Blog Archives

Sex-free romance and YA cred, Paula Morris

Bugs
Whiti Hereaka
Huia, $25.00,
ISBN 9781775501336

When We Wake
Karen Healey
Allen & Unwin, $22.00,
ISBN 9781742378084

Awakening
Natalie King
Penguin, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143570790

Bugs, the eponymous protagonist of Whiti Hereaka’s first YA novel, is unimpressed with much of what her generation is expected to read. Her English teacher insists they discuss that infamous “human/werewolf/vampire love triangle … because the characters are our age, they’re going through what we’re going through, we can relate. Like half of us could relate to a white chick with a thing for dogs and dead dudes.”

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Thoughtful thrills, Jill Holt

Fierce September Fleur Beale Random House, $19.99, ISBN 9781869793289 Guardian of the Dead  Karen Healey Allen & Unwin, $19.99, ISBN 9781741758801 Resurrection  Mandy Hager Random House, $19.99, ISBN 9781869795221   When do young people have the chance to engage in

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Posted in Literature, Review, Young adults

Becoming someone else, Diane Hebley

Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful Brigid Lowry Allen and Unwin, $19.99, ISBN 9781741751604 The Transformation of Minna Hargreaves Fleur Beale Random House, $19.99, ISBN 9781869418366 Duet David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $17.00,  ISBN 9781877423062 Full marks to the three well-established authors

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Taut and twanging, Barbara Else

Running Hot  David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $16.95, ISBN 0908783949 With Lots of Love from Georgia  Brigid Lowry Allen and Unwin, $19.00, ISBN 1741143101 Kaitangata Twitch Margaret Mahy Allen and Unwin, $19.00, ISBN 174114485X The Unknown Zone Phil Smith Random House,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Because it’s still there, Geoff Chapple

Everest – Summit of Achievement Stephen Venables Allen & Unwin, $79.95, ISBN 1741140668 Everest – 50 Years on Top of the World George Band Collins, $49.95, ISBN 0007147481 High Adventure: Our Ascent of Everest Sir Edmund Hillary Allen & Unwin,

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Posted in Autobiography, Biography, Children, History, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

“Bugger the dragonflies”, Bernard Carpinter

Shirker Chad Taylor Allen & Unwin, $35, ISBN 0862419026 A defenestration (nice word, eh?) makes an arresting beginning to Chad Taylor’s third novel. Especially as the defenestree is the narrator. Just how Ellerslie Penrose came to be flying out of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Words for music perhaps, Nick Bollinger

Love This Life: Lyrics 1978-2001 Neil Finn Allen & Unwin, $35.00, ISBN 1865085081 Lyrics without melody Mahinarangi Tocker Street Women Press, $19.95, ISBN 0473074427 I have always been a passionate pop fan, but never a great lover of the printed

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Posted in Literature, Music, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review

Whizzbangs and big bangs, Fleur Beale

Follow the blue Brigid Lowry Allen & Unwin, $19.95, ISBN 186508400X Letters from the Coffin Trenches Ken Catran Random House, $16.95, ISBN 1869415094 The Sleeper Wakes David Hill Puffin, $15.95, ISBN 0141313242 The High Wind Blows David Hill Puffin, $15.95,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

The Dictionary in retrospect, John Roberts

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1869,  Allen and Unwin (Bridget Williams Books) and the Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1990, $120 Christendom is essentially a construct of biography. The Gospels relate the temporal genealogy, life and death

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Waves and ripples, Melanie Nolan

The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand Keith Sinclair (ed), Oxford University Press, 1990, $59.95 The People and The Land. Te Tangata Me Te Whenua Judith Bassett, Judith Binney, Erik Olssen Allen and Unwin/ Port Nicholson Press, Wellington, 1990, $59.95 History publishers

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Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
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