Blog Archives
‘Out where I live, the hills rise steep and harsh from the sea, but on some evenings they seem to light up from within, and the gullies soften and overflow with shadows, blue against the yellow’ – from The Australian…
Murder at the Brian Boru Joan Druett, Harper Collins, $19.95 Backtrack Carol Dawber, River Press, $16.95 These two books have some similarities but more, and greater, differences. Both are murder mysteries set in New Zealand with a woman observer/ solver.…
Te Mātāwai, Nā Hepora Young o Te Arawā ēnei pukapuka i whakahaere Hepora Young Tuatahi: Te Tira Ahu Iwi/ Daphne Brasell Associates, $12.95, Tuarua: Te Tira Ahu Iwi/ Huia, $14.95, Tuatoru: Te Puni Kōkiri/ Huia, $14.95, Tuawhā: Te Puni Kōkiri/…
Lethal Dose Mike Johnson, Hard Echo Press, $27.95 While official feminism may be liberating and strengthening women, it is having an unfortunate effect on male writers, artists and intellectuals. Many males now cravenly play to the feminist ears and eyes…
Te Māhuri John C Moorfield, Longman Paul, $49.95 The first textbook of the Māori language published in New Zealand was Thomas Kendall’s A Korao no New Zealand; or the New Zealander’s First Book; being an attempt to compose some lessons…
Crimes of Neglect Stephanie Johnson, New Women’s Press, $21.95 Stephanie Johnson’s first novel charts the emotional wasteland of Beatrice: cellist, mother, veteran of relationships, and, in the eyes of her sisters and ex-husbands, disaster. Drifting from Teasedale to Christchurch to…
Waiheke Island. A History Paul Monin, Dunmore Press, $34.95 Aucklanders are in love with the romantic idea of a sizeable, liveable island just 20 kilometres from their urban sprawl. But Waiheke’s wide range of natural resources have always been desired…
Vital Writing 3. New Zealand Stories and Poems, 1991‑92 Andrew Mason (ed), Godwit, $29.95 Anti-criticism, for a meta-critical occasion. It is 1993. The cards are nearly all on the table … A deep breath … Changing motifs in speech, changes…
Iain Sharp: Letter from Auckland: Son of Landfall At the time of writing, it’s in the midst of a closing-down sale, like much of Auckland, but for the last couple of years there has been a music shop on the…
Frontier New Zealand: The Search for Eldorado 1800-1920 Duncan Mackay, Harper Collins, $34.95 The besetting sin of historical writing is hindsightism. That is to say, the creation of the illusion that because we have arrived at today’s destination then…