Non-Fiction General > Current Affairs

'A gripping account of how we went from burning books to bombs on buses. The Rushdie affair has shaped all our lives. This book shows us how.'Hanif Kureishi
In 1989 a thousand Muslim protesters paraded through a British city displaying a copy of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, before ceremoniously burning the book. It was an act motivated by rage and offence as well as one calculated to shock and offend. It did more than that: images of the burning book became an icon of the Muslim anger.Printed and broadcast in dozens... read more

It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. 'Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,' he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen m... read more

Born to an Iraqi Christian father and a British mother, and raised in Britain and Canada, Leilah Nadir has never set foot on Iraqi soil. Distanced from her Iraqi roots through immigration and now cut off by war, the closest link she has to the nation is through her father, who left Baghdad in the 1960s to pursue his studies in England. His Iraq is of mythical origins; his beginnings are in a garden at the family home that is now vacant. Through her father's memories, Leilah recounts her family's lost story, from Iraq at the turn of... read more

America's most secret Special Forces unit does not even have a name. Formed as the 'Intelligence Support Activity', it has had a succession of innocuous titles to hide its ferocious purpose. It exists to 'undertake activities only when other intelligence or operational support elements are unavailable or inappropriate'. Translated from Pentagon-speak, this means operating undercover in the world's most dangerous places, penetrating enemy organizations including Al Qa'eda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 'The Activity' combines the spy wor... read more

Longing & Belonging by Edwina Pio is a rich resource that explores the ethnic diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand today. It is a stimulating mix of hard facts, stories of adaptation by recent and older immigrants, and ThinkPieces

As a group of islands for which biosecurity is vital, New Zealand provides an ideal focus for this book, the world's first national history of quarantine.

Indian people in 'bi-cultural' New Zealand have long been an invisible minority, rarely mentioned in our history books. This volume is a second contribution to remedying this historical silence, following the publication of Indian Settlers: The Story of a New Zealand South Asian Community by Jacqueline Leckie.

How New Zealanders can tackle climate changeClimate change has become one of the central issues of our time, yet it is an issue weighed down by messages of doom and gloom and a pervasive sense of helplessness about how we should effectively respond. This book offers a positive response by presenting solutions from a range of New Zealand experts, all of whom show how we can rethink our current practices, mobilise people and put in place new ways of doing things that will help create a carbon neutral society here in the South Pacific... read more

The result of a remarkable three-year investigation that took journalist and documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin across four continents, The World According to Monsanto tells the little-known yet shocking story of this agribusiness giant - the world's leading producer of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) - and how its new 'green' face is no less malign than its PCB- and Agent Orange-soaked past. Robin reports that, following its long history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals and lethal herbicides, Monsanto is now marke... read more

As Commander of the New Zealand troops in the Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Hall gained a unique insight into the lives of Kiwi soldiers serving in a harsh climate amid daily threats, as well as into the lives of the locals.This is an important and fascinating view of New Zealand's role in Afghanistan.

In one way or another the leaky homes catastrophe affects everyone in New Zealand, most especially the unfortunate home owners. This book is a guide for people from woe to go. It will provide the reader with information on the following: "Tell-tale" signs and other not-so-obvious signs, who to go to, what steps to take, how the Weathertight Homes Tribunal works, whether to go to court or use the state system, what to expect in terms of time and cost, what to claim for and whether to stay in the home or go during repair.

Green issues are hot, and they are here to stay. But where can New Zealanders find an authoritative yet neutral voice that is packed with the facts they need to make informed life-changing decisions? Living Green is a 'bible' for every New Zealand family: an assiduously researched and effortlessly readable manual that operates on two levels to appeal to all readers. Part One gives 10 simple steps to greening your life. Part Two contains 21 chapters that provide the factual back-up behind each of the 10 steps, in doing so covering a... read more

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this book is priceless. Geoff Dale's professional life has been spent capturing the moments that have defined our current events. His retrospective of news and sports in New Zealand over the past forty years provides a thoughtful, provocative and insightful collection of iconic images and memories. If you lived through these events, fascinating background information will add a new dimension, as well as professional techniques from a highly skilled practitioner. From the now-infamous Fish and... read more

George Friedman offers a lucid forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the 21st century. He explains where and why future wars will erupt (and how they will be fought), which nations will gain and lose economic and political power, and how new technologies and cultural trends will alter the way we live. Drawing on history and geopolitical patterns dating back hundreds of years, Friedman shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, at the dawn of a new era, with changes in store, including: t... read more

The bestselling author of Better and Complications explores the significance of the lowly checklist, and how it has revolutionised medical practice and saved lives. Today we find ourselves in possession of stupendous know-how, which we willingly place in the hands of the most highly skilled and hardworking people. Yet avoidable failures are common, and the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of our knowledge has exceeded our ability to consistently deliver it to people - correctly, safely or efficiently. Atul Gawande makes ... read more

What will planet Earth be like in 20 years? In 2050? In the year 2100? Prescient and convincing, in the tradition of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock and Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future. Never has the world offered more promise to future generations, nor been more fraught with dangers. In this powerful and sometimes terrifying work, Attali analyses the past and pinpoints nine distinct periods of human history, each with its world center of power and prestige, and predi... read more

On September 11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City collapsed as a direct result of a terrorist attack. The resulting war on terrorism has had major consequences around the globe. Find out what the other top nine Events are that Changed the World!

When war broke out in 1939, the government created the Ministry of Food to help families make the most of wartime rations. Today, in the face of rising food prices, an obesity epidemic and ever increasing food air miles, The Real Ministry of Food shows how modern families can survive the credit crunch with a bit of wartime wisdom and ingenuity. Written by best-selling author Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall the book is an invaluable handbook and accompanies a major new exhibition at The Imperial War Museum. The Real Ministry of Food inc... read more

The essays in this book, drawn mainly from A. C. Grayling's columns in "Prospect", the "Dubliner" and "The Times", are in fact responses to questions set by editors and readers. If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality? Are human rights political? Can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection? If both sides in a conflict can passionately believe that theirs is the just cause, does this mean that the idea of justice is empty? Does being hap... read more

When British and American forces invaded Iraq in April 2003, their intelligence operations got to work looking for the WMD their governments had promised us were there. They quickly realised no such weapons existed. Instead they become faced with an ever-increasing spiral of extremism and violence that was almost impossible to understand, let alone contain. This book tells the story of what happened next, one of the most dramatic and sustained operations in our recent military history. Up against the wall, under the aegis of the jo... read more