Blog Archives

Memory and oxo cubes, Murray Bramwell

The Little Enemy Nicholas Reid Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 9781877577512 A Man Runs into a Woman Sarah Jane Barnett Hue and Cry Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780473213992 The Same as Yes Joan Fleming Victoria University Press, $28.00, ISBN 9780864736987 These three

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Walking upon ashes, Harry Ricketts

The Search for Anne Perry Joanne Drayton HarperCollins, $45.00, ISBN 9781869508883 So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme and the Murder that Shocked the World Peter Graham Awa Press, $42.00, ISBN 9781877651123 On 22 June 1954, in Victoria Park, Christchurch, 16-year-old Pauline

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Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review

Letters – Issue 101

Congratulations The novelist, Alex Miller, who lives in Melbourne (the city where I mostly reside), said that “writing fiction is a dangerous occupation. It is an act of imagination that requires the writer to confront unclear aspects of the self;

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Posted in Letters

The great sucking void, John McCrystal

Soon Charlotte Grimshaw Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781869799984 Ever since the 1999 publication of her first novel, Provocation, Charlotte Grimshaw’s writing has attracted a cloud of admirers and a liberal garnishing of awards. She is a novelist by instinct, if not

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Glamorous facelift, Stella Ramage

Two Hundred and Forty Years of New Zealand Painting Gil Docking (with additions covering 1970-1990 by Michael Dunn and 1990-2010 by Edward Hanfling) David Bateman, $100.00, ISBN 9781869538040 Publishers presumably ask themselves some questions before undertaking a new book. What

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Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review

The frozen continent, Janet Hunt

Science on Ice: Discovering the Secrets of Antarctica Veronica Meduna Auckland University Press, $60.00, ISBN 9781869405830 “Visiting this frozen landscape,” writes Veronica Meduna, “is to gain a fresh perspective on our world, almost like going to another planet and looking

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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Science

From trenches to terrorism, Barbara Else

Marked   Denis Martin Walker Books, $20.00, ISBN 9781921977541 My Brother’s War David Hill Puffin, $15.00, ISBN 9781742532653 Into the River Ted Dawe Mangakino University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780473205089 The Nature of Ash Mandy Hager Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9781869799038

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Pacific art on the world stage, Ian Lochhead

Art in Oceania: A New History  Peter Brunt and Nicholas Thomas (eds) Thames and Hudson, $130.00, ISBN 9780500239018 When New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) opened its landmark exhibition Arts of the South Seas in 1946, the war in

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Pacific, Review

Eminent people and unmade beds, Ann Beaglehole

My Life in Two Halves: A Memoir  Betty Gilderdale David Bateman, $30.00, ISBN 978186953832  Before I Forget Jacqueline Fahey Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869405816 The Lost Woman Sydney Smith Text, $40.00, ISBN 9781921922480 Freud, who supposedly said that he

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Unlacing corsets, Isa Moynihan

The Girl Below  Bianca Zander Penguin, $30.00, ISBN 9780143568377 The Invisible Rider Kirsten McDougall (drawings by Gerard Crewdson) Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864737670 Houses of Stone David L Bateman David Bateman, $30.00, ISBN 9781869538293 All three works are first

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
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