Top 10 bestselling New Zealand books: August 15

The local books Kiwis have been buying this week. Photos / Supplied

1. (1) Murder and Mojitos by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin)

The third and apparently final cosy crime novel in the Bookshop Detectives series by two actual bookshop owners.

From the publisher: “Booksellers Garth and Eloise Sherlock (and their cowardly dog, Stevie) have been roped into hosting Murder and
Mojitos, a glamorous Art Deco festival event starring Cuba’s queen of crime fiction. Between flapper frocks, rooftop hijinks and competitive cocktail shaking, it should be the bookshop’s biggest break yet. But when mysterious parcels arrive at the shop and a body turns up on a quiet local beach, every clue points back to Arthur Pinter – the literary-obsessed serial killer from the Sherlocks’ past. With the mojitos flowing and half of the town in costume, Garth and Eloise must untangle a web of old betrayals, new alliances and international intrigue before the festival’s finale turns into a bloodbath. Can they protect their staff, their small town and their beloved bookshop – or will this be their final chapter?”

The Bookshop Detectives: Murder and Mojitos by Gareth & Louise Ward. Image / Supplied

2. (NEW) Go Hard Or Go Home by Kiri Allan (Penguin)

Memoir from the former justice minister enters the charts at No 2.

From the publisher: “Kiri Allan’s six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly weather events, a global pandemic … And as a highly recognisable figure, Kiri’s overlapping personal story also played out under scrutiny: divorce, new parenthood, cancer diagnosis and treatment, and mental health struggles culminating in the car crash that led to her resignation.

“Go Hard or Go Home is the story of the person beyond the headlines, from church-going child to charismatic hitchhiker to precocious law student to former politician. Honest, fierce and deeply moving, Kiri’s memoir asks what it costs to keep going when you can’t live in half measures, and what it takes to rebuild your life.”

Danyl McLauchlan’s interview with Kiri Allan is here.

Go Hard or Go Home by Kiri Allan. Image / Supplied

3. (3) One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins)

Barry Soper’s memoir-through-Parliament is like its author: feisty, honest, no-nonsense. Soper signed up for the police aged 17, but within six months realised its hierarchy and requirement to bend to authority weren’t for him. Back in Gore, he ran into a writer for the Southland Times and the rest is history. It’s a very readable account, Soper’s views are refreshingly independent-minded, and his memory of people and events is elephantine. After a brisk personal account of his life, he jumps into what he thinks of 12 PMs from Muldoon to Luxon. Helen Clark he rates the highest; John Key comes not far behind. Jacinda Ardern he rates the weakest, judging her government largely ineffective despite a huge majority. As for Hipkins and Luxon, for him the jury is still out.

One Last Question, Prime Minister: From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament by Barry Soper. Image / Supplied

4. (NEW) A Bushman’s Book of Yarns by Sam Gibson (Allen & Unwin)

Stories from the bush and a guide to edible native plants from the Gisborne-based bushman, hunter, trapper, conservationist, and Instagram star.

From the Listener’s review: “Gibson offers us the creamed rice tree (mamaku), bush asparagus (kareao), jewelled fruit (mingimingi) and bush noodles (hakeke). From hors d’oeuvre to dessert, the New Zealand bush features something for every taste. Should you suffer from digestive upsets otherwise known as Bush Belly, Gibson suggests a handful of koromiko leaves brewed in a tea is highly efficacious. No fern roots here but he offers the new shoots of mouku (hen and chickens) ferns. Harvest the manehau, the new shoots, sustainably and responsibly, fry in butter and garlic or serve in a salad. Manehau are also a balm for skin ailments … What separates this book from many others is that it fuses Gibson’s own work and experiences with how the plants and trees inhabiting the forest must provide food and medicine on a sustainable basis. New Zealand’s bush has always occupied a special place in the collective heart of Māori and Pākehā. But it is also an environment which demands respect and understanding … We can enjoy New Zealand’s bush for its own merits, but it also demands respect and understanding to ensure its survival. ‘This is a book which can help us transition from thinking ‘that is a tree’, ‘that is a fern’ or ‘that fluffy stuff on the ground is a moss’ to understanding a little more of who a plant is and what our relationship with that plant could be,’ he writes. ‘We need to understand the context of what a plant is and the actions we need to take to ensure that they remain abundant.’”

A Bushman’s Book of Yarns by Sam Gibson. Image / Supplied

5. (7) The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books)

From the Listener’s review: “Set in the District Courts of Hutt Valley and Wellington, The Valley offers an unflinching portrait of the criminal justice system at its most pressured and unglamorous. Asher Emanuel’s book follows three protagonists: two recidivist offenders, Rikihana Wallace and Nathan Morley, and their lawyer Lewis Skerrett, a member of the Public Defence Service whose efforts to keep his clients out of prison – and on some kind of constructive path – form the spine of the narrative.”

