Blog Archives

Poem – Vincent O’Sullivan

Plane people Do I need to tell you it was a good reading? It was a great reading. One hundred and twenty nearly, we’d hoped for eighty at the most! We hadn’t met since the Venice conference, how many years

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Punching above its poetic weight, Michael Hulse

99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry  Paula Green and Harry Ricketts Vintage, $44.99, ISBN 9781869791780   First, let me get off my chest a grouch about the physical presentation of this book. It’s thick, it’s heavy, and it won’t open

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Why read? Chris Else

The Torchlight List  Jim Flynn Awa Press, $33.00, ISBN 9780958291699   The world is going to hell in a handcart in so many ways that if you are over 55, you’re inclined to throw up your hands in despair, hide

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Posted in Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Map of a vision, Liv Macassey

The Past Awaits: People, Film, Images Vincent Ward Craig Potton Publishing, $69.99, ISBN 9781877517310   The Past Awaits joins a number of recent pictorial books on aspects of Aotearoa New Zealand cinema, such as Ian Brodie’s A Journey Through New

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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

Perusing the menu, Lois Daish

Dining Out: A History of the Restaurant in New Zealand Perrin Rowland Auckland University Press, $59.99, ISBN 9781869404642   Picture this. A freshly made flat white and a sugary blueberry scone will soon be delivered to your table. The morning

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Not to be sneezed at, Melissa Laing

Fantastica: The World of Leo Bensemann Peter Simpson Auckland University Press, $75.00, ISBN 978869404710   It has been a prolific few years for New Zealand art history at Auckland University Press, with monographs on Bill Culbert, Marti Friedlander, Len Lye

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Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review

A cabinet of curiosities, Stella Ramage

A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy Gregory O’Brien Auckland University Press, $59.99, ISBN 9781869404703 The exhibition staged in Wellington City Gallery to accompany the publication of this book contains a striking homage

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Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Saving their world, Diane Hebley

Just Jack Adele Broadbent HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869508869 The Peco Incident Des Hunt HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869508968 The Travelling Restaurant: Jasper’s Voyage in Three Parts Barbara Else Gecko Press, $24.99, ISBN 9781877467776 Nina Questor: The Battle Has Begun Ken Catran

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review

Strange rhythms, Ruth Nichol

Hokitika Town Charlotte Randall Penguin Books, $24.95, ISBN 9780143565390   The Hut Builder Laurence Fearnley Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143205067   When I started Charlotte Randall’s Hokitika Town, I found it hard to get my head around the idiosyncratic patois

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
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