St Margaret's College

66,188 pages read and 2,335 team points

Team members

OyHar

3,738 pts

(2,456 pages read)

Chinese Fish

By Grace Yee

5 stars

My mum bought me this book for my birthday and said Grace Yee isn’t a Yee cousin but she’s a branch of Yees that are Chinese NZ Yees, and she has written about Chinese women settling in NZ. And I’m gonna claim that almost relative-ness cos Grace Yee writes amazing, thought-provoking, emotional, dense poetry, words lined up like round faced Chinese dolls across the pages. I’m definitely sharing some of these poems with my students this year,
Big Fat Brown Bitch

By Tusiata Avia

5 stars

Best thing I’ve read all year. Having recently seen The Savage Coloniser show, I could almost hear the words spoken in my head by the strong brown women who Tusiata gives voice to. Powerful stuff. Highly recommend.
Daughters of Heaven

By MichaelAnne Forster

4 stars

A revisiting of a classic Christchurch cold blooded crime that shattered the 1950s Kiwi city, told through the dramatic device of a fictional character (Bridget the Irish maid) to lend a hand with exposition alongside verbatim court documents and diary extracts.
Red Moon

By Rachel Anderson

4 stars

Angry young man finds himself drawn towards racism and rioting, saves shipwrecked kid, learns about life and starts a new journey
Is It Bedtime Yet

By Emily Writes and Friends

5 stars

Emily Writes has collected true tales from her parenting journey, alongside stories from other kiwi mums and dads. The stories are varied, drawn from a diverse array of families, yet relatable. I recommend buying this book for a parent, after youve read it yourseldf!
The Laramie Project

By Moises Kaufman / Tectonic Theatre

5 stars

I’ve been thinking a lot about Verbatim Theatre and found sound and story sovereignty, so I revisited this play about the aftermath of Mathew Shepherd’s murder in a small town, told using only the words of the townspeople of Laramie. I love this play, despite crying every time I read (or watch) it. And just when you feel your heart hurts too much for this world, we get the beautiful moment of goodness and glimmer of hope, in Romaine and her Angel Action project. Romaine is sickened by the Westboro Church picketing the murder trial with offensive anti-LBTQI+ signs and slogans, so she organised a sewing bee to make hundreds of 2 metre high wings which Angels (supporters and volunteers) would wear and surround the family and friends of Mathew as they entered the courthouse, shielding the, from the hateful protestors.
Shakespeare

By Bill Bryson

5 stars

Bill and Will are a perfect partnership; Bryson’s unpretentious, witty commentary is crammed with Shakespearean trivia. It also includes unpacking of controversial topics (the Bacon bs, the lost years, the dark lady and fair youth) with explanations of how academics came to the conclusions that we all now take as hard facts.
The Wild Card

By Renee

5 stars

Renee’s plays (Wednesday To Come, Jeannie Once, Pass It On) showed the oft-ignored domesticity of historical events from a woman’s perspective. In her novel The Wild Card she again gives a voice to those silenced, unpacking the abuse in state care issue Aotearoa is working through right now,
Sounds Crazy

By Pat Quinn

1 stars

An 30 yr old NZ YA novel about Rock Quest seemed like exactly my kind of book, but I was wrong. The misogyny and racism in ‘Sounds Crazy’ made me so angry I cried. The two girls in the band are “the hot one” (blonde, natch) and the “one who looks like a pile of shit”. The band’s hit song is called ‘Cantonese Dream’, and there’s a part where the white girl tells the Chinese girl off for being racist that stirred up my inner Fire Dragon. Sorry Pat Quinn, this book is trash.
1599

By James Shapiro

4 stars

By focussing on one year in Shakespeare’s life, Shapiro gives Bard buffs a different perspective on the much studied man. Great, easy reading writing style.
Bird Child

By Patricia Grace

5 stars

Masterful storytelling from the magnificent Patricia Grace.

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St Margaret's College

66,188 pages read and 2,335 team points

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