Blog Archives

Striving for consensus, Gordon McLauchlan

Kiwi Keith: A Biography of Keith Holyoake  Barry Gustafson  Auckland University Press, $60.00,  ISBN 9781869404000 I first met Keith Holyoake in 1943 in Pahiatua where my father was editor of the North Wairarapa Herald. In those days, even small country

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction

Framing herself, Kim Worthington

Towards Another Summer Janet Frame Vintage, $30.00, ISBN 1869418689 In the months leading up to last year’s posthumous release of Towards Another Summer, a novel written almost 45 years earlier, we learned only that Janet Frame deemed it “too embarrassingly

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

In the beginning, Peter Russell

Peter Russell looks at his childhood reading through the eyes of Ovid. At the time when the story opens, a little boy named Maui … was playing on the sea-shore. He was so happy, picking up shells and watching the

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Posted in Imprints

The universe and everything, Philip Temple

Waimarino County and Other Excursions Martin Edmond Auckland University Press, $35.00,  ISBN 9781869403911 Phone Home Berlin – Collected Non-fiction Nigel Cox Victoria University Press, $35.00,  ISBN 9780864735676   The revival of the essay in book form continues compensating, to our

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

From stage to page, Laurie Atkinson

Three Plays Gary Henderson Playmarket, $24.95, ISBN 9780908607303 Two Plays Toa Fraser  Playmarket, $22.95, ISBN 9780907310 Does anyone read plays any more? Go into any of our major bookshops and you’ll have difficulty finding shelves devoted to “Drama” or “Theatre”.

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Posted in Literature, Plays, Review

Skewed unforgettable normalities, Catharina van Bohemen

At the End of Darwin Road – A Memoir  Fiona Kidman Vintage, $34.99, ISBN 9781869419448 Muck: A Memoir Craig Sherborne Victoria University Press, $30.00,  ISBN 9780864735683 Digging for Spain: A Writer’s Journey Penelope Todd Longacre Press, $29.99, ISBN 9781877361968 “The

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Rough justice, Tom Brooking

The Newest Country in the World: A History of New Zealand in the Decade of the Treaty Paul Moon Penguin Books, $39.95, ISBN 978014300670 Paul Moon is one of the most prolific historians currently holding an academic position (Moon is

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Likely stories, James C Raymond

Falling for Science: Asking the Big Questions Bernard Beckett Longacre Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781877361722   Imagine yourself in Egypt in the third century BC. You believe the earth is round – what else would cause ships’ masts to appear before

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Posted in Non-fiction, Science

Wholemeal, Louise O’Brien

Drybread Owen Marshall Vintage, $27.95, ISBN 9781869419196 Drybread is Owen Marshall’s third novel, adding to an already rich body of work. His last novel, Harlequin Rex, won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2000. Indeed,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Obituary — Ruth Dallas

Ruth Dallas (1919-2008) Dunedin writer Ruth Dallas was born in Invercargill into a working-class settler family, which informed her writing. She published 20 books, mainly poetry and books for children. Her most recent poetry collection, The Joy of a Ming

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Posted in Obituaries
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