MUSIC
BIOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE #1
My fourth book, Offshore Service & Other Stories (OS&OS for short), is out in the world.
The launch on the 19th was fun. Here's the abbreviated version, including a reference to the reviews on this here website, LOL.
(I gave my daughter my phone to film the speeches, but we neglected to get much footage of the before and after, but I was happy with the turnout and John at the book sales table was kept busy.)
More on OS&OS's life out in the world in the next interlude further down...
BOOKS
[I read one non-fiction book from NZ in a physical format, but will reserve comment on that as I'm reviewing it for Landfall Review Online]
Sophia, Standing There by Meg Mason (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2026)
Yeah, she did it again. Sorrow and Bliss was the favourite book I read in 2021. A good indication of that book's impact is I can't believe that was five years ago, it still feels like it's a part of my short term memory.
S,ST is the right amount of similar and different from S&B. The protagonist of S&B is a big personality who leave chaos in her wake, and suffers from a genetic, mental illness referred only as "--" (or verbalised as "x" in the audiobook). Sophie, in this new novel, is working hard to be the opposite, a character vacuum that avoids notice and doesn't cause any one fuss. The unnamed part is "the author" that Sophia becomes fascinated with, then obsessed. But, thankfully this unnaming trick is only maintained for some of the book, because we actually meet the author in the flesh, wherein she is given a name, Lilac Dunn. Dunn is in some ways like Martha Friel in S&B as they both seem to be incredibly intelligent and insightful about other people, but at heart suffer from an acute lack of empathy.
Glyph by Ali Smith (novel, audiobook, UK, 2026)
I felt like I needed to re-read Gliff again to get more out of Glyph. And maybe audiobook wasn't the best way to consume both. But I think I enjoyed Glyph more than Gliff (sorry to anyone using a text-to-speech app to consume this post).
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2025)
I mean, yeah, okay. It's got all the constituent parts. Plants are amazing. Climate change is an existential threat. The subantarctic islands are fascinating. A mysterious woman washes up on Macquaire Island, I mean whatever its made-up name is in the book. She uncovers mysteries of her own relating to the father and his three kids that remain on the island tending to the global seedbank that will be abandoned due to rising sea levels...
But the plot and the characters never really seemed to be operating on the same plane of existence. The sexual/romantic entanglement felt perfunctory and unearned. The madness of the [redacted] character was convenient, not convincing.
Oh well. Reece Weatherspoon liked it!
Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman (novel, audiobook, US, 2026)
I tried with this one. I also tried reading Dungeon Crawler Carl as a ebook on my phone through the Libby app, but that's like trying to eat soup with a sex toy.
I can see why people like the DCC series, but I'm gonna use the 'p' word again: PERFUNCTORY.
Climate Wayfinding by Katharine K. Wilkinson (non-fiction, US, 2026)
I struggled with this for a different reason. Like, shame on me for thinking this book would incorporate aspects of Polynesian maritime wayfinding, which has been adapted to other uses through the work of Spiller et.al. in Wayfinding Leadership -- a book I return to often in my life as a climate / sustainability professional.
Instead, this version of wayfinding is like some kind of vision quest with all the white American cultural appropriation vibes that brings with it.
The subtitle - Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home - should have tipped me off.
BIOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE #2
There's only been one review of the collection so far (a very positive one from the legend Paula Morris in the Listener, with a longer version promised on the Academy for NZ Literature's website one day soon). Hopefully there's one or two more.
In terms of media coverage so far, we've had:
- Two short stories from the collection republished: 'The Waikato Farmers' in Newsroom and 'The Kick Inside' in Sunday Star Times
- Two radio interviews, with Emile Donovan on RNZ and Jeff Harford on OAR
- Two print interviews, one in the Sunday Star Times to accompany 'The Kick Inside' and one in the Otago Daily Times.
FILM & TV
Colin From Accounts - Season 3 - normally, I love when TV shows make a huge leap in time between seasons (final season of Parks and Rec ftw), but the payoff of this leap petered out quickly and felt more like a way to pad out the will they, won't they phase. Still had some good laffs.
The Dark Wizard - Season 1 - I possess neither the strength, the courage or the desire to rock climb, but this was fascinating. Alex Honnold comes across as a sociopath, which on some level he must be.
Monsters of God - Season 1 - I see what you did there... Are the monsters the reptiles or the people? (It's always the people).
One Battle After Another - I read Vineland some time in the early 2000's, but looking for any connection between that novel and the adapted screenplay made me feel like the baked-ass present day Bob Ferguson in the movie... Maybe if they'd kept his name as Zoyd I would have liked the film more.
It's weird to be left cold and unentertained by films like this, Sinners and Weapons, which seemed to get the average moviegoer hyped and also did well with the Academy. Like, on one level it's cool that there's some overlap between what both sides think is cool... but it'd be better if I also thought these things were cool, rather than... passable. Another P-word!
