NONFICTION
1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40)
In his hat as business editor at large at the Herald, Liam Dann called it two weeks ago: it’s official, we’re in a recession. With strange timing, it coincided with publication of his book about how to understand the economy, and ways to navigate your way through it.
A free copy was up for grabs in last week’s book giveaway. Readers were asked to share a story about their personal finances, to tell it like it unfortunately is, to give costings, to open the books.
A reader from Nelson did just that, writing that she saved $100,000 for her retirement, and has since spent the bulk of it on foreign travel (“but that will have to stop”), house renovations ($30,000), central heating ($12,000), and an e bike ($5000). “Repainting the house looks like emptying one of my funds. The other smaller fund is in the bank, for safety. The thing that really allows me to live, day to day, is my son’s generosity. He gives me $110 a week. We call it the nappy payments, as he considers it a repayment for all the money his parents spent on him as a baby. He says it’s only fair as one day he will inherit my house, currently worth about $650,000 but which is very old and in constant need of work. Thank heavens for kind-hearted children.”
But the winner is a man of no fixed abode. His email, in full: “We’re only ever weeks away from being homeless. Of course, that’s much better than actually being homeless. Still…
“Things can change quickly, as many have found out. My wife received a bad health diagnosis and I’m off work caring for her. We are on a benefit. How far does that go? Not very. We buy food, put some petrol in the car and pay a few necessary bills. Nothing left for rent, power, internet, car repairs, Dr, clothes…you get the idea.
“We haven’t yet had to spend a night in our car. Which is fortunate as it’s very small and I’m quite tall. We are house-sitting. For the last year, we have lived in five places ranging from a tiny home to a cliff-top mansion with heated swimming pool. Hardly slumming it, but when it comes to an end, we are at the mercy of finding another house-sit.
“We maintain the house, extensive grounds and gardens and pool and in return we live in the house with free power, gas, wifi. It works for us and for the absentee owners.
“My thoughts, though, are not so much for ourselves but for those in similar positions who don’t have this option and have to pay rent or mortgage. How the hell do you live on an income that’s less than your rent? Eating cheap (and often nasty) food because it’s all you can afford, not going to the dentist or Dr, driving with no wof or rego or insurance (if you can manage to keep the car running) and all the stress that goes with that doesn’t bode well long term.
“I understand why so many turn to crime, onlyfans, working under the table, etc. For some, it’s a game, for many it’s survival.
“Where to for us? For now we have a long-term house-sit. We’re ok. Until the car breaks down or we need to see a Dr or dentist…
“One thing we do have is hope. When the future is uncertain, that’s almost like money in the bank.”
He wins a free copy of BBQ Economics by Liam Dann.
2 Feijoa: A story of obsession and belonging by Kate Evans (Hachette, $39.99)
Sensationally, constantly really interesting book about our national fruit – a fruit that is also in abundance in Brazil. In an excerpt, published at ReadingRoom this week, the author wrote of talking to villagers in Brazil about their use of feijoas as a medicinal plant.
A free copy of Feijoa is up for grabs in this week’s book giveaway. To enter, share a recipe which involves feijoas – baked, a relish, a tea, whatever – and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps THE FEIJOA IS A THING OF JOY. Entries close at midnight on Sunday, April 7.
3 On Call: Stories from My Life as a Surgeon, a Daughter and a Mother by Ineke Meredith (HarperCollins, $39.99)
4 Dinner, Done Better by My Food Bag (Penguin Random House, $40)
5 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
6 Whakawhetai: Gratitude by Hira Nathan (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
7 The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press, $39.99)
8 Fungi of Aotearoa by Liv Sisson (Penguin Random House, $45)
The author’s monstera is for sale (see above).
9 Hold My Hand, Rosie. Don’t Let Go: A mother-and-daughter story of addiction, despair, and hope by Madeleine & Rosie Redding (Mary Egan Publishing, $35)
Author’s note: “The target audience for this book is alcoholics in recovery and, importantly, their loved ones, who sustain as much damage and on occasion more than those they are living alongside, with the disease.”
10 101 Ways to Find Calm by Rebekah Ballagh (Allen & Unwin, $29.99)
FICTION
1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
Blurbology: “Laura and Doug were together for ages. Their breakup was just one of those things – she wanted children, he didn’t, no hard feelings – at least not until, with their relationship barely cold in its grave, he got his new girlfriend pregnant.
“Now, seven years later, a polite social call to his parents lands Laura back in the family, helping Doug and his playboy younger brother to cope with a whole raft of crises. And what better time to re-evaluate your major life decisions than when you’re wrangling a farm, a bookshop, two small children, your ex’s wife in labour and his two sick parents?”
2 The Secrets of the Little Greek Taverna by Erin Palmisano (Hachette, $36.99)
3 The Space Between by Lauren Keenan (Penguin Random House, $37)
4 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Hachette, $37.99)
Debut intergenerational novel, moving from Singapore in 1951 (“When Josephina is a girl, her parents lock her in a room with the father of the boy to whom she’s betrothed”) to New Zealand in 1984 (“a sudden and shocking event changes everything for Josephina’s children, Sithara and Suri”), to London in 2018 (“Arriving on her uncle Suri’s doorstep, all Annie knows of him is that he was cast out of the family before she was born.”)
5 The Call by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
From a review of Strawhan’s crime novel about an Auckland detective caught up with very bad people in organised crime: “Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut.”
6 Bird Child and Other Stories by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House, $37)
From a long, thoughtful assessment of a new-old collection of short stories by “our most important writer”, by critic Jordan Tricklebank: “Bird Child and Other Stories will mean more to readers that are familiar with Patricia Grace’s classic work, but thankfully it isn’t content to be a bland tribute to that work. Like the Bird Child, the collection isn’t quite one thing or another – neither new nor old – and that uncertain dynamic is what makes it a worthwhile addition to Grace’s legacy.”
7 The Night She Fell by Eileen Merriman (Penguin Random House, $37)
8 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
Among the 16 books shortlisted for this year’s Ockham awards – and all 16 are up for grabs in the third annual Greatest Book Giveaway of All Times. To enter, name the one book you regard as the very best book published in New Zealand last year, and say why it is that you esteem it so highly. Write a few lines, or a great many lines, up to you, saying what you like about it. The book that gets the most nominations, by the way, can be informally regarded as winner of a People’s Choice Award.
This is Week Five of the giveaway and there are now two books which have streaked ahead, and are running pretty much neck-and-neck in votes – There’s a Cure for This by Emma Espiner, and Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton.
Choose one or the other, or absolutely anything else so long as it was published in 2023, and email your entry to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps I REALLY WANT TO WIN THE 2024 READINGROOM GREATEST BOOK PRIZE OF ALL TIMES SINCE LAST YEAR AND THE YEAR BEFORE THAT. Entries close at midnight on Sunday, April 28. The winner will be announced in ReadingRoom on Wednesday, May 15; the Ockhams will be announced that evening.
9 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
10 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99)
