Books

Thinking of Answers – Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life

Posted 2:49pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jonathan Jong

Author: A. C. Grayling Publisher: Bloomsbury (4/5) I must admit to not being A. C. Grayling’s biggest fan: we’re in opposing camps on many issues. However, I do appreciate his role as a public intellectual, bringing philosophy (or critical thinking, if you prefer) to the Read more...

Press Pass: 40 Years of Award-Winning New Zealand Photography

Posted 1:54pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Georgie Fenwicke

By Geoff Dale Publisher: HarperCollins (3/5) At first glance, Press Pass appears to be a book that would reside comfortably on a coffee table. However, primary assumptions, as Elizabeth Bennet and George W. Bush can attest, oft deceive. Here instead is a book of substance and history Read more...

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love

Posted 1:52pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Anne Ford

by Xinran Publisher: Chatto and Windus. (4.5/5) In this beautiful and moving book, Xinran retells stories told to her by women in China when she worked as a radio journalist in the late 1980s and 1990s. This time is known by the Chinese government as the ‘Reform and Read more...

Top 5 Secondhand Bookstores in Dunedin

Posted 12:19pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jonathan Jong

I can’t remember the last time I bought a book from a chain bookstore. With several online shopping options (check out goodbooksnz.co.nz: it’s often cheaper than Amazon, and proceeds go to Oxfam), and UBS so close, there seems to be little reason to leave campus for books. Besides, even Read more...

Against the Tide: Back pain treatment – the breakthrough by Robin McKenzie

Posted 4:01am Wednesday 23rd June 2010 by Kathy Young

Publisher: Dunmore Publishing 3/5 My first introduction to the McKenzie Method was when I hurt my back and upper leg a year ago while running. I have had recurrent back pain for years, but serious training tipped it into an intolerable degree of pain. The physiotherapy clinic talked me Read more...

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Posted 2:59am Tuesday 18th May 2010 by Henry Feltham

Publisher: Abacus Rating: 4.1/5 The Wasp Factory is the kind of book that publishers love. It's weird enough to be lumped into that bracket of ‘Modern Classics’, along with books like The Crying of Lot 49, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, and other oblique, semi-mysterious titles Read more...

The Death of a Mafia Don by Michele Giuttari (Translator: Howard Curtis)

Posted 2:55am Tuesday 18th May 2010 by Tien-Yi Toh

Publisher: Abacus Rating: 2/5   The Death of a Mafia Don centres on the investigation of a series of attacks and murders for which the Mafia appear to be responsible. As the investigation unravels, with every new lead or suspect, a corresponding Mafioso corpse is found. Despite the Read more...

The Theory of Light and Matter - Andrew Porter

Posted 2:20am Monday 10th May 2010 by Anne Ford

Publisher: The Text Publishing Company (3.5/5)   Andrew Porter’s debut collection of short stories won the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction in the United States. Written from different perspectives, including male and female, young and old, rural and urban, Read more...

The Group - Mary McCarthy

Posted 2:16am Monday 10th May 2010 by Kathy Young

Publisher: Hachette (4.5/5)   I’ve got to admit, first of all, to being a big Sex in the City fan. So, I was pleased to see Candace Bushnell’s introduction of this newly re-released version of a classic, dare I say, feminist novel first published in 1964. It spent two Read more...

Strangers in Death - J. D. Robb

Posted 2:15am Monday 10th May 2010 by Sue Hui Ong

Publisher: Piatkus (5/5)   Strangers in Death is the first book in a long time that has hooked me into reading it nonstop, compelling me to avoid other tasks just to satisfy my curiosity. I was intrigued to read my first futuristic crime novel (being an avid Poirot fan) and I was not Read more...