Public Address | Cafe | Busytown: Tell You What: A Nonfiction Giveaway!

Carol Stewart

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 20:08:53 +1300

And another recommendation: Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer. It is quite a departure from his earlier books Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, and is about the murky and weird world of Mormon fundamentalism, and more generally about the nature of religious belief and its role…

Carol Stewart

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:47:16 +1300

Happy New Year, good peoples. here is another nonfiction reading treat – great article by Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker, about NZ's crusade against mammals.

Joe Wylie

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 09:01:38 +1300

Junkyard Planet, by Adam Minter, about the global recycling trade – fascinating and full of unexpected insights.
Thanks for the recommendation, just finished it, found it very educational.

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:55:30 +1300

tracked down!
Ha! Local treasure from the secondhand shop.
Chchch artist too, I note...

Ben Chapman

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:07:32 +1300

The most excitement I have had reading this year has been The Particle at the End of the Universe about the Higgs boson. I've been pretty much completely out of science for about 10 years while raising my children, so coming back to it with such hard stuff was a…

Lilith __

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:29:07 +1300

Oh and I got my railway anecdotes back. Ha! Local treasure from the secondhand shop.
[I'm not even particularly into trains. Just good stories.]

Lilith __

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:14:05 +1300

This feels like the appropriate place to note the passing of legendary documentary photographer and portraitist Jane Bown . There's such a lot to look at in each of her pictures. I'm glad to own her Men of Consequence . If only I had the Women of Consequence to go…

Jolisa

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:20:01 +1300

Hey all – I've been quiet, but taking notes on what to read next, and loving the discussion. Carry on, carry on!

In the interests of mailing the books out before Christmas, I've just done a randomised draw from contributors so far... and the winner is...

Murray Hewitt!

Murray, could…

JacksonP

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 11:40:53 +1300

August Sander’s legendary photo-documentary project People of The 20th Century

Thanks Craig. That looks amazing. Hope you and yours are keeping well, and a very Merry Christmas to you.

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:31:28 +1300

Having said that, there have been a few photographic collections I’ve enjoyed this year..

I’d suggest you pop over to the library website, and put a reserve on their copy of Schirmer/Mosel’s close-as-its-ever-going-to-get-to-complete-in-one-volume reprint of August Sander’s legendary photo-documentary project People of The 20th Century

The son of a carpenter, August…

JacksonP

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 07:55:33 +1300

I’m also a possessor of both volumes, and really just wanted to express how much I enjoyed Tell You What in the first instance, and will move on to RB’s now I’ve finished that.

I’m not a non-fiction reader, as a rule, but this essay format seems to suit me.…

Hebe

Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:25:13 +1300

Food: always the cookbooks, ever since I was a child, I have read cookbooks. I like writerly cookbooks, like Nigel Slater, Elizabeth David for their love and knowledge of food and ability to spin yarn. My best cookbooks have pictures, roughly one for each recipe but not always (because I'm…

Joe Wylie

Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:01:59 +1300

Son of Dad:
John Barry’s 1964 biography of psychotic 19th century Norfolk Island prison governor John Giles Price was also fascinating.
A character I recall from the late Roberts Hughes' marvelous The Fatal Shore. Appreciate the heads up, will definitely follow through on that.

hamishm:
I didn’t know he had…

Libby Paulin

Sat, 20 Dec 2014 16:14:20 +1300

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain by Barbara Arrowsmith Young, founder of the Canadian based Arowsmith Programme for people with learning 'disabilities'.

Bursts by Albert Laszlo-Barabasi about the un/predicatabilty of human behaviour.

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. A college English teacher whose job has just disappeared gives up his…

Reg Feuz

Sat, 20 Dec 2014 11:51:58 +1300

So much to read...so little time...but managed amongst many others Madmen by Steve Braunias; How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art by Serge Guilbaut; The Wollemi Pine by James Woodford; What A Wonderful World by Marcus Chown; and lastly Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager, which I reckon qualifies…

Geoff Lealand

Sat, 20 Dec 2014 07:06:40 +1300

Thanks, Matthew. I don't have my film diary with me (currently in London), but let me recall ... not in any order. A good year for film

Leviathan
Housebound
Two Days, One Night
Winter Sleep
Locke
Boyhood
Under the Skin
Finding Vivian Maier
What We Do In The Shadows
The…

hamishm

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:01:20 +1300

Fussell's book is very interesting and shows the depth of the effect The Great Slaughter had.

hamishm

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:58:57 +1300

I didn't know he had done that Joe. That is surprising.

Murray Hewitt

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:15:26 +1300

Niki Harre's excellent "Psychology for a Better World – Strategies to Inspire Sustainability" (available from nzclimatechangecentre.org, amongst others).

You can't describe accepting the realities of human-induced climate change, unsustainable industry, rampant pollution, etc as a "no-brainer" – you really gotta have a brain. The problem is influencing others to get…

Son of Dad

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:13:14 +1300

In anticipation of next year's flood tide of nationalism and semi-festive World War One 'commemorations', I re-read Paul Fussell's heartbreaking 'The Great War and Modern Memory'.

