Kia ora! It’s been, yet again, a minute. In lieu of actually brand-spanking new content, here’s a round-up of my book reviews on RNZ throughout 2021. Yes, it’s the year I got back into the Unity Books radio reviewage chair, and this time around it was all RNZ, all the time, none of the regional talk radio ones of yesteryear.
February – Bestiary, by K-Ming Chang
March – The Death of Francis Bacon, by Max Porter
April – Black Brother, Black Brother, by Jewell Parker Rhodes
May – Displaced, by Cristina Sanders
June – Temporary, by Hilary Leichter
August – Assembly, by Natasha Brown
September – Julia and the Shark, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
October – The Shut Ins, by Katherine Brabon
November – The Country of Others, by Leïla Slimani
And December – Wild Pets by Amber Medland
At some point I think I might gather together all my notes from the reviews and post them, because I think there’s something a little interesting about seeing the thoughts on the page and then what actually comes out of one’s mouth when the mic is hot and it’s time to go.
But because I like data crunching, here are a few observations:
9/10 books were written by women
3/10 books were targeted at younger readers (1 YA, 2 middle grade)
10/10 books were fiction (whoops)
5/10 books were written by women of colour
4/10 books were written by British authors
1/10 books was originally written in another language and translated (The Country of Others)
1/10 reviews was under 3 minutes
1/10 reviews was over 6 minutes
The average length of a review was 4 minutes, 46 seconds
4/10 books were published by Faber & Faber (unintentional!)
1/10 books was written by a New Zealander (but published by the Australian branch of an international publisher)
This last point is particularly interesting to me, because I’m a massive supporter and reader of local publications. However, by the nature of the RNZ reviewing system, most local content is divvied out to a different batch of reviewers than those of us bookstore-representing cowboys. So oftentimes I’d think YES, I want to review that one! only to discover that it had already been reviewed or was already on the review schedule.
Anyway, that’s a round-up of sorts for your reading and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
raw library 
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