Fight for the Forests
Paul Bensemann
Potton and Burton, $70.00,
ISBN 9780947503130
This book is a marvellous chronicle of the people, the campaigns, the sorrows and sacrifices and, ultimately, the achievement to protect New Zealand’s unique publicly owned native forests. Set within the context of a brilliant overview by one of the fighters, Craig Potton, Paul Bensemann takes us through each campaign, in astonishing detail.
Dispatches from Continent Seven: An Anthology of Antarctic Science Rebecca Priestley (ed) Awa Press, $55.00, ISBN 9781927249055 New Zealand’s connection with Antarctica began with early explorers. Abel Janszoon Tasman and Captain James Cook sailed south seeking Terra Australis Incognita and…
James Hector: Explorer, Scientist, Leader
Simon Nathan
Geoscience Society of New Zealand, $45.00
ISBN 9781877480461
Simon Nathan’s biography of Sir James Hector fills a major gap in the nation’s historical bibliography. The reasons why the gap remained unfilled for over a century following Hector’s death are worth pondering. A cursory glance through Nathan’s bibliography reveals full length biographies of several of Hector’s scientific contemporaries, McKay, Haast, Buller, Davis and Murchison among them. But Hector’s life, despite his towering public stature in the development of 19th-century New Zealand, remained confined to an MA thesis in 1936 and a more recent doctoral thesis devoted to his early life.
Science on Ice: Discovering the Secrets of Antarctica Veronica Meduna Auckland University Press, $60.00, ISBN 9781869405830 “Visiting this frozen landscape,” writes Veronica Meduna, “is to gain a fresh perspective on our world, almost like going to another planet and looking…
Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age Rebecca Priestley Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869407278 In April 1960, thousands of Aucklanders and Wellingtonians flocked to their ports to welcome the USS Halibut. For the New Zealand Herald, the…
Pieces of Mind: 21 Short Walks around the Human Brain Michael C Corballis Auckland University Press. $30.00, ISBN 9781869404925 Last year, my sister Rachel returned from 10 years in Italy, laden with fine Tuscan wines – a light bubbly…
Digging Up the Past: Archaeology for the Young and Curious David Veart Auckland University Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781869404659 When I was about seven years old, I started a museum. It stood in our garden shed, and consisted of bones,…
Volcanoes of Auckland: The Essential Guide Bruce W Hayward, Graeme Murdock and Gordon Maitland Auckland University Press, $59.99, ISBN 9781869404796 Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is often referred to as the “City of Sails” because of its location straddling…
Expert Witness: Behind the Scenes with a Real-life Forensic Scientist Anna Sandiford HarperCollins, $32.99, ISBN 9781869508753 “The CSI effect” refers to the influence of forensic science-themed TV shows on public perception, particularly when it comes to the courtroom. CSI:…
North Pole, South Pole: The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism Gillian Turner Awa Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780958275002 Consider this passage about magnetism: Cooling basalts, it turns out, contain small crystals of iron-oxide compounds ……