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Story of hope and courage

8/23/2017

Seeing How: Beating Blind Spots
by Jewel Dell

A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other thing. - Laura Wilder -
If there is a book that mirrors the above quote then it is this one.
  The author, for whom there is no biography included for background knowledge, shows she certainly has a way with words and an incredible sense of humour. The story follows her journey into losing her sight with glaucoma and its insidious progress over the months.
It starts with her awareness of her changing sight and progresses through to the treatments she endures – the endless appointments, the medication, intraocular injections, surgery, the eye drops – and throughout it all always finding the ridiculous side of a very serious condition.
     As the author comes to terms with her condition she describes for the reader’s benefit how she deals with problems living alone with just her cat, Muff, as an ally, but not a very effective one. She describes how she tries to teach him to stem a leak in a plastic pipe carrying the water supply to the house, though without much success despite Muff being bright enough to open doors, spoon up gravy using his paw, turn over the electric water jug and carry a mouse in his teeth. Even trying to teach him to drop a tea bag into a big mug failed as the task eluded this feline companion.
     On a more serious side, the author describes how other senses compensate for the loss of sight, and gives a great account of how the link between her brain and eye causes difficult manifestations of sight - but not as we see it. It is the Charles Bonnet Syndrome and really quite difficult to understand. It wasn’t described in my Medical Dictionary but Dr Google was a great help.
     Throughout the book there are hints on how she manages with every day chores. For example, cooking and cutting up vegetables without doing any damage to her fingers or contaminating the food with blood; but the one that I really enjoyed was how she learnt to drive the 4-wheeler Kawasaki mule around the paddocks and keeping track of her “Bovine Biddies”. Probably of not much use to urban drivers but you never know, her hints could be very handy for a rural driver on some back paddock if they were having sight problems.
     There must be frustrations, grief and angst as sight deteriorates for anyone, but Jewel Dell has turned her affliction into a positive story of hope and courage with her brand of very quirky humour. It was a book I took inspiration from.
     At the end are a couple of recipes and they sound quite delicious. One day I will give them a try.

Review by Merilyn Mary

Title: Seeing How: Beating Blind Spots
Author: Jewel Dell
Publisher: Enhanced Education Fund
ISBN: 978-0-473-37697-0 Softcover
RRP: NZ$35.00 print
Available: Softcover from the Publisher by emailing the author at jeweld@ps.gen.nz; Wheelers Bookshop
Amazon as EPub, Kindle
Audio version copyrighted by NZ Blind Foundation for client members

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Page-turner

8/15/2017

2 Comments

Slave Power
by Raewyn Dawson

The spectacular cover image of the arrow-wielding young horse woman will certainly capture attention on the book shelves and encourage readers to flick through the pages of this beautifully presented book.
     YA readers will readily identify with the cast of characters. Girls will love imagining themselves as pure-hearted Melo, who embraces the peace way, but is also a fearless soldier when required. Melo’s nemesis, Mithrida, selfishly manipulates behind the scenes determined to undermine not only Melo – she also covets the Queen’s power.
The empathic leadership qualities demonstrated by Melo and her tribe sends a positive message for teenage readers. The story is not all love and peace but does touch on darker elements of slavery, including murder, rape, and sexual perversion. Note, these are not graphically portrayed, only referred to in the context of the story. More emphasis is placed on cooperation and peaceful resolutions.
     The story clips along and I had a continual desire to turn the page as I was invested in Melo and her tribe’s plight.
     There were a couple of style issues that distracted me from the story. The first was an overabundance of exclamation marks throughout the entire novel and, in my opinion, culling 99.9% of them would markedly improve the story flow. The second would be allocating the point of view (POV) to specific characters and having a distinct break between POV changes and removing omnipresent intrusion.
The author must have performed meticulous research and this attention to detail alongside her imaginative flair has created a fully fleshed world, complete with an entire and credible belief system. The settings are so richly described that starting each chapter is like stepping into a mind movie.
I thoroughly enjoyed Slave Power, Book One, of The Amazon Series, and I would read more from this author.

