95bFM's Loose Reads: Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes /  by Time Out Bookstore

Translated from French, Dear Dickhead is a epistolary tale between cancelled crime author, Oscar and aging actress, Rebecca as they talk about feminism, generational difference and addiction.

Nuanced and very funny, Dear Dickhead is a great next step if you enjoyed All Fours. As Jonny says, ‘it sounds very French!’

Nate's Releases to Watch in 2025 /  by Time Out Bookstore

As hard as it is to believe, 2025 is now well and truly upon us and the time has come to move from writing best books of the year lists to most exciting upcoming books of the year ahead. Thankfully, while everyone else was trying to get as much rest as could be squeezed in over Christmas/New Year, the book/publishing world never truly stops and we’ve already got some great titles releasing soon, as well as exciting authors slated to release new books this year that are well worth keeping an eye on. 

The big release for February is the new Han Kang ‘We Do Not Part’. I’m only about 100 pages in but I can already tell it’ll be an early favourite of the year. The central plot is deceptively simple- a woman struggling through a snowstorm to check on a friend's budgie- but there’s an ever present menace lingering in these pages and I can’t wait to see it unfold.

Another Nobel winner also has a new book out in Feb, with Annie Ernaux’s ‘The Use of Photography’, finally reaching New Zealand. In it, the great French essayist examines her relationship with former partner Marc Marie, using images he took of their time together. Ernaux is both brilliant and experimental and I can’t wait to see how she explores the interactions between the two mediums.

Less well known but no less brilliant is Gerald Murnane, whose book on writing ‘Barley Patch’ is being re-released by one of my favourite small presses that same month. No one else I’ve read can write quite like he can; his novels push the boundary of what fiction means and can do. I would hazard a guess that a Nobel prize isn’t too far away from him either. Finally, we have a memoir by Geraldine Brooks, author of ‘People of the Brook’ and ‘Horse’, focusing on the loss of her husband.

March is always a great month for new releases and this year is no exception. Perhaps the biggest literary release of the year  'Dream Count’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, her first book in a decade, lands early in the month. ‘Americanah’ and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ are two of those books that I’ve always told myself I should read and have just never quite gotten to, so I’m particularly excited to finally read an Adichie. ‘Twist’ by Colum McCann is also released that month, which might win the award for best book with least inviting premise. While it bills itself as a book about repairing undersea internet cables and even goes as far as to have a massive cable on the front cover, it’s surprisingly a very compelling read. McCann is best known for his novel ‘Apeirogon’, which focused on the bond between two Israeli and Palestinian fathers. In ‘Twist’ he continues to focus on the connection between people, but in this case the way in which those bonds can fracture and the consequences of that. It's already an early 2025 staff favourite! Keep an eye out for ‘Flesh’ by David Szalazy and ‘The Antidote’ by Karen Russell, two wonderful writers releasing new books in March.

There are a number of amazing authors releasing books later in the year. Ocean Vuong is releasing his first novel since ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ with ‘The Emperor of Gladness’- described as a friendship between a suicidal teen and a elderly women with dementia. I’m sure it will be as poetic and heart-wrenching as his previous works.

My bet for saddest book of the year is Yiyan Li’s memoir on grief, written after her sons suicide in early 2024. ‘Where Reasons End’, her last novel, a conversation between a mother and her dead son, was inspired by the death of her first son in 2017 and was achingly beautiful. I expect her memoir will be emotional, unflinchingly honest and beautifully written.

On a less heavy note R F Kuang, after the runaway success of ‘Yellowface’ and ‘Babel’, returns with another book of dark magical academia. ‘Katabasis’ has been described as a cross between Piranesi and Dante's Inferno, which personally, sounds extremely fun. It is out in August.

Ali Smith is also slated to release the companion novel to ‘Gliff’, aptly titled ‘Glyph’, in 2025. ‘Gliff’ was my favourite book of last year and I would not be surprised at all if ‘Glyph’ was my favourite of this one. Ben Okri and Catherine Lacey also have new books out later in the year, both of which sound typically experimental and interesting.

