FICTION
1 At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House, $37)
A copy of the novelist’s latest novel – number one for the third consecutive week – was up for grabs in last week’s free book giveaway. The novel is set in a grand old rambling hotel; as such, readers were asked to describe the most incredible hotel they have ever set foot into in New Zealand. There were a lot of entries. There were votes for Chateau Tongariro, the Greymouth Hotel, the Duke of Marlborough in Russell, the Martinborough Hotel, Christchurch’s Park Royal Hotel, Brents Hotel in Rotorua, and other grand old rambling joints.
But none had the power of the entry from Louise Kuraia, who nominated Hotel De Brett on the corner of Shortland and High Streets in Auckland.
She wrote, “Why? Because it’s where I met the love of my life, Anton, in the Shortland Bar, on the Auckland Uni capping week pub crawl in 1993. It was May 5, a Wednesday, the day my life changed forever (for the first time). A year later, we celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Mikano’s, an epic all-nighter at De Bretts and an extremely long, headachy, but happy day at the 1994 Auckland University Māori Students Association graduation, where I was presented with a beautiful taonga that I still wear to this day. Anton and I were together 23 beautiful, brutal, brilliant years, till fucking cancer robbed me and our sons of him at age 46.
“De Bretts in the early 90s was shabby chic, at best. And it was The Best. Any and every good Friday night started at the Wine Bar (if you were romancing), Bob (for the sartorially inelegant), the Corner Bar (for the whiskey) or the Shortland Bar (for the one and only Manuel Bundy), moving upstairs to the House Bar (for the crush, the cocktails and the classiness) and DOS as the rhythms and rituals of the night took hold. Box, Cause Celebre and Deschler’s were for the wee small hours, but you always came back to De Bretts. And for only $50 a night, cheaper than taxi fare to South or West Auckland, you could ascend the red-carpeted spiral staircase to one of the oddly nautical-themed rooms on the upper floors and sleep off the hangover (kind of) before exiting at 10am to find the car hopefully still where you parked it on Eden Cres.
“In 2013, 20 years after our first meant-to-be meeting standing in the open french doors of the Shortland Bar (the doors are still there), we returned to the now bougie De Bretts, staying in a $500 a night suite in the restored Hotel. We were celebrating Anton’s radical remission from the acute myeloid leukaemia that would eventually return, but not before we had almost four more years of miraculous life together. We had a cocktail in the House Bar, surrounded by the ghosts of our youthful bounty, and a lovely dinner in the now light-filled restaurant where no indiscretion could go unnoticed. It was weird, being so exposed. But we loved it still. I’ve not been back since, not even sure if the bougie De Bretts survived the great plague (Covid). But it always and ever will be the most spectacular hotel in Aotearoa.”
Huzzah to Louise, currently finishing up a year-long stint living in the US on a health care research fellowship; when she returns home in August, a free copy of At The Grand Glacier Hotel will be hers.
2 The Space Between by Lauren Keenan (Penguin Random House, $37)
3 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Hachette, $37.99)
4 Tarot by Jake Arthur (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $25)
A copy of the author’s new collection of poems, based on Tarot cards, is up for grabs in this week’s free book giveaway. To enter, share an interesting experience or reading of Tarot cards, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps SOMETIMES LIFE IS THE TEN OF SWORDS AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT EXCEPT SUFFER. Entries close at midnight on Sunday, June 30.
The book’s launch – pictured above – featured a speech made by Holly Walker, who said, “At the time that Jake was writing these poems, he was living in Tūrangi during what he describes in the acknowledgements section as a horrible year. Jake’s fiancé Todd was recovering from severe long Covid, and Jake’s days were lonely and long. I think this book is a beautiful thing to come from the worst of times … Perhaps it is only when life collapses around you that you start to suspect Fortuna holds all the cards.
“What Jake’s presented across this book is that within each of us is a deck of cards, a mix of voices, whichever we call on in each moment drawn by fate.”
5 The Secrets of the Little Greek Taverna by Erin Palmisano (Hachette, $36.99)
6 Bird Child and Other Stories by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House, $37)
7 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
8 The Seasonwife by Saige England (David Bateman, $37.99)
9 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28)
10 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
NONFICTION
1 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood (HarperCollins, $39.99)
A review of the comedian’s feel-good cancer memoir is due to appear in ReadingRoom quite soon by fellow traveller on the cancer road, film producer Steve O’Meagher.
2 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
3 Waitohu by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $35)
4 A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Tickets go on sale next week for the WORD Christchurch literary festival, held in late August. I have been invited to discuss my third and final book in a true-crime trilogy, The Survivors. Guest authors from beyond our shores include US first nations poet and essayist Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe, and critically acclaimed Hong Kong-born UK queer poet Mary Jean Chan, while local authors include Talia Marshall on her memoir Whaea Blue, Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku on her memoir Hine Toa, Saraid de Silva on her novel Amma, and Matt Heath, author of the year’s most interesting self-helper, A Life Less Punishing, who will host a Dad’s Day Brunch.
5 The Final Diagnosis by Cynric Temple-Camp (HarperCollins, $39.99)
6 Matariki: The Star of the Year by Rangi Matamua (Huia Publishers, $35)
7 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
8 Foraging New Zealand by Peter Langlands (Penguin Random House, $50)
As an image, it’s nothing special, but I must say the cover looks absolutely ravishing in real life, in bookstores. Me want.
9 The Everything Guide by Niki Bezzant (Penguin Random House, $45)
10 Whakawhetai: Gratitude by Hira Nathan (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
