Monday, December 31, 2018

New Year Honours

Nice to see three in the writing community honoured in the New Year Honours List:

Carol Beu

Paula Morris

Rosemary Wildblood

Warmest congratulations.

New Zealand and the Sea

New Zealand and the Sea: Historical Perspectives
Edited by Frances Steel








Bridget Williams Books | RRP $59.99 print, $20.00 ebook
 
New Zealand’s history has been dominated by the presence of the ocean. Until very recently, everyone who came to New Zealand did so after long weeks at sea. Even today, most people live near the coast. The sea provides employment, transport and leisure; it is at the forefront of our imaginations, and days at the beach are, for many, synonymous with summer and childhood.

Yet when we think about history, we readily imagine it from the land. Our stories of the past take place in towns and cities, across farmlands, in the mountains and the bush. When the sea appears at all, it is a temporary barrier, an interruption to pass over quickly.




 

New Zealand and the Sea marks a significant new direction in historical thinking about this country.

It explores New Zealand’s relationship with the sea across many facets of life, from early origins until the present day, and challenges the conventional belief that history unfolds on land. 

This volume brings together leading and emerging scholars to highlight the dynamic, ocean-centred history of these islands and their inhabitants, offering fresh and fascinating perspectives on New Zealand’s past to open up our thinking about our places and nation.

 
 
 
 





 


 

 

About the Editor: Frances Steel, a New Zealander, teaches at the University of Wollongong. Her research connects histories of empire, mobility and the sea in the Pacific World. She is the author of Oceania under Steam: Sea Transport and the Cultures of Colonialism, c.1870–1914 (Manchester University Press, 2011), and with Julia Martinez, Claire Lowrie and Victoria Haskins, Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across the Asia Pacific (Bloomsbury, 2018).
 




New Zealand and the Sea marks a significant new direction in historical thinking about this country.

It explores New Zealand’s relationship with the sea across many facets of life, from early origins until the present day, and challenges the conventional belief that history unfolds on land.

 

This volume brings together leading and emerging scholars to highlight the dynamic, ocean-centred history of these islands and their inhabitants, offering fresh and fascinating perspectives on New Zealand’s past to open up our thinking about our places and nation.

 

 

Contributors: Atholl Anderson, Tony Ballantyne, Julie Benjamin, Douglas Booth, Chris Brickell, Peter Gilderdale, David Haines, Susann Liebich, Alison MacDiarmid, Ben Maddison, Angela McCarthy, Grace Millar, Damon Salesa, Jonathan Scott, Frances Steel, Michael J. Stevens, Jonathan West

 

About the Editor: Frances Steel, a New Zealander, teaches at the University of Wollongong. Her research connects histories of empire, mobility and the sea in the Pacific World. She is the author of Oceania under Steam: Sea Transport and the Cultures of Colonialism, c.1870–1914 (Manchester University Press, 2011), and with Julia Martinez, Claire Lowrie and Victoria Haskins, Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across the Asia Pacific (Bloomsbury, 2018).

The End of the Golden Weather


With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from Takapuna Library.
 
The End of the Golden Weather
 
Tuesday 25 December 10.30am to 11.30am Free
Celebrate Christmas Day with Stephen Lovatt performing a scene from the iconic play, The End of the Golden Weather, by Bruce Mason.

Christmas Day in Takapuna in the 1930s from a child's point-of-view. The performance lasts half an hour. Gold coin koha to Oxfam.

Held on Takapuna Beach Reserve, between the children's playground and the boat club. Please bring a chair and a picnic.
If it is raining on the day, the event will be held in the Takapuna War Memorial Hall on The Strand.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Off the Shelf


December 28, 2018
By
Sarah Jane Abbott

 

In Memoriam: 16 Authors We Lost Too Soon in 2018
 
As 2018 draws to a close, we remember the literary luminaries we lost this year.  They include novelists, playwrights, and poets who were at the top of their fields and created beloved classics, as well as public figures from a chef to a physicist to a politician, who shared their wisdom and experiences through their written works.  What better way to honor their accomplishments and legacies than to read their enduring works?

Publishers Lunch


 

Senior editor Ira Silverberg is leaving Simon & Schuster at the end of the year, after a little more than 3 years with the company. Publisher Jonathan Karp calls the forthcoming HARK by Sam Lipsyte, acquired by Silverberg, something "we expect to be one of our fiction highlights in 2019." He notes, "Ira has been an ardent champion of his authors, a keen observer of international literary talent, and valued colleague."

Forthcoming
Diana Gabaldon
previewed her ninth book in the Outlander series, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, a couple of months ago but said she was still at work and there was no publication date. On December 22 on Twitter, she told a reader that the book will indeed "be out in 2019" -- and Recorded Books has an audiobook release currently listed for October 1, 2019.

Bookselling

Carol Besse and Michael Boggs of Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville will retire and pass on the store to their daughter Miranda Blankenship, and their niece Kelly Estep. The store has been in operation since 1978.

Obits

Israeli novelist Amos Oz, 79, a longtime candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, died Friday from cancer. "To those who love him, thank you," his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger posted on Twitter in announcing Oz's death.

Picks

Heart by Sandeep Jauhar is the January pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club.

The Book of the Month Club chose Madeline Miller's
Circe as its Book of the Year, based on members' votes.

Barack Obama posted a list of his
favorite books he read in 2018. Books published this year include his wife's book as well as: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; Educated by Tara Westover; Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday; Warlight by Michael Ondaatje; Feel Free by Zadie Smith; Florida by Lauren Groff; and more

The Best of 2018


December 26, 2018
By
Off the Shelf Staff

 

The Best of 2018: The Top 10 Book Lists of the Year
 
There was certainly no shortage of book recommendations this year. We spent 2018 talking about our favorite thrillers, historical novels, award-winners—and even recommended books for fans of our favorite TV shows and movies! Here are the book lists you responded to most.

 

Saturday, December 22, 2018

From The Bookseller


LATEST NEWS
Amazon
Authors Cathy Newman and Jonathan Coe have urged customers to take their business to the high street this Christmas season after suffering stock shortages of their titles on Amazon.co.uk.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Heather Morris' debut The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) has racked up a seventh non-consecutive week in the Weekly E-Ranking number one spot.
The Society of Authors
The Society of Authors has slammed the government's new white paper on immigration, warning it will do "real damage" to the UK’s creative industries.
Scholastic
Scholastic has reported second quarter revenue for the three months to 30th November of $604.7m, up 1% year on year ($598.3m in the second quarter of the prior fiscal year).
Clare Mackintosh
Clare Mackintosh is making her non-fiction debut with a memoir about family life in the countryside: A Cotswold Family Life.
British Library
Novelist Sara Taylor and non-fiction writer Rachel Hewitt have won the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award, scooping £20,000 each. 



The Monstrous Child
Author Francesca Simon and British composer Gavin Higgins are to debut their opera The Monstrous Child at The Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre in February. 
Wildfire Books
Wildfire has acquired the second book of Humans author Tom Phillips, looking at "the ingenious ways, throughout history, we've managed to avoid telling the truth"
Headline
Headline has acquired two new novels by women's fiction writer Erin Green, the first of which centres on three strangers on holiday.