95bFM's Loose Reads: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell by Time Out Bookstore

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:

 
 

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Weather by Jenny Offill by Time Out Bookstore

On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Kiran reviewed Weather the new novel by Jenny Offill, author of the hugely, widely adored Dept. of Speculation. Set during the 2016 US election, it examines the dual catastrophe of political doom and the accelerating climate crisis with a parallel of domestic anxiety. It’s a beautifully poised and refined novel, and it’s not all doom and gloom - Weather is cheerfully wry, witty and funny.

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95bFM's Loose Reads: 2000ft Above Worry Level by Eamonn Marra by Time Out Bookstore

On 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Kiran spoke about Wellington writer and comic Eamonn Marra’s debut novel 2000ft Above Worry Level. An episodic series of connected pieces, this novel is written in a spare, laconic style and deals with anxiety, depression, awkward cam sex, and unemployment - but with the most brilliant sense of comic timing and a lightness of touch. It’s remarkably laugh-out-loud funny and touching, too.

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95bFM's Loose Reads: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado by Time Out Bookstore

‘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:

 
 

95bFM's Loose Reads: Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride by Time Out Bookstore

On 95bFM’s Loose Reads Kiran reviewed the eagerly anticipated new novel Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half Formed Thing and The Lesser Bohemians. A slim novel at only 149 pages, Strange Hotel calls to be read in one feverish siting with a cold white wine which is what our unnamed narrator orders by the bottle from room service as she moves between a series of hotels in France, Prague, Oslo, Auckland and Austin. A searing meditation of the mind, body and loss, this radical novel is perfect for fans of Edna O’Brien and Rachel Cusk.

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BOOK OF THE MONTH: February, 2020: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom by Time Out Bookstore

Our Book of the Month for February is The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. A memoir of place, class, race and inequality, it tells the story of a hundred years of Broom’s family and their relationship to home after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
”An extraordinary, engrossing debut… kinetic and omnivorous… instantly essential.” - New York Times Book Review

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95bFM's Loose Reads: Braised Pork by An Yu by Time Out Bookstore

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:

 
 

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Jenna's Best of 2019 by Time Out Bookstore

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:

95bFM's Loose Reads: All Who Live on Islands by Rose Lu by Time Out Bookstore

Kiran reviewed All Who Live on Islands by Rose Lu on 95bFM’s Loose Reads. In this collection of nine essays which move between China, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Whanganui, Lu writes with a lightness of touch about food, friendship, relationships, casual and internalised racism, sex, working in the tech industry, and what it’s like to grow up as a Chinese migrant in a multicultural society that has a monocultural focus. Kiran says, “we need more writing like this and I think it’s coming, which is exciting.”

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95bFM's Loose Reads: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid by Time Out Bookstore

Are you looking for a great summer read that’s so compelling that you can’t put it down?

Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age is a topical page-turner that’s funny and sharp. Brilliant dialogue gives depth to her complex characters as they navigate race, privilege and wokeness.

This book has been bought by Lena Waithe’s production company and will soon be a TV series.

Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess below!

 
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95bFM's Loose Reads: Jenna's Christmas Picks by Time Out Bookstore

Alright, it's the end of the year and wowee, Jenna has a full list of reckons for the last Loose Reads of 2019.

NOVEL OF THE YEAR The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

ADVENTURE STORY OF THE YEAR The Burning River by Lawrence Patchett

EPIC SUMMER READ Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellman

BEST BOOK FOR KIDS The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith
BEST BOOK FOR BABIES My First Words In Māori by Stacey Morrison

BEST FANCY BOOK Private Gardens of Aotearoa by Suzanne Turley

BEST CLIMATE SCIENCE BOOK Fifteen MIllion Years in Antarctica by Rebecca Priestley

BEST BOOK FOR A 2020 RESOLUTION Tales from a Hot Financial Mess by Frances Cook.