John Barry's 1964 biography of psychotic 19th century Norfolk Island prison governor John Giles Price was also fascinating. Clive James was referring to Price…

Joanna

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:49:13 +1300

Like, look at this thoughtful analysis of Xmas number one hits by Popbitch. They really are the best.

Joe Wylie

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:48:11 +1300

My favourite non-fiction read this year was “Return of a King” by William Dalrymple.

It’s a phenomenal book. One thing that surprised me was Dalrymple’s apparently reactionary take on the Scottish independence referendum. He appeared to assume that the class privilege he’d enjoyed applied to all Scots, while ignoring the…

Hilary Stace

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:32:23 +1300

Pride. Stand out. In its 3rd month at Wellington's Penthouse. True story and heart-warming for old lefties. Bonus of lovely Welsh scenery, accents and singing.

philipmatthews

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:19:27 +1300

I'd like to hear film choices too. I did mine at Werewolf. A top ten and a runner-up ten:

The year’s top 10:

1. Under the Skin

2. Blue is the Warmest Colour

3. Winter Sleep

4. Ida

5. The Grand Budapest Hotel

6. Boyhood

7. Maps to the Stars…

Geoff Lealand

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 23:53:18 +1300

Can we have films of the year too ? I went to 92 films this year (at the cinema) and there some right crackers amongst them,

hamishm

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:50:20 +1300

My favourite non-fiction read this year was "Return of a King" by William Dalrymple. It details the British invasion of Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842 and what is most striking are the similarities between that invasion and the recent boondoggle. There are some marvelous events in the story including the…

Martin Lindberg

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:56:35 +1300

A rather depressing list now that I look at it:
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi
Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

Also some autobiographies:
__Why Be Happy When You Could Be…

philipmatthews

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:16:18 +1300

I should have added David Cohen's book Greatest Hits, which is a collection of the best of 25 years or so of his journalism, although it doesn't include his infamous Crowded House review. But a hilarious one about Bono is in there.

Ethan Tucker

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:51:14 +1300

My non-fiction highlight of the year has been Simon Garfield's To The Letter, which aside from stitching together a compelling narrative of the influence of the now-waning art of personal correspondence on world culture, also contains vignettes of actual correspondence between a WW2 British Army soldier in North Africa and…

Sam F

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:59:23 +1300

And one more tremendous local read from a few years back – No Fretful Sleeper, Paul Millar’s amazing biography of Bill Pearson (another intersection with Great New Zealand Argument).

Sam F

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:55:34 +1300

Not new, but handily the best I've read this year is Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore. Fascinating, incisive work of history, beautifully written as only a famed art critic can do, and with so many intersections between Australia's convict settlement and the allegedly more enlightened process in New Zealand. And…

Wendy Stewart

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:27:08 +1300

"Life in Photographs" – oops.

giovanni tiso

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:59:59 +1300

Sorry for forgetting to say this before, but could you take me out of the draw

Same, happy owner of both books...

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:50:41 +1300

Sorry for forgetting to say this before, but could you take me out of the draw — already have Russell's book, and four copies of yours (one for keeps and the rest for Christmas giving to the unworthy and ungrateful).

RaggedJoe

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:07:00 +1300

Hang in there, and I’ll see if I can find out more.

No problem I'll try a bookstore, just prefer kindle these days, no paper, easy to carry and store, bookshelves are full and groaning.. :-)

Wendy Stewart

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:45:53 +1300

A couple of years ago I bought the beautiful photography book "Life in photos" by Linda McCartney. Truly a stunning book, every time I open it I find something new, a treasure to own.
Also of course read "Dirty Politics" made me so mad I couldn't finish it on holiday…

Hilary Stace

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:35:52 +1300

My favourite writing this year is Robert Martin's biography written by John McRae called Becoming a Person. Not for any great literary merit but because it is one of NZ's hidden stories of citizenship denied, and then made good. Robert grew up in various institutions but is now a nominee…

KathrynB

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:32:59 +1300

"Tragedy at Pike River" and "Dirty Politics" are at the top of my non-fiction NZ list because of what they revealed. I can't say I enjoyed them, as even writing down the titles makes me angry all over again, particularly because none of the people exposed in those books have…

Jolisa

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:20:33 +1300

Is it available as ebook? The University Press website sent me into a frustrating loop, and Amazon says not available.

Hi Joe – appreciate the attempted purchase :-) I agree, it's a bit tricky... I haven't bought ebooks myself, but apparently it depends what format you are looking for. From…

Lilith __

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:19:39 +1300

There’s a wonderful book I bought in a second-hand shop a few months back of NZ Railways anecdotes, taken from historic railways periodicals.

I can’t tell you the title, because I lent it to Mum and she won’t give it back!

*I will find out though

Lilith __

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:17:25 +1300

One of my recent faves is an out-of-print children's book documenting the lives of two children living on a lighthouse on Farewell Spit in the 1960s.

A Birthday at the Lighthouse. It's all here to read online.

