NONFICTION
1 Habits of High Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99)
A free copy of the radical new self-helper is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. Interestingly, the number 2 bestseller in this week’s chart is another motivational guide to achieve personal excellence; times are tough, the rock-star economy is more like a covers band playing in a basement, the government is running out of ideas which may actually be better than continuing with their run of really bad ideas, and we all have to look to ourselves to get out of this current spirit of slump and disorder. Habits of High Performers and Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka provide that thing many of us want but don’t get: leadership. They talk to success, hard graft that earns results, getting somewhere in life.
To enter the contest to win Laughlin’s book, share a story that reflects the truth of one of his key dictums: win when it’s hard, not just when it’s easy, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps IT’S ABOUT ALIGNMENT. CLARITY. AND DOING WHAT ACTUALLY MOVES THE NEEDLE by midnight on Sunday, September 7.
2 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)
The number 1 bestseller at the UBS book stall at last weekend’s Christchurch WORD festival after Enoka gave a talk on Sunday afternoon.
3 Anything Could Happen by Grant Robertson (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
A free copy of the former finance minister’s memoir was up for grabs in last weekend’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their thoughts on Robertson. It wasn’t a very popular contest and there weren’t a lot of thoughts but I like the succinct commentary from Pauline, who wrote, “All I want to say is that when Grant was a minister and Jacinda was Prime Minister, I had a relaxed feeling of well-being that I no longer have.”
Huzzah to Pauline; she is the deserving winner of Anything Could Happen by Grant Robertson.
4 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $59.99)
Jacinda Ardern often accepted my invitation to attend the Wintec Press Club, a spectacular luncheon event held on the banks of the Waikato River, in the early 2010s. I was mentoring journalism students at Wintec at the time and assigned Candice Jones to interview the young Labour MP. A selection of quotes will appear in the Nielsen chart over the next few weeks from their antique 2013 interview; much of what she said about her life was, arguably, more interesting than what she wrote in her memoir.
Example: “I had two favourite subjects at high school. One of them was metalwork. I couldn’t do it at School C as it clashed with another one of my classes that I had to take and I remember being extremely disappointed. It remains as one of my highest school achievements when I did metalwork in the fourth form and topped the class. Whenever I visit engineering companies I always get excited when I see a lathe.”
5 The Unlikely Doctor by Timoti Te Moke (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
6 Leading Under Pressure by Ian Foster & Gregor Paul (HarperCollins, $39.99)
7 Underworld by Jared Savage (HarperCollins, $39.99)
8 Bird of the Year by Ellen Rykers(Penguin Random House, $45)
9 Hook, Line and Misadventure by David Hastings (HarperCollins, $37.99)
Ideal book idea for Father’s Day for dads who like fishing. A legendary fisher shares stories about fishing.
10 The Middle of Nowhere by Rosemary Baird (Canterbury University Press, $55)
I met the author last weekend at the Christchurch WORD festival, where her excellent social history on the Manapōuri hydro project was a smash hit – it was the second biggest-selling book at the festival. It’s an ideal Father’s Day gift for dads who work hard and share the author’s deep respect for the men who built Manapōuri. An excerpt about Tim Shadbolt’s experience working at Manapōuri appeared last week at ReadingRoom, and inspired an interesting comment from reader Maureen Marshall: “Thank you will order your book. Reminds me of the book by George Brasell, Boats and Blokes, published by Daphne Brasell Associates in 1991. The book sold out at the launch followed by three imprints. Just looking at photos of the launch – it was packed. That time and history mattered to all attending the launch.”
FICTION
1 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99)
New crime thriller. “A young girl with blood on her hands walks out of the bush and into the local store, collapsing to the floor. She can’t – or won’t – speak to anyone. It’s the town’s sole policeman who recognises her face. She looks exactly like a local girl who disappeared 20 years ago. She has the same red hair. The same green eyes. What horrors has she left behind in the bush?”
2 Julia Eichardt by Lauren Roche (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
Historical fiction, set in Queenstown in the goldrush.
3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
Lâ Chidge appeared at last weekend’s Christchurch WORD festival at a sold-out event; and her signing queue went out the door of The Piano Bar, in the latest celebration of the year’s best novel by a long stretch.
4 See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (Hachette, $37.99)
5 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
6 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $26)
7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
8 The Songbirds of Florence by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $27.99)
9 World by Jane Barr (Jane Barr Books, $32)
A novel set in the time of Alexander the Great! “Andronicus believes he needs little in his life apart from the love of his new wife, Idahlia. Yet as he travels, leaving behind his home in Macedonia to follow the army of Alexander the Great, his lack of means troubles him. At first Idahlia provides the answers but as the army marches east, the pair face increasing adversity…Andronicus, like Heracles and Odysseus before him, endures the long, often cruel passage through a life that is tragic but ultimately renewing.”
10 1985 by Dominic Hoey (Penguin Random House, $38)