Jenna
Bird Life is a lyrical, present novel set in Japan. Dinah, grieving the suicide of her twin brother, moves from Aotearoa to Japan to teach English. There, she meets Yasuko, a mother grieving her son leaving home. Together, the kinship between Dinah and Yasuko deepens as they navigate their own paths.
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
It’s almost Christmas, therefore it’s time for our end of year round-ups. Today, Jenna chose three nice novels, just because it feels like we need them.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Good Material by Dolly Alderton (audiobook on Libro.fm)
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Today on Nine to Noon, Jenna chatted to Susie about The Bee Sting. This has been shortlisted for the Booker, which will be announced in just over a week!
A supremely Irish tragi-comedy, this is Jenna’s favourite novel of 2023.
Listen below for the full review.
It’s Britney, bitch!
Jenna thoroughly enjoyed Britney’s highly anticipated and bestselling memoir. With the perfect mix of shock, sadness, humour and plenty of villains., The Woman in Me gives a lot of insight and context into the dark side of fame.
This was listened to on Libro.fm, where your chosen indie bookshop gets a portion of the sale.
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Green Dot is the debut novel by Australian arts writer, critic, academic annnnd former bookseller, Madeleine Gray.
Hera is a woman in her mid-twenties, who embarks on a self-destructive, long term relationship with an older, married man, who continues to promise he will leave his wife for her.
This Fleabag-esque page-turner observes millennial life & the internet with such on the nose humour, it could have been written by Hera Lindsay Bird.
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Newly Booker Shortlisted and one of three Pauls in the running, The Bee Sting is a laugh out loud Irish family saga. With the humour and teen angst of Derry Girls meets the structure and depth of Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads, Jenna rates this as this year’s BIG SUMMER READ.
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Jenna called into the 95bFM studio this morning from Murihiku/Southland to chat about Adventures with Emilie.
Victoria Bruce was living in Christchurch working in a successful yet stressful career in comms, while raising her young daughter. But her depression and PTSD from a tough adolescence were catching up on her. Looking towards nature as a solace, she decided to take Emilie out of school and have them both walk the length of Aotearoa on the Te Araroa trail.
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Described as a “punk” by Mariana Enriquez, Aurora Venturini wrote this novel as an 85 year old, submitting the typewritten manuscript anonymously to a newspaper competition in 2007. After she won, she said, “Finally, an honest jury.” She had previously written 30 novels.
This is a story of vulnerable women, bad men and revenge in 1940’s Buenos Aires. Cousins is the first Venturini novel to be translated into English.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below for more.
PHOTO BY CLAUDIA BERNALDO DE QUIRÓS
On this rare sunny morning in Tāmaki, Jenna visited the studio to talk about the 2023 Booker longlisted, In Ascension. A book that hits the depths of the sea and stretches into the wider universe, this is a book that explores the connection between science, humans and the environment.
For fans of Richard Powers!
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Rachel and Stella below.
Jenna called in from a bustling Mt. Eden Village this morning to chat about the winners from the NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. Listen to her chat with Rachel below.
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Jenna called into the studio today to review the brand new novel by award-winning, Pip Adam - one the most inventive and exciting writers in Aotearoa.
In Audition, we meet three giants on spaceship. From here, the least you know about this book, the better. However, Adam stays true to form by pushing the boundaries of her narrative worlds to bring a strong social message to readers.
Listen to Jenna & Rachel chat below!
“I stood on the most God-forsaken patch of earth I hope ever exists and I thought: I wonder how Elly is.”
Alice Winn’s In Memoriam demonstrates both the despair of war and the distraction of love as we meet two young men in love, Ellwood and Gaunt as they leave their boarding school to sit at the front lines of World War I.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below.
Tama leaves behind his life in Wellington, of Te Ao Pākeha to head home to Waituhi after the sudden death of his father. As the oldest son, it’s expected that he will return to take over the family farm.
Tangi was the winner of the 1973 New Zealand Book Awards and for its 50 year anniversary, this new edition
has been re-edited to celebrate. This piece by Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) explains more about Witi’s process of rewriting.
This incredibly moving novel has more than stood the test of time and is the perfect read for Matariki.
Big Swiss has quickly become a staff favourite at Time Out, nicely fitting alongside titles such as My Year of Rest and Relaxation and The First Bad Man.
Greta transcribes the therapy sessions of sex coach, Om, and becomes enamoured with a patient whom she calls Big Swiss. When she hears Big Swiss’ voice in the dog park, she introduces herself as Rebekah - leading to a very intense infatuation between the two.
Told with the darkest of humour - Big Swiss explores moral boundaries, trauma relationships.
Catherine Chidgey is back (already!) with her new novel, Pet. Brimming with 80’s nostalgia, questionable characters and an unpredictable ending, Chidgey has stayed on track after her recent win at the Ockham NZ Book Awards.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Stella, with some bonus knitted jersey chat.
This week, Jenna reviews Josie Shapiro’s Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, which is the inaugural winner of the Allen & Unwin Commercial Fiction Prize.
Mickey Bloom is an underdog - small, dyslexic and bullied, she finds solace in running. However, this also comes at a cost. Set in Auckland, Everything is Beautiful explores big dreams and what happens if they’re not realised. Highly recommended.
This week, Jenna previews the session she’s chairing at the Auckland Writer’s Festival this week.
Katherena Vermette is an award winning Red River Métis author, from Manitoba, Winnipeg. Her second novel The Strangers, follows Phoenix Stranger, a character from her first novel The Break, to continue her story alongside the story of her family and how she got to where she is now.
You can listen to Jenna, Rachel & Stella’s chat about the book below!
Katherena Vermette: It’s in the Bones is at 2.30pm on Friday.
Suri thinks there’s something that would interest everyone in The Big Con. Looking at the interconnection of private and public sections in the consulting industry, Mazzucato & Collington have put together a well researched and fascinating read.
Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat below.
We think Dr. Emma Espiner’s debut memoir, There’s a Cure for This, is going to be a favourite for 2023.
"I don't know why medicine felt like coming home but, for some reason, it fits. I keep thinking about how the tohu, once awarded, can never be taken back. Better not fuck it up."
Through nostalgia, whānau & the grit of medicine this collection of essays explore being a mother, a daughter & a Māori doctor.
You can listen to Jenna, Annabel & Stella’s chat below!
This week, Jenna visited the studio to talk about a current Time Out staff favourite, Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You.
A cross between The Secret History and Serial Podcast, this is a page-turning read that cleverly captures the zeitgest of the fascination of true crime, the #metoo movement and social justice.
You can listen to Jenna, Rachel & Stella’s chat below!
