Jenna
A spooky book for a spooky week. Jenna reviews this true ghost story by Kate Summerscale, which explores the period of ghost hunting between the two world wars.
This has a little bit for every reader - for fans of true crime, ghosts, history, psychology and ethics. Kate Summerscale’s impeccable research makes for fascinating reading. This is also shortlisted for the UK’s top nonfiction award - the Baillie GIfford, announced late November.
Jenna makes a case for everyone to discover the brilliance of Sigrid Nunez’s writing in this 95bFM breakfast show review.
Her brand new novel, What Are You Going Through, is a conveniently topical read for a New Zealand audience. The narrator is asked to accompany her terminally ill friend on a trip where she plans to end her life on her own terms. “I promise to make it as fun as possible.”
Of course, because it’s Sigrid Nunez, this book is not just about euthanasia. It’s about women, ageing, companionship, writing, teaching and philosophy. A warm and smart read by an incredible writer.
Don’t forget to check out her previous novels: National Book Award winning The Friend, The Last of her Kind and Salvation City.
Today, Jenna reviewed two wonderful memoirs that have both recently been published, are by New Zealand women and are about identity and memory.
First, Alison Jones’ This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir. Alison tackles the task of reflecting on her upbringing and life as a Pākehā in Aotearoa. What is a Pākehā? How do Pākehā live and respect Te Ao Māori? A frank, yet respectful memoir.
Then, we have Tree of Strangers by Barbara Sumner. This memoir tells of Barbara’s experience as an adoptee child, however story is quite unbelievable. Personal history alongside research and insights into the often tragic circumstances that adoption can lead too. A wonderful read.
Listen to Jenna, Rachel and Tess chat below.
Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, Burnt Sugar tells the story of Antara, an artist who has never had a good relationship with her mother. But when her mother’s memory starts declining, Antara is the only person who knows how to help.
Set in India, this is an intense, blazing narrative that takes us between past, present and explores the great tension of a mother/daughter relationship. Rich in prose, contemporary in style.
Listen to Jenna, Tess and Mary Margaret chat below:
This is Jenna’s most anticipated book of the year and it hasn’t disappointed.
A coming of age story that has all of the classic Ferrante ingredients - Naples, the class divide and passionate women. Highly recommended and on the shelf now.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below and buy the book here.
TW: Sexual assault.
On Monday’s 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Brannavan Gnanalingam’s Sprigs. Set in Wellington, we open with an end of season rugby game between two rival schools, St Luke’s and Grammar which leads to a horrific sexual assault at the after party.
A cast of 100 characters are managed with ease as we move through four distinct scenes - The Game, The Party, The Meeting & The Trial.
This is a novel that Jenna lost herself in for an entire weekend, barely coming up for breath. Filmic, powerful, emotional and intense, Sprigs an incredibly immersive and compelling novel that explores masculinity, power and reputation.
Today on 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Lil O’Brien’s Not That I’d Kiss a Girl. This astonishingly compelling memoir captures Lil’s experience of coming out in at the turn of the 21st century in Aotearoa. Funny, brutally honest and capturing the complexities of family relationships - this is an important story that’s well worth a read.
Today, Jenna highlights some kick ass novels that are set in her old home of South Korea. With the rise of K-Pop, K-Beauty, films and of course, Han Kang’s The Vegetarian becoming popularised in the West, there’s no time like the present to delve into this spectacular pile of writing by Korean women.
If I had your Face by Frances Cha - a compelling, fast paced novel that follows a group of four women navigating urban society in Seoul.
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin - Translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins. A moody novel set in a tourist seaside town in the freezing winter. Atmospheric, sparse and
Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah - Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Jenna’s favourite of the pile. Filmic, sensory and surprising.
Listen to Jenna chat with Rachel and Mary Margaret below:
In a small village in France, sits a library of unpublished manuscripts, which must be delivered in person.
A Parisian editor find a manuscript of genius while browsing the shelves. The book is published, taking the book world by storm - but is this a hoax? How can Henri Pick, a grouchy pizzeria owner, have written this when no one in his lifetime saw him pick up a pen?
A charming literary mystery with a kooky cast of characters, reminiscent of the film Amélie. Listen to Jenna’s review below and buy the book here.
In what’s been an incredibly strange and unsettling 2020, it can be good to read some non fiction with an optimistic outlook. Looking into well known psychological, economical and historical research within a new context, Bregman proves to us that humans are…really not that bad.
For fans of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens. You can buy Humankind here.
Listen to Jenna. Rachel and Tess chat about this book on 95bFM’s Loose Reads below:
We’re reunited in Level 1!
Jenna’s in the studio to chat to Rachel and Tess about the new New Zealand novel, Fake Baby by Amy McDaid. Set over nine days in Auckland city, this novel is full of wry, dry humour as we follow a three down and out, yet charming characters as they navigate society, family and their mental health.
Meiko Kawakami is a literary star in Japan (also a blogger, poet and former J-Pop star) and this is her first book published in English (translated by Sam Bet and David Boyd. )
Breasts and Eggs won Japan’s most prestigious writing award, the Akutagawa Prize, in 2007. Since then, it has expanded into two books within a book. In Book One, Natsuko is hosting her sister and niece over a sweltering summer in Tokyo from Osaka. Makiko is obsessed with getting breast implants while Midoriko is incredibly anxious about her impending body changes. In Book Two, it’s ten years later and Natsuko is exploring having a child using a sperm donor.
