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Wide-ranging articles

27/1/2017

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Tell You What: Great New Zealand Nonfiction 2017
Susanna Andrew and Jolisa Gracewood, editors


When I first flicked through Tell You What I was very keen to read it in depth because it promised to give me an in depth scan of New Zealand’s cultural, political and social landscape.
     I was not disappointed.
    The Editor’s Note tells us they were looking for ‘fresh voices’ when they selected the articles and they definitely delivered on that undertaking. The result was compelling reading.
    Each writer brought a fresh perspective to his or her article and every article rewarded the time I took to read it by delivering a new understanding or perspective on the topic discussed.
  These were wide ranging, from depression, poverty, the effect of natural disasters such as the Christchurch earthquake, environmental catastrophes and cultural issues.
   The editors selected courageous voices that never shied away from tackling challenging topics. On many occasions they shone a light on some dark corners by taking us deeper into the stories behind the five second sound bites we get on popular media.
  The writers put themselves in their stories and that made them accessible and enjoyable. It was like living vicariously through other people…feeling their joy and experiencing their struggles. And this book deals with most issues that concern us today, from historical misunderstanding to those events that will continue to occupy our thinking for a long time into the future. For example, what physical and emotional legacy will Christchurch earthquakes have, and will the environment recover from the MV Rena’s grounding on the Astrolabe Reef? How do we deal with historical land alienation and if we set up a Givealittle campaign to save one piece of land what does that say about how the land came up for sale in the first place?
Some articles were brutally honest and I really liked the Cost of Living article with the line, "...obesity is being presented as the latest sin of the poor". The article seemed to naturally flow on to Amber Essau’s article, On Having My Card Declined at Countdown.
    Now all of this might make this book sound gloomy. Far from it. It is honest and a word I keep hearing these days…authentic.
     It uncovers the veneer that we all like to think of as ‘normal’ and takes a look at real lives with all their triumphs, challenges, and passion (Hudson and Halls, Histories Intertwined) and complexity.
     There are no easy answers to any of the issues raised by these articles but that is why they should be discussed. The answers we agree on will shape the future of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
     I'm not saying that all articles were deeply serious. They were not. Many were funny and joyful like Nic Low's Te Matatini and Selina's Tusitala Marsh’s, Fast Talking PI Goes to London to Visit the Queen.
     Yes, every issue this book covers is complicated but that is why collections like this should come out every year. To make us look behind the headlines.

Review by Suraya Dewing
Title: Tell You What: Great New Zealand Non Fiction 2017
Editors: Susanna Andrew and Jolisa Gracewood
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 978 1 86940 860 2
RRP: $29.99
Available: bookshops

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Book every New Zealander should own

22/1/2017

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Māori Place Names: Their meanings and origins. Fourth Edition
by A.W.Reed.  Revised by Peter Dowling


This guide was initially published in 1950 by Reed Books under the title Maori Place Names and  their Meanings. It has had 19 reprints across four editions, each one attempting to provide a more comprehensive guide to Maori place names and pronunciation, and to migrate the use of macrons into the written language to denote long vowel sounds. Revising editor Peter Dowling of Oratia Press includes a short foreword that acknowledges the growth and evolution of the written language over the past 20 years.
    With over 2300 entries, this digest examines the basic translations and also provides a guide to commonly used words within the place names, such as maunga, puke, roto and wai.
   This is a book which every New Zealander should own. Since some of the locales’ names have evolved over time to include coastal and marine names – for example Te Tai-o-Marokura – the book’s Fourth Edition is designed to keep readers abreast of the correct references to these places.
    There is a wealth of information in this edition. For example, what is New Plymouth’s Māori name? How should we pronounce and spell what was formerly Wanganui? The guide explains that preference should prevail, but that the regional pronunciation of ‘wh’ was originally ‘w’, and was subsequently written that way on the historical record. Either spelling or pronunciation can be used officially for the city, but the reader at least has the knowledge as to the difference. What is also interesting about this guide is how deeply entrenched in our language some places names are, and how, in other cases, the transition to their use has been slower to uptake.
    Some entries are accompanied by short anecdotes or historical facts. To round out the guide, illustrations by James Berry are found throughout, as featured in the 1950 edition. Berry was a notable coin and stamp designer, and his excellence in graphic design is evident in this guide. 

Review by Katherine Stewart
Title: Māori Place Names: Their Meaning And Origins. Fourth Edition
Author: A.W. Reed. Revised by Peter Dowling
Publisher: Oratia Books
ISBN: 978-0-947506-08-7
RRP: $29.99
Available: bookshops
 
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Engaging in every way 

13/1/2017

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Tiny Owl on the Ramshackle Farm
by Lotte Wotherspoon (author & illustrator)


