2007 New Releases

Victoria University Press

2009-10-12T22:08:00Z

Recent titles from Victoria University Press include…

September New Releases

2008-09-15T02:00:00Z

The Accidental Organiser
Wendy Davie
Self Help, Business
ISBN 978 1 87746 019 7
Longacre Press
RRP $24.99

In every life there is a room, a drawer, a schedule or a handbag that strikes fear in the heart of its owner. It is full of ‘clutter’.
    Imagine if it wasn’t so.
    Organising Guru Wendy Davie offers incentives and practical strategies for entering the murkier recesses of our homes and workplaces, dealing with them bit by manageable bit – and having fun in the process.
    Written with warmth and humour, Wendy’s simple action plans make the ‘impossible’ possible. She shows how to live a decluttered, streamlined and more enjoyable life. In a few easy steps you’ll be organised – as if by accident!

**

A Distant Feast: A History of New Zealand’s Cuisine
Tony Simpson
History
Random House
RRP $49.99

Stuffed bullock’s heart, anyone? You’ll find all kinds of tasty or just plain gruesome recipes liberally scattered throughout this fascinating history of food, a first of its kind for New Zealand when it was published in 1995, and now updated and fully illustrated.
    Perhaps it’s only in the last few years that we Kiwis have discovered lemongrass and garam masala, but in A Distant Feast, Tony Simpson shows how what we eat travels back centuries. We learn what the Romans ate, what dishes were brought back from Persia during the Crusades, and how the humble spud conquered Europe. You’ll even find some recipes from Jane Austen’s kitchen. Simpson then tells how these food traditions were brought to New Zealand by immigrants in the nineteenth century.
    In a nation where the Edmonds Cookbook is the number one selling book of all time, this foodie history should be a favourite with readers. Wonderful illustrations and photographs accompany this social history, showing not only what we ate, but how we lived. An essential gift for any cook worth their salt.

**

The Artful Gardener
Rose Thodey and Gil Hanly
Gardening
ISBN 1869621212
Random House
RRP $59.99

Rose Thodey and Gil Hanly are legends in gardening and gardening media circles, and their Landscapes: Gardens By New Zealand’s Top Designers published by Godwit in 2005, has now gone into a third reprint. This handsome sourcebook is aimed at creative home gardeners looking for inspiration to develop or redevelop their properties, whether those properties be courtyard gardens or extensive acreages. With chapters on walls, entrances, water, support, plants, paving, seating, sculpture, pots, illusions, outdoor living and more, and with over 300 photographs, this book is a treasure trove of garden design excellence and creativity, both here, Australia and further abroad.

**

All That Glitters
Denise L'Estrange Corbet
Autobiography / Memoir
ISBN 1869790421
Random House
RRP $36.99

Denise L’Estrange Corbet is one half of the dynamic husband and wife team that makes up WORLD, one of NZ’s leading fashion businesses. This is Denise’s honest and frank account of her turbulent life – from her difficult childhood through to her successful business life today.
    She covers the emotional landscape of her childhood, her malevolent grandmother, her dysfunctional family and most of all the development of her depression. This is a really honest, raw story that shows how mental illness can develop through childhood. Her insights into the causes and effects of depression are enthralling; it’s a compelling story of mental illness, written with a great deal of humour. At times, it's like a darkly fascinating version of Bill Bryson: funny anecdotes about childhood with the menacing tinge of depression

**

A Photographic Guide to Mammals of New Zealand
Carolyn M. King, photographs by Rod Morris
Natural History
ISBN 978 1 86966 202 8
New Holland
RRP $24.99

This new addition to a popular series delves into a fascinating field of New Zealand’s natural history. In prehistory, only a few bats, marine mammals and odd quadrupeds constituted our local land-breeding mammals; but today these have been joined by a throng of colonisers. These include several carnivores, rodents, and hoofed mammals from Europe and North America, as well as a few marsupials from Australia. Many are unwelcome: some have decimated native bird and reptile populations, while others attack the bush; but all are now here to stay and are worthy of study for their interesting habits and ecological impact. In addition to these land mammals are more than two dozen native species of marine mammal, including seals, dolphins and whales.         This account from one of New Zealand’s premier mammalogists fills a gap in the market.

**

A Photographic Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Zealand
Tony Jewell, photographs by Rod Morris
Natural History
ISBN 978 1 86966 203 5
New Holland
RRP $24.99

Everyone has heard of the tuatara, New Zealand’s unique ‘living dinosaur’; but equally fascinating, if less well known, are the country’s other reptiles. There are more than 65 species of lizards (including skinks and geckos), frogs and other reptiles and amphibians native to New Zealand, and scientists such as author Tony Jewell are still discovering new species and subspecies today. In this new addition to a popular New Holland series, Tony covers all the known species from Northland to the far south; his text is backed up by outstanding photographs of their many geographic colour variants, so that readers will be equipped to identify almost any specimen encountered in the wild. A groundbreaking handbook and a superb aid for natural history enthusiasts, trampers and educationalists.

**

The Awa Book of New Zealand Science
Edited by Rebecca Priestley
Science
ISBN 978 0 9582629 9 6
Awa Press
RRP $48

Since Polynesian voyagers miraculously navigated the Pacific Ocean to find and inhabit a small group of islands at 42 degrees south, scientists of Aotearoa/New Zealand have had an extraordinary record of discovery. This landmark collection of writings ranges from early naturalists’ observations of birds and plants to thrilling eyewitness accounts of experiments that revealed the structure of DNA and the nature of matter itself. This is science at its most exciting – a book to amaze and delight readers of all ages.

**

The Best New Zealand Fiction: Volume 5
Edited by Owen Marshall
Fiction
ISBN 1869419790
Random House / Vintage
RRP $34.99

Widely admired and regularly cited as our best living writer of short stories, Owen Marshall turns the focus on his contemporaries. He has searched the country for the finest selection of stories being written today by a variety of local writers. Their current preoccupations range from a dog with no head, to reproducing reproductions, to amateur drug-dealing, to a little liar talking big; their lively characters experience the clumsy conflicts of adolescence right up to a defiant old age. As our writers travel overseas, so their intriguing stories take us from our own backyards to as far afield as China, Morocco, Berlin and the UK.

Contributors: Norman Bilbrough, Ellie Catton, Paul Chapman, Craig Cliff, Charlotte Grimshaw, Lizzie Harwood, David Hill, Christine Johnston, Fiona Kidman, Shonagh Koea, Sarah Laing, Graeme Lay, Frankie McMillan, Carl Nixon, Julian Novitz, Vincent O'Sullivan, Faith Oxenbridge, Sarah Quigley, Alice Tawhai, Peter Wells

**

The Cultivation of New Zealand Native Grasses
Lawrie Metcalf
Gardening
ISBN 1869621484
Random House
RRP $34

When renowned garden writer and horticultural expert Lawrie Metcalf first published The Cultivation of New Zealand Native Grasses in the 1990s it was ahead of its time and sparked a landscaping revolution. Suddenly, all around New Zealand, council landscapers and landscape architects were discovering the joys of our wide range of tussocks and grasses, and mass plantings soon sprang up. Our enthusiasm for these versatile and quintessential Kiwi plants has not diminished, although Metcalfe is pleased to see that the even greater interest in them in the last couple of years has been accompanied by a slightly more intelligent use. His book has been out of print for some time and this Godwit reissue, with revised text, new photos and a repackage as a sister publication to his revised edition of The Propagation of New Zealand Native Plants (published in 2007) puts this invaluable sourcebook back among the gardener community.

**

The Devils are Here
Cam Stokes
ISBN 978-1-877340-19-2
Cape Catley Ltd
RRP $29.99

Ex-cop Cam Stokes knows gangs. His explosive novel takes you inside an outlaw motorcycle gang, the Devils M.C.

Gang prospect Rotten craves respect and power. He wants his patch so badly he'll do anything to get it. Before he's accepted, though, Rotten must prove himself to the gang.

But Rotten's got problems. The cops are on his tail. He's struggling to control his violent temper, and his growing reliance on P is threatening to ruin everything.

And all this is happening, here, now.

Cam Stokes was a cop for 18 years and worked on the Auckland Drug Squad and the Organised Crime Unit. He was the detective sergeant in charge of the Auckland Motorcycle Gang Unit when he left the police force in 2004.

Now Cam Stokes is an expert on illegal drugs. His company, DRUGSCENE, delivers training on the dangers of methamphetamine and other drugs. Click to visit Drugscene.

Cam was born and bred in West Auckland and is proud to be a "Westie".

**

Dunedin’s Top Spots
Photography by David Wall, text by Philippa Jamieson
Travel Pictorial
ISBN 978 1 86966 207 3
New Holland
RRP $12.99

Dunedin is not only one of the southern hemisphere’s best-preserved Victorian cities, it is also blessed with one of the most handsome settings of any in New Zealand, nestling in the hills and bordered by the unspoilt bays and swooping cliffs of the Otago Peninsula. In Dunedin’s Top Spots local photographer David Wall shows off the top 50-plus locations that should be on any visitor’s list.
    ‘Top Spots’ titles are a great source of inspiration for family outings and make the perfect gift for visitors from farther afield.

**

First Catch Your Weka: A Story of New Zealand Cooking
David Veart
History / Social history / Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86940 410 9
AUP
RRP $50

‘First catch your Weka,’ the explorer Charles Heaphy advised in 1842, then stuff it with sage and onion and roast it on a stick. In that simple way began a great tradition of New Zealand recipes that takes us from Heaphy, to the Edmonds Cookery Book, to Alison Holst and Hudson and Halls, and on to the meal on your plate today.
    In First Catch Your Weka, Dave Veart tells the story of what New Zealanders cooked through the recipes we used. Analysing the crusty deposits and grubby thumb prints on a century and a half of cook books, he chronicles the extraordinary foods that we have loved: boiled calf’s head, Bill Rowling cake, Irish famine soup, tinned kidneys with mushrooms . . . First Catch Your Weka illuminates the elements that make New Zealand cooking distinctive (our love affair with sweet baked goods, our enthusiasm for home-made jams and chutneys, the perpetual lump of protein on the plate) and how our cuisine and culture have changed (the development of a nationalist cuisine of kumara, whitebait, and mussels in the 1920s, the arrival of Asian influences in the 1950s, the television cooks of the 1970s).
    Throughout this history, Veart finds a people who, as Heaphy suggested, frequently first liked to Catch Their Weka – building a meal out of oysters taken from the rocks, vegetables from the garden, and a lamb from the neighbouring farm. By telling the history of what we ate, First Catch Your Weka tells us a great deal about who we have been.

**

Fish of the Week: Selected Columns
Steve Braunias
Essays/New Zealand
ISBN 978 0 9582750 6 4
Awa Press
RRP $30

Steve Braunias, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated journalists, has quite a few friends, legions of admirers, and many detractors. For a decade his satirical and closely observed writings, most recently in The Sunday Star-Times, have driven readers to drink, God, lawyers, and sometimes to the shops to shower him with gifts. In this lascivious selection of his columns in Sunday magazine since 2005, he addresses the state of New Zealand steak, the beauty of mangroves, the lunacy of film festivals, the attractions of small towns (‘There is no statistic that says a village can accommodate only one village idiot’), the life and times of rest-home resident ‘poor old Mr Wilson’, the charms of Cambridge University, the strange habits of the English, and more—as well as his own intimate, seesawing, surprisingly vulnerable life as a writer and lovestruck father.

**

Going Bush: New Zealanders and Nature in the Twentieth Century
Kirstie Ross
Cultural History
ISBN 978 1 869 404246
Auckland University Press
RRP $35

What does the bush mean to Pakeha New Zealanders? Is it a particular type of vegetation, a place to tramp, something to save or a refuge from civilisation? Going Bush is an energetic exploration of these ideas – a cultural reconnaissance of the great outdoors. It blazes a trail through nature, past school gardeners and prize-winning carrots; trampers, blinkin’ tourists and deer cullers; memorial plantings and national parks; caravanners and Young Farmers Club members; litterbugs and vandals. By exploring the meanings that Pakeha found in nature from the 1890s to the 1970s, author Kirstie Ross shows that our ideas of the bush contained as much conservatism as conservation. Going Bush presents a fascinating account of New Zealand culture and society in the twentieth century that is powerfully relevant to debates over our relationship with the natural world today.

**

The Guide: How to Kiss, Get a Job and Other Stuff You Need to Know
Mike Loder and Terry Williams
Humour
ISBN 9781869711290
Hodder Moa
RRP $24.99

The Guide provides young readers with the confidence to take a big step into adulthood and towards their dreams. You will be armed with enough knowledge to avoid the top 100 future-wrecking errors that can be made, big and small.
    Packed full of information on wide-ranging topics, it tackles big issues such as getting a driver's license, job seeking, avoiding cons, OE travel and how to find a flat – to the smaller but just as important ones such as how to change a tyre, barbecue, breathe. Whether you are starting out in life, have lost your way, or are just clueless, The
    Guide will give you the self-confidence to take a huge stride into the great big world and give you with push you need toward achieving your goals.

**

The Healthy Skin Diet: Your Complete Guide to Beautiful Skin in Only 8 Weeks
Karen Fischer
Health and Beauty
ISBN 978 1 877437 17 5
Exisle Publishing
RRP $36.95

The skin you have today will be totally renewed within two months. In fact, the body you have today, all your cells and tissues, will be totally new within a year. This is because your body turns over 6 billion cells each day and new ones are made to replace them.
    The pimple you have right now is not the one you had a month ago and it’s certainly not the same blemish you had last year. So, whatever your skin condition may be, whether it is quite okay or out of control, you can improve your skin quality and have fantastic looking skin within only eight weeks … and The Healthy Skin Diet will show you how.

**

Homemade: Stories and recipes from New Zealand stove tops
Compiled by Kim Knight
Cookery
ISBN 978 1 86966 221 9
New Holland
RRP $39.99

It seems that most households have at least one favourite recipe or dish, memorable often not for its culinary sophistication, but for the rich associations between the food and the lives of those who prepared it. The pavlova that Mum sat on. The roast lamb named after the dog that ate it while it cooled on the kitchen bench. The boiled condensed milk mayonnaise the widower cooked faithfully to his late wife’s hand-printed instructions. Indeed, we New Zealanders care about food, not just to nourish us, but to remind us of our history; of our place in a particular time.
    When the Sunday Star-Times asked New Zealanders to hunt out their old recipe books and share their family food memories, it opened a floodgate. Almost 100 readers took the time to respond, and what wonderful stories they had to share. It soon became clear that the Home Made series deserved to be captured in book form. This was further confirmed by the series winning a Qantas Media Award this year.
    This beautifully packaged collection of New Zealanders’ family recipes and the stories behind them – many of which have been passed down through multiple generations – will simultaneously warm your heart and satisfy your taste buds.

**

How to Look at a Painting [Hardback edition]
Justin Paton
Art
ISBN 978 0 9582916 0 6
Awa Press
RRP $35

Acclaimed art writer Justin Paton takes us on a journey of exploration through the centuries and across the painted world – from the luscious fruit of Italy’s Caravaggio to the mysterious ‘tombstones’ of Japanese artist On Kawara, from the dazzling panoramas of America’s Lari Pittman to the stark religious landscapes of New Zealand’s Colin McCahon.
    Whether you’re a keen art collector, a serious student or just visit a gallery occasionally, this brilliant exposition of painting in all its forms will open your eyes to things you’ve never seen before. Selected as the best art book of the year by many newspapers and magazines, it was awarded the 2006 Montana Book Award for Contemporary Culture.

**

Ken Ring’s Predict Weather For New Zealand 2009
Ken Ring
ISBN 1869419529
RH NZ
Price $44

    Ken Ring's Predict Weather Almanacs are the books thousands of New Zealanders reach for – whether they are townies planning an outdoor wedding or farmers deciding when to make hay. His controversial method of predicting weather by the cycles of the moon has an amazingly high strike rate for reliability and countless farmers and events organisers have come to rely on his predictions.
    The 2009 almanac rings some changes to the tried and true format of the previous guides that make this almanac even more useful. For example, best fishing times, snow, extreme weather, frost, and surf information is now included into each day's weather page rather than being located at the rear of the book, making the book an even more indispensable way to see all sorts of weather conditions at a glance.

**

Light the Flame: A Leadership Journey
Christine Rankin
Memoir / Self-help
ISBN 1869419472
Random House
Price $34

Since she left WINZ after a spectacular Employment Court case Christine Rankin has carved out a powerful new role as a motivational speaker, career change specialist and child-abuse prevention advocate. This inspiring book distills her views on leadership, activism and effectiveness, twinning the lessons she has learned and the truths she has encountered over her years in the public spotlight with the story of her own difficult upbringing and early adult life.
    Warm and inspiring this well focussed book is an essential tool for anyone involved in leading teams of people. It's also the story of one of New Zealands’ most well-known women.

**

Native Wit
Hamish Keith
Cultural commentary / Memoir
ISBN 1869418433
RHNZ
RRP $4.99

Legendary art commentator Hamish Keith returned to much-deserved national attention last year when his television series and accompanying (Godwit) book The Big Picture seized the imagination of New Zealanders.
    The high-rating show and bestselling book rekindled fresh enthusiasm for the complex and fascinating story of our art heritage and cemented Keith's stature as one of our most engaging, confronting and witty cultural commentators.
    Native Wit, Keith's witty, revealing memoir, gives readers an insight into his well-lived, rich and immensely varied life. Whether as a confrere of Colin McCahon, the chairman of the Arts Council, husband of Oscar-winning film costume designer Ngila Dickson, bon vivant and accomplished chef or arch enemy of doddering bureaucrats, Keith has a dynamic personality and a trenchant analysis that makes him a pleasure to read.

**

New Zealand Through Time: An llustrated journey through 83 million years of natural history
Ronald Cometti
Family Reference
ISBN 978 1 86966 163 2
New Holland
RRP $29.99

New Zealand’s isolation began over 80 million years ago when, powered by mighty geological forces, the land mass rifted away from ancient Gondwana and drifted into the Pacific with its precious cargo of wildlife. The natural history of the shaky isles and their surrounding seas, the dramatic geology and unique plants and animals, is the subject of New Zealand through Time. From those dramatic origins right up to recent extinctions of native birds and the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, artist Ronald Cometti portrays the past in 16 chapters, each containing an essay, a full-page feature painting and a number of smaller illustrations, which together create a magnificent gallery that will be of interest to anyone from young teen to adult who is curious to learn about the past.

**

Ngaio Marsh: Her Life In Crime
Joanne Drayton
Biography
ISBN 978 1 86950 635 3
HarperCollins
RRP $59.99

Dame of the British Empire?
Or the dame who wrote detective novels?
Who was the real Ngaio Marsh?

Ngaio Marsh's life was the ultimate detective story. Internationally renowned for her detective tales, she wrote thirty-two novels during the course of her long writing career. She was dubbed one of the Queens of Crime who dominated the 1930s and 1940s. She counted amongst her contemporaries the super-stars of the crime genre, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy Sayers, but Ngaio Marsh was considered to reign “supreme for excellence of style and characterisation”.
    Ngaio Marsh also established a significant reputation as a director of Shakespearean theatre and as a painter. She directed some of New Zealand's greatest plays during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and three decades earlier was a founding member of The Group, a progressive exhibiting arts body based in Christchurch.
    Yet Marsh has remained an elusive character, until now. Joanne Drayton, author of this forthright new biography, Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime, says that as a writer of crime novels, Marsh knew how to keep her private life from the public arena. “Ngaio dropped red herrings about her private life,” says Drayton. “In many ways, it was very hard to piece together how she lived her private life and who the special people in her life really were. For me, one of the highlights in writing this biography was coming to know the private side of Ngaio Marsh.”

**

Northland’s Top Spots
Photography by Bob McCree, text by Sue Hall
Travel Pictorial
ISBN 978 1 86966 199 1
New Holland
RRP $12.99

This latest addition to New Holland’s ‘Top Spots’ range takes the reader on a tour through more than 50 of the beauty spots and cultural must-sees of New Zealand’s historic and photogenic north.
    ‘Top Spots’ titles are a great source of inspiration for family outings and make the perfect gift for visitors from farther afield.

**

100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens
Fiona Eadie
Gardening
ISBN 1869621506
Random House / Godwit
Price $44.99

This title has been a stand out amongst Godwit's highly regarded gardening titles since its first publication in 2001. Over 25 per cent of the plants have been changed, bringing it in line with the author's evolving views of the growing habits and climate tolerance of our native species.
In addition, this edition has been given an entirely new look, matching the 2007 Godwit titles Foliage for the Contemporary New Zealand Garden and Bromeliads: the Conoisseur's Guide in its handsome chunky flexibind format.

**

100 Years of Maori Rugby League: 1908–2008
John Coffey and Bernie Wood
Non-fiction / Sport
ISBN 978 1 86969 331 2
Huia Publishers
RRP $60.00

100 Years: Maori Rugby League 1908–2008 tells the story of the New Zealand Maori Rugby League Team from its origins in 1908 to the present day. The book covers major matches, along with biographies of prominent players and administrators. A rich collection of stories and interviews with former players tells the reader what really happened off and on the field. The book has been thoroughly researched with information coming from England, France, and Australia and throughout New Zealand, and it is illustrated with over 200 images.

**

Owen Marshall Selected Stories
Owen Marshall
Fiction
ISBN 1869419588
Random House / Vintage
Price $39.99

Peter Simpson in reviewing Owen Marshall’s stories in the New Zealand Listener wrote: ‘Marshall is held in uncommon affection by New Zealand readers – generally we admire and respect rather than love our writers.’ This love is perhaps evoked not just by the superb quality of Marshall's writing but because his stories so precisely capture his fellow New Zealanders and their country.
    From the provinces to the cities, the remote landscapes to journeying overseas, Marshall's stories show a deep understanding of who and where we are. Sometimes he skewers us with sharp and sly comedy, in other stories there's an elegiac sadness or a grim reality, but always an insightful exploration of human emotions.

**

Over the Wide and Trackless Sea: The pioneer women and girls of New Zealand
Megan Hutching
History
Harpercollins Publishers
RRP $39.99

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European settlers travelled to New Zealand from distant shores over treacherous seas to build new lives here.
    In early histories of Pakeha settlement many of the women were unknown; they stayed silent and few were known by name. Through extensive research, acclaimed historian Megan Hutching brings to life the lives of eleven pioneer women and girls of New Zealand.
    Some women featured in Over the Wide and Trackless Sea did record their time here. Eliza White’s journals give a rich and detailed description of her life, and she describes her four-month journey to New Zealand by whaling ship as over the ‘wide and trackless sea’. Lady Barker wrote two well-loved books about her time here, Amey Daldy lead the way for women's suffrage and Kirstine Nielsen created the concept of the health stamp and helped found the Country Women's Institute.

**

Peter Peryer – Photographer
Photography / Art / Biography
ISBN 978 1 86940 417 8
Auckland University Press
RRP $59.99

Peter Peryer is one of our leading contemporary photographers and is widely collected. As Peter Simpson puts it, ‘Peryer has over the past three decades and more constructed a world – call it Peryerland – which has its own distinctive typography, climate and features. Only the best photographers are capable of such a feat’. And as the 80 plates in this book show, Peryer is incredibly innovative, constantly refining his photographic practice, notably with his embrace of digital photography from 1998 and his increasing interest in colour.
    Peter Peryer: Photographer is the largest body of Peryer’s work ever assembled. All the images have been personally selected by Peryer himself and are largely drawn from his enormously productive period over the last decade. A wide-ranging introduction to Peryer’s work by Peter Simpson and an autobiographical essay by Peryer are also included. Rich in lovingly examined bits and pieces, and prompting a viewer always to think harder about their significance, Peter Peryer: Photographer is a quirky and intimate guide to Peryerland.

**

Roam: Inspiration and invaluable information for the adventurous traveller
Dean Starnes
Travel
ISBN 978 1 86950 711 4
HarperCollins
RRP $39.99

New Zealander Dean Starnes knows a thing or two about travelling. With incurably itchy feet, Dean has been travelling for 15 years and, after 75 countries, five continents with three backpacks, he's still going strong. A survivor of three bus crashes, one shipwreck and malaria, he's surprisingly resilient, and surprising still passionate about travel. It was Dean's fanatical passion for travelling that inspired him to write Roam.
    Roam is not a guidebook it's a way of life, largely based on Dean's first-hand experiences, with an aim to encourage readers to not only see but participate with foreign cultures –join in the festivals, try the local food and play the local sports.
    Packed with humour, hilarity and wit, Roam will have you laughing out loud. Dean covers topics from wildlife to romance, from tourist traps to religion, with invaluable tips, such as how to stay healthy on the road, how to deal with beggars and how to pick a street food stall.   Dean's useful battle-tested tips will help travellers to be savvy and stay safe. Dean has tested these – so you don't have to! And from these experiences he delivers his counsel candidly.

**

Streetwise Parenting
Glenn Compain
Parenting
ISBN 978 1 86950 686 5
HarperCollins
RRP $29.99

Glenn has spent ten years as a police officer, and during this time he has seen first-hand the devastation that drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence cause; and in recent years, the alarming escalation of street gangs, random acts of violence, and boy-racer fatalities – all of which are currently in the New Zealand headlines almost every day.
    Parents today need to be streetwise and be able to identify the danger signs for their children, which is why Streetwise Parenting seeks to inform and advise parents what is going on in the streets and communities, followed up with practical steps to take to make their families safe and strong.
    Glenn has gained valuable insights into the ‘disconnection’ many youths are experiencing and the subsequent ‘fall-out’ which is affecting whole communities, and he offers solutions and practical advice on how to deal with this.

**

Terror in Our Midst? Searching for Terror in Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by Danny Keenan
Non-fiction / Politics
ISBN 978 1 86969 329 9
Huia Publishers
RRP $45

On 15 of October, 2007, three hundred police officers dressed in full riot gear, including balaclavas and sunglasses, raided the township of Ruatoki which lies at the northern end of the Ureweras. At the same time as Ruatoki was being locked down, police raids were taking place in other parts of the country. By the end of the day, 17 people were reported as arrested; four from Wellington, six in Auckland, one in Palmerston North, one in Hamilton and five in the Bay of Plenty area. The ‘global war on terror’, launched in the US five years earlier, had finally arrived in New Zealand.
    The book is unique as it features Maori perspectives on so-called terrorism in New Zealand. Contributors link similar police raids into this area carried out in the 1870’s with these latest outrages.

**

Undiscovered Auckland: 70 great spots waiting to be explored
Diana Balham
Outdoors
ISBN 978 1 86966 200 4
New Holland
RRP $24.99

When you begin looking, Auckland contains a surpassing number of hidden places where local folk walk, relax and exercise their dogs. Here is a guide to some of them. This book is not intended to be the last word on every charming picnic spot or interesting bush track in Auckland. Rather, it is a collection of ideas for fun, recreation and relaxation at some of the less well-known places to visit in and around this beautiful city – including both suggestions for day trips and the hidden suburban reserves that you can pop in and out of if you have a spare half hour. The emphasis is very much on free (or cheap) good times. Each and every one of these hidden gems has something special or significant that sets it apart from the rest, and, most importantly, all the locations are easily accessible to anyone with a car. Written in Diana Balham’s trademark vivacious and quirky style, it is as entertaining as it is practical.

**

Upside Down and Backwards: A Search for New Zealand’s Antipodes
Mark Price
Non- fiction
ISBN 978 1 877460 12
Longacre Press
RRP $30

What can a modestly capable man of adventure do when every mountain has been climbed, every river navigated to its source, and every Guinness record stretched to impossibility? He can spin a globe of the world between his fingers and discover that his small country has its own antipodes – yet unknown and unexplored! He can take 360-degree photos of ‘Perfect Places’ in New Zealand, dub himself ‘El Lider’ and his partner ‘La Campaña’, and set off to find the exact opposite points in Spain and Portugal.
    In New Zealand, the expedition is somewhat downbeat. Members are not always cognizant of being on an expedition – if they knew in the first place – as they sample budget margarine in a Canterbury camping ground, traipse from cellar to cellar in Marlborough vineyards, or take to an Auckland mall in bikini top and shorts, searching for a soft drink that can be bought with a credit card. Across the world, with the aid of a rented Ford Focus, a GPS system, six white shirts and the intrepidly frugal La Campaña, El Lider’s expedition forges paths where no New Zealander has gone before: through gorse and pines, skirting quarries and ponds, nimbly evading horses, pigs, nude farmers’ wives and the much-feared El Toro, into the heart of noparticular- where in Spain, to photograph his ‘Perfect Place’ antipodes. Wryly, drily and with an economy that would do La Campaña proud, author Mark Price tells the bare truth which is funnier than any fiction.
A sort of ‘Flight of the Conchords’ for mid-lifers, this is Kiwi deadpan drollery at its finest!

**

Urban Village: The Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay
Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow
History
ISBN 1869418379
Random House
RRP $70.00

Ponsonby is one of New Zealand's most famous suburbs, the place where social and political change has fermented and fomented since its origins over 160 years ago. From Michael Joseph Savage to Che Fu, from the Hero Parade to the Polynesian Panthers, the fashion industry to cafe society, Ponsonby has led the way. This lively, authoritative history brings the colourful pageant of Ponsonby’s past to light, and includes a wide range of images of the neighbourhood, then and now.

**

Worth a Detour: New Zealand’s Unusual Attractions and Hidden Places
Peter Janssen
Travel
ISBN 978 1 86971 134 4
Hodder Moa
RRP $29.99

New Zealand is a land of quirky collectors, colourful characters and unusual ‘backyard’ projects. It is also more commonly known to have some of the most beautiful ‘off-the-beaten-track’ scenery in the world. This book lets the reader in on all those unusual things to do and places to see that do not appear in the regular tourist or travel guides. Ever region in New Zealand is thoroughly covered and Worth a Detour gives in-depth details for each attraction.
    Avoid the tour buses, the crowds, the tacky souvenirs, just pop a copy of this guide into your glove box, pack a suitcase and come see the real New Zealand.

**

You Sexy Mother - A life-changing approach to motherhood
Jodie Hedley-Ward
Parenting
ISBN 978 1 921497 01 8
Exisle Publishing
RRP $29.99

Somewhere, somehow, in a storm of feminism and corporate ladder-climbing, motherhood became devalued. As a society, and as women, we are so often critical of other mums and of ourselves.
We try to do it all and be super-women, rejecting offers of help and support and then wondering why we feel tired, guilty, stressed, and even depressed.
    Motherhood, argues Jodie Hedley-Ward, author of new book You Sexy Mother, should be reinvented in our modern society. No longer are women required to be martyrs; no longer is the woman’s place in the home; and never before have so many options been open to us.
Whether you take six weeks or six years off to raise your children, Jodie believes that you can make the most of your new-found ‘free time’ to embrace new and exciting life changes – and she argues that this is the best possible way to be a positive and inspirational role model to your own family.

