The bestselling NZ books at Labour Weekend 2024

FICTION
1 Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
A free copy of the new novel that has held the Number 1 position this past fortnight is up for grabs in our Labour Weekend giveaway contest. To enter, tell us why you are dying to read Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2), and email your remarks to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps MONTY SOUTAR IS THE MAN. Entries close at midnight, Sunday October 27.

2 Kataraina by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $37)
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 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
From the speech given at the launch by Elizabeth Knox: “It’s a novel that opens with a couple, Mary and Pete who, in their late 70s, are downsizing from their home on the Kāpiti Coast to a retirement community out of a sense of that’s what you do. They’re death cleaning, packing things away, finding what still fits with who they think they are, and what life they think they should be living. Which is the key to both the comedy and the consolations of this book when it comes to talking about old people. Mary and Pete have an idea about how old age is supposed to proceed—that, done properly, old age involves saving each other from the burden of future big decisions by choosing life in a retirement village, a future in which they have every reason to have expectations of a deserved happiness…”
7 The Writing Desk by Di Morris (David Bateman, $45)
A unique graphic novel set in New Zealand’s colonial past. A fantastic review has appeared on the Facebook page of that great institution in New Zealand comics, Heroes for Sale, an Auckland bookstore that has been serving the local comic scene since 1995. It relocated to 295 Symonds St in Eden Terrace in May, and stocks New Zealand’s largest range of comics and graphic novels.
Someone at the shop wrote of Di Morris’s book, “We follow generations in one family from the 1850s. The story allows us to look at women’s rights from a lived experience, and also gives us an inside story on the daily living conditions for early colonialists in New Zealand … We truly embark on a journey with the characters … The use of a collage effect when introducing deaths and important moments for each person was brilliantly executed … It’s an action-packed read exploring the feminist movement and the very real impact it has had on our lives.”
8 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Hachette, $37.99)
9 Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) [hardback] by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $49.99)
10 Auē by Becky Manawatu(Makaro Press, $35)
NONFICTION
1 Tasty by Chelsea Winter (Allen & Unwin, $55)
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 UnApologetically Me by Bree Tomasel (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
6 Wild Walks Aotearoa by Hannah-Rose Watt (Penguin Random House, $50)
A guide to tramping – and the only reminder in this week’s nonfiction bestseller chart that there is another publisher in New Zealand outside of HarperCollins and Allen & Unwin.
7 The World’s Easiest Recipes by Linda Duncan (HarperCollins, $45)
8 The Last Muster by Carly Thomas (HarperCollins, $49.99)
A copy of Thomas’s new book on mustering was up for grabs in last week’s free book giveaway. Readers were asked to share a story about mustering. I received numerous stories that were associated with horses – horses on farms, horses up to no good, horses horsing around – but really only one letter addressed the actual subject of mustering.
Peter wrote, “Back in the 1980s, it was school holidays and I was staying with my sister and brother-in-law at their farm in the back-blocks of Hawkes Bay. Charlie announced one evening that the next day he needed a hand to muster some sheep from his place to a runoff some distance away – it would take much of the day and we’d be up early. 
“After a hearty breakfast he released some dogs, mounted his horse, told me to get the motorbike and away we went. An hour or so down the road Charlie said he’d head back to the farm and leave me to it: ‘Just take it easy and let them graze the long acre.’
“All went well until the bike coughed and spluttered and stopped. For the next few hours it was a very slow muster on foot until Charlie returned in his ute, wondering why I was taking so long. My sister had baked some scones for morning tea and they went down a treat. We got the bike going and finished the muster. We had a few laughs about horse vs bike after that day.
“Charlie is now retired and unfortunately is suffering from the big C. As an avid reader he’d certainly enjoy this book.”
Huzzah to Peter, and to good old Charlie; a copy of The Last Muster by Carly Thomas is going to a very deserving home.
9 Life Hacks from the Buddha by Tony Fernando (HarperCollins, $37.99)
10 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)