NZ non-fiction

Peninsula is the third collaboration between writer, editor and photographer Paul Sorrell and fellow Dunedinite photographer Graham Warman.

Wanaka-based author Derek Grzelewski's latest offering, The Trout Bohemia; Fly-fishing travels in New Zealand, puts himself in the unenviable position of following up his great first book, The Trout Diaries (2008).

This is a handsome hardcover book featuring lots of colour photographs and easy-to-read big print, a ''snapshot'' as the cover says, for ''New Zealanders and visitors to cherish''.

Photographer Ans Westra, with acknowledgement of a debt to ecologist Geoff Park, has beautifully produced a green clothbound hardback of pictures of our degraded land with pertinent, ironic and heartfelt comment by herself and Otago poets Hone Tuwhare, David Eggleton and Brian Turner, and a poignant, brief contribution from the late David Lange for an unrealised earlier project.

It would be surprising to find a New Zealand household without some piece of Crown Lynn ware, a hardy survivor, the white swan off the old china cabinet, a cup which perhaps survived being biffed out of a train window.

Local body election year is a good time for greater political scrutiny and debate about the merits and shortcomings of elected membership of district health boards.

This is the story of a personal journey.

Three books by or about one of our greatest cricketers and all with titles that perfectly sum the man up.

''Inequality'' is an academic concept, capable of definition, description and analysis.

Otago writer Martin Hawes has a knack for writing down-to-earth and easy to understand books on matters financial and his latest publication is no exception.

Winning three general elections on the trot - 1999, 2002 and 2005 - made Helen Clark the most successful intellectual politician New Zealand has yet produced.

New Zealand is far from immune to earthquakes, and as a country we are not short on events that have brought about widespread destruction and loss of life.

In 1997, New Zealand lexicography came of age with the publication of Harry Orsman's Dictionary of New Zealand English.

Peter Ryan is a captivating writer. Right from the get-go he stirred memories of what seems a lifetime ago of myself as a young fellow who also shared a strange suspension, breath held, gun at the ready, waiting as ducks made their final approach to the pond, and the following depressurising moment as the quarry is retrieved and banter among mates resumes.

The epic work by one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific younger historians makes no bones about trying to appeal to a populist audience.

Award-winning author Matt Elliott is no stranger to recording iconic New Zealand history, with previous works: Billy T: The Life and Times of Billy T. James, Dave Gallaher: The Original All Black Captain, Kiwi Jokers: The Rise and Rise of New Zealand Comedy, and Nice Day for a War (based on his grandfather's experiences in World War 1), while also assisting Steve Hale with The Kiwi Man Cave, to list just a few of his accomplishments.

In the foreword, the author points out ''this book is a cultural analysis and a sociology''.

Perhaps it has something to do with the climate, the water, or just who we are, but there seems to be an unnatural number of Southern Grumpy Old Men in this book compiled by Paul Little and Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe.

Southland aviation legend Bill Black has a fantastic story to tell, even if some of the telling is not so fantastic.