Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson

$38.00 NZD

Category: Nautical

“Most confrontations, viewed from the wide angle of history, are minor disputes, sparks that quickly die out. But every now and then, someone strikes a match that lights up the whole planet.” Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular—and wildl y inaccurate—reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event—the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew—and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It’s the gripping tale one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century. Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson’s classic historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration. ...Show more

Niki Lauda by Maurice Hamilton

$38.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

The most comprehensive and detailed biography of Formula One legend Nick Lauda ever published, as told by Maurice Hamilton, who knew him for more than forty years. From the famous rivalry with James Hunt in the 1970s, as depicted in the film Rush, to working with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Lauda's care er helped define modern F1. In 1975, Lauda became world champion for the first time. Driving for Ferrari, he looked to retain his title in 1976 and was dominating the campaign ahead of James Hunt in his McLaren. Then, on 1 August, he was involved in a horrendous crash at the Nurburgring and was badly burned and in hospital he was given the last rites, so severe were his injuries. Remarkably, six weeks later, he was back racing again, determined to show he could still compete. As they came to the final race of the season in Japan, Lauda held a narrow lead in the championship, but in appalling weather conditions, Lauda withdrew from the race, while Hunt went on to secure the points he needed to become world champion. It was high-speed drama at its best. Lauda came back to win the title again in 1977 and then, having temporarily retired, he won it for a third time in 1984, driving for McLaren. When he finally finished as an F1 driver, he started his own airline, before he returned to the sport in various management roles, latterly as chairman of Mercedes, where he helped in the negotiations to bring Lewis Hamilton to the team. Maurice Hamilton, who first met Lauda in 1971, draws together the remarkable story of one of the greatest stars in Formula One history. Based on interviews with friends and family, rival drivers and those he worked with later in his career, Niki Lauda is a superb and definitive tribute to a remarkable character, who died in May 2019 at the age of seventy. ...Show more

Under the Covers: Secrets of a Magazine Editor by Jenny Lynch

$38.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

Former editor Jenny Lynch takes the wraps off the unreported side of life in print, explodes myths, unearths secrets and shows that even on seemingly conservative publications such as the New Zealand Woman's Weekly things were seldom exactly as they seemed. Her memoir, aptly titled "Under the Covers", i s a revealing account of what went on behind the closed doors of various editorial offices and newsrooms during one of the most colourful periods in magazine and newspaper history. Lynch's 30-year path to her top job was full of drama and off-beat activities. But nothing she had experienced before she became editor of the Weekly prepared her for the challenges that lay ahead. Indeed, the magazine's battle for dominance in what became known as The Magazine Wars was fought against a backdrop of management turbulence and ownership changes. Peppered with the names of those who have touched the author's life, including the famous and the fleeting, "Under the Covers" will appeal to everyone who enjoys reading about the ever-changing world of print media. ...Show more

Hollywood's Eve - Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L. A. by Lili Anolik

$35.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s was the pop culture capital of the world--a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of LA, and Vanity Fair writer "Lili Anolik decodes, ruptures, and ultimately intensifies Eve's singular irresistible glit z" (The New Yorker).   The goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky and a graduate of Hollywood High, Eve Babitz posed in 1963, at age twenty, playing chess with the French artist Marcel Duchamp. She was naked; he was not. The photograph made her an instant icon of art and sex. Babitz spent the rest of the decade rocking and rolling on the Sunset Strip, honing her notoriety. There were the album covers she designed: for Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds, to name but a few. There were the men she seduced: Jim Morrison, Ed Ruscha, Harrison Ford, to name but a very few.   Then, at nearly thirty, her It girl days numbered, Babitz was discovered--as a writer--by Joan Didion. She would go on to produce seven books, usually billed as novels or short story collections, always autobiographies and confessionals. Under-known and under-read during her career, she's since experienced a breakthrough. Now in her mid-seventies, she's on the cusp of literary stardom and recognition as an essential--as the essential--LA writer. Her prose achieves that American ideal: art that stays loose, maintains its cool, and is so simply enjoyable as to be mistaken for simple entertainment.   For Babitz, life was slow days, fast company until a freak fire turned her into a recluse, living in a condo in West Hollywood, where author Lili Anolik tracked her down in 2012. Hollywood's Eve, equal parts biography and detective story "brings a ludicrously glamorous scene back to life, adding a few shadows along the way" (Vogue) and "sends you racing to read the work of Eve Babitz" (The New York Times). ...Show more

When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan's Last Comeback by Michael Leahy