Two titles, one fiction and one non-fiction, are clear standouts in the New Zealand book sector. ‘The Book of Guilt’ by Catherine Chidgey is published late May and Chidgey is an author who never seems to miss. This one is a dystopia set in a government home in 1970s England and early reviews say it is exactly as good as it sounds. For non-fiction, Jacinda Ardern’s autobiography ‘A Different Kind of Power’ releases in June. While I usually steer clear of politicians' biographies as, with a few notable exceptions, I find they often write a sentence on their mistakes and a chapter for every minor win, but I think this one could definitely be a good read. Whatever you think about Jacinda, she undoubtedly led New Zealand through a tumultuous time in its history with great grace and eloquence. Also watch out for Duncan Sarkies ‘Star Gazers’ which aims to bring Alpacas into fictional relevance and Tina Makeriti’s ‘The Compulsion In Us’, her first nonfiction release, centred on the wahine that have inspired her.

2025 is also looking like it’ll be a great year for weird books. Two of the greats release new books this year, with Sayaka Murata following up ‘Earthlings’ and ‘Convenience Store Women’ with ‘Vanishing World’ a dystopian novel where all children are born via artificial insemination. At the end of the year we can all look forward to the prequel/sequel to Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ with ‘We Love You Bunny’. Expect both of these to be disturbing, imaginative with sections that leave you reeling. ‘Blob’ by Maggie Su, which arrives in store soon, also looks like an incredibly fun book. In it, a woman defies conventions and falls in love with a sentient blob. Reviewers are tipping it to be one of the most exciting debuts of the year, maximising the potential of its concept to deliver an excellent satire on desire and modern relationships. Another debut, tipped for an April NZ release, that couldn’t help but catch my attention is ‘Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert’ by Bob the Drag Queen. While I don’t know what to expect from a book about a time travelling Harriet Tubman recording an album, it’ll certainly be unique. 

I think it speaks to the year ahead that when writing this column there was a list much longer than this one of books that I just couldn’t fit in. It looks like a great year of reading and bookselling ahead!

95bFM's Loose Reads: Holding the Line by Barbara Kingsolver /  by Time Out Bookstore

Reprinted 29 years after its original publication, Holding the Line delves into one of the largest worker strikes in American history. 

Through extensive interviews with the women working gruelling manual jobs and fighting for collective rights at a huge personal cost, Kingsolver paints a portrait of some of America's historically most vulnerables workers.

Bold, extensively researched and written with as much flair as her later novels, Holding the Line illuminates a rarely explored part of history, told through the voices of some of America's most marginalised voices.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Some Strange Music Draws Me In by Griffin Hansbury /  by Time Out Bookstore

Named after Patti Smith’s Dancing Barefoot, Some Strange Music Draws Me In is both a visceral 1980’s, small town coming of age story and a modern day exploration of gender, generation differences, family & relationships.
Fun fact: As well as being an author, Griffin Hansbury is a psychoanalyst.

This shot up to being one of Jenna’s favourite books of 2024.

Listen below to Jenna & Jonny reunite in the studio for 2025.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Jenna's Christmas Agony Aunt answers /  by Time Out Bookstore

Jenna called into the studio for Time Out’s last session for the year! Listeners texted in for book advice, including sci-fi for teens, Egyptology for an 8 year old and non-mainstream reads for a dude. Jonny needs a summer read too, plus some advice on 2024 cookbooks.

Time Out is open from 9am-9pm to help with all your Christmas needs. Gift wrapping included.

Listen below!

95bFM's Loose Reads: Suri's Christmas picks & Agony Aunt answers /  by Time Out Bookstore

Suri & Jonny are in the studio with a HEAP of Christmas recommendations.

Listen in for some agony aunt answers - including advice on science fiction, graphic novels and self help.

Then, Suri picks out some of her top gift picks, including:

Time of the Child by Niall Williams
The Garden of Time by Olivia Laing
James by Percival Everett
The Gavin Bishop Treasury
What I Ate by Stanley Tucci
Ātūa Wāhine by Hana Tapiata

Click the link below for audio.

95bFM's Loose Reads: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates /  by Time Out Bookstore

Author of the National Book award-winning title Between the World and Me, Ta Nehisi-Coates returns to non-fiction with The Message. In this concise but powerful title, Nehisi-Coates explores the human impulse to mythologise the world around us. 

Part travelogue, part history, Ta Nehisi-Coates moves between Senegal, South Carolina and Palestine to reveal the connective tissues that allowed for the exploitation of certain ethnicities in all three countries. Coates explores how racism and colonialism are constructed in the pursuit of capital and in the process of national-building.

