PASIFIKA women are the backbones of their communities in the islands and in New Zealand. But so often, in New Zealand as in their homelands, their contributions and opinions have been invisible or under-documented. Read more »
In recent years, there has been a rise in explicitly Jewish anti-Zionist publishing and organising. Jews, both within Israel and in the diaspora, are increasingly moving away from a more passive, silent anti-Zionism towards outspoken attempts at engagement with the wider Jewish community, where a pervasive Zionism is the default political belief for most. Read more »
These are strange times for publishers. Now that geeks have wired the world to the internet, anyone with a computer and a connection has an almost limitless range of reading options. King Lear and Paris Hilton’s Prison Diary are just a google search away, along with millions of other texts. And it’s not only the rules of readership that have changed – in the age of blogging and online book publishing, anyone can be an author. Read more »
Like listening to one of the Regency’s famed castrati on stage, one can’t help thinking there’s a little something lacking here. As with a grown man singing soprano, C. S. Harris strikes rather too many bum notes to be comfortable with, which perhaps is just colonial snobbery towards an American writing a British novel. But just listen to this ear-grater: ‘Lord love you, guv’nor. Read more »
FRANK LUNTZ is the propagandist who sold Republicanism and Bush to the United States. He prepares congress leaders for televised debates and advises senators on how to employ language to their advantage. In Words That Work he tells us how he uses words to move public opinion. Not surprisingly, Words That Work has ignited controversy. Even people who haven’t read the book are writing reviews of it, and the word ‘Luntz-speak’ has become synonymous with lying. Last year, the US News and World Report
created the ‘Pimp my candidate’ project to get advice from Luntz for current political candidates (Bedard, Gilgoff & Marek, 2007). Read more »
The phrase, “Speaking Truth to Power”, popular among progressives, irritates me. It’s as if those using it think the powerful are simply ignorant of the facts and if only a few brave souls were prepared to tell them the error of their ways the massive inequalities in power and wealth that plague the world would fade away. But I have no such doubts about the blunt and truthful open letter from Bolivian President Evo Morales to the European Union. Read more »
As one who has idled many hours since childhood happily browsing recipe books, sometimes as a substitute for actually cooking, this book did not readily meet my now finely honed sensory expectations. It is entirely without illustrations and wastes no verbiage on elegant descriptors.
And this is as it should be, as the market for 4 Ingredients is definitely those who have no time for browsing, and those for whom food is a pleasure squeezed between competing and possibly consuming priorities. To meet the needs of this large sector of the community, the authors have simplified all recipes down to you guessed it, just four ingredients. Read more »
From: In Continents by Richard Reeve, Auckland University Press, $25.
Who hasn’t thought about torching their ex-boyfriend’s car? Bridget van der Zijpp’s heroine gets the chance within the first few pages of her book, Misconduct — the story of a 40-year-old woman struggling to come to terms with the infidelity of her partner, the man she had thought she would have children with. And that is where the main problem with this novel first arises. Like a lot of the decisions Simone makes throughout the book, she’s setting the car alight before the reader understands why, or begins to get to know her. Read more »
WHILE New Zealand’s 2008 free trade agreement with China may have ushered in a new era of regional diplomacy, the influence of New Zealand, Australia and European countries in the Pacific is gradually declining. The Cold War rivalry between the US and Soviet camps that impacted heavily on the Pacific in the post-World War period has given way to an intense sovereignty struggle between China and Taiwan.* Read more »
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