August New Releases

2008-07-30T05:06:00Z

20 Years of Garrick Tremain
Garrick Tremain
Humour
ISBN 978 1 86966 229 5
New Holland
$29.99

In this ‘best of’ collection from one of New Zealand’s leading political cartoonists, Garrick Tremain offers an hilarious perspective on some of the most notable – and most ridiculous – moments in New Zealand politics and popular culture from the last two decades. From the wine box enquiry to Tana Umaga’s infamous handbag incident, and featuring a cast of memorable characters from Muldoon to Bush, Tremain’s talent at finding the funny in everyday life is up there with the very best. A tireless wry wit has seen his career flourish with multiple newspapers publishing one of his cartoons seven days a week for many years, firmly securing his position as New Zealand’s most widely published political cartoonist. Now in semi-retirement, Tremain has whittled down his commitments to one cartoon a week which appears in the Sunday edition of the Otago Daily Times.

***

Acid Song
Bernard Beckett
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 877460 11 1
Longacre Press
RRP $29.99

It’s election day in contemporary New Zealand. From a staffroom argument about a playground fight, to a young father’s confrontation with a teenage burglar, to a woman film director’s footage of a campus protest, to a skinhead riot in Christchurch, to an hour’s dancing at an inner city club: in every context, issues of race, politics and ethics push up viciously against each other.
    At the core of this simmering twenty-four hours is a piece of scientific research from a well respected academic which appears to link IQ to race. Should he have gone public with it? How should he have framed his announcement? What is a scientist’s duty to society? Will the knowledge bring any social good? Are the calls of racist a knee-jerk reaction?
    This is a tightly constructed, clever, darting novel that cuts to and fro between a varied but clearly delineated cast of characters who are linked by chance, career, circumstances. It confronts one of the most controversial contemporary debates in our society head on, and asks some direct, uncomfortable questions.

***

A Continent on the Move: New Zealand Geoscience into the 21st Century
Ian Graham (Chief Editor)
GeoScience
ISBN 978 1 877480 00 3
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $49.99

From the early European explorer-geologists to today’s university-trained geoscientists, researchers have been attracted to New Zealand as one of the world’s best ‘natural laboratories’ to study active Earth processes. Genera¬tions of geoscientists have developed an increasing understanding of what makes New Zealand geologically unique and why. Highlights of this research, including many discoveries of global significance, are presented in this book in over eighty snap-shot articles that are integrated into themed chapters with overviews.
    A Continent on the Move explains what makes New Zealand tick geologically, and illustrates the ways that geoscience research can make this country a better place in which to live. It is written in a scientifically literate but accessible style with numerous illustrations and quality design making it attractive to a wide range of readers.

***

A Field Guide to Auckland
Ewen Cameron, Bruce Hayward & Graeme Murdoch
Exploration & Adventure
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $45

The Auckland region has a wealth of features of natural and historic interest. From volcanic cones to fossilised forests, from marine reserves to bird sanctuaries, from pa sites to historic buildings, there are dozens of sites within easy distance of the city that tell the story of the region’s natural and historic heritage. A Field Guide to Auckland is a handy and informative guide to over 140 easily accessible places to visit, from Wellsford and Mangawhai in the north to the Waikato River and Miranda in the south, as well as the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Overviews of rocks and landforms, plants and animals, and history are followed by site-by-site descriptions, grouped geographically: North, North Shore, West, Central, South and Islands. Each site has information on how to get there, facilities, and a detailed interpretation of features of interest. Illustrated with over 250 colour photographs, informative maps and diagrams, this innovative book will encourage Aucklanders and visitors to explore the numerous attractions the region has to offer.

***

Albatross: their world, their ways
Tui De Roy, Mark Jones & Julian Fitter
Nature
ISBN 978 1 86953 624 4
David Bateman Ltd
RRP $69.99

This book is a celebration of these amazing creatures and a call to ensure their future survival. It features photographs by award-winning wildlife photographer Tui De Roy, the latest writing and research by leading international experts and a factual natural history section with detailed information on each albatross species.

***

Amber
Deborah Challinor
General Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 732 9
Harper Collins
RRP $24.99

New to paperback, bestselling historical novelist Deborah Challinor brings us the stunning sequel to Kitty.
    The richness of details in Amber is enhanced by Deborah’s meticulous research. Deborah used contemporary newspaper reports and published diaries and letters of people involved in the Northern War, various sources describing the weapons and uniforms of Imperial soldiers at the time, and traditional weapons and haka of Maori.

***

As If Running on Air: the Diaries and Journals of Jack Lovelock
edited by David Colquhoun
foreword by Peter Snell
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877333 76 7
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $49.99

Previously unpublished diaries and journals illustrated from Lovelock’s albums.
In the 1930s the New Zealander Jack Lovelock was one of the world’s best-known athletes. In 1933 he broke the world record for the mile. At the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games he won a gold medal and broke the world record for the 1500 metres. When he retired, a leading sports writer lamented the end of a golden age of mile racing.
Throughout his running career Lovelock kept journals and diaries. Other athletes have collected photo¬graphs, clippings and memorabilia, and many have kept training diaries, but few, if any, have had the inclination to write about their sport quite as he did.
While much has been written about Lovelock, until now his journals and diaries have never been published. As If Running on Air reproduces his journals from late 1931 to the end of 1935 and extracts from his 1936 training diary. An entry appears for every race. Some are brief, little more than notes; others are eloquent and reflective. Collectively they constitute a unique record of a sporting life in the 1930s and offer insights into just what it took to make a world champion.

***

AUP New Poets 3
Janis Freegard, Katherine Liddy, Reihana Robinson
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 416 1
Auckland University Press
RRP $24.99

This third volume of AUP's new occasional series, AUP New Poets, will appeal to many readers. Each poet is distinctive.

Janis Freegard wrote her first poems during a childhood that traversed England, South Africa and Australia, eventually fetching up in Whangarei. Her poetry often veers towards the surreal. Her Alice Spider character first appeared while Janis was studying botany in Auckland and has haunted her ever since. Janis also writes fiction, once winning the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. She shares her Wellington home with an historian and a small colony of weta.

Katherine Liddy lives in Vancouver selling fibre-optic cable. In this collection of poems, ‘Artefacts Exhibiting Love’, she braves the space between grand mental interiors and relatively flat physical exteriors. Her influences include fellow New Zealand poets Kay McKenzie Cooke and Richard Reeve.

Reihana MacDonald Robinson writes, ‘A poem is an egg, no two ways about it. If found in time, a blow reveals rich delight waiting to be cooked; if found too late a rotten aroma may tug a poem by the nose.’ Either way, the sense, the romance and the ambiguity of words are vital to Robinson’s Pacific island exposés. These poems dance between brutality and beauty, speak the lingo of contemporary loss and love.

***

Beak of the Moon
Philip Temple
Fiction
ISBN 9781869506773
Harper Collins New Zealand
RRP $29.99

First published in 1981, this anthropomorphic saga of the mountain kea was the bestselling novel of the year and an instant classic that remains unique in New Zealand literature. It is a cautionary allegory, comparable in many ways to internationally renowned works such as Watership Down but with a distinctly local setting beautifully wrought with the author’s profound knowledge of the New Zealand mountain environment.
Philip Temple drew heavily on personal observations of kea while climbing in the Southern Alps when he first wrote Beak of the Moon. When he undertook revision of the book, Temple says he bore in mind research that had been undertaken since its first publication and took into account new knowledge of kea nesting and mating behaviour. But most of the novel has stood the test of time.

***

Blood Line
Michael Green
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 980 6
RHNZ Arrow
RRP $34.99

When a pandemic strikes, members of the Chatfield family possess a crucial advantage. Guessing that their relatives on the other side of the world might also have escaped the devastating virus, and knowing that for their ultimate survival they must increase their gene pool, two members of the family's New Zealand branch embark on a perilous journey in a small yacht. The community they find on the other side of the world is a very different one, based on the rule of fear. Not only does it look impossible to take anyone back to New Zealand, but it may also be impossible for them to escape themselves.
A compelling, suspense-filled read with surprise twist after surprise twist.

***

Can We Help It If We’re Fabulous?
Peta Mathias
ISBN 13 9780143008040
Penguin
RRP $35.00

Television presenter, author and bon vivant, Peta Mathias’s life has been anything but dull. Recounting her own life lessons, Can We Help It If We’re Fabulous? has ten top topics: Fashion, Food, Relationships, Music, Travel, Beauty, Work, Sex, Happiness and of course, Men – that will encourage and inspire readers to reinvent, spice-up, embrace and celebrate the lives they have.
    Peta also delves into the lives of psychologists, plastic surgeons, sex therapists, hairdressers, doctors and singers — and discovers what a woman needs to make her happy, independent and successful.

***

Doubtless: New and Selected Poems
Sam Hunt
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 877333 81 1
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $29.99

Old favourites and new poems from New Zealand’s best-loved performance poet
Sam Hunt is New Zealand’s best-known poet. For almost 40 years he has been writing, reading and performing poetry, touring New Zealand constantly and reading his poems in pubs, theatres, schools and many other venues. No other poet in New Zealand has managed to make a living by performing their poems, and it says much about the affection with which Sam is regarded in New Zealand that he has continued to do this for so long.
It is well over ten years since a new collection of Sam’s poems has appeared and over 15 years since a volume of selected poems was published, so the publication of Doubtless is very timely. It includes new work as well a comprehensive selection of his best poems from the last 40 years, all of which are currently unavailable in print.

***

Etiquette for a Dinner Party
Sue Orr
Short Stories / Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86979 007 3
Random House
Price: $29.99

This stunning debut collection observes a subtle unravelling of social etiquettes. Often hopeful, always moving, these darkly quirky stories demand the reader's attention beyond the final page. Etiquette for a Dinner Party showcases the breadth of this new writer's talent – from the oh-so-recognisable and desperate efforts of a homesick tourist to enjoy the 'perfect' holiday, to the descent into madness of a lonely high-country farmer. Varied and accomplished, this book is entertaining, stimulating and original.

***

Every Day's a Good Day
William Pike
Non-fiction
ISBN 13: 9780143304197
Penguin
RRP $25.00

William Pike, a 22-year-old school teacher from Auckland, came to the attention of the nation on 25 September 2007 when, while tramping on Mt Ruapehu, he was critically injured during a volcanic eruption.
    William was trapped inside the hut, surrounded by mud and rocks and in freezing temperatures, while his friend went for help. When the rescue team arrived he was suffering from such severe hypothermia he was not expected to survive. Defying the odds, William then spent two months in Waikato Hospital, at first fighting for his life as his kidneys and liver shut down, and then in slow, steady recovery. But, despite having had his lower right leg amputated, just barely keeping his left leg and facing yet more reconstruction surgery, William is philosophical about his life-altering injuries. He is determined to return to Mt Ruapehu within the next year to complete the six-day tramp that was cut short by the eruption.

***

Explorers Whalers & Tattooed Sailors
Gordon Ell and Sarah Ell
Non-fiction
Random House
RRP $34.99

This collection of first-hand accounts, drawn from early writings and out-of-print books, allows the first Europeans to visit this country to tell their own stories of exploration, risk and adventure. Abel Tasman and Joseph Banks write of their first encounters with this new land, followed by missionaries, traders, whalers and sealers, Regency bucks, gentlemen scientists and entrepreneurs keen to explore its possibilities. Told in their own words, these stories bring to life a young country yet to come under British rule.

***

God's Messenger: J.F. Riemenschneider and Racial Conflict in
19th Century New Zealand
Dr Peter Oettli
History
ISBN 978 1 86969 320 6
Huia Publishers
RRP $55

A new biography of the North German missionary Rev. J. F. Riemenschneider (1817 – 1866) who settled in the Taranaki region in the first half of the nineteenth century, based on a thorough reading of all original documents by and about him. The book places him into the historical and social context, which not only illuminates his life and work, but throws new light on aspects of nineteenth century New Zealand history.
    The book outlines Riemenschneider’s upbringing in North Germany, his arrival in New Zealand and setting up of a missionary station in Taranaki, rifts between the missionary and his people, his exile from Taranaki and setting up in Otago

***

Grandpa Gave Us Chocolate at Bedtime
Penny Attiwill, illustrations by Sean Roche
Gift/Humour
ISBN 978 1 86966 216 5
New Holland Publishers
RRP $19.99

They say that the great thing about grandparenting is being able to hand the grandkids back afterwards. But if you’ve been looking forward to a bit of freedom in your autumn years, forget about it! Parents these days think nothing of dumping the brats on you for a week while they swan off on holiday, leaving you to deal with the complications of modern pushchairs, ultra-high-decibel screams, feeding picky appetites, endless cleaning and mending, child-proofing your home…

***

Growing Organic – Green tips for the New Zealand gardener
Phillippa Jamieson & Nick Hamilton
Gardening
ISBN 978 1 86966 224 0
New Holland Publishers
RRP $29.99

The popularity of organic gardening continues to rise as people increasingly want to control the quality and freshness of the food that they eat. And organic gardening isn’t just about creating delicious healthy food for the table; it’s also about nurturing nature. Specially tailored to New Zealand’s growing conditions, Growing Organic is a handbook of eco-friendly and health-aware gardening techniques for sowing and growing fruit, vegetables and herbs, and much more. From selecting tools to propagation, crop rotation, watering, weed and pest control, all the essentials are here. Learn how to make handy apparatus for the toolshed, and how to attract wildlife to your garden.

***

Hard Cases
Brian Bruce
True Crime
ISBN 978 1 86941 977 6
Random House
Price: $36.99

Did David Tamihere murder the Swedish tourists on his own? Who killed Kirsty Bentley? Why has the man who murdered Kayo Matsuzawa not been arrested? Is John Barlow innocent? And are mass murderers like David Gray natural-born killers? Or do we create them?
    Award-winning author and documentary maker Bryan Bruce combines his skills as an investigative journalist with his training as a social scientist and logician to re-examine some of the most debated and perplexing cases of our time. His clear-eyed investigations take the reader beyond the fascination with stories of true crime and spares no one in his pursuit of the truth. Did the police get the right man? Did they bungle some investigations, or – worse – did they make decisions that undermined the integrity of our policing and our justice system? The cases Bruce explores in this gripping collection reveals deep and disturbing flaws that lead him to a conclusion that challenges us all: Are we willing to learn from the hard cases in this book and make changes to our criminal justice system? Or are we happy to live with a status quo that sometimes lets evil prevail?

***

Images of Dignity: Barry Barclay and Fourth Cinema
Dr Stuart Murray
Non Fiction / Film
ISBN 978 1 86969 328 2
Huia Publishers
RRP $50

Images of Dignity is the first major study of the films of Barry Barclay, one of the most important film makers in New Zealand cinema history, and a major indigenous film maker world-wide. It analyses all Barclay's film and television work, including the groundbreaking Tangata Whenua television series and the feature films The Neglected Miracle, Ngati, Te Rua, The Feathers of Peace and The Kaipara Affair, establishing him as a figure who has made a radical contribution to New Zealand's understanding of both Maori community and the bicultural present. The book also draws parallels between Barclay's work and that of other indigenous filmmakers and activists working in the last 20 years. Barclay is a formally innovative film maker, especially in his blending of documentary and feature elements, and the study displays the ways in which such innovation works with ideas of narrative and of the image to comment upon New Zealand's history of cultural relations and its social present.

***

Into the Wider World: A Back Country Miscellany
Brian Turner
Non Fiction / General

ISBN 978 1 86962 142 1
RRP $44.99

Brian Turner is one of this country's best known and best-loved poets and also one of its most determined conservationists. In this beautifully illustrated anthology he brings together both old and new essays, columns, articles and poetry that concentrate on the wild places and outdoor pursuits he loves and of which he is such an unabashed, articulate and passionate champion.

***

Last Stand In Singapore
Graham Clayton
Military / War
ISBN 978 1 86979 033 2
Random House
RRP $36.99

This gripping history has been written using the diaries, letters, photographs and personal reminiscences of members of 488 Squadron, who were based just outside Singapore City and valiantly kept planes in the air against Japanese attacks until just before the city was overwhelmed.
    The story of their day-to-day life at a time of crisis, their hard work and their valour is eye-opening. The remaining ground crew were granted passage on one of the last ships to leave the island, when the Japanese were just 1 kilometre from the city centre. The ship had accommodation for 23 passengers, yet there were approximately 3000 people crammed on board. The overcrowding was the least of their worries…

***

Made in New Zealand
Nicola McLoy
Humour
ISBN 978 1 86979 018 9
Random House
RRP $19.99

Were Ches and Dale real people? Is a Swanndri named after a waterproof water bird? Why not Lemon & Thames? Does Speights really stand for Superb P*** Enjoyed In Great Hotels Throughout Southland? And what's so odd about Oddfellows? In the same way that Kiwis don't think about the origins of our placenames, the names of many of the products we buy and the shops we buy them from are a mystery to us.
    This appealing, whimisical book is a light social history in the style of Whykickamoocow. Instead of placenames it delves into the stories behind some of New Zealand's iconic products, stores and brands.

***

Martin Bosley Cooks
Martin Bosley
Cookery/Wine
ISBN 978 1 86979 035 6
Random House
RRP $45.00

When the redoubtable Lois Daish retired last year as the Listener's food writer, many thought the pages would never be the same again. Her successor, celebrated Wellington chef Martin Bosley, has given them a new lease of life. Bosley is the owner-chef of the Port Nicholson Yacht Club restaurant on Wellington's toney Oriental Bay waterfront. Wellingtonians have known how fabulous it is for years and its profile went national last year when it won the coveted Cuisine magazine Restaurant of the Year Award. Fine dining his restaurant might be, but Bosley's Listener cooking columns are far from stiff and starchy. He loves using seasonal produce and his columns are chatty, informative, witty and endearing. He's a campaigner against battery-farmed hens and a champion of what he calls our "food revolution". His recipes are straightforward, packed with flavour, and very approachable.
    This book brings together recipes from his columns as well as 20 new ones - 90 in all - in a sparklingly packaged book that will become a mainstay on recipe book shelves throughout the land.

***

Mummy Doesn’t Do It Like That
Penny Attiwill, illustrations by Sean Roche
Gift/Humour
ISBN 978 1 86966 215 8
New Holland Publishers
RRP $19.99

Fatherhood, eh? It begins with a bang, but it’s not long before that twinkle in your eye has turned into bags under your eyes and you’re whimpering for a good night’s sleep. This wonderfully subversive book finds the humour in all of the little things that fill a new dad’s days: from coping with your pregnant wife’s wild hormonal mood swings to trying to look knowledgeable about contractions, dilation, and building that flat-pack playpen. Using pithy text and charming 1950s-style illustrations, Mummy Doesn’t Do it Like That takes a wry look at the mystery of fatherhood and will leave you chuckling.

***

My Father’s Shadow: A Portrait of Justice Peter Mahon
Sam Mahon
NZ Non-fiction, Biography
ISBN 978 1 877460 17 3
Longacre Press
RRP $39.99

Described often as ‘a man for all seasons’, Justice Peter Mahon, is perhaps best remembered for his part in the Erebus inquiry: a commission of inquiry into the worst air disaster in New Zealand – the crash of Air New Zealand’s DC10 aircraft on the slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica with the loss of 257 lives.
    Sam Mahon’s portrait of his father is a wonderful account of this remarkable New Zealander, ‘a stalwart advocate for the protection of individual liberties.’ The author was 25 years old when his father died: many believe Mahon’s death was accelerated by a ruthless government and desperate airline officials. Others point to the ever present cigarette. But which ever, Peter was a father Sam hardly knew: My father communicated best from a distance, in an exchange of letters, and even then we had to work to find him between the lines.

***

New Zealand Rugby Lists
John McCrystal & Steve Barnett
Sport, Games/Leisure
ISBN 978 1 86979 004 2
Random House
RRP $29.99

A miscellany of rugby trivia for the footy equivalent of trainspotters (and let's face it, there are thousands and thousands of them). Ranging from the weird to the drop-dead serious, the lists include: ACC's top rugby injuries, animals on the field, best rugby grounds 2nd or 3rd div, best-ever NZ fifteen, biggest gates, black days – eg 1981, broken limbs that changed the course of history, cases of rugby prowess used as criminal defence, famous/infamous yellow and red cards, most common medical operations for rugby players, famous ops (eg Jones's knee), curiosities from early years (eg Munroe's stick), famous altercations, great excuses for losing, greatest moments (according to 10 players), hazardous moves, international incidents, jokes, literary masterpieces centred on the oval ball, most valuable collectables, nicknames, odd team names, scandals and conspiracy theories, streakers and much much more. It's every rugby fan's dream book, a way to while away the hours immersed in rugby arcana.

***

Rare Wildlife of New Zealand
Rod Morris & Alison Ballard
Natural History
ISBN 978 1 86941 912 7
Random House
RRP $49.99

This handsome book is a companion volume to Beautiful Birds Of NZ. It contains 100 New Zealand endangered species of all kinds – plants, birds, insects, fungi, mammals. Organised by habitat – forests, gardens, islands, wetlands, high country, and sea and shore, it gives an important snapshot of the critical state of the wildlife in our country.
    Beautifully photographed with accessible and informative text, this is a stunning book to have. At the same time, it contains many surprises: among our most endangered species are kiwi, tuatara, flax, grasshoppers, hebes, crabs, dolphins and many other New Zealand icons.

***

Rugby Skills, Tactics and Rules
Revised and Updated
Tony Williams & Frank Bunce
Sport
ISBN 978 1 86953 715 9
David Bateman Ltd
RRP #39.99

This dynamic, highly illustrated book provides a straightforward discussion of the key components of the game of rugby. Completely revised and updated, the book provides a thorough overview of player strategies and the basic laws of the game. It is an ideal reference for players and coaches at all levels looking for sound advice on the basics of the game of rugby.

***

Snapper: New Zealand’s Greatest Fish
Sam Mossman
Marine
ISBN 978 0 9582829 6 3
AUT Media
RRP $59.99

Like the kiwi and the kauri, snapper – tamure – holds a special place in the hearts of many New Zealanders. It’s our iconic fish, and is celebrated by writers, photographers, scientists, historians, artists, divers, chefs and keen anglers, in this inspiring book by well-known fisherman and author Sam Mossman.
    From the Far North to the West Coast of the South Island, Snapper gives fascinating insights into the life story and history of these remarkable fish, the beauty of the places they are found, and the people who catch or study them from boats, off the shore, or in the water, either for enjoyment, a living, or to put fresh kaimoana on the table. From the unique place of the tamure in the Maori world, the experiences of the early Europeans, the art featuring them, the commercial history and recreational methods old and new, to the latest scientific research,
    Snapper is not just for fishers: it is a collector’s cache of places, characters, nostalgia, yarns, facts and photos about New Zealand’s most popular fish.

***

Snow Business: Sixty Years Skiing in New Zealand
Ralph Markby
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877460 06 7
Longacre Press
RRP $44.99

Snow Business chronicles the history of a sport that has exhilarated New Zealand skiers for over 60 years. Ralph Markby, a skier who first buckled up a pair of homemade wooden skis in 1944, traces the rise of ski culture in New Zealand along with the sport’s development – from the emergence of skiclubs after WWII to the expansion of commercial ski-fields, and the steady improvement and advances in equipment.
    The author well remembers the days when skiers had to trudge uphill on foot for every run, and here he tells the stories of the skiing pioneers who laid the ground work for the skifield developers who followed them. The development of each skifield was not only costly and risky it also involved the adventurous spirit and drive of those dedicated to fight against all odds.

***

The Dangerous Book for Boys, NZ Edition
Conn and Hal Iggulden
General Non Fiction
ISBN 9781869507091
Harper Collins
RRP $49.99

In today’s over-protective and risk-averse culture for children, one book reminds us how to have fun, how to have adventures and how to dream of conquering the world – in other words, how to be a ‘boy’ again. That book is The Dangerous Book for Boys. Fully updated with New Zealand content, but maintaining the universal themes of exploration, how-to and adventure, this book is perfect for every Kiwi boy (and girl) from eight to eighty.

***

Survive: Remarkable Tales from the New Zealand Outdoors
Carl Walrond
Survival
ISBN 978 1 86953 716 6
David Bateman Ltd
RRP $29.99

Humans cannot survive more than three minutes without air; more than three hours exposed to extreme low-temperature; more than three days without water; more than three weeks without food. These are the general laws of survival, but some people defy the odds. Using true tales of survival, including high-profile cases such as the Rose Noelle, and the soldiers who died on Ruapehu while a Japanese tramper came off the mountain after being lost for days and asked for a cigarette; Carl Walrond investigates what determines whether a person faced with a live-or-die situation will survive.
    A gripping read looking at why things happened the way they did; analysing what went right and what went wrong, highlighting the psychology of survival and the mental processes that come into play when people are bewildered, stressed and desperate. This book seeks to demonstrate wider truths about survival in New Zealand.
    When the odds are against you, would you survive?

***

The Life and Death of Laura Friday, and that of Pavarotti her Parrot
David Murphy
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 700 8
Harper Collins New Zealand
RRP $26.99

This is the story of John Fitzgerald “Fitz” Kennedy’s search for the meaning of love.
Fitz dreams of becoming a writer, and falls under the spell of author Splint Macramé, creator of pulp-fiction hero and private detective Troy Weeks. His education is completed by local philosophers who meet at Murray’s Barber Shop, including Big Andy, ballerina-footballer George, Merv the Mink the Shakespeare-quoting used-car salesman and of course the medical-expert-***-barber, Murray.
While working for the Bullock Telegraph, Fitz loses his first scoop and his heart to Frankie Wilton, the scheming femme fatale sent to cover the story for the London tabloids.
Revenge is sweet when he turns her into Laura Friday, a professional assassin, whose parrot, Pavarotti, distracts Laura’s victims with snatches from Abba songs as Laura stabs them in the back.
Fitz’s first novel about Laura Friday and Pavarotti becomes an overnight success and that’s when the fun begins…

***

The Mad Keen Wine Buff's Road Trip
Phil Parker
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 955 3
Random House
RRP $34.99

Another in Random House’s successful ‘Mad Keen...Road Trip’ series, wine tour expert Phil Parker has designed a series of 40 weekends among the vines in New Zealand’s magniﬁcent wine regions, with The Mad Keen Wine Buff’s Road Trip. Wine buffs and even those with not much knowledge at all about wine but who like to drink it, can sniff, sip and slurp to the hearts’ content. With well-considered itineraries for visits within regions and sub-regions, maps, recommendations for where to stay, where to eat, what to do when you’re not wine-tasting and hilarious illustrations by ace cartoonist Chris Slane, this book is the mad keen wine buff’s indispensable guide to this country’s host of fantastic wineries.

***

The Oarsome Adventures of a Fat Boy Rower
Kevin Biggar
Non-fiction
ISBN 1869790219
Random House
RRP $39.99

The Oarsome Adventures of a Fat Boy Rower traces Kevin’s unlikely journey from couch potato to world record holder by completing the Trans-Atlantic rowing race in 2003.
Unconventional, hilarious and controversial, this is a story about a man going through a quarter life crisis and coming out the other side.
    It’s a story of the ups and downs of preparation, the ﬁerce rivalry with the reigning Atlantic race champions, and how bad jokes, show tunes and German accents get two strangers across the Atlantic.
    There is a fair bit about rowing as well!

***

What’s Happening to Our Girls?
Maggie Hamilton
ISBN 13 9780670072323
Viking
RRP $35.00

In a few short years our girls have become vulnerable – not just teen girls, but also young girls and baby girls. They are being forced to grow up faster than ever before. What a twelve year old girl experienced at seven is not what a seven year old girl is now struggling with. Many of the guidelines we offer girls no longer apply, or are contradicted by messages from media and advertising telling girls how to look, think, behave and feel. Over two years Maggie Hamilton interviewed girls, teachers, school counsellors, psychologists, and law enforcement and medical personnel to get an insider's view on what girls are experiencing at present, from birth to the teenage years.
    Informed, revealing, compassionate and at times shocking, What's Happening to Our Girls? is a book for parents and all those who want to better understand and support girls.

New books for July

2008-07-02T07:16:00Z

A Warm Kiwi Welcome
Ronelle Henning
Reference
ISBN 978 1 86966 195
New Holland
RRP $34.99

Top-quality hospitality is the bedrock of New Zealand’s tourism industry, and for most tourists and travellers it is the friendliness and impeccable service of their accommodation that create a lasting positive impression. More and more professionals are choosing to run a B&B or boutique lodge as a second career, anticipating a project that yields a comfortable lifestyle, but finding instead that the job requires hard graft, business nous and unlimited reserves of patience and charm. A Warm Kiwi Welcome is written for all existing and would-be proprietors eager to explore the practicalities of a potentially highly profitable business in the world of Kiwi hospitality.

Topics include:
• creating a business plan
• choosing the ideal location
• market research
• planning the layout and interior design
• publicity and promotion
• looking after guests
• catering, cleanliness and hygiene
• general administration, upkeep and budgeting.

***

Calypso
Bob Orr
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 405 4
AUP
RRP $24.99

An entrancing new collection from Bob Orr. His poems have the narrative drive and cadences of a born storyteller; they present images with depth and colour and light. In the first section, ‘Purple Octopus’, he takes us on a voyage from Troy to Waiheke to San Francisco to Spain. ‘Seven Songs and an Anchor’ features desks, chairs, bookshelves and typewriters, the ordinary things of the world made extraordinary. In the third section Orr writes movingly of his family and his past. Finally, in a section called ‘Cicada Summer’, he closes with short, intensely New Zealand lyrics that combine the everyday with a visionary sense of mystery and wonder.

***

Earth, Ocean, Sky: Traditional Maori Stories (Volume Two)
AW Reed and Ross Calman
ISBN 978 0 14301 003 6
Raupo
RRP $23.00

For centuries Maori were isolated from the rest of the Polynesian world and subsequently developed a remarkably rich and unique mythology. These stories are not just entertaining; they are a part of every New Zealander's cultural heritage.

***

Family Trusts: A New Zealand Guide
How to Manage Family Trusts and Protect them from Attack
Martin Hawes
General, Financial, Self Help
ISBN 978 1 877361 98 2
Longacre Press
RRP $29.99

Family Trusts: A New Zealand Guide is the ideal book for anyone who wants to know:
• what are family trusts?
• how do they work?
• how do you set one up and when?
• how do you fortify it against attack?

