All week this week The Spinoff Review of Books presents the best books of the year. Today: the best 20 books for kids. Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Walker, $28) Picture book 3+. On the train one day, Julian is mesmerised by three mermaids in beautiful colors, long hair, and flowing gowns. Julian imagines himself … Read more
Only 17 shopping days till Xmas, for God’s sake! Find what you’re looking for by perusing the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Upcycling With Style by Sarah Heeringa (New Holland, $40) Publisher’s blurbology: “Reclaim unloved objects and improve your home and garden with this inspiring … Read more
New Zealand literature! What is it, who reads it, and why does it exist? Some or none or all of these questions are about to be answered in the third annual Spinoff Review of Books literary awards. Some say 2018 will go down in history as the year between 2017 and 2019, but it’s too early … Read more
Only 25 shopping days till Xmas! Prepare NOW by windowshopping the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Viking, $55) “I love it because it faithfully reflects the woman I have loved for so long”: Barack Obama. 2 Normal People by … Read more
A round-up of 20 best-sellers this Christmas – featuring the world’s first ever recorded use of emoji reviews. 1 Shit Towns of New Zealand (Allen & Unwin, $24.99) ? 2 The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump by Rob Sears (Canongate, $28) ? 3 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33) ????? 4 Milkman by Anna … Read more
Only 32 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $65) The cookbook of 2018. 2 Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam, $38) Reacher! 3 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, … Read more
Only 39 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Tart & Bitter: Four Decades of Dining Nightmares by David Burton (Potton & Burton, $30) Food. 2 The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand poems edited by Steve Braunias … Read more
Only 46 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, $33) “The Man Booker-winning Milkman richly deserves its prize”: New Zealand Listener. 2 Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, $45) … Read more
A New Zealand reviewer thought that a line in a new novel by acclaimed Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes was about a “head-cold”. She has helpfully pointed out it was a period. “Very cool to be reviewed in New Zealand’s Dominion-Post,” Irish novelist Caoilinn Hughes wrote on the Twitter machine on Tuesday. This was in reference to … Read more
The star of Wellington’s awesome LitCrawl event this weekend is poet Kaveh Akbar, who has a great haircut. Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar will perform at Wellington’s annual LitCrawl event this weekend, and so will his haircut. Many say he has the best haircut in world literature. The evidence certainly strongly supports these claims. He is … Read more
Only 53 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber, $33) Winner of the 2018 Man Booker prize for fiction. “A young woman is forced into a relationship with an … Read more
Only 60 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestt-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Karori Confidential by Leah McFall (Luncheon Sausage Books, $25) Witty, luminous collection by the Sunday magazine columnist. So many zingers! “Karori is like Gloriavale without the … Read more
Only 67 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Karori Confidential by Leah McFall (Luncheon Sausage Books, $25) Witty, luminous collection by the Sunday magazine columnist. So many zingers! “Karori is like Gloriavale without the … Read more
Books, books and more books. No captions because our esteemed Braunias, Steve Braunias is away this week, but still, here are the best-selling books from the Unity stores on Willis Street, Wellington and High Street, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Heart of Jesus Valentino: A Mother’s Story by Emma Gilkison (Awa Press, $40) 2 Transcription by Kate Atkinson … Read more
We could have chosen some text from the new biography of the phenomenal Mika but yeah nah let the pictures do the talking. Jermaine Leef, Mika and Parai Parai in ‘Ahi Wai’ Kapai Kabaret photo shoot by Arjan Hoeflak, 1995. Mika in front of the sign at GayBiGayBi, SXSW, Austin, 2015, having just arrived on … Read more
Only 81 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38) “It is 1940 and Juliet Armstrong, in her late teens, educated but idealistic, is employed by a mysterious arm … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 That F Word: Growing up feminist in Aotearoa by Lizzie Marvelly (Harper Collins, $35) “This book is for the bossy little girl in all of us. It’s time that we disrupted the fuck out of the patriarchy.” … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Stardust and Substance: The New Zealand general election of 2017 edited by Stephen Levine (Victoria University Press, $40) Let’s do this, etc. 2 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38) “A spy’s assumed identities come back to haunt her … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $50) As soon as it arrived, it flew off the shelves; we look forward to the forthcoming review by Dita De Boni, and in the … Read more
Yes, exactly like the headline says, we’re giving away a massive 22 books via this weekend’s awesome Going West literary festival!!! The 2018 Going West literary festival takes place this weekend in Titirangi, that pleasant, rat-infested woodland suburb in Auckland. There will be a great deal of talk about literature and ideas and society, and … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON 1 Women, Equality, Power: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership by Helen Clark (Allen & Unwin, $45) “Helen Clark continues to assert her toughness, time after time. When she faced off against Sir Ray Avery over his proposed … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland (which is opening a new children’s bookstore right next door, this weekend, with prizes and balloons and saveloys*; get along, take the kids!) and Willis St, Wellington. *no saveloys AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) Popular novel. 2 Exactly: How Precision … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Welllington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 We Can Make a Life: A memoir of family, earthquakes and courage by Chessie Henry (Victoria University Press, $35) “I thought I knew the basic outline of what happened that day, but this was the first time … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. Throughout are images from Tatau: A Cultural History of Samoan Tattooing, reproduced with permission. AUCKLAND 1 Warlight: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) The blockbuster novel of 2018. 2 Coming To It: Selected Poems by Sam Hunt (Potton & Burton, $30) New verse … Read more
The week’s biggest selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and Hight St, Auckland. WELLINGTON 1 Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble (Text Publishing, $37) Ashleigh Young, speaking at the book launch: “Hinemoana Baker has said that Tayi’s poems have a liquid quality in the way they rush through time and the way their form … Read more
The week’s biggest selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 My Life, My Fight by Steven Adams with Madeleine Chapman (Penguin, $40) Woah! Number one with a bullet, in its first week in the stores; and on Thursday, Penguin announced it had sold the North American … Read more
The week’s bigget selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (Macmillan, $35) Wellington succumbs to the lure of Manson’s liberating advice. We blame John Summers. 2 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) “For … Read more
The week’s bestsellers at the Unity Books stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble (Victoria University Press, $20) The first book of poetry to claim the number-one spot since the Hera Lindsay Bird phenomenon. “The poetry event of 2018“: Steve Braunias, the Spinoff Review of Books. 2 … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (LittleBrown, $25) This gay US comedy has really taken off in New Zealand; it’s scarcely been out of the Unity top 10 for the last two, three months, and word of … Read more