Blog Archives

The basics of communication, Martin Taylor

Communicating Caring: A guide for health workers and caregivers Richard Bolstad with Margot Hamblett, Te Hata Ohlson, and Jan Hardie, Longman Paul, $32.95 In this book, Richard Bolstad provides a thorough introduction to the basics of communication, caring for others and

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Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Review

Short reviews, Dale Williams

A Dissolving Dream: A New Zealander in Amin’s Uganda, Heather Benson, Bridget Williams Books, $29.95 They met and married in Wellington, then returned to Joe’s native Uganda to live. As their children are born, and Heather starts rebuilding a run-down

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Reviewing health services, Ben Gray

Health where it hurts: The story of the Newtown Health Service Don Matheson (ed), Newtown Union Health Service, Wellington, 1992, $15 Health reforms: A second opinion,  Lyndon Keene (ed), Wellington Health Action Committee, 1992, $10 Core Services 1993/94: The First

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Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

A different planet, Pauline Engel

Breaking the Habit: Life in a New Zealand Dominican Convent 1956-67, Judith Graham, John McIndoe, $24.95 ‘Out in the world …’ used to be a common utterance in convent life. Unconsciously it implied that we inhabited a different planet. Judith

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Religion, Review

Family law in a bicultural society, Vivienne Ullrich

Family Law Policy in New Zealand Mark Henaghan and Bill Atkin (eds), Oxford University Press, $49.95 Some people will admit to not knowing how to boil an egg or change a tyre, but few will admit to not knowing about

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Posted in Māori, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Compulsive reading, Diane Hebley

Shaking the Bee Tree Dennis McEldowney, Auckland University Press, $29.95 Almost as much autobiography as biography, Dennis McEldowney’s Shaking the Bee Tree is essentially a fascinating love story made possible by modern surgery. Since both he and his subject, Zoë Greenhough, were

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

A question of tone, Shelagh Duckham Cox

Employment Contracts: New Zealand Experiences Raymond Harbridge (ed), Victoria University Press, $29.95 I need to write two reviews of this book. The second should be placed on top of the first as a palimpset – to infuse, colour and modify

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Surveying, sketching and painting, Nola Easdale

John Turnbull Thomson: First Surveyor-General of NZ John Hall-Jones, McIndoe, $59.95 With trained professional eyes, New Zealand’s early surveyor/explorers sketched and mapped their way up the rivers and through the mountains of our country. Their journals and art works form

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction

This will cause no stir, Lloyd Geering

Honest to Goodness Humanist Society of New Zealand, $10 This is a collection of short essays, published to celebrate the twenty‑fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Humanist Society of New Zealand. Jim Dakin provides a useful sketch of the

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Shedding light on an unknown place, Lauris Edmond

Maud and Amber, A New Zealand mother and daughter and the Women’s Cause, 1865 to 1981 Ruth Fry, Canterbury University Press, $29.95 Mihipeka: Time of Turmoil Mihi Edwards, Penguin, $24.95 For the past twenty years or so historians and biographers

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Posted in Autobiography, Biography, Non-fiction, Review
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