Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns by Melissa Boardman

$30.00 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

A beautifully illustrated book featuring New Zealand Aotearoa's native birds, each with its very own collective noun.   A tussock of takahe?   A hoon of kaka?   A whistling of whio?   This beautifully illustrated book of collective noun names for our native birds reveals something unique about their cha racter, so we can get to know them better. It also includes information on how they live, so we can help protect them. Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns - Nga Manu o Aotearoa: Nga Kupuingoa topu - is a book for all bird-lovers. ...Show more

Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer

$24.00 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

''An utterly delightful book to read, Dreyer''s Englishwill stand among the classics on how to use the English language properly.'' ELIZABETH STROUT ''A complete joy. For those who care about words - and for those who don''t - Dreyer''s English is the book we have all been waiting for. Wise, funny, no-n onsense, stylish and brilliantly practical. Ditch the beach books this year; take this instead.''RACHEL JOYCE _______________________ An indispensable, New York Times-bestsellingguide to the craft of writing from Random House''s long-time copy chief and one of Twitter''s leading language gurus. We all write, all the time- books, blogs, tweets, emails, emails, emails - and we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help. As Random House''s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike - not to mention his followers on social media - for playfully, brilliantly deconstructing the English language. Dreyer''s English is the distillation of everything he has learned from copyediting thousands of books, the perfect guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward. Both authoritative and amusing, Dreyer''s Englishoffers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en-dash; the rules and non-rules of grammar, including why it''s OK to begin a sentence with ''And'' or ''But'' and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it''s best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including ''very'', ''rather'', ''of course'', and the dreaded ''actually''. And yes- ''Only godless savages eschew the Oxford comma.'' Stuffed with advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people''s prose, and - perhaps best of all - an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language. _______________________ This book is written in British English._______________________''A fascinating guide to grammatical "rights" and "wrongs" - practical and useful''SUNDAY TIMES ''Benjamin Dreyer''s brilliant, pithy, incandescently intelligent book is to contemporary writing what Geoffrey Chaucer''s poetry was to medieval English- a gift that broadens and deepens the art and the science of literature by illustrating that convention should not stand in the way of creativity, so long as that creativity is expressed with clarity and with conviction.'' JON MEACHAM ''Meet the guardian of grammar who wants to help you be a better writer. Benjamin Dreyer sees language the way an epicure sees food. And he finds sloppiness everywhere he looks.''THE NEW YORK TIMES ''A fascinating guide to grammatical ''rights'' and ''wrongs'' - practical and useful'' SEBASTIAN FAULKS,SUNDAY TIMES ''If learning about the pillars of punctuation and grammar doesn''t excite you, let Benjamin Dreyer change your mind ... he analyzes the English language without dipping into the drab technicalities, crafting a pleasing read for anyone who has an appreciation for the written word.''TIME MAGAZINE,BEST 10 NON-FICTION BOOKS OF 2019 ''Witty and piquant ... full of jokes - and equally full of deliciously deprecating footnotes.'' JEWISH CHRONICLE ''Playful, smart, self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer''s English.''WALL STREET JOURNAL ''Destined to become a classic.''THE MILLIONS ''A mind-blower--sure to jumpstart any writing project, just by exposing you, the writer, to Dreyer''s astonishing level of sentence-awareness.'' GEORGE SAUNDERS, author of Lincoln in the Bardo ''Pleasurable and instructive ... You can read Dreyer''s Englishright through with unalloyed enjoyment, and learn a lot from it- not only from its rulings but from its attitude ... Benjamin Dreyer is wise and bitterly experienced and fantastically good company. You should buy his book and read it.'' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ''Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better- He''ll entertain you while he''s at it.''NEWSDAY ''Boisterously well written ... I recommend it highly.'' INDEPENDENT ''It is Benjamin Dreyer''s intense love for the English language and his passion for the subject that make the experience of reading Dreyer''s Englishsuch a pleasure, almost regardless of the invaluable and practical purpose his book serves in such dark and confusing times for grammar and meaning.'' AYELET WALDMAN & MICHAEL CHABON ''An informative and entertaining handbook on how to write clearer English. It''s pithy, witty and a near perfect example of the kind of writing it advocates'' STING ''Dreyer promises to reveal "some of the fancy little tricks I''ve come across or devised that can make even skilled writing better", and does so with accuracy, style, and humour'' GUARDIAN ''This work is that rare writing handbook that writers might actually want to read straight through, rather than simply consult.'' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ...Show more

