Flaxroots Productions

First-hand knowledge of past times

13/10/2018

Two Slices of Bread – A Memoir
by Ingrid Coles

This book is titled perfectly. The author has picked out a moment in memories of her life that must surely affect any reader.
Even if we haven’t ourselves experienced long periods of hunger, reading of the amazement of a little girl at being allowed two pieces of bread, after so long being lucky to get one, is very moving.
Ingrid Coles’ memoir first covers her early years in Indonesia where she was born, particularly the Japanese prisoner of war camp in Java where her mother and siblings were interned – years that were to have ongoing effects throughout their lives. They were the lucky ones in that her father and a brother didn’t make it, but both physical and mental legacies of those times took their toll on survivors.
Further chapters tell of life in Holland after repatriation, where problems still beset the struggling family, then Ingrid’s emigration to New Zealand, at the age of sixteen.
Along the way there is lots of information of life in the war (WW2) and post-war years in Indonesia, Netherlands, and then New Zealand – well organized into appropriate chapters. The editing is good, and it is easily read throughout.
Overall, the production is attractive – photos, sketches and maps are provided to elaborate and enhance the story. Text print is clear, though the lack of mirror-margins makes left-hand pages difficult to read due to narrow gutters.
In this time when such stories are being revived, this memoir adds further first-hand knowledge of past times, lest we forget.

Review by J.M.

Title: Two Slices of Bread
Author: Ingrid Coles
Publisher: Wild Side Publishing
ISBN: 978-0473428907
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops

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Companion books by mother and daughter

10/10/2018

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Review deleted

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Utopian appeal in YA book

4/10/2018

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Child Power
by Raewyn Dawson

There is a certain utopian appeal to a community that lives by a code called the Peace Way.
Despite my cynicism about the possibility of a world (especially now) living according to such a code I admired the author’s optimism and the way her characters espoused their belief in living according to the Peace Way.
However, it is clear that maintaining the Peace Way comes at a cost and that is to use ‘outstanding fighting skills'.
This is a Young Adult novel and the story line engaged me from the start. The baddies got what they had coming to them and the protagonist, with her band of dedicated followers, showed that good can win over evil.
There is a certain irony that within a few pages of starting this book I encountered a graphic battle between the followers of the Peace Way and some bandits. As the novel unfolds it becomes abundantly clear that this Amazon tribe of young women are skilled and ferocious fighters. The Peace Way has to be mercilessly fought for.
But then they take up good causes and find ingenious ways to solve problems. It would be a spoiler to give too much away about some of the challenges they encountered and resolved.
The story moves along at a great pace in a world run by young people. I thoroughly enjoyed its energy and its optimism.
And I don’t know how anyone could write about a utopian world without it being set against dystopia as a backdrop. Otherwise how do we know good without being able to compare it to evil? Two characters in particular epitomise this juxtaposition – the evil doers Mithrida and Nigel. Although banished to an island they still cast a menacing shadow over the people of the Plains.
Good versus evil is the underlying theme of ‘Child Power’ and Raewyn Dawson takes the reader on a journey in a world that is cast from the imagination with reference to some Greek History which makes the Amazon story authentic.
In the shadowy world of evil the characters are hazy and ghostlike. In the world of good, characters are sharply cast and we warm to them. The victims of evil also suffer and the young people whose mission is to save the hapless victims find an ingenious way to carry out their mission.
Quite how a writer would deal with a community living the Peace Way without them having to overcome evil with violence I don’t know. I wonder if that dilemma ever troubled the author. It would seem not, because I feel sure that the next book in the Amazon series will also have the heroines conquering anti-heroes.
It is a super book and I can imagine a young reader, especially a young girl, devouring every word.