$27.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

For fans of Netflix's The Last Dance, this is the definitive account of Michael Jordan's spectacular and disastrous return to basketball. As one of the greatest, most celebrated athletes in history, Michael Jordan conquered professional basketball as no one before. Powered by a potent mix of charisma, n ear superhuman abilities and a ferocious drive to dominate the game, he achieved every award and accolade conceivable before retiring from the Chicago Bulls and taking an executive post with the Washington Wizards. But retirement didn't suit the man who was once king, and at the advanced age of thirty-eight Michael Jordan decided it was time to reclaim the court that was once his. Having closely followed Jordan's final two seasons, Michael Leahy draws a fascinating portrait of an intensely complex man hampered by injuries and assaulted by younger players eager to usurp his throne. In this enthralling book Jordan emerges as an ambitious, at times deeply unattractive character with, unsurprisingly, a monstrous ego. WHEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS is an absorbing portrait not only of one athlete's overriding ambition, but also of a society so in thrall to its sports stars that it is blind to all their faults. ...Show more

Becoming: Michelle Obama by Michelle Obama

$55.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir | Reading Level: very good

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States   In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.   In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same. ...Show more

Prophecy on the River: My Journey to Waitaha by Judith Hoch

$25.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

$28.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

In this instantand tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight "offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh" (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one o f the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.   Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it "an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It's a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do."   Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight's Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.   But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers--as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.   Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand--and a culture--that changed everything. ...Show more

This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

$23.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

'Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen Fry Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year Winner of the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Book of the Year Winner of Blackwell's Debut Book of the Year Winner of iBooks' Boo k of the Year Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you. Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know - and more than a few things you didn't - about life on and off the hospital ward. This audiobook contains an exclusive interview with Adam Kay by comedian and author Mark Watson, an afterword and updated bonus diary entries. ...Show more

Still Lives : A Memoir of Gaza by Marilyn Garson

$35.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

Four years, two wars and one most unlikely social enterprise. Marilyn Garson was an experienced aid professional who created jobs at the edge of war. In 2011, she was invited to move to the Gaza Strip. Friends warned her that nothing worked behind the Gaza blockade. Unable to resist that challenge, Mari lyn became the Economic Director of a large NGO programme, leading an ambitious young Palestinian team. Gaza's business owners, technology graduates, and job-seekers (facing the highest unemployment on earth) overturned Marilyn's understanding of aid and justice. Then she volunteered to join the United Nations' emergency team that would remain inside Gaza through the 2014 war. Marilyn witnessed first-hand the impact of Israel's urban assault and massive civilian displacement. The UN was prepared to shelter 35,000 displaced Gazans, but 293,000 arrived. Locked in beneath the bombs, they had nowhere safer to go, and nothing but the United Nations flag and international law to protect them. Neither Marilyn's team nor Gaza itself was the same after fifty days of bombardment. But the team was still determined to launch their social enterprise. On her last day, Marilyn's final task was to tell her Gazan colleagues that she is a Jew. ...Show more

The Rodchenkov Affair by Grigory Rodchenkov

$40.00 NZD

Category: True Crime

Can one man take down an empire? The Rodchenkov Affair is a breathtaking real-life political thriller. As a leading chemical scientist and Director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Dr Grigory Rodchenkov was at the forefront of global efforts to detect drugs cheats in sport. Yet he was simultaneous ly running the most elaborate doping scheme in history, helping thousands of athletes and elite players evade detection. Then the cracks started to show, and Vladimir Putin sent him a chilling message . . . Icarus, the Oscar-winning Netflix film, followed Grigory Rodchenkov as he turned whistleblower, fled Russia and entered the US Witness Protection Programme. In this explosive memoir he reveals how everything he has exposed so far -- leading to Russia's double Olympic bans - is merely the tip of the iceberg. Drawn from diaries, official e-mails and memos smuggled out of Russia, The Rodchenkov Affair is the full story by the one man the Kremlin hoped would never talk about its quest to win at all costs. 'I am a patriot, yet I am a traitor. I am one of the reasons my country has won so many Olympic medals over the last decade, yet I am also the reason they are banned from the Olympics. I am a devoted husband and father, yet I have seen neither my wife or my children in two years. If you read the news, you will see that my name is everywhere, yet I myself am nowhere. I am known throughout Russia, yet I am a ghost. Living anonymously in an anonymous town, under the protection of the US government, in fear from my life, somewhere in America - the one country I tried my hardest to help my country beat, year after year, decade after decade' ...Show more

Bridge Burning and Other Hobbies by Kitty Flanagan

$23.00 NZD

Category: Biography / Memoir

Kitty Flanagan has been locked in an industrial freezer in Western Australia, insulted about the size of her lady parts in Singapore and borne witness to the world's most successful wife swap in suburban Sydney. It's these valuable lessons from The University of Life that have taught her so many things, including the fact that cliches like 'The University of Life' are reeeally annoying. In these funny, true stories, Kitty provides advice you didn't even know you needed. Useful tips on how not to get murdered while hitchhiking, how to break up with someone the wrong way, and the right way, why it's important to keep your top on while waitressing, and why women between the ages of 37 and 42 should be banned from internet dating. Bridge Burning and Other Hobbies is a collection of laugh-out-loud, cautionary tales from one of Australia's favourite comedians.   ...Show more