The Eat Horses Don’t They? The Truth About the French by Piu Marie Eatwell (HarperCollins, RRP $37): Have you ever wondered what life in France is really like? Is it all garlic and fabulousness? Berets and croissants? What do they do with bidets? Do they really eat horses? In this quirky little book, Piu…
Category: General non-fiction
Climate debate heats up
Living in a Warmer World: How a changing climate will affect our lives, edited by Jim Salinger (Bateman, RRP $40): Eighteen essays by chiefly Australian and Kiwi scientists detail what is happening as our planet gets warmer and examine both…
Sniffing out dog facts
Every Dog Has Its Day: A Thousand things You Didn’t Know About Man’s Best Friend, by Max Cryer (Exisle Publishing, RRP $30): After penning books on everything from proverbs to music, Max Cryer has now turned his attention to man’s…
Another year of records still good value
Guinness World Records 2014, (Macmillan Australia, $50): Someone has to be the best, the fastest, biggest, brightest, smallest or some other -est word, and the good folk at Guinness have made it their mission to bring us every single one…
Fascinating trip down memory lane of advertising
Sell, by Hazel Phillips (Penguin, RRP $45): Advertising plays a big role in our memories of growing up and this book looks at how New Zealand’s advertising industry has grown up with us. Subtitled “tall tales from the legends of…
Plot a little out there at times – but it’s Bond
Solo, by William Boyd (Random House, RRP $38): For the James Bond fans out there, the news that William Boyd was planning to pen a followup Bond novel was probably pretty exciting and, for the most part, he has delivered…
Bookmarks: short non-fiction reviews
A roundup of short general non-fiction reviews: My Gentle Barn, by Ellie Laks (Penguin, RRP $28): This is non fiction at its best. Ellie Laks runs a rescue mission for animals near Los Angeles and this is the story of her early…
■ REVIEW
Coast A New Zealand Journey
It’s our place … and it’s beautiful: Kiwi writer Bruce Ansley has followed up his tribute to the legendary Mesopotamia high country station with another collaborative celebration of New Zealand’s beauty. This time Ansley has teamed up with photographer Jane…
We’re just crazy about our pets
Creature Comforts: New Zealanders and their Pets, by Nancy Swarbrick (Otago University Press, RRP $55): (Reviewed with help from Seymour and Norman) Kiwis tend to fall into two categories when it comes to our furry, feathered and/or scaled friends: we…
Take a trip through some of NZ’s literary history
Anthology of New Zealand Literature, edited by Jane Stafford and Mark Williams (Auckland University Press, RRP $75): This massive tome will likely be the biggest book you’ll buy this year and if you are going to spend $75 on a…