New Zealand Books

I reading it while waiting for my delayed flight at an airport and to my surprise during that waiting I learned a lot more about Australian history than I thought I could.
The book was very well written in 88 pages, including a further reading list, and at this length you would think it impossible to go into any depth about the history of any country. But I guess the author has achieved the almost impossible. This book is very accessible (you could finish it in an hour) and should be recommended to all first timers to Australia.

This book is literally a little history of Australia. To write the history of Australia in such short length necessarily means compromises in many areas. But the author has done the job well, albeit in the process he has to gloss over certain issues and events. But the way it is written draws the reader into wanting to find out more about Australia's history.

This, I find, is the real success of the book, in that it is able to make the reader that much interested in searching for other more comprehensive histories of Australia to further understand the complex and tumultous history of that vast continent. It leaves readers with a hunger for more. The content is brief but concise, and very well put across.

What more can one ask of of such a little book that is so big on content and style?

My family is from New Zealand thought I have always lived in Singapore (so naturally, I'm the only one to knit). I picked up this book while down there on holiday. Now a little creased from being loaned out around the family, this is a treasure. If you don't knit, it's a wonderful way of looking at New Zealand domestically for the last century - the archive photos are fascinating, the details packed in and always a real sense of love for the craft and respect for the many women (and few men) who knit.

If you do knit, it's great to read an entire book about other people who knit. No techniques,s ource ideas, just a lot of interesting and occasionally inspiring stories (The baby layette laid out to dry and eaten by a goat...)

Heather Nicholson writes fluidly and the extensive endnotes help for mroe reasearch - I visited a lot of museums there, armed with this book! It's a thick, interesting read and a great coffeetable book, like Knitting in America.

This is a very well-researched discourse about the history of knitting and spinning in New Zealand. The book takes you from the early days of the English and Scots settlement of the twin islands up to present day, and reveals how knitting fit into daily life.

A good portion of the book is devoted to war knitting, which was a major volunteer activity in World War I and somewhat less, but still important in World War II. The interesting theme that runs through "The Loving Stitch" is that of privation and shortages; knitting yarn was often hard to obtain. During rationing in World War II, baby yarn was almost impossible to get, yet people were limited in clothing coupons. What to do for a newborn who needs clothes and plenty of them? The ingenuity of the Kiwis who wanted or needed to knit was amazing--#8 fencing wire became needles, tapestry yarn (not rationed) patiently gathered until enough was available to make a vest. One enterprising young girl unraveled loosely-woven sugar sacks to make a child's sweater. All this is of course set against the ironic background that New Zealand is a world-class producer of wool. Yet raw wool was merely sent overseas to be spun into carpet and other wool, and the New Zealanders found that the finished product, knitting wool, was hard to obtain and expensive, too.

What I found odd in this book were a couple of omissions and subjects only briefly touched one. One was the contribution to knitting by New Zealander Margaret Stove. She is contemporary, but this book does go up to present day, and including her would have been appropriate. I expected to see pictures of here handspun lace designs and perhaps a short section on how she learned handspinning (with a wheel and raw fleece donated by her sister so she, a schoolteacher on a limited budget, could clothe her family) . But Stove only merits a brief mention in the index. Other contemporary artists' knitting was pictured, so this omission seemed odd to me, especially because Mrs. Stove is well-known worldwide among handspinners.

The other deficiency was that Kiwicraft, which is a technique handrolling wool roving to make a thick and attractive yarn, was mentioned but the Kiwicraft yarns were not pictured. In general, the contribution and collaboration by Maori women was obliquely mentioned. While knitting and spinning is a Western contribution to New Zealand history, Kiwicraft was developed by a collaboration of missionaries and native women, and merited more illustration. It's unique to New Zealand. I wanted to know more and see more about it.

However, for a history of knitting, this is a fine addition to the library and is a fascinating insight into life in New Zealand.

