NZ non-fiction

This 646-page, elegantly presented hard-bound book is an admirable representative of its academic genre - the scholarly edition of a text.

In 1953, a British reporter covering the Royal tour wrote a piece for the Otago Daily Times portraying New Zealand as a rather dull but in many ways enviable earthly paradise.

Hunter Steuart Laing, of Christchurch, has included something for everyone in this book.

I have always been a fan of ''Big Al'' Lester's books; I find his writing style very Crumpish.

Howard Egan (77) writes about his trophy-shooting highlights in New Zealand, Africa and North America.

A wide gamut of activity is explored in this volume by the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association as it marks its 75th anniversary.

A schoolboy with time on his hands in the library picked up a book by Barry Crump, followed by Philip Holden, and these writings spurred John Royle into a life as a hunter.

Andy Lyver is an enthusiast.

In Beyond Betrayal, Keith Newman's follow-up to his 2010 Bible and Treaty, he argues that a clash between visions of the future lay at the heart of our 19th century history.

Andris Apse is well known as one of the country's top landscape photographers but this volume is a personal and moving story about his family history, which may disappoint those readers looking for artistic illustrations rather than some historic snapshots.

For many of us, penguins are of more than passing interest: New Zealand and its Antarctic territories are home to half the world's penguin species and Otago residents can drive to see three of them.

No matter how brave or well-equipped soldiers are, their lives will be unduly sacrificed and battles lost if planning and decision-making are faulty.

A desire to find what was at the end of a long, dusty road led to Antonia Steeg's love affair with the high country.

Sir Robert Jones needs no introduction.

Marti Friedlander quotes Golda Meir on the front page: ''Don't be humble, you're not that great.'' Then she tells her story.

After my first read through this official New Zealand WW1 centenary publication, commissioned by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and written by historian Dr Damien Fenton (and a team to whom he gives full credit), my reaction was: what a beautiful book and what care has been taken in its production, but what an appalling period of human folly the ''Great War'' was.

New Zealand journalist Rebecca Macfie has produced a devastating account of a needless tragedy, published on the eve of the third anniversary of the Pike River disaster of November 19, 2010.

Lynley Dodd is one of New Zealand's most popular children's authors, and her canine creation Hairy Maclary is a beloved part of many a Kiwi child's bookshelf.

A valuable new vision of southern New Zealand is created by novelist Laurence Fearnley and photographer Arno Gasteiger in 45 South.

I enjoyed Reconstructing Faces, not from any ghoulish perspective, but because I found it readable, educational and a fascinating glimpse into an aspect of medical history that many of us know so little about.