Catching the Current Jenny Pattrick Black Swan, $27.95, ISBN 1869417259 Union Belle Deborah Challinor HarperCollins, $31.99, ISBN 186950559X The Love Apple Coral Atkinson Black Swan, $27.95, ISBN 1869417208 New Zealanders, we are told, are avid for their history. To help…
Fronting up: Classic New Zealand Magazine Covers Richard Wolfe David Ling Publishing in association with Auckland War Memorial Museum, $49.99, ISBN 1877378062 There are too many magazines. But I would say that. For a number of years (outside the timespan…
Going Up, Going Down: The Rise and Fall of the Department Store Helen B Laurenson Auckland University Press, $34.99, ISBN 186940341X Before TV and 24-hour on-tap entertainment, department stores provided escapism on a grand scale. Looking back to my childhood,…
Blindsight Maurice Gee Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143020234 Alice Ferry, narrator and co-protagonist of Maurice Gee’s new novel, is a mycologist – an expert on fungi. That is, her professional life is devoted to studying spongy, fragile, morbid life-forms that lurk…
Making Ends Meet: Essays and Talks 1992-2004 Ian Wedde Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 086473503 In the title essay of this wonderful collection, originally given as a talk on issues of research and archiving at the National Library of New…
A Short History of Paradise Norman Bilbrough Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 0143020358 Kissing Shadows Renée Huia, $34.99, ISBN 1869692039 How often can one say of local fiction, and mean it, that it’s an absolute delight to read? Known as a writer…
Frontier of Dreams: The Story of New Zealand ed Bronwyn Dalley and Gavin McLean TVNZ/Hodder Moa, $79.95, ISBN 1869710061 “Another damned, thick, square, book!” We’ve all heard the story about those words spoken by a doltish Duke of Gloucester upon…