NONFICTION
1 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Journo memoir.
2 A Bushman’s Book of Yarns by Sam Gibson (Allen & Unwin, $45)
Hunter-gatherer stories.
3 Go Hard or Go Home by Kiri Allan (Penguin Random House, $40)
A free copy of the former Labour MP’s memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway. It was an extremely popular contest. Readers were simply asked to send in an email, with no request to say why they wanted it; this was a ruse, intended to flush out the chaff, who did as they were instructed and said nothing, from the wheat, who took the opportunity to say something. Only the wheat were considered.
The best of the wheat included Kate, who wrote, “What a blast it would be to win this memoir from a courageous, inspiring, flawed and fabulous, out there New Zealand wahine!”
Cynthia wrote, “As an ecologist and conservationist I was thrilled to have Kiri as the DOC minister, as a woman with a same-sex partner I was delighted to see that this hadn’t been a barrier to her parliamentary career. Look forward to the insights from Kiri’s memoir.”
The winner is Virginia, who wrote, “I had the good fortune to meet Kiri Allan over a meal in Christchurch in 2013 before she became an MP. She sparkled in that small group, and I suspect in every group she’s a part of. Her intelligence, energy and a puckish sense of fun shone through, but there was no doubting her drive and seriousness of purpose.
“I knew Kiri would go places and was unsurprised to see her win her seat in parliament in 2016 and be rapidly promoted to Cabinet. There goes our first Maori woman prime minister, I thought.
“She impressed as the Minister of Conservation, and her leadership skills were apparent when she fronted as the Emergency Response Minister at the same time as dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Knowing her intimate understanding of youth justice issues, I had high hopes for what she could achieve in the justice portfolio. I can only imagine the pressures on her trying to serve her own community while working within a system that demands a government be ‘tough on crime’ regardless of the evidence of what works. On top of her health and personal issues, it was all too much for one human to bear, and I was very sorry she lacked the support that might have allowed her to continue a stellar career.
“Still, I am delighted to see her emerge from that dark period healthy and putting her skills and passion to work in serving her community in a different way. Go Kiri!
“I would love to read her story in her own words.”
Fantastic email. Huzzah to Virginia, top of the wheat; she wins a free copy of Go Hard or Go Home by Kiri Allan.
4 The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $39.99)
Not a week has gone by since the book was published in May that it hasn’t featured in the top 10 bestseller chart, and always somewhere in the top positions. It’s a mark that this really is a generational book, a modern classic that has resonated with a wide audience—it’s an Auē, a Penguin History of New Zealand, maybe even a meat-free Chelsea Winter cookbook. It’s the imaginative telling of two petty crims who are forever in and out of courtrooms in the Hutt Valley; it reads like a novel, but never fancifully so, drawing the reader into an intimate portrait of the justice system as it really works at its daily administrative pace.
5 Better Never Stops by Paul Wood (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Success manual.
6 The Modern Dad by Louis Davis (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
Fatherhood manual.
7 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Happiness manual.
8 Roadscapes by Derek Smith (David Bateman, $39.99)
A free copy of this new hardback, featuring over 100 awesome photos of cars parked in fetching locations all around NZ, is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. From my rave review: “Gorgeous book, perfect for Father’s Day (and very reasonably priced). It’s about cars and it’s not about cars. It’s about a never-ending roadtrip that ended with Smith’s retirement. It’s got a Goodbye Pork Pie vibe as well as a Smash Palace vibe, that other great New Zealand car-mad movie from the 1980s, set in a wrecker’s yard. It’s a series of postcards from the past. It’s one of the best illustrated hardbacks of the year.”
To enter, send in a photo of a car—your own, or someone else’s—parked in a fetching location somewhere in NZ. Providing a brief description wouldn’t hurt. Email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps PARKED CAR by midnight on Sunday, August 23.
9 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)
Success manual.
10 Be Brave by Barbara Dreaver (Awa Press, $45)
Journo memoir.
FICTION
1 Murder and Mojitos (The Bookshop Detectives 3) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
2 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28)
3 No Prisoners by Ellis Blake (Hachette, $37.99)
A physicist’s husband goes missing. A detective assures her the police are doing everything they can to find him. She doubts that, and sets out on her own search, along the way discovering dark secrets in her husband’s past. Good cover.
4 Every Lake by Adam Perry (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
The author (and tea trolley) is pictured at the top of the page. His debut thriller has sold really well; it’s set in Central Otago, and is about about a young woman who returns to a lakefront town to solve a murder and to investigate her father’s disappearance. It’s rumoured that her dad still lives hidden in the trees that surround the lake, and she soon discovers there’s more than one murder being covered up.
5 All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
6 The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
A bogan drop-out turned bestselling author wrote an excellent memoir in ReadingRoom about meeting Sam Hunt on the day she was expelled from Henderson High School. Her book is the most exciting thriller of the year, about a little boy who goes missing at Muriwai Beach, and the not especially functional attempts of her separated parents, who might be described as bogan drop-outs, to find him.
7 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28)
8 kluge by pip adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
From a typically thoughtful reviuew by Philip Matthews: “Her new novel opens as a disembodied intelligence is telling its own story from a distant future, by adopting the format of a stand-up comedy special. We never move outside that intelligence or that constrained point of view, even as the narrator is relying on old footage captured by surveillance cameras, laptops and phones to piece together its story of a tech company run by a tech bro known only as HE/HIM. The company has been developing an AI system called Gene. HE/HIM is a familiar tech type: narcissistic, thin-skinned, needy, self-important. He speaks in a language that is both fantastical and heartless … As a reading experience, kluge is challenging and even frustrating. But in other ways it is fascinating and singular. One of the traits of adam’s political writing is an instinctive compassion for the underdogs and marginalised, whether they are the underpaid workers of The New Animals (her John Key novel) and Nothing to See, the incarcerated populations of her prison novel Audition and all the labourers who contribute to the knowledge base of the rapacious AI companies described in kluge. Which is most of us.”
9 Malachite (Valmora Academy) by Ashley Andersen (Hachette, $37.99)
10 Slash by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