This is one of the most astounding sea stories I've read. Captain Barnard's narrative is direct, simple and powerful. It really tells the story of a triple marooning--the only one I know. The introduction by Professor Dodge is a "must skip"--it is poorly written and dull. But once you get into Barnard's historic narrative, it is a compelling read. Captain Barnard's narrative begins just prior to the first days of the War of 1812. They set out upon a sealing expedition to the Falkland Islands. The Barnard family (his father is with him--also a sealing captain) is Quaker, and live a ways up the Hudson River. Once upon the Falkland Island, they set up operations (itself a remarkably interesting procedure). In the first few months of the expedition (it is supposed to last about a year or so) they see signal fires from a strange ship. It turns out to be a British ship bound from Australia to England. It has run aground on the Falklands. The Barnard family goes to the British ship's aid, knowing full well the United States is at war with the British. After the rescue (the British shipis ruined) Captain Barnard--in private--informs the British captain (there are British Marines on board) that their two countries are at war. Though they agree to neutrality during their difficulties, the Brits reneg! The British take the Barnard party prisoner--seize their ship and smaller boats, and in turn maroon Captain Barnard with two ordinary seamen on the Falkland Islands. Since few ships went to those islands then, their marooning was essentially a death sentence. The harsh winter was ahead of them. This outstanding narrative is of that marooning--and from this original marooning, things become even more complex. This is a unique read--a little known historic niche. Captain Barnard's narrative is impressive for its detail, composure and--a testimony to masterful seamanship plus mental and spiritual discipline. A must, must read.

This is one of the most astounding sea stories I've read. Captain Barnard's narrative is direct, simple and powerful. It really tells the story of a triple marooning--the only one I know. The introduction by Professor Dodge is a "must skip"--it is poorly written and dull. But once you get into Barnard's historic narrative, it is a compelling read. Captain Barnard's narrative begins just prior to the first days of the War of 1812. They set out upon a sealing expedition to the Falkland Islands. The Barnard family (his father is with him--also a sealing captain) is Quaker, and live a ways up the Hudson River. Once upon the Falkland Island, they set up operations (itself a remarkably interesting procedure). In the first few months of the expedition (it is supposed to last about a year or so) they see signal fires from a strange ship. It turns out to be a British ship bound from Australia to England. It has run aground on the Falklands. The Barnard family goes to the British ship's aid, knowing full well the United States is at war with the British. After the rescue (the British shipis ruined) Captain Barnard--in private--informs the British captain (there are British Marines on board) that their two countries are at war. Though they agree to neutrality during their difficulties, the Brits reneg! The British take the Barnard party prisoner--seize their ship and smaller boats, and in turn maroon Captain Barnard with two ordinary seamen on the Falkland Islands. Since few ships went to those islands then, their marooning was essentially a death sentence. The harsh winter was ahead of them. This outstanding narrative is of that marooning--and from this original marooning, things become even more complex. This is a unique read--a little known historic niche. Captain Barnard's narrative is impressive for its detail, composure and--a testimony to masterful seamanship plus mental and spiritual discipline. A must, must read.

Despite the title, MOONLIGHT DRIVE is not as inclusive as it could have been. B-sides are barely mentioned. Studio-only/demos ignored. Other books of this type usually go through pains to include almost every scrap of music put to tape that a band has recorded. MOONLIGHT DRIVE fails in this capacity. To Crisafulli's credit, however, he does include ABSOLUTELY LIVE as well as OTHER VOICES and FULL CIRCLE. AMERICAN PRAYER, Jim Morrison's spoken word album (with music by The Doors) is also included.

The book is full of interesting facts and is well-written and recommended, but I would have preferred a more inclusive and in-depth look at the stories behind every single Doors song.

This book tells you in great depth about the doors and the Jim Morrison story and how they decided what to call each song and what to include in them, it is avery interesting book with facts you probably wouldn't of heard of in other doors related books, so its a must for all door's fans.

