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Vector: A surprising story of space, time, and mathematical transformation
Robyn Arianrhod. NewSouth Books. $44.99.
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Mathematician and science writer Robyn Arianrhod shows how vectors and tensors enabled physicists and mathematicians to think in a new way. They inspired James Clerk Maxwell to usher in the wireless electromagnetic age; Albert Einstein to predict the curving of space-time and the existence of gravitational waves; Paul Dirac to create quantum field theory; and Emmy Noether to connect mathematical symmetry and the conservation of energy. Today, you're likely relying on vectors or tensors each time you pick up your mobile phone, use a GPS, or search online.
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Soundtrack of Silence: Love, Loss and a Playlist for Life
Matt Hay. Pan Macmillan. $54.95.
By the time Matt Hay was a prospective college student and couldn't pass the entrance requirements for West Point, his condition, generated by a tumour, was unavoidable: his hearing was going - fast. As a 1980s kid whose life events were pegged to pop music, Hay planned to commit his favorite songs to memory. He prepared a mental playlist of the musicians he loved - Elton John, Bing Crosby, Bob Marley, U2 and more - and created a way to tap into his most resonant memories. The track he needed to cement most clearly? The one he and his new girlfriend, Nora - the love of his life - listened to in the car on their first date.
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The Afterlife Confessional
Bill Edgar. Penguin. $36.99.
A private investigator with a haunting past, Bill Edgar rose to international fame as the "Coffin Confessor" - the man who crashes funerals on behalf of the deceased, giving voice to their last wishes. Loved and loathed in equal measure, his only concern is being the caretaker of the secrets and desires his clients have entrusted to him. Shame and outrage, healing and comfort are left up to those left behind. But it's a request from one woman to hand-deliver a bottle of wine to her husband on the anniversary of her death that raises deeper questions. Bill's journey for answers takes him through his clients' lives.
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The Manicurist's Daughter
Susan Lieu. Pan Macmillan. $49.99.
After her mother's death during a routine plastic surgery, Susan Lieu - whose family were refugees from the Vietnam War - spent 20 years asking questions alone. Why did the most perfect person in her life feel the need to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother's life in Vietnam? How could she manage the same cultural pressures her mother faced, and succumbed to, in her own life, within her own body? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on to continue operating for years after her mother's death?
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The Love of My Afterlife
Kirsty Greenwood. Penguin. $34.99.
Delphie has entered the afterlife and finds herself face-to-face with the most handsome man she's ever encountered. And he's smiling at her. But there's been a mistake and he is sent back to Earth. Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to her previous life and reconnect with the mysterious man she's sure is her soulmate. The challenge? She only has 10 days to find him, 10 days make him fall for her - and he has no recollection of them having met...
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Our Holiday
Louise Candlish. HarperCollins. $32.99.
Charlotte and Perry long for summers at Cliff View, their gorgeous holiday home overlooking the turquoise waters of Pine Ridge. And now city friends Amy and Linus have bought a property nearby. But there's trouble in paradise. A rising tide of resentment towards second-home owners is heading their way and small acts of criminal damage are escalating into something more menacing. By the end of the summer, families and friendships will be torn apart and there will be blood.
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The Borrowed Life of Fredrick Fife
Anna Johnson. Penguin. $34.99.
In Anna Johnson's debut novel, 82-year-old Frederick Fife is desperately lonely, broke and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred's luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of cranky Bernard Greer at Wattle River Nursing Home. Suddenly he has a roof over his head, warm meals in his belly and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a family again. As Fred walks in Bernard's shoes (and underpants), he discovers more about the man's past - and what it would take to return a broken life to mint condition.
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Sanctuary
Garry Disher. Text Publishing. $34.99.
Grace is a thief: a good one. She was taught by experts and she's been practising since she was a kid. She specialises in small, high-value items - stamps, watches. But it's a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. It's not the life she wants. Lying low after a run-in with an old associate, Grace walks into Erin Mandel's rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A normal job. A place to call home. But someone is looking for Erin. And someone's looking for Grace, too. And they are both, in their own ways, very dangerous men.
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