This week’s bestselling books – February 20

2026-02-19 - 16:06

NONFICTION 1 Champions Do Extra by Brad Thorn (HarperCollins, $39.99) Nonsense. 2 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99) Latta. 3 The Dead Speak by Thomas Coyle (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) Highly readable memoir by a police fingerprint expert. From an excerpt published in ReadingRoom on Tuesday: “I have examined dead bodies at every stage of decomposition, from those who have recently passed away to those who have been deceased for weeks or even months. The only instances that have affected me deeply involved the examination of children or elderly who have been victims of violence. I have been present at post-mortems of children as young as three months old. As a parent myself, I have found it impossible not to feel a sense of sorrow and even anger in these situations.” 4 The Hollows Boys by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton, $39.99) A free copy of Carey’s excellent book—nominally about helicopter deer recovery in Fiordland, but really it’s a meditation about death—is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. I named it one of the best books of the year, in ReadingRoom in December, and it’s been long-listed for the $12,000 nonfiction prize at this year’s Ockham NZ national book awards. To enter the draw, share a story about helicopter deer recovery, and send it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps THE SOUTH OF THE SOUTH ISLAND by midnight on Sunday February 22. 5 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40) Nonsense. 6 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $59.99) Politics. 7 Nadia’s Farm Kitchen by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) Food. 8 Māori Ora by Hira Nathan (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) Knowledge. 9 Ara by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30) Knowledge. 10 Habits of High Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99) Nonsense. FICTION 1 Seed by Elisabeth Easther (Penguin Random House, $38) Woohoo! Number 1 with a bullet in its second week in the shops, this entertaining romp is a dream debut for Easther, and I suspect it will sell something like a truckload over the next few weeks and months. A free copy of was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. The contest replies were so powerful and haunting that I fashioned a story about it on Wednesday. The book is about women characters going to comic lengths to have a baby; readers were asked to share their own fertility stories. Anonymity was provided. The winner wrote of giving a baby up for adoption. So not actually a fertility story at all really but pretty, as they say, adjacent. I asked the author of Seed, Elisabeth Easther, to act as judge. She wrote, “The story of the woman who was sent to the Salvation Army home when she was young and pregnant, and made to give her baby up just days before the first humans set foot on the Moon, her story pierced my heart. Of course nothing can ever make up for all that woman has endured, but I want to honour her story by offering her this minute thing. A book, which is actually as comedic as it is sad, so please don’t think I’m undermining yours or any other person’s experiences by choosing you.” 2 The American Boys by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99) 3 Julia Eichardt by Lauren Roche (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99) 4 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99) 5 Wonderland by Tracy Farr (The Cuba Press, $38) Long-listed for the $65,000 fiction prize at this year’s Ockham NZ national book awards. 6 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) Also long-listed for the $65,000 fiction prize at this year’s Ockham NZ national book awards. 7 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28) 8 Good Things Come and Go by Josie Shapiro (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 9 The Shadow Weaver by Ivy Cliffwater (Hachette, $37.99) 10 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)