If you're stuck for a pressie for Father's Day, Kerri Jackson has some great new non-fiction gift ideas.
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If your dad is fully outfitted in the socks and undies department and owns a complete contingent of golf balls and power tools, books always make good, easy Father's Day gift options. There's something to suit every brand of dad.
If he's fond of the great Kiwi outdoors, even in the merest theoretical sense, Brian Turner's beautiful anthology Into the Wider World: A Back Country Miscellany (Random House, $44.99) is a good place to start the gift-buying.
Turner is a poet, conservationist and passionate Southerner, and his book is essentially a love poem to the wilds of the New Zealand south. Part memoir, part treatise on protecting our environment and part ode to the joy of fishing, this is an endearing and uplifting book, beautifully presented with breathtaking photographs.
Along a similar line is Mountain Men: Stories from New Zealand's High Country (Penguin, $39.95). Again filled with stunning photographs, this book is a collection of profiles of the old-school Southern Kiwi bloke archetype, described in the introduction as "taciturn, stoic and men of pure understatement". Reading it is a bit like hanging around in the pub with a bunch of your dad's old mates as they spin a few yarns over a beer.
If cars light your dad's fire, try My Dad Wished He Had One of Those by Richard Porter and Giles Chapman (Hodder, $34.99) - the fantasy car follow-up to last year's My Dad Had One of Those. It's a cute, affectionate look at the glamour cars of days gone by, all presented with petrolhead facts and some nice retro stylings.
Porter is also a script editor for Top Gear, which brings us nicely to the "whatever did we do for Father's Day before Top Gear?" segment. This year's Father's Day effort from telly's "revhead porn" show is Top Gear Top Drives (Random House, $59.99). The difference with this Top Gear book is that it's less about the car, more about the joy of driving through some the world's most spectacular and challenging places. It starts with the Top Gear crew's drive to the North Pole but deviates to a sales rep's ride through Russia and taking a Ferrari across the Andes. Hugely enjoyable, even if dad's not that bothered about cars.
Still on transport; if dad's a trainspotter you can't go past Great New Zealand Railway Journeys by Graham Hutchins (Exisle, $59.99). A tribute to the spirit of rail travel, Hutchins includes the expected journeys such as Central Otago's Kingston Flyer and The TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth. But also some less predictable such as the Auckland to Waitakere line and the Capital Connection, between Wellington and Palmerston North.
A fascinating blend of social and transportation history.
For a different side of New Zealand history try The Great New Zealand Pie Cart, by Lindsay Neill, Claudia Bell and Ted Bryant (Hodder Moa, $29.99) which covers everything from the joys of a good pie to how pie carts came to be, the characters who ran them and the ones which survive today.
If dad prefers to try his hand in the kitchen, there are a couple of great recipe book options too. Aaron Cooks Italian (Mitchell Beazley, $60) is the first book written by Jamie Oliver protege Aaron Craze. The Oliver influence is there in the book presentation and Craze's commitment to simple, fresh recipes.
And finally, what self-respecting dad doesn't consider himself master of the barbecue. With summer within reach, it'll soon be time to dust off the hot plate.
Give dad some new ideas in advance with Fired Up: No Nonsense Barbecuing by Ross Dobson (Murdoch Books, $60). Dishes range from lamb racks to burgers, and chicken wings to seafood. There are enough innovative, straight- forward recipes to keep dad sizzling all summer.
