Bestsellers: Books by Brad Thorn, Nigel Latta and Thomas Coyle. Images / Supplied
1. (1) Champions Do Extra by Brad Thorn (HarperCollins)
The dual rugby champion’s memoir holds the No 1 slot as tightly as a muddy ball in a tryline maul.
From the publisher: “Brad Thorn’s career rewrote the rules of what an athlete can achieve. From his country upbringing on
the frosty fields of Otago in New Zealand to the baked turf of Queensland in Australia, Brad Thorn reveals the powerful lessons he learned in his relentless pursuit of excellence, inspiring readers to unlock their own potential.
“In a remarkable 30-year career, spanning 477 games of professional footy across two codes, the dual international played for some of the highest performing teams on the planet: the All Blacks, Kangaroos, Queensland Maroons, Brisbane Broncos and Canterbury Crusaders. He was still playing professionally at the age of 41.
“Brad Thorn’s trophy cabinet includes a Rugby World Cup, four Rugby League NRL premiership titles, two State of Origins series, one Super Rugby title, five Bledisloe Cups, three Tri Nations titles, two NPC titles, the Ranfurly Shield, and a European Rugby Champions Cup.
“Thorn credits his achievements and longevity to the lessons in this book, and, above all, the credo his father taught him ‘champions do extra’. Champions Do Extra is an inspirational story about what family, faith and footy can teach us about how to succeed.”
Champions Do Extra by Brad Thorn. Image / Supplied
2. (2) Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins)
The late TV psychologist Nigel Latta’s mental toolkit for life’s ups and downs has finally relinquished its hold on the top spot.
From the publisher: “What do you do when you’re told you have only months to live? If you’re Nigel Latta, first, you’re going to eat a lot of ice cream. And then you’re going to assemble a mental toolbox to deal with every conceivable conundrum the world could throw at you (the small ones and the big ones). After three decades working as a clinical psychologist, Nigel has found there are just three principles you need to deal with life’s ups and downs. Whether you want to be a better parent, build an empire or get through some tough times, these easy-to-carry principles will help you to do that. Consider this book a guide to how to respond in any situation, drive your own bus, and do it all with resilience, joy and attention to what matters most.”
Lessons of Living, By Nigel Latta. Photo / Supplied
3. (3) The Dead Speak by Thomas Coyle (Allen & Unwin)
Memoir of one the country’s top forensic scientists.
From the publisher: “In this empathetic and darkly funny memoir, Thomas Coyle – one of New Zealand’s most seasoned forensic investigators – pulls back the police tape and walks us straight into the crime scenes. With sharp detail, he reveals how the tiniest fragment of evidence can expose a suspect, prove a motive or confirm an identity. Sometimes, all at once.
“But crime scenes are only part of his story. The Dead Speak also plunges us into the world of disaster victim identification – a discipline where time, science and compassion collide. Where forensic experts are flung into a race against time to identify bodies in makeshift morgues as desperate families wait for news of their loved ones.
“Taking us from meticulous casework at New Scotland Yard to the chaos of the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand and the devastation of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, The Dead Speak is both a gripping insider’s account of forensic investigation and an unflinching portrait of humanity at its best and worst.”
The Dead Speak by Thomas Coyle. Image / Supplied
4. (RETURN) The Hollows Boys by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton)
Frequent Listener contributor Peta Carey tells the story of Gary, Mark and Kim, three siblings who grew up on Kawau Island, who all went to Fiordland to hunt venison. It’s a lively, intimate tale, of helicopters, planes and jet boats, of characters and derring-do, of success and joy and risk and loss, full of the voices of the family, of catching deer, fish, crays, with plenty of photos.
The Hollows Boys: A story of three brothers & the Fiordland deer recovery era by Peta Carey. Image / Supplied
5. (NEW) Seed by Elisabeth Easther (Penguin)
A comic-serious NZ novel about two sets of friends dealing with questions of fertility. Elisabeth Easther wrote the novel based on an earlier play.
The publisher summarises the plot: “Hillary and her partner are eager for a baby, their sex life dictated by the automated texts from their fertility agency. Hillary’s best friend, Maggie, is a single mother living her best life, enjoying a healthy relationship with her ex, and sating a healthy appetite on the dating apps. With her youngest now at school, Shelley is returning to the office, hoping to prove her value at the gold-star advertising agency she works for. Meanwhile, midwife Virginia has made a career of helping other people have babies, but is suddenly yearning for one of her own. With no partner in sight, she cooks up an unhinged plan…”
From the Listener’s review: “Seed grapples with some big ideas but remains a light-hearted book that devotes as much time to describing characters’ outfits as it does to relationship woes, so while readers going through similar circumstances to the characters will relate to the fears and anxieties, there’s enough gentleness and cheeky humour to alleviate any anguish.”
Seed by Elisabeth Easther. Image / Supplied
6. (5) Become Unstoppable Gilbert Enoka (Penguin)
If there’s one thing Kiwis love as much as a biography from a veteran All Blacks player or coach, it’s a guide to how the ABs perform as well as they do, as consistently as they do – with the idea that the “winning mindset” lessons might just rub off on the reader.
