FICTION

1 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)

2 Patea Boys by Airana Ngarewa (Moa Press, $36.99)

Oho! Number two with a bullet in its first week in the charts, Patea Boys marks the return of Airana Ngarewa, the most sensational new arrival in New Zealand in fiction in 2023 with The Bone Tree. His new work is his first love, the short story; distinctively, the collection is in both English and te reo. A story from the book, “I am a Māori”, will appear in ReadingRoom this Saturday and I think it’s a good measure of the quality of this collection.

A free copy is up for grabs in this week’s book giveaway contest. To enter, share a few remarks on this week’s amazing ascension of Kuini Nga wai hono i te po as the new Māori queen, and email it to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps LONG LIVE THE KUINI. Entries close at midnight, Sunday August 25.

3 Home Truths by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)

4 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Moa Press, $37.99)

The second Moa Press novel in this week’s top 10.

5 ABOUTKiwi Brown by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press, $37)

6 At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House, $37)

7 The Mess We Made by Megan O’Neill (Moa Press, $37.99)

The third Moa Press novel in this week’s top 10.

8 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $37.99)

The fourth Moa Press novel in this week’s top 10.

9 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Moa Press, $27.99)

God almighty! The fifth Moa Press novel in this week’s top 10. Is this a record? Did the publisher formerly known as Victoria University Press achieve such distinction, such coverage, such a hold on the national imagination? Possibly; probably. But even if so it would have been a few years back. Moa Press are killing it right now, with their strange mix of challenging work by Māori and POC authors (Patea Boys, All That We Know, Amma), their romance fiction (The Mess We Made), their commercial page-turners (The Girl from London).

10 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28)

NONFICTION

1 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)

2 Serviceman J by Jamie Pennell (HarperCollins, $39.99)

A chapter about killing a Taliban fighter, taken from the SAS commander’s memoir, appeared in ReadingRoom on Tuesday.

3 Sam the Trap Man by Sam Gibson (Allen & Unwin, $45)

A free copy of the bushman’s memoir was up for grabs in last week’s free book giveaway. To enter, readers were asked to pass on a survival skill of any description that might make things easier for someone who decides to go bush with the declaration that they might be some time, ie they’re intending to go in and not come out for weeks, maybe longer. There were a number of replies and all of them were worthy but a bit, you know, dreary. As such the winner is Simon of Te Atatū Peninsula – gidday mate! – who wrote, “When using a condom as an emergency water carrier placing it in a sock gives good structural integrity.”

Who knew? Huzzah is an old mate; he has won a free copy of Sam the Trap Man by Sam Gibson.

4 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood and Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99)

5 The Road to Chatto Creek by Matt Chisholm (Allen & Unwin, $45)

6 Seriously Delicious by Polly Markus (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)

7A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)

I chaired the author at an event at the Hotel George in Christchurch last Sunday as part of the WORD literary festival. The guy was on fire, busting out zingers, being charming, offering help – his book is the most popular self-help title of 2024. We spoke to a crowd who had booked a breakfast buffet – very good mussel fritters, even better cheese rolls . He talked about losing his Mum and losing his marriage and losing it really badly one morning on his Radio Hauraki show – and finding something like peace, something like purpose. Afterwards he signed a heap of books, and then swanned around the Koru Lounge at Christchurch airport before returning home to his life less punishing.

8 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)

9 The Survivors by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins, $37.99)

Oho! My book of true-crime stories, clawing its way back into the top 10. There was a very decent-sized singing queue after my event at the Christchurch WORD festival last Friday – and I signed another copy, on Wednesday, at the High Court of Auckland of all places when Francine of Gray Lynn approached me outside courtroom 11, venue of the Polkinghorne murder trial, and asked me to sign a copy of The Survivors for her husband Alastair. Cheers Alastair and Francine! They have exquisite taste. The trial is entering its final week; for anyone wanting their own signed copy of my new book, be quick. And take eftpos.

10 Unmasking Monsters by Chook Henwood (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)

The sixth Allen & Unwin title in this week’s top 10. The remaining four are all published by HarperCollins. What a year they’ve both been having, locked in mortal combat, both coming up with winners and whoppers, both thinking hard to seize on the authors and the subjects that matter to reading Kiwis, both capable of commercial junk but both also capable of creating quality literature. See numbers 7 and 9 in this week’s chart.