Review by WJ Scott, multi-award winning children’s author

Title: Slave Power
Author: Raewyn Dawson
Publisher: Mary Egan Publishing
ISBN: 9780473389376
RRP: $25
Available: bookshops

2 Comments

Horror of past comes alive

8/8/2017

7 Comments

Out of Poland: when the best revenge is to have survived
by Jenny Harrison

    Recently, I find myself drawn more often to stories of the Holocaust, and reading a book like this, Out of Poland, by Jenny Harrison only speeds up my journey.
Right from the start, Harrison sets the scene to this true story.
A small family of Polish Jewish descendants, in New Zealand, discover a suitcase, which reveals some very interesting letters. The question is asked, Why did Nafthali Siegel keep these letters if he was running from a past so painful as described in this work? Why didn't he burn the letters from his parents and siblings, and wipe out his family and past? They were all he had to remind him of them, the letters and one solitary photograph.
All history teachings aside, and they are great in number and diverse, the carnage and devastation committed on Poland, Jews and Gentiles alike, is so utterly absolute.
Astonishing are the sheer numbers of people slaughtered. Astonishing are the vast number who lent a hand, at their own peril, to help a fellow man. The Jews who survived in Poland, owe their lives to Polish Gentiles.
"...It was probably better to be a slave in communist Russia than a victim of the Germans. The Russians were not anti-Semitic, they just treated everyone equally badly."
The heart that has gone into researching and writing this book deserves the best applause. It is so well-written and easy to read, the history and all its horror comes alive.
     In the end, I am left speechless...

Review by Poppy

Title: Out of Poland: when the best revenge is to have survived
Author: Jenny Harrison
Publisher: Lamplighter Press
ISBN: 9781539027812
RRP: $25.99
Available: Paperback from Amazon.com
Or from the author via email jharrison@orcon.net.nz or website www.jennyharrison-author.com

7 Comments

Thanks to all the grandmothers…

8/1/2017

2 Comments

The Women's Suffrage Petition, Te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine 1893

1993 stands out in my memory for two reasons – the centenary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, and discovering a fact about one of my grandmothers. The two are connected.
I was in Wellington attending the centenary celebrations and took the opportunity to view the petition documents at National Archives. On the database I tapped in family names, and there she was. My paternal grandmother, Mary Aberhart, who had just turned 21 years old, had signed the 1893 petition. I spent the rest of the weekend in a state of elation – and the continuing glow has remained over the intervening years.
Even though I didn’t have the pleasure of growing up knowing her, she has been my, and indeed the family’s, heroine since.
It is entirely proper that such an important event as the granting of women’s right to vote continues to be celebrated. Now, just short of a century and a quarter on, comes this book.
An introduction by Barbara Brookes, Professor of History at University of Otago, is informative and very readable – providing a handy summary of the history of voting in this country
The petition itself is explained – how a group of stalwart women distributed hundreds of printed sheets throughout the country, collected 24,000 signatures, and put the sheets together to form a roll 274 metres long.
The bulk of the book’s 102 pages give brief accounts of 162 women who signed the history-making document, with facsimiles of selected sheets bearing approximately 1300 signatures. Care has been taken to include each geographical area where the petition was circulated.
Whether you’re as fortunate as our family is to have our heroine included (see page 56), or not, this is a great record of all those grandmothers, great grandmothers, great aunts and great-greats who had the foresight, the strength, and the opportunity to add their name. They are all, rightly, remembered in this nation’s history.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore
whose grandmother is also honoured at https://vimeo.com/28974581

Title: The Women's Suffrage Petition, Te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine 1893
Editors: Jane Parkin, Nancy Swarbrick, Caren Wilton
Publisher: Bridget Williams Books in conjunction with National Library and Archives New Zealand.
ISBN: 9781988533087
RRP: $29.99
Available: Bookshops or Bridget Williams Books www.bwb.co.nz

2 Comments

Bold, active, compelling

7/24/2017

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Ngā Atua – Maori Gods
by Robyn Kahukiwa

“Aotearoa is home to many marvellous gods.
They are special.
They are unique.
They are awesome.”
So begins this beautifully presented picture book.
     Atua, in Maori is not a gendered term, so female and male deities are included - a welcome change from earlier sources that ignored the presence of the female element and acknowledged male deities only. What else would we expect from Robyn Kahukiwa who years ago gave us that great gift of Wahine Toa: Women Of Maori Myth.
     Tāne, Hine-te-iwaiwa, Tangaroa, Hinemoana, Mahuika, Tāwhiri-mātea, Muri-ranga-whenua, Tūmatauenga, Māui, Hinetītama/Hinenuitepō, Rūamoko, and Uenuku are each honoured with a brief explanation and full-page full-colour illustrations.
     Kahukiwa’s art displays her talent for combining Maori and modern traditions. The figures are bold, active, and compelling – there is no doubt about their presence as divinities and ancestors.
     There’s no attempt made in the text to deliberately simplify the language for very young readers, so this book can serve as an introduction for a wider spread of ages.
     A hardback book with high quality paper to suit the content.

Review by Paula Blue

Title: Ngā Atua – Maori Gods
Author: Robyn Kahukiwa
Publisher: Oratia Books
ISBN: 978-0-947506-26-1
RRP: $24.99
Available: Bookshops or direct from www.oratia.co.nz

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Meticulous research

7/17/2017

1 Comment

New Zealand Rugby Country – How the game shaped our nation
by Desmond Wood

This is a meticulously researched and carefully written book, which examines New Zealand’s national game from all possible angles. It contains a detailed history of the sport and draws parallels with the condition of New Zealand society at the same time that rugby events take place. It is impressive in the way it unfolds and links the two strains.
Particular attention is paid to the way that the struggle against apartheid came to a head with the 1981 Springbok tour to New Zealand. It is clear that the tour shaped this country socially as well as it shaped rugby, ensuring that never again would a team selected on race represent New Zealand.
Some space is spent discussing how the changing demographics of New Zealand have been reflected in the makeup of rugby teams, in particular the rise to prominence of players from the Pacific Islands.
Chapters are devoted to Maori rugby, detailing its history and achievements, also the rise of rugby sevens and its inclusion in the summer Olympics. Women’s rugby gets a special mention, detailing the New Zealand domination of that sport, but decrying the lack of women in rugby management.
A lot of space is devoted to the rise of professionalism in the game and the increased prestige of the Rugby World Cup.
The book highlights the journey rugby has travelled from being a totally amateur sport played in clubs, which were often quite social in makeup, to a professional game where a young person can go straight from high school to playing for a super rugby team, and earning vast amounts of money. The incredible amounts of money poured into the game by sponsors and by television have no parallel in any other New Zealand sport, and surprised me, even though I have been a follower of the game most of my life.
The influence that New Zealand rugby has had on the rest of the world can be seen in the number of overseas national teams that are being coached by New Zealanders. When rugby became a professional sport the selection and culture of the All Blacks needed to become much more professional as well, and this change is well detailed in the book, even down to the history of the haka, and the all black jersey.
This is a book that could be read many times, with the reader gaining greater insight into the details of the national game each time. However, the reviewer cannot help but think that perhaps it was the changing New Zealand society that changed rugby, rather than the author’s view that rugby changed the nation.

Review by Harold Bernard

Title: New Zealand Rugby Country: How the Game Shaped Our Nation
Author: Desmond Wood
Publisher: Bateman, $39.99
ISBN: 9781869539276
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops

1 Comment

Amazing Story

7/10/2017

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The Wild Side
by Janet Balcombe

Balcombe rips straight into it! And she's transparently raw.
Immediately, we are immersed in the seedy, alcohol and drug-fuelled 60s.
It's good, with frightening intensity, and there's no gratuitous writing here – it's authentic from start to finish.
An exceptional and fast read. Both historic and current, and scarily vivid. From drama to drama, she doesn't miss a beat.
I cried. Yes, I cried for the girl who lost her way amidst the drug and money scene, for the baby born into this kind of life, and for the unfolding of hope amidst total desperation. There are parts that mirror my life. Experiences that I can vouch for as true. And a faith that survives throughout.
If you read it fast enough, you will be swept along in this other life, the one we so often choose to ignore and condemn.
If you read it fast enough, you will skim over the typos and editorial bits and pieces, and the cliches, and get to the heart of a young woman trying to make sense out of no sense at all.
What a tale of survival! Amazing story.

Review by Poppy

Title: The Wild Side
Author: Janet Balcombe
Publisher: Wild Side Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-473-36621-6
RRP: $29.99
Available: all good bookstores

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Vivid descriptions show depth of research

7/4/2017

1 Comment

Through the Lonesome Dark
by Paddy Richardson

When I’ve finished reading the book I take another look at the cover. A photograph of what seems to be the main street of a small town, and the face of a young girl.
     The story’s opening chapter, as does a photo credit, confirms the setting is Blackball, West Coast mining town. The period, early twentieth century.
     The conversational style of the opening chapter, by way of a genderless narrator, drew me right into the social atmosphere, though it also impeded reading in places when I had to go over a sentence more than once to be sure of the intention.
     We are introduced to three families and, in particular, to one child from each – Pansy, Clem, and Otto – a tight group of friends in spite of differences between the families. Pansy’s Catholic, Clem’s Presbyterian, Otto’s German, and religious and racial prejudices aren’t left behind even in such a small place where one might hope there’d be more to bind people than separate them.
     Of the three, the focus is on Pansy who, although she qualifies for a scholarship that would give her secondary school education, must instead work as a maid at a boarding house.
…first Daddy stole Pansy’s chance from her and now Mrs Smithson steals Pansy’s time with her I want and I expect, and worst of all, she steals Pansy’s own thoughts away from her with all those words she flings at her, words that hover about her so she can scarcely breathe for them, words so sharp they stab into her skin, words that sit on Pansy’s head, pressing and pressing.
     For the girl from Blackball things can hardly get worse, you think. Yes, they can.
From Part 2, the divisions become more marked as World War l breaks out, and Otto’s family become referred to as “Krauts”. From then on it’s Pansy and Clem, as Otto is not in the picture, for a reason we have to wait to learn.
     The miners of Blackball are exempt from military service, but Clem goes against the town’s feelings and volunteers for the New Zealand Tunnelling Company. Now it is he who becomes the central character. The rest of the story is his, and through Clem we learn of this aspect of our military history.
If them at home knew what he did. Their dead lads lying down there, passed by without a second look, trampled by the boots walking over them, gnawed on by the rats. Lads that should have been back home working and building things up, wedding their girls and looking to have little lads and girls of their own.
     Vivid descriptions of the situation, the conditions and the work of these men show a depth of research by the author.
     At the end, however, I feel less than satisfied – let down by the structure of the novel. The tone of the opening chapter is never repeated; no more is said of Otto, though there’s a pressing reason we want to know more; and the six parts the story is divided into seem arbitrary. Which is why I go back to re-examine the cover for clues. The story starts and ends in Blackball, right enough. The girl is still there, though her place as central character is usurped and she has become incidental. The title doesn’t really help me. Somehow I’m left thinking that along the way the story was undermined, something slipped and slid away from underneath me as two seams fractured and moved apart.
     That said, the quality of the writing throughout is very good, and details of the story overall will remain.

Review by Norma D. Plum

Title: Through the Lonesome Dark
Author: Paddy Richardson
Publisher: Upstart Press
ISBN: 978-1-927262-98-6
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

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Absorbing contribution to a topical issue

6/27/2017

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The Journeys of Besieged Languages
Delyn Day, Poia Rewi, Rawinia Higgins (eds)

