Ah, Penguin. It’s a rollercoaster ride with you, isn’t it? So far this year I’ve loved a book, hated a book, and now back to love. And there’s all those odd goings-on with plagiarism and such. They’re like the Microsoft of New Zealand publishing.

But, on to Cannibal Jack. What a great book! What a great story! What a great character! Jacky Marmon was a “Pakeha-Maori”, born in Sydney to Irish parents who first jumped ship around 1817 to live with Maori around Kerikeri River and other Ngapuhi hapu around the Bay of Islands. Eventually he ended up with Hongi Hika, survived the Musket Wars and settled in the Hokianga, much later becoming involved with Hone Heke.

Cannibal Jack has a great narrative flow – based on two versions of Marmon’s supposed “autobiography” that were published in New Zealand newspapers around the time of his death in 1880, it intersperses sections from these with Bentley’s detailed research into the truer story of Marmon’s life. This allows Bentley to highlight and use the more flowery and, frankly, adventurous account of Marmon with the drier details of, for example, ship movements around New Zealand, missionary reports and other, more reliable, sources of historical data.

And it presents a fascinating portrait of Pakeha early involvement with Maori and the way those Pakeha viewed Maori as individuals and as a people. There is lots of detail of Maori life pre-colonisation, and some great examples of Pakeha misinterpretations of Maori concepts of tapu, muru and mana. Bentley also does a skilful job of interpreting Marmon’s stories to tease out the details of Pakeha feelings towards the Maori “way of life” and show us why the histories of Pakeha-Maori like Marmon are still so relevant today.

Marmon became a subject of much myth and speculation by other Pakeha in colonial New Zealand, mostly due to his wild tales of engaging in cannibalism and… yeah, okay, it was mostly the cannibalism. Let’s face it, even now cannibalism has a particular hold on the collective gory imagination of just about every culture in this world, and whether Marmon witnessed and was really involved with quite as much cannibalistic practice as he claimed would have to be open to conjecture, as Bentley makes pretty clear. What isn’t in doubt, however, is that Marmon’s editors/ghost writers knew that including as many details as they could attribute to Marmon’s flippant stories of such things, or embellish, was a great way to ensure readership!

Cannibal Jack is also wonderfully illustrated with both recognisable and less well-known images from early Pakeha history. I hope the story of early Maori and Pakeha interactions is as intriguing for other readers as it is for me – because really this is the story of why we are now who we are. Once we were people on opposite sides of the world, and when we came together we muddled through mutual captivation and confusion to some semblance of a nation and culture of our own. Histories like this can only help that grow even more. Three cheers.

First up:

A Matter of Life and Death : Inside the Hidden World of the Pathologist by Sue Armstrong, Text Publishing, ISBN 9781847675811

An interesting non-fiction book, if not exactly mind-blowing. Sue Armstrong interviews a range of pathologists from around the world, all working in different areas (disease research, historical research, forensics). There’s a lot of questions about how and why the interviewees got into pathology and these are some of the most compelling answers, as well as the historical information about epidemics like the Spanish Influenza.

Suffers a little from being a bit too clinical (ha!) due to the dry “transcription of questions and answers” format. For a book length read I personally find this format to be too limiting – it’s very hard to judge tone and context without any author assistance. But overall I’d recommend it if you find this sort of carry-on fascinating (like I do) and are happy with a touch of gore and the macabre (like me).

Strangers in Paradise graphic novel series by Terry Moore

Brilliant. Brriiiiiiilliant! (trill it with me). Sad, beautiful, ridiculous and ultimately incredibly satisfying reading. I loved every minute and can’t believe I’ve now finished all 6 books. Waaah! Previous musings on this series are here. READ THEM! I command you!

The illustration is phenomenal – a perfect mix of whimsical, realistic, fantasy, serious and amusing. And I dare you to not fall in love with at least ONE of the characters.

So what’s up next? Well I have more graphic novels, as well as Gold by Dan Rhodes, Chaucer by Peter Ackroyd and Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.

