Christchurch City Libraries Blog

The Ngā Kupu Ora Book Awards 2009 give you the chance to vote for the best Māori focused books of 2008/2009.  Massey University is celebrating Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori by letting you pick the best in a range of categories:  Art, Architecture & Design, Biography, History, Sports & Recreation and Te Reo Māori.  And interestingly they also give you a chance to choose the Māori book of the decade.

So head on over and cast your vote.

It’s not hard – just do something. This year’s theme is Te Reo i te Hapori - Māori language in the community, so try sprinkling some te reo in your day.

You can learn 100 Māori words every New Zealander should know.  Or try our beginner’s kete. Easy.

Two great websites for learning te reo are Ngai Tahu’s Generation Reo, which has lots of practical tips for parents and families, and online course  Te Whanake from AUT.

See also:

• Our resource page for learners and our beginner’s kete;
• Community courses from CINCH, our community directory;
• Visit Ti Kōuka Whenua to discover our pre-European heritage;
• Try the Māori Language Commission’s Korero Māori site.

A shoe-shine man reads a newspaper while waiting in Cathedral Square for customers, Christchurch. 1927.

Like what you see? Complete this form to order an image. If you have any further information on any of the images, or if you would like to donate images to our collection please contact us. Want to see more? You can browse our collection here.

It was announced last night that the new Poet Laureate for 2009-2011 is Bluff poet Cilla McQueen.  A wonderful choice. Cilla is brilliant, and I have great memories of her visiting our school St Peter’s in Gore when I was a nipper:

Cilla McQueen is the most celebrated poet of the South, and the southernmost. Throughout her … books of poetry she has remained an evocative voice of reason and nature, a unique teller of images, thought, and history. (Cilla McQueen Interview with Nick Ascroft and Richard Reeve)

So congratulations to Cilla, and to previous Laureate Michele Leggott who’s done a grand job.

• Poetry by Cilla McQueen
• Cilla – New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre

In the news:

• Bluff’s poet laureate a bit shocked – Southland Times
• Poetry paying the bills for laureate - Dominion Post

Coraline

The movie Coraline based on the children’s book by Neil Gaiman is released on the 6th of August in NZ. Bronnypop posted about this earlier in the year.

It’s the first stop-animation movie to be shot in 3D. In the film, Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life – only much better. But then this wondrously off-kilter, fantastical adventure turns dangerous … Get a taster by viewing the trailer.

If  you live in Christchurch, you can win a double pass courtesy of Paramount Pictures – flick us an email with your name, address and phone number to  libwebteam@ccc.govt.nz and tell us about your favourite movie, and why you like it …  We’ll pick 5 lucky winners to go to the preview screening on Wednesday August 5. (P.S. This competition is now closed – but feel free to comment on your favourite movie!)

I’ll kick off . My all time favourite movie is Excalibur. Directed by John Boorman, this unholy gorgeous mashup blends the medieval and the soft focus glitzy 1980s. Stars – Gabriel Byrne. Liam Neeson. Helen Mirren. And Nicol Williamson as Merlin doesn’t just eat up the scenery, he eats it and builds it again and eats it. All the Arthurian characters are here – Arthur. Mordred. Percival. Lancelot. Guinevere (Cherie Lunghi plays her a bit simpery but you can’t have it all). Gorgeous gold armour, battles, riding horses, magic. Copious use of O Fortuna (probably the best soundtrack music ever) …ahhh….

*Scarlett has given us her fave:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It is closer to the book than most of the movies in the series, and the sets are great, especially Sirius’ house. I like Kretcher…he’s funny

Zac:  “My favourite movies all seem to be kids/family movies (I’m just a big kid at heart). My favourite though is Princess Bride. It’s got everything that a good movie should have; humour, sword fights, villians and a happy ending.”

Isabelle: “The Lion King because it was one of the first movies I ever saw that left an impression.”

Rachel: “My favourite movie of all time would have to be Sleepy Hollow. Other movies come and go, but I think that Tim Burton is a fantastic director, and having Johnny Depp in the lead role just makes it better. I normally hate horror movies, and hide under the sofa most of the movie, but something about this film, the music, the scenery, the amazing acting or the twisted plot always holds me spellbound. Coraline looks like it has a similarly engaging storyline, I can’t wait for it to come out!”

Ariana: My favourite movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. My favourite character is Jack the skeleton and his loyal companion the ghost dog.  I like the movie because it’s got loads of catchy songs and  really sweet story. Though a bit spooky all the while. The story shifts from Jack  to the rag doll, who admires Jack just for being himself.  It’s a bit sad for Jack when he tries to create the perfect Christmas and no-one appreciates his work. I also love The Corpse Bride but it’s not quite as good.

It has been so long since I have written anything for this Blog that I had forgotten my password and user name! Perhaps the reason I haven’t been writing is I have been too busy trying to plough my way through books that I should have tossed after the first chapter.  My sorry tale starts with me embarking on my winter holiday with two books.

I thought that Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín would be a great holiday read.  I really enjoyed the Blackwater lightship and this new book was a promising story about  a young Irish girl making her way to America on her own.  I was wrong.  I finished the book, but probably only because it was short.  Nothing happened!  Well nothing very interesting. Girl leaves Ireland, goes to Brooklyn, works in a shop, lives in a boarding house, meets man, goes back to Ireland, meets another man, goes back to Brooklyn, and …. that’s it!

