We could have chosen some text from the new biography of the phenomenal Mika but yeah nah let the pictures do the talking. Jermaine Leef, Mika and Parai Parai in ‘Ahi Wai’ Kapai Kabaret photo shoot by Arjan Hoeflak, 1995. Mika in front of the sign at GayBiGayBi, SXSW, Austin, 2015, having just arrived on … Read more
Only 81 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38) “It is 1940 and Juliet Armstrong, in her late teens, educated but idealistic, is employed by a mysterious arm … Read more
New verse by writer Mary-Jane Duffy. The invisible years The invisible older woman is in focus now. Sorry, she has you in focus now. She looks at you. She wants so much to look at you. She’s invisible. No one notices her. Good. The invisible older woman sneaks around the corner following that … Read more
Philip Matthews reviews a new memoir of genius director David Lynch, who emerges from the book as a “happy neurotic”. Dougie heard the name and everything changed. If you watched last year’s mesmerising Twin Peaks reboot, Twin Peaks: The Return, you will know what I mean. If you didn’t, spoilers follow. We are deep into episode … Read more
Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh tells of the time she went swimming in deep, deep water with novelist Lloyd Jones at Byron Bay. The first time I meet Lloyd Jones is nearly my last. He’d promised me breakfast and a dip near Captain Cook’s Lookout – I should’ve suspected something then. Indigenous encounters and all. We … Read more
Why is so much writing too afraid to ever dare be offensive? A new literary journal produced in the Orkney Islands attempts to introduce some bad manners – with assistance from New Zealand authors. In February of this year, Craig Marriner published an essay with all the stoor of Hunter S Thompson at full throttle. … Read more
Former journalist Emma Gilkison writes about a routine scan at Starship, where a paediatric cardiologist said to her, “There are two issues with your baby’s heart.” Content note: this book extract may be distressing for some readers. Regina Spektor’s song ‘Fidelity’ filled the cabin as our plane took off for Auckland. I loved this song. … Read more
Danyl Mclauchlan examines the latest work of one of the most famous public intellectuals in the world. Five years ago, Yuval Noah Harari was a humble academic, quietly lecturing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he specialised in medieval history. In 2014 his fourth book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – originally published in … Read more
Alan Perrott reports on the pressures of running a secondhand bookstore in 2018. Maud Cahill has owned secondhand bookstore Jason Books in downtown Auckland since 2002. “My parents didn’t read very much,” she says. “But I can’t remember not having books. I’d go to the library every week, search every shelf with children’s books, then go … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Stardust and Substance: The New Zealand general election of 2017 edited by Stephen Levine (Victoria University Press, $40) Let’s do this, etc. 2 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38) “A spy’s assumed identities come back to haunt her … Read more
Charlotte Graham-McLay is dazzled by the new novel by JK Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith), which arrived in shops this week and went flying out the door like broomsticks. Crime writers have long specialised in grotesquely, even comically bad men, but if there’s one thing the past year has taught us, it’s that we aren’t always … Read more
Whangarei writer Michael Botur continues our occasional series which examines whether literature exists in any shape or form in the regions. He reports from Northland, home to Sam Hunt, Kelly Ana Morey, and a romance writer who sells more books than you’ve had hot dinners or whatever. Tiny Rawene hosted the Hokianga Book Festival earlier this month, … Read more
A new book from Te Papa features essays inspired by exhibits held in the national museum. Sue Bradford writes about a Medal for Valour awarded to suffragette Frances Parker – a heroine who blazed with “an exquisite madness”. EXHIBIT: Women’s Social and Political Union Medal for Valour, awarded to Frances Parker PRODUCTION: Toye & Co., 1912 … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $50) As soon as it arrived, it flew off the shelves; we look forward to the forthcoming review by Dita De Boni, and in the … Read more
Claire Mabey praises a breathtaking new novel by Tina Makereti (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Rangatahi). It’s hard to conjure a concept more offensive than the ethnological expositions, or human zoos, of the 19th and 20th centuries. A few years ago in Edinburgh, I saw the controversial installation Exhibit B by artist Brett Bailey. … Read more
