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

First there was Olive Kitteridge, then there was Lucy Barton, now there is Artie Dam.

2 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $40)

“The part-memoir, part-political history retraces the five decades Soper spent working in parliament’s press gallery, chaptered by the 12 prime ministers who ruled the roost throughout his working career. From Robert Muldoon to Christopher Luxon, no one is spared from Soper’s honest thoughts or the insider gossip he’s collected on them – though one particular Labour leader cops far more flak than most.” Read more of The Spinoff’s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith’s review of Soper’s memoir, here.

3 Empire of AI by Karen Hao (Penguin, $35)

Get a copy to Nicola Willis, stat. She might not be so enamoured with AI after reading Hao’s extraordinary insights into the cost of Gen AI. Then again, we’re all just human capital hoping to be replaced, aren’t we?

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

One of the stand-out books of the year and the revelation of a major literary talent. Read Toby Manhire’s thoughts on The Valley here, and listen to special Gone by Lunchtime episode, here.

5 Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp (Penguin, $30)

“Now we live in a single global Goliath. Growth-obsessed, extractive institutions like the fossil fuel industry, big tech, and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways of annihilating our species, from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast, complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global, swift and irreversible. All of us now faces a choice- we must learn to democratically control Goliath, or the next collapse may be our last.”

Pairs well with item three, above.

6 All Her Lives: Nine Stories by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Winner of the 2026 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at this year’s Ocks! Horrocks won because her writing is deeply thoughtful, deft and engaging. The stories weave women’s lives across time and space with subtle links between them. All hail the short story! You can also read Horrocks’ insightful books confessional, here.

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

Uplifting cli-fi apocalypse featuring sweet alien friends is clinging on.

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

The one about the tradwife who wakes up in the past and has to suffer what tradwifery really meant.

9 Good Settler: Essays From Other People’s Lands by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press, $40) 

Shaw’s third book examining colonisation.

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

“The book passes through a number of ‘relationships’ (Adam Driver, stereotypical intense and rather boring actor; Jack Antonoff as cutesy, conflict-averse boyfriend for way too long) but to me, it’s mostly about Dunham’s relationship with Konner, and I think Konner does come off badly in it. Even while reading chapter after chapter of Dunham’s illnesses and Konner’s at times dismissive and unfeeling reactions, I knew how infuriating Dunham must have been as a collaborator. So where Dunham often attempted to paint Konner as the unfeeling, ambitious villain to Dunham’s genius, nervous, unwell heroine, I didn’t buy it. BUT, the key detail is given in passing: ‘she was 14 years older than me’. Read more from Mad Chapman and Claire Mabey’s conversation about Dunham’s latest memoir, right here on The Spinoff.

WELLINGTON

1 All Her Lives: Nine Stories by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

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

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

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

A beguiling true story of a mysterious death.

5 Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen (Faber & Faber, $38)

Michael “lanky streak of piss” Pedersen won hearts and minds at Auckland Writers Festival and at one-off events with Verb Wellington last week. Muckle Flugga is a gorgeous novel about love and grief and discovery with unforgettable characters and a setting that’ll make you want to go live in a lighthouse immediately.

6 Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager, $29)

Kuang was another star at Auckland Writers Festival and of a one-off event with Verb Wellington. Babel is utterly brilliant and is a precursor to number seven, below.

7 Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager, $38)

Hilarious, smart, rollicking trip through hell, which is a campus.

8 Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press, $90)

Winner of the BookHub award for illustrated non-fiction at this year’s Ocks! Cox’s wonderful book is a trip back in time: a cornucopia of stories from Victorian Wellington that’s keep you entertained until next year’s awards.

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

10 Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen (Faber & Faber, $40)

A beautiful, beautiful, painful, joyous ode to friendship, written from a place of grief and ending in a place of gratitude and love.