Remember to be nice to the cook, beware of the Christmas Cake * and above all, don't forget to feed the cat.

What's New at Arty Bees Books.
This is the spot to check out every week, as we bring you the latest on the fabulous, weird, interesting, intriguing, and wonderful books, big or small, mostly square-ish - although not always - that have come into the Arty Bees shops over the past seven days or so.

But first we have a few public announcements...

This will be the last What's New for a few weeks - with Christmas bearing down on us it's time to take a break as things do tend to get a tad crazy in retail in the next couple of weeks to say the least...

But rest assured that we will still be pricing and shelving new books - even with a buying moratorium in progress we won't run out of stock - in fact if we are a bit slack, we won't even clear the backlog!

However, if you are hanging out, for the hot news on the latest in goodies hitting the shelves at Arty Bees, it does mean that you will have to revert to the old fashioned methods of coming on by and having a look. Or of course you could drop us an email if you have a specific request.

In the mean time Arty Bees wishes you joyful and safe Seasons Greetings

Christmas Holiday Opening Hours

It's true - We have resisted the retail urge to stay open till the wee hours on Christmas Eve.

That's because we think we have such great books and helpful fabulous staff, that if we can't help you find the perfect gift before 6pm on Christmas Eve then it might be time to get a dreaded "Gift Voucher" (Hey! we have those too!) and go home for a nice glass of beer before the crazy.
Which is exactly what we plan to do.

It is time for our Annual Christmas Buying Holiday.

We are no longer purchasing stock as of
Tuesday 9th DECEMBER
and will not start purchasing stock again until
Monday 12th JANUARY
but then only at our Arty Bees branch on Manners Street.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause - as usual we are still taking small exchanges and credits to shop cards.

Now, many of you will have noticed that it says that only Manners Street will be buying from the 12th of January, and not our Courtenay Place branch, and there is a very cunning reason for this.

Courtenay Place will not be buying anymore books.

Ever.

It sounds drastic doesn't it, but the truth is that Courtenay Place is very, very full.

I haven't been able to fit in a bookshelf in over two years and books all over the floor may be cozy to a point (and don't get me wrong, we like that within reason) but sooner or later it stops being cozy and just ends up maddeningly, exasperatingly, claustrophobically FULL.

Oh, and our lease ran out. (And the rent went up (and up again) and did we mention that the building leaks and we hate getting soggy books... Ack stop me now, I could go on and on...)

So the Courtenay Place shop will be closed at the end of March 2009 and with those two prime motivators in mind we managed to secure (and this is the really cunning bit) the space directly upstairs from our Manners Street shop.

And with quite a lot of wrangling engineers, tradesmen and lawyers, and the inevitable getting of Consents, we will cut a big hole in the ceiling, pop in some stairs and Bob's your Uncle. (Or Bob's the Boss in our case!)

Which will leave us with one super duper really big bookshop.

We like to think of it, not as losing a branch, but as gaining another 150 square metres to pack books into (or to be more precise, gaining another half a kilometre of linear shelf space).

Suffice to say we are all very excited and a little exhausted and we haven’t even started moving the books!

Which is why Jessica at Courtenay Place won't start buying again, as anything we buy, we then have to move.

Imagine all those books in one place! Bee Heaven!

~ ~ ~ ~

What's New at Arty Bees Courtenay Place

Shed some light on the dark side of the moon with Saucerful of Secrets – The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaeffner.

It might be the end of the big car giants, but find out how they began with The Fords – An American Epic by Peter Collier and David Horowitz.

Or did it go back even further than that? We have some great new Pop Science and History titles including The Pinball Effect – How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible and Other Journeys Through Knowledge by James Burke.

Tighten up on your shopping list, but don’t compromise on yumminess. Cooking Books are here at Courtenay Place this week including books by the big TV foodies like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, the love-rat Gordon Ramsey himself and his longsuffering wife's book - Tana Ramsay's Family Kitchen: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Every Family. We also have 4 Ingredients – Over 340 Quick, Easy and Delicious Recipes Using 4 or Less Ingredients and 4 Ingredients Volume 2.

