THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

NZ Music T-Shirt Day Friday, 30th May 2025 Do you want to help us with our mahi supporting local organizations who are making the lives of at-risk and vulnerable people in our communities better? Do you love New Zealand music? Then be a part of #NZMusicTShirtDay! NZ Music T-Shirt Day takes place in May 2025 as part of NZ Music Month. It's about celebrating great New Zealand music and showing your support by sporting your favourite band tee. It's all about fun, but also has a really important purpose in raising funds for MusicHelps . MusicHelps support hundreds of projects across Aotearoa, each using the power of music to change the lives of thousands in need. This includes music therapy, music programs in respite and palliative care, music education programs and supplying music equipment to name but a few initiatives we support. Through our suite of support services, MusicHelps also provides a wellbeing service and emergency financial assistance to thousands of New Zealanders w...

Unique and overdue. There we said it.  Korero kai is totally in vogue right now.  And we need that conversation.  While supermarkets continue to gouge out our food narative and crate dependency based n cost and price we are poorer for it.  We can break the cycle.  And the reults will be of benefit not only to our wallets but to our very souls, too.   This book takes an original view:  A focus on Indigenous food sovereignty.  It celebrates growers and experts working to change how we view food supply systems and what we stck in our pantries.  There are a selection of inspiring stories about food sovereignty practitioners.  There's a focus on the interconnectedness of tangata, whenua and the kai that comes from there.   The writers are verified 'hua parakore farmers'.  They are activists, and indigenous researchers.  Which we love.  In this book, indigenous food heroes from across Aotearoa and the Pacific take...

Nearly every letter in this collection is a short story, a stand alone.  Not intended for publication but still probably amongst some of the best writing I've read this year.  His writing is so fluid, enthusiastic, poetic.  Oliver Sacks was yet to become the man behind '“Awakenings” and “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.”.   He was still new to America, just completed Oxford, and still finding his way.  His letters back to his family go way beyond the usual 'I'm fine, send money' scrips of youth of the day.  And his observations and deliberations are, quite frankly ' electric'.  The America he encountered was big, bold and beautiful.  A million years from the MAGAworld it is today.  His letter back to whanau were wild, funny, contemplative, challenging, befuddled, frank. The collection was compiled by his staff, especially his edited by his longtime assistant Kate Edgar, postumously, as a tribute and an invaluable insight into the ...

A Press Release from Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki 13/05/2025 Kia ora, It’s here! After months of planning, weeks of wrangling, days of preparations and a few sleepless nights, we officially kick off #AWF25. Before we launch into the fun, we have some last-minute notices and updates on available tickets. And don’t forget – you can turn up on the day and buy your tickets from the box office. We can’t wait to fill the halls of the Aotea Centre with enthusiastic bookish chatter. See you there! From an excited AWF team Don't Miss the Excitement of the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre Pictured: Trent Dalton, Monty Soutar, Ben Macintyre, Harriet Walter, Catherine Chidgey, Alan Hollinghurst, Becky Manawatu and Samantha Harvey. It wouldn’t be AWF without a line up of starry writers in the Kiri Te Kanawa theatre. There are still tickets available for these events, but you'll need to be quick as they're selling fast. 02: Trent Dalton 24: Monty Soutar 40: Ben ...

The full title of this huge, handsome tome is "Volume One 1834-1864, Early Engagement to the Second Taranaki War'.   This book has been over 30 years in draft and is nothing short of an extraordinary dedication to history and mana.   ‘Derek Leask’s Atlas is a magnificent labour of love. It adds a whole new — visual — dimension to our understanding of the New Zealand Wars.’ — James Belich, Beit Professor of Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford Derek Leask served in New Zealand’s foreign ministry from 1969 to 2012. He was ambassador to the European Union in Brussels from 1994 to 1999, Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington from 2004 to 2008, and New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (and Ambassador to Ireland) from 2008 to 2012. Leask was born in Wellington and has degrees from Victoria University of Wellington (BCA) and the University of Canterbury (MCom, Hons-Economics). Leask, and his team have amasse...