Blog Archives

Vanished world, Dale Williams

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Work of J G Keulemans Geoff Norman Te Papa Press, $150.00, ISBN 9781877385889 Kids in a sweet shop. Nineteenth-century naturalists given a brand new country to play in gobbled up the apparent endless

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Posted in History, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review

Curiosa and curiosa, Dale Williams

The Owl That Fell from the Sky: Stories of a Museum Curator  Brian Gill Awa Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781877551130 Stag Spooner: Wild Man from the Bush  Chris Maclean  Craig Potton Publishing, $50.00,  ISBN 9781877517686 The Indescribable Beauty: Letters Home to

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Posted in Art, Fiction, History, Letters, Literature, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Bovver boys

What they wrote A taste of contributor comments over our first 20 years   On New Zealand Books My hope is that New Zealand Books will provide a forum for frank discussion that dares to rise above the suffocating confines

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Posted in Comment

Good meaty stuff, Dale Williams

From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen: New Zealand Culinary Traditions and Cookbooks Helen Leach (ed) Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 978877372759   Graham Kerr famously said that New Zealand had no culinary tradition, but, as a chef, he probably judged us

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Heroines needed, Dale Williams

Leading the Way: How New Zealand Women Won the Vote Megan Hutching HarperCollins, $39.99, ISBN 9781869507923 “Tis the glory of New Zealand that her sons were first to see/That there never was a free land where the women were not

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Posted in Gender, History, Non-fiction, Review

Take your partners, Dale Williams

Light Fantastic: Dance Floor Courtship in New Zealand Georgina White HarperCollins, $49.99, ISBN 9781869506193 Holiday Seasons: Christmas, New Year and Easter in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand Alison Clarke Auckland University Press, $35.00,  ISBN 9781869403829 Who doesn’t recall the excited flutter of

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Double jeopardy, Anne Else

Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Janus Women’s Convention 2005 Dale Williams (ed) The Janus Trust, price not available,  ISBN 095826452X Hands up all those who immediately switch off as soon as they see those tedious, ever-so-70s words “w—n” or “f—–sm”? 

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Posted in Gender, Non-fiction, Review

Essentials of Bloketopia, Dale Williams

High Times in the High Country: The Life of a Musterer W V Kerr and John Kerr Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0140294422 Easy Riders: Cruising the Long White Cloud Paul and Val Davis HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503570 Blokes and Boats: Text Bill McCarthy, photography

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Miscellany: Short reviews, Dale Williams

Godwits Return, Margaret Clark (ed), Bridget Williams Books, $29.95 New Zealanders are a restless lot – the more job training we get, the more likely we are to pack up and swim in bigger ponds overseas. Sometimes we come back.

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Posted in Art, Natural History, Non-fiction, Pacific, Review, Sociology

Short history reviews, Dale Williams

Waiheke Island. A History Paul Monin, Dunmore Press, $34.95 Aucklanders are in love with the romantic idea of a sizeable, liveable island just 20 kilometres from their urban sprawl. But Waiheke’s wide range of natural resources have always been desired

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
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