New releases coming in September. FICTION Rush Oh!, by Shirley Barrett: From the director of hugely popular TV show Offspring, a novel with drama, misadventure and a wee dose of comedy. Published by Macmillan (out September 1, RRP $35). X…
Author: Jillian Allison-Aitken
■ REVIEW
The Beginner’s Guide to Rugby
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…
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
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…
State’s failure of care a sad tale
In the Hands of Strangers: A New Zealand Childhood Stolen, by Beverly Wardle-Jackson (Penguin, RRP $38): When the State steps in to take over the care of a child when families are unable to, those children should be safe. Unfortunately,…
Dreaming of the impossible
100 Things You Will Never Do, by Daniel Smith (Quercus, RRP $40): I refuse to set myself a bucket list and believe the phrase should be eradicated from our language, but must admit I did enjoy this trip through what…
On the bookshelves: July 2015
Astronaut’s exploits are out of this world
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, by Chris Hadfield (Macmillan, RRP $37): Chris Hadfield is without doubt the world’s most well- known astronaut since the hey-day of the Moon landings and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He is the…
Tackling gender debate with lots of humour
Are Men Obsolete: You Decide, edited by Rudyard Griffiths (Ebury Press, RRP $20): This little book takes on the gender debate with four talented feminist writers and critics taking a crack at the argument both for and against those hairy…