95bFM's Loose Reads: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

‘Sobbing near the dry goods, asking myself, Am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left to call and ask what brand of seaweed we used to buy?’

Jenna reviews Michelle Zauner’s beautiful autobiography Crying in H Mart, documenting a period that inspired the first album of her band, Japanese Breakfast.

When Zauner was 25, she dropped everything to care for her terminally ill mother in rural Oregon. This forces her to confront her identity as a Korean American, the cultural divide between herself and her mother, their difficult relationship when she was a teenager and the food that brought them together.

This beautiful book will make you feel sad and hungry - and leave you wanting more.

95bFM's Loose Reads: The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner

The Hard Crowd spans 20 years of essays by Booker-shortlisted novelist Rachel Kushner. From riding motorbikes in the American midwest to analysing anti-facist imagery in Italian cinema and prison abolition, this collection of narrative essays shifts the inward gaze towards the collective and celebrates a history of global working-class culture.

Have a listen to Suri’s review below:

95bFM's Loose Reads: Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: 2021 Ockham NZ Book Awards

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.

95bFM's Loose Reads: We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

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!

95bFM's Loose Reads: Devil's Trumpet by Tracey Slaughter

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: The Believer - Encounters with Love, Death and Faith by Sarah Krasnostein

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

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.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Bug Week by Airini Beautrais

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.

95bFM's Loose Reads: A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion

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.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

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!

95bFM's Loose Reads: Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: Real Life by Brandon Taylor

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.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain is a novel brimming with heart and soul and the writing positively gleams. Shuggie Bain is Kiran’s novel of the year and she reviewed it on RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan

On RNZ’s Nine to Noon Kiran reviewed Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan. A charismatic and spirited ode to friendship, this gorgeous novel is a positive and celebratory representation of male friendship. While it’s heartbreaking, it’s also a joyous headrush.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Spring by Ali Smith

On 95bfm’s Loose Reads, Kiran reviewed the dazzling new Ali Smith novel Summer. In this satisfying conclusion to her much-loved radical and piercingly contemporary seasonal quartet, Smith tracks current events in real time: COVID-19, lockdown, Black Lives Matter… breathtakingly, it’s all here.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body…
So begins Death in Her Hands, the compelling new novel from Ottessa Moshfegh who is an expert at evoking the weird, eerie and mordantly funny. Kind of like Patricia Highsmith meets Ottessa Moshfegh meets Murder She Wrote, Death in Her Hands is a pageturner of a mystery - comic in places and pitch dark in others.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

On 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Kiran reviewed the eagerly anticipated new novel by David Mitchell Utopia Avenue. Set in 1967 right on the cusp of the Summer of Love, it follows the rise of a fictitious British psych/folk/rock/blues group called Utopia Avenue. The novel charts the group coming together, playing gigs, recording albums, falling apart, and sex, drugs and rock and roll scandals as well as the mundane vicissitudes of being in a rock group. Music lovers will have fun spotting the many cameos from famous musicians and bands as well as characters from previous Mitchell novels.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O'Connell

On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Kiran reviewed Notes from An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell. This is a book about right now, to read right now! In search of preppers getting ready for the end of the world, O’Connell travelled to bunkers in South Dakota, to a conference in Los Angeles about the colonisation of Mars, to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to wilderness reserves in the Scottish Highlands, and… New Zealand. The result is this throughly engaging reportage-cum-travelouge which is equal parts terrifying and hilarious. Reading Notes From An Apocalypse is like listening to your brainiest and funniest friend!