This week’s bestselling books – March 13

2026-03-12 - 16:08

NONFICTION 1 Surviving White Island by Kelsey Waghorn (HarperCollins, $39.99) 2 Champions Do Extra by Brad Thorn (HarperCollins, $39.99) 3 Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99) Grief expert Dr Lucy Hone will join Natalie Flynn for a special tribute panel to Nigel Latta at the Auckland Writers Festival in May. 4 Be Brave: The Life of a Pacific Correspondent by Barbara Dreaver (Awa Press, $45) Barbara Dreaver! Top journo, lovely person—I used to bump into her at the supermarket in Te Atatū. Her new memoir includes her account of being detained in Fiji in 2008. She writes, “I took a deep breath. I had heard how people who went up against the regime were taken to a camp and tortured. Some were quiet after their ‘detention’. We knew it must have been bad. There were stories about women being made to strip and men having to run around a field until they collapsed. One man reportedly had had a board tied to his back while soldiers took turns jumping on it. “I knew I had to be prepared. For the next thirty minutes I practised taking off my clothes and putting them back on. Off and on, off and on. If I was told to strip I wanted to be able to look the soldiers in the eye and be strong. After a while I knew I could do this without flinching if I had to. I wouldn’t give Frank Bainimarama and his cronies any satisfaction...” 5 Become Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random House, $40) The former visionary psychological coach of the All Blacks will “distil his essential lessons so that we can all learn to win the All Blacks way” in an appearance at the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival in May. 6 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $59.99) Ardern will join Grant Robertson onstage for a one-night-only reunion at the Dunedin Writers Festival in April, and will also appear at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, chaired by Noelle McCarthy. Her memoir A Different Kind of Power has been nominated for the nonfiction prize at the Ockham NZ book awards—and is among all 16 shortlisted books up for grabs in the greatest book prize of all times. We’re talking four books of poems, four novels, four works of nonfiction, four great big coffee table picture books. We’re talking The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey and A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern and 14 other titles, the best of the best, worth north of $1200. The contest rules are simple. Readers need to nominate their favourite NZ book of last year, and share a few lines stating why that is so. They can draw from the shortlist of 16 books; they can draw from books that got as far as the longlist; or they can draw from any NZ book whether it was nominated or not, so long as it was published in 2025. The book that receives the most votes will be crowned as winner of the People’s Choice Award on the morning of the Ockham awards on May 13. Over 90 entries flooded in last week. As I suspected, they included a lot of votes for the Ardern memoir and the Chidgey novel. But something else has got even more votes, and is leading the pack: He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones. Incredible! It’s a picture book which comes with 3D glasses, shortlisted for best book of illustrated nonfiction at the Ockhams. Will it win that award, and the People’s Choice as well? Votes have come in for about 20 books. I liked this, from Caleb: “My vote is for Slowing the Sun by Nadine Hura. It’s the New Zealand book from last year that has stayed with me the longest. It’s a climate book, but not the kind built from distant graphs and policy debates. Instead it brings the crisis close to home, weaving science, journalism, whakapapa and personal story into something that feels urgent, grounded and deeply human ... It’s the rare kind of book that changes how you see the world around you: the landscape, the stories we tell about it, and our responsibility to care for it. Quietly powerful and intellectually generous, Slowing the Sun feels like an essential book for Aotearoa right now.” And I liked this, from Jacquie: “Naomi Arnold’s book Northbound is my pick. I’ve worked in book retail as a shop assistant for independent booksellers in Nelson and Edinburgh and (very briefly) in Christchurch and observed that every year there is one book which people all want to read at the same time so that they can talk about it with each other.” And naturally I liked this, very much, from Vanessa: “Polkinghorne by Steve Braunias. What a read by an exceptional writer. His descriptions of Polkinghorne are exquisite! The eye watering sums of money spent by the subject and his wife left me stunned. Her weary compliance of threesomes ... the polished exterior and quite ghastly interior. The contrast jarring. Such a good read!” Have your say. A panel of judges are sorting and collating. To enter, send in your vote (with comments) for your favourite NZ book of 2025, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line I WANT TO WIN ALL 16 BOOKS SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 OCKHAM NZ AWARDS PLEASE. The deadline is midnight on Sunday, April 26. 7 The Hollows Boys by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton, $39.99) Her superb book on deer recovery in Fiordland is nominated for the nonfiction prize at the Ockham NZ book awards—and is among all 16 shortlisted books up for grabs in the greatest book prize of all times. Details above. 8 The Dead Speak by Thomas Coyle (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) Memoir of a fingerprint expert. I will be chairing Coyle in a session alongside forensic scientist Ruben Miller (his book is at number 10, below) at the Auckland Writers Festival in May. 9 Nadia’s Farm Kitchen by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 10 The Blood Says Otherwise by Ruben Miller (HarperCollins, $39.99) A forensic scientist reflects on a 22-year career investigating more than 160 homicides. FICTION 1 Black Velvet and Vengeance (Tatty Crowe 3) by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, $37.99) 2 The Black Monk by Charlotte Grimshaw (Penguin Random House, $38) Novel about family dysfunction and a woman’s noble pursuit of the truth. From a review in Kete, by Clare Travaglia: “At times, things are overtly explained and summarised. But as the book goes on, there are moments of exquisiteness, such as in Ōwhiro Bay where ‘the sea lashed and gnawed at the rocks, and the wind traced patterns on the winter swell’ ... The Black Monk is both highly perceptive and unreservedly ambiguous, and the reader must be willing to navigate the mirror maze in all its uncertainty.” 3 The Secrets of the Lost Vineyard by Erin Palmisano (Hachette, $37.99) 4 Seed by Elisabeth Easther (Penguin Random House, $38) 5 Julia Eichardt by Lauren Roche (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99) 6 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) Shortlisted for the $65,000 fiction prize at this year’s Ockham NZ book awards and as such among the 16 books up for grabs in the greatest book draw of all times. See details above. Chidgey’s novel is running pretty much neck and neck in shared second place with Jacinda Ardern’s memoir as readers vote for their favourite book of 2025. I liked this, from Bex: “It reminded me so much of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro but it had its own spin and style with greater attention paid to the world beyond. The relationship between the three boys was probably the most fascinating part to me; such a realistic portrayal of young teenage boys. This was my first foray into Catherine Chidgey (I read The Axeman’s Carnival straight afterwards) and I was haunted.” 7 The American Boys by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99) 8 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $28) 9 Wonderland by Tracy Farr (The Cuba Press, $38) Longlisted for the $65,000 fiction prize at this year’s Ockham NZ book awards. Many thought it ought to have made the shortlist, including a senior novelist who mentioned in an email, “I was amazed, just quietly, that neither Tracy Farr’s or Dominic Hoey’s books were shortlisted, both of which I thought were great.” 10 The Shadow Weaver by Ivy Cliffwater (Hachette, $37.99)