Blog Archives

Hooves of unicorns clattering, Eleanor Toland

The Disestablishment of Paradise Phillip Mann Victor Gollancz, $37.00, ISBN 9780575132627 The Last Sanctuary P S Mokha Tangerine Publications, $30.00, ISBN 9780987664655 Tropic of Skorpeo Michael Morrissey Steam Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780987663535 Fantasy and science fiction are genres often underrepresented…
Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Remembering, John Horrocks

Under the Dundas Street Bridge Peter Olds Steele Roberts, $20.00, ISBN 9781877577833 Chords and Other Poems Sam Hunt Craig Potton Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9781877338181 Voicetracks: Poems 2002-2012 Jan Kemp Puriri Press/Tranzlit, $32.50, ISBN 9780908943388 Like Paul McCartney singing “Remember” at…
Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Pressing on, David Eggleton

On Song: Stories behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics Simon Sweetman Penguin Books, $65.00, ISBN 9780143568162 Any anthology is a work of exclusion, constructed to emphasise or establish a particular narrative. In the case of anthologist Simon Sweetman’s On Song: Stories…
Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review

Pity about the people

An excerpt from Too Many Cooks, a novel by Renée.  Belle Vista was beautifully located on top of a hill looking out over Wellington Harbour. There were three pine trees artfully placed around the hill so the view wasn”t too…
Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Extract

Not just a matter of mutton, Vincent O’Malley

New Zealand’s London: A Colony and its Metropolis Felicity Barnes Auckland University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781869405854 Far From “Home”: The English in New Zealand  Lyndon Fraser and Angela McCarthy (eds) Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877578328 On the day that…
Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Vanished world, Dale Williams

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Work of J G Keulemans Geoff Norman Te Papa Press, $150.00, ISBN 9781877385889 Kids in a sweet shop. Nineteenth-century naturalists given a brand new country to play in gobbled up the apparent endless…
Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in History, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review

No eureka moment, Mark Derby

The Making of New Zealanders Ron Palenski Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869407261 In these febrile times a passing mention of New Zealand in US media can provoke a front-page response from our own. So it’s instructive to discover that…
Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Unicorn in the cabbage patch, Desmond Bovey

Aesop’s Kiwi Fables: Paintings  Ray Ching David Bateman, $50.00, ISBN 9781869538453 I spotted Ray Ching’s new book, Aesop’s Kiwi Fables, in our local post office-cum-bookstore. I stopped buying picture books some time ago; they have become so glossily tempting that…
Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Eye-witness, Francis McWhannell

William Colenso: His Life and Journeys by A G Bagnall and G C Petersen Ian St George (ed) Otago University Press, $65.00, ISBN 9781877578151 When it was first published in 1948, A G Bagnall’s and G C Petersen’s William Colenso:…
Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review

Unbuttoning, Nadine France

Magnificent Moon Ashleigh Young Victoria University Press, $28.00, ISBN 9780864737632 This Hill, All It’s about is Lifting it to a Higher Level Vaughan Gunson Steele Roberts, $20.00, ISBN: 9781877577840 Three Days in a Wishing Well Kerrin P Sharpe Victoria University…
Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Search the archive

More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Architecture
Art
Autobiography
Awards
Biography
Byline
Children
Comment
Contents
ebooks
Economics
Editorial
Education
Essays
Extract
Fiction
Gender
Graphic novel
Health
History
Imprints
Language
Lecture
Letters
Letters
Literature
Māori
Media
Memoir
Music
Natural History
Non-fiction
Obituaries
Opinion
Pacific
Photography
Plays
Poem
Poetry
Politics & Law
Psychology
Religion
Review
Science
Short stories
Sociology
Sport
War
YA Reviewers
Young adults
Recent issues: subscriber-only access

    Subscribe to NZ Books to access the issues above

    Search by category