In Tiny Owl On The Ramshackle Farm – written and illustrated by Lotte Wotherspoon – the story of an owl afraid of the dark gets a modern, original makeover with everything you could want in a picture book.
     As Tiny Owl imagines what each night-time noise could be (and is repeatedly reassured) there are familiar farmyard characters drawn with witty nods – like cowboy boots for the bull, and a cast of wonderfully imaginative monsters introduced with fun, descriptive humour:
  "There's a snuffle-snouted knicker-kicker creeping out there!"
     The word play is just marvellous in this story and of course there is a nice moral in facing your fears and flying free, with a happy ending for our adorable new friend Tiny Owl.
     The lovely, indie design with patterned, ink and pencil-coloured illustrations gives you more to see with each reading. Familiar pohutukawa trees, old Ford trucks and traditional Kiwi farm tractors set a New Zealand tone and each page is spread in a beautiful, interesting way. This would be a really special gift book to send overseas! 
      Children will love the sing-song, near-perfect rhyme and the repetition of 
                 "But all is still on the ramshackle farm,
                 Just the babble of the brook in the midnight calm"
and there is so much scope for including little ones in the book with sound effects like
                 "Scritch, scratch, mewl and yowl,"
not to mention giggles over descriptions like the 
                 "...farty-pants guts gobbler grunting out there!"    
     All in all I have to say I love this book. It is engaging in every way and I'm sure will give sweet dreams to tiny owls everywhere!

Review by Jenny Palmer
Title: Tiny Owl on the Ramshackle Farm
Author: Lotte Wotherspoon
Publisher: Clay Press
ISBN: 978-0-473363292
RRP: $29.95 hardback,  $19.95 paperback
Available: bookshops

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Indicative of the times?

7/1/2017

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The March of the Foxgloves
By Karyn Hay                                   

1893. Frances, about whom her father remarked that trouble followed her wherever she went, boards a ship and sails to New Zealand. She’s a young woman who won’t wear a corset – a photographer seemingly well-suited to a country that’s poised to grant women the vote. Or perhaps it’s that the new country is suited to her, as she finds here a “youthful freshness…a shruggIng of the shoulders when it came to aristocracy.”
    If you’re under an illusion that the Victorian era was inviolably puritan in its morals, Frances’ suitcase of photos of her friend Dolly will have you rethinking. As will the behaviour of others among the settlers.
  Once here, Frances visits a family in Tauranga, goes to a circus and a ball. That’s about it. Really. It isn’t until the last few of the 341 pages that anything interesting happens, when one of those saucy postcards of Dolly goes astray.
   Otherwise, pages of ephemera – details of costumes, houses, people, and conversations – give a portrait of the time. Is it a realistic view of settler society in the late 1800s? I’m not sure, but I expect the mix of characters drawn to here, primarily from Britain, could be typical of the period – families given to social pretensions, single men who indulge in drink, gambling, opium. And, sadly, perhaps the attitudes to others such as “filthy chinkies”, lazy Maoris, “Heathen Hindoos”, and “Darkie Doods”.
     Conversations without much obvious point may be indicative of the times too, but they approach the tedious when reported on the printed page. Ironically, it is Frances who is said to nearly “faint from ennui” at a lengthy explanation of street-lighting in Auckland, and perhaps it is with a sense of mischief that Hay includes other comments such as the tedium of having “to listen to the boasting of the celebrated artist”. Or her reference to the “verbosity of detail”. I’d put into that category things like 2 pages on the style of a parasol. Even more so, 2 pages on the subject of dog and rabbit poo on a lawn. 

Review by Norma D Plum
Title: The March of the Foxgloves
Author: Karyn Hay                           
Publisher: Esom House
ISBN: 9780473365820
RRP: $32.00
Available:
 
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Third in trilogy

2/1/2017

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The Second Foot
by Peter Thomas                             

The Second Foot is the final in a trilogy by Picton-based writer Peter Thomas. With the preceding books, A Step Too Far and The Dancing Gypsy, it makes up his Pushing Boundaries trio. If you’ve read those, you’ll catch up with later events in the lives of some of the characters. If not, this can be read as a stand-alone title.
  The central character in The Second Foot, Kiki, is a young Fijian girl who comes to New Zealand for her education and qualifies as a marine biologist.  She becomes involved in a romantic affair with a previous lost love from her university days. There is a connection with people-smuggling, and complicated romantic attachments with other key figures.
  Cleverly woven into the narrative is Stephanie with her unrequited love for Fergus and her rather dramatic end. Then there’s Tau, with his history of past unimaginable horrors, as well as some of the characters from the previous book in the series.
   Thomas makes good use of very descriptive passages throughout, and the author’s deep understanding of relationships clearly comes through in his writings.
   The story flows and comes to a very satisfactory conclusion cemented with Sarah's epilogue that lets the reader know the outcome of the different central figures.
    It is a book I enjoyed reading and I’ll look out for more of this author’s other books.

Review by Merilyn Mary
Ed note: The first title in this series, A Step Too Far, was reviewed by FlaxFlower on 11 July 2015.  Access the review via Archives in the sidebar. 

​Title: The Second Foot
Author: Peter Thomas
Publisher: Good Hope Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-994188-2-0

RRP:  $15 + p&p when applicable
Available:  Good Hope Publishing House, PO Box 596 Picton 7250 NZ,
or as a Kindle ebook from Amazon
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