Whare Karakia: Maori Church Building, Decoration and Ritual in Aotearoa New Zealand 1834–1863 Richard A Sundt Auckland University Press, $69.99, ISBN 9781869404567 One of the perennial architectural questions concerns the international versus the regional, the foreign versus the indigenous,…
Tuamaka: The Challenge of Difference in Aotearoa New Zealand Joan Metge Auckland University Press, $29.99, ISBN 9781869404680 Growing up in Pukekohe during WWII, Joan Metge wanted to be an archaeologist. When a family friend said, “Wouldn’t you get more…
Beyond the Scene: Landscape and Identity in Aotearoa New Zealand Janet Stephenson, Mick Abbott and Jacinta Ruru (eds) Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877372810 I’m clear about the origins of my identity. Banks Peninsula is my heartland. My…
Slaughter Falls Alix Bosco Penguin Books, $39.00, ISBN 9780143203995 The Crime of Huey Dunstan James McNeish Vintage, $36.99, ISBN 9781869793159 The Fallen Ben Sanders HarperCollins, $29.99, ISBN 9781869508760 The field of crime writing is an expansive one,…
Such is Life! A Close Encounter with Ecclesiastes Lloyd Geering Steele Roberts, $29.99, ISBN 9781877448881 In an email in 2008, Lloyd Geering mentioned that his next project was Ecclesiastes, a longstanding interest, which he noted was also a focus…
Promised New Zealand: Fleeing Nazi Persecution Freya Klier, translated by Jenny Rawlings Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877372766 Born in East Germany in 1950, Freya Klier is a German filmmaker and author with a history of civil rights activism,…
A Life on Gorge River Long Long Random House, $39.99, ISBN 9781869793302 A Life on Gorge River is an impressive and sometimes touching narrative that should appeal to all lovers of the great outdoors and perhaps to many others…
Behind Enemy Lines Enemy Lines: Kiwi Freedom Fighters in WWII Matthew Wright (ed) Random House, $39.99, ISBN 9781869790691 A doggerel satire circulating among New Zealand troops in the desert campaigns of 1941-2 complained that General Rommel’s Afrika Korps “chased…