What's your favourite New Zealand book?

New Zealand book month has come around again so it's time to think all things Kiwi.

Go to www.nzbookmonth.co.nz to see how you can get your hands on one of the 4 million $5.00 book vouchers being distributed around the country.

While your there click on find a book under the get involved tab. There you will find book lists covering just about every topic you could think of. The lists been created from results of a nationwide on-line vote for readers’ favourite books which took place in October 2010.

It's reassuring to find I agree with most the picks on the lists I've looked at. I think I might have to work my way through one or two of these lists as well. Let's just say I thought I knew my New Zealand books but there's a couple there I haven't heard of.

Here in town the Dan Davin Literary Foundation are celebrating NZ Book Month with workshops by New Zealand speculative fiction author Helen Lowe.

Helen is an award-winning novelist, broadcaster and poet who is published internationally. Her first novel, the Young Adult fantasy Thornspell, was published to critical acclaim in 2008 and her second novel, The heir of night (the first in a four book adult series), has recently been published here and overseas.

The workshops are free but are open only to Year 12 and 13 students who live in or attend school in Southland. To register, talk to your English Head of Department at school, or contact Rebecca Amundsen for further information: dandavin@xtra.co.nz or 027 2252 664. Times and places are listed below.

Tues 22 March: Wakatipu High School, Queenstown, 9am-3pm

Wed 23 March: St Peters College, Gore, 9am-3pm

Fri 25 March: Invercargill Public Library, Invercargill, 9am-3pm

Sat 26 March: Community Trust of Southland, Don Street, Invercargill, 9am-3pm

So the challenge is to read at least 1 New Zealand book this month. If your year 12 or 13 and study in Southland sign up for a workshop. When your done drop leave a comment let me know what you did for New Zealand book month. Come on I dare you to.

The confession

John Grisham

In Texas, an innocent young man is set to be executed in a matter of days for a murder he did not commit. Miles away, a man dying of a brain tumour walks into a church and confesses to the minister there that he committed the murder. Can a guilty man save an innocent one from death at the last minute? John Grisham is well-known for his anti-death penalty stance and with this novel, you can understand why: justice is not always done. I feel John Grisham is back to his best with this powerful, fast-paced and gripping novel. The events leave every character involved in the book changed in some way, and maybe the reader too.

(Reviewed by Angela.)

Many reached their goal

The first annual Pursue 100 reading challenge wound up last week with the Three major prizes drawn in the library on Thursday afternoon. We were really impressed by both the quantity and especially the quality of all the reviews we received over the summer. Most of those who tried reached the goal of 100 points which put them in the draw for an apple iPad.

I can now reveal the big winners;

Our third prize, an iPod Nano went to Georgina Kennedy.

The second prize of an iPod Touch was won by Bonnie Mcleish.

And congratulations to Israel Christie who won first prize, an apple iPad.

As well as the major prizes everybody who sent in a review over the summer won at least one minor prize. These consisted of books, DVDs, CDs, vouchers and some other toys. I've posted pictures below of a selection of our prizes including the big three.

If you missed out this year don't panic we hope to hold the challenge again next summer and think we can make it bigger and better. So keep watching this space and we'll let you know all the details.

The passage

Justin Cronin

Yes, this is a novel with vampires involved. But before you yawn and say "Not another vampire book!", this is not your Twilight version of vampires. In fact, the word "vampire" is hardly mentioned. It is more like a post-apocalyptic novel than a vampire one; the first half of the book

descibes the beginning of the apocalypse, the second is set 100 years later when a vampire virus has wiped out most of the world, leaving only a few survivors. Yes, there are a lot of characters and the tale is reasonably complex, but the story is held together by Amy, a little girl abandoned by her mother, who may hold the key to the whole situation. If you enjoy Stephen King's epics, you might just enjoy this engrossing tale too. Apparently the movie rights have already been taken up by Ridley Scott, so it will be interesting to see how the story is tackled in film format.

(Reviewed by Angela)

The Drowning Girl

Kirsty and I went out shopping the other day for minor prizes for the Pursue 100 reading competition so I thought I'd take a few pictures to let [people know the sort of things they can win. As well as the 3 major prizes (The iPad, The Ipod touch and the Ipod Nano) we've got a whole heap of books, CDs, DVDs, and Itunes vouchers.

Just for a bit of fun we've got a few things like these little flash drives (I like the fish).

Remember you need to give us at least 1 review to win some of these things so if you haven't yet send one in. Something like the one below would be perfect.

The Drowning Girl

Margaret Leroy

This book is about a single mother’s struggle to understand what is wrong with her young daughter. Young Sylvie has violent tantrums, doesn’t relate well to others at all and it deathly afraid of water. Her mother Grace takes her to children psychiatrists but when money is tight she begins to feel like there is nothing she can do. It isn’t until Adam Winters begins to take interest that everything begins to become clearer in a journey that takes the three of them to Ireland in the hopes they can work out what is wrong with Sylvie.

This book started off really good. It begins with the most interesting prologue I have read, confusing but interesting, really making me want to read more. It then goes in to Grace and Sylvie’s lives; with Sylvie’s tantrums and issues quickly coming to play. As soon as it showed Sylvie’s fear of water I knew it had something to do with drowning, or near drowning. When Grace says about how she feels like her daughter isn’t really her daughter sometimes I was massively confused. All until the characters start to suspect Sylvie isn’t Sylvie, but another girl. This is when I predicted that she was another girl, one who had drowned years before and was now recalling her past life. Ordinarily I would think it a bit weird, but I was right on the dot. The annoying thing was the characters, Grace and Adam, didn’t seem to think as fast as I did and I then had to keep reading as they slowly...very slowly...worked it out. The time-line was a little slow, but then, the characters didn’t read the prologue like I did. The prologue where Grace was wondering what it felt like to drown. Good prologue, my favourite bit because it was so mysterious. This book definitely had the mystery element down, which definitely made me read right to the end and have the whole mystery solved. I so wanted to know if Sylvie ever came right (and she did).

(Reviewed by Toni)