I’m sure everyone out there has a favourite recipe for a never- fail sponge, awesome bikkie or spectacular scone that has come from a mother, grandmother, aunty or friend. It is those recipes that are handed on from friend to friend, and generation to generation, that always seem to end up becoming our go-to recipe […]
■ REVIEW: Granny's Kitchen Baking
Granny knows her stuff Read Post »
This latest book by Glyn Harper is one that brings home the trauma, hardship, heartache and horror of living through, and with, a war. Glyn Harper is the Professor of War Studies at Massey University and has already written and edited a comprehensive collection of books on New Zealand’s military history. This time he has
■ REVIEW: Letters From Gallipoli
Soldiers’ letters bring home horror Read Post »
If you’ve ever had to explain one of those special Kiwi terms to someone online, or to a visitor from overseas, this might be the perfect book for you. Tony Deverson is a man who knows words – he is the senior editor of the New Zealand Dictionary Centre at Victoria University and taught in
■ REVIEW: Oxford Dictionary of New Zealandisms
Kiwi lingo in one book Read Post »
Noah Boyd is one of those rare authors who not only writes in the crime thriller genre, he also lived it. According to Boyd’s publisher, he is an ex- United States Marine and FBI agent and during the course of his career as a Fed he tracked serial killers, captured federal fugitives and broke a
■ REVIEW: Last Chance to Die
A fast and furious series Read Post »
This is a reprinted, repackaged and updated version of Julie Le Clerc’s 1999 book by the same name and I have to say, the recipes still stack up well as good cafe food 12 years down the track. Food trends come and go and looking over old magazines can sometimes offer a bit of a
■ REVIEW: Simple Cafe Food
Still good after 12 years Read Post »
A touching collection of poems, Our Soldiers looks at the awful impact of World War I on the lives of ordinary Kiwis. Author Kate McColl spent a month in Belguim, funded by that country’s government, and has also included a selection of poems that covers the battlefields of Flanders. Her grandfather fought at Passchendale and
■ REVIEWS: Our Soldiers | Cassino City of Martyrs
Honouring our soldiers in verse Read Post »
It is an astonishing fact of modern media that a Facebook site set up by a guy opposing Double Down burgers one month could, the next, persuade 50,000 Kiwis to urge the banning, unread, of a soon-to-be-published book. That site has now been removed and the book is out, available at Whitcoulls and doubtless other
I’m always a little stunned by just how prolific author James Patterson is. Sure, he collaborates on a lot of his books but he still churns out an impressive number of novels that are impressively well- written. This one is the third in the Michael Bennett series, featuring the widowed New York detective with 10
■ REVIEW: Worst Case
Something for everyone Read Post »
Love him or hate him, Marc Ellis is the perfect choice to pen a guide to Kiwi blokes, being such a good Kiwi bloke himself. This book is 248 pages of silliness that takes the reader on a guided tour of the Kiwi bloke species, in all his many guises: from the Ginga to the
■ REVIEW: Marc Ellis' Good Fullas
A fun guide to the Kiwi bloke Read Post »
This is the fourth book in the Detective Sam Shepherd murder mystery series and I’m pleased to report that they just get better and better. I have read two of the other three (Overkill, the very first book, is still on my “must-track-down-and-read” list) and each time the main character becomes more and more believable
■ REVIEW: Bound
A ripper of a series Read Post »
