Our New Zealand nonfiction section features books and eBooks about travel, history, law and more. This list updates when we add new titles to our collection.
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eBook
The highs and lows, joy and heartache of owning a dog are told in this beautifully written story of life in and around a dog park.
Michelle Duff delves into Ardern's beginnings in small-town New Zealand, discovering a nose-ringed teen fighting for equality and her own identity in a devout Mormon family. Duff tracks Ardern's political career from being dismissed as a 'show pony' to...
Book
The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the fo...
New Zealand's leading political biographer and author of the bestselling biography of Robert Muldoon now writes a definitive life of another prime minister, Keith Holyoake. One of our great farming politicians, Holyoake was Prime Minister for over eleven...
"Presents the extraordinary life stories of five New Zealand women - Jacqueline Fahey, Merimeri Penfold, Anne Salmond, Gaylene Preston and Margaret Mahy. As artists, writers, teachers, film-makers and thinkers, each has carved out an impressive care...
"What happens when a leading New Zealand scientist (and frequent traveler) rules out flying for a year? From overnight buses to epic train journeys, Shaun Hendy's experiences speak to our desire to do something - anything - in the face of growing cli...
Australia is less secure than it has ever been and the greatest threat comes from our elected government. Political leaders increasingly promote secrecy, ignorance and fear to introduce new laws that undermine individual liberties and safety. It is a...
Mike White began walking his SPCA-rescue huntaway, Cooper, at Wellington's dog parks ten years ago, and since then has become part of a remarkable community of people and their pets. Written with wit, wisdom and heartbreaking poignancy, How to Walk a...
Who are the People of New Zealand in the 21st century? This diverse bunch of characters is easily recognisable and hilariously familiar. Sam Moore's Instagram account and Facebook page Ugly Ink went viral when he started posting images of classic Kiw...
"An anthology of short stories, extracts from novels, poetry and artwork, from established and respected New Zealand writers as well as some lively 'fresh ink' from previously unpublished literary voices."--Publisher's description.
"Michelle Duff delves into Ardern's beginnings in small-town New Zealand, discovering a nose-ringed teen fighting for equality and her own identity in a devout Mormon family. Duff tracks Ardern's political career from being dismissed as a 'show pony'...
"Geoff Spearpoint is a legend among New Zealand's tramping and mountaineering community. For over 50 years he has been undertaking many long, adventurous trips in the Southern Alps every year, decade after decade. These trips, usually a mix of both t...
Fool Moon is a sparkling collection by a well-known poet. Constructed in four parts for the phases of the moon, it is as lively and irreverent as ever. There are bright glimpses of faraway places, warm conversations with friends, jokes and games with...
"From superstitions to send-offs, All Blacks nick-names to world cup drama: Rugby Folklore is a miscellany of stories, quotes, and facts that made New Zealand rugby. New Zealand has played, celebrated and commemorated rugby like no other country. We took...
In the First World War of 1914–1918, thousands of boys across Australia and New Zealand lied about their age, forged a parent’s signature and left to fight on the other side of the world. Though some were as young as thirteen, they soon found they could...
Voice Carried My Family is a stunning collection by Robert Sullivan. It contains strong, pervasive themes such as the rewriting of New Zealand myths from a Polynesian perspective; there are also a number of beautiful love poems. The power of the spoken...
In Geography for the Lost, travelling poems speak from different parts of the world and different moments in time, but always of the many ways to be lost and disoriented: in a place, in the past, in fear, in the very quickness of life. The voices here...
The Pop-Up Book of Invasions is Fiona Farrell's poetic response to a six-month stay in Ireland as inaugural recipient of the Rathcoola Residency in County Cork. Part travelogue, part family record, part song and myth and history rewritten, this colle...
Fizzing with wit and style and featuring original illustrations by the author, Something for the Birds is a lively, humorous and tragic memoir that traces the roots of a distinguished painter and her crucial role in New Zealand's feminist movement. J...
