FICTION
1 The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
A free copy of the year’s most heart-thumping suspense novel—a little boy goes missing at Muriwai Beach—was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. I have only just started reading it and do not know how it ends but the requirement for readers wishing to win a copy was to tell a story with a happy ending of someone who went missing, that is to say someone who was found.
It was an immensely popular contest, so much so that I devoted a story to the entries in ReadingRoom on Wednesday. I fully intended to award the book to one of the people who entered—but after my story was published, a reader reached out on the Newsroom comments page, and wrote, “I’m sorry I missed this. I had a son aged 12 missing in Australia for 12 months. His father moved house with him and didn’t tell me. By happy coincidence one of my sisters living in Australia worked in the same industry as the father and we got him back to New Zealand after some work.”
Huzzah to Kathleen. She missed the contest deadline but I don’t think anyone will mind that I name her the winner of a free copy of The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary.
2 Orchids and Camellias by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
3 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99)
Last year’s most heart-thumping suspense novel—a lost child comes stumbling out of the bush—has sold a massive 20,000 copies since the Rotorua writer’s debut was published in August 2025.
4 All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Short story collection, and winner of this year’s $65,000 Acorn Prize for fiction at the Ockhams. One of the stories, ‘Concrete Box’, published in ReadingRoom in May, featured this week at the 2026 season of Writers Write: Actors Read, in which well-known actors read NZ short stories at a live event in Auckland. ‘Concrete Box’ was performed by Michelle Langstone at the Button Factory, a groovy space behind K Road, on Tuesday. She said she was nervous about reading it out loud but soon slipped into the role of the story’s protagonist, a solo mum living in a block of flats (hence the story title) with her two kids, and a dog called Bear. God I hate Bear! It shits everywhere, it barks its head off, its fur smells. Horrocks’s story is claustrophobic, and psychologically intense; Langstone’s reading brought it out into the open, and she had the sell-out audience hooked. Great event, great short story.
5 Slash by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
From a review by Gemma Bowker-Wright: “Gavin Strawhan’s Slash gives us small-town forestry country, cyclone damage, gangs, meth and exploited Pacific workers. It’s a fast, muddy ride through a landscape devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle. Slash is a sequel of sorts to his bestselling debut published last year, The Call, which first introduced his protagonist, former detective Honey Chalmers … What makes Slash work is Honey herself. She is flawed in all the right ways—brave, impulsive, funny, guilty, and carrying what she describes as PTSD from her last case. There’s a fantastic moment early on where she goes to the supermarket for brown rice and vegetables and comes home, via a couple of diversions, with a bottle of Scotch and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Her name is sweet, but there is a sting behind it, and Strawhan has grown her considerably since The Call — she is more damaged now, more reckless, and somehow more likeable for it.”
6 Nightshades and Paperwhites by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
7 The Storm Weaver by Ivy Cliffwater (Hachette, $37.99)
8 Malachite (Valmora Academy) by Ashley Andersen (Hachette, $37.99)
9 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28)
10 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28)
NONFICTION
1 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $39.99)
2 “What Were You Thinking!?” by Nathan Wallis (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
A free copy of a new book on parenting is up for grabs in this week’s free book giveaway. The author says of himself, “I’ve spent 25 years in brain science, leading national studies, advising governments, training professionals across health and education, and counselling families one-on-one. The biggest breakthroughs always come when parents see the brain behind the behaviour and learn responses that actually work.”
Righto. To enter the contest, share your thoughts on the brain science of your own child, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps BABY EINSTEIN by midnight on Sunday, July 12.
3 A Place to Stand by Clare Ward (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Country doctor’s memoir; a ReadingRoom review is forthcoming by Dr Peter Davis.
4 The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $39.99)
5 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99)
6 The Winner’s Formula by Kerry Spackman (HarperCollins, $39.99)
7 Te Tiriti, Equality and the Future of New Zealand Democracy by Dominic O’Sullivan (Auckland University Press, $39.99)
Thoughts on the Treaty; a ReadingRoom review is forthcoming by Chris Finlayson.
8 Habits of High Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99)
9 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)
10 Stakes by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin Random House, $40)
