Blog Archives

A wide-ranging collection, Ivanica Vodanovich

The Gender Factor: Women in NZ Organisations Suzann Olsson (ed), Dunmore Press, $39.95 A focus on gender, one of the major contributions of feminist research, shifts the emphasis from biology to culture, from a perspective that sees the organisation of work in

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Posted in Gender, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Books against totalitarianism, Diane Hebley

The Conjuror Jack Lasenby, Oxford University Press, $24.95 Winter of Fire Sherryl Jordan, Ashton Scholastic, $17.95 The abuse of power in society – how it is maintained by violence, superstition, and lies – is a major indictment of these two

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Publisher Profiles 6, Rawhiti Press, Rachel Lawson

‘Out where I live, the hills rise steep and harsh from the sea, but on some evenings they seem to light up from within, and the gullies soften and overflow with shadows, blue against the yellow’ – from The Australian

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Posted in Imprints

Women detecting, Margaret Scott

Murder at the Brian Boru Joan Druett, Harper Collins, $19.95 Backtrack Carol Dawber, River Press, $16.95 These two books have some similarities but more, and greater, differences. Both are murder mysteries set in New Zealand with a woman observer/ solver.

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Kei Te Mātāwai Te Tikanga, Charles Royal

Te Mātāwai, Nā Hepora Young o Te Arawā ēnei pukapuka i whakahaere Hepora Young Tuatahi: Te Tira Ahu Iwi/ Daphne Brasell Associates, $12.95, Tuarua: Te Tira Ahu Iwi/ Huia, $14.95, Tuatoru: Te Puni Kōkiri/ Huia, $14.95, Tuawhā: Te Puni Kōkiri/

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Posted in Language, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

Modernist genius or drunken lecher? Michael Morrissey

Lethal Dose Mike Johnson, Hard Echo Press, $27.95 While official feminism may be liberating and strengthening women, it is having an unfortunate effect on male writers, artists and intellectuals. Many males now cravenly play to the feminist ears and eyes

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

A multi‑media resource, Patrick King

Te Māhuri John C Moorfield, Longman Paul, $49.95 The first textbook of the Māori language published in New Zealand was Thomas Kendall’s A Korao no New Zealand; or the New Zealander’s First Book; being an attempt to compose some lessons for

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Posted in Language, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

A moving figure on a static canvas, Jackie Owens

Crimes of Neglect Stephanie Johnson, New Women’s Press, $21.95 Stephanie Johnson’s first novel charts the emotional wasteland of Beatrice: cellist, mother, veteran of relationships, and, in the eyes of her sisters and ex-husbands, disaster. Drifting from Teasedale to Christchurch to

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Short history reviews, Dale Williams

Waiheke Island. A History Paul Monin, Dunmore Press, $34.95 Aucklanders are in love with the romantic idea of a sizeable, liveable island just 20 kilometres from their urban sprawl. But Waiheke’s wide range of natural resources have always been desired

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Crazy richness shaped with formality, Peter Crisp

Vital Writing 3. New Zealand Stories and Poems, 1991‑92 Andrew Mason (ed), Godwit, $29.95 Anti-criticism, for a meta-critical occasion. It is 1993. The cards are nearly all on the table … A deep breath … Changing motifs in speech, changes in

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Review, Short stories
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