Blog Archives

A lonely Orpheus, Liam McIlvanney

The Snake-Haired Muse: James K Baxter and Classical Myth Geoffrey Miles, John Davidson and Paul Millar Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780864736581   “What happens is either meaningless to me, or it is mythology.” Though James K Baxter’s vatic pronouncement…
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Posted in Literature, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review

Bookshelf

Non-fiction Ray Columbus: The Modfather, Ray Columbus with Margie Thompson, Penguin Books, $42.00, ISBN 9780143206576 The 1960s pop-singer who might have been a priest tells his story, with pictures. Eat, Drink and be Wary: A New Zealand Diplomat Looks Back,…
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Posted in Children, Literature, Non-fiction, Young adults

Footmen and gout, Ann Beaglehole

Hungarian refugee Ann Beaglehole recalls Anne Frank, Lenin, Rupert Bear and Little Lord Fauntleroy. I read The Diary of Anne Frank at the age of 10. In the first entry dated 12 June 1942, Anne wrote: “I hope I shall…
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Posted in Opinion

Snorts and foamings, Peter Russell

Q and Eh: Questions and Answers on Language with a Kiwi Twist Laurie Bauer, Dianne Bardsley, Janet Holmes and Paul Warren Random House, $39.99, ISBN 9781869793432   This book by four professional linguists at Victoria University aims to explain aspects…
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Posted in Essays, Language, Non-fiction

Shaping the land, Ian J Graham

Volcanoes of Auckland: The Essential Guide Bruce W Hayward, Graeme Murdock and Gordon Maitland Auckland University Press, $59.99, ISBN 9781869404796   Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is often referred to as the “City of Sails” because of its location straddling…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Science

Worth playing, Samantha Owens

A Search for Tradition and a Search for Language Douglas Lilburn Lilburn Residence Trust, $24.99, ISBN 9780473183790   When Douglas Lilburn died at his Thorndon home in June 2001 at the age of 85, numerous obituaries, published both here and…
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Posted in Lecture, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Issue 97 | Autumn 2012

  Volume 22 | Number 1 | Issue 97 | Autumn 2012 Letters Jane Westaway: Kapka Kassabova, Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story Rose Lovell-Smith: Anna Jackson, Geoff Miles, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer and Kathryn Walls, A Made-Up Place:…
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Posted in Contents

Letters – Issue 97

New Zealand Books is now accessible to blind and partially sighted readers. Our 20th anniversary issue (Summer 2011) was the first to be made available to 2,900 sight-impaired magazine borrowers through the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. It…
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Posted in Letters

Heart to heart, Jane Westaway

Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story Kapka Kassabova Portobello Books, $39.99, ISBN 9781846272844   Tango is just a dance in the sense that rugby is just a ball game. You live and breathe it. Or you don’t. Fans –…
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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Don’t we live in America? Rose Lovell-Smith

A Made-Up Place: New Zealand in Young Adult Fiction Anna Jackson, Geoff Miles, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer and Kathryn Walls Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780864736970   Chapter four of this collection of essays by five authors is called “Utopia”.…
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Posted in Essays, Literature, Non-fiction, Review, Young adults
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