FICTION
1 The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
A free copy of the 12 months’s most heart-thumping suspense novel—a little bit boy goes lacking at Muriwai Seaside—was up for grabs in final week’s giveaway contest. I’ve solely simply began studying it and have no idea the way it ends however the requirement for readers wishing to win a duplicate was to inform a narrative with a contented ending of somebody who went lacking, that’s to say somebody who was discovered.
It was an immensely widespread contest, a lot in order that I devoted a narrative to the entries in ReadingRoom on Wednesday. I totally supposed to award the ebook to one of many individuals who entered—however after my story was revealed, a reader reached out on the Newsroom feedback web page, and wrote, “I’m sorry I missed this. I had a son aged 12 lacking in Australia for 12 months. His father moved home with him and didn’t inform me. By glad coincidence one among my sisters dwelling in Australia labored in the identical business as the daddy and we obtained him again to New Zealand after some work.”
Huzzah to Kathleen. She missed the competition deadline however I don’t assume anybody will thoughts that I identify her the winner of a free copy of The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary.
2 Orchids and Camellias by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
3 The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Hachette, $37.99)
Final 12 months’s most heart-thumping suspense novel—a misplaced youngster comes stumbling out of the bush—has bought an enormous 20,000 copies because the Rotorua author’s debut was revealed in August 2025.
4 All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka College Press, $35)
Brief story assortment, and winner of this 12 months’s $65,000 Acorn Prize for fiction on the Ockhams. One of many tales, ‘Concrete Field’, revealed in ReadingRoom in Could, featured this week on the 2026 season of Writers Write: Actors Learn, wherein well-known actors learn NZ brief tales at a dwell occasion in Auckland. ‘Concrete Field’ was carried out by Michelle Langstone on the Button Manufacturing unit, a cool area behind Okay Street, on Tuesday. She mentioned she was nervous about studying it out loud however quickly slipped into the position of the story’s protagonist, a solo mum dwelling in a block of flats (therefore the story title) along with her two youngsters, and a canine referred to as Bear. God I hate Bear! It shits in all places, it barks its head off, its fur smells. Horrocks’s story is claustrophobic, and psychologically intense; Langstone’s studying introduced it out into the open, and she or he had the sell-out viewers hooked. Nice occasion, nice brief story.
5 Slash by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
From a evaluation by Gemma Bowker-Wright: “Gavin Strawhan’s Slash provides us small-town forestry nation, cyclone harm, gangs, meth and exploited Pacific employees. It’s a quick, muddy journey by means of a panorama devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle. Slash is a sequel of types to his bestselling debut revealed final 12 months, The Name, which first launched his protagonist, former detective Honey Chalmers … What makes Slash work is Honey herself. She is flawed in all the fitting methods—courageous, impulsive, humorous, responsible, and carrying what she describes as PTSD from her final case. There’s a improbable second early on the place she goes to the grocery store for brown rice and greens and comes residence, through a few diversions, with a bottle of Scotch and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Her identify is good, however there’s a sting behind it, and Strawhan has grown her significantly since The Name — she is extra broken now, extra reckless, and one way or the other extra likeable for it.”
6 Nightshades and Paperwhites by Sophie Rogers (Flying Books Publishing, $36.99)
7 The Storm Weaver by Ivy Cliffwater (Hachette, $37.99)
8 Malachite (Valmora Academy) by Ashley Andersen (Hachette, $37.99)
9 The Guide of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka College Press, $28)
10 Tea and Cake and Loss of life (The Bookshop Detectives 2) by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin Random Home, $28)
NONFICTION
1 One Final Query, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $39.99)
2 “What Have been You Considering!?” by Nathan Wallis (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
A free copy of a brand new ebook on parenting is up for grabs on this week’s free ebook giveaway. The writer says of himself, “I’ve spent 25 years in mind science, main nationwide research, advising governments, coaching professionals throughout well being and schooling, and counselling households one-on-one. The most important breakthroughs at all times come when mother and father see the mind behind the behaviour and be taught responses that really work.”
Righto. To enter the competition, share your ideas on the mind science of your individual youngster, and e-mail it to [email protected] with the topic line in screaming caps BABY EINSTEIN by midnight on Sunday, July 12.
3 A Place to Stand by Clare Ward (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Nation physician’s memoir; a ReadingRoom evaluation is forthcoming by Dr Peter Davis.
4 The Valley by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $39.99)
5 Classes on Residing by Nigel Latta (HarperCollins, $39.99)
6 The Winner’s System by Kerry Spackman (HarperCollins, $39.99)
7 Te Tiriti, Equality and the Way forward for New Zealand Democracy by Dominic O’Sullivan (Auckland College Press, $39.99)
Ideas on the Treaty; a ReadingRoom evaluation is forthcoming by Chris Finlayson.
8 Habits of Excessive Performers by James Laughlin (HarperCollins, $39.99)
9 Change into Unstoppable by Gilbert Enoka (Penguin Random Home, $40)
10 Stakes by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin Random Home, $40)
