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Reading as mudlarking

The Chimes Anna Smaill Sceptre ISBN 9781444794533 The Chimes, debut novel of poet and violinist Anna Smaill, portrays a post-apocalyptic but disorientingly medieval dystopia dominated by music. The novel opens with Simon, a boy on his own, as he embarks…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Obituary — Campbell Smith

The world a stage Gregory O’Brien recalls the life and work of artist and writer Campbell Smith (1925-2015) The last time I saw Campbell Smith was in June a year ago. Friends from around the country had gathered at Hamilton’s…
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Posted in Obituaries

History, myth and jollity, Linda Burgess

Roly the Anzac Donkey  Glyn Harper (Jenny Cooper illus) Puffin, $20.00, ISBN 9780143506638 The Song of Kauri  Melinda Szymanik (Dominique Ford illus) Scholastic, $27.00, ISBN 9781775432289 I Am Not a Worm  Scott Tulloch Scholastic, $19.00, ISBN 9781775432517 Zoo Train Sally…
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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Raymond Chandler meets Alfred Bester, Michael Morrissey

Hold My Teeth While I Teach You to Dance  Mike Johnson 99% Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780994101518 Mike Johnson is one of our most gifted novelists, yet he has been curiously neglected. I suspect the problem is his bold originality. Each…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature

Letters – Issue 111

Over-egging (more…)
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Posted in Letters

Permolat and dogbox bivs, Hannah McGregor

Tramping: A New Zealand History Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean Craig Potton, $70.00, ISBN 9781927213230 Tramping: A New Zealand History travels lightly through terrain which will feel familiar to many of its readers, the extended family of woollen-sock wearing, pack-hauling,…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Byzantine complexity, Geoffrey Palmer

Democracy in New Zealand Raymond Miller Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869408350 Democracy in New Zealand is a competent work by an experienced and well-published Professor of Politics at the University of Auckland. Clearly designed as a student text for…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Looking for home, David Cohen

Barefoot Years Martin Edmond Bridget Williams Books, $15.00, ISBN 9781927277676 On Coming Home Paula Morris Bridget Williams Books, $15.00, ISBN 9780908321117 Somewhere in the course of his perceptive career, in what one assumes was a more or less idle moment,…
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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Rejecting meat, Alison McKee 

The Compassionate Contrarians: A History of Vegetarians in Aotearoa New Zealand Catherine Amey Rebel Press, $20.00, IBSN 9780473274405 New Zealanders are prolific buyers of cookery books; however, an interest in the social history of eating and cooking has emerged in…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Grasping for something to say, Tom McLean

Charles Brasch: Selected Poems Alan Roddick (ed) Otago University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781877578052 Let us begin with the face. It isn’t what you expect. On the back cover of this trim little book, a woolly-haired young man looks sideways, away…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
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