THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

One our most treasured writers, Keri Hulme, has died. She was 74. Whanau Family confirmed Hulme died yesterday morning at Waimate. They did not specify a cause. In her earlier days, Hulme worked as a tobacco picker, was law student and a charity worker before becoming one  our more unusual literary stars when "The Bone People" (1984), her first novel, won one of fiction’s greatest prizes, the Man Booker prize. Originally, the novel was rejected by publishers before being picked up by a small obscure publisher feminist collective called Spiral. The book has been described as “a unique example of Māori magical writing".  Back then New Zealand publishers were outwardly racist or narrow minded. They refused to see any potential.  We were just starting to discover ourselves.  But like music and art, there was a cultural cringe to get over. Publishers were scared of failure because in their eyes, there was no international or commercial possibilities. Their ove...

 

Australian Ned Kelly Award nominated author Simon Rowell returns with his second novel, a slow burner that promises to ramp up the thrills but sadly never really does.  His first novel 'The Echo of Others', about a vigilante stalking duck hunters showed real promise but unfortunately this time he's fallen into the lay of cliches and tropes that promise much and deliver little that's new or compelling.  His last book involved a no nonsense detective, Rachael Shlank, who had to deal with a violent colleague in order to solve an ongoing series of crimes. After completing the first, you'd think Rowell would further develp Rachael, show more of her chracter.   Instead, he ditches her completely and comes back with a carbon copy called Detective Sergeant Zoe Meyer. Meyer is a Melbourne cop who's returning to duty following a traumatic and mostly unexplained incident. On day one she attends a horrific murder at a beachside home, the stabbing of a local surfer.  The o...

  The Alexander Library is one of Aotearoa's greatest treasure houses, holding thousands and thousands of books, paintings, maps digital objects and ephemera in it's collection.  It's the oldest part of our National Library.   "There was once a young man who had a net and spent his life fishing.  He preserved his catch carefully and, just before he died, presented his collection to his King - the catch of a lifetime to nourish a country forever. - p8, Te Kupenga Alexander Hosborough Turnbull (Alex H to his friends) was born in Wellington in 1868.  His parents were Scottish, arriving in Aotearoa back in 1857.  He was one of seven children, two who died in a drowning.  His father, Walter, was a successful merchant, which set up young Alexander well to pursue his passions - sailing and reading (books, especially).  He was an obsessive bibliophile, collecting everything and anything with a connection to New Zealand or the Pacific. ...

Wow.  Whata a year it's been!  Finally we move to a freer system and we can get out of our bubbles, head to the beach or bach for a bit of R&R.  That in mind, we have a few recommendations for your Santa list.   Here's a few suggestions: Tom Remiger's 'Soldiers'; 'The Nazis Knew My Name' (Magda Hellinger and Maya Lee); Stacey Abrams' 'While Justice Sleeps'; and 'The Killing Kind' (Jane Casey). Soldiers - Tom Remiger (Text, $38) First up is Tom Remiger’s brilliant novel Soldiers - a story of men in conflict both in war, within themselves and with those that love them.  The story centres on a company from the New Zealand Division preparing for their Mediterranean deployment and the terrible battles that are about to happen in Greece and Crete during WWII.  During training a routine exercise goes badly.  There is confusion about whether live rounds or blanks were used. Corporal Daniel Cousins is killed.  He is quickly buried.  Th...

Guaranteed to send you down a 'white' rabbit hole, Steve Braunias' new book is a dedication to the music that we once treasured and fashion trends we revered.  He makes it ok again to pull these out from the back of the cupboard, shake off the dust and drop the needle again.  Sure, no one else will understand.  But who really cares.  This is the real history, here!  Isn't it?  It's long been held that music is one of the primary keys to understanding culture and history.  A song or a recording can be a snapshot of our individual or collective thinking at a particular point in time.   Writing on great album and records is not new. Most music critics and experts feel a compulsion to create some commentary on what they consider the best releases.  to Rolling Stone puts out a top 500 every 20 years or so.  So does Billboard magazine.  Everyone has a go. Even author/play-write Tom Stoppard managed to put out a personal playlist - wh...

There's only only word to describe the photos in this book: Breathtaking!  They really are.  Over the course of nearly 40 years, artist Bruce Hunt has explored the ridgelines, hills and valleys of Otago and Canterbury, photographing the beauty and quiet grandeur of undulating foothills, soaring mountain ranges, dried out farmland, and meadering braided river systems.   These majestic photos are a result of Hunt's dedication and relationship with his environment.  "It began," he says in the forewaord, "in the early 1980's when I embarked on a solitary journey as a painter.  I intended to free myself from the distractions and mundanities of every day life: to focus only on the ever-present landscape and my work.  I wanted to quietly observe and study the patterns and design of the landforms that surrounded me."   Hunt was as a painter, walked to the remotest places to find muse and inspiration.  He stayed in a fishing crib on the edge of t...

Between 1908 and 1938, 130 Anglo-Indian adolescents were sent to New Zealand from Dr Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong, India. Most were the children of British tea planters and Indian women, and faced an uncertain future in India. Their resettlement in New Zealand was in many ways a success, but it was also characterised by silence about their heritage. In October of 2007 Author Jane McCabe arrived in the township of Kalimpong.  She had reason, she says, to believe that her grandmother, Lorna McCabe had spent time at a residential school there.  She never spoke of her Indian Heritage, her childhood or how she came to be in Dunedin in the 1920's. Jane had only one photograph which led her down a rabbit hole that uncovered her own Kalimpong connection, and a stunning hidden family history.  It also showed how Lorna was part of a bigger story of an organised emigration scheme.  It led to a doctorate at Otago University and a book in 2017.  But then there was an expanded...

