Trimalchio's Feast by Petronius

$3.00 NZD

Category: Latin Literature | Series: Little Black Classics 21 | Reading Level: very good

'I blush to say what happened next.' A satirical portrait of a drunken, orgiastic Roman banquet, hosted by the grossly ostentatious Trimalchio. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, wit h books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Titus Petronius Arbiter (1st century BCE-c.66 CE). Petronius's The Satyricon is also available in Penguin Classics. ...Show more

The Robber Bridegroom by Grimm Brothers

$3.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Series: Penguin Little Black Classics 68 | Reading Level: very good

'Then she began to run, and she ran over the sharp stones and through the thorns, and the wild animals bounded past her...' Four weird, dark and enchanting fairy-tales from the Brothers Grimm. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the hu ge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Jacob Ludwig Karl (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Karl (1786-1859) are the Brothers Grimm. Their Selected Tales are also available in Penguin Classics. ...Show more

Aristophanes - Lysistrata/The Acharnians/The Clouds by Aristophanes

$10.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: good-very good

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

$10.00 NZD

Category: Classic fiction | Series: Penguin Classics | Reading Level: very good

Brought up by a strict Calvinist pastor, Robert Wringham believes he is one of the elect, predestined for salvation while all others - including his real father and brother - are cursed. Convinced he is indestructible and above the law, Robert commits terrible crimes under the influence of Gil-Martin - his physical double - who claims they are acting in God's name to purify the world. But does this mysterious tempter actually exist? Could he be an agent of the devil? Subversive and unsettling, "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" (1824) is a compelling psychological depiction of religious bigotry and the seductive effects of power on a tormented soul. ...Show more

Library - An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles

$12.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: very good

Nancy Mitford by Harold Acton

$10.00 NZD

Category: Literary biography | Reading Level: very good

Inventing a Nation - Washington, Adams, Jefferson by Gore Vidal

$12.00 NZD

Category: America | Series: Icons of America Ser. | Reading Level: near fine

"Trust Gore Vidal to teach us things we never learned in school. In Inventing a Nation, his quick wit flickers over the canonical tale of our republic's founding, turning it into a dark and deliciously nuanced comedy of men, manners, and ideas."--Amanda Heller, Boston Globe (Sunday) "Entertaining and e nlightening. . . . A must for buffs of American civilization and its discontents."--Booklist Gore Vidal, one of the master stylists of American literature and one of the most acute observers of American life and history, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of the formidable trio of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. In Inventing a Nation, Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal's splendid and percipient prose, in ways we have not up to now--their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. ...Show more

The Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox; Lee Gibbons (Designed by)

$14.00 NZD

Category: Fiction | Series: The Dreamhunter Duet 2 | Reading Level: very good

'...amazing and unique ... like nothing else I've ever read. You will want to go there.' Stephenie Meyer - author of the Twilight Saga Suitable for ages 12+ Following on from the mesmerising Dreamhunter, the story continues dramatically as Grace, 'overdreamt' by Laura, introduces a nightmare, instead o f the happy holiday dream programmed, to a packed Opera House audience, with chaotic results. Laura has collected and dreamt the nightmare in response to a letter she thinks is from her dead father, tziga, who has been forced by the government to dream it to keep prisoners frightened and subdued. Laura takes Nown, the sandman she created, with her on a journey to discover what purpose the Depot in the Place is being used for, and finds a far greater secret behind the existence of the Place Itself. Meanwhile Laura has to come to terms with her feelings for Sandy, a young dreamcatcher. She and Rose must accept their changing relationship. 'Knox's haunting, invigorating storytelling will leave readers eager to return to its puzzles - and to reap its rewards Booklist Ages 13+ ...Show more

Q and A - A Novel by Vikas Swarup

$12.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Reading Level: very good

Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut, which provided the inspiration for the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, is a page-turning and beguiling story of love, perseverance, and drama. Vikas Swarup's remarkable debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held af ter correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question. Ram takes us on an amazing review of his own history--from the day he was found as a baby in the clothes donation box of a Delhi church to his employment by a faded Bollywood star to his adventure with a security-crazed Australian army colonel to his career as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal. Swarup's Q & A is a charming blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know--not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil--and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive. ...Show more

How Proust Can Change Your Life - not a novel by Alain de Botton

$15.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Reading Level: very good

For anyone who ever wondered what Marcel Proust had in mind when he wrote the one-and-a-quarter-million words of In Search of Lost Time (while bedridden no less), Alain de Botton has the answer. For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust's life and wor k - his fiction, letter, and conversations - and distils from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful. Here, tendered in prose almost as luminous as it's subject's, is advice on cultivating friendships, suffering successfully, recognising love and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on the first date. And here, too, is a generously perceptive literary biography that suggests that the master is as relevant today as he was in fin de si cle Paris. ...Show more

Time You Let Me In - 25 Poets Under 25 by Naomi Shihab Nye (ed.)

$12.00 NZD

Category: Poetry | Reading Level: very good

They are inspiring talented stunning remarkable wise They are also fearless depressed hilarious impatient in love out of love pissed off And they want you to let them in.

Vengeance is Mine by MIckey Spillane

$15.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Reading Level: good-very good