New Zealand/Aotearoa Recent Picks
May / June 2010
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In the footsteps of Ethel Benjamin: New Zealand's first woman lawyer by Janet November.
"In the footsteps of Ethel Benjamin tells the inspiring story of New Zealand’s first woman lawyer.
The book solves some of the mysteries of Ethel’s life and work: how many brothers and sisters did she have? Where did the family live? Why did she, as a “first wave” feminist, act for hoteliers when many of the women’s movement supported the prohibitionists?
It shows some of the obstacles Ethel encountered to becoming a lawyer in the late nineteenth century all-male conservative legal profession. The book portrays Ethel’s determination, hard work, mental ability and “can do” attitude and challenges the idea that Ethel was ultimately not successful in her chosen career.
The epilogue compares Ethel’s story with that of some of her less well-known but notable successors in the mid twentieth century (Marion Thomson and Margaret McKay), and some of her famous successors (Dame Silvia Cartwright, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas and Judith Medlicott). This is a book about how New Zealand women overcame obstacles to practice in the legal profession, once the sole preserve of men, some soaring through the “glass ceiling” to high positions in public life." (Victoria University Press)
The The General Grant's gold: shipwreck and greed in the Southern Ocean by Madelene Ferguson Allen and Ken Scadden.
"The wreck in 1866 of the General Grant in the desolate sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands is one of the world's great nautical mysteries, a story that still tantalises and thrills. When the ship was crushed in a cave beneath a sheer cliff face, a few crew members and a handful of passengers managed to escape in a lifeboat. For more than two years they lived a hand-to-mouth existence on a nearby island before they were rescued. This story is extraordinary in itself, but soon compelling legends spread that the ship had sunk with a fabulous hoard of gold from the Victorian goldfields. For 140 years, expeditions and bounty hunters have searched for the ship and her elusive cargo. Locating the vessel has been difficult enough; finding the gold has proved impossible - unless one of those early expeditions really did find it...In this book Madelene Ferguson Allen and Ken Scadden tell the full story of the voyage from Melbourne, the shipwreck, the plight of the castaways and the search for the gold. At this distance in time, separating the facts from the legends is difficult, but they have scrupulously researched the events of the shipwreck and examined every subsequent search for the gold. The story is more remarkable than fiction, a tale of heroes and cads, heartbreak and loss, hope and despair, hunger and greed. As it has bewitched so many in the past, so it will haunt readers long after the last page is turned." (Amazon)
Where your left hand rests: a collection of poems by Fiona Kidman.
"It's been 30 years since Dame Fiona Kidman's first book of poems was published, and now she is back with another, perfectly timed for her 70th birthday in March 2010. There has been renewed interest in her poetry since the recent publication of her memoirs, and this exquisitely packaged collection will not disappoint. Ranging over wide territory, from imagining her Irish grandmothers' arrival in New Zealand, to wearing Katherine Mansfield's shawl, to time spent in Greece and in her garden, the poems are by turns tender and funny, candid and brave. They bear all the hallmarks of Kidman's writing: acute observation, a telling eye for detail, a wry humour and great empathy." (Publisher - Random House New Zealand)
New Zealand forest birds and their world, by Geoff Moon.
"Drawing on more than 70 years' worth of study in the field - representing literally thousands of hours spent poised behind a 300mm lens - Forest Birds by Geoff Moon presents a visual and written portrait of the most important or characteristic birds of the New Zealand forest. Arranged in taxonomic order, these total nearly 30 species, among them some of the country's best-loved birds such as the bellbird, fantail, kingfisher, kiwi, kokako, morepork, tomtit, kakariki, saddleback, stitchbird and tui. Enriching the photography are Geoff's personal notes, amassed - like his photographs - from decades of observation. This title is the second in New Holland's series on bird habitats. The first, Wetland Birds, also by Geoff Moon, was published in February 09." (Real Groovy)
From Timaru to Stalag VIII B: a New Zealand pilot's wartime story by Jack Hardie.
"This story captures the joy of flying, the excitement of training as a bomber pilot - and the horror of being shot down and captured in World War II. Worse was to come: airmen were handcuffed every day in their prison camp as punishment for the damage they inflicted on Germany. Jack's survival in the camp, and on the gruelling march to freedom, are an inspiring read, told with typical Kiwi humour and modesty." (Real Groovy)
Sailors and settlers: the migration of the Nova Scotian Scots to New Zealand, by John McLean.
A continent on the move: New Zealand geoscience into the 21st century by chief editor, Ian J. Graham.
This publication is a New Zealand contribution to the 2008 International Year of Planet Earth.
Handstand Production, editing: Peter Deckers and Hilda Gascard.
Catalogue of work produced by Jewellery students of 2009 at Whitireia Community Polytechnic.
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