August 2022 (104)

Keep In A Cool Place : The first winter at Vanda Station, Antarctica

ISBN: 9781988503301

Authors: Allen J Riordan, Simon Cutfield    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

In 1969 Al Riordan, a US Exchange Scientist, joined Simon Cutfield and three other New Zealanders to spend a year at Vanda Station on the shores of Lake Vanda i...


In 1969 Al Riordan, a US Exchange Scientist, joined Simon Cutfield and three other New Zealanders to spend a year at Vanda Station on the shores of Lake Vanda in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. The men lived in a strange world – a snowless place that had not seen a glacier for millions of years, yet lay within sight of the permanent East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The surface of the lake was covered in 3–4 metres of permanent ice, but the temperature of the water near the bottom was +25°C. No one knew for certain why the water was so warm, and Simon’s mission was to take measurements to help solve this mystery and carry out a range of other hydrologic and earth science projects. Al’s aim was to help build a comprehensive weather record, understand the valley wind systems, and to learn why the area was snow-free. Drawing on their diaries and letters, this is a unique first-person account of life at the station as the five men carry out their daily tasks in an environment that challenges and transforms them: temperatures as low as –57°C, eight months of total isolation, including four months of continual darkness, and daunting mechanical and logistical challenges, including a limited supply of power, fuel, heat and water. At least it’s no challenge to follow the instructions on their photographic chemicals – ‘Keep in a cool place’ – like much of their supplies, this equipment is encased in ice. Supplemented with scientific appendices, the book also gives the reader a window on how scientific knowledge is built one step at a time, from the initial planning, to data gathering, to building hypotheses, and to developing theory. As the only complete record of life at Vanda Station during the first year of its occupation, and complemented by a selection of maps and colour photos, this engaging account is an important missing chapter in the history of New Zealand’s Antarctic achievements.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 296


Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm


Publication Date: 01-09-2022


Tags: August 2022   History   Biography
$49.99
Heart of the City : The Story of Christchurch's Controversial Cathedral

ISBN: 9780995143845

Author: Edmund Bohan    Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

From the days even before Christchurch was settled its cathedral has been the focus of ferocious public debate: Where should a cathedral be built? How would it ...


From the days even before Christchurch was settled its cathedral has been the focus of ferocious public debate: Where should a cathedral be built? How would it be paid for? Should it be built in wood or stone in an earthquake-prone country? Who should oversee the building? It took far too long to build and its financial position has often been perilous. In recent times there have been fresh quarrels over a visitors’ centre and whether ratepayers should help to pay for necessary earthquake strengthening. And, when the building was left almost in ruins, should it be demolished and rebuilt or should it be restored? And, most important of all to the people of Christchurch, to whom did it really belong? It has been a tranquil and lovely place of devotion and worship, and a venue for the celebration of civic, national and international events. Thousands of tourists have walked its aisles and climbed its tower. It has won fame for the beauty of its music. Along with the Avon/Ōtakaro River, its silhouette appears on all the city’s official signage. Christ Church Cathedral has stood in its square for close to a century and a half. Acclaimed historian Edmund Bohan tells the full and fascinating story of this beloved building, from its begin-nings in an embryonic settlement to its resurrection after disaster. In a lively, approachable text – well-illustrated throughout – he outlines the cathedral’s remarkable past and brings to life the equally remarkable people who have worked and worshipped there. He details the triumphs and the troubles, and looks to a future in which this instantly recognisable church will once again stand as the safe and welcoming heart of the city to which it belongs.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 352


Dimensions: 153 x 234 mm


Publication Date: 14-09-2022


$50.00
Cheryl Lucas : Shaped by Schist and Scoria

ISBN: 9781877375767

Authors: Felicity Milburn, Kim Paton    Publisher: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu

Canterbury-based artist Cheryl Lucas pushes the physical and conceptual possibilities of the ceramic artform, describing it as “the perfect medium to convey e...


Canterbury-based artist Cheryl Lucas pushes the physical and conceptual possibilities of the ceramic artform, describing it as “the perfect medium to convey even the most unpalatable truths”. The surfaces of her works may be seductive, but they tackle rough and relevant ground, often focusing on the intersections between the natural world and human intervention. Occupying both physical and psychological space, they deftly overturn expectations about scale and ambition. This richly illustrated book accompanies Lucas’s major solo exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Featuring approachable essays from Felicity Milburn and Kim Paton, it examines highlights from her career to date and launches a major body of new work.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 56


Dimensions: 170 x 245 mm


Publication Date: 20-08-2022


$29.99
The Wandering Nature of Us Girls

ISBN: 9781988503332

Author: Frankie McMillan    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

In these small stories, Frankie McMillan balances transgression and wit, showing a cast of unmoored characters with her signature warmth and compassion. Bursts ...