***

Forbidden Frontier
Zana Bell
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 741 16634 7
Mira Books
RRP $37

A gripping story of passion, prejudice and fate, brilliantly portraying the challenges and triumphs of convict life.
    Despite years of imprisonment followed by transportation, convict Charlotte Badger still dares to contemplate a future of freedom and fortune. Quick with both wit and fists, she is ready to fight for a better life.
    Nathan Wesley, idealistic minister and loving husband, is consumed by the desire to improve the lives of the convicts. His wife, Elizabeth, however, remote and stifled by his devotion, harbours a passionate secret that could not only destroy the very foundation of their marriage, but test his beliefs and his love to the utmost.
In Port Jackson, these three destinies become inextricably linked and Charlotte’s determination, Nathan’s faith, and Elizabeth’s suppressed passion prove to be an explosive combination. Their journey beyond England’s borders become one of self-discovery and ultimate triumph over adversary.

***

From Poverty Bay to Broadway: The Story of Tom Heeney
Lydia Monin
Biography
ISBN 978 1 86971 125 2
Hodder Moa
RRP $39.99

New Zealand boxer Tom Heeney killed a man with one punch, left another for dead on the canvas and fought his way around the world to earn a shot at the greatest prize in boxing. Here, published in the month of the 80th anniversary of his title fight, is his remarkable story.
    Heeney’s story is an epic journey. From a labourer’s cottage in Gisborne, to the nightclubs of Broadway, to fishing and sparring in Florida with Ernest Hemingway, Heeney journeyed into the golden age of boxing and was there when it all imploded.
    From Poverty Bay to Broadway: The Story of Tom Heeney is a beautifully written and extensively researched book which follows the life – documented for the first time – of one of New Zealand’s most colourful sports personalities. Containing original photos, many of which have never been published, and newspaper excerpts from the 1920s, this is the unbelievable story of a great, forgotten New Zealander.
Read Lydia Monin's blog for NZ Book Month here.

***

Giant Squid: Titan of the Deep
Peter Batson
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 9582829 5 6
AUT Media
RRP $19.99

Scarcely ever glimpsed alive by humans, the giant squid and it’s close relative the colossal squid live in the deep oceans throughout the world. Giant squid have been the stuff of rumour, myth and legend since ancient times, and today international expeditions have been searching to find and film them in the wild. Still, they are almost only known from dead animals washed up on sea shores – and a specimen caught by a trawler about to go on display at Te Papa in Wellington.
    In this new book published to coincide with the unveiling of the first colossal squid put on public display, Dr Peter Batson joins forces with artist Geoffrey Cox to tell the whole story. We are introduced to the deep-sea world of the squid – legend and reality, the Kraken of myth, the modern search using submersible vehicles and the story of how a New Zealand fishing boat caught the first intact specimen. This book brings vividly to life the one of the world’s least-understood and most fascinating animals.

***

Gith
Chris Else
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86979 013 4
RHNZ Vintage
RRP $27.99

Ken McUrran runs a service station in a small town. He's an ordinary kiwi bloke who wants an ordinary kiwi life. Trouble is, a young Austrian hitch-hiker disappears. Ken's niece, Gith, has seen which car gave the young woman back-packer a ride. Trouble is, because of a serious car accident, Gith can't talk properly. Ken is the only person who can understand her, let alone believe her. He sets out to prove to the police – and the world – that she is right. Trouble is, the town is big on gossip and Gith and Ken have a secret of their own.
    An unorthodox love story and a page-turning whodunit, written with heart and intelligence, Gith puts our values and our prejudices under the microscope.

***

Images of Dignity: Barry Barclay and Fourth Cinema
Dr Stuart Murray
Non Fiction/Film
ISBN 978 1 86969 328 2
Huia Publishers
RRP $50

Images of Dignity is the first major study of the films of Barry Barclay, one of the most important film makers in New Zealand cinema history, and a major indigenous film maker world-wide. It analyses all Barclay's film and television work, including the groundbreaking Tangata Whenua television series and the feature films The Neglected Miracle, Ngati, Te Rua, The Feathers of Peace and The Kaipara Affair, establishing him as a figure who has made a radical contribution to New Zealand's understanding of both Maori community and the bicultural present.
    The book also draws parallels between Barclay's work and that of other indigenous filmmakers and activists working in the last 20 years. Images of Dignity places Barclay’s work in light of the recent developments in the theorising of indigenous sociologies and cultures worldwide over the last decade. Barclay is a formally innovative film maker, especially in his blending of documentary and feature elements, and the study displays the ways in which such innovation works with ideas of narrative and of the image to comment upon New Zealand's history of cultural relations and its social present.

***

Kiwi Ukulele: The Kiwi Ukulele Handbook
Mike Dickison
Non-fiction/Music with CD
ISBN 978 0 9582829 4 9
AUT Media
RRP $19.99

The ukulele is simple to learn, fun to play, and you don’t have to sing Hawaiian songs.
This book tells a new ukulele player everything he or she needs to get started, and more: selecting and tuning an instrument, fingerings for all the chords you’ll ever need, fancy strums, how to arrange your favorite songs for the ukulele, and tips for playing it in groups and in public. Other ukulele books teach you how to play ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’; this one teaches you ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and the Gumboot Song. Profusely illustrated with diagrams, chord fingering, music and tabulature.
    Perfect for complete novices as well as intermediate-level players, Kiwi Ukulele is the first-ever ukulele book for Kiwis.

***

Krysyna’s Story
Halina Ogonowska-Coates
General History
ISBN 978 1 877460 16 6
Longacre Press
RRP $24.99

Krystyna is one of 732 ‘Polish children’ who survived forced deportation to the Soviet
Union and was given a home in New Zealand in 1944. Her remarkable story, a composite portrait drawn from interviews with Polish survivors, begins in a peaceful Polish village and follows her family’s harrowing journey to a labour camp in Siberia, the terrible flight to freedom, and Krystyna’s lonely voyage to a safe refuge in New Zealand.
    This story is a beautifully evoked account of a child’s journey through Europe at war, and a young woman’s bewildering encounter with rural New Zealand.

***

Maori Life and Customs
WJ Phillips and John Huria
Reference
ISBN 978 0 14300 972 6
RRP $45
Raupo

First published in 1966 this encyclopaedia is the fruit of a lifetime's study into pre-Pakeha Maori society, and is a full and authoritative guide to old Maori customs. Drawing on a range of ethnographic research and intimate professional knowledge, Phillipps gathers together in one comprehensive volume an array of subjects including food gathering and preservation, agriculture, buildings, canoe-building and navigation, garment-making, basket and mat-making, plaiting, games and toys, music, carving, weaponry, tattooing and the social rituals of birth, marriage and burial. Sensitively revised and updated for modern readers, and illustrated with almost 200 original line drawings, this is a truly indispensable reference work.

***

Mates & Lovers: A History Of Gay New Zealand
Chris Brickell
Non-Fiction General
ISBN 978 1 86962 134 4
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $49.99

What are the historical changes through which the modern gay New Zealander has emerged? If he has not always been with us, then who preceded him? A landmark publication, this first-ever New Zealand gay male history combines lively and engaging scholarship with a remarkable collection of images. Chris Brickell tells the evolving story of New Zealand gay men through the lives of clerks, labourers, shop assistants, soldiers, actors and writers of all classes, and he shows that our erotic past was vibrant, complex and often surprising.
    With over 300 fascinating images, many never seen previously.

***

Monty Betham: Baring My Soul
John Matheson
Biography
ISBN 978 1 86950 736 7
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $39.99

In one of the most brutally honest sports biographies ever published in New Zealand Monty Betham — league player, boxer and Dancing With The Stars runner-up — tells all about his incredible journey.
    The son of boxing legend Monty Betham Senior, the ‘Super Samoan’, Monty Betham Junior talks for the first time about the violence that occupied his family home in South Auckland and he explores in detail his turbulent relationship with his father.
    Monty Betham – Baring My Soul reveals behind-the-scenes never-told-before story of the Warriors’ successes in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 seasons, detailed through Monty’s recollections and for the first time former CEO Mick Watson breaks his silence about the truth of the franchise as Monty’s fortunes at the club took a turn for the worse in the 2004 and 2005 season.

***

Moonlight: New Zealand Poems On Death And Dying
Edited by Andrew Johnston
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86962 147 6
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $36.99

This moving collection taps into the extraordinarily powerful way New Zealand poets address the subject of death, dying and grief. There are 65 poems from poets as diverse as Janet Frame and Glen Colquhoun, James K Baxter and Michael Jackson, drawn together by one of this country’s finest mid-career poets, Andrew Johnston.
    All royalties go to Hospice New Zealand and the book is being launched on Montana Poetry Day 2008 at the Mary Potter Hospice, Wellington. This charitable connection was the editor’s plan, as a mark of gratitude for the quality of care given to his late father by hospice several years ago.

***

Natural Remedies That Really Work
Dr Shaun Holt
Health/Wellbeing
ISBN 978 1 877333 80 4
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $29.99

What medical research actually says about natural health products and therapies
Does echinacea really help prevent and reduce the duration of colds?
Are Omega-3 fatty acids the cure-all they’re cracked up to be?
What’s the truth about folic acid and aging?
In a world that’s besieged by extravagant claims for an avalanche of natural remedies, who should we believe, and how can we get the information we need to make the right choices?
    The answer is to read this book. A surprising number of natural remedies are the subject of high-quality clinical research, which is published in top international medical journals such as The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. Natural Remedies that Work summarises and evaluates the most important and interesting research—from antioxidants to yoga—and advises on the application and dosage of treatments and remedies. Organised according to the body’s systems (for example cardio-vascular or musculo-skeletal) for ease of use, this groundbreaking book by a medical doctor rises above uninformed debate and entrenched positions to reveal the simple truth of what works and why.

***

New New Zealand Poets in Performance
Edited by Jack Ross And Jan Kemp
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 409 3
Includes 2 audio CDs
RRP $44.99

The third in the Poets in Performance series, this book collects the work of a new generation of poets – from Anne Kennedy to Glenn Colquhoun, Jenny Bornholdt to Robert Sullivan – who came to prominence in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. These poets are notable for their variety, their distinctive voices and their fresh approaches to poetic form and subject. As in Classic and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, Ross and Kemp have selected and presented on two CDs material from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, completed in 2004.
    There are more than two hours of poets reading their own work and the accompanying book prints the texts of the poems as they have been read. Selected bibliographies and short biographies for each poet and an appendix of variant readings are also included.

***

Nga Taonga Takaro: Maori Sports & Games
Harko Brown
Sports/History
ISBN 978 0 14300 970 2
Raupo
RRP $40

In Nga Taonga Takaro, Harko Brown writes about the revival of more than 20 ancient games and sports of the Maori – including poi, stick games, kites, ball games, memory games, and board games. He traces the history and legend behind each game, and gives clear instructions on how to play, the rules of the game, and how to create the equipment used. The games are illustrated with action colour photographs throughout, to enhance readers' understanding of these indigenous sports.

***

Ngoingoi Pawhairangi – A Remarkable Life
Tania Ka’ai
Biography
ISBN 978 1 86969 317 6
Huia Publishers
RRP $60

A biography of Ngoingoi Pawhairangi, a loved and respected Maori leader who was born on the cusp of te ao kahatu (the old Maori world) and the beginning of some significant changes in contemporary Maori society and who utilised knowledge from both worlds throughout her entire life. From Te Whanau-a-Ruataupare hapa at Tokomaru Bay, Ngoi dedicated her adult life to supporting these people and influencing their lives to ensure a better future for Maori society. She was passionate about people and the advancement of Maori society and demonstrated this through her involvement in a variety of initiatives from Maori education, Maori language, Maori performing and traditional arts, Maori politics and within her own whanau. This book is a celebration of Ngoi’s life through the testimonies of many people who knew her using their own words. The bilingual text allows people to come to know what a truly remarkable kaka (mother figure) she was to so many people in Aotearoa/New Zealand

***

Pasifika Styles: Artists Inside the Museum
Edited by Amira Salmond / Rosanna Raymond
Art
Otago University Press
RRP $49.95

The issue of who owns Pacific artefacts located in European museums and collected by early explorers has been contentious, with strong debate on either side. New ground was broken in 2006 when an exhibition opened in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology with contemporary Maori and Pacific artists displaying their work next to taonga collected on the voyages of Cook and Vancouver.
    In developing the exhibition, the curators used the analogy of the waka or Polynesian voyaging canoe – in this case bringing the people and the sounds back to the Oceanic collections in Cambridge. New Zealand was involved right from the start, as some fifteen artists helped to organise, set up and run the activities during a two-year period. The exhibition was a groundbreaking experiment in the display of Pacific art. The book Pasifika Styles is a series of essays written by those involved in this innovative exhibition. The essays show how each aspect of the exhibition was developed: from the mechanics of planning and curating to the organisational aspects of artists’ visits and workshops.

***

Real Weight Loss: A practical guide to changing your lifestyle and achieving long-term weight loss
Dr Doug Sellman
Health & Wellbeing
ISBN 978 1 877333 82 8
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $24.99

This is a simple, but inspiring book about how to lose weight, and how to build a lifestyle that sustains this permanently. The author, Doug Sellman, is a Professor of Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine at the Christchurch School of Medicine. In his mid-forties he realised that he needed to do something about his steadily increasing weight, and set about losing his excess kilos over the next five years. This book tells the story of his journey, of what he learnt, and using his professional training, the basic strategy that he developed to do this.
    Doug Sellman believes that the answers to permanent weight loss are fundamentally basic, but that within these strategies we each need to devise our own personal approach for losing weight. With this in mind, he has devised a five-point strategy that defines a new approach to the problem of losing weight: taking control of your situation; getting active, eating well; learning to persist; and getting maximum enjoyment from your life.

***

Rough Justice: The Rex Haig Story
Rex Haig with Rennie Gould
General, Autobiography, Crime
ISBN 978 1 877460 02 9
Longacre Press
RRP $34.99

Imagine spending 10 years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. Rex Haig did just that for the murder of Mark Roderique, a crew member on Haig’s own fishing boat, Antares.
The murder conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in August 2006, nearly two years after Rex Haig’s release on parole. Haig’s nephew, David Hogan, who claimed that he saw his uncle kill Mr Roderique, is now regarded by the Court of Appeal as a suspect for the murder, and, by at least one of the three Appeal Court Judges, as an ‘utterly unreliable’ witness.
Rex Haig never gave up fighting against his wrongful conviction. This is Rex Haig’s story, in his own words, as told to Wellington lawyer Rennie Gould. It’s the story of his time in remand prison, the murder of his chief witness, his trial and subsequent conviction and his struggle in prison to be heard and to be listened to.
    This is an alarming but fascinating account of one man’s triumph over an unfair and unjust conviction.

***

Rugby – The Pioneer Dreams
Alan Turley
forewords by John Graham and Sir Brian Lochore
Sport
ISBN 978 1 86950 684 1
HarperCollins
RRP $49.99 Hardback

Most histories of our national game start with the 1905 Originals. In doing so, they have neglected the rich and varied pioneer period of rugby in New Zealand which began more than thirty years earlier. Now, sports historian Alan Turley fills the significant gap in this country's rugby lore and history with his extensively researched and fully illustrated new book, Rugby: The Pioneer Years.

***

Surviving and Moving On
Kim McGregor
Non-fiction
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $36.99

This is essential reading for any survivor of child sexual abuse, female or male. Many survivors of sexual abuse have not always been believed or supported through their developmental years. They have had to cope on their own, dealing with the aftermath of the abuse in whatever ways they could. Surviving and Moving On offers ideas and techniques for understanding and healing which adult survivors, in particular, should find useful. It is extremely useful for the partners, families and friends giving support and encouragement to survivors who are healing themselves from the effects of abuse.

***

The Darkness Looking Back
Andrea Jutson
Crime fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 996 7
RHNZ Black Swan
RRP $36.99

Across Auckland, deliveries are failing to reach their targets – because the intended recipients are dead. What starts as a grisly murder without a motive turns into something more sinister, as another body is discovered. Someone wants them found; someone who wants to send a message. A serial killer is once more at work in the City of Sails and his victims are women with too much love to give.
    To track down the avenging Cupid, Detective Constable Andy Stirling needs all the help he can get from psychic medium James Paxton. When the media get wind of Paxton’s involvement, however, the manhunt rapidly becomes a circus. As pressure mounts from all sides, Paxton and Stirling must find the killer before he strikes again… Love is all around – and so is he. Look out.
Read Andrea Jutson's blog for NZ Book Month here.

***

The Invisible Road
Elizabeth Knox
Fantasy
ISBN 9780732287313
HarperCollins Publishers
RRP $34.99

Imagine a place you can enter by an invisible road and capture people’s dreams. The Place exists, but only the gifted may enter – Dreamhunters who return with dreams to project to eager audiences.
    The dreams they capture are broadcast to audiences in the opulent Rainbow Opera and some even give curative performances in hospitals and prisons. But everything has its price – and within the wonder of The Place lies something dark and sinister.
    Elizabeth Knox’s stunning lyrical prose and beautiful duet of dark novels Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are combined into one seamless volume – The Invisible Road.

***

The Rehearsal
Eleanor Catton
Fiction
ISBN 978 0 86473 581 2
VUP
RRP $30

A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power. The sudden and total publicity seems to turn every act into a performance, and every platform into a stage.
    But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the bounds between private and public begin to fade…
    Eleanor Catton is 22 and was born in Canada and raised in Canterbury. She won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing for this, her first novel.

***

The Ship of Dreams
Alistair Fox
Pakeha & Maori Fiction
ISBN 978 1 877372 54 4
Otago University Press
RRP $45.00

New Zealand continues to have a high incidence of violence, crime and male suicide and, while several books have attempted to explain the ‘Kiwi male’, finding out why has never been easy.
    Men in this country are notoriously self-contained and private, being reluctant to talk about their personal feelings and highly embarrassed at the thought that any private emotional difficulties they might be experiencing could be exposed to critical examination. Alistair Fox has studied the imaginative literature written by men in order to make contact with the reality that lies beneath the surface.
    The Ship of Dreams provides a detailed analysis of the works of two leading Pakeha novelists (Maurice Gee and Stevan Eldred-Grigg), and two major Maori novelists (Witi Ihimaera, and Alan Duff).

***

The Sleepwalker's Introduction to Flight
Sion Scott-Wilson
Fiction
ISBN 978 023070 544 9
Macmillan New Writing
RRP $42.00

Dreaming of joining the brotherhood of Acapulcan cliff-divers, young Mikey Hough rigs a diving platform in the garden of his suburban Berkshire home. Two years later, when he awakes from his coma, Mikey befriends Roger, an elderly ex-pilot hospitalised when his precious Distinguished Flying Cross was violently stolen from him. Mikey soon learns that his own disastrous attempt at flight has damaged his Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, destroying his ability to sleep. The medical profession can do nothing for him. He is sent home from hospital to die. One night, a despondent Mikey stumbles across Livia, the cynical teenage ward of a neighbouring councilman. Together they decide to track down Roger's stolen medal. So begins a remarkable, picaresque journey into the dark heart of suburban England, during which the fearless Mikey and Livia confront a sprawling cast of pensioners, policemen and criminals – including the profoundly sinister man-child 'The Fat Controller'. As they hurtle towards daybreak, they persuade Roger to undertake one last, gut-wrenching sortie into the night skies.
    The Sleepwalker's Introduction to Flight is a heart-rending and riotous mini-epic, a brilliantly subversive coming-of-age tale about what happens when dark and light collide, and society's marginalised find their voice.

***

The Book on Winning The Game Of Life
Kevin Abdulrahman 'The Man Inspiring Millions'
Self Help
ISBN 978 0 9582887 0 5
The Billionaires League Publishing
RRP $29.95

Anyone serious about wanting to achieve great success in their life. Success is winning in anything that matters the most to you in your life. Life is a game, and unfortunately
many are going through it without fully understanding how to play it.
    Once you know how, and what, you need to play, you too can win the game of your life.

***

The New Zealander’s Guide to the Resource Management Act 1991
Raewyn Peart
ISBN 978 1 877333 91 0
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $34.99

A concise, user-friendly guide to this important legislation.
The Resource Management Act 1991 governs the environmental management of land, air, soil, water and ecosystems through New Zealand’s land and territorial sea. It is a far-reaching and complex piece of legislation that affects the lives of most New Zealanders.
This guide is intended to help individuals, professionals, businesses and community groups to interpret the RMA and participate more effectively in its processes. It includes concise and practical information.

***

Who is Sylvia? The Diary of a Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Lynley Hood
Biography/General
ISBN 978 1 877460 15 9
Longacre Press
RRP $29.99

For four years, writer Lynley Hood, was obsessed, or possibly possessed, by New Zealand writer and educator Sylvia Ashton-Warner. This compelling diary is a record of Hood’s experiences and reflections as she pieced together the multi-dimensional puzzle
of Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s life for her award-winning biography, Sylvia!
Hood candidly reveals the fascination and complexities of the biographer’s search; the highs of extraordinary discoveries, the lows of confusion and doubt, the frustrations and intrigue of the New Zealand literary scene of the time, as well as chronicling her own development as a solitary, fulltime writer.
    Who is Sylvia? brilliantly captures the unflinching spirit and energy of the biographer. It’s an absorbing, intimate and delicious read – as only a diary can be – and is reprinted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sylvia Ashton-Warner's birth.

***

Who Owns High Country? The controversial story of Tenure Review in New Zealand
Ann Brower
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877333 78 1
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP $29.95

The last 20 years have seen massive change in the iconic high-country stations of the South Island. Traditionally, a lease between the Crown and the runholder gave the right to farm in perpetuity. Recently there has been an initiative to reform this ownership structure in a process called tenure review. This has seen deals struck between runholders and the Government that allow the runholder to privatise (and subsequently develop) parts of their farm and in exchange offer other parts of the farm back to the Crown to be ‘retired’ as conservation land. On paper this appeared to be a win-win scenario. The reality, however, has been very different.
    Who Owns the High Country? explains Ann Brower’s contentious research and the subsequent controversy it created, and concludes with the highly significant U-turn from the Government last year that halted the review process. This is a significant book, of interest to anyone who cares about the high country of the South Island.

***

New Books in June

2008-06-10T07:51:00Z

Baxter Basics
James K Baxter
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 877448 18 8
Steele Roberts
RRP $29.99

In 1954 James K Baxter became a teacher and began writing poems for children. Here for the first time in one volume are the Baxter Basics – a New Zealand classic. Baxter Basics were originally published in 1979 as six poems in separate booklets: Rain, I’m a Tree, The Tree House, The Seagull, The Ships and The Firemen. They remain some of the finest examples of children’s poetry produced in this country.
    With their delightful original illustrations by the celebrated Lynley Dodd, Judith Trevelyan, Dawn Johnston and Ernest Papps this volume is a must have for kiwi kids and adults alike.

***

Before Your Teenagers Drive you Crazy, Read This!
Nigel Latta
Non-Fiction/Parenting
ISBN 978 1 86950 7 138
HarperCollins
RRP $26.99

By popular demand, New Zealand’s most popular parenting writer has drawn on his extensive experience in family therapy and working with the country’s most difficult teenagers to write the book that will save the sanity of parents everywhere. Once you’ve negotiated the terrors of toddlerdom and the perils of primary school you think you’ve got a pretty good handle on this parenting thing – then along comes Mother Nature with her horrible hormones and suddenly you’re so far behind square one you’re starting to wonder if this raging bundle of contradictions screaming at you was switched in the night by evil aliens.
    With his now trademark humour and pragmatic common sense approach, Nigel debunks the politically correct nightmare of perfect parenting and argues for sanity first – yours – and reclaiming the ground parents have lost in the great ‘I’m my child’s best friend’ debacle.

***

Certain Words Drawn
John Reynolds
Art
ISBN 978 1 86962 149 2
Random House
RRP $70.00

John Reynolds is one of New Zealand’s most significant and admired contemporary artists. An Arts Laureate, his Cloud was last year a centrepiece of the Sydney Biennale, at which he was New Zealand’s representative, a rare honour for a New Zealand painter. Certain Words Drawn brings together examples of his recent work and practice in a stunning book designed by Arch MacDonnell of InHouse Design. Magnificently packaged, this book is a limited edition of 1500 copies only, each numbered and signed by the artist.

***

Cholas in Bowlers
Journey to Bolivia
History
Jane Mundy
ISBN 978 1 877437 02 1
Exisle Publishing
RRP $37.99

In the middle of Jane Mundy’s 59th year, many years divorced and contentedly single, she signed up for a course to become a volunteer support worker for newly arrived refugees. There she met the man of her dreams. Less than six months later she packed up her life and took off with him to the other side of the world – Bolivia! She hardly knew Graham and she had barely heard of Bolivia, but somehow it felt exactly right.
    Cholas in Bowlers paints a vivid picture of life in Bolivia, a nation with a turbulent political history and the highest indigenous population of any South American country.
    “Nothing is slick here, nothing fancy, nothing glossed up for tourists, what you see is what you get, unadorned. Throughout the country it’s as though the people are indifferent to the ways of the world and determined to do things in their own unique style.”

***

Chronicle of Stone #1 Scorched Bones
Vincent Ford
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86943 830 2
Scholastic NZ Ltd
RRP $18.99

On the continent of the Americas, in the early stages of modern man’s development, one tribe invented the Clovis point – a stone arrowhead combined with a throwing stick that would be the equivalent of the invention of the nuclear bomb many hundreds of years later. The technology changes the balance of power within the scattered tribes and ensured that not only the fittest would be able to kill the enormous Mammoths – and avoid starvation.
    This is the first in a trilogy that follows the adventures of twins Souk and Trei as they break with their tribe’s traditions and set out to find the technology they have heard so much about.

***

Echo and Hush
VM Jones Illustrated by Scott Tulloch
Childrens
ISBN 978 1 86950 690 2
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $19.99

Echo and Hush are sheepdogs, who live on a High Country sheep station, with Kerry the farmer and Ngaire, his wife. Echo is a header dog, with a loud bark that echoes through the hills and brings the sheep together in the muster. Hush is an eye dog, whose silent commands work best in the yard.
    Award-winning author VM Jones combines her magic touch with words in a creative partnership with Scott Tulloch, whose superb illustrations evoke the stunning beauty of the New Zealand high country, to tell a very special story about friendship and overcoming challenges.

***

Elwyn’s Dream
Ali Foster, illustrated by Viv Walker
Conservation
ISBN 978 1 869790 06 5
Random House
RRP $19.99

Charming true story of takahe conservation.
    This charming, gently humorous story tells of the imaginative and persistent Elwyn Welch of Mount Bruce near Masterton who used his bantam hens to raise takahe chicks in the 1950s. Eventually Elwyn’s farm became the foundation of Pukaha/Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre.

***

Everything Talks
Sam Sampson
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 411 6
AUP
RRP $24.99

Everything Talks is AUP’s first collection of poetry by up-and-coming Auckland poet Sam Sampson. Organised in sections (‘An Arena of Reflected Caches’, ‘Mirror Mirror’, ‘Orpheus at Whatipu’, ‘Frisson’, ‘The Dirty Monk’, ‘The Deep End’), Everything Talks has a resonant overall cohesiveness; the poems are original and contradictory: earthy, cryptic, exquisite in turn.
    Sampson has an ear for the lilting phrase, and his poems - ‘attuned to the day’s inflections’ – have a gentle ebb and flow, which is often echoed visually by the way the poems are laid out upon the page.

***

Face It
Denis Martin
Children’s (10-15)
ISBN 13: 9780143318408
Puffin
RRP $19.95

A gutsy adventure book for boys (and girls) aged 10–15, set in the Marlborough Sounds. Two teenage boys and a girl are left alone on an island in the Sounds, which is soon invaded by some gangsters with guns. The plot involves political activism, the trials of relationships and friendships, humour, death, kidnapping, capture, escape, survival against the odds. This is a gripping, un-put-downable story where each chapter ends with a cliffhanger, culminating in a suitably dramatic final climax.

***

Famous
Kate Langdon
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 562 2
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $24.99

Famous follows one year in the life of 33-year-old Samantha Steel, a self-confessed SPG (Single Professional Girl) living in the heart of Auckland City. She works as a ‘suit’ for one of the city’s leading advertising agencies and is happy with her life exactly the way it is – no emotional ties, no relationship hang-ups, plenty of money, great parties and designer clothes to boot.
    That is, until a highly enjoyable one-night-stand goes horribly pear-shaped, when she accidentally bonks someone famous…

***

Fieldays
Susan Pepperell / Waikato Times
Non Fiction / General
ISBN 978 1 86979 028 6
Random House
RRP $24.99

In collaboration with The Waikato Times this book covers the history of the phenomenon that is the Fieldays. It looks at the origins, how it evolved, key players, royal family involvement, competitions, inventions, themes, international growth/exposure, rural bachelor competition, AgArt wear, economic benefits, the organisation today and the future.
    Written by Susan Pepperell, Assistant Editor at The Waikato Times, and full of excellent photographs taken by Waikato Times photographers, this is a lively memento of an important institution in the farming calendar.

***

From Afterwit to Zemblanity – 100 endangered words brought to life
Simon Hertnon
General & Reference
ISBN 978 1 86966 193 9
New Holland
RRP $24.99

Though our ‘information age’ is drowning us in words – most notably through the rapid rise in popularity of the blog – our collective vocabulary seems to be growing ever more impoverished. So here is a collection of rare and neglected words that, if reintroduced, will help breathe much-needed life, savour and vitality back into the English language and will delight anyone keen to enrich their verbal repertoire.

***

Gool
Maurice Gee
Children’s
ISBN 978 0 14330 400 5
Puffin
RRP $19.95

Sixteen years have passed since Pearl from Company and Hari from Blood Burrow defeated the tyrant Ottmar. Now their children, Xantee and Lo, face an even more dangerous foe. Hari lies dangerously ill with a fragment of a strange creature wrapped around his throat, draining his life. The beast is called Gool, meaning Unbelonger. It is one of many, destroying the mountains and jungles of the world. Somewhere a hidden mother nourishes her Gool brood – the children must find and destroy her to save Hari and the world they know.
    Gool is the sequel to Maurice Gee's bestselling Salt.

