This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias
FICTION
1 The Last Guests by J.P. Pomare (Hachette, $34.99)
Bravo to Pomare for having two of his crime thrillers in the top 10; bravo, too, to the booksellers who place his work in front of readers. The 2021 Aotearoa Book Trade Industry Awards were held on Wednesday night. Schrödinger’s Books in Petone won the Nielsen Book NZ Bookshop of the Year Award. Huzzah! ReadingRoom marked its opening, in 2019; fantastic to see the store go on to win the biggest honour in New Zealand books trade so quickly. Other winners at this week's ceremony included Rafael Moreira of McLeods Booksellers in Rotorua (Emerging Bookseller of the Year: "His drive to support literacy and Māori language is inspirational", said judges), the brilliant and Patti Smith-ish Bridget Williams (Lifetime Achievement Award), and…
2 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
….and Auē shared the Aotearoa Booksellers’ Choice Award with Imagining Decolonisation (published by BWB); and Makaro Press won really the most prestigious award at the 2021 ceremony, the Nielsen Book Publisher of the Year. Warmest congrats to publisher Mary McCallum. I wrote a letter supporting Makaro's nomination, in July. It read, in part, "Of course Makaro Press should win the Publisher of the Year award. They alone saw the majesty and power in a manuscript by an unknown writer from Westport. New Zealand fiction, for the most part, is supplied by the conveyor belt from the IIML to VUP, and in more recent years the conveyor belt from the Masters of Creative Writing programme at Auckland University to various publishers (Amy McDaid's Fake Baby for Penguin, Rose Carlyle's The Girl in the Mirror for Allen & Unwin). But Makaro had the ingenuity and the faith to break away and back debut novelist Becky Manawatu. Her book Auē is the biggest thing to happen to New Zealand fiction in a long, long time."
3 Double Helix by Eileen Merriman (Penguin Random House, $36)
Oh and Rachel Eadie at Penguin Random House was awarded Emerging Publisher of the Year. Judges commented, "She is a Festival liaison wizard and a point of contact for authors through their publishing journeys. It is also abundantly clear that authors love her - Witi Ihimaera says she is ‘everything you would want from a publishing professional'." I met Eadie at this year's Ockham book awards, and hereby give her the highest praise possible: she can hold her drink.
4 The Author's Cut by Owen Marshall (Penguin Random House, $36)
Oh and also Jessica Rice at Penguin Random House was awarded Salesperson of the Year. Judges: "This year’s candidates had the joys of Covid to contend with...Ultimately New Zealand’s best sales reps overcame the issues and achieved strong sales results, demonstrated excellent relationships with their customers, and went above and beyond in helping bookshops better manage their inventories....Firstly we want to highly commend Sharon Galey from Hachette NZ for her outstanding work this past year, following on from her win in this category last year. The 2021 Salesperson of the Year excelled in all the criteria, won the acclaim of booksellers, authors and publishers, and achieved all this coming from outside the industry."
5 Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare (Hachette, $29.99)
6 Cousins by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House, $26)
7 Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly (Victoria University Press, $35)
8 Loop Tracks by Sue Orr (Victoria University Press, $35)
9 Rangikura by Tayi Tibble (Victoria University Press, $25)
The author recently signed a two-book deal with Knopf in the US.
10 Crazy Love by Rosetta Allan (Penguin Random House, $36)
"Crazy Love is the story of a couple that fought to stay in business and together through many times of crisis. It wasn’t until three years after losing our business and home that my husband’s Bipolar 1 disorder showed us its fully flexed muscles and caused a mental collapse that had my husband planning an early retirement from life. Failure is an enormous emotion to deal with. Sometimes the resilience of getting up and carrying on just doesn’t work," the author wrote this week in a beautiful story for good old ReadingRoom.
NON-FICTION
1 National Identity by Simon Bridges (HarperCollins, $37.99)
Richard Prebble got in touch with Newsroom this week, and wrote, "Simon Bridges sent me a copy of his biography which means he is a leadership contender." His thoughts on the book: "We are both the sons of pastors in families of six. We are also court lawyers who joined our respective parties at 16 and became youth vice presidents. Strangely Simon does not tell us why he joined the National Party. Indeed his political beliefs even after reading the book are a bit of a mystery.
"It's a bit of a worry that his only comment on economics was to paraphrase Churchill to say capitalism is the worst of all systems but better than anything else we have tried. Capitalism has lifted billions of the world’s population out of poverty. I would have liked to have known his views on Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson’s reforms that have given us 30 years of prosperity.
"I am sure Simon is sincere when he says he has enjoyed being able to have time with his children. He should enjoy it. It will not last. A definition of a politician is the man who leaves his family to go to Wellington to talk about the importance of family values."
2 After the Tampa by Abbas Nazari (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
One more award from this week's book trade ceremony: Allen & Unwin, for the NZ Book Industry Innovation award. The judges commented, "They brokered an exemption from their distribution contract to set up a distribution partnership in NZ, worked out the logistics of royalty payments, dual inventories, double distribution payments, and have since shipped 30,000 books out across the country."
3 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
4 Steve Hansen: The Legacy by Gregor Paul (HarperCollins, $49.99)
Final award, from this weeks book trade ceremony: Rebecca Thorne from HarperCollins, for Marketing and Publicity Strategy of the Year, leading the campaign to promote Impossible: My Story by Stan Walker. Judges: "The campaign balanced different cultural and multi-sector stakeholders, merged a traditional book tour with television documentary, Spotify advertising, social media and Women’s Weekly spreads. It was truly a campaign to reach everyone, and it worked."
5 Māori Made Easy by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $38)
6 Imposter by Matt Chisholm (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
7 Still Standing by Jessica Quinn (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
8 Māori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $25)
9 Labour Saving by Michael Cullen (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
10 The Abundant Garden by Niya Kay & Yotam Kay (Allen & Unwin, $45)
