Books
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
@nonpartizan said in Books:
I just started the Bone People.....
I want to really get to grips with the Kiwi canon so this was as good a place to start as any.
Damn, there's much better places to start IMHO, never was a fan of the Bone People, but let us know how you find it.
Maurice Shadbolt's NZ wars trilogy is really good for a second place - Season of the Jew ( about Te Kooti), Monday's Warriors (essentially about Titikowaru), and House of Strife I think (set up in Russell/Paihia).
It's good so far tbh.
I will definitely check out the NZ wars trilogy..... I just checked my local library and it seems it's not there - I think I will have to pick those up in NZ.
Do you know the best bookshops in either Auckland or Wellington that would be located in the central/touristy areas?
I live in Oz and I'm from Hawkes Bay so not sure of the good bookshops in Auks and Welly, but others on here will be able to help you out.
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@nonpartizan - In true Fern tradition - I'll throw in a suggestion based on something I've never actually read:
The Tito Ihaka Series, by Paul Thomas ("NZ's leading crime writer"). I have bought the first 3 as a "Trilogy", but never read.
Alternatively/Also - read through all of Ngaio Marsh's stuff. NZ's answer to Agatha Christie - with similarly dated views of race, class, and everything in-between. But in some ways, a good view of that era of NZ - from a certain point of view. -
I'm just annoyed I got only one response to my Sleeping Dogs comment ...
I recall snippets of the movie showing up on tele back in the day scaring the living daylights out of 7-8 year old booboo.
Read the book in my early 20s. In reality it wasn't about NZ, just happened to use NZ as a setting for evil Murka if I recall correctly (but dud get the impression Muldoon was the model for the bad guy).
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@booboo Stead was one of my lecturers at Uni. Last time I saw him was in the urinal at NZ House in London. I was surprised he remembered me as I was an infrequent attendee. Smiths Dream was heavily influenced by Steads opposition to the Vietnam War - according to the man himself.
@nonpartizan Unity Books are in Akl and Wlg and should be able to sort you out - they specialise in NZ literature
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Secondhand bookstore that may be worth checking out when in Wellington
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Just finished 'The rise and fall of the Third Reich' by William Shirer. He was a journalist based in Germany leading up to WW2. Surprisingly accessible for a book written in 1960. I listened to it on Audible, 57 hours worth. Highly recommend if you want to get a better understanding of what lead up to the creation of Nazi Germany and how it was ultimately defeated. Some parts are particularly hard going, the level of depravity that humans can unleash on each other is just almost impossible to conceive. There's a lot in here that have come from high ranking Nazi official diaries so you get a real insight to the madness.
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@Rembrandt 57 hours, sheet, even listening to that at 1.2 speed as I tend to do, that will take me ages haha
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@taniwharugby said in Books:
@Rembrandt 57 hours, sheet, even listening to that at 1.2 speed as I tend to do, that will take me ages haha
LOL yeah took months. Great bang for your audible buck though. Even better since it was taking so long I cancelled my subscription which lead to them offering a better deal
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
Smith's Dream by C.K. Stead is worth a read, and captures an era of NZ well. Bonus points for setting the secret police's torture chamber in the basement of Auckland University's (horrendous) Chemistry Building.
Thank you.
I am going to establish a NZ bibliography of must read works.......
In addition to novels, at the least I will need to get a Edmund Hillary bio & some ABs bios. I've only read Dan Carter's book but I would like to get some more.....
Other subjects that seem important - James Cook bio, also works on NZ farming and the Americas Cup.
Tbh I think I'm going to devote the next year or so to thoroughly educate myself on NZ.
If you want a few suggestions:
No better death: the Great War diaries and letters of William G. Malone - a fabulous read, but no happy endings!
Literature - Some other country: NZ's best short stories (Manhire and McLeod) - good cross section of major NZ writers.
Man Alone - John Mulgan - depression era NZ.
Farming - these are all old books and some you probably won't find:
Station life in NZ - Lady Barker
Many a Glorious Morning - David McLeod
The keeper of the sheep - Mary Goulter
A river rules my life - Mona Anderson
Open country - Jim HendersonA few others:
Just where do you think you've been/ Men Aspiring - Paul Powell - NZ mountaineering
My father's Shadow: A portrait of Justice Mahon - Sam Mahon
A good keen man - Barry Crump.Sport
The playing mantis - Jeremy Coney - Cricket - old of course, but proably the best NZ cricket biography I've read.
Rugby bios are mainly pretty poor. Reading something by TP McLean is something for your list though - so maybe, "I George Nepia". -
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
Smith's Dream by C.K. Stead is worth a read, and captures an era of NZ well. Bonus points for setting the secret police's torture chamber in the basement of Auckland University's (horrendous) Chemistry Building.
Thank you.
I am going to establish a NZ bibliography of must read works.......
In addition to novels, at the least I will need to get a Edmund Hillary bio & some ABs bios. I've only read Dan Carter's book but I would like to get some more.....
Other subjects that seem important - James Cook bio, also works on NZ farming and the Americas Cup.
Tbh I think I'm going to devote the next year or so to thoroughly educate myself on NZ.
If you want a few suggestions:
No better death: the Great War diaries and letters of William G. Malone - a fabulous read, but no happy endings!
Literature - Some other country: NZ's best short stories (Manhire and McLeod) - good cross section of major NZ writers.
Man Alone - John Mulgan - depression era NZ.