***

Growing Great Girls
Ian & Mary Grant
Family Life/Chi
Random House
ISBN: 1869418956
RRP $36.99

After the huge success of Growing Great Boys, comes this companion title focusing on girls. There are many issues today to challenge girls and their parents.
    Throughout the text Ian and Mary also address these topics: the delightful side of girl-culture as well as the negative side; the special challenges of our current culture – the rise of the brainless bimbo; girls and success – those things which impact a girl's likelihood of success; girls and friendships; girls and self-esteem – character is more important than curves; fun and communication – girl-style; preparing for puberty; building blocks for a meaningful life; mentoring a girl; and lots more.

***

How to Make a Piupiu
Leilani Rickard
ISBN 978 0 14300 945 0
Raupo
RRP $30.00

This highly illustrated book gives step-by-step instructions on how to make your own piupiu, the traditional Maori flax skirt. Experienced Rotorua weaver Leilani Rickard covers everything you need to know – from customary uses of harakeke or flax, to the simple tools you will need to finish the garment.

***

Intensive Care & Daughter Buffalo
Janet Frame
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 961 8
Random House
RRP $34.99

Extending from World War I to an imagined twenty-first century, Intensive Care (first published in 1970) highlights the appalling treatment of the physically and mentally sick. Tom Livingstone, young and wounded in the trenches of Flanders, must learn the value of life and subsequently the value of death. In a futuristic world, the autistic Milly Galbraith has been deemed substandard and faces elimination. In this hypnotic novel, Janet Frame explores the harshness of humankind and makes a plea for us to restore humanity.

Having touched on the reality of death in Intensive Care, Frame's next novel, Daughter Buffalo (published in 1972), gives the theme centre-stage. Dr Talbot Edelman is obsessed with it, making his speciality Death Studies and experimenting on his pet dog. In the streets of New York, he meets up with an old poet, Turnlung, who fearlessly contemplates his own death. Visiting Central Park Zoo together, they see a baby buffalo, a daughter Turnlung is keen to adopt. This exploration of death becomes a fascinating and funny novel that revels in the linked mysteries of language and life.

***

Josh: Flying Kiwi!
Andy McGechan
Biography/Sports
ISBN 978 1 86950 620 9
HarperCollins
RRP $35.99

There wouldn’t be many Kiwi sportsmen who could pick a glossy magazine from the shelf of any bookstore in Western Europe and see his own face grinning back at him from the cover. Josh Coppins is one Kiwi who fits that bill. The boy from Motueka is currently one of the fastest motocross people on the planet. Runner-up in the 2002 and 2005 world championships, Coppins would have been the undisputed 2007 world champion if not for a disastrous accident.
    Now it’s time to tell the full story and Josh: Flying Kiwi!, written by award-winning New Zealand journalist Andy McGechan and the first biography ever written about a Kiwi motocross rider, does just that. A friend of Josh Coppins’ family, he has known Josh since his teens and had covered his rise to international stardom since the beginning.

***

Just a Bang on the Head – Living with a Brain Injury
Rosie Belton
Self-help/Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877333 77 4
Craig Potton Publishing
RRP: $24.99

A dynamic New Zealand woman’s struggle to rebuild her life.
Rosie Belton was a high-achieving theatre director, producer and teacher, a casting agent and director, as well as a fully involved wife, mother of three and grandmother of six. But then a bang on the head changed everything. While dancing at a wedding, Rosie fell and hit her head, and subsequently had two cerebral haematomas, or brain bleeds. These have left her with a permanent brain injury that has turned her life upside down. Now unable to pursue her professional career, she struggles with permanent disorientation and dizziness, memory loss, extreme visual and aural sensitivity, constant tiredness, pain and difficulty controlling her emotions.
    Just a Bang on the Head offers a searingly honest and moving insight into the world of brain injury. The physical effects are clearly articulated, as are the emotional impacts – the often devastating effect on relationships, the huge sense of loss and grief as a previous life disappears, and the constant humiliation of being stymied in your everyday life. This is a brave book, a compelling story of loss, courage and the struggle to rebuild a new and meaningful life in the aftermath of a brain injury. It is essential reading for anyone dealing with a brain injury, their friends and family, health professionals and social workers.

***

Kakariki Series

Kakariki and the Kai
Kakariki and the Hangi
Kakariki and the Miti
Julia Sloane, illustrated by Kelvin Hawley
Childrens (4-7 years)
ISBN 978 1 86943 735 0
ISBN 978 1 86943 736 7
ISBN 978 1 86943 737 4
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

A series of three stories about a little Maori taniwha called Kakariki Green, who gets into all sorts of mischief, and introduces young readers to common Maori words and phrases on the way.
Includes glossary.

***

Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and secrets of the world's great operas
Brian Castles-Onion
ISBN 978 0 908988 59 4
Exisle Publishing
RRP $30.00

The world of opera is a mystery to some and a comedy to others, but it is deadly serious to the people who live and breathe it. Opera conductor Brian Castles-Onion has seen opera from all sides and has decided to step back and reflect on the great operas and on the people who bring them to the stage. In this book he offers light-hearted accounts of some of the best-known operas, spiced with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes gossip, as well as his impressions of the famous stereotypes of the operatic world: emotional sopranos, bitchy tenors, incompetent choruses and rebellious orchestras.

***

Maraea and the Albatrosses (English and Maori Editions)
Patricia Grace
Children’s
ISBN 13: 9780143502661
Picture Puffin
RRP $18.95 (PB)
RRP: $30.00 (Cased Hard Back)

This beautifully presented children's picture flat tells the story of Maraea, an elderly Maori woman living in a coastal community. The site of the kainga is also next to an albatross colony, and there are close (and fabulously illustrated) links between the people and the birds. But people are drifting to the cities, and the community is falling apart. Soon only an aging Maraea is left on the clifftop, looking out to sea to welcome the birds. And soon even Maraea passes away. On the site of Marea's old sitting place on the clifftop, only a rock remains. But something is happening, the rock is moving and stirring. It bursts open, and a great albatross emerges, spreading its massive wings and soaring up into the sky .

***

Max’s Bath
Barbro Lindgren, illustrated by Eva Eriksson
Children's
ISBN 978 1 877467 04 2
Gecko Press
RRP $14.99

Max loves having a bath! He plays with all his toys in the tub, and tries to make a very reluctant Dog join in the fun.
This charming little book is full of drama, fun and humour. Max is an independent little character, bursting with energy and ideas. Young readers will be thrilled by his everyday play and his friendship with the faithful, but not always willing, Dog.

***

Max’s Wagon
Barbro Lindgren, illustrated by Eva Eriksson
Children's
Gecko Press
ISBN 978 1 877467 03 5
RRP $12.99

Max takes Teddy, Dog and all his toys on a wagon ride – but he’s in for a big surprise!
    This charming little book is full of drama, fun and humour. Max is an independent little character, full of energy and ideas. Young readers will love his everyday play and his friendship with Dog.

***

Mountain Men: Stories from New Zealand's High Country
Rachel Goodchild
Non Fiction, Photographic
ISBN 978 0 14300 751 7
Penguin
RRP $39.95

Taciturn, stoic and men of pure understatement – Mountain Men profiles 13 great men from the High Country of the South Island; men that have led interesting and diverse lives working on the land in this dramatic landscape.
    Rich with quirky characters and hair-raising experiences, Mountain Men will evoke memories of a more innocent time in New Zealand and remind many readers of their roots. It is hard not to be taken in by each man's devotion to his land, his horse, his dog; there is something raw and strong about it. Stunning portrait profiles and landscapes captured by John Bougen complete this magnificent package.

***

My Village: Rhymes from around the World
Collected by Danielle Wright, illustrated by Mique Moriuchi
Children's
ISBN 978 1 877467 10 3
ISBN 978 1 877467 11 0
Gecko Press
RRP $29.99 hardcover
RRP $21.99 paperback

A collection of nursery verses for young children as a companion book to traditional Mother Goose titles. From Iran to Iceland, Samoa to Switzerland, readers can delight in quirky, touching and funny verses from 22 different countries, brought to life by the artwork from exciting young UK illustrator, Mique Moriuchi.

***

Novel About my Wife
Emily Perkins
Fiction
Allen & Unwin
RRP $35.00

If I could build her again using words, I would: starting at her long, painted feet and working up, meticulously shading in every cell and gap and space for breath until her pulse just couldn’t help but kick back in to life. Her hip bones, her red knuckles, the soft skin of her thighs, her fine crackle of hair.
    Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy their first, semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom’s stalling career and their spiralling money troubles.
    But Ann becomes convinced she’s being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As her pregnancy progresses she spends hours cleaning and reorganising the house, and sits up all night talking with a new feverish passion. As their child grows, so too does Tom’s sense of an impending, nameless threat. Their home appears beset with vermin, smells and strange noises. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.
    Dark, sensuous and utterly compelling, Novel About My Wife is a taut, chilling novel about the need for escape and the perils of forgetting.

***

Odd Bird Out
Helga Bansch
Children's
ISBN 978 1 877467 08 0
ISBN 978 1 877467 09 7
Gecko Press
RRP $29.99 hardcover
RRP $18.99 paperback

Robert is different from all other ravens. He is a happy bird. But when he laughs and tells jokes, the other birds don’t like it at all. Nor do they like his colourful clothes and they hold their ears when he tries to sing.
    Unhappy, Robert is forced to leave home. Far away, he sings and dances and tells his terrible jokes, and eventually he finds friends who enjoy him as he is, and even join in.

***

Old Wellington in Colour – from 100-year-old picture postcards
Hugh & Susan Price
History
ISBN 978 1 877448 24 9
Steele Roberts
RRP $29.99

Old picture-postcards of Wellington strike a soft spot because many of the views are recognisable despite the hundred-year gap, offering a glimpse of a half-familiar past.
The charm and distinctive look of these pictures comes from their delicate colouring. They started life as black and white prints and were transformed by skilled European printers.

***

Pacific Auckland Photographs
Evotia Tamua
Photography
ISBN 9781877484018
Little Island Press
RRP $35.00

A photographic essay on Pacific Island lifestyles in greater Auckland.
Sections include: festivals, markets, sport, at work, at home, community and family events – weddings, etc.

***

Paddy the Wanderer [Extended Edition]
Dianne Haworth
Children’s Non Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 712 1
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $26.99

The endearing true story of an Airedale who captured the public imagination throughout New Zealand during the Great Depression, Paddy the Wanderer was published in 2007 and became an instant number one bestseller.
    After its publication, award-winning journalist and author Dianne Haworth was swamped with reminiscences and new stories of Paddy’s life that just had to be told. HarperCollins are delighted to publish Paddy the Wanderer Extended Edition, filled with historical maps and photographs and more adventures about the Airedale who wandered into our hearts and became a legend in New Zealand history.

***

Paper Cranes: A Mother's Story of Hope and Determination
Cheryl Koenig
Non-fiction
Exisle Publishing
RRP $37.99

At the age of twelve, Cheryl Koenig’s son Jonathon was involved in a horrific car accident. He was given very little chance of survival, and when he did miraculously pull through, doctors predicted that due to his extremely severe traumatic brain injury, he would most likely never walk, talk or even eat again. Cheryl refused to accept this prognosis and set out on a relentless and ultimately successful quest to save her son and prove the medical profession wrong. Her fervent hope that he would one day be well again was poignantly expressed by his many schoolfriends who filled their school prayer room with hundreds of handmade paper cranes, symbols of hope and healing.

***

Playing For Keeps
Denis Martin
Children’s (10-15yo)
ISBN 978 0 14330 305 3
Puffin
RRP $19.95

Rikkers is a witness to the fishing boat explosion that kills Pip's father. Although he tries to be a friend to Pip, she is grieving and makes it quite clear she wants to be alone. Stunned by her hostility, Rikkers seeks advice from Charlie, an old friend of his Dad's – but Charlie is strangely guarded about the explosion and doesn't believe it was an accident. Rikkers is slowly drawn into the lives of Pip and her mother, and finds himself on the receiving end of some aggressive intimidation by a group of men who think the two kids know the whereabouts of a drug stash. It is a world of intimidation, violence – and maybe even murder.
    Once again Martin delivers a great novel for teens with vivid imagery, menacing characters, bombs, drug trafficking, murder and general brutality – not to mention a bit of romance!

***

Polynesian Festival Photographs
Evotia Tamua
Photography
ISBN: 978-1-877484-00-1
Little Island Press
RRP $35.00

A pictorial record of more than a decade of the Auckland Secondary Schools’ annual Polynesian Festival. This work is divided into three sections: backstage, performance and audience.

***

Spiders
Bill Fairweather
Nature
ISBN 9 780 14300 944 3
Raupo
RRP $19.95

This full-colour book/pocket guide aims to be the beginner's guide and photographic reference to the fascinating, but little understood, world of spiders in New Zealand.

***

Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies
Stacy Gregg
Children's
ISBN 9780007245161
HarperCollins
RRP $14.99

Issie has landed her dream job – handling horses on a real film set! And with a group of frisky palominos to deal with, Issie asks her friends at pony club to help out too. But it's not just the horses that play up on set – what is spoilt actress Angelique's problem? Could this be Issie's chance for stardom...?
    Join talented young rider, Issie, on another action-packed adventure from the Chevalier Point Pony Club.

***

Surviving Breast Cancer
Carolyn Weston
Health
ISBN 978 1 86941 975 8
Random House
RRP $24.99

Each year, more than 2000 New Zealand women are diagnosed with breast cancer.
    Journalist Carolyn Weston went for a mammogram almost on impulse, after the Kylie Minogue case hit the headlines, and was devastated to receive the news that she did have breast cancer. At first it seemed like the end of the world, but as her treatment progressed she met and heard about many women who had not only survived, but had gone on to make incredibly positive changes to their lives as a result. She found these accounts so uplifting that she decided to create a book of such stories, to give hope to other sufferers.
    The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation is supporting this book and intends giving copies to women who receive such a diagnosis next year.

***

That Slippery Slope
Kate Langdon
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 498 4
HarperCollins
RRP $24.99

Helen McGregor may be 29, but she’s nowhere near ready for thirty.
    She’s single, her job at the local newspaper is driving her crazy and, worst of all, luck just doesn’t seem to be on her side. She’s unlucky in love, unlucky with dogs and incredibly unlucky in outdoor pursuits.
    Struggling from one very funny escapade to the next, she manages to misplace her stepmother’s prized poodle, falls off a gin palace into the Pacific Ocean, dates a serial farter and appears in an extremely embarrassing episode of a prime-time television show.

***

The Last Great Adventure of Sir Peter Blake
Alan Sefton
Adult Non Fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 894 1
Penguin
RRP $30.00 PB

This captivating book follows the late Sir Peter Blake – legendary yachtsman and adventurer – on his final, ill-fated voyage. It tracks him and his dedicated team on the blakexpeditions exploration vessel Seamaster to the environmental pulse points of the planet as they look to generate greater awareness of the need to take better care of our world.
    Drawn from the logbooks kept by Sir Peter, and edited by his colleague and close friend Alan Sefton, this book relives that last, fateful voyage and at the same time celebrates both Sir Peter's passion and concern for the world in which we live.

***

The Propaganda Poster Girl
Amy Brown
Poetry
ISBN 978 0 86473 574 4
VUP
RRP $25.00

What emerges from this collection, without ever leaning on the familiar modes of confession, is a compelling self-portrait. Where other young poets might have found only feelings, Amy Brown finds images and scenes to carry the burden of disclosure. Rather than endless interiors, there’s a palpable, recognisable world in the work. This is a thoughtful, mature and provocative collection.

***

The Seven Stars of Matariki
Te Huihui o Matariki
Toni Rolleston-Cummins, illustrated by Nikki Slade-Robinson
Children’s
ISBN 978 1 86969 327 5
ISBN 978 1 86969 330 5
Huia Publishers
RRP $18 each

A contemporary myth of love, magic and adventure that celebrates Matariki and tells the story of how Matariki/the Pleiades star cluster came into being in Maori legend.
    Two separate books with the same story and illustrations: one in te reo Maori – Te Huihui o Matariki and the other in English – The Seven Stars of Matariki.

***

The Silence of Fear
Denis Martin
Teenage Fiction
ISBN 13: 9780143303954
Puffin
RRP $19.95

A heart-thumping, action-thriller for teens that will compel readers to keep turning the pages until the very end.
    Greg and his friends, Pip and Rikkers, 'borrow' a dinghy from a boat yard to go out joyriding one night. On their return they stumble upon a group of men stealing expensive equipment from the boat yard and flee in fear, luckily unnoticed (or so they think). Not wanting to get in trouble for their own misdemeanour, they decide not to go to the police about what they've seen. However a few weeks later, during a similar robbery at another boat yard, someone is murdered. By this time Greg and Rikkers have discovered who the members of the gang are - it includes kids from school and a terrifying tattooed bikie known only as BP. Unfortunately for Greg, BP has realised that Greg knows more then he should. This menacing figure is determined to teach him to mind his own business.

***

The Terrible Night
Paula Green, illustration Chris Grosz
Children’s Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86979009 X
Random House
RRP $18.99

It's parent/teacher night at school and Miss May sits alone in Room 28 looking out at the dark and stormy night.
     A beautiful cat comes to visit and together their imaginations run wild. They create all sorts of much worse scenarios than the terrible night outside.
    Full of wonderful words, references to much loved children's books, mad adventures and happy endings, The Terrible Night is a fun read for children and adults alike.

***

The Year of the Shanghai Shark
Zhi Hong Mo
Fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 893 4
Penguin
RRP $28.00

Hai Long is a teenager living in the Chinese city of Dalian. It's the year of the SARS epidemic in China. This is a modern China that's eye-catchingly contemporary.
    This is also the year in which Hai Long leaves school to learn the unlikely trade of his uncle. 'Uncle' has many books, but he's actually a highly successful professional pick-pocket who specialises in robbing dazed foreigners – Koreans and Japanese as well as Europeans – and makes special trips to Beijing for the purpose. As we meet a series of colourful characters in Hai Long's life and hang out with him and his mates, we also watch the teenager being trained in the ways of the pick-pocket.

***

Transported
Tim Jones
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 984 7
Random House
RRP $27.99

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan…
a half-day holiday decree

A well-known poet pursues his elusive muse; a Kiwi makes himself indispensable in Oz; a revolutionary fast-food franchise revs up Russia's economy; a racing-car driver is airborne; temperate Otago exports its kiwifruit worldwide; a Frenchman called Foucault puts in the hard yards at an antipodean dairy farm - all while water laps at our feet, our homes, our lives…

***

Working with David: Inside the Lange Cabinet
Michael Bassett
Non-fiction
Hachette Livre
RRP $59.99

David Lange was like no other politician. While he was seriously overweight when he entered Parliament, he had a silver tongue that could usually amuse, often captivate, and sometimes disconcert people. A Labour Party that had been in the doldrums since the death of Norman Kirk warmed to him. A radical minority on the party’s executive, however, disliked his humour and his resistance to their agendas.
    Drawn from Bassett’s huge collection of caucus and cabinet notes, plus official papers, Working with David is a collaborative and authoritative account of one of New Zealand’s most extraordinary political figures.

***

World's Weirdest Animals
Matt Roper
Nature
ISBN 0143008269
Penguin
RRP $14.95

A collection of the fifty most unbelievable, bizarre and the downright scary animals that inhabit this world. From the Naked Mole Rat to the Blobfish to the Assassin Bug, this is the stuff of nightmares!

May New Releases

2008-05-01T07:55:00Z

Art and About – A Pocket Guide to Wellington’s Public Art
Frances Sutton
Non-fiction
ISBN 978-1-877448-09-6
Steele Roberts
RRP $19.99

Let Art & About: A Pocket Guide to Wellingon’s Public Art by Frances Sutton take you on a tour of the city’s lively and vibrant public art scene – find hidden gems and discover the art that engages or enrages passers-by.

***

Aunt Effie and Mrs Grizzle
Jack Lasenby
Junior fiction
Longacre Press
RRP $17.99

This is the fourth book in the popular Aunt Effie series. We’re back at the ranch with Aunt Effie and her multitude of dogs, nieces and nephews and her incipient hypochondria. Once the kids have done the farm work, let the story-telling begin.
    This is trademark Jack Lasenby; the old humour keeps popping up as fresh as a daisy.

***

A Well Written Body
Karlo Mila with paintings by Delicia Sampero
Poetry/Art
ISBN 978 1 86969 321 3
Huia Publishers
RRP $35

A clever, modern and sensitive collection, A Well Written Body is a collaborative venture between artist and writer. After reading the first draft of the collection, Delicia envisaged a ten metre painting – a continuous allegory of the black butterfly. As Delicia's paintings emerged, Karlo wrote new pieces inspired by the images. A true dialogue evolved, creating a multidimensional conversation of images and imaginings between two women, crossing art forms and cultures. For this collection of poems, Karlo was mentored by fellow Montana award-winning poet Glenn Colquhoun. The book explores issues of desire and longing, identity and belonging, all with Karlo’s refreshing honesty and wit.

***

Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious
Gregory O’Brien
Art
ISBN 978 1 86940 404 8
Auckland University Press
RRP $34.99

A painting can take you many places. It can take you around the world, or it can take you around the country, city or neighbourhood you live in. It can also transport you back into the distant past of myths, legends and ancient history – or it can take you way into the future. Since Maori first drew moa and mythical birds on cave walls, artists in Aotearoa New Zealand have provided an imaginative, lively account of the lives we’ve been leading, the dreams we’ve been dreaming and the stories we’ve been telling. Alongside works painted during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this book features art by contemporary painters and printmakers, all of them seasoned travellers across time and space. Kiwi, angels, rugby players, whales and waka, moa and mountains, the bush and the beaches all play starring roles in this bird’s-eye view of New Zealand painting. Back and Beyond is alive with real and imagined encounters, with mysteries and discoveries, and with many of the paintings that have, over the past few hundred years, broadened the horizons of the citizens, young and old, of our shaky island nation.

***

Burning the Evidence
Terri Kessell
Historical novel
Cape Catley
RRP $26.99

The year is 1809. The arrogance of the English captain and crew of the sailing ship Boyd, and their treatment of the Maori, led to one of the darkest episodes in New Zealand history.
    Burning the Evidence tells in novel form the true story of Ann Morley, who has been sent as a convict from England to Sydney. Her courage and strength of character help her to become a woman of means, and she is on her way back home, via New Zealand, when tragedy strikes.

***

Cemetery Lake
Paul Cleave
Crime fiction
RHNZ Black Swan
RRP $34.99

Tate is a private investigator, but he’s barely coping with life. He’s at the cemetery exhuming a body for an investigation, but across the cemetery lake his dead daughter is buried, her death the beginning of many losses. As the machinery digging up the grave in front of him shakes the ground, something floats to the surface of the lake. It looks like a human form, followed by several others. What dark secrets is Tate uncovering and can he keep a grip on his own life to get to the person responsible?

***

Chicken Feathers
Joy Cowley
Young fiction
ISBN 978 0 14330 390 9
Puffin
RRP $17.95

A feel-good story about Josh, and his cantankerous pet hen, Semolina. Semolina can talk and in return for prawn crackers and the odd beer, she tells Josh all the animal gossip. The problem is that no one believes she can talk and Josh's warning about a fox on the loose in the chicken house is laughed at – until it is too late. Underscored by the drama of Josh's mother having to stay in hospital until her new baby is born ('Son, we're not good layers.") this has a humorous, folksy feel that will appeal to 9-11-year-olds.

***

Cooking Times
Kate Fraser
Cooking
Harper Collins
RRP $44

Award-winning food writer Kate Fraser takes readers on a culinary journey through kiwi kitchens from the 1930s to the present day. Through a collection of recipes and anecdotes from the kitchens of engaging fictitious characters, the reader is provided with a fascinating retrospective of our culinary traditions and a tasty overview of the development of our national food culture.
    More than just nostalgic memories, Cooking Times serves up an array of delicious and intriguing recipes that are easy to cook and even better to eat.

***

The Converts: Changing Codes
Bob Howitt and John Deaker
Sport
HarperCollins
ISBN $39.99

In the era of the professional game the divisions between two traditionally rival codes have been blown away. In the past, top players have switched acrimoniously and mostly from 'amateur' rugby to 'professional' league. Now it's two-way traffic and it's highly lucrative.
    In the new book, The Converts: Changing Codes, distinguished rugby writer Bob Howitt and radio producer John Deaker, take a revealing look at the loyalties, the lure of the big dollar and the life-changing experiences of top-flight players who have changed allegiance. They write that even in this era of professional sport, players are still subject to criticism for switching codes. Players who change know they will be judged by their new team-mates and their supporters.
    Featuring players from both sides of the Tasman are Inga Tuigamala, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuqiri, Marc Ellis, Matthew Ridge, John Gallagher, Mat Rogers, Frano Botica, Shane Howarth, Daryl Halligan, Brad Thorn, Craig Innes, Michael O'Connor, Jason Robinson, John Schuster and John Timu.

***

The Crocus Hour
Charlotte Randall
Fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 892 7
Penguin
RRP $28.00

In a village café in Crete, 1981, a young backpacker is befriended by a troubled New Zealander, Henry Davis. He reveals that his daughter Sally vanished from the island two years earlier and he has come to Crete to explore the baffling circumstances of her disappearance.
    For Davis there are painful unanswered questions. What happened to Sally? Who was to blame for her mysterious disappearance? Was it an accident? Davis soon has to confront the painful possibility that Sally herself may have planned a deliberate flight from a too-protective father. And who was the real Sally?

***

Duck’s Stuck!
Kyle Mewburn illustrated by Ali Teo & John O’Reilly
Children’s picture book
Scholastic
$16.99

Told in a simple, staccato-style of text, this is the tale of a greedy duck who sticks his head where he shouldn’t. It takes the cunning of a rat to solve Duck’s problem. Featuring an award-winning author/illustrator combination, Duck’s Stuck is great fun to read aloud.

***

The Face of War: New Zealand’s Great War
Sandy Callister
Photography / Military History
ISBN 978 1 86940 407 9
Auckland University Press
RRP $49.99

By the time the First World War broke out in 1914, photography had become affordable and popular. Many of the 100,000 New Zealanders who went overseas to fight carried cameras with them, determined to capture their part in the ‘great adventure’. And soldiers were not the only ones to take photographs: cameras were also used by officials, journalists and medical staff. The Face of War is the first book to examine the photographs, many previously unknown, of New Zealand’s First World War experience, tracing a sometimes shocking, often moving visual history through soldiers’ snapshots, keepsake portraits, battlefield panoramas, photographic medical records and rolls of honour. Sandy Callister discusses how photography was used to capture and narrate, memorialise and observe, romanticise and bear witness to the experiences of New Zealanders at home and overseas. Her study is the first to argue for the importance of New Zealand photography to the history of war, but also examines in depth the contradictions of this photography: as a site of remembrance and forgetting, of nation and sacrifice, of mourning and mythology, of subjectivity and identity. Both authoritative and insightful, The Face of War superbly illuminates an often overlooked aspect of New Zealand’s First World War history.

***

Family OE – A really useful Kiwi guide to travelling overseas with your children
Luke & Karen Williamson
Travel / Reference
ISBN 978 1 86966 185 4
New Holland Publishers
Price $39.99

If you are planning to take your children on an extended trip overseas, Family OE is a must-have. It’s packed with good advice gathered by the Williamson family on their eight months of travel in Western Europe, Turkey and Canada. This book is not a ‘where to’ guide, but a ‘how to’, tailored specially to family travel and covering such topics as planning, what to take, preparing your children for the trip, what to do about school, budgeting, health and safety, and more. Practical tips are interleaved with travel anecdotes and snippets from the family’s journals. Black-and-white and colour photographs help illustrate the ins, outs, ups and downs of family travel, and are also guaranteed to whet the appetite and get you planning your own Family OE.

***

First Walks in NZ
AH Reed
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 935 1
Raupo
RRP $35.00

This book is a treasure. A.H. Reed, hand-wrote, illustrated and bound this beautiful volume that recorded his experiences as a trainee soldier 'in and around Featherston Military Camp and (mostly) elsewhere' in 1916-17 for his beloved wife Isabel back in Dunedin.
    This paperback facsimile edition will be prized by any book lover.

***

Ghosts in the Valley
Richard Steele
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 8 77448 324
Steele Roberts
RRP $24.99

Ghosts in the Valley is an engrossing, easy-paced novella of murder and intrigue, told in authentic rural style with all the colour of life in rugged bush country. Three true stories of rough diamonds, grass grub wars and the pleasures and perils of jetboating (an essential skill and recreation when you live beside the Whanganui) round out this unusual book – pure Kiwiana.

***

Glasseye Creek
Dawn McMillan
Children’s
ISBN 978 0 14350 271 5
Picture Puffin
RRP $17.95

Created from the strong gold mining history of a town called Taffytown on the West Coast, Dawn McMillan and Raymond McGrath have written and illustrated the hilarious story of Taffy, a gold miner who worked an area called Glasseye Creek. Taffy has a glass eye and, one wild night when he sets out on an errand, he leaves his glass eye behind to 'keep an eye on' his friends. However, young Owen, sent by his mother to collect his father from Taffy's hut, spies the eye and thinks it's a wonderful marble!
    Follow the story as the group tries to find the eye after Owen pockets it then promptly loses it before Taffy returns from his errand!

***

High-Tech Legs on Everest
Mark Inglis
Junior Reader
Random House
RRP $26.99

On 15 May 2006 double amputee, Mark Inglis, fulfilled a childhood ambition: to stand on top of the highest mountain in the world. High-Tech Legs on Everest is a junior reader version (suitable for ages 10–14) of Legs on Everest, telling the story of how he got there and the equally gripping tale of how he got back down again. There are plenty of illustrations and boxed material to enliven the pages of a story that is already colourful and engaging.
    Mark Inglis is a climber, an inspirational speaker and an adventurer. At the age of 23, he lost both legs below the knee after survivng for 13 days in an ice cave on Mt Cook during prolonged bad weather. Since then he has set himself many targets – physical, academic and professional – and has succeeded.

***

Is She Still Alive?
Tessa Duder
Adult fiction / Short stories
HarperCollins
RRP $34.99

Set variously in New Zealand and Europe, these stories have parallels with the 20th-century female experience in other Western countries, particularly those with a colonial past. They aim to portray a range of experiences of mainly middle-class women, mostly born into the era around the Second World War and the 20 years after.

***

It Matters that we’re young together
Diana Deans
Poetry
ISBN 978-1-877448-34-8
Steele Roberts
RRP $19.99

Diana Deans met her best friend at boarding school at the age of 12. As their work and family commitments reduced decades later, they anticipated spending more time together, enjoying the good life. But fate had other ideas. In an effort to capture the good times and keep some perspective Diana kept a diary, from which these poems were written. It Matters That We Were Young Together follows a year of friendship, and the demands placed on it.

