An excerpt from Pip Desmond’s best-selling memoir about her mother’s descent into dementia. I read about a hairdresser who had three customers pass away under the hairdryer; she took it as a compliment that they’d felt relaxed enough to do so. That could have been Mum. She had been going to David’s hair salon in Wadestown once … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Victor Billot. The Hierarchy Invisible homeless The dead Care worker Solo mother (bad suburb) Loan shark Bottom feeder Dolt Poet Casual employee PhD in Fine Arts Intern Experimental rodent Minion Serf Serf (creative industries) Mid-career journalist Ten years to go and holding on desperately “Between jobs” Climate scientist Aspirational … Read more
The best-selling books this week at the Unity Books stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 No One Home: A Boyhood Memoir in Letters & Poems by Keith Westwater (Makaro Press, $25) Publisher’s blurbology: “No One Home tells the story of Keith Westwater growing up in 1950s New Zealand. At … Read more
Louisa Kasza reviews a bright, expansive novel that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the New York drag queen scene of the 1980s. Joseph Cassara’s novel The House of Impossible Beauties charts the highs and deadly lows of gay life in 1980s New York City. Angel, Venus, Juanito and Daniel are all members of … Read more
Jacinda Ardern’s care package for the new royal baby includes 15 kids books chosen by author Kate De Goldi. She writes about her selection. I have a bunch of go-to titles for new babies – black and white board books for first reads, nursery rhyme collections for ever, favourites by New Zealand writers and artists for … Read more
Steph Matuku reviews the new book by Parris Goebel – dancer, superstar, role model for Polynesian youth. Parris Goebel is so driven and motivated I had to read the book lying down just to catch my breath. Short story: realised at a very young age that she loved dance and dropped out of school at … Read more
Adi Leason tells the full, unlikely story of the Catholic activists who invaded the government’s surveillance station at Waihopi, and deflated its famous dome. It was after 5pm when Manu and I finally arrived in Picton. Sam and Father Peter were waiting for us in a rental car. We joked around about a last supper and … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Claudia Jardine. The Vodka Rondeau In the spare room there is a bed below the mould and rusted red of the top flat’s hot water tank, which burst and made the room so rank that you can’t sleep there clear-headed. We are the deaded; few drinks bled … Read more
The week’s best selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey (Macmillan, $38) From the office of the President, tweet 1: “James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the … Read more
“There is nothing more miserable, pointless, expensive and anxiety-provoking than going through life worrying that some food you ate will give you cancer,” writes George Henderson, in his review of a new study which considers the food we eat, and what it’s doing to our bodies. Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling … Read more
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble. Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. Like last night, on the … Read more
Elizabeth Knox – whose novel The Vintner’s Luck has been named by Spinoff readers as the best New Zealand book of the past 50 years – reaches into her sunhat and plucks out the name of a lucky winner in our amazing book prize. The Spinoff Review of Books recently published the entire list of … Read more
Veteran Herald sports reporter Wynne Gray has written a new book about what happens to rugby players when they hang up their boots. In this excerpt, Mark “Bull” Allen – the All Blacks prop who led the Hurricanes in the Super 12 in 1996, and played 110 games for Taranaki – tells his story. The end came … Read more
Classic verse from 1980 by John Cooper Clarke, ahead of his show at the Crystal Palace in Mt Eden on Saturday night. Evidently Chickentown The fucking cops are fucking keen To fucking keep it fucking clean The fucking chief’s a fucking swine Who fucking draws a fucking line At fucking fun and fucking games … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the Unity Books stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Plundering Beauty: A History of Art Crime During War by Arthur Tompkins (Lund Humphries UK, $70) “There is a surprising amount of art crime in New Zealand,” Tompkins recently said in an interview in Lawtalk, the … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books celebrates the rich, fascinating history of New Zealand literature. Today: Scott Hamilton Hamilton notices something missing in the long, feverish construction of New Zealand literature – the rest of the Pacific. Near the end of his life, Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story about the reappearance of the … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books celebrates the rich, fascinating history of New Zealand literature. Today: a photo essay on the graves of famous New Zealand writers. Hone Tuwhare immortalised the tangi of James K Baxter at Jerusalem on October 25, 1972, in his famous poem “Heemi”. It’s a narrative of driving overnight from his … Read more
We’re delighted to launch the first episode of our new monthly podcast about books and the people who write them. Welcome to Papercuts, the podcast all about books! Introducing your hosts: Jenna Todd is the manager of Time Out Bookstore in Mt Eden and reviews books regularly for RNZ and 95bFM. Louisa Kasza is a … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books celebrates the rich, fascinating history of New Zealand literature. Today: Paula Green remembers Gloria Rawlinson, Auckland’s ‘famous young poet’ of the 1930s. Postscript by Steve Braunias. Gloria Rawlinson seemed old and frail in her wheelchair when I met her in the early 1990s. I was working at Auckland’s Art Gallery Bookshop, and … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books celebrates the rich, fascinating history of New Zealand literature. Today: win the entire 2018 Ockham New Zealand awards shortlist of 16 books as we present – for the first time in one place – the entire list of every winner since the national book awards were created 50 … Read more
New verse by West Auckland writer Michael Steven. Neilson Street Nearly always it is still dark when he threads the chain of the roller door through his hands, and as that steel door shudders and shrieks as it rolls up, he will most certainly be wearing his red waist-cut woollen Swanndri, the … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the Unity Books stores in High St, Auckland and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B Peterson (Allen Lane, $40) “Many people have written to me asking what they should read to properly educate themselves. Here is a list of books that I found particularly influential in … Read more
“Tyrants around the dinner table, fake news inside our heads”: Charlotte Graham-McLay celebrates the new novel by Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw. When I was a kid and nicked books from my parents’ bedroom because I’d run out of my own (the trick was to write down the page the bookmark was on, demolish the whole … Read more
An essay by Philip Matthews in response to the publication of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture. I keep hearing about allegedly weird Joaquin Phoenix interviews that don’t really seem that weird at all. Internet news alerts say we need to talk about that Joaquin Phoenix interview or they might put out some quick Buzzfeed summary … Read more
The fourth instalment of Peter Wells’ diary of life with cancer, republished from his private Facebook with permission. Read part one here, part two here and part three here. February 20 I’m the luckiest person on earth. I always feel this when I walk into our Napier house. It’s really where Douglas and I are truly … Read more
‘Be kind to animals,’ Gwen Shepherd instructed an avid listening audience when her wedding was broadcast in 1930, as told in an extract from a new book by Peter Hoar. Gwen Shepherd wore a gown of ivory georgette when she married Bruce Stennett at Wellington’s St Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, now known as Old St Paul’s, on Wednesday, … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa reviews the latest collection from the godfather of New Zealand fanzines. New Zealand being New Zealand we could all probably think of people hammering away in their chosen creative field that deserve wider mainstream recognition: Jo Randerson; … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Rachel McAlpine. But when? Most of us are afraid of a slow fade, a late grave. Most of us equate old age with panic and despair and things we could not bear. We say, Not us! No way! We want to be hit by a bus. … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Terry’s Dumb Dot Story: Treehouse Tale by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (Pan Macmillan, $2) Yes, really: $2! 2 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperCollins, $25) Yes, really: she’s completely fine! 3 Driving … Read more