Review by Suraya Dewing
CEO, Stylefit (formerly The Story Mint) http://www.thestorymint.com

Title: Child Power
Author: Raewyn Dawson
Publisher: Mary Egan Publishing
ISBN: 9780473435271
RRP: $20
Available: bookshops

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Controversial subjects discussed

28/9/2018

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Criminal Justice: a New Zealand Introduction
Edited by Jarrod Gilbert and Greg Newbold

This collection of essays is designed to be an academic textbook, presumably for Criminology students, but provides a lot of contextual information for the New Zealand justice system. Indeed, Criminal Justice doesn’t really read like an academic text for the most part, with just a brief introduction and very few theoretical chapters.
One of the chapters is written by three serving police officials, and their review of contemporary policing comes with some impressive graphics. However, they also steer clear of naming any officers who have been involved in any controversies.
By contrast, most of the other authors do name names, and the editors have appeared in the media many times and commentated on controversial subjects. Both Newbold and Gilbert contribute two chapters on their specialist areas.
Greg Newbold provides some contextual information about crime rates over time, and some explanations for the rise of violent crime. At least, that is for crime by males. He also observes the rise in violent crime by women, and speculates on some causes, including the type of feminist thinking behind self-defence courses and the influence of TV programmes with strong female action characters.
Newbold’s second chapter also highlights the role of male officials, with strongly held views controlling corrections policy, divided into particular eras. He then assesses the success of rehabilitation and employment options for prisoners in the modern era of punitive practices and higher security jails.
Jarrod Gilbert is mostly known for his research into gang practices and their inevitable interaction with the justice system. His final chapter, however, examines the role of ‘underworld justice’, in terms of the intimidation of witnesses and the vigilante activity of gang members. In particular, he refers to a practice of ‘taxing’, whereby the property of an individual is appropriated to settle a score, being a real crime or an imagined one.
Gilbert’s other chapter focuses on injustices within the system, and miscarriages caused by police practice, or legal representation and its shortcomings. Here we get reference to some famous cases, such as that of the Crewe murders (and conviction of Arthur Allan Thomas), the ‘false’ confession of Teina Pora, and the ‘false’ testimony that convicted Peter Ellis in the Christchurch civic crèche trial. Gilbert refers to the role of criminal case review commissions, using overseas examples, and the Innocence Project now based at Canterbury University.
Certainly, strong opinions are held by the main contributors here. Gilbert is obviously not convinced about David Bain’s innocence, and states that he was given $1 million to stop making further claims for compensation. Other compensation claims would seem to have been justified, as in the verdict that resulted in the incarceration of David Dougherty, which was eventually overturned. But the example of the Bain trial can be seen in a different light, as in the chapter by Chris Gallavin which looks at the law of evidence and human rights. This involved the prosecution case in the second Bain trial based on the tape recording of his 111 call, and the admissibility of the Crown’s interpretation of it.
Gallavin also looks at the trial of Scott MacDonald, accused in the murder of his brother in law, with regard for the ‘propensity’ of the evidence. This involved suggesting that MacDonald’s other known crimes also made him more likely as a killer. Again, this highlights aspects of well known legal cases, and the role of the news media, which is examined in Tara Ross’ and David Fisher’s chapter. Fisher’s snapshots of crime stories add gory detail not previously known.

Review by SA Boyce

Title: Criminal Justice: a New Zealand Introduction
Editors: Jarrod Gilbert and Greg Newbold
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN:
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops

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Wonderful book

20/9/2018

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Fishing for Māui
by Isa Pearl Ritchie

