On Song: Stories behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics Simon Sweetman Penguin Books, $65.00, ISBN 9780143568162 Any anthology is a work of exclusion, constructed to emphasise or establish a particular narrative. In the case of anthologist Simon Sweetman’s On Song: Stories…
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…
The Making of New Zealanders Ron Palenski Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869407261 In these febrile times a passing mention of New Zealand in US media can provoke a front-page response from our own. So it’s instructive to discover that…
Aesop’s Kiwi Fables: Paintings Ray Ching David Bateman, $50.00, ISBN 9781869538453 I spotted Ray Ching’s new book, Aesop’s Kiwi Fables, in our local post office-cum-bookstore. I stopped buying picture books some time ago; they have become so glossily tempting that…
William Colenso: His Life and Journeys by A G Bagnall and G C Petersen Ian St George (ed) Otago University Press, $65.00, ISBN 9781877578151 When it was first published in 1948, A G Bagnall’s and G C Petersen’s William Colenso:…
Magnificent Moon Ashleigh Young Victoria University Press, $28.00, ISBN 9780864737632 This Hill, All It’s about is Lifting it to a Higher Level Vaughan Gunson Steele Roberts, $20.00, ISBN: 9781877577840 Three Days in a Wishing Well Kerrin P Sharpe Victoria University…
A Necklace of Souls R L Stedman HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9781775540069 Ghosts of Parihaka David Hair HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9781869509233 Cattra’s Legacy Anna MacKenzie Longacre, $20.00, ISBN 9781775533184 Phantom of Terawhiti Des Hunt HarperCollins, $20.00, ISBN 9781869509545 Whenever I’m taking…
Home in the Howling Wilderness Peter Holland Auckland University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781869407391 This book is about what can be learned of the environmental and ecological understanding of pioneer farmers in the southern half of the South Island over the…