Posts Tagged Fiction
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July 26, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Asking For Horror Fiction Recommendations
I’ve had horror on the brain since I was about 11 or 12 years old. That’s when I ‘cured’ myself from getting freaked out by silly, weak b-grade horror flicks. That’s when I got right into the A Nightmare On Elm Street series of movies. And a year or so after that – along with […]Archive
October 8, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Feature: Music-related novels
I’m usually on RNZ once a month to have a chat about some new albums. But the other day I got the call up to present a Music Feature for the Afternoons show. This topic was Music-related novels – books written about music and musicians that are not biographies, not non-fiction. We played some songs and talked about […]Archive
October 24, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Kirsten McDougall: Tess
Tess Kirsten McDougall VUP What I liked, a great deal, about Kirsten McDougall’s first book – The Invisible Rider (a set of connected short stories, not quite a novel, not just a novella…) was the way she painted the world. All at once daring but not flashy. Taking time to shape descriptions, allowing the world […]Archive
April 3, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 156 Three Years of Weeks
156 divided by 52 equals 3 It’s the longest I’ve ever held a job I did have a week off when my computer went bung about six months ago Each week I seem to be able to come up with something or it presents itself But every now and then I’ll just want to throw […]Archive
October 18, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
The Secret Behind Mr Dompling’s Secret: My First Music Book
Mr Dompling’s Secret was one of my favourite books when I was young. It told the story of a classical cellist, keen on Mozart. It had themes of overcoming fears, of being comfortable in your own skin – and of course there was music. Lots of music. It was my introduction to classical music – […]Archive
October 12, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Bill Direen: Enclosures 2
Enclosures 2 Bill Direen Percutio Bill Direen’s latest “novel” is another excursion through cross-genre literary wanderings. Here in fact is not one novel but separate instances of poetry, stories, journal entries and narrative fiction combined under the pages of a single volume. It’s a website-approach to print and publishing, the banner being the theme – […]Archive
July 17, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Miles Ahead: Film
Miles Ahead Director: Don Cheadle Bifrost Pictures/Miles Davis Properties, LLC/Sony Pictures Classics In a boldly absurd almost blindly idiotic move Don Cheadle decides to simply invent a story for his Miles Davis impersonation. Here we have Cheadle as a more than passable Miles (not as great as some would tell you, but certainly as decent […]Archive
June 20, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Writers on Mondays: July-September 2016
Once again the popular Writers on Mondays sessions by Victoria Univeristy’s International Institute of Modern Letters will take place at Wellington’s Te Papa Museum (Level 4, Te Marae) from 12.15-1.15pm on Mondays from July 11 to September 26. The sessions are free and will feature writers in conversation discussing upcoming and already published works. It’s […]Archive
May 8, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
Haruki Murakami: The Strange Library
The Strange Library Haruki Murakami Knopf Originally published in Japan in 2008 here we have the first English translation of Murakami’s novella. The Strange Library has been translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen and is supported by wonderful illustrations and design of Chip Kidd, but the real magic is in this creepy, intriguing tale – […]Archive
September 17, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: #8 Tom Robbins
“’Magnificent!’ exclaimed John Paul Ziller, pronouncing the word like he was a Kansas City intellectual describing the Louvre to his sister-in-law who’d called to tell him to bring his vacation slides over some other night because she’d burned the spaghetti sauce and the baby had colic”. You can’t always be sure if Tom Robbins is […]Archive
September 9, 2014 by Simon Sweetman