***

The Gypsy Tearoom
Nicki Pellegrino
Fiction
ISBN 978 0 75288 406 6
Orion / Hachette Livre
$27.99

A wonderfully atmospheric, touching and sumptuous novel about a young widow's search for happiness in a small Italian village. Full-bodied as a rich Italian red, it is a page-turner combining the missed chances of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin with the foodie pleasures of Chocolat.

***

The Lakes of Mars
Chris Orsman
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 869404 408 6
Auckland University Press
RRP USD 13.95 approx

The Lakes of Mars is a stunning new collection of poems by Chris Orsman that follow on from his most recent book, South: An Antarctic Journey, a sequence about Captain Scott’s final expedition to Antarctica. These new poems are a characteristic mix of thoughtful reflection and precise imagery of landscape and object. Chris Orsman captures ‘the plainness of life’ with a visual clarity, but always pushes his descriptions further, broadening the poems ‘into intellectual and moral meaning’. He is also particularly good at vividly recreating historical moments, while evoking the gifts and loss of the past.

***

Little Blue Penguins
Rebekah Palmer illustrated by Megan McKenzie
Children’s picture book
ISBN 978 1 86943 716 9
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

A charming rhyme telling of how the little penguins cross the road at night to play on the beach in the moonlight.

***

Misconduct
Bridge van der Zijpp
Fiction
ISBN 978 0 86473 575 1
Victoria Univeristy Press
RRP $30
Simone’s obsession with her former lover is dangerously out of control, so when the approach of her fortieth birthday brings on a compulsion to wreak havoc in his new life, a house-sitting opportunity at a remote beach provides a welcome escape.
    With only the responsibility of somebody else’s perpetually cheerful dog, Simone values her isolation – but her elderly neighbours have other ideas and begin to pull her into their eccentric lives.
    Is it possible she’s got away with it, or will the things she’s done come back to haunt her?
    Misconduct is a moving novel about the possibility of reinvention, the sweet and sour taste of revenge, and a woman’s search for friendship and love. Read Bridget van der Zijpp's blog for Book Month here.

***

The New Retirement: Smart Tips for Boomers
Bill Jamieson
Finance
ISBN 978 1 877460 09 8
Shoal Bay / Longacre Press
RRP $29.99

Bill Jamieson, who is retired himself, traverses the entire landscape of retirement in New Zealand, from investment strategies to health-care costs, from home computers to holidays overseas and shows how we can successfully negotiate the maze of conflicting financial demands, debt and investment portfolios, and manage professional advisers with their own agendas?
    With abundant commonsense, compassion and empathy Bill Jamieson, in this clear practical book, guides us towards an enjoyable and rewarding retirement.

***

NZ Rock 1987–2007
Gareth Shute
Non-fiction
Random House
RRP $45.00

The highly talented Gareth Shute returns with what will be a seminal book on the history of guitar music in this country. NZ Rock 1987-2007 begins in 1987 at the point where Crowded House’s track, ‘Don’t Dream it’s Over’, had just reached the top of the singles charts in the United States. It traces the history of guitar music in New Zealand from this time until the present, showing how local bands have tried to follow this example or have sought different routes to success – either locally or internationally. Gareth includes extensive information on a wide variety of artists such as the Flying Nun bands, rock acts like Shihad, highly commercial artists like Bic Runga, newer acts like The Mint Chicks and the older statesmen of New Zealand rock like the Finn brothers. It also looks at a wide range of genres from reggae and dub to heavy rock. Along the way Shute discusses both independent and larger labels and then examines New Zealand’s success in the international marketplace. NZ Rock 1987-2007 takes over where John Dix’s Stranded in Paradise left off.

***

Payback
Michelle Kelly
Junior fiction
ISBN 978-1-86943-829-6
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

Riley is thirteen, about to turn fourteen when the story opens. During his holidays he not only managed to break his arm in a skateboarding accident, he’s also been told by the attending doctor that he appears ‘seriously delayed’ in his growth; that he has a nine-year-old’s bone development. Riley knew he was short, but had always assumed he would grow. Now he has to go and have tests.
    In the meantime, Riley has a run-in with Vince McGerk, all-round tough guy. Using his plaster cast as a weapon, Riley thumps Vince, despite the size difference. Vince threatens ‘payback’, and from this point on, Riley sweats it out while waiting for Vince’s attack. To make matters worse, now Vince seems to be hanging out with Riley’s ex-girlfriend … and Riley and Vince have to play in the same softball team.

***

Poisonous Stuff
Alan Trussell-Cullen
Young non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14350 258 6
Picture Puffin
RRP $19.95

Do you suffer from spheksophobia, arachnophobia or ophidiophobia?
What should you do if you're stung by a wasp?
Whose bite is more dangerous – Mr or Mrs Katipo's?
Which snake spits its venom?
And just how many poisons lie around your house?

Learn the answers to all these perplexing questions and more by reading Poisonous Stuff. You need to watch your step in a world full of fangs, stingers and brightly coloured lures – but did you know that some poisons can actually be useful? Packed with toxic topics and creepy-crawly quizzes, you can use the information in this book to frighten your friends and terrify your teacher!

***

Roosters I Have Known
Steve Braunias
Biography/New Zealand
ISBN 978 0 9582750 5 7
Awa Press
RRP $30

In 2007, award-winning journalist Steve Braunias embarked on a series of 27 interviews, one a week, profiling New Zealanders famous and infamous, both publicity-seekers and those desperate to hide from the spotlight. His startling survey of the national psyche ranged from the all-out brainy (neuroscientist Richard Faull) to the disturbingly naïve (rape survivor Louise Nicholas), from the vainglorious (actor Adam Rickitt) to the gloriously vain (TV star Paul Henry), from the food writer in her home (Cuisine’s Julie Dalzell) to the war correspondent in someone else’s (Fox Television’s Anita McNaught in Iraq).
    He also took us to our leaders – Labour’s Helen Clark, National’s John Key, the Maori Party’s Pita Sharples … and to a miscellany of mayoral wannabes. You may never vote again.

***

Shadow of the Mountain
Anna Mackenzie
Young adult fiction
ISBN 978 1 877460 00 5
Longacre Press
RRP $18.99

Geneva’s world has been blown apart by loss. Maybe that’s why her decisions are not always the sharpest. One thing she knows: there’s no way back to the person she once was.
    When Angus appears in her orbit it seems an omen that things are changing – but life is never that simple.

***

Smelly Stuff
Alan Trussell-Cullen
Young non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14350 257 9
Picture Puffin
RRP $19.95

Does cold food smell stronger than hot?
Do humans have a sixth sense?
What do Pinocchio, Cleopatra and Michael Jackson all have in common?
Why do pandas do handstands?
And are cows really causing global warming?

Learn the answers to all these perplexing questions and more by reading Smelly Stuff. Now you can find out how to make a particularly stinky fart and how to get rid of BO. Packed with wacky whiffy facts and quizzes, the very smelly information in this book will impress the socks off your friends – and even teach your teacher a thing or two!

***

Starbright and the Dream Eater
Joy Cowley
Young fiction
ISBN 978 0 14330 392 3
Puffin
RRP $17.95

People all over Claircomb are succumbing to a strange illness, thought to be a deadly new virus. But this is no virus – it is a life form so advanced that its intelligence makes a computer look like counting beads. It knows the prophecy, too, and it is hunting down the Bright Star – to destroy her forever. Can Starbright Connor, the town's tomboy and giggly dare-devil, be the chosen one who will save her beloved family?

***

the taste of nashi – New Zealand Haiku
edited by Nola Borrell and Karen P Butterworth
Haiku
ISBN 978 0 473 13300 9
Windrift
RRP: $25.00
Available from selected book stores or email Nola Borrell/Karen Butterworth

A haiku is a short poem based on a traditional Japanese poetic form, which increasing numbers of western poets have adopted with enthusiasm. The title, the taste of nashi, encapsulates the haiku's Japanese origins and the sensate nature of haiku, and is taken from one of the haiku featured in the book.

standing naked
in moonlight –
the taste of nashi
    —Sandra Simpson

This anthology is the first national haiku collection to be published since 1998 (the second New Zealand Haiku Anthology NZPS ed Cyril Childs). It includes 60 poets and over 200 haiku.

***

Te Kahui O Matariki
Libby Hakaraia and Colleen Urlich
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 934 4
Raupo
RRP $65.00

Te Kahui o Matariki is a large-scale book containing contemporary artwork, photography, poetry and short writings including personal experiences of Matariki – the Maori New Year. This book begins with an introduction and background to Matariki. The artists include painters, sculptors, photographers, weavers, carvers and mixed media artists.

***

Things Your Granny Should Have Told You
Non-fiction
HarperCollins
RRP $24.99

Never eat in the street, comb your hair, or apply lipstick in public. Always use a silver spoon to crack crème brulée, and copper-bottomed saucepans for choux pastry, and, to be sure your crab apple jelly sets as clear as a jewel, refrain from squeezing the muslin bag while it is hanging.
    Part folk-lore, part home science, part etiquette, this is some of the advice often associated with grandmothers. Like most women of their generation, they were experts in a dozen fields, raising families and running households through wars and economic slumps.

***

Ticket to the Sky Dance
Joy Cowley
Young fiction
ISBN 978 0 14330 391 6
Puffin
RRP $17.95

Shog and his twin sister, Jancie, are orphans who live on the streets. They know every free food place in the city and how to make the best of looking helpless and cute. Their favourite possessions are hologram players and Zeus boots – they are freedom children of the twenty-first century, using their good looks and cunning to survive. When Class Act, a famous, international modelling agency, welcomes them to its private world of extravagance and luxury, they can't believe their luck. But as the newness of luxury wears off, it is replaced by terrible fears: why were they chosen and what is really happening on the upper floors of the famous, horseshoe-shaped building?

***

Under African Skies (book and dvd)
Jo & Gareth Morgan
Travel
Random House
RRP $39.99

The intrepid bikers’ latest exciting adventure takes them through Africa, northwards from Cape Town all the way to London. A highlight of the journey was visiting the villages fortunate enough to have had water pumps installed, courtesy of the Morgans charitable donations.

***

What a Ride, Mate! – The Life and Times of the Mad Butcher
Peter Leitch with Phil Gifford
foreword by Helen Clark, Prime Minister
Memoir / Biography
HarperSports
RRP $49.99

For the first time, and with some help from his long-time mate Phil Gifford, Peter Leitch tells the full story of his remarkable life in his autobiography, What a Ride, Mate! The Life and Times of the Mad Butcher. In the book Leitch opens up the private side of his life for all to see, the side his friends have always known – the faithful friend and self-made man who always knew where he was going, without ever forgetting where he'd been.
(The proceeds of this book go to the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and Allergy New Zealand.)

April: new releases this month

2008-03-31T23:45:00Z

A Birthday in the Life of Ozzie Kingsford
Val Bird, illustrated by Rebecca Cundy
Junior fiction
ISBN
RHNZ
RRP $19.99

‘7.45am, Saturday the 1st of December. My mother tells me that at three minutes to four o’clock this afternoon I will have lived in this world for exactly eleven years. “Oh, my goodness, you were such a cute baby,” she sighs, then reaches out a hand and ruffles my hair. “I wonder what went wrong.” Fact: I DO NOT LIKE MY NAME. I did not choose my time of arrival on this earth, but unfortunately (for me) I turned out to be the first-born male child of my generation. The original Oswald Devon Kingsford was my great-great-great-great-grandfather. He was a famous explorer. During the course of his exploits, he kept a journal. After sailing in ships, trekking across deserts, climbing great mountains and discovering lost tribes – he dropped down dead, deep in the Amazon jungle, but not until he wrote this final entry in his journal: I beg thee. Do not let my name die with me – My last request is that the first born male child of each generation shall carry my name into the future.’

Guaranteed to have both children and adults chuckling, this junior fiction title is aimed at 9 to 12 year-olds. It is funny, clever and well paced, featuring cute line illustrations by Val Bird’s daughter Rebecca Cundy, a highly successful graphic artist.

***

Allyson Gofton's After Work Cook Book
Gofton Allyson
Cooking
ISBN 978 0 14300 895 8
Penguin
RRP $30.00

Allyson Gofton's After Work Cookbook is for busy people who enjoy creating delicious meals, but don't have hours to spend in the kitchen. Full of versatile ideas to minimise last-minute cooking panic, the After Work Cookbook will make every night's meal a pleasure.
    A compilation of Allyson's celebrated recipes from the Next magazine, plus new recipes and photographs.
    An introductory chapter lists essential items to keep in your cupboard, fridge and freezer to ensure you always have a nutritious meal at hand even after the most hectic day at work. This is followed by chapters on beef and lamb, chicken, fish, pork, almost vegetarian and dessert. Each of the 90 recipes is easy-to-follow, quick to prepare and full of flavour while still being healthy.

***

A Sandwich Short of a Picnic
Felicity Price
Fiction
ISBN
RHNZ Black Swan
RRP $27.99

A warmly humorous novel about an engagingly vulnerable woman who belongs to the Sandwich Generation – sandwiched between the demands of a career, elderly parents, teenagers and a marriage that is on the skids. Running from one crisis to another, Penny Rushmore misses the signs that her husband is about to leave her for a sexy younger woman, and is left bouncing between shoe shops and dreams of revenge. But how far should she go? And how will she find the time? She has no time for work-life balance, no time to read the manuals on coping with difficult teenagers and an increasingly dotty mother, and she especially has no time for breast cancer. But there’s nothing like the big C to help sort out what’s really important. When life hangs in the balance, decisions about whether to splurge on designer shoes, lose unwanted kilos or find a new fella suddenly don’t seem so important any more… until He turns up, that is.

***

A Short History of Photography
Harvey Benge
Non-fiction
ISBN
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $44.99

While looking through his contact sheets in 2007 Harvey Benge noticed that one of his pictures reminded him of a Friedlander, another of an Atget, yet others of a Tillmans, a Baldessari and an Adams... Picking them out, he decided to make what leading UK photography critic Gerry Badger describes in his opening essay as an ‘anthology’ of contemporary photography featuring some of its biggest names. The result is a sharply curated and perfectly formed collection of intriguing, beguiling and seductive images, sure to delight the photography aficionado and newcomer alike.

***

Been There, Read That –  Stories for the Armchair Traveller
 edited by Jean Anderson
Travel anthology
 ISBN 978 0 86473 572 0
Victoria University Press
RRP $30

“Travel the world, from Austria to Vietnam, without leaving your favourite armchair!
The whole world—without carbon miles. It’s time we had books like this.” —Bill Manhire
Been There, Read That: Stories for the Armchair Traveller is a fascinating collection of short stories from around the world. Some of the authors are well known in their native language, others are relative newcomers; for many, this is the first time their work has appeared in English. In every case, the translators invite you to share the pleasures of their art: encountering a new voice, connecting with another culture, seeing the world through very different eyes.

***

Being Maori-Chinese: Mixed Identities  
Manying Ip
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86940 399 7
Auckland University Press
$49.99

This book uses extensive interviews with seven different families to explore historical and contemporary relations between Maori and Chinese. A full chapter is given to each family which is explored in depth often in the voices of the protagonists themselves. It provides a unique and fascinating insight into cross-cultural alliances between Asian and indigenous peoples, revealing a resilience which has endured persecution, ridicule and neglect and offering a picture of NZ society which challenges the usual Pakeha-dominated perspective. Today’s Maori-Chinese, especially younger members, are increasingly reaffirming their multiple roots and, with a growing confidence in the cultural advantages they possess, are playing important roles in New Zealand society.

***

Book Self: The Reader as Writer and the Writer as Critic
C. K. Stead
Literary criticism
ISBN 978 1 86940 412 3
Auckland University Press
$39.99

For more than forty years, Karl Stead has been New Zealand’s leading literary and cultural critic. Whether writing about Christianity or a trip to Croatia, Stead always brings a clear personal point of view, a strong analytical bent, and a witty pen to his work. In this latest collection of critical writing he takes the reader on a personal journey, from his earliest discovery of poetry as a young man to his experiences on the literary trail over the last few years. And he takes us on a trip through literary history, from Katherine Mansfield and T. S. Eliot to Michael King and Elizabeth Knox. For the first time, Stead includes in this book a series of journal extracts that allow readers closer to the mind of the writer. "Here the ego is exposed – not quite naked, but now and then with its shirt off," writes Stead. In Book Self we see a great New Zealand critic at work – a writer with strong personal views about other writers and a deep commitment to the role of role of criticism in literary life.

***

Caging Skies
Christine Leunens
Fiction
ISBN
RHNZ Vintage
RRP $27.99

Caging Skies is a gripping, masterful novel seen through Johannes’ eyes, laying bare the darkest corners of the human soul. As an avid member of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s, Johannes discovers that his parents are hiding a Jewish girl called Elsa behind a false wall in their large house in Vienna. Johannes’ initial horror turns to interest, then love and obsession. After the death of his mother and disappearance of his father he soon finds he is the only one aware of Elsa’s existence in the house, the only one responsible for her survival. Both manipulating and manipulated, Johannes dreads the end of the war and the prospect of losing Elsa. His solution is to create the illusion that Hitler won. Trapped by his lies, the couple have a relationship ranging through passion and obsession, dependence and indifference, love and hate.

***

The Carver and the Artist: Maori Art in the Twentieth Century
Damian Skinner
Art
ISBN 978 1 86940 373 7
Auckland University Press
$89.99

This exciting book charts the growth and development of the Maori modernist art that emerged from the rapid urbanisation of Maori in the mid twentieth century and the complex transition of Maori cultural and social structures from a rural to an urban setting. It is a story of the conflict between tradition and innovation – two seemingly incompatible but not always opposing positions that were the source of a great upswelling of creativity. Artists like Arnold Wilson, Para Matchitt, and Selwyn Muru constructed a Maori art that reacted against the customary culture and attempted to respond to the modern world in which they lived. The book includes a rich selection of reproductions of Maori modernist art many of which are of brilliant works not widely known and often from the artists’ own collections.

***

Come and See
Joy Cowley photographs by Terry Coles
Spirituality
ISBN 978 0 47313 191 3
Pleroma
RRP $25.00

A series of profoundly simple reflections based on passages from the New Testament. These well-loved Christian stories are treated in such a way that the reader is startled into recognising that these are our stories today.

***

Common Ground: An uncommon true story of flowers, friendship and gardens
Janice Marriott & Virginia Pawsey
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 680 3
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP

Two very different women who garden two very different properties meet at a school reunion after nearly 40 years. Their passion for gardening and writing, and the realization that they are both dealing with unexpected deaths, rekindles their friendship and they begin writing to each other.
    The letters in Common Ground follow the friends’ gardens and lives through a whole year.
    Poignant and beautifully written, Common Ground has the makings of a classic in the canon of writing about gardening and about lives lived thoughtfully with a sharp edge of humour.

***

Dinner’s on the Table: Food for Families to eat together
Jan Bilton
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86953 712 8
David Bateman
RRP $24.99

Leading food writer Jan Bilton’s latest cookbook provides meals for the whole family to enjoy. With many books to her name, thousands of inches of food writing columns to her credit and many dinners on the table, Jan knows the meals New Zealanders enjoy most. In Dinner’s on the Table she selects a combination of flavours including Asian, Mexican, Pacific, and Mediterranean cooking for New Zealand families to prepare and enjoy together. The book is divided into simple sections for easy-style cooking: one-dish, grills, stir-frys, oven dishes, microwave cooking and slow-cooker meals.

***

Dynamic Breathing: Managing Your Asthma Using the Bradcliff Breathing Method
Dinah Bradley and Tania Clifton-Smith
Non-fiction
ISBN
RHNZ
RRP $34.99

This book is the asthma sufferers indispensable companion. Roughly one person in seven experiences asthma at some time in their life. This fresh and original book looks at aspects of living with asthma in a unique and comprehensive way. In recent years asthma patients may have been well informed about their drug management, but less emphasis has been placed on physical coping skills and the importance of the correct use of the muscles for breathing. In Dynamic Breathing for Asthma, two internationally recognised experts on breathing pattern disorders take you through a step-by-step breathing retraining process, which can help you to reduce medications, reduce stress levels, exercise comfortably and, most importantly, breathe effectively.

***

ella and ob
Sarah Johnson illustrated by Jenny Cooper
Fiction
ISBN 9781869438173
Scholastic
RRP $14.99

Bella and her father live in a house that is falling down with negligence. Ever since her mum (a staunch environmentalist and recycling fanatic) went missing, her dad has lost the will to do very much, not even take Bella to school each day. One night Bella hears a strange sound in the hall. Upon investigation she finds a pink shoe decorated with an immense pink feather, stumbling around the hall. It turns out to be a ghost, and the visible shoe is because, in the ghost world, that is the part that is missing. Together Bella (or ella) and the ghost Bob (or ob – the ‘B’ is silent) set out to solve the mystery of the missing mum.

***

Facing The Music: Charles Baeyertz and the Triad
Joanna Woods
Non-fiction
ISBN
Otago University Press
RRP $45.00

Facing the Music is the biography of a man and a magazine. The man, Charles Baeyertz, was a brilliant and fearless critic who founded and edited one of New Zealand’s most successful cultural magazines, the Triad. The magazine, which ran from 1893 to 1927, was quite as extraordinary as its founder and constitutes a unique chronicle of New Zealand’s cultural life for over three decades. As New Zealand’s first commercially viable arts magazine, the Triad stood head and shoulders above its contemporaries, running thunderous reviews, laced with biting wit, on many well-known musicians, artists and writers.
    In her book, Joanna Woods brings to life one of the most colourful figures of our cultural past and paints a vivid picture of the golden Liberal era, when many world famous performers, singers and musicians took to the stage in New Zealand. Meticulously researched and rich in entertaining detail, Facing the Music is also compelling evidence of the vigour and diversity of New Zealand’s cultural life during a long-neglected period. A tantalising glimpse of a previously unexplored world.

***

In Continents  
Richard Reeve
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 406 2
Auckland University Press
RRP $24.99

In his third collection, poet Richard Reeve examines a litany of historical contexts, from the violence of Tiberius and Edward III to the death of James Cook’s Polynesian companion, Tupaia, to counterpoint the habitual barbarity, selfishness and stupidity of humans with our potential. In Continents contrasts grace with atavism, imaginative transcendence with the determinative structures of biology, culture and belief. Humans, the clever ape, live and die in age-old continents, but behave incontinently. At the collection’s core is the role of poetry as revelation of the ethical horizon of human existence, and how as a species we wilfully neglect to act in accordance with this revelation. In a close-to-home example, the collection also reflects on the environmental conflict presently raging in Otago-Southland concerning the giant wind farms proposed by Meridian, TrustPower and other generators. Ironically, Reeve suggests that areas of great and remote natural beauty have fallen victim to technology symbolising a would-be corporate revolution towards greener methods of energy. In Continents uses deft and concentrated language to bridge the gap between ideas and objects, and confirms Reeve’s reputation as a unique and innovative voice in New Zealand poetry.

***

KiwiSaver Max: How to Get the Most Out of It
Mary Holm
Non-fiction
RHNZ
RRP $16.99

Mary Holm’s first KiwiSaver book was an instant bestseller. This new book assumes a certain amount of foreknowledge and sets out the many ways in which individuals can maximise savings and tax advantages, in the process supporting friends and families through making KiwiSaver deposits or setting up accounts. It covers the types of KiwiSaver schemes that have emerged since the government first announced the system, including those for people who want ultra-safe growth, risky but spectacular growth and growth based on ethical investments.

***

Kiwis in Conflict – 200 years of New Zealanders at War
Chris Pugsley, Buddy Mikaere, Nigel Prickett, Laurie Barber, Rose Young
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86953 708 1
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $39.99

Kiwis in Conflict is a rich and fascinating account of the impact of war through the eyes of those involved, using photographs, paintings, letters and diaries from the Auckland Museum’s permanent collection. Five leading New Zealand historians have contributed to this major work, and the new edition has the latest information on New Zealanders as peacekeepers in the Pacific, the Middle East and Afghanistan, including the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Corporal Bill “Willie” Apiata.
    Buddy Mikaere tells the story of the New Zealand Wars from a Maori perspective, and the impact this had and is still having on Maori communities. Nigel Prickett contrasts this with European perceptions. Laurie Barber examines New Zealand’s first experience of fighting for the Empire in the Anglo-Boer War. Chris Pugsley continues this story into the First and Second World Wars. It is a tale of learning about war the hard way, by bitter and costly experience. Rose Young examines the defence of New Zealand and the total mobilisation of our society to meet the Japanese threat. Chris Pugsley takes the story of conflict into the postwar years, including peacekeeping operations from Korea in the 1950s to the present day.

***

Landings
Jenny Pattrick
Fiction
ISBN
RHNZ Black Swan
$27.99

Having sold almost 90,000 copies of the Denniston Rose trilogy, Jenny Pattrick is one of our most successful novelists. Jenny’s much-awaited new novel, Landings, may well do for the Whanganui River what she did for the tiny coal mining settlement of Denniston on the South Island’s west coast. The Whanganui River at the turn of the twentieth century is a busy thoroughfare, taking sightseers through the spectacular landscape by paddle steamer and acting as highway for the sparse scatterings of settlements along its twisting length. The people who have made it their home are a diverse collection, from Samuel Blencoe, trying to forget his past life as a convict, to the hoteliers at Pipiriki, the nuns at Jerusalem, the Maori families, the Chinese market gardener and the farmers, like Danny and Stella, trying to tame the wild bush. There’s also Bridie, the strange, silent girl, who haunts the banks of the river where the accident occurred that robbed her of her mind. Like the tributaries that trickle down the mountains and join the mighty river, so the lives of these people come together in this vivid and moving tale of a stunningly unique place.

***

The Magpies
Denis Glover and Dick Frizzell
Poetry
ISBN
RH NZ Godwit
RRP $19.99

Denis Glover’s iconic New Zealand poem ‘The Magpies’ is illustrated by Dick Frizzell to create a beautiful gift edition that every New Zealand family needs to own. The delightful refrain ‘Quardle ardle oodle ardle wardle doodle’ is well loved in New Zealand poetry, as are Dick Frizzell’s illustrations for this book. It won the Russell Clark award for illustration in 1988.
    Originally published in 1987, this book remains as fresh and original today as it was then. This is the true mark of a New Zealand Classic. Denis Glover (1912-1980) is one of NZ’s most well-known poets. Dick Frizzell is a highly successful artist.

***

Managing Chronic Illness: reclaim health and well-being
Veronica Latham
Health
ISBN 978 1 86953 706 7
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $29.99

When faced with a long-term or permanent illness such as depression, hepatitis or epilepsy, asthma or diabetes, it is difficult to know how to cope. Managing Chronic Illness clearly shows that it is possible to have a chronic condition and to be well! Sympathetic, effective and informative, the book provides practical advice on steps you can to take to reclaim your health and take control of your life again.
    The book also looks at caring for children with chronic illness, the pros and cons of natural therapies, understanding diet and nutrition and numerous other tips on how to live a healthier life. Clear accessible charts provide useful New Zealand website addresses and an extensive bibliography lists further reading.

***

March to the Sound of the Guns
Ray Grover
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 877460 01 2
Longacre
RRP $34.99

‘March to the Sound of the Guns is the story of ordinary New Zealanders trapped in the most horrible of wars, where the only response is to live or die with quiet heroism. The events of Gallipoli, the Somme and Passchendaele need no dressing up. Ray Grover takes us into the trenches, through the mud holes, into the face of enemy fire, not with clashing armies but with individuals the reader knows from their pre-war lives. The writing is strong, elegant, witty, restrained, the characters well-rounded and likeable, while the research underpinning pre-1914 life in New Zealand and the events of the war is heroic in its scope and depth. March to the Sound of the Guns is a triumphant amalgam of scholarship and story-telling, and is likely to be judged our best war novel yet.’ —Maurice Gee

***

Old Drumble
Jack Lasenby
Children’s fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 674 2
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $16.99

Old Drumble is the humorous and heartwarming story of Jack Jackman, a young boy who wants to be a stock drover, set in the small Waikato township of Waharoa in the 1930s. Jack has a wonderful, warm relationship with his parents and with an old family friend, Andy the Drover, who each week drives a mob of sheep or cattle through the main street with the help of his dog, Old Drumble, and his horse, Nosy.
    All three become the boy’s close friends over the long, hot summer holidays, and each week Andy tells Jack an even more amazing story of how Old Drumble has saved the day yet again, with each adventure becoming more and more absurd. A Baron Munchausen of the sheep mob, Andy’s yarns are delightful, funny and quixotic — and in the hands of a master storyteller like Jack Lasenby, a passionate advocate of children’s literacy, the result is pure magic.

***

Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig
Diana Neild illustrated by Philip Webb
Picture book
ISBN 9781869438746
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

When Piggity-Wiggity complains to his dad about the length of his name, Dad explains that he and his wife felt that their large family of four boys and four girls was missing something. When Piggity-Wiggity came along, they were so delighted that they wanted to give him an extra-special, musical, heroic sort of name. Piggity-Wiggity goes to sleep well satisfied with the explanation for his extraordinary name.

***

Rita Angus: An Artist's Life
Jill Trevelyan
Non-fiction/Biography
ISBN
Te Papa Press
RRP $69.99

Rita Angus (1908–70) was one of New Zealand’s most loved and respected artists. Landscapes and portraits such as Cass, Central Otago, and Rutu have become national icons. But until now, Angus’s life has remained a mystery.
     In this fascinating book, Jill Trevelyan (editor of Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters) paints a vivid picture of Rita Angus the person – curious and forthright, staunchly pacifist and feminist, and wholly dedicated to her art. Stunning artworks, personal photographs, and insightful letters help bring Angus’s colourful and complex story to life.
     Jill Trevelyan is co-curator of the exhibition Rita Angus: Life and Vision, which opens at Te Papa in July 2008 before travelling to other main centres of New Zealand.

***

Settlers: New Zealand Migrants from England, Ireland and Scotland 1800–1945
Jock Phillips & Terry Hearn
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86940 401 7
Auckland University Press
RRP $39.99

This book explores the question of who were New Zealand’s Pakeha ancestors. It presents and interprets the findings of a major statistical analysis of immigrants from the United Kingdom over a century and a half drawn from death registers and shipping records. It looks at such issues as the geographical origins of the founding ancestors, their occupational and class background, their religions and their values. Did our forefathers and mothers come from particular areas of Britain, did they tend to practise certain occupations, were they Catholics or Protestants, working people or aristocrats? Using individual examples of immigrants and their families, vividly depicted in the many illustrations, this book makes a significant contribution to understanding the origins of New Zealand identity.

