Febuary 2012 NZ Books

In The Absence of Heroes

by Anthony McCarten, PB, $28.99

Jim and Renata Delpe's life is in a very modern crisis. With their son, Jeff, sending text messages to his dead brother while slipping quickly into internet addiction, and with Renata engaged in a secret internet relationship with a figure she has never actually met, Jim Delpe - who has long had 'a love-hate relationship' with computers - is left with no choice but to log in himself, if the family is to be saved. In this ambitious, suspenseful and achingly human novel, set against the decline of the nuclear family and the unstoppable rise of digital relationships, In The Absence Of Heroes gives us the complex modern world, full of hard, binary choices: make one or two bad choices in a row and just see what happens... Buy now

Trial by Ambush: The Prosecutions of David Bain

by Joe Karam, TP, $44.99

This will be an important book for a number of reasons. David Bain's third trial for the murder of his family took 55 days, and while the media covered the trial extensively, of necessity they presented to the public only a fraction of the evidence the jury heard and saw. Subsequent to the trial, evidence that was held to be inadmissible by the court and either suppressed or not heard by the jury has been given wide media coverage. As a result, on the issue of David Bain's guilt or innocence, the public remains deeply divided. Buy now

How to Play a Video Game (Ginger Series #12)

by Pippen Barr, PB, $26

Every day around the world millions of people enter virtual worlds through video games. These games are now the fastest-growing form of entertainment - and being played by people of all ages. International communities are coming together to play, have fun and share ideas - without ever meeting. How to Play a Video Game unlocks this amazing world, giving an insight into what makes video games so fascinating and entertaining to the people who play them. The author, a game player who has turned his passion into an academic career, explores the emotions involved in playing video games, the issues that surround them, and the future of the technology. With games now appearing on our phones and other mobile electronic devices, is everyone going to become a gamer? Will we become happier? Brainier? Or just much busier... Buy now

The Exercise Book

Edited by Bill Manhire, Ken Duncum, Chris Price & Damien Wilkins. vicbooks' Price $31.50

The Exercise Book is full of stimulating trigger ideas - a treasure trove for writers. Prompts that will help those who are just beginning, others that tackle the dreaded writer's block, and several exercises designed specifically for the high school classroom.

The contributors are all published and successful writers. They include staff from Victoria's famed creative writing program - Ken Duncum, Bill Manhire, Chris Price, Damien Wilkins - and many others associated with the program as teachers and graduates, including the like of Emily Perkins, David Vann, Nigel Cox, Curtis Sittenfeld, Kate De Goldi, Laurence Fearnley, Kate Camp, Dinah Hawken, Jenny Bornholdt, Paula Morris, Hinemoana Baker, Catherine Chidgey and Kirsty Gunn - plus advice on how to create whole fictional worlds from Elizabeth and Sara Knox, David Geary and Eleanor Catton. Buy now

A Made-Up Place: NZ in Young Adult Fiction

by Anna Jackson, Geoffrey Miles, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer and Kathryn Walls

PB, Regular price $40, vicbooks' Price $36

Most New Zealand writing for young adults is designed to appeal to adolescents everywhere. Is there anything, then, that is characteristically ‘New Zealand' about it? To what extent does it derive from local experience, or address a local audience? Focusing on a series of overlapping topics (race, sport, money, history, Englishness, future fictions, utopias and dystopias, religion and the ‘Maori Gothic'), the contributors to this volume suggest that ‘New Zealandness' is a subtle, at times almost invisible, but nevertheless pervasive concern in New Zealand young adult fiction. Buy now

vicbooks' Blog

We've been busy in the New Year, see what our YA Fiction specialist, Liz Gillett, has to say on the Value of Cassanda Clare (Liz has more coming on YA in the weeks ahead). Plus, if you're a student, check out our post on how not to get sucked into the maelstrom the first term textbook mosh-pit (you could save yourself both time and money).

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