1. (1) A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin)
The former PM’s memoir, the first such account since Jim Bolger, tops the bestsellers for a fourth week, and is unlikely to be dislodged for some time.
The book generally found favour among reviewers, including
Tracy Watkins, editor of The Post and Sunday Star-Times, 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, “The practicalities of the job don’t interest her: this book hinges on how everything felt.” 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 she subtly vilified her opponents, he says: “I am so kind that anyone who disagrees with me must be nasty; so reasonable that my critics must be nuts.”
2. (2) Leading Under Pressure by Ian Foster & Gregor Paul (HarperCollins)
Demonstrating the rule that rugby memoirs are a sure bet in the NZ books market, Ian Foster’s account of his time as All Blacks coach holds firmly onto second place in the bestsellers. I haven’t read the book, but I hope it goes into the – in my opinion – unedifying way he was replaced as coach. Only super-retrospective refereeing stopped his team of All Blacks winning the RWC.
From the publisher: “Appointed as head coach 2019, Ian Foster led the All Blacks through one of the most tumultuous periods of the team’s 120-year history. Leading Under Pressure is a fascinating look into the pressure cooker inner-sanctum of the world’s most famous rugby team. With revelations about Foster’s time in the job, it also delves into the politics of rugby, and the events preceding the dramatic 2023 Rugby World Cup.”
3. (NEW) No, I Don’t Get Danger Money by Lisette Reymer (Allen & Unwin)
Waikato-born Reymer, after covering the Tokyo Olympics, found herself in the UK, where she became Newshub’s Europe correspondent. She burst into tears when she got the job, which the Listener’s reviewer found instantly endearing.
“Her next three years were, ‘London, August 2021 … Przemysl, Poland, March 2022 … Bucha, Ukraine, May 2022 … Kahramanmaras, Turkey, late April 2023 … Tel Aviv, late October 2023 …’ So it goes, with other locales in between, ending in Ethiopia, Lucerne, London again, and Barcelona, August 2024.“Her commitment to catastrophes starts with watching the Twin Towers fall on Mum and Dad’s TV. It’s the first of many, many narratives in a text that’s anecdotal rather than analytical. But then, stories are frequently the best way of getting to the guts of an issue, and Reymer tells hers with clarity and competence-plus.”
4. (3) The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Holding its own on the list is Catherine Chidgey’s much-praised latest novel – which tells the mysterious, ominous story of three boys in an alternative 1970s Britain – down the list.
“It’s a tense, compelling, genre-fusing book,” said the Listener. “There is the hint of submerged identity; of aspiration and prosperity, rubbing skins with disappointment and neglect; a preoccupation with what is authentic and what is fraudulent; the self and truth only dimly visible … Calling on the deeply rooted psychological power of the storytelling rule of three, the novel is divided into The Book of Dreams, The Book of Knowledge and The Book of Guilt. Three women, Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night, care for a set of 13-year-old triplets in an all-boy’s orphanage. There are three main narrative perspectives: Vincent, one of the triplets; the Minister of Loneliness, a government minister in charge of national care institutions known as the Sycamore Homes; and Nancy, a young girl kept in seclusion by fastidious older parents. This attention to pattern also coolly embodies the quest for order and control, the troubling obsession at the core of the fictional investigation.”
You can read Michele Hewitson’s interview with Catherine Chidgey here.
5. (5) Māori Millionaire by Te Kahukura Boynton (Penguin)
The publisher says the book “offers a beginner’s guide to healing your money mindset, building better habits for your money and life, and understanding how you can increase your income. Because no amount of budgeting can compensate for not earning enough.
“Discover how to:
— Introduce small, life-changing habits
— Master your mindset to align with prosperity
— Get out of debt
— See real returns by investing in yourself
— Protect yourself with insurance
— Overcome obstacles to achieve your goals
And so much more!
“The lessons in this book will teach you how to become 1% better every day — not only for you, but for your whānau too.”
6. (6) Fix Iron First by Dr Libby (Little Green Frog)
“The one thing that changes everything,” reckons the subtitle of the latest book from Libby Weaver.
Iron is essential for our health, and its lack is particularly common among girls and women. Menstruation, pregnancy and hormonal change can lead to iron deficiency, iron absorption can be an issue for some people, and it’s often a trial to eat enough iron-rich foods.
Weaver’s new book Fix Iron First aims to address this. As her website, which also sells iron supplements made from organic peas, notes that low iron doesn’t just make you tired. “It can alter your brain chemistry, slow your metabolism, impact your thyroid, disturb your sleep and lower your emotional resilience. It affects how you think, how you feel, how you show up in the world – every single day.”
7. (7) A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich (A&U)
Ivor Popovich’s A Dim Prognosis opens with the horrors of the Whakaari White Island eruption. The hospital he was rotated to a few years into the job had the country’s main burns ICU. Alongside a lively procession of cases he’s attended to, he notes, like all places, work culture issues, technology problems, tribalism, responsibility shifting. Though not all workplaces have people’s lives in their hands. The book is candid on the ethical quandaries around patients, tactless and sometimes bullying senior doctors and the black humour of the trenches, but at the book’s heart is the stark calculus of a rapidly ageing population, medical advances, the public-private nexus and an improperly resourced health service. “Healthcare is a zero-sum game.”
Popovich, who either kept a diary or has a remarkable memory, as he reports complex verbatim conversations, does offer suggestions on how to improve matters. Most involve more spending, but also better management, such as many older patients who should be elsewhere – in care, rest homes, dementia units, hospices – and triaging these people to better situations would seem a major step forward.
8. (NEW) Pūkeko Who-keko? by Toby Morris (Picture Puffin)
Illustrated rhyming mystery tale aimed at 3-7-year-olds.
From the publisher: “Who spilled that blue paint? There’s a messy mystery afoot, and Detective Clue-keko needs your help to solve it! Watch out for cartoonist Toby Morris’s flying dad jokes in this delightful visual and verbal play on words that rhyme with pūkeko, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic and personality-laden birds. Join the hunt and follow the paint trail with Detective Clue-keko as the pūkeko chaos accumulates. And who-keko knew-keko that so many words rhyme with pūkeko?”
9. (8) The New Zealand School Holidays Activity Book by Aleksandra Szmidt (Little Moa)
When the school holidays are on and kids aren’t particularly receptive to learning their times tables, parents look for diversion and entertainment. So they spend up large at cafes, malls – and bookshops.
This is confirmed by the publisher: “Beat school holidays boredom with this fun-filled activity book full of mazes, dot-to-dots, colouring-in, games to play and crafty activities to complete!
“Featuring two full-colour pages of stickers, this wonderful activity book will provide hours of entertainment in your house. Colour, draw and get creative with loads of puzzles to solve, crafts to make and much more.”
10. (4) Whānau by Donovan Farnham & Rehua Wilson (Moa Press)
This illustrated pocket hardback, ideal as a gift, aims to improve your te reo Māori one special phrase at a time. Donovan Te Ahunui Farnham and Rehua Wilson offer up dozens of expressions, often with metaphorical or proverbial origins, such as “He toka tū moana” (stalwart) and “Kei mate wheke” (never surrender).
Source: NielsenIQ BookScan – week ending July 5.
