1. The New Zealand Easter Activity Book by Sarina Dickson & Hilary Jean Tapper (Hachette)
Easter’s been and gone, but much related activity was undertaken by younger folk, thanks to this book. Kids were invited to join a group of forest fairies to “get creative with loads of mazes, dot-to-dots, games and activities to complete and colour in!” Features two pages of full-colour, Easter-themed stickers that you’ll no doubt later find all over the house.
2. Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin)
Laura is a successful communications manager on a break from work and back in her home town for a visit before walking from one end of New Zealand to the other. But her plans are thrown out the window when the family of her long-term ex-boyfriend, Doug, come back into her life. Then Doug’s kid brother, Mick, begins to take an interest.
From the Listener’s review: “Take Two is a great small-town drama in which local gossips try to make mischief with Laura’s situation, while the family bookshop needs to be kept running and a murky property development is being sold to vulnerable locals. It’s a cosy read, though the author isn’t afraid to broach some bigger issues, such as how families manage illness, women deal with infertility and the sometimes tricky relationships between mothers and daughters.”
3. The Secrets of the Little Greek Taverna by Erin Palmisano (Moa Press)
This local exotic romance novel has been in the top 5 since its release. Our review said: “Palmisano, a NZ-US citizen who lives in Nelson with her chef partner, has combined the essential elements of food, wine and travel in a sunny novel with all the ingredients of a romcom that’s also being published in the UK and US.
“In a small village on the island of Naxos, a whitewashed taverna and guest house, all bougainvillea and lemon trees, sits empty. It had been Cressida Thermopolis’s dream to have guests and feed them delicious Greek food. But her husband, Leo, has died aged just 27, and Cressida is at a loss. Which is when a young American woman, Jory St James, arrives late one night off the ferry and becomes her first guest. Can the two women breathe life back into the little Greek taverna? Will the ever-wandering Jory find love? This is a novel with a heart as big as the Aegean, where the magic of luck and fate is always in the air, electric currents flow between people, where crisp white sheets sit on gloriously soft beds, so it’s probably a safe bet.”
4. The Space Between by Lauren Keenan (Penguin)
This novel, set during the New Zealand Wars in 1860, focuses on Frances, an unmarried Londoner newly landed in New Zealand. She meets Henry White, who had jilted her and is now husband to Matāria, who is shunned by her whānau because of her marriage. The blurb says, “As conflict between settlers and iwi rises, both women must find the courage to fight for what is right, even if it costs them everything they know.”
An extract: “Frances heard the commotion before she saw it: a man being arrested by two soldiers of the Crown, right in front of Thorpe’s General Store.
‘I belong here!’ the man shouted. ‘Nō Te Ātiawa au. This is our place.’ He wore a European shirt over trousers that were far too short. His black hair was unkempt, his eyes bright.
‘You need a pass to enter the township,’ one of the soldiers said, hands gripping his rifle. The soldier’s uniform was crisp and tidy: black trousers and a navy-blue tunic with shiny buttons. ‘Natives are not allowed here without swearing allegiance to the Queen. You should all know that by now. And you’re disturbing the peace by yelling.’
‘Go,’ the other soldier said. ‘Move.’
The man was led away, head bowed, past the staring customers at the butcher’s, the seamstress’s workshop and the bakery. Past the pile of cut wood that would soon be another military blockhouse, built to ensure that the likes of this loud, shabby man were kept out of the settlement. How unpleasant. Frances preferred not to think about what the newspapers called the ‘native troubles’ — it was all too frightening. So, she wouldn’t. She’d think about something else instead.”
5. Amma by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press)
This Kiwi debut is a sweeping family drama taking place across three countries and three eras, 1950s Singapore, New Zealand in the 1980s and London in 2018.
From the publisher’s blurb: “Arriving on her uncle Suri’s doorstep, jetlagged and heartbroken, Annie has no idea what to expect – all she knows is that Suri was cast out of the family before she was born. Moving between cities and generations, Amma follows three women on very different paths, against a backdrop of shifting cultures. As circumstance and misunderstanding force them apart, it will take the most profound love to knit them back together before it’s too late.”
6. BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin)
Liam Dann, a business journalist at the NZ Herald, offers a broad view of the economy and finance. From the Listener review:
“Dann gives us a basic introduction to economics: supply demand curves, inflation, marginal utility, price elasticity. He has financial advice – buy low, sell high! – with more substantive wisdom dispensed by figures like Sir Stephen Tindall, Sir John Key and even the Buddha. Key’s advice to young New Zealanders: live within your means, understand the power of compound interest, buy property. The Buddhist scriptures counsel us to partition our wealth thusly: ‘one part should be enjoyed, two parts invested in your business, and the fourth set aside against future misfortunes’.
