New Books

Every month Hauraki District Libraries are adding new books to their stock. Here is a sample of those added to the shelves during the month of October.
 
'Go Fish'
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: The Painter'
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.

'Villa: From Heritage to Contemporary Living '
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.

And whether you live in Ngatea, Paeroa or Waihi, you will find these books, and many others, available in your local library, waiting for you to enjoy.