Leon Davidson is one of those rare authors who can write good non-fiction for young adults that makes history both real and engaging. His first book, Scarecrow Army, was about the Anzacs at Gallipoli and won the NZ Post Children and Young Adult non-fiction category in 2006. He followed that up with a book on […]
Appeal for all age groups Read Post »
There’s no doubting Dunedin-based author Vanda Symon’s talent as a writer and I certainly enjoyed most of this book, the third to feature stroppy chick/newbie detective Sam Shepherd. However, I don’t know that a reader who wasn’t so familiar with the southern part of New Zealand would find it such an easy read: most people
Kiwi colloquialisms distract Read Post »
Steven Spielberg’s epic World War II movie Saving Private Ryan was one of those gut-wrenching stories that stayed with you long after you walked out of the theatre. The tale of the search for the fourth and only surviving Ryan brother, so he can be sent home to safety, is all the more harrowing because
Record of a generation Read Post »
Benjamin Franklin reckoned there were only two things in this world that could be said to be certain: death and taxes. However, I’d like to add a third item to that list: Lee Child hitting the best-sellers list here in New Zealand with his Jack Reacher novels. Per head of population, the Reacher thrillers outsell
Kiwis love Reacher Read Post »
Aussie author Colleen McCullough is probably best-known for The Thorn Birds and while I enjoyed that book every bit as much as everyone else in the world, I wasn’t such a great fan of some of the later offerings, particularly the Masters of Rome series. However, I ended up reading the first in the Carmine
The Aussie version of the MasterChef television phenomenon bore little resemblance to its Brit inspiration (and our Kiwi version even less so) but it did prove incredibly entertaining on several levels. It was fun to pick a favourite wannabe chef and back them throughout the competition, booing and hissing at the telly every time one
Plenty of flavour from professional taster Read Post »
I enjoy a good old-fashioned murder mystery and this book certainly delivers plenty of murder and mystery. This is the third book to feature CSI Darby McCormick, a ballsy woman law enforcement officer who gets things done. Don’t be put off if you haven’t read the earlier books: I was a Darby McCormick newbie but
Murder mystery that delivers Read Post »
By now, most people will know the name Julie Powell, her efforts to work her way through Julia Child’s recipes having been immortalised on film in Julie & Julia. This time around Powell decided to try a new challenge. Because after all that French cooking we’d all be ready to face fresh challenges, right? Her
Carving up her goals Read Post »
Here’s a book that will grab you by the throat from the very first page and keep your attention to the end. It kicks off with a massacre in a small Sussex village on a cold January morning. The almost painfully tense story of the trail of death and destruction left after the shooting rampage
Uncomfortably real thriller Read Post »
Julie Powell wasn’t happy with her life. Living in a pokey New York apartment and simply getting on with the daily grind, the author felt like life was passing her by. Now, it’s probably safe to say many of us have felt like this at some stage in our lives. However, Powell’s solution was certainly
Cooking up a change Read Post »
