Read Around Oceania Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Oceania.
Best books from Oceania (404)
301.
Sleeps Standing by Witi Ihimaera, Hēmi Kelly EN
Country: Oceania / 
New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Both fiction and fact, this fascinating book is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the Battle of Orakau. During three days in 1864, 300 Maori men, women and children fought an Imperial army and captured the imagination of the world. The battle marked the end of the Land Wars in the Waikato and resulted in vast tracts of land being confiscated for European settlement. Instead of following the usual standpoint of the victors, this book takes a Maori perspective. It is centred around Witi Ihimaera's moving novella, Sleeps Standing, which views the battle through the eyes of a 16-year-old boy named Mo... continue
302.
The Parihaka Woman by Witi Ihimaera EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A wonderfully surprising, inventive and deeply moving riff on fact and fiction, history and imagination from one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers. There has never been a New Zealand novel quite like The Parihaka Woman. Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during the 1870s and 1880s. Parihaka is the place Erenora calls home, a peaceful Taranaki settlement overcome by war and land confiscation. As her worl... continue
303.
Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
It was a horrible death - lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die. Far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, Chief Inspector Alleyn knew that any number of people could have killed him.
304.
A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
When a party participant at a Murder Game party actually comes up dead, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called to the case, and discovers an intricate puzzle of betrayal.
305.
To Trap a Taniwha by Jane Cooper EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
''An adventure story set in seventeenth-century Tamaki Makaurau Auckland when the hapu of Ngā Oho/Nga Iwi predominated. Armed with the courage of their convictions, two girls embark on a perilous journey to challenge their leaders' actions. Cousins, Te Kawenga and Kakati learn of a plan being hatched against a neighbouring iwi and strange activity occurring at a seasonal fishing camp. A huge trap is being built to snare and kill Ureia, the taniwha of Hauraki iwi. The cousins fear the retribution that will be taken on their people if Ureia is killed. So they take a dangerous journey to defy the... continue
306.
Through the Eyes of a Foster Child : My Childhood in Over 30 New Zealand Homes by Daryl Brougham EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
In 1990, at the age of ten, Daryl Brougham was told by a social worker that he was useless and would end up in jail. By 1997, he had attended 27 schools, been through over 30 social workers and lived in more than 30 different foster homes. During his 18 years as a state ward he suffered repeated sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Imagine coming home to be told you are moving somewhere new in half an hour. Imagine being forced to eat a spider. Imagine drinking from the toilet bowl because you¿re too scared to go near the kitchen. Imagine what you would become after all those y... continue
307.
How to Bee by Bren MacDibble EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too-possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. Peony lives with her sister, Magnolia, and her grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. All Peony really wants is to be a bee. Even though she is only nine — and bees must be ten — Peony already knows all there is to know about being a bee and she is determined to achieve her dream. Life on the farm is a scrabble, but t... continue
308.
Bloody Woman by Lana Lopesi EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Bloody Woman is bloody good writing. It moves between academic, journalistic and personal essay. I love that Lana moves back and forward across these genres: weaving, weaving – spinning the web, weaving the sparkling threads under our hands, back and forward across a number of spaces, pulling and holding the tensions, holding up the baskets of knowledge. Tusiata Avia This wayfinding set of essays, by acclaimed writer and critic Lana Lopesi, explores the overlap of being a woman and Sāmoan. Writing on ancestral ideas of womanhood appears alongside contemporary reflections on women's experiences... continue
309.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A New York Times Notable Book of 2021 “The kind of book for which the word “rollicking” was invented.”—New York Times Book Review A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance. Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things cons... continue
310.
The Nancys by R.W.R. McDonald EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A schoolgirl and her uncle and his boyfriend have two weeks to solve a murder in a small town style forgot... WINNER of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel 'Funny, dark and above all, heart-warming, The Nancys is a celebration of what's important in life - which is family, friendship and also: makeovers. R.W.R. McDonald's novel is face-paced, clever and full of wit and repartee. McDonald pays homage to the novel's namesake Nancy Drew, but adds elements of RuPaul and Shirley Barrett's The Bus on Thursday. The result is a work of fiction that is smart, darkly comic and, in the very best o... continue