Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Announcing the War for Auckland So for the first time we’re opening up the opportunity to contribute to The Spinoff financially via our PledgeMe campaign. We’re asking for money for this specific project, from both businesses and individuals, to chip in … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 29 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird In its second week at number one in Wellington and Auckland – … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 22 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Number one in Auckland, number one in Wellington! “I love attention,” … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 15 UNITY WELLINGTON 1. Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Her, here. 2. Salt River Songs (Potton & Burton, $25) by … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Arthur Grimes: How to fix a broken Auckland? Add 150,000 homes to crash prices by 40% “The question then is how can Auckland grow and at the same time have house prices that become affordable for more people. Logically, the only answer to … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 8 AUCKLAND UNITY 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one for the fifth week … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Geoffrey Palmer: The political elites foisted a new system on ordinary Brits. Little wonder they’re grabbing it back “So when the people have an opportunity to decide they reject it. Their fear about jobs and their sense of insecurity about immigration are entirely understandable. They … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 1 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd The Nun man’s memoir is … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 24 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one for the third week … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Alex Casey and Hayden Donnell: This article about terrible millennials is quite sexist and dumb “The article – written by the usually great feature writer Mike White – is mostly a collection of rheumy-eyed reminiscings for an imaginary bygone age, where men were men, … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 17 UNITY BOOKS WELLINGTON 1. In Love with These Times: The Flying Nun Story (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd You’ve bought the book (or should), now read … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Madeleine Holden: ‘This is how you raise a rapist’: on the culture which created Brock Turner “Mr Turner held attitudes about women, consent and entitlement that fed through to his son and helped to inform his behaviour. This became evident throughout the trial and … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Madeleine Chapman: John Key suggested we Google TradeMe for homes under $500,000. So we did, and here they are “Of the 6548 properties listed in Auckland, 65 had an asking price below $500,000, 20 of which were over $495k.” Tainui Stephens: Blindness to … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: the best-selling books at the Auckland and Wellington stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 3 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1. A Little Life (Picador, $25) by Hanya Yanagihara Still at number one in its umpteenth week! It’s big, it’s harrowing, it’s good. … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Sacha McNeil: “My work BFF is leaving” – Sacha McNeil farewells Hilary Barry “A couple of years ago Hilary took me aside and earnestly explained that she wanted a mentor, and wondered if we could be that to each other. She went on to … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: the best-selling books at the Auckland and Wellington stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: May 27 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1. A Little Life ($25) by Hanya Yanagihara The novel you have to read, apparently; it’s been the number one best-seller … Read more
A new weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: the best-selling books at the Auckland and Wellington stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: May 20 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1. A Little Life ($35) by Hanya Yanagihara The best book of 2015; love and a great many characters in a big, … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Tim Murphy: What happens when you appear before a judge you called a c*** on Facebook? “A man named Troy LaRue found the story on social media, and made an uncomplimentary remark about Roberts’ appearance. Unluckily, he was summonsed to the court for unpaid traffic fines a few … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Alex Casey and Duncan Greive: ‘I will come forward’ “At 11pm, in her inner city Auckland flat, a 26-year-old product manager named Bridget read Allison’s Facebook post. They’d known one another for 14 years, but she had been unaware of Allison’s history with Tidball. It … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Gareth Morgan: Why is a Right-to-Life campaigner leading the inquiry in the right to assisted death? “To have the Chair of our Health Select Committee not open to evidence and reasoning is a travesty of natural justice, indefensible anywhere apart from a theological state … Read more
Last night’s episode of Shortland Street saw the debut of a trans character, played by a trans actor. But the show has tackled important social issues from day one. Last night in Ferndale a boy in a hoodie shuffled around the hospital’s glass cabinetry, looking caught between an egg salad sandwich and a mince and cheese … Read more
There’s a lot you can learn about hacking from Mr Robot, some of which might not be as complex as you think. Alex Casey lists some life hacks from the pilot episode. I watched the first episode of Mr Robot last night, the much-buzzed about cyber thriller that has hacked through the dark web all the … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Woah, busy alert! I see you, shuffling papers and scrolling through your calendar with a furrowed brow. Life is crazy, life is hectic. TV? Forget about it! What a nightmare! Lucky for you, we have had a scan of the week ahead and have got your five essential television appointments booked. Sit back, relax and let the … Read more
Most people like to watch TV. I like to look at TVs. For the past five years I’ve been trawling through TradeMe and saving photos of televisions to my hard drive, with a collection that totals in the hundreds and is quickly approaching the thousands. It’s a bizarre obsession that started innocently enough. I needed … Read more
Duncan Greive and Alex Casey run through the Emmy nominations for 2015, picking their favourites to take home the dangerously spiky golden awards. Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series: Better Call Saul • AMC • Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill Bloodline • Netflix • Kyle Chandler as John Rayburn House Of Cards • Netflix • … Read more
Alex Casey looks back across the week in television and picks her favourite moments, including The Bachelorette’s sex scandal and Hosking’s skinny jeans ratings smash. 1. True Detective’s Premiere Flat as a Circular Pancake Okay, I overstated that a bit – but it was definitely more pancake than three tier wedding cake, right? As I … Read more