The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton, 2013
- New Zealand, #11
- Hardcover, borrowed from Brent Library, London
- Read June 2015
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Recommended for: monocle-wearing villains and gentleman prospectors
The Luminaries: A structured mysticism
New Zealand Literature
Tu: More Maori identity issues, this time addressed through war
Tu, Patricia Grace, 2004
- New Zealand, #10
- Paperback, £0.69 from alibris.com
- Read June 2015
- Rating: 4/5
- Opening Line: Dear Rimini and Benedict, You didn’t deserve ill-humour and rebuff, and I had no right to send you off with empty hearts when all you were asking was to get to know your ‘father’.
- Recommended for: the insatiably curious and tragically brave
The Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors: Maori identity in modern New Zealand
The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera, 1987
- New Zealand, # 8
- Paperback, borrowed from Brent Library, London
- Read June 2015
- Rating: 5/5
- Recommended for: optimistic environmentalists
Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff, 1990
- New Zealand, #9
- Kindle, £7.19
- Read May 2015
- Rating: 4/5
- Opening line: Bastard, she’d think, looking out her back kitchen window.
- Recommended for: pessimistic social justice warriors
- Not recommended for: The faint of heart
The Bone People: Eccentrics at work
The Bone People, Keri Hulme, 1984
- New Zealand, #7
- Hardback, borrowed from Brent Library, London
- Read May 2015
- Rating: 5/5
- Recommended for: People who have been told they’re too intense; self-identified freaks
Plumb: The unsurprising hypocrisy of an Important White Man
Plumb, Maurice Gee, 1978
- New Zealand, #6
- Kindle, £6.99 from Amazon.com
- Read: May 2015
- Rating: 3.5/5
- Recommended for: The disillusioned adult children of narcissists
Faces in the Water: Blurring the lines of reality
Faces in the Water, Janet Frame, 1961
- New Zealand, #5
- Kindle, £3.99 from Amazon.co.uk
- Read April 2015
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: Anyone who’s ever felt their grip on reality might be slipping
Maori Girl: Unintentional racism in the social protest novel
Maori Girl, Noel Hilliard, 1960
- New Zealand, #4
- Hardcover, £10.11 from Alibris.com
- Read April 2015
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: Strictly for social historians interested in the early stages of Maori civil rights in NZ
The Garden Party
The Garden Party and Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield, 1922
- New Zealand, #3
- Kindle edition, free from amazon.com
- Read April 2015
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: Tragic loners and the unhappily married
Polynesian Mythology
Polynesian Mythology, Sir George Grey, 1854 (full title: Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs … the man obviously could have used a good editor)
- New Zealand, # 1
- Free at sacredtexts.com
- Read April 2015
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: Patient cultural anthropologists
Oceanic Mythology (Polynesia section)
Oceanic Mythology, Roland B. Dixon, 1916
- New Zealand, #2
- Free at sacred-texts.com
- Read April 2015
- Rating: 1/5
- Recommended for: Miserable pedants
Around the World in 2000 Books 