Books

The Spinoff Books section is proudly brought to you by Unity Books and Creative New Zealand. Visit 

strong

Unity Books + Creative New Zealand

Jon-Ronson-Feat-Img.png

An interview with the acclaimed journalist ahead of his appearance in Aotearoa.

‘Everything is becoming a culture war’: Jon Ronson on conspiracies and cycleways

BooksConfessional_Jacqueline-Bublitz.png

The acclaimed crime novelist on the words that make her shudder, having seven books on the go at once and more.  

‘I’ll try any synonym under the sun’: Jacqueline Bublitz’s crimes against language

Chthonic-Cycle-Head.png

What caused a whole French village to hallucinate?

The case of the cursed bread: An excerpt from Una Cruickshank’s The Chthonic Cycle

fmfSPSsf-cartoonhands.jpg

The Friday Poem: ‘FREE TRAMPOLINE’ by Sophie van Waardenberg

Orbital.png

Featuring the Booker Prize winner for 2024, and further evidence of the impact of book festivals on sales. 

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 15

Animals-clothes-books.png

Winnie-the-Pooh's little T-shirt represents a moral 'grey area', according to the man in charge of Gloriavale's lengthy banned books list. 'What do we gain from it?'

The case for reading books about animals wearing clothes

BooksConfessional_Carl-Shuker.png

Novelist Carl Shuker on the books he’s loved from childhood to now, and the new release everybody should read.

‘Effortless-seeming genius’: Carl Shuker’s favourite reads and other stories

ToiTeMana-feat.png

Two authors of an extraordinary new book on the history of Māori art discuss how they approached it, and why.

Toi Te Mana: The landmark indigenous history of Māori art has arrived

chateau.jpg

The Friday Poem: ‘COLD EROTICA’ by Loretta Riach

UnityFeat7Nov.png

A new le Carré, a book on how to get wild in Wellington, and a sumptuous local cookbook marks the start of the summer reads.

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 8

VicBooksFeatImage.png

Vic Books closed down in January 2023, but its website and Twitter handle have risen from the dead. What's going on?

What’s up with the curious resurrection of a beloved Wellington bookstore?

Ultimate-Hol-Reads-Feat-image.png

An A to Z of iconic books matched with iconic holiday locations.

The ultimate holiday reads: An alphabetical guide

BooksConfessional_Sonya-Wilson.png

The author and founder of Kiwi Christmas Books on unknowingly meeting a 'stone-cold genius', the book everyone should read and more.

‘No idea I was in the presence of genius’: Sonya Wilson on her life in books

FeatImgKartikPopat.png

There's little to like about figures like American politician Vivek Ramaswamy, but there is a lot to learn.

A new novel imagines a New Zealand version of the conservative South Asian grifter

jackdaw.jpg

The Friday Poem: ‘THE THING IS’ by Johanna Cosgrove

Unity1Nov.png

The onward march of Intermezzo, a bundle of new releases, and Wild Robot.

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 1

Most Haunted Pubs.png

Fancy some paranormal activity with your pint? Here's where to go.

These are New Zealand’s most haunted pubs

HalloweenReads.png

We asked a handful of New Zealand writers for some recommended Halloween reading. Here's what they said. 

Writers pick their favourite scary stories for the spooky season

avo_student_loan.png

Now 48, Megan Dunn is still paying off the huge student loan she first took out when she was 17. This is her story.

My number one regret? My $100,000 student loan

O&#8217;MalleyWaitakoCover.png

'This was a defining and transformative conflict in the nation’s history … It is the story of how we got to where we are today.'

Remembering the Waikato War, Te Riri ki Tainui

Copy-of-Master-Backgrounds-22.png

A cat and mouse thriller that's worth putting your phone down for. 

Review: The Day of the Jackal is a riveting and ridiculous ride

ENmcA7pJ-Untitled-design.jpg

Treasury says the recession will be deeper and last longer than predicted.

Hold the roosters, no economic dawn yet

Mall-Ranking-2.png

From the low lows of abandoned empires to the high highs of a mall done just right.

All 33 malls in Auckland ranked from worst to best

Nov-22.png

'Five words to describe my financial personality? Bills paid, time to shop.'

The cost of being: A clothes-mad 20-something who walks everywhere

FeatureImage_AfterTheParty.png

'The best TV performance of the year is by an actor most British viewers won’t recognise, in a production that most won’t see.'

‘Deserves a Bafta’: After the Party premieres in the UK to five-star reviews 

Gabis-Feature-images-16.png

Two new surveys show a dramatic shift in New Zealanders' drug use habits – and there has been a sharp discount in prices. 

Drugs are getting cheaper and easier to find in Aotearoa

wickedfeat.png

The new movie musical is undoubtedly a fun watch, but proof that bigger isn’t always better.

Review: The magic of Wicked and the curse of corporate greed

Untitled-design-63-2.png

There are calls for New Zealand’s Family Violence Act to name economic harm as a standalone type of violence.

Financial forms of family violence affect one in seven of us – but the law is lagging

A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.

Inside each prayer, the sound of digging.

Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum.

ANZAC copy

A poem from Bill Manhire's 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.

The Spinoff

BooksApril 25, 2024

Poem for Anzac Day: ‘My World War I Poem’ by Bill Manhire

Loading...