And look out this week for a ton of giveaways – I’ve got a small pile of books with which to reward you, my lucky readers! ♥

Home : Civilian New Zealanders Remember the Second World War by Alison Parr,

I really have only one major regret in my life – that I didn’t listen (and talk) enough to my grandparents. It’s that terrible child self-centeredness thing – when they are well and healthy and want to talk you don’t want to listen because you are young and stupid. And by the time you are older and hopefully less stupid … they’re gone.

Talk to your grandparents, kids.

What this is all leading up to is a review on what a great book Home is. It’s like being able to talk to your grandparents again, like being able to talk to lots and lots of grandparents again. And at the same time, it reminds me what I’ve lost. And what other people have lost too.

Home is the story of the New Zealanders who stayed home during World War 2 and most of the story is told verbatim through interviews with a range of people – mostly women (not surprisingly), but also men who stayed through being exempted from conscription and conscientious objectors. It is wonderfully fascinating hearing these stories in the words of the people who lived them (my new favourite saying? “I thought I was Christmas”) and there is a real sense of genuineness and honesty in reading what the interviewees have to tell us. These are NZers from all walks of life and from all parts of the country and both Maori and Pakeha. It’s an amazing slice of five years of our history.

Home is also a record of how much we’ve changed and how much we haven’t changed. The stories of the men who stayed behind are particularly touching in their descriptions of feeling and being judged by the general public, who had no idea what particular circumstances led to their not serving - we’re still very good at that sort of thing. There’s stories of being in the ”essential services”, like farming, teaching, nursing (and cigarette making), of being at school. Of saying goodbye again and again as secrecy prevented the soldiers from knowing exactly when they were leaving the country. Of getting married and then not seeing or talking to your husband for 3 years. Of seeing people for the last time, ever. Of fathers damaged by one war and watching their sons go off to be damaged by another.

For most of us this would have been our experience of war.

The author-written links between stories and exposition are interesting and useful, though many people will probably find themselves skipping the cursory explanation of the origins of the war.  The book itself looks beautiful, well done design team. The photos are fantastic (and numerous), as are the reproductions of contemporary advertisements and government notices, and above all there’s the stories here that are fun and fond and also profoundly sad.

Thanks to all those in Home (and to Alison Parr) for sharing them with us. And for being our grandparents (in absentia).

Home : Civilian New Zealanders Remember the Second World War by Alison Parr,

The stories of those who stayed at home during the Second World War are as vivid and poignant as those from the battlefields.

Many of us have grown up with stories from our parents and grandparents but are unaware of the social, physical, financial and emotional toll taken on families and communities during that time. Eighteen New Zealanders tell us those stories in home.

Written in an extremely accessible style with disarmingly honest, sometimes funny, often surprising, personal and heartfelt recollections, home is essential reading for young and old. It gives a real feel for the thoughts and feelings of people living through that time.

Highly illustrated with photographs — many previously unpublished — this book reveals the reality of civilians during wartime New Zealand. We see how the chronic uncertainty, the fear of enemy invasion, the deprivations that came with rationing, and the intensity of wartime romantic relationships took their toll. How some took a pacifist stand against the patriotic tide while others hid their embarrassment when they were excluded from military service. How many lived with the ongoing anxiety of long-distance separation from loved ones and endured the inevitable grief of loss.

home has accurately documented these revealing and moving stories while we still have these people and their memories with us.

Alison Parr

Author Alison Parr is Senior Oral Historian at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage where she is responsible for the From Memory War Oral History Programme.

She recorded the interviews for the Ministry’s oral history projects with SecondWorld War veterans of North Africa and the Pacific, and is currently working on a book of interviews with New Zealanders who served in the post-war occupation of Japan.

In her time with the Ministry Alison has been Master of Ceremonies for the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli and the unveiling of the New Zealand Memorial in London. She also accompanied the team who brought New Zealand’s Unknown Warrior home from France, and with Ian Johnston provided the commentary for the live television coverage of the event in Wellington.

She is a former broadcasting journalist and worked for more than 25 years in radio and television. In that time she fronted both current affairs and arts programmes and for more than two years hosted Sunday Morning on National Radio. During that time she won a World Gold Medal for interviewing, at the New York Festivals International Radio Awards. She is the author of two earlier books based on oral history – Silent Casualties, New Zealand’s Unspoken Legacy of the Second World War and, as part of her work at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, The Big Show — New Zealanders, D-Day and the War in Europe.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

This publication continues the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s commitment to producing quality histories related to the Second World War. The Ministry produces histories designed to enhance access to, and understanding of New Zealand’s historical and cultural heritage. Its focus is on state activity, oral history, social history and other histories of national significance.

