Blog Archives

Not in Guatemala now, Linda Burgess

Ourselves in Primetime: A History of New Zealand Television Drama Trish Dunleavy Auckland University Press, $49.99, ISBN 1869403398 If Ourselves in Primetime were television, rather than a book about television, it would be tucked away on TV1 at 11.30pm. Or

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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Women on top, Linda Burgess

Linda Burgess responds to The Women’s Bookshop’s invitation to vote for the top 10 women writers of the last 50 years … and assesses the results.  Speaking in that slightly miffed voice that people can use when they get a

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Posted in Comment

Pinning down the “again” factor, Linda Burgess

The Other Ark Lynley Dodd Mallinson Rendel, $27.95, ISBN 090878385X Taming the Sun: Four Maori Myths Gavin Bishop Random, $29.95, ISBN 1869416120 Koro’s Medicine Melanie Drewery, illustrations by Sabrina Malcolm Huia, $16.95, ISBN 1869691044 Clubs  Kate De Goldi, illustrations by

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Catching the post, Linda Burgess

The Penguin Book of New Zealand Letters ed Louise Lawrence Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018663 Oh friends, friends – where would we be without them? Sometimes they move far away, as did Charlotte Bronte’s school friend and confidante Mary Taylor, who

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Posted in Letters, Non-fiction, Review

Fly-swat of the gods Linda Burgess

When Gravity Snaps Owen Marshall Vintage, $26.95, ISBN 1869415280 A small piece of homespun advice before I start. It is not 
a good idea to play country/bluesy/folksy music quietly on your CD player as you read Marshall’s latest collection of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

How to lose friends … Linda Burgess

Reviewing It’s been a good day. I read the last 20 pages, the treat I’d saved myself for the morning, then I got out of bed and wrote the review. Four hundred words in less than half an hour. The

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Posted in Opinion

Jaunts and junkets, Linda Burgess

The Swing Around Barbara Anderson Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864734220 There’s a certain anxiety that accompanies writing this review. Embarrassingly, it’s to do with a fear of mixing metaphors (as opposed to, say, starting a sentence with an adverb.)

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Getting into character, Linda Burgess

Long Hot Summer Barbara Anderson Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0 86473 371 2 I thought as I was reading this book that for me the most important thing in fiction is character. If a novelist gets the characters right,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Touched by an angel, Linda Burgess 

The Vintner’s Luck  Elizabeth Knox Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0 86473 342 9 Put up your hand if you don’t know that Elizabeth Knox was delirious with a combination of fever and exhaustion, had a dream that lasted days, and

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

The (naive) Kiwi abroad, Tina Shaw

Allons Enfants Linda Burgess Longacre Press, $24.95, ISBN 1 877135 43 7 Seasons in Tuscany Allan Parker Penguin, $24.95, ISBN 0 14 029441 4 Travel writing’s a fairly new genre for New Zealanders. James MeNeish did well with Sicily; Jean

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
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