So then I started on a favourite authors’ new book.  T Coraghessan Boyle wrote a fantastic novel about a pack of crazy hippies moving to Alaska to form a commune. Drop City was a great story, funny and full of surprises.  So it was with baited breath that I started The Women, about Frank Lloyd Wright (famous architect and renowned womaniser.  I was promised a story blazing “ with his trademark wit and invention”.  There was a huge possibility for intrigue, murder, passion and insight into this famous man and the women in his life.  Alas, I found none of this, and ditched the book about a third of the way through.  Again nothing really happened, I gained no insight into any of the characters, and they all seemed dull and one dimensional.  It was with a heavy heart that I finished my holiday.  I hadn’t had those long hours of basking in the joy of knowing I could totally engross myself in a great story.  Instead I had to actually leave the house and do things.  What a let down

However things have looked up.  I have begun the Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews,  and it’s looking like a keeper.  Perhaps I should have another holiday?

I love it when nerdy writers pull off their glasses, push up their ink-stained sleeves and start a really good fisticuffs. Of course most of these brawls don’t actually result in physical confrontation, although a notorious few have, but in lieu of fists, authors and their critics are very well-placed to bandy vitriolic but sometimes beautifully chosen insults.

Well-known recidivist offender, author Alice Hoffman, last month dragged authorial peevishness out of the dark-ages by tweeting her bile. She had taken particular exception to a mixed review of  her latest title The story sisters: a novel. She called the reviewer Roberta Silman “a moron” and encouraged her fans to phone or email Silman to tell her what they thought of “snarky critics”. Later Hoffman issued a remarkably unapologetic apology and shut down her Twitter account, stroppy mare…

Hoffman has also been on the receiving end of  “writer rage” after American Pulitzer prize winning writer Richard Ford and his wife got sniffy when Hoffman wrote “nasty things” about his novel Independence day; they peppered a copy of Hoffman’s then latest book with bullets and mailed it to her. An entirely reasonable and measured response there Mr and Mrs Ford (of course I’m lying but I wouldn’t want to incite the wrath of gun-toting novelists).

Back in 2004 Mr Ford became infamous for spitting on unsympathetic reviewer Colson Whitehead at a literary party. Whitehead advised other reviewers considering writing anything unfavourable about Ford’s work to invest in a “rain poncho”. Colson Whitehead is now a published novelist himself and no doubt primed and ready to fly into a towering, spitting, shooting rage at the first sign of a negative review.

Martin Amis has claimed that “Literary feuds went out of fashion with the Salman Rushdie fatwah” but still managed to get down and dirty calling Tibor Fischer “a creep and a wretch. Oh yeah: and a fat arse”. Fischer, predictably, had panned Amis’s novel Yellow dog describing it as “not-knowing-where-to-look bad”. Amis has previously feuded with former buddy Julian Barnes and more recently with Marxist historian Terry Eagleton.

The miracle is, I suppose that any of them even find a minute between trading insults to pen a prize-winner or bestseller.

All juicy literary feud information gratefully received…

I’ve been a fan of Dean Koontz since reading Velocity a few years ago.  Since then I’ve made my way through his older books and eagerly awaited his new ones.  I like to think of him as the poor man’s Stephen King.  His stories are quite similar in nature to Stephen King and I often find myself seriously creeped-out reading some of them.  If you like a good thriller with a touch of the supernatural thrown in, Dean Koontz is your man.  I think the reason I like his books so much is that most of his characters are ordinary people (a landscape gardener, a fry cook, and an author just to name a few) who find themselves in life or death situations with psychotic individuals who are bent on tearing their world apart for a seemingly unknown reason.  One of my favourite Dean Koontz books is Life Expectancy about a guy called Jimmy Tock who is born at the same moment his grandfather dies.  On his death bed his grandfather predicts five future dates that will be terrible for Jimmy.  The novel follows Jimmy on these five days in his life, including his run-ins with a psychotic clown.

I’m currently reading Koontz’ lastest book Relentless and it’s another fantastic, disturbing thriller.  I can’t wait to get back to it to find out how the characters are going to get out of their horrific situation.  It’s definitely worth a read and so are his other books that we have in the library.

What a great title! It’s a new novel by Jed Mercurio that is a sort of biography of John F. Kennedy. The idea behind it is to look at the man and the politician and what made him tick.

As the title suggests, sex was something significant for JFK and, unlike the more devious William Jefferson Clinton, he did inhale, so to speak. The novel observes him in a rather cool clinical manner and it allows us to see a full portrait of him in terms of his politics, his health, his marriage and his sex life. It has always puzzled me why people have pointed the finger in a censorious manner: how many people would have ladies like Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson, Jayne Mansfield, etc., make themselves so available and be able to say “Go away Marilyn, you wicked temptress.” Of course, looked at now, the way he used women as quick relief (attractive young interns on standby, going on the plane and not recalling if the hostess was one he’d had a quick one with previously), was sexist in the extreme. The worst part of all this is the slimy character of Sinatra who was a JFK supporter until his mob connections meant that JFK had to distance himself. Sinatra and his Rat Pack Pal, Peter Lawford, married to JFK’s sister, pimped for the President in that he’d see a young actress in a movie and angle for the Rat Packers to arrange an introduction.

JFK’s health was dreadful and a lot of mileage is given to all his ailments and he had a fair few. His marriage is interestingly handled and Jackie emerges as a cool customer who realised what she had let herself in for and lived with it. His love for his children and his absolute conviction on issues (race, equality in general) is handled well. Overall this is a riveting novel, quite touching at times and very good in its picture of a very complex man who died too young.