Ian Fraser on a new, brilliantly told account of the famous 1862 killings on a remote track between Nelson and Marlborough. It’s hard to imagine anyone telling the story of colonial psychopath Richard Burgess (1829-66) better than Wayne Martin in this gripping and vivid history. Step by step, Martin shows the leader of the Burgess Gang following … Read more
Half a million people attended last week’s literary festival in Jaipur, India. Half a million! There was anti-Muslim debate, a famous author described Trump as America’s “dick pic”, and police roamed around in camel-coloured berets. Sam Gaskin reports. In Jaipur’s historic pink city, people pick their way through narrow lanes littered with Nestea paper cups … Read more
Adrienne Jansen tells about the night she was asked to come to her local police station to deal with a refugee picked up on a drink-driving charge. It was the last night of a university writing course. Twelve of us sat around and read our work aloud and talked politely about publishing opportunities. I went … Read more
This week in 2003, Tony Dixon took to two women with a Samurai sword. Simonne Butler sets the scene for the attack in her new, powerful memoir. When we entered the carport I saw a nail gun and shivered. An eerie feeling overcame me, but dissipated as I walked on. As soon as we entered the front … Read more
Is Alan Greenspan the demon author of the GFC, or a true immortal of central banking? A monumental new biography persuasively argues he was neither – but that his latter-day critics have got him wrong, writes Duncan Greive. There are two Alan Greenspans in popular mythology, each in direct contradiction to the other. The first … Read more
Buddy Mikaere reviews the historical recount of New Zealand’s wars and political climates in The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800 – 2000 and the messages it has for the future. I went to a small country primary school in South Waikato and one year we re-enacted the Battle of Pukehinahina/Gate Pa on the … Read more
Been outside the house this summer? Actually done one of the Great Walks? John Summers reviews a new book which ponders the nature of the hike, the tramp, the trail. It’s felt like a secret shame, but in more than 15 years of tramping, I’ve always stuck, rigidly, myopically to the track. Once, early on, … Read more
Philip Matthews examines three new books looking back on the day the music died: December 6, 1969, when the Hells Angels murdered a guy at that Stones concert at Altamont. “I looked away from Mick and saw, with that now-familiar instant space around him, bordered with falling bodies, a Beale Street nigger in a black hat, black … Read more
Gary Steel surveys two new biographies by two old foes from the Beach Boys – Brian Wilson (genius) and Mike Love (asshole), and finds the asshole’s book is better. In the left corner, the drug-fucked genius, the Bach of modern pop: BRIAN WILSON! In the right corner, the craven villain that everyone loves to hate, the … Read more
In late August we ran a piece by Joan Druett on her new biography of 19th century sea captain William “Bully” Hayes, who roamed the Pacific and New Zealand. Michael Field was among those who were concerned that it failed to properly address Hayes’s involvement in “blackbirding”; we asked him to write an essay in response to the … Read more
Ahead of the Ockham national book awards in May, Graeme Lay shuddered to recall the time the award for best novel went to a bogan – and Steve Braunias barges his way in at the end of the story, and adds a highly unusual postscript. Originally posted May 9, 2016 Book awards are wonderful. They’re … Read more
One of the most remarkable books ever written about crime, race, religious voodoo, and the New Zealand way of life and death is the Ngati Dread trilogy by journalist Angus Gillies. He self-published these three very strange and quite epic accounts of a five-year period (1985-1990) when there was a kind of Maori Rasta uprising … Read more
FFS! It’s Xmas Eve, and you still haven’t done your Xmas shopping? We identify 10 kinds of readers and match them with 10 books published in 2016 guaranteed to bring pleasure and that. Non-fiction FOR SOMEONE WHO LIKES DRUGS Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (Allen Lane, $55) by Norman Ohler * FOR SOMEONE WHO LIKES NEW … Read more
Who are the most powerful figures in the new generation of New Zealand literature? The most innovative, the most awarded, the most industrious? A panel of young experts exchanged their views over Snapchat and things like that until they agreed on the top 10. Originally posted October 31, 2016 1 Hera Lindsay Bird But not … Read more
Middle-brow fiction, Hera Lindsay Bird, literary fiction, and studies of loneliness, death, and Flying Nun feature among the biggest-selling books of the year at the best bookstore in Auckland. 1 All the Light We Cannot See (Fourth Estate, $25) by Anthony Doerr So there you have it: the most popular book of the year is a novel … Read more