Rebel Without a Clause by Sue Butler

$29.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

The English language is changing constantly. We invent new words and phrases, we mash up idioms, we mispronounce, misuse, misappropriate. Sue Butler has heard it all and is ready to defend and disagree with common usage. Veering from tolerance to outrage, she examines how the word sheila took a nose-div e after World War II, considers whether we should hunker or bunker down, and bemoans the emptiness of rhetoric. She shouts 'down with closure' as it leaps from the psychoanalyst's couch, explains why we've lost the plot on deceptively, untangles the manuka honey stoush, fathoms why the treatment of famous is infamous, and ponders whether you would, could or should ...Rebel without a Clause is a fascinatingly idiosyncratic romp through the world of words by lexicographer and former Macquarie Dictionary Editor, Sue Butler. ...Show more

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

$24.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others - that words and meanings relating to women's experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words. Set when the women's suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men.   ...Show more

Semicolon - How a Misunderstood Punctuation Mark Can Improve Your Writing, Enrich Your Reading and Even Change Your Life by Cecelia Watson

$19.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

'Fascinating... I loved this book; I really did' David Crystal, Spectator A biography of a much misunderstood punctuation mark and a call to arms in favour of clear expression and against stifling grammar rules. Cecelia Watson used to be obsessive about grammar rules. But then she began teaching. And that was when she realized that strict rules aren't always the best way of teaching people how to make words say what they want them to; that they are even, sometimes, best ignored. One punctuation mark encapsulates this thorny issue more clearly than any other. The semicolon. Hated by Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut and Orwell, and loved by Herman Melville, Henry James and Rebecca Solnit, it is the most divisive punctuation mark in the English language, and many are too scared to go near it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care? In this warm, funny, enlightening and thoroughly original book, Cecelia Watson takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the surprising history of the semicolon and explores the remarkable power it can wield, if only we would stop being afraid of it. Forget the rules; you're in charge. It's time to make language do what you want it to. ...Show more

Maori Made Easy 2 by Scotty Morrison

$38.00 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

Enhance your Māori-language learning with the most reliable - and easiest - resource available. The bestselling Maori Made Easy gave learners an accessible and achievable entry into te reo Māori. It quickly cemented itself as the guide to those new to the language. Scotty Morrison now offers a second in stalment to help readers continue their learning journey, picking up where the first volume left off. Māori Made Easy 2 unpacks more of the specifics of the language while still offering an easy, assured approach. By committing 30 minutes a day for 30 weeks, learners can build their knowledge in a practical, meaningful and fun way. ...Show more

Raids and Settlements: Seamus Heaney as translator by Edited by Marco Sonzogni & Marcella Zanetti

$30.00 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

The Illustrated Letters of the Brontes: The Letters, Diaries and Writings of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte by Juliet Gardiner

$34.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

The Illustrated Letters of the Brontes is the story both of the real world of the Brontes at Haworth Parsonage, their home on the edge of the lonely Yorkshire moors, and of the imaginary worlds they spun for themselves in their novels and poetry. Wherever possible, their story is told using their own wo rds - the letters they wrote to each other, Emily and Anne's secret diaries, and Emily's exchanges with luminaries of literary England - or those closest to them, such as their brother Branwell, their father Patrick Bronte, and their novelist friend Mrs Gaskell.The Brontes sketched and painted their worlds too, in delicate ink washes and watercolours of family and friends, animals and the English moors. These pictures illuminate the text as do the tiny drawings the Bronte children made to illustrate their imaginary worlds. In addition, there are facsimiles of their letters and diaries, paintings by artists of the day, and pictures of household life.It is a unique and privileged view of the real lives of three women, writers and sisters. ...Show more