In these small stories, Frankie McMillan balances transgression and wit, showing a cast of unmoored characters with her signature warmth and compassion. Bursts of vivid, poetic writing blur the line between reality and surrealism as she explores all kinds of wandering: children wander, adults drift into unexpected relationships, and footholds can never be certain. Water, too, meanders like a river in the collection, a powerful presence linking disparate lives: the girls raised by swans swim towards what they hope is a better future in the West, a grandmother swims naked in an isolated bush lake, Magdalene’s behaviour on the fishing boat is under scrutiny by her sisters, while the taniwha Kaiwhakaruaki looms over lovers hiding under a wooden dinghy on the beach. In settings as unexpected as a European post-war circus or an inflatable pool in suburban Aotearoa, the enduring bonds of family, real or imagined, take centre stage. Frankie McMillan has given us a collection that is poignant, revelatory and bitter sweet. Frankie McMillan is the author of five books of poetry and short fiction. Her most recent collection, ‘The Father of Octopus Wrestling’, was listed by The Spinoff as one of the 10 best New Zealand fiction books of 2019 and shortlisted for the NZSA Heritage Book Awards, and her 2016 collection, ‘My Mother and the Hungarians’, was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She has twice won the New Zealand Flash Fiction Day competition and has been the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship (2019), the Michael King writing residency at the University of Auckland (2017), and the Ursula Bethell residency in creative writing at the University of Canterbury (2014). McMillan spends her time between Ōtautahi Christchurch and Mohua Golden Bay.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 128


Dimensions: 130 x 204 mm


Publication Date: 19-08-2022


$29.99
Celebration of the Straw Man

ISBN: 9780995105317

Author: Murray Rodgers    Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

A sensitive and evocative account of the life of a New Zealand World War Two artillery soldier that gives insight into New Zealand's rural culture from the pre-...


A sensitive and evocative account of the life of a New Zealand World War Two artillery soldier that gives insight into New Zealand's rural culture from the pre-depression years, the impact of war on a family through generations, and the magic of companionship in the New Zealand backcountry. The story is loosely based on the author's parents, with his father never seeming to adjust to what he experienced in Italy during the Second World War. Bill's journey is about his growth from childhood and the character he forges until needing to deal with teh effects of brutalizing trauma, and finding his path to self-acceptance through his relationship with his long-standing mate, Charlie, his wife Joan and their children. The under-appreciated cost of war and its psychological impact are dealt with through a series of fictional incidents, largely based on the author's childhood and teenage experiences. The setting is non-specific but is consistent with the Southland and Canterbury regions of New Zealand and Monte Cassino, Italy. Beautifully written and laced with sardonic Kiwi humour, the author's style is fluent and engaging; an easy read that deals with a difficult and often painful topic in a meaningful way.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 224


Dimensions: 150 x 228 mm


Publication Date: 13-06-2022


$35.00
Detachment Theory

ISBN: 9781665598057

Author: Richard Woolley    Publisher: Author House

Past and present become dangerously entwined in this intricate and compelling psychological thriller from author and film-maker Richard Woolley. It is 2015, an...


Past and present become dangerously entwined in this intricate and compelling psychological thriller from author and film-maker Richard Woolley. It is 2015, and successful Kiwi journalist Joy Manville enjoys a fulfilling life in New Zealand, Aotearoa, together with her older English husband, Stephen, a Professor in Film Studies at the University of Auckland. Almost an idyll, until their peaceful path through life is crossed by a dark shadow from Stephen’s past. A persistent online shadow that leads Joy to question Stephen’s integrity and forces her into a disturbing and deadly investigation – first in New Zealand and then at Stephen’s childhood home and school in England. A dark drama that pits the easy going egalitarianism of New Zealand against the privileged, often perverse background of an English upper-middle-class family.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 410


Dimensions: 127 x 203 mm


Publication Date: 04-07-2022


$35.00
Every Sign of Life : On Family Ground

ISBN: 9780995143777

Author: Nicholas Lyon Gresson    Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

Respectable families hold on to their myths, contain the violence, uphold the Establishment. There was always going to be a story. It couldn’t be overlooked, ...


