1 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $28)

“A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character. Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was eight. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself.” Read the rest of this short but insightful review over on Kirkus.

2 The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)

“Eight years ago, around the time that young lawyer and part-time journalist Asher Emanuel was writing for the Spinoff about criminal justice and a new minister’s ambitious approach, an idea arrived in his head: tell the story of the system from within.” So begins The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire’s write-up of his interview with Asher Emanuel that you can read / listen to, right here.

3 Facing Up to Our Future edited by Peter Davis (Dunmore Press, $35)

A book that brings together 21 thinkers on critical issues leading up to November’s election.

4 The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson (W W Norton, $36)

Here is Emily Wilson writing about Nolan’s The Odyssey for the London Review of Books: “As in his previous films, Nolan is interested in the discontinuities of space and time, in magic, tricks, craft, technology, rivalry, substitution, masks, miscommunication, what we remember and what we choose to forget. Yet again, survival is portrayed as a kind of triumph. Yet again, there are long, claustrophobic scenes of drowning and near-drowning, and technically impressive episodes in which buildings are engulfed in flames and vehicles explode. Yet again, we watch a male character’s desperate quest to recover and/or avenge a female love object. I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.”

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

“The premise is almost too neat,” writes Anna Ballan in the LA Review of Books. “Natalie, a successful tradwife influencer living on the scrupulously arranged Yesteryear Ranch, wakes one morning to find herself transported into a 19th-century homestead version of her own life. She must adapt, like a character in a Kafka tale, to the logic of the absurd. The Idaho farm’s generator is gone, its lighting is restricted to daylight and firelight, and the place is stripped of its many sleek conveniences. In designing Yesteryear Ranch, modern-day Natalie had admitted to wanting ‘all the aesthetics of the olden times and all the amenities of modernity […] reconciled via a series of impeccable design decisions.’ Now she is made to confront the genuine article and inhabit an ostensibly unadulterated version of ‘olden times.'”

6 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Del Rey, $28)

Welcome back, Rocky!

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

A fresh cast of Strout characters.

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

Top-notch journalist takes you deep inside a story of destruction.

9 Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck (Vintage, $28)

A psychological horror novella first published in 2009.

10 Circe by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $25)

An exquisite novel – recommended for fans of Samantha Morton’s Circe.

WELLINGTON

1 Better Never Stops by Paul Wood (HarperCollins, $40)

From the publisher’s blurb: “At the age of 18, Wood was sent to New Zealand’s toughest prison. Almost 11 years later, in 2006, he walked out a free man, escaping his past and becoming a leading expert in the psychology of personal prisons, limiting mindsets, and the pursuit of excellence. In Better Never Stops, Wood explains the neuroscience behind our innate human desire to strive for improvement and how we can supercharge our ability to grow.”

2 Facing Up to Our Future edited by Peter Davis (Dunmore Press, $35)