Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.

Here’s what you’ll hear on this month’s podcast:

Book news

• Ockham results
• Congratulations to all the winning and shortlisted authors, and especially to Becky Manawatu for her sweep of Best First Fiction and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
• Auckland Writers Festival 2020 Winter Online Series
• Watch live via the Festival’s YouTube and Facebook channels, and then on their website.
• WORD Christchurch now running October 30 – November 1
• They need your help to stage this year’s festival! WORD is a charitable trust, and it’s now easier than ever to donate. More information here.
• VERB Wellington confirmed for 6-8 November, with Litcrawl on 7 November
• NZ Bookstores experiencing boom in Level 2 – Guardian article
• The price of literature: writers take on Government over fair pay by Kelly Dennett

“This proposition that writers just do their work for love is a scurrilous attack on the integrity of all authors,” says Dame Fiona Kidman.

Book reviews 

KD: A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
LK: The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Penguin)
JT: Ripiro Beach by Caroline Barron (Bateman Books)

Not books

KD: Los Angeles is Burning by Anna Rankin on Newsroom 
LK: The Good Place on Netflix and The Wondrous Adventures of Mittens
JT:  Nat’s What I Reckon on YouTube (with a mention of The Male Gayz).

The TBR pile

KD: The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Handiwork by Sara Baume
LK: Iceland by Dominic Hoey, This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith, Supper Club by Lara Williams, Friendship by Emily Gould
JT: Fake Baby by Amy McDaid, Pearly Gates by Owen Marshall, Jillian by Halle Butler

Also mentioned

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Lola the Aro Park cat

To listen use the player below or download this episode (right click and save). Feel free to subscribe via iTunes, RSS or via your favourite podcast client. Follow our twitter @papercutspod.