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Easter Island, Jennifer Vanderbes

Abacus
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

The giant carved monoliths of Easter Island have long fascinated travellers and anthropologists alike. Who made them? What do they signify? Some weigh more than 80 tonnes; how were they moved and erected? Perhaps most mysterious of all, what caused them all to topple? Vanderbes addresses some of these questions in her impressive first novel.

Full review here

Eating with the Angels, Sarah-Kate Lynch

Black Swan
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Eating with the Angels is not as good as By Bread Alone. The smell of the food, the mouth-watering flavours – well, they're not there. And this is hardly surprising, as Connie Farrell, famous restaurant critic, has suffered an accident and endured a very long coma, only to awaken sans tastebuds. How can a restaurant reviewer write critically when she has no sense of taste?

Full review here

Essence, Krystine Tomaszyk

Dunmore Press
Review by Peter watt (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Krystine tomaszyk opens her memoir by recalling an emotional reunion.

In a speech to Rotarians in Hamilton in 1980, she described her epic journey to New Zealand with hundreds of other Polish refugees 36 years earlier.

Full review here.