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This week’s bestselling books – May 17
The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias
Ockhams: Emily Perkins wins $65K fiction prize
Emily Perkins triumphs at the national book awards, in a shock loss for Eleanor Catton
Ockhams: Catton wins People’s Choice
Ahead of tonight’s Ockham awards, readers vote for Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Ockhams: the sad truth about authors’ pot plants
On the eve of the Ockham awards, shortlisted authors come up short with their strange, anxious aversion to houseplants
Ockhams: Penguin shock on eve of book awards
Penguin axes its head of publishing just as the Ockham book awards are due to be announced
An Ode to .. Seymour
Bard Billot on the diet baron
Short story: Message me, by Lucy O’Connor
A stalker with a taste for cocktails hunts for prey on social media
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Award-winning author and writer Steve Braunias brings you the best literary coverage in NZ every Saturday.
PORTRAITS
‘We didn’t behave very well in NZ’, says Wakefield heir
An author of a natural history classic wonders if the genesis of his book came when he met the insufferable Sir Humphrey Wakefield
On the legendary Phil Wood of Phil Wood Menswear, Westport
An interview with a Charleston auto sparky about the historic discovery of fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle
Vale, Vincent O’Sullivan (1937-2024)
A tribute to a literary master of everything
A family history told in horses
An extraordinary essay about horses by Ōtautahi author Rachael King
Short story: The boat in the shed, by Kyle Mewburn
“How easy it would be to slip a kayak into the river at the back of Len’s section and glide silently past the sleeping houses…”
Short story: Calf Creek, by Anna Scaife
A gothic story of two New Zealand hillbillies in a stand-off with two kids in the bush
Short story: Finally, by Caoimhe McKeogh
A little girl climbs onto a roof at a party somewhere in New Zealand
Short story: Something will change, by Alice Tawhai
“How can you love someone who treats you like that?” But she couldn’t explain it…
NEWS
‘I was in awe of Germaine Greer’s face, her neck, her hands’
Sue Kedgley on Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku on Germaine Greer
‘I’m disgusted at the investment of my own iwi in a luxury spa’
A korero between Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku and Dale Husband from ‘e-tangata’
Rhapsody in feijoa
A new book on feijoas inspires recipes for feijoa cakes, feijoa jam, feijoa ice-cream and feijoa-related alcoholic stupor
Dealing with readers who worry about ‘brown supremacism’
An historian responds to howls of outrage that his books are “beating up on the white man”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
This week’s bestselling books – May 10
The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias
An incident at Glenmark station in Canterbury
The death of a lonely wanderer at a sheep station, the failings of a “mean, hard-hearted” landowner – and its link to an extinct giant eagle
This week’s biggest selling books – May 3
The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, as described by Steve Braunias
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