FICTION
1 The Jacaranda House by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, $36.99)
Challinor’s entertaining melodrama, set among the stripclubs of King’s Cross in 1964, continues to hog the number one spot, and may well stay there for some considerable time. Perhaps the only new book capable of out-selling it will be the eagerly awaited new novel by Waikato author Catherine Chidgey, whch weighs in at 500 pages, and is set during the Holocaust.
2 State Highway One by Sam Coley (Hachette, $34.99)
“Twenty-one-year-old twins Alex and Amy are on a road trip like no other. Their parents are dead, killed while drink-driving, and Alex, after three years away, has returned from Dubai to attend the funeral. Amy demands they drive State Highway One – the length of New Zealand – from Cape Reinga to Rakiura/Stewart Island. Alex acquiesces; he is behind the steering wheel in body but not in mind. So the two embark on a road trip of alcohol and cigarettes, reckless speed and awkward tension, in an unwarranted and unregistered car. It’s done the old-fashioned way: no phone, no GPS, just a crumpled map folded in and over itself on Amy’s lap…An affecting novel about grief, about coming to terms with the past and processing guilt, and how coming home is not so simple after you’ve spent years trying to escape it”: Amy McDaid, from her review at the newly created literary site Kete, under the auspices of the Coalition for New Zealand Books quango.
3 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
The author of the year’s most successful novel – the sales, the awards – took a month off the Twitter machine but sneaked back on this week, to post, “Really do just love writing so very much. Returned to Twitter to say that – quietly like a mouse – into this void.”
4 The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon (Penguin Random House, $36)
5 The Silence of Snow by Eileen Merriman (Penguin Random House, $36)
6 Tiny Pieces of Us by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $34.99)
7 The Telling Time by PJ McKay (Polako Press, $34.95)
8 Te Kaieke Tohora by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House, $26.00)
The Whale Rider, in te reo.
9 Fake Baby by Amy McDaid (Penguin Random House, $36)
10 The Murder Club by Nikki Crutchley (Oak House Press, $34.99)
“Miller Hatcher made her debut as a character in Nothing Bad Happens Here. As with the earlier novel Hatcher is an investigative journalist, known for her work on other crime stories, with a good friend in the police force, Kahu Parata, who is again part of the investigation into the inexplicable killing of women in a small town setting. Everyone knows the victims, and more soberingly, everyone must know the killer. Meanwhile Cassie Hughes is a troubled young woman, whose own mother was murdered years ago. She’s vowed to find that killer, identified by a possible name only, and Miller has agreed to use her role as a journalist on the local paper to bring the cold case some much needed attention and focus…. A novel about the damage done in childhood and the outward ordinariness of evil”: from the excellent site devoted to Australian and New Zealand crime fiction, Austcrime.
NON-FICTION
1 Searching for Charlie by Tom Scott (Upstart Press, $49.99)
The life and deeds of war hero Charlie Upham, as told by the one and only Tom Scott.
2 Hiakai by Monique Fiso (Penguin Random House, $65)
“It has taken a visionary young chef, Monique Fiso, passionate about her heritage (Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Ruanui), to immerse herself in research, to reimagine and present traditional Māori food, which she does in her stunning Wellington restaurant, Hiakai (hungry or having a desire for food)…Her book, Hiakai, may be the singularly most important food book ever published in New Zealand with a deep dive into everything that plays into modern Māori food. Fiso’s painstaking investigation into traditions and ingredients gathered information from numerous sources in libraries and collections, here and abroad”: Lauraine Jacobs, from her review at Kete.
3 Raw & Free by Sophie Steevens (Allen & Unwin, $45.00)
Plant-based recipes.
4 Māori Made Fun by Scotty Morrison & Stacey Morrison (Penguin Random House, $25.00)
5 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55.00)
Vegetarian recipes.
6 Pull No Punches by Judith Collins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
7 This Farming Life by Tim Saunders (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
8 Māori Made Easy by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $38.00)
9 Māori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $25.00)
10 The Quick and the Dead by Cynric Temple-Camp (HarperCollins, $39.99)
