THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

Join Randell Cottage at the National Library on 28 November, for an evening of conversation with Randell Cottage writer in residence, Stephen Daisley and Wellington writers, Catherine Robertson and Tracy Farr . Stephen Daisley is a New Zealand born writer, living and working in Perth. He hit New Zealand headlines in 2016, when his second novel, Coming Rain, took out the inaugural Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the New Zealand Book Awards. Although, at that point, something of an unknown quantity in his homeland, Stephen had won or been short- and long-listed for major Australian literary awards, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction for his first novel, Traitor, the 2016 Miles Franklin Award and the 2011 Commonwealth Writers prize for best first book. Stephen’s work addresses themes of masculinity and love, frequently in an historical context. He’s used his time at the Randell Cottage to work on two projects: A Better Place Than This is a picaresque tale of r...

The New York Times have released their list of 100 Notable Books of 2017 - The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Fiction & Poetry AMERICAN WAR. By Omar El Akkad. (Knopf, $26.95.) This haunting debut novel imagines the events that lead up to and follow the Second American Civil War at the turn of the 22nd century. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. By Elizabeth Strout. (Random House, $27.)This audacious novel is about small-town characters struggling to make sense of past family traumas. AUTUMN. By Ali Smith. (Pantheon, $24.95.) Smith’s ingenious novel is about the friendship between a 101-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman in Britain after the Brexit vote. BAD DREAMS AND OTHER STORIES. By Tessa Hadley. (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) Hadley serves up the bitter along with the delicious in these 10 stories. BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS. By Lawrence Osborne. (Hogarth, $25.)...

John Clarke 1948 - 2017 Here at The Groove Book Report we are taking a bit of a celebratory look at New Zealand's greatest reluctant export - No not Winston Peters - John Clarke The fabulous people at Text Publishing have released three of his best works, and I, the CoffeeBar Kid, have managed to SNARFU them for you.  They are: A Pleasure To Be Here: The best of Clarke and Dawe 1989-2017 - By John Clarke Tinkering: the complete book of John Clarke - by John Clarke (introduced by Lorin Clarke) The Tournament - By John Clarke (introduced by Michael Heyward) John Clarke was a man of diverse talents - a comedian, actor and writer of television, film and stage musicals.  He was born in New Zealand but made his name as a comedian and political satirist in Australia after arriving in the 1970s.  For thousands of New Zealanders, he was, and will always be, the typical Kiwi, Fred Dagg.  He was 68 when he passed away, out bushwalking in Victoria in early...

Every Girl’s and Every Boy’s Alphabet are destined to be collectible classics, in which sensitive observation and clever use of form combine to create two beautiful companion pieces. Printed in Martineau, a new font made for this project, on 160gsm Heritage Bookwhite paper and presented in their own gift box, each edition is limited to 145 standard cloth copies (£95) and 5 luxury copies in full leather with onlays (£450). If you would like one of the luxury leather copies please email enquires@heywoodhill.com . The affection visible in each of Luke's characteristically fluid figures is matched by Kate Bingham's tender and witty single lines, written to appeal to adults as much as to the puzzling younger mind. Although they treat the theme of childhood, Every Girl's and Every Boy's Alphabet are for all of us, capturing as they do so much that is true of boys and girls of any age. The perfect gift, these books are also a must for any collector of Luke's and ...

I'm sure many are aware of TS Elliot's famous poem The Wasteland and his many writings on the the great lie that was World War I.  Some recent accounts of Eliot’s behavior during the Great War have presented him as negative and playing safe. Vincent Sherry’s The Great War and the Language of Modernism describes him as essentially ‘opportunist’ and ‘circumspect’, assiduously networking and avoiding trouble during the war years. Carole Seymour-Jones writes in Painted Shadow , her biography of Vivienne Eliot: ‘The war interested him little’i and ‘As the citizen of a neutral country, Eliot was able to benefit from the war… By showing as few signs of life as possible he did not alarm people. Elliot became the poster child for War Poetry of the era and was taught fastidiously in most Kiwi Schools right up until the late 1980's.  Yet Elliot's voice is only one of many.  With the many commemorations of WWI occurring lately we are finally (it seems) hearing from the others...

You just gotta love a book that takes classic Mother Goose and re-invents it for nostalgic parents.  We have the Grand  Old Duke Of York redone as Sir Ed Hillary; Little Jack Horner as a rugby player; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star  as Maui's travels; Five little Monkey's becomes 5 little Kiwis; London Bridge is Falling Down becomes Auckland Bridge and so on. I love the reinterpretations.  They are clever and, in the traditional Kiwi way, subtle.  Scott Tulloch's art is quite 'blokey'.  His people are round, 'she'll be right' types, with a slight rural overtones to them - playing off the good ol' Kiwi joker theme.  Good, but I'd like to see a bit more mutlti- culturalism i there if i'm honest.  Perhaps some Indian, Chinese or Middle Eastern representatives wouldn't go a miss.  Maori only appear twice - not really affirming the equality we'd like. For kids books are one part of normalization so it's important to include the...

Litcrawl - Hamiltron - Slowboat Records Saturday Night 11 November 2017 Unfortunately, this particular Groover missed out on most of the events but did manage to get to Hamiltron - poetry, stories and observations performed by Faith Wilson, Essa Morris, Thomasin Sleigh and Jesse Mullins.  The premise of the night: "The best thing about Auckland is that it's close to Hamilton." Morris opened with some 'oddly challenging poetry" - his words - followed by Faith Wilson's stream of conscious 'poetic' list of all the good, and bad, about growing up in the Tron.  Jesse Mulligan did the same, but with more comedy in his delivery - after all he was on the Waikato University Comedy Team.  He lost to Flight of The Conchords and a couple of other slightly better known laugh merchants.   Mulligan pointed out that no one actually knows their real names.  The locals call them 'Bridge' St. Bridge and McDonalds Bridge - even though the actual restaura...