Respectable families hold on to their myths, contain the violence, uphold the Establishment. There was always going to be a story. It couldn’t be overlooked, and this one will set the skeletons rattling and the gin bottles clinking up and down the country. The story is exposed through the life and times of Nicholas Lyon Gresson, enlivened by his passion for justice. Overall it is a story of survival. This memoir is a New Zealand social history with first-hand accounts of crime and justice, psychiatry, advocacy for those who suffer injustice, community and family. It is also a saga of five generations of the well-known Gresson family giving an authentic context to the life of the author’s father, Justice Terence A. Gresson, who was appointed to the Supreme Court judiciary in 1956 at forty-two and died by suicide at fifty-three. His forebear Henry Barnes Gresson emigrated from Irish soil in the 1850s and became first resident judge of Canterbury. Justice Sir Kenneth Gresson became president of the Court of Appeal, and another great-uncle, Justice Sir John Edward Denniston, was knighted for services to the judiciary. Unforgettable characters from all walks of life claim an authentic place with their idiosyncrasies and inclinations. Anecdotes, letters and diaries provide insights into Canterbury’s founding fabric and inherited values. The author sought a life pursuing challenges abroad, learning first-hand the vagaries of survival on foreign shores. But there is always a price to be paid for desertion. Following his father’s tragic death Nick endured the greatest of trials. The reader is left gasping as events unfold. This comprehensive exploration of a life on a road less travelled confronts the reader with tender and brutal honesty, sustaining an irresistible momentum to the final pages – all this reverberating upon a rich setting of family ground.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 776


Dimensions: 153 x 234 mm


Publication Date: 18-10-2022


$69.99
Cliff Porter Captain of the 1924 Invincibles 100 Years On

ISBN: 9781991164742

Author: Ian St George   

In 2024 it will be a century since the greatest rugby side to leave our shores departed New Zealand for the UK. Clifford Glen Porter was the Invincibles captain...


In 2024 it will be a century since the greatest rugby side to leave our shores departed New Zealand for the UK. Clifford Glen Porter was the Invincibles captain. He was nicknamed “Offside Porter” because his anticipation was so accurate and his speed around the scrum so great that opponents insisted he must have been off side. Good referees could see he was not. Well, not always. The Invincibles won all thirty-two games in Britain, France and Canada. Mny of the 28 men in that “Second All Blacks” team are regarded s rugby legends now, a hundred years later : Cliff Porter as their leader. George Nepia said he was “the best captain I ever know” and he knew a few. Cliff Porter played forty-one games for the All Blacks. The phrase that crops up time and time again in reports of Porter’s play, is his “uncanny anticipation” - referring to his ability to predict how moves were going to develop, and to place himself in exactly the right place to take advantage. He was a superb player and one of the very great All Black captains.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 380


Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm


Publication Date: 09-06-2022


$45.00
The Wonderful Story of Baldwin Steam Tram No100

ISBN: 9780473630195

Author: Christopher Cameron    Publisher: MOTAT

In this new book published by the Museum of Transport and Technology Society, you will learn of the incredible saga and near failures that the Baldwin Steam Tra...


In this new book published by the Museum of Transport and Technology Society, you will learn of the incredible saga and near failures that the Baldwin Steam Tram No100 endured on its travels from Philadelphia, USA to New Zealand via Australia. This certainly is a Wonderful Story of the tram's trial, tribulations and successes over 131 years. For some 40 years, the tram successfully served the communities of Sydney, Rockdale and Wanganui. After spending another 30 years either in storage or awaiting the scrappers torch, in 1958 it was purchased by two tramway volunteers who donated it to the Old Time Transport Preservation League (OTTPL). The OTTPL who arranged for the tram's storage in Auckland, was one of the forerunners of Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT). Meticulous record keeping by people who have been involved in its life, particularly tramway historians and specialist museum restoration volunteers, has enabled this book to be written. It follows the tram's life in detail, from its construction in 1891, to the Western Springs Tramway, some 131 years later, where it now happily runs.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 80


Dimensions: 210 x 250 mm


Publication Date: 01-08-2022


$35.00
Believe : How new leaders step up and into their full potential

ISBN: 9781989737729

Author: Brenda James    Publisher: Grammar Factory

Author and leadership specialist Brenda James teaches clients how to develop self-belief. But for decades she was stuck in self-doubt herself. Her book BELIEVE...


Author and leadership specialist Brenda James teaches clients how to develop self-belief. But for decades she was stuck in self-doubt herself. Her book BELIEVE takes us on a guided journey of building leadership skills and self-confidence. As a leader, no matter where or when you start to experience a dent in your self-belief, once it is triggered and activated, your outlook changes. You see everything through blurred lenses, constantly looking for evidence that you are not quick enough, deserving enough or smart enough. And, of course, you will always find it. When leadership is new or the role gets hard, self-doubt can easily take over. Self-belief is the remedy. But how do you tangibly develop this? In her book ‘BELIEVE: How New Leaders Step Up and Into Their Full Potential’ Brenda takes us on a guided journey, showing how leaders can increase their self-belief and leadership confidence to create more cohesive teams, increase workplace wellbeing, and most importantly, find a deeper sense of internal wellbeing.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 177


Dimensions: 127 x 203 mm


Publication Date: 06-08-2022


$24.95
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