1 Helen Kelly: Her Life by Rebecca Macfie
From the publisher’s blurb: “Kelly was the first female head of the country’s trade union movement, but she was also much more: a visionary who believed that all workers, whether in a union or not, deserved to be given a fair go; a fighter from a deeply communist family who never gave up the struggle; a strategist and orator who invoked strong loyalty; a woman who could stir fierce emotions.”
2 The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw
The book that’s violently dividing New Zealanders across the country. That may be a slight exaggeration, but at the Auckland Writers Festival, someone did stand up and inform Grimshaw they’d just seen a Barney over the rights and wrongs of it out at the book-sales table.
3 The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
In the publisher’s colorful words, this is new non-fiction about the “maverick scientists” and “scientific misfits” who “anticipated, traced and hunted” Covid-19. It sounds like an adventure-thriller-chase novel! However, we can expect good things from Michael Lewis, the author who made the US housing bubble engaging in The Big Short.
4 No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
The author of the weird, funny and brilliant memoir Priestdaddy has released her first novel, about a woman fully entrenched in social media. The novel has released too much fanfare, and words of praise from the likes of Sally Rooney and Jia Tolentino. However, the Guardian says that “far too much of it, to put it bluntly, amounts to lyrical descriptions of memes”. Touché.
5 The Forager’s Treasury: The Essential Guide to Finding and Using Wild Plants in Aotearoa by Johanna Knox
This new, second edition of the 2013 classic is popping off, as more New Zealanders seek answers to the question, “That weed in the ground … Can I eat it?”
6 Shuggie Bain by Stuart Douglas
The 2020 Booker winner that’ll make you cry.
7 Aroha: Māori Wisdom for a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with our Planet by Hinemoa Elder
Hot tip for feeling perky over winter: Aroha plus any zesty cup of tea.
8 Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Another tear-jerker. Apeirogon fictionalizes the lives of two fathers, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli Jew, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian Muslim, who both lost children in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
9 One: Pot, Pan, And Planet: A Greener Way to Cook for You, Your Family and the Planet by Anna Jones
Pair Aroha and that cup of tea with any Anna Jones meal and you’re in for a great night.
10 Unquiet by Linn Ullmann
A mix of fiction and memoir about a father and daughter. From the publisher’s blurb: “Now that she’s grown up – a writer, with children of her own – and he’s in his 80s, they envision writing a book together, about old age, language, memory and loss. She will ask the questions. He will answer them. The tape recorder will record.”
