Blog Archives

Avoiding the cookie-cutter, Jennifer Lawn

Manifold Utopia: The Novels of Janet Frame  Marc Delrez Rodopi, $59.95 approx, ISBN 904201508X The appearance of the term “manifold” in the titles of two recent books on Janet Frame’s fiction suggests a current fascination with the multiple modes of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Non-fiction

Literary honours

Playwright Roger Hall of Auckland was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in the latest Queen’s Birthday honours. Jo Noble, also of Auckland, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM)

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Short lives on earth, Rebecca J Davies

Life on Earth Sue McCauley Vintage, $26.95, ISBN 1869415493 Water Bernard Steeds Penguin, $27.95, ISBN 0143018353 The Chandrasekhar Limit and other stories Sugu Pillay The Writers Group, price unavailable, ISBN 0473087316 There is a common misconception that big themes require

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Montana Book Award winners

The Shag Incident, a novel by Aucklander Stephanie Johnson, has won this year’s Deutz Medal for Fiction in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Runners up were The Hopeful Traveller by Fiona Farrell, also a novel, and a short story

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Posted in Awards, Comment

Taking ideas for a walk, Anne French

Tracing the Arc John Saker Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237557 On Make-up and Makeover  Paula Boock Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237549 Notes of a Bag Lady Margaret Mahy Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237522 Until recently, the essay

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Adventures in the waiting room, Garth Baker

Going the Distance – Women Outdoors in New Zealand Tess Redgrave Tandem Press, $34.95, ISBN 1877298018 Seduced by the Sea  ed Tessa Duder HarperCollins, $29.95, ISBN 1869504461 Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail Geoff Chapple Random House, $34.95, ISBN 186941537X

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Posted in Awards, Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Review

Read in paw and claw, Barbara Murison

The Truth At Last about the Little Red Hen Hugh Price; illustrations by Isabel Lowe Steele Roberts, $9.95, ISBN 1877228192 The Immigrants Alan Bagnall; illustrations by Sarah Wilkins Mallinson Rendel, $24.95, ISBN 0908783728 Abraham The Builder’s Cat – Adventures on

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review

Aotearoa – the last frontier, Neville Peat

Environmental Histories of New Zealand ed Eric Pawson and Tom Brooking Oxford University Press, $49.95, ISBN 019558421X Environmentally and in other ways, New Zealand is a last frontier – the last temperate-climate land on earth to be discovered and colonised

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Posted in History, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review

A light yodel, Jane Bowron

The Topp Twins Book Jools and Lynda Topp Penguin Books, $29.95, ISBN 0143018604 The Topp Twins book is an absolute must for Topp Twins’ fans and an absolute miss for those with no more than a passing acquaintance with the

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Editorial – Issue 59

And the winner is   Literary prizes are, of course, a good thing, and only the most curmudgeonly of spoilsports would want to abolish them. In a profession with few career markers, prizes like the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

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