Latest news with #SeeHowTheyFall
Scoop
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Fantasy Novels And Local Authors Prove Popular With Kiwi Readers
The 2025 Whitcoulls Top 100 Books List is announced today (Monday, July 28, 2025, 5:00am) and with it the news that an astonishing 25 percent of titles chosen are in the fantasy genre. Thirty-one of the titles featured are new books and twenty books on the Top 100 feature writers from Aotearoa New Zealand. Whitcoulls Book Manager Joan Mackenzie says, 'the predominance of fantasy books voted for this year captures the zeitgeist; they're what so many people are reading at the moment and purchasing instore or online.' Mackenzie is particularly pleased to see readers voting more New Zealand writers into the 2025 Top 100 – one-fifth – an increase of five from last year. Interestingly, eleven of these are non-fiction books while the other nine are novels. 'Notable among these are Vanya Insull's cookbook Everyday Comfort Food at #12; Rachel Paris's novel See How They Fall at #17; and non-fiction book, Fungi by Liv Sisson at #25. Publishing royalty, Catherine Chidgey, Becky Manawatu and Jenny Pattrick also make an appearance, as do local celebrities, Dai Henwood and Matt Heath,' says Mackenzie. Leading the charge and claiming the number one spot in the Top 100 for the first time is Rebecca Yarros with her Empyrean series of novels. She topples bestselling, fantasy writer Sarah J. Maas from first place last year, who is now at number two with her A Court of Thorns & Roses series. Historical fiction author Kristin Hannah's standalone novel The Women comes in at number three; Richard Osman storms up the List to sixth place, – a massive increase of 48 places from #54 in 2024 with his hugely popular The Thursday Murder Club series of books. Memoirs, romantic fiction, and self-development books also feature strongly in the Top 100, notable among them are Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson's locally acclaimed book, The Last Secret Agent (#50); Callie Hart's dark romance fantasy book, Quicksilver (#20); and Mel Robbins's famous 'life transformation' book, The Let Them Theory (#21). 'As a nation of avid readers, we naturally seek out quality stories which offer us windows into other worlds – be they fantasy, romance, literary fiction, affirming true stories or wisdom through the ages. Whitcoulls have been asking readers to vote for their favourite books for close to three decades and the 2025 Top 100 Books List provides us with a snapshot of the nation's reading habits. Whitcoulls are proud to showcase Aotearoa New Zealand's favourite books instore nationwide and online at
NZ Herald
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
The best books (so far) of 2025 - and those to look forward to
Listener writers pick their favourite books of the year so far and point to tantalising titles to come. Thrills & chills Some first-class Kiwi thrillers have been a hallmark of 2025. In Rachel Paris's Sydney-set See How They Fall, homicide squad detective Mei O'Connor investigates a poisoning at the grand estate of the Turner dynasty. Jennifer Trevelyan's A Beautiful Family finds a family on a long summer holiday, in which the youngest, Alix, pairs up with a boy named
Newsroom
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsroom
This week's biggest-selling books at King's Birthday Weekend
FICTION 1 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 'She [Chidgey] seems to get a ridiculous amount of promotion through your column,' moaned Newsroom reader Louise Bryant in the comments section this week. Oh well! Here we go again, then, paying too much heed to the author widely regarded as the best living New Zealand novelist who appears to be at her peak, with her latest novel settling into its Number 1 bestseller position for the third consecutive week and likely holding onto that status for quite some considerable time to come as word of mouth continues to recommend The Book of Guilt as a scary, literary, absorbing story of children kept as lab rats. A free copy was up for grabs (alongside Delirious by Damien Wilkins) in last week's giveaway contest. The entries were so interesting – readers were asked to make some sort of comment about Chidgey – that I wrote a story about them on Thursday. The winner is Madeleine Setchell, chairperson of Fertility NZ, 'a small but mighty charity that walks alongside all New Zealanders facing infertility'. Huzzah to Madeleine; she wins Delirious by Damien Wilkins, as well as a copy of the cheerfully over-promoted The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey. 2 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 3 See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (Hachette, $37.99) 4 1985 by Dominic Hoey (Penguin Random House, $38) A free copy of this tough new tale of Grey Lynn noir is up for grabs in this week's giveaway contest. Hoey is a sort of literary establishment outsider. So, too, is American writer Alex Perez, who posted an apparently controversial rant on Substack this week about one of the themes of Hoey's novel, the crisis of masculinity. He writes, 'The literary man is constantly haunted by the specter of masculinity. This is obviously an elite—and striver—problem, because working-class men, unless they somehow meet a New Yorker staffer on the construction site, haven't been aware that this discourse has been ongoing for a decade. The non-online man, warts and all, just is. He might be misogynist; he might be a brute. But he's just whatever kind of dude he is, and that's that. Most of my time is spent hanging out with regular dudes who aren't obsessed with their masculinity, so the neurotic behavior of the literary man is always jarring …' To enter the draw to win 1985, read Perez's Substack argument, and remark upon it at whatever length in an email to stephen11@ with the subject line in screaming caps A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE by midnight on Sunday, June 1. Good cover. 