New Zealand Books

I bought "How Do You Want Me?" after hearing a hilarious and touching interview with Wax on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air." A die hard Ab Fab fan (of which Wax is the script editor) I knew Wax only from her camero appearances on that show and her role in the not-so-funny Girls on Top.

She's not much of a writer and the book itself is mostly a series of short statements with very little reflection or insight. As a speaker, she's hilarious and gives a lot of character to what she's written, but the book itself is pretty dry.

Her experiences are varied and interesting and there are some fun moments, so buy the book if you already like her and you can find the book used for cheap.

I've been a Ruby Wax fan for many years but it wasn't until I read this book that I began to understood the wellspring of her often aggressive humour.
Like so many clowns, her mask conceals a troubled soul. It took her many years to realise she needed help. I suspect writing this book was part of the therapy.
The book is a mixture of laughter and sadness, and as we share her journey towards self understanding, the latter emotion becomes dominant. Nevertheless, it was well worth reading and I particularly recommend it to anyone who has suffered at the hands of overbearing and deprecating parents.

Ruby Wax, who is she? An American actress who became famous in Britain for being a loud-mouth American actress. As an actress, she was of little account: background wench in RSC productions and so forth. As a loud-mouthed American broad on UK TV - specialises in celebrity interviews with the likes of Pamela Anderson - she keeps the Brits entertained: vulgarity upon vulgarity. This book is good (even very funny in parts) where Wax deals with her bizarre US upbringing, with monstrous parents whom she mocks and lambasts and serves up to the readers as if they are freaks in a side-show. This is funny, up to a point. The point being that one starts to think she is exploiting mom and dad. As for Ruby the adult, nothing much to say. She is a hopeless attention-seeker of little talent. It's the family story that is memorable because she lays into mom and dad with such gusto. Despite all she writes, dad has the last laugh, though. He can never quite believe that his nutty, runty daughter has been a success in Britain; for no one has heard of her in the US. Finally on a visit to London one of Ruby's celebrity Brit pals proves to dad that she is a hit, saying she has done x, y and z. His wonderful deadpan reply (paraphrased): "Well, what do they know in Britain, anyway? They haven't got any real celebrities to measure Ruby against. In America, we've got Sinatra." Well, quite.

I was interested in the other reviews of this book--and surprised at their lukewarm and even hostile attitudes. It would seem you either like Ruby Wax's wild and outrageous sense of humor or you don't. And if you're American, which I am, you might take offense at some of her well thought-out potshots at the USA, but only if you takes things so personally that you can't laugh at your own country. In which case, steer clear of Ruby.

I read this book in one sitting--it was something I regretted ending. There are passages that are so funny (like her excursion to Disneyland) that I was in physical pain from laughing so much. There are also sadder passages recounting the loss and difficulty she went through in coming to terms with the abusive upbringing she had at the hands of her eccentric but mad parents. What comes through is that she came through all of it, on a different continent, fulfilling her dreams to act (despite all the ugly things her parents told her about her lack of talent). For that reason this book is ultimately uplifting and positive. It is a sometimes raucously funny account of one very talented person's survival at the hands of utterly insane parents. Well done!

And in regards to Girls on Top, I think it is fantastic--not the same as AbFab, but quite spot on. I cross my fingers that we will see more of Ruby in the future.

I enjoyed this book. The writing is captivating. Chidgey wrote a very intriguing novel, so intriguing that I read to the end to find out if Patrick Mercer was a murderer, but to no avail. I felt like there were clues that this was the case, but never any clear connection between Patrick and the missing girl. Do any other readers agree with my theory?

The Strength of the Sun is a well-told tale with interconnecting stories filled with characters whose lives unwittingly overlap. Everyone's life essentially changes to take a different path, the day of a solar eclipse and Chidgey uses the imagery of the sun very well throughout the novel. There are two sort of nagging questions in the novel. The first concerns Colette, a young woman who keeps receiving mysterious letters about the recuperation the friends of a man in England. Colette is intrigued, as the reader will be. The second concerns the mysterious disappearance, years earlier, of Laura, the teenage daughter of Malcolm and Ruth-who have hired Colette to watch their young son. This novel is a quick read-but it's not light by any stretch of the imagination. Just a pleasant, thoughtful novel. Enjoy.

