The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias (plus massive book giveaway)
FICTION
1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
From David Eggleton's review: "Catton asks the question, what is the good global citizen when corruption and complicity are bedfellows in the form of self-interested nihilist and self-satisfied do-gooder? Here, New Zealand is her test-case and laboratory."
2 P.S. Come to Italy by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $36.99)
3 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
This week's book giveaway is massive: all 16 shortlisted books for this year's Ockham New Zealand book awards (including Kāwai, and the novels at number 6 and number 10 in this week's chart) are up for grabs in the 2023 ReadingRoom Greatest Book Prize of All Times. One reader will win the lot. To enter the draw, 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. (The book that gets the most nominations, by the way, can be informally regarded as winner of a People's Choice Award.) Full details were published on Tuesday and include a helpful guide to some of the best books of 2022.
Email your entry - don't forget, for God's sake, to name and actually write something about your favourite NZ book of 2022; quite a few entries haven't even bothered and of course they have been consigned to trash - to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps I REALLY WANT TO WIN THE 2023 READINGROOM GREATEST BOOK PRIZE OF ALL TIMES. Entries close at midnight on Saturday, May 11. The winner will be announced in ReadingRoom on Wednesday, May 17; the Ockhams will be announced that night.
4 One of Those Mothers by Megan Nicol Reed (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
5 The Last Days of Joy by Anne Tiernan (Hachette, $36.99)
6 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
7 Landed by Sue McCauley (David Bateman, $37.99)
"Bette Davis got it right when she famously once said, 'Old age is not for sissies.' With her latest novel, Landed, Sue McCauley has created an empathetic portrait of a naïve and vulnerable older woman who struggles to reinvent herself after a tragedy leaves her bereft…Now in her early 80s herself, McCauley explores the ageing process with a sensitive touch. She doesn’t pull her punches about what old age has in store for us all – the eventual relinquishment of those dearest to us": from a review by Sue Reidy.
8 Biter by Claudia Jardine (Auckland University Press, $24.99)
Poetry, viz:
I fell in love
I kissed
gains made
it all happened
I am desired
but I?
and you?
and how?
one god alone knows
9 I, Object by Stella Chrysostomou (Volume! $30)
From the comms at Nelson Jewellery Week: "If your ring could speak, what would it tell you? I, Object is a collection of short texts by jewellery objects, narrated to jeweller Stella Chrysostomou. Here, jewellery objects reflect on their relationship to the world, to each other, and with their human acquaintances (their makers, wearers, viewers, and owners)." What?
10 Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press, $37)
NON-FICTION
1 Second Chances by Hayley Holt (HarperCollins, $39.99)
2 Winter Warmers by Philippa Cameron (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
A copy of the author's latest High Country cookbook was up for grabs in last week's book giveaway. Readers were asked to detail their own original winter-warming recipe. ("Must include meat", they were advised.) Among the best of the bunch were the flat lamb chops from Lesley ("A throwback to my Massey flat in the 80s but still delicious with winter mashed potatoes"), lamb shanks with red wine, dates and mint from Beth, and Nigel's leg of lamb roasted for five hours on 160.
The winner is Merania Karauria. It doesn’t get more winter warming or Kiwi than this. Check this out: "A venison back steak in one piece from the upper Whanganui River, cooked on the stove top, in my case, on my gas stove in my outdoor kitchen.
"Cook, almost in a whole stick of butter, in a deep earthenware dish (Dutch style). It should be just pink in the centre when you slice. Any condiment that floats your boat: feijoa chutney, Monty Surprise apple sauce. Serve with Māori potatoes, the very yellow variety. Greens: Whatever is in season. Pudding: Monty Surprise apple and ginger sponge with runny organic cream. Homemade mulled wine: ginger, lemon, cinnamon, honey to spice it up.
"Simple upriver fare."
3 Straight Up by Ruby Tui (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
4 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
5 Be Your Best Self by Rebekah Ballagh (Allen & Unwin, $32.99)
6 Wawata by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
7 The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $38.99)
8 The Drinking Game by Guyon Espiner (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
My favourite book of all the time, the book I have reread more than any other, for its evocation of what genius feels like in the body, is Best: An Intimate Biography (1976), Michael Parkinson's biography of football player George Best. Best was an alcoholic. He claimed he was drunk when he conducted the interviews with Parkinson for the book. Certainly many of his stories are about drinking, like this one: "We used to have a game called Jacks. There's a group of us around a table in a pub and we'd have a pack of cards. The first geezer to draw a jack had to invent a drink. It could be anything at all, straight or a mixture, and in any quantity. The guy who drew the second jack had to taste it, then the poor sod who drew the third jack had to drink it.
"I've drunk some poisonous mixtures like vodka, rum, scotch, gin and brandy in the same glass. A pint of it. Then I've gone to the loo, stuck my fingers down my throat and gone back and started again. Some guys used to pass out. One guy went stiff one day, we thought he'd bloody died … I could really drink in those days."
9 A Forager’s Life by Helen Lehndorf (HarperCollins, $39.99)
10 Butter, Butter by Petra Galler (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
Baking cookbook, featuring Persian Love Cake, Tiramisu Crepe Cake, Mushroom and Gruyere Galette, and Leek and Cheddar Brioche Butter Pudding. What's with the funereal cover? It looks like it was photographed in a house that can't afford to pay the power bill.
