By: Winding Up the Week #412 – Book Jotter

Winding Up the Week #412 – Book Jotter — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:48:13 +0000

[…] This week I have two briefly under-the-bookdar reviews from last November. (1) Ex-librarian and keen wildlife enthusiast, Alyson Baker critiqued Pretty Ugly by fellow New Zealander, the novelist, essayist, short fiction writer and professor of creative writing, Kirsty Gunn. A collection of fourteen unsettling short stories “exploring the origins and boundaries of ‘a person,’” some of them “entertaining, some disturbing, one devastating” – all allowing the author to pursue ‘reading and writing ugly’. Questions such as: “Where do writers’ ideas of identity come from?” are raised, and the reader’s “preconceptions [are] abruptly cut through” when, for example, the author enquires: “is a cluttered house due to contraband or a hoarding disorder?” Alys “loved reading” this collection and was much impressed by “Gunn’s beautiful rhythmic writing.” You will find the full post at alysontheblog’s Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn – 2024. (2) In his in-depth review of Lost Wonders for The Inquisitive Biologist, Leon Vlieger portrays Tom Lathan’s analysis as an “emotional gut punch of a book” in which an “unconventional approach” is used to investigate ten species recently vanished from the world. To examine what led to their loss, he “momentarily” restores each one to life and “speaks to the people who tried to save them.” With chapters averaging 30 to 40 pages (all opening with “a tastefully executed pencil-and-ink drawing by Lathan’s partner Claire Kohda”), the question of what we should do to “turn the tide” on this continuing destruction is raised. Lost Wonders, says Leon, “is an incredibly moving book that tugs at the heartstrings.” Discover why at Book review – Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century. […]

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By: Winding Up the Week #412 – Book Jotter