With absolutely stunning photographs and accurate definitions, this book is a landmark in publishing. The authors have created an illustrated dictionary using state-of-the-art imaging techniques. The nearly 1000 color pictures, the majority photomicrographs, are crisply reproduced. The book's strength is in presentation of details of cellular structure, so important for identifying mosses and their ilk. This book will be useful for years to come. This is not a book for the beginner; without solid training in general botany it is likely to be overwhelming, if not impenetrable. This is a reference book, not a text. For the beginning student of mosses, however, it can be a stepping stone to mastering this fascinating group of land plants. The only caution is for northern hemisphere botanists: almost all the subjects are drawn from the flora of New Zealand. Although the images might illustrate a term well, a North American reader will never encounter most of the species depicted.

This is a highly technical book. Brush up on your latin before you purchase it. Illustrations range from a few side views of whole clumps to individual plant photos. If you are interested in the molecular structure, this book is for you.

I enjoyed this book because I like to find out about how world wars affect peoples lives. Janet Lim has lived a very sad life but has always shown great willpower. She has always triumphed over several dangerous experiences. I would really love to know how the rest of her life turned out.

In "Sold for Silver" Janet Lim, a Singaporean Chinese, gives an autobiographical account of her life, from her early childhood in China to the end of World War II. Janet Lim was an ordinary person whom in normal times would have led a useful but undistinguished life. But what makes this book worth reading is that the times in which she lived were not normal at all. In the twenty years related here she was confronted by a series of extraordinary challenges, any one of which could have broken her. Sold to be a slave as a child, bombed at sea by the Japanese during the war, captured and held prisoner by them, selected to be a "comfort girl," and then sentenced to be executed, she withstood these challenges and emerged with her spirit intact. The events she experienced and the spirit she showed facing them make this book well worth reading.

The Transformation is all about hair, and widows and Cubans, but it is mostly about hair. Set in 1898 with the century almost gone, and the automobile coming, the story centers on the wig maker Lucien Goulet III - Manufacturer of Ladies' Imperceptible Hair-Pieces and Gentlemen's Invisible Coverings. Escaping a shady background in France, the mysterious perrupuier has found a new home in Tampa, Florida, a world of perpetual sunshine, oranges, mosquitoes, swamps, and the occasional hurricane.

Author, Catherine Chidgey paints a picture of Tampa as a happening place. The railroad magnate Henry B. Plant has just build the Tampa Bay Hotel, with its tangle of Moorish minarets and aches, "its Byzantine domes and its thirteen crescent moons, the Hotel resembles "fairy-tale" castle anchored at the water's edge. Taking a room in one of the minarets, Goulet takes advantage of the Hotel's wealthy clientele, while inwardly sniping at their self-indulgent, decadent ways. In tones of sycophantic menace, he declares that he can work miracles with "a hank of hair, glue and a net."

As Goulet relates his adventures in hair, his narrative interweaves with those of Marion Unger, a local widow and orange grove owner whose silver-blonde tresses so entrance Goulet, and Rafael Méndez, a young cigar-roller who has come to Florida to escape the war in Cuba. He too is drawn to Marion, and drawn into the dark side of Goulet's dream-weaving business: scavenging refuse tips for combings, and eventually scalping the dead. Goulet, whose obsession with Marion's hair, manipulates both and the transformation he determines to make for it, is the driving force of the plot.

The Transformation is obviously meticulously researched and it shows, especially in the pages devoted to Goulet's obsessive rambling about his past in France and his wordy discussions on the art of the perrupuier. Florida of 1898 in recreated in convincing, immediate detail. There is lots of attention paid to Rafael's background and his family back in Cuba, and Chidgey deftly evokes the political climate leading up to the Spanish American War, when the American soldiers were amassing in Tampa hoping to liberate Cuba.

