This week’s bestselling books – November 22

FICTION
1 Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment  by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
Sample dialogue, all from one chapter:
“That can’t be,” replied Taona doubtfully.
“You were right. The pā is unnervingly quiet,” Taona murmured.
“The Hākuwai,” Motukia breathed.
 “Our grandfathers told us they rarely saw the Hākuwai in daylight,” Motukia muttered.
“Their fight would have been futile against the powerful magic of the mamaku sticks,” she murmured.
“Or worse, consigned to the ovens,” Tūhē added grimly.
“Tikina tērā tahā,” Hine commanded.
“They must have filled several tahā with smoked meat for their journey,” she remarked.  
“Your relatives are thin and tough and scarcely enough to fill an empty belly,” Hine smirked.
2 The Songbirds of Florence by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99)
3 Kataraina by Becky Manawatu(Makaro Press, $37)
4 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
5 Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $37.99)
6 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
7 New Stories by Owen Marshall (Penguin Random House, $38)
A story from the latest collection from The Man From Timaru will appear in ReadingRoom tomorrow and I really think it is something of a masterpiece, among the very best from his long career, a late Marshall classic. It’s actually kind of atypical of his work. There’s only one character and as such no dialogue, except right at the end. It’s almost an internal monologue although it’s not told in first-person. Most unlike Marshall, it’s very short: 1250 words, not exactly the wretched experiment of flash fiction but about half the length he normally practises. Anyway these are just observations of technique and the whole point of the story, its appeal, and why I begged Penguin to be able to republish it, is its power. I was so dazed by it that I read it three times.
8 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
Every single review of the Wellington maestro’s latest novel, a meditation on ageing, has been admiring and even a bit awed. From Pip Adam: “While death is the only inevitability if we grow to old age another certainty is the degradation of our body. As in life, not everyone in this book gets to make old bones. Mary and Pete’s son dies heart-breakingly young. Mary’s sister, dies without seeing her son grow past adolescence. These early deaths throw a strange hue on the ageing people in the book….I don’t think we can bare to live and look things directly in the eye. Death is too terrible, so real estate is where we let ourselves feel….Wilkins escapes the platitudes and commonplace things we say about ageing and death.”
I am backing it to make the shortlist for next year’s fiction award, alongside the novel at number 9.
9 The Royal Free by Carl Shuker (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
A free copy of this breathtakingly brilliant novel set in the offices of a medical journal is up for grabs in this week’s giveaway contest. From a review by John McCrystal: “The prose is wonderful. Few writers have such a feel for the rhythm of a sentence, with alliteration and repetition and rhyme all given their head. Get the sticky mouth-feel of a sentence like: ‘They ate the last of the least-liked chocolates from the last tin of Easter Quality Street that everyone was sick of (the clammy pink cream of Strawberry Delight, with its melancholy rumour of menthol).’”
To enter the draw, quote a sentence that you regard as sheer genius from any work of fiction, or nonfiction, or journalism, or a play, or a poem if it can be described as a sentence, and email it to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps THE LAST OF THE LEAST-LIKED CHOCOLATES FROM THE LAST TIN, by Sunday at midnight, November 24.
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 Atua Wāhine by Hana Tapiata (HarperCollins, $36.99)
4 All Out by Neil Wagner (Penguin Random House, $40)
5 This is the F#$%ing News by Patrick Gower (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
6 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)
7Wild Walks Aotearoa by Hannah-Rose Watt (Penguin Random House, $50)
8 Woolsheds by Jane Ussher & Annette O’Sullivan (Massey University Press, $85)
A fee copy of this absolutely sumptuous illustrated coffee-table book in 15 woolsheds was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to send in a photo of a woolshed. It was an extremely popular contest and a selection of some of the best photos appeared in ReadingRoom on Wednesday. They were all awesome but the most awesome was by Geoff Blackmore, who photographed the woolshed at his family farm at Lawrence, Otago. Huzzah to Geoff; he wins a copy of Woolsheds by Jane Ussher & Annette O’Sullivan, one of the best books of the year. His photo makes him a worthy winner.
9The Last Muster by Carly Thomas (HarperCollins, $49.99)
10 UnApologetically Me by Bree Tomasel (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)