Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

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... (more)

Dreamhunter (The Dreamhunter Duet, Book 1)

Dreamhunter (The Dreamhunter Duet, Book 1)

by Elizabeth Knox

Laura comes from a world similar to our own except for one difference: it is next to the Place, an unfathomable land that fosters dreams of every kind and is inaccessible to all but a select few, the Dreamhunters. These are individuals with special gifts: the ability to catch larger-than-life dreams and relay them to audiences in the magnificent dream palace, the Rainbow Opera. People travel from all around to... (more)

Half-men of O (Puffin Books)

by Maurice Gee

My Name Was Judas

by C. K. Stead

The story of Jesus as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is well known, but what about the version according to Judas? His name became synonymous with betrayer, but is that how he saw it himself? In this witty, original, and teasingly controversial novel, Judas finally tells the story as he remembers it. Looking back on his childhood and youth from an old age the gospel writers denied him, Judas recalls his... (more)

Mansfield

by C. K. Stead

Spanning three years in the life of writer Katherine Mansfield during the First World War, this novel follows the ups and downs of her relationship with Jack Middleton Murry and her struggle to break through as a writer. As her brother and lovers are drawn into the conflict, Mansfield becomes ever more determined to write the "new kind of fiction" that she feels the times demand. While sticking scrupulously to... (more)

The Red Tram

by C. K. Stead

From one of New Zealand's most celebrated writers comes this poetry collection that encompasses moving memories of childhood and ruminations on horses and cows, Auckland, and even the author's own legs. These satirical poems take weapons from the writers of the past and skewer politicians of the present, and reflect on a range of international writers, including Allen Curnow, Janet Frame, and Denis Glover. With... (more)

Playing Beatie Bow (Puffin Books)

by Ruth Park

A lonely Australian girl from a divided family is transported back to the 1880's and an immigrant family from the Orkney Islands.

Clubs- A Lolly Leopold Story

by Kate De Goldi

Lolly Leopold, a smart, creative, elementary school student, hates when it's club time at school. She doesn’t quite fit with the Barbie Club or the Kitten Club; she could join the Lego Club, except they only create Lego wars, something Lolly finds too violent and dreadful; and the Harry Potter Club excludes girls. By the end of the school year, Lolly is one of only three students not in a club. When these three... (more)

The Penguin History of New Zealand

by Michael King

New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce a full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth. This title tells that story in all its colour and drama.... (more)

Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures : A True Story from Hell on Earth

Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures : A True Story from Hell on Earth

by Kenneth Cain

Published amidst great controversy in hardcover, Emergency Sex has literally shaken the foundations of the United Nations and made headlines around the world. Three idealists searching for meaning in the world’s toughest war zones; three people thrown together who bond for dear life. In a memoir so powerful and staggeringly well-written that it’s impossible to put down, Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew... (more)

The Whale Rider

by Witi Tame Ihimaera

Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny. Her people claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary "whale rider." In every generation since Kahutia, a male heir has inherited the title of chief. But now there is no male heir, and the aging chief is desperate to find a successor. Kahu is his only great-grandchild--and... (more)

Portrait of the Artist's Wife

by Barbara Anderson

While Sarah Tandy is determined to nurture her talent as a painter and keep her marriage intact, her husband, Jack Macalister, is equally determined to remain the cheerfully philandering and selfish man that he is.

One Night Out Stealing

by Alan Duff

StonedogsCraig Marriner

Stonedogs

by Craig Marriner

Deutz Medal winner 2002.

Gingerbread Husbands

by Barbara Else

The 10pm Question

by Kate De Goldi

One of Ben's

by Maurice Shadbolt

It was old Ben Shadbolt, who burgled a Hertfordshire drapery in 1845, who started it. By way of a terrible prison term in Australia he rose to be a pillar of the community and racehorse breeder, dedicated churchman and squire of the New Zealand settlement of Duvauchelle by 1860 - not to mention fathering fifteen children, in addition to the legitimate ones back in England. The Shadbolts consistently demonstrated a... (more)

Let the River StandVincent O'Sullivan

Let the River Stand

by Vincent O'Sullivan

The sea between usElizabeth Smither

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: new zealand author

by Lloyd Jones

by Elizabeth Knox

by Maurice Gee

by C. K. Stead

by C. K. Stead

by C. K. Stead

by Ruth Park

by Kate De Goldi

by Michael King

by Kenneth Cain

by Witi Tame Ihimaera

by Barbara Anderson

by Alan Duff

by Craig Marriner

by Barbara Else

by Kate De Goldi

by Maurice Shadbolt

by Vincent O'Sullivan

by Elizabeth Smither

by Janet Frame