An extract from Playing for Both Sides, a kind of memoir by Auckland novelist Stephanie Johnson on her love-hate relationship with Australia. In the summer of 2011-12, I lived for a brief period in the hinterlands of Byron Bay. One afternoon I heard on local radio a report about a riot that had taken place … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at the Unity Books stores in Auckland and Wellington. AUCKLAND STORE 1 This Building Likes Me: The Work of John Wardle Architects (Thames & Hudson, $150) by John Wardle Architects & Justine Clark Architects! Ugh. 2 Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Zadie Smith “It covers racism, sexism, inequality, class divides, … Read more
David Eggleton surveys the life and times of the one and only Allen Ginsberg – the manic and delirious poet who dedicated himself to “writing down newspaper headlines from Mars”. Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926, the same year as James K Baxter, and just as Baxter rapidly became New Zealand’s best-known and most prolific … Read more
Elizabeth Heritage drags her feet through Zadie Smith’s latest novel, with its constant moralising about racism, sexism, class divides, feminism, religious fundamentalism, poverty etc etc etc. A cartoon in The Guardian last year suggested promotional stickers to put on novels. One of them read “By the author of a much better, more famous novel” and another “A bit like … Read more
Louise O’Brien walks through the gloom of Ali Smith’s latest novel, set in a racist, malicious, post-Brexit England. Ali Smith’s latest novel is a beautifully written and rather glum vision of the state of the world today. The first in a planned seasonal quartet of novels, Autumn was published unusually quickly after the events it … Read more
A new book, published today, gives an inside account of the professional arrogance and denial of the tragic “unfortunate experiment” scandal at National Women’s Hospital in Auckland. Our excerpt is from the book’s foreword by Neville Hacker, a past president of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society. Thirty years after the Cartwright Inquiry endorsed the reality of the “unfortunate experiment”, … Read more
The weekly Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Wellington and Auckland. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance Number two over at Amazon, behind Orwell’s 1984; Vance’s book about America’s so-called “rust belt” has set the US on fire, and is seen … Read more
A new edition of George Orwell’s 1984 appears just as a new ruler of doublespeak and fake news casts his shadow over the world. Philip Matthews re-examines the novel that serves as a prophecy. Winston Smith works in a fake news factory. If you had read that sentence a year ago, you might have had … Read more
We give reviews and literary things like that a rest today and play a meme instead. Norman Ohler’s new book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, an investigation into widespread drug abuse in Hitler’s Third Reich, has been an international best-seller – including New Zealand, where the book shot to the number one spot on the … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw reviews a new study which claims methamphetamine abuse in the Nazi regime. In the 90s, when the Berlin Wall had just come down, German novelist Norman Ohler began experimenting with ecstasy and LSD. After learning that drugs were widespread in the Nazi era, he got the idea to write a novel on … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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: Holly Walker reviews Commonwealth, a stunning novel by Ann Patchett. It creeps up on you, this novel. It opens in 1964, at a christening party in suburban Los Angeles. Bert Cousins shows up uninvited with a big bottle of gin. The … Read more
Ashleigh Young resolves the burning issue facing all New Zealanders: the correct way to spell our beloved national particle. Hint: it’s not “aye”. On Tuesday this week, I decided to do a tweet about eh. I decided it because at Victoria University Press, where I work, a situation had arisen where an author wanted to … Read more
“I need to be extraordinary,” said English writer Angela Carter, and her biography attests that she got her wish. Marion McLeod reviews the life story of a woman who described her anorexia as “attempted suicide by narcissism”. AS Byatt recalls first meeting Angela Carter in 1969. “A very disagreeable woman stomped up to me, and said, … Read more
New Zealand literature! What is it, who reads it, and why does it exist? Some or none or all of these questions are about to be answered in the first annual Spinoff Review of Books literary awards!!! Some say 2016 will go down in history as the year between 2015 and 2017, but it’s too early … Read more
Chelsea Winter! Force of nature, success story, brand. But can she, you know, cook? Food writer Delaney Mes does her best to persevere with the recipes and the puns in the new cookbook Scrumptious. It’s been four years since Chelsea Winter tearily made her way into New Zealand cooking show history when she was crowned the winner of the late, … Read more