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 Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia Publishers, $35)
Oho! Number one for the third consecutive week – a remarkable achievement even given the good, good hype it got as winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction, announced at last month's Ockham New Zealand national book awards. Winning is no guarantee of commercial success. Bookstores have greeted some previous Ockham fiction winners with a moan of "Ugh, whatever", because they knew it wouldn’t make a lick of difference to sales. But not in 2022 – with the added amazement that Kurangaituku is right now outselling a genre which is always catnip for New Zealand book buyers, in the shape of two historical novels (Harbouring, and The Leonard Girls, below). In short: bravo to author Whiti Hereaka, for her retelling of the myth of the birdwoman of Mokoia Island. People love it.
2 Harbouring by Jenny Pattrick (Penguin Random House, $36)
New Zealand, 1839.
3 The Leonard Girls by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, $36.99)
New Zealand, 1969.
4 Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Victoria University Press, $35)
5 How to Loiter In a Turf War by Coco Solid (Penguin Random House, $28)
6 Winter Time by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House, $36)
A new Fearnley is always a literary event. Publisher's blurbology: "Having returned to the Mackenzie Country to deal with the unexpected death of his brother, Roland has more than enough on his plate. He could do without the demands of a cantankerous neighbour, the complaints of his partner back in Australia and discovering that someone is impersonating him online, stirring up the locals against him…A vivid novel about familial love and friendship."
7 The Last Beekeeper (The Vespling 1) by Jared Gulian (Waysout Press, $40)
On a remote island, a reclusive beekeeper discovers a dark secret that could destroy humanity. Woah! Plus, great cover.
8 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
9 Larry & Viv by Graeme Lay (Renaissance Publishing, $34.99)
"What a thrill it must have been in 1948 to be able to attend performances of three different plays, here in New Zealand, from London's Old Vic Company. Graeme Lay captures this thrill beautifully in his new novel Larry & Viv": from a review by Carole Beu, of the Women's Bookshop.
10 The Fish by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Random House, $36)
NON-FICTION
1 Yum by Nadia Lim (Nude Food Inc, $55)
I made one of Lim's recipes from Yum at Queen's Birthday Weekend – a boiled chook with celery and split peas. It was kind of yum but actually also kind of bland. It makes a good stock though.
2 The Boy from Gorge River by Chris Long (HarperCollins, $39.99)
3 Matariki: The Star of the Year by Rangi Matamua (Huia Publishers, $35)
4 The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
5 Letters to You by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $30)
6 A Gentle Radical: The life of Jeanette Fitzsimons by Gareth Hughes (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
From my review, at ReadingRoom: "The first thing to say about Gareth Hughes as the political biographer of his friend and colleague Jeanette Fitzsimons is that he's obviously and uniformly the wrong man for the job, precisely because he was a friend and colleague; there's no distance in this warm assessment, no criticism in this shining portrait; the core of the book is a void, a meaninglessness, because Hughes is unable to function as any kind of objective witness. You simply can't trust him. He's biographer as fanboy, and it's biography as cooing devotional by a party hack. He's too close to the subject. But closeness has its virtues. Hughes tells the death of Rod Donald with a quiet power, and it's this kind of intimacy which gives his book a warmth and, better yet, an understanding."
7 Grand by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin Random House, $35)
8 I am Autistic by Chanelle Moriah (Allen & Unwin, $29.99)
9 Simple Wholefoods by Sophie Steevens (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
10 Robin White by Sarah Farrar & Nina Tonga & Jill Trevelyan (Te Papa Press, $70)
Everyone concerned with this beautiful illustrated book about the life and career of one of our greatest living artists – the three authors, the publisher and their team, and White herself – ought to take a bow. It's a really first-class, luscious book; and ReadingRoom, in awe, will be devoting a week to it a little bit down the track. Below: Robin White's painting Sam Hunt and Hills Across the Harbour (1976), held by the Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, purchased with assistance from the Hamilton Motorcycle Club.
