When once you have tasted flight: New fiction

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When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

– Leonardo DaVinci

Welcome to this month’s selection of recently acquired fiction titles. To make this month’s choices we have employed a broad and panoramic approach, picking titles that convey the wide variety of subject matters, literary styles and approaches present in all our new intake books.

This month’s collection of titles includes a new historical fiction novel by Sara Ackerman called The uncharted flight of Olivia West, inspired by the Dole Air Race of 1927. This is a gripping story, based on true events, about a young pioneering aviator participating in the race. Literary legend Isabel Allende has released a new novel, called The wind knows my name. We have two highlights from Aotearoa, an outstanding collection of new short stories from the iconic Aotearoa author Patricia Grace, titled Bird child & other stories, and the much-anticipated debut novel from Olive Nuttall called Kitten. There’s also The Tearsmith by Erin Doom, which is currently being adapted into a Netflix series. To round things off in style, we have the Booker shortlisted and winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

Links to all these titles, and a few others, can be found below.

The uncharted flight of Olivia West / Ackerman, Sara
“This extraordinary novel, inspired by real events, tells the story of a female aviator who defies the odds to embark on a daring air race across the Pacific. 1927. Olivia “Livy” West is a fearless young pilot with a love of adventure. She yearns to cross oceans and travel the skies. When she learns of the Dole Air Race–a high-stakes contest to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West Coast to Hawai’i–she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. In a last-ditch effort to take part, Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that some will not survive.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief – New detective and thriller titles

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Welcome to this month’s selection of newly acquired detective and thriller titles.

There is a plethora of diverse and thrilling titles  on offer this month, but the title that caught our eye was The best of Lupin: adventures of Arsène Lupin, gentleman-thief by Maurice Leblanc; a reprint of stories from the first half of the twentieth century.

The huge runaway success of A.C. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and the complexity of the character he created, spawned a whole host of budding detectives from all sorts of backgrounds, all hoping to emulate the success of the master detective.

And this was true of  the French novelist Maurice Leblanc, who took a rather unique approach to his central character Arsène Lupin – making him not a detective, but a gentleman thief  in a similar vein to E. W. Hornung’s  A. J. Raffles character. Coincidentally, E.W. Hornung was the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The approach proved to be successful, with Arsène Lupin the gentleman thief going on to feature in 17 novels and 39 novellas .

The Holmes connections didn’t stop with the intellectual gentleman link or the E.W. Hornung connection. In one story, Lupin is introduced Sherlock Holmes – though for copyright reasons, his name was changed to Herlock Sholmès.

Our other top picks in this month’s selection can be viewed below.

The best of Lupin : adventures of Arsène Lupin, gentleman-thief / Leblanc, Maurice
“A collection of 22 short stories selected from the five collections of short stories about master criminal Arsene Lupin that Maurice Leblanc published in France a century ago. The English translations (some by George Morehead and some by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos) are now in the public domain. With a new introduction by mystery writer Martin Walker.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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International Women’s Day 2024 – Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist

Today is International Women’s Day and what better way to celebrate than with good books written by women?  This year we’re celebrating by diving into the Women’s Prize for Fiction long list.  Take a look at the diverse titles up for the prestigious award this year…

Hangman / Binyam, Maya
“A man returns home to sub-Saharan Africa after twenty-six years in America. When he arrives, he finds that he doesn’t recognize the country or anyone in it. Thankfully, someone recognizes him, a man who calls him brother–setting him on a quest to find his real brother, who is dying. In Hangman, Maya Binyam tells the story of that search, and of the phantoms, guides, tricksters, bureaucrats, debtors, taxi drivers, relatives, and riddles that will lead to the truth. This is an uncommonly assured debut: an existential journey; a tragic farce; a slapstick tragedy; and a strange, and strangely honest, story of one man’s stubborn quest to find refuge–in this world and in the world that lies beyond it.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

In Defence of the Act / Black, Effie
“Are we more like a coffee bean, a carrot or an egg? What happens to us when we are boiled in the trials and tribulations of life? Jessica Miller is fascinated by the somewhat perplexing tendency of humans to end their own lives, but she secretly believes such acts may not be that bad after all. Or at least, she did. Jessica is coming to terms with her own relationships, and reflecting on what it means to be queer, when a single event throws everything she once believed into doubt. Can she still defend the act?” (Catalogue)

And then she fell : a novel / Elliott, Alicia
“On the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be in life: she’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her ever-charming husband Steve–a white academic whose area of study is conveniently her own Mohawk culture–is nothing but supportive; and they’ve just moved into a new home in a wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto, a generous gift from her in-laws. But Alice could not feel like more of an imposter.  Told in Alice’s raw and darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching look at inherited trauma, womanhood, denial and false allyship, that speeds to an unpredictable–and unforgettable–climax. (Adapted from Catalogue) Continue reading “International Women’s Day 2024 – Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist”

February’s New Music for Te Awe Part 3

You can check out our first round up of new music for February here and part 2 here.