This is a wonderful book, with a cast of achingly familiar characters who show a range of human strengths and frailties, passions and spirit. Best of all, it lets us see how they relate to each other, helping or hindering and generally enriching or complicating each other’s lives.
In other words, it’s a novel in the classic sense, and a very successful one.
In essence, it is concerned with the ordinary or extraordinary trials, intimacies and difficulties that swirl around a particular group of whānau and friends.
Gayle, the matriarch, has rediscovered her Māori heritage. Valerie, her daughter, is a doctor, and she has four children. The eldest of these children is Elena, a passionate nutritionist who writes a food blog, and who is pregnant with her first child. Then there is Michael, a University student who spends much of his time surfing and skateboarding and learning Māoritanga from his grandmother, and who is particularly taken by the myths featuring Māui. Next is John, the rebel, chock full of bitterness, who thinks he hates everybody and everything and who walks out of school and out of his mother’s house. Lastly, there is eight year old Rosa, who offers a kind of Greek chorus commentary on events and is childishly charming and irritating, and naïvely honest and perceptive. On the fringes, making an occasional entry, is Caleb, Valerie’s rather selfish ex and father of her children. Malcolm, Elena’s ethicist partner who is struggling to live up to his own reasoned beliefs, and the wounded but courageous Evie, Michael’s sometime girlfriend, are also significant players.
There is plenty of touching humour even though the themes are often weighty. The various protagonists either choose to or must deal with such issues as mental illness, drug use, animal rights, food adulteration, infidelity, school bullying and, perhaps most significantly, the cultural and psychological effects of colonisation; but all this is achieved without preachiness (unless deliberate, as with Elena’s attempts to reconcile her obsession with natural foods and her taste for doughnuts, or Evie’s sincerely argued justifications for her veganism).
The focus is always on the people and their relationships rather than on the issues themselves. Yet they are issues that the author clearly intends us to think about, and in doing this she adds to the value of the book without diluting its entertainment value in any way. It is also unselfconsciously a thoroughly New Zealand book. The problems encountered are our problems, but we are left with a feeling of hope and of belief in the essentially compassionate nature of our society.
The dialogue and the descriptive passages are excellent, the prose lean and crisp. It is refreshing and rewarding to read a novel that does not rely on contrived shocks or cleverness but instead presents us with characters we feel we know, putting them in situations with which we are familiar. Indeed, this is a wonderful book.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: Fishing for Māui
Author: Isa Pearl Ritchie
Publisher: Te Ra Aroha Press
ISBN: 978-0473437541
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

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Inspiring and persuasive

13/9/2018

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This is it! It’s your life. Live it.
by Amanda Mortimer

I chose to review This is it! It’s your life. Live it. with a certain amount of scepticism, but a willingness to be proved wrong. Reflecting on what I’ve just read in Mortimer’s book, I realise I have some firmly ingrained beliefs that have been holding me back: I got the plump genes; It’s too wet and windy to work in the garden or go for a walk, I’ll do that when it’s sunny; and the opposite one, It’s too sunny to stay inside and do housework, I’ll leave it for rainy day!
Luckily Mortimer makes it very clear that ‘beliefs aren’t the truth’. Beliefs are only what we perceive to be true. So, This is it! It’s your life. Live it. is all about honing our beliefs into positive affirmations, engaging with our unconscious mind, and projecting our dreams and ambitions into a time when they have been achieved and we’re living the reality of our success. This is a book brimming with powerful, positive messages founded in Neuro Linguistic Psychology (NLP).
Starting with Kathrine Switzer’s introduction, where she reassures us that it’s normal to procrastinate and be sceptical, through to its closing pages, This is it! It’s your life. Live it. is engaging and energising. Mortimer points out that willpower and conscious effort alone are not enough to achieve many of our goals. Instead, using the S.C.O.R.E and S.P.E.C.I.F.Y models, she teaches us how to connect with our unconscious mind and how to programme it to reinforce positive thought and behaviour.
A key to success is imaging ourselves in a ‘goal achieved’ state and visualising our success in the minutest detail. What does success feel like? What do we see, hear, say, taste, smell in our moment of victory? By conjuring up all our senses and picturing success achieved, Mortimer encourages us to cut the One day I’ll … and the If only I …, I’d … from our goal setting and replace it with It’s 2019, I’ve just run the marathon /passed the final exam/lost 10 kg/saved $4,000 … etc.
We often talk about ‘psyching ourselves up’ to face some unappealing task: This is it! It’s your life. Live it. teaches us how to psych ourselves up to achieve our goal. Instead of leaning back on negative beliefs, something like I got the plump genes (which I might imagine I got from my mother) becomes I have Dad’s slim McKenzie genes. It’s too wet and windy go for a walk becomes Yes! Rug up and enjoy the wind in your hair!
Mortimer’s writing is so direct and perceptive, it’s almost as she’s in the room with us: in easy-to-read language she lets us know that she knows when we’re procrastinating. Even for the most sceptical, she will have us closing our eyes and visualising, or up and out of our chairs, stepping on and off a time line on the floor, standing inside an imaginary red circle as we anchor positive thoughts in our minds. And because it’s difficult to do these things and read, This is it! It’s your life. Live it. comes complete with recordings and videos to take us through the process as well as work sheets for the various phases from goal definition to achievement.
This is it! It’s your life. Live it. gets us looking at every aspect of our goals – not just defining the goal itself, but also exploring the resources that will help us achieve it and looking at the cost to others of our pursuing and achieving our goal: accountability in other words, but referred to in This is it! It’s your life. Live it. as Ecology (to fit the E in the SCORE and SPECIFY mnemonic). So it’s more than just a textbook to achieving our goals: it’s an interactive experience. Along with the practical goal-setting material there are case studies and Mortimer’s accounts of her own achievements, including how she psychologically prepared herself to run over 200 km across Portugal for charity.
10% of This is it! It’s your life. Live it. profit is donated to the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage, Bali.

Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Writer, freelance proofreader, copy editor, & translator from Italian to English.
Carolyn kindly offers accommodation at reasonable rates for FlaxFlower writers
in Thames (Waikato) and Ventimiglia Alta (Liguria, Italy). carolynmckenzie@libero.it

Title: This is it! It’s your life. Live it.
Author: Amanda Mortimer
Publisher: Your Life Live It
RRP: $34.99
Available: https://yourlifeliveit.com

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Keen perception shown in stories

5/9/2018

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Mostly Cloudy
by James O’Sullivan

This collection of short stories is very appropriately named, for each of the book’s 23 stories dwells, to a greater or lesser extent, on the dark side of the human condition in their searching examinations of human nature. O’Sullivan is at his best in observing and chronicling the motivations and deeds of the human animal, and only rarely are these of a benevolent, or even a positive, nature.
     That said, however, the quality of his perception is well-attested by the number of times the thought “Hey, I know someone just like that” pops into the reader’s head, for O’Sullivan is a keenly accurate observer and scribe of the human condition and this offers a rock-solid platform for his stories.
     Henry Thoreau assures us that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” and this is certainly present in O’Sullivan’s book, for every social vignette sampled has that desperation in full measure, sometimes as a central and sometimes as an underlying feature. The only exception to this comes, paradoxically, in the attitude to life of the characters in ‘Experience’ who, with fewer expectations than any of the rest of society due to their position on the totem-pole of life, yet remain upbeat and looking forward to the discoveries that the following day will bring. In fact, this point is well made in the consideration of the three-story ‘pod’ formed by ‘Experience’; ‘Urbane’ and ‘Everything is Good’, set together in the middle of the book.
     Beyond that, O’Sullivan puts the microscope on marital relationships in ‘Porn’; ‘Romance’ and ‘A History Lesson’ as well as mocking the pretensions of the arty-farty in ‘A Bad Review’; ‘An End-of-Year Report . . .’ ‘Don’t Name the Animals’ and ‘Naked’. He also devotes a somewhat larger amount of space and no small amount of repetition to the insecurities of young people and their relationships.
     There are proof-reading inconsistencies in the book, such as ‘passed’ for ‘past’, ‘meters’ for ‘metres’ (Word’s US orientation in predictive text has a lot to answer for) and the switch of narrative tense from past to present in ‘Get a Job’ grates, even if intended.
     Of the two dozen stories, ‘Turangawaewae’ came best-heralded as runner-up in the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Short Story competition, and it is easy to see why. This story of a turangawaewae that is nothing of the kind in holding nothing but uneasiness and duress for the gay protagonist, is deeply evocative and it is no surprise that he finds most in common with another social outcast.
     For this reviewer, though, ‘Experience’ and ‘Get a Job’ hit hard in their delineation of society’s expectations in the present and as they used to be; while ‘Something Good’ and ‘Fair Game’ take pride of place in being classic short stories in that they go beyond depiction and description to develop point, purpose and progression. ‘Fair Game’, in particular, is utterly chilling in its subject matter and its fascination with the reality of death, to the point where it was pre-eminent in the collection as a whole.
     It is always good to recognise an artist’s canvas, and James O’Sullivan offers us familiarity in good measure with his. All hail and more power to him in that.

