The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending January 15

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37) If you’re in any way unsure about Stephen Fry … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending 18 December

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37) Would read absolutely anything retold by Stephen Fry. 2 Shuggie … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending 10 December

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, $35) Counterpoint: go spend 20 minutes in Westfield St Lukes. Actually any … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending December 4

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  Hiakai: New Māori Cuisine by Monique Fiso (Godwit, $65) Meri kirihimete! 2  A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Penguin Random House, … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 26

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Penguin Random House, $70) The first volume of Obama’s presidential memoirs, released four years after … Read more

Promises, promises: Barack Obama’s new memoir, reviewed

Shipping delays mean bookstores are placing massive one-off orders rather than sitting back to see what sells. They’ve gone huge on Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land – there are probably enough copies in the country to dam Cook Strait. Luckily, Danyl Mclauchlan writes, it is in fact good. I somehow forgot that Obama could … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 20

Doug Stuart on big screen during Booker Prize 2020 ceremony

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1  The Promised Land by Barack Obama (Penguin Random House, $70) If you see Danyl Mclauchlan not reading this memoir over the … Read more

A swamp full of fools: Who plays who on The Comey Rule

The Comey Rule, which revolves around FBI director James Comey in the run-up to the 2016 US election and the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, drops on Neon this week. Here’s a rundown of the cast of characters in the political mire of the US, and who’s playing who. Jeff Daniels as James Comey … Read more

‘You cannot dismiss us’: A review of Booker winner Girl, Woman, Other

Himali McInnes looks past the fact that the first black woman to win the Booker had to bloody share it and focuses on the book –  in itself a treasure.  Girl, Woman, Other is the smart, urbane eighth novel by Bernadine Evaristo. Born in London of Nigerian, German and Irish descent, Evaristo is the first … Read more

Before the White House: Four stunning new images of Barack, Michelle & co

Today, longtime Time photographer Callie Shell releases a book of intimate images taken over more than a decade she spent photographing the Obamas. Hope, Never Fear is not a love-fest, she insists: “it is, instead, my personal portrait of a journey that changed us all for the better.”  Here is the book’s introduction, abridged.  I … Read more

Book of the Week: Linda Burgess reviews Becoming by Michelle Obama

Linda Burgess on the biggest-selling, most-loved book of summer: Becoming, the memoir by Michelle Obama. Celebrity memoirs are usually written by someone else. I’m fairly sure this isn’t the case with Becoming. There’s a lengthy list of people to thank in the book’s acknowledgements (“Many of my former staff helped confirm critical details and time … Read more

Bridget Jones goes to the White House: a racy new political memoir

Chloe Blades finds joy in a memoir of the Obama Presidency by a millennial stenographer, who is instructed to ‘exude femininity in a strictly non-sexual way’. Since The Donald was sworn in as leader of the free world, raucous exposés have made their way out of the White House and into the once resistible American … Read more

The Spinoff reviews New Zealand #57: that Air NZ ad goading Steve Smith

We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, the national carrier’s online video mocking the humiliated Australians The Newshub headline called it a “ruthless offer”. Stuff called it as a “cheeky offer”. Friendly local website the Spinoff thinks it was “a bit of a dick-move offer”. That offer, … Read more

How long is it since Barack Obama hasn’t tweeted about New Zealand?

It is only a matter of time until the former US president bestows upon a humble nation some upbeat social media content. Here we measure that matter of time. Incontrovertibly, Barack Obama’s recent visit to New Zealand, during which he travelled the length and breadth of two golf courses, was a massive boon to this … Read more

The audacity of ho-hum: Barack Obama in New Zealand

At the end of a week in which the New Zealand media swooned at the presence of a former president completing a few private rounds of golf and a few private speeches, what, asks Finlay Macdonald, did it really amount to? He came, he saw, he … putted. No, former US president Barack Obama’s visit to New Zealand will … Read more

The Bulletin: Tensions take off between Air NZ, government

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Finance Minister considers influencing Air NZ through board appointments, Plunket volunteers might walk out, and everyone’s favourite former President is in town.  Air New Zealand has complained to finance minister Grant Robertson, over attacks by regional economic development minister Shane Jones, reports the NZ Herald. But the complaints don’t … Read more

Climate change: 21 Voices on COP21, the Crucial Climate Meeting in Paris

The French capital will host close to 50,000 visitors from Monday for the milestone fortnight-long climate summit. In the lead-up to the event, many people have had a lot to say. Below is a selection of the best and most eye-raising verbal (and illustrative) emissions. 1. Christiana Figueres: Paris Will Mark, Rather than Create, a … Read more

Politics: “So You Actually Talk to the New Zealanders” – Obama to Turnbull

During a quiet moment at the Apec summit in Manila, microphones picked up Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and US President Barack Obama chatting like any pair of old geezers might, about bilaterals and what have you, and Obama has the gall to say “You actually talk to the New Zealanders?” He’s kidding, relax, he’s kidding. … Read more

Politics: Photochop – John Key Catches Up Really Quickly with Barack Obama at the UN

Unpicking the meaning in a picture of the prime minister standing in reasonably close proximity with Potus. The New Zealand prime minister, John Key, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, or the “UNGA games” as the event is probably not known. He had hoped to catch a moment with the US … Read more