Hera Lindsay Bird, middle-brow fiction, literary fiction, satire, and Harry bleeding Potter feature among the biggest-selling books of the year at the best bookstore in Wellington. 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird “Way out in front,” says Unity supremo Tilly Lloyd. A book of poetry, way out in front; a … Read more
Nick Bollinger! He’s ace. He’s written about music with insight and feeling, and a lot of that stems from his background in bands. He recalls going out on the road with Rough Justice in this excerpt from his new, excellent memoir Goneville, which we totally recommend as a Xmas gift for the muso in your … Read more
The most popular books this Xmas at the Unity Books stores in Wellington and Auckland. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Fucking Apostrophes (Icon Books, $19) by Simon Griffin Number one in both the Wellington and Auckland store’s! 2 At The Beach (New Holland, $35) by Margaret Brooker Summer recipes. 3 The Sympathizer (Piatkus, $28) by Viet Thanh … Read more
There ain’t no Friday Poem today. Instead, the Spinoff’s team of experts have chosen their favourite five books of poetry published in 2016, and guarantee that each book would make a really good Xmas gift. Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird There are 17 people in New Zealand yet to buy … Read more
Sarah Forster – a judge at next year’s children’s book awards – chooses the best 20 local and international books of the year. PICTURE BOOKS That’s Not a Hippopotamus (Gecko Press, $19.99) by Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis A hilarious take on the plight of the quiet boy who is the only person who can … Read more
You’ve seen all the other best-of books lists and as the saying goes: they’re shit! Yeah nah this is the only one you need, as the Spinoff’s team of democratic experts bring together memoir, history, survivor’s stories, boxing, shops and other subjects from real life. Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved & … Read more
You’ve seen all the other best-of books lists and as the saying goes: they’re shit! Yeah nah this is the only one you need, as the Spinoff’s team of democratic experts bring together literary fiction, New Zealand stuff, and total fucking awesomely readable junk. Commonwealth (Bloomsbury, $33) by Ann Patchett The Spinoff’s choice as the best novel … Read more
In his first speech after getting the formal tick from his caucus, and ahead of a trip to Government House to be sworn in as prime minister, Bill English has proved his literary credentials by reading a line from a poem. Go poetry. Go English Lit Bill. Here we publish the poem in full. Prime … Read more
Linda Burgess reviews the Spinoff’s choice as the best book of 2016 – Anne Sebba’s extraordinary portrait of women in occupied France, Les Parisiennes. You’d like to think that if the barbarians did come through the gate, you’d at the very least make it clear you didn’t welcome them. You’d even hope, that given the usual … Read more
What’s everyone reading – and buying – at Xmas? Fucking Apostrophes and other gift ideas, going by the latest Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Auckland and Wellington. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Fucking Apostrophes (Icon Books, $19) by Simon Griffin Your cool Simon! 2 Wish Child (Victoria University Press, $30) by Catherine Chidgey “This is … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. Tag From the tangle of trees by the Warrender Street steps near where city council crews have been deleting the fuck-cunts and dick pics sprayed on the path, sharper than the doof-doof of the stereo from a student party in the valley’s dank trench, comes the … Read more
All week this week Spinoff Review of Books editor Steve Braunias recommends the very best, A-grade quality, guaranteed good books for Christmas. Today: The Shops, by Spinoff Review of Books editor Steve Braunias, in collaboration with photographer Peter Black. Here to promote it by way of a contentious essay is Spinoff Review of Books editor … Read more
All week this week we recommend the very best, A-grade quality, guaranteed good books for Christmas. Today: Elizabeth Smither reviews the medical memoir by Middlemore sawbones Dr David Galler, Things That Matter. I have a weakness for books written by doctors – medical books, autobiographies, reminiscences that combine medical information and terminologies with the humanity of the … Read more
All week this week we recommend the very best, A-grade quality, guaranteed good books for Christmas. Today: Melinda Johnston reviews the Sarah Laing book/comic, Mansfield and Me. Sarah Laing is a novelist, comics artist, blogger and poet with a large and devoted following. From what I’d seen of Laing’s other comics, such as Let Me … Read more