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Teed Off in the USA, Justin Brown
Random House
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Global warming has been the cause of many unfortunate occurrences lately. One of them was the cancellation of a golf tournament 400 miles north of the arctic circle in Greenland because of "poor ice conditions". Justin Brown, a New Zealand radio personality, was gutted. He had been looking forward to the tournament all year.
Full review here
The 2 ½ Pillars of Wisdom, Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Readers of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency will be familiar with the author's gently satirical and puckish sense of humour. In the sternly Teutonic Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld of the Institute of Romance Philology, McCall Smith has created a worthy rival to Mma Ramotswe.
Full review here
The Adventures of Abdi
Madonna
Puffin,
Reviewed by Lisa Hoult (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Children are brutally honest when it comes to books - and the toughest audience to please, especially the ones I read this to.
Sadly, they were extremely unimpressed and have filed it in the "to be given away" pile. While it says on the cover that this is "for children (even grown up ones)", the only one of us who seemed to like it was the cat - or maybe he just had an itch.
Full review here
The Apologist, Jay Rayner
Atlantic Books
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Small little hardback. Tasteful cover showing a man holding a bunch of flowers. The title says it all. Or does it?
Full review here
The Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg
Vermillion
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Remember the Horse Whisperer? Now it's the Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg, from England. She could calm the most fractious of babies and the most harried of parents.
Full review here.
The Best New Zealand Fiction: Volume 1, Fiona Kidman (Editor)
Vintage
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Writer Fiona Kidman reckons she has "the credentials to choose a good read", thus vindicating her editing a collection of New Zealand fiction "hot off the press". This new fiction includes short stories as well as excerpts from novels in progress. The general ploy is to give us a taste of what is being written in New Zealand now.
Full review here
The Big Year: A tale of man, nature and a fowl obsession, Mark Obmascik
Not just for bird lovers. This gripping story takes the reader on a fast and furious marathon throughout North America.
Full review here
The Body of Jonah Boyd, David Leavitt
Bloomsbury
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The Wrights are an American family in a typical American college town at the tail end of the sixties.
Full review here
The Bonfire of Berlin, Helga Schneider
William Heinemann
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
It was no fun living in Berlin during World War II. Helga Schneider gives a personal account of what it was like.
Full review here.
The Captain Cook Encyclopaedia, John Robson
Random House
Reviewed by Mike Bowler (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
It's a dead giveaway that a subject has reached critical mass when encyclopaedia start appearing to cover it. John Robson's work on Captain Cook takes that measure, and he's found a heap of information to flesh out the latest book in the Cook catalogue.
Full review here
The Colour of Death, Elizabeth Lowell
Avon Books
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
A story that may prompt you to take a second look at your jewellery! It reveals many of the tricks used to make gemstones look better than they really are.
Full review here
The End of the Line (How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat), Charles Clover
Ebury Press
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Some of the most passionate paragraphs in Charles Clover's expose of industrial fishing and its effect on our oceans are the first three.
"Imagine what people would say if a band of hunters strung a mile of net between two massive all-terrain vehicles and dragged it at speed across the plains of Africa. This fantastical assemblage, like something from a Mad Max movie, would scoop up everything in its way: predators, such as lions and cheetahs, lumbering endangered herbivores such as rhinos and elephants, herds of impala and wildebeest, family groups of warthogs and wild dogs. Pregnant females would be swept up and carried along too, with only the smallest juveniles able to wriggle through the mesh.
Full review here
The Exile, Allan Folsom
Time Warner
Reviewed by Lisa Hoult (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
"Once you start The Exile, forget sleep," says Stephen Coontz, which is fairly daunting considering the dimensions of this book. A larger-sized paperback, this has 700 pages, so is not for the weak-wristed or lovers of an early night.
Full review here
The Falls, Joyce Carol Oates
Fourth Estate
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
"The air roars, shakes. The ground beneath your feet shakes. As if time has ceased. Time has exploded. As if you've come too near to the radiant, thrumming, mad heart of all being...Maybe that's the promise of the Falls? The secret? A tentative foot, on the slippery wrought iron. 'Don't do it! Mister! God damn!' The gatekeeper's words were drowned out by The Falls. Flung back into his face like cold spit."
Full review here
The Family Way, Tony Parsons
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
A male author writing about pregnancy and childbirth has a refreshing zing to it. Getting over my initial "... what would he know about contractions?" didn't take long. Tony Parsons is, after all, a writer who has earned stunning success with his novels Man and Boy, One for my Baby and Man and Wife.
