Jenna
Are you looking for a great summer read that’s so compelling that you can’t put it down?
Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age is a topical page-turner that’s funny and sharp. Brilliant dialogue gives depth to her complex characters as they navigate race, privilege and wokeness.
This book has been bought by Lena Waithe’s production company and will soon be a TV series.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess below!
Alright, it's the end of the year and wowee, Jenna has a full list of reckons for the last Loose Reads of 2019.
NOVEL OF THE YEAR The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
ADVENTURE STORY OF THE YEAR The Burning River by Lawrence Patchett
EPIC SUMMER READ Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
BEST BOOK FOR KIDS The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith
BEST BOOK FOR BABIES My First Words In Māori by Stacey Morrison
BEST FANCY BOOK Private Gardens of Aotearoa by Suzanne Turley
BEST CLIMATE SCIENCE BOOK Fifteen MIllion Years in Antarctica by Rebecca Priestley
BEST BOOK FOR A 2020 RESOLUTION Tales from a Hot Financial Mess by Frances Cook.
Jenna reviews this bloody excellent memoir by Elton John. Filled with incredible tales of celebrity, drugs and music - you will find yourself repeating these anecdotes around the dinner table.
This is the perfect Christmas present for any music lover in your life. Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess below:
In early 2016, musical genius Prince announced that he was writing a memoir with editor Dan Piepenbring, however it was only a few months later that he died suddenly.
Piepenbring was given the task by Prince’s estate to put together The Beautiful Ones with what material they’d put together as well as full access to Prince’s Paisley Park.
The result is a lush illustrated hardback in which reading feels like you’re moving through a museum. For what material was available to put this together, it’s pitch perfect for the Prince fan.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn Ryan below:
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo is the ‘other’ winner of the 2019 Booker prize, alongside Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments.
Perhaps deserving of being the only winner, Evaristo’s novel takes us into a deep character study of 12 mostly black, mostly women.
Investigating the complexity and variety of gender, class, feminism, politics and sexuality - Girl, Woman, Other explores form with whip smart observation. Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess on 95bFM’s Loose Reads below:
Mike Chunn’s new autobiography is the NZ rock bio that everyone is going to want this Christmas.
A founding member of Split Enz, Chunn suffered from debilitating panic attacks that caused him to quit the band two albums in. This didn’t stop his music career however - he moved on to found Citizen Band, worked for Mushroom and Sony records, APRA and founded Play it Strange.
A beautiful hardback book full of endearing yarns about Otahuhu in the 1960’s, the love of music, the NZ music industry and mental health.
We finished the review by playing Late Last Night from Split Enz’s second album, Second Thoughts.
Listen to Jenna, Rachel & Tess chat below:
You may remember that Jenna reviewed Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award winning The Friend earlier in the year, which still remains one of her favourite reads for 2019. When a prolific, yet not as well known author wins such a prize, publishers often go to their backlist to republish an older title to give it a second life and this is what has happened with Nunez’s The Last of Her Kind, originally published in 2006.
This is a layered, intelligent and considered tale of female friendship, politics and cultural disruption in the 1960’s, New York City. Scholarship student Georgette George is roomed with the wealthy Ann Drayton at Barnard College. An intense friendship develops but ends as Ann’s journey into activism becomes more hard line and extreme.
However, Ann is brought back into George’s life years later after she is arrested for murder.
Listen to Jenna’s review below:
Jenna is a huge Patti Smith fan and was very happy to step back into her comforting words with Year of the Monkey. Set in the year of 2016 - this is a poetic musing on grief, solitude, dreams & travel. Year of the Monkey is Smith’s third memoir after Just Kids (2010) & M Train (2015).
Today we played The Go-Go’s We Got the Beat after the chapter, Why Belinda Carlisle Matters.
Listen below:
The most highly anticipated release of 2019 is finally here! Jenna reviewed Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale , on this morning’s 95bFM Loose Reads.