A great intro to the history of segregation and colonialism, The Message is the perfect gift for a new reader of critical theory and a great companion to Baldwin, Arendt and Fanon.

Listen to Suri’s review in the 95bFM studio with Jonny below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru /  by Time Out Bookstore

The third title in Hari Kunzru’s Colours trilogy, Blue Ruin is a COVID-era novel taking aim at the art world. The novel follows Jay, a former artist whose descent from rising young art star to middle-aged manual labourer leaves his body and heart in disrepair. Crossing paths with his former lover Alice and her husband Rob (Jay’s art-school rival and a benefactor of wealthy corporate philanthropists), Jay’s life begins to take new shape.

Blue Ruin shifts between the 1990's and current day, covering the Young British Artists movement and the COVID-era landscape. Exploring the relationship between philanthropists and artists, between art and assets and between artistic integrity and survival, Blue Ruin unveils the winners and losers in art and in life and the financial precarity of those who lose. 

Listen to Suri’s review in the 95bFM studio with Jonny below.

Author Interview: Ali Smith /  by Time Out Bookstore

 

Hollie spoke to Ali Smith ahead of the publication of her new novel, Gliff.

Your new novel Gliff nods to dystopian fiction - is there something in our current climate that inspired this?

Er ... how could there be? Everything is such sweetness and light nationally, internationally, geopolitically and climate-wise and right now, and the future looks ever rosier! I'm clearly being ornery on purpose for some dark personal reason writing something mildly dystopian... but between you and me, there's very little, in fact nothing, in this book (except for a creaky (literally) metaphor involving red paint) that isn't already happening somewhere in the world. 

Is there anything you can tell us about the connection between Gliff and its companion novel Glyph (coming 2025)?

Forgive me, I can't. If I do, the unwritten book will run off like a creature in the wild that's seen me see it.

The Accidental is one of my favourite books of yours, what do you think is the biggest thing that’s changed about your writing since it was published? 

Thank you. I've no idea. I try not to think about it, because the more conscious you are if you're writing fiction, I find, the less the un- and sub- consciousnesses necessary can find their way through the tough hide of the conscious.

How do you structure the layout of a story? Do you write with an outcome in mind? 

Never. What would be the point of writing something if you already knew what happened?

Favourite bookstore moment? 

When Euan, one of the booksellers in the Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh, said I could have his spare ticket for one of the Taylor Swift concerts if his brother in law didn't want it or couldn't make it. As it happens, his brother in law did want it and could make it. But even the thought of the offer moved me, which is why the latest book is dedicated to that independent bookshop and its marvellous booksellers (and by extension to all marvellous  booksellers, as a model of their typical generosity).

What author or book is a recent discovery for you? 

Joanna Kavenna. What a writer. Check out her story, The Beautiful Salmon, in a recent Paris Review.

What is your favourite snack to enjoy while writing?

Grapes.  

 

95bFM's Loose Reads: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden /  by Time Out Bookstore

Jenna visited the studio this morning to give a rundown on the upcoming announcement of the 2024 Booker Prize (November 13th NZD time and talk about the deut Dutch shortlistee, The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

Set in the 1960’s, in a house in a small Dutch village, Isabel’s rigid routine is upended when her brother’s new girlfriend comes to stay for the summer. However, not is all what it seems.The less you know about this book, the better!

Clcik the link below to listen to Jenna and Jonny’s chat.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Delirious by Damien Wilkins /  by Time Out Bookstore

Jenna phoned from the shop floor to talk about Wellington author Damien Wilkins’ new book, Delirious.

As Mary and Pete prepare to move out of their home and into a retirement village, the past comes back to visit. A deceptively simple read that is masterly crafted about family, memory and grief.

Listen to Jenna & Jonny at the link below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez /  by Time Out Bookstore

The queen of South American horror fiction is back with a new collection of short stories for the spooky season! From hauntings, cults, surgical disasters and beyond, Mariana Enriquez’s new book ‘A Sunny Place for Shady People’ explores the human-made violence and terror inflicted in unique ways onto each of her characters. From body horror, ghosts and psychological torture, this short story collection has something to sate the appetite of all fans of horror. 

Pre-order now to nab your copy just in time for Halloween!