Abby, one of our two Ockham Fiction Champions, popped into the bFM studio to chat the fiction shortlist.
Listen below and you can watch the Ockhams this Wednesday 15th March here.
You can also come in person! Purchase tickets here.
Reviews
95bFM's Loose Reads: Ockhams Poetry Shortlist /
Suri previews two of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards poetry finalists.
Roof Leaf Flower Fruit: A Verse Novel by Bill Nelson - narrative poetry which traces family history with a shocking truth revealed.
Talia by Isla Huia explores whakapapa and peers with electric ease.
Listen below for Suri giving her lowdown and poetry reading from each book below.
The two other books on the poetry shortlist are:
Chinese Fish by Grace Yee
At the Point of Seeing by Megan Kitching
Keep updated here to find out the winners, announced May 15th, at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Amma by Saraid de Silva /
This week, Jenna reviewed Saraid de Silva’s Amma, a moving family story that follows three generations of Sri Lankan women. From Singapore, to Invercargill, to London, Saraid’s visceral storytelling is immersive with great plotting.
Listen to Jenna and Rachel chat below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange /
Tommy Orange’s latest novel, Wandering Stars explores the decimation of American indigenous communities; from colonial violence to economic repression and addiction. Told through the eyes of Orvil Red Feather and his ancestors, ‘Wandering Stars’ explores a patchwork of characters reckoning with the violence of past and present, at all times searching for the beauty and wisdom of their ancestors. Painful, beautiful and at times funny, this piercing companion to There, There strikes at the heart and offers human truths impossible to look away from.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin /
French author Eilsa Shua Dusapin (Winter in Sokcho) is back with another atomospheric novel.
Nathalie arrives in Vladivostok to work on costumes for the Russian bar trio who are preparing their dangerous routine for the winter circus season.
This book captures a snapshot of a creative and physical undertaking by a small team of people. Punchy sentences, a sense of danger and a strong sense of place enrich Dusapin’s prose.
Translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins.
Listen to Jenna, Rachel and Stella’s conversation below.
95bFM's Loose Reads: If We Burn by Vincent Bevins /
If We Burn by Vincent Bevins (author of The Jakarta Method) explores a decade of the largest mass protests in modern history- from the Arab Spring to the Hong Kong uprisings. Combing through academic research and conducting interviews and with organisers, politicians and protesting participants, Bevins unearths the reasons why an era of mass mobilisation failed to materialise into political change. A sweeping look at the history of mass protests and its successes and failures, If We Burn is a sharp and fascinating analysis of a phenomena forgotten in a post-COVID era.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Sheep's Clothing by Celia Dale /
Suri visited the 95bFM Breakfast crew to chat about the late Celia Dale’s Sheep’s Clothing. Originally published in 1988, this book is a black comedy crime, following two women schemers in Thatcher’s England.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Beautiful Afternoon by Airini Beautrais /
Jenna called into the studio this morning, to chat about The Beautiful Afternoon, a collection of essays from Airini Beautrais. You may know her from her short story collection, Bug Week, which was the winner of the 2021 Acorn Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Combining research with the personal; exploring feminity, sexuality, motherhood, pop culture, consumerism, activism and more, this is a insightful delve into a different genre of writing for Beautrais.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft /
The debut novel by Olga Tokarczuk’s translator, Jennifer Croft.
Eight translators are brought to Polish forest to translate a beloved author’s latest work and the translators’ love of the them, becomes almost cultish. However when the author goes missing, all goes awry.
Surreal, absurd and clever, The Extinction of Irena Rey asks questions of authorship. role and credit of a translator. This is great read for language lovers.
Listen to Suri’s review with guest host, Aneeka and producer, Stella.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan /
Jenna visited the studio to speak about Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan, translated from French by Alison Anderson.
Two women are brought together when Clara (a policewoman) meets Melanie, an influencer whose child has just been kidnapped.
