A photographic celebration of the people of New Zealand by renowned photographer Brian Curtis.While there is a huge number of books around that showcase the many landscapes of our country, few have taken the opportunity to celebrate our people. Faces of New Zealand captures more than 100 images of Kiwis from all over the country and from all walks of life, taking us inside the lives of the locals. Each photo is accompanied by a brief explanatory caption, providing context and commentary. An introduction reflects on the photographic... read more

Do you know that Hataitai is named after one of the taniwha which lived in Wellington Harbour? Or that Mystery Creek was named after an unsolved murder in the Waikato region?The meanings and stories behind the major place names of New Zealand are contained in this handy book. All the top tourist destinations are covered,inlcuding the unusual, the quirky and the historical. Symbols denote towns, rivers,mountains and other natural features, and a basic Maori vocabulary and pronunciation guide is included.

Through the work of 20 of New Zealand's best tattoo artists and photography, this book presents some of the best examples of tattoo art in New Zealand, including traditional Maori and Polynesian designs.

Why is it not wrong to be doubly negative? Where do you place the stress in such words as 'dissect'? Where does 'wowser', 'craw thumper' and the 'f-word' come from? Do New Zealanders mangle the English language? Should we say different 'from' or 'to' or 'than'? We use it every day, but what is this thing called language and are there rights and wrongs about its use? Four leading linguists, with specific interest in New Zealand English, tackle the common-place and quirky questions that arise from what we say, read and write. ... read more

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It is commonly estimated that one in six couples are unable to conceive, one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, and 600 babies are stillborn or die soon after birth each year. The experience can be the most traumatic thing that couples ever go through. It is also very lonely and isolating. Many are desperate to read other people's local and recent stories in order to gain comfort, however there are very few New Zealand stories available in published form. Baby Gone contains 45 true stories, written from the heart by those aff... read more

Demonised by the Church throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, homosexuals became the scapegoats of society, constantly facing exile or a brutal death. In "Heroes to Exiles", the human cost of this long exile is told through the lives of the most eminent homosexual men and women in history. Some were artists like the wild living Benvenuto Cellini or the repressed Edward Lear. Others were poets such as Thomas Gray, W. H. Auden or novelists such as Henry James and A. J. Symonds. Their places of refuge changed through the cen... read more

DOP Feb 2008 pp216 In a snapshot of intergenerational history, Porangahau women Marina Sciascia and Hilary Pedersen have combined to produce their second book of stories about the lives of women of their district. Their book

Raewyn Peart explores the social, political and economic factors that have fuelled the development of the coastline. She looks at the tension between private and public interests, Maori and Pakeha, environmental preservation and development, and the responsibilities of central and local government.

Taking the first decade of the twentieth century as its starting point, At Home joins the story of the New Zealand house just at the point when its inhabitants begin to ask whether a distinctive, uniquely New Zealand house might be possible. It then charts the way in which imported movements, fashions and styles in twentieth-century architecture and design were adopted, or adapted, by New Zealanders to create a house environment whether international in its style or an attempt at something more distinctly local. At Home goes behind... read more

Shadows Prove The Sun Shines is a collection of incredible stories that celebrate the way our most inspirational people have overcome their struggles and persevered in spite of life's setbacks. Includes stories from: Tony Christiansen, Mike Hutcheson, Dame Lois Muir, Graham Lowe, Mark Inglis, Steve Gurney, plus: JK Rowling, Helen Keller and many other inspirational people.

From the late 1950s to the mid 1980s, when most of them were closed down, the New Zealand government maintained 26 residences for children and teenagers. Some of those children had the bad fortune to come from families with large numbers of children and who couldn't cope financially. Plucking a child out and putting him in a home to ease the burden was seen as a solution. Other children in came from profoundly dysfunctional backgrounds or were profoundly dysfunctional themselves. Could putting them all together in close quarters, s... read more

Matatoa Fathers And Sons' the third in a series of books on the history of Porangahau is to be released next month. Porangahau in Hawke's Bay is a significant coastal district, long settled by Ngati Kere iwi and later by high profile early colonisers. As such generations of families who call it 'home' ripple around New Zealand. Like its highly successful predecessors 'Hakui Mothers Of Porangahau' and 'Tuahine Sisters Of Porangahau,' the book is a compilation of family- written stories initiated by local women Marina Sciascia and Hi... read more

Museum collections are a treasure trove of objects, each with the capacity to tell a compelling story or stories. Many objects in Te Manawa's collection speak of a deep curiosity for the world 'out there and beyond', while others evoke an intense sense of belonging to the Manawatu. Significant insight about both local communities, and the broader national story, can be gleaned from objects such as a fragile kahu kiwi; a sleek handmade wooden kayak; the clumsy industrial design of an early portable computer; a simple child's Christm... read more

We've been sold the idea that New Zealand has the best fisheries management in the world. This book sorts through the myths from the realities and finds that such an accolade belongs to only part of our fishery. And then who cares, if the global fishery scene is so dire that it poses a threat to the ocean's biodiversity and hence the ability of that ecosystem then having a part of New Zealand's fishery managed according to best practice, seems a little irrelevant. Like climate change the state of the global fishery is a global issu... read more

What if Maori had never discovered New Zealand? What if the moa had survived into modern times? What if Sir Francis Drake had reached New Zealand? What if Homo erectus, so-called Java Man, had survived in remote Southland? What if the wording of the Treaty of Waitangi had been very different? What if New Zealand had joined Australia in the early twentieth century? What if there'd been full Prohibition imposed in 1919? What if an Auckland volcano had erupted? What if the Napier earthquake had never happened? What if the Japanese had... read more

As this country developed from 1840 on, transport was the key to opening up areas for farming, forestry and manufacturing. The trains, ships, cars, planes, motorbikes and trucks that we used on to get places and make us more efficient were so relied upon that they have become part of our DNA. In this lively, well researched and affectionate survey of 100 'vehicles' of all descriptions, historian Matthew Wright takes us on a trip down memory lane, reacquainting us with the way we used to get around. The book features both New Zea... read more

Say Castlepoint to any New Zealander of a certain age, and they'll know where you mean. It's real Country Calendar country up here - what farmers call summer dry, and typical East Coast Wairarapa. Windswept cliff-top paddocks and rugged hills grow the best carpet wool in the world, and tough men and women have have lived on and worked the land for generations. The catch with Castlepoint is that all those generations haven't necessarily grown up there - the current owners are seventh-generation farmers from New York State, though w... read more

New Zealand's favourite beaches in magnificent "then and now" photographs. With nostalgic images that invoke memories of days gone by, each spread features a stunning photograph from over 60 years ago, taken by the author's aunt, and a present day image shot from the exact same spot. The beaches featured cover New Zealand from top to bottom.