ANNAFROMUNI

Book blog: annafromuni.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annafromuni Creative Writing Graduate. PhD Candidate. Lover of books, fluff babies and beautiful scenery. Here are my book reviews and discussions.

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Euphoric Poetry and Sobering Non Fiction in Haro Lee’s Watching Television in a Love Motel I attended the launch for Haro Lee's Watching Television in a Love Motel last night and it was such a fun, exciting evening....

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Lessons from Hinengaro in Dr Hinemoa Elder’s Ara This pukapuka had me immersed from start to finish, and I usually wouldn't say that about a nonfiction book....

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Tina Makereti’s This Compulsion in Us Mirrors My Own Thinking Tina Makereti is a fiction and nonfiction author, with This Compulsion in Us being her first nonfiction book, though essays within the collection have been published separately....

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The Wonders of Memoir in Siobhan Harvey’s What We Remember, What We Forget This post is a little later than my scheduled Saturday, as I have been enjoying Matariki and really focusing on what I want to prioritise for the year....

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Listening to the Moon with Dr Hinemoa Elder’s Wawata Matariki is almost upon us, so let me share a Mānawatia a Matariki with you all. May your family find love, happiness, and comfort in each other....

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Bringing Mana Back in Tame Iti’s Mana I had the absolute pleasure of listening to the iconic, influential, and incredibly intelligent Tāme Iti speak across multiple sessions at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, and he has been one of the key people in reshaping my approach to reconnecting with te ao Māori and te reo Māori....

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A Beautiful Terrifying Journey of Discovery in Shana Chandra’s Banjara It has been several months since I started Banjara, getting me through the struggles of returning to the voluntary free reading space without feeling like an imposter for how little I was reading, and even making it into the hands of the very author who wrote it during the Auckland Writers Festival....

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Resonating with Dr Hinemoa Elder’s Aroha In my journey to reconnect with my ancestors, my ao Māori, and myself once again through reading, and in light of July housing Matariki, the Māori New Year this year, I have opened my mind and soul to this wonderful pukapuka (book)....

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My June 2026 Reading Summary Mood: wistful - I have been invigilating exams across the month, and slipping in a few PhD-related meetings and interviews here and there....

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My March-June PhD Check-In Can I blame anyone but myself for this lapse in updating you all? Absolutely not. It has been a busy time, full of data collection, illness, literary events, and exam invigilation, culminating in a delay wholly resting on me....

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My First Year at Auckland Writers Festival In May, I attended the Auckland Writers Festival for the first time, and I was mesmerised from beginning to end....

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My Tamora Pierce Song of the Lioness Quartet Series Review I was originally going to do a normal string of individual reviews for each book in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet, but then I was given three all at the same time and couldn't stop myself from reading them in quick succession without considering the individual storylines in each novel....

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My May 2026 Reading Summary

Overall Mood: replenished – May was a month to reset, to refill a cup that had long been left with dregs, and to take time away from the books and return to the purpose of it all. I was able to attend many literary events in May, contributing to my rediscovery of my reasons for turning to books, and the experience has been so humbling and inspirational. I have also been able to conduct many…

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My April 2026 Reading Summary

Overall mood: hopeful – As you may have noticed, I have been a little M.I.A. here on annafromuni over the last month. This isn’t a bad thing; if anything, it has been for a good reason. I have taken the time to do a system restart of my brain when it comes to annafromuni content, hence the weeks off posting, but in the process, I have been dipping my toes back into reading, as you have seen with…

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Grounding Yourself as a Bookish Content Creator

I have written a bunch of posts about the struggles of social media and navigating life online for hobbies, work, and in general over the past weeks, and I think it is about time that I try to bring some sunshine to this area of discussion. Social media is a tool; it is not all bad, and if it is utilised in moderation and for good, it can be a wonderful thing to incorporate into our lives. So how…

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Has Hwang Bo-reum's Every Day I Read Broken My Reading Slump?

I am still easing back into reading, but I feel that I couldn’t have found a more perfect book for the task than Hwang Boreum’s Every Day I Read. I love the cosy slice-of-life atmosphere and introspective findings of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, so I knew picking this up that the narrative style and voice would resonate with me. I just didn’t know just how much I would come to love this…

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Rereading Adult Fantasy to Bolster My Fantasy Manuscript

In my stunted attempts to re-engage with my fantasy manuscript and turn it into a dark adult fantasy manuscript, I found myself really struggling to connect with the words I wanted to write. It wasn’t quite writer’s block, but definitely adjacent, given my general creative burnout and difficulty picking up a book. After a lovely writing session with a friend, one which I spent making notes and…

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