Chidgey portrays Goulet as some kind of hair sucking monster, a man devoted to fakery and deception. In one instance he mocks a customer by employing two actresses to mimic her for his own entertainment. But as the book progresses, Goulet's gleeful inhumanity becomes almost pantomimic and unreal, a caricature of a self-made, foppish and dandified man. In the search for hair, he gloats, "Once I found a stillborn child, but the little hair I could recover was too downy for my purposes."

The Transformation is full of Chidgey's confidant commanding prose, and vivid atmospherics, but the meandering narrative often hampers the overall effectiveness of the book. This reader never really cared that much about the characters or what happened to them - they all seem to sink into the background, weighed down by the author's rather substantial prose. There should be at least a modicum of emotional payoff involved in this story, but Goulet and his obsessions swamp the narrative, sucking the life from all around him, and in the end neither his flighty customers nor most readers will really be that concerned or worried over his fate. Mike Leonard May 05.

Hauntingly beautiful engrossing summer read. This book sticks with you like sweat hungry flies in the oppressive Florida humidity. Captured the mood of the era just right and gave me all the seediness about it that I wanted. Enjoy this great off-the-radar book with a mint julip in an old creaky beachfront house with hosiery draped over Tiffany lamps for optimum pleasure.

This book shows that children in the 50's weren't as docile and obedient as your grandparents claim they were. Alice, the main character, constantly bickers with her mother, who has unwillingly dragged her to New Zealand(of all places!). In places, the book is sarcastic and funny, but I docked it major points for being rather boring in the beginning. Along with the normal problems of moving and being the new kid at school, Alice has to move into an intimidating old mansion with a lady that hates kids and an uncooperative, grumpy old man, and also discovers a mystery regarding her origins.

This book, Truth to Tell, is about a young girl called Alice who is being dragged halfway around the world by her mother, who is going to help an eccentric old lady, Miss Emilia Fairchild, write a book about her house. Alice hates New Zealand, and more, she has a stepfather. She struggles to find out who her true father was, for she looks like Len,her stepfather, but how can that be? Her mother claims that her father was killed during the war, but why had she never met her father's parents? Mrs.Fairchild then says, "It's a wise father that knows his own child," and Alice has to find out who her father was, and, more importantly, who she is. I loved this book because it offers wonderful insight into a girl's struggles to grasp a situation that's out of her control and find out who she is.

This book is an invaluable source book which documents the progression of New Zealand music (and New Zealand's own identity) over the past 150 years. As a teacher I have found this book to be irreplacable and cherish it dearly. I have also seen Mike in action and he is as talented as the book suggests. I only hope that I can track down recording of the songs (and Mikes own records) as easily.

Mike spent several years in libraries and the Radio New Zealand record archives researching NZ songs. This book contains marvellous lists of locally made songs:- colonial songs, around-the-piano songs, wartime songs, tramping songs, and all those songs we heard on the hit parades and at parties and thought we had forgotten. He also has them cross-indexed to other lists of all the records and songbooks where you can still find the songs. And for the academically inclined, the book also has an exhaustive bibliography of books, articles and songbooks. Mike now travels New Zealand singing the best of these songs live.

This is a nicely done bio of the three white rulers of Sarawak that will appeal to those who enjoy biographies and history. J.B. Brooke, the first white rajah, is a character that today could only exist in a work of fiction. At the time, however, he was typical of a small group of British adventurers and explorers who sought out intrigue in the remote corners of the earth. Unfortunately, since the book covers the lives of all three white rajahs (they ruled altogether for almost exactly 100 years), it lack's sufficient detail of the lives of each of its three subjects. But overall: well-done and well-written.

Robert Payne has produce a short history of the Broke dinasty in Sarawak (in todays Malaysian part of Borneo). The book in a concise and complete manner narrates the events that took place since James Broke first set his feet in the island of Borneo in the mid-XIX until the territory joined the Malaysian Federation after World War II.

The story is fascinating enough and Payne simply states general facts in quite a neutral manner. Maybe the book lacks some footnotes and references but is well written and clear. A few photos (not as many as it would be desired) complete the text