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This week’s bestselling books – September 27

FICTION
1 Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $37.99)
A free copy of La Pellegrino’s latest was up for grabs in last week’s free book giveaway contest. No one does romcom fiction set in Italy with lotsa heavenly cooked meals and swoonsome scenery better than La Pellegrino. Blurbology: “Skye has been with Tim forever and the last thing she’s thinking about is saying ‘I do’. It’s Tim that enters the dream wedding competition – he’s longing to win an all-expenses-paid trip to romantic Montenello. An escape to a beautiful Italian hill town might be just what they need to find love again…”
Readers were asked to describe a swoonsome scenic sight they have seen in Italy with thine own eyes. There were numerous swoony replies. I really liked this one, from Winston: “Many lover-moons ago there was a spread in the Woman’s Weekly about Nikki’s affair with Italian things.  It included a photo of the men behind the counter of a delicatessen; just a very short walk from the pyramid of Cestius which shades the grave of that other romantic writer Keats who has only been there since 1820.  Anyway we entered the deli, magazine to the fore in my wife’s hand, and the guys in the photo were noisily chuffed to be famous in New Zealand.”
This was just gorgeous, from Gillian: “On a visit  to Florence last year, I saw a sweet young couple ducking behind the giant reproduction statue of Michaelangelo’s David on the hilltop Piazzale Michaelangelo to share a kiss, thinking they were out of sight. What they didn’t see was a busload of tourists that drawing behind them, avidly watching and snapping pix. Probably thousands saw that romantic moment when the tourists got home and shared their holiday snaps.”
But the winner, and most swoony of all, was Julia, who wrote: “On the slopes that create imposing dividers between the bays of Cinque Terre, the path is gravelly and steep. Only the hardy (or poor backpackers) skip the tourist train and traverse the hills in this way. But there is something about arriving at your destination on foot. You get a sense of where you are and how it sits within the surrounding space.
“As you drop down towards Riomaggiore, the colours of the sea, the sails, the paint palette homes spark back at you. The path turns to stone as you weave down to the shore to find a shaded spot under a terracotta umbrella to sit and drink their Sciacchetrà while watching the sun creep back around the hills retracing the path that led you here. 
 “After a long term teaching, a new Pellegrino novel would be just the escapism I need.”
I agree. Huzzah to Julia; she wins a free copy of Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino.
2 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
3 Pātea Boys by Airana Ngarewa (Hachette, $36.99)
4 Home Truths by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
5 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Hachette, $37.99)
6 The Water’s Dead by Catherine Lea (Brakelight Press, $37)
New crime thriller in the DI Nyree Bradshaw series. It’s earned a rave review from – of all people! – good old Dover Samuels, who writes, “Catherine has sensitively interwoven a moving homicide story around a traditional Māori cultural landscape of sacred land and Ancient Kawa Protocols. As a kaumatua of the Ngapuhi tribe of the Far North, the story unfolds and brings back personal profound memories for me.”
7 Better Left Dead by Catherine Lea (David Bateman, $37)
Another crime thriller in the DI Nyree Bradshaw series! Two novels in the Top 10 by the same author is a rare achievement and a testament to the skill of the Northland author.
8 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Hachette, $37.99)
9 At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House, $37)
The author worked on the manuscript of what has become one of the year’s best novels when she stayed at the Surrey Hotel in Auckland as winner of the Surrey Hotel Writers Residency Award in Association with Newsroom and Dick and Jude Frizzell. The 2024 award is currently open. First prize wins $3000, and seven nights at the Surrey; second place, $1000 and five nights; and the remainder of the loot is shared by two winners in lesser rankings, plus some accom.
Past winners: 2016, Kelly Dennett, who went on to publish The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Jane Furlong (Awa Press), winner of the Ngaio Marsh crime writing award for best book of nonfiction; 2017, Serena Benson; 2018, Megan Dunn, who worked on The Mermaid Chronicles (Penguin), to be published this month and reviewed in ReadingRoom by Anna Rankin; 2019, Colleen Maria Lenihan, who worked on Kōhine (Huia), one of the best short story collections of the past 20 years; 2020, Mia Gaudin; 2021, Talia Marshall, who was unable to experience the Surrey Hotel because Covid but had the wherewithal to finish Whaea Blue (Te Herenga Waka University Press), one of the best books of 2024; 2022, J Wiremu Kane; 2023, Emma Ling Sidnam.
Full details for the 2024 award including entry criteria appeared in ReadingRoom last week. A great many writers have entered; the deadline is approaching.
10 The Mess We Made by Megan O’Neill (Hachette, $37.99)
NONFICTION
1 Atua Wāhine by Hana Tapiata (HarperCollins, $36.99)
Wellness.
2 More Salad by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Power (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
Food.
3 Make It Make Sense by Bel Hawkins & Lucy Blakiston (Hachette, $36.99)
Chatter.
4 Life Hacks from the Buddha by Tony Fernando (HarperCollins, $37.99)
TONY FERNANDO! The Tony Fernando. I love this Filipino-born psychiatrist and practising Buddhist based in Auckland. He’s smarter than you, but it would never occur to him to think so. He’s wiser than you, and some of the fruits of his wisdom are dangling low from the branches of his new self-help book which offers tips on how to come to a peace that surpasses understanding. A free copy is available in this week’s free book giveaway.
I interviewed Dr Tony for a chapter in my latest book, The Survivors. I asked him about one of his specialities – sleep disorder. One of the first things he said when we met was an aside about not knowing whether we were conscious or actually living in a kind of matrix. Love Dr Tony!
Sir John Kirwan commends Life Hacks from the Buddha: “Full of great tips for your mental wellbeing.”
Art Green – I think he used to be famous for something – also commends it: “Brilliant, relevant, practical. Ancient Eastern wisdom meets modern science.”
To enter the draw to win a free copy, share a valuable and beautiful insight you have gained from either Buddhism or any kind of philosophic ism, and email it to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps THE PEACE THAT TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING. Entries close at midnight, Sunday September 29.
5 Ngā Hapa Reo: Common Māori Language Errors by Hona Black & Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell (Oratia Books, $39.99)
Te reo.
6 A Very French Affair by Maria Hoyle (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Travel.
7 Well Woman: A Prescription for Optimal Health and Wellness by Frances Pitsilis (Upstart Press, $39.99)
Wellness.
8 Serviceman J by Jamie Pennell (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Killing.
9 Seriously Delicious by Polly Markus (Allen & Unwin, $49.99)
Food.
10 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)
Games.

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