Blog Archives

Marking time, Maggie Trapp

When It All Went To Custard Danielle Hawkins HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775541417 The Julian Calendar William Henry Marsilio Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780958235556 What a difference a year can make. The plots of Danielle Hawkins’s When It All Went To Custard…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

“Lashings of empathy”, Tina Shaw

From the Ashes Deborah Challinor HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781460754122 What You Wish For Catherine Robertson Black Swan, $38.00, ISBN 9780143772811 Discovering that From the Ashes is a sequel to Fire, Challinor’s 2006 novel, makes sense of this novel’s title. Fire…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Undercooked, Paul Moon

The Pacific in the Wake of Captain Cook, with Sam Neill Meaghan Wilson Anastasios HarperCollins, $45.00, ISBN 9781460756393 Is there anything new to say about Captain James Cook’s expeditions to the Pacific? Edited accounts of his voyages appeared from 1773…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Bearing witness, again, Louise Wareham Leonard

That F word: Growing Up Feminist in Aotearoa Lizzie Marvelly HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775541127 There was an Empress of Austria named Elisabeth – many called her Sissi – a beauty and horsewoman and wife of Franz Joseph, and she was…
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Posted in Gender, Non-fiction, Review

Getting the news out, James Norcliffe

Surviving 7.8: New Zealanders Respond to the Earthquakes of November 2016 Phil Pennington and Radio New Zealand HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775541103   New Zealanders, Cantabrians in particular, have, over the last half-dozen years, become reluctant experts in earthquakes. We have…
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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Nosing out the story, Lawrence Patchett

Breaking Ranks: Three Interrupted Lives James McNeish HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775540908 Partway through Breaking Ranks: Three Interrupted Lives, James McNeish stops his narrative to admit his own bias. “At this point,” he writes, “I had better come clean and declare…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Truths both bald and stretched, Eirlys Hunter

The Diamond Horse  Stacy Gregg HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9780008124397 Grandad’s Wheelies Jack Lasenby Penguin Random House, $17.00, ISBN 9780143507338 Rona  Chris Szekely Huia, $15.00, ISBN 9781775501985 The Impossible Boy Leonie Agnew Penguin Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9780143309062 Reading fiction allows…
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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Filling historical gaps, Claire Mabey

Daylight Second Kelly Ana Morey HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540526 I am certain that I’ve seen Phar Lap. Somewhere, in the back of my memory, is a child’s-eye view of a very large horse in a glass case in a museum,…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

National anthems, Andrew Schmidt

In Love with these Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records Roger Shepherd HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540892 A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis Karl Du Fresne Bateman, $40.00, ISBN 9781869359382 Flying Nun Records, the small…
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Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

War games, Ron Palenski

War Blacks: The Extraordinary Story of New Zealand’s World War 1 All Blacks Matt Elliott HarperCollins, $45.00, ISBN 9781775540366 Tom Ellison has a lot to answer for. One of the early All Blacks of erudition and original thought, he wrote…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sport
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