To mark the 50th Ockham book awards earlier in the year, we asked 50 experts – authors, publishers, academics, booksellers – to name the very best local books published since 1968. Originally published on May 14, 2018 And the winner is Plumb. Maurice Gee’s 1979 novel was almost immediately regarded as The Great New Zealand … Read more
We asked former All Black great Bob Burgess to review a new book on his team-mate Keith Murdoch. But then we changed our mind, and asked his wife Linda Burgess to write whatever she wanted about rugby. This was originally published 8 August 2018. A rugby game lasts a whole day. Your father wears a … Read more
John Summers gets to grips with one of the year’s most popular books, a self-help guide to feeling good, deciding what’s really important in your life, and “banging blondes”: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. First published on 21 June 2018. Surely weekends are the most stressful days of the week. The petty … Read more
The top ten best-sellers of 2018 at the Unity store in Willis St, Wellington. See also: The bestselling books of 2018 at Unity, Auckland 1 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown, $35) The most popular book of the year was a novel about gay writer Arthur Less as he travels the world on a literary tour and dreads his … Read more
The top 10 best-sellers of the year at the Little Unity bookstore for kids in High St, Auckland. 1 Maui & Other Legends by Peter Gossage (Penguin Random House, $40) 6+. “Peter Gossage was a true household name in New Zealand, because almost every family read and loved his picture books,” Paula Morris wrote at The Spinoff, … Read more
The top ten best-sellers of 2018 at the Unity store in High St, Auckland. 1 The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson (MacMillan, $35) Self-help in the Age of Trump. Manson’s book really hit a nerve, and kept pressing it all throughout the year; there was barely a week when The … Read more
All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number one, the very best: Kim Hill reviews Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People. The buzz around young Irish writer Sally Rooney made it very difficult to review Normal People. Even to read it. Would it be as good as everyone insists it … Read more
All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number two: Leonie Hayden reviews the text book Māori Made Easy 2 by Scotty Morrison. This is about Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy 2. This is not about Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy 2. It’s about te reo Māori, and the hole … Read more
All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number three: Peter Wells reviews Calypso by David Sedaris. Many people know the sound of David Sedaris’s voice – high, thin, a drizzle of ironic sound. He himself says he has a “lady voice” and part of his shtick is being mistaken … Read more
All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number four: Linda Burgess reviews the Ottolenghi cookbook Simple. Why the hell do people buy recipe books? Someone should do their PhD on the number of people who buy one, use it three times, then go back to the usual 10 things … Read more
All week this week we name and review the five very best books of 2018. Today: Holly Walker reviews the fifth best book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a novel about the desperate joys of sleep. New York. Late 2000. Our narrator is 27. She is thin, pretty, tall, blond. White. She works at … Read more
The best-selling books this Christmas at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Penguin Random House, $55) The smash-hit memoir of Xmas. 2 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $65) Cookbook, nominated among the best 20 non-fiction books of 2018 at The Spinoff. 3 Patterson: Houses of … Read more
All week this week we present the best books of 2018. Today: the 20 best novels. Previously: the best kids books, poetry books and non-fiction books of 2018. Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam, $38) Reacher. Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33) Was the Irish writer’s love story the best novel of 2018? From the forthcoming … Read more
All week this week we present the 20 best books of the year. Today: the 20 best books of non-fiction. Previously: The 20 best kids books of 2018 The 20 best poetry books of 2018 Māori Made Easy: For everyday learners of the Māori language by Scotty Morrison (Penguin, $38) Oh just give this guy a … Read more
All week this week we present the 20 best books of the year. Today: the 20 best collections of poetry. Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble (Victoria University Press, $30) The best book of poetry published in New Zealand in 2018. Tibble’s debut collection is agile, daring, compelling. The poems draw whānau close and the women who matter … Read more
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
New poetry by Thames writer Bob Orr. Hawaiki My first university the freezing works at Horotiu – my first professor a tohunga in white overalls and gumboots who worked on the boning floor. One evening drinking beer as the setting sun was turning the Waikato River red … 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
Book of the Week: Charlotte Grimshaw reviews the profound final volume of the My Struggle series by the one and only Karl Ove Knausgaard. The first thing to say about The End, the sixth and final volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s series, My Struggle, is that it’s 1153 pages long. It’s enormous and it’s a … 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
An essay by Sarah Forster from Booksellers New Zealand about the threat that the Amazon-owned Book Depository poses to bookstores – and, ultimately, readers. Every time I tell somebody that Amazon owns Book Depository, they’re surprised, astonished, aghast. So let’s put that on the record. Amazon purchased Book Depository in 2011. And they’re here to … Read more
The Monday Extract: “Stevie”, who works in the sex industry as a self-described “trans boy”, talks to social historian Caren Wilton. Photographs by Madeleine Slavick. I was born in a housebus in the early 1980s. On Dad’s side I’m Ngāpuhi, and on Mum’s side Ngāti Maniapoto, in the King Country. We travelled around lots when I was … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. Welcome to the final Papercuts for 2018. As always, we break down the latest book news, including Wellington’s LitCrawl, My Brilliant Friend on TV, and our old mate Jordan B Peterson visiting New Zealand next year. We announce … 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
New poetry by Auckland writer Steven Toussaint. Yes or No Are you happy with your service provider? Have you contemplated private piety’s competitive prices? Are you in the market for something like but not precisely eternal return? Have you been waiting long in our baffled room? … Read more
Book of the Week: Danyl Mclauchlan reviews a brilliant new biography of Friedrich Nietzsche, who declared, “I am not a man. I am dynamite!” It ended in Turin, on January 3, 1889 when Friedrich Nietzsche shuffled into the Piazza Carlo Alberta. Nietzsche was a sad, solitary figure; he spent his days in Turin’s bookshops, reading … 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
Steve Braunias reviews the new autobiography by Roger Daltrey, singer with one of the best and worst groups of all times, The Who. The Who! Godawful mostly, although not always. All those unlistenable rock operas and what-not. Tommy. Jesus. But even that fruity melodrama about a deaf, dumb and blind kid who sure did well … Read more
The Monday Extract: Wellington writer John-Paul Powley pulls together Parihaka, imperialism, capitalism, and catered lunches at education conferences in a searching essay on Māori achievement. “This bird [the ruru] with a hundred eyes was venerated in Taranaki, where Te Whiti had chosen this symbol and the stalking Pakeha cat for an action song depicting events that … Read more