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1. The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (A&U)
Next month, it will be 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 WWII.
“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 the 13,000 SOEs were killed, including 14 women out of 39 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 around, and The Last Secret Agent, co-written with Jude Dobson, is a clear and fluent account.
2. Fungi of Aotearoa by Liv Sisson (Penguin)
Fungi enthusiast Liv Sisson’s popular guide to foraging our fields and forests for mushroom morsels, which came out last May, keeps making regular appearances in the bestsellers and was rightly longlisted for an Ockham award in the illustrated non-fiction category. Sisson makes them sound delicious: “Here are some of the most interesting fungi foods I’ve come across in Aotearoa. Slippery jack mushroom burgers, grilled over charcoal, with a dash of pine oil, served over a bed of creamy mushroom-stock polenta. Mushroom mince dumplings. A porcini mushroom chocolate mousse Yule log. Those first two dishes come from Max Gordy, and the third from Vicki Young – both are top Wellington chefs. When we think outside of the ‘mushrooms on toast’ box, we find that fungi offer us untapped foodie potential.” *
3. The Grimmelings by Rachael King (Allen & Unwin)
The first book for young people in more than a decade from Christchurch writer Rachael King. From the Listener’s very favourable review: “A lonely teenager. Parents missing in action. A boy who appears from nowhere. An enormous black stallion. So far, so classic. Yet nothing is what it seems …
“While each of these elements is present in many of the best books for children, King knits them together with more than a touch of magic to create a dynamic new adventure that will reverberate in the reader’s memory.
“In her earlier children’s book, Red Rocks, it was selkies, the seal-like creatures of Scottish legend, around which the story was spun. This time it’s kelpies, those beguiling water-horse shape-shifters, taking centre-stage in a story that starts in Scotland but ends somewhere in Central Otago.
“At the heart of the story is Ella, isolated geographically and socially with her fatherless family – fragile younger sister Fiona, mother Morag and ailing granny Griselda, known as Grizzly – on a farm somewhere in the south of New Zealand.” *
4. Understanding Te Tiriti by Roimata Smail (Wai Ako Books)
A brief, easily digestible guide to the basics of the Treaty of Waitangi written by a human rights lawyer and educator. *
5. Foraging New Zealand by Peter Langlands (Penguin)
Kiwis clearly love the idea of foraging our forests and fields and riverbanks for edible wild plants, and in current times there’s probably an economic element as well. Liv Sisson’s Fungi of Aotearoa (above) sold pallet-loads when it came out last year, and we can expect Peter Langlands’ book, from the same publisher, to do the same. Langlands is perhaps the country’s only professional forager, collecting wild flora for restaurants and running workshops. It’s a chunky guide, 500 pages, which picks out 250 plants and fungi from about 7500 edible species. The book warns of stuff not to touch, and plants that look like others but are verboten. The range is impressive. You may know you can eat samphire and wild chervil but be surprised that you can scarf parts of rengarenga, pōhutukawa stamens, wandering willie.
6. The Art of Winning by Dan Carter (Penguin)
When you’re an All Black legend, you never give up. Dan Carter’s deep dive into leadership, strength and resilience returns triumphantly to the top 10.
“For me, a growth mindset is simply the idea that we believe we are capable of being better than we were yesterday, and that we strive to make that improvement each and every day, so that it becomes habit. It often seems to come naturally to us as children, but as we get older, we need a growth mindset just as much if we’re to constantly evolve and improve. If we’re at all serious about achieving our potential, then it’s absolutely vital. But without our childhood innocence, that natural learning curve we’re all on as children, it can be more challenging. We have to approach it in a more conscious, concerted way. So, when I walked off the pitch with that thought, I want to be an All Black great, I needed to also ask myself: Okay, so what does an All Black great do?” *
7. Whakawhetai: Gratitude by Hira Nathan (A&U)
Hira Nathan’s inspirational bilingual gratitude journal, based on the Māori holistic approach to health, was released last May and returns to charts . 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.” *
8. The Observologist by Giselle Clarkson (Gecko Press)
Giselle Clarkson combines her comics and conservation backgrounds for this cutely illustrated “handbook for mounting very small scientific expeditions” aimed at 7- to 11-year-olds. Observology, says Clarkson, is the study of looking, and specialists in the field make scientific expeditions every day. They notice fascinating details in the world around them, and are expert at finding tiny creatures, plants and fungi. They know that earthworms have bristles, that only female spiders make webs, and how to improve boring situations like when an adult bumps into someone they know. Dozens of creatures and aspects of the natural world come under the microscope, from insects to fungi, seeds to bird droppings. *
9. Feijoa by Kate Evans (Moa Press)
Science writer Kate Evans offers a new guide and history (with recipes) to our second-favourite oval fruit.
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.” *
10. Jason Mason and the World’s Most Powerful Itching Powder by Jason Gunn & Andrew Gunn (David Bateman)
Jason Gunn has appeared on our TV and radio for decades, and along with his brother Andrew has produced this kids’ book featuring a mini-spy with a rhyming name.
From the publisher: “Jason Mason is a pretty average kid. The kind of kid who doesn’t get chosen for the rugby team. The kind of kid who gets his lunchbox picked over by the school bully every day. The kind of kid who finds it hard to concentrate in class. The kind of kid who is, actually, a SECRET AGENT. WAIT . . . WHAT? You won’t believe the crazy, laugh-out-loud, risky, save-the-world type stuff this pretty average kid gets up to. This book is destined to leave you itching for more Jason Mason adventures!” *
*Denotes authors who spoke at the Auckland Writers Festival
(Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending May 18.)
