What’s New, McNab
Blockbuster!: Fergus Hume & the Mystery of a Hansom Cab. Lucy Sussex.
A publishing phenomenon, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab was the biggest and fastest selling detective novel of the 1800s, written in Melbourne in 1885 by former Dunedin resident Fergus Hume. Sussex brings to life the late Victorian cities of Dunedin and Melbourne and the cultural milieu in which Hume produced his masterpiece.
Jack!: Celebrating Jack Body, Composer. Eds., Jennifer Shennan, Gillian Whitehead & Scilla Askew.
Body passed away in May this year but his legacy lives on in an amazing body of compositional work, in his dedication to the promotion of NZ music and composers overseas and in the introduction of the musical cultures of South-East Asia to NZ, in particular gamelan music. Many friends and colleagues have contributed to this tribute to Body’s remarkable work and celebration of his life.
The Lives of Colonial Objects. Eds., Annabel Cooper, Lachy Paterson & Angela Wanhalla.
A collection of 50 essays in which historians, archivists, curators and others examine an object of their choice and in the process open up our history in astonishingly varied ways. Wonderfully illustrated, this book demonstrates the wealth and complexity of the stories that can be told by studying the material remnants of our past.
Mt John, the First 50 Years: A Celebration of Half a Century of Optical Astronomy at the University of Canterbury. John Hearnshaw and Alan Gilmore.
First opened in July 1965, the Mt John University Observatory, situated at Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin, is New Zealand’s only professional research observatory for optical astronomy. As well as its professional research role it is now a mecca for a burgeoning astro-tourism industry attracted by the area’s designation as an International Dark Sky Reserve in 2012.
New Zealand Mountaineering: A History in Photographs. John Wilson.
A wonderful documentary history of mountaineering in New Zealand told in over 200 fantastic photographs. Beginning with the first attempt to scale Aoraki/Mt Cook in 1882 (a feat not accomplished until 1894), the book traces development of mountaineering into a sport enjoyed by thousands of New Zealanders each year.
Sustainable Seas: Managing the Marine Environment. Lucy Brake and Raewyn Peart.
Compiled by the Environmental Defence Society, a charitable organisation operating since 1971, this manual offers comprehensive practical advice to anyone working to preserve and sustain the marine environment. The book demystifies the complex and overlapping legislative framework that governs decisions made about the marine environment and identifies and offers advice on how people can most effectively participate in those decision-making structures.
The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City. Fiona Farrell.
Writing on the regeneration of Christchurch in the wake of the February 2011 earthquake, Farrell’s book is both a critical account of the Government’s flawed processes and skewed priorities in the rebuild and a meditation on urbanism and the development of cities in general.