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Making light of it, Kim Worthington

Light Readings Fiona Farrell Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414578 It is perhaps a commonplace to note that at no point in history have we relied so heavily on the written word, or been such avid readers: of e-mail, junk mail, the

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories

“Considerate autocrats”, Bill Sewell and Harry Ricketts

Editing Writers can get paranoid about editors. We know; we’re writers ourselves. Like many others, we’ve imagined editors to whom we’ve submitted work flicking through it in a spirit somewhere between malice and mischief. A number of masochistic scenarios spring

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Posted in Opinion

Lyetening up, Mark Amery

Len Lye: A Biography Roger Horrocks Auckland University Press, $49.95, ISBN 1869402472 Len Lye himself ensures his biography is a ripper of a read. While biographer Roger Horrocks studiously clocks and chronicles the events and years of a long, ever-colourful

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Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Niche poets, Pat White

Islands of Intimacy, Love Poems 1970-2000 Denys Trussell Addenda, $22.95, ISBN 0958218617 The Albatross is Dead: Sixty Sonnets Peter Dane Hudson Cresset, $22.95, ISBN 0959789456 Dark Out of Darkness  Guyon Neutze Steele Roberts, $24.95, ISBN 1877228109 b.1943 G J Melling

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Risky business, Alison Kirkman

Whistle Blower: Abuse of Power in the Church: A New Zealand Story Louise Deans Tandem Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877178780 How dangerous men think and how to stay safe for life Brent Sanders Random House Australia, $24.95, ISBN 0091842093 Touchy Subject:

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Posted in Education, Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Psychology, Review, Sociology

Rubble and trouble, Philip Temple

Kaput! Stevan Eldred-Grigg 1stBooks Library, $50 approx, ISBN 1587215543 Before me I have a postcard of a 1952 poster published by the Office of Information of the German Democratic Republic. A Berlin working woman stands behind a pile of bricks, ruined

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Passionate Victorians, Edmund Bohan

Tom’s Letters. The Private World of Thomas King, Victorian Gentleman Margot Fry Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864733917 One of many challenges facing the biographer of 19th Century New Zealanders can be the lack of intimate letters or diaries. The vagaries

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Posted in History, Letters, Non-fiction, Review

Desperate Dan, W H Oliver

Intimate Stranger: reminiscences of Dan Davin ed Janet Wilson Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228249 Before I start on the book, I will allow myself a grumble about the cover. This shows in the foreground a highlighted profile of Dan, characteristically

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

A gift worth unwrapping, John Dickson

The Falling: A Memoir Alan Loney Auckland University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1869402502 The simplest way to begin unwrapping the gift of this book is to start with the title: The Falling: A Memoir.  Notice the first word, the definite article:

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Independence and after, Colin James

“Nothing is more important to a country,” one-time Australian Treasurer and Prime Minister Paul Keating told the Knowledge Wave conference in August, “than the way it thinks about itself.” Right now, this country, barely a nation, thinks it is small, far-away

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Posted in Comment
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