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.
Here’s Suri’s latest 95bFM review - we are sharing this today, on her birthday!
Simon Winchester's latest book examines humans' relationship with the land over centuries. Comparing the dueling philosophies of Rousseau and Locke, Winchester draws a compelling thread between private land ownership, climate crises, wealth inequality and political borders.
Listen below with Suri, Rachel & Tess. A big farewell to Tess who is leaving the bFM team - thank you for being so awesome.
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!
Jenna chats with Kathryn about some of her ‘forgotten favourites’ from 2020.
Earthlings is an absurd & twisted foray into the ‘factory’ of Japanese culture.
Homeland Elegies is a modern day American auto-fiction classic - from the perspective of a Muslim American life post 9/11.
In the Dream House is a searing collection of vignettes that explore an abusive queer relationship and the history of queer relationships in pop culture.
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TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
In their new book about the erosion of Western democracy, Putin critic and New Yorker journalist Masha Gessen explores the rise of autocracy in Trump's America and offers practical ways of psychologically and physically surviving an autocratic state.
With deep insight from her Russian reporting, Masha Gessen builds on the work of Hannah Arendt to offer a full story on the creation of autocracy.
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:
Our top 10 bestselling books of the year.
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Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
Do you need something FUNNY to read over the holidays? Go no further than David Sedaris. This is a best of collection spanning 25 years of essays, stories and opinion pieces. Listen to Jenna’s review below.
On our final review for 95bFM’s Loose Reads for 2020, Suri chose her top books of 2020.
Listen below for some last minute Christmas present advice on:
Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine by Monique Fiso, The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey, Railways Studios by Neill Peter Atkinson Alsop, What We'll Build: Plans for Our Together Future by Oliver Jeffers, Summer by Ali Smith, and Magnolia 木蘭 by Nina Mingya Powles.
This morning on 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Victory Park by Rachel Kerr.
A fantastic character novel based around a council flat in Wellington. Single mother Kara starts spending time with new tenant Bridget, who has moved in after her husband is caught up in a Ponzi scheme. Subtle, yet still punchy and compelling, this is the newest novel from the publisher of Becky Manawatu’s Auē.
Another Now is an an experiment in building utopias; in envisioning and implementing progressive futures. Bouncing between dystopia and Socratic dialogue, Another Now tells the story of three politically divergent characters who are connected through love and friendship. Telling the story of 2008-2035, Yanis Varoufakis explores the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and the long-term impacts in a refreshing and thoughtful new way.
For fans of Rutger Bregman, Yuval Noah Harari and Joseph Stiglitz.
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TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
This morning on 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Jenna reviewed Stan Walker’s Impossible.
Walker has an epic story - an unstable and violent childhood, abused by a cousin, winning Australian Idol and having stomach cancer. Throughout this, whanaungatanga (relationships between people) and kotahitanga (unity) have kept his whānau together.
Stan’s voice shines throughout this memoir with a kaupapa that no matter your past, you can succeed. A great read.
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.
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.
'If Then' explores the origin story of the first data company in existence, The Simulatics Corporation. Started in the 50s at the height of the Cold War and housed in a sci-fi-esque geodome, this group of scientists, engineers, academics and ad-men pioneered the blueprint for today's data giants.
Revealing the political and philosophical underpinnings behind today's data economy and the growing power of trading human futures, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore sounds a warning bell about the future of our privacy and the quiet ways to resist its dissolution.
The perfect Christmas present for fans of strange history!
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TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
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.
