To all BookieMonster friends a very Merry Christmas! We hope your Christmas is filled with fine food, delicious drinks, good cheer and many, many kittehs. And finally, my personal favourite and especially just for my wonderful husband, the legendary Mr Monster…
Washday at the Pa, photographs by Ans Westra, with text by Mark Amery, Suite Gallery, RRP $24.95, ISBN 9780473198466, Available now. Any photography lover, any NZ photography lover and any NZ School Journal lover will have to get themselves a copy of Washday at the Pa. Originally a series of photographs taken by Ans Westra of a Maori family in Ruatoria, made into a booklet by the Ministry of Education with accompanying “story” by Ans Westra, controversially published and withdrawn due to a complaint by the Maori Women’s Welfare League, republished the next year… the history and story of Washday at the Pa (both photographs and the previously accompanying text) is a fascinating one, revealing much about using photos to capture moments… and then compiling those moments into the story you wish to tell. Suite Gallery have published this beautiful new edition to accompany their exhibition of the original photographs [...read more...]
Three books that have passed over my desk recently and I have passed my eyes over recently… with varying results. People, People, People : A Brief History of New Zealand by Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Bateman Publishing, RRP $24.99, ISBN 9781869538132, Available now. A short and well-produced history of New Zealand, the best part of People, People, People is by far the excellent selection of illustrations, paintings, and photos. The text is aimed at younger students or international students but I’m not sure how well the book will fare in that sector, considering the fairly obvious political bias at work (not surprising with Eldred-Grigg – you get what you get). Does what it says on the cover and does it well. The Two of Me by John Dybvig, Hurricane Press, RRP $29.99, ISBN 9780986468445, Available now. Both publisher and author clearly know the public’s opinion of the subject of The Two of [...read more...]
Snuff by Terry Pratchett, Doubleday, RRP $55, ISBN 9780385619264, Available now. Every new Discworld book is a cause for rejoicing. When I am old and infirm I will read nothing but Discworld, or possibly listen to them depending on the state of my health. Snuff is the 39th Discworld novel (yes, you read that right, 39th) and it returns us once again to Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh Morpork City Watch. Sam is out of his element in Snuff, however, because he’s on holiday. But this is Sam Vimes, people. And Sam Vimes does not do holidays. Strange things are afoot in the countryside, and I’m not just talking about the locals or the turkeys. And if there’s one thing that Vimes does well, it’s chase crime and bring criminals to justice. Unseen Academicals introduced us to the Discworld version of orcs and Pratchett continues that in Snuff, featuring goblins [...read more...]
The Glass Harmonica – a sensualist’s tale by Dorothee E. Kocks, Rosa Mira, ISBN 9780986469411, RRP$11 (ebook only), Available as an ebook and Print on Demand. There’s something very wonderful about being a luddite e-book reader (i.e. I don’t have an ebook reader, so I don’t read ebooks) and finding out that you can now read ebooks in this wonderful new format – paperback! And thank goodness, because otherwise I would have missed out on this wonderful tale from Dorothee E. Kocks and Rosa Mira books, a tale that takes its reader from Europe to America, from music to movies, from sin to sensuality. Our heroine in The Glass Harmonica is Chjara Valle: intelligent, feisty, sexy – a very fun heroine, in other words! We meet Chjara as a teenager on Corsica and within the first six pages she’s lost her virginity to the local lovely lad (rather awesome) which [...read more...]