New Zealand Books

I find this book both pictorially good and written well it is imformative and intresting it compells you to learn more about the indigenous peoples of australia Angie L

For anyone interested in the history of the Pacific Islands, this book is a must read. It is a gripping true story of a young English sailor who was captured by the Tongans in 1806 when they attacked his ship, murdered most of the crew and then burned the ship. Mariner was "adopted" by one of the Tongan chiefs and used in the local wars to fire the cannons which were taken from the ship. Today you can still dive into Mariner's Cave in Vavau in northern tonga and visit many of the places named in this book.

I found this book to be easy reading and very descriptive of the life and times in New Zealand circa 1840. It describes the authors interpretation of the interaction between the Maoris and the Europeans during the time of colonization. It is actually a slightly abridged version (2 volumes made into 1) which is probably a good thing for most of the readers. I think the author has a very definite agenda and this clearly affects the writing. He seems to be defending himself from perceptions about him that must have existed at that time and the book also appears to be a marketing tool for the ideas of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the New Zealand Company

Woods gives us an engaging narrative of his life. From what is undoubtedly a vanished lifestyle in a fishing family in New Zealand before World War 2, to air combat over the Pacific during that war, and then the decades afterwards in academia.

Many readers may find his descriptions of the war to be the most interesting sections. Not your typical autobiography of an academic!

He became quite an expect on plasma research. But in this field, funding at Oxford, or indeed anywhere in Britain, was sparse, compared to the Americans and Russians. Early plasma research was small scale. But as efforts grew to scale up the densities and temperatures, so too did the funding requirements rise. It must have been a continual source of frustration to him.

Yes, I am a tragic for commercial aviation. If I flick through a book on the subject I am honestly and openly critical, usually quite harsh actually. I can't be harsh at all with this book because it is too damned good! The pictures are beautiful and the detail is extraordinary. It is a true credit to the author. I am biased towards Air New Zealand even though I'm an aussie. If you're a plane spotter you'll enjoy this book.

I needed this book for a history project iam doing on the battle of el alamein and its great.It goes into great detail about the first battle and second battle of el alamein and includes some primary sources, even though it can be a bit biast at times in favour towards the australeins it's deffenatly a good read for anyone who is interested in this topic.

This book is an amazing tale of fishing in the "good old days" when wealthy or titled sportsmen roamed the world seeking trophies for their castle walls. By today's standards , Zane Grey is a one man walking ecological disaster, but he balances this by the sheer love of nature of a true hunter that comes across in his writing. The fishing, the sea, the sunsets, the birds, the islands and the bush on them, are all described lyrically. Zane lives the dream of every fisherman, to have the wealth and the time to travel to exotic places and catch world record game fish. This book is about several trips to the virgin fishing grounds of New Zealand from 1925-1932, in which he pioneered big-game fishing there. Where dozens of swordfish, marlins and sharks are seen around the boat most days and acres of bait-fish seethe on the surface. Where sportsmanship was the measure of the day, and hooking a marlin that leapt fifty times up to twenty feet out of the water and got away, was a better days fun than landing ten that don't perform. A great read but sad also, as you realise that those days are gone forever, and that the sheer success and excess of fishing parties such as these, helped end them. This book is not particularly well written; too much happens for it to hang together as a story. But as a series of accounts of the grand old days of fishing, it is a must for any enthusiast's library.

For Australians, ANZAC books often emphasise the Australian contribution. Consider this book, then. It gives a perhaps overdue redress by playing up what New Zealand did in the Great War. At Gallipoli and beyond. Some of the incidents here, and the exploits of Kiwi soldiers, white and Maori, might be unfamiliar to Australians. Which is part of the book's message.

Some of you should also know that ANZAC is now essentially a historical term. Ever since 20 years ago, when New Zealand declined to renew the ANZUS treaty.

This volume of drawings with brief commentary By Bernard Smith, the foremost historian of Australian art, is of interest to students of both Australian history and art. Whilst not to everyone's aesthetic taste the early work of the very first European colonists in Australia has an undeniable vigour. It's the directness of their work that makes these images captivating - the collision of two irreconcilable cultures is captured here with an almost hullicanatory strangeness. Unfortunately the text is sparing, this is primarily a visual source, but as an object of beauty this book should be owned by all interested in the history of colonial Australia.

It's very nice pictures and everything but I thought it would contain Maori tattoos. There were only 5-6 of those.