RNZ
Jenna was back in the Auckland RNZ studio today to review Bobby Palmer’s Isaac and the Egg. We know this sad/happy tale is going to be a word-of-mouth favourite. For fans of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below.
Jenna reviews this epic novel from renowned poet, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.
Ailey Pearl Garfield, her immediate family and ancestors tackle racism, trauma, colourism, black feminism, academia and history over 800 sweeping and effortless pages. This book is highly recommended!
Listen to Jenna’s review with Lynne Freeman on RNZ’s Nine to Noon below.
Jenna reviews Orwell’s Roses, the brand new book by prolific non-fiction writer, Rebecca Solnit. Starting amongst George Orwell’s (still living) roses, Solnit weaves together connections of war and beauty. Highly recommended!
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below.
Today, Jenna reviews the Greek classic, Three Summers by Margareita Liberaki. An escapist coming of age that is filled with the joys of nature and the pains of adolescence.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below, with a little extra mention of The Promise by Damon Galgut, the 2021 winner of the Booker Prize.
Set in a French Village, People Like Them is an immersive and compelling thriller inspired by the murder of five members of a family, by their neighbour.
Narrated by the murderer’s wife, we watch how this tragedy unfolds. Does race play a factor in this murder? Where does humiliation take a human?
Listen to Jenna chat about People Like Them to Kathryn Ryan below. You can buy the book here for delivery in Auckland’s Level 3.
The winner of the Japanese Booksellers’ Award (the book Japanese booksellers most loved to sell.)
Kororo is a Japanese middle schooler, who has given up going to school due to bullying. One day, she notices her mirror is glowing and is able to step inside. There, she finds herself in a castle with 6 other teenagers - she’s not sure why they are there, but it seems they have something in common.
With elements of magic, fairy tales, Matilda and The Breakfast Club - Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a book full of heart, conquering your fears and human connection. Perfect for all fans of Japanese translation but also suitable for young adult readers.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below and buy the book here.
Jenna chats with Kathryn about some of her ‘forgotten favourites’ from 2020.
Earthlings is an absurd & twisted foray into the ‘factory’ of Japanese culture.
Homeland Elegies is a modern day American auto-fiction classic - from the perspective of a Muslim American life post 9/11.
In the Dream House is a searing collection of vignettes that explore an abusive queer relationship and the history of queer relationships in pop culture.
Do you need something FUNNY to read over the holidays? Go no further than David Sedaris. This is a best of collection spanning 25 years of essays, stories and opinion pieces. Listen to Jenna’s review below.
Winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain is a novel brimming with heart and soul and the writing positively gleams. Shuggie Bain is Kiran’s novel of the year and she reviewed it on RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon Kiran reviewed Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan. A charismatic and spirited ode to friendship, this gorgeous novel is a positive and celebratory representation of male friendship. While it’s heartbreaking, it’s also a joyous headrush.
This is Jenna’s most anticipated book of the year and it hasn’t disappointed.
A coming of age story that has all of the classic Ferrante ingredients - Naples, the class divide and passionate women. Highly recommended and on the shelf now.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below and buy the book here.
Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body…
So begins Death in Her Hands, the compelling new novel from Ottessa Moshfegh who is an expert at evoking the weird, eerie and mordantly funny. Kind of like Patricia Highsmith meets Ottessa Moshfegh meets Murder She Wrote, Death in Her Hands is a pageturner of a mystery - comic in places and pitch dark in others.
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Kiran reviewed Notes from An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell. This is a book about right now, to read right now! In search of preppers getting ready for the end of the world, O’Connell travelled to bunkers in South Dakota, to a conference in Los Angeles about the colonisation of Mars, to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to wilderness reserves in the Scottish Highlands, and… New Zealand. The result is this throughly engaging reportage-cum-travelouge which is equal parts terrifying and hilarious. Reading Notes From An Apocalypse is like listening to your brainiest and funniest friend!
In a small village in France, sits a library of unpublished manuscripts, which must be delivered in person.
A Parisian editor find a manuscript of genius while browsing the shelves. The book is published, taking the book world by storm - but is this a hoax? How can Henri Pick, a grouchy pizzeria owner, have written this when no one in his lifetime saw him pick up a pen?
A charming literary mystery with a kooky cast of characters, reminiscent of the film Amélie. Listen to Jenna’s review below and buy the book here.
A fascinating group biography of five women who lived on Melkenburgh Square between WW1 and WW2.
For fans of English literature, feminist leaders and the Bloomsbury set.
You can order the book here.
Listen to Jenna chat about Square Haunting as well as book store life in Level 2 below:
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Kiran reviewed Halibut on the Moon by David Vann which is shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Content warning: This is a powerful but dark read.
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Kiran reviewed Weather the new novel by Jenny Offill, author of the hugely, widely adored Dept. of Speculation. Set during the 2016 US election, it examines the dual catastrophe of political doom and the accelerating climate crisis with a parallel of domestic anxiety. It’s a beautifully poised and refined novel, and it’s not all doom and gloom - Weather is cheerfully wry, witty and funny.
A new novel from Anne Enright is an exciting event! Kiran reviewed Actress on RNZ’s Nine to Noon. Actress is an imagined biography of fictitious iconic Irish actress Katherine O’Dell, told through the eyes of her novelist daughter Norah FitzMaurice. It deals with legend, family, mythmaking and playing a role.
Lucy Ellmann's Ducks, Newburyport a 1000 page, stream of consciousness of an Ohio mother as she bakes pies. Is it worth it? Yes!
Also, Jenna almost missed this incredible memoir, The Copenhagen Trilogy by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen, republished as a Penguin Classic forty years after publication.
Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn Ryan below:
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon with Lynn Freeman, Kiran reviewed Make it Scream, Make it Burn: Essays by Leslie Jamison. And in this special ‘Best of 2019’ recap, she also very briefly mentioned The Years by Annie Ernaux (her Book of the Year for 2019, you can listen to Kiran’s previous full RNZ review here ) and Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann.
