Icelandic Pop: Then, Today, Tomorrow, Next Week
3.990 kr.Iceland punches well above its weight in the world of music, producing global icons like Björk, Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, and Laufey, while at the same time nurturing a vibrant local scene. This book explores how Iceland’s unique social habits, institutions and everyday practices contribute to its thriving music culture. Tracing the development of Icelandic popular music since the rock ’n’ roll era, it examines key influences shaping the scene, from Reykjavík’s musicians to national institutions like radio and concert venues.
With engaging explanations of sociological factors, the book sheds light on why Iceland has become a powerhouse in music. An illuminating journey through Iceland’s music history, this is a celebration of the artistry and cultural forces behind its global impact.
The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin
5.990 kr.When Ursula K. Le Guin started writing a new story, she would begin by drawing a map. The Word for World presents a selection of these images by the celebrated author, many of which have never been published before, to consider how her imaginary worlds enable us to re-envision our own.
Le Guin’s maps offer journeys of consciousness beyond conventional cartography, from the Rorschach-like archipelagos of Earthsea to the talismanic maps of Always Coming Home. Rather than remaining within known terrain, they open up paradigms of knowledge, exemplified by the map’s edges and how a map is read, made and re-made, together. The Word for World brings her maps together with poems, stories, interviews, recipes and essays by contributors from a variety of perspectives to enquire into the relationship between worlds and the imagination and representation of them.
With contributions by Federico Campagna, Theo Downes-Le Guin, Daniel Heath Justice, Bhanu Kapil, Canisia Lubrin, Una McCormack, David Naimon, Nisha Ramayya, Shoshone Collective, Standard Deviation, Marilyn Strathern. Co-published by Spiral House and AA Publications to coincide with an exhibition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s maps at the Architectural Association, London, opening on 10 October 2025.
Is a River Alive?
6.490 kr.From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title. At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.
The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining. Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way. And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.
At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.
On Tyranny
3.490 kr.In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances.
Today, we are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to totalitarianism in the twentieth century. But when the political order seems imperilled, our advantage is that we can learn from their experience to resist the advance of tyranny.
Oasis: Trying to find a way out of nowhere
12.990 kr.Dramatic, iconic, tumultuous: this is the story of Oasis, as seen through the lens of legendary photographer Jill Furmanovsky and edited by Noel Gallagher.
Jill has been documenting the phenomenon that is Oasis since 1994 and the Definitely Maybe tour, through the tense and difficult shows for Dig Out Your Soul in 2009 and, following a hiatus, to a new beginning in 2025.
Featuring more than 500 exceptional photographs from her archive, this book includes acclaimed and classic shots alongside swathes of candid, behind-the-scenes images, many of which are published here for the very first time.
With unprecedented access, Jill was able to capture strikingly emotive images, recording the band’s raw energy, humour and – at times – their vulnerability. ‘Oasis permitted closeness,’ she commented, ‘and that was a great gift to me as a photographer.’ Weaving sequences together to craft stories and stitch montages, the book brings you right into the room with the musicians.
Noel’s foreword is followed by an introduction by Jill, while three expansive pieces by acclaimed author Simon Spence, publicist and writer Johnny Hopkins and music columnist and novelist Laura Barton chart Oasis’s early, mid and late eras.
Jill and Noel’s reflections, alongside the photos, give the inside track on key moments, revealing the intimate friendship between band and photographer and reminding us of a remarkable era in music history, right to the edge of their 2025 reunion tour. This is a book to treasure long after the final encore.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
4.390 kr.In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government because she already had two daughters. Two years later, an American couple travelled to Shaoyang to adopt a Chinese toddler they thought had been abandoned. Their understanding had been that China’s brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents.
What they didn’t know – and what award-winning journalist Barbara Demick uncovered in 2007, while working as a correspondent in Beijing – was that their daughter had been snatched from her beloved family and her identical twin. Under China’s one-child policy hundreds of poor Chinese were giving up their children due to soaring fines and threats of violence. More sinister still, international demand for adoptees was sky-rocketing, and local officials were forcibly seizing children and trafficking them to orphanages, who were selling them abroad.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the gripping story of separated twins, their respective fates in China and the USA, and Barbara Demick’s role in reuniting them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China’s history and culture, it asks questions about the roots, impact and consequences of China’s one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and, ultimately, the assumptions and narratives we hold about the quality of lives lived in the East and the West.
Jeppar í lífi þjóðar
14.990 kr.Samgöngubylting varð á Íslandi um miðja síðustu öld þegar þúsundir Willys-jeppa streymdu að hliðum gömlu herjeppanna, og brátt renndu Landróverar og Rússa – jeppar í hlað. Síðar bættust við enn fleiri gerðir, Gipsy, Scout og Bronco, og loks fjölbreytt úrval japanskra jeppa. Jeppinn greiddi leiðir um klungur og torfærur, enda með drif á öllum hjólum, og færði ferðafrelsi jafnt að sumri sem vetri.
Jeppar í lífi þjóðar bregður lifandi ljósi á þennan merkilega en lítt kannaða kafla íslenskrar samgöngusögu í máli en þó aðallega 600 einstæðum ljósmyndum sem koma nú margar í fyrsta sinn fyrir almannasjónir. Þetta er ómissandi bók fyrir bílaáhugamanninn og raunar alla þá sem unna ferðum um úfið landið.
Örn Sigurðsson hefur hlotið mikið lof fyrir bílabækur sínar sem eru orðnar átta talsins, þar á meðal metsölubækurnar Króm og hvítir hringir, Bílamenning og Bílar í lífi þjóðar.