This book keeps you guessing from the start to the end we don't know if the characters live happily everafter. Good developement and an easy read. Now for my question! Who was the "man" and what was his brilliant plan? I just didn't get it, even after re-reading his part 10 times. can anyone help!!

The Strength of the Sun is a beautifully written book with a message about the desire people have to "connect" with each other. The story lines are nicely interwoven, and the two mysteries (how Colette knows the injured Patrick, and what happened to Ruth and Malcolm's missing daughter) are compelling. I enjoyed trying to figure out how these separate stories were going to come together. Chidgey's repeated uses of the metaphors of the sun, fire, and mirrors are well crafted. Furthermore, the book is short enough that it can be read in a single day, which is gratifying because the main characters are so likeable and I wanted to know what happened to them.

This desire to know what happened to the characters leads to my only real issue with this book: it does not seem to come to any conclusion. I was left feeling that the characters were stranded in a place much like that in which they started. While they are wiser in some ways, and one of the mysteries is solved, the other is left open for the reader to guess what will happen. Also - and I realize this is probably a silly concern - one character constantly refers to "Meccano." Not knowing what this is (other than possibly some form of Legos), I wish Chidgey had described its physical characteristics a little better, but I suppose that knowing that it is a form of interconnected blocks is enough to get her point.

Ultimately, the book is a good read.

Ethell and Price present a summation of the air war in and around the Falklands Islands during the 1982 war. The detail is complete, down to a complete chronology, summaries of important missions, details on combat , aircraft losses, successful strikes, and opposing order of battle comparisons. This is a book more aimed at the military buff or military historian. The viewpoint is obviously British, but the authors present well documented information about the actions taken by the Argentinian forces and staff during the conflict.

Beyond the day-to-day action, the most interesting facet of this book is a revelation of the immense strategic effect British air power played in the contest. The embarked air wing sealed off the Argentine garrison, repeatedly drove Argentian aircraft away from support of their own troops, devised tactics to defeat numerically superior forces in spite of very limited resources, controlled the air, and confounded a tottering Argentine military establishment.

The British Navy payed heavily for the Falklands War, the army fought and won a decisive victory, the air arm triumphed.

Facts such as why the air wing guaranteed the Paras win at Goose Greene, and why the bombing raid on the Port Stanley airfield (much derided) produced an unforseen and brilliant strategic succes shed important light on the British triumph.

A must read for those interested in the strategy and tactics of air war.

As a student which has written papers on the Falklands Conflict of 1982, I have found this book to be an invaluable reference. Though written from the British point of view, this book does pretty well in being as unbiased as possible. Its day-by-day accounts are excellent, and the appendicies are excellent also. The only possible downside to this book is the Kill Tables in the back of the book are innacurate when compared to both British and Argentinian sources. But, considering the fact that these numbers were compiled by the authors can explain this.

I was 10 years old when I picked out this book in a grocery store to read on a family road trip; it had a cool picture of a jet on the cover. This book began a long-running fascination with everything military, especially fighters and the Harrier in particular. It is detailed and somewhat technical, but the fact that a 10-year-old was willing to struggle with it speaks volumes for its captivating narrative. Highly recommended should you happen to see this lying around somewhere.

I really loved this book because it prepared me for everything. The only thing that would have made it 5 stars is if it was a longer book. It hits every topic I could think of.

this book is maybe more indepth than most travelers will need for a brief stay like mine will be - 2 weeks- but for someone looking to stay longer or to move there this is a terrific resource. I'm hoping to get off of the beaten path in my time there so I am paying close attention to this book. Right now I can't wait to get there. I hope I can remember my manners!

We run an international recruitment company assisting migrants from the UK to settle in New Zealand and have been looking for suitable book(s) to give them as preparation for what to expect on arrival. We ourselves have lived in several different countries and my husband is a migrant to NZ so we knew what we were looking for in this regard. I was really disappointed to find that many books which were last 'updated' or 'revised' in 2003 or 2004 have actually only had minimal revisions and are quite out of date on most aspects including referring to legislation or government departments that changed in 2000-2001. Not so with this one - all information is up to date as at 2004, and I only noticed 3 minor factual errors or omissions in the whole book.

