130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ 

IT'S FINALLY HERE! HAPPY ACOTAR 6 RELEASE DAY! ✨

Personal Score

Sport, Culture, Identity
4.23 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 115 ratings, 23 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven explores the nuanced intersections of sport and identity within an educational and cultural framework. The author delves into the personal and collective experiences tied to sports, examining themes like race, gender, and belonging. Through insightful commentary, the book provides an engaging and reflective look at how sport impacts personal development and societal structures.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3600
Elsewhere:
$4000
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you’re interested in exploring contemporary Indigenous experiences and perspectives through a blend of poetry and personal reflection. The author offers a unique voice, weaving cultural identity and personal storytelling in a way that both educates and resonates emotionally.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

From an award-winning First Nations author, a ground-breaking examination of sport's troubled relationship with race, gender and sexuality.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From an award-winning First Nations author, a ground-breaking examination of sport's troubled relationship with race, gender and sexuality.

Award-winning writer Ellen van Neerven plays football from a young age, learning early on that sport can be a painful and exclusive world. The more they play, the more they realise about sport's troubled relationship with race, gender and sexualityβ€”and question what it means to play sport on stolen, sovereign land, especially in the midst of multiple environmental crises.

With emotional honesty and searing insight, van Neerven shines a light on sport on this continent from a queer First Nations perspective, revealing how some athletes have long challenged mainstream views and used their roles to effect change not only in their own realm, but in society more broadly.

Personal Score is a ground-breaking book that confirms, once again, van Neerven's unrivalled talent, courage and originality.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven is praised for its insightful exploration of the intersection between sport, identity, and colonialism, particularly from the perspective of First Nations people. The book blends personal memoir, history, journalism, and poetry to offer a rich analysis of the complexities in contemporary Australian sport, highlighting themes of race, gender, and sexuality. Critics appreciate van Neerven's ability to weave together varied narratives to provide a compelling examination of sport as both a tool for liberation and a battleground for cultural and social issues.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780702265853

Publisher: University of Queensland Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 May 2023

Country: Australia

Imprint: University of Queensland Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 29.0mm

Width: 154.0mm

Height: 227.0mm

Weight: 486g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Ellen's first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. They have written two poetry collections- Comfort Food, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize; and Throat, which won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Also by Ellen van Neerven

View all
  • Shapeshifting
    A ground-breaking essay collection that shifts the shape of what First Nations writing can be and do in Australia today. Shapeshifting, co-edited by Jeanine Leane and Ellen van Neerven, is a wide-ranging collection of nonfiction by First Nations writers that breaks new ground. These lyric essays push the boundaries of nonfiction beyond the biographical or the academic, with pieces that...
    Paperback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Throat
    Irreverent and courageous, Throat is a fierce cry that fights to be heard. This is van Neerven's most powerful work yet. not in Aus, mate bad things don't happen here our beaches are open they are not places where bloodied mattresses burn Throat is the explosive second poetry collection from award-winning Mununjali Yugambeh writer Ellen van Neerven. Exploring love, language...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Flock
    Curated and introduced by award-winning author Ellen van Neerven, Flock features luminous storytelling from leading Aboriginal writers, such as Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch, as well as some of the brightest new stars. This wide-ranging and captivating anthology showcases both the power of First Nations writing and the satisfaction of a good short story. Curated by award-winning...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Heat and Light
    In this award-winning work of fiction, Ellen van Neerven takes her readers on a journey that is mythical, mystical and still achingly real. Over three parts, she takes traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. In Heat, we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl. In Water, van Neerven offers...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Heat and Light
    Ellen van Neerven's award-winning collection of stories was inspired by the elements and is exceptionally imaginative and varied. In this award-winning work of fiction, Ellen van Neerven leads readers on a journey that is mythical, mystical, and still achingly real. Over three parts, van Neerven takes traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. In Heat, we meet several...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Unlimited Futures
    Unlimited Futures is an anthology of speculative, visionary fiction from 21 emerging and established First Nations writers and Black writers, reflecting visionary pasts, hopeful futures and the invisible ties between First Nations people and Black people. With works by Tuesday Atzinger, Flora A. Chol, Claire G. Coleman, Zena Cumpston, Lisa Fuller, Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Chemutai Glasheen, Genevieve Grieves,...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Comfort Food
    Following on from the success of her award-winning fiction debut, Heat and Light, Ellen van Neerven announces herself as a talented poet with this assured collection. Moving between places and cultures, Comfort Food explores identity, sovereignty, and the restless quest for love. Using food as her inspiration, van Neerven offers a cross-cultural vision of the exotic and the familiar. This...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Education & Reference

View all
  • Revenge of the Tipping Point
    Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do elite universities care so much about sports? What is...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Body Keeps the Score
    The Body Keeps the Score by Dr Bessel van der Kolk is a compelling and compassionate exploration of the deep-seated impact of trauma on the human body and mind. This groundbreaking work delves into the complex causes of trauma and paints a vivid picture of the revolutionary treatments that are enabling countless individuals to reclaim their lives filled with purpose...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Song of the Birds
    A stunning and panoramic history of native birds in Aotearoa, from the bestselling author of The Meaning of Trees For millions of years, the song of the birds echoed throughout Aotearoa, with no one around to hear it. While the arrival of humans would transform their story forever - birds may have changed us even more. In this beautiful and...
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $5500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Lucky You're Tough
    New Release
    Lucky You're Tough
    Lucky You're Tough chronicles the early life of helicopter pilot and NZSAS soldier Mark Law, from growing up in the rural wilds of Whangamōmona through to surviving a series of life-threatening events that would shape his life and career. After a career as a badged soldier in the NZSAS that led to an intriguing stint with the British SAS and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hormone Health is Mental Health
    New Release
    Hormone Health is Mental Health
    Hormone Health is Mental Health is a lifechanging guide to understanding perimenopause and midlife women's mental health - and how understanding your hormones is the first step to feeling like yourself again. This book is for women in their thirties, forties, and fifties who feel like they're falling apart. Women who feel like their brains and bodies are betraying them,...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Age Code
    What if the food you eat could rewind your biological clock? 'Clear and compelling' β€” Chris van Tulleken 'Really interesting and insightful' β€” Joe Wicks 'Fascinating' β€” Tim Spector From the rising incidence of cancer in the under-50s to increased infertility rates, there are signs everywhere that growing numbers of us are ageing too quickly. Why? Many believe there’s one...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Kitchen Confidential
    The classic bestseller from the star of Parts Unknown and No Reservations: 25th Anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Irvine Welsh. BEFORE THERE WAS THE BEAR, THERE WAS BOURDAIN. β€˜Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’ β€” A.A. Gill β€˜Fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and pungent aioli’ β€” Daily Telegraph After twenty-five years of sex,...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    12% off
    One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    Paperback
    $2800
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Cauldron
    How did an elderly cleric overthrow the Shah of Iran and change the world?Why did Bin Laden attack the USA - and why did the USA destroy Saddam?How did Britain and France carve up the Middle East - and why did the Kurds never get their own state? THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE MAKING OF TODAY'S MIDDLE EAST: A SPELLBINDING...
    Hardback
    $4999
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Fungi of Aotearoa
    The complete introduction to finding, identifying and using mushrooms and other fungi in New Zealand. Enter and explore the fascinating world of fungi. In this practical and up-to-date guide, forager and fungus enthusiast Liv Sisson shares her top tips and takes the reader on a journey to discover the unique and diverse fungi Aotearoa has to offer. Discover how to...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    23% off
    1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
    In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...
    Paperback
    $1000
    Usually:
    $1299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.