Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds by Alison Jones; Kuni Jenkins

$45.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

In early 1817 Tuai, a young Ngare Raumati chief from the Bay of Islands, set off for England. He was one of a number of Maori who, after encountering European explorers, traders and missionaries in New Zealand, seized opportunities to travel beyond their familiar shores to Australia, England and Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They sought new knowledge, useful goods and technologies, and a mutually benefi cial relationship with the people they knew as Pakeha. On his epic journey Tuai would visit exotic foreign ports, mix with teeming crowds in the huge metropolis of London, and witness the marvels of industrialisation at the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. With his lively travelling companion Titere, he would attend fashionable gatherings and sit for his portrait. He shared his deep understanding of Maori language and culture. And his missionary friends did their best to convert him to Christianity. But on returning to his Maori world in 1819, Tuai found there were difficult choices to be made. His plan to integrate new European knowledge and relationships into his Ngare Raumati community was to be challenged by the rapidly shifting politics of the Bay of Islands. With sympathy and insight, Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins uncover the remarkable story of one of the first Maori travellers to Europe. ...Show more

Sam Hunt: Off the Road by Sam Hunt; Colin Hogg

$50.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Thirty years after Hogg and Hunt collaborated on the now-legendary Angel Gear: Off the Road with Sam Hunt, the pair have decided to throw caution to the wind and proceed without doctors' certificates, to create an older, possibly wiser twin to that earlier book. A backstage pass to the private side of o ne of our most public people, Sam Hunt: Off the Road is a wild, hilarious, no-holds-barred book about the non-stop life and poems of a man New Zealand thinks it knows, until now. Part conversation, part story-telling, part poems, it's also a book about friendship, solitude, love, death, self-destruction and endurance. With photographs and poems, some old, some new. ...Show more

We Can Make a Life by Chessie Henry

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Hours after the 2011 Christchuch Earthquake, Kaikoura-based doctor Chris Henry crawled through the burning CTV building to rescue those who were trapped. Six years later, his daughter Chessie interviews him in an attempt to understand the trauma that led her father to burnout, in the process unravelling stories and memories from her own remarkable family history. Chessie rebuilds her familys lives on the page, from her parents honeymoon across Africa, to living in Tokelau as one of five children under ten before returning to New Zealand, where her mother would set her heart and home in the Clarence Valley only to see it devastated in the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, and the family displaced. Written with the same love and compassion that defines her familys courage and strength, We Can Make a Life is an extraordinary memoir about the psychological cost of heroism, home and belonging, and how a family made a life together. ...Show more

A Way Home by Jillian Sullivan

$39.99 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

When life as she knew it ended, with her marriage over and her last child off into the world, writer Jillian Sullivan set out to fulfil a long-held dream of building a strawbale house. She settled in a small community in Central Otago, and A Way Home tells the story of how she eventually managed to buil d her new home. With her son-in-law Sam as her builder and mentor, and she as the apprentice, Jillian describes the process of having to learn how to use tools, how to be strong and to be safe and, more importantly that there is no such thing as can¿t. The house that arises through this memoir is a physical testament to the rebuilding of a life, of finding your place in a community, and of the unexpected joyousness in joining with others on a building project. People come from all over New Zealand to help ¿ from Nelson, Auckland, Queenstown, from next door and from the next valleys. There are poets and artists, a magician and finance analyst, grandmothers and grandchildren, old friends, new friends and strangers. Each person brings their unique skills and gifts and leaves with new ones. The house absorbs their creativity and kindnesses. A Way Home reflects on our need for home, for community, and for finding a way to live sustainably in this rapidly changing world. The story evokes life in a harsh climate in a small village, the struggle to overcome lack of skills and strength, and to move past loneliness and loss to find a place to call home. This is an affecting story, quietly inspirational and beautifully told by a deft and skilled writer. ...Show more

That F Word: Growing up Feminist in Aotearoa by Lizzie Marvelly

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

A wake-up call and a battle-cry for all Kiwi women Lizzie Marvelly tells the story of New Zealand's feminist roots, then traverses the modern landscape, tearing apart areas of gender imbalance and pervading attitudes to Kiwi women. In particular, Lizzie examines how men have been brought up with certain values - the rugby, racing and beer mentality we know all too well. Lizzie grew up an ardent Chiefs and All Blacks fan, but a wiser head now recognises that there are still endemic issues for society to address. Lizzie speaks about her own first-hand experiences with sexism and male misconduct, while also offering advice to young girls on how to take full control of their lives. ...Show more

Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another by Emily Writes

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Popular blogger Emily Writes gives words of encouragement to sleep-deprived parents everywhere.With two small boys, both non-sleepers, Emily finds herself awake in the wee small hours night after night. Her writing is often done then, and she offers her own often hilarious and always heart-warming exper iences to other exhausted parents. She describes the frustrations as well as the tender moments of real parenting, as opposed to what you thought it was going to be like, or what well-meaning advice-givers tell you it shouldbe like. A must-have for all new parents and parents-to-be. Emily's blogs have been wildly popular, as have her on-line columns with New Zealand Woman's Weeklyand The New Zealand Herald. ...Show more

Hudson and Halls - The Food of Love by Joanne Drayton

$50.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Hudson & Halls: The food of love is more than just a love story, though a love story it certainly is. It is a tale of two television chefs who helped change the bedrock bad attitudes of a nation in the 1970s and 80s to that unspoken thing - homosexuality. Peter Hudson and David Halls became reluctan t role models for a 'don't ask, don't tell' generation of gay men and women who lived by omission. They were also captains of a culinary revolution that saw the overthrow of Aunty Daisy and Betty Crocker and the beginnings of Pacific-rich, Asian-styled international cuisine. Their drinking, bitching and bickering on screen, their spontaneous unchoreographed movements across the stage that left cameras and startled production staff exposed broke taboos and melted formalities. They captivated an unlikely bunch of viewers, from middle-aged matrons to bush-shirted blokes. Hudson and Halls were pioneers of celebrity television as we know it today: the naughty, not-quite-normal boys next door who rocketed to stardom on untrained talent and a dream. When Peter Hudson became seriously ill with prostate cancer, David Halls was inconsolable. What remained unchanged through it all was their abiding love for each other. In this riveting, fast-paced and meticulously researched book, New York Times bestselling author Joanne Drayton celebrates the legacy of the unforgettable Hudson and Halls. ...Show more

The Land of Doing without: Davey Gunn of the Hollyford by Julia Bradshaw

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography | Reading Level: Very Good

"He was made of horseshoe nails and whipcord."Davey Gunn lived 30 years in Fiordland's rugged Hollyford valley, where he had one of the most isolated cattle runs in New Zealand. When he moved there in 1926 he left behind his wife and children - and civilisation - for a tough and solitary life he grew to love. Although quiet and modest by nature, Davey became known throughout New Zealand as a back-country hero for his 20-hour journey on foot to raise the alarm after a fatal plane crash at Big Bay in 1936. His efforts saw the four survivors rescued, and the legend of Davey Gunn began. First published July 2007. ...Show more

Many a Muddy Morning by Mark Warren

$37.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

The off-roading, hillseeking and muddymorning adventures of farming legend Mark Warren. Mark Warren is a larger-than-life character of rural New Zealand. He grew up with an obsession with Land Rovers, council tip trucks, bulldozers, hill-country tractors, snow-plows - basically anything with four wheels . Interwoven with his stories of working as a grease monkey, rallying in a purpose built Toyota Landy, rescuing ski-bunnies off icy mountain roads, is his tale of being thrust into single-handedly managing a muddy Hawke's Bay farm in his twenties, just as Rogernomics was introduced and the removal of subsidies that would change the face of farming forever. Many a Muddy Morning is a funny, original and affecting read that will appeal to petrolheads and farmers alike. Mark brings together the traits we love to celebrate in our rural heartland in a book that is a colourful addition to the Kiwi story. ...Show more

How We Met: The Ways Great Love Begins by Michele A'Court

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Stand-up comedian Michele A'Court rekindles the passion, with a brilliant collection of 'How We Met' stories. How We Met is based on a collection of 'How We Met' stories - those lovely stories couples love to tell (and we all love to hear) about how they got together. The author's theory: that these sto ries of how couples meet - the romantic, absurd, serendipitous, convoluted, scandalous, breath-taking moments of connection - help to weave their lives together. Partly as 'proof' that they were meant to begin this couple-journey, and also because in each retelling they go back to those first falling-in-love feelings and rekindle the passion.The theory is based on a hunch, which itself is based on nothingmore than the author's observations of watching couples as they talk. Michele then tests her thesis out on a neuroscientist and a psychologist, and by the end of the book, has some useful things to say not only about how great love starts,but how it stays great. ...Show more

Long and Winding Aotearoa by George Lockyer

$42.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Driving a car (when are we there) you're always on the way to somewhere. On a bike, you're already there in the landscape, in the moment. And sometimes there's literally nowhere else you'd rather be. In George Lockyer's new book, The Long and Winding Aotearoa, we find him riding his Triumph Bonneville a round the country, from Kaitaia to Invercargill, and seeing his often humorous take on life from under a crash helmet. On the way round our magnificent country he stops to interview some fascinating characters, all with a story to tell. We meet not just motorcyclists, but a wide variety of kiwis, from craftsmen, artists and firefighters, to rugby coaches, quakers and architects. ...Show more

Finding the Mountains: An Older Woman's Guide to Skiing by Peeta Wellsford

$19.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography