Mentioned in Passing
Some interesting and varied titles to pass my desk in the last couple of weeks:

NOVEL ABOUT MY WIFE
Emily Perkins – Bloomsbury - $27.99

First published a year ago this fine novel from NZ writer Emily Perkins is now out in paperback. Link here to read my review from last June.

EAT MY GLOBE
One Man’s Search for the Best Food in the World
Simon Majumdar – John Murray $39.99

The author is obsessed with the idea of eating the best food in the world. He travels far and wide trying food of every imaginable variety. He doesn’t quite get to New Zealand although both Melbourne and Sydney are on his itinerary along with Morocco, China, Mexico, Japan, USA, Brazil, Phillipines, India, Turkey, Italy and other places too before finally getting back to London broke and happy and with 12,000 photographic images stored in his computer a few of which he shares with us.

MORE CHINGLISH
Oliver Lutz Radtke
Gibbs Smith (Boowise) NZ$21.99

This very funny, politically incorrect book , is the sequel to Chinglish: Found in Translation which has sold in the thousands around the world. The author lives in Beijing where he works as an editor, the ideal job for finding these howlers. You can check him out at his website http://www.chinglish.de/

TWENTY 20 Cricket Guide 2009
Carlton Books (Bookwise) NZ$37.99

Here is everything you need to know about the new form of cricket that has swept the world and gained a huge following in recent years. All the match action, hundreds of colour photos, star players, top teams key stats, the origins of the game, the multi million dollar player auctions – it is all in here.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ETHEL BENJAMIN
New Zealand’s first woman lawyer
Janet November – VUP - $50

The book tells the inspiring story of New Zealand’s first woman lawyer. It solves some of the mysteries of Ethel’s life and work: how many brothers and sisters did she have? Where did the family live? Why did she, as a “first wave” feminist, act for hoteliers when many of the women’s movement supported the prohibitionists?
It shows some of the obstacles Ethel encountered to becoming a lawyer in the late nineteenth century all-male conservative legal profession and it portrays Ethel’s determination, hard work, mental ability and “can do” attitude and challenges the idea that Ethel was ultimately not successful in her chosen career.
The author lives in Eastbourne, near Wellington. She has been working as a Senior Legal and Policy Adviser at the Law Commission since 2001.

ALL THE DEAD VOICES
Declan Hughes – John Murray - $38.99

Crime fiction at its best. This is the fourth title in the series featuring Ed Loy, Hughes’ wonderfully drawn protagonist, a once-successful Los Angeles private investigator, but one with a disastrous person life, now back in his native Dublin where he has moved into a flat in the city centre. When a 15 year old murder case is re-opened he is employed to investigate suspects ignored in the first investigation.
Gritty & compelling.