“… Emanuel captures the way the District Court – overworked, under-resourced and carrying the bulk of the criminal justice system’s caseload – struggles to respond meaningfully to individuals who seem unable to stay out of trouble. There are flickers of hope: specialist courts such as the Special Circumstances Court can offer individualised, therapeutic approaches to exactly this kind of chronic reoffending. But as the book makes clear, such options remain the exception rather than the rule.”

The narrative raises questions it does not always choose to answer, such as what drew Lewis Skerret to public defence work in the first place and what lies behind Wallace and Morley’s persistent offending? The prose style is spare and reportorial, and the structure episodic. More troubling are the ethical questions the book also raises. “His access to the Public Defence Service – both in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, including office access and what amounted to an embedded relationship with PDS lawyers – was extraordinary. This raises serious questions about confidentiality … Compounding this is the matter of identification. Although names have been changed, the disguise is often tissue-thin … There is a further conspicuous absence at the centre of the book. The victims of Wallace and Morley’s crimes are almost entirely missing. Their experiences, their losses, their place within the justice system’s stated purpose of repairing harm – all of this goes largely unexamined … A work of this kind, if its purpose is genuinely reformist, might reasonably be expected to gesture toward solutions. None are offered.”

The Valley, Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City, by Asher Emanuel. Image / Supplied

6. (3) Better Never Stops by Paul Wood (HarperCollins)

A local book on the “art and science of continuous improvement”.

From the publisher: “From delinquent to doctor, Paul Wood knows first-hand how far we can take our lives if we address what holds us back. At the age of 18, Wood was sent to New Zealand’s toughest prison. Almost 11 years later, in 2006, he walked out a free man, escaping his past and becoming a leading expert in the psychology of personal prisons, limiting mindsets, and the pursuit of excellence. In Better Never Stops, Wood explains the neuroscience behind our innate human desire to strive for improvement and how we can supercharge our ability to grow. Mastering the art of continuous improvement is not only essential to happiness and personal fulfilment – it also offers a better quality of life as we age and, crucially, a life without regrets. Written as an easy-to-understand guide, Better Never Stops combines ancient wisdom, proven psychological techniques, and the latest research to form a blueprint for people wanting to discover how great their lives can truly be.”

Bette Never Stops: The Art and Science of Continuous Improvement by Dr Paul Wood. Image / Supplied

7. (NEW) Roadscapes by Derek Smith (David Bateman)

Derek Smith loves cars – in fact, anything on wheels. Not only are they useful, but many are “rolling works of art”, forming an indelible part of our memories and identities. Smith’s love affair began in the 70s with an FJ Holden panel van he bought for a dollar from the wreckers and out of which he managed to squeeze a few more years of life. More than four decades of reading utility meters, at times around the country, meant he could document his passion for capturing images of “vehicles in the landscape”. These were an integral element of what was distinctly Kiwi, reckons Smith, now retired in Ōamaru, along with the architecture and the colours that were chosen at the time before the trend for the dull hues of beige, grey and white. Regulations changed and Japanese imports began to relegate much of the country’s ageing, mostly British car fleet to the scrapyard, and Smith decided to photograph those classic cars – Chryslers, Austins, Fords, Morrises, Wolseleys, Humbers, Bedford vans – “in their natural environment”.

Roadscapes: An Automotive Retrospective History of Aotearoa New Zealand. Image / Supplied

8. (5) Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins)

The late TV psychologist Nigel Latta’s mental toolkit for life’s ups and downs.

From the publisher: “What do you do when you’re told you only have 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

9. (RETURN) Dead Girl Gone by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin)

The first in the Bookseller Detectives series returns to the bestsellers list with the publishing of No 3, Murder and Mojitos (see above).

“When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we’d made a terrible mistake. People warned us that e-readers were taking over. People warned us that we’d never compete with Amazon. The one thing they didn’t warn us about was the murders.”

And so begins this first joint novel from actual Hawke’s Bay booksellers Gareth and Louise Ward, a cosy murder-mystery that promises bookshop insider titbits and literary puns galore. The plot has Garth and Eloise and their dog Stevie, who, telling the story in alternate chapters, “are drawn into the baffling case of a decades-old missing schoolgirl. Intrigued by the puzzling, bookish clues the two ex-cops are soon tangled in a web of crime, drugs and floral decapitations, while endeavouring to pull off the international celebrity book launch of the century”.

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth & Louise Ward. Photo / supplied

10. (RETURN) The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin)

Landmark novel from Witi Ihimaera in which a young girl breaks with tradition to take hold of her destiny, which was made into an award-winning film.

From the publisher: “Eight-year-old Kahu comes from a long line of Māori chiefs. The people of Whāngārā claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary whale rider. But now there is no male heir – there’s only Kahu. And the chief, Kahu’s grandfather, is blinded by tradition and sees no place for a girl. When hundreds of whales beach themselves, he and his tribe face an existential crisis. Will the one with the whale rider’s ancient gift finally be revealed?”

A clothbound hardback edition for the Penguin Modern Aotearoa Classics series will be published in late October.

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera. Image / Supplied

Data courtesy NielsenIQ BookScan: Week ended August 8.

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