Book Haven

Decentring Polynesia tonight 23/2 7pm at @twofiftyseven.co
A critical conversation & reading led by Emelihter Kihleng & Tagi Qolouvaki, focused on writing from the borderlands of Oceania, challenging Polynesian hegemony, sharing perspectives on being seen, heard, and read on their own terms.

Today 21 /2 at 2/57 Willis St is Indigenous Futurisms - a talanoa with Tīhema Baker, Gina Cole & Emele Ugavule
#TadraVata #TadraVataAotearoa #nzFringeFestival

Tonight, 20 Feb. 7-8.30om, at 2/57 Willis St Tadra Vata Aotearoa begins with a celebration of poetry & spoken word. Hana Buchanan, Makanaka Tuwe & Kris Girven share new & recent work in an intimate evening of poetry & pose.  Tickets from @studiokiin #TadraVata #TadraVataAotearoa #nzFringeFestival

One of my best summer reads was Louise Erdrich’s Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country. I was immersed in Ojibwe Country as Louise journeyed with her 18-month old child through lakes & lands, stone paintings, an island with a library, & through it all the relationship with her baby & the Ojibwe language

E-tangata’s back from their summer break. There’s articles on Luxton’s Waitangi speech (his speech highlights the need to keep teaching history). There’s also articles on prison (we do recommend Harry Walker’s ‘A Voice For The Silenced’ for some reality about justice here). Do dive into e-tangata

#everydayiswaitangiday Everyday we need to understand, know who we are & where we stand & everyday we can stand together for kotahitanga.
We’ve some writers on the blackboard to remind us & with a shout out for BWB books @etangata.bsky.social #toitūtetiriti

Parliament’s back to sitting so here’s some nz politics books: Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men, Max Rashbrooke’s Inequality, Tony Simpson’s A Vision Betrayed, and Bruce Jesson’s To Build A Nation (I wonder what Bruce would be saying now about the state of things if he were still alive #nzpolitics

Want a rainy day read? We’ve a new selection of Penguins: Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, Edward W. Said’s Orientalism & Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched Of The Earth.
& Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, & Plato’s Republic

Thanks so much! We like trying to keep books alive and re-homed.

I’ve just reread Margaret Killjoy’s ‘A Country of Ghosts’ - great stuff

Today Saturday 6 Dec at 5pm our friends & neighbours at
Opportunity for Animals are launching their new cookbook. It’s a fundraiser for the continued care of their rescued animals.

We’ve got programmes in Book Haven for songs of solidarity (SOS) - a 3 day book festival celebrating, acknowledging, & sharing stories of resistance & resilience, songs from indigenous & intersectional voices across aotearoa and the global south - Friday 3/12-Sunday 7/12
songsofsolidarity.com

The quote graffitied by Neil Roberts before his death was from Junta Tuitiva of La Pa: ‘We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity’.
Here’s a longer read about how and why the bombing of the Wanganui Computer happened:
ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article...

As today is known to some as Neil Roberts Day, we thought a display of books about surveillance is appropriate. On 18/11/1982 the Wanganui Computer building was bombed by Neil, he was killed instantly. For context on how and why this happened read:
www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wir...

Announcing the fact that we have new bookmarks!

Today is the J.D. Stout Annual Lecture and
Toby Boraman is talking: ‘Knocking off: Strikes in Aotearoa New Zealand 1968–1986‘
It’s at 4pm, 14 November, at GBLT1 (Old Government Buildings) Pipitea Campus, Lambton Quay. #StoutLecture #nzUnions

Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans | Robert Reich Working with the Trump administration, the data company could be used to target the president’s opponents

And the person behind Palantir is NZ resident Peter Thiel, given residence in 2011 due to his “exceptional circumstances” - after spending only a total of 12 days in the country. Here’s a recent Guardian article about Theil and Palantir and Trump and AI etc etc www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Today is the Fifth of November, Parihaka Day.

'You cannot know who you are as a society unless you know your history' – Jim Bolger Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger’s death last week sparked a wave of tributes from across the political spectrum, including warm words of remembrance from...

It's always important to know our histories, but now with the rise of populist politics, we really do need school students to understand. In article below @vomalley.bsky.social quotes Jim Bolger 'You cannot know who you are as a society unless you know your history'

buttondown.com/unsettling/a...

28/10 was Te Pūtake o te Riri/He Rā Maumahara & the anniversary of He Whakaputanga. Today, 29/10, the government has released the new Social Sciences curriculum & are gloating. They want to take 'the politics out of history' & return to the sort of text book pictured - a white-washed history. Shame

28/10/25 is Te Pūtake o te Riri, He Rā Maumahara – the national day of commemoration for the NZ wars.
It's also the date of the signing of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene in 1835. These days must be remembered; we need to know & understand the stories of what has passed in this land.

Book Haven’s Blackboard for the last few days has been: ‘Real books don’t die (or feed algorithms!)
There were a few queries about what really is an algorithm - and it did spark an interest in our Maths books! #mathbooks #secondhandbookshop #blackboardsigns

Congratulations to LandFall. It is fantastic to see the 250th issue: Landfall Tauraka! We hope there will be many, many more issues to come. Landfall is a true treasure - we take delight in having so many back issues here at Book Haven. #landfall #landfalltauraka #lft250 #nzjournals #secondhandbooks

Council for Civil Liberties book published in 1985.

This Wednesday 15 Oct is the launch of Protect Protest. many people have concerns with govt proposals to significantly impact the right to protest, so we recommend finding out more protectprotest.nz The coalition includes @nzccl.org.nz so we thought it was a good time to profile a 1985 NZCCL book.

It’s Banned Books week 2025, so we’ve got some titles on the blackboard of just a few books that have been banned at some stage, including some NZ ones: A Way of Love by James Courage, The Butcher Shop by Jean Devanny, Washday at the Pa by Ans Westra, & Safe Marriage by Ettie Rout. #BannedBooksWeek

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori Ake ake ake We’ve got old & new study te Reo books + to support te Reo Māori as a Forever Language, we think it’s important to know where we stand Some authors we recommend are Ranginui Walker, Tina Ngata, Ani Mikaere & also check out BWB texts #TeWikioTeReo #MaoriLanguageWeek

I (and nor does the shop @bookhavennz.bsky.social ) have a copy of The Glass Hotel, I borrowed that one from the library. Emily St. John Mandel is very popular in our shop, she lingers for only a few days on the shelves before finding a new home.

I binged a few months ago - exactly the same set. I do like her writing.

A timely arrival of books about fascism have just arrived: ‘Blood In The Face’ - the rise of white supremacists & Christian fundamentalists in the USA, ‘No Retreat’ - the fight against fascism in Britain in the 1980s - 90s, & ‘Blood of Spain’ - an oral history of the Spanish revolution #FightFascism

Everyone we talk with should also know that using X/twitter amplifies Musk's views. Our friends still on twitter need to get off!