The Ministry presents history in a variety of formats, including print and digital publications and oral histories. This includes www.nzhistory.net.nz and 28maoribattalion.org.nz. It also publishes the award- winning Te Ara — Encyclopedia of New Zealand www.teara.govt.nz.

- courtesy of Penguin.

Scribe Publications

Ken Crispin is a former Australian state Supreme Court judge, as well as an attorney who’s worked in both defence (Lindy Chamberlain!) and prosecutions so he’s really excellently placed to give a wide-ranging and thoroughly accessible overview of the Western democratic legal system. Whilst concentrating, obviously, mostly on Australia there really isn’t a major difference  between our system and Australia’s – nor is there a major difference between the willful ignorance of both countries’ general populations as to what our legal system does and doesn’t do and how and why it does it.

Oh, and apparently politicians and media everywhere have discovered the stunning ability of the “justice sucks” stick to both entertain and scare their audience.

Ah, soapbox.

Leaving aside my own views however, The Quest for Justice is a highly recommended read from me, both for its ability to discuss legal complexities in an appealing and enlightening manner whilst retaining a sense of inquiry into both the ethics and practicalities of the law.  So there’s a certain amount of philosophy but Crispin always brings it back to actual practice.

As said, a lot of the examples and issues are Australian, particularly in the chapters on the creeping impingement on individual freedoms in the name of fighting “terrorists” – but, let’s face it, that isn’t really a million miles from NZ when you think of incidents like the Tuhoe raids in 2007.

Mostly the writing is well done with only the occasional tendency to repetition – which can sometimes cause a bit of tooth grinding.

So, there are many people I wish I could send a copy of this book to. Of course, most of them would never read it, sadly. Because that might involve thinking.

Bonk is (unfortunately) my least favourite – Stiff being the best and Spook close behind. Not that this is terrible – Roach at her best is still entertaining, diverting and informative – but Bonk is too meandering and needed a good edit. This being her third published book I couldn’t help wondering if the old author vs. editor competition had swung in the author’s favor this time around.

Roach’s meandering style with lots of diversions is great but needs a serious directing hand to make sure she comes back to the topic once the meander is complete, and that hand was definitely lacking. More than once we sharply veered off the current path with a promise to return, only to find that never happening. And at least one chapter ends rather abruptly.

Aside from those nit-picky structural problems, however, this is still great fun. And what better topic for great fun than sex – and in typical Roach style the fun is intermixed with many cringe-worthy, leg-crossing moments and a great deal of self-deprecation on Roach’s part – for Bonk she was far more of a personal participant in her research, it seems (though one realises it would have been fairly difficult for her to do a similar thing with Stiff). Bonk feels a lot more like a compendium of anecdotes however and lacks the more cerebral thoughtful moments of both Stiff and Spook.

Still, very enjoyable and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it – as long as a reader is happy to be shocked and offended (which is always one of the great joys of a Roach book or article).

Because we don’t always have all our books listed at one time, these change quite often. There’s generally always a Jasper Fforde, or a Kazuo Ishiguro, and on rare occasions a Terry Pratchett (I tell you, people hold on to those little buggers), any number of New Zealand books and the odd non-fiction. Basically anything I like, I’ll designate a Recommended or Highly Recommended (I really like those!) Read.

It’s a good way too of browsing a list of a more manageable size.

P.S. The site was down for about an hour today and I originally wrote this as it was going down. And subsequently lost what was a far more original and exciting post, I’m sure. The great lost post it was… *sigh*

And I was right. I was SO right! Stiff is a blast, if somewhat gruelling, but still a blast. Who knew dead bodies could be so entertaining? Still it is the first book since America Psycho to make me cringe, spin-out and take it a page at a time just so I could get through it (particularly the human decay chapter, though the information that dead bodies can, indeed, fart helped me on).

