NONFICTION
1 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Another political memoir, Ringside, by Ardern’s former spin doctor Mike Munro, was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest.
In an interview with Jack Tame, Munro was asked what advice he might give Christopher Luxon about how to deal with Winston Peters. He answered, “I just think you’ve got to spend a lot of time with him so you understand his point of view. I don’t know whether the current Prime Minister has done a lot of that.”
Readers were asked the same question. It was a very popular contest. The Prime Minister may or may not wish to heed the advice. Most replies were pie in the sky, wishful thinking, quite funny.
Jimi suggested, “Send him to China as Ambassador.” No less insanely, Patricia suggested, “Form a coalition with the party that is most similar to yours – Labour.” Suzanne suggested church: “Take Winston, the febrile octogenarian who talks in tongues, together with Simeon to one of your evangelical laying on hands conversions, not that he may be born again, heaven forbid, but to invoke the divine intervention of a terminal oral aneurysm.”
Ann began her message by claiming, “I had mixed views on Winston.” In fact her only mixed feeling seemed to be whether he was God or Jesus. She continued, “An Aunty worshipped him saying he took the time to listen to his constituents’ woes, had a great sense of humour, and as he wasn’t politically correct was often more on the money having the views held by many NZers, his delivery irking many.
“So when Winston came to town I went to my first political gathering prior to an election. He answered every question thrown at him, most seriously, some tongue in cheek, and when given a chance to explain why he was opposed to immigration, and talked of folk who arrived without being able to speak English, no prearranged job or housing, no sponsor, and settled in areas already struggling with housing and unemployment, he had us eating out of his hand. Just as he did when explaining hand-outs should be a hand-up. He backed up his arguments when not interrupted.
“Because Winston attacks head on it doesn’t go down well in many quarters, yet is embraced by others. It seems to me that the more you knock him, the more cantankerous he becomes. So why not spend time with the man, and understand where his views come from. He may very well have a point.”
Righto. But the winner is Neville, who looked at the elephant from a completely different angle. He advised Luxon, “Winston is such a sort of impossible person. If you flatter him you will forever regret it and if you chastise him you will forever regret it. My recommendation is that you quit politics until Winston is no longer around and then have another go.”
Brilliant! Huzzah to Nev; he wins a free copy of Ringside by Mike Munro (Upstart Press, $36.99).
2 Better Never Stops by Paul Wood (HarperCollins, $39.99)
A free copy is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest.
The author “explores the neuroscience driving the human desire for self-improvement and practical ways to foster growth.” Explain why on earth you would want to read it in an email to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps THE NEUROSCIENCE DRIVING THE HUMAN DESIRE FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT AND PRACTICAL WAYS TO FOSTER GROWTH by midnight on Sunday, August 9.
3 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99)
4 The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $39.99)
5 The Hollows Boys by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton, $39.99)
6 A Place to Stand by Clare Ward (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
7 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)
8 Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer by Witi Ihimaera Smiler (Auckland University Press, $45)
The first short story the author ever published was performed onstage in Auckland on Wednesday night by actor Antonio Te Maioha. It was an incredible piece of interpretative art, a one-man show that saw him play two old kuia in Ihimaera’s short story ‘A Game of Cards’, which featured in his classic debut Pounamu, Pounamu (1972). The actor coughed, spluttered, wheezed, cackled, berated, screeched—and right at the end left a shocking silence to signal that his character died. Wonderful acting, and wonderful story, staged at the Button Factory in downtown Auckland as part of the wildly popular Writers Write: Actors Read series held on the first Wednesday of each month.
9 Stakes by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin Random House, $40)
Memoir with vampires in it.
10 “What Were You Thinking!?” by Nathan Wallis (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
FICTION
1 Murder and Mojitos (The Bookshop Detectives 3) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
2 Every Lake by Adam Perry (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Thriller about a man who allegedly killed a woman at a lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees.
3 The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Thriller about a little boy who is abducted by a nutter, and the not especially sane efforts of the child’s bogan parents to get their kid back.
4 All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
5 No Prisoners by Ellis Blake (Hachette, $37.99)
Thriller about a physicist’s husband who goes missing.
6 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28)
7 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28)
8 Patron Saints of Roadkill and Other Stories by Susanna Elliffe (The Cuba Press, $38)
New collection of short stories. A ghost moves into a woman’s apartment and begins to cough up teeth. A town keeps building as the sea prepares to take it back. A daughter inherits hunger like an heirloom…From an excellent review by Nat Baker at Kete: “These stories are different and unexpected. They confidently wade into the experimental, surreal and speculative, and at times horrific. These are stories that demand attention at the character, plot and sentence-level—they had me guessing, in the midst of all the magic, where we were going, and where our characters (and I as a reader) might end up.”
9 Orchids and Camellias by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
10 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28)
Thriller about genetically manufactured children with violent tendencies.
