Public Address | Cafe | Muse: SHELF LIFE: "My Memories of Home Will Never Die"

3410

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:18:31 +1200

Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964 [or, as One News called it, "Blue Smoke: The History of New Zealand Music"].

Wonderful book. So, so much work. Couldn't find my grandpop in there, but there was a photo of Tiki Roberts, one of his bandleaders.

Chris…

Martin Lindberg

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:51:11 +1200

Books like 'Blue Smoke' are why Kiwis aren't reading much NZ literary fiction.

Didn't the book win the non-fiction award?

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:33:07 +1200

Books like ‘Blue Smoke’ are why Kiwis aren’t reading much NZ literary fiction (ref Metro and last week’s Nine to Noon).

Oh, I've got something to say about that. Graham Adams' think-piece in the August issue of North & South article is damn hard to respond to because it's a classic…

Tui Hill

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:19:12 +1200

Books like 'Blue Smoke' are why Kiwis aren't reading much NZ literary fiction (ref Metro and last week's Nine to Noon). Why would you want to keep on plodding through dour miserable stories about dour miserable people when you could be absorbed in well-written stories about fascinating people living interesting…

Hilary Stace

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:56:07 +1200

I have a signed copy of Blue Smoke having been lucky enough to go to one of the launches. It's fascinating and detailed but too heavy for bed time reading. What it did require was a lot (like years) of research and writing time and although, I understand, Chris was…

Ben Cragg

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:13:05 +1200

This just shuffled even further up my to be read list...

Christopher Dempsey

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:51:19 +1200

Must add it to my towering 'books I must read over the summer' pile. First in line is the fascinating 99 Ways into NZ Poetry.

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:54:37 +1200

Who wouldn't be? Blue Smoke isn't only a damn good read, but a model of how to write and organise a scholarly but unpretentious work of cultural history with a hell of a lot of research lightly worn. Harder than it looks.

Russell Brown

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:46:15 +1200

I'm so, so pleased for Chris.

Public Address

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:46:15 +1200

Discussion from blog post.