"Alastair McKenzie's GST -- A Practical Guide is widely considered to be the authoritative New Zealand text on goods and services tax. In addition to covering the broad framework and operation of GST in New Zealand, the book provides in-depth coverage...
The contributors draw from various sectors such as hospitality, product development and food nutrition and are gathered here to showcase their common interest in holistic health and conscious approach to business. This cookbook follows on from the success...
"A Kiwi treasure and a breathtaking pictorial journal, Passion revolves around three themes: Living - A superb insight into life away from the hustle and bustle of cities, noise, and traffic; Feasting - Allows the reader to enjoy Marion's favourite d...
"For over a quarter century our building industry, economy and Government have failed to provide this basic guarantee: new buildings will not rot. Leaky buildings are the result of an unfortunate confluence of industrial, legislative, historical and ...
"In August 2015, Dunc Wilson became the first person to circumnavigate New Zealand on a bike. This 10,940 km journey followed one rule: cycle the closest available route to the coastline. The Big Loop candidly details Wilson's 240-day cycling adventu...
Karin Horen tells the remarkable story of her continuing battle with breast cancer. At just 26 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and immediately underwent two surgeries, resulting in a partial mastectomy, a twelve-month course of chemotherapy and six...
"New Zealand has un unparalleled selection of superb day walks, ranging from the easiest short strolls to more strenuous full-day tramps. These encompass all of New Zealand's landscape diversity, from, Cape Reinga to Stewart Island. Day Walks in New Zealand...
"Railways played a pivotal part in the development of New Zealand's economy, towns and cities, and helped shape a distinctive culture. This is a comprehensive account of our railways story, from the earliest days of the colony, through rail's growth and...
In 'Talking with Champions', the author shares his interviews with the finest athletes across Australia and New Zealand. Also featured are several international champions including Laila Ali, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Larry Holmes. Tristan...
"This book explores an unexpected aspect of New Zealand social history: the modern body at leisure. It begins by tracing the only New Zealand tour of Eugen Sandow, the most famous strongman of his age. His rich New Zealand legacy is examined as Daley...
"The Tribes of the Muriwhenua is described by the author as a 'story of beginnings, evolution and consolidation, applied to the people who make up the tribes of the Muriwhenua'. It is the history of the Far North and the iwi Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, N...
"Offering a comprehensive review of the election, Voters' Veto continues the series of election studies begun in 1990 by researchers in the New Zealand Election Studies Programme and funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Based...
"Over a quarter of a century, C. K. Stead has built up a widely accessible collection of reviews and critical essays on New Zealand literature. In the Glass Case covers a wide spectrum of New Zealand writers, who are examined from a remarkably consis...
"In Kin of Place, C. K. Stead addresses most of the leading New Zealand literary figures of the last decades of the twentieth century including Allen Curnow, Lauris Edmond, Kendrick Smithyman, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame, Ian Wedde, Maurice Gee and E...
"Anne Kennedy's first book of poetry deals with the domestic life of a family - mother, father, and two small children - but in particular the gruelling experience of eczema from which the little girl suffers. Told from the mother's point of view and...
First published in 1957, The World Regained describes Dennis McEldowney's increasing disability caused by a congenital heart condition, the operation at Green Lane Hospital in 1950 that relieved this condition, and the mixed emotions he felt upon red...
"In the seven long-ish poems of her new collection, multi-talented writer Anne Kennedy explores past and present, here and there, north and south, earth and paradise, hello and goodbye. In unfolding couplets, 'The Darling North' engages with a woman's...
"Eric McCormick was, from about 1940 until his death in 1995, one of New Zealand's most distinguished writers and scholars. He pioneered the appreciation and study of the painter Francis Hodgkins, and he wrote several biographies. The autobiographica...
Chronicles Fran's Watts childhood and youth in England, emigration to New Zealand, and living with and managing her Multiple sclerosis.
October 2019 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's first landfall in New Zealand. The One Hundred Days that Mapped a Nation celebrates this historic occasion by looking at Cook's intrepid journeys to New Zealand and the Pacific that we...
