Archive for January, 2016

Revelations rocked newspaper industry

January 23, 2016
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Revelations rocked newspaper industry

Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, by Nick Davies (Chatto & Windus, RRP $40): While the 2011 News International phone-hacking scandal might not have been the huge news here that it was in the northern hemisphere, there’s no doubting the fact that what happened has had a global impact. The...

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On the bookshelves: February 2016

January 22, 2016
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On the bookshelves: February 2016

New releases coming in February. FICTION My Own Dear Brother, by Holly Müller: An unforgettable, nightmarish coming-of-age story set in rural Austria towards the end of the Second World War (Bloomsbury Circus, RRP $33). I’ll See You in Paris, by Michelle Gabl: A story that winds together the lives of three women born generations apart, but...

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Poetic insight to the world of autism

January 20, 2016
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Poetic insight to the world of autism

Cloudboy, by Siobhan Harvey (Otago University Press, RRP $25): Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page, selected by Siobhan Harvey, Harry Ricketts and James Norcliffe (Godwit, RRP $45): Siobhan Harvey is an internationally recognised poet who has been critically acclaimed through receiving or being shortlisted for many awards. She won the Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award...

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Latest Roy Grace book a good read

January 18, 2016
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Latest Roy Grace book a good read

You are Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan Publishers, RRP $34.99): Best-selling author Peter James is back with the 11th book in his Roy Grace crime series. Nick Walton’s fiance Logan has just driven into the underground car park of the building in Brighton where they live when she calls him on her cellphone. She...

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Fairy-tale life that turned sad

January 17, 2016
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Fairy-tale life that turned sad

Empty Mansions, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr (Atlantic Books, RRP $40): It’s human nature that we have a fascination with the lives of the rich and famous, but sometimes the lives of the incredibly wealthy are also incredibly sad. Reclusive heiress Huguette Clark died in 2011 at the age of 104....

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Laver a tennis great

January 12, 2016
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Laver a tennis great

Rod Laver: A Memoir, by Larry Writer with Rod Laver (Pan Macmillan Australia): Who would dare question tennis icon Roger Federer’s assessment of the greatest players of the sport in his time? Federer’s plumping for Laver as “the greatest champion our sport has known” will be widely accepted wherever the game is played. Federer, after...

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Patterson provides good holiday reading

January 10, 2016
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Patterson provides good holiday reading

Gone, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Century, RRP $37): James Patterson is always a good option for holiday reading and the sixth novel in the best-selling Michael Bennett crime thriller series is – as always – easy to read and packed with action. No surprises there I suppose: Patterson might turn out a...

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Inspiration top of ill teacher’s list

January 7, 2016
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Inspiration top of ill teacher’s list

The Priority List, by David Menasche (Allen & Unwin, RRP $35): The word “inspirational” is often bandied about when it comes to biographies of the famous and wealthy, but this story of a teacher who simply wanted to carry on doing what he loved best is one of the few times “inspirational” is the...

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