Society Archives - Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books

Biography Crime Nonfiction Society

Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century
by Steve Braunias

A writer 'at the top of his game' interrogates a case of sex, drugs and (maybe) murder.

Philip MatthewsJuly 17, 2025

Art Design Nonfiction Society

Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa
by Justine Olsen

A superb 'anthology of changes in taste and style' over a century of applied arts.

Hamish ConeyJuly 11, 2025

Art History Nonfiction Photography Society

Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer
by Athol McCredie

A 'discovery and a revelation': a photographic chronicle from an unsung artist.

Hamish ConeyNovember 6, 2024

Architecture Geography Māori Nonfiction Pasifika Politics Society Urban Design

Urban Aotearoa
ed. David Batchelor and Bill McKay

A vision for beyond the 'quarter-acre dream'.

Philip MatthewsSeptember 18, 2024

Biography Crime Nonfiction Society

The Survivors
by Steve Braunias

The last of a true-crime trilogy by a writer of 'bracing intellectual honesty and unpredictability'.

Guy SomersetSeptember 11, 2024

Art Illustrated LGBTQIA+Māori Nonfiction Pasifika Photography Society

Sight Lines: Women and Art in Aotearoa
by Kirsty Baker

An impressive contribution to the 'continuing kōrero about and between female artists' in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kelly Ana MoreySeptember 6, 2024

Food History Illustrated Māori Nonfiction Society

Rēwena and Rabbit Stew: the Rural Kitchen in Aotearoa, 1800-1940
by Katie Cooper

A glimpse into 'the kitchen windows of the past' and lives connected to the land around them.

Laura BorrowdaleAugust 23, 2024

LGBTQIA+Māori Memoir Nonfiction Politics Society

Hine Toa: A story of bravery
by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku

A compelling memoir: 'vital to write, vital to publish and vital to read.'

Paula MorrisMay 24, 2024

Art History Māori Nonfiction Photography Society

A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa
ed. Catherine Hammond and Shaun Higgins

'Mirror and portal': photographing New Zealand people and places in the nineteenth century

Joyce CampbellMay 14, 2024

Essays History Memoir Nonfiction Society

The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation
by Richard Shaw

A 'courageous book' on Pākehā ‘journeying back into the map of memory'.

Paul DiamondApril 5, 2024

Society