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Leading New Zealand Children's Book Awards Merge

Leading New Zealand Children’s Book Awards Merge

Leading New Zealand Children’s Book Awards Merge and Hell Pizza Encourages Reading Addiction Prize Money Now Totals $59,500 The New Zealand Book Awards Trust and the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) have announced today that they are merging their respective children’s book awards, setting the stage for even more activity and visibility around books for New…

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Book review: How Bizarre by Simon Grigg

I blogged: Book review: How Bizarre by Simon Grigg

How Bizarre: Pauly Fuemana and the Song that Stormed the World by Simon Grigg, Awa Press, ISBN9781927249222, RRP $38 Is there any New Zealander, anywhere in the world who wouldn’t immediately know exactly what one was talking about if one simply said “How bizarre”? In 1995 and 1996 Pauly Fuemana and Alan Jansson, as Otara Millionaire’s Club, scored an unprecedented (then or since) international…

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Book review: Starlight Peninsula by Charlotte Grimshaw

I blogged: Book review: Starlight Peninsula by Charlotte Grimshaw

Starlight Peninsula by Charlotte Grimshaw, Vintage, ISBN9781775538226, RRP $38 Starlight Peninsula is the beguiling new novel from one of New Zealand’s most celebrated contemporary authors, Charlotte Grimshaw. The novel’s central character, Eloise Hay, is a young woman forced to slowly confront trauma from her past, a past that suddenly seems to her to be full of layer and hidden meaning. Readers…

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Book review: Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh

I blogged: Book review: Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh

Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh, Gollancz, ISBN 9780575111813, RRP $29.99 Nalini Singh is a prolific New Zealand/Fijian author and something of an undervalued hero in the NZ literary scene. And by prolific I mean “over 30 books published and that’s not counting novellas and stories”. Yes, that kind of prolific. She specialises in amazing romance/paranormal/sci-fi hybrid novels and Shards of Hope…

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2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards judges announced

On the blog: 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards judges announced

The 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards will be judged by 12 eminent academics, writers, journalist, commentators, former publishers and booksellers from around New Zealand; a three-fold increase on the number of judges in previous years which reflects the Awards’ new judging structure. Each of the Awards’ four categories – Fiction, Poetry, General Non-Fiction and Illustrated Non-Fiction – and…

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Three award-winning international authors at the Tauranga Arts Festival

I blogged: Three award-winning international authors at the Tauranga Arts Festival

An exciting line-up for the Literary Programme for this year’s Tauranga Arts Festival includes three award-winning international authors making their only New Zealand appearances at the festival. Christina Lamb Christina Lamb OBE has been covering Afghanistan for British newspapers for more than 25 years. Following on from her best-selling 2002 book, The Sewing Circles of Heart, Lamb has this…

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Book review: The Predictions by Bianca Zander

Book review: The Predictions by Bianca Zander

I spoke on More FM Waikato about The Predictions by Bianca Zander.

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Book review: Grey by E.L. James

Book review: Grey by E.L. James

Grey by E.L. James, Arrow, ISBN 9781784753252, RRP $19.99 Grey is the latest instalment in the inexplicably mega-popular Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, and retells the original Fifty Shades of Grey book, this time from the perspective of Christian Grey himself. The fans were apparently clamouring for this novel but that doesn’t stop it from feeling like a particularly lazy way to continue to…

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19th Annual Red Cross Book Fair

19th Annual Red Cross Book Fair

New Zealand Red Cross is again holding their popular major fundraising event – now in its 19th year. In 2015 the fair will be held from Friday 4 September to Sunday 6 September at Te Rapa Racecourse in Hamilton. Over three days tens of thousands of books, well sorted and categorised, are up for sale at incredibly low prices. Don’t miss out on the $1 bargain room, where all items (including books,…

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Vote for your favourite New Zealand children and young adults book

I blogged: Vote for your favourite New Zealand book . . .

Would you like to choose the winners in the 2015 New Zealand Children and Young Adults Book Awards? Be part of the Children’s Choice voting and have your chance to vote for the New Zealand books you think are the best. Children and teenagers across the country have been busy reading and reviewing their favourites amongst all the New Zealand books entered in the 2015 NZ Book Awards for Children…

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Picture books for June 2015

I blogged: Picture books for June 2015

Shine: A Story About Saying Goodbye by Trace Balla, Allen & Unwin, ISBN9781743316344, RRP $24.99 Oh god. Picture books can tug at the heart strings at the best of times but a picture book for kids to help them understand grief and loss, particularly of a parent? I dare you to not be a quivering, blubbering mess when you get to the end of this. However, the best books illuminate the things we’d…

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Book review: Murder & Matchmaking by Debbie Cowens

I blogged: Book review: Murder & Matchmaking by Debbie Cowens

Murder & Matchmaking by Debbie Cowens, Paper Road Press, ISBN 9780473315696, Ebook and print. I admit it, I’m an inveterate Pride and Prejudice fan. One of the things I like best about it is Austen’s almost absurd sense of humour, especially with her supporting characters and in Pride and Prejudice Mrs Bennet is probably the best example. She always did seems slightly unhinged to me, and New…

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Book blogging in New Zealand

I blogged: Book blogging in New Zealand

Booksellers NZ have a great article by Elizabeth Heritage on their website about book blogging in New Zealand, including some comments from BookieMonster. If you’re looking for other great blogs to read or just to find out a bit about the book blogging community in NZ then it’s definitely a recommended read! Book blogging in New Zealand | Booksellers New Zealand

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Radio book review no. 16 - Change the Way You Eat

I blogged: Radio book review no. 16 - Change the Way You Eat

Last week on MoreFM Waikato I reviewed Change the Way You Eat by Leanne Cooper. Now, diet books do not interest me but I actually really liked this book – take a listen to find out why!

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Book review: Stroppy Old Women

I blogged: Book review: Stroppy Old Women

Stroppy Old Women compiled by Paul Little and Wendyl Nissen, Paul Little Books, ISBN9780473258603, RRP $34.99

52 stroppy old women (one for every week of the year!) capture their thoughts on what’s wrong with the world and how it can be fixed. Stroppy Old Women follows on from Grumpy Old Men 1 & 2, though with an interesting name change – grumpy being deemed more offensive for women. Which is odd…

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Book review: The Doll's House by M.J. Arlidge

I blogged: Book review: The Doll's House by M.J. Arlidge

The Doll’s House by M.J. Arlidge, Penguin, ISBN9781405919197, RRP $30

I reviewed the first two books in M.J. Arlidge’s DI Helen Grace thriller series so I was keen to get my hands on this, the third. And I’m glad I did because it’s definitely a step up from the previous title Pop Goes the Weasel and a return to the promise shown in his debut, Eeny Meeny.

The Doll’s Housereturns us to the complex…

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Book review: The Ghosts of Young Nick's Head by Sue Copsey

I blogged: Book review: The Ghosts of Young Nick's Head by Sue Copsey

The Ghosts of Young Nick’s Head by Sue Copsey, ISBN9781494354411, Available in paperback or ebook

Young adult books are ubiquitous these days but sometimes I feel like the traditional 8 – 12 year old children’s chapter book is being ignored. So it’s a pleasure to find a fun, well-written example like The Ghosts of Young Nick’s Head, even better when it features a New Zealand location!

Friends Joe…

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