In Pastoral Care, Auckland writer John Prins gives us nine clear-eyed, witty and beautifully written stories centred on daily life in twenty-first-century Aotearoa New Zealand.

On the shores of Lake Pukaki; in kitchens, bedrooms and Lego-strewn living rooms; at school events; walking the dog, pushing a buggy, or stuck in traffic with a child kicking the back of the driver’s seat—Prins blends wry humour and emotional depth to illuminate the dark gulf between youthful dreams and the reality of adult obligations.

John Prins reinvigorates the tradition of social realism in New Zealand short fiction, investing character, scene and dialogue with a distinctive, engaging voice. Often moving, frequently funny, and always relatable, Pastoral Care marks the arrival of a bold new voice in New Zealand fiction.

Pastoral Care is the second title in the Landfall Tauraka Short Stories series, following Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Prins has a Master of Creative Writing from Auckland University. His stories have been published in Landfall and Newsroom. He lives with his family in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Pastoral Care is his first book.

An unsparing investigation into Spotify's origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive cultural criticism, illuminating how streaming is reshaping music for listeners and artists alike.

Drawing on over a hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today's highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized and autoplayed.

Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all.  The music business is notoriously opaque, but here Pelly lifts the veil on major stories like streaming services filling popular playlists with low-cost stock music and the rise of new payola-like practices.

For all of the inequities exacerbated by streaming, Pelly also finds hope in chronicling the artist-led fight for better models, pointing toward what must be done collectively to revalue music and create sustainable systems.  A timely exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music, Mood Machine will change the way you think about and listen to music.

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Koha entry

Songs from the Shaky Isles is a fast-paced, big-picture account of how popular music arose in our far-flung island nation. It shows how wider society influenced, and was itself impacted by the country's musical culture, but with plenty of room for outrageous anecdotes and insightful analysis. It's a treat for music fans and history buffs alike.

From early Māori waiata and European settler folk songs that could only be heard in person through to modern pop/hip- hop hits that have spread digitally to all ends of the earth, this book is the complete guide to the bands and the songs that have reached iconic NZ status.

Songs from the Shaky Isles is a pictorial feast and features bands and musicians including Boh Runga from Stellar (featured on the cover), Bic Runga, Benee, The Chills, Dave Dobbyn, The Mockers, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Margaret Urlich, Jenny Morris, Lorde, Sir Howard Morrison, Ray Columbus, Max Merritt, The Human Instinct, Savage, Shihad, Shapeshifter, Six60, Scribe, Tex Morton, Walter Smith, Split Enz and so many more.

Gareth Shute has a wide-ranging understanding of popular music in New Zealand, which gives him a singular perspective on how it has progressed over the last century and a half. He is also a gigging musician with garage rock band, Thee Golden Geese. Since 2002, he has also helped run the label Lil Chief Records and in the first decade of the label he toured internationally with two of its bands: The Brunettes and The Ruby Suns. This gives him a unique insight as someone who not only researches local music history but is directly involved in the scene on a weekly basis.

The stories of sex workers in New Zealand as they changed the world.

In June 2003, New Zealand became the first country to decriminalise sex work. Through the lived experiences of twenty-five individuals who worked on the ships and the streets, in massage parlours and as private escorts, Untold Intimacies tells the story of sex work and its transformation in Aotearoa over thirty critical years.

This history carries readers from the regulation of brothels with the Massage Parlours Act of 1978, through the struggle for decriminalisation to the legally mandated national review of the law in 2008. Drawing on new and archival interviews, the story is told through the first-hand experiences of sex workers themselves – how they dealt with police, violence and health risks, and how they organised to change their world.

Untold Intimacies presents an in-depth historical investigation into the lives of some of the first people in the world to experience the transition to the decriminalisation of sex work.

Author

Dr Cheryl Ware is a historian of sex, gender and health in late-twentieth-century Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. She is the author of HIV Survivors in Sydney: Memories of the Epidemic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) which received endorsement from internationally recognised leaders in oral history, Australian history, and histories of HIV and AIDS. Cheryl has held a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund Fast-Start Grant, a Judith Binney Writing Award and a Kate Edger Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship for her research on histories of sex work, and was shortlisted for the New Zealand Historical Association’s Mary Boyd Prize for the best article on any aspect of New Zealand history. Cheryl has conducted over 120 in-depth interviews across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and served on the executive committee of the National Oral History Association of New Zealand from 2018 to 2024. She completed Untold Intimacies as a senior research fellow at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland.

