Blog Archives
Hotting up, Karen Hartshorn
Melting Point: New Zealand and the Climate Change Crisis Eric Dorfman Penguin Books, $37.00, ISBN 9780143008682 There are several worthwhile reasons for a book such as this to exist. Firstly, there is no longer any serious scientific debate about whether…
Tagged with: Eric Dorfman, Issue 86, Karen Hartshorn, Penguin Books, Winter 2009
Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Finding touch, Chris Laidlaw
Tall Tales (Some True): Memoirs of an Unlikely Writer Greg McGee Penguin Books, $37.00, ISBN 9780143009139 McGee describes himself as an unlikely writer. This rather begs the question: what makes for a likely writer? Someone who has been brought up…
Tagged with: Chris Laidlaw, Greg McGee, Issue 86, Penguin Books, Winter 2009
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Poem – Anne French
On the way for Geoff Park On the way to Mein Street, everyone seems unnaturally well and strong. That elegant girl, swinging her bag as she crosses the road in front of me; that lean school-boy, slouching by the…
A less than perky light, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Gith Chris Else Random House, $27.99, ISBN 9781869790134 Show of Hands Anthony McCarten Random House, $29.99, ISBN 9781869419950 Swimmer’s Rope Stephanie Johnson Random House, $29.99, ISBN 9781869790257 At the first look there’s not much to tie these three novels together.…
Tagged with: Anthony McCarten, Chris Else, Issue 86, Random House, Stephanie Johnson, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Winter 2009
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Obituary — Geoff Park
Geoff Park (1946-2009) I heard about Geoff Park long before I actually met him. David Young and Peter Horsley had told me about him, so I already knew about his energy and passion for plants and landscape, and the unusual…
Doubles and damage, Geoff Miles
The Magician of Hoad Margaret Mahy HarperCollins, $39.99, ISBN 9781869506872 The Magician of Hoad takes Margaret Mahy into new territory – new for her at least. Her earlier YA novels were set in the real world. A highly-coloured version of…
Tagged with: Geoff Miles, HarperCollins, Issue 86, Margaret Mahy, Winter 2009
Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Young adults
Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Young adults
Poem – Heather McPherson
At Rangiora’s Ashley Street Cemetery This graveyard’s a bit like the one where we buried my mum and dad. Oldish, a small town Anglican acreage … ours used to seem huge. But after farms on the state house outskirts…
Letters – Issue 86
Sappho and the unspeakable If I’m a little surprised that Alan Loney joined up with the “moth to flame” industry about Sappho – which is probably little different from the industry round Homer, Virgil, Dante, Virginia Woolf or Emily Dickinson,…