TSF Book Club
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
Am currently working my way through a Travellers history of NZ by John Chambers.
Actually, a very fascinating book. I did not realise that NZ was so sparsely populated well into the 19th century. The author cities that the number of non native settlers in NZ in the early part of the 19th century was just 2,000 - a combination of 1. missionaries
2. professionals and then the type of opportunists and
3 disreputable people that any new frontier always attracted.Author talks about the French exploration of the south Pacific in the 18th century by Cooks contemporaries. It seems that NZ could have just as easily have been settled by the French.
Another fascinating element was how the author says the Maori were very receptive to Christianity and incorporated it into their existing belief systems. Rather than abandoning or rejecting one or the other I find it fascinating how people's will borrow from other religions and give it a new twist.
I do want to tackle Michael King's history of NZ which appears to be considered the best book of its kind.
Did you get this digitally? I'd like to read it but don't want to buy the paper book (and in Oz so no access to the library). Your's is the first positive review I've heard of it. A couple of mates of mine (ones a historian and the other is writing a travel book based on famous people's recollections touring NZ so they're a little bit biased) are not that fond of it. So, I'd like to read to see for myself.
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@nonpartizan Recommend pairing the Michael King with Ranginui Walker's Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou if that's available.
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Superb read, well told story.
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@taniwharugby said in Books:
Superb read, well told story.
Thank you
Next read locked inI read John leCarre novels while I was in Poland and Germany so spy shit is my current go
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
I just started the Bone People.....
I want to really get to grips with the Kiwi canon so this was as good a place to start as any.
Damn, there's much better places to start IMHO, never was a fan of the Bone People, but let us know how you find it.
Maurice Shadbolt's NZ wars trilogy is really good for a second place - Season of the Jew ( about Te Kooti), Monday's Warriors (essentially about Titikowaru), and House of Strife I think (set up in Russell/Paihia).
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@taniwharugby said in Books:
Superb read, well told story.
Was interested until I saw it was the same guy as did the SAS book. Great TV, but shitty made up bullshit outside of entertainment
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@Machpants said in Books:
@taniwharugby said in Books:
Superb read, well told story.
Was interested until I saw it was the same guy as did the SAS book. Great TV, but shitty made up bullshit outside of entertainment
Have you read the SAS book that he wrote? The first TV series seemed only very loosely based on the book, I read it a while ago and enjoyed the book - he's written some others on Kim Philby among others which were great
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Smith's Dream by C.K. Stead is worth a read, and captures an era of NZ well. Bonus points for setting the secret police's torture chamber in the basement of Auckland University's (horrendous) Chemistry Building.
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@Machpants said in Books:
@taniwharugby said in Books:
Superb read, well told story.
Was interested until I saw it was the same guy as did the SAS book. Great TV, but shitty made up bullshit outside of entertainment
Have you read the SAS book that he wrote? The first TV series seemed only very loosely based on the book, I read it a while ago and enjoyed the book - he's written some others on Kim Philby among others which were great
Ok, no I haven't. So more historical and less lock, stock and two smoking barrels. I really enjoyed the TV series, but only as a fantasy version of what happened. So I disregarded the book. I will check it out, thanks for the info
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@Machpants said in Books:
@Machpants said in Books:
@taniwharugby said in Books:
Superb read, well told story.
Was interested until I saw it was the same guy as did the SAS book. Great TV, but shitty made up bullshit outside of entertainment
Have you read the SAS book that he wrote? The first TV series seemed only very loosely based on the book, I read it a while ago and enjoyed the book - he's written some others on Kim Philby among others which were great
Ok, no I haven't. So more historical and less lock, stock and two smoking barrels. I really enjoyed the TV series, but only as a fantasy version of what happened. So I disregarded the book. I will check it out, thanks for the info
The series is loosely based on the book, but you shouldn't punish the book due to the TV series.
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There is a series on Netflix, Spy Ops, and is an episode on the extraction of Gordiesky from Russia, seems to follow closely to the book and includes interviews with people around him at the time.
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@nonpartizan said in Books:
@nonpartizan said in Books:
I just started the Bone People.....
I want to really get to grips with the Kiwi canon so this was as good a place to start as any.
Damn, there's much better places to start IMHO, never was a fan of the Bone People, but let us know how you find it.
Maurice Shadbolt's NZ wars trilogy is really good for a second place - Season of the Jew ( about Te Kooti), Monday's Warriors (essentially about Titikowaru), and House of Strife I think (set up in Russell/Paihia).
It's good so far tbh.
I will definitely check out the NZ wars trilogy..... I just checked my local library and it seems it's not there - I think I will have to pick those up in NZ.
Do you know the best bookshops in either Auckland or Wellington that would be located in the central/touristy areas?
I live in Oz and I'm from Hawkes Bay so not sure of the good bookshops in Auks and Welly, but others on here will be able to help you out.
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@nonpartizan - In true Fern tradition - I'll throw in a suggestion based on something I've never actually read:
The Tito Ihaka Series, by Paul Thomas ("NZ's leading crime writer"). I have bought the first 3 as a "Trilogy", but never read.
Alternatively/Also - read through all of Ngaio Marsh's stuff. NZ's answer to Agatha Christie - with similarly dated views of race, class, and everything in-between. But in some ways, a good view of that era of NZ - from a certain point of view.
