Reviews
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.
Ruby Solly’s The Artist is already Suri’s favourite poetry book of the year. A kōrero between iwi, whānau & whenua, this collection’s whakaaro is that artist is ever and has always been present.
Listen to Suri’s fantastic review with Rachel below.
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!
Suri is back with a new review on 95bFM’s Loose Reads.
Prolific Chinese author, Yan Lianke explores secularism, money and faith in his new novel. This is a book to read if you want to take the pulse of what’s happening in China.
Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat about Heart Sutra 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!
This morning, Suri reviewed Salman Rushdie’s new novel, Victory City.
Set in fourteenth century southern India, this novel gives context to the nation buidling myths of India.
By giving contemporary facets to his characters, Rushdie installs starting points for those who may want to understand India and its racial divide.
Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat about Victory City below
Recently longlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize, Cursed Bread is already one of Jenna’s favourite books for the year. Small but perfectly formed and fable-like, this feels like an instant classic.
Jenna phoned into the studio, pre-stocktake day! Listen to her chat with Rachel below.
Australian author, Tom Lee, pushes the boundaies of narrative form in his new novella, Object Space. Suri recommends this for philosophers, tech nerds and those interested in AI and ChatGBT.
Listen to Suri and Rachel’s great chat about this book below.
Last week, the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlist was announced. Jenna delves into the fiction finalists today.
Listen to her chat with Rachel below.
Suri believes that Bret Easton Ellis is back to American Psycho form with his new novel, The Shards. Think Gossip Girl meets Scream in this hedonistic horror based in 1980’s LA.
Want to know more? Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat below.
The Trees is a book that is both incredibly grim and incredibly funny. Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, this was one of Jenna’s favorite reads of the summer.
Listen to her chat with Rachel below.
This morning, Suri reviewed the new novel by the author of the bestselling, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.
Cho Nam-Joo’s Saha is a dystopian thriller following various characters living in an abandoned building. The truth of their lives reveals a larger truth of society.
As Suri calls it, ‘a dark book for dark times.’
Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat below.
Epic music producer and all round guru, Rick Rubin, has collated his thoughts on creativity, art and your place in the universe. This is the perfect read to set you up for a 2023 full of ideas.
Listen to Jenna chat with Rachel and Zoe below.
Poor Suri is sick today, so Jenna dialed for a last minute review. She gave advice on three great music books, which would be great for a Christmas present (or just yourself.)
Surrender by Bono - a life story told in forty songs which contains beautiful images & drawings.
Re-Sisters by Cosey Fanni Tutti - a memoir spanning centuries, Tutti interweaves the amazing lives of three women (including herself) who paved the way in both music, writing and creativity.
A Book of Days by Patti Smith - a diary of of year, told in images. As only Smith can be, this is considered, thoughtful and is an ode to art, thinkers, music, family and politics.
This morning, Jenna reviewed the first novel to be translated into English, by Argentine author, Mariana Enriquez. This is a horror, but as a non-horror fan, Jenna thinks okay for those who are squeamish (mostly!)
Filled with the dark arts, magic and politics, this is the perfect summer saga at 700 pages.
Listen to much more about this book in Jenna’s review with Rachel and Zoe below.
Still Born is the fourth novel from Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
The story follows the narrator, Laura, as she writes her PhD in Mexico City. While Laura decides to be surgically sterilised, her good friend Alina is undergoing IVF to conceive, but the two women’s conception of motherhood is set to keep evolving as their lives take unexpected turns.
Told in Nettel’s typically simple, unflowery prose, this is a quietly profound story about motherhood. More generally, it’s about care and the forms it might take beyond conventional roles and communities, teasing out what connects women to children and to each other.
Anyone who’s battled with the decision to have children, or looked after other peoples’ children, or even fancied themselves a feminist, will find a lot to love and think about in this honest and smart read.