Throughout this novel, Natsuko is surrounded by solo, independent women and this book explores and makes a stand against Japanese patriarchal society. Grimy small apartments, bodily functions, ramen noodles and hostess bars are the background to an intriguing and fleshed out character study.
Also, highly recommended is Kawakami interviewing Murakami where she deeply takes him to task for his writing of female characters.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Sarah below:
A fascinating group biography of five women who lived on Melkenburgh Square between WW1 and WW2.
For fans of English literature, feminist leaders and the Bloomsbury set.
You can order the book here.
Listen to Jenna chat about Square Haunting as well as book store life in Level 2 below:
Recollections of my Nonexistence is Rebecca’s Solnit’s memoir - giving background and context to her body of work - 20 books on feminism, place, culture, ‘wandering and walking, hope and disaster.’
Solnit writes about reading here:
‘Sometimes when you are devastated you want not a reprieve but a mirror of your condition or a reminder that you are not alone in it. Other times it is not the propaganda or the political art that helps you face a crisis but whatever gives you respite from it.’
Solnit never feels like she’s speaking above you as a reader. You’ll underline and bookmark the many powerful lines in this book. It’s an intelligent and thoughtful read for both new readers and established fans.
#BookshopsWillBeBack
Listen to Jenna and Rachel chatting across the interweb below:
Rebecca Solnit, Jenna, Suri and Renee from Twizel Bookshop at the Winter Institute in Baltimore, January 2020.
By Jenna Todd
In the midst of this lockdown madness, I’ve celebrated ten years of both working at Time Out and being a bookseller. I fell into this book world by accident (with a sprinkling of fate) and have since become completely immersed - I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Starting in 2010, I worked the 9pm nightshift, sharing the counter with our tiny shop kitten Lucinda (now in early retirement) and spent the days devouring book recommendations from my colleagues such as Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal.
Since then, it’s been a joy to work with the most incredibly smart, caring and passionate coworkers, collaborate with our generous and hilarious owner Wendy and connect with our likeminded community - including customers and industry colleagues - who all share an overwhelming love and enthusiasm for our wee store.
Here are my favourite reads for the last decade, I’m sure I’ve shamefully missed a few out - but this is to the best of my memory:
2010 Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
2011 Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
2012 The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Civilisation by Steve Braunias
2013 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
2014 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
2015 The First Bad Man by Miranda July
The Story of a New Name, Those who Leave and Those who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
2016 Deleted Scenes for Lovers by Tracey Slaughter
2017 Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The New Animals by Pip Adam
2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Ice Shelf by Anne Kennedy
2019 The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
With a book that has chapter titles such as, Sheltering in Place, Cabin Fever and Bracing for Change, Laura Zigman’s Separation Anxiety may speak to you more than usual.
Judy is an author and mother in her 50’s. Her 14 year old son doesn’t need her, she has writers block and can’t afford to divorce her anxious husband. Whilst going through her son’s baby items in the basement, she finds an organic cotton baby sling and after putting it on, she looks down at her dog Charlotte…
This book is a story of connection, loneliness and has a promise of lightness and laughs in a time where we all need some brain space. Jenna also recommends David Sedaris, Caitlin Moran and Nina Stibbe for some comedic relief.
Time Out is not currently open, but we urge for you to wait for us to open again to treat yourself to your next literary fix. #WaitForYourBookshop
Listen to Jenna, Rachel and Tess chatting across the interweb below:
Visual artist Jenny Odell contextualises and explores how we can live more fulfilling life just by paying more attention - just for ourselves.
How to Do Nothing is not a self help book, but a thorough investigation into the role of our individual attention and how it can diverted sideways to appreciate the world we live in without commodification.
This is an incredibly thoughtful and fascinating read. Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess is below:
‘If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.’
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
After making multiple ‘Best of 2019’ lists in the USA, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House has finally made it to New Zealand.
Machado describes a year long, psychologically abusive relationship with her ex-girlfriend through vignettes headed with narrative genres.
She contextualises her experience as she looks outwards into writing on abusive relationships in the queer community, folklore and pop culture.
This book is intense, helpless and visceral but as Machado says, this is an act of resurrection for herself. Incredibly smart, powerful and compelling - this may be my memoir of the year already!
Listen to Jenna’s review below:
An Yu’s debut novel tells the story of Jia Jia who after discovering her husband dead in the bath, finds a curious drawing from his dream.
From Beijing to Tibet - Braised Pork weaves together domesticity, Chinese traditions and myth - resulting in a gentle exploration of grief.
Braised Pork is also our March Lit Reads pick! Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel below:
Lucy Ellmann's Ducks, Newburyport a 1000 page, stream of consciousness of an Ohio mother as she bakes pies. Is it worth it? Yes!
Also, Jenna almost missed this incredible memoir, The Copenhagen Trilogy by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen, republished as a Penguin Classic forty years after publication.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn Ryan below:
