en-US Mon, 05 May 2025 02:17:58 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 9873059
In a world still recovering from the Scourge, when Horrors ravaged the land of Barsaive, Kendik is soon forced to choose between a range of evils. He travels with the surly and disreputable Turgut brothers. He encounters the bloated tyrant Lord Tesek, ruler of the growing city of Borzim. And he is ensnared in the plots of the feared and mysterious House of the Wheel.

Most of all, he meets Anarya Chezarin, who enters his life from the depths of an ancient stronghold. Who is she, and what is her secret? It may cost Kendik and Anarya more than their lives to find out.]]> 306 Tim Jones Tim 0 to-read 5.00 2007
author: Tim Jones
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218427062 Forced from her hideaway after a landslide swallows it whole, she finds temporary accommodation with her publisher’s elderly aunt on the Kāpiti Coast. But lilac-eyed Freyja is not what she seems, and soon Bella’s flung into a crazy scheme to expose a murderer and rescue a child. There’s just one problem �� before they can act Bella must believe what Freyja is telling her �� and reopen her heart to her painful past.
An Aotearoa crime thriller by a master storyteller.]]> 288 Mandy Hager 1988595819 Tim 5
]]> 4.15
author: Mandy Hager
name: Tim
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
I reviewed Strays & Waifs on my blog:


]]> 214371 368 Paul Celan 0140189203 Tim 5 4.43 1970
author: Paul Celan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: poetry, in, translation, german, jewish, holocaust, literature, compression, neologisms
review:
Paul Celan is a poet whose work exudes difficulty and breathes paradox. Michael Hamburger’s introduction to the Celan Selected Poems is a testament both to the difficulty of Hamburger's task as translator, and to the zeal and commitment with which he pursued this task. Paul Celan's originals are on the left and Michael Hamburger's translations on the right, so German speakers can check for themselves how good a job the translator has done.[return][return]In case the foregoing reads like a “Danger-Keep Out!�� warning posted on the approach to Celan's work, I'm not trying to put you off. Despite their difficulty, these poems are wonderful: fascinating, endlessly inventive. Never profligate with words, Celan's late poetry approaches the compression and density of a black hole; new words form under the extreme conditions. Michael Hamburger has done a heroic job of translating what many would regard as the untranslatable.
]]> 222239846 115 P. S. Cottier 0645927015 Tim 5
As I say in my review:

"Autocrats and body doubles go together like Elon Musk and Nazi salutes. Stalin had body doubles, Saddam Hussein had body doubles, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, somewhere in America, a small fleet of actors are even now applying the orange spray tan and putting on the mannerisms, the cruelty, the tiny hands.

So it’s very likely Vladimir Putin has his own set of look-alikes. This excellent novella �� maybe it’s more accurate to call it a collection of linked stories �� takes that concept and runs with it. The thirty-one legs of Vladimir Putin won the annual 20/40 publishing prize, for works of fiction and nonfiction between 20K and 40K words, and that win was well deserved."]]> 3.00 2024
author: P. S. Cottier
name: Tim
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:
I reviewed this book on my blog:

As I say in my review:

"Autocrats and body doubles go together like Elon Musk and Nazi salutes. Stalin had body doubles, Saddam Hussein had body doubles, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, somewhere in America, a small fleet of actors are even now applying the orange spray tan and putting on the mannerisms, the cruelty, the tiny hands.

So it’s very likely Vladimir Putin has his own set of look-alikes. This excellent novella �� maybe it’s more accurate to call it a collection of linked stories �� takes that concept and runs with it. The thirty-one legs of Vladimir Putin won the annual 20/40 publishing prize, for works of fiction and nonfiction between 20K and 40K words, and that win was well deserved."
]]> 53392026 261 Kay McKenzie Cooke Tim 5
I grew up in rural Southland, not so very far from where this novel is mainly set, so I enjoyed the parallels with my own and my parents' lives. But even if you have no connection to Southland, this is a beautifully��written tale of family, land and water that draws you into its weave.]]> 5.00
author: Kay McKenzie Cooke
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Craggan Dhu is the first volume in a trilogy of novels by Kay McKenzie Cooke that follow a family, with both Māori and Pākehā heritage, from a small coastal��village in Murihiku / Southland. The narrative switches fluidly between points of view and time periods, building up a vivid picture of the family and the land that sustains and circumscribes their lives.

I grew up in rural Southland, not so very far from where this novel is mainly set, so I enjoyed the parallels with my own and my parents' lives. But even if you have no connection to Southland, this is a beautifully��written tale of family, land and water that draws you into its weave.
]]> 215055095
Sometimes touching, sometimes troubling, these adventures introduce us to women who don’t stand still: scandalous women, runaway women, daring women, wild women.]]> Janis Freegard 106700890X Tim 5
And this is a fine short story collection! The theme is as it says on the cover: women, all wild, some wilder than others. The collection includes a mixture of character-driven stories and shorter, surrealist pieces - both styles that appeal to me. "Saturday Night" and "The Visit from the English Cousins" are two of my favourite stories, but every story is worth your time and attention.]]> 4.43
author: Janis Freegard
name: Tim
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
I've enjoyed all of Janis Freegard's work I've read - poems, novels, and short stories. These have been straitened times for short story collections, so it's especially good to see this new collection appear, published by At the Bay | I Te Kokoru, which is an organisation set up to champion and advance the short story form in Aotearoa.

And this is a fine short story collection! The theme is as it says on the cover: women, all wild, some wilder than others. The collection includes a mixture of character-driven stories and shorter, surrealist pieces - both styles that appeal to me. "Saturday Night" and "The Visit from the English Cousins" are two of my favourite stories, but every story is worth your time and attention.
]]> 221242572 This collection has a more general theme of generations but with the same broad and diverse range of writers, from different cultural and language backgrounds, ages, experiences and perspectives. Poems from well-known writers sit alongside first-time writers and there is everything from serious reflective poems to small four-liners.
Something for everyone.]]> 297 Adrienne Jansen 0473720434 Tim 5
Happily, the inside matches the outside for quality. The poets and the perspectives range from young children to grandparents, and a wide range of cultures are represented - including a pleasing number��of poems written in languages other than English, with English translations provided. The anthology includes poems that are charming, deep, and everywhere in between. Recommended!]]> 5.00
author: Adrienne Jansen
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:
Landing Press has a great track record of creating interesting poetry anthologies that showcase a diverse range of poets - many new, others established - and "Now and Then" is another fine anthology. Quite apart from the poems, I really like the��format of these anthologies, the cover designs and the line art - they're a pleasure to look at.

Happily, the inside matches the outside for quality. The poets and the perspectives range from young children to grandparents, and a wide range of cultures are represented - including a pleasing number��of poems written in languages other than English, with English translations provided. The anthology includes poems that are charming, deep, and everywhere in between. Recommended!
]]> 216712154
This is also the story of personal discovery, determination and resilience. Mike was by turns a truck driver, mechanic, milkman, agent with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and farm hand �� in the industry he would later critique in his academic activism.

The Fight for Freshwater is an engaging account of a remarkable life �� and vital reading for all concerned for the future of our environment.]]> 264 Mike Joy 1991033842 Tim 5 to-read �ٲ��첹��ŧ magazine - check out my review here: ]]> 4.79 2024
author: Mike Joy
name: Tim
average rating: 4.79
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:
I reviewed this book for Issue 112 of �ٲ��첹��ŧ magazine - check out my review here:
]]> 26159745
She thinks she knows who she is.

She is wrong.

A routine salvage mission uncovers evidence of a terrible crime and relics of powerful ancient technology. Haimey and her small crew run afoul of pirates at the outer limits of the Milky Way, and find themselves on the run and in possession of universe-changing information.

When authorities prove corrupt, Haimey realizes that she is the only one who can protect her galaxy-spanning civilization from the implications of this ancient technology—and the revolutionaries who want to use it for terror and war. Her quest will take her careening from the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core to the infinite, empty spaces at its edge.

To save everything that matters, she will need to uncover the secrets of ancient intelligences lost to time—and her own lost secrets, which she will wish had remained hidden from her forever.]]> 512 Elizabeth Bear 1473208742 Tim 4 3.69 2019
author: Elizabeth Bear
name: Tim
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 62558172 The joys and challenges of day-to-day farming in extraordinary circumstances.

Tim Saunders writes about his life and work on the farm that's been in his family for five generations. There's drought, farming during lockdown, illness, financial pressure and the drive to become more environmentally friendly.

Woven throughout is Tim's love of, and respect for, the land, animals and the environment. He describes how farming is intertwined with the weather, how the weather has changed, how the changes affect farmers and what they are doing to counteract this.

With the impact of climate change there is a need to change farming practices. Like other farmers Tim and his family are closely studying their farming system, deciding what needs to be done to survive, and how to work within the environment while feeding an ever-growing population. They look to the past to shepherd the future.

'Beautifully observed writing about valuing the land we walk on, the air we breathe, and our interconnectedness.' Joan McKenzie, Newstalk ZB

'This elegiac portrait of working the land is both pertinent and perceptive. It distils the essence of what it means to farm the land.' NZ Listener]]> 0 Tim Saunders 1761064959 Tim 5 4.17
author: Tim Saunders
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 200500305 448 Harriet Allan 1776950534 Tim 5 4.38
author: Harriet Allan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 56227534
For the past fifty years, Louise Glück has been a major force in modern poetry, distinguished as much for the restless intelligence, wit and intimacy of her poetic voice as for her development of a particular form: the book-length sequence of poems. This volume brings together the twelve collections Glück has published to date, offering readers the opportunity to become immersed in the artistry and vision of one of the world's greatest living poets.

From the allegories of The Wild Iris to the myth-making of Averno; the oneiric landscapes of The House on Marshland to the questing of Faithful and Virtuous Night - each of Glück's collections looks upon the events of an ordinary life and finds within them scope for the transcendent; each wields its archetypes to puncture the illusions of the self. Across her work, elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured - Persephone, a copper beech, a mother and father and sister, a garden, a husband and son, a horse, a dog, a field on fire, a mountain. Taken together, the effect is like a shifting landscape seen from above, at once familiar and unspeakably profound.]]> 720 Louise Glück 0241526078 Tim 0 currently-reading 4.49 2020
author: Louise Glück
name: Tim
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 215924736 148 Brian U. Garrison Tim 5 4.64
author: Brian U. Garrison
name: Tim
average rating: 4.64
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 208858851
Back on Freyja, Father Chadwick and his settlers face trouble. Strange noises disturb them at night. They grow afraid of the forest. One by one, people disappear...

In a space mission driven by deceit and ambition, nothing is as it seems. Will Mother succeed where her predecessor failed? Will Chadwick regain his sense of purpose?

Sun God is the second book in the Assumptor space opera trilogy, continuing the voyage that began in Brightest Star.

Brightest Star was shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2023 best science-fiction adult novel.]]> 447 Andy Southall 1067000437 Tim 5
The author does an excellent job of showing how, in a closed community, toxic interpersonal dynamics that began when the main characters were young can sharpen into rifts that threaten the entire community. Both the small party stranded on an increasingly unwelcoming moon and the main body of spacefarers learn things about their respective worlds that leave them more wise and less safe. As the machinations of mysterious navigator Ness play out, the rise of a demagogue to rule by virtue of bombast and bullshit threatens a catastrophic end to the mission.

In other words, "Sun God" does what any good second volume of a trilogy should do: put our protagonists, flawed as they are, in peril, and limit their paths to overcome it. I think they will - at least, I hope they will - and I'm looking forward eagerly to seeing how this all plays out in Volume 3.]]> 4.43
author: Andy Southall
name: Tim
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:
The voyage of the generation starship "Domina Penelope" is a perilous one. The ship was in peril throughout Volume 1, and the peril only deepens in Book 2 - which brings into sharp focus the characters around whom the three main storylines revolve. The duplicitous, the indecisive and the heroic - or at least the doggedly determined to do good - all get their turn in the spotlight.

The author does an excellent job of showing how, in a closed community, toxic interpersonal dynamics that began when the main characters were young can sharpen into rifts that threaten the entire community. Both the small party stranded on an increasingly unwelcoming moon and the main body of spacefarers learn things about their respective worlds that leave them more wise and less safe. As the machinations of mysterious navigator Ness play out, the rise of a demagogue to rule by virtue of bombast and bullshit threatens a catastrophic end to the mission.

In other words, "Sun God" does what any good second volume of a trilogy should do: put our protagonists, flawed as they are, in peril, and limit their paths to overcome it. I think they will - at least, I hope they will - and I'm looking forward eagerly to seeing how this all plays out in Volume 3.
]]> 41039895 293 Michelle Elvy 1927145988 Tim 5 4.06 2018
author: Michelle Elvy
name: Tim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 218207657 Koe, editors Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan reveal the genesis, development and heritage of a unique Aotearoa New Zealand ecopoetry derived from both traditional Maori poetry and the English language poetry canon. Organised chronologically into three sections - representing the early years (poets born in or before the nineteenth century), the middle years of the twentieth century, and the twenty-first century 'now' - each segment presents a diverse array of voices. Across all these time frames, speaking from the conditions of their era, the poets delve into themes of humility, reverence and interconnectedness with the nonhuman world. They challenge traditional Eurocentric perspectives, highlight the significance of indigenous narratives, and wrestle with the impacts of European colonisation. With these poems of celebration, elegy, apprehension, hope and activism, Koe gives us the history that holds our future.]]> 300 Janet Newman 1990048811 Tim 5 4.33
author: Janet Newman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 3595116 399 Christopher Headington 058608357X Tim 3 3.33
author: Christopher Headington
name: Tim
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: nonfiction, music, classical, musicology, history, composers, composition
review:

]]> 7764041 46 Roger Zelazny 1561465135 Tim 4 3.82 1964
author: Roger Zelazny
name: Tim
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1964
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves: fiction, short, story, science, venus, fishing
review:

]]> 198061116 of the long white cloud, and deeply imbued with the myth, culture, and character of Aotearoa-New Zealand. Laced with intrigue, suspense, horror, and even a touch of humour, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa brings together stories and poems by some of the best homegrown and Kiwi-at-heart voices working in dark ficton today.

Curated by multi-award-winning author-editor Lee Murray, the anthology opens with a foreword by six-time Bram Stoker Awards®-winner and former HWA President Lisa Morton; and includes a brutal, lyrical poem by Kiwi resident Neil Gaiman.

Remains to be Told features stories and poems by Dan Rabarts, Kirsten McKenzie, Celine Murray, Kathryn Burnett, Helena Claudia, Marty Young, Gina Cole, William Cook, Del Gibson, Paul Mannering, Tim Jones, Owen Marshall, Denver Grenell, Bryce Stevens, Debbie Cowens, Lee Murray, Jacqui Greaves, Tracie McBride, and Nikky Lee.

“What a powerful collection of brutal, haunting, visceral stories and poems. But don’t worry, this stellar anthology from down under is not one note �� originality, wonder, and curiosity keep you guessing, pleading for these dark fates and unsettling myths to find a different, brighter path.�� �� Richard Thomas, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller Award finalist]]> 250 Lee Murray 192290449X Tim 5 to-read
Many of the stories focus to be found in rural Aotearoa - this anthology shows that "New Zealand Gothic" is alive and well, yet it also has a strong and welcome focus on indigenous stories and indigenous mythology. If you want to experience what lies under the surface of the tourist promotional photos and Instagram influencers' images of unspoiled nature and carefully curated tourism images, this is the anthology for you.]]> 4.50
author: Lee Murray
name: Tim
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:
"Remains To be Told" is a very strong anthology of dark fantasy stories and poems from Aotearoa - and I'm not just saying that because one of my poems is including in this anthology! Editor Lee Murray has pulled together a group of authors known for their horror and dark fantasy work, including Neil Gaiman, and others better known for work outside the field, most notably Owen Marshall.

Many of the stories focus to be found in rural Aotearoa - this anthology shows that "New Zealand Gothic" is alive and well, yet it also has a strong and welcome focus on indigenous stories and indigenous mythology. If you want to experience what lies under the surface of the tourist promotional photos and Instagram influencers' images of unspoiled nature and carefully curated tourism images, this is the anthology for you.
]]> 208294
Grief
Agafya
Misfortune
A Boring Story (From an Old Man's Notebook)
The Grasshopper
Ward No. 6
Ariadne
The House with an Attic
Ionych
The Darling
The Lady with the Lapdog

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov may be likened to his contemporaries, the "pointilliste" painters. Piece by piece, episode by episode, character by character, he constructs in prose a survey of the human condition. As David Magarshack writes in his introduction, on reading these stories 'one gets the impression of holding life itself, like a fluttering bird, in one's cupped hands'.]]> 288 Anton Chekhov 0140441433 Tim 4 4.18 1899
author: Anton Chekhov
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1899
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: fiction, literary, translation, russian, russia, 19th, century, short, stories, realism, irony
review:

]]> 48660326 312 Chris Else 0995105367 Tim 0 to-read 3.44
author: Chris Else
name: Tim
average rating: 3.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198848310
��

"Jacqui Greaves titillates with this outstanding collection of speculative encounters, visits and ventures by otherworldly beings, each tale sharpening our understanding of the human condition and the tiny role we play in the universe. Cosmic, cautionary, and compelling, served up with a sprinkle of humour and a good dose of sauce,��Letters from Elsewhere��is a satisfyingly good read." —Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of�� Monster Stories.]]> 125 Jacqui Greaves Tim 0 to-read 3.12
author: Jacqui Greaves
name: Tim
average rating: 3.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17591893 96 Jeffrey Brown 1603092668 Tim 0 to-read 3.49 2013
author: Jeffrey Brown
name: Tim
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176416712 104 Stephanie de Montalk 1776920775 Tim 0 to-read 3.33
author: Stephanie de Montalk
name: Tim
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202650702 238 Adrienne Jansen 1991103204 Tim 5
Adrienne Jansen does a great job of intertwining the personal upheavals of her protagonists' lives with the vagaries of coastline, sea and weather. The boundary between land and sea on which the lonely lighthouse stands is blurred by both disaster and hope, as Jess and Robert struggle to keep the light in view.]]> 4.25
author: Adrienne Jansen
name: Tim
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/24
shelves:
review:
Light Keeping is an understated novel of quiet power. Set against the ruthless cost-cutting that led to the replacement of lighthouse keepers with automation, it follows a family of lighthouse keepers as they navigate both personal tragedy and institutional indifference, with the latest generation trying to escape the long shadow of the past.

Adrienne Jansen does a great job of intertwining the personal upheavals of her protagonists' lives with the vagaries of coastline, sea and weather. The boundary between land and sea on which the lonely lighthouse stands is blurred by both disaster and hope, as Jess and Robert struggle to keep the light in view.
]]> 203565932 354 Odessa Owens 1877192635 Tim 5 4.67
author: Odessa Owens
name: Tim
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 3594980 352 Gordon McVay 0340204613 Tim 3 3.00 1976
author: Gordon McVay
name: Tim
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/15
shelves: nonfiction, biography, sergei, esenin, aleksandrovich, russian, revolution, peasants, russia, poetry, hooliganism, nikolai, klyuev, alcoholism, victoria, university, library
review:

]]> 967534
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Peter Bland is an Auckland poet with an international reputation. As a broadcaster in the 1960s he edited the national poetry programme and inaugurated New Zealand's first national arts review programme Kaleidoscope. He was co-founder and artistic director of Wellington's Downstage Theatre. He has published several collections of poetry and in 1977 was given a Cholmondeley Award for his poetry by the British Society of Authors and later the Melbourne Festival Literary Award. Peter was born in Yorkshire in 1934 and immigrated to New Zealand in 1954, where he became closely associated with the Wellington group of poets that included his close friends Louis Johnson, James K Baxter and Alistair Campbell. Since the early 1970s he has divided his time between England and New Zealand and travelled widely as an international jobbing actor. He is perhaps best known in New Zealand for his role as Wesley Pennington in the 1985 film Came a Hot Friday, for which he won a GOFTA best film actor award. He is married with three children.]]> 223 Peter Bland 1869416325 Tim 3 3.67 1998
author: Peter Bland
name: Tim
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves: nonfiction, poetry, memoir, united, kingdon, new, zealand, world, war, 2, theatre, suburbia, marriage, relationships, wellington, public, library
review:

]]> 121614789

]]> 87 P.S. Cottier 1761093835 Tim 0 to-read 0.0
author: P.S. Cottier
name: Tim
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62204824
Tuesday's Child is Full is a diverse, sprawling, wildly entertaining collection of poems from a poet at the very top of her game. She writes with a fearless accuracy and a sympathetic wit. Her poems are calm and profound and effortlessly display the universal in the domestic. She is a modern pastoral poet, not only celebrating the wild and untamed, but placing our experience of an urban everyday in a natural setting, whether that is the death of that most unheroic of pets, a guinea pig, or the act of contemplating a mango. Her poems have the power to awaken an appreciation of the eternal and beautiful all around us.]]> 98 P.S. Cottier 0645375128 Tim 0 to-read 0.0
author: P.S. Cottier
name: Tim
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57742348 �� Pip Adam, author of 'Nothing to See' and 'New Animals'


After months of researching butterflies in Sāmoa, Adam is looking forward to returning home to his family. Then his transfer to the airport doesn’t arrive. Worse, a hastily arranged taxi takes him not to departures but an empty field in the middle of nowhere, and he misses his flight. As he fails to find alternative ways off the island �� other flights, ferries, even seagoing yachts �� he grows increasingly frustrated, especially as all overseas phone lines and emails seem to be down as well.

In a café, he meets Eve, who offers to help him. He decides he has to trust her, for there is no one else. Yet he has a strange feeling he’s met her before ��

'Both Feet in Paradise' is a masterpiece of storytelling that suspends the reader in a world of relentless beauty �� where one step forward is two steps back and nothing and no one can be relied on, least of all yourself.]]> 350 Andy Southall 198859538X Tim 4 4.00
author: Andy Southall
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 62837724 328 Paul Diamond 1991016182 Tim 5 4.23
author: Paul Diamond
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 29214420
Kate Raworth, Simit Ekonomisi'nde miras aldığımız tahripkar endüstriyel ekonomileri yenileyici ekonomilere dönüştürmek ve mevcut fikirlerin en iyilerini bir araya getirerek sürekli evrim geçiren yeni bir ekonomik zihniyet yaratmak için yedi hedef ortaya koyuyor.

21. yüzyılın ekonomik düşüncesinin kalbine büyümeden ziyade gelişmeyi, adaleti ve hakkaniyeti yerleştirerek, bize ev sahipliği yapan dünyayı idare etme sanatına sürdürülebilir hedeflerle yön verebileceğimiz yepyeni bir resim çiziyor!]]> 384 Kate Raworth 1847941389 Tim 5 4.17 2017
author: Kate Raworth
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 199709622
She doesn’t expect the appearance of the beautiful and mysterious Jeroen or the massive storm that hits the island and devastates the scientists�� base, forcing them to leave.

Quinn and Jeroen find themselves back on the mainland and discover that everything in the world as they knew it has changed. The power is out, the phones aren’t working, and everyone seems to have vanished ��

How do you survive in this new world and who can you trust?]]> 232 Latika Vasil 0473680262 Tim 5
Latika Vasil does a great job of showing the world through Quinn's eyes. She's brave, resourceful, but also impetuous and at times beset by doubt. She's a very realistic protagonist - I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. If you enjoy YA fiction as so many of us do, or if you're a high school teacher looking for a well-written book that touches on important issues and tells a strong story through the eyes of a relatable protagonist, The World I Found is for you.]]> 4.38
author: Latika Vasil
name: Tim
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/14
shelves:
review:
The World I Found is a really good read. It's a Young Adult novel seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Quinn, who is reluctantly dragged off to Campbell Island by her Mum, who is heading there as part of a scientific expedition. While Quinn is on the island, a worldwide emergency breaks out, which means life is very different when she returns to Aotearoa and has to make her own choices in a radically changed world while attempting to reconnect with family and friends.

Latika Vasil does a great job of showing the world through Quinn's eyes. She's brave, resourceful, but also impetuous and at times beset by doubt. She's a very realistic protagonist - I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. If you enjoy YA fiction as so many of us do, or if you're a high school teacher looking for a well-written book that touches on important issues and tells a strong story through the eyes of a relatable protagonist, The World I Found is for you.
]]> 58720145 106 Janet Newman 1990048102 Tim 5 4.83
author: Janet Newman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.83
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 57065512
Each of the 33 poets in the anthology has written a poem of 33 lines inspired by and including a short passage from one of the 33 cantos of Dante’s "Purgatory", the second part of his epic "The Divine Comedy".]]> 98 Marco Sonzogni 1988595355 Tim 5 to-read 5.00
author: Marco Sonzogni
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60822011 220 Essa Ranapiri 1869409558 Tim 4 4.62
author: Essa Ranapiri
name: Tim
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 30658696
As the band plays its sold-out tour, Ruby is pursued by eco-groupies insisting she use her new fame to fight climate change.

Back home, in rain-drenched Leeds, Ruby must confront a challenge not even tea, beer or her mum's veggie lasagne will make go away. In a storm and drought-plagued world, run by cynical old men and self-serving corporations, could one young woman lead change?

Torn between the demands of the climate campaigners and her bandmates, Ruby has to decide how much - and even who - she will sacrifice.]]> 236 Katherine Dewar 047334551X Tim 3 4.04
author: Katherine Dewar
name: Tim
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/02
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 198972056
Zeke has to stay with his aunt and uncle in Lower Hutt after a landslide takes his East Coast home off its foundations. Allie puts her drought-ridden Otago dairy farm out of her mind and catches a plane to the capital city. Stephanie wonders why she’s sitting around a table at the Ministry for Resilience �� again.

In 'Emergency Weather', three people find themselves in Wellington as the climate crisis crashes into their lives. A giant storm is on its way �� what will be left of the city when it’s over?

A scarily prescient thriller by award-winning author and climate change activist Tim Jones.]]> 256 Tim Jones 198859572X Tim 5 4.12 2023
author: Tim Jones
name: Tim
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 406842 416 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553803123 Tim 4 3.72 2005
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Tim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: fiction, novel, science, climate, change, politics, washington, dc, national, foundation, abrupt, natural, disasters
review:

]]> 41121 603 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553585819 Tim 4 3.71 2005
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Tim
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: fiction, novel, science, climate, change, politics, washington, dc, national, foundation, abrupt, natural, disasters
review:

]]> 125392583 Birds and Ghosts was written during the Covid-19 pandemic when international travel was impossible. In this achingly empty space, away from her family and her father's grave, Jess reconstructs her early life and ponders the self who is lonely, different, and invisible. A late diagnosis of Autism adds a conventional label to a uniquely personal portrait.
This intimate story edges the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose, confident in its experimental style. It is memoir in a pure, unconstrained form, brave and beautiful, moving and utterly compelling.
From the author of Snake Ropes, Cooking]]> 304 Jess Richards 1739177703 Tim 5
In "Birds and Ghosts", the author walks down streets I've travelled and visits places I know well. But even if you've never spent time in Scotland, or Brighton, or Wellington, NZ, the emotional contours of the story are both very specific and familiar to many of us from the last few years. Excellently written, moving and - for me at least - a deeply resonant and satisfying book.]]> 5.00
author: Jess Richards
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves:
review:
I loved this book. It's about Jess Richards' reaction to the death of her father and to separation from her family, through love and Covid. A mixture of creative non-fiction and poetry, the book develops recurring themes and motifs in a similar way to the author's daring and innovative novels, and couples them with emotional directness.

In "Birds and Ghosts", the author walks down streets I've travelled and visits places I know well. But even if you've never spent time in Scotland, or Brighton, or Wellington, NZ, the emotional contours of the story are both very specific and familiar to many of us from the last few years. Excellently written, moving and - for me at least - a deeply resonant and satisfying book.
]]> 35050106
CITY OF CIRCLES is an entrancing love story between Danu and Morrie, two circus performers, and Danu's Lewis Carroll-esque odyssey through the magical city of Matryoshka, that ends with a heart-warming yet bittersweet twist.

Danu is a tightrope walker who is mourning her parents, after a disease has ravaged the circus where she grew up. Her mother has entrusted her with a locket that hides a secret.

Over the years, Danu pushes away her grief and develops elaborate and successful high-wire acts with Morrie, a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry her. When the circus returns to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshka, Danu is enchanted by the temples, spice mists, and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle district.

Here, she finally gains the courage to open her mother's locket, and discovers the name of a stranger who lives behind the locked gate of the Inner Circle. Fated to remain in Matryoshka, Danu attempts to resolve this mystery . . .

Will she and Morrie ever be reunited, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her in the mysterious heart of the city?]]> 384 Jess Richards 1473656680 Tim 4 3.42 2017
author: Jess Richards
name: Tim
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 61640936
The spaceship Domina Penelope crosses interstellar space in search of a new Earth. As it approaches the star system Norse the mission leader, Father Chadwick, struggles to control his crew. Worse, after decades of constant light-sail acceleration the ship may never be able to stop.

Five hundred brothers and sisters had sailed from a dying Earth in hope. Yet despite voting to leave, none of them could have foreseen the dangers that lay on their path, until it was too late to turn back.

Brightest Star is the first book in a space trilogy in which a powerful yet enigmatic missionary group, the Assumptors, exit Earth for the stars.

Why remain prisoners of one sun when there are so many more?]]> 358 Andy Southall 0473639823 Tim 5 4.20
author: Andy Southall
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/07
date added: 2023/02/06
shelves:
review:
A really interesting story of a generation starship setting out from a dying Earth to seek a better place for humans to live. That in itself isn't a new setup, but what's different and memorable about this story is the focus on how the political and social divisions within the crew play out as - inevitably - what seems a clear mission begins to get muddied by both external events and internal jockeying for power. There's a thread of political satire here, but mainly, this is a strong generation starship novel that sets up what should be an intriguing sequel.
]]> 3595002 0 James K. Baxter 019558094X Tim 4 4.17 2010
author: James K. Baxter
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/09/07
shelves: poetry, new, zealand, landscape, religious, ballads, satire, spirituality, religion, maori, culture
review:

]]> 1306124 The facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
MS, found in a bottle
A descent into the Maelström
The murders in the Rue Morgue
The mystery of Marie Rogét
The purloined letter
The fall of the House of Usher
The pit and the pendulum
The premature burial
The black cat
The masque of the red death
Tha cask of Amontillado
The oval portrait
The oblong box
The tell-tale heart
Ligeia
Loss of breath
Shadow-a prable
Silence-a fable
The man of the crowd
Some words with a mummy]]> 367 Edgar Allan Poe 1851520082 Tim 4 4.00 1908
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1908
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves: fiction, collection, short, stories, fantasy, mystery, horror, detective
review:

]]> 58546474
It’s Saturday night down on the wharf. Celebrations are in full swing for the Westons�� fortieth wedding anniversary. Their daughter Stella has returned from London to attend. Once shoulder-tapped as detective material, a few bad decisions and a questionable ethical dilemma saw her leave the force under a cloud. She’s now a private investigator in London, reduced to filming errant husbands for court cases. She doesn’t want to be home.

Later that night her best friend Teri is found dead in a lane in the central city. Her phone is missing. It looks like suicide, but Stella won’t believe it.

Stella Weston is relentless, foul-mouthed and tenacious. She’s not above taking big risks to find the truth about her friend and the shady world she appears to have been dragged into.

The race is on between those who want the phone, the homeless man who’s pocketed it, and Stella.]]> 314 Anne Harré 198859541X Tim 5 3.83
author: Anne Harré
name: Tim
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves:
review:
An excellent thriller: the leading character is someone it's easy to identify with, the danger feels very real, the author makes great use of the setting, and in the last fifty pages or so the growing tension blooms into full-on action. I stayed up way too late finishing this one!
]]> 21541424 Dreams of Thanatos is a collection of macabre short fiction from William Cook, the author of the novel Blood Related.]]> 250 William Cook 1495994333 Tim 0 4.25
author: William Cook
name: Tim
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves: fiction, collection, short, stories, novelette, horror
review:

]]> 13508567
Meet the Cunninghams... A family bound by evil and the blood they have spilled. The large lodging-house they live in and operate on Artaud Avenue reeks of death, and the sins that remain trapped beneath the floorboards.

Ray Truman's search for a killer leads him to the Cunningham's house of horrors. What he finds there will ultimately lead him to regret ever meeting Caleb Cunningham and the deviant family that spawned him. The hunter becomes the hunted, as Truman digs deeper into the abyss that is the horrifying mind of the most dangerous psychopath he has ever met.]]> 428 William Cook 0985882948 Tim 0 4.30
author: William Cook
name: Tim
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves: fiction, novel, horror, thriller, psychopathology, twins
review:

]]> 55881502
Casting its net widely, this anthology of Aotearoa-New Zealand science fiction and fantasy ranges from the satirical novels of the 19th-century utopians �� one of which includes the first description of atmospheric aerobreaking in world literature �� to the bleeding edge of now. Spaceships and worried sheep. Dragons and AI. The shopping mall that swallowed the Earth. The deviant, the fishy and the rum, all bioengineered for your reading pleasure.

Featuring stories by some of the country’s best known writers as well as work from exciting new talent, Monsters in the Garden invites you for a walk on the wild side. We promise you'll get back safely. Unchanged? Well, that's another question.]]> 608 Elizabeth Knox 1776563107 Tim 0 3.93
author: Elizabeth Knox
name: Tim
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 84979 Another cover edition for this ISBN

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.]]> 334 Jane Austen 0553213105 Tim 5 4.36 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: Tim
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1813
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: fiction, novel, english, literature, gender, relations, marriage, money, humour
review:

]]> 226379 With Anna Karenin, the psychological novel of the nineteenth century reached its peak.

Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenin provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.

Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, 'He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay."'

Anna Karenin was published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues that arose in the final installment (Tolstoy's unpopular views of volunteers going to Serbia); therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form in 1878.]]> 853 Leo Tolstoy Tim 5 4.18 1878
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1878
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/22
shelves: fiction, novel, literary, translation, russian, russia, marriage, romance, adultery
review:

]]> 4389974
In this dual-language selection of Anna Akhatmova's poetry, Andrey Kneller's translations capture not only the general message, but also strive to preserve the beautiful lyrical quality of the originals.]]> 129 Anna Akhmatova 1438234732 Tim 0 4.07 2008
author: Anna Akhmatova
name: Tim
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/23
shelves: poetry, collection, selected, in, translation, russian, russia, 20th, century, literature, literary, ebook
review:

]]> 32707836 238 Trish Harris 0994118643 Tim 5 4.33
author: Trish Harris
name: Tim
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/08/30
shelves:
review:
This is an excellent book - both moving and informative. Trish Harris is a fine writer and her book helped me understand and (to the extent possible) feel what it is like to live with acute arthritis - not only the many very hard things, but the possibilities for joy and triumph as well. I enjoyed this book, and learned from it.
]]> 100085 NIGHTMARE STORIES FROM THE LAND OF TOTAL FEAR

Renowned as one of the great horror-writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft produced works of enduring power. Now gathered together into this omnibus volume are seven classics of screaming supernatural terror and vilest horror...

Front cover illustration by Tim White.

Contents:

- Introduction: H. P. Lovecraft's Novels by August Derleth
- At the Mountains of Madness
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
- The Dreams in the Witch-House
- The Statement of Randolph Carter
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
- The Silver Key
- Through the Gates of the Silver Key]]> 552 H.P. Lovecraft 0586063226 Tim 4 4.17 1964
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1964
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 52892006
Vai Shuster arrives in Auckland to advocate for the delivery of a long-standing promise: a place in New Zealand for her island’s people as climate destruction makes their home uninhabitable.

Panicked, but endlessly adaptive, the world is awake to the reality of three degrees climate breakdown. In 2048 the worst effects are yet to be felt, but the destructive phase is locked in. A great reshuffle of people and nature is occurring.

But this is not an apocalypse for all. Vai finds herself in a world that the powerful and their mid-level helpers are managing to navigate, and new opportunities are emerging. There are both forces of integration and disintegration at work.
Antarctica is melting and New Zealand is a gateway to the last continent. Can Vai’s community help build a new Hong Kong in southern New Zealand to serve Antarctica? Or is New Zealand fully occupied by the demands of the big three �� China, America and India - as they begin to direct the settlement of Antarctica?

The scale and pace of change are drowning Vai’s voice, turning what should be a simple mission into a desperate hunt for somewhere to stand before it’s too late. Brave and resourceful, Vai sets out on an epic journey into the new world, one that is finding the poor to be superfluous. How much will she risk for her community and what price will she pay?]]> 289 Jeff Murray 0473470535 Tim 0 to-read 2.87 2019
author: Jeff Murray
name: Tim
average rating: 2.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 9439088 112 Spike Milligan 0352396407 Tim 2 fiction, humour, miscellany 3.00 1975
author: Spike Milligan
name: Tim
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1975
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2020/03/21
shelves: fiction, humour, miscellany
review:

]]> 25640642
Enter Smith: the sister who saved Selina once before. But this time Smith’s life is complicated by a small boy called Ragnar, and she’s almost too late.

Janis Freegard’s novel is a beguiling urban tale that moves from the hills of Brooklyn, Wellington, to the streets of Iceland via Tākaka. Packed with characters who hold the reader to the page, The year of falling has the strut and gleam of a fairytale while not being afraid of the stuff of flesh and blood that makes people act the way they do. A novel to fall into �� but beware, you might find it hard to climb out again.]]> 296 Janis Freegard 0994106572 Tim 5 4.21 2015
author: Janis Freegard
name: Tim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/12/24
shelves: fiction, novel, new, zealand, relationships, sisterhood, parenting, alcoholism, wellington, takaka, iceland
review:

]]> 34677956 James McNaughton Tim 4 3.00
author: James McNaughton
name: Tim
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/26
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 36478024
Sita is a Tamil Sri Lankan refugee living in the Hutt Valley. She’s just had a call from her boss. If she doesn’t get to her cleaning job in the city she’ll lose her contract.]]> 178 Brannavan Gnanalingam Tim 0 to-read 4.18 2017
author: Brannavan Gnanalingam
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45749724 294 Barbara Howe 1925759962 Tim 5 4.50 2019
author: Barbara Howe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/25
shelves:
review:
What a good book! An entertaining fantasy novel that's also a deep examination of questions of protest, justice and law. A new protagonist opens up new perspectives on Frankland and its feuding Guilds.
]]> 40134517
He never promised happily ever after, but Lucinda is still dismayed by how quickly reality intrudes on her fairy tale. Assassination attempts and lightning strikes disturb her honeymoon, but the return home brings no peace of mind. When the discovery of a magical conspiracy shakes her faith in everything she trusts, she vows to expose the Fire Warlock’s most shameful secret and see justice done.

As a hot summer draws towards a violent end, Lucinda teeters between terror and rage. She’d be less angry about risking her life if she didn’t suspect her husband �� her hero! �� intends to step aside and let her die.]]> 0 Barbara Howe 1925759172 Tim 5 4.86
author: Barbara Howe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.86
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/25
shelves:
review:
I really like the way "Engine of Lies" complicates and expands the world Barbara Howe introduces to us in "The Locksmith". Lucinda continues to be an engaging and admirable protagonist, with many strengths but realistic flaws. I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes next!
]]> 34946701
She has good reasons to be afraid.

As war looms and dangerous romance beckons, who will have the best chance to kill her? Her enemies, her friends, or Lucinda herself?]]> 278 Barbara Howe 1925496295 Tim 5 4.26 2017
author: Barbara Howe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/25
shelves:
review:
What really made this novel for me was the protagonist, Lucinda Guillierre. I've read plenty of fantasy novels whose central characters feel like they were invented by a committee. Lucinda doesn't. She's strong, determined, flawed, impulsive, and someone you really want to see succeed against the formidable obstacles that face her in the intriguing world the author has created. I'm looking forward to reading the next novels in this series.
]]> 46028957
Donna is new to the Patrol. When word comes through that the Navy has sunk a ship full of infiltrators and survivors might be making their way ashore, it sounds like she might get to see some action.

A tale of desperation and betrayal on a shrinking shore in the not too distant future.]]> 76 Tim Jones 1988595029 Tim 5 4.35 2015
author: Tim Jones
name: Tim
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 1187971 432 Gunnar Karlsson 1850654204 Tim 4 3.86 2000
author: Gunnar Karlsson
name: Tim
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/06/15
shelves: nonfiction, history, geography, climate, iceland, paganism, religious, conversion, volcanic, activity, culture
review:
This is a fairly dry and academic - but nevertheless interesting - history of Iceland from the settlement era through to 2000. Having read about the sagas of the Settlement Era, I wanted something that would bring me up to date, and this book did that - although I would have liked more coverage of the environmental and ecological factors affecting Iceland during that time, which are alluded to but rarely addressed directly.
]]> 269321
To --
--
("I saw thee on thy bridal day") --
Dreams --
Spirits of the dead --
Evening star --
A dream within a dream --
Stanzas --
A dream --
The happiest day, the happiest hour --
The lake : to --
--
Sonnet : to Science --
Romance --
To --
("The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see") --
To the River --
--
To --
("I heed not that my earthly lot") --
Fairy-land --
To Helen ("Helen, thy beauty is to me") --
Israfel --
The city in the sea --
The sleeper --
Lenore --
The valley of unrest --
The Coliseum --
To one in paradise --
To F--
--
Sonnet : to Zante --
The haunted palace --
Sonnet : silence --
The conqueror worm --
Dream-land --
The raven --
Eulalie : a song --
To M.L. S--
--
Ulalume --
To --
--
("Not long ago, the writer of these lines") --
To Helen ("I saw thee once, once only, years ago") --
Eldorado --
For Annie --
To my mother --
Annabel Lee --
The bells --
Alone.]]> 64 Edgar Allan Poe Tim 4 4.20 1845
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1845
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/02/14
shelves: poetry, collection, selected, poems, american, fantasy, horror, love
review:

]]> 1989656 290 E. Radford 0333316436 Tim 0 4.00 1981
author: E. Radford
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/13
shelves: nonfiction, reference, dictionary, phrases, origins, derivations, meanings
review:

]]> 143483 Overt 150 poems deal with love, friendship, the tyranny of time, beauty's evanescence in power, death, and other themes in language unsurpassed in power, precision, and beauty. Now this inexpensive Dover edition enables any lover of poetry or fine literature to have this exquisite verse in his or her personal library. A brief glossary illuminates a number of archaic terms.]]> 74 William Shakespeare 0486266869 Tim 5 4.14 1609
author: William Shakespeare
name: Tim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1609
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/02/27
shelves: poetry, collection, omnibus, edition, sonnets, love
review:

]]> 28933085 A stark but uplifting story of bullying and redemption, for anyone who's ever been a weirdo.

Almost too terrified to grip the phone, Biddy Weir calls a daytime television show.

The subject is bullying, and Biddy has a story to tell.

Abandoned by her mother as a baby, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time watching the birds - until Alison Fleming joins her school.

Popular and beautiful, but with a dangerous, malevolent streak, Alison quickly secures the admiration of her fellow students. All except one. And Alison doesn't take kindly to people who don't fit her mould . . .

A story of abuse and survival, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman's battle to learn to love herself for who she is, The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is Lesley Allen’s startlingly honest debut novel, perfect for fans of Rowan Coleman and Julie Cohen.]]> 400 Lesley Allen Tim 5 4.23 2016
author: Lesley Allen
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 7552497 Stephen King 0896961001 Tim 4 3.67 1981
author: Stephen King
name: Tim
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/08/07
shelves: nonfiction, memoir, writers, writing, advice, horror
review:

]]> 26235558
A cast of puzzling, curious characters inhabits these tales by Michael Botur, a literary writer and journalist who delves into the quirky and gritty areas of our societies.

There is nothing 'ivory tower' or academic about the tales in MEAN; instead this is real people, street life, the bizarre and harsh realities of state housing, prisons, and seamy backstreets, alongside schools and childhood.

Many of these stories have been previously published in literary fiction journals and magazines, but are brought together in this collection for the first time.]]> 204 Michael Botur 149122665X Tim 4 3.50 2013
author: Michael Botur
name: Tim
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 31187883
But in the tense build-up to the Rockfest competition, Paige finds she can’t control everything in her life, no matter how hard she practises and how loud she plays. There’s stuff happening in the band that she can’t put her finger on, a friend who can’t handle her own secret anymore and a mysterious guy who plays double bass like an angel. But there isn’t much time to sort things out �� Rockfest looms and so does the end of the school year, when everything will change for good.

Lonesome When You Go is a novel about practising solo, performing like a rockstar and how contributing your best self to something can create a force much greater than the sum of its parts.

]]> 238 Saradha Koirala Tim 5
Paige is the best thing in this book: likeable, determined, but far from flawless, she's a character worth identifying with. And I also really liked the balance between the joy and the tedium of building a working musical relationship with other people who never see things quite the same way as you do. Definitely a recommended read.]]> 3.92
author: Saradha Koirala
name: Tim
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/10/12
shelves:
review:
This YA novel features Paige, the bass player in a high school rock band, as she and her bandmates prepare for Rockfest, a Battle of the Bands-style competition for high school rock bands. The proverbial "musical and personal differences" threaten to derail the band and lives of Paige's friends alike, but in the end, Paige's determination to hold down the metaphorical as well as literal bottom end comes through.

Paige is the best thing in this book: likeable, determined, but far from flawless, she's a character worth identifying with. And I also really liked the balance between the joy and the tedium of building a working musical relationship with other people who never see things quite the same way as you do. Definitely a recommended read.
]]> 31566983 74 Tim Jones 0994129963 Tim 5 5.00 2016
author: Tim Jones
name: Tim
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 12477 In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.

An alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.]]> 336 Truman Capote 0141182571 Tim 4 4.17 1966
author: Truman Capote
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 276514
Kapital’in hazırlık çalışmalarını 1850’li ve 60’lı yıllarda yürüten Karl Marx, bu eserin birinci cildinin yayımlanmasından iki yıl önce, yani 1865 yılında, Birinci Enternasyonal’in yöneticilerine, işçi sınıfının iktisadi mücadeleleri hakkında bir sunum yapmıştı. Kapital’de derinlikli olarak incelenen pek çok konu ve kavram, bu sunumda, iktisat alanında birikimli olmayanların da anlayabileceği bir şekilde ele alınmıştı. Bir başka deyişle, Ücret, Fiyat ve Kar, bir “Kapital’e giriş�� çalışması olarak da okunabilir.

İlk baskısı Marksizmin kurucularının ölümlerinden sonra yayımlanan bu çalışma İngilizce olarak kaleme alınmıştı.]]> 92 Karl Marx 1410219216 Tim 4 4.30 1898
author: Karl Marx
name: Tim
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1898
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/02/12
shelves: marx, karlnonfiction, politics, economics, capitalism, capital, labour, profit
review:

]]> 1403283 - " The Lady of Shalott"
- " Charge of the Light Brigade"
- " Maud"
- " Morte d'Arthur"
- " Ulysses"
- " The Lotus Eaters"
Elegantly packaged with a ribbon marker, this volume is the perfect addition to any poetry library.]]> 234 Alfred Tennyson 0140585028 Tim 0 4.16
author: Alfred Tennyson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/27
shelves: poetry, collection, selected, poems, british, victorian
review:

]]> 898908 Harry Ricketts 0701137444 Tim 4 4.00 1999
author: Harry Ricketts
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/01/25
shelves: nonfiction, biography, literary, rudyard, kipling, poetry, fiction, empire, india, imperialism, colonialism, british, raj, world, war, 1, wellington, public, library
review:

]]> 28220155 76 Keith Westwater 0994129912 Tim 4 4.00
author: Keith Westwater
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/31
shelves:
review:
The core of this collection is Keith Westwater's experience of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and the effect the quake had on that city and its residents - a series of excellent poems that go well beyond the personal. But there are also other social, political and personal poems in a collection that well represents Keith as a person and as a poet.
]]> 27994029 76 Heidi North-Bailey 0994129920 Tim 4 3.67
author: Heidi North-Bailey
name: Tim
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/31
shelves: poetry, collection, debut, new, zealand, relationships, youth, death, childbirth
review:
I really enjoyed this debut collection from Heidi North-Bailey, whose mainly personal poems are economical, witty, and make really good use of their short lines and stanzas. The subject matter is not new - relationships, "the big OE" - but it's expressed very well.
]]> 24008682 865 George Margoliouth Tim 3 3.51 1908
author: George Margoliouth
name: Tim
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1908
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, collection, speculative, philippine, nonfiction, poetry, novel, prose, chapbook, rulebook, fantasy, politics, short, anthology, graphic, history, horror, new, handbook, science, north, police, autobiographical, stories, economics, autobiography, memoir, english, american, literary, sport, prague, zealand, rpg, bilingual, procedural, africa, medieval, music, cricket, investments, czech, theatre, cartoons, aliens, realism, childhood, tennis, algeria, city, writing, faery, women-s, republic, metafiction, international, musicians, spoken, flight, social, magic, york, holocaust, families, strip, france, guard, fairyland, time, country, negotiations, crime, word, guitarists, telepathy, tv, class, jewish, kingship, islands, ebook, 20the, illustrated, bourgeoisie, travel, national, story, terraforming, china, estate, life, punk, ashes, tie-in, violence, death, century, earthdawn, performance, drug, parent-child, by, sovereignty, education, player, israel, war, locked, comedy, world, dollhouse, addiction, finland, relationships, biographies, tim, sexism, of, treaties, invention, room, personality, the, gulf, argentinean, trolls, rape, 1, local, parenting, manners, summaries, causality, mystery, dragons, transfer, jones, slits, windlings, secrecy, gaming, unfinished, family, philosophy, dystopia, undead, climbing, translated, flowers, bullying, boats, nouveau, events, childcare, weather, association, writers, riche, romance, in, divorce, residence, jiang, film, spanish, shan, expatriates, epistolary, a, art, europe, fictionalised, adolescence, suicide, sex, sexuality, salford, hacienda, nightclub, novella, biography, essays, folk, novellas, climate, associate, physics, change, and, cosmology, doctor, space, immigration, affiliate, relativity, who, rock, boat, quantum, season, sleater-kinney, folk-rock, people, generation, 9, afghanistan, musicianship, starship, popular, ashildr, ireland, book, scotland, maisie, pacific, revivla, nepal, williams, colonisation, northwest, fairport, papua, immortality, artificial, olympia, convention, adventure, intelligence, portland, anne, creativity, briggs, illness, anxiety, guinea, linda, depression, girl, peters, computing, usa, richard, health, died, thompson, infection, canada, dave, ecosystem, woman, swarbrick, netherlands, lived, trevor, kenya, design, lucas, biology, neil, sociology, denny, united, edna, arab, vocalists, singing, solar, emirates, system, production, self-doubt, council, alcoholism, musical, reputation, cup, legacy
review:
Aurora is another entry in Kim Stanley Robinson's series of novels about the habitation of the solar system - but this one goes well beyond the Solar System, as it tells the story of a generation starship sent to colonise the Tau Ceti system - an old science fiction trope, but handled with Kim Stanley Robinson's usual close attention to both the practicalities and the politics of such endeavours.[return][return]In my experience, people who read Robinson's work are sharply divided into those who love his writing and those whom it leaves completely cold, mainly because there is so much exposition, or to put it less kindly his books are full of info-dumps. I'm in the former camp, but this book certainly shares that weakness, and I found the characterisation of the main human character somewhat inconsistent. However, the book is thought-provoking and increasingly tense as the narrative proceeds, with only a rather protracted ending letting it down a little. Not the very best of Robinson's work, then, but still very good.
]]> 25227677
The earl's project harks back to an ancient idyll of untamed British wilderness - though Rachel must contend with modern-day concessions to health and safety, public outrage and political gain - and the return of the Grey after hundreds of years coincides with her own regeneration: impending motherhood, and reconciliation with her estranged family.

The Wolf Border investigates the fundamental nature of wilderness and wildness, both animal and human. It seeks to understand the most obsessive aspects of humanity: sex, love, and conflict; the desire to find answers to the question of our existence; those complex systems that govern the most superior creature on earth.]]> 435 Sarah Hall 0571299555 Tim 5 3.96 2015
author: Sarah Hall
name: Tim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, novel, british, wolves, rewilding, reintroduction, zoology, wildlife, sanctuaries, nature, conservation, aristocracy, relationships, childbirth
review:
This excellent novels parallels the natural and the human world without being too obvious about it, as wolf reintroduction expert Rachael Caine supervises a project to reintroduce wolves to Britain while dealing with big changes in her own life. Wonderfully vivid writing and an exciting conclusion make this a five-star book for me.
]]> 17105795 0 William Shakespeare 3111195813 Tim 4 3.90 1597
author: William Shakespeare
name: Tim
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1597
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, comics, graphic, novel, new, zealand, relationships, pedantry, william, shakespeare, txt, spk, oxford, comma
review:
Two pedants, plus one curly-haired narrator who is married to one of the pedants. Their interactions, and their encounters with a variety of other characters, including the pedants' nemesis TXT SPK GRL and time-travelling playwright William Shakespeare, make for an entertaining graphic novel (or is "linked collection of comic strips" a better description?) which I enjoyed very much despite one of the pedants' virulent dislike of the Oxford comma, which is my view is the best thing to come out of Oxford since Mr. Toad.
]]> 15765440
Within this framework of voyaging and return, Gallagher pays attention to the small and concrete, and though her lines always have a visceral physicality to them, she is also adept at creating moods of dislocation and adjustment.

She focuses her eye on the explorations and elusions of being the view under a Venetian bridge, the crossing of a frontier, the uneasy outskirts of a city. The collection's second section is an account of a relationship - in 'a year of slow burn', 'tenderness found us' - and its centrality as a world in 'all and all and all'.

But 'return is an instinct', the poet writes, and in the book's final section she returns to the South Island of New Zealand to make an accommodation with belonging, with the pines and paddocks of 'always touch, / touch and go'.

With attention the shape and muscularity of language, these poems exert a thoughtfulness about the movements of beginnings, about transmutation and change. Meditative, at times urgent, this fine, evocative collection will earn Rhian Gallagher a well-deserved place in the New Zealand poetic landscape.]]> 0 Rhian Gallagher 1869404874 Tim 4 4.00 2011
author: Rhian Gallagher
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: poetry, collection, new, zealand, relationships, travel, london, york, south, island, landscapes
review:
I've previously heard Rhian Gallagher read her poetry and read individual poems in literary magazines, both of which I enjoyed, and I found them even more effective in this collection. It's divided into three sections, the first covering her life in London, the second a love affair in New York, the third her return to New Zealand's South Island. Her work is both technically effective and engaging, and I enjoyed most of these poems very much. My one slight caveat (and it's only a half-star-off sized caveat) is that a couple of devices of rhyme and vocabulary seemed over-used in the collection - but that barely dampened my enjoyment of this fine collection.
]]> 22227421 384 Stevan Eldred-Grigg 1877578657 Tim 4 3.80 2014
author: Stevan Eldred-Grigg
name: Tim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, history, china, guangdong, new, zealand, immigration, gold, goldfields, commerce, politics, social, crime, racism, economic
review:
While it's hard for me to judge the quality of the historical research, this is a very readable study of the interactions between New Zealand and China - and in particular the experience of the Cantonese and Hakka people who came to New Zealanders as gold miners in the 19th century, and of their descendants. The book stops in 1950, and I would love to read an extended edition or a second volume that covers the next sixty years of the story.
]]> 28189146 Featuring:

Lee Murray and Piper Mejia‘s odyssey through a dystopic future: Mika
A.C. Buchanan‘s story of creatures and people displaced in time and space: Bree’s Dinosaur
Grant Stone‘s tale of jealous muses and musical prodigy: The Last
A husband with a secret in I.K. Paterson-Harkness�� Pocket Wife
Tim Jones�� exploration of desperation and betrayal on New Zealand’s shores: Landfall
Grief, ghosts, and atoms in Octavia Cade‘s The Ghost of Matter]]> 271 Marie Hodgkinson 0473336480 Tim 0 3.73 2015
author: Marie Hodgkinson
name: Tim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fictions, novellas, new, zealand, fiction, science, speculative, story, by, tim, jones
review:

]]> 25404458 96 Janis Freegard 1869408330 Tim 4 4.25 2015
author: Janis Freegard
name: Tim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: poetry, collection, new, zealand, nature, outdoors, science, zoology, relationships
review:

]]> 25917110 118 Anthony Main 064693452X Tim 0 4.00 2015
author: Anthony Main
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, politics, transport, melbourne, roading, motorways, political, campaigning, socialiam, pickets, labour, party, activism
review:

]]> 25725428 350 Laurie R. King 0749018216 Tim 4 4.02 2015
author: Laurie R. King
name: Tim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, novel, thriller, blackmail, japan, england, sea, travel, japanese, royal, family
review:

]]> 24751041 224 Tim Wigmore 1785310135 Tim 0 4.33 2015
author: Tim Wigmore
name: Tim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, sport, cricket, history, politics, international, council, icc, associates, affiliates, ebook
review:

]]> 23705512
The Internet isn’t all cat videos. There’s also Felicia Day—violinist, filmmaker, Internet entrepreneur, compulsive gamer, hoagie specialist, and former lonely homeschooled girl who overcame her isolated childhood to become the ruler of a new world... or at least semi-influential in the world of Internet Geeks and ŷ������ book clubs.

After growing up in the south where she was "home-schooled for hippie reasons", Felicia moved to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and was immediately typecast as a crazy cat-lady secretary. But Felicia’s misadventures in Hollywood led her to produce her own web series, own her own production company, and become an Internet star.

Felicia’s short-ish life and her rags-to-riches rise to Internet fame launched her career as one of the most influential creators in new media. Now, Felicia’s strange world is filled with thoughts on creativity, video games, and a dash of mild feminist activism—just like her memoir.

Hilarious and inspirational, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is proof that everyone should embrace what makes them different and be brave enough to share it with the world, because anything is possible now—even for a digital misfit.]]> 272 Felicia Day 1476785651 Tim 4 4.05 2015
author: Felicia Day
name: Tim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, memoir, home, schooling, university, maths, violin, performance, acting, production, scriptwriting, web, series, the, guild, buffy, vampire, slayer, dr, horrible, internet, content, gamergate
review:

]]> 23346901
H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.]]> 300 Helen Macdonald 0099575450 Tim 4 3.76 2014
author: Helen Macdonald
name: Tim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, history, psychology, zoology, ornithology, memoir, grief, hawking, animal, husbandry, goshawks
review:

]]> 23129748 208 Elaine Chiew 1780262140 Tim 4 3.49 2015
author: Elaine Chiew
name: Tim
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, short, stories, anthology, food, about, fundraising
review:
See
]]> 23072167 304 Sarah Quigley 1443413097 Tim 4 3.67 2011
author: Sarah Quigley
name: Tim
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, novel, music, russian, composition, symphony, orchestras, leningrad, siege, of, world, war, 2
review:

]]> 22939275
A year later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music.

A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv's life post-punk - taking in a career in film, the pain of IVF, illness and divorce and the triumph of making music again - Clothes Music Boys is a remarkable memoir.]]> 421 Viv Albertine 0571297765 Tim 5 4.22 2014
author: Viv Albertine
name: Tim
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, memoir, music, musicians, guitarists, punk, the, slits, flowers, of, romance, film, relationships, art, ebook
review:

]]> 21913812
In her most provocative book yet, Naomi Klein, author of the global bestsellers Shock Doctrine and No Logo, exposes the myths that are clouding climate debate.

You have been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. You have been told it's impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it—it just requires breaking every rule in the 'free-market' playbook. You have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. In fact, all around the world, the fight back is already succeeding in ways both surprising and inspiring.

It's about changing the world, before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe. Either we leap—or we sink. This Changes Everything is a book that will redefine our era.]]> 566 Naomi Klein 1451697384 Tim 4 4.15 2014
author: Naomi Klein
name: Tim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, politics, economics, climate, change, capitalism, nonviolent, action, civil, disobedience, indigenous, land, rights, fracking, mining, drilling, pollution
review:

]]> 21454912 xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.]]> 336 Randall Munroe 1848549571 Tim 4 4.38 2014
author: Randall Munroe
name: Tim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, science, humour, physics, solar, system, hypothetical, questions, counterfactuals, cartoons, illustrated
review:

]]> 18736925 Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.]]> 685 Thomas Piketty 067443000X Tim 4 4.04 2013
author: Thomas Piketty
name: Tim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, politics, economics, economic, history, capital, capitalism, private, debt, public, inheritance, tax, policy, taxation, social, justice, democracy
review:

]]> 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Tim 4 3.94 2013
author: Donna Tartt
name: Tim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, novel, american, contemporary, literary, art, theft, antiques, relationships, thriller, bildungsroman
review:

]]> 16056308 256 Andreas Umbreit 1841624594 Tim 4 4.12 2013
author: Andreas Umbreit
name: Tim
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: nonfiction, travel, guide, geography, svalbard, spitsbergen, jay, mayen, island, franz, josef, land, wildlife, glaciers, arctic, ocean
review:

]]> 15785367 Meet Jack Irish, criminal lawyer, debt collector, football lover, turf watcher, trainee cabinetmaker, and one of the best crime characters ever created.

When Jack receives a puzzling message from a jailed ex-client, he's too deep in misery over Fitzroy's latest loss to take much notice. Next thing Jack knows, the ex-client's dead and he's been drawn into a life-threatening investigation involving high-level corruption, dark sexual secrets, shonky property deals and murder. With hitmen after him, shady ex-policemen at every turn, and the body count rising, he needs to find out what's going on �� and fast.

Bad Debts has now been made into a tele-movie by the ABC, with Guy Pearce starring as Jack Irish.]]> 314 Peter Temple 1921758813 Tim 3 3.58 1996
author: Peter Temple
name: Tim
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/12/30
shelves: fiction, novel, thriller, crime, private, eye, pi, murder, corruption, politics, property, development, horse, racing, australian, australia, melbourne
review:
A thriller that starts promisingly, wanders around too much in the middle as the private eye protagonist fails to notice some fairly obvious signs of just how much of a hornet's nest he has disturbed, and then picks up to a tense conclusion. Worth reading, especially for anyone who knows Melbourne - but could have been much stronger with a more tightly-written middle and a protagonist who kept his wits about him more consistently.
]]>