Blog Archives

“Girl interested in wave technology”, David Hill

Bright Star: Beatrice Hill Tinsley Astronomer Christine Cole Catley Cape Catley, $49.99, ISBN 1877340014 I can offer the usual apologia for astronomy. There’s its significance as a global employer (NASA alone pays 20,000 salaries). Its contributions to other sciences, such

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, Science

Home away from home Linda Olsson

My Home Now ed Gail Thomas and Leanne McKenzie Cape Catley, $24.99, ISBN 1877340049 This anthology tells the stories of 47 first-generation immigrants to New Zealand. According to the back cover, “New Zealand is shown in a new and heart-warming

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Posted in History, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Remind me where we are now, Nicholas Reid

Secret City Vivienne Plumb Cape Catley, $24.99, ISBN 090856189X Shot Sarah Quigley Virago, $34.95, ISBN 1860499635 What country am I in here? Characters get ideas from watching “5.30 With Jude”, there’s a reference to “old Maori guys”, and one of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Speaking frankly of Frank and James K, Stevan Eldred-Grigg

An Affair of the Heart: A Celebration of Frank Sargeson’s Centenary ed Graeme Lay and Stephen Stratford Cape Catley, $49.99, ISBN 0908561938 O Jerusalem – James K Baxter: An Intimate Memoir Mike Minehan Hazard Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877270385 Two icons

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Posted in Essays, Literature, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Truth vs the good story, Laura Kroetsch

Barbed Wire Between Us: A story of love and war Derek Round Random House, $29.95, ISBN 1869415248 Last of the Whalers: Charlie Heberley’s Story Heather Heberley Cape Catley, $29.95, ISBN 0908561903 In Search of Elisa Marchetti: A Writer’s Search for

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

Reading history backwards, Edmund Bohan

The Blue Lion: An historical love story Graham Billing Cape Catley, $24.95, ISBN 090856192X The Blue Lion was Graham Billing’s last book, for the author of Forbush and the Penguins, The Slipway and The Chambered Nautilus died last December before

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, 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

Rough around the edges, Phil Kawana

Camilla Vanilla  Nick Hyde Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414519 The Gospel @ccording to Cole  Rhonda Bartle Cape Catley, $24.95, ISBN 0908561830 A good cover should draw you towards a book, and the covers of both these novels do just that. The

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Live and let learn, Jim Collinge

Learning our Living: a teaching autobiography Charmaine Pountney Cape Catley, $29.95, ISBN 0908561865 For many people a teaching autobiography might not seem an exciting prospect. Charmaine Pountney, however, is no ordinary teacher. This book is an account of nearly 60

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Posted in Autobiography, Education, Non-fiction, Review

Without guilt or apology, Harry Ricketts

Tread Softly For You Tread On My Life: New & Collected Writings Michael King Cape Catley, $34.95, ISBN 0908561881 “This is the sort of letter that doesn’t look well in a Biography,” Rupert Brooke wrote Eddie Marsh in September 1913. Brooke

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Posted in Autobiography, Essays, Non-fiction, Review
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