Books from New Zealand
101 popular new zealand books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Oceania Challenge" were written by authors from New Zealand.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
41.
Letters and Journals by Katherine Mansfield EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
'Here then is a little summary of what I need - power, wealth and freedom. It is the hopelessly insipid doctrine that love is the only thing in the world... which hampers us so cruelly. We must get rid of that bogey - and then, then comes the opportunity of happiness and freedom.' So wrote one of our most gifted, but tragically short-lived, writers whose relatively small output has, nevertheless, exercised a powerful influence on modern fiction - indeed, Virginia Woolf confessed that hers was the only writing she was jealous of. Although these letters and extracts from Katherine Mansfield's jo... continue
42.
Life Of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Mrs. Parker has had a hard life, even the neighbours say so. As a girl in Stratford-on-Avon, she had never heard of Shakespeare. In her first position in London, she wasn’t allowed out of the cellar except to pray with the family. After two years of being run off her feet in a doctor’s house, she married a baker who died of consumption while their six surviving children were still young. “Life of Ma Parker” by Katherine Mansfield is the story of a woman who has always “kept herself to herself,” but can bear her burdens no longer. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to lif... continue
43.
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS** 'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes 'This novel is perfection' Glamour 'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood... This is an excellent novel' The Times You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me. From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of... continue
44.
Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “What Scott Pilgrim did for Canadian slackers, Lore Olympus does for the Greek pantheon, while being so beautiful that you know Aphrodite is just staring daggers in its direction.”—Kieron Gillen, co-creator of The Wicked + The Divine Persephone, youn... continue
45.
Maori Myths & Legendary Tales by A.W. Reed EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Maori Myths & Legendary Tales was first published in 1946 as Myths and Legends of Maoriland, and subsequently reprinted four times before the second edition was published in 1958, followed by the third edition in 1961. It went on to become one of New Zealand's most recognised books of the genre, winning an Esther Glen medal for the best children's book in 1947, and enjoyed considerable popularity in London, New York and Australia. This new edition retains the work of illustrator Dennis Turner and is presented with a stunning new cover based on the 'Rangi and Papa' mural, by highly acclaimed ar... continue
46.
Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
'And again, as always, he had the feeling he was holding something that never was quite his - his. Something too delicate, too precious, that would fly away once he let go.' Three sharp and powerful short stories from Katherine Mansfield, one of the genre's all-time masters. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego... continue
47.
Miss Ulysses from Puka-Puka : The Autobiography of a South Sea Trader's Daughter by Florence Frisbie EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Miss Ulysses from Puka-Puka (2nd edition) by Florence (Johnny) Frisbie is the first book written by a Polynesian woman. It tells the amazing story of a young girl growing up on a remote island in the Cook Islands group. Written when Johnny was between the ages of 12 and 14, and published in 1948 when she was 15, Johnny likens her travels through South Pacific islands to those of Ulysses in the Odyssey. Through Johnny's fresh and unspoiled eyes, we read of a Garden-of-Eden existence on a remote atoll, where the land and the sea provide all that is necessary for life. The sea brings danger as we... continue
48.
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives. On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations. So begins this rare, original story about the abiding ... continue
49.
Northbound : Four seasons of solitude on Te Araroa by Naomi Arnold EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Alone in the wilderness Award-winning journalist Naomi Arnold spends nearly nine months walking the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa, fulfilling a 20-year dream. On her own, she traverses mountains, rivers, cities and plains from summer to spring, walking on through days of thick mud, blazing sun and lightning storms, and into cold, starlit nights. Along the way she encounters colourful locals and travellers who delight and inspire her. An upbeat, fascinating and inspiring memoir of solitude, love and friendship, and the joys and pains to be found in the wilderness.
50.
Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
From the discomfort of my own home I buy dresses, look up recipes, do online surveys. In Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life, an unnamed young woman in her late twenties navigates unemployment, boredom, chronic illness and online dating. Her activities are banal -- applying for jobs, looking up horoscopes, managing depression, going on Tinder dates. 'I want to tell someone I love them but there is no one to tell,' she says. 'Except my sister maybe. I want to pick blackberries on a farm and then die.' She observes the ambiguities of social interactions, the absurd intimacies of sex and the indignity o... continue