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The decent society, John Pagani

The Bolger Years 1990-1997 Margaret Clark (ed)  Dunmore Publishing, $37.95,  ISBN 9781877399336 I have to confess to having taunted Margaret Clark in the past for her incuriosity. A few years ago she demanded in a newspaper answers and explanations from

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Poem – Peter Bland

The Gift   You love the new land truly you love it you pile up year upon year until belonging happens and before you know it the old land drifts into myth which you visit disguised as a child  

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Posted in Poem

Poem – Nicholas Reid

Once to the Rocks   “Once to the rocks,” said Bill and took a dive as neat and arc-like as a well-cast line.– He left no ripple. I blundered behind with belly-flop and splashes, awkwardly.   So in his element,

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Posted in Poem

Movement is all, Paula Green

Magnetic South   Sue Wootton Steele Roberts, $24.99, ISBN 9781877448232 Spark   Emma Neale Steele Roberts, $24.99, ISBN 9781877448195 The Propaganda Poster Girl   Amy Brown Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864735744 The World’s Fastest Flower   Charlotte Simmonds Victoria

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Posted in Literature, Poetry

A straight left to the nose, Spiro Zavos

From Poverty Bay to Broadway: The Story Of Tom Heeney Lydia Monin  Hodder Moa, $39.99, ISBN 9781869711252 You play rugby and a host of other sports that have a greater or lesser degree of body contact in them. But you

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, Sport

Steadfast, Dougal McNeill

Collected Poems 1951-2006 C K Stead Auckland University Press, $59.99,  ISBN 9781869404185 The American critic Lionel Trilling, writing in the early 1960s of his experience teaching what we would now call modernist literature, felt unsettled by the ease with which

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

St Barbara might help, Les Cleveland

The Gunners: A History of New Zealand Artillery Alan Henderson, David Green and Peter Cooke Penguin Books, $65.00, ISBN 9780790011417 Specialists and artillery buffs will find much in this 528-page detailed treatment of weaponry, military organisation, administrative entanglements, the problems

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

Where the boys are, Penelope Todd

Whale Pot Bay Des Hunt HarperCollins, $18.99, ISBN 978869507305 The River Runs David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $18.00,  ISBN 9781877423222 Violence 101 Denis Wright Penguin Books, $18.95, ISBN 9780143304036 These three books with male protagonists each cover, to varying extent, bullying,

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Age-old contracts, Elizabeth Caffin

A Year to Learn a Woman Paddy Richardson Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143010029 Misconduct Bridget van der Zijpp Victoria University Press, $30.00,  ISBN 9780864735751 The Rehearsal Eleanor Catton  Victoria University Press, $30.00,  ISBN 9780864735812 A woman around 40, now on

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Sweet and upbeat, Paula Morris

The 10pm Question Kate De Goldi Longacre Press, $29.99, ISBN 978977460203 “Every family has a secret,” says Alan Bennett, “and the secret is that it’s not like other families.” For Frankie Parsons, the clever, neurotic hero of Kate De Goldi’s

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Posted in Literature, Review, Young adults
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