Weekend reading: Three new books for the weekend. Photos / Supplied
Weekend reading: Three new books for the weekend. Photos / Supplied
Argylle by Elly Conway (Bantam)
Who is Elly Conway? Apparently a debut US author, she has written Argylle(Bantam), a globe-trotting thriller featuring the eponymous Bond-esque spy with a dark past. The novel, apparently the first in a planned trilogy or more, features a downed CIA plane, a luxury trainspeeding towards Moscow and a Nazi hoard just for starters. The film rights were picked up before publication, and will be a blockbuster Matthew Vaughn-helmed movie out next month starring Henry Cavill (older than the novel’s hero), Sam Rockwell, Dua Lipa and Bryce Dallas Howard as, yes, Elly Conway, busily writing the action as it goes on around her. Is Conway Vaughn? Or his wife, Claudia Schiffer? Unlikely, but stranger things have happened.
Argylle: Film rights sold before publication. Photo / Supplied
Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World by Joshua Paul Dale (Profile)
Ever wondered quite why cuteness has such a powerful impact on us, from our knee-weakening love of babies to kittens, toy dogs and even anime? In Cuteness (Profile), Japan-based English professor Joshua Paul Dale explores how cutey-pie stuff has swept the globe, from the origins of Japanese kawaii to Pokémon, Disney, teddy bears and Lolita fashion, investigating the neurological underpinning of the appeal of cute, the social trends driving its adoption, the development of neoteny (retaining juvenile characteristics in adulthood), and whether homo sapiens has been selecting for cuteness.
Cute: A deeper dive into visual appeal. Photo / Supplied
The Collector: The Life & Loves of Young Joseph Banks by Graeme Lay (Austen Macauley)
The 18th-century naturalist Joseph Banks already had significant renown when he took part in James Cook’s first great voyage. His name is on geography all over the Pacific, including Banks Peninsula. He is credited with bringing back 30,000 plant specimens to England, and introducing genuses such as the eucalyptus, acacia and the one named after him, banksia, to the Western world. In The Collector (Austen Macauley), Graeme Lay, the author of a novel trilogy about Cook, has turned his sights to Banks’ early life – his privileged upbringing, education and passions. It is subtitled The Life and Loves of Young Joseph Banks, suggesting a sequel is on the cards.
The Collector: Could a sequel be likely? Photo / Supplied