Full review here
The Four Corners of New Zealand - Treading in A.H. Reed's Footsteps, A.H. Reed
New Holland
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Alfred Hamish Reed was a remarkable man. Born in England, he arrived in New Zealand (Maoriland, he frequently calls it) in 1887. He worked as a gum digger in the Far North, then as a typewriter salesman and finally a publisher in Dunedin.
Full review here
The Frozen Coast: Sea Kayaking the Antarctic Peninsula, Graham Charles, Mark Jones and Marcus Waters with Sarah Moodie
Craig Potton Publishing
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
A couple of years ago I was clearing customs into Ushuaia. The Argentinian customs officer looked at the pile of New Zealand passports on his desk, shook his head and paddled his arms in emulation of someone under way in a kayak. "Senor," he grinned resignedly, "are you all loco too?"
Full review here
The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Mma Ramotswe runs a detective agency in Botswana. She's engaged to mechanic J.L.B. Matekoni of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors but remains unmarried.
Full review here
The Girl in Times Square, Paullina Simons
HarperCollins
Review by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Paullina Simons is my new favourite author and The Girl in Times Square is my new 600-page best friend.
Full review here
The Golden Cup, Marcia Willett
Bantam
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
In these days of action-packed, fast-moving fiction it is a change to come across this smoothly-paced novel set in a secluded valley on the north coast of Cornwall. In it is the house, Paradise, family home for generations of Trevannions, where aged Honor Trevannion, affectionately known as Mutt, lies bedridden. She is cared for by her grand-daughter, Joss, and a cousin.
Full review here
The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Heather Ramsay (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
When I picked up this book, I knew I was in for a good read for two reasons.
Full review here
The Ice Queen,
Alice Hoffman
Chatto & Windus
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
"Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back."
Full review here.
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
Viking
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Although the book club consists of fans of Jane Austen, this novel is more about the six club members than the author.
Full review here
The Killing Joke, Anthony Horowitz
Orion
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Where do jokes come from? How and why do they go from person to person? What's the point in having jokes in the first place? The main character in this amusing novel, Guy Fletcher, a down-on-his-luck actor, is forced to ask these and other questions in order to unravel a mystery of his own making.
Full review here
The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracey Chevalier
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The author of Girl with a Pearl Earring has given us another engaging historical novel based on a work of art, in this case a set of 15th century tapestries.
Full review here
The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd
Chatto & Windus
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Historical novelist, biographer and scholar Peter Ackroyd returns to his happy hunting ground of pre-Victorian London.
Full review here
The Light of Day, Graham Swift
Penguin
Reviewed by Hal Williams (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Murder, an affair, unrequited love, a private detective – sound a bit clichéd? Fear not. The Light of Day, even outlined in those basic terms, is a long way from those well-worn private-eye penny horribles.
Full review here
The Long-Range Plan, Wade Tabor
Hazard Press
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
What do you do if you aspire to the good life but have a marked aversion to work? Perhaps, like Cole Archer, you develop an audacious plan that requires perfect timing and nerves of steel to carry out.
Full review here
The Miracles of Santo Fico, D.L. Smith
Time Warner
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
This is a light-hearted frolic set in Santo Fico, a small Tuscan village set high on the cliffs overlooking the sea.
Full review here
The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest – Travel Tales of the South Pacific, Graeme Lay
Awa Press
Reviewed by Hal Williams (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The South Pacific has cast its spell over countless travellers over the years, from the mutineers of The Bounty to artist Paul Gauguin and Moby Dick author Herman Melville.
Full review here
The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide, Richard Conniff
Arrow
Reviewed by Kath Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Many of us (us being the hoi polloi) are fascinated with the rich and famous. We like to know all the trivia of their lives, every juicy bit of gossip. We wonder at their wastrel ways, their disdain of societal rules, but still we devour every bit of information made up about them.
Full review here
The New Zealand Period House: A Conservation Guide, Stuart Arden and Ian Bowman
Random House
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Soon after arriving on our shores in 1973, Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser was shaking his head in disbelief. "It's the only country in the world," he said, "where they drive a bulldozer through their heritage."
Full review here
The Other Ark, Lynley Dodd
Mallinson Rendel
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
It's been two years since Lynley Dodd released a new title. Can this bright, distinctive hardback really be book number 30?