The Museum of Whales You Will Never See
3.490 kr.Welcome to Iceland, a very small nation with a very large number (two hundred and sixty five) of (mostly) very small museums. Founded in the backyards of houses, begun as jokes or bets or memorials to lost friends, these museums tell the story of an enchanted island where bridges arrived only at the beginning of the 20th century, and waterproof shoes only with the second world war. A nation formerly dirt poor, then staggeringly rich, and now building its way to affluence once again.
A nation where, in the remote and wild places, you might encounter still a shore laddie, a sorcerer or a ghost. From Reykjavík’s renowned Phallological Museum to a house of stones on the eastern coast; from the curious monsters which roam the remote shores of Bíldudalur to a museum of whales which proves impossible to find, here is an enchanted story of obsession, curation, and the peculiar magic of this isolated island.
Kitchen Confidential: 25th Anniversary Edition
3.990 kr.After twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine, chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all – and he meant all.
From his first oyster in the Gironde as a child, to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.
Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water and your belly ache with laughter and leave you wanting more.
On Palestine
3.490 kr.Co-authored by two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, an indispensable book for understanding the situation in Gaza right now.
What is the future of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement directed at Israel? Which is more viable, the binational or one state solution? Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine in this urgent and timely book, a sequel to their acclaimed Gaza in Crisis.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
5.190 kr.Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable.
Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output; it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.
The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments – and lifetimes – of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
Elemental Rebirth
7.490 kr.Elemental Rebirth is a deeply personal healing journey, poetically woven through the voices of the elements – water, fire, air and earth.
In her early thirties, Jósa Goodlife faced the life-altering challenge of overcoming cervical cancer through a hysterectomy. Yet, what began as a physical transformation became the gateway to a profound personal rebirth… one that you are invited to witness in this book.
Elemental Rebirth is a gift to those willing to receive – a narrative that transcends the physical and dives into the heart of – what it means to be a human being, with all its struggles and sensitivities, grace and much beauty. It is not merely a story of survival, but a living testament to the power of embracing change and finding purpose along unexpected paths.
With the energetic and poetic support of the elements, Jósa’s story invites readers on a creative journey through the swirling layers of the mind – touching the mysteries of life and death. It carries a wish for renewed hope, a call for more intentional living on this magical planet, and a gentle shedding of the heavy shadows cast by a mind-conditioned, results-driven society.
At its heart, Jósa’s hope is to reconnect humanity with its innate purpose: to fall back in love with the miracle of existence. Through the restorative forces of the elements, we are reminded of our essential kinship with the natural world and with one another. And above all, to remember how the power of love will always guide us back home.
Ef ég væri birkitré
4.590 kr.Hildur Hákonardóttir vefur hér saman persónulegar hugleiðingar, náttúrufræði og listræna sýn á birkið sem hefur mótað íslenskt landslag og menningu allt frá landnámi. Með næmu auga listamannsins og virðingu fyrir náttúrunni leiðir hún lesandann inn í heim þar sem mörk manns og náttúru eru óljós.
Þetta er bók fyrir þá sem þrá að tengjast náttúrunni á nýjan hátt og finna innblástur með því að ímynda sér: Hvað ef ég væri birkitré?
Life on Air
990 kr.Sir David Attenborough is Britain’s best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly five decades and there are very few places on the globe that he has not visited. In this volume of memoirs David tells stories of the people and animals he has met and the places that he has visited. Sir David’s first job – after Cambridge University and two years in the Royal Navy was at the London publishing house Hodder & Stoughton. Then in 1952 he joined the BBC as a trainee producer and it was while working on the Zoo Quest series (1954-64) that he had his first opportunity to undertake expeditions to remote parts of the globe to capture intimate footage of rare wildlife in its natural habitat. He was Controller of BBC2 (1965-68), during which time he introduced colour television to Britain, then Director of Programmes for the BBC (1969-1972). However in 1973 he abandoned administration altogether to return to documentary-making and writing. Over the last 25 years he has established himself as the World’s leading Natural History programme maker with several landmark BBC series, including Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995) and Life of Birds (1998). Sir David is a Trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1985.
Who Will Tell My Story?: A Gaza Diary
3.990 kr.It was a sleepless night full of tears and fear . . .
I am not sure – if I make it out alive – if I will still possess what makes me, me. And I wonder: will I be there in the future, or will I be someone to be remembered in a diary or over a cup of tea by a friend after I am gone?
Who Will Tell My Story? presents an ordinary existence interrupted by unfathomably seismic and unjust events.
On the ground during the first months of the assault on Gaza following the events of 7 October, the author of this diary – first published in The Guardian – maps out the physical and psychological terrain of a life under siege. Traversing the bombed ruins of his country, we see him as he searches for foodstuffs and power to charge devices, maintaining contact with the outside world, checking in with his friends and family along the way; we see his heart swing between despair and faith, fear and optimism, his mind imagining different futures and confronting the brutal truth of his present. Shining a light on the fate of all those living through war and occupation, Who Will Tell My Story? conveys with astonishing clarity how seeds of hope might linger amid the most trying of times.
What I Ate in One Year
3.690 kr.Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime. In What I Ate in One Year, Tucci records twelve months of eating, in restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself.
The White Ship
990 kr.The sinking of the White Ship in 1120 is one of the greatest disasters England has ever suffered. In one catastrophic night, the king’s heir and the flower of Anglo-Norman society were drowned and the future of the crown was thrown violently off course.
In a riveting narrative, Charles Spencer follows the story from the Norman Conquest through to the decades that would become known as the Anarchy: a civil war of untold violence that saw families turn in on each other with English and Norman barons, rebellious Welsh princes and the Scottish king all playing a part in a desperate game of thrones. All because of the loss of one vessel – the White Ship – the medieval Titanic.