“There’s an economic history of modern New Zealand, and this is where BBQ Economics transcends the limitations of both barbecue banter and media columns. We get the familiar stages of the post-war story: the export boom, the cradle-to-grave welfare state, the economic dysfunction of the 1970s and early 80s; Muldoon then Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson and the Mother of All Budgets. This story often trails off in the mid-1990s when the subsequent MMP era was seen as a period of comparable stability. There are shocks like the GFC and Covid but no sustained crisis. Dann wants to tell a more coherent and more troubling story about the nation’s economic direction over the past three decades.”
7. The Call by Gavin Strawhan (A&U)
Another local thriller writer who’s gone into the bestseller list on debut. Strawhan, an experienced TV writer including on Shortland Street, has written a “deft and accomplished” novel, we thought.
“The event of the title that sets Strawhan’s story into motion is an early-morning phone call to Auckland detective Honey Chalmers from Kloe, a battered mother-of-three who’s tired of the beatings and disrespect from her gang-affiliated partner.
The Reapers are 501 “blow ins” from Australia who have recently set up shop in Aotearoa and are working on an ambitious deal to bring in a large amount of methamphetamine through the Port of Tauranga, enlisting the help of a local gang.
That 4am call will change both women’s lives.
It will lead to Chalmers receiving a vicious beating which she’s lucky to survive and set Kloe on a life-or-death journey as a police informant – a situation complicated when family members begin to suspect something is going on.
After Chalmers’ assault she takes time off from the police and relocates to Waitutu to recover and take care of her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
… While Chalmers rightly gets most of the page-time, Strawhan also depicts the high-stakes life of Kloe: “She was so busy trying not to give anything away, she couldn’t remember how to be. It was like trying to walk down steps. It came naturally to you, until you tried to deliberately put one foot after the other.”
… But best of all is DS Honey Chalmers. Strawhan captures her beautifully: tough, vulnerable and smart, and willing to step outside the rules to get things done. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we see of her.”
8. Feijoa by Kate Evans (Moa Press)
A new guide to and history (with recipes) of our second-favourite oval fruit.
David Hill in the Listener said: “Feijoas: there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground with them. You either breathe in their sun-and-summer scent as you anticipate that first honey-lush slide of them over the papillae (indeed, I’m salivating), or you recoil from contact, going ‘Ewww! Too perfumed! Too sickly!’ … Foreign? Well, yes: they originated some 30 million years ago, in Brazilian highlands and Uruguayan valleys. There’s something pleasingly incongruous about a plant with such provenance becoming a commonplace in Kiwi side streets.
“Raglan-based, internationally published journalist Kate Evans offers this as ‘a book about connections’. So it is: connections with other feijoa fanatics (Evans neatly calls them ‘disciples’); between plants and the animals who spread their seeds; between ‘tamed’ varieties and environments; and, of course, between humans and nature. No plant is an island.
“Evans is an irrepressible investigator, phoning or visiting experts across multiple continents. From its origins in South America, the feijoa was studied in Germany, collected in France, domesticated in the US, transplanted to NZ. She heads to virtually all venues.”
9. On Call by Ineke Meredith (HarperCollins)
From the Listener: “Meredith writes about being a Kiwi general surgeon, and her memoir is a sharply written, occasionally eye-opening tale of life in the operating room and as a single parent. There are the young victims of a terrible car wreck, tales of prostates and catheters, the high-end call girl with an unusual request. Then there’s exhaustion, worrying about being a good mother, being punched in the face by a patient. And then her parents in Samoa, where she grew up, get sick. Is the job worth it? No spoilers, but the memoir ends on a positive note of change.”
10. Dinner, Done Better by Nadia Lim and My Food Bag (Penguin)
The food delivery company and chef Nadia Lim offer 80 “tasty and convenient” recipes, selected from the most popular from the past decade. Based on Lim’s Nude Food philosophy, aimed at “eating real, fresh food from the land, sea and sky”, it promises meals intended to be quick and big on flavour but light in the dishwasher, healthy options, meatless offerings, ones for the weekend that might take a bit more effort, and recipes for the sauces and spice mixes the company offers.
(Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending March 30.)
