Sting Raymond Huber Walker Books, $16.99, ISBN 9781921150890 The Strange and Diverting Story of The Loblolly Boy: A Fantasy Novel Involving Enchantment, Mystery, one Garden Gnome and a Wombat’s Bottom James Norcliffe Longacre Press, $19.99, ISBN 9781877460258 Return for the…
Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling Auckland University Press, $99.99, ISBN 9781869404376 I had a sort of epiphany the first time I saw a painting by Piet Mondrian. Prior to this my Mondrian experience had been…
Under the Osakan Sun Hamish Beaton Awa Press, $34.99, ISBN 9780958275026 A Long Slow Affair of the Heart Bruce Ansley Longacre, $34.99, ISBN 9781877460210 If this review were a competition, there should have been no contest – a young first-time…
Further Convictions Pending: Poems 1998-2008 Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864736062 In “Being here”, the first of the 44 new poems in this generous book, Vincent O’Sullivan states explicitly for the first time an important position: It has…
Parliament’s Library: 150 Years John E Martin Steele Roberts, $59.99, ISBN 9781877448430 Freedom to Read: A Centennial History of Dunedin Public Library Mary Ronnie Dunedin Public Libraries and the Dunedin Public Library Association $40.00, ISBN 9780473134624 In these uncertain times…
Beside the Dark Pool Fiona Kidman Vintage, $37.99, ISBN 9781869790592 Such a seductive title for a memoir, hinting at murky depths of angst, turmoil and scandal. The stuff we hope, in fact expect, to find in the autobiography of a…
Long Live the Modern: New Zealand’s New Architecture 1904-1984 Julia Gatley (ed) Auckland University Press, $64.99, ISBN 9781869404154 In this unashamedly celebratory volume, Julia Gatley has exercised a judicious eye in selecting and describing virtuoso architecture from all eras. Long…
The Rocky Shore Jenny Bornholdt Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864735805 The Rocky Shore is Jenny Bornholdt’s ninth volume of poems, published over the last 20 years. Its six extended sequences, “Confessional”, “The Rocky Shore”, “Willow”, “Fitter Turner”, “A Long…