Peter has written a good general introduction to life in NZ and shares from his own experiences as a migrant. The book highlights aspects of NZ lifestyle that immigrants from a variety of backgrounds could find new or unusual and he provides a fairly good list of information websites at the back of the book for people who are willing to do their own legwork to find out more. I was pleased to find that Culture Shock has added a New Zealand title to their list as I have found their books useful for other countries, and as a New Zealander I would have to agree with the information that Peter is presenting. It will be interesting to see how our new migrants find it! The only wish I would have is that it could cover even more ground, but of course authors have to set limits somewhere, and there is that handy list of websites to refer to...

This is a perfect book for any reader who ever finished The Notebook and said, "You know, I liked it, but I wish it was written by a less talented writer*. And I wish the story revolved not around an elderly man trying to recapture the spark of love in his ailing and mentally frail wife, but around a middle aged Argentine restaurateur trying to recreate her grandfather's life-long affair with his store clerk mistress by seducing the first year University student she employees as a dish washer." Then, write the story in prose that tries to be minimalistic and terse but falls into flat-out bad, with a romance as bland, predictable, and lifeless as Wonder Bread and you have Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance.

* - When I say "less talented writer" you should be aware that I really don't like Nicholas Sparks' writing. At all.

I loved this book. I've read a number of books about tango, and enjoyed them all, but this is my favorite. (Second favorite: Long After Midnight at Niño Bien.)

Good story, engaging characters, and a wonderful take on how Argentine tango can affect you in ways you hadn't imagined before you took your first lessons.

Peter Silverman, Ashland, Oregon

Lloyd Jones' HERE AT THE END OF THE WORLD WE LEARN TO DANCE follows a love affair that spans continents and decades that began during World War I in a cave in New Zealand when a young girl named Louise and a German piano tuner named Schmidt, whom she had hidden to save his life, dance a tango that lasts three minutes and fall immediately and forever in love. "She feels the piano tuner's hand arrive at the small of her back. The hand gives a little shove and resettles." Years later Schmidt's grandaughter, the sensuous Rosa, tells of Louise and Schmidt's great love affair to a much younger dishwasher-- he is 19; she is 36 and married-- Lionel who is besotted by her and who works in her restaurant where she teaches him the tango after hours.

Jones' novel teems with love, passion and ultimately great sorrow as, according to Ernest Hemingway, every love affair is tragic because it eventually ends in death. Louise and Schmidt's love story conjures up Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, McEwan's ATONEMENT, Joyce's beautiful short novel THE DEAD, Marquez' tale of love in old age LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, even some of Robert Browning's poetry: "grow old along with me," for example.

Jones' haunting story of missed connections and love in old age really has no bad characters. Billy, for instance, the husband Louise leaves for Schmidt, is as decent a character as you are apt to find in any novel. In Louise's obsession, she goes to Buenos Aires where she never learns the language, hates Christmas because she always has to spend it alone and likes to meet Schmidt in later years on Sundays by the waterfront because she can see the horizon that reminds her of rural New Zealand. She has forsaken much, but she is saved from what Jones describes as a "wallpaper life." His description of her-- and much of his writing-- read like a prose poem: "Louise was usually the first one there [the waterfront]. There she is, sitting on a bench waiting for Schmidt to extricate himself from his comfortable apartment. . . He always hoped to see her first. Sometimes he did, and these days hobbling on bad knees he stops to squint into the untrustful distance, admiring the view. The way the river air pushes her skirt against her legs. To his eyes Louise is still young, forever young; the sight of her still excites."

Throughout these two love stories that have many parallels there is always of course the throbbing tango.

Highly recommended.

I found this gently satirical romance novel highly entertaining. I believe it will appeal to anyone who admires Charlotte Brontë's masterly style. The hilarious sexual symbolism is perhaps less accessible to those who see the Victorian era through rose-tinted spectacles, as a time of general sweetness and light. The author comes down particularly hard on the local representative of the Church of England, portrayed as a philandering hypocrite. But anyone with the scantiest acquaintance with the sexual antics of nineteenth century missionaries in the South Pacific will appreciate that this is not merely the creation of a morbidly feverish imagination.