Review by M J Burr

Title: Mostly Cloudy
Author: James O'Sullivan
Publisher: Independent As Books
ISBN: 9780476008717
RRP: $24-00 including postage
Available: paperback from the publisher at jamflux@yhoo.com or www.fishpond.co.nz

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Intriguing scenario

31/8/2018

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K’yra – Hunting for Unity
by K W Austin

A fantasy that will stay with me after the storylines of other novels are forgotten.
The journey begins in London when a young woman drives home from work at night, crashes her car, and wakes up in another dimension or time (it is explained further on) minus her memory.
In this much-changed world, known as K’yra, she discovers two groups of inhabitants.
Skeraans are human though there are superficial differences between them and Kiya, as the girl becomes known there. Skeraans live in villages relatable to past tribal hunter-gatherer societies of Earth – low on technology, high on superstition.
Kehans are huge bearcats that can talk, their highly-developed intelligence allowing them to understand philosophy and science, but it is theoretical learning as their paws don’t allow practical application of their knowledge.
Skeraans and Kehans are enemies. However, there is a more dreaded foe and threat that they share.
The central theme is can Kiya, the ex-Londoner, bring the two together, and is this the reason she has been transported to this alien existence?
The dislocation of the two worlds and Kiya’s initial loss of memory of the former complicate the telling of the story. Not all traps are avoided and in places more explanation would help fill gaps, but the intrigue of the overall scenario persuades one to skim over problem areas and concentrate on the action.
The age of the main character suggests the book is intended mainly for a YA readership but it should have appeal to some older fans of fantasy also. The prose is easy to read.
Visually it’s an attractive book, with clear print on good quality paper, though skimpy gutters make it more suited for sitting up rather than in-bed reading.
The story is complete in that there is resolution, but at the end it is clear that a follow-up is intended.

Review by Alderaan Hoth

Title: K’yra – Hunting for Unity
Author: K W Austin
Publisher: Fraser Books
ISBN:9780994136039
RRP: $25
Available: http://www.nationwidebooks.co.nz/product/kyra-hunting-for-unity

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Complex subject

14/8/2018

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Cry the Wounded Land: Conversations About Maori, Pakeha and the Land
by Mark Holloway

