Understanding our national game: There was a popular ad campaign a year or three back that proudly proclaimed you’d never be a Kiwi until you loved a particular brand of sauce, but I reckon a love of rugby is probably…
Month: July 2015
■ REVIEW
Recipes to set the tastebuds tingling
A Bit of What You Fancy, by Jo Seagar (Random House, RRP $55): Jo Seagar has done a good job of finding 130 recipes that help inspire tasty dishes. You do not have to flick far to find recipes –…
The summer that changed the world
One Summer: America, 1927, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, RRP $55): British author Bill Bryson has come up with an interesting concept for this fact-packed trip back in time, telling the story of one summer in the history of America that…
On the bookshelves: August 2015
New releases coming in August. FICTION I’m Travelling Alone, by Samuel Bjork: Published by Doubleday on August 1, with an RRP of $38. A six-year-old girl is found hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which…
Gangland killings a shock
The Bassett Road Machine-Gun Murders, by Scott Bainbridge ($37 Allen & Unwin): This book was published to mark the 50th anniversary of a shocking crime that drew a line in New Zealand’s criminal history and heralded a more sinister era.…
Huge disappointment for dedicated fan
Vicious Circle, by Wilbur Smith (Macmillian, RRP $55): My brother, an avid reader, introduced me to Wilbur Smith when I was still in my teens and I’ve enjoyed his novels ever since. Smith is easily my favorite author and I love…
Quirky thriller is a little off-balance
Dog Will Have His Day, by Fred Vargas (Harvill Secker, RRP $37): Former special investigator Louis Kehlweiler has to find new ways to fill in his days now that he no longer works for the Parisian police force. Kehlweiler gathers…
Will we pay the price?
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, by Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott (Bloomsbury, RRP $37): It’s so easy to feel a disconnect between the vacuum packed offerings in the meat aisle at your local supermarket and the origins of that…
Plenty of smooth action in Aussie thriller
Marble Bar by Robert Schofield (Allen & Unwin, RRP $37): Gareth Ford is working long hours in the iron ore industry in Western Australia. He is a solo parent with plans for improving his future. But then his past starts…