Here’s something I don’t need…or should I have written it? Have a Nice Day – No Problem! A Dictionary of Cliches by Christine Ammer. And if you want to shy away from a topic there’s Euphemisms – Over 3,000 Ways to Avoid Being Rude or Giving Offence by John Ayto.

There is lots of amusement for the kids over the holidays with the contents of our Children's section - the books never seem to stop coming. This week we also have bundles of Brain Quest card decks with oodles of trivia questions for ages 7-10. “It’s ok to be smart!” is their catch-phrase.

Summer Fiction is certainly in no shortage at Arty Bees - if you want to snuggle down with a good read we can probably find the title you are after, including some modern twists on some classic favourites, like Gregory Maguire's fairytale retellings or John Sutherland’s fabulous series which delves into the nitty-gritty of classic fiction. Titles include: Can Jane Eyre Be Happy?Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? and Henry V, War Criminal? and Other Shakespeare Puzzles.

Romance titles are also in store as we are well-stocked once more with Mills and Boon and have an overflow of Nora Roberts titles – only a pinch of what she’s written, but it’s a heck of a lot!

Comic heaven! Batman – Lovers and Madmen by Michael Green (who writes for Heroes and Smallville and the like), chronicles the Joker’s first meeting with Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego.

On the Science Fiction / Fantasy front an obscene amount of Terry Pratchett has come in, starting with The Colour of Magic. Ditto for Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels and Dean Koontz’s backlist. It’s quite unseemly.

Random Yuminess this week includes:

• M Ugur Derman's Letters in Gold - Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakip Sabanci Collection
• The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
• A Jerk on One End - Reflections of a Mediocre Fisherman by Robert Hughes (of Art Critic fame)
• Fat Dog Slim by Victoria Stilwell - More from TV's It's Me or the Dog
• Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori trilogy in hardback in beautiful condition
• Alphabet Art - 13 ABC's from around the World by Leonard Everett Fisher

In New Zealand titles this week we have had in: In Search of Ancient New Zealand by Hamish Campbell & Gerard Hutching, High Country Lark - An Invitation to Paradise by Neville Peat, Taranaki Whenua - Life-Blood-Legacy from the exhibition held earlier this year and A Nest of Singing Birds - 100 Years of the New Zealand School Journal by Gregory O'Brien.
We are also hoping to have a beautiful selection of Ans Westra titles in next week, including the iconic Washday at the Pa and Maori which is getting very scarce, as well as rarer early School Journal publications. These won't last very long, be in quick if you are interested
.

That’s just a snippet of the vast array of intriguing titles we have in our treasure trove of over 60,000 books (or 1.35 linear kilometres as Robynne has recently calculated) at Courtenay Place. There truly is something for everyone at carbon-footprint friendly Arty Bees Books – and if there isn’t we have gift vouchers too! Why shop anywhere else this Christmas, when we have it all…now what was I saying about clichés?

What's New at Arty Bees Manners Street

Travel Books are in at Manners Street, so if the rising price of plane tickets is getting you down, try a more environmentally friendly method of virtual travelling with some of the classics - William Dalrymple, Freya Stark, Michael Palin and more including, Twisting Throttle Australia – A Kiwi’s Hilarious Trip Around Aussie on the Seat of his Pants by Mike Hyde, Beijing Confidential – Lost and Found in the Forbidden City by Jan Wong and Travel Around China – The Guide to Exploring The Sites, The Cities, The Provinces and More from Collins

Language, Linguistics, and the history of our mother tongue - check out David Crystal’s As They Say In Zanzibar – Proverbial Wisdom From Around the World and By Hook or by Crook – A Journey in Search of English

New Zealand titles in this week include almost everything local author Sheila Natusch has ever written including:

