A gripping account of the highs and lows of Dreaver\u2019s phenomenal career: read an excerpt right here on The Spinoff<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2 The Black Monk<\/a>\u00a0by Charlotte Grimshaw (Penguin, $38)<\/p>\n A beguiling novel exploring the lingering shadow of family dysfunction.<\/p>\n 3 The<\/a> Correspondent<\/a> by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)<\/p>\n One of the big fiction hits of the year so far.<\/p>\n 4 Between Two Fires<\/a>\u00a0by Christopher Buehlman (Gollancz, $38)<\/p>\n First published in 2012, this historical horror about a war between heaven and hell is clearly staging a come-back.<\/p>\n 5 Butter<\/a>\u00a0by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35)\u00a0<\/p>\n The foodie crime novel that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n 6 Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage<\/a>\u00a0by Belle Burden (Ebury Press, $40)\u00a0<\/p>\n Extremely compelling account of the end of a marriage.<\/p>\n 7 Hoods Landing <\/a>by Laura Vincent (\u0100poro Press, $35)<\/p>\n The only short-listed Ockham book<\/a> to feature in the charts this week.<\/p>\n 8 Hamnet<\/a>\u00a0by Maggie O\u2019Farrell (Tinder Press, $28)<\/p>\n Anyone else rooting for Jessie Buckley to take out the Oscar for best actress in a few days\u2019 time?<\/p>\n 9 Mother Mary Comes to Me<\/a> by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $40)<\/p>\n The universal subject made specific.<\/p>\n 10 Lyrical Ballads<\/a>\u00a0by Bill Manhire (Te Herenga Waka University, $30)<\/p>\n \u201cTo read it, as I did, cover to cover, is to traverse a landscape that rises and falls, moves you in and out of the sun. One moment you\u2019re contemplating the wonder of light slipping over a distant landscape (\u2018Dusk\u2019, above) and in another you\u2019re struck by \u2018A Final Warning\u2019 which opens with \u201cI walked past the stars \/ the silence of grandfathers\u201d and ends with an image of a person being tested for medical problems: \u201cI think I\u2019ve got the lot\u201d.\u201d Read the rest of books editor Claire Mabey\u2019s review of this magnificent collection, right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n WELLINGTON<\/p>\n 1 The Black Monk<\/a>\u00a0by Charlotte Grimshaw (Penguin, $38)<\/p>\n 2 Universality<\/a> by Natasha Brown (Faber & Faber, $33)<\/p>\n This week\u2019s Wellington list reflects the fact that Unity Books was the official bookseller at the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts x Verb Wellington\u2019s writers programme<\/a> last weekend. Natasha Brown drew a large crowd of fans eager to listen to her speak about her two, extraordinary (and really short) novels. Brown was articulate and generous and spoke about how she was an avid and studious reader before she even considered being a writer.<\/p>\n 3 P\u0101taka Kai: Growing Kai Sovereignty<\/a> by Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith (Massey University Press, $45)<\/p>\n Hutchings also appeared on the stage last weekend in a superb, urgent and rousing event with Nadine Hura (below).<\/p>\n 4 Assembly<\/a> by Natasha Brown (Penguin, $28)<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s first book and utterly devastating and funny and you must read it (it\u2019ll take you two hours, tops).<\/p>\n 5 Slowing the Sun | Essays<\/a> by Nadine Hura (Bridget Williams Books, $40)<\/p>\n A rich, rewarding and deeply personal series of essays that make sense of environmental destruction and the climate crisis by truly investigating what happens when people are severed from their land. Read Hura\u2019s brilliant \u201cclimate change glossary for the overwhelmed\u201d, which gives you a sense of Hura\u2019s style, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 6 Perverse Verse<\/a> by Michael Gould ($30)<\/p>\n \u201cPerverse Verse\u2019s short iconoclastic poems offer humorous (often black) and reflective observations on life in our contemporary screwed-up world.\u201d<\/p>\n 7 What to Wear<\/a> by Jenny Bornholdt (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $25)<\/p>\n The final event of the festival<\/a> weekend was dedicated to the marvellous career of Jenny Bornholdt. Damien Wilkins chairs the session and led us through Bornholdt\u2019s shifts and influences, with the poems themselves taking a staring role. Sublime. Read a review of this latest collection on The Spinoff, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 8 Be Brave: Life of a Pacific Correspondent<\/a>\u00a0by Barbara Dreaver (Awa Press, $45)<\/p>\nJenny Bornholdt reading one of her brilliant poems at the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts x Verb Wellington writers festival last weekend.<\/p>\n