Full review here
The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code, Sharan Newman
Penguin
Reviewed by Chris Hick (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The Da Vinci Code is a novel by Dan Brown. It is a great read and a cracking film just waiting to be made. It has likeable central characters; powerful, sinister villains, fabulous locations and a superb, intrigue-laden plot. It may have a few continuity problems and an unremarkable ending but it's a roller-coaster read.
Full review here
The Reckoning, Patricia Tyrrell
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Do you remember The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold? The Reckoning by Patricia Tyrrell is reminiscent of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, the storyline spare though engaging, with two decent hooks.
Full review here
The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
The 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphi' is a renaissance book which has been written in seven different languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek and Arabic.
Full review here
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Text
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
This translation of a best-selling Spanish novel is hard to describe but oh, so easy to praise. It is simply brilliant. It is a book within a book.
Full review here
The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
Random House
Reviewed by Virginia Winder
It was my doctor who turned me on to The Sparrow, prefixing her recommendation with: "I don't usually read science fiction, but…"
Full review here
The Taking, Dean Koontz
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Lisa Hoult (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
As an X-Files addict from long ago, I'm always interested in any new slant on whether "The Truth Is Out There", but Dean Koontz has let me down in his latest effort, which I can only describe as ordinary.
Full review here
The Sad Truth About Happiness, Anne Giardini
Fourth Estate
Review by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Great title, shame about the content. A glib assessment? Possibly. But the overwhelming feeling I came away with after finishing The Sad Truth About Happiness is that it was a book that had the potential to be so much better.
Full review here
The Wedding, Nicholas Sparks
Time Warner
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
You know how the American romance genre can border on syrupy? While Days of Our Lives and co romp shamelessly over the border, Nicholas Sparks manages to hover very close, avoiding the Mills and Boon line by a whisker.
Full review here
The Whale Road, D.K. McCutchen
Vintage
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
There's a great story in this book – it just has trouble getting out through the writing. The plot loosely follows a group of whale researchers aboard the 12.3m yacht Cachalot as they sail from Tahiti to New Zealand tracking whales all the while.
Full review here
The White Earth, Andrew McGahan
Allen & Unwin
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
When my Australian cousin recommended Andrew McGahan to me, The White Earth was my first choice. Melbourne-based McGahan has previously published three other novels, notably Praise, in 1992.
Full review here
The Wreckers, Bella Bathurst
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The subtitle for The Wreckers claims that it's a "story of killing seas, false lights and plundered ships". Stirring stuff, the sordid history of the business of pillaging ships that came ashore in the United Kingdom, but also a meticulously researched record of a way of life that has all but disappeared...maybe.
Full review here
The Wright Brothers, Ian Mackersley
Time Warner
Reviewed by Chris Hick (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Wilbur and Orville Wright did what the overwhelming majority of their contemporaries thought was humanly impossible to do – fly.
Full review here
The Zanzibar Chest, Aidan Hartley
Harper Perennial
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
In Somalia a journalist explores the countryside looking for starving children. Severely malnourished children are held up to him but he shakes his head. The increasingly shock-proof world only buys really skinny children. Finally he reaches the really skinny children, the ones that will be dead before his story and pictures reach the intended audience.
Full review here
Thirteen Steps Down, Ruth Rendell
Hutchinson
Reviewed by Kath Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
When watching the television adaptations of the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, it was always easy to blame the re-writers for any obvious flaws in plot or characters. All excuses have gone when reading a book.
Full review here
Transmission, Hari Kunzru
Hamish Hamilton
Reviewed by Heather Ramsay (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
If you know that there's more to India than the Taj Mahal and curry, then you're probably familiar with the two Indian elements that combine to cause worldwide havoc in Transmission.
Full review here
To the Heart of the Nile, Pat Shipman
Corgi
Reviewed by Chris Hick (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
To the Heart of the Nile is a ripping yarn. It is an historical account of those English explorers whose lips were most definitely "stiff and upper". It is set in a place where the natives were revolting and where the big game was destined for drawing room walls.
Full review here.
Twenty Seven Bones, Jonathan Nasaw
Simon & Schuster
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Not for the squeamish, this one. Nasaw has conjured up the nastiest bunch of pathological serial killers you could never wish to meet. All that kept me reading after the opening chapters was the desire to see them get their comeuppance.
Full review here
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