FICTION
1 Murder and Mojitos (The Bookshop Detectives 3) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
A free copy of the final book in the wildly successful trilogy of detective adventures is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. This one has an art deco festival, a body discovered at the beach, and competitive cocktail shaking.
To enter the draw, tell us who you would like to play the roles of the two bookstore detectives (based on the authors, who own Wardinis in Hawkes Bay) in a movie or TV version. Earlier this year screen rights for The Bookshop Detectives were optioned by South Pacific Pictures “in a highly competitive pitch”, according to Australian-based site Film Ink. Kelly Martin, CEO at SPP, said: “We’re pleased to have acquired the rights to this delightfully charming Kiwi book series, and we look forward to working with Gareth and Louise Ward to develop it for screen.”
If it gets made, name the New Zealand actors who could play the Wards, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps THEM TWO BOOKSTORE DETECTIVES by midnight on Sunday, July 19.
2 The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
A little boy goes missing in the year’s most exciting thriller.
3 Orchids and Camellias by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
4 All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Earlier this week I reviewed actor Michelle Langstone performing one of the stories from the short story collection by Ingrid Horrocks, winner of this year’s $65,000 fiction prize at the Ockham awards: “Her role in Horrocks’ story ‘Concrete Box’ called for her to play solo mum Rosa with care. It was hard to know how close to the edge Rosa was but maybe pretty close … I guess ‘Concrete Box’ was set in the Hutt Valley: ‘The real estate agent had led us down the hallway and pointed out an old photo of the house from a century back, when the rest of our valley was a mess of cleared hills and grey dirt.’ It summoned the bleak territories that Asher Emanuel wrote of in the year’s best book, his amazing work of immersive journalism, The Valley.”
5 The Tour by Falstaff Dowling-Mitchell (Falstaff Books, $30)
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 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99)
A long-lost little girl comes wandering out of the bush in last year’s most exciting thriller.
9 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
10 Slash by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
From a review by Gemma Bowker-Wright: “Slash is a sequel of sorts to his bestselling debut published last year, The Call, which first introduced his protagonist, former detective Honey Chalmers … 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.”
NONFICTION
1 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $39.99)
2 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99)
3 The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $39.99)
4 A Place to Stand by Clare Ward (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
5 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)
6 Ringside by Mike Munro (Upstart Press, $39.99)
I opened a copy this week at Whitcoulls in the St Lukes Mall in Auckland on Tuesday, and expected that I’d likely be rooted to the spot for at least a few minutes by some fascinating insight or reflection in Munro’s political memoir. Munro spent 22 years in Parliament, first as a reporter, later as a PR trout. I dealt with him a couple of times along the way and found him to be a very decent, straight-up rooster. But he can’t write for toffee, and he barely seems to think about anything at any depth. I found a passage when he wrote about the “rumours” surrounding Clarke Gayford when Munro worked for Prime Minister Ardern. Ooh, do tell, I thought; but he didn’t really tell anything, and the episode only took up two or three anodyne paragraphs. I kept flipping. I tried my best but nothing stuck and I put it back on the shelves, then had a nice chat with Julie who works in the shop. It’s a really good Whitcoulls, lots of space and lots of things in it.
7“What Were You Thinking!?” by Nathan Wallis (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
A free copy of a new book on parenting was up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. 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.”
Readers were asked to share their thoughts on the brain science of their own child. No entry came close to this beautiful email from Lesley, who wrote, “My son is 51. Due to circumstances beyond the control of either of us, I never got to know his personality as he grew and developed. Now he comes to spend a day with me once a week and I’m learning to understand his intelligence, his tenacity, his kindness and who he is. Now, when I look at photographs of him as a little boy, I can see those same qualities in how he stands with his mates, staunch and ready to take on the world on his own terms.
“And I remember the poem he wrote when he was seven, about being lonely and welcoming a friend who wanted to play car racing. He won second place in a competition with the poem and got to read it on the radio. He is a complex human being, one whom I wish I had learned to know well during his childhood. His willingness to reach out to me now, to put in the work to build our relationship, endears him to me.”
Lesley more than deserves to win a copy of “What Were You Thinking!?” by Nathan Wallis.
8 The Winner’s Formula by Kerry Spackman (HarperCollins, $39.99)
9 Stakes by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin Random House, $40)
Jacinda Ardern really liked this memoir.
10 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $40)
Noelle McCarthy really liked this memoir.