• A Bunch of Wild Orchids
• A Fortnight in Iceland
• A Naturalist and a Gentleman - Charles Traill of Ulva, 1826-1891 - A Note of His Life & Extracts from Some of his Letters
• A Pocket Full of Pebbles
• A Scuffle in the Punui
• An Island Called Home - Rakiura, New Zealand
• Animals of New Zealand
• Brother Wohlers - A Biography of J F H Wohlers of Ruapuke
• Emily and Dorothea - Two Southland Artists
• Hell & High Water - A German Occupation of the Chatham Islands 1843-1910
• Letters from Jean (Janet Frame to Sheila Natusch)
• Memories Of My Life J F H Wohlers - Missionary at Ruapuke, New Zealand - An Autobiography
• My Dear Friend Tuckett - Letters From a Foveaux Strait Outpost in the 1850s (in 2 volumes)
• Native Plants - An Introduction to the Plant Life of New Zealand
• New Zealand Mosses
• On the Edge of the Bush - Women in Early Southland
• Out of Our Tree - Sightings of a Scattered Family
• Pop Kelp and Poha Bags - A Southern Holiday Reader
• Round the World in '83
• Roy Traill of Stewart Island - His Kith & Kin
• Ruapuke Visited
• Rugged Shores - Foveaux Strait Settlements of the Roaring Forties, c 46-47 latitude, c 1840-1850
• Southward Ho - The Deborah in Quest of a New Edinburgh 1844
• Stewart Island - A Souvenir
• The Cruise of the Acheron
• The Natural World of the Traills
• The Salty Shore
• Wild Fare for Wilderness Foragers
• William Swainson of Fern Grove

Other New Zealand titles this week include:

• Sunrise from the Summit – 18 Inspiring New Zealand Sports Women Share their Stories by Michele Cox
• Gallipoli Diaries – The Anzacs’ Own Story Day by Day by Jonathan King
• Josh, Flying Kiwi! The Boy From Motueka Who Made it to the Top in GP Motocross by Andy McGechan
• Memories of the Bear – A Biography of Denny Hulme by Eoin Young - When Denny Hulme won the 1967 Formula 1 World Championship, he jokingly asked Jim Clark to do 'the fame bit' for him as he so disliked being in the spotlight. Behind the wheel of a racing car, however, the self-effacing New Zealander, known affectionately as 'The Bear', showed ferocious determination. Racing was a passion. This book charts his illustrious career, which included eight Grands Prix victories and two CanAm sports car titles
• Spring Offensive – New Zealand and the Second Battle of the Somme by Glyn Harper
• Stories We Tell Ourselves - The Paintings of Richard Killeen by Francis Pound
• The Shark God – Encounters With Myth and Magic in the South Pacific by Charles Montgomery

They're Fuuuunnnyyy! Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Ok to really get the full effect of my Fozzie Bear impersonation you obviously need to:

• a. hear my brilliant Frank Oz voice,
• b. imagine that I can wiggle my ears (which I can't)
• and c. imagine that I look good in nothing but brown fur, a neckerchief and a hat (which I'm not willing to try)

In the meantime check out the biographies of some of Fozzies compatriots of Humour: Sacha Baron Cohen – From Cambridge to Kazakhstan by Kathleen Tracy, Wendy E Cook’s Peter Cook, So Farewell Then – The Untold Life of Peter Cook, and I am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert.

Here is some fabulous Random reading for the hard to shop for relative this month...

• Bringing Home the Birkin – My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello
• Street Wise Parenting by Glenn Compain
• Nigel Latta’s Into the Darklands and Beyond – Unveiling the Predators Among Us
• The Age of The Warrior – Selected Writings of Robert Fisk
• The Toyboy Diaries – Sexploits of an Older Women by Wendy Salisbury
• The File – A Personal History by Timothy Garton Ash – A fascinating account of Garton Ash’s journey in search of his Stasi (East German secret police) file after the Berlin Wall came down.
• It Ain’t Necessarily So … Bro by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki - a myth-buster extraordinaire!
• Bob Lumen’s Need to Know? Jazz – The Development of Jazz and the Legends Behind the Music
• Hell’s Angel - The Life And Times of Sonny Barger and The Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club by Sonny Barger with Keith and Kent Zimmerman
• Andrew Roberts’ Waterloo – Napoleon’s Last Gamble
• The Music of the Primes – Why and Unsolved Problem in Mathematics Matters by Marcus du Soutoy
• Life Application Study Bible

