NZ non-fiction
From captivating life stories to cocktail recipes, practical gardening tips to parenting advice, our local non-fiction list is renowned for its quality and its breadth. Below are just six of the fantastic new titles you’ll find in bookstores now. Use the right hand navigation panel to see our full NZ non-fiction list or to browse the different categories in this section.
 
L Lambie I & Simmonds
Many parents feel anxious about coping with teenagers - it's not surprising given all the horror stories you hear. Other parents warn us of previously docile and compliant children who appear to have undergone personality changes and become more like mini psychopaths - turning sullen, rebellious and moody overnight. You hear reports of drugs, alcohol, violence, youth suicide, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and road accidents regularly. Parenting teenagers brings a whole raft of new issues and challenges to every parent, and this book gives you practical ideas and information so you can face those challenges with confidence. Communication becomes more crucial than ever when dealing with teens and these authors are especially strong on family dynamics, building better relationships, sorting out your own issues and improving communication. They help you distinguish between normal and problem behaviours, give ways to avoid problems and negotiate difficult issues plus lots of practical ideas for dealing with common issues. On top of that, there's lots of encouragement for stressed or overwhelmed parents, advice about taking care of yourself and examples of success stories. **Includes great tips from teens themselves! **Foreword by Andrew Becroft, Principal Youth Court Judge
 
Jaquie Brown
If you're a modern, good-looking human, you need Jaquie Brown's Guide to Everything (and recipes and quizzes). From food and your body to animals, birds and the environment, from fashion and being cool to love, romance and dating, all the important stuff is in this book. And if you find it unsatisfying (unlikely), Jaquie has included some recipes and puzzles for your enjoyment. This book is full of tips and useful information on how to navigate life; for instance, how to lose weight by eating your lawn, what to do when your shoes intimidate you, and why your future husband is probably called Johnny. Plus she exposes the government conspiracy about swans, tells you why you need to remove the word cardigan from your vocabulary, and lets you in on the food rules for that special first date. Based around the character Jaquie Brown from the hit TV series The Jaquie Brown Diaries, this book is unexpected, whimsical and very funny.
 
Lauraine Jacobs (ed.)
Every great baker has his or her favourite recipes, and so when New Zealand's best foodwriters and chefs were asked for theirs, they came up with a treasure-trove. Designed as a book to treasure and to hand down through the generations, this beautifully packaged hardback includes 100 recipes for cakes, slices, loaves, scones, tarts, muffins and friandes from a star-studded list of food writers: Peta Mathias, Ray McVinnie, Tui Flower, Jo Seagar, Alison Holst, Julie le Clerc, Julie Buiso, Allyson Gofton, Catherine Bell, Kathy Paterson, Alexa Johnston, Annabelle White, Judith Cullen, Helen Browne, David Burton, Martin Bosley, Simon Wright, Natalia Schamroth and many, many more. The recipes include everything from glamour special-occasion cakes to every day fill-the-tins reliables. Every recipe was tested and baked especially for this project by well-known international baker and author Dean Brettschneider, and photographed by Aaron Maclean. Best of all, all royalties go the Breast Cancer Foundation of New Zealand. The book is edited by author, food judge, Cuisine food editor and New Zealand food ambassador extraordinaire, Lauraine Jacobs.
 
Reynolds/Salmond/Hansen
Despite the interest in contemporary architecture it's a fact that more people in inner-city suburbs throughout New Zealand end up living in a villa than a house of any other architectural style. Everyone at some stage finds themselves doing some renovation work, and that has tended in recent years to revolve around "blowing out the back". In recent years architects have come up with far more interesting solutions to turn villas into a workable house for 21st century living. This book looks at around 25 of those solutions as well as at villas that have remained untouched over the years and at villas that are down on their uppers, including a spectacular and infamous student flat. Photographed by Patrick Reynolds, the text on each house is written by Home NZ editor Jeremy Hansen. In addition the book kicks off with a substantial survey of villa architecture by leading heritage architect Jeremy Salmond, whose late 1980s book on old New Zealand houses is the gold standard text for restorationists. Magnificently designed and crammed with photographs of everything from the original photos of villas in the 1890s and fragments of glorious old wallpaper, from totally untouched interiors to the most innovative additions, this book is a must-have for villa dwellers and villa lovers.
 
Al Brown
Al Brown can be counted on to find and share great New Zealand cuisine. In Go Fish Al combines his two great passions - cooking and fishing - and brings us more than 100 exceptional fish and shellfish recipes. Covering crustaceans, shellfish and fin fish of many varieties, Go Fish is the ultimate guide to sourcing and cooking fish. Showing passion and respect for our cuisine and delivering it with uncomplicated excellence, Al's recipes are all about simplicity, yet sophistication, character and sometimes an element of surprise. Stunningly photographed by Kieran Scott, Go Fish is the must-have cookbook for every New Zealand household. It takes us back to the simple days when a great meal could be had simply by casting your line from the dinghy. It's about getting back to the fundamentals of life - of enjoying the environment around us and making the most of what we have. Al Brown has loved fishing since he was young, from days fishing with his dad in the holidays, and he still loves nothing better than fishing with his mates or his kids. Al is the acclaimed Wellington chef and co-owner of Logan Brown - one of New Zealand's top restaurants. He's one of the presenters of award-winning TV show 'Hunger for the Wild' and author of the successful cookbook of the same name. As a culinary ambassador for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise since 2003 he also helps to promote New Zealand cuisine overseas.
 
Dick Frizzell
Dick Frizzell's images populate our world - you find them on t-shirts, on TV ads, in shop windows, on wine bottles, on cushions and t-towels, and in art shows. People appropriate (or borrow) his images in much the same way that he too appropriated many of the images he has painted over the years. He's reached iconic status in NZ - we love him, he's one of our own. Dick has a great story: After going to art school he found himself in his 20s married and with a young family to support. He worked in advertising until 1974, when his artistic urges made him leave the ad agency to take up working in the vege markets in the early hours of the day so that he could pursue his art. His paintings combined the pragmatics of an adman's need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist paintings. His first images of gaudy fish-tin labels and comic strip characters caught everyone's imaginations. Dick's talent, energy and his deadpan humour meant that his art was highly successful. Dick Frizzell: The Painter contains all of his major paintings, the story of his life in his own thoughtful and highly articulate words, and an essay by Hamish Keith on Dick's work and its place in the New Zealand art world.