Yes, exactly like the headline says, we’re giving away a massive 22 books via this weekend’s awesome Going West literary festival!!! The 2018 Going West literary festival takes place this weekend in Titirangi, that pleasant, rat-infested woodland suburb in Auckland. There will be a great deal of talk about literature and ideas and society, and … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw reports on the latest weird and turbulent week in Donald Trump’s presidency: “The most powerful country in the world is at the mercy of someone so unfit for office that he shouldn’t be running a gas station.” It was the end of summer on the east coast of America, and it was only getting … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON 1 Women, Equality, Power: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership by Helen Clark (Allen & Unwin, $45) “Helen Clark continues to assert her toughness, time after time. When she faced off against Sir Ray Avery over his proposed … Read more
It’s Zep-tember! Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reviews a new rock biog of Led Zeppelin’s unappealing genius, Jimmy Page. What an egg. Strange, and a little dismal, to plod through a 500-page biography of one of the great conductors of rock – who played the guitar like he was ringing up Hell and getting straight through, who turned … Read more
The dear old Book Council has released its annual survey of New Zealand reading habits, and claims that on average we read 35 books a year. Thirty-five! Danyl Mclauchlan asks what the devil is going on. What do other people read? I wonder about this all the time. If I see someone reading a book on … Read more
Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reports from the Christchurch WORD literary festival. Everyone who is anyone in New Zealand literature was at the Christchurch WORD festival this weekend, apart from Eleanor Catton, CK Stead, Fiona Kidman, Witi Ihimaera, Kelly Ana Morey, Max Harris, Jess Berentson-Shaw, Damien Wilkins, Linda Burgess, Vincent O’Sullivan, Emily … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland (which is opening a new children’s bookstore right next door, this weekend, with prizes and balloons and saveloys*; get along, take the kids!) and Willis St, Wellington. *no saveloys AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) Popular novel. 2 Exactly: How Precision … Read more
“We rule the book-reading world”: Catherine Robertson reports from the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference. “Charlotte Stein writes the best cunnilingus scenes. And I’m a gay guy. Think about what I’m saying.” Damon Suede cannot shock his audience. This is the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, held recently at the Novotel … Read more
“I’m 27, and winning national media awards,” writes Lizzie Marvelly, in this edited extract from That F Word. “I’m 28, and writing a book.” I’ve never shied away from a challenge. Which is lucky, because life seems to come at me hard and fast. When I pause to look back over my shoulder, I see … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Welllington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 We Can Make a Life: A memoir of family, earthquakes and courage by Chessie Henry (Victoria University Press, $35) “I thought I knew the basic outline of what happened that day, but this was the first time … Read more
All week this week we present new verse, to celebrate National Poetry Day on Friday. Today’s poet: Tayi Tibble of Kelburn. Assimilation they consider themselves to be a modern couple they take turns giving and receiving oral they split the bills evenly and they share the chores but when he … Read more
New verse by Scottish poet Robin Robertson, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD literary festival and at LitCrawl in Wellington. Beside Loch Iffrin for Catherine Lockerbie Late January, and the oak still green, the year already wrong. The season miscarried – the lambs in the field, and the blossom blown – the … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. Throughout are images from Tatau: A Cultural History of Samoan Tattooing, reproduced with permission. AUCKLAND 1 Warlight: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) The blockbuster novel of 2018. 2 Coming To It: Selected Poems by Sam Hunt (Potton & Burton, $30) New verse … Read more
Mermaid expert Megan Dunn reviews horny fish-fucking novel, The Pisces, which she celebrates as “funny, profane, nasty, disturbing and taboo-breaking”. There are books that make you think and books that get you off. Melissa Broder’s first novel The Pisces does both. Never the twain shall meet, and when they do there might be rimming. Scratch that: anal. But sensitively, … Read more