Love of verse

Ten of the best poetry books, from Darwin through bohemia to the supernatural.

AS THE VERB TENSES by Lynley Edmeades (Otago University Press) Tender, rhythmic poems glance off and into the historical and personal.

BACK WITH THE HUMAN CONDITION by Nick Ascroft (Victoria University Press) Erudite, witty and wry reflections on what ails the human condition.

BESIDE HERSELF by Chris Price (Auckland University Press) Varied voices, dark humour, a seemingly reckless play with character and language.

COLD WATER CURE by Claire Orchard (Victoria University Press). A moving debut collection drawing on Darwin, his voyages and nature in general.

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ALISTAIR TE ARIKI CAMPBELL by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (Victoria University Press) A handsome hardback volume validating Alistair Te Ariki Campbell as one of our essential writers.

FALE AITU | SPIRIT HOUSE by Tusiata Avia (Victoria University Press) Supernatural poems evoke a dreamworld landscape – quietly eerie and beautiful.

HERA LINDSAY BIRD by Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press) A highly personal collection: sumptuous, challenging, blazing a hot trail on the local scene.

IN A SLANT LIGHT by Cilla McQueen (Otago University Press). Lively, accessible, confessional about the

artistic bohemia that was and the old age that is.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING by Bill Nelson (Victoria University Press) A bold debut collection embracing the voice and guises of his various personas.

THIS PAPER BOAT by Gregory Kan (Auckland University Press) Strong yet understated poetry drawing on the author’s Chinese family and his love of Robin Hyde. University Press) A comprehensive and important account of our local literature, beginning with the first European imaginings and taking us along the pathways to, and beyond, our emerging sense of nationalism and biculturalism.

JOHN PARKER: CAUSE AND EFFECT edited by Mary Barr (Te Uru) Handsomely designed hardback surveying five decades of work by the boundarypushing Auckland ceramicist.

LANDSCAPES: JOHN BERGER ON ART by John Berger (Verso) A collection of essays by the singular nonagenarian art critic on the ideas and artists that have shaped his thinking.

THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE by Olivia Laing (Canongate) Wise, moving and compassionate investigation of the gaps between people, and the power of art to connect.

THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH LANDSCAPE: FROM THE ICE AGE TO THE PRESENT by Nicholas Crane (W&N) Dramatic account of how climate and people have changed the lands of Britain over 12 millennia.

THE MAORI MEETING HOUSE: INTRODUCING THE WHARE WHAKAIRO by Damian Skinner (Te Papa Press) Art historian and curator Damian Skinner weaves his own informed and personal narrative into whare whakairo with those of carvers, artists, architects, writers and iwi.

MY GRANDMOTHER’S GLASS EYE: A LOOK AT POETRY by Craig Raine (Atlantic) Erudite and passionate examination by the English poet and teacher.

SMALL TOWN TALK by Barney Hoskyns (Faber)

A gossipy history of Woodstock – not the music festival but the small town down the road where Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix played out their lives of creativity and near or complete self-destruction.

THIS MODEL WORLD: TRAVELS TO THE EDGE OF CONTEMPORARY ART by Anthony Byrt (Auckland University Press) Arts journalist and critic Anthony Byrt talks about art, artists, art criticism and why we should care in this personal journey through the contemporary New Zealand art world.

SCIENCE, NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE? by Frans de Waal (Norton) “Unlikely” is the answer, but de Waal’s journey on the way is discursive, enlightening and provoking, leaving

us to figure out what separates “us” from “them”.

BLACK HOLE BLUES AND OTHER SONGS FROM OUTER SPACE by Janna Levin (Knopf) A lyrical incursion into the world of scientific discovery, in this case the detection of the universe’s gravitational waves.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED by Adam Rutherford (Hachette) Who you are, why you are and why none of the other 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath is you. An exhaustive and entertaining story of the human genome.

DIGITAL VS HUMAN: HOW WE’LL LIVE, LOVE, AND THINK IN THE FUTURE by Richard Watson (Scribe) In a crowded subject area, Watson’s examination of the possible effects of technology on our lives is succinct and well-reasoned.

THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner) Pulitzer Prizewinning author and physician combines science and memoir to chronicle what we know about genes and how we use and misuse this information. Highly readable and provocative.

GRUNT: THE CURIOUS SCIENCE OF HUMANS AT WAR by Mary Roach (WW Norton) The author of Bonk and Stiff turns her witty and keen attention to the science behind battle.

HOMO DEUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMORROW by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker) A sweeping history of the human race, exploring our history and present, and asking where we go from here. Ticking off the projects, dreams and fears that will shape the 21st century.

MULTITUDES: THE MICROBES WITHIN US AND A GRANDER VIEW OF LIFE by Ed Yong (HarperCollins) Our bodily cargo of bacteria, viruses and other microscopic organisms that live in and on us play a vital role in the health of their hosts. Here’s how.

NEW ZEALAND’S RIVERS: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY by Catherine Knight (Canterbury University Press) Our relationship with our rivers – how we have arrived at a crisis point, why fresh water has become our most contested resource and how so many waterways are now too polluted to swim in.

REALITY IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS: THE JOURNEY TO QUANTUM GRAVITY by Carlo Rovelli (Allen Lane) “Our culture is foolish to keep science and poetry separated” – with this heart-warming statement, physicist Rovelli guides us through the long humanist and scientific history of our changing idea of reality.

RESTLESS CREATURES: THE STORY OF LIFE IN TEN MOVEMENTS by Matt Wilkinson (Icon) The four-billionyear history of human and animal movement – crawling, flying, swimming, running – by the evolutionary biologist.

THE STORY OF THE HAURAKI GULF: DISCOVERY, TRANSFORMATION, RESTORATION by Raewyn Peart (Bateman) An expansive and well-illustrated exploration and celebration of the people and places, the history and heroics, of the Hauraki Gulf.

TIME TRAVEL: A HISTORY by James Gleick (Pantheon Books) An exhilarating hybrid of history, literary criticism, theoretical physics and philosophical meditation takes us on an odyssey of the stranger-thanfiction reality of TT.