"New Zealand has a diverse range of bird species and is especially important for pelagics. Thirteen of the world's 18 penguin species have been recorded in the New Zealand region (including the Ross Dependency). Nine of these species breed here. Of petrels,...
"From 1906 to 1925 Quail Island was the site of New Zealand's leprosy colony. The colony began by accident, as it were, after the discovery of a leprosy sufferer in Christchurch. As further patients arrived from across the country, it grew into a con...
What do women want? And what makes them think their relationships with men can provide it? This is Anne French's poetic account of the worlds of men and women.
Her poems are characteristically slim, so the substantial selection of her work gathered in The Tudor Style has a striking effect. As Bill Manhire says, Smither's poems 'wave to one another, open doors and climb through windows'. This subtle and witt...
This collection of 100 poems by a Maori writer shows a variety of subject and tone but is unified by recurring motifs and a persistent Maori perspective.
"Has MMP worked? This work goes behind the political theatre of elections and parliament to investigate how the policy process and policy outcomes have changed followiung the election of New Zealand's first MMP parliament. The book consists of an analysis...
Sir Joseph Ward (1856-1930) was the leading political figure during the forty-year life of the Liberal Party in New Zealand. He was a member of Ballance's first Cabinet, twice Prime Minister (1906-12 and 1928-30), and was still a Cabinet Minister at the...
The collected critical writings of one of New Zealand's major poets and critics, covering half a century of his work. Of the thirty-eight items (reviews, essays, lectures, interviews, and letters) included, his controversial introductions to his anthologies...
A story of child abuse allegations, gender politics and the law. This work details the events and debates leading up to the Christchurch Civic Creche case. It shows how such a case could happen, and why, and analyzes the social and legal processes by...
A rollercoaster yarn about Mike Chunn's years in the ground-breaking band Split Enz, but also the powerful story of how he dealt with a crippling mental health issue and went on to become one of our most influential music identities.
Ralph Bathurst's The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly Side of New Zealand Business charts the course of business decisions over the last twenty-five years that led to some of New Zealand's worst losses and greatest successes. From how team cultu...
"Arthur Purchas was said to be perhaps the most gifted person ever to come to this country. Surgeon and doctor, architect, engineer, geologist, explorer, musician, botanist, artist, priest, inventor, in his time he was one of our most prominent citizens....
"A look at a range of small houses around New Zealand, and the strategies the owners used to get a toehold in the tight housing market. From building a secondary dwelling on an existing family section, to tiny houses on pocket handkerchief pieces of ...
"Clustered yet scattered, we New Zealanders live across the country's physical landscapes, experiencing its varied weather and environments. We co-create its political, economic and social systems on a daily basis. Each of us has a particular view of...
This volume showcases how Native nations can reclaim self-determination and self-governance via examples from four important countries.
"Fifteen million years in Antarctica offers a deeply personal tour of a place in which a person can feel like an outsider in more ways than one. With generosity and candour Priestly reflects on what Antarctica can tell us about earth's future and asks:...
"Returned from living in France, he views his country with fresh eyes, as it is now: homing in on the crises in parenting, our prisons, education and welfare systems, and a growing culture of entitlement that entraps Pakeha and Māori alike"--Publishe...
A lively history of political advertising in New Zealand, from the first election of the modern era in 1939 to today. Brimming with political-party campaign advertisements, this colourful, engaging book brings together 80 years of political advertisements...
"A rollicking yarn about the early days of ground-breaking band Split Enz, but also the powerful story of how Mike Chunn dealt with a crippling mental health issue and went on to become one of our most influential music identities. This is a gripping...
This is a refreshing and welcome addition to the growing list of women's writing in Oceania. Karlo draws wisdom and compassion from her ancestral cultures but is not constrained by them. Honest and unafraid, she has spread her net wide in order to capture...
"Prize-winning author Rebecca Priestley reveals the alternative history of ‘nuclear New Zealand’ – a country where there was much enthusiasm for nuclear science and technology, from the first users of x-rays and radium in medicine; the young New Zeal...