This is a collection of papers by people, mostly academics, who have a strong interest in the reclamation and revival of endangered languages.
Written in a variety of styles, from the recounting of personal experiences through to highly technical analyses, the overall result is a fascinating picture of the major concerns surrounding threatened languages, and includes compelling arguments for continuing and expanding the efforts to rejuvenate them, ways of assessing the dangers they face, and suggestions and illustrations of what has succeeded and what hasn’t.
   In a short review it is impossible to do full justice to all of the contributions, which collectively cover Swampy Cree and Anishinaabe (languages of the First Nation peoples of North America), Hawaiian, Tahitian, Māori, Barngarla (Eyre Peninsula in South Australia), Hebrew, Piedmontese, Romani, Kashubian (Poland), Kernewek (Cornish), Welsh, Gaelic and Kalaallisut (Greenland); but underlying all the papers is the assumption that language is an integral part of the world view of the various cultures as well as being essential to the proper functioning of human relationships within them. The survival of these languages, therefore, is deemed vital to the well-being of individuals, groups, nations and humanity as a whole.
  There are examples of astonishing successes, such as that achieved through Whatarangi Winiata’s Whakatupuranga Rua Mano, Generation 2000 plan in Otaki, related by Mereana Selby, and of painful difficulties, such as Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe’s personal struggles to continue using Hawaiian with her children in the face of the relentlessly pervasive and privileged influence of English. Bernard Spolsky demonstrates how much can be achieved with the full backing of the State, when he explains how Hebrew was successfully established as the everyday language of Israel, to the point where it is now fully revived from the centuries when it had been used only in religious ceremonies and as the language of religious texts.
     To select just one other of the many thought-provoking issues raised: a distinction is made between a society in which there are two main languages one of which is privileged while the other is treated as being of lower status, and a society in which both main languages are given equal value and where bilingualism is actively encouraged. The former situation is termed here ‘diglossia’. An excellent exposition of the importance of avoiding diglossia is given in Jeremy Evas’s contribution on the Welsh language situation.
     This also relates directly to the question of whether or not those from outside should be encouraged, or even permitted, to learn the language of the group. In his article on Romani, Ian Hancock points out that the speakers of this language have long been reluctant to allow others to learn and use it. This same reluctance is sometimes also to be found amongst other language groups, but it is obvious that some degree of bi- or multilingualism is the only way that true understanding between different language/cultural groups can be attained, and the benefits of different world views shared. As Jeremy Evas writes, quoting a European Commission communiquė of 2008, “Multilingual people are a precious asset because they act as the glue between different cultures.” Even the most irredeemably monoglot English speaker in Aotearoa-New Zealand should at least sincerely wish he or she could speak Māori, as Māori culture is a major part of what defines us and makes us unique.
The design and production of the book does not quite match the quality of the contributions. The maps are not always as clear as they might be. Then there is the confusing use of the em-dash without spacing. This reviewer kept seeing hyphenated words rather than punctuation marks. But much more irritating were the large blank spaces where two of the explanatory charts should have been.
     Setting that aside, this book is an accessible and absorbing contribution to a very topical issue, and it should be of considerable interest to both the general reader and the specialist.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: The Journeys of Besieged Languages
Editors: Delyn Day, Poia Rewi, Rawinia Higgins
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1-4438-9943-7
RRP: £68.99
Available: via www.cambridgescholars.com, Amazon, and other retailers

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Gift for Grandad’s birthday

6/19/2017

1 Comment

A Book of Kiwi Limericks
by Peter Low

It is usually clear when an author has enjoyed writing a book and this collection of 134 limericks speaks of many hours of amusement as Peter Low came up with ideas, worked them into word form, and then produced this book.
The verses are ordered into four thematic sections, though some content does overlap.
Kiwi Blokes includes poems on such icons as Maui, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Ernest Rutherford, several All Blacks, and a few names from history far and recent – Abel Tasman to Kim Dotcom if you can call them Kiwi blokes.
          Young Rutherford shone by his wit.
          When sent to the timber pit
to chop up a log,
he said: “Dad that’s hard slog.
          Ain’t there anything smaller to split?”
The limericks in the next section, Kiwi Gals, show the author is more confident writing about his own gender. Fewer real women feature as subjects, and that also makes a comment on Kiwi society. One of the best in this section –
            A good Kiwi farm-girl called Briar
            got pinned by a huge tractor tyre,
so she sawed off one foot
which she managed to put
            back on later with number 8 wire.
The verses in Kiwi Nature, particularly those on a variety of native birds, show the author’s creativity with rhyming. It’s clear the amount of fun Peter Low had finding rhymes for korimako, ruru, Korora, and more.
            The talons and beak of Haast’s Eagle
            were murderous, monstrous and regal.
Fate made it extinct
on the theory (we think)
            it was too bloody big to be legal.
Then comes Kiwi Places with more pokes at cities, towns, and people along the highways from Invercargill to Cape Reinga.
Overall the author works in references to icons of Kiwiana such as the bach, jandals, Buzzy Bee, rugby (of course), and brands such as Hubbards, Weetbix, Marmite, Skellerup, Fisher and Paykel though you’ll have to interpret the last one.
Puns pop into a lot of the verses, and the poet plays with the form in some cases – altering the rhyming pattern and the number of lines. What holds the collection together is the Kiwi identity.
A good gift for Grandad’s birthday.

Review by Al Fabet

Title: A Book of Kiwi Limericks
Author: Peter Low
Publisher: Rangitawa Publishing
ISBN: 9780994138262
RRP: $18 + postage
Available: print book from www.rangitawapublishing.com
or from peteralanlow@gmail.com e-book via Amazon

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