‘Now I’m old and introspective and critical,’ writes Scarlett Cayford, ‘let me tell you why the young adult fiction penned by New Zealand women in the 90s is some of the best in the world.’ This story was first published 21 June 2017. When I think back to the first books I read, my first … Read more
An essay by Welsh writer Rhydian Thomas on getting the bash, again and again, since moving to New Zealand. The moral of the story: fuck Hamilton. This story was first published on 15 August 2017. The truck pulls over at the end of the Tauranga harbour bridge and the driver’s out before any of us … Read more
The top 10 best-sellers of the year at Unity Books in High St, Auckland. 1 Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan & the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager & Jon Stephenson (Potton & Burton, $35) God, really? The bulk of the sales must have been in the opening week, or fortnight, … Read more
The top 10 best-sellers of the year at Unity Books in Willis St, Wellington. 1 Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30) Number one: huzzah! In the old days of New Zealand literary awards, any kind of book – fiction, verse, memoir, whatever – was eligible to win the grand prize and pocket … Read more
All week this Christmas week we count down the best six books of 2017. Number one: Driving to Treblinka by Diana Wichtel. ‘It is a story that will make all who read it a better human being,’ says reviewer Dr David Galler. We come into this world imbued with the spirits of our ancestors. It … Read more
All week this Christmas week we count down the six best books of 2017. Number two: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, reviewed by Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo (Particular Books, $40) is available at Unity Books.
All week this Christmas week we countdown the best six books of 2017. Number three: the first book in Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, La Belle Sauvage, described by our London correspondent Scarlett Cayford as ‘just about perfect’. I was doubtful. I saw Pullman speak on the banks of the very river that takes centre stage in La … Read more
All week this Christmas week we countdown the best six books of 2017. Number four: Art Sex Music, the memoir by musician Cosey Fanni Tutti, whom reviewer Kiran Dass describes as ‘a staunch, fearless woman with backbone’. “I don’t like acceptance. It makes me think I’ve done something wrong.” – Cosey Fanni Tutti. In the last … Read more
All week this Christmas week we countdown the six best books of 2017. Number six: Naomi Alderman’s feminist sci-fi novel The Power, described by Andra Jenkin as a metaphor for the #MeToo movement. Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power has a fantastic premise: women are suddenly able to inflict pain and death at will. They can shoot … Read more
The best-selling books at Unity Books in Auckland and Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37) Ugh. 2 La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman (David Fickling Books, $35) Please refer to the best books of the year at the Spinoff Review … Read more
A guide to the 20 very best books of non-fiction – essays, memoirs, biographies, even a cookbook and a self-help book for God’s sake! – published in 2017. The Mother of All Questions: Further Feminisms by Rebecca Solnit (Granta, $27) These succinct essays focus on the importance of empathy, the white noise around silence, and the silencing … Read more
It’s got tussock, it’s got a lake, it’s got space and beauty and that: Lake Tekapo and its high country stations feature in an awesome new coffee table book. Feature image by Mary Hobbs. Mary Hobbs had a best-seller a little while back with her coffee table book The High Country Stations of the Mackenzie. It focussed … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores between the devil and the deep blue sea. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 La Belle Sauvage: Book of Dust Trilogy by Philip Pullman (David Fickling Books, $35) Next week the Spinoff Review of Books presents its list of the best books of 2017 and you can bet your ass … 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 second annual Spinoff Review of Books literary awards!!! Some say 2017 will go down in history as the year between 2016 and 2018, but it’s too early … Read more
Tessa Duder provides a brief history of children’s literature in New Zealand – and finds multiple reasons to be cheerful about the state of play in 2017. One grey, misty morning in the Auckland suburb of Mt Eden, a 43-year-old teachers college librarian is walking to work. His eyes are drawn up to that shrouded, … Read more