Endorsements

‘This is a serious and engaging account of our diverse sex worker histories. It captures a period that spans a tremendous change in policy and law for sex workers in Aotearoa New Zealand.’
— Dame Catherine Healy

‘This is a great book that straddles the fields of gender, sexuality, legal and social histories. It could have significant international appeal as histories of sex work are few and far between. International scholars will be able to look to Untold Intimacies as a key foundational reference.’
— Professor Noah Riseman, author of Transgender Australia: A History Since 1910

‘Untold Intimacies makes a significant contribution to New Zealand historical writing as well as the global literature on sex work. It will take its place as a significant intervention in the scholarship on the history of prostitution, sexuality, policing, violence, gender and women.’
— Professor Frank Bongiorno, Australian National University

‘This book provides a valuable contribution to scholarship in documenting the oral histories of sex workers in Aotearoa in the period 1978–2008. It offers excellent insight into this period of history that readers will learn a lot from. The storytelling is compelling and creates a sense for the reader of ‘getting to know’ participants. The stories feel authentic and are told in a way that unpacks the complexities and contradictions of the lives and experiences of its protagonists.’
— Associate Professor Lynzi Armstrong, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington

A stunning debut novel about love, guilt and forgiveness. If you loved Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts by Josie Shapiro, you will adore The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds.

Thea, a young woman crippled by guilt, flees to Central America to escape her life. In Guatemala, she meets the charismatic Chris and his partner, Sarah, and the three of them form a tight bond. But everything changes when a tragedy occurs.

Thea soon finds herself in a new relationship, bonded to her partner by grief. Together they do their best to start over in Hobart, but when tragedy strikes again - bringing up unanswered questions for Thea - she realises that if she wants to know the truth, she will need to come clean about her past.

Reviews
'A compelling plot, fully-imagined characters, and beautifully-observed settings. Butson gently guides the reader on a journey marked by pain, secrets and guilt to a place of forgiveness, acceptance and peace. A stunning debut.' - Laurence Fearnley

Author description
Gina Butson is a former lawyer who completed her MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) in 2023. Her short fiction has been published in Newsroom, Salient and Turbine. Gina won the Salient Creative Writing competition and was Highly Commended in the Sargeson Prize in 2024.

A first poetry collection full of telenoid daydreams and androids in the bureaucracy.

I was born this way.
I was made to be soft and pleasant to touch.
It’s the silicone. Father is considering
polyvinyl chloride for my future siblings
because it’s cheaper. I hope you understand
how special that makes me.

Were you born this way too?
Your body is not smooth but it is warm.

Exploring the ambiguities, paradoxes and kinships between human and machine in this first poetry collection, Jiaqiao Liu conjures passionate robots and open-source body hacking, password managers and fuzzy moon rovers, missed communications and learned sensations. Drawing on Chinese mythologies and experiments in form, Liu pulls us into a world that feels familiar to twenty-first-century cybercitizens, yet is new and strange to inhabit.

Is it natural to grow up?
Are you growing down?
Where will I grow up to?

Jiaqiao Liu (they/he) is a poet from Shandong, China, who grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau. Their writing has been included in journals including The Spinoff, badapple and OF ZOOS, as well as in anthologies such as Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2017 and A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press, 2021). Jiaqiao has an MA in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Dear Alter is their first book.

Join us for a BYO evening upstairs at Time Out. Friend of the store and best-selling author Dominic Hoey will be in conversation with Suri Reddy as well as reading from and signing copies of his latest book 1985!

1985 is a staff favourite at Time Out- a cinematic story of life on the cusp of poverty, bursting with heart and brimming with empathy for its complicated cast of villains-cum-heroes.

A free BYO event with snacks provided!

Dominic Hoey is an author of three novels (Poor People With Money, Iceland, 1985) and multiple poetry collections. In his spare time, Dominic mentors youth and teaches a popular creative writing course, Learn to Write Good.

Details: Friday July 4th 7pm Upstairs at Time Out Bookstore (BYO, snacks provided)
RSVP to books@timeout.co.nz

The Bookshop Detectives are coming to Auckland! Please come and hang out with us at the completely fab Time Out Bookstore for riotous tales of policing, bookselling, writing and staying married throughout it all.

We'll do a little talk, then you can ask us questions if you'd like to, and we'll scribble on your book(s), even if we didn't write them.

If you're wondering who the heck we are, here is our official bio:

Gareth and Louise Ward are the real-life owners of independent bookshop Wardini Books, with stores in Havelock North and Napier, New Zealand.

Louise is known among the staff as Fearless Leader and Gareth as a bit of a dick; he is, however, the author of the Tarquin the Honest and The Rise of the Remarkables book series, as well as being the bestselling and award-winning author of The Traitor and the Thief and The Clockill and the Thief.

Gareth and Louise met at police training college in the UK and are both ex-coppers. Louise has one murder arrest to her name, is an English Literature Graduate and as an ex-teacher inflicted Shakespeare on inner-city twelve-year-olds. She regularly reviews books on RNZ.