Admittedly, not all of the book is like that. Plenty of it is fairly tame and it does lag slightly in the late sections, though perhaps I was cadavered out by that point. But it remains hilarious to the end, informative to a fault and the fact that a book so resolutely committed to making sure you know ALL the details of human dissection, human decay, human body testing, etc, can be such a giggle is a testament to Roach’s writing power.

Roach not only approaches her subject with humour, she also manages to inject some rather deadly (a-ha!) facts – such as the cost of a human life as determined by airline accountants, the fact that males are more likely to survive a plane crash (as Roach puts it “Presumably because they pushed everyone else out of the way.”), and the number of people who die every day waiting for organ transplants. She also includes a thoughtful conversation with a funeral director about the pressure on survivors to honour the wishes of the dead, to the exclusion of their own pain or needs.¹

There’s also chapters on ballistics research, how using cadavers to investigate injuries sustained during vehicle crashes has helped increase vehicle safety, some very odd experiments and some salacious bits on cannibalism.

What I love most about Roach is her ability to see the absurdity in every facet of life – something I often find myself doing. It’s nice to know I’m not a total freak.

On to Bonk next – waa-hey!

¹ Here I have to say I totally agreed with her assessment that it’s a kind of selfishness – bar organ donation, I have no care what happens to my remains after death, as long as it helps anyone grieving over me to feel better. Cremation, burial, funeral, no funeral, music, flowers…it’s going to all be a bit beside the point to me at that moment…

How to Build a Great Screenplay by David Howard ($16)

In making individual decisions about each element of the screenplay a writer builds a good story from the ground up. David Howard offers in-depth consideration of the many elements that make up a screenplay, clarifying his lessons through examples from the most successful films: Pulp Fiction, American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, Trainspotting and Chinatown among many others.

Accessible, clear and practical ‘How To Build A Great Screenplay’ is a working bible for the budding screenwriter. Recognising that story structure is the framework for a successful screenplay David Howard teaches how to incorporate the other elements so that the screenplay takes on a life of its own, creating the emotional connection, spectacle and intellectual stimulation that will impact on an audience.

JPod : A Novel by Douglas Coupland ($11)

Ethan Jarlewski and five co-workers are bureaucratically marooned in JPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver video game design company.

The six jPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a bone-headed marketing staff, who daily torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan’s personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people-smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. JPod’s universe is amoral and shamelessand dizzyingly fast-paced.

I just <3 Douglas Coupland so much. He’s damn funny and damn weird. Recommended!

The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy – Barbara Vine ($11)

Bestselling and critically acclaimed novelist Gerald Candless dies suddenly, and leaves behind a wife and two doting daughters. To sort through her grief, his daughter Sarah puts aside her university studies and agrees to write a biography of her famous father. But as she begins her research and pulls back the veil of his past, her life is slowly torn apart: a terrible logic begins to unfold that explains her mother’s remoteness, her father’s need to continually reinvent himself — and sheds shocking light on a long-forgotten London murder.

Regular readers will know that I discovered the amazing writing of Barbara Vine only last year (the shame, the shame!) and this is a fantastic book – highly recommended by me.

Virginia Woolf – Hermione Lee ($10)

While Virginia Woolf–one of our century’s most brilliant and mercurial writers–has had no shortage of biographers, none has seemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee. Subscribing to Virginia Woolf’s own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness of identity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude of perspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer and the woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictions intact. Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicide are brought into balance with the immensity of her literary achievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity and wit, and her sanity and strength.

One of the best biographies I’ve read, Lee delves so deep into Woolf’s life and character you feel like you’ve somehow known her.

Hey! It’s That Guy! : The Fametracker.com Guide to Character Actors ($8)

So you’re watching Full Metal Jacket and there he is that guy! What’s his name? You know, that guy who always plays a drill sergeant! Or you’re watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High and there’s another one that creepy science teacher! That guy always plays a creepy somebody! What’s his name?

We’re talking about R. Lee Ermey and Vincent Schiavelli, of course and you can read all about them in Hey! It’s That Guy!, a guide to identifying “famous” character actors and actresses.

From Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman to J. T. Walsh, Judy Greer, and Amy Aquino, they’re all here. You may not know their names, but you’ll certainly recognize their faces! 

Hilarious. And I love Steve Buscemi. Mwah, mwah, mwah.