***

Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner
Kerre Woodham & Gaz Brown
Non-Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 670 4
HarperCollins Publishers
RRP

A chance phone call from her pr agency proved to be the catalyst – Kerre was going to ‘get her life back’. The Marlborough-based company, Regal Salmon, were keen to put a high profile 35 years plus person through a physical fitness training programme. The end goal would be the Auckland Marathon and for completing the marathon, $5000 would go to the runner’s charity of choice. Kerre seemed like the obvious candidate.
    Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner documents Kerre’s life-changing journey to get fit and stay fit while eating what she wants and still fitting into a size 12 dress. The story is littered with hilarious tips from never running in a g-string to Vaseline and bananas and ‘carb loading’ on champagne the night before a big run. With insightful comments and fitness training tips from her Gaz, Kerre tells it like it is and takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery and self-discipline, for those of us who aren’t superwoman.

***

Shrapnel & Semaphore: A Signaler's Diary from Gallipoli
compiled by Jan Chamberlin
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86966 201 1
New Holland Publishers
RRP $39.99

In the late 1990s Bill Leadley’s granddaughter, Jan Chamberlin, spent many months researching her family archives in order to be able to put her grandfather’s diary covering the ANZAC landing on Gallipoli in context. Shrapnel & Semaphore is the result and it is an amazing story of courage, faith and service based on a series of diary entries written by Lance-Corporal Walter Edmund (Bill) Leadley covering the period 25 April 1915 through to 8 December, and from 25 March 1916 to 9 September prior to serving at The Somme where he was seriously wounded and invalided out. The fascinating and frequently harrowing narrative is supported by family and archive photographs.
    Soon after his return to New Zealand in 1917, Bill Leadley became involved in the Canterbury Returned Soldiers’ Association and went on to invest an enormous amount of time and effort over the next 25 years – on both a professional and personal basis – helping to rehabilitate injured fellow servicemen. In a subsequent chapter to the diaries themselves Jan Chamberlin records his dedication to the RSA.

***

Swings + Roundabouts
edited by Emma Neale
Poetry
ISBN
RHNZ Godwit
RRP $36.99

More than eighty of the finest poems on parenthood, Swings + Roundabouts is an endearing, intelligent and accessible anthology by editor Emma Neale. Her approach was to bring together wonderful poems by New Zealand and international poets that are both highly readable and significant. Beautifully packaged, this volume features stunning photographs of babies and children by well-known photographer Mark Smith.

***

Why I Hate School by Michael Fatarsky
Kris Stanhope
Fiction
ISBN 9781869438715
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

Michael is not happy, and he is keeping a list – a list of all the reasons he hates school. When the teacher sees him writing so avidly, she is impressed, and so is Michael.
    But when he is paired with one of the reasons he hates school (Sharon Cramshaw) to do a project on families, he finally comes to realise that the real reason he hates school is nothing to do with school, it’s all to do with something in his past.
    Simply yet powerfully told, the story looks at the tragedy of Michael’s brother’s death, and the links to how he is feeling about today. Includes the complete, unabridged, entertaining list of reasons why Michael hates school – a laugh-out-loud addition to a strong story.
    The first 10 reasons:
1.    I hate ordering lunch because everyone knows what you get.
2.   I hate ordering lunch because the pies are always cold.
3.   And the pizzas.
4.   And the noodles.
5.    I hate when people order lunch and then don’t eat it.
6.   I hate when all the lunch orders come to class and mine is missing. I bet they do it on purpose.
7.    I hate ordering lunch because you have to stand in a long line and wait.
8.    Why are the stupid lunch ladies so grumpy? Anyone could do their job.
I hate that.
9.    I hate when people order lots of lunch and then share it with their friends.
10. I hate ordering lunch because it’s stupid. I just bring lunch from home.

***
Willy’s Mum
Scott Tulloch
Children’s picture book
ISBN 978 1 86950 682 7
HarperCollins Publishers (NZ)
RRP $18.99

While Willy’s endearingly nutty dad had to agree that the way he was described in Willy’s first book was thoroughly accurate, he always claimed there was more to Willy’s mum than meets the eye. While she’s very, very sensible, she doesn’t have a very good memory, for instance she never seems to remember that she already has a wardrobe full of shoes and is always buying new ones. When Willy looks doubtful, Dad pulls out the family photo album and we see a very different Mum, with a few weak spots!
    In another heartwarming tale of family fun, Willy finds out more about his Mum – who may not be perfect, but is Dad’s perfect partner. If you enjoyed Willy’s Dad, then make way for his mum – and another hilarious look at the life of an endearing toddler who has less than ordinary parents and a lot to frown about.

***

Winning the Money War
Lisa Dudson
Non-fiction
ISBN
RHNZ
RRP $27.99

The Money Man show was one of the highest-rating reality shows on TV during 2007. A second series is scheduled for April 2008, perfect timing for this book, which combines the Money Man’s take-no- prisoners, parade-ground tactics with easy-to-digest (and then apply) financial advice. Winning the Money War is accessible, brightly packaged, engaging and packed with the sort of information that people who have money burning holes in their pockets need, to get their financial issues sorted.

New Releases in March

2008-03-05T08:10:00Z

At the End of Darwin Road: A Memoir
Fiona Kidman
Memoir
ISBN
Random House
$34.99

‘What I have to tell is largely a personal narrative about how I came to inhabit a fictional world.’

This absorbing memoir explores the first half of writer Fiona Kidman’s life, notably in Kerikeri – at the end of Darwin Road. From the distance of France, where Kidman spent time as the Katherine Mansfield Fellow in Menton, she reconsiders the past, weaving personal reflection and experience with the history of the places where she lived, particularly the fascinating northern settlements of Kerikeri and Waipu, and further south the cities of Rotorua and Wellington. Kidman’s story crosses paths with those of numerous different New Zealanders, from the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana, to descendants of the migration from Scotland led by a charismatic Presbyterian minister, to other writers and significant friends. We learn of Kidman’s struggles to establish herself as a writer and to become part of different communities, and how each worked their way into her fiction. At the End of Darwin Road is a vivid memoir of place and family, and of becoming a writer.

***

The Business of Documentary Filmmaking: A practical guide for emerging NZ filmmakers
Claudia Babirat, Lloyd Spencer Davis
Reference / Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877361 97 5
Longacre
RRP $34.99

"Claudia Babirat and Lloyd Spencer Davis pool their considerable experience to provide this clearly written, practical how-to manual on running a successful business in documentary filmmaking in New Zealand. This comprehensive, no-nonsense guidebook gives step-by-step advice on how to become an independent filmmaker of the future."

The Business of Documentary Filmmaking examines the role of the independent filmmaker, and explains how you get a foot in the door, form an independent production company, write budgets and business plans, access funding and market your business. This book is brimming with helpful advice and important industry contacts as well as essential information provided by industry professionals – from filmmakers and broadcasters to entertainment lawyers and accountants. The fascinating case studies of practising filmmakers inspire with their originality and energy.

Endorsed by the New Zealand Screen Council

***

Chandler’s Run
Denise Muir
General Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 678 0
HarperCollins
RRP $26.99

Whakatane-based, Denise Muir, a lively grandmother in her late seventies, felt that the stories her friends and she enjoyed were no longer being written so she decided to write her own novel set in the South Island mountains she loves to paint. The result, Chandler’s Run, is a magnificent debut novel and a worthy addition to the very popular local historical-fiction genre.

In 1853, consumption causes Adam to take his family to leave the foetid streets of London to join his uncle on a sheep run in the high country of the rugged South Island. His family prepare to brave the challenges of this virtually unknown country with the expectation that the pure mountain air will aid in the recovery of Adam’s ailing lungs. Leaving behind everything they know, their doomed journey brings them to hardship and tragedy. In an unforgiving climate, they struggle to survive and become reliant on the abrasive and ill-reputed neighbour Ruby Gaunt. Everything changes for the Chandler family when itinerant Scottish master drover, James McKenzie and his black-and-white ***, Friday, ride onto Chandler’s Run.

***

Digging for Spain: A Writer’s Journey
Penelope Todd
Memoir / Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 877361 96 8
Longacre
RRP $29.99

Here is a portrait of the growth of a writer, of the challenges of faith, and the route one woman takes to reach a better accommodation with herself, and her family. It’s a heartfelt and lyrical narrative — as the author questions her closest relationships, and some of the stifling patterns she has fallen into. Yet it will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever tried to juggle relationships, the craving for solitude, and the urge to write or to devote oneself to a career which demands total focus.

Delicately written, yet tough at the core, this memoir weaves together a journey to Spain with several years of internal change. Digging for Spain explores an intensely personal yet common rite of passage: that of a woman learning to separate her identity from motherhood, marriage, and beliefs formed in youthful inexperience. It also shows the astonishing versatility of on of our best-loved writers for young adults. A stunning and captivating reading experience.

***

Excellent Short Walks in the South Island
Peter Janssen
Sports and Outdoors
ISBN 978 1 86966 190 8
New Holland Publishers
RRP $29.99

As a follow-up to his North Island volume, inveterate tramper Peter Janssen presents more than 250 short walks in the South Island and Stewart Island that are ideal for those people who like to stretch their legs without having to tackle a full tramp. Among others, this includes parents with young families or visitors who have come to New Zealand without full walking kit. All of the walks include a memorable highlight, whether it’s a spectacular landscape feature, an historic site or just a great view. The walks are grouped by region, and each can be accomplished within the span of a couple of hours (and some much less), putting them well within the grasp of most walkers. Each walk includes:
• highlight(s)
• how to get there
• grade
• time
…and full track notes.
Maps are included, and a short introduction gives information on bush safety, practical considerations and information on how to use the book.

***

The Girl who Proposed
Elizabeth Smither
Short stories
ISBN
Cape Catley
RRP $27.95

Multi-award-winning Elizabeth Smither (novels, short stories and poetry) has just reached her largest readership yet with her short story, ‘Kathy & Tim’, in the latest best-selling The Six Pack Two (New Zealand Book Month).

The Girl Who Proposed, her new book from Cape Catley, is a collection of short stories showing this writer’s brilliant insights and command of character and situation.

The stories range widely in theme – happiness, suspense, humour and, as ever, the working out of human relationships.

***

Hobsonville: Portrait of a Seaplane Station
Bee Dawson
Non-fiction
ISBN
Random House
RRP $34.99

Bee Dawson has drawn on hours of interviews and delved deeply into unit histories to RNZAF Base Hobsonville — its colour, its fascinating history and a view of base life from angles. The book is packed full of details, anecdotes and memories that chronicle a vibrant its opening in April 1928 till its eventual amalgamation with nearby RNZAF Station Whenuapai September 1965 to form today’s Base Auckland.” G. Lintott, Air Vice-Marshal, Chief of Air Force.

This lively social history describes the early history of the Hobsonville area and the different development of the Air Force base there — the initial establishment of the station and through the 1930s, the war years, and the Sunderland flying boat era through the 1950s Bee Dawson interviewed a variety of people, both military and civilian, who spent time Hobsonville while it was an independent unit. Through their personal accounts, she gives and fascinating portrait of what it was like to live and work there. Bee Dawson is the social for the RNZAF. She has written several books on military and non-military subjects.

How To Become a Kitchen Table Millionaire: Grow Your Idea into a Profitable Business
MacLennan Catriona
ISBN 13: 9780143007388
RRP $30.00
Penguin

Setting up a home-based business is becoming an increasingly attractive option for many people as a way to stay closer to family, avoid the stress of the office, and cut back on commuting time, coupled with the need to extend the work day.

Kitchen Table Millionaire tells you everything you need to know about how to start up a small business working from home – from organising a conducive work space, creating a business plan, employing staff and maintaining a work-life balance, to advice on the legal, technical and financial implications of setting up a home business. Kitchen Table Millionaire also has case studies on people who have set up their own their own successful businesses, often literally from their kitchen tables, including Seeby Woodhouse of Orcon, Paul Manning of Metromedia, Meg McKenzie of Kidz Go NZ, and more.

***

Kiwis in Conflict: 200 years of New Zealanders at War
Chris Pugsley, Buddy Mikaere, Nigel Prickett, Laurie Barber, Rose Young
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86953 708 1
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $39.99

Originally published as Scars on the Heart, and based on the Auckland Museum’s permanent exhibition of the same name. Kiwis in Conflict is a rich and fascinating account of the impact of war through the eyes of those involved, using photographs, paintings, letters and diaries.

Five leading New Zealand historians have contributed to this major work, and the new edition has the latest information on New Zealanders as peacekeepers in the Pacific, the Middle East and Afghanistan, including the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Corporal Bill “Willie” Apiata.

Buddy Mikaere tells the story of the New Zealand Wars from a Maori perspective, and the impact this had and is still having on Maori communities. Nigel Prickett contrasts this with European perceptions. Laurie Barber examines New Zealand’s first experience of fighting for the Empire in the Anglo-Boer War. Chris Pugsley continues this story into the First and Second World Wars. It is a tale of learning about war the hard way, by bitter and costly experience. Rose Young examines the defence of New Zealand and the total mobilisation of our society to meet the Japanese threat. Chris Pugsley takes the story of conflict into the postwar years, including peacekeeping operations from Korea in the 1950s to the present day.

***

Magnetic South
Sue Wootton
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 877448 23 2
Steele Roberts
RRP 24.99

From award-winning poet Sue Wootton comes this outstanding collection of poetry.
She has won numerous awards, the most recent being both the poetry and fiction prizes at the Aoraki Arts festival in 2006, and the Inverawe Poetry competition in 2007. She is currently the Robert Burns fellow at Otago university.

***

Marketing in Today's Wired World
Mayo-Smith Debbie
Reference
ISBN 978 0 14300 884 2
Penguin
RRP: $40.00

Marketing in Today's Wired World is the first book to give you both the proven winning strategies and the step-by-step technical skills you need to do the job yourself. Debbie Mayo-Smith, internationally renowned email marketing guru, writes in straightforward, fun and jargon-free language. Using real-world case studies and examples, this book gives you the tools you need to:
– Write messages that get opened and read
– Design great-looking, attention-grabbing emails and newsletters
– Recognise and avoid common pitfalls
– Automate, track and manage the whole process easily, effectively and economically.

Email marketing is one of the most valuable communication tools available today. Marketing in Today's Wired World will take your business into the future!

***

Mr Maui’s Monologues
Peter Bland
Poetry
ISBN 978 1877448 27 0
Steele Roberts
RRP $24.99

For over 50 years Peter Bland’s poetry has been a consistently recognisable presence on the New Zealand literary scene. His exploration of belonging and the mysteries of time and place have been celebrated in an increasingly flexible voice. In this new collection his use of the dramatic monologue and his mastery of everyday speech show him to be as moving, humorous, and insightful as ever.

***

Pick ~ Preserve ~ Serve: Enjoy local & home-grown produce year-round
Chris Fortune
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86953 689 3
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $29.99

Whether growing fruit and vegetables at home or buying produce at farmers’ markets and greengrocers we are, more and more, seeking fresh, local and honest food. But how do you make the most of produce when at its abundant, seasonal best? And what do you do with a bumper crop from your own garden? What is the best way to capture those wonderful, naturally ripened flavours so you can savour them year-round?

The answers lies in the age-old, tried-and true art of preserving:
Drying • Salting • Smoking • Pickling • Alcohol • Oils • Bottling • Sugar
Pick, Preserve, Serve briefly describes these methods and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. Organised by season, the book lists when produce is at peak condition for preserving, and provides a diverse range of recipes for preserving many of them.

***

Saltskin
Louise Moulin
Fiction
ISBN
Random House
RRP $27.99

In the late eighteenth century, in a London basement, a gifted boy and his indifferent stepfather create a tapestry of a famed mythical creature. Isolated in his grief after a crippling bereavement, the child Angelo becomes perversely enraptured with the woven portrait. His imaginings combine with his innocence to set him upon a quest that lures him far from civilisation, to the South Seas. In the present is Southlander Gilda Page: modern, pragmatic, yet somehow adrift. She decides love is for fools, and sets her heart on a homecoming. But what is the secret of the family curse and of the dreams that plague her? Colourful, haunting and lively, this is a compelling first novel.

***

Speaking for Themselves
Jan Morgan
Non-fiction / Interviews
ISBN 978 1 877340 12 3
Cape Catley
RRP $29.95

Something new, topical and exciting – punchy interviews with 23 well-known New Zealand ex-pats including: Michael Campbell, John Clarke, Trelise Cooper, Alannah Currie, Dave Dobbyn, Roger Donaldson, Kerry Fox, Peter Gordon, Lucy Hockings, Todd Hunter, Christine Jeffs, Phil Keoghan, Shona Martyn, Reg Mombassa, Paula Morris, Temuera Morrison, Sam Neill, Rena Owen, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Gavin Scott, Michael Seresin, Jon Stevens, Jon Toogood.

The ex-pats, who come from a wide range of activities from movie directing and the pop scene to sport, fashion and TV, talk about their careers, their love for New Zealand and why they can’t come back to live and work here as yet.

***

The Small Edible Garden: Growing organic fruit and vegetables at home
Diana Anthony, photographs by Maria Rodgers
Gardening
ISBN 978 1 86953 705 0
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $18.99

Fresh food straight from your own garden is unbeatable! Whatever the size of your garden, this book provides ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ advice on the most efficient way to use a limited space to grow healthy organic produce. With colour photographs throughout, The Small Edible Garden gives details and tips on planting, growing and caring for a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and fruit, with the best available varieties for each listed by name.
• Includes information on containers, grow-bags and raised beds; making your own compost; the importance of crop rotation, good plant nutrition and how to deal with pests and diseases; watering systems for a water-efficient garden; biological control of insects and the benefits of companion planting.
• Find out which varieties grow best in small spaces.
• Harvest and enjoy healthy produce from your own edible garden.

***

Spark
Emma Neale
Poetry
ISBN 978-1-877448-19-5
Steele Roberts
RRP 24.99

This new collection of poetry will enchant and provoke, comfort and delight. From the hilarious ‘true pregnancy tales’ to the sobering ‘the First stone’, in which the author recounts her small child grappling with the adult concepts of war and revenge, Neale move between storytelling and quiet reflection with confidence and charm. A sparkling read.

Emma Neale’s first novel Night Swimming was published in 1998. She won the Todd new Writers’ Bursary in 2000 and has published five novels and a collection of poetry, as well as being represented in numerous collaborative projects and anthologies.

***

Sylvia
Hood Lynley
ISBN 978 0 14300 883 5
RRP: $40.00
Penguin

Sylvia Ashton-Warner was one of the great educational innovators of the twentieth century. Working predominantly with small New Zealand country schools at the furthest edge of the 'civilised' world, she established classroom techniques that unlocked a storehouse of imagery native to each child. Through the use of 'key vocabulary' her pupils learned that language could not only reflect their own creative energies but be a mirror to life itself.

***

Two Little Boys
Sarkies Duncan
ISBN 978 0 14302 091 2
Penguin
RRP: $28.00

This book has got a lot of good bits.
It's got bogans and penguins and toasted sandwiches and spotting knives.
It's got a dead cat and an awesome climax.
It's got a really little dolphin.
It's got hundreds of hard-ons.
It's got sea lions.
It's got God.
It's got a really cool lighthouse.

When Nige runs over a Norwegian backpacker while attempting to save petrol, his life really turns to ***. He chucks the body in a nearby road works and runs to his best mate of fifteen years, Deano. Trouble is, Deano's not really the guy you should turn to in a crisis. This off-kilter tale of male camaraderie is a bizarre debacle from start to thrilling finish.

A new and irreverent comedy by Duncan Sarkies, the writer of the movie Scarfies and the award-winning book Stray Thoughts and Nosebleeds.

***

Under the Osakan Sun
Hamish Beaton
Travel
ISBN 978 0 9582750 2 6
Awa Press
RRP $34.99

In the popular genre of books describing sojourns in foreign countries comes this warm, funny, intimate account of a young graduate’s three years in Japan. From the moment the author arrives, jetlagged, to teach English at a junior high school, he is swept up in a mystifying world. As he unravels it, he encounters a marvellous cast of characters, from fellow teachers with strange habits, to a group of women who regularly cook him dinner in exchange for English conversation, an elderly couple who take him on nerve-wracking expeditions, and of course his students, whom he must somehow instruct, despite a total lack of teaching experience. Along the way he engages in a hilarious quest to find a girlfriend – but things don’t always work out the way he hopes. 

Hamish Beaton graduated in French and Japanese at Canterbury University, before spending three years living and teaching in Japan.

***

Your Money Personality
Liz Koh
Personal Finance
ISBN 978-0-9582629-1-0
Awa Press
RRP $34.99

This unique personal finance guide starts from the premise that each person has a hidden attitude towards money that influences his or her ability to use it effectively to gain wealth and – just as important – enjoy life to the full. Leading financial planner and newspaper columnist Liz Koh shows how to uncover your true ‘money personality’ and use it to handle money better, enjoy a better relationship with your partner, grow your wealth, and fulfil your life dreams. Her remarkably simple and effective plan is based on actual experiences with her clients, and the book includes sound and proven investment advice. It also links to a website where readers can prepare their own financial profiles and plans.

2008 January and February new books

2008-02-22T21:38:00Z

January and February is usually a slow time for publishing: the big buy-in that caused the frenzy at Christmas and the holidays is now over; wholesalers and retailers are holding their purses a little more tightly to their chests; besides, we're all just testing the waters of the new year. With this in mind it's an encouraging start to the year, some fantastic books have hit the bookstore shelves. You should check them out!

THE LIST…

A Good Handful: Great New Zealand Poems About Sex
edited by Stu Bagby
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 403 1
Auckland University Press, with assistance from Creative NZ
RRP $27.95

In A Good Handful, 63 poets talk frankly about sex from every angle, showing sex can be funny (Karl Stead’s “tree in my trousers”) and disturbing (Rachel McAlpine’s “frightened poem about my breasts”). It can be ordinary (“The sex life of the sheep / is at best perfunctory”, Anne French explains) or extraordinary (“Ah, fantastica!” Lauris Edmond exclaims). It can be lusty (Brian Turner’s “eat me and keep me alive”) or tender (Anne Kennedy’s “whole autumn boiled down to a single bite”). It can be metaphorical (James K. Baxter’s “your mouth was the sun”) or practical (“should a courier / hand be sent down and under?”, asks Louis Johnson).
    With an impressive selection of NZ poets, established and new, this is a collection to own! Read more about this book in Latest News.

***

Annabelle Cooks Healthy
Annabelle White
Cooking
ISBN 978 0 14300 882 8
Penguin
RRP: $30.00

Annabelle Cooks Healthy is Annabelle White's latest collection of recipes bringing you more great cooking in the tradition of Best Recipes, Simply the Best and Annabelle Cooks.
    Light and refreshing breakfast ideas, brunch suggestions, inspired lunch ideas, afternoon pick-me-ups, and fresh and vibrant dinners and desserts. All presented in Annabelle's easy, can-do style using the latest appliances to save time and energy in the kitchen.

***

Changing Skies
Bruce Purchase
Biography / Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1877448 29 4
Steele Roberts
RRP $34.99

New Zealand-born actor Bruce Purchase has played in them all. A Thames boy, Bruce won a scholarship to study acting in England and has been based there ever since. His memoir starts with Sir Laurence Olivier and breezes through colourful and candid anecdotes, always fascinating, often funny. In between times he discovers an unexpected gift for painting, and endures a personal crisis that splinters his life forever. Bruce’s stories and his cast of characters – many stars of stage and screen, from Roman Polanski and Franco Zeffirelli to Princess Alexandra, Noel Coward, Richard Chamberlain and Sir Ian McKellen – provide an intimate insight into an actor’s life richly lived, on and off the stage.
    Vivid, funny writing style, teeming with gossip with an introduction by TV’s Poirot, David Suchet

***

Christ Clone
David McLeod
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 959 2
RHNZ Black Swan
RRP $34.99

Michael Malone is a broken man. Once a respected priest, husband and father to a beautiful daughter named Mary, he now spends most of his time in a Los Angeles bar, drinking to drown the memory of the past. The unfortunate chain of events he is so desperate to forget began years before with the abduction of his daughter, and resulted in the loss of his wife – and his faith. From behind the bar, a TV news item brings his terrible memories flooding back. Malone embarks on a renewed quest to find his daughter, unaware of the extraordinary things that lie ahead.
    Across town, Simon Travis, a wealthy businessman, issues a global challenge to all biotechnology corporations: clone Jesus Christ. As precious artefacts – the spearhead reputed to have been used to stab Jesus on the cross, a piece of the cross itself, and the shroud of Turin – go missing from churches and private collections around the world, three scientific groups start their top-secret experiments.

***

The Clever Girl's Fix It Guide
Sue Hall
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 748 7
Penguin
RRP $19.95

This practical illustrated guide is packed with clear instructions on how to deal with just about every domestic situation, including the odd crisis, not just at home, but also on the road. With this handy guide for reference, in no time the reader will be able to clear a blocked sink, replace a fuse, change a tyre, choose the right nail for a repair job, use a power tool and remove marks on the carpet.

***

Dragons’ Bane
Linda McNabb
Children’s fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 655 1
HarperCollins
RRP $18.99

The eagerly awaited return of Toby, the Dragon’s Apprentice, by popular demand, sees Linda McNabb re-visit the scene of her first award winning novel, and answer all the fans who have been asking what happened next for the dragon Klel, and Toby, his apprentice.
Toby has been living in Dragon Valley for a year – but things aren’t going as expected. When he uses his magic, disastrous things happen. Gates to other worlds are beginning to open on their own and the entire valley is in danger of being destroyed. The sorcerers and dragons blame Toby and he is banished – but still the valley crumbles. The only solution is to find a missing dragonstone that was stolen many years ago. While the dragons search for the stone (and the thief) the valley’s magic begins leaking into all the worlds outside.
As the dragons sicken Toby is desperate to find a place to belong, and heartbroken to think he is the cause of the valley’s destruction. And when he finds the true identity of his father, things suddenly get much worse.

***

First Hundred Words in Māori
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86969 304 6
Huia Publishers
RRP $20.00

A companion to 2006’s First Thousand Words in Māori, this book is a must-have for all New Zealand households. Big, brightly-coloured pictures engage young learners and are accompanied by clear illustrations, with the Māori word underneath. This encourages the direct association of the word with the object, making it easy to learn and reinforce meanings.
    There is also a guide to pronunciation and counting.

***

I Want more Sugar
James McNaughton
Poetry
ISBN 978-1-877448-26-3
Steele Roberts
RRP $19.99

James McNaughton grew up in Wellington, where he received an MA in creative writing. He has taught at universities in New Zealand and Asia and currently works for a Korean publishing company. McNaughton’s draft blurb: Seven years in the making, after the critically acclaimed and controversial cosmic cult classic The Stepmother Tree (Darius Press 2001), comes the long-awaited thesis to that dark antithesis: I Want More Sugar. Where once McNaughton sought to expand the boundaries of the real through depth- charges to the subconscious, he now animates a political and personal landscape charged by the lightning rods of Neruda, Lorca and William Blake. McNaughton shows us a vivid mosaic stretching from the occident to the orient and back again; from the shadows cast by international politics and consumer culture to light and colour and their metaphysical origins.
    James McNaughton’s poetry is a rich and descriptive interpretation of everyday moments. Written during his travels in India, Japan and Korea, these poems explore the sometimes surreal nature of modern life, the colour and beauty we may see and celebrate in the ordinary.

***

Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories
Katherine Mansfield
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 983 7
RHNZ Vintage
RRP $34.99

Virginia Woolf claimed that Mansfield's writing was 'The only writing I have ever been jealous of.'
    Widely considered one of the best short-story writers of her period, Katherine Mansfield is celebrated for her sensitive and subtle treatment of human behaviour. Satirical, psychologically deep, unabashed and candid about sex, pregnancy and social issues, her stories adopted a fresh style and new narrative techniques. She drew on and evoked the New Zealand landscape from her childhood, as well as her travels in Europe and time in England.
    This is a complete collection of her finished stories taken from her five books: Bliss, The Garden Party, The Doves' Nest, Something Childish and In a German Pension.

***

Kaupapa
New Zealand Poets, World Issues
edited by Hinemoana Baker and Maria McMillan
Poetry
ISBN: 978-0-9582873-0-2
Visit kaupapa
RRP $25.00

Edited, selected and introduced by writer and musician Hinemoana Baker and activist and writer Maria McMillan, this stunning anthology features new, established and award-winning poets including Bill Manhire, Tusiata Avia, Airini Beautrais, Michele Amas, Jenny Bornholdt, CK Stead, James Brown and Roma Potiki. Speaking to the tradition of waiata tawhito, war poetry, redemption songs and resistance, Kaupapa showcases what happens when our poets take on the world.

***

Marathon Woman
Kathrine Switzer
Non-Fiction – Sport and Leisure
ISBN 978 0 78671 967 9
HarperCollins
RRP $39.99

Proclaimed as ‘the most important running book of the last 10 years,’ by Marathon & Beyond magazine, Marathon Woman is not really about running: it’s about overcoming the impossible and changing lives.
    Marathon Woman is the inspiring story about how one person really can make a difference, particularly if that person is Kathrine Switzer. It is an insightful, often funny and sometimes poignant social commentary as Switzer relates events of her life alongside one of the most turbulent eras in history: 1946–1984.
    Best known globally as the first woman to officially register and complete the famous Boston Marathon in 1967, Switzer was physically attacked mid-race by the enraged race director simply because she was a female running in what was then considered an all-male event, in an all-male domain, in an era when women were considered incapable of running 42.2 kilometres. The galvanizing photos of this incident were flashed around the planet and have become one of Time-Life’s 100 Photos that Changed the World.