Both are obsessed with their rescue dog Stevie, avoid housework and gardening, and live in the cultural centre of the universe that is Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Khadro Mohamed's debut novel BEFORE THE WINTER ENDS in Tāmaki Makaurau, upstairs at Time Out!

In the cold Wellington winter, Omar’s grades are slipping, his mum is unwell and his best friend is growing distant. Two decades earlier in Mogadishu, Asha and Yasser are falling in love and starting to build a life together while a burgeoning war threatens to take it away.

Before the Winter Ends explores the relationship between mother and son across Aotearoa New Zealand, Somalia and Egypt as they search for understanding and try to bridge the distance between them. Khadro Mohamed’s debut novel is a stark portrayal of how the past illuminates the present and how grief shapes a family.

Author bio:
Khadro Mohamed is a writer and poet from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. Her poetry collection, We’re All Made of Lightning (Tender Press) won the Jessie Mackay Prize for the best first book of poetry at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Before the Winter Ends is her first novel.

Join us for Sushi and hear all about Sam Smith’s journey to becoming a children’s author. In this talk Sam will cover his surprising journey to becoming a writer after starting out as a dentist, what it’s like winning a reality TV show, and how you can become an author too! Come along and you might even win a spot prize. Perfect for kids aged 6+.

Saturday 15th March from 4pm.

Click here to register – it’s essential for catering and dietary requirements.

Great news for Time Out customers!

Much loved author, humourist and master of satire, David Sedaris is returning to Auckland. As a Time Out customer, you can snap up your tickets and guarantee the best seats with our exclusive pre-sale access.

Join David Sedaris for an evening filled with storytelling, observations, unpublished tales, audience Q&As and book signings. Book today! Tickets officially on sale Thursday 27 June via davidsedaristour.com.au.

Friday 31st January
7.00pm
Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, NZ

Sedaris is the bestselling author of the books Happy-Go-Lucky, Calypso, Theft By Finding, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, BBC Radio 4 and podcast, This American Life.

A savant of razor-sharp and sardonic wit, this is a rare opportunity to spend an evening with one of the world’s pre-eminent humour writers.

“To see Sedaris live is pure joy. To watch this bookish, culotte-evangelising man read his life’s work on stage is word-nerd heaven, best topped off by spending three minutes with his full attention at the book-signing table after a show.” The Saturday Paper

“The happy-go-unlucky Sedaris is forever being frustrated, humiliated or downright annihilated, and the mishaps he chronicles probably explain why readers feel so fondly protective towards him.” The Guardian UK

Join us as we celebrate Aotearoa NZ Bookshop Day 2024! Limited goodie bags will be available for in store customers.

Visit the bookshops of Auckland between the 4th and 12th of October for your chance to win $300 in bookshop tokens! (2 prizes to be won).

Visit at least two stores and collect a stamp with your purchase at each store (no minimum spend). Every additional stamp gives you another entry into our grand prize draw.

Leave your collected stamps with the last store you visit on Aotearoa NZ Bookshop Day.

Aotearoa New Zealand Bookshop Day on 12th October 2024 is a day aimed at celebrating all the amazing bookshops across Aotearoa and is an initiative created by the good people at Booksellers Aotearoa NZ.

Booksellers NZ have created this limited-edition tote bag, with amazing artwork from Māori Mermaid, especially for Aotearoa NZ Bookshop Day 2024. 

Pre-order now for instore collection on October 12th 2024.

About the book: https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/in-the-half...

Come celebrate the launch of Sally Rooney's latest book, Intermezzo, with us!

We will open the doors at 10pm Monday, 23 September so you can be the first in the world to buy when the clock strikes midnight.

We will have wine from our friends By The Bottle and goody bags for the first 30 people thanks to the lovely Crushes. Plus lots of other treats and prizes in-store!

When Sarah Catherall's marriage fell apart, it felt like a car crash. Grief, uncertainty and shame swallowed her whole. Shared friendships and extended family connections dissolved: it was a break-up of her entire world.

What she wishes she could tell herself now is that the worst thing that could ever happen to her became undeniably the best thing. Fifteen years on from her separation and stronger and happier than she has ever been, this is Sarah's guide to breaking up well, so that you can rise from the ashes as powerful and authentic as you can be.

With stories of her own, from dating 'sad dads' to holidaying as a solo parent with kids, Sarah shares her mistakes so you don't have to make the same ones. She gathers wisdom from relationship psychologists, sociologists, lawyers and divorce coaches; and advice from many others who've been through messy break-ups on such things as 'bird-nesting' adjustments, co-parenting well, and when to introduce new partners to your kids.

How to Break Up Well teaches you how to grow in strength by: finding your support network, regaining your confidence, practising self-care and identifying what you want and need from singledom. You will also read about how to leave a difficult relationship, the most effective ways of fighting for your kids and your assets, how to blend families with a new partner, and how to learn from your break-up so you can charge into the next chapter of your life fully healed.