Blog Archives
Sweet recklessness, Kiran Dass
The Salted Air Thom Conroy Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781775538820 “We strut about imagining heroism and lucky saves, but we’ve got it all wrong. Catastrophe arrives when the air is warm and people are everywhere … .” So observes the keenly…
Tagged with: Issue 115, Kiran Dass, Spring 2016, Thom Conroy, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Mystery, wisdom and complication, Gregory O’Brien
The Lives of Coat Hangers Sudesh Mishra University of Otago Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781927322376 “A thing is a hole in a thing it is not.” I was reminded of American sculptor Carl Andre’s words, as I read Sudesh Mishra’s remarkable…
Tagged with: Gregory O’Brien, Issue 115, Spring 2016, Sudesh Mishra, University of Otago Press
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
“Pure, straight sound”, Elizabeth Kerr
Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand Choral Music Elizabeth Salmon Mākaro Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780994106582 On the book’s cover a young boy stands a little uncertainly before the camera. He’s wearing the Eton suit of a King’s College chorister, complete…
Tagged with: Elizabeth Kerr, Elizabeth Salmon, Issue 115, Mākaro Press, Peter Godfrey, Spring 2016
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Salted history, Mary Roberts
A Boy of China: In Search of Mao’s Lost Son Richard Loseby HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540885 This is a book that seems at odds with itself. The title tells us that it is about the author’s search for “Mao’s lost…
Tagged with: HarperCollins, Issue 115, Mary Roberts, Richard Loseby, Spring 2016
Posted in Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Review
Olympian heights, John Horrocks
Striking Gold: New Zealand Hockey’s Remarkable Victory at the 1976 Olympics Suzanne McFadden Mary Egan Publishing, $40.00 ISBN 9780473343729 Striking Gold is the story of one of the great moments in New Zealand’s sporting history. The 1976 Olympics are remembered…
Tagged with: Issue 115, John Horrocks, Mary Egan Publishing, Spring 2016, Suzanne McFadden
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sport
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sport
The headlock of myth, Mark Reason
Seelenbinder: The Olympian Who Defied Hitler James McNeish Steele Roberts, $35.00, ISBN 9780947493011 “After a certain time a life exists not for what it is in reality, but for its mythological qualities”: in that one sentence, James McNeish defines his…
Tagged with: Issue 115, James McNeish, Mark Reason, Spring 2016, Steele Roberts
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Mud, blood and misconception, Damien Fenton
First Day of the Somme: The Complete Account of Britain’s Worst-ever Military Disaster Andrew Macdonald, HarperCollins, $40.00, ISBN 9781775540403 Experience of a Lifetime: People, Personalities and Leaders in the First World War John Crawford, David Littlewood and James Watson (eds)…
Tagged with: Andrew Macdonald, David Littlewood, Dr Damien Fenton, HarperCollins, Issue 115, James Watson, John Crawford, Massey University Press, Spring 2016
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War
With the Second Division, Tony Simpson
A Bloody Road Home: World War Two and New Zealand’s Heroic Second Division Christopher Pugsley Penguin, $70.00 ISBN 9780143571896 It might seem strange that we have had to wait seven decades from the conclusion of WWII for a comprehensive history…
Tagged with: Christopher Pugsley, Issue 115, Penguin Books, Spring 2016, Tony Simpson
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War