1 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (Harper Collins, $40)

“Soper was there when Muldoon still roamed the Earth and gave drunken interviews, and was able, as someone outside the caucus, to tally up the numbers and confidently predict Bill English’s rolling as National leader in 2002,” writes The Spinoff’s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith in her insightful review. “Having just reported on our current prime minister surviving a confidence vote last week, it’s almost impossible to imagine calling up all 48 National MPs, have them honestly tell you whether or not they genuinely backed Luxon, and know his fate before he does.”

2 London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, $40)

Have a listen to this brief but insightful conversation between Radden Keefe and The New Yorker’s David Remnick – they discuss the basis for this book and afterward you’ll want to run out and buy it.

3 Invisible Intelligence: Why Your Child Might Not Be Failing by Welby Ings (Otago University Press, $45) 

“I can’t understand why our current framing of literacy is still so culturally selective. Aotearoa New Zealand is a country with three official languages, but we factor only one into our assessments.” Read the rest of Ings’ essay on the experiences that led to this luminous book, over on e-Tangata.

4 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Penguin, $28)

Just the sweetest interspecies bromance you’ll ever read / watch.

5 Famesick by Lena Dunham (Harper Collins, $40) 

A moreish, relatively hectic memoir from the creator of one of the great TV triumphs: Girls. Dunham recounts, in detail, how chronic illness coincided with sudden, intense fame.

6 Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)

Strout fans around the world are jumping on Artie’s story. Here’s the blurb:

“Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad – at himself and the people around him – and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?

And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear – and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.”

7 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (Fourth Estate, $37)

The book that Anne Hathaway bought the rights to: the one about the trad wife who wakes up in the actual trad past.

8 News From Dublin by Colm Tóibín (Picador, $38)

Short stories from a master.

9 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)

One of the book club hits of the year and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026.

10 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver (Oneworld, $37)

A satire about the publishing industry.

WELLINGTON

1 Paper Husbands by Nick Sceats (The Cuba Press, $38)

Brilliant work by debut novelist Nick Sceats and indie publisher, The Cuba Press! Here’s the blurb for this banger:

“It’s the 1990s and Paper Husbands are finally making headway – they’ve got a song on high rotation on student radio and have been given the opportunity of a lifetime to open for UK legends Shimmer. The disappearance of frontman Pete shatters those plans, leaving the rest of the band to lead decidedly non-rock ‘n’ roll lives in the years that follow. Three decades later, Bob the drummer runs into Pete in a bar, and a casual catch-up leads to them saying the most dangerous words any musician can utter: ‘Let’s get the band back together.’ But Paper Husbands soon discover that band life is much harder when you’re no longer in your twenties, especially when you want a second shot at the rock show of your dreams. An entertaining and refreshing debut, Paper Husbands is an uplifting story of male friendship and the transcendent power of music.”

2 London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, $40)

3 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (Harper Collins, $40)

4 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Penguin, $28)

5 Famesick by Lena Dunham (Harper Collins, $40) 

6 Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)

7 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (Fourth Estate, $37)

8 The Chief & the Empire by Eugene Bingham (Allen & Unwin, $40)

The fascinating true story of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi who was wrongly blamed for a deadly attack on a British ship and killed. “Part history, part true-crime investigation, this is a riveting account of Te Pahi’s remarkable journey and early Māori-Pākehā encounters, the injustice that destroyed a leader, and the unexpected legacy carried by the descendants of the men he fought to protect.”

9 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)

10 Song of the Saltings by Rachael King (Allen & Unwin, $28)

The terrific new novel by local folk horror queen, Rachael King (author of The Grimmelings).

“On the isolated island of Brack, the people live by an ancient bargain: every year, a sacrifice must be made to the Glimm, the creature that haunts the salt marshes. Eight years after the monster spared her, 16-year-old Lotta tends the Council’s sacrificial horses and keeps her distance from the villagers who whisper about her fate.

But something is stirring. The island is dying. It hums beneath her feet, and a song threads through her dreams. Is the Glimm calling Lotta back? A chance encounter with Moss, a village outcast, will change both their lives, and the fate of the island, forever.

To uncover Brack’s deepest secrets, Lotta and Moss will need to trust each other and risk everything they hold dear.

Because on Brack, monsters come in many forms.”