis, brings a developer in the guise of a girlfriend, wanting to persuade the family to sell the large Grey Lynn home to release capital to prop his failing business. Ellie, while taking time out from a domestic violence support agency to care for her father, is offering short-term foster care to troubled teenagers. The current foster-teenager Jackson, wise beyond his years, is fearful his father will find him after his sister arrives. Stan, the youngest son, ventures north from a commune bringing marijuana plants as a birthday present. In this compelling new novel Greg McGee, author of the highly acclaimed The Antipodeans, weaves together four seasons of tribulations, triumphs and necessary secrets of this family, by parts poignant, entertaining and suspenseful, in an unforgettable picture of New Zealand society today.
The Book of Dreams
Nina George $35
A beautiful, bittersweet and magical tale about the distance one man will travel for the sake of love, from the international bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop. On his way to meet his son for the first time, hardened former war correspondent Henry Skinner is hit by a car after rescuing a child from drowning. He is rushed to hospital where he floats, comatose, between dreams, reliving the fairytales of his childhood and the secrets that made him run away in the first place. His son, Sam, a 13-year old synesthete with an IQ of 144, waits at his father’s bedside. There he meets Eddie Tomlin, a woman forced to confront her love for Henry after all these years, and 12-year old Madelyn Zeidler, another coma patient and the sole survivor of an accident that killed her family. A heartbreakingly moving and unforgettable story about what love means – the exquisite stirrings of first love, the love between fathers and sons, friendship and family, life and death – and making peace with the past in order to find a future.
Machines Like Me
Ian McEwan $37
Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding. Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining novel poses fundamental questions – what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.
Small Garden Design
Paul Bangay $65
Paul Bangay is renowned for his expansive and elegant gardens with classical lines and symmetrical plantings. Yet with more of us living in apartments, townhouses and terrace houses, our gardens are now being squeezed into small spaces such as balconies, courtyards, light-wells or rooftops – and this makes for challenging garden design. In Small Garden Design, Bangay applies his 25 years of experience with gardens of all sizes to reveal how best to structure, design and choose plants for small spaces. Chapters on Balconies and Terraces, Rooftops, Inner City, Light-wells and Courtyards are lavishly illustrated with photos and enhanced with lots of practical tips on plant types, paving, irrigation, soil, outdoor dining, lighting and making the space appear larger. This accessible and practical book shows ‘how to make the most of the small space you have, and how to transform it into the paradise that you aspire to’.
The Rip Curl Story
Tim Baker $40
The remarkable tale of two young surfers – Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick and Brian Singer – who pursued an audacious dream to make a living in pursuit of the ultimate ride. The brand they built, Rip Curl, not only satisfied their own surf wanderlust, but also inspired countless others, riding the wave of the global youth revolution of the late ‘60s. Rip Curl’s mantra became ‘the Search’ – the pursuit of new waves on distant shores, new thrills – skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing – and better equipment to elevate the experience. Along the way they supported the careers of many of the world’s great surfers – from Midget Farrelly to Michael Peterson, Tom Curren to Damien Hardman, Pam Burridge to Stephanie Gilmore, and of course Tyler Wright and Mick Fanning. Tim Baker tells this implausible story in an irresistible series of ripping yarns, offering rich life lessons, a maverick business primer and a wild ride of 50 years of perfect surf, international business and adventure, good times and outlandish ambitions spectacularly realised.