First up, I have to declare that I am not a practicing Christian so will inevitably view this book in a different way to those who are strongly engaged with Christianity.
I became interested in the book because I wanted to explore another perspective on this country’s troubled race relations. Conversations with God on colonization was definitely an alternative view. It reminded me of how difficult it is to articulate the complexity of cultural interaction from first encounter to the present time. Add more recent immigrants and the complexity intensifies.
Mark Holloway, as author, has structured the book in an interesting way. The structure allows a supposed ill-informed protagonist to question the big questions of the day with an All-Knowing Divine Being. This removes responsibility for attitudes expressed by the protagonist. And because God is All-Knowing it also validates God’s explanations.
The structure reminded me of metaphysical poetry where a lover addresses an absent loved one. The addressee is elevated to a state of perfection and the one doing the addressing to a state of subservience.
By using this as a device the writer separates the two key speakers into an All Knowing (God) and a Not Knowing (mortal) narrator.
Occasionally I found myself thinking that the mortal voice sounded like the God voice. This gave the impression that the human voice was, in fact, coming to his own conclusions. Not a bad thing, I dare to suggest. However, this contrivance reminded me that the God voice and the human voice were, in fact, authored by the same writer.
On other occasions, the human voice sounded apologetic and almost child-like.
For example: ‘But God, when Pākehā see this conversation they will say that I have made it up because…(142). In this instance they are discussing the gnarly problem of Maori crime statistics.
On other occasions God’s answers sometimes sound like a parent chiding a child.
An example of this is: ‘Who on earth are you whites to think that a brown mind cannot think and dream like yours?’ (146)
My overall reaction to this book was a sense that more could have been done to delve beyond the superficial and to explore in greater depth the complexities behind New Zealand’s colonization story. However, as a conversation between an inferior and a superior being I expect that there is little opportunity to go deeper. After all, God’s answers are final and ultimately not to be questioned.

Review by Suraya Dewing

Title: Cry the Wounded Land: Conversations About Maori, Pakeha and the Land
Author: Mark Holloway
Publisher: Freedom Assignment
ISBN: 9780473398156
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

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Whimsical anecdotes

7/8/2018

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Globetrotting on a Shoestring
by Lynley Smith

This is a small book of only 120 pages, written in the format of short whimsical anecdotes drawn from the author’s experiences while travelling the world.
Lynley was an ESOL teacher and journalist who, late in life, decided to research the life of a distant relative, Jane Haining, a Scottish woman who was named a British Hero of the Holocaust. She was sent to Auschwitz for trying to protect the Jewish students at a school in Hungary where she was matron, and there she died.
The author’s travels on this journey took her to Scotland, Poland, Hungary, while later adventures saw her in Israel, China, USA, Australia, Africa and Columbia.
She always tried to travel using the cheapest fare available and chose to stay at the cheapest hostel possible, hence the title of the book. It is not a ‘how to’ book, but by reading some of the anecdotes the reader can perhaps avoid some of the difficulties she encountered.
It is an easily read, friendly book. This impression is enhanced by the non-standard type font chosen, which gives the impression that is a book of personal adventures, not a formal travel guide. The illustrations take the form of caricatures, and also add to the intimate feel of the book. Some may not appreciate these things, but I think they enhanced the atmosphere of the stories.
For me, the highlights were her visit to Auschwitz, which wrenched her soul, and her visit to Kenya where she was able to spend time with a woman who she had sponsored as a child, and who had now grown into adulthood with her own husband and family. The family lived in absolute poverty, but were still gracious enough to extend enormous hospitality to her.
Her descriptions of meals in China were very entertaining, especially the ones where she ate insects.
Lynley had a daughter living in Columbia and her description of the underlying drug culture she found there is very graphic.
There is a constant thread throughout the book of being guided and protected by her Christian Faith, many times she was faced with difficulties, but she was always confident that she would be aided to overcome them, and she invariably was.
There are two issues that need addressing if the book is ever reprinted, her use of the term ‘Maori Wars’ is no longer acceptable; better terminology would be ‘New Zealand Wars’, or ‘Land Wars’. The second is that the plural of Maori is Maori, not Maoris. It was strange that an experienced journalist and teacher would use these terms, and for me they jarred.
Overall it is a good, if somewhat light read which I found quite entertaining.

Review by Harold Bernard

Title: Globetrotting on a Shoestring
Author:Lynley Smith
Publisher: Wild Side Publishing
ISBN: 9780473429775
RRP: $24.99
Available: bookshops

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First-hand knowledge of past times

Companion books by mother and daughter

Utopian appeal in YA book

Controversial subjects discussed

Wonderful book

Inspiring and persuasive

Keen perception shown in stories

Intriguing scenario

Complex subject

Whimsical anecdotes

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