vicbooks. Textbooks, NZ books, general books ...

home > home

Benjamin Kemp's poem, Ju-ni Gatsu, has been chosen as the winner of vicbooks' poetry competittion. Jenny Bornholdt spoke of it being 'rich in detail and full of surprising images'. Follow this link to see Benjamin's poem and this link for the five Highly Commended poems.

And don't forget, you have until August 13th to enter a Short Story or two. Follow this link for entry details.

The 2010 Man Booker Prize long list has been announced. Thirteen books, known as the Booker Dozen, were selected from the 138 submitted books. Notably absent are Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan, but that doesn't take away from the high quality of the list, one of the stronger and more interesting of the last few years. See our blog post on this years list.


Awa Book of New Zealand Sports Writing $40.00


Breaking Dawn $27.99


Point Omega $34.99


Limping Man #3 Salt Trilogy $19.99

Power to the Paper: the inverted opportunity of eBooks

With the dawn of the ebook emerging from the crepuscular stage, publishers are desperate for a model to cling to so they surf ride the burgeoning light towards the morning tea-time of the ebook market. Strangely, I think, this... read more

NZ Baking with Alexa Johnston

vicbooks was lucky enough to hear Alexa Johnston talk with Laura Kroetsch about her obsession with baking at... read more

NZ Post Book Awards, 2010.

All in all, the finalists are a bit disappointing... read more

Jose Saramago, 1922 - 2010

The distinguished and respected Portuguese writer, Jose Saramago, has died at the age of 87... read more

Ulysses vs. Apple... well, almost.

While the Irish (and large numbers of other literary admirers) revel in Ulysses' history, many others are haggling over its present. Throwaway Horse, who has been adapting Ulysses into an online comic... read more

eTextbooks & ‘The Kno'

The big publishers are all fighting over the financial and electronic rights of the soul of the book. But what about all those books out there that don't have souls? ...read more

Books for the World Cup... read more

The Bestest Tweet of All

Stephen Fry, at the Hay Festival in Wales, announced the most beautiful tweet - spake by Canuck medical physicist Marc MacKenzie. Probably spoken quietly to himself as he shoulder-barged the particle accelerator... read more

New Yorker's 20 under 40 list

The editors of the New Yorker have constructed a list of the 20 best authors under 40 years of age. This must be one hell of a daunting task and, while I don't envy the arguments that will inevitably ensue over perceived, extant or absent talent, I'd still quite like to overhear them... read more

Oh Beauteous Tweet...

Through his wit, intelligence and honest exposition Stephen Fry has become dizzyingly popular all along the spectrum. All this has made him the perfect person to judge the new Hay Festival endeavor to find The Most Beautiful Tweet Ever Written. One might be dubious of such a goal... read more

2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist Announced see the list here

Men Don't Read

Apparently, within the publishing industry at large, there is a maxim that stomps around deeply affecting the books produced: 'Men don't read'. The maxim brings... read more

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.jpg
RRP $24.99

Buy now

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

by Tower Wells

This is a book of short stories any established writer would be proud of - that they have been produced by a debut author makes them more remarkable still. Plaudits and prizes are pouring in for Wells Tower's debut book, and deservedly so, it is a rare gem. Skeins of the bizarre run through recognisable norms in this collection - or sometimes the reverse - presenting scenarios easily related to with writing ability that is all too rare.

Each story in Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is distinctive and perfectly formed. Often populated by characters either in conflict with themselves or their surroundings, this book crafts the experience, love and anger of the young and old, capturing with his impeccable style and disturbing understanding the happenstance of everyday and every life existence. From fractured families, an alzheimic father or a teenage girl to a blithe and happy paedophile, even a Viking marauder, relating the politics of pillage, all the characters seem recognisable and terrifyingly sympathetic.

Tower's themes are often dark, but his humour and writing are remarkable, crafting sentences that bring forth unexpected laughs like you've just had the Heimlich Manoeuvre. These short stories could be scattered jewels but, combined in a single collection, they're a treasure of significant proportions.