They loaded the whiskey, clothing, food, boat gear and fuel into their runabout, and then they actually shook our hands and politely thanked us,” Shaw tells the Guardian. Before long, they were engaged, the church booked, the invitations printed, the dress fitted, and their rings made from gold Ruth’s father had mined in Central Otago. A severe blood condition saw him baptised and buried on the same day, a plain wooden cross marking his grave, his death certificate all Shaw was left with. Ruth had kept hers too, in a small box she carried everywhere, as her life lurched across the world. The idea of apocalypse as entertainment was taken to its absurd limits by Douglas Adam, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in his creation of the restaurant at the end of the universe. There, time traveling patrons could watch the cosmic denouement while enjoying a good meal.

Upon recovery Shaw landed in northern NSW and found herself in her third ill-fated marriage, living on a semi-rural property nurturing her newly found hobby of pig rearing. After it ended she took to the seas again: this time on her own nine-metre yacht Magic. She ended up in Tasmania, standing alongside Bob Brown in the early 1980s in a bid to stop the construction of the Franklin Dam; and then in Sydney, hired as a welfare officer to sex workers by Sydney City Mission, working the beat of Kings Cross in the era of Abe Saffron, Roger Rogerson and Neddy Smith.Shaw recalls those days as some of her darkest. A suicide attempt and a stint in a psychiatric hospital followed. Rogerson was a very charming man,” she recalls. “But he used that charm to get what he wanted out of people. The bottom line – he was a psychopath.” ‘My life was totally insane’ The ancient Mayan astronomers could have had no understanding of how, at the end of what we know as the year 2012, their projected calendar would be the subject of intense, international interest. Yet translations of their calculations, made by scholars over the last century, have resulted in a rumour that has been heard by millions. The world will end four days before Christmas. Or, at least, the world as we now know it will end. Perhaps, some say, it will be the dawn of a new enlightened age. The fascination with the end time runs through history. Ever since humans began speculating about their origins they have probably been wondering about the ultimate destiny of the world. Even before the time of the early Christians, who expected a spectacular Judgement Day at any moment, the ancient Romans had their own end-time scares.Over the last 2000 years prophets have come, and gone, with regularity. Around 1000 AD and also prior to the recent millennium switch, anticipation has beenheightened. The first of January2000 had its own distinctive variation on the theme when many feared that the world’s computer systems would crash simultaneously. The Big Sleep , by Raymond Chandler (1939). Detective Philip Marlowe, hero of this genre-defining masterpiece, knows how to face an uncertain future: “I sat there and poisoned myself with cigarette smoke and listened to the rain and thought about it.”

But the starched uniformity of Navy life was an ill-fit for Shaw, who had always walked her own course. As her grandmother told her: “Ruthie, I know you try to be good, but you just aren’t.” Shaw's writing is pragmatic and restrained; her voice is so strong and assured that when grief appears you gasp at its intrusion and your heart stops a second.' Alexa Dretzke, Readings Hawthorn However, after the Millennial, no more babies will be born, and nobody will die. After the Millennial Kingdom ends, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment, in which all unbelievers will be thrown into the lake of fire for eternity ( Revelation 20:11-15). Underlining all her wanderings and adventures are some very deep losses and long-held pain. Balancing that out is her beautiful love story with Lance, and her delightful sense of humour. In 2019, Ruth decided she had to add another bookshop – one just for children, where they could stretch out while they read, and borrow books if they liked.To be sure, there was grudging praise for Kleeman’s rich description and passionate engagement with our gloomy environmental dilemmas, but we found her characters thin and the plot thinner. One unexpected highlight: late in the book, a villain declares her dastardly plan to escape to “seventy-five acres of pristine farmland an hour outside Wellington.” Maybe she dreams of joining Evening Book Club, too. Utterly charming and filled with equal measures of heartbreak and humour, Ruth Shaw's memoir will have you booking the first flight to New Zealand to share a cup of tea at her Wee Bookshops. Shaw has been a cook, a nurse, sailor and world traveller, and endured Lance had kept the ring he was meant to wear at their wedding, till it was ripped off by a mooring line while he was working on a coastal trader in Bougainville. So what's the explanation for this massive end-time interest? If the world had a beginning, then logically it also has to end. It could be in millions of years to come, it could be very soon. Death is inevitable and dying is usually a solo performance. Thinking about doomsday, however, turns death into a community event.

Snuggled among the books on the shelves are soft toys that children can take home for the night, their names chosen by the first child who borrowed them.Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, Books About Books, Contemporary, Memoir, Nonfiction Wat is dit een bijzonder, avontuurlijk, liefdevol en verdrietig levensverhaal! Het is net alsof Ruth Shaw al zeker 7 levens heeft geleefd, zoveel heeft ze meegemaakt, en in dit boek vertelt ze over al haar hoogte- en dieptepunten, dingen die ze heeft bereikt en grote verliezen die ze heeft geleden, over liefdes, vluchtpogingen en thuiskomen. Het is een indrukwekkend relaas en ik geloof dat Ruth iemand is naar wie je uren ademloos kunt luisteren, maar ik denk dat de wijze waarop dit boek is geschreven haar verhaal niet volledig recht doet. And then, two years ago, she opened another – this time inspired by what she saw as a male reluctance to read. As she writes in her book: Ruth Shaw at home in Manapōuri. Behind her is a photo of Breaksea Girl, the boat she and Lance ran environmental tours from for 16 years. Great Circle , by Maggie Shipstead (2021). Sweeping Booker-shortlisted adventure with another surprise NZ connection.

When I looked at the sci-fi collection on my bookshelves before compiling this list, I was surprised by how many of Niven’s books I had. I’d also forgotten what classics s such as Ringworld and The Mote in God’s Eye were. Niven is a master of hard sci-fi and together with Pournelle (another US genius), he wrote this apocalyptic thriller in 1977. A giant comet hits the Earth, creating collossal earthquakes, giant tsunamis and ultimately the beginning of a new ice age. A handful of humans struggle to survive. On a day when rain had turned the Brisbane cemetery to a swamp, she knelt and pulled his cross with its small brass plaque, from the ground, clutching it close as she walked away.Ruth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about favorite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life. She sought immediate refuge on Stewart Island, where her parents were running the pub, and began work as a cook. Shaw describes a customer she had earlier in the day. The man had grudgingly appeared in the Wee Bookshop with his wife more than two years ago, and she sent him away with a copy of John Hall-Jones’ Goldfields of Otago: An Illustrated History.