The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to science. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 by Redmer Yska (Otago University Press, $40) “Wellington is revealed as grim, filthy, dangerous to health, and yet, in the course of this idiosyncratic mix of biography and memoir, Yska transforms the terrain into … Read more
What does adolescence look like in New Zealand? Bloody teenagers. Always having a good time despite the deep boringness of New Zealand life. A new book on the history of Kiwi adolescence shows teenagers having fun in boring towns where they attend boring schools and get boring jobs; over 230 snapshots, plus writings taken from … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in creation. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 The New Zealand Project by Max Harris (Bridget Williams Books, $40) Max! 2 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Vintage, $26) “Blessed be the fruit”: Atwood’s sci-fi vision of America as the deeply fucked-up republic of Gilead. 3 Swing Time by Zadie … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to God. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 by Redmer Yska (Otago University Press, $40) Brilliant retracing of KM’s footsteps when she lived in Wellington. Charlotte Grimshaw’s review is due to run in The Spinoff Review of Books any day now. 2 A Moral … Read more
Exclusive: a book by Steve Braunias, a memoir by the woman who was left for dead by Tony Dixon, and a former TV reporter’s investigation into the wrongful conviction of Teina Pora all feature in the shortlist for this year’s crime writing awards. Ye olde Spinoff Review of Books can exclusively reveal the finalists of … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in Auckland and Wellington. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) “Roy is good at titles”: pretty much the nicest thing our reviewer Marion McLeod had to say about this sprawling mess. 2 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores you ever did see. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet (Harvill Press, $35) Pretentious bullshit. 2 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) Trash, damningly reviewed by Marion McLeod at the Spinoff Review of Books. 3 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret … Read more
The results of a new poll show that the cover of the Cazador cookbook is not “shit”. The people have spoken. A new cookbook, slandered as “shit” by Spinoff books editor Steve Braunias, has been declared in an important new opinion poll to be “good”. The Spinoff ran a story of two halves on Tuesday. … Read more
Awesome photos from a magnificent new book on the history and glory of tōtara. Golden Bay botanist Philip Simpson knows his trees. He is the tree man. He is the root of all knowledge on trees, the first and last word on trees, the guy who puts trees on the map – he is the author of the magnificent … Read more