{"id":2523,"date":"2025-09-05T00:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2523\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T00:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:02:13","slug":"this-weeks-bestselling-books-september-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2523\/","title":{"rendered":"This week’s bestselling books – September 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

NONFICTION<\/p>\n

1 Habits of High Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99)<\/p>\n

A free copy of the radical new self-helper is up for grabs in this week\u2019s giveaway contest. Interestingly, the number 2 bestseller in this week\u2019s 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 \u00a0and Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka provide that thing many of us want but don\u2019t get: leadership. They talk to success, hard graft that earns results, getting somewhere in life.<\/p>\n

To enter the contest to win Laughlin\u2019s book, share a story that reflects the truth of one of his key dictums: win when it\u2019s hard, not just when it\u2019s easy, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz<\/a> with the subject line in screaming caps IT\u2019S ABOUT ALIGNMENT. CLARITY. AND DOING WHAT ACTUALLY MOVES THE NEEDLE by midnight on Sunday, September 7.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40)<\/p>\n

The number 1 bestseller at the UBS book stall at last weekend\u2019s Christchurch WORD festival after Enoka gave a talk on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

3 Anything Could Happen by Grant Robertson (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)<\/p>\n

A free copy of the former finance minister\u2019s memoir was up for grabs in last weekend\u2019s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their thoughts on Robertson. It wasn\u2019t a very popular contest and there weren\u2019t a lot of thoughts but I like the succinct commentary from Pauline, who wrote, \u201cAll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huzzah to Pauline; she is the deserving winner of Anything Could Happen by Grant Robertson.<\/p>\n

4 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $59.99)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Example: \u201cI had two favourite subjects at high school. One of them was metalwork. I couldn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

5 The Unlikely Doctor by Timoti Te Moke (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)<\/p>\n

6 Leading Under Pressure by Ian Foster & Gregor Paul (HarperCollins, $39.99)<\/p>\n

7 Underworld by Jared Savage (HarperCollins, $39.99)<\/p>\n

8 Bird of the Year by Ellen Rykers(Penguin Random House, $45)<\/p>\n

9 Hook, Line and Misadventure by David Hastings (HarperCollins, $37.99)<\/p>\n

Ideal book idea for Father\u2019s Day for dads who like fishing. A legendary fisher shares stories about fishing.<\/p>\n

10 The Middle of Nowhere by Rosemary Baird (Canterbury University Press, $55)<\/p>\n

I met the author last weekend at the Christchurch WORD festival, where her excellent social history on the Manap\u014duri hydro project was a smash hit \u2013 it was the second biggest-selling book at the festival. It\u2019s an ideal Father\u2019s Day gift for dads who work hard and share the author\u2019s deep respect for the men who built Manap\u014duri. An excerpt about Tim Shadbolt\u2019s experience working at Manap\u014duri appeared last week at ReadingRoom, <\/a>and inspired an interesting comment from reader Maureen Marshall: \u201cThank 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 \u2013 it was packed. That time and history mattered to all attending the launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

FICTION<\/p>\n

1 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99)<\/p>\n

New crime thriller. \u201cA young girl with blood on her hands walks out of the bush and into the local store, collapsing to the floor. She can\u2019t \u2013 or won\u2019t \u2013 speak to anyone. It\u2019s the town\u2019s 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 Julia Eichardt by Lauren Roche (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)<\/p>\n

Historical fiction, set in Queenstown in the goldrush.<\/p>\n

3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)<\/p>\n

L\u00e2 Chidge appeared at last weekend\u2019s 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\u2019s best novel by a long stretch.<\/p>\n

4 See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (Hachette, $37.99)<\/p>\n

5 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)<\/p>\n

6 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $26)<\/p>\n

7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)<\/p>\n

8 The Songbirds of Florence by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $27.99)<\/p>\n

9 World by Jane Barr (Jane Barr Books, $32)<\/p>\n

A novel set in the time of Alexander the Great! \u201cAndronicus 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\u2026Andronicus, like Heracles and Odysseus before him, endures the long, often cruel passage through a life that is tragic but ultimately renewing.\u201d<\/p>\n

10 1985 by Dominic Hoey (Penguin Random House, $38)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NONFICTION 1 Habits of High Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99) A free copy of the radical new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69,3632],"class_list":{"0":"post-2523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-nz-best-sellers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}