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Our weekly round-up of the best-selling local books; numbers in brackets indicate the book’s position on the previous week’s list.
1. (1) A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin)
It jumped straight in at No 1 last week and it’s not moving. Broadcaster, writer and musician Matt Heath’s self-help guide, subtitled “13 ways to love the live you’ve got”, begins with the 1980s TV show The Greatest American Hero, about a hapless teacher, Ralph Hinkley, who can’t control the superhero suit he’s been given because he’s lost the manual, and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. If you don’t see the connection, it happens in an epiphany for Heath, feeling sorry for himself on the shore of a South Island lake. “I will consume the writings, lectures and podcast appearances of great thinkers and regurgitate them into a personal Hinkley manual.” It’ll be a self-help book in its purest form, he says, written to help himself in times of trouble, dealing with, in his chatty, easy style, anger, fear, loneliness, stress, boredom, grief and so on.
2. (2) The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (A&U)
This month marks 80 years since D-Day. Pippa Latour, who died in West Auckland late last year aged 102, helped lay the groundwork for the operation’s success by acting as a secret agent in France for Britain during World War II. “I was not a James Bond-style spy,” said Latour. “I was a secret agent whose job it was to blend into the background and cause quiet chaos.” It was exhausting work; she was unable to trust anyone, had several code names, and was often hungry. It was desperately perilous, too. Many of Britain’s 13,000-strong Special Operations Executive were killed, including 14 out of 39 women in France. The average life expectancy of male wireless operators in France when she served was six weeks. Latour’s was a truly remarkable life all round, and The Last Secret Agent, co-written with Jude Dobson, is a clear and fluent account. You can read our story about the book here.
3. (NEW) The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood (HarperCollins)
For a long time, Dai Henwood never told anyone he had incurable cancer. He was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in April 2020, during lockdown, and told a small group of friends via WhatsApp. Turns out the large tumour found had spread to his liver and beyond. It was not until early 2023 that he went public via a TV interview with his friend, comedy writer and actor Jaquie Brown. The Life of Dai (HarperCollins), written with Brown, came out of interviews done between chemo sessions in 2023. Unsurprisingly, it’s anything but linear, Dai-gressive even. Split into three sections called Comedy, Love and Peace, it’s half memoir, half spiritual search cum life advice for those going through cancer diagnosis and treatment. It begins with his early life and influences -- Monty Python, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams. He was a comedy geek. There is his father, the teacher-turned-toxicologist-turned-actor, his mother the judge, who underwrote his early shows. Despite the topic, the tone is generally light, honest and loving in his familiar style. He adores his wife, his children and friends and loves rugby league. The book doesn’t shy from details of the “horrendous, life-saving poison” that is chemotherapy, the surgeries, his fear and anger and acceptance. “I’ve made the conscious decision to live now.”
4. (NEW) Waitohu by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
From the best-selling psychiatrist author of Aroha (see #10) and Wawata comes a guided life journal based on the Māori lunar calendar. Says the blurb: “This writing journey is fuelled by the whakataukī (proverb) ‘ka mua, ka muri’ – ‘walking backwards into the future’. Every month, we circle back to the beginning of the book, rediscovering thoughts from the month before under the illuminating gaze of each moon face. New layers of ideas are added to earlier reflections, then collected together in a way that uncovers new truths.”
5. (4) My Matariki Colouring and Activity Book by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Scholastic)
A 96-page companion to Matariki Around the World from a couple of years back, it’s a colouring-in book based around all aspects of the star cluster, with activity guides, word puzzles, drawing tips and some recipes, written with a sprinkling of te reo Māori.
6. (NEW) Nanny Rina’s Amazing Nets by Qiane Matata-Sipu & Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Picture Puffin)
In this story, translated from the original Māori, Nanny Rina is a terrific weaver who can make all sorts of nets. When her granddaughter asks her what net she will weave to herald the new year, Nanny Rina shows her how the Matariki stars guide her. Includes instructions on how to weave a net.
7. (3) Piki te Ora: Your Wellbeing Journal by Hira Nathan & Jessie Eyre (A&U)
An illustrated wellbeing journal for children based on the Māori principles of hauora, from the author of the bestselling Whakawhetai: Gratitude journal (#9) and a primary school teacher. It has activities and ideas aimed at helping kids learn about different aspects of their health and wellbeing, physical and mental, with room to write and doodle.
8. (5) The Everything Guide by Niki Bezzant (Penguin)
As bestselling health writer and Listener contributor Niki Bezzant writes in her introduction, “This is a book about the things we can do now – however old we are – to feel great and to help us be the vibrant, healthy, kick-ass old ladies we want to be. It’s not a book about loss – loss of youth, loss of weight, loss of how we used to be. It is a book about gain – gaining health, gaining confidence, gaining energy, gaining joy.” The book covers midlife change, food, exercise, stress, sex and other topics with a central message of how to love yourself. You can read more about the Everything Guide here and an extract from it here.
9. (RETURN) Whakawhetai: Gratitude by Hira Nathan (A&U)
Back in the top 10 is Hira Nathan’s inspirational bilingual gratitude journal, based on the Māori holistic approach to health, released in May 2023. The publisher’s blurb in part: “Kia ū ki te pai, kia whai hua ai -- Hold on to what is good and good things will follow. Discover the four dimensions of hauora: taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental), taha wairua (spiritual) and taha whānau (family). No matter how difficult life can seem, there is always something to feel grateful for. Taking note regularly of the positives – no matter how small – in each of these areas of your life can have a huge impact on your health and happiness.”
10. (8) Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
The wisdom of 52 Māori proverbs is explained by Elder in this bestselling book first released in 2020. An extract: “Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te moana – The life force is hidden in the sea. Powerful aspects of life are hidden in plain sight.
“This whakataukī stems from one of our famous ancestors from the north, Nukutawhiti. He cast his kura, his feathered cloak, into the Hokianga Harbour to calm the waters for safe passage. And this treasure remains there, out of sight, yet signifies the ancient presence of those that have gone before.
“This saying has given me strength so many times. I have always found it comforting because it speaks to the hidden magic of life.
“It reminds me of those things we feel intuitively but often ignore – we can choose to tune in to our gut instinct, for example, or wait until the messages become clearer and more obvious.
“And it reminds me that we all have hidden powers inside us that we can too easily forget.”
(Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending June 8.)
