BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9991, 30 November 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

The Story' ok a Babv : By Ethel Turner. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, London.— This is a cleverly written story, showing how much of the happiness of a home hinges upon a baby, its power of cementing wife and husband in a bond of union, and capturing tho hearts of both. The story has its ludicrous side; the squabbles of the couple over bending and nursing the baby, attentions to ib in its infantine troubles, and worsb of all the fight over bhe baby, when they agree to separate as tho outcome of temper on his part and wilfulness on her side. The tale is nob only "The Story of a Baby," bub the story of a young married couple. Kaffir Stories: By Win. Chas. Scully. T. Fisher Unwin, London.— stories are weird, dramatic, and exciting, and show the author to bo possessed of considerable descriptive power. Perhaps the best are "The Fundamental Axiom," "Kollson's Nemesis," while "TheQuesb of the Copper" is graphic tale of Zulu courage and endurance. The whole aeries is strikingly illustrative of tho lights and shadows of African life.

Peaks' An.vual, 1895.—Published by the I proprietors, Messrs. A. and F. Pears (Limited) in London.—This beautifully got up Christmas annual by the above firm of Pears' soap celebrity (which wo have received through Mr. Spreckley, bookseller, of Shortland-street) shows the extent bo which advertising is now carried, and tho expenditure entailed, which in due season yioldeth its harvest. Ib contains an interesting serial, "The Haunted Man," by Charles-Dickons, profusely illustrated by Charles Green, K. 1., as also a description of Pears' London establishment. Accompanying tho annual are three beautiful plates in colour—the first is "Flowers of the East," a decorative painting by W. S. Coleman; "The Loug»Bill," and "Suspense," a dog and cat awaiting a little child partaking of breakfast. The Pam, Mall Magazine : Published at 18, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.— The November number is to hand. " The Foot of Gautama," an Indian etory, is the initial article. "A Market Place Meet" is a chatty description of a country hunt, and a day with the hounds. The articles on " Evolution in Early Italian Art''are continued, the subject this issue being, "Tho Presentation." "Unknown Paris" is a description of artists, their lives, pleasures and haunts. "A Very Hard Caio," is un amusing story of a Judgo getting into a "tight place." There is a biographical sketch of Christopher North, the Scottish Walton, and an interesbing article on "Is Mars Inhabited?" The writer concludes his theorising as follows: —'" Tho noxb most favourablo apposition of Mars will be in August, 1909, and can we hope then to learn more than we now know, or rather surmise, regarding life on our neighbouring planet ? Alas! there islibtlo chanco of ib. Wo are cub off by ono of those lines, which bound the penetration of the human mind, and we are compelled to acknowledge that there are mysteries as unfathomable in. the seen as there are in tho unseen worlds." A descriptive article doals with "A Model Prison, Wormwood Scrubs." The section of the magazine. Without Prejudice "is as cleverly as ever. Altogether the present number is a very readable one,