Life After Death: The Shocking True Story of an Innocent Man on Death Row by Damien Echols (Text Publishing, $40)

Reviewed by Kelly Bold

It’s hard not to bristle with impotent ire at the injustices meted out to Damien Echols. As the so-called ringleader of the “West Memphis Three”, he withered in an Arkansas Death Row cell for 18 years for the supposedly satanic killings of three eight-year-old boys: a crime he did not commit, of which there was not a scrap of evidence linking him or his two co-accused to, and for which he was blatantly set up by corrupt police.

What happened next almost reads like a soap-opera storyline, but it was real life – Damien’s real life. A determined woman named Lorri Davis became his pen pal, then tireless freedom crusader, then wife. She gave up her New York life to move near to him for visits of just three hours a week – all the while working relentlessly to clear his name, pulling in global superstars like our own Sir Peter Jackson, Johnny Deep and Eddie Vedder to her campaign, and in August 2011, securing his release.
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Hochstetter Collection Basel, Part 1: New Zealand Paintings and Drawings by Sascha Nolden and Sandy B. Nolden (Mente Corde Manu Publishing, $124, available from mente.corde.manu@gmail.com)

Reviewed by Simon Nathan

Ferdinand Hochstetter was just 29 when he arrived in in New Zealand at the tail end of 1858 as the geologist on Austria’s scientific expedition around the world. He spent the next eight months travelling widely around Auckland and Nelson provinces with his compatriot, Julius Haast, recording and interpreting the biological and geological features of the country they passed through.

After Hochstetter returned to Vienna, he published books, research papers and maps about New Zealand, and encouraged his scientific colleagues to work on his New Zealand collections. For the 25 years after his visit he corresponded regularly with Haast, who stayed in New Zealand, and followed developments Downunder with interest. Hochstetter’s work is still held in high regard, and he is widely regarded as the father of New Zealand geology.
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Making Peace with the Earth by Vandana Shiva (Spinifex, $A36.95; order online from Spinifex.com.au)

Reviewed by Marlene Ware

In this book based on her 2010 Sydney Peace Prize lecture, Vandana Shiva passionately articulates her vision of a sustainable world.

The book is divided into two sections. The first is titled ‘Wars against the Earth’ and covers ‘eco-apartheid’, the ‘great land grab’, as well as water, climate and forest wars. The second section, ‘Food Crises, Food Justice and Food Peace’, looks at hunger by design, seed wars and corporate-controlled trade. Her conclusion, ‘Beyond Growth’, discusses ways to make peace with the earth.
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Three Days in a Wishing Well by Kerrin P. Sharpe (Victoria University Press, $25)

Reviewed by Sienna Latham

What would it be like to spend three days in a wishing well? Cold, certainly. Dark and damp — the kind of damp that seeps into your bones and stays there, even during the brief summertime interval when you’d get a fleeting glimpse of the sun crossing the tiny circle of sky you can spy. It would be lonely, too, with only the curved stone walls and a periscope of light and slick rocky mirrors for company. But you’d have your wishes. Your hopes.

In her debut collection, Christchurch poet Kerrin P. Sharpe invites us to imagine ourselves inside the wishing well, peering up at the craggy hands holding coins to drop in, the symbols etched onto their faces and the dreams they embody. Like dream language, her wistful, wish-full poems rely upon a surreal, stream-of-consciousness style that borrows from familiar syntax then twists it slightly, finding a new angle and lending a new perspective. Read more »

Soon by Charlotte Grimshaw (Random House, $37.99)

Reviewed by Ruth Brassington

I haven’t read Charlotte Grimshaw until now. I know she lives in Auckland, has written “four critically acclaimed novels” called Provocation, Guilt, Foreign City and The Night Book, and has several awards for her writing. And I believe some of the characters in Soon have appeared before. But I came to this book fresh and found it a stand-alone read.

I like mystery novels, and this one is a bit old-fashioned in that it reminded me of both Iris Murdoch and C P Snow, the former because of the intricate interconnections between characters, and the latter because of the conversations between “important” men. For all that, it’s very much a New Zealand novel, and Grimshaw owns her depictions of dangerously vacuous women with strong, baseless views. Read more »

Press Release – Libro International

12 November 2012 PATU Tim Tipene Hardhitting young adult novel young from awardwinning children’s author A powerful new novel out this week will challenge teenage readers to confront issues of identity, historical truth and life choices in contemporary … Read more »

This is Me: The Autobiography, by Ian Thorpe

Reviewed by Jim Robinson

You don’t have to reach far into this book to realize that while he has rare talent, Ian Thorpe has also had demons. Two pages after the title page (the title itself is surely a hint) there’s a quote:

There is no need of any competition with anybody. You are yourself, and as you are, you are perfectly good. Accept yourself.

It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect to kick off an autobiography of a bloke who’s won 11 World Championship titles, 10 Commonwealth Games gold medals and five Olympic Games gold medals (plus three silvers and one bronze). Read more »

A Review of Iain M. Banks The Hydrogen Sonata (Orbit Books/Hachette, 2012)

By Mark P. Williams

Iain M. Banks’ latest novel brings us back into the galaxy of the Culture on the eve of a momentous event. The Gzilt civilization, a companion species who were instrumental in the formation of the Culture, but who, for their own reasons, chose to remain separate, are about to Sublime when a diplomatic incident occurs that could threaten the whole process.

What follows from this opening is a classic Banks’ space opera: intersections of the philosophical, personal and political through diplomacy, violence and relationships, operating across an interplanetary background of tremendous detail and depth.  The novel addresses big questions with elegiac charm, distinctive humour, and a sense of shared (post-, trans- and alter-)humanity. Read more »

Ruby Redfort – Take Your Last Breath By Lauren Child
HarperCollins

Reviewed by Anne Harré

I earned serious parental brownie points when I brandished a review copy of the latest Redfort novel in front of my 8½ year old daughter. Trouble was, I then didn’t see the book for the next three days and 415 pages. Later it was taken to school and shown about; it was lucky that I managed to get it back at all. There’s been a whole crowd eager to get their hands on the next instalment. I should add that even though this is a second Ruby Redfort adventure, it works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel.

For those not familiar with author Lauren Child you’re in for a treat. She’s the creator of the quirky and cute “Charlie and Lola” for the pre-schoolers/early primary age, as well as the “Clarice Bean” series for the mid primary age. After the recent spate of tedious, simpering vampirette characters, it’s refreshing to read a female character that is as spunky and delightful as Ruby Redfort. Read more »

Hate Mail, by Mr Bingo
Penguin, RRP: $26

Reviewed by Jim Robinson

Crikey. Englishman Mr Bingo does seems to have a bit of pent up anger.

Had he released it with a little more craft, this could have been a very funny book. Instead, to me, it just comes across as bollocks. Beautifully printed, beautifully hardcover. But bollocks nonetheless.

As he relates in the introduction, Mr Bingo set up an enterprise whereby people paid him ten quid, and in exchange he sent each of them a postcard. On the back was a one-off, hand-rendered abusive message. Read more »