Albion / Harp (Musical group)
Neil Says: Albion is well named, as former Midlake frontman Tim Smith and his new musical partner Kathi Zung (who is also a puppet maker who has worked with the likes of Guillermo del Toro) have created a work immersed in lonely, windswept, bittersweet English landscapes where the misty moors are shrouded in perpetual twilight. They sought lyrical inspiration from the poetry of William Blake and musically inspiration from the likes of dream pop pioneers The Cocteau Twins and Fleetwood Mac. There are also, unsurprisingly, a few moments that suggest Tim’s previous band Midlake. A dreamy 80’s dream-pop inspired creation that also encompasses English pastoral music, and has a loneliness and eerie sadness running through it.

Gold / Sol, Cleo
Mark Says: Having released Heaven in September last (which made the Best of 2023 list of one of our colleagues), she followed it up with the surprise release of another album ‘Gold’ later that month. As always her music combines the best elements of neo-soul, classic 70’s soul, Jazz & spiritual touches. There’s just something about her music that makes her stand out from the other (too numerous to list) female artists currently mining the same retro sound. Perhaps it’s the organic minimalism of the music that leaves plenty of space for her brand of hopeful personal lyrics, the lack of processing around her vocals, or the way the albums function as a whole to create a sense of soothing calm and quiet strength. Another winner.
Neil Says: Wow, what an album. Intense, intimate, soulful, euphoric, languid and chilled; but it doesn’t achieve this at the expense of ignoring the darker aspects of life. The lyrics are as strong as the music and vocal delivery; everything about it fits and works perfectly. What makes it even more remarkable, is that it just a part of a creative explosion Cleo Sol is undergoing at the moment. She released another album barely a month before this, and is a core part of the phenomenal Sault outfit. It’s neo-soul with strong gospel influences, with a 70’s feel to the musical arrangements that, in places, reminded me of the mercurial Aretha Franklin. As I said at the start: Wow.

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Sports Stories: Books from Te Pataka

This blog collects stories and writings of New Zealand sports people, from sportsmen on the field to TVNZ’s sports journalists, from dark horses to well-known champions. This blog also provides unique perspective to some significant sports people and events in New Zealand. Whether you are interested in rugby, cricket, rowing, soccer or Olympics, you will find something interesting to read.

A tingling catch : a century of New Zealand cricket poems, 1864-2009
“Edited by cricket follower Mark Pirie and foreword (and a poem) by well-known cricket historian, former national selector and former president of NZ Cricket, Don Neely. From Samuel Butler’s classic description of the visiting All-England XI in 1864 to Arnold Wall’s widely known First World War piece, ‘A Time Will Come’, to the ‘underarm incident’ of 1981 and more recent cricket poems. This book is sure to appeal to cricket lovers and poetry readers.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The Awa book of New Zealand sports writing
“Triumphs, disasters, magic moments, and controversies abound in this collection of writing by top New Zealand sportswriters, including Edmund Hillary’s conquest of Everest, Jack Lovelock’s famous 1,500-meter victory in the shadow of Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Jean Batten’s daring, first solo flight from England to New Zealand. Politics and sports come together in a gripping account of the protests, arrests, and controversy surrounding the South African rugby team’s 1981 tour of New Zealand.” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

A life in sport / Telfer, Brendan
” New Zealand’s best known sports broadcaster Brendan Telfer looks back on his career and deals with the Olympic Games, test rugby, international athletics, apartheid in sport, and radio and television broadcasting since 1974. In this book he covers many controversial topics and provides a personal account of working in the field. Stories include the Goodwill Games, TVNZ insider’s view, and comments about Peter Snell, Murry Halberg, Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, Carl Lewis, Bob Charles, Alan Jones and more.” (Adapted from the Catalogue) Continue reading “Sports Stories: Books from Te Pataka”

Adventurous Huts of NZ: books from Te Pataka

This blog explores huts in the high mountains, dramatic Fiordland or icy Antarctica. Some huts are located on this country’s beautiful landscape and make an internationally distinctive statement and icon, some are functional for local farming and mining, while others mark scientific importance across the ages.

A tramper’s journey : stories from the back country of New Zealand / Pickering, Mark
“A celebration of the culture and spirit of tramping in New Zealand. Mark Pickering takes both a serious and humorous look at tramping from a personal perspective. This is one of the few books on tramping which attempts to explain the appeal of an activity which can be strenuous, uncomfortable and often dangerous, but brings its own unique rewards as a result of the effort.” (Catalogue)

Huts : untold stories from back-country New Zealand / Pickering, Mark
“If huts could talk they could tell the whole history of the back country. Of Scottish shepherds who arrived in the high country with the fresh, vivid memories of the Highland Clearances. Of the flush and fury of goldminers and water-racemen in Central Otago. Of the patient and poorly paid jobs of boundary keepers, musterers and roadmen, who lived in tiny huts in the shadow of huge landscapes. Some of the 1500 huts in New Zealand tells the social and mountain history.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The daily journal of an Antarctic explorer, 1956-1958 / Warren, Guyon
“Guyon Warren was one of a small group of men who spent 15 consecutive months in the Antarctic in the late 1950s. Warren was a member and geologist of Sir Edmund Hillary’s team travelling from South Pole to the Ross Sea. With his exploration on the ice he helped established Scott Base, right from the construction of the first hut. In this book he rewards you with insights into the day-to-day conditions experienced by himself and his colleagues in the Antarctic.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

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