95bFM's Loose Reads
Jenna fully endorses Greta & Valdin - a queer/Māori/Russian/Auckland rom-com debut by Rebecca K Reilly. With loveable ensemble cast and incredibly funny dialogue - this is truly a feel good story. Listen to Jenna’s review below:
Patricia Lockwood explores the chaos and absurdity of the internet in her autofiction novel, No One is Talking About This. Told through the eyes of a writer who becomes popularized on the internet for tweeting 'Can dogs be twins?', the novel looks at the second life we inhabit on the internet and the chasm between it and the real world.
When a familial tragedy hits the writer, she is left to wonder if the jokes and declarations of the internet offer comfort or meaning in the face of loss.
No One is Talking About This is an extraordinary internet novel which peers into the gap between ourselves and our second skins on the internet.
Have a listen to Suri’s review below:
Jenna previews the Ockham NZ Book Awards, which are happening this Wednesday 12th at 7pm.
Previous reviews of shortlisted titles are:
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction:
Pip Adam - Nothing to See
Brannavan Gnanalingam - Sprigs
Catherine Chidgey - Remote Sympathy
Airini Beautrais - Bug Week
General Non-Fiction Award:
Alison Jones - This Pākehā Life
The rest of the shortlisted titles are here.
You can go to the ceremony! Check out details here.
From the author of the excellent The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, Vendala Vida gives us a coming of age story set in 1984-5 San Francisco.
Vida continues her trademark style of dry humour, with a compelling mystery running through. We Run the Tides is effortlessly cool and nostalgic - it will take you back to both the joys and horrors of being thirteen, almost fourteen.
Listen to Jenna chat with Rachel below!
Tracey Slaughter's latest short-story collection, Devil's Trumpet, explores the intimacies and oddities of everyday life. Slipping between motels, Four Squares and small towns, Tracey Slaughter serves us offerings of yearning, lust and violence in 31 extraordinary short stories. This alive, pulsating collection is a masterwork of Antipodean goth.
Tracey Slaughter is a poet and writer and currently teaches Creative Writing at The University of Waikato.
Have a listen to Suri’s review below:
Sarah Krasnostein is the author of the incredible The Trauma Cleaner, and we’re so happy to see a new book from her.
Told with sharp journalistic skill and a curious mind, The Believer: Encounters with Love, Death and Faith explores different societies with varying beliefs - including UFOs, mennonites, a death doula, creationism & paranormal activity.
Have a listen to Jenna’s review with Annabelle and Zoe below:
Longlisted for 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones is an intense journey through generations of domestic violence in Barbados.
It’s definitely not a light read, but a page turning and nuanced portrait of three generations of women and their surrounding community.
Have a listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Zoe below.
Hinemoana Baker's newest collection of poetry explores transient spaces; physical and psychological, with a sharp, enigmatic humour and deep warmth.
Using her acerbic wit and keen eye, Hinemoana Baker paints a vivid portrait of of a poet and intellect's inner world.
Hinemoana Baker is a musician and writer, who has won the the New Zealand Berlin Creative Writing residency in 2016 and continues to live and write from Berlin. Funkhaus has been shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry 2021, the winner of which will be announced at the Ockham awards in May.
Listen below to Suri’s review with Rachel and Zoe from 95bFM.
The shortlist for the 2021 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction has just been announced! We've previously reviewed Nothing to See, Sprigs and Remote Sympathy, so it's time to check out the fourth finalist, Bug Week.
Bug Week is well worth a read. Listen to Jenna's review with Rachel and Zoe below. Also, check out the rest of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlist here.
Nobel-prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro explores the world of AI in his newest novel, Klara and the Sun. Told through the eyes of a curious and keenly observant AI robot, Klara and the Sun examines love, loss and what it means to be human.
Listen to Suri’s review below with Rachel and Sarah from 95bFM.
Back into Level 3, Jenna reviews Una Mannion’s A Crooked Tree from the shop.
With an instantly enticing premise - a harried mother pulls her car over and demands her young child out to walk home. It’s cold, dark and far away from their home in the mountains. This act sets off a series of events that will change the lives of a family.
Told through the eyes of 15 year old Libby, this is literary fiction that’s part mystery, part coming of age. This is smart and surprising character novel.
Here’s Suri’s latest 95bFM review - we are sharing this today, on her birthday!
Simon Winchester's latest book examines humans' relationship with the land over centuries. Comparing the dueling philosophies of Rousseau and Locke, Winchester draws a compelling thread between private land ownership, climate crises, wealth inequality and political borders.
Listen below with Suri, Rachel & Tess. A big farewell to Tess who is leaving the bFM team - thank you for being so awesome.
Hello from Level 3! On today’s 95bFM Loose Read’s review, Jenna talks about Interior Chinatown, the latest winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
Written as a script, this book is a sharp and smart satirical observation of the portrayal of Asian American stereotypes in Hollywood.
Interior Chinatown is on the shelf now!
In their new book about the erosion of Western democracy, Putin critic and New Yorker journalist Masha Gessen explores the rise of autocracy in Trump's America and offers practical ways of psychologically and physically surviving an autocratic state.
With deep insight from her Russian reporting, Masha Gessen builds on the work of Hannah Arendt to offer a full story on the creation of autocracy.
Kia ora all! Here’s our first 95bFM review for 2021.
Jenna delved into Catherine Chidgey’s Remote Sympathy over the holidays. A weighty tome, this book follows four characters whose lives are intertwined with the concentration camp, Buchenwald.
Characters are expertly weaved together to portray different sides of the Nazi regime while reflecting the way a society can be blind to what’s happening right in front of them. This is a must-read novel, it’s bloody brilliant.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Keria and Tess below:
On our final review for 95bFM’s Loose Reads for 2020, Suri chose her top books of 2020.
Listen below for some last minute Christmas present advice on:
Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine by Monique Fiso, The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey, Railways Studios by Neill Peter Atkinson Alsop, What We'll Build: Plans for Our Together Future by Oliver Jeffers, Summer by Ali Smith, and Magnolia 木蘭 by Nina Mingya Powles.
This morning on 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Victory Park by Rachel Kerr.
A fantastic character novel based around a council flat in Wellington. Single mother Kara starts spending time with new tenant Bridget, who has moved in after her husband is caught up in a Ponzi scheme. Subtle, yet still punchy and compelling, this is the newest novel from the publisher of Becky Manawatu’s Auē.
Another Now is an an experiment in building utopias; in envisioning and implementing progressive futures. Bouncing between dystopia and Socratic dialogue, Another Now tells the story of three politically divergent characters who are connected through love and friendship. Telling the story of 2008-2035, Yanis Varoufakis explores the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and the long-term impacts in a refreshing and thoughtful new way.
For fans of Rutger Bregman, Yuval Noah Harari and Joseph Stiglitz.
This morning on 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Stan Walker’s Impossible.
Walker has an epic story - an unstable and violent childhood, abused by a cousin, winning Australian Idol and having stomach cancer. Throughout this, whanaungatanga (relationships between people) and kotahitanga (unity) have kept his whānau together.
Stan’s voice shines throughout this memoir with a kaupapa that no matter your past, you can succeed. A great read.
Another book from the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist, Kiran reviewed Real Life by Brandon Taylor on 95bFM Breakfast’s Loose Reads. In the tradition of The Secret History and Stoner, this is a brilliant “campus novel” and is perfect for fans of A Little Life and Normal People.