I can't do better than quote from Jane Stafford's review of this novel in New Zealand Books:

If Johanna's World strives to convince the reader of its veracity, Mrs Rochester, from the outset, overtly signals its complete lack of historical truth. Other truths are, however, called upon instead. At the end of Charlotte Brontë's 1848 novel Jane Eyre, we left the narrator married to the gorgeous, albeit mutilated, Mr Rochester, celebrating the birth of their first child. The trouble with realism is that it convinces us the characters have life outside the pages that contain them. The trouble with autobiographical fiction such as Jane Eyre is that we want to know what happened after the conclusion. "Reader, I married him"-but then what? According to Warwick Blanchett, quite a lot. Mr Rochester finds recovery from the Thornfield fire difficult, and succumbs to an early death, though not before losing the family fortune. His children (Hugo and Helen) are safely at school, but what of poor Mrs Rochester? Out on the governess market again, alas, and this time, trying her luck in New Zealand rather than Yorkshire.
The most enjoyable thing about Blanchett's treatment is the firmness with which his tongue is placed in his cheek. Unlike the intensely mundane world of Johanna and her family, with Mrs Rochester we are always aware of inhabiting not just a work of fiction but a work which plays upon that fiction. Delightful literary jokes abound: Blanche Ingram has married and become Mrs Henry Lynn-a composite created from the real-life author Mrs Henry Wood and the title of her famous Victorian bodice-ripper East Lynne. Lost in a bush burn-off, Jane hears the voice of Mr Rochester calling to her, just as she did first time around, lost on the moors. The place-names of the new colony are strangely reminiscent of the geography of the Brontës' childhood games, and the bedroom the heroine is placed in is, of course, red. Jane is much as we remember her from the original novel: intense, feisty, and, for some reason, irresistible to men. In fact, the plot of Mrs Rochester consists almost entirely of Jane working her way through a list of suitors, from the dashing leutenant Trevelyan to the randy Archdeacon Parfitt to the bucolic/Byronic Caleb, son of Jane Eyre's Diana Rivers.
Blanchett is wonderfully true to the tone and style of the original. Landscape and setting are appropriately lush and exotic; storms and tempests appear on cue as the emotional weather of the plot demands. Manners and modes of speech are appropriately Victorian: Jane talks of "relieving the island's ovine population of their winter coats" instead of shearing sheep; women are described as being "the cynosure of all eyes"; Maori singing is described as "keening polyphony". All this could become a little tedious taken to excess. But Blanchett drives his plot along briskly, and judges exactly how long to play what is essentially an extended literary joke.
Literary sequels or spin-offs have become a little sub-genre of their own: from Emma Tennant's Pemberley (sequel to Pride and Prejudice) to Joan Aiken's Jane Fairfax (spin-off from Emma) to the truly dreadful Scarlett (Gone with the Wind Part II). Most confine themselves to a somewhat pedestrian delineation of "what happened next". Mrs Rochester's colonial setting (comparable perhaps to Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, a spin-off from Great Expectations) allows more scope, as Blanchett offers us not just an extension of Jane Eyre, but an imitation of the sort of Maoriland romance that was popular here in the second half of the 19th century.
It can be argued that the maturity of a national literature is measured not in its production of high culture, but in the ease and adaptability with which it processes and makes use of the popular. Romance was the dominant fictional form in colonial writing. Crude and mechanical as it was, romance helped the new population to read themselves, in all senses, into a landscape, in a way that was not just measured by complexity and seriousness of purpose, but by its ability to give play to adaptations of stereotypes of the popular. We need to do more of it today.

"Jane Eyre" has long been one of my favorite books, so when I saw this sequel in a New Zealand bookstore, I snapped it up. I wish I hadn't.

The story is completely at odds to the character Jane was in "Jane Eyre" and completely skips over some of the parts that would have been vaguely interesting. There is a brief allusion to a "vision" she had on the night of Mr Rochester's death that piqued my curiousity...surely, the author would elaborate on such a thing? He did not.

There are many melodramatic plot twists, which is fine if this is supposed to be a parody, but if it's supposed to be viewed as a serious sequel there needed to be much more exposition. *spoiler alert* For example: Why does Jane fall in love with her cousin? The only thing they have in common is that they write...this is not enough to explain the link given the difference in their ages and personalities. And the "scandal" with the lieutenant was hardly a scandal at all.

I felt like the publisher told the writer to hurry things up at the end and things were quickly finished off rather than nicely rounded out. I'm going to have to re-read the original Bronte just to get the foul taste of this book out of my imagination. It's polluted my memory of a classic.

The best thing about it is the inclusion of different aspects of early New Zealand colonial life, which was quite fascinating to a person who lived there for many years.

