We were so lucky to have geologist and author Liv Sisson visit us at Book Hero to celebrate the release of her new book Butterflies and Moths of Aotearoa! She managed to sign all her books as well as get a tour of our warehouse plus a quickfire Q&A to get to know what books she's into!
Liv will be known to many through her previous book a few years ago Fungi of Aotearoa where our fascination for all things fungi still continues even as most recently when earlier this year Liv organised the Auckland Mushroom Festival held along Karangahape Road. It was a wonderful celebration of mushrooms with restaurants offering special mushroom dishes, mushroom art could be found in shop windows along K'rd plus there were plenty of amazing mushroom costumes with a parade held through the new Karangahape Road train station.
Butterflies and Moths of Aotearoa is a beautiful book all about, well you guessed it, butterflies and moths! This book took Liv 3 years to write and it involved extensive research and lots of fieldwork for her to put together. It is the same format and size of Fungi of Aotearoa so will look great on the shelf or on the coffee table alongside it. The book features amazing photography from a local Kiwi photographer who Liv admires. For a bit of insight, 25% of the butterflies and moths featured in the book are based in Auckland so while you are out and about on walks with the whānau, try and see if you can spot any!
During the signing session we chatted all things books and boardgames. Liv loves reading general fiction and has a love for authors from Aotearoa with Catherine Chidgey being one of her favourite authors along with Becky Manawatu. She has always had a love for books and reminisced with us about when she would go to Barnes and Nobel back home when she was young and hang out to read and enjoy the cafe in the store. Liv also enjoys a good party boardgame like Poetry For Neanderthals and Telestrations too!
After the signing we gave Liv a little tour of the warehouse then got her to work on a fulfilling station to pack a customer order for one of her books, she was super excited for this! We then got her to answer some of our quickfire questions to get to know what books she's loving at the moment!
Quickfire Questions with Liv Sisson
- Paperback or hardback? Flexicover
- Who is your favourite author? Catherine Chidgey
- Favourite genre? Fiction
- Do you have a favourite childhood book? Rainbow Fish
- What's a book you always recommend? Greta & Valdin
- What's your favourite book-to-screen adaptation? All the Light We Cannot See
- What are you reading at the moment? Kiss of the Basilisk
- What are you currently watching? East of Eden
- Give us an elevator pitch for your book: So this book is about around 2,000 species of butterflies and moths that live in Aotearoa. 90% of them cannot be found anywhere else on Earth. Some are very colourful, some are super camouflaged, but all of them begin life as a caterpillar and then completely dissolve their bodies and emerge as a totally new animal but with the same exact DNA. So they have these fascinating lives and this book is their story all about them.
- What's next on your reading list? The Starving Bride by Catherine Chidgey
- What do you hope that readers take away from your book? I hope that readers walk away from this book with an appreciation of all the cool insects that are in Aotearoa. So many of them can be found nowhere else on Earth and they are just absolutely exquisite.
Can we just take a moment to admire how beautiful and amazing Liv's nails were on her visit!
They are themed to tie in with her book Butterflies and Moths of Aotearoa with each nail tied into the patterns found on their wings.
If you look closely you can see what is called the "eye" on the nail, she explained that these can be found on certain moths which I think from memory are what protect them from predators.
To say thanks for taking the time to visit us and sign all her books, we gifted Liv with the newest book from Catherine Chidgey, The Starving Bride, which both myself and Lizzy highly recommend. I also couldn't help but gift Liv with Ordinary People Like Us by Kelly Ana Morey which I keep recommending to everyone, I can't wait to hear her thoughts on this one!
A huge thank you to Liv Sisson for visiting the Book Hero team! Signed copies for Butterflies and Moths of Aotearoa are available now so order your copy while stocks last!