The podcast all about books is back to discuss the best new titles to add to your 2021 reading pile. It’s the most exciting time of the year in the New Zealand book world as the Ockham New Zealand Book Award longlist has just been announced. We also have a line up of three New … Read more
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso and Jacinda Ardern, a bunch … Read more
Upper Hutt’s library recently became the fifth in New Zealand to abolish late fees. Should others follow suit? In February 2018, American librarian Dawn Wacek delivered a Ted Talk arguing that library late fees should be done away with completely. Her contention: overdue fees do nothing to incentivise people to return their books, but instead … Read more
Welcome to Papercuts, the podcast all about books! Sit back, relax and let Jenna, Kiran and Louisa tempt you with the best new titles to add to your book stack. The gang are back with their usual witches’ brew of book news, insightful book reviews and discussions, not-book reviews and their dangerously teetering TBR piles. … Read more
Creative Rights = Creative Reads is a new campaign dedicated to educating Aotearoa about the crucial role that rights play for enabling local authors, illustrators and publishers. In partnership with the campaign, we’ve put together a brief explainer on what it’s all about. Art by Ezra Whittaker. Written by Toby Morris
Nau mai ki ngā Pepakati – te pakihere rokiroki o ngā pukapuka! Welcome to Papercuts – the podcast all about books! Sit back, relax and let Jenna, Kiran and Louisa tempt you with some awesome reads to add to your pile. The Papercuts gals are back to help you navigate the huge flood of incredible books … Read more
Welcome back to The Spinoff’s bi-monthly books podcast, hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. The Papercuts team are finally back in The Spinoff studio this month with their usual winning recipe of book news, book recommendations, not books and their ever-growing ‘TBR’ piles. They anticipate the announcements of some big book prizes, … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Auckland writer Lil O’Brien’s memoir Not That I’d Kiss A Girl, and finds it a valuable yet unclear story of the author’s struggle with her own acceptance. As queer people, we can be unnecessarily harsh on media that is about us, and by us. I think of the response to Looking, the … Read more
Netflix’s adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club makes long-time fan Tara Ward fall in love with the series all over again. When I was 12 years old, my class had to write a letter to a famous person. Some of my classmates wrote to an All Black, Tom Cruise or Hulk Hogan. I wrote a four-page … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. Book news Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – the prize’s 25th year. The shortlist was announced on the Women’s Prize for Fiction social channels: Dominicana by Angie Cruz Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo A Thousand Ships by … Read more
Like bookstores across the country, Unity Books opened for online orders on Tuesday morning not quite knowing what to expect. Everyone across both teams is so wildly busy doing God’s work – getting books to where they need to be – that we can’t bring you a bestseller chart based on actual data this week. … Read more
Gentle, moving and a little bit sexy, the BBC and Hulu’s take on Sally Rooney’s book club staple Normal People not only survives adaptation, it thrives, writes Sam Brooks. If the Unity Books charts are anything to go by, everybody in New Zealand owns about two copies of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. The novel by … Read more
The greatest leaders from history have made sacrifices in times of need. A look at who, now, is doing that for us. Read more from the lockdown letters here. I’ve been talking to my sister. We don’t ring or email often. She lives in Victoria, in the country with half a dozen superannuated horses, a … Read more
When fiction and reality collide, asking ‘What if?’ takes on a new meaning. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Sometimes I find myself thinking, “What if?” It’s the default setting if your job is writing fiction, this insistent “What if?” Back in 2018 I began work on a novel. It was about a cruise … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. It’s February and our latest episode is packed to the gills. We chat trigger warnings, American Dirt, festivals, movies, poetry and of course, have our usual book reviews and TBR piles. Tune in! Book news AWF Programme is … Read more
Librarian Rebecca Hastie with a crash course on the fraught task of “weeding”, the systematic removal of resources from a library collection. Writer and reviewer David Larsen wrote an article the other week conveying his immense displeasure and concern that the National Library is removing 600,000 books from its collection. David’s piece, along with the … Read more
Curator and art writer Justin Paton on the process of writing McCahon Country, homesickness, and uncontemporary art. Plus his top tips for art writers. Justin Paton is the author of the award-winning How to Look at a Painting. A book so popular it inspired a TV series of the same title, which Paton also presented. … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. Can you believe this is our final episode for 2019? In this episode we give a scene report from the first Papercuts band-on-tour field trip where we headed to Wellington for the Verb Festival. And we bring you … Read more
An initiative launched on Wednesday will translate 100 popular fiction books into te reo Māori, and it’s kicking off with the first of the most popular book series of all time. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone currently exists in 80 languages. The only book more widely translated is the Bible, but JK Rowling’s bestselling … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. On this month’s Papercuts, Jenna, Kiran and Louisa hold an experiment to see what it is like to drink a bottle of prosecco whilst recording. We observe the Booker Longlist and delve into a bunch of NZ trade … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. As always, you can email us at papercutspod@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @papercutspod and a big thanks to The Spinoff and the Mātātuhi Foundation for their support. To listen use the player below or download this … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. It’s 2019 and we’ve been reading like mad over the summer break. In this episode we talk about reading resolutions, predict the Ockhams longlist, go through our summer reading piles, talk Marie Kondo’s approach to hoarding books, and … Read more
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
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
Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Henry Oliver on why there should be a one year break in new albums, TV shows, movies, and books. How many books do you … Read more
Has remembrance of Anzac become too commodified? Australian historian Dr Jo Hawkins spoke to Alex Braae about what commercialised commemoration of Anzac means, and whether it has gone too far. At Anzac Day commemorations in Auckland earlier this year, the drummers were sponsored by casino SkyCity. It was just a small moment, but one that … Read more
On this episode of Papercuts we delve into all the latest book news, deep dive into the Booker longlisted (update: and scandalously not shortlisted), Normal People and ask who the fuck is Bob Woodward. With a lot more book & non-book related recommendations included! Check out the Booker Shortlist here! (Announced after recording) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/20/man-booker-2018-shortlist-daisy-johnson-anna-burns-rachel-kushner-richard-powers-esi-edugyan-robin-robertson To … Read more
Hi ho! Our new episode of Papercuts is here to give you both book goss and a pile of recommendations to get you through this wintery weather. Did we kill Philip Roth? We preview this week’s PANZ conference, Louisa & Kiran rave about Rachel Kushner’s Mars Room and we look at three excellent books about motherhood. We also … 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