A selection of images taken at night by Wellington photographer Grant Sheehan in his new book The Night Watchers. Feature image: An Aurora Australis to the South throws a red and yellow tone across the rising Milky Way near Tekapo. Nikon DF, 14-24mm lens at 14mm, F2.8, 3200 iso, 40 sec; Mangungu Mission House overlooks … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the North Island. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Strangers Arrive: Emigres and the Arts in New Zealand by Leonard Bell (Auckland University Press, $75) Once were intellectuals. Publisher’s blurbology: “From the 1930s through the 1950s, a substantial number of forced migrants arrived in New Zealand from Europe. Among them … Read more
Duncan McLean is a writer and publisher living on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. He travelled to New Zealand, drawn by the books of Frank Sargeson – and discovered the forgotten man of New Zealand writing, Craig Marriner. I first encountered Frank Sargeson in Jane Campion’s film An Angel at my Table. It was quite a hit on the … Read more
Danyl McLauchlan celebrates the latest Jack Reacher masterpiece by Lee Child. About 15 years ago I was having a drink with an old friend, and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Dire Straits started playing on the bar’s stereo. My friend had very elevated taste in music and I wanted to impress him so I said, “Oh god … Read more
Spinoff Review of Books editor Steve Braunias anticipates the longlist for the 2018 Ockham national book awards, announced at 5am tomorrow. One of the many great, bitter lines that VS Naipaul comes up with in Paul Theroux’s great, bitter book of their lost friendship, Sir Vidia’s Shadow, is his remark made every year at the announcement … Read more
On Wednesday the Spinoff Review of Books published a negative review of historian Anne Salmond’s latest work, Tears of Rangi, which claimed Salmond reduced her Māori subjects to ‘cardboard caricatures’. Here’s her response. This is a very interesting review. As Ranginui Walker used to urge, scholarship is like a marae, and one must be ready … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best book stores north of the South Pole. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Nikau Café Cookbook by Kelda Hains & Paul Schrader (Nikau Café, $60) Food. 2 Journal of Urgent Writing volume 2 edited by Simon Wilson (Massey University Press, $40) A collection of essays commissioned and put together by The … Read more
Dave Comer was a film location scout who is credited with finding many of the spectacular locations for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. His widow Peta Carey introduces her new book of his photographs. It’s an odd affair, a book launch. Particularly your first book launch. My very kind publisher had warned me, “It’s … Read more
Buddy Mikaere finds bias and misrepresentation in Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds, an otherwise acclaimed history of early New Zealand by Anne Salmond. Anne Salmond’s new book Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds is broadly divided into two parts. Part one revisits the already well traversed history of the early contact years between Māori and … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best book stores since Neanderthals became extinct and homo sapiens continued to assert themselves as the dominant species of modern humans. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Lazy Girl’s Guide to Living a Beautiful Life by Matilda Rice (Allen & Unwin, $40) Matilda! 2 Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Canongate, $23) Highly-praised … Read more
One of the stand-out chapters in Chris Bourke’s new best-selling history of New Zealand music in World War One is about the contribution and legacy of Māori music. He expands on the subject for the Spinoff. Māori popular music is the most crucial gap in the expanding bookshelf of New Zealand music histories. When researching Blue Smoke, my … Read more
An international survey shows book sections publish many more male critics than female – and that they review many more books written by men than women. Spinoff books editor Steve Braunias (a man) looks at the state of play in New Zealand. A landmark survey has revealed that more women than men review books at … Read more
Paranormal and fantasy author Steff Green asks: why the hell is it that characters with disabilities either have to be super heroes, or super villains? Can’t they just be characters with disabilities? Blinded by a mysterious illness at the age of 25, James Holman set out on foot to circumnavigate the globe. Armed with only … Read more
Michael Bennett won the 2017 Ngaio Marsh crime writing award for best book of non-fiction on Saturday night for his book In Dark Places, a study of the wrongful, shameful conviction of Teina Pora for the 1992 murder of Susan Burdett. The excerpt is from the opening chapter. Content warning: This chilling excerpt describes the … Read more