Farming - these are all old books and some you probably won't find:
Station life in NZ - Lady Barker
Many a Glorious Morning - David McLeod
The keeper of the sheep - Mary Goulter
A river rules my life - Mona Anderson
Open country - Jim HendersonA few others:
Just where do you think you've been/ Men Aspiring - Paul Powell - NZ mountaineering
My father's Shadow: A portrait of Justice Mahon - Sam Mahon
A good keen man - Barry Crump.Sport
The playing mantis - Jeremy Coney - Cricket - old of course, but proably the best NZ cricket biography I've read.
Rugby bios are mainly pretty poor. Reading something by TP McLean is something for your list though - so maybe, "I George Nepia".I second the recommendation of "I, George Me".
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
Smith's Dream by C.K. Stead is worth a read, and captures an era of NZ well. Bonus points for setting the secret police's torture chamber in the basement of Auckland University's (horrendous) Chemistry Building.
Thank you.
I am going to establish a NZ bibliography of must read works.......
In addition to novels, at the least I will need to get a Edmund Hillary bio & some ABs bios. I've only read Dan Carter's book but I would like to get some more.....
Other subjects that seem important - James Cook bio, also works on NZ farming and the Americas Cup.
Tbh I think I'm going to devote the next year or so to thoroughly educate myself on NZ.
If you want a few suggestions:
No better death: the Great War diaries and letters of William G. Malone - a fabulous read, but no happy endings!
Literature - Some other country: NZ's best short stories (Manhire and McLeod) - good cross section of major NZ writers.
Man Alone - John Mulgan - depression era NZ.
Farming - these are all old books and some you probably won't find:
Station life in NZ - Lady Barker
Many a Glorious Morning - David McLeod
The keeper of the sheep - Mary Goulter
A river rules my life - Mona Anderson
Open country - Jim HendersonA few others:
Just where do you think you've been/ Men Aspiring - Paul Powell - NZ mountaineering
My father's Shadow: A portrait of Justice Mahon - Sam Mahon
A good keen man - Barry Crump.Sport
The playing mantis - Jeremy Coney - Cricket - old of course, but proably the best NZ cricket biography I've read.
Rugby bios are mainly pretty poor. Reading something by TP McLean is something for your list though - so maybe, "I George Nepia".I second the recommendation of "I, George Me".
Fuck really @Nepia ? Who woulda picked it
Seriously though, we should probably have a pinned leaderboard of 'books we think are great'.
The art of coarse rugby resonated with me - it's an oldy but a goody.
For autobiographies, I still really rate Steve Waugh's. That fucker bats for me if the chips are down - he was monstrously tough. Legend.
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@nonpartizan You're welcome.
Here's Lovelock winning gold in 1936 - the commentary by Harold Abrahams (of "Chariots of Fire" fame and which was actually the radio commentary) is brilliant.
I haven't read it for years, but "Kiwis can fly"by Ivan Agnew - written probably in the 1970s - covers the 2nd generation of NZ middle distance runners - Walker, Dixon, Quax, Taylor and a guy named Dave McKenzie. I enjoyed it at the time.
It's really hard to think of an outstanding NZ rugby biography. Terry "TP" McLean wrote tour books for pretty much every All Black tour (home and away) from about 1950 to 1980, so he was hugely influential as the public's eye on the rugby in the days before saturation TV coverage. His tour books are very interesting, but heavy going these days with descriptions of every provincial match. Paul Lewis wrote a biography of him called TP, which is probably at least as good as anything else.
TP Life and Times of Sir Terry Mclean - Paul Lewis - Paperback
Sir Terry McLean, New Zealand's best-known journalist and sports writer, packed a lot of living into his 90 years. The never before published story of TP Mcl...
Bugger - I knew @Nepia would find that other recommendation!
n.b. I don't think you'll find many of my recommendations anywhere but second hand shops - or regional book fairs, which are a great option. There''s a good one in Nelson in May, where you can pick up most books for $1 or $2.
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
Smith's Dream by C.K. Stead is worth a read, and captures an era of NZ well. Bonus points for setting the secret police's torture chamber in the basement of Auckland University's (horrendous) Chemistry Building.
Thank you.
I am going to establish a NZ bibliography of must read works.......
In addition to novels, at the least I will need to get a Edmund Hillary bio & some ABs bios. I've only read Dan Carter's book but I would like to get some more.....
Other subjects that seem important - James Cook bio, also works on NZ farming and the Americas Cup.
Tbh I think I'm going to devote the next year or so to thoroughly educate myself on NZ.
If you want a few suggestions:
No better death: the Great War diaries and letters of William G. Malone - a fabulous read, but no happy endings!
Literature - Some other country: NZ's best short stories (Manhire and McLeod) - good cross section of major NZ writers.
Man Alone - John Mulgan - depression era NZ.
Farming - these are all old books and some you probably won't find:
Station life in NZ - Lady Barker
Many a Glorious Morning - David McLeod
The keeper of the sheep - Mary Goulter
A river rules my life - Mona Anderson
Open country - Jim HendersonA few others:
Just where do you think you've been/ Men Aspiring - Paul Powell - NZ mountaineering
My father's Shadow: A portrait of Justice Mahon - Sam Mahon
A good keen man - Barry Crump.Sport
The playing mantis - Jeremy Coney - Cricket - old of course, but proably the best NZ cricket biography I've read.
Rugby bios are mainly pretty poor. Reading something by TP McLean is something for your list though - so maybe, "I George Nepia".That and Rhythm and Swing by Paddles for me. Great stuff.
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