Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland, Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith and Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting
China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan. Photos / Supplied
Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland, Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith and Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting
China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan. Photos / Supplied
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990
by Katja Hoyer (Allen Lane)
Engaging, meticulous account by an expat native of a country that disappeared when the Iron Curtain fell, bringing to rightful prominence its unique political and cultural history, and the lives of its ordinary people.
Blood and Dirt: Prison Labourand the Making of New Zealand
by Jared Davidson (BWB)
Lively account of how crime and punishment, capital and labour, came together, in this reappraisal of incarceration since colonial settlement, prisoners’ efforts – streets, breakwalls, defence fortifications – hiding in plain sight.
The Earth Transformed
by Peter Frankopan (Bloomsbury)
Learned and fascinating exploration by the Oxford professor exploring how climate fluctuations through history have often played a pivotal role in events, such as wars, disease, the decline and rise of Rome, the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the British Empire.
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990 by Katja Hoyer, Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand by Jared Davidson and The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan. Photos / Supplied
Emperor of Rome
by Mary Beard (Profile)
Fascinating, thoroughly entertaining detective story looking beyond individuals to what the sovereign rule of Rome came to be, how one did it and how much was real or just for show.
Once Upon a Time World: The Dark and Sparkling Story of the French Riviera
by Jonathan Miles (Atlantic)
Keenly researched evocation of the French Riviera over the past two centuries, devoted as much to gossip and the bad behaviour of the rich and famous as it is to the art and fashion that the region attracted.
One Fine Day: Britain’s Empire on the Brink
by Matthew Parker (Hachette)
On September 29, 1923, the addition of Mandatory Palestine boosted the size of the British Empire to nearly a quarter of the world’s land, encompassing 460 milliion people. Well-written, nuanced account of an empire at its zenith, taking in rulers and ruled.
Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard, Once Upon a Time World: The Dark and Sparkling Story of the French Riviera
by Jonathan Miles and One Fine Day: Britain’s Empire on the Brink by Matthew Parker. Photos / Supplied
Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age
by Tom Holland (Abacus)
The author of numerous books, including Dominion, and co-host of The Rest is History podcast takes us from 69AD to Hadrian’s reign in this enjoyable account revealing life across the Roman Empire – stretching from Arabia to Britannia – at its most formidable and peaceful peak.
Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers
by Emma Smith (Allen Lane)
Wise and entertaining history of books and bibliophilia, namely our love of the physical objects themselves, full of great insights and information, but which wears its learning lightly.
Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan (Faber)
With a journalist’s eye for detail and a psychologist’s interest in motivations, the former Guardian correspondent interviews victims and perpetrators as she investigates China’s Cultural Revolution, when families and friends denounced one another for being insufficiently Maoist and millions in cities and towns were killed.
Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland, Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith and Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting
China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan. Photos / Supplied
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-45
by Halik Kochanski (Allen Lane)
The first truly comprehensive account of the resistance to German and Italian rule across Europe during WWII. Why and how would ordinary people risk their lives and those of their families to defy and subvert the invaders?
Sing As We Go: Britain Between the Wars
by Simon Heffer (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The final volume in Simon Heffer’s history of Britain from the Victorian era to WWII is mammoth – 900 pages – and magisterial, exploring the period’s politics, crises and social development, from culture, class and poverty, and showing how much modern Britain owes to this period.
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-45 by Halik Kochanski (Allen Lane) and Sing As We Go: Britain Between the Wars by Simon Heffer. Photos / Supplied
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
by David Grann (Simon & Schuster)
Where does duty end and survival begin, asks this rip-roaring visceral story, told by New Yorker writer David Grann, of an 18th-century Royal Navy ship that was wrecked off Chile, resulting in a Lord Of The Flies-style breakdown of society and a mutiny.
The West: A New History of an Old Idea
by Naoíse Mac Sweeney (WH Allen)
Examining with skilful analysis and elegant prose the “grand narrative” of Western civilisation – a single cultural through-line from ancient Greece to now – via 14 lives, the author, a British-born classical archaeologist of Irish-Chinese parents, finds it wanting.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann and The West: A New History of an Old Idea
by Naoíse Mac Sweeney. Photo / Supplied
Be in to win 10 books
For a chance to be the lucky winner of 10 books, email your name and address to listenergiveaways@aremedia.co.nz with ‘Best Books’ in the subject line by midday on December 1. We’ll be running The Year in Books throughout the next week so look out for hot picks for lovers of fiction and non-fiction stories alike.
The 100 Best Books was compiled with the invaluable assistance of Chris Baskett, Helena Brow, Catherine Chidgey, Sue Copsey, Kiran Dass, Nik Dirga, Greg Dixon, Elisabeth Easther, Brigid Feehan, Charlotte Grimshaw, Kirsty Gunn, Linda Herrick, David Hill, Stephanie Johnson, Anne Kennedy, Elizabeth Kerr, Rachael King, Graeme Lay, Eileen Merriman, Chris Moore, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Jenny Nicholls, Jeremy Rees, Sue Reidy, Catherine Robertson, Anna Rogers, Josie Shapiro, Tina Shaw, Craig Sisterson, Elizabeth Smither, Gill South, Rebecca Styles, Fiona Sussman, Andrew Paul Wood and others.
