Michael Bennett

"An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand's indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Māori screenwriter and director. A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription....

Plato said over 2,500 years ago that "an unexamined life for a man is not worth living." To examine one's life, on a regular basis, cannot but lead to a consideration of virtue, which in turn leads to a search for the Good, which both Plato and Plotinus say all men naturally seek. What we call a good informs the value system we live by, but a good can only reflect the Good, if it is good for our soul and the soul of our neighbor, any more than we...

This book probes the mysteries surrounding Simnel, raises new questions about his identity and charts the history of the rebellion ending at the battle of Stoke

"F*ck Feelings--this seriously irreverent roadmap reveals the essentials to look for when you're done being suckered by the promise of true love and want help seeking a real, lasting relationship." --

This is the heart-wrenching story of the author's mother, diagnosed with the fatal brain disorder, Alzheimer's. Together, she, and her eight-year-old dachshund, Rusty, confront the harrowing challenges of this powerful degenerative brain disease, in near total anonymity as they shut themselves off from the outside world. For two long years after diagnosis, they lived in solitude until circumstances dictated a different approach. Even round-the-clock...

"After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career as a detective in the Auckland CIB. Hoping that civilian life will offer her the opportunity to rest and recalibrate, she returns to her hometown of Tātā Bay, where she moves back in with her beloved father, Eru. Yet the memories of the past are everywhere, and as she goes for her daily run on the beach, Hana passes a local...

Fifty years after the publication of Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the Absurd, which suggests that "absurd" plays purport the meaninglessness of life, this book is a timely reassessment of one of the most important theatre "movements" of the 20th century. The author argues that these "absurd plays are, instead, ethical texts that suggest how life can be made meaningful. Analyzing the works of five major playwrights/writers of the 1950s (including...

A joyous cinematic exploration of music's capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett chronicles the astonishing experiences of individuals around the country who have been revitalized through the simple experience of listening to music.