Fictional Exploits are here to thrill you this Christmas and we have enough to keep you busy well into the new year like:

• Naomi Novik titles including the Temeraire series
• The Awakening by Bevan McGuiness
• Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s classic cat fantasy The Catswold Portal
• Glory Boys by Harry Bingham
• Lots of John Dunning’s literary detective series including his latest The Bookwoman’s Last Fling
• Lots of Conn Iggulden historical novels including Wolf of the Plains
• Local fantasy with The Invisible Road (DreamHunter & DreamQuake in one volume) by Elizabeth Knox
• Stephanie Meyer titles including the boxed set of the trilogy – just in time to read before the movie Twilight comes out
• Lots of Sara Douglas, Fiona McIntosh, Clive Barker, Russell Kirkpatrick, and everything ever written by Dave Duncan
• Great detective novels like Tony Hillerman Leaphorn & Chee series and Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo’s Martin Beck series
• Paullina Simons titles including Tatiana’s Table
• One Life by Rebecca Frayn
• Tracy Chevalier’s latest Burning Bright
• Patrick O’Brian novels – including Aubrey & Materin Adventures like The Wine Dark Sea and The Letter of the Marque

Lots of yummy yum yum Children’s Books will be going out in the next week (ok by lots we mean 5 or 6 really big boxes) including heaps of Usbourn Early Readers and Usbourn non fiction titles, an entire box of beautiful Baby Board books including ones with buttons and sounds, ones with furry, touchy-feely stuff, ones with lifty flaps and Pop-Ups and tons of childrens and teens new chapter fiction, all of it in great condition and perfect for pressies!

Each week, we bring you the most tragic & fantastic piece of cover art that's crossed our desk.
Ooohhhh, oooohhhh, I bet that chap is a jolly Nazi saboteur! Get him lads!

Well, talented family members have been at the old book writing lark again and this time it's Vidyamala Burch, Pippas sister and another of Bobs lovely daughters.

Living Well with Pain & Illness - The Mindful Way the Free Yourself From Suffering
Vidyamala Burch

$45.00
Piatkus Books, United Kingdom, 2008. NEW Paperback 255 pages with many illustrations.

Vidyamala Burch has suffered with chronic pain for over 30 years due to congenital weakness, a car accident and unsuccessful surgery. She is now a wheelchair user. In this positive and reassuring new book, she identifies that it is our resistance to pain which causes it to be so distressing and miserable. We don't want it to be happening to us, and we wish we weren't experiencing it.

Living Well with Pain & Illness is a practical guide to living with and managing chronic pain through the principle of mindfulness. By developing a calm awareness of your body and your pain, you can learn to let go of the frustration and suffering that you associate the pain with, and the pain will reduce. Vidyamala Burch uses easy-to follow breathing techniques and powerful mindfulness meditations which teach you how to live in the present moment. Living Well with Pain & Illness includes helpful illustrations, offers effective ways of managing chronic pain and is a must-read for all sufferers.

About the Author
Vidyamala Burch is the co-founder of the well-respected Breathworks organisation (http://www.breathworks-mindfulness.co.uk) She has taught meditation for 12 years as a member of the Western Buddhist Order.

Recently arrived new books. To purchase, click here, type in the tag number and your contact details.

To see the complete list of available new science fiction, click here.
To see the complete list of available new detective books, click here.
To see the complete list of available Rare and Antiquarian books at both shops, click here.

New Science Fiction recently added to Manners Street

Other New Books recently added to Manners Street

New New Zealand Titles recently added to Manners Street

Rare and Antiquarian Books recently added to Manners Street

Arty Bees Books. 2 Locations.
17 Courtenay Place, Wellington.
Telephone 04 385 1819
The Oaks, Manners Street, Wellington.
Telephone 04 384 5339
www.artybees.co.nz