Spanning the begiining of the Big Brother generation to 2031, this is a cautionary tale about family youtube channels, this is a literary thriller that observes the ethics of putting your children online.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Clarice Lispector & Sarah Bernstein /
On the first day back at Uni, Suri slipped into the bFM studio to talk about two books that she’s been reading lately.
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein was shortlised for the Booker in 2023. When a woman returns to her ancestral land to become a housekeeper for her newly separated brother,
Allusive, observational and atmospheric.
Auto-fiction Argentinian queen, Clarice Lispector is here with her complete publicatoin of her essays (Too Much of Life), which she started writing when she was 7 years old. A great mix of writing - the relationship between humanity and technology, the domestic, philosophy and literary critique.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke /
Jenna dialed into the bFM studio today from her tent at the Camp A Low Hum festival, in Wainuiomata.
Lord Jim at Home is a fantastically strange found classic from 1973. With an introduction by Ottessa Moshfegh, Lord Jim is based on the true story of the ill-fated Miles Giffard, this book explores class and violence - all with a very black sense of humour.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam /
The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist has been revealed. To celebrate, Jenna talks about one of the longlisted fiction titles, Backwaters, a debut novel set between Auckland & China by Emma Ling Sidnam. A gentle read about origins, identity and family?
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Rachel and Stella below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt /
Today, Jenna reviewed Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist, a book that’s at risk of being too light or cheesy, but is actually very good.
Bob Comet, a retired librarian, finds himself volunteering at a retirement centre, when he realises he already knows a resident. deWitt’s expert dialogue leads us through a most heartwarming (and sometimes heartbreaking) and funny return to significant events from Bob’s life.
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Rachel and Stella below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride /
Suri reviews this beautiful, funny, clever, poignant novel - from the author of The Colour of Water & Deacon King Kong. Part mystery, part Dickensian tale, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store explores race, class & the American dream whilst revealing subtle universal messages through character,
One of Barak Obama’s top reads 2023.
Listen below to Suri’s in studio chat with Stella.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch + Christmas agony aunt /
Jenna brings in the recently minted 2023 Booker winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. A powerful, gut-punch of a book, set in modern day Ireland - following a mother of four as she desperately tries to keep her family together during a civil war.
Jenna, Rachel & Stella also some Christmas agony aunt questions!
Wafting 95bFM listener: The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez or Sonic Life by Thurston Moore.
Big reader aunt: The Postcard by Anne Berest
Tween read: Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Also! Don’t forget to get tickets to the Save the B gig. This Wednesday, 20th December.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Suri's Christmas picks! /
Suri is in the studio today with her picks for Christmas.
Pacific Arts Aotearoa ed. by Lana Lopesi
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand ed. by Carrie Rudzinski & Grace Iwashita-Taylor
Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Rick Stein's Simple Suppers by Rick Stein
Listen to her kōrero with Rachel and Stella below for the hot tips.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Bird Life by Anna Smaill /
Bird Life is a lyrical, present novel set in Japan. Dinah, grieving the suicide of her twin brother, moves from Aotearoa to Japan to teach English. There, she meets Yasuko, a mother grieving her son leaving home. Together, the kinship between Dinah and Yasuko deepens as they navigate their own paths.
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Baumgartner & A Thread of Violence /
Suri reviews two books on 95bFM’s Breakfast show today.
In A Thread of Violence, Mark O’Connell revisits a close to home in Dublin. A dramatic true crime featuring interviews with the killer.
Baumgartner by Paul Auster tells the story of Cy, a widower moving through domestic activities. Filled with human moments that are told with the ghost of his wife in mind.
You can listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Three Nice Novels /
It’s almost Christmas, therefore it’s time for our end of year round-ups. Today, Jenna chose three nice novels, just because it feels like we need them.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Good Material by Dolly Alderton (audiobook on Libro.fm)
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Listen to Jenna’s on studio chat with Rachel and Stella below.
