Blog Archives

Driven to grizzling, Dale Williams

The Cars We Loved John McCrystal Penguin, $36.95, ISBN 01401004517 Killing Us Softly: The Kiwi Culture of Complaint John Bluck Shoal Bay Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877251100 Kiwiana! The Sequel Richard Wolfe and Stephen Barnett Penguin, $49.95, ISBN 0140298770 We seek

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Revelling in idiosyncrasy, Diane Brown

The Bag Lady’s Picnic Frankie McMillan Shoal Bay Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877251097 Creative Juices. New Writing  ed Emma Neale Flamingo, $29.95, ISBN 1869504100 “We want more Kiwi dialogues,” my advanced ESOL class told me. I toyed with the idea of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

What about the pets? Suzanne Innes-Kent

Recycled People: Forming New Relationships in Mid-life  Coral Atkinson & Paula Wagemaker Shoal Bay Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877251046 Recycled People is a timely and welcome book. When one examines the generation of any timely idea, one discovers that it arises

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Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Happy days, Redmer Yska

I Live Here Now: Sarah Campion in 1950s New Zealand ed Rachel Scott Shoal Bay Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877251054 Over the summer of 2000, National Radio was the unlikely backdrop for a rumble over New Zealand in the 1950s. The

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

More spills than thrills, Bernard Carpinter

The Wastings Don Donovan Hazard Press, $24.95, ISBN 1 877161 52 7 Don Donovan’s The Wastings could be read as a savage satire on the evils of the right-wing economic theories that have bedevilled this country over the last 15

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Passion and precision, Chris Laidlaw

A Lucky Man Keith Quinn Shoal Bay Press, $44.95, ISBN 0908704917 It is one of life’s idiosyncrasies that the nicer a guy is, the more some people will feel compelled to hate him. Keith Quinn, the doyen of television sports

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

“They all knew”, Peter Russell

Strawberries with the Führer Helga Tiscenko Shoal Bay Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877251038   The first chapters of Helga Tiscenko’s memoir of her life are in large part a tale of the ordinary. Her childhood with her younger sister Sigrid in

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Moore’s almanac, Linda Clark

A Brief History of the Future Mike Moore Shoal Bay Press, $24.95, ISBN 0 908704 77 1 Aconversation with Mike Moore is like an adventure ride at a theme park. You’re bucked and rolled and threatened and sidetracked and at the

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

On the defensive, Warren Young

A Passion for Justice Peter Williams Shoal Bay Press $29.95 ISBN 0 90870 463 1 We are fed a constant diet of stories about crime, criminals and the criminal justice system – in news’ reports, in television dramas, in novels

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Cow-cockies and cock-ups, Michael Lyon

Shaggy Dogs & Other Stories: Tales of a Kiwi Vet David Marshall Shoal Bay Press, $24.95 ISBN 0 908704 69 0 When I first graduated as a veterinary surgeon in the late 1970s, I started work with an established veterinary

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review
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