***

Miriam’s Talisman
Elenor Gill
General Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 702 2
HarperCollins
RRP $24.99

The sudden death of Miriam, mother of Hannah and grandmother of Chloe, has a deep effect on both women, and in ways neither could have foreseen.
    When Miriam’s will reveals she has left everything to Chloe, her legacy includes a distinctive silver amulet. Once Chloe puts it on, she begins to move in a shadowy world of deception and illusion, to the distress and concern of her family and friends. Sought out after her grandmother’s death by Iolair, a tall and intriguing stranger, Chloe encounters him again as she begins to unravel Miriam’s extraordinary legacy. Inevitably she finds herself a pawn in an ancient love story that has wreaked havoc in the lives of the women in her family. Will she be able to break its enchanting web… or will she become the spider?
    Magical, riveting, enchanting book… so beautifully written. I went back to reread some parts just to enjoy them again. —Barbara Erskine

***

Pony Club Secrets #3: Destiny and the Wild Horses
Stacy Gregg
Children’s fiction
ISBN 978 0 00724 518 5
HarperCollins
RRP $14.99

The third title in an exciting eight-part series for pony-loving girls by local journalist Stacy Gregg. With gymkhanas to win, rivals to defeat, mysteries to solve and ponies in danger to save – these books are perfect for all girls who love ponies. Issie and Blaze were hot favourites to win the Chevalier Point Pony Club dressage competition, but now they have to spend the summer on her aunt’s farm instead! When Issie finds out Blaze can go with her – and she’ll be helping to train horses for the movies – things start to look up.
    During her stay Issie overhears a conversation about plans to cull a group of wild ponies, and she is determined to find a way to save them. It’s lucky she’s made friends with her aunt’s handsome farm manager, and can call on her pony-club friends, because Issie is going to need all the help she can get…
    This is a gripping story, full of wonderful horsy detail that will have readers hooked all the way to the nail-biting finish.

***

Sons
Victor Rodger
Drama
ISBN 978 1 86969 303 9
Huia Publishers
RRP $25,00

Sons explores a volatile, fractured extended family of Samoans, New Zealand-born Samoans, palagi, and afakasi (half caste), and a variety of family ‘legitimacies’.
    Noah, a successful young afakasi man, goes to see his father after a ten year silence. During his visit he sees a photograph of his half brother, who he always knew existed but has never met. Ignoring the advice of his mother and grandmother, he delves into his unexplored Samoan heritage, leading to an explosive and emotionally gripping climax.

Christchurch-born Victor Rodger is a playwright of Samoan and Scottish descent. In 1998 his first play, Sons, won Chapman Tripp Awards for Best New Play and Best New Writer and in 2001 he won the Bruce Mason Playwright Award.

***

Successful Email Marketing 2nd Edition
Debbie Mayo-Smith
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14301 902 2
Penguin
RRP $35.00

A follow up to Successful Email Marketing, this new book is a complete step-by-step 'hands-on' guide to lead people through the process of creating and using email marketing tools such as online newsletters etc. A practical, user-friendly guide to creating successful email marketing strategies – relevant to people in all sorts of business: anyone who wants to radically improve communication channels with their customers.

***

The Two Miss Parsons
Jill Marshall
Fiction
ISBN 97 8 014300 801 9
Penguin
RRP: $28.00

Cally is a solo mother in her thirties who has just been made redundant from her classy London marketing job. One day her nine-year-old daughter Paige announces that she wants to go to New Zealand to meet her father, Alan, who abandoned Cally when she became pregnant.
    Alan is told they're coming, but during the flight to Auckland, Cally finds herself sitting next to the lovely Simon, and they decide to continue their high-altitude flirtation when they reach New Zealand.
    But Paige has other ideas. Cally and Simon as a unit is definitely not in her grand plan. Paige plots to get her Mum and Dad back together, with help by email from her best friend Charlotte back in London. Cally, Simon and Alan are suddenly entwined in an unusual love triangle.

***

When Sun and Moon Collide
Briar Grace-Smith
Play (includes comprehensive teacher notes written by Jean Betts)
ISBN 978 1 86969 316 9
Huia Publishers
RRP $25.00

Isaac runs a tearoom in the middle of nowhere where he watches life and cars pass by his window each day. When two of his customers share a chance meeting, he finds himself embroiled in something very sinister.
    “Powerfully imagined and psychologically astute” —New Zealand Listener
     “…mix(es) the prosaic and poetic, the real and allegorical, the landlocked and astronomical…” —The National Business Review

Briar Grace-Smith [read her blog for NZBM here] is an award-winning writer of plays, scripts and short stories. Her first major play Ngā Pou Wahine won the 1995 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award and Purapurawhetū won Best New Zealand Play at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. She was the recipient of an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2000 and a finalist for the 2002 Prize in Modern Letters. Her first feature screenplay The Strength of Water was shot in the Hokianga in August 2007. Briar is of Ngāpuhi descent.

***

Where Mountains Throw Their Dice
An insight into the kiwi climbing psyche
Paul Hersey
Outdoors / NZ non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86966 191 5
New Holland
$29.99

There are regular reports in the media of mountaineering fatalities and costly rescues, and to some of us climbing may seem a selfish and crazy game in which victims have only themselves to blame. But to Dunedin climber Paul Hersey climbing is nothing less than a reason for living; even if – or perhaps even because – at the most life-affirming moments he may be just one step from ‘a tumble into the abyss’.
    In this fascinating book, which includes white-knuckle accounts of his own climbs in the South Island and the Italian Alps, Paul chats with some of New Zealand’s most experienced climbers, such as Bill McLeod, Lydia Bradey and Erik Monasterio, to find out why they are drawn to the mountains, and why, even after losing close friends, they keep returning to this place of ‘other-worldly limbo’.
    Accompanying the text are Paul’s spectacular photographs from his own climbs.

***

Which Native Plant Can I Grow Here?
Andre Crowe
Non-fiction / Gardening
ISBN 978 0 14301 896 4
Penguin
RRP $30.00

From the author of the best-selling Which Native? series comes this unique, visual, fail-safe guide to growing the right native plant in the right place. An ingenious system of symbols is used including the special back cover flap which gives readers additional information about selection, propagation, growing conditions, etc.
    Take the stress out of decision-making by using Andrew Crowe's quick method of identifying the plants that will add shape, colour and texture to your garden. Quick, reliable, enjoyable.

***

You Don't Need to Smack
Glen Stenhouse
Non-fiction / Parenting
ISBN 13: 9780143008675
Penguin
RRP $19.95

This is a practical, encouraging guidebook for parents and caregivers who want to learn more about effective, non-violent ways of parenting children. From toddlers to teenagers, You Don't Need to Smack offers workable solutions for dealing confidently with children's difficult behaviour, and also suggests how to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.
    Glen Stenhouse, a well-known child psychologist, maintains that you don't have to be an expert in order to be a good parent, but you do need to put simple, clear strategies in place in your home – and stick to them. Glen's advice has been tried and tested in thousands of homes and has proven its worth. This is essential reading for all parents and caregivers.

***

NZBM Xmas List

2007-12-06T21:20:00Z

This is a shortlist of some the best books published in New Zealand this year, we think!

We've divided the subjects thus: Picture Books, Juvenile, Adult Fiction (with sub sections for Short Stories and Poetry Anthologies) and Adult Non-fiction. The Non-fiction section runs from the least expensive books to 'gifts of note'.

Happy browsing, and hope that we've covered everything on your wishlist too!

Picture Books

Wacko Kakapo
Yvonne Morrison illustrated by Donovan Bixley
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

Following the style of Henny Penny, Wacko Kakapo, Peewee Kiwi, Go-Getter Weta and friends set off to tell Tane Mahuta that the sky is falling. But then they all fall into the clutches of Gotta-Gloat Stoat... and have to use their wits to escape.

***

The Mouse That Danced
Margaret Beames illustrated by Rachel Driscoll
Scholastic
RRP $16.99

This charming tale tells of little Fay Mouse’s love of dancing, and the danger it causes the other mice when they all gather to watch.

***

Flick: The Little Fire Engine
adaptation by James Lawrence illustrations by Mark Russell
Penguin
RRP $12.95

I’m a little fire engine, / Flick is my name. / They won’t let me put out fires, isn’t that a shame?

Loved by generations of Kiwi radio listeners, Flick’s signature tune is instantly recognised all around New Zealand. Book includes a 3-track music CD.

***

Rona and the Moon
Peter Gossage
Reed Publishing
RRP $16.99

As Rona gathers materials to prepare a hangi for her family, her path lit by moonlight, she stumbles as a cloud passes over the moon and darkens her way. Her curses at the moon are not unheard; the moon carries her away to forever.

***

Hairy Maclary's Hat Tricks
Lynley Dodd
Mallinson Rendel
RRP $25

It’s a blustery day and Hairy Maclary is off to the park for fun and games. When he comes across a windblown wedding party he gets to show off his remarkable retrieving skills. Gleeful pandemonium ensues!

***

The Grumble Rumble Mumbler
Melanie Drewery, illustration and design by Loudmouth Productions
Huia Publishers
RRP: $22

The age-old story of a child that can't get to sleep because of night noises. The reader is introduced to a cast of Maori monsters – not just the taniwha, but also the maero, taipa, and the ngarara – who help children to see the funny side of the things that go bump in the night.

***

Willy’s Dad
Scott Tulloch
HarperCollins Publishers
RRP: $18.99

In a heart-warming and delightfully comic story of role reversal, it soon becomes apparent that wee Willy is one very cool little toddler, and his dad is the one who needs looking after.

JUVENILE

The Puffin Treasury of New Zealand Children's Stories: Volume 4
edited by Jenni Keestra
Puffin NZ
RRP $29.95

Another wonderful treasury of timeless children’s stories: from picture books to poems to excerpts from brilliantly written stories for older children, the appeal of this value-for-money bumper book is vast.

***

It's My Turn to Cook: 40 Tasty Recipes for Young Kiwi Cooks
Margaret Brooker
New Holland Publishers
RRP $24.99

In text that is addressed directly at young readers, food writer Margaret Brooker shows how truly enjoyable and satisfying it can be to get kids cooking.

***

Tea For The Tui
Rosemary Tully
New Holland
RRP $19.99

Fun recipes to entice birds into your garden.

***

Pony Club Secrets 1 and 2
• Mystic and the Midnight Ride
• Blaze and the Dark Rider
Stacy Gregg
HarperCollins
RRP $14.99

A new series of pony stories for girls, introducing tweenagers Issie, Stella and Kate.

***

Snake and Lizard
Joy Cowley illustrated by Gavin Bishop
Gecko Press
RRP paperback $19.99
RRP hardback $29.99

In these stories of Snake and Lizard, two very different creatures learn the give-and-take of friendship.

***

Missing Toby
Jill Harris
Longacre Press
RRP $17.99

Harriet is missing her brother. She wants him to return to his untidy bedroom and make her parents happy again – like they were before he went away. A warm-hearted story about the healing powers of man’s best friend.

***

The Sea-wreck Stranger
Anna Mackenzie
Longacre Press
RRP $18.99

The action takes place many years after environmental crises have poisoned the waters round the island on which the small community lives. Three teenage cousins defy the adults strictures about keeping away from the toxic sea. One day they discover a man, barely alive, who has been ship-wrecked and washed ashore. A futuristic, post apocalyptic adventure story for young adults.

***

Josefa and the Vu
Tulia Thompson
Huia Publishers
RRP $20

When Josefa is met by a giant mysterious warrior claiming to be an ancestral guardian spirit, everything gets chaotic. Meanwhile Jack Bucksworth, the school bully, has stolen his family’s sacred tabua and to get it back, Josefa and his friend Ming must embark on a terrifying adventure involving dangerous cliffs, cheeky brothers and eerie laughter.

***

Inna Furey
Isabel Waiti-Mulholland
Huia Publishers
RRP $20.00

The first time Leanne looks into Inna Furey’s eyes she feels a cold wind blowing on her face. It doesn’t take long for Leanne to change her question, ‘Who is this new girl?’ to another, far more mysterious one: ‘What is she…?’

***

The Keeper of Secrets
Marie Manderson
Reed Children’s Books
RRP: $16.99

Upon waking from a dream, Zachary Michael Matthews discovers he has access to magical powers and will be the next ‘Keeper of Secrets’. He is plunged headfirst into a quest to save the planet, teaming up with an obnoxious English girl, a Native American boy, and a Maori boy who rebels against overseas hunters who invade his forests.

GIFT

Footrot Flats – The Dog Strips: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Murray Ball
Hachette Livre
RRP $99.00

The very best of the hugely successful Kiwi icon.

FICTION

Island Of The Lost
Joan Druett
Allen & Unwin
RRP $32.99

In January of 1864, five seamen from the wrecked schooner Grafton are stranded on remote and icy Auckland Island, some three hundred miles from New Zealand. An isolated speck in the Southern ocean, it is a godforsaken place, with winds howling at sixty miles an hour, rain three hundred days a year, and an almost impenetrable coastal forest…

***

Ribbons of Grace
Maxine Alterio
Penguin
RRP $35.00

Set in Arrowtown, a frontier town with an explosive mix of inhabitants, during the Otago goldrush of the 1860, it focuses on the love affair between Ming Yuet, a young Chinese woman, and Conran, an Orcadian stonemason.

***

Towards Another Summer
Janet Frame
Random House
RRP $29.99

The publication of Janet Frame’s posthumous novel Towards Another Summer is a major publishing event. She explores themes of travel and return, homesickness and belonging.

***

Edwin + Matilda
Laurence Fearnley
Penguin NZ
RRP $28.00

‘One of the most unusual – yet truest – love stories yet written in New Zealand.’ Bill Manhire

***

Miss Me A Lot Of
Louise Wareham Leonard
VUP
RRP $30

Miss Me A Lot Of is a poetic, elliptical, and deeply moving coming-of-age novel, which extends the range of New Zealand fiction. The central character is Holly, daughter of a powerful and charismatic father and socially anxious, New Zealand-born mother. Hers is a story about the fate of beauty and attractiveness, and the tribute we pay to eros.

***

Drybread
Owen Marshall
RHNZ Vintage
RRP $27.99

Drybread is a moving study of love and disappointment, of the harm we do to each other, knowingly and unknowingly, of the power and significance of landscape in our lives. Rich and subtle, it is a compelling book from one of this country’s finest writers.

***

The Blue
Mary McCallum
Penguin Group NZ
RRP $ 28.00

This outstanding novel is about a time when people nursed their pain from the Great War and the Depression, and didn’t know the world would soon make demands on them again.

SHORT STORIES

The Six Pack 06 and The Six Pack Two
NZ Book Month
RRP: $6

Six award winning stories for $6 – a stocking filler for sure!

***

The Search for the Great Kiwi Yarn
edited by Martin Crump
HarperCollins Publishers
RRP: $24.99

This is a hilarious and heart warming collection of yarns, jokes, and odd stories put together by a true story-teller himself, Martin Crump.

***

Best NZ Fiction 4
edited by Fiona Farrell
Random House
RRP $34.99

This popular series continues with a new editor, Fiona Farrell, who has scoured the country and beyond for a sampling of the best stories being written today.

***

Huia Short Stories 7
Huia Publishers
RRP $35

This collection of short stories and novel extracts follows the 2007 Pikihuia Awards for Maori Writers. The biennial awards and their subsequent publications have become well-known and much-anticipated, as they bring more undiscovered gems to the attention of the New Zealand reading public.

***

Luminous
Alice Tawhai
Huia Publishers
RRP $35.00

This is a complex, bittersweet collection of short stories. Her tales combine characters and occurrences that are at once cripplingly dark and yet also tinged with a quiet beauty and optimism and she deftly covers subjects such as identity, addiction, devotion and abandonment.

***

The New Zealand Book of the Beach
edited by Graeme Lay
David Ling Publishing
RRP $34.99

The writing in this anthology reflects the power of the beach to inspire, rejuvenate and occasionally, to seduce us.

***

Get On The Waka – Best Recent Maori Fiction
edited by Witi Ihimaera
ISBN 978 07900 1162 2
Reed Publishing

This collection showcases 17 stories and extracts from established writers including Keri Hulme, Alan Duff, Pat Grace, Briar Grace-Smith and James George.

POETRY – anthologies

The Earth's Deep Breathing: Garden Poems by New Zealand Poets
edited by Harvey McQueen
Random House NZ Godwit
RRP $34.99

New Zealanders are lovers of gardens and poetry, and this beautiful volume brings these two passions together. It is a treasury of 88 moving and arresting poems, chosen by respected anthologist and poet Harvey McQueen and accompanied by outstanding flower imagery.

***

Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance
edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp
AUP
Book with 2 x CDs
RRP $45

Jack Ross and Jan Kemp present readings on two CDs from a generation of 27 poets born 1944–1958. The CDs of the poets reading their own work are accompanied by a book of the texts of the poems reproducing them exactly as read, as well as brief biographies and bibliographies of each poet.

NON-FICTION

Food from the Sea
Daryl Crimp and Norman Holtzhausen
HaperCollins
RRP $19.99

Food from the Sea is a resourceful and mouth-watering collection of some of New Zealand’s finest seafood, which will prove to be indispensable for local and touring fishing enthusiasts on their next fishing trip or when they need to be inspired by a delectable recipe.

***

How To Watch A Bird
Steve Braunias
Awa Press
RRP $24.99

Prize-winning journalist Steve Braunias is standing on the balcony of an Auckland apartment on a sultry summer evening when a black-backed gull flies so close he is instantaneously bowled over with happiness. ‘I thought: birds, everywhere.’ I wanted to know more about them.’ This book is the result – a wondrous personal journey into an amazing world. It’s also a New Zealand history, a geographical wandering, and an affectionate look at people ensnared, captivated and entranced by birds.

***

Life Among the Larrikins: Tales of Kiwi ratbags
Terry Sheehan
Cape Catley Ltd
RRP $29.99

The tricks and jokes described by Terry Sheehan in horrid detail, expose a scandalous period in recent New Zealand history when people actually enjoyed themselves and fell about laughing.

***

As Far As We Know
Paul Callaghan & Kim Hill
Science
Penguin Group NZ
RRP $29.95

Based on the series of popular Radio NZ discussions between Kim Hill and one of NZ’s top scientists, Paul Callaghan, As Far As We Know covers all the key ideas of science, and presents them in an utterly straightforward and lively way.

***

The New Zealand Book of Lists
Steve Barnett & John McCrystal
Random House NZ
RRP $29.99

A compendium of curious and unusual New Zealand information including odd, arcane, extraordinary and surprising facts and figures plus ‘I didn’t know that’ trivia, to fill rainy afternoons at the bach.

***

The Mad Keen Mountain Biker's Road Trip
Ruth Connor
Random House NZ
$29.99

New Zealand is becoming a nation of mad keen mountain bikers and if you are someone who has ever thought “why not throw the bike on the rack and head out to explore some new back country?”, this is the book for you.

***

Market Day: a taste of life at New Zealand farmers’ markets
Vicki Winn photography by Terry Winn
New Holland Publishers
RRP $34.99

This luxuriantly illustrated book introduces a selection of markets and recipes from across the country.

***

Strong Language: Very Quotable New Zealand Quotes
compiled by Jim Weir
New Holland Publishers
RRP $34.99

A fascinating and frequently ripe brew of quotations on New Zealand or from New Zealanders, Strong Language holds a mirror up to our national culture and identity.

***

The Kindness of Strangers
Shonagh Koea
RHNZ Vintage
RRP $34.99

The Kindness of Strangers is an astute and sometimes wry observation of social interaction, of New Zealand’s recent history and of the place that food has in our everyday lives. It is also the intriguing story of a unique writer, her life, her thoughts and her work.

***

Get Fresh: How to grow delicious vegetables and herbs in NZ
Dennis Greville
New Holland
RRP $34.99

Whether you live on a lifestyle block or you have a couple of planters in the back yard, you’ll be surprised to find how easy it is to raise fresh, tasty vegetables and herbs for the table.

***

Hunger for the Wild
Al Brown and Steve Logan
Random House NZ
RRP $39.99

Based on the high-rating TV1 series of the same name, Hunger for the Wild follows Wellington restaurateurs Al Brown and Steve Logan as they travel the country exploring great places and superb wild food.

***

Looking for Darwin
Lloyd Spencer Davis
Longacre
RRP $39.99

Writing compellingly for the general reader scientist Lloyd Davis takes us on a journey from Darwin’s birthplace in England to South America, the Galapagos Islands, Australia and New Zealand in an attempt to answer the BIG QUESTION: ‘What the hell am I doing here?

***

Shot in New Zealand: The Art & Craft of the Kiwi Cinematographer
Duncan Petrie
Random House
RRP

This book examines the development of cinematography in New Zealand, with a particular focus on the last 30 years.

***

101 Moments of World Cup Rugby
Wynne Gray
Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd
RRP: $39.99

101 Moments of World Cup Rugby will inspire the most hardened and ardent rugby fan as well as dazzle those who know only the basics — a fitting tribute to an iconic tournament and to one of the world’s most well-loved games.

***

In/Form: Style, Process And Technique of New Zealand Graffiti Art
Elliot O’Donnell
Reed Publishing
RRP $39.99

In/Form is a cutting edge, highly illustrated publication examining 15 influential and innovative graffiti artists working in New Zealand, their approach and attitude to working in our unique environment.

***

Look This Way: NZ Writers on NZ Artists
edited by Sally Blundell
AUP
RRP $44.99

Why does a particular work of art seize your attention? Hold your gaze? Pull you back time and time again? In Look This Way 17 writers answer these seemingly straightforward questions, each writing on a favourite artist. They tell stories, find treasures, make connections, but above all look hard at the art works and engage with the artists, while inviting the reader to share their perspective.

***

In Search of Ancient New Zealand
Hamish Campbell and Gerard Hutching
Penguin
RRP $49.95

In this wonderful book palaeontologist Hamish Campbell and natural history writer Gerard Hutching present an exciting new account of our evolution aimed at the general reader.

***

The Big Picture: A History of New Zealand Art from 1642
Hamish Keith
Random House NZ Godwit
$49.99

1642? Yes, surprisingly the history of New Zealand art does date back that far – to the engravings made during Tasman’s voyage and depicting the first contact between European and Maori. With over 300 illustrations, this remarkable survey of New Zealand’s art and culture is indispensable to our understanding of who we are.

***

From Venus to Antarctica : The Life of Dumont D’Urville (1790–1842)
John Dunmore
Exisle Publishing Ltd
RRP $49.99

High adventure, discovery, science and map-making all featured strongly in the life of the great French explorer, Dumont D’Urville. This is the first-ever full-length English language biography of D’Urville, who twice visited New Zealand.

***

New Zealand: A Painted Country
Contemporary New Zealand Artists Paint their Favourite Places
compiled by Denis Robinson
New Holland Publishers
RRP $49.99

New Zealand: A Painted Country is a journey through a unique portfolio of landscapes depicting the favourite places of some of New Zealand’s most popular contemporary artists.

***

Tana Umaga Up Close
Tana Umaga
Hodder Moa
RRP $49.95

Tana Umaga up close for the first time.

***

Eat Fresh – Cooking through the Seasons
Annabel Langbein
Annabel Langbein Publishing
RRP $54.99

Annabel draws on her own garden as a source of cooking inspiration and working with a palette of seasonal flavours, produces delicious dishes from what’s available for harvest.

***

Ka Taoka Hakena: Treasures from the Hocken Collections
edited by Stuart Strachan and Linda Tyler
Otago University Press
$65

Published to celebrate the centenary of its foundation, this book introduces and samples the Hocken’s principal collections. There are many outstanding items including significant holdings of twentieth-century NZ art, manuscripts, maps and publications and many other items of great interest.

***

A Cook's Bible
Lesley Christensen-Yule and Hamish McRae
Penguin NZ
$75.00

Whether you are a complete culinary novice or an experienced home cook wanting to develop, improve and hone your skills, A Cook’s Bible will be your ultimate kitchen companion.

December New Releases

2007-11-30T21:58:00Z

Here are some new releases from local publishers for the month of December. It is a sparse list: the Christmas books are out in the shops and publishers are busily organising their titles for next year. You'll find a few outdoor books, from walking guides for your backpack to coffee table books of New Zealand's amazing landscape, a definitive study of Moko and some chick lit for summer reading… Enjoy!

***

Bonkers
Michelle Holman
Fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 679 7
HarperCollins
RRP $26.99

Bonkers is a very warm and funny love story, and is the next stage of chick lit at its best. After a head on collision between a glamorous sports car and a serviceable but very plain little car, a kind hearted angel does a swap in the anteroom to Heaven. As a result, the funny, loveable but very short and generously proportioned rugby-loving schoolteacher gets a second chance and finds herself in hospital in the body of a drop-dead gorgeous, tall and very glamorous philandering American wife. She has a very rich husband who looks as if he’s just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren catalogue, but for some reason he can’t stand her.

Definitely one for the girls to read with a box of chocolates.

The author, Michelle Holman, is a forty something wife and mother living in the Waikato. She hails from West Auckland, where she lived until til she did her OE at 17 – her husband still likes to point out her parents bought her a one way ticket. A registered nurse she has also been a Butlins holiday camp chalet maid, kibbutz worker and tissue transplant coordinator at the Coroner’s Officer in Auckland. She now manages community youth health projects in the Waikato. This is her first novel.

***

Inside New Zealand's National Parks
Eric Dorfmann
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 695 4
Penguin NZ
RRP $49.95

This book is both an extraordinarily beautiful and stylish coffee-table book and an extremely useful reference about our National Parks, complete with maps, detailed information about walking tracks and accommodation, highlights and attractions, history of the parks and profiles of spectacular flora and fauna to look out for. Compiled with the backing of the Department of Conservation and written by wildlife ecologist Eric Dorfman, this book has drawn dozens of photographs and valuable information from DOC’s vast archives together to create the only book you will need on the subject.
New Zealanders and visitors alike love New Zealand’s most precious wilderness areas. Many of the famous walking tracks are now so popular places must be booked months in advance. All 14 of New Zealand's official National Parks are featured here in great detail.

***

Mau Moko
Ngahuia Te Awekotuki
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 67004 561 7
Viking NZ
RRP $65.00

In the traditional Maori world, the moko, or facial or body tattoo, was a sign of great mana and status. Male warriors wore elaborate tattoos on their faces and bodies; women took more delicate chin tattoos. After almost dying out in the twentieth century, Maori tattooing is now experiencing a powerful revival, with many young Maori wearing the moko as a spectacular gesture of racial pride.

Mau Moko is probably the most magnificent book ever produced about the moko, from pre-European times to the present day. It examines the use of tattooing by traditional and contemporary Maori and links it to other aspects of Maori culture. Gender issues are considered along with tattooing techniques both old and new. The book features case studies of modern Maori who have made a personal decision to be tattooed, the role and status of the tattooers, and exploitation of the moko in popular culture around the world by figures such as rock singers and football players.

Mau Moko is superbly enhanced by paintings, photographs and drawings from traditional times and by new colour photography by Becky Nunes commissioned for the book.

***

The Answer
How nature can help you when life seems too hard
Lindsey Dawson
Inspiration
ISBN 978 0 47312 435 9
Out Loud Press
distributed by Adenda Publishing
RRP $19.99

Feeling stressed, harassed, lost or stuck on your path in life? Here’s the perfect inspirational book for you (or an ideal gift for an extra-busy friend). In a world going mad, where ‘natural’, ‘green’ and ‘fresh’ are the concepts we’re all turning to for a sense of ease, The Answer is a lovely book of nature images with a brief story (just a few lines per page) that begs to be browsed by all those whose lives need un-frazzling.

***

Trade Me Success Secrets 2nd Ed
Michael Carney
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 95826 343 6
Activity Press
distributed by Adenda Publishing
RRP $34.99

In this easy-to-understand guide to the country's most popular virtual destination you'll read about many of Trade Me's top buyers and sellers, their winning tips and techniques and the stories behind their successes.

It’s been hailed as an excellent, comprehensive resource for novices and experienced users alike. This new edition is expanded and updated and includes comprehensive new information on the hottest areas behind Trade Me’s phenomenal continuing growth – property, cars and jobs.

"…a great resource for traders – it includes a tremendous amount of research and effort. It covers everything you need to know about the website – from getting started through to growing your own thriving Trade Me business."—Trade Me founder, Sam Morgan

***

Tramping in Fiordland
The most popular tracks in New Zealand’s south-west wilderness
Marios Gavalas
Outdoors
ISBN 978 1 86966 153 3
New Holland Publishers
RRP $29.99

A great untamed mosaic of deep-watered glacial lakes and fiords, towering peaks and bush-clad valleys, Fiordland has a unique appeal among New Zealand’s wilderness areas, and the walks that lace its remote regions attract thousands of visitors each year. Marios Gavalas’s meticulously researched guidebook leads the reader on seven tracks, all located in or near Fiordland: the Greenstone/Caples, Hollyford, Tuatapere Hump Ridge, Kepler, Milford, Rees/Dart and Routeburn. An introductory section describes the topography, geology, climate, botany and history of the region, and deals with the technical aspects of tramping, including mountain safety and hut etiquette. Each walk description has a map of the route and gives all the interval timings, distances, track conditions and other essentials that the walker might need, as well as notes on special points of interest. Sixteen pages of the author’s photographs complement the text.

***

Vineyard Visits: 150 of New Zealand’s Best
Peter Janssen
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86950 666 7
HarperCollins
RRP $26.99

In essence, this is a simple book written to meet a previously unidentified niche in the tourism guidebook market, providing an accessible and handy small guidebook to vineyards and wineries and the visitor experience.

Wine tourism is a growing subset of both the domestic and international travel market in New Zealand, and following the highly successful Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook model, we have sent seasoned local traveler and uninformed wine drinker Peter Janssen a nationwide mission. Not to write a book for wine buffs about varieties, but to write about vineyards and wineries open to the public and describe and rate the visitor experience. Along the way he’s gathered snippets of fascinating local information and wine knowledge to make this a Wine 101 course for those who don’t care too much about the finer points of the vintage but want to enjoy a pleasant visit to an interesting and enjoyable location as part of their holiday and some good food and wine when they get there.

***

Volcanic and Thermal New Zealand
Trevern & Anna Dawes
Non-fiction
ISBN 9780670071623
Viking NZ
RRP $29.95

The spectacular beauty of New Zealand’s volcanic and geothermal regions is captured by Trevern Dawes in this great scenic tourist book, showcasing the unique landscapes of the North Island geothermal region with stunning photography. This well-priced hardback is the perfect tourist impulse buy or gift purchase.

***

New Releases from local publishers in November

2007-11-05T04:11:00Z

In our new look New Releases we offer a snapshot of books published and available this month. There is a great selection of natural history and biography; a plethora of art, poetry and cookbooks, including two new books on farmers' markets; there are walking guides and visitors' guides and if you're thinking of selling your home soon, a fantastic new book on home staging.

This list offers you the opportunity to order books online at Ferrit or from your local bookseller with correct title, author and isbn details.

Something for everyone. Enjoy!

