(edited by Nicole Stock)

An awesome survey of the New Zealand bungalow, a style built between the two world wars. The bungalow is more modest than the villa: “horizontal and grounded”, with smaller windows, interior timber panelling, and delightful features like cosy window seats and stained glass windows and doors. The book examines 20 houses in Christchurch, Whangarei, Dunedin, Napier, Wellington, Northland and Auckland, including Sir James Wallace’s Rannoch.

Nash House, in Lower Hutt, was the home of Sir Walter Nash, leader of the Labour Party in the 1930s, which he and wife Lotty built for £1100. A photo of the couple relaxing in their lounge in front of a roaring fire as she knits is the picture of quiet domestic bliss. The houses detailed in Bungalow are full of character and interest; the text by eight top architecture writers and critics is engaging, and the book is a total delight to delve into.

(by Leeann Yare)

Myriad ways to make your home prettier is the ethos behind this partnership. “With a few clever tricks and some creativity, you’ll be satisfying your inner stylist in no time,” advises Yare, who offers tips from her own home and many others they have photographed for the book. It’s all a matter of taste. If you want a bright pink front door or a stag’s head on the wall, go for it.

They offer inspiration for making your kids’ rooms more fun; organising home offices; sorting out the back deck; pimping up your bathroom and bedroom, and, my favourite, a range of appealing ideas for kitchens.

(by Mat Pember and Fabian Capomolla)

Melbourne-based Pember and Capomolla run a business helping people grow their own food, a strange concept to any gardener who just gets stuck in and does it anyway. But this would be a useful guide to anyone looking for pointers on how to get started, especially if you want to involve the kids. Forget about this one-minute business though; gardening needs a lot of time and patience, and it is never “done”.

With a well-illustrated step-by-step layout, the book ranges far and wide, from Capomolla gazing out of his kitchen window and deciding where to put his vege patch, to setting up easy “incubators” for seedlings (plastic soft drink bottles) to pruning and pickling. Their “small-space shed” made me snort, though — it’s just a metal letterbox sitting on the veranda.

There is no single name attached to this celebration of the legendary 22-year-old restaurant on Ponsonby Rd, reflecting its ethos of team work. Simon Farrell-Green’s introduction traces its history and why it’s a place where you feel you belong, whoever you are. Owner Chris Rupe, a legend in his own right, points out that the warmth of the service is as important as the food, an alchemy of the best ingredients and generous servings.

The SPQR team are also generous in sharing the recipes, organised by courses, and inspired by Italian regional cuisine. While the book will make you feel like booking a table right now, it will also inspire you to cook like a star for your own family and friends. The quality of the recipes from Primi Piatti through to Dolci are breath-taking.

(by Ant & Lou Bentley)

Ant and Lou Bentley, two Kiwis who met in London in 1996, both worked as investment bankers but their true love was food, closely followed by travelling. In 2001 they took a life-changing course at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School in Thailand, and eventually returned to live in New Zealand in 2006, determined to set up a food business. Not a restaurant, not a catering company but a cooking school. They took a lease on a disused cafe in that most beautiful of small towns, Akaroa, and opened the doors on November 21, 2009. Their one-day classes give them an enviably free lifestyle, and Akaroa provides an abundance of quality produce.

Now they offer 20 different classes, and share their recipes and secrets in this book. The food looks very practical — but just a little bit outshone by awesome photos of Akaroa. Leaving investment banking behind was a canny move.

(by Megan May)

Subtitled “recipes from Little Bird’s unbakery cafes”, the terrific photos in this inspirational book make you crave the organic, pure food developed by LB founder Megan May and her team. She turned to raw food to eat her way out of ill health, and it has worked. Raw food — which is not heated above 46C — maximises the intake of vitamins and minerals, and it aids digestion. She offers plenty of practical tips in the intro, including equipment and ingredient essentials.

Some of the recipes include ambitious techniques (like using dehydrators and do, please, invest in a veg spiraliser) but it’s worth it. The results are spectacularly tasty, the food as glowing as the contents of a jewel box.

(by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)

A couple of years ago, HFW was diagnosed with high cholesterol. Rather than go on a course of statins, he opted for cutting right back on wheat, dairy and sugar and within six months he was “smack in the middle of a normal healthy range”. Now he is sharing his new way of uncomplicated, light cooking: an emphasis on fruit dishes and juices for breakfast; wheat-free baking using rye, buckwheat and chickpea flours; pure veg soups and fragrant broths; innovative salad ideas.

As always, he advocates sustainably caught fish and he has a meat section in which he boldly advises meat-free days. “Less is more,” says he, “It’s beneficial for our health but it’s also good for the environment ... and for higher welfare farms.” He winds up with fruit desserts and treats. If the cover image is anything to go by, Hugh looks healthier — and tidier — than ever before.