Spring issue of New Zealand Books Pukapuka Aotearoa

Barbara Else

has some questions for local publishers

Gregory O’Brien

heralds the Oceanic with Sudesh Mishra

Charlotte Graham

is discombobulated by Tracey Slaughter

Mark Reason

tracks an Olympian off the podium
plus prison, poetry, penguins and picture books

The Spring issue of New Zealand Books Pukapuka Aotearoa offers another bumper crop of reviews. Our Olympics-related centre spread features James McNeish’s new book about Hitler's Olympics, and Suzanne McFadden's account of the 1976 gold medal in hockey. The World War I theme continues with four reviews, including Roger Robinson on the prison diary of A.C. Barrington. As always, local fiction and poetry abounds, and there’s a good selection of children's and YA books, with a piece by another younger reviewer.

2       Editorial
Chris Orsman: “Memory Harbour” (poem)

3       Charlotte Graham: Tracey Slaughter, Deleted Scenes for Lovers

4       Thom Conroy: Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular

6       Tatjana Schaefer: N K Ashworth, The Falconer’s Daughter; Fleur Beale, Being Magdalene

7       Barbara Else: Mary-Anne Scott, Coming Home to Roost; Joy Cowley, The Road to Ratenburg

8       Caitlin Walker: Joy Cowley, The Bakehouse
Trevor Agnew: Avis Acres (text and illus), The Adventures of Hutu and Kawa; David Hill (Phoebe Morris illus), First to the Top: Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest Adventure; Bob Kerr (text and illus), Changing Times: The Story of a New Zealand Town and its Newspaper; Sally Louise Hill: A Bear’s Journey: The Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

10     Kiran Dass: Thom Conroy, The Salted Air
Briar Lawry: Murray Edmond, Strait Men and Other Tales

11     Elizabeth Kerr: Elizabeth Salmon, Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand Choral Music

12     Mary Roberts: Richard Loseby, A Boy of China: In Search of Mao’s Lost Son

13     Roger Robinson: John Pratt, The Prison Diary of A C Barrington: Dissent and Conformity in Wartime New Zealand

14     John Horrocks: Suzanne McFadden, Striking Gold: New Zealand Hockey’s Remarkable Victory at the 1976 Olympics

15     Mark Reason: James McNeish, Seelenbinder: The Olympian Who Defied Hitler

16     Damien Fenton: Andrew Macdonald, First Day of the Somme: The Complete Account of Britain’s Worst-ever Military Disaster; John Crawford, David Littlewood and James Watson (eds), Experience of a Lifetime: People, Personalities and Leaders in the First World War

17     Tony Simpson: Christopher Pugsley, A Bloody Road Home: World War Two and New Zealand’s Heroic Second Division

19     Julia Millen: Rebbecca Priestley (ed), Dispatches from Continent Seven: An Anthology of Antarctic Science

20     David Grant: Colin Hogg, Going South: A Road Trip Through Life

21     Bruce Babington: Geoff Murphy, A Life on Film: I’m Taking this Bloody Car to Invercargill!

22     Bookshelf

23     Rae Varcoe: Mike Berridge, The Edge of Life: Controversies and Challenges in Human Health

24     Damian Love: Vincent O’Sullivan, And So It Is; Andrew Johnston, Fits and Starts

25     Gregory O’Brien: Sudesh Mishra, The Lives of Coat Hangers

26     Anahera Gildea: Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (eds), Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English

27     Crossword