Blog Archives

Home and away, Nicholas Reid

Dead People’s Music Sarah Laing Vintage, $29.99, ISBN 9781869791087 Footnotes to Sex Mia Farlane Viking, $37.00, ISBN 9780670917938 Mother’s Day Laurence Fearnley Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 9780143011255 I am male, middle-aged, heterosexual and monogamous. The first two terms make me different

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

New worlds, old ways, Elspeth Sandys

Forbidden Cities  Paula Morris  Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143009146 Etiquette for a Dinner Party  Sue Orr  Vintage, $29.99, ISBN 9781869790072 The Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 5 Owen Marshall (ed) Vintage, $34.99, ISBN 978869419790 The problem with reviewing short story

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories

Good clean fun, Bernard Carpinter

Bold Blood Lindy Kelly HarperCollins, $36.99, ISBN 9781869507336 Full Moon Fever David Rodewald Rodewald Family Trust, $25.00,  ISBN 9780473132736 The Bone Tiki David Hair HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869507343 Bold Blood comes with a foreword recommendation from Mark Todd, which may

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Fierce bliss, Jane Stafford

The Angel’s Cut Elizabeth Knox Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864736000 In Elizabeth Knox’s 1998 novel The Vintner’s Luck an old French peasant from 19th century Burgundy who sees the angel Xas is carted off to the asylum; in its

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

What, where, here, not here, Peter Ireland

Peter Peryer Photographer  Peter Peryer (photographs); Peter Simpson and Peter Peryer (essays) Auckland University Press, $59.99,  ISBN 9781869494178 Room Room Ann Shelton (photographs); Martin Patrick (essay) City Gallery in association with McNamara Gallery, $7.00, ISBN 0958270465 Acerbic old Degas once

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Posted in Non-fiction, Photography, Review

Waiting for sunshine Christine Johnston

Singularity Charlotte Grimshaw Vintage, $32.99, ISBN 9781869791384 Relief Anna Taylor Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864735874 These new publications by young female authors appear at first glance to have quite a lot in common. Take the single-word abstract-noun titles. Take

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories

Poem – David Eggleton

Christchurch Gothic   Summer’s Avon spelt the names of atua in green, and through trees sun shafts dug at dappled lawns, as if to unearth a circuit-board of worm-holes, the universe beneath the labyrinth, the silent presence of mountain shingle

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Posted in Poem

Flights of fancy, Diane Hebley

Sting Raymond Huber Walker Books, $16.99, ISBN 9781921150890 The Strange and Diverting Story of The Loblolly Boy: A Fantasy Novel Involving Enchantment, Mystery, one Garden Gnome and a Wombat’s Bottom James Norcliffe Longacre Press, $19.99, ISBN 9781877460258 Return for the

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

What sustains, Stella Ramage

Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation  Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling Auckland University Press, $99.99, ISBN 9781869404376 I had a sort of epiphany the first time I saw a painting by Piet Mondrian. Prior to this my Mondrian experience had been

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
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