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:10:06 +1300

The best single piece of non-fiction I read this year was George Packer's New Yorker profile of Angela Merkel, 'The Quiet German' (December 1 issue if you don't have a ket to the new subscriber paywall) — which is not only a great snapshot of a woman whose near-decade as…

Grant McDougall

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:00:10 +1300

The best non-fiction I've read this year was Robert Hilburn's magisterial Johnny Cash – A Life. Even if you're not a fan of his actual music, it's a cracking, superbly-written story. A fascinating, warts 'n' all insight to one of the giants of 20th C music and American culture.

Antony…

Shaun Scott

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:54:48 +1300

Tragedy at Pike River Mine. I thought I'd do my duty and read it, but found it so fascinating and tragically compelling.

Same- an utterly heartbreaking book that, despite knowing what the outcome for the workers was, compelled the reader to keep reading. The geology/science/engineering needed to understand was explained…

Jolisa

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:51:53 +1300

And the delightful Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.

Oh Kerri, I love this book! Am currently reading it in bite-sized chunks to my 8 year old, and dreaming of opening a school like Tomoe Gakuen...

Kerri Perwick

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:24:52 +1300

I enjoyed Randall Munroe's What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions – funny and educational.
David Byrne's How Music Works.
Margaret Sparrow's Rough on Women.
I finally read Seabiscuit and adored it, despite being ethically opposed to the horse racing industry.
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by…

Danielle

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:02:48 +1300

Um, someone let me borrow Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses by Stephen Davis. It wasn't *good*, but it was awesomely trashy. And now I know that Axl Rose's real name is Bill Bailey, which I find hilarious.

llew40

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:48:14 +1300

Best non-fiction book I've read all year was Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport by Anna Krien

Won the William Hill Sports Book of the year award this year – and its an unputdownable and harrowing examination of something very rotten at the…

Gareth

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:40:00 +1300

I greatly enjoyed Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan, but my non-fiction book of the year beyond any shadow of a doubt was The Beatles: All These Years, Volume 1 – Tune In by Mark Lewisohn. It is both a detailed history of the way the Beatles…

Joanna

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:04:39 +1300

Now to lower the tone dreadfully and disclose my very lowbrow tastes, I have loved the shit out of Popbitch ’s magazine and annual. I love their dedication to taking silly things very very seriously and also smartly.

Mike Bartley

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:56:15 +1300

Madmen: Inside the weirdest election campaign ever
Dirty Politics
Promoting Prosperity (actually 2013 but I only got it this year) (and it's got lots of pictures)

giovanni tiso

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:53:29 +1300

Stephanie de Montalk's How Does It Hurt, Tragedy at Pike River, the amazing Once in a Lifetime by Freerange Press. And well, yes, Nicky's book.

Carol Stewart

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:49:32 +1300

How could I forget Dirty Politics? Word of the year, book of the year!

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:43:36 +1300

I'm reading City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, its quite fascinating, the tale of the Fenice Opera House in Venice and its death by fire and resurrection. Its striking chords with me as I was in Venice last year, and am yearning to visit again, for longer.

philipmatthews

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:42:53 +1300

Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager.
Madmen by Steve Braunias.
No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald.
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan.
Peter McLeavey: The Life and Times of a New Zealand Art Dealer by Jill Trevelyan
Gutter Black by Dave McArtney
Yeah Yeah…

Lynley Chapman

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:31:20 +1300

My favourite NZ non-fiction book this year is Anne Else's "The Colour of Food. A memoir of life, love and dinner"

Skilfully written, evoked a range of emotions, reflections, questions and nostalgia. Full of interesting detail, intimate at times,enchanting, captivating and 24 recipes from the simple to exotic to try,…

Laurie Fleming

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:16:39 +1300

My two favourite books this year were both by Colin Thubron: Shadow Of The Silk Road and Journey Into Cyprus, the latter written just before partition.

I love travel writing, especially when it's done as beautifully as this.

RaggedJoe

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:53:37 +1300

Good on you for the give away, I am happy to pay for a copy. Is it available as ebook? The University Press website sent me into a frustrating loop, and Amazon says not available.

Carol Stewart

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:48:00 +1300

Travelling overseas today so a bit pressed for time, but wanted to say that this new collection sounds really fabulous. We already own the Great NZ Argument and have much enjoyed it.
Thanks to being lucky enough to belong to a wonderful science book group, I’ve gotten to read some…

Paul Kearns

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:42:03 +1300

This year I enjoyed Chris Brickell's Manly Affections, a follow-on from Mates and Lovers, combined these books have given me a whole new appreciation, tools and language to understand photography, as well as unique/rare insight into the photos and world of Robert Gant and others.

Russell Brown

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:20:44 +1300

Also, Russell’s own 2005 collection of a century’s worth of speeches and essays, Great New Zealand Argument: Ideas About Ourselves, is – if not the daddy, then certainly the benevolent beardy big bro of our own brainchild.

So kind! By the same token, when I did that project, I was…

Public Address

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:20:44 +1300

Discussion from blog post.