***

A Cook's Bible
Lesley Christensen-Yule and Hamish McRae
Reference
ISBN 978 0 67007 150 0
Penguin NZ
$75.00

In A Cook’s Bible you will find everything from how to sauté a potato and fillet a fish to the best method for roasting beef and selecting the right knife. It is a comprehensive cookbook, covering traditional methods and techniques, modern ingredients, terms and tools, and delicious easy-to-follow recipes.

A Cook’s Bible has been written by the chefs who train the chefs and adapted from the leading textbook for professional cookery training (The New Zealand Chef).

Whether you are a complete culinary novice or an experienced home cook wanting to develop, improve and hone your skills, A Cook’s Bible will be your ultimate kitchen companion.

***

A Land of Water:
Rivers and Lakes of New Zealand
Pamela McGeorge
photography Russell McGeorge
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 8 6953 616 9
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $39.99

Water is an integral part of New Zealand life. Explore the many ways it shapes the people and our land.

***

A Short Short History of New Zealand
Gordon McLauchlan
Reference
ISBN 978 0 14300 787 6
Penguin NZ
$9.95

Gordon McLauchlan knows New Zealand intimately and affectionately and has set out in this book to provide readers with an accessible overview of our history.

For students, new citizens or anyone needing a quick top-up of historical information.

***

A Southern Architecture
The Work of Ted McCoy
Ted McCoy
intro by Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins
Architecture
ISBN 978 1 877372 48 3
Otago University Press
RRP $80 approx

The forms of Ted McCoy’s houses can recall the early stone and mud brick buildings of the colonial era in Otago, as this region has been both his locus and his inspiration. Amongst New Zealand architects, McCoy is outstanding in that he has a detailed colour photographic record covering fifty years of work.

In this book, McCoy presents his work chronologically with an accompanying text. As Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins comments in his introduction, ‘In trying to pigeon-hole McCoy exclusively as one thing on a list that might include – a post-war innovator, one of the master big building modernists of the 1960s and 1970s, a house architect of proven ability, a sophisticated maker of church architecture or a superb interpreter of the post-moedrn moment – is to lose understanding. Ted McCoy is not one, but all of those things.’

***

A Touch of Sleeve:
Hisashi’s Story
Susan Bell
Historical non-fiction, Biography
ISBN 978 1 877361 79 1
Longacre Press
RRP $39.99

There is a Japanese proverb about a frog who opens his mouth displaying his inside. By exposing his inside he brings great shame upon himself. This is one reason little is known about Japan and how its citizens fared in World War II and the consequent Occupation by the United States. However, there is one old man who doesn’t care about exposing his ‘inside’ for public view. He has things he wants to say...

This is Hisashi Furuya’s story as told to Susan Bell. (Susan met Hisashi when he and his sister immigrated to new Zealand in 1991.) Susan maps the history of Japan with that of Hisashi’s ancestors, his samurai lineage. Set against events preceding, during and following World War II, this saga gives the picture of the times in which Hisashi grew up, and which shaped the man he is today.

***

A Love Affair with Wine
Church Road
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 953 0
Random House NZ
RRP $89.99

A beautiful gift book for any wine lover, full of stylish photographs from the world of wine, the Church Road vineyard and around Hawke’s Bay, and with informative and highly accessible text. Produced by a star team of writers, designers and stylists, and with amazing images by top photographer Derek Henderson, the text covers the history of the land, the vineyard and the people who have worked there, as well as material on wine and wine-making techniques. The vineyard’s place in the community is examined, especially its much-loved jazz festival held every summer. The images are eclectic and surprising, with everything from character portraits of vineyard workers to extreme detail close-ups and still-life arrangements that look like works of art. A Love Affair With Wine is a celebration of wine and its place in our lives.

***

Coromandel
Ian Robinson
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86953 698 5
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $39.99

A beautiful book showcasing the history and culture of one of the North Island’s most popular holiday destinations. Written by Ian Robinson and featuring photographs from local photographers, this will delight holiday-makers and residents.

***

Dinner in a basket
Judith Cullen cooks from the market
photography by Bill Nichol
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 877361 85 2
Longacre Press
RRP $39.99

With her ‘buy locally, cook seasonally’ mantra, Judith Cullen explores a selection of colourful, high-quality markets around New Zealand meeting the producers face to face. In Dinner in a Basket, Judith takes us on a foodie’s journey, introducing each region’s finest produce and providing a tantalising array of delicious recipes to suit not only the region but the season. These recipes encourage all food-lovers and family chefs to plan their menus around what is readily available at each change of season.

Dinner in a Basket introduces six food-producing regions and their markets, along with luscious and inspirational recipes. The recipes focus on fresh, in-season, local produce, as well as the cheeses, olive oils and other locally produced culinary delights. The recipes range from Tunisian Fish Tajine to Zucchini Soup with Soba Noodles to Pear and Hazelnut Crumble Cake. Judith’s recipes incorporate flavours from around the world but emphasis is always on the freshness, the taste and the essence of the ingredients.

***

Excellent Short Walks in the North Island
250 Walks Under 2 Hours
Peter Janssen
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86966 172 4
New Holland Publishers
RRP $29.99

Peter Janssen introduces more than 250 North Island short walks with a difference. They are grouped by region, and each can be accomplished within the span of a couple of hours (and some much less), putting them well within the grasp of most people. What’s more, all of them have a memorable highlight as their destination, whether it’s a spectacular feature of the natural landscape, an historic site or similar landmark, giving readers motivation to stretch their legs. The book is ideal for those walkers who are not at their peak level or fitness, those with children or – like many visitors to New Zealand – those who do not have full tramping kit to hand.

***

Food from the Sea
Daryl Crimp and Norman Holtzhausen
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86950 659 9
HaperCollins
RRP $19.99

Food from the Sea is a resourceful and mouth-watering collection of some of New Zealand’s finest seafood, which will prove to be indispensable for local and touring fishing enthusiasts on their next fishing trip or when they need to be inspired by a delectable recipe. Author, cartoonist and devoted fisherman, Daryl Crimp says there’s nothing more satisfying then harvesting from the sea using your own resources and then transforming the catch into a truly spectacular feast you can share with family and friends. For the past 30 years, the sea has inspired Crimpy’s two greatest passions — fishing and food.

***

From Venus to Antarctica
The Life of Dumont D’Urville (1790–1842)
John Dunmore
Non-fiction
ISBN
Exisle Publishing Ltd
RRP $49.99

High adventure, discovery, science and map-making all featured strongly in the life of the great French explorer, Dumont D’Urville. This is the first-ever full-length English language biography of D’Urville, who twice visited New Zealand.

Dumont D’Urville (1790–1842) undertook three global voyages of exploration and is the navigator who made the single greatest contribution to perfecting the map of the Pacific in the nineteenth century. His qualities as a navigator and explorer brought him national recognition in the form of the Legion of Honour, while his scientific contributions earned him the gold medal of the Société de Géographie.

Yet despite his undoubted intelligence, energy, navigational expertise and scientific knowledge, D’Urville was not an easy or likeable man. In 1841 he began to write a detailed account of his final voyage, which was eagerly awaited by the public. However, it had to be completed by others when he, his wife and son were tragically killed in a railway accident in 1842. With his death the age of the great naval explorers came to an end.

***

Heart of Darfur
Lisa French Blaker
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 34095 230 6
H&S, Hachette Livre
RRP $39.99

Lisa arrives in Sudan full of determination to use her skills as a nurse to do something to ease the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people caught up in the civil war raging through Darfur. She is working with Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international organisation that sends health workers to the most desperate places in the world. The six months she spends on the mission will be the toughest of her life but will teach her some fundamental truths about what people are capable of, both good and bad, and about herself. Lisa describes treating children with machete wounds, babies dying of chronic dehydration, girls giving birth at the age of 13 and old women too traumatised to carry on living. Her relationships with her Sudandese colleagues are treasured and described in fascinating detail. The book is exquisitely written, without sentiment but with a powerful and moving determiantion to show the suffering of the people of Darfur and to bear witness to their remarkable courage in the face of the most appalling situation. This is the book to help us all understand the human story behind the newspaper headlines.

***

Home Staging in New Zealand
Grooming Your House for Sale
Catherine Smith
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 95826 355 9
Renaissance Publishing (NZ)
RRP $27.99

For most New Zealanders, our home is our biggest financial asset and we buy and sell them with regularity, but when we’ve been living somewhere for a long time, we can be blind to its quirks and features. Home Staging in New Zealand shows you how to see your home as it really is.

Not just an excellent sourcebook, Home Staging also offers step-by-step checklists, practical tips, suggested shortcuts for those with a minimum of time, and extensive notes on everything from decluttering spaces and cosmetic makeovers to staging the garden and making beds properly. Just some basic attention to a few areas of the home can give excellent financial returns.

***

Hunger for the Wild
Al Brown and Steve Logan
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 937 0
Random House NZ
RRP $39.99

Based on the high-rating TV1 series of the same name, Hunger for the Wild follows Wellington restaurateurs Al Brown and Steve Logan as they travel the country exploring great places and superb wild food. Along the way they learn about local produce, the land and sea that surrounds it, the people who harvest it. Each chapter includes mouth-watering recipes and information on history and local identities. Featuring crayfish and whitebait on the West Coast, scallops in Nelson, wild pig up the Wanganui River, paua from the Wellington coast, rabbit in Otago and eel in Canterbury, Hunger for the Wild is written in a lively and entertaining style – a celebration of New Zealand’s fresh produce. Al Brown and Steve Logan run Wellington’s award-winning fine-dining restaurant Logan Brown.

***

It's My Turn to Cook
40 Tasty Recipes for Young Kiwi Cooks
Margaret Brooker
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86966 169 4
New Holland Publishers
RRP $24.99

In text that is addressed directly at young readers, food writer Margaret Brooker shows how truly enjoyable and satisfying it can be to get kids cooking. If you’re a parent you’ll know the trials of introducing good, nutritious food to your children; but by involving them in the process you can give them not only a set of life skills, but also a pride in their creation (whatever it looks like at the finish) that will encourage them to broaden their diet. Moreover, it’s great fun cooking with kids! The large-format, gloss-finish hardback is perfect for sticky situations, and every recipe is photographed, not just with full-size shots but also with helpful step-by-step sequences. In addition there is a section containing ‘how to’ tips on basic food preparation, as well as useful advice on safety and health, and a full index.

***

Kiwi Keith
A Biography of Keith Holyoake
Barry Gustafson
Biography
ISBN 978 1 86940 400 0
AUP
$59.99

“Kiwi” Keith Holyoake’s almost unequalled length of service as PM and politician, his dominance of the political scene and transformation of New Zealand domestically and internationally during the 1960s make him one of the most remarkable figures in our history.

In this biography, Barry Gustafson – the author of bestselling biographies of Robert Muldoon and Michael Joseph Savage – tells the story of Keith Holyoake’s life for the first time. Holyoake, known from an early age as ‘Kiwi Keith’ or simply ‘Kiwi’, was a distinctively New Zealand politician, the first Prime Minister to claim abroad that he was not British but a New Zealander. Derided by critics as pompous and unprincipled, a master of consensus and compromise, Holyoake is portrayed by Gustafson as a man with an astute understanding of people and political issues, skilled at defusing division and preserving order while encouraging gradual progress.

***

Lady Painters: The Flower Painters of Early New Zealand
Bee Dawson
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 805 7
Penguin NZ
$39.95

This extraordinary book is a blend of accounts of the lives of resident women painters of the 19th century and wonderful examples of their exquisite art. The design is modern and accessible. Art interwoven with botany and social history, a readable insight into the lives of some very extraordinary women.

Botanical art is having a tremendous revival and old flower paintings are being reproduced in prints and fabrics.

***

Landfall 214: Open House
edited by Jack Ross
Literature/Art/Culture
ISBN 978 1 877372 93 3
Otago University Press
RRP $29.95

After a number of themed issues, Landfall opens up in a general issue, presenting new voices in poetry and fiction alongside more established writers. Prose writing includes Ted Jenner on Malawi, Stephen Turner on cultural plagiarism and the New Zealand dream of home, Bronwyn Lloyd on doppelgänger suicide, and Ouyang Yu on ‘the axis of exiles’.
There are in-depth reviews of new books from a wide range of publishers, by writers from a variety of perspectives. Eight paintings by cover artist Emma Smith make up the first portfolio, while Gabriel White’s photographs of South Korea form the second, as well as a generous helping of poets.

***

Life on the Edge – New Zealand’s natural hazards and disasters
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86953 690 9
David Bateman Publishers
RRP $39.99

In the last week of September 2007, just as this book was going to print, these headlines showed just how many natural hazards New Zealand has to deal with: + Mt Ruapehu erupts + Earthquake in the Southern Ocean +Tsunami alert + Huge landslide in Mt Aspiring National Park

Discover why New Zealand is such a volatile place, find out about the major disasters in the past and our responses to them, and what might happen in the future.

***

Looking Flash:
Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand
Bronwyn Labrum, Fiona McKergow, Stephanie Gibson (eds)
Non-fiction
ISBN 9781869403973
AUP
RRP $49.99

Offering a fresh look at the role of clothes in New Zealand history, Looking Flash examines what we wear and what we have worn – from the shrinking bathing suit to the black singlet – pullover the past three centuries. The writers show that, despite a reputation for being wary of ‘looking flash’, New Zealand has not always been a dowdy country. Essays span the clothing of pre-colonial Maori society, marching girls and castaways, and include eighteenth-century heirloom dresses, hand-me-downs, wartime garb and kilts. There are also extraordinary stories about the fate of a Maori cloak and an Otago farmer’s remarkable collection of 1970s high-fashion garments. Looking Flash provides an original pathway into our history and culture – and proves that clothing reveals as much as it conceals.

***

Making Lists for Frances Hodgkins
Paula Green
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86940 402 4
AUP
RRP $24.99

‘[In Making Lists for Frances Hodgkins] the use of language is lively, direct, challenging and rich… The main satisfaction is the preoccupation that binds it all together: painting and words, masterpieces and poems, painters and poets.’ —Elizabeth Smither

***

Market Day
a taste of life at New Zealand farmers’ markets
Vicki Winn
photography by Terry Winn
Non-fiction/Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86966 161 8
New Holland Publishers
RRP $34.99

With the supermarket chains offering increasingly bland produce, more and more people who care about what they eat and take pleasure in the good things in life are turning to the real alternative: the home-grown produce available from farmers’ markets, from olives, fish, jams and preserves to organic meat, wine, lavender and more. This luxuriantly illustrated book introduces a selection of markets from across the country. It includes:
• an introduction to each region and its markets
• text/photographic portraits of key growers, producers and regional specialties
• dozens of delicious recipes – starters, mains and desserts – using specialty ingredients
• a directory of accredited farmers’ markets in New Zealand
• a directory of lodgings and restaurants, selected on the strength of their commitment to using and serving good regional produce.

***

New New Zealand Houses
John Walsh and Patrick Reynolds
Architecture
ISBN 978 1 86962 129 2
Random House NZ Godwit
RRP $90.00

New Zealand architecture has come of age, with a number of New Zealand practices attracting international attention, and local architecture awards provoking wide public interest and debate. In this expert, intelligently ordered survey of contemporary residential architecture from across New Zealand, leading architectural photographer Patrick Reynolds and Architecture New Zealand magazine editor John Walsh take the pulse of New Zealand residential architecture. Not only are there magnificent photographs of 25 of the best new New Zealand houses, but there is also incisive and thoughtful text that gets to grips with the strengths of each house and the issues facing architects, clients and planners as New Zealanders become ever more sophisticated in their architectural desires.

***

The New Zealand Book of Lists
Steve Barnett & John McCrystal
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 927 1
Random House NZ
RRP $29.99

A compendium of curious and unusual New Zealand information including odd, arcane, extraordinary and surprising facts and figures plus ‘I didn’t know that’ trivia, to fill rainy afternoons at the bach. Lists include: New Zealand towns with the most brothels, gangs, weird crimes, dinosaurs most New Zealanders never knew we had, Shortland Street conquests, famous animals, uses of sphagnum moss, pubs on a university pub crawl, most popular snogging spots and more. It’s wacky, fun and more than a little bit weird.

***

New Zealand: A Painted Country
Contemporary New Zealand Artists Paint their Favourite Places
compiled by Denis Robinson
Art
ISBN 978 1 86966 184 7
New Holland Publishers
RRP $49.99

New Zealand: A Painted Country is a journey through a unique portfolio of landscapes depicting the favourite places of some of New Zealand’s most popular contemporary artists. The highly diverse paintings display not only the wide spectrum of styles and techniques used by these artists, but also the way in which they capture and interpret that essence of a particular landscape – be it the light, mood, colours, contours, textures, or some other element – which attracts them to it. Beginning amid the grandeur of the Southern Alps and finishing in the deeply spiritual region of Northland, the journey takes in almost every region of New Zealand, reflecting the ever-changing character of the land. A homage to the favourite places of some of our most popular artists, this book is also a tribute to the painted country itself, New Zealand.

***

Peter Snell:
from Olympian to Scientist
Peter Snell & Garth Gilmour
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14302 086 8
Penguin
RRP $35.00

The great Peter Snell was one of the most powerful middle-distance runners of all time. He burst onto the international arena as the surprise winner of the 800 metres at the Rome Olympics in 1960, and in Tokyo in 1964 he won gold medals for 800 and 1500 metres. In all he held eight world records. Since that time world-class runners have broken Snell’s records over those distances, but nobody – before, during or since – has come close to matching Snell’s withering power over the final few hundred metres. After retiring from running at an early age, Snell went to work and study in the United States. As a self-confessed high-school underachiever, unused to academic study, he initially struggled. But he went on to obtain two university degrees and is now an acknowledged world expert on aging, exercise, nutrition and human performance.

This biography is the full account of Peter Snell’s life as sensational athlete and respected scientist and academic. It picks up the story from Peter’s first biography No Bugles, No Drums, which was published in 1965.

***

Savvy
Fresh, Inspired New Zealand Cuisine
Jason Dell
Cooking
ISBN 978 1 86950 692 6
HaperCollins
RRP $39.99

Presenting a rare glimpse into the repertoire of one of New Zealand’s foremost culinary talents, Savvy is a collection of delicious, contemporary recipes that food enthusiasts will savour. It is the culmination of three years work by multi-award-winning Jason Dell, executive chef at the internationally top-ranking luxury hotel Blanket Bay Lodge in Glenorchy and was created in response to the growing interest in his fabulous recipes from international clientele. Savvy is an eclectic collection of fresh, vibrant fare, celebrating New Zealand's finest produce sourced both from the land and the waters in and around Te Waipounamu (the South Island), and features New Zealand’s wines and spectacular scenery. Throughout the book, Jason shares unique stories about industry personalities with whom he has built loyal, rewarding and trusting relationships. The addition of selected wine recommendations offers added interest to his diverse display of culinary work.

***

Strong Language
Very Quotable New Zealand Quotes
compiled by Jim Weir
Reference
ISBN 978 1 86966 182 3
New Holland Publishers
RRP $34.99

A fascinating and frequently ripe brew of quotations on New Zealand or from New Zealanders, Strong Language holds a mirror up to our national culture and identity. Sacred, profane, witty, big-hearted, perceptive, hilarious, wise; all are words that could apply to the hundreds of quotations lifted from the popular press, television and contemporary media over the last half century, with particular emphasis on the last couple of decades. Rob Muldoon, David Lange, Helen Clark, Jonah Lomu, Doug Howlett, Chris Laidlaw, Janet Frame, J.K. Baxter, Bob Jones, Bernard Freyberg, Joe Bennett, Steve Braunias – these are just a few of the many who feature in Strong Language.

***

Tapa Talk
Serie Barford
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 869693 19 0
Huia Publishers
RRP $22

This collection of poetry explores the separation of and connections between people, places, and cultures. There are transformations from bark to cloth and plants to dyes, from limited views to wider understandings, and from being lonely to being loved. The poems fill the senses with vivid colours, intense and languid heat, sinuous and silky textures, heady tropical scents and rhythms of tapa being pounded and voices ‘rolling like marbles unevenly across the table’.

***

Tea with my Tapas
a New Zealand traveller enjoys the cultural challenges of Spain
Judith Doyle
Memoir
ISBN 978 0 9582635 4 2
Renaissance Publishing (NZ)
RRP $27.99

New Zealand travel writer Judith Doyle has been visiting Spain for over half a century and is passionate about its history, customs and traditions. But it wasn’t until a recent but significant birthday that Judith discovered the word jubilada, which means ‘retired’ in Spanish — and what a great place to be jubilada! In this case it’s all about having the time to explore Spanish art, architecture and dance, as well as enjoy and experience many of the local customs, some of which Judith cheerfully adopts and adapts, such as her novel approach to ordering refreshments in a tapas bar, a practice which provokes stunned silence from her Spanish language class.

Valuable not only as a absorbing tale, but also as a useful resource for those jubilada considering travelling to Spain, Tea with my Tapas is a frank and often funny look at a captivating part of the world through the eyes of a well-travelled New Zealander.

***

The Big Picture
A History of New Zealand Art from 1642
Hamish Keith
Art
ISBN 978 1 8696 2132 2
Random House NZ Godwit
$49.99

1642? Yes, surprisingly the history of New Zealand art does date back that far – to the engravings made during Tasman’s voyage and depicting the first contact between European and Maori. In this tautly, provocatively and passionately argued history, leading art commentator Hamish Keith takes readers on a fascinating and illuminating exploration of our culture, discussing how artists and their works provided another language to describe the new culture created by European immigrants from the scaffolding of the Mother Country. With over 300 illustrations, this remarkable survey of New Zealand’s art and culture is indispensable to our understanding of who we are. The Big Picture is published as a companion to Hamish Keith’s art series which screens later in the year on TVNZ.

***

The Earth's Deep Breathing
Garden Poems by New Zealand Poets
edited by Harvey McQueen
Poetry
ISBN 978 1 86962 138 4
Random House NZ Godwit
RRP $34.99

New Zealanders are lovers of gardens and poetry, and this beautiful volume brings these two passions together.It is a treasury of 88 moving and arresting poems, chosen by respected anthologist and poet Harvey McQueen and accompanied by outstanding flower imagery. Poets featured in the collection include Lauris Edmond, Jenny Bornholdt, Ursula Bethell, Fleur Adcock, Cilla McQueen, Bernadette Hall, Hone Tuwhare, Albert Wendt, Brian Turner, Janet Frame, Bill Sewell, Allen Curnow, Elizabeth Smither and Karlo Mila. Beautifully packaged, this is a book full of accessible poetry from across the years, which will appeal to gardeners and poetry lovers alike. Harvey McQueen is a well-known writer, poet and anthologist. He edited The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse and is the author of six volumes of his own poetry. In 2002 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and literature.

***

The Mad Keen Mountain Biker's Road Trip
Ruth Connor
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 884 7
Random House NZ
$29.99

New Zealand is becoming a nation of mad keen mountain bikers and if you are someone who has ever thought “why not throw the bike on the rack and head out to explore some new back country?”, this is the book for you. Expert mountain biker Ruth Connor has put together 20 must-do mountain biking weekends on 57 of the country’s best trails – some famous, some best known to locals, and all absolutely worth the ride. With full riding information, suggestions of where to stay and what to do when you’re not on your bike, handy maps of each region and GPS locations, this is the mountain biker’s indispensable guide. Ruth O’Connor is an experienced mountain biker and has ridden all the tracks featured in The Mad Keen Mountain Biker’s Road Trip.

***

The Native Plant Garden
Dennis Greville
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 14300 685 5
Penguin NZ
RRP $39.95

This title by gardening writer and photographer, Dennis Greville, introduces native plants to the New Zealand gardener. Native plants have had a resurgence in popularity with designers and planners in recent years, loved for their low maintenance and sculptural qualities.

This book includes great close-up images of plants as well as varying styles of gardens featuring native plants. Each garden is very different giving a sense of the variety of styles that can be achieved. Conditions and gardening advice is provided. The Native Plant Garden is a celebration of New Zealand fauna.

***

The Puffin Treasury of New Zealand Children's Stories: Volume 4
edited by Jenni Keestra
Children's
ISBN 978 0 14330 346 6
Puffin NZ
RRP $29.95

Another wonderful treasury of timeless children’s stories that will appeal to New Zealand families, as has been proven by the success of Volumes 1, 2 and 3. From picture books to poems to excerpts from brilliantly written stories for older children, the appeal of this value-for-money bumper book is vast.

This beautiful treasury contains stories from some of our best-loved writing for children. The original illustrations from the books have been reproduced in a lively and colourful design.

This is New Zealand’s children’s writing at its best – from the contemporary to the classic – written and illustrated by some of New Zealand’s best: Ruth Dallas, Lynley Dodd, Lauris Edmond, Janet Frame, Maurice Gee, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Phyllis Johnston, Jack Lasenby, Margaret Mahy, Rachel McAlpine, Kingi McKinnon, Cilla McQueen, John Parker and many more.

***

Treading Water
Rob Hewitt’s Survival Story
Rob Hewitt with Aaron Smale
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86969 318 3
Huia Publishers
RRP $30

In February 2006, Rob Hewitt went missing while diving in the sea off the Kapiti Coast. Seventy-five hours later, he was found in the water alive. Treading Water is the story of the spiritual journey Rob made during that time. It traces Rob Hewitt’s humble beginnings, through the childhood events that shaped him, his career in the navy, and the days and nights adrift at sea and how the ordeal changed his life.

***

Wetlands of New Zealand
Janet Hunt
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 1 86941 904 2
Random House NZ
RRP $69.99

Wetlands are the unheralded gems of the New Zealand landscape. Seriously endangered and taken for granted by New Zealanders, they are often stunning environments, harbouring all manner of beautiful and rare flora & fauna. This beautiful, environmentally important book describes what wetlands do, what we find in wetlands – plants, aquatic life, birds and animals – and also looks at the conservation and restoration of wetlands. Examining the different kinds – peatlands, wetlands for waders, coastal wetlands, urban wetlands, upland and geothermal wetlands and rivers – it also focuses on the internationally renowned areas known as the Ramsar Convention wetlands: Firth of Thames, Kopuatai Peat Dome, Whangamarino, Farewell Spit, Waituna Lagoon, and the Manawatu estuary. Wetlands is a beautiful large-format hardback featuring engaging and authoritative natural history-writing by award-winner Janet Hunt, author of From Weta to Kauri and A Bird in the Hand. The excellent photography is by Arno Gasteiger.

***

With Honour: Our Army, Our Nation, Our History
Richard Wolfe
Non-fiction
ISBN 978 0 67004 565 5
Viking NZ
RRP $59.95

The story of New Zealanders at war and in peace – a personal story, the real story, told through the collections and recollections of those men and women who were there, and illustrated from the resources of the QEII Army Museum.

The history of New Zealand is intertwined with the history of her army: from the very birth of modern New Zealand at Waitangi, through global conflicts to peacekeeping today in the Pacific. All of our major conflicts and campaigns feature, heavily illustrated with personal belongings, military ephemera, documents, unpublished photos and military artefacts.

With unprecedented access to the full archive held at the New Zealand Army Museum in Waiouru, With Honour reveals unknown treasures and priceless military artefacts to help tell our story.

***

Woven Stone
The Sculpture of Chris Booth
Chris Booth
Art
ISBN 978 1 86962 122 3
Random House NZ Godwit
$69.99

Northland sculptor Chris Booth is one the few Kiwis to have really cracked it on the world art stage. His latest commission is for a gigantic work in a chalk pit at The Eden Project in the UK and we’ve just had word that Booth has been invited to design a destination work of art to be erected between the Sydney Opera House and the Botanic Garden gates. A man who thinks not just big but huge, Chris has no end of audacity and inventiveness, and a great team of engineers up north. His latest stone wall at the Hamilton Botanical Gardens is absolutely stunning and in 2008 he will unveil a giant sculpture for Kerikeri. The last Chris Booth hardback for Godwit is now out of print and this all-new book brings together the remarkable pieces he has installed both in New Zealand and overseas, in both public and private collections, and traces his remarkable artistic and spiritual journey.

***

New Releases from local publishers in October

2007-09-30T19:12:00Z

The response to our New Releases has been so positive that we're continuing… There is a great mix of fiction for children, including the timely: Grandma Joins the All Blacks; juvenile fiction from Stacy Gregg, who will be blogging for us this month; new fiction from Paul Shannon; some great non-fiction: Ka Taoka Hakena: Treasures from the Hocken Collections; and, to celebrate time in the garden: Get Fresh: how to grow delicious vegetables and herbs in New Zealand.

Happy reading!

Look This Way: NZ Writers on NZ Artists

2007-09-30T18:00:00Z

edited by Sally Blundell
Art
ISBN 978 1 86940 371 3
Auckland University Press
RRP $44.99

Why does a particular work of art seize your attention? Hold your gaze? Pull you back time and time again? In Look This Way 17 writers answer these seemingly straightforward questions, each writing on a favourite artist. They tell stories, find treasures, make connections, but above all look hard at the art works and engage with the artists, while inviting the reader to share their perspective.

Ian Wedde on Bill Hammond
Fiona Farrell on Gavin Bishop
Anne Kennedy on John Reynolds
Chris Knox on James Robinson
Margaret Mahy on Tony Geddes
Gregory O’Brien on John Drawbridge
Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt on Ronnie van Hout
Mark Williams on Tony de Lautour
Dylan Horrocks on Barry Linton
Bernadette Hall on Kathryn Madill
C.K. Stead on Colin McCahon
Tom Weston on Joanna Braithwaite
Hana O’Regan on Cliff Whiting
William Dart on Jacqueline Fahey
Jenny Bornholdt on Mary McFarlane
Brian Easton on Janice Gill
Tusiata Avia on Lily Laita

Hostile Shores

2007-09-30T18:00:00Z

Catastrophic Events in Pre-Historic New Zealand and Their Impact on Maori Coastal Communities
Bruce McFadgen
Science
ISBN 978 1 86940 390 4
Auckland University Press
RRP $49.99

New Zealand's Polynesian settlers arrived in a land prone to violent geological disruption by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Their settlements, spread around the coast, were particularly vulnerable to these catastrophic events. Hostile Shores is an authoritative, groundbreaking study of the effects of these events on the coast and its people up until European contact. Evidence from Maori oral tradition, anthropology, archaeology, demography, geology, history and vulcanology combine in a unique coherent analysis. Essential reading for anyone living within 300 metres of the shoreline of New Zealand.

The author
Bruce McFadgen is an archaeologist who previously worked for the Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. He is the author of more than 70 scientific papers, and is known in particular for his work on radiocarbon calibration. He has been a member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors since 1968. In 2003 he was awarded the J D Stout Fellowship to work on this book.