New Zealand Books

This is a great little book, full of photographs and detailed descriptions. It also seems to be the only guide to New Zealand alpine flora I could find. It is a little bit dated in publication but of course the plants haven't changed much in my lifetime!

Interesting case studies in developing countries and established areas of infrastructure. Offers information, statistics, and conclusions drawn in each area. I focused mainly on the case study of Nepal which offered strong counter arguements to the commonly accepted views of conservation and tourism interaction. The authors seem quite well informed and interested in the topic.

If you want a grasp of the ambience of Fremantle, Western Australia, then consider this book. It takes you through the town and its cultural scene. Fremantle is actually quite small, and overshadowed by being in the urban sprawl of Perth, the capital city of the state.

In spite of this, Fremantle struggles to maintain a slightly separate identity, as suggested by the book. For an American familiar with Los Angeles, think perhaps of how Long Beach and the South Bay (Torrance, Redondo, San Pedro) try to have a different vibe from downtown LA and the Westside.

The premise behind _Gene Wolfe's Book of Days_ is that each story in the book is written for a different holiday. There's a a story for Lincoln's Birthday, one for Halloween, even one for Armistice Day. The connection between story and holiday sometimes seem tenuous, but it's all in fun. The real treat here is yet another fabulous Gene Wolfe story collection.

If you're familiar with Wolfe you know that his fiction is occasionally opaque. Wolfe stories very often have multiple meanings that require multiple readings to fully understand. Stories like "Paul's Treehouse" fit this description. Two neighbors are sitting on their lawns. One neighbors son has built a treehouse very high in a tree and refuses to come down. Interspersed with this story is background about some unnamed unrest in the city. Suddenly National Guardsmen swarm the backyard. The son throws rocks at the Guardsmen. The End. Don't ask me for an explanation because I have no idea.

Fortunately, for those of us who are 'regular' readers, many of the stories are much simpler. Among the better pieces are "Forlesen", "The War Beneath the Tree", and "Melting". "The War..." has become one of Wolfe's more well-known pieces. A boy plays with his sentient toys on Christmas Eve. The toys watch packages being placed under the Christmas tree with apprehension. When everyone has gone to sleep, the new toys emerge. The old toys fight them and throw the new toys into the fire. The story ends on a chilling note that I'll let the reader discover for himself.

Gene Wolfe has never disappointed me. He is a writer of quality and passion. His intricate stories can amuse me for hours. He is a top-notch writer and I strongly encourage all fans of speculative fiction to read his works. Highly recommended.

A non-Australian reading this might wonder at the vagaries of the Australian political system. The author recounts the travails of the short lived Whitlam government. They took power after decades in opposition. With grand plans for many social changes. To some extent they succeeded.

However Australia has traditionally been fairly evenly balanced between the parties. And the Senate had the Liberals and Nats in a slim majority. But enough of one to block Whitlam's Supply bill. Hence his government was running out of funds to pay its bills. The book's focus is on the tumultuous happenings of 1975. Culminating in Kerr's dismissal of Whitlam and the landslide victory of the Liberals a few weeks later.

The book conveys the level of passion around those events and in the election. Something never before seen in Australian politics. Perhaps for the best, given its divisiveness.

This book is an interesting collection of 'Blunders, stuff-ups and misjudgements' made over the course of white settlement in Australia, by some prominant academics. Covering areas as diverse as farming, black/white relations, town planning, defence and politics amoung others, it offers an interesting and thought provoking journey through many of the major decision in Australian history.

This book succeeds in providing an insight into those events that made Australia the country it is today, without taking a revisionist view, based on 21st centuary morals and ideals. They explain many of the actions taken, without necessarily judging them.

An interesting and worthwhile read.

After reading twelve men's true-life story in their struggle in growing up gay in New Zealand, it helped me to understand a great deal about homosexuals and their life. It was never easy to be a minority in a society, let alone one that was conservative and strong on moral issues. One of the best things about the book was that the author went into great detail about all twelve men's life, every experience and heart break. The biographies included a New Zealand MP and a doctor, both respectful occupations and who would be role models for gay youth today. The book would enrich your knowledge on the New Zealand gay society, AIDS, coming out, and how to deal with homosexuals - whether the person was a family or a man on the street. Do not be too quick to judge until you have heard their side of stories, and this book definitely helps you to do just that.

This is a compact but detailed guide to surfing in New Zealand. It contains a list of 300+ surfing locations with comments, plus tips for the visitor (local terms, food, accommodation, transport etc.). It's the only recent book of this type as far as I'm aware. Unfortunately the author Wayne died a while back surfing (Bali?) , but his legacy lives on. The publisher appears to have gone out of business so it may be difficult to get copies.

The history of each ski area mentioned in this book can be slightly repetitious but brings an extra dimension to New Zealand skiing. The club ski areas are unique I think and may appeal to the intrepid skier. Some effort is required to even reach these locations so it is unchartered territory in many ways. Information is also provided about transportation options, ski hire availability, meals and accomodation. Reference is made to major ski towns like Queenstown and Methven. I don't know why "National Park" hasn't got a name but this and other curiosties will surely make for an interesting journey. For each ski area there is a description of beginner, intermediate and advanced skiing. A slightly smaller typeface and a star system of ratings might have saved a few trees but all in all it is a good effort.

Ravi de Costa has developed a unique perspective on Aboriginal Australian political activism and this book is an impressively researched contribution to Aboriginal history. An international scholar, his roots with third world people who migrated to the west, he has lived and worked in Australia and now in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto. His analysis of Aboriginal political activism is free of the bondage of settler colonial adherence to the notion of the egalitarian Australian polity that often compromises Australian scholarship on Indigenous issues. For this reason the book provides a refreshing view of Aboriginal activism and includes activists and the events that they have been involved in as legitimate and important to the ongoing development of Aboriginal rights and by inference, the Australian polity in general.
De Costa's book rightly places Aboriginal transnationalism within the global movement for rights of colonised peoples the world over and describes the key players, their alliances and networks developed over time. The overall impression is of intelligent Aboriginal players and activists, utilising the instruments of domestic and international activism to seek redress for their people caught in the hegemony of the settler colonial regime.
Global colonial capitalism has subjugated Indigenous peoples and ironically established the communication networks that have fostered interchange about the impacts of these regimes, whereby the seeds of discontent have developed into anti-colonial activism. While primarily concerned with the local and regional, Indigenous people have transcended their seemingly parochial concerns and the borders of the nation state, to develop international means of pursuing their claims for justice. The `higher authority' to which they have appealed, is identified by de Costa as `both ideological and institutional manifestations of universal moral order' (p. 4) he identifies as humanitarian, Christian, feminist, Communist and socialist philosophies, more recently expressed in terms of decolonisation.
While de Costa positions Aboriginal political action in relationship to western human rights movements, he reminds us that it is also from Indigenous knowledges and the activism of Indigenous people that the world has been constantly reminded of the need for justice. This is a highly thought provoking book.