This week’s bestselling books – October 18

NONFICTION
1 Tasty by Chelsea Winter (Allen & Unwin, $55)
A free copy of Chelsea’s new plant-based cookbook – which will surely remain number one bestseller for the next, oh, say six months – was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to say why they rated her as a paragon of healthy eating and kitchen goodness. There were quite a few replies and the best were as follows.
Jamie wrote, “Mum rates Chelsea as a no-fuss, nutritional, earthy cook but who really listens or takes advice from their mother? Friends ditto rate this inspiring cook. Straight-shooting Steve Braunias sings her praises too, and he wouldn’t lie. Also given Chelsea is now living at Ōakura and walking daily along my favourite beach she must have good taste.”
Gloria wrote, “Observing her life story it is plain to see she possesses an inner strength enabling her to say ‘no – not good enough’ and moves on. It seems to me that although her life was blessed with many opportunities e.g. looks to die for and a gifted upbringing, she has remained a genuine sole.” Sole! It’s bad form to hoot at spelling mistakes but c’mon it’s funny to imagine Chelsea as a fish.
But the winner is Liz, who fully engaged with Chelsea’s cooking, and wrote, “I declared my love for her in my head and to anyone who could tolerate my fan-girling from the first time I cooked her Tender French Lamb Stew recipe. Chelsea describes it as ‘deeeelicious’. Frankly, she sold it short. Being a slow-cook it fills the house and the olfactory,  lulling one into a glorious state of comfort and joy – perfect for when the guests walk in and become enveloped in the anticipation of what’s to come. Think French farmhouse cuisine at its very best, but without three days’ work.”
Huzzah to Liz; a free copy of Tasty by Chelsea Winter (no lamb but whatever) is hers.
2 More Salad by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Power (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
3 This is the F#$%ing News by Patrick Gower (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
4 Atua Wāhine by Hana Tapiata (HarperCollins, $36.99)
5 Woman Uninterrupted by Brodie Kane (HarperCollins, $39.99)
6 Honey: My Story of Love, Loss and Victory by Honey Hireme-Smiler & Suzanne McFadden (David Bateman, $39.99)
From this memoir of a league legend turned sportscaster as told to Newsroom legend Suzanne McFadden: “I’d always thought some of the old, white, hardcore rugby fans were bad. But there are Warriors fans who are cruel. I left their fan pages on social media because I’d get up the day after I’d worked on a game and Google my name to see what people were saying about the commentary. They would try to hurt me with personal stuff: ‘She sounds like she’s fresh out of Mangere, where she lives with her butch lesbian wife’ (they couldn’t even get it right). I began to doubt myself around the Warriors commentary, even when it was going so well and I was excited to do it.
“…The public response has not all been disparaging, though. Middle-aged to older men, predominantly Māori or Pasifika, will call out randomly to me on the street, ‘Mean mahi on the TV, sis.’ I’ll be at a girls’ league tournament and players will come up and say, ‘Oh, my dad asked me to get a photo with you.’ So cute.
“At the Black Ferns reunion in 2023, so many ex-players told me they loved hearing my commentary and seeing me on TV. These are rugby women who would absolutely tell me if I was doing a bad job. Wāhine are generally great at saying, ‘Oh we love listening to you.’ So I need to continue being authentic Honey.”
7 The Last Muster by Carly Thomas (HarperCollins, $49.99)
A copy of this new book about mustering is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. It’s about a life lived in the saddle and it’s about a love for horses and it’s a love letter, too, to the great outdoors ranging from Otago’s Greenstone Station to Muller in the Awatere, Smedley in Hawke’s Bay to Chatham Island’s Bluff Station.
To enter the contest, share a story about mustering – either first-hand, or read about, or heard tell – and email it to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps MUSTERING IS THE NEW ZEALAND WAY OF LIFE AT ITS BEST. Entries close at midnight, Sunday October 20.
8 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)
9 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood & Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99)
10 The World’s Easiest Recipes by Linda Duncan(HarperCollins, $45)
FICTION
1 Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
I heard from author Shilo Kino (her novel All That We Know is number 7 on the latest chart) this week, who emailed, “I’m reading Kāwai 2 and I must say it just might be my book of the year! Have you read it yet?”
 I told her I hadn’t.
She replied, “It’s great- maybe because the main protagonist is a strong wahine Māori and I resonate with her more.”
Then I asked her if it was okay for me to publish these comments, and she replied, “Yes of course haha can you also add that there is female rage which I also love!!!”
2 Kataraina by Becky Manawatu(Makaro Press, $37)
From a review by Jordan Tricklebank: “I think I like it more than Auē: it’s more difficult, more ambitious, a strange, other-worldly character study. And the fact that it’s a follow-up to one of the most successful works of Aotearoa fiction means that it’ll be widely read; I’ll be following the general public response with interest. I went in with some reservations, and left with some reservations, too. But Kataraina is a rewarding novel that I feel will continue to reveal itself. It also ends with laughter which feels like a well-deserved ending to a saga wrought with so much tragedy.”
3 Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $37.99)
4 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
5 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This (Kāwai 1) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
6 Auē by Becky Manawatu(Makaro Press, $35)
7 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Hachette, $37.99)
The author is appearing at this week’s annual Māori Writers Festival, KUPU, in Rotorua this week, alongside such as Dame Lisa Carington, Tā Hirini Moko Mead, Te Haumihiata Mason, and Julian Wilcox, among some 40 Māori authors. Hosted by the KUPU Trust, the 2024 programme brings together Māori writers, thinkers, composers and orators to provide an exchange of fresh ideas, powerful stories and indigenous perspectives. The programme also includes workshops, interactive sessions and personal mentorship for school aged students.

8 Pātea Boys by Airana Ngarewa (Hachette, $36.99)
9 Home Truths by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
10 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
From a review by Pip Adam: “Like a lot of his work, Damien Wilkins’ new novel Delirious has a composure to its surface, but, like a duck swimming, the ease, clarity and beauty of its ‘above water’ appearance is only possible through urgent and confronting work being done in its depths. On the surface this is a satisfying and cohesive story about a couple and their move into an aged-care community. At its heart though it’s a deeply affecting novel about the almost unbearable pains of being alive that are usually impossible for us to look at directly. People we love die, we get old, those of us who are Pākehā are on stolen land, revenge and justice do not make crime easier to reconcile. This is an incredibly accomplished novel which demonstrates a deep and lived understanding of the ways we carry on while knowing what is coming for us at increasing speed the longer we live. In many ways this book destroyed me. It brought me to tears more than once, but it’s a gift. Trust me. How can we know how precious these things are if we don’t understand, one day, we will lose them all.”