This week's bestselling books - September 13

This week’s bestselling books – September 13

FICTION

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

The book that just won’t stop selling, number one for the seventh consecutive week, a pageturner of apparently widespread charm: “Two small-town booksellers (and their cowardly dog) solve a decades-old murder-mystery in this witty debut novel, full of literary clues, sparkling dialogue, and comedic insights into the world of bookshops.”

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

3 Pātea Boys by Airana Ngarewa (Hachette, $36.99)

A free copy of the author’s new collection of short stories was up for grabs in last week’s free book giveaway. Readers were asked to share a few remarks on last week’s amazing ascension of Kuini Nga wai hono i te po as the new Māori queen. There were a number of very fetching replies, all of them respectful and humble; the entry I liked best came from Julienne, who wrote, “The Kuini is my cousin. Well, many times removed (in all senses of the word). My great-great-grandmother Eliza/Raiha was Te Wherowhero’s daughter. However, subsequent generations seemed to do all they could to distance themselves from their Māori heritage, so by the time I grew up all that remained was the exotic titbit that we were descended from a Māori princess. Watching the accession of this talented, poised, confident young wāhine, taking on the considerable mantle of leadership, was inspiring. I define myself as Tāngata Tiriti, but knowing that we share our common ancestry was very special, and has motivated me to deepen my connection to te ao Māori.”

Huzzah to Julienne; a free copy of Pātea Boys by Airana Ngarewa is hers.

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

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

This week’s free book giveaway is a copy of Ōkiwi Brown, an ingeniously devised new bestselling historical novel set in early-settler Wellington. The protagonist is based on William ‘Okiwi’ Brown, the first European to settle in that lovely stretch of east coast shoreline in Wellington, including Days Bay and Eastbourne.

To enter the draw, share one thing you know or have read about Days Bay or Eastbourne, and email it to stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps APART FROM KATHERINE MANSFIELD USED TO VISIT. Entries close at midnight, Sunday September 15.

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

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

The author grew up Waiau Pa on the Manukau harbour; she has written a stunning portrait of this dot on the landscape, and it will appear next week in ReadingRoom. The Mess We Made is a love story: “Quin and Henry meet as kids and quickly become inseparable… They are high-school sweethearts until one night, one bad decision shatters everything.”

8 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $27.99)

9 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28.00)

10 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Hachette, $37.99)

NONFICTION

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

Rugby.

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

Killing.

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

Bush-bashing.

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

Food.

5 A Very French Affair by Maria Hoyle (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)

Maria Hoyle! Great person, an ex-colleague of mine when she worked as a sub-editor at Sunday magazine. She was quite unusual, a free spirit; her memoir seems to testify to that: “What do you say when a man you’ve dated a handful of times asks you to go live with him in a mill by a river in France? At the age of 63 Maria Hoyle left her life in Auckland – her two daughters, her dog, her friends, a beautiful rental by a beach, and everything she’d loved for more than two decades – to settle in a tiny French village with a partner she barely knew. What could possibly go wrong?”