An insider account of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy and the unravelling of the ANZUS alliance. In 1984, the newly elected Labour Government’s anti-nuclear policy collided with a United States foreign policy based on nuclear deterrence. After three...
"During the nineteenth century European settlers transformed the environment of New Zealand’s South Island. They diverted streams and drained marshes, burned native vegetation and planted hedges and grasses, stocked farms with sheep and cattle and poured...
Here an expat poet finds herself in alien yet strangely familiar territory, a place her ancestors 'got off'. What must she do to survive? Score herself a bedsit, work in a pub, hunt up an office job - and keep an eye out. Set on the cusp of the 1970s...
"The Devil’s Henchmen throwing Molotov cocktails at the Epitaph Riders in Christchurch’s first gang war. Prime Minister Rob Muldoon surrounded by Black Power members at the Royal Tiger Tavern in Wellington. The Magogs and the Mothers, PEP schemes and...
The keys to success in a motivational autobiography by New Zealand's top multisport athlete.Steve Gurney is an exceptional athlete. He has been in 19 of the epic Coast to Coast races in a row, and he has won nine of them. He has represented New Zealand...
"Karl Wolfskehl (1869-1948) came to New Zealand in 1938 as a refugee. Disturbed by the rising anti-Semitism he had left Germany for Switzerland and Italy in 1933. When Italy began to adopt anti-Jewish legislation he fled Europe for distant New Zealand...
"In 1973, Anne Kennedy's brother Philip was partying on a hillside when he accidentally fell to his death. In 'Moth hour,' Anne Kennedy returns to the death of her brother and the world he inhabited. Kennedy's poems grapple with the rebellious world of...
"This new book gives practical guidance on the legal issues affecting people as they age. It covers the issues involved in planning for older age, the issues faced by older people as they deal with new and changing circumstances, planning for how to deal...
Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage round the world from 1768 to 1771. A gifted and wealthy young naturalist, Banks collected exotic flora from Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and J...
"Where do I stand? / Usually / in the little square of sunlight / by the back door." In Lost and Somewhere Else, Jenny Bornholdt finds many places to stand: at home, in memories of places and people, and in the Ernst Plischke-designed Henderson House...
Craven is an exceptional debut: Jane Arthur delights, unnerves and challenges in poems that circle both the everyday and the ineffable – piano practice, past lives, being forced onto dancefloors. This is a smart and disarming collection that traces t...
"This story is focussed on those people in the recent past who played the role in the establishment of the Mary Thomas centre. It is also a story that reflects the community-centres work of so many community-activated people like them, at that time and...
'Although there's plenty of practical advice here, this book is more about why we fish, what makes it special and how it makes us feel.' - Mark Cloutier Every fisherman has a special stretch of water, where the fish are always plentiful and the memories...
"Smart, simple and inspiring recipes that are healthy, quick and easy to make. Including over 100 recipes with delicious photography and step-by-step methods. Save time and reduce stress with a cookbook that includes something for everyone--Publisher...
An incurable collector shares her astonishing collection of vintage New Zealand art, objects and design and her classic 1960s seaside bach. For over 30 years, philanthropist and best-selling author of The Road to Castle Hill Christine Fernyhough has built...
"Forever wrestling with annoying debt? Clueless about where your pay cheques go? Want to get ahead? Journalist, podcaster and reformed money mess Frances Cook is here for you. Tales from a Financial Hot Mess is the story of how Frances got her money ...
"From Polynesian Mythology to the Yates' Garden Guide, from Allen Curnow to Alice Tawhai, from Jessie Mackay to Alison Wong, from Julius Vogel to Albert Wendt, from the letters of Wiremu Te Rangikaheke to the notebooks of Katherine Mansfield - Māori,...
"[This book] is an account of how transplanted Britons and others turned themselves into New Zealanders, a distinct group of people with their own songs and sports, symbols and opinions, political traditions and sense of self. Looking at the onset of...
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