5 Tea and Cake and Death (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38) 6 Black Silk and Buried Secrets (Tatty Crowe 2) by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, $37.99) 7 Dead Girl Gone (The Bookshop Detectives 1) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $26) 8 The Good Mistress by Anne Tierman (Hachette, $37.99) 9 Sea Change by Jenny Pattrick (David Bateman, $37.99) 10 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Hachette, $37.99) I very briefly ran into the author at the recent Auckland Writers Festival. I got a bit lost trying to find the correct venue to watch Noelle McCarthy chair a Norwegian author, blundered into a room I thought was right, but instead saw Shilo Kino waiting to go onstage with Jeremy Hansen in a session about humour. Shilo said, 'Hi Steve!' I replied, 'Hi Shilo!' Then I turned and fled, pausing to say to Jeremy, 'You look younger every time I see you.' Anyway, it must have been a good session; Shilo's very funny novel was published over a year ago, but sales at the AWF have resurrected it into the top 10. NONFICTION 1 Whānau by Donovan Farnham & Rehua Wilson (Hachette, 29.99) 2 Full Circle by Jenny-May Clarkson (HarperCollins, $39.99) 'Over time,' writes the presenter of Breakfast in her new memoir, 'the scrutiny wears you down. Not just the actual things that people say but the awareness of what they might say. When I started in television, the comments were mostly about my appearance. But, as I settled into my role at Breakfast, that started to change. Of late, a lot of the negative comments I get have been centred on who I am. My Māoritanga. I don't look at them, don't even get the Breakfast inbox emails on my computer, because if I had to read some of what comes in, I just wouldn't ever be able to say anything again. But every now and then, I'll catch something someone's said before I've been able to look away. 'The other day, I spotted a comment where someone was complaining about my use of te reo Māori. 'Don't like watching her, sick of her pushing too much Māori on to people, just speak English.' That sort of thing. Worse, usually. You know the style. I used to get absolutely thrown by comments like that but they don't rock me now. I just think, How bizarre. And how sad. Because it is sad. Sad that someone thinks it's okay to talk about another person like that. Sad that they don't accept that my reo is a big part of who I am as a person and that I am not only selected but endorsed by my employer, TVNZ. Sad that they don't realise te reo Māori is one of the official languages of our country, so there's no such thing as 'too much'. Sad that they don't know how precious and amazing it is that we have our reo.' Striking cover. 3 Everyday Comfort Food by Vanya Insull (Allen & Unwin, $39.99) 4 Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $39.99) 5 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99) 6 Atua Wāhine by Hana Tapiata (HarperCollins, $36.99) 7 Fix Iron First by Dr Libby (Little Green Frog Publishing, $39.95) Self-helper all about iron. Blurbology: 'When iron levels are low, everything feels harder. Your energy fades. Your mood shifts. Your resilience diminishes … What's not recognised often enough is that low iron doesn't just make you tired. It can alter your brain chemistry, slow your metabolism, impact your thyroid, disturb your sleep and lower your emotional resilience … This book is for anyone who has ever felt persistently tired, anxious, low in mood, or disconnected from their spark – and not known why. It's for parents watching a child struggle with energy or concentration. It's for women navigating the rhythms of their menstrual cycle or the shifts of perimenopause. It's for anyone who feels like they're doing everything right but still doesn't feel like themselves – or who has tried, unsuccessfully, to restore their iron levels and is still searching for answers.' 8 Northbound by Naomi Arnold (HarperCollins, $39.99) Two excellent books about the great New Zealand outdoors have been published in 2025. Northbound is the author's account of walking the Te Araroa track; Fire & Ice: Secrets, histories, treasures and mysteries of Tongariro National Park by Hazel Phillips is an illustrated book about the central plateau, and was reviewed very favourably this week. 9 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 10 Hine Toa by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku (HarperCollins, $39.99)
NZ Herald
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Auckland Writers Festival special: Rachel Paris - See How They Fall extract
To celebrate the 2025 Auckland Writers Festival, we've teamed up with New Zealand publishers to showcase some of the authors who will be on stage over the festival weekend. This extract is from " S ee How They Fall" by Rachel Paris, the debut book from the Auckland lawyer turned author. Paris