From the publisher: “In a career spanning almost three decades, visionary psychological coach Gilbert Enoka changed the way the All Blacks played their game. With a 77% winning record in test match rugby, the highest of any professional sports team, they are the only international team to have a winning record against every opponent.
That is only possible because they leave no part of their preparation to chance. Their winning mindset and resilience are as important as the physical training and Gilbert Enoka was their secret weapon. “For the first time, Gilbert distils his essential lessons to building unshakeable staying power – particularly at times of high pressure where others would crumble – creating a winning team mentality – and leaving things better than how you found them so that we can all learn the All Blacks’ way. Discover how to build a winning culture, hone your leadership to inspire your team in times of need and establish iconic rules for performance that will become your competitive advantage for years to come.”
Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka. Image / Supplied
7. (4) A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin)
Jacinda Ardern’s memoir, recently longlisted for the general non-fiction category of this year’s Ockham NZ book awards, is the first such account since the late Jim Bolger’s 1998 effort, A View From the Top.
Ardern’s book generally found favour among reviewers, including Henry Cooke for the Listener. He thought it intimate and fluent, “compulsively readable, easily consumable in two or three sittings, and often very funny”, even if it barely explained her government’s policy decisions. “Ardernism was always more a sensibility than a full ideology. It was a way of looking at the world and reacting to it, not a theory of change.” Cooke says “there are some hints, near the end of the book, that perhaps she isn’t so certain quitting was the right idea … There is little attempt to engage with the arguments against the latter half of the Covid period, when MIQ’s usefulness looked shaky and vaccine mandates radicalised thousands of people.”
Stuff editor Tracy Watkins agreed the book let us into some of Ardern’s emotional highs and lows. “We also gain some fresh insight into her own personal mechanisms for coping with such momentous events as the terror attack, and Covid. But we don’t learn a lot more about what was going on behind closed doors within her government, which must, at times, have been under enormous strain.”
The Guardian considered it “an emotionally rich and candid read, [but] the downside of skipping the political detail is that it’s hard to get a sense of how exactly her astonishing early popularity ebbed away”.
Tim Stanley of The Telegraph was more acerbic, writing that the natural disaster at Whakaari White Island and the Christchurch mosque killings “brought out Ardern’s best: authoritative and sensitive, she has a fine temperament”. But “the practicalities of the job don’t interest her: this book hinges on how everything felt”.
A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern.
8. (8) Nadia’s Farm Kitchen by Nadia Lim (Nude Food)
The publisher (who’s also Nadia Lim) says: “Welcome to my farm kitchen – where food is real, the stories are personal, and every recipe begins with what’s growing around us. Inside Nadia’s Farm Kitchen you’ll find the food I turn to as the seasons shift – meals shaped by the rhythm of the land. From rhubarb pushing through frost-hardened soil, to sun-warmed peaches and tomatoes bursting with ripeness, to the comforting aroma of a slow-roasting lamb shoulder on a snowbound afternoon – this is food that connects us to the seasons and the simple joy of cooking. But this is not just a cookbook – it’s also a glimpse into our life on Royalburn Station, filled with personal stories of farming and living through the seasons. It has been a true labour of love, created over years, with photography captured across the last 5-6 years on the farm. I am so proud of it – and I can honestly say it’s my best book to date.”
Nadia’s Farm Kitchen by Nadia Lim. Image / Supplied
9. (7) Pee Wee the Lonely Kiwi Finds a New Friend by Blair Cooper & Cheryl Smith (Flying Books)
Returning to the bestseller list is this children’s book about a kiwi looking for a friend, searching high and low, from sea to mountaintop. It was a top seller when it was first published in 2019 and it keeps popping back into the charts for some reason. Will Pee Wee find a friend? You wouldn’t bet against it, though this story has something of a surprise ending.
Pee Wee the Lonely Kiwi Finds a New Friend by Blair Cooper and Cheryl Smith. Photo / Supplied
10. (6) The American Boys by Olivia Spooner (Moa Press)
The bestselling writer of historical fiction (and bookseller) is holding steady in the charts with her third.
From the publisher: “1942 in Wellington, and the war has never felt closer. Lorna’s older brothers are overseas fighting for their lives, and as the war in the Pacific rages on, 20,000 American troops are sent to keep New Zealand safe. Few are happy about it – the locals want their own boys back, and the Americans find their post at the end of the world strange and hostile. They do enjoy meeting the Kiwi girls, though, and when one of Lorna’s friends drags her along on a double date, she befriends Stan, a Marine from Chicago. Stan is handsome and kind; the golden boy of his family. While he is posted overseas, his unruly younger brother Alfie joins the Marines and ends up in Wellington as well. Lorna struggles to connect with Alfie like she did with Stan: Alfie infuriates her. Yet when he leaves to fight, she thinks of him often, which feels like a betrayal to both Stan and her brothers. As Lorna, her family and the American boys navigate life in wartime Wellington, the war itself is never far, and its consequences will find them no matter where they go.”
The American Boys by Olivia Spooner. Image / Supplied
Data: NielsenIQ BookScan – week ending February 14.
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