Listen to the spoiler free review below!
For fans of the great American novel, Nell Zink’s Doxology takes the reader from 1980’s New York City to the ill fated USA 2016 election.
Investigating generational shifts & responses, Doxology is a compelling, intelligent & witty observation on thirty years of history and cultural change. For fans of Franzen, Wolitzer and Tartt.
Listen to Jenna’s review below:
On her latest Loose Reads review and in anticipation of the Booker shortlist being announced, Jenna reviewed the longlisted Lanny by Max Porter. This book is an expertly crafted exploration in narrative form and dialogue.
Another longlist title that Jenna mentions is The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - Booker judges can only say that it’s ‘terrifying and exhilarating’. This is out on September 10th!
The shortlist is announced at 9pm (NZ time) on September 3rd.
Listen to the review below:
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a book about divorce that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Toby is handling his divorce fairly well. He’s joined dating apps, is working towards a promotion and is spending quality time with his children on the weekends. However, when his ex Rachel does not turn up to pick up the kids as planned, and just doesn’t...come back, Toby’s new life is turned upside down.
A novel with humour and depth, Brodesser-Akner’s journalistic touch explores gender roles and the expectation of working mothers. For fans of Andrew Sean Greer’s Less and Maria Semple’s Where’d you go, Bernadettte?
This new novel from Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad) is Jenna’s favourite book of 2019.*
*so far
The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis, a young, idealistic African American teenager in 1962. Motivated by the words of Martin Luther King, he joins Civil Rights marches and is working hard to get into college.
However, after being in the wrong vehicle at the wrong time, Elwood’s path dramatically changes when he is sent to Nickel Academy, a segregated reform school for boys.
Based on Arthur G Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which only closed down 10 years ago,
This book is an example of masterful storytelling and is bound to be read for years to come. Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Tess below:
Read more about Arthur G Dozier School & The White House Boys.
Spoiler free review from Roxane Gay’s Book Club.
Great interview with Colson Whitehead on NPR’S Fresh Air.
A throwback to the 90’s and a new title for our Music Bio section, Ben Folds’ A Dream about Lightning Bugs is a compelling memoir of his piano rock band, Ben Folds Five, as well as his solo career.
While it’s not a sex & drugs tell all, Folds delves into the realities of touring with a baby grand, his often obnoxious behavior and the evolution of the music industry over the 2000’s. A great read for any music fan.
Listen to Jenna, Rachel & Tess’ review and if you’re really keen, give Brick a listen for old times sake.
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, Drive your Plow has been a great favourite of the Time Out staff in 2019.
Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, this book is smart, funny & feminist literary crime novel, with an unforgettable protagonist.
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee is a meaty investigative true crime novel that is well worth a read. Listen to Jenna’s review below:
Bunny is one of the weirdest books that Jenna has ever read. In a good way!
Listen to Jenna, Rachel & Tess chat about this black comedy, set at a narrative arts college is worth picking up.
The Farm is Joanne Ramos’ first book. Jane arrives to the luxury resort Golden Oaks to become a ‘host’ - a surrogate for a wealthy client. Jane sees this well paid gig as a opportunity for her and her young daughter to get a step up in life, but the strict conditions of Golden Oaks, leads her to question a choice she can’t reverse.
Narrated by a cast of characters on all sides, The Farm is an educated insight into ethics, class and privilege & service culture.
Jenna was a HUGE fan of Moby’s first autobiography Porcelain, but the follow up has been bathed in controversy. Listen to Jenna, Rachel & Tess discuss Then It Fell Apart, which Jenna can only describe as ‘feral.’
Don’t forget, your bCard qualifies you for a 10% discount at Time Out.
Memories of the Future explores themes of time and memory in Hustvedt’s new novel.
Tying together three threads of narrative, S.H from the past and S.H. from the present project towards each other, questioning philosophy, literature, art and feminism along the way.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn Ryan below:
