Books

Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014 by Imogen Davis

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore is the debut novel of American author Robin Sloan. Originally written as a short story on his blog, he soon expanded and developed the story into a novel. Sloan is a writer for today; a self-styled media inventor, his book is a gripping mystery set between discourse Read more...

Zine of the Week

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014 by Staff Reporter

By Paul Lukas Available at Blackstar Books ABeer Frame is when all bowlers in a frame of ten-pin bowling get a strike except for one person. By tradition, the person who didn’t get a strike then has to buy everyone else a round of beer. Beer Frame is also a zine. Originating in Read more...

Cloud Atlas

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 by Julia Gilchrist

Cloud Atlas is David Mitchell’s third novel. His first won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and his second – along with Cloud Atlas itself – was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. So I was expecting great things when I first picked this book up. I was not disappointed. The novel is Read more...

Zine of the Week

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 by Staff Reporter

By Valerie Morse 15 A5 Pages - Cartoons and Text AVAILABLE AT BLACKSTAR BOOKS Viewing Copy at Critic Office Can’t Hear Me Scream holds a special place in New Zealand for anarchist-inspired librarians and would-be activists, so it seems a fitting place to start this column. While Read more...

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014 by Brandon Johnstone

Ed Brubaker’s first two comic book-arcs of Captain America tell the story of the Winter Soldier, a Soviet assassin and super-spy tied to Steve Rogers’ past. Published in 2006, this book was the subject of much controversy, as it became clear within a few issues that there was a very real possibility Read more...

Life of Pi

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014 by Mat Daniel

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is the 2002 winner of the Man Booker Prize, among other awards. Martel’s output has been relatively scarce, with Life of Pi standing as his most popular work. His novel was allegedly inspired when he read a review of Moacyr Scliar’s novella Max and the Cats, which tells the Read more...

Empress Dowager Cixi

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Bridget Vosburgh

Jung Chang’s Wild Swans, a retelling of her own family’s history through the female line, was (and presumably still is) an eminently readable and fascinating book. With her latest work, Empress Dowager Cixi, she again showcases her gift for retelling great big chunks of history in an accessible and Read more...

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Imogen Davis

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a pertinent, well-constructed slice of the creative non-fiction genre. Written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010, the book takes its readers back to 1951 when a 29-year-old African American housewife and mother died from ovarian cancer. Her death led to an instance of Read more...

Beautiful Ruins - By Jess Walter

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Feby Idrus

Beautiful Ruins opens with its hero, Pasquale, first laying eyes on the sumptuously beautiful Dee Moray, an American actress who comes to Pasquale’s tiny Italian village by boat, borne across the Mediterranean like a Botticelli Venus. You then cut to Hollywood 40 years later, to a bored studio Read more...

The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brian

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Lucy Hunter

The opening sentence of this book describes a brutal murder. An old man is first knocked down with a bicycle pump and then beaten to death with a spade. The one-legged, unnamed narrator, however, doesn’t want to explain his crime right away; more important to him is his friendship with John Divney, Read more...