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 Inside the Black Horse by Ray Berard (David Bateman, $34.99)
"The TAB made me the area manager in South Auckland, supervising 50 gambling outlets...My book Inside the Black Horse is an account of years of events I recorded in my diary, compressed into five days after a desperate act by a young man with no options left," wrote the author, in a condensed and compelling memoir that appeared this week in ReadingRoom. His novel has been adapted as Vegas, an excellent new drama series on TV2.
2 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
Good old Manawatu, alongside crime novelist Liam McIlvanney and the brilliant writer Emer Lyons, will judge the 2021 Otago Daily Times’ prison creative-writing competition. Prisoners have until the end of May to enter; the winners are announced at a ceremony at the Otago Corrections Facility, which recently banned prisoners from reading Ganglands by Jared Savage.
3 Spellbound by Catherine Robertson (Penguin Random House, $36)
Joan McKenzie, from Whitcoulls: "This is the third in her series of books set in a small NZ coastal community called Gabriel’s Bay. A small town full of quirky characters with interesting traits and relationships, written in an immediately recognisable Kiwi style, really feel good and deceptively well written."
4 Devil's Trumpet by Tracey Slaughter (Victoria University Press, $30)
Sparkling new collection of short stories; one will appear very, very soon at ReadingRoom, as a taster of the author's latest look at life in New Zealand.
5 Cousins by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House, $26)
6 The Quiet People by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press, $37.99)
7 Everything Changes by Stephanie Johnson (Penguin Random House, $36)
8 Wow by Bill Manhire (Victoria University Press, $25)
A collection of poems by the master, viz:
This book about extinct birds is heavier than any bird:
heavier than the dark bird eating my heart,
page after page of abandoned wings.
I lift it up and sit it on my lap
and listen to it purring.
9 Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press, $35)
Shortlisted for the fiction prize at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand national book awards to be held on May 12; Chidgey is a previous winner, as is another shortlisted author, Pip Adam, nominated for her book Nothing To See; that leaves Airini Beautrais, author of Bug Week, but how likely is it that a collection of short stories will beat a novel?; the fourth author on the shortlist is good old Brannavan Gnanalingham, who is neither a short story writer or a previous winner, and based on flimsy reasoning (judges might prefer to give the award to someone who hasn't won before, but may not be daring enough to give it to a short story writer) his novel Sprigs may be considered the favourite to win the prize and carry home the loot. Or that may have no bearing on deliberations. Certainly there's a lot of money at stake: $55,000. Nice!
10 Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh (Hachette, $34.99)
NON-FICTION
1 A High Country Life by Philippa Cameron (Allen & Unwin, $45)
2 The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (Penguin Random House, $38)
"The Mirror Book has appeared at a particular cultural moment, when, to put it crudely, the authority of old white men is being challenged, whether they are fathers, bosses or presidents...On one hand, this is simply quality literary gossip, in which a once-dutiful daughter stops toeing the line and tells the world that life in Tohunga Crescent, Parnell, was not as idyllic as the newspaper profiles suggested, although it must be stressed that while [Grimshaw's father, CK] Stead may have retrograde attitudes about sexual politics, no crimes of the Allen or Weinstein variety are alleged…This is The Mirror Book you are hearing a lot about: the explosive story of how the daughter denounced the father, Sylvia Plath-style. But that’s only part of it. There is a less sensational memoir woven through it that is a story of a lonely and neglected adolescence": from a review by Philip Matthews at ReadingRoom.
3 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
4 My Mother and Other Secrets by Wendyl Nissen (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
"Every family has secrets, shames, skeletons. In short, every family has stories. Nissen tells her family's story with insight and good humour. It has a happy ending, of sorts. Dementia made her mother a nice person: 'Finally I was getting the mother I had wanted all my life. Cheery, loving, sunshiny and pleasant to be with'": from my review at ReadingRoom.
5 Supergood by Chelsea Winter (Penguin Random House, $50)
"The recipes in her previous books were famously and intensely calorific. Her Snickalicious Slice, which she says 'might be the best recipe I’ve ever written' includes, for example, half a pound of butter, three cups of icing sugar, a large block of chocolate, a packet of chocolate biscuits, half a tin of condensed milk and … well, you get the idea. The new book isn’t significantly different in this respect, so If you’re expecting your new plant-based diet will help with weight loss, you might be disappointed. The promised deliciousness of the baking recipes in particular generally comes from something thats bad for you, at least in the quantities she’s prescribing": from a review by Jesse Mulligan at ReadingRoom.
6 Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail by Danielle Hawkins (HarperCollins Publishers, $37.99)
7 Keepers by Cherie Metcalfe (Allen & Unwin, $45)
8 Beyond Burnout by Suzi McAlpine (Penguin Random House, $38)
9 A Richer You by Mary Holm (HarperCollins Publishers, $36.99)
10 My Darling Lemon Thyme by Emma Galloway (HarperCollins Publishers, $60)
