1. (NEW) Hastings: A Boy’s Own Adventure by Dick Frizzell (Massey University Press)
Racing straight to the top of the charts after only a few days on sale is painter Dick Frizzell’s memoir, “a love song to a small New Zealand town”. The book “recalls a well-spent childhood of digging tunnels, unsupervised adventures in the freezing works, motorbikes, guns and, at the centre, his adored parents and a local community rich with character”. Find out more about what’s influenced Dick Frizzell in his art here.
2. (2) Unveiled by Theophila Pratt (David Bateman)
“I didn’t choose the cult life. The cult life chose me,” writes Theophila Pratt in Unveiled. Life was only going to get better when she died, Pratt was told in Gloriavale. It was the only life she knew until she left, aged 18. People who left, their lives were ruined, she was taught. Pratt writes of regular life in the community, including the ever-present violence (and the regular criminal charges against its men), until her eventual escape and finding a new life. It includes droll details such as that days and months are only known as “First Day” and “Fifth Month”, because the standard ones are named after “heathen” Roman gods.
3. (1) Toot the Tow Truck by Deano Yipadee & Bruce Potter (Scholastic)
Dropping from the peak of the bestsellers’ list is this new book in the Nee Naw and Friends series for kids.
“There’s another emergency vehicle in singer-songwriter Dean O’Brien’s garage and this time it’s a tow truck called Toot! Those goats of Granny’s have been joy-riding on Farmer Tom’s tractor and have got themselves in a bit of a pickle, with the tractor stuck in a pond, and themselves up a tree! Nee Naw quickly appraises the situation he can rescue the goats and he calls upon his friend Toot to come and pull out the tractor.”
4. (4) The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)
The incredible story of Kiwi spy Pippa Latour. Latour, who died in West Auckland in 2023, aged 102, helped lay the groundwork for the D-Day’s success and the end of World War II by acting as a secret agent in France for Britain.
“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 that continues to attract new readers. Read the review here. Dobson is working on turning the book into a screenplay.
5. (3) The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove by Erin Palmisano (Moa Press)
In her second novel, American-Kiwi Erin Palmisano takes readers to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. After the death of owner Tommy Cleary, who could never make the financial decisions necessary to keep Cleary’s Crab Shack in Maiden’s Cove in the black, his daughter Grace has a mountain to climb when she returns to her hometown from Phoenix, Arizona, with her 8-year-old daughter, leaving behind her controlling estranged husband Richard.
The Listener’s review reckons Palmisano, a restaurant owner herself, again cleverly pairs delicious food and small-town romance, well-drawn colourful characters, drama and intrigue, and explores the life paths people take, why some can’t get out of a small town fast enough and why others never want to leave.
6. (5) Whakawhetai: Gratitude by Hira Nathan (A&U)
Hira Nathan’s bilingual gratitude journal, based on the Māori holistic approach to health, was released in mid-2023 and has made regular appearances in the 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.”
7. (NEW) Toitū Te Whenua by Lauren Keenan (Penguin)
Lauren Keenan aims for her book to provide “an interesting and accessible high-level overview of the New Zealand Wars with a focus on people and places”. Keenan, who is also a novelist and children’s writer, has a master’s degree specialising in the history of Taranaki Māori, and the result is an informative and highly visual guide, with plentiful maps and illustrations both historical and modern-day.
8. (RETURN) Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
From the Listener’s review: “Wilkins confronts the much-promoted glow of retirement and reveals some harder-edged truths, both personal and general. The distinction between expectation and reality is telling. Delirious has suspense and pace.
“Mary and Pete live in a large two-storied house with a view of Kāpiti Island over the beach dunes. Both are in their late seventies and the future now looms in their thoughts. The expectations of others are clear: the couple will downsize and move into a retirement village.
“But this is no ordinary novel. While the pace of life seems easy and pleasant, the past has a way of returning. Events seldom run to plan. Mary’s and Pete’s son died in an accident forty years before, at the age of eleven. A sudden call comes from the Wellington CIB with the possibility of new information.”
9. (RETURN) Pee Wee the Lonely Kiwi Finds a New Friend, by Blair Cooper & Cheryl Smith (Flying Books Publishing)
Jumping in and out of the bestseller list is this children’s book about a kiwi looking for a friend, searching high and low, from sea to mountaintop. It was a top seller when it was first published in 2019 and keeps making its way back into the charts. Will Pee Wee find a friend? You wouldn’t bet against it, though this one has something of a surprise ending.
10. (9) Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
The wisdom of 52 Māori proverbs explained by psychiatrist Hinemoa 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 March 15.
