The most incredible book giveaway contest of all times since the one we held last year
Every single book shortlisted for the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards – that's 16 titles, the best of the best – is up for grabs in the 2023 ReadingRoom Greatest Book Prize of All Times. One reader will win the lot.
We're talking novels such as the biggest-selling work of fiction published last year, Monty Soutar's Kāwai: For Such a Time as This; in nonfiction, we're talking Noelle McCarthy's celebrated memoir Grand; in illustrated nonfiction, we're talking a really beautiful book of paintings by Robin White; and we're talking four collections of poetry.
We're talking the most amazing book giveaway since last year, when the 2022 ReadingRoom Greatest Book Prize of All Times offered the 16 books shortlisted for the Ockhams. There were 197 entries and the winner was Damien Holder.
To enter the 2023 ReadingRoom Greatest Book Prize of All Times, 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.
You may wish to choose a book from the Ockhams shortlist, published in full, below.
It might be a book that only made it as far as the Ockhams longlist, like the sparkling satirical novel Down from Upland by Murdoch Stephens, or Fiona Kidman's essay collection So Far, For Now: On Journeys, Widowhood and Stories that are Never Over, or the year's best cookbook, Kai: Food Stories and Recipes from my Family Table by Christall Lowe.
It might be a book that ought to have at least made it as far as the Ockhams longlist and gone on to win the damned award, like the short story collections Kōhine by Colleen Maria Lenihan and Beats of the Pa'u by Maria Samuela, the crime novel Poor People With Money by Dominic Hoey, the small but beautifully formed memoir Raiment by Jan Kemp, and the poetry collection The Stupefying by Nick Ascroft.
It might be a book that sold its socks off and ended up as one of the bestselling books of 2022, like Straight Up by Ruby Tui or Yum! by Nadia Lim.
You may wish to nominate another book entirely, so like maybe a kids book or a comic or a manual on how to make a bear trap or whatever.
But anyway the point is to choose whichever book was your favourite of all books published in New Zealand in 2022, and write a few lines, or a great many lines, up to you, saying what you like about it. The book that gets the most nominations, by the way, can be informally regarded as winner of a People's Choice Award.
Email your entry - don't forget, for God's sake, to actually write something about your favourite NZ book of 2022 - 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 SINCE LAST YEAR. 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.
Here are the books that will be collected by the winner.
SHORTLIST FOR THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION
The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Rachael King's rave review was unequivocal: "The Axeman’s Carnival is remarkable, brilliant, a classic in the making."
Kāwai: For Such a Time as This by Monty Soutar (Bateman Books)
From Wiremu Kane's review of Soutar's debut: "Matua Monty draws on his expertise as a historian to immerse the reader in a pre-colonial Aotearoa that teems with texture, life, and details that will delight, shock, and surprise even readers familiar with the period."
Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press)
Historical novel.
Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
Crime novel.
SHORTLIST FOR THE GENERAL NON-FICTION AWARD
Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay by Paul Diamond (Massey University Press)
From my review: "D'Arcy Cresswell is chiefly or only remembered for an act of staggering treachery: blackmailing the mayor of Whanganui, who responded by shooting Cresswell with every intent to kill. The 1920 shooting and its aftermath is the subject of Diamond's book…The book is a record of colonial privilege, a kind of white mischief, all ruling-class Pākehā all the time."
A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru: A Collection of Narratives about Te Tai Tokerau Tūpuna by Melinda Webber and Te Kapua O’Connor (Auckland University Press)
Karina Cooper, writing in the Northland Advocate: "Travel back in time to when Ngāti Kurī used the cries of pūpū kōrari whakarongotaua - a large leaf-eating land snail - to warn of approaching invaders. Only those with a deep familiarity of the surroundings knew where to step to avoid the pūpū, whereas strangers traipsed on them and thus alerted their targets. That is just one of the many memories of Tai Tokerau's history captured in a new book by two Māori authors, whose roots lie in Northland."
Grand: Becoming my Mother’s Daughter by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin, Penguin Random House)
From Rachael King's rave review: "You’d never wish material this good for a memoir on anyone. It’s complex, thrilling and raw."
The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books)
From Philip Temple's review: "It will be seen as essential reading for Treaty historians, students and lawyers."
SHORTLIST FOR THE BOOKSELLERS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND AWARD FOR ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
Robin White: Something is Happening Here edited by Sarah Farrar, Jill Trevelyan and Nina Tonga (Te Papa Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
My review of Something Is Happening Here made mention of her friendship with Sam Hunt: "White painted Hunt, and turned him into an icon. He was the hero of her work, a super-bohemian in a bright white singlet. She painted Mangaweka, Maketū, and Mana, and turned them into icons, too."
Te Motunui Epa by Rachel Buchanan (Bridget Williams Books)
Jonathan Barrett's review praised the story of a set of pātaka panels that were illegally removed, acquired by a Swiss-based collector, and eventually repatriated to Taranaki in 2014: "It’s beautifully designed and realised."
Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger (Auckland University Press)
From David Slack's review: "The author’s tone remains kind, sympathetic to the tentative naivete of much of it; inspired and noble, hapless and clueless."
Secrets of the Sea: The Story of New Zealand’s Native Sea Creatures by Robert Vennell (HarperCollins)
Pictures of fish.
SHORTLIST FOR THE MARY AND PETER BIGGSY AWARD FOR POETRY
People Person by Joanna Cho (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Fergus Porteous' remarkable essay about Joanna Cho and her book has been nominated as best personal essay of the year at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards: "I met Joanna Cho in March 2020. It was the first poetry/creative nonfiction workshop at the IIML. She sat at the sunny end of the room wearing a matching set of brown shorts and shirt, seemed shy, and maybe moody – her resting-face is a sulky pout…. People Person is a stunning book, full of humour and sadness, profoundly generous, and highly original."
Sedition by Anahera Maire Gildea (Taraheke | Bush Lawyer)
The author's sensational poem about whitey talking te reo was a smash hit at ReadingRoom.
Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised by Alice Te Punga Somerville (Auckland University Press)
From a review by Elizabeth Heritage at Kete: "A tonic for the brain, the tongue and the spirit."
We’re All Made of Lightning by Khadro Mohamed (We Are Babies Press, Tender Press)
From a review by the indispensable Paula Green at Poetry Shelf: "Khadro’s debut collection is prismatic, probing, resonant with heart pulse."
