It’s so weird. And so obvious.
28.02.2026 06:03
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It’s so weird. And so obvious.
But seriously - no. I asked the Google guys how education was going to have to change to support kids in the world they were describing, and got crickets in reply
It was like I was speaking another language. And to be fair to them — with jet lag and a thick Nu Zild accent, I kinda was
This is so similar to the question I asked a bunch of (non-decision-makers) at tech companies in SF last year. If successful AI use is relying on judgement skills users cultivated in a pre-AI world, in 2-10 years time with users who’ve never had a chance to cultivate that judgement — what happens?
Benjamin Myers’ “Perfect Golden Circles” is a story of tender male friendship that I found magical & restorative. Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Romantic Comedy” — if you haven’t read this, you must, it’s perfection. My forever comfort read: Stella Gibbons’ “Cold Comfort Farm”.
Spotted it first
Her “When You Reach Me” is hands down one of the best middle grade books I’ve read
This was probably my favourite middle grade read last year. Stead is just so good at family dynamics and tender friendships and this story’s VERY quirky premise sets these off beautifully
Little interlude with a novella by a writer I’ve never read before — a mash-up of Bluebeard and the Garden of Eden
Once again, it’s the warmth and depth of the family relationships I enjoy the most here (probably even more than the teenage psychology, which happens when you’re a reader in your 40s). The Potter family in this book might be my favourite Mahy family to date.
… that Mahy turns up the saturation in her books, full of sinister characters, signs and portents, word play that fringes on spellcasting
Like “Memory”, this is a book where nothing strictly supernatural happens. In fact, it’s quite circumscribed: two main characters, one city setting, one mystery to resolve. Having said that, I noted down the words “heightened brightened tightened frightened” while reading, in response to the way..
My summer re-read of Margaret Mahy’s 1980s YA (the author was so prolific that this constitutes a reading project) reached The Catalogue of the Universe today
Do you make comfrey tea? And does it smell as bad as I’ve read it does?
Weighing up watching A Room with a View
Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe
Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
In the meantime, here’s a proper review www.nzreviewofbooks.com/kings-of-thi...
I think I might have to back read the duology & Knox’s other Southland book, “Mortal Fire”, to see how this all meshes together
… whereas KOTW feels more like social media — the wielding of P feels (at its worst) an awful lot like online influencing in our current political climate
Specifically, I wanted to find out more about how the Place of the Dreamhunter duology relates to the Power of Kings of this World. I went down a little rabbit hole thinking about how Dreamhunter was about broadcast technology (it centres on the sharing of dreams in theatres, kind of like movies)…
The book has the pace of a thriller rather than the languor of a fantasy. While the two central stories (the kidnapping, and the true nature of Vex’s power) are resolved, I found myself constantly diverted by the extra details & wanting Knox take me down some of the side paths she strews throughout
The two timelines mean the fleshing-out of the “dark academia” setting is disrupted: backstories about the networks of friendship and the varieties of “P” power are dotted throughout rather than given in the run-up. You have to read with your memory switched on.
The book moves on two timelines (the kidnapping, and the five weeks leading up to the kidnapping) as well as flashbacks to Vex’s childhood and the point where we enter the book: little Victoria Magdolen, found in a parked car with her ribs broken, deserted by her father, the leader of a commune
It’s fastest to share the official blurb because there’s a lot going on in this book beyond the plot
I saved up @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social’s latest book for the summer break and was DELIGHTED to re-enter her fictional world of Southland, the setting of Dreamhunter + Dreamquake, brought up to the current moment
So it was just a ten-minute read, but it’s a terrific little ghost story and I had an actual shiver when I clicked the twist 3/4 of the way through
I really recommend you look in to Barrington Stokes if you’re looking for good books for less confident readers of all ages (plus very good authors)
I reserved this thinking it was one of Strange’s longer novels, but it’s actually from a series she’s done for Barrington Stokes, an imprint of Collins that publishes short books by British children’s writers that are designed (writing, layout, typeface, paper stock) to be dyslexia-friendly
Not 100% down with the narration, but definitely holds your attention on a long walk
It is weird and brutal and richly layered and I struggle to imagine it being published today.
Rediscovering how complex Melvin Burgess’s “Bloodtide” is. Based on the Völsung epic, set in a London abandoned to warring gang factions, fringed by human-animal-machine hybrids, told from multiple perspectives, & with a long passage I’ve just listened to that I suspect is based on Princess Diana
