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Lifestyle
Steve Braunias

This week's best-selling books

This week's bookcase star is good old Dr Vincent O'Malley, longlisted this week at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand national book awards for his magnificent study Voices from the New Zealand Wars | He Reo nō ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa, published by Bridget Williams Books. He says, "These are some of my New Zealand history books, alongside a copy of a lithograph portrait of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children taken from Rangiaowhia when it was attacked by Crown forces in February 1864. The Belich works get a lot of use." Spotted: works by Michael King, Claudia Orange, Jock Phillips, Angela Ballara.

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 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)

2 To Italy, With Love by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $34.99)

This may well be THE FIRST TIME IN NEW ZEALAND LITERARY HISTORY that an author has the number two best-selling book of fiction in the VERY SAME WEEK they have the number two best-selling book of non-fiction!!! Who else could possibly have achieved this staggering result? CK Stead, Philip Temple and Vincent O'Sullivan regularly cross the border from fiction to non-fiction; Janet Frame, obviously; Patrica Grace, Paula Morris, Charlotte Grimshaw, also; but perhaps the only authors who have worked both fields and wrote best-sellers are Witi Ihimaera, and the late Maurice Shadbolt. Am I missing someone? This is an open call to literary historians.If both Pellgerino's books - To Italy, With Love and her menopause guide Don’t Sweat It - go to number one next week IT WILL BLOW MY MIND.

3 Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Victoria University Press, $35)

Longlisted this week for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand national book awards.

4 The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House, $26)

5 The Last Guests by J.P. Pomare (Hachette, $34.99)

6 Loop Tracks by Sue Orr (Victoria University Press, $35)

Longlisted this week for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand national book awards.

7 Inside the Black Horse by Ray Berard (David Bateman, $34.99)

8 The Author’s Cut by Owen Marshall (Penguin Random House, $36)

9 Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia Publishers, $35)

Longlisted this week for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand national book awards. From a review by Jackie Lee Morrison, published this week at ReadingRoom: "A great story leaves you with questions long after the last page, and after I had devoured Kurangaituku in three feverish sittings, I sat for a long time, twisting and turning the book in my hands…Kurangaituku is a story I would happily live through, again and again."

10 Everything Changes by Stephanie Johnson (Penguin Random House, $36)

Longlisted this week for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand national book awards.

NON-FICTION

1 Your Money, Your Future by Frances Cook (Penguin Random House, $35)

The best kind of self-help book, because it's about something real and true and good – money, and how to help yourself make it work for you to give yourself, and those around you (as well as complete strangers if you're in possession of a philanthropic decency), a better life.

It contains advice on the following subjects.

Your magic number: Learn how much money you need to design the life you want

Finance 101: Change how you handle your money to gain control of debt and simplify your life

Get paid: Techniques that work to boost your earning power in any industry

You earn it, you keep it: How to save more and invest that extra income

Property investing: Making the right decision for you

Retire early, retire often: Your tailor-made plan to take time out, retire early, or work as much as you like

2 Don’t Sweat It by Nicky Pellegrino (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)

This may well be THE FIRST TIME IN NEW ZEALAND LITERARY HISTORY that an author has the number two best-selling book of non-fiction in the VERY SAME WEEK they have the number two best-selling novel.

3 Salad by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Flanagan (Allen & Unwin, $45)

4 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)

5 Lost and Found by Toni Street (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)

6 After the Tampa by Abbas Nazari (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)

He looks like a nice guy: Abbas Nazari, during last year's book tour for his memoir After the Tampa.

7 This Changes Everything by Niki Bezzant (Penguin Random House, $37)

8 The Edible Backyard by Kath Irvine (Penguin Random House, $50)

9 The Forager’s Treasury by Johanna Knox (Allen & Unwin, $45)

10 Māori Made Easy by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $38)

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