At the Groove Book Report we believe in the power of stories and the magic of books and in the power of giving.  So we are 100% behind this great initiative.   Back for its third year, Kiwi Christmas Books collects donations of brand new books to gift to Kiwi children who would otherwise go without at this time of the year.   Great books make great kids and this year Kiwi Christmas Books want to deliver many Kiwi books they can directly into the hands of tamariki and rangathi whose families are doing it tough - especially after all we've gone through.  They would love your support - as readers and book lovers.   They know you will come to the party.   There are several ways you can help  Donate books in-person -  Purchase in person from your nearest participating bookstore .  They will have a collection box to deposit your purchased books into.  You can also buy a book from ANY bookstore and send it directly to ...

'Out in the moana, underneath the sparkling sun, lived a mother sea lion and her little pup one" ... By the author of the children's classic 'A Kiwi Night Before Christmas' and 'Down in the Forest' comes a catchy and playful retelling of the much-loved traditional story, Olive Wadsworth's "Over in the Meadow".  I loved Jenny Coopers bright and vibrant illustrations.  I wanted to trace some of these and add them to my school projects.  I could copy the colours, too. I didn't know about the 'Over The Meadow' story but my librarian at school found a copy and is ordering it from our local library.  I love the way one book leads to another.    I also loved the conservation themes, and the links to our moana.  I live Wellington.  We see seals a lot, so it made sense to me to have a book about these.   Yvonne Morrison has made some wonderful rhymes in here.  I don't know how close to the original she was but it all works well. ...

 

  This weekend kicks off the eighth annual LitCrawl Wellington.  Between 6pm - 9.15pm on Saturday 6 November literature lovers take to the streets to pick a path between iconic CBD spaces.  The programme includes Poet Ruby Solly, novelist Whiti Hereaker, Garden expert Isa Pearl Ritchie and celebrated writer Elizabeth Knox along with The Starling, Pandemic expert Dr Hirini Kaa and many, many more.  Check out the full programme here.  Note many events are sold out already.  S get in quickly for the rest! www.verbwellington.nz/litcrawl-2021 *Please note that in Level 2 you must register to attend any and all LitCrawl events - pay what you want from $5 per person. The minimum booking number is 2 people so that we can maximise the number of people in a venue (bubbles can stand/sit together). Upon entry you must show your registration, in using the COVID QR tracer app to every venue, and wear a mask.

What a treat! A crime novel with suspense and energy, so up to date it feels like it was written yesterday.  So deeply implanted into the streets and buildings of my city that I could see every familiar crack in the concrete footpaths, every splinter of the Harbour's decaying wooden jetty and every blade of grass and quivering flax bush on the slopes of Mount Victoria.  This book is as close to being right here, in the Capital, as you will ever get.  Not every Google Earth is that good!   “It’s Saturday night down on the wharf. Celebrations are in full swing for the Westons’ fortieth wedding anniversary. Their daughter Stella has returned from London to attend. Once shoulder-tapped as detective material, a few bad decisions and a questionable ethical dilemma saw her leave the force under a cloud. She’s now a private investigator in London, reduced to filming errant husbands for court cases. She doesn’t want to be home. Later that night her best friend Teri is fo...

Released just before the second lockdown, science writing is coming into its own.  Celebrated author Richard Dawkins delves into the treasure trove of science writing that has furnished his own cerebral house and contemplates how scientists can become more normalised and accepted for their great penmanship.  Richard Dawkins has always been a polarising figure.  He comes at the world from the point of view of a scientist and has very little time for the nostalgia and mystery of religion, particularly the constructs of the Christian Church which has fought its hardest to deny all manner of science from the earliest days.  Science was a threat to to the Church, as Galeleo and many thousands of other thinkers have encounted over the centuries because they (scientists/thinkers) had the gall to challenge the structure and belief system that kept these ancient heirachies of power and ignorance in place.   Dawkins is most famous for his explorations of personality ...

Toitoi is delighted to announce a new collaboration with the iconic School Journal!  This gives Toitoi young writers an amazing chance to have a piece of their work published in the world's longest-running serial publication for children, alongside established and celebrated writers like Patricia Grace and Margaret Mahy from Aotearoa New Zealand.  Toitoi is now inviting submissions on the theme of 'Tūpuna', to be published in one of the three May 2022 School Journals: ‍ - Level 2 (students in years 3-4) - Level 3 (students in years 5-6) - Level 4 (students in years 7-8) ‍  If your tamariki are budding writers then encourage them to put in their work.  For more details and information head to www.toitoi.nz/school-journal

Back then we were a colony with a huge chip on our shoulder.  There was no real national identity.  We were poor cousins of Britain.  We needed to prove ourselves, it seems.  And that set us down a path to sign up for nearly every major war or battle since the settlers first arrived.  Even in our earliest history, we managed to cause mahem - the New Zealand wars of the 1880's and the Colonisation thing seems to have been part of some sad and pathetic attempt to spread ourselves out and strike a claim.  Let's face it, being part of the British Empire demands some level of little brother blood lust. Nowhere is that  more obvious than the hunger to join the fray of the 1899-1902 South African War.  Yet when it comes to documenting and critiquing that event and how we responded and involved ourselves there's very little serious material out there.  Only a few scholars have really investigated the development of our national psyche in any true det...