Suri's in the studio this week, chatting to Rachel and Tess about a memoir that's an absolute must-read. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom narrates stories from over 100 years in the same house, with a huge touch on the influence of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
This was our February Book of the Month! Listen below:
On 95bFM’s Loose Reads, Kiran spoke about Wellington writer and comic Eamonn Marra’s debut novel 2000ft Above Worry Level. An episodic series of connected pieces, this novel is written in a spare, laconic style and deals with anxiety, depression, awkward cam sex, and unemployment - but with the most brilliant sense of comic timing and a lightness of touch. It’s remarkably laugh-out-loud funny and touching, too.
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
‘If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.’
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
After making multiple ‘Best of 2019’ lists in the USA, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House has finally made it to New Zealand.
Machado describes a year long, psychologically abusive relationship with her ex-girlfriend through vignettes headed with narrative genres.
She contextualises her experience as she looks outwards into writing on abusive relationships in the queer community, folklore and pop culture.
This book is intense, helpless and visceral but as Machado says, this is an act of resurrection for herself. Incredibly smart, powerful and compelling - this may be my memoir of the year already!
Listen to Jenna’s review below:
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.
On 95bFM’s Loose Reads Kiran reviewed the eagerly anticipated new novel Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half Formed Thing and The Lesser Bohemians. A slim novel at only 149 pages, Strange Hotel calls to be read in one feverish siting with a cold white wine which is what our unnamed narrator orders by the bottle from room service as she moves between a series of hotels in France, Prague, Oslo, Auckland and Austin. A searing meditation of the mind, body and loss, this radical novel is perfect for fans of Edna O’Brien and Rachel Cusk.
Our Book of the Month for February is The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. A memoir of place, class, race and inequality, it tells the story of a hundred years of Broom’s family and their relationship to home after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
”An extraordinary, engrossing debut… kinetic and omnivorous… instantly essential.” - New York Times Book Review
An Yu’s debut novel tells the story of Jia Jia who after discovering her husband dead in the bath, finds a curious drawing from his dream.
From Beijing to Tibet - Braised Pork weaves together domesticity, Chinese traditions and myth - resulting in a gentle exploration of grief.
Braised Pork is also our March Lit Reads pick! Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel below:
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:
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
Kiran reviewed All Who Live on Islands by Rose Lu on 95bFM’s Loose Reads. In this collection of nine essays which move between China, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Whanganui, Lu writes with a lightness of touch about food, friendship, relationships, casual and internalised racism, sex, working in the tech industry, and what it’s like to grow up as a Chinese migrant in a multicultural society that has a monocultural focus. Kiran says, “we need more writing like this and I think it’s coming, which is exciting.”
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.
Kiran popped up to RNZ to chat to her childhood hero Karyn Hay about some of the books she read over the summer break: The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk, Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture by Hannah Ewens and At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Heath Ladies’ Pond.
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!
Our top 10 bestselling books of the year.
Click on the covers to shop!
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
KID'S BOOKS
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.
For Kiran’s final 95bFM’s Loose Reads slot for 2019, she raved about three great new music books for the music nut in your life, or maybe to go on your own Chrimbo wishlist. Acid for the Children by Flea, Face It by Debbie Harry and Bowie’s Books: The Hundred Literary Heroes that Changed His Life by John McConnell.
Olive, Again
Elizabeth Strout
Our Book of the Month for December is Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. Readers will be thrilled by the return of the much-loved character Olive Kitteridge. Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine - and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life.
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:
