Blog Archives

Age-old contracts, Elizabeth Caffin

A Year to Learn a Woman Paddy Richardson Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143010029 Misconduct Bridget van der Zijpp Victoria University Press, $30.00,  ISBN 9780864735751 The Rehearsal Eleanor Catton  Victoria University Press, $30.00,  ISBN 9780864735812 A woman around 40, now on

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Sweet and upbeat, Paula Morris

The 10pm Question Kate De Goldi Longacre Press, $29.99, ISBN 978977460203 “Every family has a secret,” says Alan Bennett, “and the secret is that it’s not like other families.” For Frankie Parsons, the clever, neurotic hero of Kate De Goldi’s

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Posted in Literature, Review, Young adults

Time capsule stories, Julian Novitz

Beyond the Breakwater: Stories 1948-1998 O E Middleton (ed Lawrence Jones)  Otago University Press, $49.95,  ISBN 9781877372568 This large collection of O E Middleton’s short fiction spans 50 years of the author’s career and yet, on the surface, the style

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories

Letters – Issue 85

Marsh in production In his review of Joanne Drayton’s Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (NZB, Summer 2008), Murray Bramwell regrets the lack of anecdotes that would give some “sense of Marsh’s strategies and style as a director”. On my

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Posted in Letters

The stories pictures tell, Roger Blackley

New Zealand Portraits Richard Wolfe Penguin Books, $80.00, ISBN 9780670071777 The Power of Portraiture: Representing Leadership in New Zealand from 1840 to the Present  Erin Griffey (with contributions from Brad Jackson and Paul Tapsell) Gus Fisher Gallery and David Ling,

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Kip in the round, Gavin McLean

Howard Kippenberger: Dauntless Spirit Denis McLean Random House, $39.99, ISBN 978869790264 When Denis McLean (no relation) interviewed former comrades of Howard Kippenberger and asked for criticisms of the general, he was astounded that they “were not only nonplussed but shocked

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, War

Dividing space, Hamish Clayton

Art Icons of New Zealand: Lines in the Sand  Oliver Stead David Bateman, $49.99, ISBN 9781869536374 Whenever a new book offering another survey of local art appears a number of logical questions present themselves. Will any previously overlooked artists be

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Issue 85 | Autumn 2009

  Volume 19 | Number 1 | Issue 85 | Autumn 2009 Letters Paula Morris: Kate De Goldi, The 10pm Question Penelope Todd: Des Hunt, Whale Pot Bay; David Hill, The River Runs; Denis Wright, Violence 101 Dougal McNeill: C

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Posted in Contents

Felling a forest giant, Janet Hunt

Kauri Keith Stewart Viking, $60.00, ISBN 9780670045525 Keith Stewart’s Kauri is the latest in a succession of publications about this iconic tree, following books by esteemed natural history writers A H Reed, J G Erne Adams, Gordon Ell and others

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Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review

Can Auckland be saved? Redmer Yska

The Life and Times of Auckland  Gordon McLauchlan Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143007500 Urban Village: The Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and St Mary’s Bay  Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow Random House, $70.00, ISBN 9781869418373 New Local Government Minister Rodney

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
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