Mr. Stanley treads lightly on the English generals who bungled this campaign. Did it really matter whether the New Zealanders kept Quinn's Post more tidy than the Aussie's?? Churchill, Kitchener, and Hamilton got thousands of good men killed for nothing. Stanley must be hoping for an English edition later.

This book conveys what happened at Gallipoli when enemy soldiers were at very close quarters, even by the standards of World War I. Turkish trenches at Quinn's Post were a few meters from those occupied by Australians or New Zealanders, and these lines did not move throughout the campaign. Stanley has tapped an immense reservoir of correspondence and other material accessible through his association with the Australian War Memorial. New Zealand receives the credit earned by her soldiers who solely occupied the post much of the time.

An account of what took place in such a small area might become tedious. This does not. Stanley is an excellent writer. He duly chronicles the Turkish and Anzac attacks. But the most fascinating aspects of his tale relate to the soldiers themselves. He melds the personal stories of changing tenants, the micro-arms race of bombs (grenades), and the growing respect between Turk and Anzac. The eight (!) maps are invaluable and there are many substantive photos, almost all of which were unpublished.

If you seek a book covering World War I, or even the Gallipoli campaign, this one is not appropriate. But I know of no book exposing the reader to as intense a struggle over as small a patch of ground for as long a time. It is incomparable.

In any collection of Australian military history books you will find a wide assortment of books on the Gallipoli campaign. Here in the United States there isn't much on Gallipoli, after all, our troops were not there. To be sure, the campaign itself is covered in the general histories, but not the details.

In this book Dr. Stanley looks at one little part of the battle. It was a position held by Quinn and his company throughout almost all of the campaign. It was a critical point, almost in the middle of the ANZAC lines. From the standpoint of this one position, the essense of the whole campaign can be understood. Not the grand strategy that Churchill had in mind, but the story of what was happening on the ground in the middle of the mess.

The book is well researched, and a story well told. But the best part is the feeling that it gives of the overall situation that must have existed at Quinn's Post. Tragic Story, Excellent Book.

As an American participant in the association with the Australians and New Zealanders, and being a named individual in this book, I can attest to the accuracy and authentic descriptions of the events described by Steinbrook. The professional relationships established by this unique association of nationalities fostered friendships and respect that has endured for over 30 years despite the fact that many have not seen each other in that time. It was a magnificent undertaking by Steinbrook to record his observations during the most vivid and rewarding period of my military career and to mark for history a true example of on-the-scene bonding of individuals, most of whom were not career soldiers, dedicated to accomplishing a very difficult task.

Gordon Steinbrook uses old letters written home to recall the day to day events of his year in Vietnam. Steinbrook has one of the truly unique experiences of the war, serving with both US and Australian forces primarily as a forward observer and fire direction officer in artillery. Although his account does not include much 'combat', it does, none the less, give one a true picture of the way it was for many of us. .."long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by short intervals of extreme 'urgency'". I can personally testify to the accuracy of this work.

While reading Road to Mount Buggery,(Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee) my attention was drawn to the possible contact and mix between Dutch survivors of the Zuytdorp and the Aboriginals of Western Australia. Travelling to Australia as often as I can, I had to known more about this topic. The book has not disapointed me at all, and gave me all the information that is probably available. Good references for further reading.
Very interesting for those who want to read about marine archeology in Western Australian waters in general, history and shipwrecks of(Dutch)VOC, and the area where Australian and Dutch history meet. It has been a starting point for me to read more about the VOC and their shipwrecks in the world (best known are Batavia and Zuydwijk)

If you are interested in history, treasure hunting, diving, or true life adventure stories, you will enjoy this book! Meticulously researched and intertainingly presented.

This story begins in the middle of world war ll. Rex is a 6 year old boy that likes his bb gun and has made a picture of hittler and a Japamize jeneral. Rex finds our that they are spondering a wonded soljior from America. Rex is so excited that he made a banner that said that they were glad to have him at their home. When the soljior gets to their house Rex find out he is a black man and that he is afraid of the war and hates all the killing. latter on Rex finds out that it dose not matter if he is black or white but what is on the inside. When the wounded soljior goes back to the war Rex has just started to be friends with him and then he has to go back. Rex never sees the soljior ever agian and never hears from him eather.

I am 12 years old and we had to read an older book and I read the champion and really enjoyed it.I think that if you enjoy a good read you will like this book.It is written really well.