Perpetual Disappointments Diary #4

$19.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

Most Disappointing Edition Yet 'Best. Diary. Ever' - Metro 'Cheeringly depressing' - Guardian 'Abandon all hope, ye who buy it' - New York Times Perpetual Disappointments Diary by Nick Asbury, the downbeat weekly journal for pessimists, stoics and losers everywhere, returns with its most disappointi ng edition yet. Ground yourself with Realistic Mindfulness Prompts, Demotivational Proverbs, Unhelpful Folk Rhymes, and reminders of Notable Deaths. Travel the world with Useful Phrases translated into four languages ('A table for one, please', 'I have destroyed my hire car') plus advice for surviving Even Worse Case Scenarios (Fighting a crocodile while tired, Surviving an elephant stampede while running into an ex). Fill an idle moment with a Boring Crossword, and overcome creative blocks using Bleak Strategies. This may not be your year. But this is definitely your diary. This Edition includes:Realistic Mindfulness Prompts, Demotivational Proverbs, Unhelpful Folk Rhymes, Bleak Strategies, Even Worse Case Scenarios, Boring Crosswords, Notable Deaths, Bank Insecurity Questions, People Who Never Call, Notes Towards A Dull Novel, Pointless Doodles. This diary is not specific to one year - they are all basically the same. ...Show more

Inside the Whale - On Writers and Writing by George Orwell

$27.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

Unfailingly elegant and endlessly relevant, the four essays in this collection treat literature as a vital record of our political hypocrisies, our social failings, and the ennobling limits of our ideological aspirations.

The Book of Myself - A Do-It-Yourself Autobiography in 201 Questions by David Marshall; Carl Marshall

$27.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

Have you ever wanted to create your own autobiography or wished you could read about the life of a relative or friend? The Book of Myself is a do-it-yourself memoir that helps you record and preserve the experiences, relationships, and lessons that define you. Created by a grandson who wanted to capture his grandfather's life story for future generations, The Book of Myself offers 201 memory-evoking prompts on family, friends, and the journey you take through all of life's stages. It is the perfect way for you -- or someone close to you -- to record life's highlights and everyday moments that can slip through your fingers if not written down. ...Show more

The Writer's Library - The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl; Jeff Schwager

$59.99 NZD

Category: Writing, Language

With a Foreword by Susan Orlean, twenty-three of today's living literary legends, including Donna Tartt, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Andrew Sean Greer, Laila Lalami, and Michael Chabon, reveal the books that made them think, brought them joy, and changed their lives in this intimate, moving, and insightful colle ction from "American's Librarian" Nancy Pearl and noted playwright Jeff Schwager that celebrates the power of literature and reading to connect us all. Before Jennifer Egan, Louise Erdrich, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Jonathan Lethem became revered authors, they were readers. In this ebullient book, America's favorite librarian Nancy Pearl and noted-playwright Jeff Schwager interview a diverse range of America's most notable and influential writers about the books that shaped them and inspired them to leave their own literary mark.  Illustrated with beautiful line drawings, The Writer's Library is a revelatory exploration of the studies, libraries, and bookstores of today's favorite authors--the creative artists whose imagination and sublime talent make America's literary scene the wonderful, dynamic world it is. A love letter to books and a celebration of wordsmiths, The Writer's Library is a treasure for anyone who has been moved by the written word.  The authors in The Writer's Library are: Russell Banks TC Boyle Michael Chabon Susan Choi Jennifer Egan Dave Eggers Louise Erdrich Richard Ford Laurie Frankel Andrew Sean Greer Jane Hirshfield Siri Hustvedt Charles Johnson Laila Lalami Jonathan Lethem Donna Tartt Madeline Miller Viet Thanh Nguyen Luis Alberto Urrea Vendela Vida Ayelet Waldman Maaza Mengiste Amor Towles ...Show more