Buying the Land, Selling the Land by Richard Boast

Victoria University Press, $60. Reviewed by RICHARD THOMSON

Between 1890 and 1920 the New Zealand government bought 4.2 million acres of Maori land, for which it paid around £3.5 million. In Buying the Land, Selling the Land, Richard Boast’s “study of Crown Maori land policy and practice”, he estimates that if the money had been divided equally, it would have provided each Maori with just £3 per year for each of those 30 years. In fact, he says, North Island Maori might as well have given their land to the Crown, for all the difference it would have made to their economic situation. Read more »

Poem of the Week: PM Comes to School

From: Incognito by Jessica Le Bas

Auckland University Press

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MEDIA RELEASE
A rare chance to hear all New Zealand’s living poet laureates read at one event. Current laureate Michele Leggott is joined by former laureates Jenny Bornholdt, Bill Manhire, Elizabeth Smither and Brian Turner for an evening of vintage New Zealand poetry, a glass of Te Mata Estate wine, and the launch of poetry CDs by Manhire and Bornholdt. Kate Camp is master of ceremonies.
Where: National Library of New Zealand foyer and Reading Room
When: August 4 5.30pm, readings start 6pm.

A Just Zionism: On the Morality of the Jewish State by Chaim Gans

Oxford University Press. Reviewed by JEREMIAH HABER

I have in my hands — well, next to my computer — not only one of the most interesting books ever written about the morality of political Zionism (and the morality of Israel’s policies), but one of the most sensible and sensitive books ever written about Israel and Palestine. Although I don’t agree with many of the author’s arguments or conclusions — he still cuts political Zionism and Israel too much slack, in my opinion — I have no hesitation in giving him and his book a moral “heksher”/seal of approval. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 25 July 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

Condoleezza Rice may not have launched a thousand ships, but she has had an oil tanker named after her and helped launch a war or two. But is the US Secretary of State, who is visiting New Zealand this weekend, a war criminal as claimed by the Auckland University Students’ Association? Read more »

Poem of the Week: Under Mt St Bathans

From: Into The Wider World by Brian Turner

Random House, $45. (August O8)

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American novelist Richard Powers won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction with The Echo Maker, a psychological thriller that centres on a man with a rare brain disorder. Powers has explored the effects of modern science and technology in his fiction, including photography, molecular genetics and artificial intelligence. He talks with broadcaster Kim Hill on Monday 28 July. Read more »

How to Watch a Bird by Steve Braunias

Awa Press, $25. Reviewed by DAVID GEARY

It’s hard to write about birds without a flock of avian literary devices dive-bombing you, so stuff it, I’m going to let’em all come to roost. Let it be a testament to how much birds are part of our lives, our language and imagination. Yet, as Braunias laments, for too long we’ve relegated our feathered friends to second-class citizenship. He puts them back on their proper perch, as creations of joy and wonder. His book swoops, it soars, it pecks a few eyes out. Read more »

MEDIA RELEASE

Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, published by the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, cleaned up at the BPANZ Book Design Awards 2008 last night at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. The book won the Best Cover and Best Illustrated categories, then took home the prize for the Best Book. Read more »

MEDIA RELEASE

Moonlight, a book of New Zealand poems on death and dying, is being launched at Mercy Hospice Auckland, on 18 July. The anthology, edited by poet Andrew Johnston, is being launched on Montana Poetry Day. Read more »